The boy on the ground was pale, his empty eyes were staring at the night sky. He was sporting a yellow and black long-sleeved jersey in the representation of his house and Hogwarts. He was just lying there on the hard ground with no sign of life.
It was a shock for the Gryffindors. Helena felt as if someone had opened up her chest and stabbed her heart directly.
Did I not run fast enough? Those times I stopped to catch my breath, is that why I didn't get to him in time?
"Nina!"
The voice was distant to her.
You're a Seer and you knew what would happen.
"Nina!"
Almost inaudible.
You're useless. You couldn't do what you were supposed to do. You couldn't save him.
He's dead.
Because of you!
"HELL, SNAP OUT OF IT!" Fred's voice interrupted her from her dark thoughts as he shook her by her shoulders, hoping to get a reaction from her. The redhead was stricken with fear, for Helena had her eyes completely shut while standing up, and her eyelids twitched uncontrollably. "WHAT THE... NINA, THIS ISN'T REAL! THAT'S NOT CEDRIC!"
The girl woke up from her daze, revealing her eyes. She tried to remember what Fred had yelled just now and analyzed the situation.
The spot where she had seen Cedric's body was now replaced with George's.
What's going on?
"It's a Boggart, Nina!" Fred yelled, standing in front of her as he tried to keep his eyes away from his brother's corpse. "It's just a stupid, bloody... Boggart."
He was trying not to let the image get to him, wiping a few tears away to get his head straight.
"A Boggart?" she asked, staring confused as they saw how the body in front of them was constantly changing between George and Cedric.
As she was making the question, she noticed a green flash of light in the distance, slowly diminishing until it turned into a small green orb, a light mist around it illuminating the silhouette of a man pointing a wand at the body on the ground.
"Can you also see the..." Helena drifted off. Could a Boggart make such a complicated scene for the person in front of it? Or was she seeing things only she could see? Either way, sighting the man that stood there with his wand in hand had resolved any questions revolving around the vision she had at the start of the school year: The green light in her vision, Cedric's lifeless body on the ground, the man with a wand. A green light could only be cast with one single curse...
The Killing Curse.
"Why would they put a Boggart here?" she asked instead.
"I... I don't think they did," Fred said as he recovered himself. "It must be the Boggart that George and I were supposed to take care of in detention with fake Moody. It must've followed us."
"I see," she said quietly, raising her wand and pointing it at the transforming body. "Riddikilus."
Nothing happened, and Helena was not surprised. She couldn't think of anything silly to make it go away. Even if it were a Boggart, the image was too real for her to think of something clever. The Boggart had decided to stay as Cedric.
"Fred, you do it. Before it changes back to George," Helena said, standing in front of the Boggart to make sure it stayed there to make it easier for Fred.
She felt nauseous looking at Cedric's body while the redhead took care of it with the same spell she was unsuccessful with. Fred managed to change the Boggart to run the opposite way.
There was tension between the two Gryffindors. Helena was going to say something but Fred beat her to it.
"What happened back there?" he asked worriedly.
"What d'you mean? The Boggart?" Helena asked confused, holding her side again because it began to sting more painfully, she slowed down her pace because of it.
"Your eyes were shut... you froze back there," Fred informed her, getting goosebumps as he remembered how worried he was for her. "I couldn't get you to hear me. It was as if you weren't there. Are you really okay?"
So, it was you calling out for me.
Why didn't I respond?
Helena was unaware that her body had shut down on its own because of the shock. The last time that happened was when she was a little girl involved in a car accident with her mother, resulting in the death of the parent. She was just a little girl when that happened and Helena only remembers bits of that awful memory.
The redhead equaled her pace, afraid she would collapse. She still looked shocked from seeing Cedric in Boggart form.
"I'm fine," she replied, dropping the hand that was holding her side. Helena could not comprehend how and why her eyes went black a few moments ago. It had never happened to her before and if it did, she didn't feel different when it happened. Was there something wrong with her? The girl tried to hide the uneasy feeling she was having. "Sorry if I scared you. I just dozed off. Maybe the poor lighting made my eyes look like they were closed."
