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tellshannon815) wrote2016-09-10 01:45 am
tellshannon815) wrote2016-09-10 01:45 am
Flashpoint
Title: Flashpoint
Fandom: Harry Potter
Warnings: Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Characters: Cedric Diggory, Albus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Amos Diggory, Cho Chang, Minerva McGonagall, Delphi.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Albus and Scorpius accidentally bring Cedric Diggory into the present day.
They had believed they were doing the right thing when they came to him in the maze and tried to get him out of there. Cedric understood that.
But he thought it might have been better for everyone if Albus and Scorpius had let him stay dead.
Two Weeks Ago:
“So in the original task,” Albus began, “Barty Crouch Junior put the Imperius curse on Viktor Krum, and made him use the Cruciatus curse on Cedric. His idea was to get Krum to put Cedric out of the running so my dad would win. But my dad saw what was happening and saved him.”
“So what are you suggesting?” Scorpius asked. “That we stop your dad from getting there and leave Krum to it? You can’t mean that, right, because Krum could actually kill Cedric before Voldemort does?”
“No, I didn’t mean that,” Albus replied as they made their way to the Quidditch pitch, where the maze had stood in 1995. “But we have to do something, to stop Cedric from winning and tying with my dad. Dad stopped Krum by Stupefying him, so maybe we could do that, or just drag him out of the maze…but we have to do it without humiliating him, we don’t want him joining the Death Eaters again.”
“We don’t want that timeline again, too right,” Scorpius agreed.
“Even though things were different for you then? You were the boy everyone wanted to be, the one all the girls wanted to go to that dance with. Everyone loved you.”
“But I didn’t love me, not the me that everyone else knew. I prefer the person I am now, in this timeline, with you.” He took out the Time Turner, turned it as he was becoming so used to doing, to send themselves back for their one last attempt, the one they had to make count.
Triwizard Tournament, Third Task, 1995.
“Does he like the sound of his own voice, or what?” Scorpius groaned as Ludo Bagman began his opening speech.
“If we get it right this time, we’ll never have to hear him again,” Albus replied.
“There he is, making his way to the maze,” Scorpius said. “So, we’re going to do, what, exactly?”
“We just have to slow him down, stop him getting that far…” Albus muttered something as he blasted a hole in the hedge of the path where Cedric had just run down. “Damn it…”
“There, there he is!” Scorpius exclaimed as Albus jumped in front of Cedric.
“Don’t I know you?” Cedric asked. “Aren’t you that kid from Durmstrang, who was acting weird in the first task? Is this something Krum’s put you up to?”
“We’re not with Krum, but we do have to stop you,” Albus began. “There’s no time to explain, but...you have to get out of this maze. You can’t win.”
Cedric looked like he was about to argue with Albus, but whatever he was about to say, he didn’t get the chance. “Albus, we have to go…” Scorpius yelled, gesturing towards the time turner, which was starting to shake. “The Time Turner…we lost time getting in here…”
Albus, in a fit of desperation, grabbed hold of Cedric’s arm, then the next thing Scorpius knew he was standing on the Quidditch pitch in the present day one more, Albus by his side, and a very confused and angry looking Cedric standing before them.
“What is this? If you’re not Krum’s mates, what are you doing?” Cedric demanded.
Albus grinned weakly. “Um…welcome to 2020?”
Hogwarts School looked just the same as it always had to Cedric, yet he also knew that it had changed immeasurably. He’d thought Albus Potter was joking when he first mentioned 2020. But from the moment when he had first been confronted with an older-looking Professor McGonagall, and realised that she and not Professor Dumbledore was the school headteacher, Cedric knew there was something very wrong indeed.
She had regretted that it had to be she who explained everything to Cedric, but as unfortunately his former head of house Professor Sprout was no longer working at Hogwarts School, she was now the staff member who had known Cedric best. But she had sat him down to explain that it was true, that the children who had brought him back, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy (names that Cedric would never have expected to have heard in the same sentence, given that everyone knew Harry and Draco had never been exactly friends), had brought him back into the year 2020. Cedric had then gone on to ask why, and Professor McGonagall had looked very uncomfortable before going on to explain that in the past they had all known, Cedric had been killed by Lord Voldemort after having come joint first with Harry in the Triwizard Tournament in 1995.
“And my parents? Cho? What’s happened to them?” Cedric demanded.
“I think you had better come with me, Mr Diggory,” Professor McGonagall had said. “I will take you to your father.”
