Summer and Hayden walked down to the grounds where the final task was to take place. Ever since the tournament had been announced, everyone had been waiting for this day, the day when the winner would be found. After the other tasks, Summer was becoming increasingly worried for the safety of everyone, mainly Fleur and Cedric though, and was shocked to see that the quidditch pitch had been turned into a giant maze.

"Wow," Hayden stopped walking, and they both tried to see over the furthest hedge, but it extended past their field of view.

"How the hell are they going to find their way to the middle of that?" Summer asked, and Hayden whistled out in astonishment and shook his head.

"No idea, we can ask Cedric when he wins," he winked and they started walking again.

"Don't you want Fleur to win?" Summer nudged her brother teasingly.

"Cedric's been my best friend since we were kids, that comes before Fleur," he said it as if it were the most blatantly obvious thing in the world, although it was true that Summer wasn't up to date on 'guy code'.

They took their seats in the stands, Summer reserving two seats for the twins with her hands.

"Wish I was going in, it looks pretty cool in there, I know I could take it on, too." Hayden was standing on his seat, peering over the top of the hedges, trying to catch a glimpse of what lurked within. "It's too dark," he groaned and sat back down, stretching his legs over the seats Summer was currently slumped over.

"Hey!" She shoved his legs off, only for him to put them back there.

"I can put my legs where I want, Sum," he rolled his eyes and leaned playfully back into her, almost crushing her side. Luckily for her, however, the twins finally arrived, carrying two small boxes labelled 'Bets', which they had been shaking around on their way down.

"Thanks for saving us seats Sum." They sat down, after Hayden had finally given in and moved his legs.

"You guys still taking bets?" he asked them, bringing out his money bag, which was substantially larger than most people's.

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Okay," he took a moment to think, before drawing out a handful of gold coins.

"I bet fifty galleons that Cedric is gonna win. But... That Potter kid is always finding ways of coming out on top, I'm sure he'll find a way to win too." The twins exchanged glances.

"No one's bet that yet, it's not exactly clear, mate."

"Yeah, you sure you don't want to just pick one winner?"

"Well... I don't like Krum, and I'm too closely linked to Cedric and Fleur to choose, so I'll go for Harry, but I hope I'm wrong," he chuckled, as the twins took his money into their boxes and wrote something down on a roll of parchment.

"Interesting," Summer took her money out too. "Well I'm betting thirty on Cedric, seeing as you have no faith in him," she shot a look at her brother and put her money in too.

"I do! Like I said, I hope I'm wrong. Now shush, it's about to start." They all eagerly turned their attention to the patch of green outside the entrance to the maze, and the champions that gathered there, some of their family standing around too, and most importantly, Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman.

After all introductions to the task had been made, and everyone had finished cheering, the champions now moved to stand in their positions. The foliage twisted and turned until a hole opened up, which expanded to a point where a person could fit through, and a clear path could be made out. Harry and Cedric, being the winners of the last challenge, were set to enter first, with Fleur and Viktor standing closely behind. The cannon went off, and within seconds, what had just been the entrance, was now sealed, with all four students inside.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." muttered Hayden, as they sat there, and waited. Some students were chattering amongst themselves, others seemed to be having similar thoughts to Hayden, and sat quietly, holding onto their friends for any sign of movement from within.

After what felt like a long while later, after Fleur and Krum had been saved from the maze, the hedges re-opened, and Harry came out, pulling Cedric with him.

"He won!" Hayden yelled in excitement and they all stood, cheering along with the rest of the crowd. The fanfare started up again, and people started to run out of their seats to congratulate Harry and Cedric. But something was wrong, Harry didn't look happy at all, his face was scrunched up into a grimace, and he was... crying. Cedric on the other hand, wasn't moving at all, and lay next to Harry, facing upwards.

"Is he knocked out?" Fred craned his neck to get a better look, but after Fleur's blood-curdling scream, they knew it was worse than that. All of the noise stopped, and the only sound that could be heard, was Harry's weeping, and the murmur of students wondering what was going on.