"Maybe," Fred replied.
Neither of them believed the answer she gave, but decided to let the matter go for now.
"Let's turn h-"
A thunderous sound erupted from the other side of the hedge they had on their left. The ground began to tremble like an earthquake as the roots from the maze grew upwards, moving forward as it did. Twigs and branches were breaking, making space for newer ones that were creating a type of dome on the other side, trying to enclose whatever was there. A strong gust of wind coming from behind pushed them to go forward in the same direction as the growing hedge.
"I'm tired of this bloody tournament!" Helena yelled with annoyance as they began to run in the direction the wind was guiding them.
"It's the third task!" Fred yelled so his voice could be heard over the loud rustle of the branches. The wind was now throwing twigs and leaves at them, making it harder to see what they had in front of them. "They have to go big, I guess!"
"I hate it!"
"Me too!"
And they kept running.
Because she couldn't see clearly, Helena tripped over one of the roots that were starting to peak from the ground, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the side where the growing hedge was. The branches magically opened a gap for her to fall in and ended up being swallowed by them. The hedge began to tangle itself on her as it did with Fleur's wand, but this time it was faster.
"FRED! FRED!" she screamed, reaching for his hand as thin, strong roots encircled her arm until they reached her hand and pulled her in, closing the opening they had made for her.
"NINA! NO!" the redhead jumped at her but could not reach her in time.
Helena was struggling to breathe. The roots and branches had a tight grip on her and she couldn't reach for her wand in her pocket. Before she knew it, she had been spitted to the other side of the hedge, in a pathway inside the maze.
"Aahhh! Get off!" she squealed ripping off the roots that were still tangled up in her arms and legs until she was completely free. "Aaaahhh!"
The wind was stronger on this side and the rumbling sound coming from the still-growing hedge made her have more trouble orienting herself on this part of the maze.
"NINA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
"GET OUT!"
Cedric and Harry were running towards her as they signaled the girl to keep moving. The boys were struck with angst, running away from the fast-growing maze that was closing the path behind them. They both looked just as tired as Helena, with tiny cuts on their faces from the twigs flying at full speed in here. But the shock on their faces when they saw her inside the maze was greater.
"RUN!" Cedric ordered, pointing forward as a cue for Helena who immediately moved her feet to run in the same and only direction they could all go.
"What... What are you...?" A part of him was ecstatic to see the girl after she went missing, he couldn't believe she was here in front of him. But the situation they were stuck in was not how he wanted to reunite with her. He feared for her. Harry and himself had just bumped into a hexed Viktor Krum minutes ago. The Durmstrang student had attempted to hurt Harry when Cedric stopped him in time. They had also heard Fleur Delacour's scream across the maze, not to mention several obstacles they had to overcome along the way inside the maze.
"CED, WE NEED TO LEAVE THIS PLACE!" Helena pleaded to the Hufflepuff, her legs were burning by now with each step, and the urge to stop was bigger.
The pathway they were running on suddenly made a sharp turn to the right, revealing a glowing light at the end.
"It's..." Helena couldn't finish the sentence. She was seeing one of the key pieces in her vision about Cedric.
"THE CUP!" Harry and Cedric yelled as they admired with relief at the Triwizard Cup. Whoever got it would make the third task come to an end.
Between the chaotic hedged behind them and the Cup right in front, the three Hogwarts instinctively charged for the Triwizard Cup, but for different reasons.
This was the last length of the race for the Cup.
Helena took a deep breath to give it her all to try to beat them to the Cup. She was using the last of her energies to use her legs to make them move forward, to make her arms give her balance, and to keep her mind focused and alert to any danger that could come their way. She wanted to knock the Triwizard Cup off of the pedestal it was on, and keep it away from Cedric as far as possible.
Maybe only that way the outcome of her vision would change.
C'mon! 20 more steps!
The ground under their feet began to shake, roots were growing out of it trying to get a grip on whoever dared step on them. The three of them managed to avoid them.
Ten more steps.
"Almost there!" Cedric yelled excitedly at the other two. The three of them were neck to neck.
