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The first thing Sage feels is soft grass, the kind that hasn't been trodden on for a long, long time. Her fingers dig into it until they find the earth, still warm and sodden underneath her. It's cold here, and her t-shirt is damp with sweat and dew. Her tongue tastes like something sour and decaying, and she's not sure what it is.
On either side of her, the boys scrabble in the dirt.
"Harry," says Sage. "Cedric."
"What happened?" asks Cedric. "Did we win? Are we out of the maze?"
"I think that was a portkey," says Harry, and Sage thinks he's right. "I don't think we're even in Hogwarts anymore."
Sage thinks he's right again, because she lifts her head to look around and sees white fog, grey headstones peeking out behind them, and black sky overhead. It's deathly silent except for their breathing. Sage is terrified.
"Let's just get the portkey and go home, yeah?" asks Sage, pointing to the glowing blue cup metres from her grasp. "Let's all hold a handle and get back to school."
"Why did it transport us here?" Cedric wonders. He stands (the two younger students follow suit) and walks forward. Sage wraps her arms around herself and shivers. She's unsure if it's because of the cold, or is it's because she's very, very scared.
"Boss level of the tournament?" Sage suggests. "Big scary yellow turtle you've got to defeat, or something."
There's movement from opposite them.
"Master, there's three of them," says the figure, softly, but they still hear him. Harry moans and clutches his forehead. Sage knows what that means.
"Kill the others," says a strange throaty voice. Sage has heard that before, so many times before.
"Cedric, get down!" She screams, dives towards him to drag him to the floor, becomes tangled in a whip of green light that makes her body shudder and go still.
Harry chokes. Cedric drops to the floor beside her.
"Get up," he says, her head between his hands, "Come on, Sage, get up. Get up."
Harry's frozen to the spot and he watches as Cedric is hit by green light too, and his body slumps down beside Sage's, his hand still on her cheek.
The castle mourns Cedric and Sage. There's a beautiful ceremony in the grounds of Hogwarts with lots of crying students and teachers speaking about their best memories of the students. All of Sage's friends throw food to the Giant Squid, who Sage was friends with. There's a lot of people at the lake, because a lot of people had their souls touched by the Laurent girl.
