Fic: Part Nine (Of The Living and The Dead)
Title: Of The Living and The Dead
Rating: PG
Pairings: Harry/Cedric
Warnings: AU from GoF onward; OFCs and OMCs; bit of violence
Summary: The Unspeakables defend the Department of Mysteries from a Death Eater invasion
Author notes: Thanks to rotaryphones, my beta.
Links to previous parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight
Unspeakable Diggory was an unbelievable sight to behold.
Victoria Bloom watched in awe as he slipped through the rows and rows of glass star models, the dark folds of his cloak barely whispering in the shadows. Even though field agents all wore the same glamour on the battlefield, Victoria knew which one Diggory was - after all, the agents kept their voices. Victoria had heard just enough from Fox's whispered conversation with Diggory before entering the room that she could tell his voice from hers, and possibly Ezekiel's as well.
Missions in the Department of Mysteries itself were few and far between, and they mostly involved protecting vital research and artifacts from destruction and thievery. The pretty blonde girl who hovered beside the protected target - a platinum model of Ganymede - was completely oblivious to the Death Eater who loomed behind her, wand poised to cast.
And then the Death Eater dropped silently, like a sack of potatoes. A flash of white hands and Diggory caught the body before it hit the floor. All the little blonde girl heard was the whispering of robes as Diggory dragged the body back into the shadows.
Victoria fired off a binding curse, and the Death Eater who was tussling with another field agent toppled over. There was an explosion of glass as he hit the shelf. Stars shattered. The other two students - a redheaded boy and girl, possibly brother and sister - began firing off a rapid succession of hexes and jinxes in the direction of the noise. They caught another Death Eater who had been attempting to rescue the comrade Victoria had felled, but the hex only grazed him and he recovered quickly, slashing his wand wordlessly through the air. The redheaded girl cried out and reeled back. Victoria heard the snap of bone and saw the girl's ankle bend in an unnatural angle. The redheaded boy caught her with one hand and fired a hex with another, but he was too late. Diggory was already there, throwing the man to the ground and stomping on his wand hand, effectively breaking it. Diggory followed up with a wordless silencing charm and a binding charm, and then he dragged the Death Eater down another row of stars.
Two Death Eaters in five minutes. Victoria hadn't really believed that Diggory had won his first duel with Ezekiel, but he was proving fearless.
Fox - Victoria knew it was her by the captain's badge on her cloak - popped up beside the model of Ganymede the Unspeakables had been assigned to protect. She cast a disillusionment charm on herself before the blonde girl noticed her, and Victoria shifted her attention to the shadows once more, seeking out Death Eaters - or Diggory.
She eyed the ruined row of glass stars. Their squadron would get it from Control for letting those get damaged, but Ganymede was unharmed, and that's what mattered most.
The redheaded boy helped his sister toward the door that led to the Chamber of Doors. He caught the blonde girl by the arm as he marched past and dragged her toward the door as well. Fox had ordered her squadron not to follow. Other Unspeakables had the other rooms under control.
Movement from the shadows caught Victoria's attention from the corner of her eye, but the blonde girl was faster. She whipped out her wand and said, voice clear and eerily calm, "Reducto."
There was a cry and a thump of a body, and the blonde girl turned around.
"Come on," she said to the other two. "We have to help Harry, don't we?" She pulled open the door and vanished through it, and the other two followed her.
Just as the door began to slip closed, a figure dashed from the shadows - an Unspeakable. Victoria frowned, confused, and readied her wand.
Fox beat her to it with a swift, "Colloportus!"
The Unspeakable beat his fist on the locked door, one hand wrenching at the knob. "I have to get through - he's on the other side - with Death Eaters --"
"Stand down, Diggory." Fox slid out of the shadows, tall and imposing. Victoria was glad for the battle-standard glamour, because seeing Fox's face always sent chills down her spine, just a bit.
Diggory had his wand out and was fumbling for a countercharm. Fox caught his wrist, leaned in and hissed something that caused Diggory to slump against the door.
It took Victoria a moment to realize he was unconscious. She stepped up and reached out to help support Diggory's weight. A moment later another bland-faced young man moved to help, Ezekiel beneath the glamour according to his badge.
He called over his shoulder. "The rest of you dispose of the Death Eaters for the Aurors' convenience, catalogue the damage, and then clean up the mess."
"We're taking you back to the Catacombs," Fox said to Diggory's unconscious form.
The battle glamours dissolved as soon as all four of them crossed the Catacomb wards. Ezekiel carried Diggory to a holding cell and dumped him, unceremoniously, on a cot.