They entered a large enclosure inside the maze, the same spot where the Triwizard Cup was. It glowed a bright light blue hue, making it glint in the dark of the maze. There were no other pathways to take, this was the end of the tunnel. But nobody had grabbed the cup.
"Take it, then," Harry panted to Cedric. "Go on, take it. You're there."
"You take it. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck in here." Cedric replied.
The rumbling hedge that was on their heel was heading their way. It didn't stop growing their way and it was more menacing the closer it got to them.
Stop them.
Stop them now and leave!
This cup is the only piece missing that was revealed in her vision and green light. But if she could get rid of the cup, that would avoid making the vision come true, right? Change the present to change the future.
"...We're still square," said Harry, testing his leg. It shook violently as he put weight on it since he had sprained his ankle when a spider had dropped him.
"You should've got more points on the second task," said Cedric. "You stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should've done that. "
"I was the only one who was thick enough to take that song seriously!" said Harry bitterly. "Just take the cup!"
"No," said Cedric.
"Aghh!" Helena pushed Cedric and Harry away from the cup, reaching for it as she stretched every last fiber she had in her. The tip of her fingers touched the cold handle on the cup when she felt a hand grab her arm and another on the hem of her jumper.
Everything began to spin faster and faster. The girl felt herself being in the air when she got thrown out of that spiral in seconds, not giving her time to think about what was happening.
Three loud thuds hit the ground.
The sixth year was regaining consciousness after she fell. Something was prickling her face. She opened her eyes to see that she was laying on the grass, face down.
Where am I?
As she shifted her body to a more comfortable position, every muscle in her body ached. Oh, how she wanted to just lay there and rest. Now that she had stopped running, her body felt heavier with tiredness. Helena got into a sitting position and noticed the Triwizard Cup was a few meters away from her, and next to it, were Harry and Cedric also on the ground, recovering from the apparent fall. She looked at her surroundings...
A clear night sky, a cool breeze caressing her face when she spotted the outline of several carved stones on the ground.
Her eyes went wide with realization.
"This is a graveyard."
Why are we in a graveyard?
Her mind could not make sense of the situation. They were inside a maze on the Quidditch field seconds ago and now they were in an open space filled with gravestones and with no one else in sight. Grunts were heard next to her, seeing how Harry and Cedric were getting up with some pain.
Cedric walked up to the cup on the floor, looking at it curiously. "It's a portkey," he informed the other two.
"Is this supposed to be part of the task?" Harry asked.
"I don't think so," Helena answered, taking out her wand that had managed to stay in place after all the commotion. "Something doesn't feel right."
And they couldn't agree with her more.
The silence at that place was not a peaceful one; the moonlight was the only source of light and the outline of every gravestone gave an eerie feel to the whole place. Helena felt her stomach twist with nervousness. It felt like this wasn't over yet.
"Someone's coming," Harry informed them.
That's when Helena lost her eyesight for five seconds and then immediately recovered it. The first thing she saw was Cedric with fear on his face.
"Nina," he said as he walked up to her, squinting his eyes. He grabbed her chin and made her look up to him. "Your, your eyes... They are completely black!"
"What?" she asked in disbelief. "What do you mean?"
She did not know why Cedric was saying that. How could her eyes have gone black? She wondered if this had something to do with the Portkey she touched. Could it have been hexed to release some kind of poison or disability? She didn't feel pain or discomfort. She was fine, under the circumstances, and she could still see. Only lost vision for a bit but that didn't mean anything. She was tired, that's all.
Harry began to scream in pain, falling to his knees and keeping both hands on his forehead, covering his scar.
Helena turned to look at him with horror, remembering when Harry told her that day in the Owlery he would feel pain on his scar whenever he was close to danger, as a warning, and that it had happened more often after the Dark Mark in the Quidditch World Cup.
A man appeared from the shadows, looking down at something.
"Kill the spares!" a voice screeched.
Cedric.
The girl grabbed Cedric's arm pulling him down so they could hide behind a tall gravestone close by. She hugged him close to her body, afraid to let go as she made circular movements with her wand around them, wishing with all her heart that the non-verbal spell would work.
