Cedric Diggory: Champion of the Dark Lord?
HOGWARTS LEADS following the second Triwizard Task. With an unprecedented double first place, Hogwarts has managed to all but secure the victory for the first time since 1792!
Perhaps a publicity stunt to ensure the popularity of this highly controversial tournament, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has declared two school champions: The-Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter; and Cedric Diggory.
Harry Potter, with a total of 85 points, stands among his peers - beside Durmstrang Champion, Victor Krum, the youngest professional seeker in over three centuries; and Fleur Delacour, a captivating half-Veela from Beauxbatons.
Among the three extraordinary Champions is the forgettable and easily overlooked fourth Champion, Cedric Diggory.
Diggory scrapped a third place in the first task. As such, Cedric's first place (on a technicality, it should be mentioned) in the second task, has come as a shock for those eagerly following the results of the Triwizard Tournament. Though he appears as nothing more than a typical unassuming student — this Hufflepuff champion may be more sinister than he appears.
Cedric Diggory surfacing first with his hostage would have understandably been shocking enough on it's own, but it was what came after that rang the alarms on the dark secret hidden in the Diggory Family.
Cedric's hostage, his feeble-minded, blind younger sister, Fiona Diggory, emerged from the icy lake screaming about death and the return of You-Know-Who.
Fiona, as it happens, may be no stranger to the dark arts. Suffering from a sever case of retinitis pigmentosa (an uncommon muggle illness), lost her eyesight in her childhood. Despite the fact that wizards and witches are largely immune to muggle sicknesses, her eyesight could not be repaired. This forces the question of what type of dark magic took her sight? And who is the Diggory family protecting by not admitting this?
After the events at the Quidditch World Cup, it cannot be denied that dark wizards still exist among us. Suspiciously, Amos Diggory (father to Cedric), was among the ministry members who reported on the scene after the Dark Mark emerged.
Formally, a culprit has not been convicted for the egregious crime. Is this the case of a ministry cover up? Has nepotism allowed a potentially dangerous dark wizard to evade justice? Dark magic would certainly explain Diggory's startling lead.
"Rook to H-8" Fiona muttered into her palm.
"And how the bleeding hell am I suppose to do that?" A guttural voice growled at her from the chessboard. Fiona sat back, trying to recall the layout of the board.
"It's okay, your Rook is-"
"I know just give me a second," Fiona snapped at Cedric. Fiona had been on edge and easily agitated since the second task - Rita Skeeter's recently published expose had only exasperated the matter.
At least she's writing about you now, any news is good news, ay? Alfie had claimed after the article was published. Fiona couldn't share Alfie's positive sentiments. Cedric had been handling the taunts from his peers well - the ability to assign detentions certainly helped. The letters coming from Skeeters fleet of loyal readers, however, had taken a toll on Cedric. He had been cursed by two anonymous senders before determining any letters he received were best left unopened.
Skeeters entire basis for her accusations rested on Fiona's shoulders.
The guilt was like gasoline in her guts. Her insides died slowly in the toxicity, needing no more than a spark to set it ablaze. A snide remark from a passing Durmstrang student, or the sound of yet another stack of letter addressed to Cedric being thrown into the rubbish bin. It all but left her a charred corps for what she had forced him to endure.
"Castle to the queen side," she finally instructed. Her rook grunted his approval as he swapped with her king.
Typically, Fiona loved playing Wizard's Chess against her brother. It was one of the few activities she rarely lost at. It was a game that required total concentration for any wizard, even more so for Fiona.
For Fiona, playing chess was as much a strategic game, as it was a memory. Allowing her mind to wonder, and forgetting the layout of the board would prove detrimental. Normally, Fiona reveled in this added challenge - it made her wins all the more satisfying.
However, on this day, Fiona found it difficult to focus her mind completely on the chess game. Between her disturbing dream while held hostage and Skeeter's article, Fiona's mind had been turned into a muddied battleground. She had a sinking suspicion Cedric had an ulterior motive when he challenged her to a match.
Fiona was not wrong in her assumptions. Cedric had watched his sister withdraw from the school after the second task - it became even more apparent after the article. Each time a snide comment was made, or Fiona was teased for the label of feeble-minded sister, she sunk lower into her already deep pit of despair. Cedric was determined to get his sister out of the common room.
As a plot to accomplish just that, Cedric had proposed a game of Wizards Chess in the Great Hall. Knowing Fiona would have to focus all of her attention on the game, she'd be forced to ignore the jests of her classmates.
Heidi had scoffed at the plan, claiming Cedric was trying to train Fiona's social anxiety away like a wizard attempting to socialize a Krupp.
