Just A Bet ● Fred Weasley × Reader ●

26 - May He Shine Forever

TW - Blood, Death... (I'm so sorry...)

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"Good luck!" I shouted at Cedric when he entered the little semi-circle. I had situated myself in the bleachers next to Draco, cheering as the champions entered.

Hedges went for miles in front of us, endless. I don't even want to know how Hogwarts managed to magic its way into having an absolutely gigantic maze, so I don't ask.

Eventually, Harry entered, and the crowd went wild. Even Draco, as much as he despised the Chosen One, cheered. That's a first.

Dumbledore announced that the winners of the previous task would have a few second head-start, shooting sidelong glances at Harry and Cedric.

"Let the task begin!" Dumbledore stepped back just as Harry and Cedric raced into the hedges. Then, the bushes moved, concealing the two champions from veiw.

My hands began to sweat profusely. I really shouldn't worry about my friends, but maybe there was a reason that the Triwizard Tournament hasn't been held in two hundred years. I couldn't help but worry. I seemed to worry a lot lately.

"Guess what?" George whispered to me. He had sat in the row behind me.

"Hmm?"

"I heard Ange broke up with Fred~"

I freeze. Well, that's one way to get my mind off things. "What?" Last I checked, Fred and Ange were happy together. They were rolling around in the grass just yesterday, so what had changed between then and now?

"Yep. And apparently, she never liked him in the first place. Not like that, at least."

My blood began to boil white hot in my veins. So she was playing him? She toyed with his feelings for how many months now? She had manipulated him into thinking she loved her?!

"She did what?!" My voice rose, and Draco looked at me like a concerned younger brother who just watched his sister go off the rails. To be fair, I just did.

I go to stand, Angelina in veiw and her face looking very, very punchable, but then both George and Draco yank me back into my seat.

"We don't promote violence," Draco scolded.

"Hypocrite."

"Excuse me?"

"Mhm."

"You're insufferasble, y/n." He pinched the birdge of his nose, making me grin.

"You're welcome!"

I tried to focus back on the task. It wasn't long until Fleur's help signla shot up high into the sky. The bushes pushed her out, and she gasped for air. People applauded even though she lost. They applauded because she survived.

"Relax, Munchkin. The break-up was mutual."

George's words eased me, but not by much. Mutual? So he didn't like her either? So he was doing it to appease her? She was doing it to appease him?

Viktor's signal went up in flames twenty minutes later, and the hedges forced him out too, leaving only Cedric and Harry in a race for first place. My fingers were crossed three times over. I don't care who wins at this point because they're both from Hogwarts. I just oray to any and every god that they are okay wherever they are in that labrynth.

If it was anything like the task before this... If Harry hadn't also taken Fleur's sister up to breach the surface, would she have survived under all that water? Could she even swim? Would she still be under there? Permanently stuck in a sleep that she couldn't escape from?

By the time I was done with my negative spiraling, an hour had passed, and there were still no signs of Cedric or Harry.

"Should it take this long?" I whisper to no one in general.

"I don't think so..." Fred sat down beside George, having gotten snacks. Thankfully, he wasn't here when George decided to give me 'the news' either. I would simply pass away if Fred ever saw how I reacted to that.

I wasn't focused until the crowd roared with cheers. Out from the shrub fell Harry and Cedric, both laying on the ground, Harry's shoulders shaking over Cedric's face.

"HELP!" Harry shouted.

Draco stood, clearly seeing something I didn't.

"What's happening?" I ask as the crowds cheers turned to gasps of horror. Draco and the twins stayed silent, eyes huge, mouths hung open. "What's happening?!"

"Help him!" Harry's voice overcame the crowd.

I squint to see, then understand.

"NO!" I scream and stumble upright, moving down the stairs and rushing to the pair. "NO!"

He's not... He's not... He's not... I look at Harry for some sort of glint in his eyes that would tell me that this is only a joke, but the only shimmer I saw was the ones reflected in tears.

I look down only to see Cedric's unseeing eyes staring up to the heavens. Dead... My knees collapse and slam into the dirt as a scream of pure anguish rips from my throat.

"NO!"

I grab his cold body and hold it against my own like that would help - like it would bring him back to life.

"My boy!" Mister Diggory raced for his son. "That's my boy!" He wailed and took his son from me.

"CEDRIC!" I scream again, the tears having a mind of their own as they trail down my cheeks. I can taste the salt of them on my lips.

Every part of him was fine. Not a scratch on him. Not an indication as to how this happened to him.

"He's back!" Harry shouts only to me.

I don't know how, but it clicked. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He was back. Voldemort was back.

My head is slow to turn and look back at my dead friend. It made sense now... How he had no marks, no scars, no cuts, no breaks... Voldemort used the killing curse. That killing curse. And now my friend is dead!

I go to reach for Cedric again, but two strong arms wrap around me and tug me back. The scent of gun powder and cinnamon, a scent that is so undeniably him, wafts over me like a blanket of warmth.

"I've got you." His voice is low in my ear, yet the hitch in his voice tells me that my tears aren't the only ones being shed. "Let him go..."

I hadn't even realized that my hand was clenched around Cedrics pale and cold one, my knuckles white with force. I find the strength to let go, but in doing so, I collaspe against Fred. He turns me and holds me tights, his arms being the only things keeping me upright.

Right now, he was all that was keeping me sane.

Because Cedric was dead.

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A/N - I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS CHAPTER! please do not get mad! It is for the plot! I cried writing this because his death was probably the one that hurt the most for me when I first watched the movies. Please forgive me, Darlings... I've also never written a true character death that was supposed to hit home, so if it's bad, I am sorry. But because I cried, you may have done so too.

I am so sorry...