Her eyes went back to normal without her noticing.
She then felt like a raw had been cracked onto her head as the charm traveled down her. The Disillusionment Charm had been successful. They were both now camouflaged with their surroundings. Helena let go of her tight grip on Cedric and signaled him not to make a sound.
No, no, no, no, no, no. You forgot Harry, you idiot!
Helena cursed at herself for letting Harry out of the charm, but the boy was farther away from her. It was too late for her to do something. Whoever had shown up had spotted the fourth year.
"You!" Harry's voice was heard.
By the tone in Harry's voice, Helena sensed whoever the fourth year saw was someone he knew. Cedric had also caught up on this thought, raising an eyebrow trying to figure out who could it be.
Black streaks of smoke appeared in the night sky that made their way to the ground.
"Find the others!" a voice commanded.
The sixth years knew who they were talking about.
"Run for the tree line," Cedric whispered to Helena before pushing her up. They scurried away, running between the gravestones as two cloaked persons ran towards them, shooting spells at them. Cedric and Helena would counter-attack whenever they heard the swooshing sound of a wand.
Helena was panting in horror. She was using everything in her arsenal of spells she could think of to protect themselves, using mostly defensive spells. Cedric would shoot one or two attack spells but it was hard to do when he was constantly dodging both gravestones and the attacks from the people who were chasing them.
The cloaked people had masks to hide their identity. Was this part of fake Moody's plan for the end of the Triwizard Tournament?
If he's a death eater, then we are being chased by other death eaters!
"GO!" Cedric signaled Helena to keep moving forward and enter the dense forest before them.
"WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO GET HARRY!" She cried out, swatting away leaves and thin branches away from her face and body. She was a mess, inside and out. Helena couldn't understand what was happening only that they were in danger and they had no one to call for help.
The two of them managed to keep a good distance between themselves and the death eaters once they entered the forest. Helena and Cedric stopped for a second to catch their breath by a tall tree. The girl had hands on her knees, bent to recover some air.
She wanted to cry so badly.
"We'll go back for him," Cedric breathed out, rolling up his sleeves revealing a deep cut one of the death eaters had caused in his right forearm. "We'll go get Harry."
"Those... those are death eaters, Ced," Helena said in defeat. "My vision... you're still here," she said crying happy tears of relief admiring the boy next to her. This was the horrible backstory surrounding Cedric's death in her vision.
But had she really stopped it from coming true? They were still being chased.
"So, you really are a Seer," said Cedric mostly amused, trying to hide the fact that his death in this tournament had just been avoided thanks to her. The Hufflepuff stayed quiet for a minute until he spoke again. "What happened to you? I thought you..."
Helena felt anger filling up her body remembering why she got kidnapped, especially feeling hatred towards the man who did it.
Cedric noticed the change in her mood.
"It's ok. We can talk when we get back to Hogwarts. I'm just glad you are okay and alive," said Cedric with the most sincere smile. The weight of angst had been lifted off of his body when he saw her in the maze. "C'mon. Let's go get Harry."
"Ced, we need the cup. It's the only way we can get back to Hogwarts," informed Helena. "We need to get to Harry and the cup at the same time. If we don't, they'll know what we're up to."
The two of them made their way back to the edge of the forest, just where the graveyard started. They had moved quickly between the trees making sure the death eaters that had been following them were out of sight. Both students had their wands at their side, ready to rescue Harry.
A flash of green light and a red one collided, meeting in the middle with a loud bang.
"Harry! That has to be Harry over there!" Helena cried out. "He's fighting back!"
"We have to get to him now!" said Cedric, grabbing her hand momentarily to pull her to his side as they made a run in the direction where the spells were crashing together. "Watch out! Stupefy!"
A hooded death eater had appeared from the dark and grabbed Helena by her arm, trying to pull her away. Cedric's spell got him out of the way just in time before the death eater could do any harm.
Helena cursed at herself for being so careless back there. She was lucky nothing else happened to her. Her grip got tighter on her wand...
"Get to the cup. I'll get Harry," she said determinedly. "We only have one shot to get back."