Even as Professor McGonagall had explained everything to Cedric, he’d still found himself wondering whether there was some kind of other explanation for this whole thing, maybe some part of the Triwizard Tournament he didn’t know about. But the moment he saw his father being wheeled out towards him, it hit home to him in a way that nothing Professor McGonagall had said had done, and when Amos Diggory went on to explain that Cedric’s mother had died several years earlier, having never been quite the same since the Tournament, it made him feel even worse. To Cedric, it had only been a matter of hours since his parents had wished him luck in the Tournament and he’d had to intervene when his father was making a dig at Harry over that rubbish Rita Skeeter had written in The Daily Prophet.
Cedric had been told that he’d tried to walk away when Harry had first offered him the chance to tie for victory, and as he spoke with his father in the care home and his father filled him in on everything that had happened since 1995, he found himself wondering what could have been different had he stuck to his guns and allowed Harry to claim victory. Let’s face it, he hadn’t exactly made any impact on what had happened at the graveyard. Some stupid nurse at the care home had used the words in his hearing: “Kill the spare.” That was what Voldemort had said. If he had been around, he would have had the chance to see his mother again, and who knew, maybe she would still have been alive that day.
“You mustn’t think like that, son,” Amos Diggory had said. “You went into that tournament to win, and you couldn’t have known what was going to happen. When he was that determined to kill someone, they stayed dead.”
“Neither could Harry have known what was going to happen when he asked me to take the Cup,” Cedric pointed out. “He’s blamed himself for years. That’s why his son brought me back. Please, don’t you blame him too.”
Professor McGonagall had questioned whether it was a good idea. But Cedric had continued to make the request, and eventually, Cho Chang was summoned to Hogwarts School.
“Cedric,” she began, not seeming to know what to say. “You look…exactly the same.”
Cedric wanted to say that so did she, and it was true that she did look younger than her years, but it was also true that he could see how she had aged in the time since he saw her last.
“So I suppose you heard I’m married,” Cho continued awkwardly. “You won’t know him. He never went to Hogwarts. He’s a Muggle.”
“No, I hadn’t heard,” Cedric began, and part of him wished that someone had told him that earlier, so at least he could have been prepared. But who would have? Harry didn’t keep in touch with Cho, and would probably have avoided that particular subject with Cedric anyway (He’d known about Harry’s crush on Cho, and some of his friends had made comments at the time about Harry trying to steal Cedric’s girlfriend as well as his glory in the tournament, but since he also knew that Cho wasn’t interested at the time and wanted to be with him, he hadn’t worried about it.) Again, for him, it was a matter of days since Cho had been his girlfriend. But for Cho, it had been years, and only to be expected that she would have moved on, to have found someone else. Had he known he was going to die, it would have been what he had wanted for her.
But now, he found himself not knowing quite what he would say to her. She’d grown older, she’d had experiences he hadn’t; she wasn’t the Cho he had known, and there was no way of getting that back, and he could tell from her expression that she was thinking the exact same thing. And he wondered whether there was anything for him in this timeline after all. It wasn’t really Albus and Scorpius’s fault, they wouldn’t have understood that. But he still wondered if they had made a mistake.
Albus and Scorpius were in deep disgrace. Professor McGonagall had ordered that they be placed in isolation until further notice, or at least until they worked out what could be done. Luckily for them, she had allowed them to remain in each other’s company.
“It should have worked out,” Albus began. “Cedric’s alive, and we haven’t gone back to the timeline you saw where Voldemort won…so why don’t I feel happy?”
“I know what you mean,” Scorpius replied. “The idea of going back to that timeline…everyone loved me there, they called me the Scorpion King, and I had girls queued up wanting me to take them to the ball…but I don’t like who I was back then. That guy who had everyone doing his homework for him, had everyone living in fear of him…that’s not me, and I never want to be him again. We brought Cedric back without going back to that. Maybe the reason I don’t feel happy about it is because he’s not happy.”
“I wonder, if Cedric ever found out he’d been a Death Eater in that timeline and killed Nev – Professor Longbottom, whether he’d feel the same way as you. From everything I ever heard about him, I’d never have expected him to join the Death Eaters, and now that I’ve met him, I’m having a really hard time picturing it.” Albus went on.
“I know what you mean.” Scorpius nodded. “Was that what you meant to do? Bring him back here?”
“I don’t think I had much of a plan as such besides getting him out of there,” Albus shook his head. “I should have thought it through, I can see that now. Because you’re right, he isn’t happy, and maybe we shouldn’t have brought him into this timeline. I can’t imagine it if I was suddenly pulled so many years into the future, and found myself in a timeline where you weren’t around. And I know things haven’t been good between me and my dad right now, but if I had to see him like that, like Cedric’s dad, and…” Albus stopped himself before he could mention Cedric’s mum not being around. “And his old girlfriend coming to see him…”
“Wait, I just thought of something.” Scorpius held his hand up to stop Albus. “Delphi. She was so keen for us to work together to bring Cedric back, and now that he is, she doesn’t show her face? I know it’s been hushed up, but she’s his bloody cousin, surely her Uncle Amos would have told her, and now she hasn’t even come to see him?”
