(Song attached: Death of Cedric, track 19 of the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire score)
Everyone filled into the stands, the chatter was deafening as was the loud music being played, beyond the stands was the maze, a vast dark block of hedge with confusing passages carved into it, Celeste decided then and there that she would grab Harry and Cedric if she could, and just run them far away from the whole thing. As she found a seat near her friends she felt her anxiety grow, the maze looked more threatening than she had pictured it, with the music pulsing in her ears and the endless chatter of excited spectators, Celeste hardly heard when the Weasley twins approached her.
"George?" She asked looking at both twins who hadn't sat down yet.
" 'fraid not" Fred grinned as he switched with George so that he could sit with his girlfriend.
Celeste sighed as George gave her a quick peck on the cheek "I thought I was getting better at this" the twins laughed, then an older, plump looking woman with matching ginger hair to the twins, Ron and Ginny, approached them with a few other gingers shuffling behind.
"This is our mum, our brother Bill, and you know Ron and Hermione" Celeste suddenly went red at the word 'mum', she didn't know she'd be meeting her boyfriends parents, or one of them at least, the other was further down in the stands waiting for someone else.
Mrs Weasley beamed at the Hufflepuff in grey and extended her hand "hello dear, I'm Molly Weasley, you must be Celeste, George never stops talking about you in his letters-"
"Mother" George said as his face started to match Celeste's red colour.
Bill, his rather daring looking brother, squeezed past his mother and twin siblings, as he did he said "so this is Celeste" he stooped down to take Celeste's hand, kissed the back of it and bowed his head a little (which promptly made George go a little redder), as he looked back up he winked and said "enchanté"
"Hello..." Celeste croaked out, a little lost for words, she didn't know there was such a thing as a suave Weasley boy.
Bill shuffled back to his own seat and sat down, quite proud of the reaction he got out of George "don't mind him, he thinks he's gods gift to women"
Ron and Hermione sat down and gave Celeste a nervous wave, they must have been just as worried as she was. Just then the four champions were announced into the open area, each of them as nervous as the other. Cedric came out first, with- as Fred had informed her- his father, then came Fleur with Madame Maxime, then Viktor with Karkaroff, and finally Harry who was accompanied by Dumbledore, in fact, if it was possible, he looked more nervous than the rest.
Dumbledore stood at a podium and announced each of them, as their names came the appropriate supporters stood and cheered, Celeste did so for both Cedric and Harry, and Celeste noticed that with his cheers Harry's confidence grew a little higher. As Dumbledore explained the rules and gathered the champions for a silent talk, an unearthly fog started to roll out of the maze, and Celeste's heart sunk as Cedric and Harry took their places.
The canon sounded and the music started again, everyone was cheering, and as she looked around Celeste noticed Draco was cheering too, since he had made friends with a few of the Durmstrang students it made sense he was cheering for them. After a few moments the champions disappeared into the maze, and after a while the music died down.
As they waited the supporters in the stands chatted and speculated over who would win, Celeste looked at Fred and George, they were chatting eagerly with Bill across their mother, and Hermione was talking anxiously to Ron. Then she looked around at her few other friends who were doing much the same thing, and then finally her eyes found Draco again, who was already staring at her. They shared eye contact for a few moments, in which time Draco could see how worried she was, but then as one of his friends smacked his shoulder he quickly looked away as if he never saw her.
"Alright there, dear?" Celeste looked behind Fred and George's heads to see Mrs Weasley smiling comfortingly at her.
The Hufflepuff smiled but it didn't hide her true emotions "I'm fine, I'm just... I hope they'll be okay"
"Don't you worry, Harry Potter's not been in a spot of trouble yet that he couldn't get out of, I'm sure he'll be fine" but Celeste wasn't just worrying over Harry, she knew he would be okay somehow, but there was a pang in her head that kept telling her to run at Dumbledore and demand that he pull Cedric out.
Mrs Weasley turned her head back around to eavesdrop on what her boys were saying, meanwhile Celeste stared at Dumbledore, wondering if he had the same feeling in his gut. Not long after, red sparks soared into the air and Celeste almost felt herself go faint, but it was Fleur, not Cedric or Harry, so far they were still okay. But, Fleur looked utterly traumatised, she was shivering with wide eyes and a trembling bottom lip, soon gossip traveled up the stands until Celeste and the others heard it "apparently it was Krum! He's been trying to hex people left, right and centre! Fleur said that it was Harry who saved her, how awesome is that?! He's so going to win this, he just has to!" Called Collin Creevey excitedly up to the Weasley's, Hermione and Celeste.
"Why would Krum start hexing people?"
"Durmstrang play dirty, you should have seen them playing Quiddich, it was brutal" Fred said to her across George with twinkling eyes, apparently brutal Quiddich was exciting to him.
There was more waiting after that, the sky was getting darker and the mist had settled, the crowd was speaking in low chatters, waiting excitedly for a victor to emerge from the maze. Celeste was squeezing George's hand as noises were coming from the maze. Then they waited for a while longer after Viktor Krum showed his face, clearly recovering from something "any minute now I expect" she heard Seamus say from the seats in front of them.
Celeste's eyes had glued themselves to the entrance of the maze, and suddenly there was a deep amount of sadness that washed over her like a wave, something was wrong. They should have been back by now "something's wrong, George. Something's wrong I can feel it"
"I bet Diggory's just broken a leg or something, Harry's probably got that cup in his hand as we speak, he's probably coming back now" he sounded unconvinced by his words. Suddenly Celeste caught the eye of Dumbledore, he must have seen what she was feeling because he looked more worried than the rest of them.
"Get them out" she whispered, hoping that somehow he could have heard her.
Only moments passed before there was a dim flash of blue light, Harry was tossed onto the grass with Cedric under his arm lying flat on his back, the crowd roared with cheers and George grabbed Celeste's hand, they ran down into the crowd and pushed through to the very front, there was a shrill scream from Fleur and Celeste felt herself go blank. Cedric wasn't moving. His eyes were staring blankly off into the starry sky and Harry was clutching him while he cried.
Slowly the crowd stopped cheering as everyone realised one by one that this was nothing to be celebrated. Celeste grabbed George for support as her legs went weak, tears were flowing freely down her face and only the word 'Voldemort' pulled her out of her head "Cedric" Harry cried "he asked me to bring his body back, I couldn't leave him, not there"
"It's alright, Harry" Dumbledore implored as he grabbed Harry's face "it's alright. He's home. You both are" Celeste buried her head in George's chest for a moment, sobbing loudly as he wrapped his arms around her. She could hear gasps from the crowd, cries from Cho who was standing near Fred.
Then came the words "let me through" and Celeste looked up, it was Cedric's father "that's my son! That's my boy!" He cried as he pushed through the people "MY BOY" it was heartbreaking to watch him hover over his sons now lifeless body, the last look of bravery and terror etched onto his still face. The helpless cries of a devastated father filled the stands and Celeste felt herself go numb, Mad-eye grabbed Harry as he whimpered and started to drag him away from everyone, Fudge was running around like his career depended on none of this getting out to the public, but it was too late, everyone had seen it.
George wrapped his arms around Celeste and started to guide her away as she cried, he led her away from the stands and towards the castle, Draco tried pushing passed everyone to get to her, but there were too many people between him and her, he soon stopped when he caught a glimpse of her over the other heads, being held tightly by George, and as much as it pained him he decided she was well looked after, she didn't need him.