Disclaimer: If you haven’t read A Parting Dream, the prequel to this story, don’t worry. If you want more background information about the events leading up to this piece, then please, read it. In any case, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the rest of the Hogwarts gang belongs to the illustrious JK Rowling, not me. Anything you don’t recognize as hers, however, belongs to me and if you want to use it (though I’m not sure why you would), just ask me!

One last thing, I’ve got to give a big round of applause to my editor, George Weasley’s Girlfriend a.k.a. JanaBelle for helping me out with this fic. I couldn’t have done it without you!

It wasn’t until the next day in Charms class that anything relating to the events of the previous night came into contact with the trio. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were busily practicing Color and Temperature charms, busily changing marbles from red spheres that felt like ice to green ones that felt like they were on fire, when Professor McGonagall stepped into the classroom. The trio tensed, wondering if they were going to be called in for questioning, which they hadn’t yet for some reason. Instead, McGonagall just asked to speak to Harry for a bit.

"You may as well collect your things, this could take a while," she said. All three were surprised that only Harry was being summoned, but extremely curious as well.

"I’ll tell you what happens when I get back," Harry whispered to his friends, who nodded, and then turned back to their marbles, but the results were no longer very good because they were so distracted.

In the mean time, Harry followed Professor McGonagall out into the hall. He followed her down the hallway a bit, and when they were out of the classroom’s hearing range, she said, "The girl who was found with you and Cho last night, Lyria’s her name, has woken up. We tried to ask her what happened, but she’s refusing to speak to anyone but you, and Cho isn’t willing to say anything except that Lyria is the only one who knows what really happened. I need to you talk to her and find out what went on last night."

Harry looked at Professor McGonagall curiously. "But why would she ask for me? I don’t even know her!"

McGonagall shook her head, starting to lead the way towards the infirmary. "I don’t know, but she kept muttering your name every now and then while she was out, and after she awoke she kept asking to speak to you."

Harry pondered this in silence until they reached the infirmary, where he was ushered in quickly by Madam Pomfrey. She led him to a bed that contained the small, blonde haired girl. She hardly looked any better than the last time he had seen her. He almost tuned out Madam Pomfery’s chatter completely. It wasn’t hard, after all, since she was just complaining about how Lyria really shouldn’t be disturbed at all, but she had no choice in the matter. She finished her spiel by telling Harry that he was not to stay long and bother the poor child after going through such an ordeal. Once she had left the two alone, the girl turned her head and looked at him solemnly, and while her face was expressionless, her blue eyes were expressing some sort of deep pain, but she quickly blinked and turned her head away before sighing.

"I know you must be wondering why I called you here, why I had to speak to you," she said so softly that he had to strain his ears to hear her. Harry nodded, letting her take her time with the explanation. She went into deep thought for a moment before saying, "What I have to say is going to dredge up some pretty horrible memories for you, and if you can’t deal with that at the moment, I understand, just keep in mind I will need to tell you this sometime." She turned her head and looked him straight in the eye. "I can’t tell you exactly what it’s about unless you want to hear the whole thing, but it does have to do with why Cho and I ended up here, and why the fires went out last night."

Horrible memories? What horrible memories is she talking about? And what would my memories have to do with her and the fires and all? Harry thought. Knowing he had to hear this story, no matter what it brought up, he responded, "I want to know what happened."

The girl sighed. "Alright then. Before I start, though, two things. One, you have to swear you won’t tell anyone besides Hermione and Ron this story (I know I can’t ask you to keep it from them, but keep it between yourselves, will you?), because I don’t want to get Cho and I into any more trouble than necessary." She looked at Harry for a response and Harry nodded his agreement a bit reluctantly. Professor McGonagall was going to kill him when she found out he couldn’t tell. With that settled, she continued. "And two, you should know that I knew Cedric for as long as I can remember. He was like an older brother to me. And I think that somehow (and I don’t know how, believe me, I’ve looked) caused me to have…" she hesitated, "well, this is going to sound rather corny, but some…dreams near the end last year that showed me his fate, and yours since they were intertwined. I had the chance to warn him, and I didn’t."

Harry gaped at her, a surge of anger running through him at the thought that something could have prevented all the tragedy of the year before. "How could you not– !"

Her icy stare silenced him, her eyes betraying mass amounts of guilt. "Don’t even start. I have enough guilt on my conscience because of it, but you’ll see why." She sighed tiredly, "Just…just let me tell you the story, alright?"

He nodded dumbly, mentally cursing himself for being so insensitive. She stared at the ceiling before beginning her tale.

* * *

Lyria and Cho were up late in the Ravenclaw common room, having a soft conversation, a sad aura surrounding the fifth and sixth year girls. It was clear that they were not the same people they had been at the end of last year. Lyria had made her peace with Cedric’s death, but guilt still gnawed at her for not telling him, even though she knew she had had no choice in the matter. Cho still struggled with it sometimes, but even she could smile now, and the grieving look had nearly left her eyes. Still, that night had been a night of memories, both joyful and sad, but all having to do with Cedric.