“What are you talking about?” Cedric had come bursting into the room. “Who’s Delphi?”
Cedric had been outside the room for longer than Albus and Scorpius realised. He didn’t know what had put the idea into his head to go and see them, try and talk to them about exactly why they brought him back. But when he’d heard what they were saying, he’d found himself unable to make himself known, just had to hear what they were saying. There had been a timeline where he was a Death Eater? He found that even harder to understand than Scorpius did, and he knew exactly what Scorpius meant when he was talking about how he didn’t like the version of himself that existed in that timeline. If Cedric had encountered the Death Eater version of himself, he wouldn’t have liked that person either.
He still found it hard to believe that a son of Draco Malfoy could have turned out like Scorpius. He hadn’t known him very well outside of Quidditch, being in different year groups and houses, but the Draco Malfoy he had known was a lot like the person Scorpius was describing from the Voldemort timeline, and if he’d ever had to imagine Draco’s son, the Scorpion King would have seemed a lot more likely. Yet this person…he’d genuinely cared about bringing Cedric back, he just hadn’t seemed to understand why that might not have been a good idea, and Cedric had wondered whether, if he talked to Scorpius and Albus a bit more, he might understand why they did it.
But that other thing he’d said – who was Delphi?
“Delphi is your cousin,” Albus explained. “The reason you might not know who she is, is because she was born after –“ He seemed to be choosing his words before eventually opting for “the Triwizard Tournament, so you wouldn’t have met her.”
But Scorpius seemed to understand better why Cedric was confused. “But she was so keen for us to bring Cedric back, Albus. And now that he is, why hasn’t she come here to meet him? Don’t try and tell me she doesn’t know. I know McGonagall and your dad and aunt wanted to keep it all out of the news, but Mr Diggory knows. We’re banned from sending owls, but he isn’t. Wouldn’t you think that he would have contacted Delphi to let her know Cedric was here? And like I was just saying, wouldn’t you think that if she did know, she’d be straight up here to see her cousin? Something’s wrong here.”
“You got that right, Scorpius, because I haven’t got a cousin!” Cedric exclaimed. “Dad’s my only living relative. He and Mum never had any siblings, in fact they didn’t even have any cousins themselves. It isn’t possible. I don’t know who this person you met is, but she isn’t my cousin.”
“But if she isn’t your cousin, why would she try and convince us she was?” Albus asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we need to talk to your dad.”
“Well, Amos confirmed it,” Harry began. “This Delphi isn’t any relation of his.”
“So who is she?” Hermione asked.
“I don’t know. A better question might be, why did she pretend she was Cedric’s cousin? And why would she want to bring him back, if they’re really not related?”
“There’s only one way we can find out, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.” Hermione replied. “She wanted Cedric brought back, so we’re giving her what she wants. We’re going to contact her, let her know Cedric’s at Hogwarts, but it’s going to have to come from Albus.”
Harry stared at her. “What?”
“We don’t have to involve him. We can send it ourselves, make it look like Albus wrote to her. But it would have to look like it came from either Albus or Scorpius, because they’re the ones she’s been in contact with, she’d be suspicious if you and I wrote to her as ourselves. She’ll think she’s meeting them, but she’ll be meeting us instead. Then we can see if we can figure out what she wants.”
“I don’t like it,” Harry replied. “But you’re right. It’s the only way.”
“That must be her now, walking up the path,” Hermione said as they watched from Professor McGonagall’s window. “Do you recognise her?”
“I’ve never seen that woman,” Harry replied. “But there is something familiar about her somehow…I don’t know. I don’t know why I recognise her, but I do.”
“She’s looking for Albus and Scorpius,” Hermione continued, “Come on, let’s go and intercept her.”
“Wait a minute.” Harry caught hold of Hermione’s arm. “That’s Cedric going out to meet her. What the hell is he doing?”
“Hello, cousin.”
The woman named Delphi glanced up, shocked, at the sight of Cedric walking towards her.
“That’s right, I’m back. Which you manipulated Albus and Scorpius into doing for you. What I can’t understand is why. You told them you were my cousin, but you and I both know we’re not related at all. So why would you care so much about bringing me back?”
“Oh, Cedric.” Delphi laughed. “You really thought it was all about you. In fact, it was never really about you at all. You weren’t supposed to survive like this. You were meant to drop out of the Triwizard Tournament, join the Death Eaters, kill the Longbottom idiot who’s practically a Squib. Bringing you back was about bringing back someone else. And for a moment there, I almost had that. But then these idiots had to go and interfere and stop that timeline from happening.”
“What are you talking about?” Cedric asked.