As Cedric watched Fiona focus on the chess board, shutting out the outside noise from passing students, he smiled to himself.
Cedric knew the teasing wouldn't last. Something else was bound to happen and become the new hot topic, but until that happened he couldn't allow Fiona to hide away from the world. It simply wasn't healthy.
With his head resting on his hand Cedric examined the board. Strategy had never been his strong suit. He flourished when he had clear directives. Plotting out moves, and foreseeing possible counters, however, was not a task he particularly enjoyed.
While Cedric mulled over his next move, Fiona's mind once again began to wonder.
Following her spasmodic display during the second task, Professor Sprout whisked her away to the infirmary, with haste. By the time the Calming Draught Madam Pomfry had give her had taken effect a council of professors had congregated at her bedside.
Fastidiously, Fiona recounted the events of her dream, with an a adamant assertion. Her desire to convey her premonition in a didactic manner, proved to be a fruitless endeavor.
The matter was only made worse when one Professor came to her support. Unfortunately for Fiona, that Professor was Sybill Trelawney
Regrettably, with Professor Trelawney's unwavering support - declaring Cedric's inevitable death and the return of You-Know-Who, the dream was declared to be stress induced. A defamatory figment of her mind's creation.
With Professor Trelawney as her champion, the matter suddenly spiraled into nothing but the hysterics of a teenager. Professor Moody, however, had not been as easily deterred as the rest of the staff.
He alone had stayed behind to question Fiona further about her dream. His inquiries forced Fiona to elaborate on the dream, with incredible detail. With every question, Fiona had become increasingly uncomfortable. Professor Moody had been, it seemed to Fiona, fixated on the return of You-Know-Who. He watched her with hungry eyes while she described the potion that had brought him back. When she hesitated he was quick to demand an answer.
Thinking back on the moment, Fiona wondered if the ex-Auror was lacking fulfillment in his current role as an educator. His desire for the rise of a dark wizard was matched only by her fear.
Ultimately, Moody had determined it was nothing to worry about, a sciamachy, it seemed.
Despite their refusal to acknowledge her dream as anything more than a dream, Fiona remained unconvinced. She had been on edge since the event, going as far as skipping classes for three days - something she later regretted when she eventually returned to her potions lessons.
"Queen to E-2" Cedric finally determined, snapping Fiona out of her trance.
"Pay attention girl," Fiona's rook growled. "You're giving your moves away before you even make them," the piece snarled angrily. Fiona's chess set was a particularly hostile one. Her knights, for example, had a rather unhelpful blood lust. The very aggressive set was almost always at odds with their more reserved commander.
"Shut up or I'm sacrificing you for a pawn," she threatened. "Knight to H-5." Fiona's knight chirped excitedly to his position.
"A noble sacrifice," the knight declared, his sword drawn and pointing to Cedric's rook on F-4.
Cedric, now alerted to the threat, moved his pawn to G-3. Fiona's knight cackled maniacally. "I'll gladly sacrifice my life!" He shouted. Fiona groaned. Her knights had always been enthusiastic about being taken, so long as they took someone else down with them.
"Well, go on then, Knight to F-4." She heard the sound of stone crumbling as her knight struck Cedric's rook. Her knight then turned to the pawn, prepared for his impending doom. "I welcome death!"
"Oi Fiona!" Alfie called, his boisterous voice booming loudly over the other chattering students. "Did Cedric use imperious to get you out of the common room?" He asked as he took the open seat beside Cedric.
Alfie had been quite excited about the article published by Skeeter. He took any opportunity he could to insinuate Cedric's place as a dark wizard. He then used this new reputation to threaten younger students to do his bidding.
"Bugger off Alfie," Cedric chastised. Alfie snickered as he leaned across the table to examine the board. "Heidi's been looking for you in the common room, 'bout to be late for herbology."
Cedric glanced down at his wrist watch. "You still have a few minutes, let's just finish the game. Pawn to F-4"
Cedric's pawn took her knight. A loss that Fiona, frankly, was unbothered by. Finishing the game without the knight shouting about needing a hero's death was more than welcomed.
"Devastating blow," Alfie chuckled. "Who's winning anyway?"
Across the hall, at the Gryffindor table, Fred watched Hufflepuff table. He had always hated chess. It took far too long for his liking, and the fact that Ron was a master at it was reason enough for Fred to lose interest.
"I reckon it'd be hard to play, what without being able to see and all," he mused as he turned his back on the Hufflepuff table to face George, Angelina and Katie Bell.
