"how many nights does it take to count the stars? that's the time it would take to fix my heart".
a cedric diggory story.
Emelie Fawley is a sixth year at Hogwarts. All of her years in the school had been the same while she hanged out with her fri...
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It was now an hour before dusk and the whole school was buzzing. Harry had put himself in his uniform and was getting ready to go to the champion's tent located just outside the maze.
The maze, which Emelie had thought was in the Forbidden Forest, had actually been grown out on the Quidditch Pitch by Hagrid.
"Harry, it's time to go for you. Good luck!" Ginny told him in the common room.
Harry hugged everyone and when he reached Emelie, she whispered, "Do your best Harry. I'm counting on you". He waved goodbye and before they knew it, he was out the common room door.
"We should head down too-". Emelie gasped before Hermione could finish her sentence.
"My banners!" she exclaimed, "Wait for me, I'll be quick!". Emelie ran up to her dorm room and took out some banners from under her bed.
Finally, she went downstairs to where everyone was waiting for her on the marble staircase. They all walked down to the Quidditch Pitch which left Emelie speechless.
It didn't have its usual hoops like it always did, they were replaced by widespread stands. Everyone was sporting some type of propaganda for their house or their school.
Ludo Bagman, which Emelie had forgotten was at Hogwarts because she rarely saw him, stood in the middle of the stands to where a huge never ending maze began. While walking up the stands, she heard Cedric call out her name.
"Emelie, can you come here for a moment?" he asked. Emelie waved for the rest of her group to go on without her while she stayed back with Cedric behind the champion's tent.
"I wanted to talk to you before the task began. I'm.... I'm scared". Emelie softened her face.
"Cedric, don't be. You'll do great. Actually, as you told me, you'll make it to infinity". He smiled at that.
Emelie just then took notice of how handsome he was in the Hufflepuff uniform for the tournament.
"You look rather dashing actually".
"Why thank you, darling". They looked at each other for a few minutes, Cedric complimenting Emelie's banners, until they heard an announcement calling out "Champions in their places at this time!". Cedric turned back to her.
"I have to go now". He cupped her cheeks and kissed her firmly. "I love you". Emelie smiled back at him.
"I love you too". She quickly kissed him again and then she was off to the stands. She met Ron and Hermione in the middle of the stands a little to the left of Draco Malfoy who was sporting a "Go Viktor Krum" badge.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight is the night of the second task so let's welcome our champions".
"Cedric Diggory!". Emelie clapped hard as Cedric stepped out with his father, Amos Diggory.
"Fleur Delacour!". Fleur stepped out and the veelas danced at her.
"Viktor Krum". Next to them, Draco whopped rather loudly. The Durmstrang students meanwhile were stabbing their staffs in the ground.
"And last but not least, Harry Potter!". Hermione, Ron, and Emelie erupted into cheers as Harry stepped out with Dumbledore.
Ludo Bagman cleared his throat. "Now that you are all here, the task is self explanatory. The four of you will need to try to escape the maze and the first person to get the trophy will be declared the winner of the Triwizard Tournament. If anything too dangerous happens you will need to send red sparks flying like so". Bagman demonstrated to them waving his wand in the air.
"Now, is everyone ready?". The crowd cheered.
"Alright then, I declare the third task officially begun!". The four champions runned into the maze and disappeared almost immediately. There was no action for the first half of the task which worried Hermione so much that it prompted her to ask, "Do you think Harry's doing fine?".
"More than fine," Emelie replied. The task needed to last about an hour and half and so far thirty minutes had passed. Emelie looked up at the sky filled with stars now. She then heard gasps and concentrated on the maze. Red sparks were flying far away from where the eye could see. Emelie prayed it wasn't Cedric nor Harry.
Ludo Bagman ran into the maze immediately when the red sparks were seen flying. A sudden ear-splitting scream came out from somewhere inside the maze. Emelie's heart started racing but she knew it wasn't a boy's scream. It was Fleur.
Ludo Bagman came out a couple minutes later hoisting Fleur onto the Beauxbatons platform. She was covered in grime and blood was escaping from her ripped pant leg.
Emelie focused herself back to the maze. After some twenty minutes passed, she saw a bright flash of light from far away. She wondered what the remaining champions were doing. More minutes passed. Viktor came out of the maze stranded and seemingly lost of thought. Thirty minutes. Forty minutes. Fifty minutes.
Emelie started to get worried, digging her fingers into the fabric of the banners. The hour was long gone and the tournament was stretching ten minutes after the hour and a half. Hermione was breathing heavily next to her and Ron looked pale.
Finally, a couple minutes later, two people jumped out the maze. They were Harry and Cedric. The whole crowd burst out into cheers as the Triwizard cup rolled off into the grass.
Emelie ran down the stands quickly with Hermione as Ron had decided to stay because of the massive crowd. Once Emelie sat her foot down on the grass she didn't hesitate to run over to Cedric and Harry. The cheery brightness didn't last forever though as Fleur shrieked.
Emelie was now next to Cedric and Harry with Hermione and what she saw made her feel sick to her stomach. Harry was crying over Cedric's body which was cold on the ground, his eyes wide open and lifeless. Amos Diggory was running over to his son and Emelie stumbled back.
No, this was impossible. She had to be dreaming. It had to be some stupid, scary nightmare.
The more she stared at Cedric's body, the more bile threatened to sneak up her throat.
She couldn't bear it anymore. She ran and ran back to the castle. A tear fell down her cheek and she didn't bother to brush it away as more tears fell repeatedly.
She didn't know where she was running but all she knew was one thing. Cedric Diggory was dead.