The two captains stood over Diggory's inert form in silence.
Ezekiel broke it first. "Is he bloody insane?"
Had Victoria been of equal rank, she might have had the courage to say the same thing, because Diggory had been a madman back there, attempting to show his face to someone living - someone who would know him.
"It's been suggested," Fox said. "Diggory does have a - condition. From his previous life."
"He's lucky you stopped him," Ezekiel said. "He knows what the punishment is, doesn't he?"
"I told him about the Veil." Fox's tone was grim. "Perhaps a practical demonstration might serve as a stronger warning."
"Control's not going to like this." Ezekiel shook his head and turned away. He noticed Victoria and paused. He glanced back at Fox, but she was still standing over her lieutenant and wearing a horrifyingly blank expression.
"You have to tell them," Fox said.
Ezekiel nodded and turned to Victoria. "Watch him." His words were clearly an order.
Victoria stepped out of the cell and assumed guard duty. Behind her, she could hear Fox reviving Diggory.
"What the bloody hell were you thinking, Cedric?" Harsh words uttered with exasperation. She sounded tired but understanding.
"Vadette, let me go! I have to go to him, to protect him, to --" Diggory was desperate.
"Aurors are handling it."
"No - I have to -- "
"You broke rank today. Control will crack down on you, restrict your field action for a long time."
"I don't care. I couldn't just leave him." Diggory's voice was choked, as if he were forcing back great emotion. Victoria wished she could disillusion herself to give them a semblance of privacy.
"You're dead, Cedric," Fox said softly. "You couldn't go to him. You have a duty now, a duty to the Unspeakables, and he's not part of that."
Victoria heard a deep, shuddering breath, and then Diggory's voice, unsteady but not wavering. "And I won't see him after that duty is done, will I?"
"Our duty doesn't end. You know that," Fox said.
"I love him. Did you really expect me to leave him to the Death Eaters?"
Victoria's breath caught in her chest.
I love him.
Cedric was in love with someone, with one of the students who had been at the Ministry battle. The pain and frustration in his voice was almost palpable.
Then Victoria heard the words in her mind again.
I love him.
Bloody hell. Diggory was bent? It defied reason. Victoria had been a proud member of Hufflepuff house and hoped that her children would follow her there once they got their letters. She had kept an eye on her former house after she graduated, and she had been fiercely glad when Diggory - one of her very own Badgers - was made Champion for the Triwizard Tournament. She'd been gutted when Harry Potter was also made Champion, but all her attention was on Diggory. He was beautiful, talented, intelligent, and purportedly nice.
And straight.
Wasn't he? His treasure during the Second Task had been a girl - a Ravenclaw, a fellow seeker. Victoria remembered the picture from the paper - a pretty girl, no less. She'd been Diggory's date to the Yule Ball. Victoria had stared at the picture from the Ball - furtively torn from the Prophet while Fox and Hamish squabbled over the mint jelly at supper - for days on end after it was printed, admiring what a lovely couple Diggory and the girl made.
But she'd heard what she'd heard, and Diggory was in love with someone from his past life, a boy, one who had been in the Department of Mysteries fighting off Death Eaters.
How could that be?
Victoria puzzled it over in her mind. It made some sense - Diggory had been a student when he'd died, so it was entirely reasonable that the one he loved was still a student. Was it the redheaded boy? No - Diggory would have done something stupid earlier. It must have been one of the other boys fighting in another of the rooms. Victoria wondered who he was, that Diggory had risked Execution. If Victoria wasn’t on guard, she could be in the mess hall gossiping with the other field agents. They probably knew who else had been fighting, students and Death Eaters alike.
Whoever the boy was, Diggory loved him fiercely - more than life itself, more than the second chance at life he had been given.
"He had friends with him, skilled friends. You saw them fight," Fox said.
Cedric choked out a laugh that might have been a sob, a sharp contrast to Fox's gentle, soothing voice.
"Yes, I saw them. I didn't know Luna had it in her. But if something happened to him, I'd --" Diggory sucked in another sharp, pained breath. Had he been wounded as well? Victoria resisted the urge to turn around and look. As long as she had a prisoner behind the bars at her back, she was on guard until Control sent along its verdict.
"You're already dead, Cedric," Fox said.
Victoria hated that line. Unspeakables bandied it about freely, usually as a joke, but Victoria could never forget how true it was.
"I wouldn't kill myself." Diggory's voice was strong and sharp. "Bloody hell, Vadette, I'm in love, not pathetically obsessed."