"I can still remember how shy he seemed when he came up to ask me to the Ball. He was so nervous he must have stumbled over the words ten times before I could understand him," Cho smiled sadly at this, and Lyria nodded her agreement, a smile apparent in her eyes, though not on her face.

"I always wondered exactly what happened. He was so happy when he told me you had agreed, he looked like he was about to float off to cloud nine and never return," Lyria answered.

"Yeah, he was so cute when he got one of those looks on his face, or even just when he smiled. But the one thing I’ll never forget is the astonished look on his face when we dumped a bucket of snow over his head when he was trooping back from his Care of Magical Creatures class."

Lyria did crack a smile at this. "Great Wizards, that was hilarious. I still can’t believe we had time to pelt him with snowballs before he started to retaliate. I must say, I never thought Cedric would’ve been so slow to respond…"

"Yeah, but it’s a good thing we had a five meter lead on him before he started chasing after us. Otherwise that Jelly-legs Jinx would’ve been killer!" Both girls grinned at the sight of each other wobbling around in the snow, and Cedric doing the same when they jinxed him as well, but the grin faded off their faces and the atmosphere became somber again.

Cho sighed. "I really miss him. I just wish I had one last chance to speak to him…what is it?" Cho looked at Lyria, who had a curious expression on her face, one Cho couldn’t read.

Lyria bit her lip. "There is a way…it’s an old spell, ancient really…a bit complicated, but I think I can do it."

Cho’s eyes widened and her heart leapt. A way to speak to Cedric from beyond the grave? It was too good to be true… "Lyria, if you’re kidding, I swear by Merlin, I’ll never speak to you again…"

Lyria looked away slightly. "I’m not kidding. I found the spell over the summer, it was in my great-grandmother’s old book of spells which my parents had in the attic for some reason, though I don’t know why they, being Muggles, would have kept such a thing…in any case, I memorized it. We’d only need a few small items that shouldn’t be hard to acquire and a room to do it in."

Cho stared at her, disbelieving what she was hearing. "I know of a room we can use, it’s on the dungeon level. Near the entrance to the common room there’s a small passageway that leads to a wall, but it can be opened with a simple spell. I found it during my second year, and used it as an escape if things were hectic and I needed a quiet place to do my homework or something. It should be perfect…what else does this spell call for…wait, what is this spell anyways?"

Lyria sighed and looked at Cho. "It’s the Widow’s Lament spell."

Cho stared at the younger girl incredulously. "That sounds like a Dark Arts spell, Lyria! How could you think of using such a thing?" Though her face matched her words, her voice did not. Cho sounded as if she already knew the answer to her question.

Lyria gave Cho a hard look. "Guess." Then she softened, "But it’s not really a Dark Arts spell, it was very common a few hundred year ago. Just because it involves human blood doesn’t mean it’s evil. Besides, I read that it can’t be used for evil purposes…just that a lot could go wrong."

"Lyria…I’m just not so sure that we should use that spell…"

"It’s the only way, Cho. You said you wanted your one last chance, this is your opportunity to get it. I’m willing to perform it whenever you’d like."

Cho thought it over in her head. It really didn’t seem like an evil spell, after all, it was only used to speak to loved ones…she came to her conclusion quickly.

"Tomorrow night okay?"

"Perfectly."

* * *

"So you guys were performing a spell down there?" Harry interrupted.

Lyria nodded weakly. "Yes. I suppose you hear some of the commotion we made too, didn’t you?"

Harry nodded. "I heard three voices…I’m assuming two of them were yours and Cho’s."

"Then you assume correctly. The third, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, was Cedric’s…" Her voice trailed off, and she turned her head away as she felt tears beginning to form in her eyes. She didn’t want to break down in front of a perfect stranger, but as the memories of Cedric’s angry form yelling at her…accusing her…it was almost too much to bear. She closed her eyes tightly, willing the tears away, but in her weakened condition she couldn’t fight it. For the second time in just a few months, she started to cry.

It started as just a few stray tears, but those tears opened the gates to her other repressed emotions. They mixed and swelled within her, grief mixing with regret and guilt clashing with anger flooded her system, consuming her. Images of Cedric, both good and bad, ran through her mind, causing her to cry harder because she missed him so. Why the hell did this have to happen to him, why? And why did it have to effect her like this, she hated being weak, and even though crying wasn’t really a weakness, she saw it was one more flaw in a million.

She felt someone awkwardly put their arms around her, and she cried into their robes, unable to do anything else. The person rubbed its arm up and down her back, trying to calm her down, trying to comfort her. "It’ll be okay…" the person whispered.