“When spares are spared, when time is turned, when unseen children murder their fathers, then will the Dark Lord return.” Delphi quoted. “There’s a prophecy I needed to fulfil. I needed you to be saved in order that my father could be saved, that he could rise to power again.”
“He Who Must Not Be Named?” Cedric asked. “He’s your father?”
“That’s right.” Delphi replied. “And now you’re going to help me bring that timeline back. Take me to the Time Turner.”
“I don’t have it, I don’t know where it is, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Cedric insisted.
“Then you’re no use to me,” Delphi sneered. “My father was right. You’re just the spare. He’ll take me to it,” she gestured towards Harry, who was running towards her with Hermione. “Avada…”
But she didn’t get any further before Cedric heard someone yelling something behind him and Delphi’s wand was met with a matching flash of green light. Harry stood over her, brandishing his wand, as Delphi fell backwards to the floor.
“Is she…” Cedric began.
“She’s only Stunned.” Hermione explained. “I’ll stay with her until they take her to Azkaban. You two go back to the school.”
Harry had saved him, as he had been unable to do in the tournament. But Cedric knew now what he had to do.
As Cedric walked into the nursing home for what he knew would be the final time, he wondered how he would explain to his father. But even as he opened his mouth to speak, he realised that Amos already knew what he was going to say, and not only that, but he understood.
“You have decided that you want to be returned to the original timeline,” Amos began. “It’s quite all right, son. I understand.”
“It’s not that I want to leave you,” Cedric attempted to explain, “and if there was any other way, I would take it, but I don’t belong in this timeline. Mum’s not here, everyone in my life…Cho was the only person who even came back to see me at all, but even if I did see my old friends, it wouldn’t be the same. Everyone’s grown up, lived their lives, done everything I haven’t had the chance to do.”
“And you have no idea how many times I’ve wished for that for you over the years,” Amos replied. “But not like this. I always wanted for you to be happy, and I can tell you’re never going to be happy if you live your life in this timeline.”
“And if there is any truth in that prophecy,” Cedric went on, “that one about spares being spared, then if I stay here, there’s still the chance that You Know Who could return. Delphi’s been taken away now, but I can’t take the chance.”
“Never think of yourself as a spare, son,” Amos went on. “You may have meant nothing in…his plans, but you meant a lot to me, and your mother, and Cho, and yes, even those friends who haven’t come to see you now. I saw you with your Hogwarts friends back then, and I could tell that you were well liked among Hufflepuff House.”
“So you understand?” Cedric asked.
“Of course I do.” Amos replied. Amos pulled his son into an embrace for the final time just as Harry and Hermione arrived to collect Cedric.
“Mrs Granger-Weasley, could you wait outside for one moment? There’s something I would like to discuss with Harry.”
Hermione looked puzzled, but did as she was asked.
Alone with Amos, Harry began “I am so sorry for all the pain my son’s actions must have caused you.”
Amos held up his hand. “I must accept my own responsibility for that one. I was the one who unfairly began blaming you for what happened after my wife died; I was the one who made those unfortunate remarks in Albus’s hearing which gave him the idea to bring Cedric back in the first place. I understand now that there was nothing different that you could have done, that there was no way of saving Cedric against the Avada Kedavra curse…”
“I still ask myself every day if there was some way, if I’d just claimed the victory myself instead of telling him we should tie for a Hogwarts victory, if I’d jumped in front of him…”
“It was thinking along those lines that created this situation in the first place,” Amos replied. “I no longer blame you; I never should have in the first place. And you did save him back there, when that woman tried to kill him. Maybe it’s time that you should start forgiving yourself.”
As Harry and Cedric made their way towards where the maze had been all those years ago, Harry sneaked a look at the expression on Cedric’s face and couldn’t help but admire and respect him. Years before, he had witnessed a memory of Albus Dumbledore saying that he sometimes thought Hogwarts students were Sorted too soon, in reference to Severus Snape, and as he watched Cedric’s acceptance of the fact that he was walking towards his own certain death, he couldn’t help but think the same applied to him too.
“I know that when we meet again you won’t know anything about any of this,” Cedric began. “But I won’t do anything stupid like try and get out of there. When you offer me the chance to tie for the Hogwarts victory, I’ll take it.”
“Cedric…I wish there could have been another way,” Harry began, not knowing what else to say.
“If we’re to make sure that prophecy never comes true, there is no other way. I’ll do what I have to do. You stop Albus and Scorpius from getting into the maze, and everything will happen like it’s supposed to.” Cedric and Harry looked at each other as Harry turned the time turner, and understood each other in that moment. “Good luck with patching things up with Albus, and well, with everything.”