Everything seemed to be slowed down.
Helena saw how Cedric ran the opposite war as she ran towards Harry, ignoring the fact that he was surrounded by hooded death eaters. As she got closer she noticed how they were just standing there as Harry battled a tall man. But Harry was not alone.
Next to him were two mist-like figures, a woman and a man. Before Helena could understand what was happening, the figures charged for the man in front of Harry causing the perfect distraction to help Helena grab the fourth year, wrapping her arms around the boy.
She directed her wand at the ground where the death eaters were.
"BOMBARDA MAXIMA!!"
A fraction of a second before the spell rolled out of her tongue and made its impact, Helena saw the man who had attacked Harry and fear consumed her. The man was pale, had slits for nostrils, and the red menacing eyes like a snake he had locked with hers for that fraction of a second.
Fear.
Anger.
Pain.
This man was not human anymore.
Large pieces of gravestones and dirt erupted causing an explosive attack on anyone close. Helena saw the opportunity to drag Harry away from everyone as they both clumsily ran to where Cedric was. The Hufflepuff also ran in their direction, grab a hold of both of them, and swiftly turned his upper body to point his wand.
"ACCIO CUP!"
The ground below them disappeared when everything started to spin as if they were inside a tornado. Cheers, yelling and the sound of a band playing erupted around them once they were back on land.
"THE THIRD TASK IS COMPLETE! LET'S WELCOME OUR CHAMPION!" the voice of Ludo Bagman echoed.
The change in ambiance was too big. Helena could not believe they were running for their lives just a few seconds back, they had barely made it, yet once they came back to Hogwarts, everything seemed normal. But it was not.
Cedric almost died.
Harry almost died.
I almost died.
Why are you celebrating?
"HARRY! HARRY, OVER HERE!" Ron and Hermione were yelling excitedly for the boy as they made their way to him, coming down from their seats.
"WHERE'S MY BOY? MY CHAMPION!"
Helena had only met him once, but she could not mistake the voice of Amos Diggory.
"Harry, congratulations! We are so proud!" Mrs. Weasley was close by.
"Quite the maze, huh?" Charlie Weasley spoke next to the fourth year.
"Two champions, Merlin's beard!" Ludo Bagman greeted the two Hogwarts contenders. Then the jolly man turned to look at the girl next to them with surprise. "Where did you come from, miss?"
"Nina? NINA YOU'RE HERE!" Hermione went to give her a big hug, crying on her shoulder. "What happened to you? Where were you?!"
Ron was patting Harry's back thinking the boy was struck with shock from winning the Tournament, or so he thought. The redhead was surprised to see Helena when he heard Hermione say her name.
"Miss Rosemund," Dumbledore said amused about the girl's sudden presence in the Quidditch field for they had been looking for her for months.
"NINA, my dear! Are you alright?" Mrs. Weasley interrupted the headmaster. "Fred and George kept me updated while you were missing! Oh, dear... you're okay! What happened?"
Helena could not speak. This was too surreal for her. Did no one know about the danger that was planned involving this Tournament?
"Miss Rosemund," Dumbledore spoke again, more softly this time, drawing the Gryffindor's attention to him. The headmaster could see something was disturbing her. "You stopped it from happening, didn't you?"
Helena only nodded as tears formed in her eyes. She had prevented Cedric's unfortunate future she had seen, the boy was alive. They had all come out of it alive. She was beyond relieved and did not know what could have happened if something she did change the result just one bit. Would the outcome be the same?
"Where's Moody?!" She demanded an answer, taking a deep breath to avoid any tears that wanted to come out. She needed to know where the death eater was before she could actually breathe with peace. "Where is he?!"
She then turned to look at Cedric and Harry. They were just as shaken and tired as she was, but Harry had dread written all over his face.
"Professor Moody was part of the staff guarding the maze," Ludo Bagman's voice was almost mocking. He did not know why the girl was looking for the man in desperation. "He should be around somewhere."
"VOLDEMORT! VOLDEMORT'S BACK!" the fourth year yelled with hysteria at the adults. "He was there! At the graveyard!"
