Play Crack the Sky

Ashby
_____

"I'd like to turn the clock back to how we were before…"

I was fidgeting in my seat in the wooden stands, peering around the heads of the people in front of me, though it was of no use. The third task of the Triwizard Tournament had sent the Champions into a hedge-like maze and the walls were so high that there was absolutely no hint of what was going on inside, though we had just found out Fleur Delacour had been eliminated. This disappointed me - though I was a Ravenclaw at Hogwarts and she attended Beauxbatons Academy, I had found myself throughout the year pulling for Fleur to win the Tournament for more reasons than one; not only was she the only girl to have made it into the competition, but she was my cousin. Well, kind of. Technically she was my mother's first cousin, but since she and I were around the same age I had always had a close bond with her and had enjoyed spending time with her during the school year.

"Ashby, are you listening to me?"

I sighed and turned to my right. My ex-boyfriend was staring intently at me, his nose almost touching my cheek.

"I'm sorry, Cormac, I just… don't feel like talking about the status of our relationship right now," I half-laughed. I always managed to laugh when I felt like I was in an awkward spot, and Cormac had somehow always managed to be the definition of awkward.

"Come on babe," he cooed, and I felt myself smiling, though I didn't really want to be. He grabbed my right hand and held it to his freshly-shaven face. I could tell he'd just shaved because he smelled entirely too much like pine needles and soap. "Let's ditch this nonsense tournament and go drink my father's bottle of scotch behind the greenhouses."

I grinned again. "You didn't think this tournament was such nonsense when you asked me to find a way to put your name into the Goblet of Fire at the beginning, did you?"

"Please," he scoffed, rolling his eyes.

I slid my hand away from his, but he caught it again and began to tug me to the side as if to leave the stands, completely ignoring the young Ravenclaw girl next to him as he began bumping into her.

"Why are you even over here?" she quipped when he elbowed her in the shoulder for a third time, a hurt look on her rosy face. "The Gryffindors are sitting on the other side."

Cormac gave her a stupidly empty stare, and I pushed myself around him so she wouldn't have to stand next to him.

"He's very sorry, he's just obsessed with me and can't stay away."

"I am not!" he barked, but I pushed his face back as he tried leaning over me.

"Just stay there and stand still," I sighed, sounding more like a mother with her child than anything else. The rosy-cheeked girl was giggling at Cormac and I, and I gave her a warm smile.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Keaton Coleman," she said shyly, tucking a golden piece of hair behind her ear. "I'm a first year."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Keaton, and I'm really sorry about Cormac here. My name is -"

"Ashby Vincent - I know who you are. You're a prefect and one of the smartest girls in our House. And definitely the prettiest." She smiled again, but widened her eyes and looked down instantly like she were embarrassed to have known who I was.

"Well that's very nice of you to say, Keaton, but I'd hardly say I'm the prettiest girl in our House -"

"Because she's the prettiest in the whole school!"

"Cormac!" I growled.

He was leaning over me again, practically yelling in Keaton's ear. She drew back as if she'd been petrified, and I punched him in the arm, forcing him back into his space once again.

"Damn, you have a mean punch, woman!" he jeered, rubbing his bicep.

"It's true, though," Keaton spoke up again, and I raised my eyebrows.

"Um, I just don't think Cormac can take a hit -"

She cut me off again. "No, no. I meant that you are; the prettiest girl in the school." She smiled, and her sweet face warmed my heart. I just wanted to squeeze her. "Every boy in my year thinks they're going to marry you one day. It's rather sad, really," she giggled.

"Well, let your little friends know Miss Vincent is spoken for." Cormac snaked his arm around my waist, and I finally just let him get cozy. We were broken up, but I DID have some wonderfully stable times with him over the past two years. It wasn't until several weeks ago had he begun getting on my nerves, and I broke things off with him mostly for the fact that I couldn't go a day without him yelling outside of the Ravenclaw common room just to get me to come out and snog him in the Prefects' bathroom.

Despite having Cormac hanging onto me I tried to get back into the mood of tournament with the rest of the crowd, scanning my eyes over to the Champions' tent ever so often to see if I could spot Fleur, but I never did. Poor girl was probably embarrassed she'd been the first to be eliminated, but I was proud of her just the same. It suddenly occurred to me that I was probably allowed down there to see her since I was family, and without a word to Cormac I slid from his grasp.

"Excuse me," I murmured to Keaton as I stepped around her and her friends, trying to meander to the end of the row.

"Where are you going?" Cormac called after me, though he was obviously going to follow me anyway. I could practically hear little Keaton's sigh of relief.

"Going to find Fleur and Aya," I said. Aya was my older sister and the Transfiguration professor at Beauxbatons (and the youngest they'd ever had, she so often let me know).