“And…to you too.” Harry knew he hadn’t managed to say half of what he wanted to say to Cedric, but he also knew that Cedric understood him as the two parted, Harry to stop Albus and Scorpius, Cedric to his fate.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Warnings: Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Characters: Cedric Diggory, Albus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Amos Diggory, Cho Chang, Minerva McGonagall, Delphi.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Albus and Scorpius accidentally bring Cedric Diggory into the present day.
They had believed they were doing the right thing when they came to him in the maze and tried to get him out of there. Cedric understood that.
But he thought it might have been better for everyone if Albus and Scorpius had let him stay dead.
Two Weeks Ago:
“So in the original task,” Albus began, “Barty Crouch Junior put the Imperius curse on Viktor Krum, and made him use the Cruciatus curse on Cedric. His idea was to get Krum to put Cedric out of the running so my dad would win. But my dad saw what was happening and saved him.”
“So what are you suggesting?” Scorpius asked. “That we stop your dad from getting there and leave Krum to it? You can’t mean that, right, because Krum could actually kill Cedric before Voldemort does?”
“No, I didn’t mean that,” Albus replied as they made their way to the Quidditch pitch, where the maze had stood in 1995. “But we have to do something, to stop Cedric from winning and tying with my dad. Dad stopped Krum by Stupefying him, so maybe we could do that, or just drag him out of the maze…but we have to do it without humiliating him, we don’t want him joining the Death Eaters again.”
“We don’t want that timeline again, too right,” Scorpius agreed.
“Even though things were different for you then? You were the boy everyone wanted to be, the one all the girls wanted to go to that dance with. Everyone loved you.”
“But I didn’t love me, not the me that everyone else knew. I prefer the person I am now, in this timeline, with you.” He took out the Time Turner, turned it as he was becoming so used to doing, to send themselves back for their one last attempt, the one they had to make count.
Triwizard Tournament, Third Task, 1995.
“Does he like the sound of his own voice, or what?” Scorpius groaned as Ludo Bagman began his opening speech.
“If we get it right this time, we’ll never have to hear him again,” Albus replied.
“There he is, making his way to the maze,” Scorpius said. “So, we’re going to do, what, exactly?”
“We just have to slow him down, stop him getting that far…” Albus muttered something as he blasted a hole in the hedge of the path where Cedric had just run down. “Damn it…”
“There, there he is!” Scorpius exclaimed as Albus jumped in front of Cedric.
“Don’t I know you?” Cedric asked. “Aren’t you that kid from Durmstrang, who was acting weird in the first task? Is this something Krum’s put you up to?”
“We’re not with Krum, but we do have to stop you,” Albus began. “There’s no time to explain, but...you have to get out of this maze. You can’t win.”
Cedric looked like he was about to argue with Albus, but whatever he was about to say, he didn’t get the chance. “Albus, we have to go…” Scorpius yelled, gesturing towards the time turner, which was starting to shake. “The Time Turner…we lost time getting in here…”
Albus, in a fit of desperation, grabbed hold of Cedric’s arm, then the next thing Scorpius knew he was standing on the Quidditch pitch in the present day one more, Albus by his side, and a very confused and angry looking Cedric standing before them.
“What is this? If you’re not Krum’s mates, what are you doing?” Cedric demanded.
Albus grinned weakly. “Um…welcome to 2020?”
Hogwarts School looked just the same as it always had to Cedric, yet he also knew that it had changed immeasurably. He’d thought Albus Potter was joking when he first mentioned 2020. But from the moment when he had first been confronted with an older-looking Professor McGonagall, and realised that she and not Professor Dumbledore was the school headteacher, Cedric knew there was something very wrong indeed.
She had regretted that it had to be she who explained everything to Cedric, but as unfortunately his former head of house Professor Sprout was no longer working at Hogwarts School, she was now the staff member who had known Cedric best. But she had sat him down to explain that it was true, that the children who had brought him back, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy (names that Cedric would never have expected to have heard in the same sentence, given that everyone knew Harry and Draco had never been exactly friends), had brought him back into the year 2020. Cedric had then gone on to ask why, and Professor McGonagall had looked very uncomfortable before going on to explain that in the past they had all known, Cedric had been killed by Lord Voldemort after having come joint first with Harry in the Triwizard Tournament in 1995.
“And my parents? Cho? What’s happened to them?” Cedric demanded.
“I think you had better come with me, Mr Diggory,” Professor McGonagall had said. “I will take you to your father.”
Even as Professor McGonagall had explained everything to Cedric, he’d still found himself wondering whether there was some kind of other explanation for this whole thing, maybe some part of the Triwizard Tournament he didn’t know about. But the moment he saw his father being wheeled out towards him, it hit home to him in a way that nothing Professor McGonagall had said had done, and when Amos Diggory went on to explain that Cedric’s mother had died several years earlier, having never been quite the same since the Tournament, it made him feel even worse. To Cedric, it had only been a matter of hours since his parents had wished him luck in the Tournament and he’d had to intervene when his father was making a dig at Harry over that rubbish Rita Skeeter had written in The Daily Prophet.
