Kill Me Sweet (Draco x Reader)

Chapter 42: The Portkey

– y/n's pov –

I had been hurrying along the new path for a few minutes, when I heard something in the path running parallel to my own that made me stop dead.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" It was Cedric yelling. And then I heard Krum's voice.

"Crucio!" The air was suddenly full of Cedric's screams.

Horrified, I began sprinting up my path, trying to find a way into Cedric's. When I reached him, Harry was already there, pointing his wand at Krum who had his wand pointing back at Harry. Krum was about to cast a spell and attack Harry too, so I yelled "Stupefy!"

The spell hit Krum. He fell backward, and lay motionless.

"Thank you." Harry spoke, panting. We dashed over to Cedric, who had stopped twitching and was lying there panting, his hands over his face.

"Are you all right?" I said roughly, grabbing Cedric's arm.

"Yeah... I don't believe it... he crept up behind me... I heard him, I turned around, and he had his wand on me..." Cedric got up. He was still shaking. We looked down at Krum.

"Should we leave him here?" Harry muttered.

"No, we should send up red sparks. Someone will come and collect him. Otherwise, he will probably be eaten by a skrewt." I spoke worriedly.

"He'd deserve it." Cedric muttered bitterly, but still raised his wand and shot a shower of red sparks into the air, which hovered high above Krum, marking the spot where he lay.

The three of us proceeded up the dark path without speaking, then Harry turned left, Cedric turned right, and I chose to move forward. Their footsteps soon died away.

"Point Me!" When I reached another fork, I whispered again to my wand and it pointed to the right-hand path. I dashed up and... saw light ahead!

The Triwizard Cup was gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. But suddenly, a dark figure hurtled out onto the path in front of me.

It was Cedric. He was going to get there first. Cedric was sprinting as fast as he could towards the cup, and Harry popped out of the path right beside me. Harry and I knew we would never catch up, but then —

We saw something immense over a hedge to our left, moving quickly along a path that intersected with our own. It was moving so fast Cedric was about to run into it, and Cedric, his eyes on the cup, had not seen it.

"Cedric! On your left!" Harry and I bellowed. Cedric then looked around just in time to hurl himself past the thing and avoid colliding with it, but he tripped. We saw Cedric's wand fly out of his hand as a gigantic spider stepped into the path and began to bear down upon Cedric.

"Stupefy!" I yelled. The spell hit the spider's gigantic, hairy black body, but for all the good it did, I might as well have thrown a stone at it; the spider jerked, scuttled around, and ran at me and Harry instead.

"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!" I kept yelling but it was no use. The spider was either so large, or so magical, that the spells were doing no more than aggravating it. I had one horrifying glimpse of eight shining black eyes and razor-sharp pincers before it was upon me.

"Fuck!" I was lifted into the air in its front legs. Struggling madly, I tried to kick it. My leg then connected with the spider's pincers and next moment, I was in excruciating pain.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" I cried out. Then I heard Harry shouting "Expelliarmus!"

It worked. The Disarming Spell made the spider drop me, but that meant that I fell twelve feet onto my already injured leg, which crumpled beneath me. With the penetrating pain, I could hardly breathe.

Harry and Cedric then both shouted "Stupefy!" at the creature. The two spells combined made the spider keel over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of hairy legs.

"Y/N! You all right?" I heard Cedric shouting, running to me.

"No." I called back, panting. I looked down at my leg and it was bleeding freely. I tried to get up, but my leg was shaking badly and couldn't support my weight. I gasped for breath and Harry and Cedric helped me lean against the hedge.

I looked at the Triwizard Cup, which was gleaming behind Cedric who was kneeling beside me.

"Take the cup," I panted to Cedric. 

"Go on, take it. It's yours." Harry then added. But Cedric didn't move. He merely sat there next to us. Then he turned to stare at the cup. I saw the longing expression on his face in its golden light. Cedric looked around at us again and he took a deep breath.

"One of you should take it. That's twice you guys have saved my neck in here." Cedric spoke firmly.

"Okay, Harry, Cedric, one of you go get it." I groaned as my leg ached. 

"The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. I'm not going to win any races on this leg." I tried to smile reassuringly but it just made me frown. But neither Cedric nor Harry went for the cup.

"Stop being noble!" I shouted irritably. 

"Just take it you guys, then we can get out of here." As I growled, I tried getting back on my uninjured leg and Cedric and Harry supported me. Then Cedric opened his mouth.

"All of us," Cedric said.

"What?" I asked back and Harry commented.

"That's a good idea. We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."

"You guys... sure?" I asked.

"Yeah," Harry and Cedric replied in unison and Cedric spoke. 

"We've helped each other out, haven't we?" 

"Yes, let's just take it together." said Harry. Cedric's face then split in a grin.

"Come here." Cedric grabbed my arm below the shoulder and helped me limp towards the plinth where the cup stood. When we had reached it, Harry and Cedric held a hand out over each of the cup's gleaming handles, and I held a hand out over the body of the cup.

"On three, right?" said Harry. 

"One... two... three —" Then we grasped the cup together. Instantly, I felt a jerk somewhere behind my navel. My feet had left the ground. I could not unclench the hand holding the Triwizard Cup. It was pulling me onward in a howl of wind and swirling colour, with Cedric and Harry at my sides.

✧

I felt my feet slam into the ground. My injured leg gave way, and I fell forward. My hand let go of the Triwizard Cup at last and I raised my head.

"Where... where are we?" I spoke nervously. Cedric shook his head. He got up, pulled Harry and me to our feet. We looked around.

We had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. We were instead standing in a dark and overgrown graveyard. The black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to our right. A hill rose above us to our left. I 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 us. 

"Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" I asked Cedric and Harry and they shook their heads silently. We looked around the completely silent and slightly eerie graveyard.

"Is this supposed to be part of the task?" Harry asked nervously.

"I dunno. Wands out, guys." Cedric spoke warily. We pulled out our wands. I had the strange feeling that we were being watched and...

"Someone's coming," Cedric said suddenly.