"What?" George asked absently. He was reviewing the orders they had received over the last two weeks. They were having no problem meeting the demands for their joke items; the potion orders were beginning to fall behind schedule.
"Wizard's Chess," Fred supplied. Angelina looked up from her potions homework, eyes falling on the Hufflepuff table. A discrete smirk forming on her lips.
"Been thinking a lot about chess, have you?" Angelina asked, a single eyebrow raised. Katie suddenly looked up from her homework, she curiously eyed Angelina, then her eyes narrowed slightly on Fred.
"Perhaps I have been, Johnson," Fred replied, his crooked smile and bright eyes penetrating into Angelina's own.
"Must really enjoy chess," George snickered as Angelina leaned closer to him.
"I'd even go as far as saying he fancies chess," she added with a giggle. George looked down at Angelina with a beaming grin.
"Wonder if he'd ever commit to chess," George heckled. He snaked his arm around Angelina and pulled her closer to him. Fred glared at the two, utterly appalled by their affectionate display.
"Commit to one game? When there's a whole wizarding world of games? Maybe tomorrow I'll want to play quidditch, or gobstone - or hell, exploding snap!" Fred declared, a growing agitation in his voice.
"I have a free period, want to play a game of gobstone?" Angelina taunted with a grin. George scowled down at Angelina, she returned his scowl with an innocent smile.
"I hate gobstone," Fred grumbled. Angelina's smile only grew.
"So you're saying you could play other games, but you only want to play chess," Angelina stated confidently.
"For Merlin's sake!" Katie said with an exasperated groan. "What are you all even on about? Who cares if he wants to play chess or gobstone!" Katie, who already felt as if her brain was melting because of her upcoming O.W.Ls, was in no state to comprehend their gibberish.
"Speaking of chess," George said, he chuckled as Katie flung her head into her folded arms on the table. "We need to talk to Fiona, she's falling behind on the orders. We need to pay her for last months earnings too," George handed Fred the parchment he had been looking at. Fred examined the parchment, his lips twisted unpleasantly while his nose scrunched as if he had smelled something foul.
Fred glanced back over at Fiona in time to watch her depart the Great Hall with Alfie Summers at her side. Their arms were locked together, and Fred suddenly wondered the reason Fiona had never pursued anything more than what they were doing. Were there other games that she had more interest in playing?
"Right, well, I'll go do that," Fred said, pushing himself from the long table. George handed him a small pouch of coins before he stalked out of the Great Hall.
Katie lifted her head from her arms and watched as Fred side stepped first years on his way after Fiona.
"Fred and Fiona," Katie began, she leaned over the table slightly. "Is there something going on there with them?"
George shrugged. Fred had insisted, on more than one occasion now, there was nothing substantial between the two.
Despite what he said, George couldn't help but notice recently Fred had begun bringing Fiona up into conversation more than George thought necessary, or even cared to hear. Fred had also never consistently invested so much time into one girl. All of Fred's previous encounters typically lasted a few weeks before fizzing out like a damp log.
"Hard to say," George said, grinning slightly. "Why?"
"Well, you know my mate, Leanne?"
George nodded slowly, though if he were being honest, he had only the faintest idea.
"It's just that she fancies Fred, you know," Katie whispered across the table.
"The short Hufflepuff girl in your year?" Angelina asked, her eyes darted over to a dark haired girl at the Hufflepuff table. The girl in question was looking towards the large doors, no doubt watching Fred leave.
"Does she now?" George smirked. He leaned into Angelina and rested his chin on her head. "Very interesting."
Angelina rolled her eyes at George, sighing loudly. "What are you thinking now?"
George, as it happened, did in fact suspect Fred's feelings for Fiona had become more than a superficial romp. Whether or not Fred had realized this himself, George didn't know. "Just curious if Fred has any actual interest in playing other games - like he says."
"Stop with the bloody talk about games!" Katie quickly barked. Angelina looked at her friend sympathetically. Poor Katie was a bright student, preparing for her O.W.Ls had turned her brain to mush when it came to anything other than academics.
***
A/N
Happy new year everyone!
So a few things: there are some factual problems with skeeters article. Fiona is not Cedric's younger sister and Fleur is a 1/4 Veela...but I just thought it was fitting for skeeter to stretch the truth.
Just putting that out there to clear up confusion.
Some people may be upset no one took Fiona's dream seriously...sorry? If they did itd clash with the direction I want this story to go in the near future.
Sorry Fred has a fear of commitment ;)
I THINK the 3rd task will be taking place in chapter 35, that may change, but as it stands it'll either be 35 or 36