She wanted to believe the voice. It sounded so truthful, so caring, she just wanted to melt into those words and make all her worries disappear…but then images of Cedric would reappear in her head…she remembered his last request…she had to tell him…

Her crying slowed as she started to grasp the shreds of sanity around her, sewing them together as her tears started to slow and her gasping breaths gradually became regular…she was so tired, but she had to tell him…

"Harry…I’ve got to tell Harry…" she murmured against the person’s robes.

"I’m right here, Lyria, what do you need to tell me?" The person said. Lyria sniffed and looked up at the person who had been comforting her to see Harry Potter looking down at her. It took a moment for her brain to remember where she was and what she had been doing before her emotions took over. Her instinct was telling her to break the embrace now that she had come to her senses, but it just felt so nice to have someone comforting her…and she was so tired she hardly had the energy to speak, much less move.

"I’ve got to finish telling you what happened…" she murmured before taking a deep breath and starting her story up again.

* * *

Lyria and Cho entered the chamber together. Cho lit the torches around the room while Lyria tended to the large cauldron she had set up in the center, allowing the water to come to a boil. Once this had occurred, Lyria stepped up behind the cauldron and took a deep breath to calm herself. Her arms were raised high and her face blank and expressionless as she began to work the spell.

Lyria took a small vial of almost-clear blue liquid – made from the tears of one close to the deceased (in this case, Cho) – and added a drop of it the water. A poof of smoke arose from it, and Cho’s anxiety grew.

Cho stepped up the cauldron at this point, gazing anxiously into the swirling waters, feeling rather numb with apprehension. Lyria grabbed a crooked dagger from the table by the cauldron and took Cho’s left arm roughly, making a small slash mark on it and letting her blood drip into the cauldron. It fizzled, and then changed colors, from red to blue to clear.

The cauldron seemed to explode, and smoke shot up into the air in tremendous amounts, seemingly sucking all the fires from all but two of the torches. Cho stepped back from the cauldron, coughing and waving her hand in front of her face to clear it a bit, but Lyria stood there, eyes closed, her arms in the air, and a look of intense concentration on her face. Suddenly, the smoke began to change shape, shifting from an aimless cloud to a human being…and then the human began to take the shape of a man…and the man took the shape of…

"Cedric?" Cho whispered, disbelieving what her eyes were showing her.

The apparition stepped from the cauldron, and took her face gently in its hand. "Yes, Cho, it’s me."

Cho nearly wept with relief and embraced the apparition, who returned the hug gratefully. "Oh Cedric, I’ve missed you so much…"

"I’ve missed you too, Cho."

"You have no idea how much I’ve missed you…how much I’ve wanted this chance to speak with you. I wanted a chance to say goodbye…"

"You might’ve had that chance if it hadn’t been for Lyria," he said bitterly. Cho abruptly broke his embrace and stared at him in shock as Lyria made a surprised noise, almost a little shriek, from behind them. Cedric whirled around, and when he saw Lyria his apparition began to turn red with anger. Lyria shrunk up against the wall as he marched towards her menacingly.

"No! Stop! Let me explain!" Lyria exclaimed in fear. "I didn’t have any choice!"

"Like hell you didn’t! You knew! If you hadn’t known, you wouldn’t’ve said your good-byes while I was still alive! If you had warned me, Harry and I could’ve grabbed the portkey the second after we arrived in the graveyard, and then not only would I be alive, but Voldemort" Lyria flinched visibly at his emphasis on the name, "wouldn’t be in power!" Cedric looked like he was about to hit her, but Cho grabbed his arm, trying to pull the angry apparition back.

"Cedric, don’t hurt her! Please, I’m begging you! It wasn’t her fault!" She pleaded.

"She should have told me!" Cedric roared.

"Cedric, do you know what would’ve happened if you had lived? Do you? Do you?" Lyria exclaimed, obviously near her breaking point. "Why don’t you search my mind and find out, I know you can do it!"

Cedric paused for a moment, then reached a hand out toward Lyria’s head. She winced in pain as it went though her skull, and sunk to her knees as he touched her mind. Cho watched the scene unfold, frozen in place, not knowing what to do. After what seemed like an eternity, she cried out, "Stop it! What are you doing to her? This isn’t like you, why won’t you leave her alone? I thought she was like a sister to you!"

Cedric suddenly pulled his hand from Lyria’s head, a stricken expression on his face. "Great Wizards, I didn’t know…by Merlin, Lyria, can you ever forgive me?" He pleaded.

Lyria nodded weakly at him. "You didn’t know."

"But that’s no excuse…Lyria, I’m so sorry…I know you haven’t truly forgiven me, but please do someday…"

Lyria once again nodded her head tiredly. "I will. You know I will."

With that, Cedric turned to Cho and kissed her. "I don’t have much time, but I want you to that I cared for you deeply…it might have been love, but we’ll never know that now…"

"No, we won’t. I wanted to tell you I felt the same way…and so many more things, but I can’t seem to find the words…" Cho said, near the brink of tears.

