PRANKSTER [1] ↝ C. DIGGORY

fifty

As the weather continued to turn warmer as the school year started to come to a close, more and more students flanked out to the Black Lake to take advantage of the clear skies, celebrating that another school year was coming to an end, regardless of the news Harry had spilled at the end of the Third Task. Nobody knew what was going to happen, or if Harry's words contained the dire truth of what the future might face, but they wanted to still celebrate while they were able to.

As for Clary, she watched the celebrations through a window in the Hospital Wing, her hand still clasped in Cedric's since the night before. She hadn't slept at all since, despite Newt's insistence that he'd stay with Cedric while she went and took a nap.

But every time she tried to shut her eyes, she saw him laying in the grass at the Quidditch Pitch.

So there she sat, with St. Mungo's workers checking on Cedric every hour, not wanting to risk moving him from the Hospital Wing with the uncertainty of his condition. Clary's professors were more than happy to excuse her from classes after the night she'd had, and Bill and Molly had only left the night before after the fifteenth time she'd assured them that they were okay to leave.

Clary leaned back in her chair with a small sigh, willing herself to close her eyes and attempt even a few minutes of sleep and reminding herself that Cedric was lying next to her, that he was still alive. Her eyelids began to grow heavy, the weight of not having slept in over twenty-four hours finally beginning to overtake her as she began to nod off.

She had just managed to begin losing consciousness when she felt something fall into her lap, and her eyes quickly opened to see Fred and George standing in front of her, a small pile of french toast sticks wrapped in a napkin along with a few pieces of bacon sitting on her lap. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, finally letting go of Cedric's hand as she readjusted her position in the chair, sitting back up and reaching for one of the pieces of bacon.

"Thought we'd come bring you some breakfast." George said, and she smiled softly in response.

"Thanks," she said, taking a bite of the bacon strip as they each sat down in the seats on the other side of Cedric, facing her.

"How is he?" Fred asked, and Clary simply shrugged in response, taking another bite of bacon.

"Same as last night." she said softly, her eyes wandering back to where he lay on the cot. "When he ducked behind the grave, the stone the curse rebounded off of absorbed most of it, but the rest of it hit him. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it was enough to put him in this state. This sort of thing doesn't usually happen, so they're just monitoring his condition for now, but they don't know if he'll wake up."

"Well, sure he will." George assured her, causing Clary to look back up at him, eyebrows furrowed together. "It's Diggory. He's got too many pranks to learn to give up now."

Clary smiled softly, blinking to keep away any tears that threatened to surface.

"Did you hear everything about what happened with Moody?" Fred asked, his voice lowering as he watched where Moody lay on the other side of the Hospital Wing, sound asleep.

"Just what Dumbledore said." Clary said, her voice also lowering to just above a whisper as she looked back over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the sleeping old Auror. "That Barty Crouch Jr. was keeping the real Moody locked away somewhere and impersonating him. That he's the one who entered Harry into the tournament."

"Last night was completely mad." Fred explained, keeping his voice low. "After he dragged Harry out, they went back to his office, where he tried to kill him, said You-Know-Who would reward him or whatever. Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape finally found him, and that's when the Polyjuice Potion wore off and they figured out who he really was. They wanted to send him back to Azkaban, but the dementors got too close to him, and gave him a kiss."