"Voldemort?" Dumbledore questioned, trying to make sense of what Harry was saying to them. "What graveyard, Harry? Is that where you three come from?"
Voldemort was there. Was he the man with snake-like features?
The Dark Mark. Have they been preparing for this moment?
Helena was getting a migraine at this point. She needed to rest so she could get her thoughts in order. But first, she needed to find the twins and know what happened to fake Moody.
"Yes! And he was there!" Harry replied nervously. "I saw my parents!"
Dumbledore escorted Harry inside the castle, alongside Ron and Hermione for support. Every attendee was still cheering but they were also confused as to why they were taking Harry when he was unharmed to them.
"Come with me, dear," Professor McGonagall greeted Helena with a stern expression for she was also trying to understand what had happened to their students while in the raze for the Triwizard Cup. More importantly, where had the girl been all this time? "Let's take you to the infirmary. I'll notify your father that you're here."
With a flick of her wand, a letter appeared out of thin air to then disappear, leaving a trail of sparkles behind when it did.
Helena felt a knot in her throat at the mention of his father. She wanted to see him so badly but wanted to take one step at a time.
"Professor, I'm fine!" Helena pleaded, taking a step back to avoid going any further. "Please, listen... a death eater has been passing as Professor Moody all this time! We need to find him! He's the one that kidnapped me! And what Harry was saying must be true, You-Know-Who is back if we were just there surrounded by death eaters!"
"Miss... Miss Rosemund, I hope you know the seriousness of what you are saying," the Transfiguration teacher said. "Can you to someone else prove this accusation? Between what you are saying and Potter, I honestly do not know how we will approach this."
"Professor, I swear..." the girl started, "a death eater has been inside Hogwarts for almost a year!"
And as if she had called for backup, the twins came running towards her with grim expressions on their faces.
"Fred, George..."
"Hell, death eater Moody is gone," Fred informed, panting as he ran a hand through his hair with disappointment. "He was there!"
"Although he wasn't Moody anymore," George added. "He had changed back-"
"To his real form-"
"Turned to smoke and flew off!"
"The real Moody is in the Defense classroom, Professor," Fred told the teacher. "He can tell you more!"
McGonagall proceeded with questions for the twins while Helena stood there, wandering inside her mind.
It doesn't matter if fake Moody is gone now.
Helena tried to push away any negative thoughts circling that statement. Her main goal had been accomplished: Cedric was alive.
Maybe she had lost it, but she felt a certain peace now that the Hufflepuff was far from any danger and that they had made it back to Hogwarts. The man who had tricked everyone, including Dumbledore, had escaped from being captured, the same man who kidnapped her for the wrong reasons.
Helena would never forgive that man, she promised herself, for she never forgets the people that hurt her or her friends.
She smiled to herself while the people around her talked. Her time to speak would soon come.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
At the start of the school year, everyone was talking about the Quidditch World Cup and the Dark Mark that had made its appearance, leaving the subject behind when an important event was to take place in Hogwarts. The event would involve another two wizarding schools where each school would provide a student to compete for the grand prize: the Triwizard Cup, a thousand galleons, and eternal glory.
Many participated in the draft, but only three were chosen with the surprise of a fourth contestant. In the following months after that, a series of tasks were performed by the Triwizard Champions, where they proved to themselves and others how capable they were in the magical world in order to advance to the next challenge.
Matters of friendship and love were involved during that time in the life of several students, one of them had acquired the ability to see the future.
The future she had seen was one that she wanted to change, for which she had done everything she could to avoid that future from happening. A life was spared and with the help of her friends, she managed to do so, but now, sitting during the end-of-school-year feast, an intrusive thought distracted her from enjoying the moment, and could not help but wonder...
What if she had created a more chaotic and painful future?
End of Goblet of Fire.
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Huh?? Huhhhh? What did you think?? Ahhhh it's a very long chapter but I think it turned out better than I had planned at first.... Maybe I'll tweak it later, idk haha :) if the chapter is crappy please tell meeeeeee
Let me know what you think!
Starting on Order of the Phoenix :)