"I just want you to let me go, Cho. Find someone else who cares for you as much as I did and be happy with them. Promise me you’ll try."

Cho nodded. "I promise," she whispered.

Cedric kissed her forehead and let her go reluctantly. "My time here is short, I must go…look after Lyria for me, Cho."

He started back towards the cauldron, and then turned to Lyria once more, grief filling his eyes as he saw she was still weakly leaning against the wall, looking at him listlessly. "Lyria…tell Harry it wasn’t his fault…none of it was. There was nothing he could have done."

And with that, Cedric stepped into the cauldron once again, but something went wrong. The fire flamed up with such force that the cauldron tipped over, knocking over the table next it and burning Cho slightly due to her proximity. She shrieked and fell back as shards of broken vials flew through the air, some cutting her as they went.

"That…wasn’t…supposed…to…happen…" Lyria murmured as the world began to spin and she finally fell into blackness…

* * *

"…and that’s where you came in, I’m told. So you know the rest," Lyria finished.

Harry nodded, and swallowed hard. Lyria had been right, her story had dredged up some rather unpleasant memories, and it was hard to stay totally unemotional during her telling of it. "Thank you…thank you for telling me. That means a lot to me, you know."

Lyria nodded. "I thought it might. I figured you ought to be the first person to know…it’s what he would’ve wanted." She looked away again and sighed, her grief apparent to even the most dimwitted observer. It made Harry curse Voldemort all over again, for doing something so horrible to this girl. She seemed so nice…and no one deserved all the grief she was going through.

Yet, her story left a couple of things unanswered. What would’ve happened if Cedric had lived…and what went wrong with the spell?

"You’re wondering what went wrong, aren’t you?" she asked, as if reading his mind. Harry was surprised, but Lyria just gave him a weak smile. "No, I can’t read minds, but I have a knack for reading people. Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not sure what went wrong. The only thing I can think of would be some sort of imbalance in him…maybe an emotional imbalance. The spell is based strongly on emotions…"

"So would that be why the…pain and grief of that day came back so strongly to me?" Harry asked hesitantly.

Lyria nodded. "It would make sense…after all, you were right next to him when he…" she blinked hard, as if to ward off more tears, "Well, in any case, most spirits are at peace during the spell, not getting so…angry…" She shivered slightly at the memory. "…and then so apologetic…it was such a huge shift, and when he returned the balance probably wasn’t right. Otherwise, it should have gone fine."

"I see." Once again, he hesitated before asking, "If you don’t mind, could you tell me what would have happened if he had lived?"

Lyria paused, then nodded her head again. "It’s not a pretty picture. You-Know-Who would have been so enraged that he would have ordered his agent at Hogwarts to steal your blood, apparate to him, and Wormtail would perform the spell. The Death Eaters would have gathered, but because You-Know-Who would have been so angry that his plan didn’t work completely, he would have ordered an attack on Hogwarts…one we were not ready for. Many of the students would have been killed…including Cedric, Ron, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Padma Patil, Dennis Creevy…and while I never could tell whether or not you died, it didn’t look good…"

Harry saw the pictures form in his mind, Hogwarts being turned from a safe haven to a battleground, bodies littering the ground…one with Ron’s face on it, it was an image he quickly swept away, not being able to carry that line of thought any longer.

"So you see why I didn’t tell him. I couldn’t, I really did have no choice…" she whispered.

Harry looked on the small girl, but instead of filling with anger for Voldemort, he was filled with pity for her. Having to know the future depended on the death of your best friend…and then having him come back from the dead to accuse you of killing him…he was not at all surprised she had broken down earlier. There were so many things that had gone haywire in her life after he died…too many things, it seemed, for such a small person to bear. And yet she did, and she didn’t complain, she didn’t ask for help, she just carried on, trying to put it behind her. Harry felt a newfound respect for Lyria go through him, and he took her hand, squeezing it gently.

"It wasn’t your fault either, you know. You did what you had to do."

Lyria looked into his eyes, a surprised look on her face, but her eyes shown brightly with gratitude. "Thank you."

Just then, Madam Pomfrey came back to disturb them. "All right you two, that’s enough! Mr. Potter, it’s about time you got back to class; this young lady needs her rest."

Harry reluctantly got up from his seat next to Lyria’s bed. "If you ever need someone to talk to…"

Lyria gave him a small smile. "I know where to find you. Oh, and Harry…"

"Yes?"

"Remember what happened last night wasn’t typical. The spell usually goes quite differently. Think about it."

Harry looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face, but before he could ask her what she meant, he was ushered out the door. His mind reeled with all this new information and he went to find Hermione and Ron so see what they thought of the whole situation…and Lyria’s cryptic last remarks.