"Well, you're acting like your pathetically obsessed," Fox said tartly. "The Diggory I know is levelheaded and intelligent, cunning as a Slytherin, brilliant as a Ravenclaw, courageous as a Gryffindor, and loyal as a Hufflepuff. What I saw out there today was plain stupidity, house prejudices aside."
"I love him, Vadette."
"And you're being bloody stupid about it. If you love him, help him live. Work hard, get out there and risk your neck so that when this war is over - and make no mistake, this is war - he'll have a world to live in, a future ahead of him. Even if you can't be part of his future, you'll know he has a chance at a happy one."
Diggory's voice was muffled, as if he'd buried his face in his hands. "What the hell have I done?"
"You acted like a boy, Diggory, because you still are a boy. You had your mistake - now learn from it, and when this war is over, emerge a man." Fox's voice was inexplicably fond.
Diggory gave a startled, half-choked laugh. "You make me sound like a butterfly, not a wizard."
Fox's tone turned light and teasing. "Well, you are very pretty."
"Funny, Vadette. Very funny." Diggory sighed.
Victoria darted a glance over her shoulder and caught sight of something previously unthinkable: Fox was giving Diggory a hug. Fox was one of the most dangerous Unspeakables of all time - everyone knew she was cold and ruthless, an Unspeakable raised from childhood after the Dark Lord had sewn and cursed her eyes shut, dooming her to eternal darkness. As far as any of the other agents could tell, Fox didn't even know what a hug was.
But she had an arm around Diggory's shoulders and was stroking his hair gently while he rested his head against hers.
"I'm in deep trouble, aren't I?" Diggory asked.
Fox nodded. "Yes. Yes, you are."
Ezekiel reappeared, looking grim. He nodded at Victoria, and she saluted before stepping away from the bars. Ezekiel unlocked the gate and stepped into the cell. Victoria turned to watch. Ezekiel cast a muffling charm, then delivered the verdict to Cedric. Fox's mouth was pressed into a thin line. For her to look grim, the answer from Control must have been something awful.
But Diggory kept his chin up, and he nodded solemnly. Victoria marveled at the determination in his gaze, and she knew that he would be the noble Hufflepuff she'd always suspected he was. He would take his punishment without complaint and carry on, because Fox was right - if he loved his mystery boy so much, he would keep on fighting.
Victoria turned away then, because it hurt to see him so in love. She had been in love once herself, but no more, because the dead could not love. Now she could only watch Diggory and dream.
Ten
Rating: PG
Pairings: Harry/Cedric
Warnings: AU from GoF onward; OFCs and OMCs; bit of violence
Summary: The Unspeakables defend the Department of Mysteries from a Death Eater invasion
Author notes: Thanks to rotaryphones, my beta.
Links to previous parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight
Unspeakable Diggory was an unbelievable sight to behold.
Victoria Bloom watched in awe as he slipped through the rows and rows of glass star models, the dark folds of his cloak barely whispering in the shadows. Even though field agents all wore the same glamour on the battlefield, Victoria knew which one Diggory was - after all, the agents kept their voices. Victoria had heard just enough from Fox's whispered conversation with Diggory before entering the room that she could tell his voice from hers, and possibly Ezekiel's as well.
Missions in the Department of Mysteries itself were few and far between, and they mostly involved protecting vital research and artifacts from destruction and thievery. The pretty blonde girl who hovered beside the protected target - a platinum model of Ganymede - was completely oblivious to the Death Eater who loomed behind her, wand poised to cast.
And then the Death Eater dropped silently, like a sack of potatoes. A flash of white hands and Diggory caught the body before it hit the floor. All the little blonde girl heard was the whispering of robes as Diggory dragged the body back into the shadows.
Victoria fired off a binding curse, and the Death Eater who was tussling with another field agent toppled over. There was an explosion of glass as he hit the shelf. Stars shattered. The other two students - a redheaded boy and girl, possibly brother and sister - began firing off a rapid succession of hexes and jinxes in the direction of the noise. They caught another Death Eater who had been attempting to rescue the comrade Victoria had felled, but the hex only grazed him and he recovered quickly, slashing his wand wordlessly through the air. The redheaded girl cried out and reeled back. Victoria heard the snap of bone and saw the girl's ankle bend in an unnatural angle. The redheaded boy caught her with one hand and fired a hex with another, but he was too late. Diggory was already there, throwing the man to the ground and stomping on his wand hand, effectively breaking it. Diggory followed up with a wordless silencing charm and a binding charm, and then he dragged the Death Eater down another row of stars.
Two Death Eaters in five minutes. Victoria hadn't really believed that Diggory had won his first duel with Ezekiel, but he was proving fearless.
