Cedric Diggory was relaxing in the tent he and his father shared when the mayhem let loose. He was sipping a cup of tea as he sat comfortably in the kitchen area, right in the comforts of their private tent. He was alone because Amos, his father, was spending time with some Ministry officials outside, probably drinking and reminiscing their times when they were much younger.

When Cedric started to hear loud voices and shouts, he assumed that those were just people getting wasted and celebrating Ireland's win. He ignored the ruckus and focused on his delicious tea.

"Cedric! Cedric!"

Cedric was startled and nearly dropped his mug, spilling some of the tea onto the wooden table. He whipped around to find his father back in the tent and running towards him urgently.

"Father?" he questioned, getting up from his seat. "What's going —"

"Death Eaters, my boy."

Cedric's eyes widened. He had only ever heard that term from the stories his grandparents and parents told him of their time during the Wizarding War years ago, just before You-Know-Who's fall.

"What? T-They're here?" Cedric asked.

"I'm afraid they are," Amos told his son in a hurry. "You must get back to the Portkey — the one right outside the exit. The Weasleys should be there, too, but you best hurry. If they're gone, wait for me and we shall Apparate together. I will find you."

Amos gave Cedric a fast, one-armed hug before he pushed his son out the tent. Cedric had to admit that he was scared. It was a different kind of fear, much unlike the one he felt when he accidentally dropped his wand somewhere, lost a valuable item, or even when he was awaiting a test score. This was real fear, the fear of not just him dying, but also fearing for his father and many other innocent people.

Cedric burst into a run, diving into the crowd of people running away. The Death Eaters were right behind him, and even when there were Ministry officials helping people get out and trying to ward off these men, it was unnerving.

He was nearing the exit. The number of trees by his side increased the farther he ran away from the Death Eaters, indicating that he was closer to the forest, so he decided to take another route to the Portkey. He ran into the thicket of trees and only hoped he wouldn't get lost or trip over tree trunks and roots as he ran. He stayed near the clearing, though, to make sure he knew he was going the right way.

By now, the Death Eaters were retreating — well, at least some of them were — and the exit was near. Cedric felt hope begin to build up in him, but when he spotted a familiar dirty with dirty blonde hair in the middle of the clearing as the crowd thinned, he slowed down to a stop.

Analeigh Heart was there, whipping her wand out with slight difficulty but getting it out in the end. Cedric watched as she dodged a jet of red light from one of the few Death Eaters left before she herself sent a spell, yelling, "Expelliarmus!"

Cedric's eyes followed the beam of light that was directed at one of the Death Eaters. Analeigh had successfully disarmed him, causing Cedric to raise his eyebrows, impressed. But just then, the only other Death Eater left besides the disarmed one swished his wand and another spell was cast at Analeigh. Only this time, she wasn't quick enough. The stream of light hit her squarely in the back, knocking her out.

Cedric made a move towards her right as the Death Eaters Disapparated from the scene. He didn't know why they came in the first place and why they were suddenly leaving, but he pushed that thought aside since they were at least gone for the meantime. He hurriedly ran over to the girl now lying unconscious on the ground.

"Analeigh?" he tried, kneeling down next to her. He saw a little blood seeping out from the corner of her head, having fallen to the ground. It was only a mere few seconds ago that she had gotten hit, but then she began to stir.

Analeigh knew she had blacked out for at least a little while. When she opened her eyes, her vision was unclear for a second until it focused on a face: Cedric Diggory's face. When she tried to get up, she groaned a little at how the movement sent a wave of dizziness through her. Cedric put a hand on her shoulder to steady her and used his other hand to retrieve his wand.

"Slow down, there," he told her. "You must be tired from dueling with a Death Eater."

Despite the situation, Analeigh scoffed at his attempt to lighten the mood. "That was hardly considered a duel."

Cedric grinned at her answer, finding her amusing.

"Still," he said. "You disarming a Death Eater is quite impressive." Analeigh stayed silent because in all honesty, she didn't consider that impressive at all — it must've just been pure luck. The Death Eater still managed stun her in the end. "Anyway, let me fix that wound for you."

"Wound?" Analeigh questioned. Cedric raised a hand and placed it on her forehead lightly, but a small, sharp pain came from his touch, and Analeigh now knew where her injury was. "Oh, ow."

"Sorry," Cedric said sheepishly. He then pointed his wand at the wound and muttered, "Episkey. Tergeo."

A small light emitted from the tip of Cedric's wand, and there was just a brief tickling sensation on Analeigh's forehead before the pain went away. She touched her head and found that both the wound and blood were gone.

"Thank you, Cedric," Analeigh said gratefully. Cedric shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

"You're welcome, Analeigh."

"The Ministry isn't going to come for us because we used magic outside of school, right?" Analeigh said nervously.

"I'm turning seventeen soon, so maybe they can make an exception," Cedric said with a lopsided grin. Analeigh managed to crack a small smile at that.

"Well, I'm just about to turn fifteen, so let's hope I don't get expelled this early."

"Don't worry, underage magic can still be used in dire circumstances and I think this highly qualified as one," Cedric reassured her.

Nodding at his words, Analeigh felt that it was time she got back to the Portkey and find her friends, so she started to get up on her feet. Cedric, being the gentleman he was, helped her up even if she was perfectly fine already. Analeigh was mildly surprised at his chivalry — it wasn't everyday you met a person like him.

She muttered another short "thanks" as she dusted herself off. Both Analeigh and Cedric scanned their surroundings: the campsite was practically empty, leaving only torn tents and small fires here and there.

"We should get back to the Portkey," Cedric finally said.

