Wrap Me In Light

1st,September 1993

When Cedric Diggory was fourteen years old something curious happened to him. He fell asleep gazing into a crystal ball in the middle of Divination class.

Cedric Diggory did not fall asleep in the middle of class. Ever.

But who could blame him? He'd been up late the night before finishing a potions essay that he'd put off in favor of trying out for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team earlier that day. When he'd finally fallen asleep, he spent the whole evening plagued by misty dreams of a girl with wild curly hair and a sparkling mind.

He didn't know her, but he dreamed about her every night since the beginning of term, and there was always a huge lion following along behind her. She did not notice it, but Cedric did. He tried to call out to her, to tell her there was a beast stalking her. She didn't hear him, she never did. But the Lion would look at him, and then follow silently behind her.

She was always on her own, except for the lion. Cedric wanted to know why. Sometimes he'd see her crying in the corridor, once in a girl's bathroom, and even after she had friends, sometimes she'd curl in on herself at night and weep. By the end of his third year, he knew her name, the whole school did.

When Cedric Diggory was fifteen years old, the Chamber of secrets was opened and Hermione Granger...the muggle-born, golden girl of Gryffindor was petrified by the Heir of Slytherin. He had nightmares for weeks. Of her stiff and unmoving as a stone statue or of her writhing on the ground, twitching in agony.

Her screams echoed in his head while he slept, and sometimes long after he awoke. She was surrounded by darkness, trembling on an icy cold marble floor. Bright scarlet blood ran down then length of her forearm. She was pale, tired, and looked so much older. He feared for a moment that she was going to give up. "HELP HER!" He yelled at the lion, her constant shadow. "DO SOMETHING!" There was a loud crash, a bright flash of blinding light, and then silence.

Eventually, Cedric would wake, coughing and gasping for breath, as if he'd been held under water for too long. What harm had the poor girl done anyone that she deserved such a fate? 'Nothing,' answered his mind, 'Nothing but stand in the way of the darkness.'

oOoOo

When Cedric Diggory was sixteen years old, he caught the Gryffindor Princess in two places at once on multiple occasions. Once he saw her tucking a golden chain underneath her blouse. He followed her that time, but she only went to her next class.

His dreams tortured him with wormholes, fixed points, and minds lost to time. His girl trapped in a war-torn Muggle England with no way to get home. Of her gaining everything only to lose it all. She was sick and alone, with no one to care for her.

Apart from his dreams, the dementors and a mass-murderer being on the loose, it had been a quiet year; filled only with his OWLs, Quidditch, and keeping a steady protective eye trained on Hermione Granger.

It was quiet until the end of term. The Golden Trio were in the hospital wing...again.

Rumor had it that Ronald Weasley fell off a hippogriff and broke his leg. Sirius Black was Potter's father, and that the Whomping Willow had whomped Professor Snape, breaking several ribs. Potter eluded a werewolf and fought off a swarm of dementors in the Forbidden Forest. Apparently, Potter could perform a fully corporeal Patronus. Hermione hexed Crabbe and Goyle, punched Malfoy, and broke her hand...so said the rumor mill of Hogwarts...

It wasn't until the summer that his dreams spilled over into his waking hours. They were so different, the visions. Before, Cedric only ever saw Hermione, and the lion. At first, they were completely unrelated, or so he thought. He saw broken tumbling castle walls that were surrounded by fields swathed in emerald green dotted with bright yellow and purple flowers. He heard the clash of swords wielded by two boys in silver chainmail and red tunics. A prince, usurped and on the run. An ice wall that chilled him to the bone, a woman...a white sorceress with eyes black as coal and lips as red as blood, and Hermione, freezing to death once more in a dark chamber.