Hayden had first stood on his seat to see, then leapt from it, and pushed past them to get down to the pitch as quickly as possible.

"He's dead!" Summer faintly heard Harry cry out. It seemed Hayden had heard, however, as he raced faster to get to them, the other teachers had also now left their places too. When he reached Cedric's body, he almost collapsed onto the floor next to them, grabbing Cedric's shirt, shaking him, and staring into his unseeing eyes.

"No, no, no, no," he choked on his words as he spoke, "NO!" Releasing his shirt, he slumped his head onto his chest and began choking out strangled sobs. Dumbledore was trying to control all the gathering students and to let his father, Amos, through the crowd.

"My boy! That's my boy!" He elongated the last word into a wail, as he was being held up by two professors, who were attempting to take him from the scene. Throughout all of this, Summer was staring in horror, frozen in place, not even noticing that Fred was attempting to comfort her. Hayden's shouts finally got so loud that she was brought out of her state, and she ripped Fred's arm off her to run down to join him. She pushed through the other students, until she fell to her knees beside Cedric and her brother.

"Oh my god..." she became frozen in her stare again, it didn't feel real. It couldn't be. Hayden's face was scrunched up, and his tears had now made a wet patch on Cedric's shirt, Summer couldn't even bear to look at him, for fear it would break her to see him like that. This wasn't supposed to be happening. they were supposed to be healing. She wished in that moment more than ever, that he'd burst out laughing, tell them all it was some sort of joke, and he'd talk to them about all about the challenges the maze had held. They would celebrate later that evening, talk about the coming summer, anything other than the reality.

It had probably been a few minutes later, and the crowd was considerably smaller, consisting of only the older years and teachers now. Obviously, the younger students had been sent away, they shouldn't have to witness a dead body at such a young age. Summer was still on her knees, but as the feeling returned to her body, she realised that someone had their arms around her, holding her up from the ground. She turned and saw Fred worriedly watching over her, and stroking pieces of hair soothingly from her face.

"Fred..." But she couldn't think of anything to say, no string of words could possibly even begin to describe or convey how she was feeling then.

"I know." He held out his arms for her, and she leaned into them, pressing her head against his chest as he held the back of her head protectively.

"It wasn't me you idiot," she could hear voices pick up next to her.

"Who was it then? He didn't use 'Avada Kedavra' on himself did he?" Hayden.

"I told you, it was Voldemort!" Hayden laughed, but there wasn't a trace of humour in it, it was cold and low.

"You-Know-Who is gone! You of all people should know!"

"I saw him! I fought him!"

"Is that why my best friend is DEAD?"

Shocked silence filled the air. Summer looked up just in time to see her brother shove Harry to the floor, as he stood up. He gave him a hard kick in the side, to the dismay of the professors and Ron and Hermione, who all gasped. Fleur attempted to comfort him, but he only pushed her away too, although much more gently. Without another word, he dragged his feet away from them all, not turning back once. Fred helped Summer to stand properly on her own two feet, and they too, with George by their side, made their way back up to the castle.

It was the day of the funeral. It had been only a few days since Cedric's death, but to Hayden and Summer, they had felt like an eternity, spent not interacting with anyone- Summer hadn't even come down to see the twins.

Everyone was in their seats, patiently waiting for Dumbledore to speak. Black drapings hung from the ceiling of the Great Hall, and each student matched them with their clothes. Summer squeezed Hayden's hand, who was seated next to her on the front row. However, he simply sat there staring straight ahead, unmoving and expressionless. He hadn't said a word to her that day, ignoring anytime anyone asked how he was doing.

"Today we acknowledge a really terrible loss. Cedric Diggory was, as you all know, exceptionally hard-working, infinitely fair-minded, and most importantly, a fierce, fierce friend."

Was. He was all those things, but couldn't be anymore.

"Therefore, I feel you have the right to know exactly how he died. You see, Cedric Diggory was murdered, by Lord Voldemort. The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this. But not to do so I feel would be an insult to his memory." A few people gasped, and she didn't dare look at Hayden, knowing how angry he probably looked in that moment.