Analeigh nodded. "We should, but I got separated from Harry and the others earlier. I have no idea if they're safe or something worse happened to them."

Cedric really wanted to get back to the Portkey and see if his father was alright, too, but he felt the need to help out his new friend. It was the right thing to do, after all.

"I'll help you find them."

Analeigh looked up with raised eyebrows, pleasantly surprised at his kindness. Before she could say anything, she heard people saying, "Harry! Leigh!" from a distance. She perked up upon hearing her name called and recognized the voices after a moment.

"That's Hermione and Ron," Analeigh said in realization. "Cedric, you don't have to accompany me. I appreciate it, but I'm sure your father's worried sick about you."

"Are you sure?" he said uncertainly.

Analeigh nodded. "We still have to find Harry."

Cedric admired her loyalty to her friends. He would have insisted on helping her, but she was correct. His father must be going mad by now since Cedric wasn't at the site of the Portkey yet.

"Alright," he gave in slowly. "Be safe, Analeigh. Don't try dueling a Death Eater again."

Analeigh was already beginning to walk away when Cedric said that. She paused and managed to laugh, causing the bronze-haired boy to grin at her.

"Of course, I won't 'duel' with them again," she said with a hint of humor. "Thank you."

Cedric sent her a brief nod, and then the two parted ways. The Hufflepuff went on his way into the forest, having no trouble getting there now that the crowd had dissipated. Analeigh, on the other hand, searched for Ron and Hermione, whose voices had stopped calling out her name. It worries her because the venue had fallen eerily silent. When she turned a corner, a figure suddenly popped up. She instinctively whipped out her wand and pointed it at the culprit.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" When the blonde realized it was Ron Weasley, she sighed in relief.

"Oh, Ron," she said, dropping her arm to her side.

"Blimey, Leigh!" Ron said back, stepping closer and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Where have you been? Have you seen Harry? Are you okay?"

"I—"

"Hermione! I found Leigh!" Ron said loudly.

"Leigh?" Hermione repeated from somewhere to their right. The bushy-haired girl then came running towards them and engulfed them both in a hug. "We were so worried! Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Analeigh reassured her friends, who nodded before they all began to look around for Harry again.

"Harry? Harry!" Hermione whisper-yelled as they walked down the rows of tents together.

"Remind me again why we have to keep our voices down?" asked Ron.

"They could still be here," Hermiomed hissed, and both Ron and Analeigh nodded in realization. But something in the sky caught Analeigh's eye — it was a huge, bright green skull flashing above them with a snake slithering back and forth from its mouth.

"What's — what is that?" Analeigh whispered, but she had a feeling she already knew what it was and just didn't want to admit it.

Hermione and Ron looked up at the sky slowly before their jaws dropped.

"T-That's the Dark Mark," said Hermione, her lip quivering in fear.

"You-Know-Who's mark," Analeigh finished with a gulp. Having previously lived in France, it wasn't surprising that Voldemort's terror reigned in her home country as well. Her parents knew a lot about what happened during the war and told Analeigh stories about it, including the most recent and famous one about her very own friend, Harry Potter, when he defeated the dark wizard as a baby. Many people believed he wasn't actually dead, though, and Analeigh never really gave it much thought until know. She knew this, though: that mark in the sky was only seen when Voldemort and his followers had been in a certain place and wanted their presence to be known.

After a pause, Analeigh said, "We have to keep looking. We can't stop now."

Without any other words, the three of them walked down the campsite once again in search for their green-eyes friend. Finally, after going down what seemed like the hundredth row of tents, they spotted a boy with messy black hair getting up from the ground, adjusting the glasses on his face.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed first, running towards him.

Ron and Analeigh followed next, but just as they reached the boy, voices from around them yelled, "Stupefy!"

Caught in surprise, Analeigh and Hermione shrieked as they and the other two boys ducked to shield themselves from the spells.

"Stop! Stop! That's my son!" Analeigh peeked through her hands and saw Mr. Weasley running as fast as he could to where they all were. The men surrounding the four teenagers lowered their wands but continued to eye them suspiciously even after Mr. Weasley has reached them.

"Who cast the Mark?" one of the Ministry officials demanded.

"Please, they're just kids!" said Mr. Weasley desperately.

"There was a man," Harry spoke for the first time, causing everyone else to gape at him. "Over there!"

"Come!" the same official who asked them about the Mark gestured the other men to follow him as they made their way to where Harry claimed he had seen another man. When they were out of earshot, Mr. Weasley turned to Harry, intrigued.

"A man?" he asked. "Who was it?"

Harry was at loss for words. "I don't know," he admitted. "I didn't see his face."

The night's events were draining for Analeigh — from the excitement of the final Quidditch match to encountering the frightening masked men, and then to almost losing all her friends. Hopefully, this was just one of those ploys by former dark witches and wizards to scare people. And maybe, just maybe, things at Hogwarts wouldn't be as chaotic as what they had experienced that evening.

Analeigh just wanted to go home. The only thing that seemed like a good idea at the moment was relaxing on her couch with a warm glass of Butterbeer. Little did she know that her own father was panicking at the news of the Dark Mark being conjured — not just because he was worried for his daughter's safety at the Quidditch World Cup, but also because it brought up awful memories of something he had taken part in a long time ago.

A/N: I already pointed this out in the first chapter, but this is just a reminder that the OC and Cedric have a 2-year age gap. I know this is not everyone's cup of tea, but I personally did not see any issue with it when I wrote this book. I also started this story years ago when I was much younger, so this is my only way of addressing it in the present :)

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the book!