Cedric had been told that he’d tried to walk away when Harry had first offered him the chance to tie for victory, and as he spoke with his father in the care home and his father filled him in on everything that had happened since 1995, he found himself wondering what could have been different had he stuck to his guns and allowed Harry to claim victory. Let’s face it, he hadn’t exactly made any impact on what had happened at the graveyard. Some stupid nurse at the care home had used the words in his hearing: “Kill the spare.” That was what Voldemort had said. If he had been around, he would have had the chance to see his mother again, and who knew, maybe she would still have been alive that day.
“You mustn’t think like that, son,” Amos Diggory had said. “You went into that tournament to win, and you couldn’t have known what was going to happen. When he was that determined to kill someone, they stayed dead.”
“Neither could Harry have known what was going to happen when he asked me to take the Cup,” Cedric pointed out. “He’s blamed himself for years. That’s why his son brought me back. Please, don’t you blame him too.”
Professor McGonagall had questioned whether it was a good idea. But Cedric had continued to make the request, and eventually, Cho Chang was summoned to Hogwarts School.
“Cedric,” she began, not seeming to know what to say. “You look…exactly the same.”
Cedric wanted to say that so did she, and it was true that she did look younger than her years, but it was also true that he could see how she had aged in the time since he saw her last.
“So I suppose you heard I’m married,” Cho continued awkwardly. “You won’t know him. He never went to Hogwarts. He’s a Muggle.”
“No, I hadn’t heard,” Cedric began, and part of him wished that someone had told him that earlier, so at least he could have been prepared. But who would have? Harry didn’t keep in touch with Cho, and would probably have avoided that particular subject with Cedric anyway (He’d known about Harry’s crush on Cho, and some of his friends had made comments at the time about Harry trying to steal Cedric’s girlfriend as well as his glory in the tournament, but since he also knew that Cho wasn’t interested at the time and wanted to be with him, he hadn’t worried about it.) Again, for him, it was a matter of days since Cho had been his girlfriend. But for Cho, it had been years, and only to be expected that she would have moved on, to have found someone else. Had he known he was going to die, it would have been what he had wanted for her.
But now, he found himself not knowing quite what he would say to her. She’d grown older, she’d had experiences he hadn’t; she wasn’t the Cho he had known, and there was no way of getting that back, and he could tell from her expression that she was thinking the exact same thing. And he wondered whether there was anything for him in this timeline after all. It wasn’t really Albus and Scorpius’s fault, they wouldn’t have understood that. But he still wondered if they had made a mistake.
Albus and Scorpius were in deep disgrace. Professor McGonagall had ordered that they be placed in isolation until further notice, or at least until they worked out what could be done. Luckily for them, she had allowed them to remain in each other’s company.
“It should have worked out,” Albus began. “Cedric’s alive, and we haven’t gone back to the timeline you saw where Voldemort won…so why don’t I feel happy?”
“I know what you mean,” Scorpius replied. “The idea of going back to that timeline…everyone loved me there, they called me the Scorpion King, and I had girls queued up wanting me to take them to the ball…but I don’t like who I was back then. That guy who had everyone doing his homework for him, had everyone living in fear of him…that’s not me, and I never want to be him again. We brought Cedric back without going back to that. Maybe the reason I don’t feel happy about it is because he’s not happy.”
“I wonder, if Cedric ever found out he’d been a Death Eater in that timeline and killed Nev – Professor Longbottom, whether he’d feel the same way as you. From everything I ever heard about him, I’d never have expected him to join the Death Eaters, and now that I’ve met him, I’m having a really hard time picturing it.” Albus went on.
“I know what you mean.” Scorpius nodded. “Was that what you meant to do? Bring him back here?”
“I don’t think I had much of a plan as such besides getting him out of there,” Albus shook his head. “I should have thought it through, I can see that now. Because you’re right, he isn’t happy, and maybe we shouldn’t have brought him into this timeline. I can’t imagine it if I was suddenly pulled so many years into the future, and found myself in a timeline where you weren’t around. And I know things haven’t been good between me and my dad right now, but if I had to see him like that, like Cedric’s dad, and…” Albus stopped himself before he could mention Cedric’s mum not being around. “And his old girlfriend coming to see him…”
“Wait, I just thought of something.” Scorpius held his hand up to stop Albus. “Delphi. She was so keen for us to work together to bring Cedric back, and now that he is, she doesn’t show her face? I know it’s been hushed up, but she’s his bloody cousin, surely her Uncle Amos would have told her, and now she hasn’t even come to see him?”
