Cedric looked in fear as he felt his body twist, and the pull of the portkey taking him away from the horrible scene.
He wanted to close his eyes. He didn’t want to see what was about to happen, but he felt Harry deserved more than that.
That decision was taken from him when he was transported away before the curse could touch Harry.
He knew he landed. He felt the pain of his knees cracking. He heard the crowd as if at a distance. Someone was closer. Trying to talk to him.
Cedric wanted to tell them. About the portkey, about the cemetery, about…
No, he couldn’t, he couldn’t even think about it. He tried to concentrate, tried closing his eyes to push everything else away, but only the image of Harry came, the image of Harry and those words.
“Kill the spare”
He should be dead. By all accounts, he should be dead. The curse was cast fast. The glowing green light coming at him. His thoughts blank. His body locked. He could do nothing, and he knew it.
He could do nothing, yet he was still alive. Alive, and back at Hogwarts.
Did he imagine it all? The poison from the Acromentula, did it give him hallucinations? Maybe, it was before that. When Krum cast the torture curse on him? Everyone knew what happened to Longbottom’s parents. Maybe he was lying in a bed next to them. Maybe, he never went further into the maze.
Someone was pushing, probing him. He turned his head when he felt someone hugging him. His mother.
Harry didn’t have a mother to worry about him. To try and make him talk.
Maybe his mother was right. He should talk. Someone should go to the cemetery. Harry shouldn’t be left there.
He was climbing stairs now. His mother was still holding tight on him. She seemed to want to drag him to a different place.
He lost himself to the cemetery again. He wasn’t there long, but he would never forget what he saw.
The curse.
Harry deserved better.
Yet, as he stepped in front of Cedric, he didn’t look scared. He didn’t look in pain. He didn’t look like anything really. He was just there. If anything, he looked relieved.
What has Harry been through? He wasn’t even 15 years old yet. What 14 years old could welcome death in such a way?
Harry’s last words weren’t for Weasley, for Granger, not even for Dumbledore. No, Harry Potter's last word was a simple charm. One he used to start the tournament, one he said again at its end.
Accio.
The portkey flew toward Harry, but Harry deliberately put himself between Cedric and the Avada Kadavra coming at him. The portkey came full force on his back, and whisked him away before the curse could finally claim the only one who ever survived it.