Honey Bee

Chapter 40

I had crashed down at a mass pace, my rib cage was hurting, I think I broke a few. I had let go of the cup and was lying face down in the grass.

"Where are we?" I heard Harry say.

Cedric pulled me up and I brushed myself off squealing at the pain of my ribs.

We had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; we have obviously traveled miles -perhaps hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone.

We 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. 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 Harry and me.

"Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" he asked I shook my head and held onto him for support.

"Nope," said Harry. He was looking around the graveyard. It was completely silent and slightly eerie. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"

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

"Yeah," I said, glad that Cedric had made the suggestion rather than me. "If anything happens, tell Charlie and June they've been the best parents ever... tell my friends they rock... tell JJ she's the sweetest thing and tell Fred I love him." I said looking at the boys.

"I think that goes with us two, just different people." Cedric smirked.

We pulled out our wands. I kept looking around. I had the strange feeling that we were being watched.

"Someone's coming," Harry said suddenly.

Squinting tensely through the darkness, we watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. I couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, I could tell that 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 - I saw that the thing in the persons arms looked like a baby ... or was it merely a bundle of robes?

Harry lowered his wand slightly and glanced sideways at Cedric and me. We shot him a quizzical look. We then both turned back to watch the approaching figure. Cedric turned to me then shoved me behind a load of rocks.

I was in darkness, the figure had not noticed me at all. I was safe, for now.

It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. For a second.

Harry, Cedric and the short figure simply looked at one another.

And then, without warning, my scar exploded with pain. It was agony such as I had never felt in all my life; my wand slipped from my fingers as I put my hands over my heart; my knees buckled; I was on the ground and could see nothing at all; my heart was about to explode.

From far away, I 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 through my eyelids, and I heard something heavy fall to the ground; the pain in my scar reached such a horrible pain, before it suddenly stopped, just like that, terrified of what I was about to see, I opened my eyes.

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

I made a noise between panicking, crying and squealing. He was dead. He hid me behind a rock and he's dead.