“What are you talking about?” Cedric had come bursting into the room. “Who’s Delphi?”
Cedric had been outside the room for longer than Albus and Scorpius realised. He didn’t know what had put the idea into his head to go and see them, try and talk to them about exactly why they brought him back. But when he’d heard what they were saying, he’d found himself unable to make himself known, just had to hear what they were saying. There had been a timeline where he was a Death Eater? He found that even harder to understand than Scorpius did, and he knew exactly what Scorpius meant when he was talking about how he didn’t like the version of himself that existed in that timeline. If Cedric had encountered the Death Eater version of himself, he wouldn’t have liked that person either.
He still found it hard to believe that a son of Draco Malfoy could have turned out like Scorpius. He hadn’t known him very well outside of Quidditch, being in different year groups and houses, but the Draco Malfoy he had known was a lot like the person Scorpius was describing from the Voldemort timeline, and if he’d ever had to imagine Draco’s son, the Scorpion King would have seemed a lot more likely. Yet this person…he’d genuinely cared about bringing Cedric back, he just hadn’t seemed to understand why that might not have been a good idea, and Cedric had wondered whether, if he talked to Scorpius and Albus a bit more, he might understand why they did it.
But that other thing he’d said – who was Delphi?
“Delphi is your cousin,” Albus explained. “The reason you might not know who she is, is because she was born after –“ He seemed to be choosing his words before eventually opting for “the Triwizard Tournament, so you wouldn’t have met her.”
But Scorpius seemed to understand better why Cedric was confused. “But she was so keen for us to bring Cedric back, Albus. And now that he is, why hasn’t she come here to meet him? Don’t try and tell me she doesn’t know. I know McGonagall and your dad and aunt wanted to keep it all out of the news, but Mr Diggory knows. We’re banned from sending owls, but he isn’t. Wouldn’t you think that he would have contacted Delphi to let her know Cedric was here? And like I was just saying, wouldn’t you think that if she did know, she’d be straight up here to see her cousin? Something’s wrong here.”
“You got that right, Scorpius, because I haven’t got a cousin!” Cedric exclaimed. “Dad’s my only living relative. He and Mum never had any siblings, in fact they didn’t even have any cousins themselves. It isn’t possible. I don’t know who this person you met is, but she isn’t my cousin.”
“But if she isn’t your cousin, why would she try and convince us she was?” Albus asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we need to talk to your dad.”
“Well, Amos confirmed it,” Harry began. “This Delphi isn’t any relation of his.”
“So who is she?” Hermione asked.
“I don’t know. A better question might be, why did she pretend she was Cedric’s cousin? And why would she want to bring him back, if they’re really not related?”
“There’s only one way we can find out, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.” Hermione replied. “She wanted Cedric brought back, so we’re giving her what she wants. We’re going to contact her, let her know Cedric’s at Hogwarts, but it’s going to have to come from Albus.”
Harry stared at her. “What?”
“We don’t have to involve him. We can send it ourselves, make it look like Albus wrote to her. But it would have to look like it came from either Albus or Scorpius, because they’re the ones she’s been in contact with, she’d be suspicious if you and I wrote to her as ourselves. She’ll think she’s meeting them, but she’ll be meeting us instead. Then we can see if we can figure out what she wants.”
“I don’t like it,” Harry replied. “But you’re right. It’s the only way.”
“That must be her now, walking up the path,” Hermione said as they watched from Professor McGonagall’s window. “Do you recognise her?”
“I’ve never seen that woman,” Harry replied. “But there is something familiar about her somehow…I don’t know. I don’t know why I recognise her, but I do.”
“She’s looking for Albus and Scorpius,” Hermione continued, “Come on, let’s go and intercept her.”
“Wait a minute.” Harry caught hold of Hermione’s arm. “That’s Cedric going out to meet her. What the hell is he doing?”
“Hello, cousin.”
The woman named Delphi glanced up, shocked, at the sight of Cedric walking towards her.
“That’s right, I’m back. Which you manipulated Albus and Scorpius into doing for you. What I can’t understand is why. You told them you were my cousin, but you and I both know we’re not related at all. So why would you care so much about bringing me back?”
“Oh, Cedric.” Delphi laughed. “You really thought it was all about you. In fact, it was never really about you at all. You weren’t supposed to survive like this. You were meant to drop out of the Triwizard Tournament, join the Death Eaters, kill the Longbottom idiot who’s practically a Squib. Bringing you back was about bringing back someone else. And for a moment there, I almost had that. But then these idiots had to go and interfere and stop that timeline from happening.”
“What are you talking about?” Cedric asked.