Fox - Victoria knew it was her by the captain's badge on her cloak - popped up beside the model of Ganymede the Unspeakables had been assigned to protect. She cast a disillusionment charm on herself before the blonde girl noticed her, and Victoria shifted her attention to the shadows once more, seeking out Death Eaters - or Diggory.
She eyed the ruined row of glass stars. Their squadron would get it from Control for letting those get damaged, but Ganymede was unharmed, and that's what mattered most.
The redheaded boy helped his sister toward the door that led to the Chamber of Doors. He caught the blonde girl by the arm as he marched past and dragged her toward the door as well. Fox had ordered her squadron not to follow. Other Unspeakables had the other rooms under control.
Movement from the shadows caught Victoria's attention from the corner of her eye, but the blonde girl was faster. She whipped out her wand and said, voice clear and eerily calm, "Reducto."
There was a cry and a thump of a body, and the blonde girl turned around.
"Come on," she said to the other two. "We have to help Harry, don't we?" She pulled open the door and vanished through it, and the other two followed her.
Just as the door began to slip closed, a figure dashed from the shadows - an Unspeakable. Victoria frowned, confused, and readied her wand.
Fox beat her to it with a swift, "Colloportus!"
The Unspeakable beat his fist on the locked door, one hand wrenching at the knob. "I have to get through - he's on the other side - with Death Eaters --"
"Stand down, Diggory." Fox slid out of the shadows, tall and imposing. Victoria was glad for the battle-standard glamour, because seeing Fox's face always sent chills down her spine, just a bit.
Diggory had his wand out and was fumbling for a countercharm. Fox caught his wrist, leaned in and hissed something that caused Diggory to slump against the door.
It took Victoria a moment to realize he was unconscious. She stepped up and reached out to help support Diggory's weight. A moment later another bland-faced young man moved to help, Ezekiel beneath the glamour according to his badge.
He called over his shoulder. "The rest of you dispose of the Death Eaters for the Aurors' convenience, catalogue the damage, and then clean up the mess."
"We're taking you back to the Catacombs," Fox said to Diggory's unconscious form.
The battle glamours dissolved as soon as all four of them crossed the Catacomb wards. Ezekiel carried Diggory to a holding cell and dumped him, unceremoniously, on a cot.
The two captains stood over Diggory's inert form in silence.
Ezekiel broke it first. "Is he bloody insane?"
Had Victoria been of equal rank, she might have had the courage to say the same thing, because Diggory had been a madman back there, attempting to show his face to someone living - someone who would know him.
"It's been suggested," Fox said. "Diggory does have a - condition. From his previous life."
"He's lucky you stopped him," Ezekiel said. "He knows what the punishment is, doesn't he?"
"I told him about the Veil." Fox's tone was grim. "Perhaps a practical demonstration might serve as a stronger warning."
"Control's not going to like this." Ezekiel shook his head and turned away. He noticed Victoria and paused. He glanced back at Fox, but she was still standing over her lieutenant and wearing a horrifyingly blank expression.
"You have to tell them," Fox said.
Ezekiel nodded and turned to Victoria. "Watch him." His words were clearly an order.
Victoria stepped out of the cell and assumed guard duty. Behind her, she could hear Fox reviving Diggory.
"What the bloody hell were you thinking, Cedric?" Harsh words uttered with exasperation. She sounded tired but understanding.
"Vadette, let me go! I have to go to him, to protect him, to --" Diggory was desperate.
"Aurors are handling it."
"No - I have to -- "
"You broke rank today. Control will crack down on you, restrict your field action for a long time."
"I don't care. I couldn't just leave him." Diggory's voice was choked, as if he were forcing back great emotion. Victoria wished she could disillusion herself to give them a semblance of privacy.
"You're dead, Cedric," Fox said softly. "You couldn't go to him. You have a duty now, a duty to the Unspeakables, and he's not part of that."
Victoria heard a deep, shuddering breath, and then Diggory's voice, unsteady but not wavering. "And I won't see him after that duty is done, will I?"
"Our duty doesn't end. You know that," Fox said.
"I love him. Did you really expect me to leave him to the Death Eaters?"
Victoria's breath caught in her chest.
I love him.
Cedric was in love with someone, with one of the students who had been at the Ministry battle. The pain and frustration in his voice was almost palpable.
Then Victoria heard the words in her mind again.
I love him.
Bloody hell. Diggory was bent? It defied reason. Victoria had been a proud member of Hufflepuff house and hoped that her children would follow her there once they got their letters. She had kept an eye on her former house after she graduated, and she had been fiercely glad when Diggory - one of her very own Badgers - was made Champion for the Triwizard Tournament. She'd been gutted when Harry Potter was also made Champion, but all her attention was on Diggory. He was beautiful, talented, intelligent, and purportedly nice.