I was at the end of the row now, bounding down the wooden steps with Cormac at my heels. He stood out like a sore thumb as he flew down the steps wearing his red sweater and gold scarf, though all the Ravenclaws were far too used to him following me around that they hardly paid him any attention anymore. As a joke last Christmas, Cho Chang gave him a powder blue, red and gold knitted scarf so that he could "share his allegiance" with both houses. Cho was a pretty good friend of mine, though she was rather shy and kind of hard to get to know when we were younger. Clearly, she had a sense of humor by giving Cormac the scarf, though I wondered after that if her boyfriend Cedric Diggory owned any silly Ravenclaw-esque paraphernalia. He was an "eagle groupie" just as much as Cormac was.

We reached the covered turret containing the stairs that led to the ground, and almost instantly the assembly roared - someone had won!

"Hurry, hurry! Bloody hell, I hope it's Diggory!" Cormac was screaming. We reached the ground and bounded for the entrance of the field containing the maze.

"Agh!" Cormac stumbled behind me, grabbing my sweater and falling nearly face-first to the ground, pulling me down with him.

"What the -" I began yelling, but I quickly realized Cormac hadn't tripped - he'd been pushed.

Professor Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, and several other grown men were sweeping past us in a frenzy, completely ignoring our presence as if we hadn't almost just lost our faces in the mud. I stood up and stumbled backward into Cormac, feeling immediately like something wasn't right. I grabbed his wrist before completely sliding my hand into his.

"Bloody gits could've taken me out!" Cormac shouted, though the chaotic roars of the crowd nearly silenced him.

We stood by the bottom of the stands. The first thing to be seen once we were in view of the entrance of the maze was Dumbledore bending down and shaking who I saw to be Harry Potter, the gleaming blue championship cup gripped firmly in his hand.

But what I saw next made my heart stop.

Fudge was also crouching over Harry and who I quickly realized was Cedric Diggory by the yellow of his shirt. Harry was saying something and the men were talking over him, frenzied, and Dumbledore lifted him from the ground. I kept my eyes on Cedric, waiting on him to get up, gripping Cormac's hand at tightly as I could.

"I can't tell what's going on," he said, and my breathing grew heavy. I could hear girls crying now.

Then, Amos Diggory bound past us like a streak of lightning.

No… this couldn't be happening.

Professor Moody had hobbled to the scene and grabbed Harry, pulling him in our direction.

"Dumbledore said stay," I heard Harry gasp, but Moody didn't let him go, and the two of them limped towards us. Cormac's eyes were wide.

"Potter?" he croaked, but it wasn't like they were paying the two of us any attention.

"MY SON!" Amos Diggory screamed, and I felt tears welling in my eyes. "MY SON IS DEAD! MY SON!"

I looked at Cormac, and for the first time all evening he had nothing to say. The crowd was growing rampant. Students were springing past us. Then I choked, feeling hot tears running down my cheeks, and Cormac wrapped his arms around my shoulders. It felt like he was holding on to me for dear life.

How could Cedric Diggory be dead?

My mind flashed to Cho, and I began to sob harder into Cormac's sweater.

"ALL PREFECTS, COLLECT YOUR HOUSES!" I heard professors begin to yell in every direction, "PREFECTS, COLLECT YOUR HOUSES AND LEAD THEM BACK TO THE CASTLE AT ONCE!"

I wiped my eyes with the back of my sleeve, then motioned to the back of the stands where a swarm of maroon shirts were heading toward us. "Go with the Gryffindors -"

Before he could fully let me go, Cormac and I began to be carried by the crowd departing from the stands.

"I'm staying with you," he argued.

"Cormac, go," I urged, trying to walk ahead of him. "I have to help… and… Cho… I-I don't know where Cho is - "

He jerked me backward by my left arm, then swung me around so I were facing him again. He kissed me forcefully, grabbing me by the back of the head, and though I was submissive to his action (out of habit), our surroundings caught up with me again and I slunk out of his grasp.

"Go!" I insisted, then turned and ran ahead of him before I could wait for a response. I didn't care. All I could think about was Cedric being dead.

Cedric Diggory was dead.

I couldn't get away from it. As I found the other Ravenclaw prefects, all as shaken up as I was, the sound of Cedric's name was beginning to ring in my ears. The younger ones were asking me questions, begging me to tell them what was going on, but I said nothing. Whatever had happened inside that maze had killed Cedric, and I was merely a spectator like everyone else.

The castle felt dark and unwelcoming as I led a group of second-years through the back courtyard and into the doors leading to the main hallway. No candles were lit and no portraits greeted us with friendly hellos. It were as if the castle itself were in mourning.

"Are we going to be okay, Ashby?" I heard a boy behind me ask, panic in his voice. My stomach churned and I immediately felt a wave of nausea sweep through me.

For the first time, I felt exceptionally unsafe at Hogwarts.