Harry Potters Twin Book Four

Anger

I felt myself slam flat into the ground; my face was pressed into grass; the smell of it filled my nostrils. I had closed my eyes while the Portkey transported me, and I kept them closed now. I did not move. All the breath seemed to have been knocked out of me; my head was swimming so badly I felt as though the ground beneath me were swaying like the deck of a ship. I clutched Cedric's cold hand just to make sure he wouldn't slip away from me. Shock and exhaustion kept me on the ground, breathing in the smell of the grass, waiting… waiting for someone to do something… something to happen… and all the while, my scar burned dully on my forehead…

A torrent of sound deafened and confused me; there were voices everywhere, footsteps, screams… I remained where I was, my face screwed up against the noise, as though it were a nightmare that would pass…

Then a hand seized me roughly and turned me over.

"Harry! Nixie! Harry!"

I opened my eyes.

I was looking up at the starry sky, and Albus Dumbledore was crouched over me and someone else - Harry. The dark shadows of a crowd of people pressed in around them, pushing nearer; I felt the ground beneath my head reverberating with their footsteps.

I had come back to the edge of the maze. I could see the stands rising above him, the shapes of people moving in them, the stars above.

I clutched Cedric to him even more tightly. Surely everyone would know he gone by now, but I didn't want everyone to say it; to comfirm that it was true. I felt as though if I could avoid the actual words, then I wouldn't have to face reality, I could still pretend that my Cedric was still with me.

"He's back," I heard Harry whisper. "He's back. Voldemort."

"What's going on? What's happened?"

The face of Cornelius Fudge appeared upside down over me; it looked white, appalled.

"My God - Diggory!" it whispered. "Dumbledore - he's dead!"

The words were repeated, the shadowy figures pressing in on them gasped it to those around them… and then others shouted it - screeched it - into the night –

"He's dead!"

"He's dead!"

"Cedric Diggory! Dead!"

Every word they said felt like a strike in the face; as though millions of hands were trying to slap me awake. I didn't want to wake up. And I definetly wasn't ready for it.

I grimaced, trying to block out the horrible words that were now repeating in my head. 'He's dead.' I didn't want those voices there. They were worst then seeing Voldemort come back, they were ten times worse. But they wouldn't stop repeating 'He's dead. . . he's dead.  . .he's dead.' It felt as though everyone wanted to hurt me even more then I was already hurting.

I clutched Cedric's hand so tight that he would have flinched if he wasn't. . .

"Nixie, let go of him," I heard Fudge's voice say, and I felt fingers trying to pry me from Cedric's limp body, but I wouldn't let him go. Then Dumbledore's face, which was still blurred and misted, came closer.

"Nixie, you can't help him now. It's over. Let go."

I shook my head and closed my eyes. It wasn't over, it would never be over. This was just one death, but now that Voldemort was back; there would be so much more. The worst part of it was that you didn't know who else would be gone, who else would be ripped from your fingers like Cedric was trying to be ripped out of mine.