“When spares are spared, when time is turned, when unseen children murder their fathers, then will the Dark Lord return.” Delphi quoted. “There’s a prophecy I needed to fulfil. I needed you to be saved in order that my father could be saved, that he could rise to power again.”
“He Who Must Not Be Named?” Cedric asked. “He’s your father?”
“That’s right.” Delphi replied. “And now you’re going to help me bring that timeline back. Take me to the Time Turner.”
“I don’t have it, I don’t know where it is, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Cedric insisted.
“Then you’re no use to me,” Delphi sneered. “My father was right. You’re just the spare. He’ll take me to it,” she gestured towards Harry, who was running towards her with Hermione. “Avada…”
But she didn’t get any further before Cedric heard someone yelling something behind him and Delphi’s wand was met with a matching flash of green light. Harry stood over her, brandishing his wand, as Delphi fell backwards to the floor.
“Is she…” Cedric began.
“She’s only Stunned.” Hermione explained. “I’ll stay with her until they take her to Azkaban. You two go back to the school.”
Harry had saved him, as he had been unable to do in the tournament. But Cedric knew now what he had to do.
As Cedric walked into the nursing home for what he knew would be the final time, he wondered how he would explain to his father. But even as he opened his mouth to speak, he realised that Amos already knew what he was going to say, and not only that, but he understood.
“You have decided that you want to be returned to the original timeline,” Amos began. “It’s quite all right, son. I understand.”
“It’s not that I want to leave you,” Cedric attempted to explain, “and if there was any other way, I would take it, but I don’t belong in this timeline. Mum’s not here, everyone in my life…Cho was the only person who even came back to see me at all, but even if I did see my old friends, it wouldn’t be the same. Everyone’s grown up, lived their lives, done everything I haven’t had the chance to do.”
“And you have no idea how many times I’ve wished for that for you over the years,” Amos replied. “But not like this. I always wanted for you to be happy, and I can tell you’re never going to be happy if you live your life in this timeline.”
“And if there is any truth in that prophecy,” Cedric went on, “that one about spares being spared, then if I stay here, there’s still the chance that You Know Who could return. Delphi’s been taken away now, but I can’t take the chance.”
“Never think of yourself as a spare, son,” Amos went on. “You may have meant nothing in…his plans, but you meant a lot to me, and your mother, and Cho, and yes, even those friends who haven’t come to see you now. I saw you with your Hogwarts friends back then, and I could tell that you were well liked among Hufflepuff House.”
“So you understand?” Cedric asked.
“Of course I do.” Amos replied. Amos pulled his son into an embrace for the final time just as Harry and Hermione arrived to collect Cedric.
“Mrs Granger-Weasley, could you wait outside for one moment? There’s something I would like to discuss with Harry.”
Hermione looked puzzled, but did as she was asked.
Alone with Amos, Harry began “I am so sorry for all the pain my son’s actions must have caused you.”
Amos held up his hand. “I must accept my own responsibility for that one. I was the one who unfairly began blaming you for what happened after my wife died; I was the one who made those unfortunate remarks in Albus’s hearing which gave him the idea to bring Cedric back in the first place. I understand now that there was nothing different that you could have done, that there was no way of saving Cedric against the Avada Kedavra curse…”
“I still ask myself every day if there was some way, if I’d just claimed the victory myself instead of telling him we should tie for a Hogwarts victory, if I’d jumped in front of him…”
“It was thinking along those lines that created this situation in the first place,” Amos replied. “I no longer blame you; I never should have in the first place. And you did save him back there, when that woman tried to kill him. Maybe it’s time that you should start forgiving yourself.”
As Harry and Cedric made their way towards where the maze had been all those years ago, Harry sneaked a look at the expression on Cedric’s face and couldn’t help but admire and respect him. Years before, he had witnessed a memory of Albus Dumbledore saying that he sometimes thought Hogwarts students were Sorted too soon, in reference to Severus Snape, and as he watched Cedric’s acceptance of the fact that he was walking towards his own certain death, he couldn’t help but think the same applied to him too.
“I know that when we meet again you won’t know anything about any of this,” Cedric began. “But I won’t do anything stupid like try and get out of there. When you offer me the chance to tie for the Hogwarts victory, I’ll take it.”
“Cedric…I wish there could have been another way,” Harry began, not knowing what else to say.
“If we’re to make sure that prophecy never comes true, there is no other way. I’ll do what I have to do. You stop Albus and Scorpius from getting into the maze, and everything will happen like it’s supposed to.” Cedric and Harry looked at each other as Harry turned the time turner, and understood each other in that moment. “Good luck with patching things up with Albus, and well, with everything.”
“And…to you too.” Harry knew he hadn’t managed to say half of what he wanted to say to Cedric, but he also knew that Cedric understood him as the two parted, Harry to stop Albus and Scorpius, Cedric to his fate.