"And in light of this, remember that today, we celebrate a boy who was kind, honest, brave, and true. Right to the very end..."

A tear rolled down his cheek as Dumbledore finished his speech.

Fred saw her tightening lip, and constant blinking away of tears, and took her hand in his, gently rubbing small circles on her palm.

To Summer's immense surprise, Hayden's head fell to rest on her shoulder, and she felt him shake, as he silently cried. Her shirt was now wet with tears, but she didn't care. She could feel her brother's pain, the pain of hearing about someone good, who meant a lot to him, when they would rather not think of him at all. The realisation that they would never see his smile again, hear his jokes, was too painful. Summer knew she was even going to miss his teasing, but also knew that she would miss his advice more. She put an arm around Hayden, and as the students exited the hall, told only by the shuffling of shoes, Fleur, Hayden, Summer, Fred and George, Harry and Cho, sat there in silence, bringing Cedric to life the only way they could- in their minds.

The last day of term had come, and Summer didn't know whether to be pleased about this, it was true that she loved to be home, but with everything going on, she'd rather be distracted with school, as she had been the last few weeks, desperately trying to take her mind away from seeing his face.

"You know, we never went swimming in the lake after all, and you even remembered to grab your swim suit when we left yours," Fred remarked, as he helped Summer repack her trunk, which she had dragged downstairs half shut, the morning the train was to take them back to Kings Cross station.

"Yeah well, I think I've done enough swimming in that lake to last a lifetime, I'm not so keen on the idea of going back in there, unless you fancy resuscitating me again," she shivered at the memory, but shook it off and gave a light laugh. Once Fred saw that she was being light-hearted about the subject, he smiled too,

"Yeah, maybe we'll wait until next year." He finally folded the last piece of clothing, and shut the lid.

"Wow, you actually got it to shut!" Summer jumped up to hug him, and he whirled her around for a second then placed her carefully back down.

"No problem," Fred realised that his arm was still touching hers from their hug, and he quickly dropped it down to his side again.

"I'll help you take it out to the carriages." Summer smiled a "thanks" in return, and ran up to gather a few more things from her room that she'd forgotten.

Summer saw Hayden on her way back to meet the twins, and made a small detour to go over to him.

"Hayden?" Upon hearing his name, the head of dirty blonde hair snapped around, as though the voice of his sister had been threatening in some way.

"Oh, Summer."

"Are you okay? I haven't seen you in weeks, how did your N.E.W.T.S go?" His sigh was long and drawn out. Finally, he ran his hands through his hair, and looked his sister in the eye.

"How do you think. At least it's another excuse to not have to work for the ministry next year..."

Summer wasn't sure what to say, after Cedric's death they had shut off from everyone, even each other. It had only been in the last couple days that she had managed to create a face to put on around her friends.

For the first time in a long time, she hadn't even the energy to check up on the other people who may be hurting, which she had even managed to do after Felicity. That was the other thing, and it felt to Summer, like all the grief she thought she was finally getting over from her sister, was all coming flooding back to her, and this time it was really hitting hard, harder than it ever had in the beginning. The holiday ahead, didn't feel like it was going to be much of a holiday, she now realised.

"Summer?" She was snapped from her thoughts and faced her brother again.

"Sorry, Hayden. I'm just... sorry."

"Yeah, me too." He had a pained expression of his face, which was saddled with dark pigmented under eyes, and a hollow gaze. She hugged him, although just barely, then left to retrieve her trunk from the twins, who were standing not too far away, chattering amongst themselves. They greeted her when she got there, but felt herself beginning to feel spacey again, which was a usual feeling nowadays.

"So what do you think, Sum?"

"Huh?" She hadn't even realised they had been talking to her, and had no idea of the subject of the conversation.

"About when we're going to be seeing you this summer? You're obviously welcome anytime to the Burrow, or-"

"Yeah, thanks guys, I'll write to you about it." She couldn't think about it right that second, and got up onto the train, followed by the twins, who both gave each other a look as they boarded.