And straight.
Wasn't he? His treasure during the Second Task had been a girl - a Ravenclaw, a fellow seeker. Victoria remembered the picture from the paper - a pretty girl, no less. She'd been Diggory's date to the Yule Ball. Victoria had stared at the picture from the Ball - furtively torn from the Prophet while Fox and Hamish squabbled over the mint jelly at supper - for days on end after it was printed, admiring what a lovely couple Diggory and the girl made.
But she'd heard what she'd heard, and Diggory was in love with someone from his past life, a boy, one who had been in the Department of Mysteries fighting off Death Eaters.
How could that be?
Victoria puzzled it over in her mind. It made some sense - Diggory had been a student when he'd died, so it was entirely reasonable that the one he loved was still a student. Was it the redheaded boy? No - Diggory would have done something stupid earlier. It must have been one of the other boys fighting in another of the rooms. Victoria wondered who he was, that Diggory had risked Execution. If Victoria wasn’t on guard, she could be in the mess hall gossiping with the other field agents. They probably knew who else had been fighting, students and Death Eaters alike.
Whoever the boy was, Diggory loved him fiercely - more than life itself, more than the second chance at life he had been given.
"He had friends with him, skilled friends. You saw them fight," Fox said.
Cedric choked out a laugh that might have been a sob, a sharp contrast to Fox's gentle, soothing voice.
"Yes, I saw them. I didn't know Luna had it in her. But if something happened to him, I'd --" Diggory sucked in another sharp, pained breath. Had he been wounded as well? Victoria resisted the urge to turn around and look. As long as she had a prisoner behind the bars at her back, she was on guard until Control sent along its verdict.
"You're already dead, Cedric," Fox said.
Victoria hated that line. Unspeakables bandied it about freely, usually as a joke, but Victoria could never forget how true it was.
"I wouldn't kill myself." Diggory's voice was strong and sharp. "Bloody hell, Vadette, I'm in love, not pathetically obsessed."
"Well, you're acting like your pathetically obsessed," Fox said tartly. "The Diggory I know is levelheaded and intelligent, cunning as a Slytherin, brilliant as a Ravenclaw, courageous as a Gryffindor, and loyal as a Hufflepuff. What I saw out there today was plain stupidity, house prejudices aside."
"I love him, Vadette."
"And you're being bloody stupid about it. If you love him, help him live. Work hard, get out there and risk your neck so that when this war is over - and make no mistake, this is war - he'll have a world to live in, a future ahead of him. Even if you can't be part of his future, you'll know he has a chance at a happy one."
Diggory's voice was muffled, as if he'd buried his face in his hands. "What the hell have I done?"
"You acted like a boy, Diggory, because you still are a boy. You had your mistake - now learn from it, and when this war is over, emerge a man." Fox's voice was inexplicably fond.
Diggory gave a startled, half-choked laugh. "You make me sound like a butterfly, not a wizard."
Fox's tone turned light and teasing. "Well, you are very pretty."
"Funny, Vadette. Very funny." Diggory sighed.
Victoria darted a glance over her shoulder and caught sight of something previously unthinkable: Fox was giving Diggory a hug. Fox was one of the most dangerous Unspeakables of all time - everyone knew she was cold and ruthless, an Unspeakable raised from childhood after the Dark Lord had sewn and cursed her eyes shut, dooming her to eternal darkness. As far as any of the other agents could tell, Fox didn't even know what a hug was.
But she had an arm around Diggory's shoulders and was stroking his hair gently while he rested his head against hers.
"I'm in deep trouble, aren't I?" Diggory asked.
Fox nodded. "Yes. Yes, you are."
Ezekiel reappeared, looking grim. He nodded at Victoria, and she saluted before stepping away from the bars. Ezekiel unlocked the gate and stepped into the cell. Victoria turned to watch. Ezekiel cast a muffling charm, then delivered the verdict to Cedric. Fox's mouth was pressed into a thin line. For her to look grim, the answer from Control must have been something awful.
But Diggory kept his chin up, and he nodded solemnly. Victoria marveled at the determination in his gaze, and she knew that he would be the noble Hufflepuff she'd always suspected he was. He would take his punishment without complaint and carry on, because Fox was right - if he loved his mystery boy so much, he would keep on fighting.
Victoria turned away then, because it hurt to see him so in love. She had been in love once herself, but no more, because the dead could not love. Now she could only watch Diggory and dream.
Ten