Canon: Hufflepuff, Triwizard Champion, died by Peter Pettigrew’s hand
AU: Cedric was always going to live. If you open my copy of Goblet of Fire and flip to the description of Cedric’s body lying in the graveyard, you’ll find it crossed out in pink pen (and then in an orange pen, every crossed out word is re-scrawled into the margins because after the initial read through I realized HOW I would save Cedric, and I needed him to appear dead after all).
I wanted Cedric to live for two reasons that I have been very open about. 1) He is the first thing I ever loved about Harry Potter, so I could not destroy that. (Thank you Robert Pattinson.) 2) I wanted Harry to have someone who was in the graveyard who could stand with him and support him. Regulus wasn’t enough. Harry had to have someone he could turn to and trust. It had to be Cedric.
I also wanted to provide a foil for Harry’s post-traumatic responses in Order of the Phoenix. Harry’s trauma makes itself known in outbursts of anger and frustration. He rails against everyone and everything to reassert control over his situation, and while I could understand that, it wasn’t me. I wanted to give Cedric my own response to trauma, to give into that helplessness, to lie down and quit because it was so much easier than fighting. I wanted to explore both sides and the tension that would inevitably rise between them because of it.
I love Cedric, dearly, and have been very open about how much of my own depression is inscribed into his character. There’s a conversation between Cedric and Harry somewhere in my notes about fighting, even when it feels hopeless, and it is lifted entirely from my journal, from trying to talk myself into doing the right thing. The system is broken, and I can’t fix the system, but I can make a difference in a person, and that still matters.
That conversation is at the end of Lily’s Loss, though trimmed significantly, so it is not so painfully obvious that it is about the American 2020 election. The original draft was a bit preachy.
Because Cedric was an addition of mine to the Order, he has a sort of rivalry/comparison with Pyrites, since Pyrites is my addition to the Death Eaters (pulled from J.K.’s notes, but still, mostly mine).
One thing I wish I had done more with Cedric was explore his relationship with Fred and George Weasley. I think it was challenging, because they did not need each other. Fred and George were self-sufficient and had other friends, and Cedric had Amber and Pearl to support him, so the twins were not necessary, but I liked to think about their summer together in Grimmauld Place and the way the Weasley twins helped him that first summer after the graveyard. They have a friendship in my head that never had much opportunity to be explored on paper, and I still think about it every so often.
I can’t say much more about Cedric, who will have more of his character arc teased out in chapter 20 of Deathly Hallows. I do have a note about The Forest Again, and the possibility of Cedric confronting Harry before he faces Voldemort, or even going with Harry. I like the idea of Cedric, who has been there for every duel against Voldemort, to also be there for the final duel. But there are 4 other characters listed as potentials to go with Harry or to help him with his final task, so we’ll get to find out together if it’s Cedric or not.
Character Notes: I don’t have notes for Cedric, but I have notes for other characters ABOUT Cedric, so I want to include those.
Anne Thelborne (prefect & Head Girl) and older brother Christian (prefect) Christian is in percy’s year; anne is one year younger/a year older than Cedric (Christian transitioned between fifth and sixth year; he still sleeps in the girls dorm bc no one currs, that’s his home and those are his roommates)
Edmund Troy: Head Boy in OotP; feels like he was chosen when Cedric should have been chosen, takes this bitterness out on Cedric bc Cedric is not measuring up to Prefect standards
Britta Marston: Head Girl in OotP; unhappy with Cedric’s performance 7th year; sincerely loathes the Weasley twins and their lack of dedication to their school work
