PARALLEL {Cedric Diggory | Harry Potter}

Fifty Six

Ron nodded curtly, glancing nervously at Lori as odd, alien sounds fell from Harry's lips and the locket opened with an enormous shriek, black smoke billowing into a large cloud from it.

The three of them were thrown back, "I have seen your heart, and it is mine!" Voldemort taunted as his face twisted from the liquid black, "I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears!"

Spiders crawled up towards the bank, Ron's face morphing into terror as he tried to kick further up away from them.

Lori dived up from beside Harry, the cloud poucing on her as Cedric, just as he looked on the night of the third task, was engulfed in green light. He was thrown into the air, landing limp, his eyes unseeing. She let out a scream as tears brimmed in her eyes and she fell back beside Harry.

"Least loved by your mother, who craved another daughter!" Voldemort leered at Ron again, "Least loved by the girl who prefers your friend!"

Cedric's body still lay on the ice, Lori screaming to her brother, "Ron, kill it!"

Voldemort morphed into Harry and Hermione, evil smiles playing on their lips as they walked towards them.

"We were better without you," the fake Harry laughed, "happier without you."

Hermione jeered beside him, "Who could look at you compared to Harry Potter? What are you compared with the Chosen One?"

The real Harry yelled, "Ron, it's lying!"

His evil counterpart snarled, "Your mother confessed she would have preferred me as a son."

"What woman would take you?" Hermione added, "You are nothing. Nothing. Nothing, compared to him."

The naked Harry and Hermione twisted together, their lips locked as an eerily see-through Katie shot from the smoke, floating high into the air and letting out a guttural scream, before crashing beside Cedric.

Others joined them: Leanne and Cho, with their hands linked even in death, Bill and Ginny, their faces wrought with terror along with the rest of the Weasleys and finally, Lupin and Tonks, a small baby pale beside them.

Ron roared as he sprinted forwards, the sword raised high above his hard as he brought it, slashing through the blackened air, onto the locket. The cloud billowed into nothingness, the bloodied corpses going with it.

"Just think," Ron panted on his knees, "only three to go."

*

"Hermione?" Harry asked outside the tent, "Hermione?"

She emerged from the canvas moments later, looking at Harry and Lori in concern, "Is everything all right?"

"It's fine. Actually, you know, it's more than fine." he smiled, gesturing as Ron appeared beside them.

"Hey." he beamed.

A frown settled onto Hermione's features as she lunged at him, shoving him backwards, "You complete ass, Ronald Weasley! You show up here after weeks, and you say 'hey'?"

She rounded on Harry, "Where's my wand? Where's my wand?"

"I don't know." he said, pressing himself back up against a tree.

"Harry Potter, you give me my wand."

"I don't have it."