PHANTOM FIGURES | harry potter

59. flesh, blood, and bone

     Aspen felt her feet slam into the ground, her knees buckled underneath her and she collapsed on the grass; her hand let go of the Triwizard Cup. She raised her head.

     "Where are we?" asked Harry from beside her.

     Cedric shook his head. He got up, pulled Aspen and Harry to their feet, and they looked around.

     They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously travelled kilometres - perhaps hundreds of kilometres - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Aspen could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.

     Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup and then up at Aspen and Harry.

     "Did anyone tell you the Cup was a Portkey?" he asked.

     "Nope," said Harry.

     Aspen shook her head. She was looking around the graveyard, wondering why they were there. It was completely silent and slightly eerie. There was a bad feeling in the pit of Aspen's stomach.

     "Is this supposed to be a part of the task?" said Harry.

     "I dunno," said Cedric. He sounded slightly nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?"

     "Yeah," said Harry.

     With a somewhat shaky hand, Aspen pulled out her wand. Her hands were getting clammy. She had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched.

     "Someone's coming," said Harry suddenly, making Aspen's heart stop.

     Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Aspen couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, she could tell it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - Aspen saw that the thing in the person's arm looked like a baby... or was it merely a bundle of robes?

     Harry and Cedric lowered their wands slightly and glanced quizzically at each other. Aspen, however, didn't take her eyes away from the mysterious person.

     It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six metres from them. For a second Aspen, Harry, Cedric, and the short figure simply looked at one another.

     Was this person supposed to deliver them something to do with the third task? Aspen was unsure if she should confront them, since she didn't know if this was part of the tournament.

     And then, without warning, Harry's wand slipped out of his hands as he put his hands over his face; his knees buckled; he was on the ground. This was the moment Aspen knew the mystery man was not part of the third task. She moved toward Harry and tried to pull him out of the open, but it was fruitless. This was something to do with Voldemort.

     From far away, she heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."

     A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"

     A blast of green light blazed in front of Aspen's eyes, and she heard something heavy fall to the ground beside her. Aspen's eyes betrayed her mind and looked to see what it was, terror seizing her body.

     Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground beside her. He was dead.

     For a second that contained an eternity, Aspen stared into Cedric's face, at his open grey eyes, blank and expressionless of a deserted house, at his half-open mouth, which looked slightly surprised. And then, before Aspen's mind accepted what she was seeing, before she could feel anything but numb disbelief, she felt herself being pulled to her feet.