A Change in Fate || Cedric Diggory [1]

Chapter 28: Fate and Foe

A/N: Were any of you able to guess what Analeigh's father gave her before the Third Task? 🤔

Analeigh landed on her stomach. The impact took her breath away for a second, and she could feel the pendant of the necklace her dad gave her earlier digging into her chest. She rolled onto her back and sucked in a breath, staring up at a dark, cloudless night sky.

Beside her, both Harry and Cedric were recovering from suddenly being dropped out of nowhere, too. Cedric was the first to sit up.

"You okay?" he asked them, sounding breathless.

"Yeah," they replied, and then all of them got up on their feet.

"You?" Harry asked Cedric who nodded in response.

"Where are we?" Cedric wondered, walking towards the Triwizard Cup in interest.

"This isn't part of the task, right?" Analeigh said uncertainly. She observed her surroundings, and so did the others, eventually spreading out. Tombstones, statues of hooded figures, crows flying around, dying patches of grass — they were in what must be a very old graveyard.

"I've been here before," Harry muttered. Analeigh could hear that something was off with Harry's voice; something wasn't right.

"You have?" she asked him, but his attention was on a certain tombstone. "How?"

"It's a Portkey," Cedric said in awe, not having heard the other two talking. "Guys, the Cup is a Portkey."

"I've been here before in a dream," Harry explained. And then, his eyes zeroed in on a name engraved on the tombstone that sent the hairs on his arm standing up: Tom Riddle.

"We have to get back to the Cup!" he shouted. "Now!"

"Harry, what's wrong?" Analeigh asked.

"We're going to be in danger if we stay here any longer!"

Portkey. Danger. Those words sent a wave of recognition through her mind and she pressed a hand to her chest where she could feel the necklace nestled behind her shirt.

It will just... take you away from your problems in an instant, were her father's words. And then it clicked; there was no way he was just being metaphorical. He was giving her a hint about what the necklace really was, and it wasn't enchanted with some ancient magic like she had jokingly said. In fact, it was such a simple magical object that was more often than not in plain sight.

"What are you talking about?" Cedric said next.

Before he could attempt to explain, Harry yelled out in pain. He clutched his head and kneeled on the ground.

"Harry!" Analeigh exclaimed as she and Cedric rushed over to him.

"What is it?" Cedric asked worriedly.

"Get back to the Cup!" Harry shouted.

When he looked up, his yells only intensified. Analeigh and Cedric followed his gaze and found a short, stout man walking towards them, cradling what looked like a baby in his arms.

The moonlight hit the man's face for a second. He had a rat-like and cowardly appearance. Analeigh knew him: Peter Pettigrew. Her eyes traveled down to what he was carrying, which she soon realized was far from an innocent child: it was pale white, bony, and slimy, somehow resembling a skeleton. Chills ran up Analeigh's spine as she gaped at it.

"What is that?" she muttered in shock. It felt like her body was frozen in fear.

Fortunately, Cedric was quick. He straightened up and pointed his wand at Pettigrew in defense.