Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
In today’s video, we’re going to be discussing none other than popular Hufflepuff student
Cedric Diggory.
More specifically- however, we’re going to be discussing his untimely death at the
hands of Wormtail aka Peter Pettigrew during the penultimate moments of the Goblet of Fire.
Now, whether you’re a fim-goer or a book-reader, the untimely death of Cedric Diggory was no
doubt impactful.
It happened during the third challenge of the triwizard tournament- just after Harry
and Cedric simultaneously clutched the triwizard cup.
Unbeknown to them, however, the triwizard cup was actually a portkey- a portkey that
sent them to straight to Wormtail, Voldemort, and the Little Hangleton Graveyard.
It was here that Cedric lived out his final moments- ultimately reaching his fate at the
hands of Peter Pettigrew and his killing curse.
This is outlined in chapter 32 of the Goblet of Fire- Flesh, Blood and Bone.
Harry felt his feet slam into the ground; his injured leg gave way, and he fell forward;
his hand let go of the Triwizard Cup at last.
He raised his head.
"Where are we?" he said.
Cedric shook his head.
He got up, pulled Harry to his feet, and they looked around.
They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously traveled miles - perhaps
hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone.
They were standing inside in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church
was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right.
They pulled out their wands.
Harry kept looking around him.
He had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched.
"Someone's coming," he said suddenly.
Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking
steadily toward them between the graves.
Harry lowered his wand slightly and glanced sideways at Cedric.
Cedric shot him a quizzical look.
They both turned back to watch the approaching figure.
It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them.
For a second, Harry and Cedric and the short figure simply looked at one another.
And then, without warning, Harry's scar exploded with pain.
It was agony such as he had never felt in all his life; his wand slipped from his fingers
as he put his hands over his face; his knees buckled; he was on the ground and he could
see nothing at all; his head was about to split open.
From far away, above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."
A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"
A blast of green light blazed through Harry's eyelids, and he heard something heavy fall
to the ground beside him; the pain in his scar reached such a pitch
that he retched, and then it diminished; terrified of what he was about to see, he
opened his stinging eyes.
Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground beside him.
He was dead.
For a second that contained an eternity, Harry stared into Cedric's face, at his open gray
eyes, blank and expressionless as the windows of a deserted house, at his half-open mouth,
which looked slightly surprised.
And that was the last time we ever saw Cedric alive- the popular Hufflepuff student and
promising young wizard.
Before we go any further- I want to make one thing clear: this ‘what if’ is NOT fuelled
by the circumstances of the Cursed Child.
If you didn’t know already- the Cedric Diggory from the Cursed Child turns evil - however,
the rationale behind Cedric changing allegiances in that timeline is primarily driven by the
fact that he was ‘embarrassed’ by his extremely unfortunate circumstances - and
that they somehow tarnished his reputation.
However, to me this doesn’t mesh well with Cedric’s character.
Sure, Cedric had a certain amount of pride and honour pertaining to his magical ability
and ‘status’ at Hogwarts- I get it.
But the notion that he would somehow become pure evil just because he inaccurately determined
that his status was now ‘lost’ makes no sense.
How could only embarrassment push an otherwise level-headed man to madness?
Furthermore, it’s ridiculous to assume that this same embarrassment would push Cedric
to seek vengeance for his non-existent ‘humiliation’.
To add to this, the rationale behind Cedric surviving in the Cursed Child comes down to
Harry’s son Albus and Draco’s son Scorpius messing with a time-turner.
With the time-turner, they travel decades back in time and save his life.
Given the delicate nature of the fabric of time- I’m not a fan of this answer.
However, with that said, I still want to explore a ‘what-if’ pertaining to Cedric surviving-
I’m just going to approach it in a very different way.
First let’s start with a brief recap on who Cedric is:
Cedric Diggory was a british pure-blood wizard born in the year 1977.
He began studying at Hogwarts in the year 1989, 2 years before Harry Potter and the
trio.
Cedric was a talented wizard, and was sorted in to Hufflepuff house in his formative year
at Hogwarts.
Cedric had a reputation of being a bit of a pretty boy, but was well liked by the student
body, eventually becoming prefect for Hufflepuff house, and captain of the Hufflepuff quidditch
team.
Cedric notably competed against Harry in the triwizard tournament, and it was here that
Cedric was tragically killed.
But- was he really killed?
First off, I’m going to discuss a ‘what-if’ scenario that addresses his possible survival.
We know that Peter Pettigrew was the one to fire the ‘fatal’ killing curse at Cedric-
and to any casual observer Cedric was quite evidently dead.
Harry saw Cedric’s grey, blank, expressionless eyes first hand- and when he finally escaped
the graveyard he brought Cedric’s motionless body back with him.
This meant that many others saw Cedric’s lifeless body- confirming that his death had
in fact occurred.
HOWEVER- WHAT IF Peter Pettigrew’s avada kedavra wasn’t actually powerful enough
to kill Cedric?
In the Goblet of Fire we’re taught that the unforgivable curses- crucio, imperio,
and most importantly avada kedavra- require a lot of powerful magic to be successfully
cast.
“Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get
your wands out and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as
a nosebleed.”
So, in this ‘what-if’ scenario, I want to explore the possibility that Peter Pettigrew’s
killing curse wasn’t actually powerful enough to properly kill Cedric- it only got him most
of the way.
At this stage Voldemort hadn’t yet returned to his proper form, and there was a lot of
pressure on Pettigrew to make sure that everything went according to plan.
Because of this pressure, and because Pettigrew had been left to his own devices for so many
years, he simply lacked the power/concentration necessary to properly execute the curse.
This meant that after Cedric Diggory was buried on a ‘beautiful hill’- he actually woke
up.
After waking up, Cedric needed answers- and the first person to realize that Cedric been
reawakened was Voldemort- who used legilimency to invade his mind.
While exploring his mind, Voldemort saw a lot of confusion, with an element of underlying
anger- anger that he wanted to capitalize on.
Infiltrating his thoughts- Voldemort eventually convinces Cedric to meet with him.
When they meet- Voldemort has already sussed him up, and knows exactly how to trigger his
emotions: Cho Chang.
He uses legilimency to show Cedric Harry with Cho, and while at first Cedric ignores it,
he’s eventually pushed to his absolute limit when Voldemort shows Harry kissing Cho.
He convinces Cedric that it was Harry’s plan all along to bring him to the graveyard-
and that he used him- always in pursuit of Cedric’s love interest, Cho.
This drives Cedric to insanity.
But Voldemort didn’t stop there- he explained to him that everyone thought that he was dead,
and that noone would accept him anymore.
He also explained that no one would ever believe his side of the story- that ‘the boy who
lived’ would commit such atrocities.
This turns Cedric to the dark side- and he becomes just another unnamed death eater.
From here, Cedric actively participates in the wizarding war- hiding under his death
eater mask out of shame.
However, when the fall of Voldemort becomes apparent- Cedric retreats and travels far
away.
From here, Cedric vows to destroy Harry Potter- in exactly the same way that Voldemort wanted
to destroy him.
He isolates himself from the rest of the wizarding world, and begins to hone his already advanced
magical abilities- effectively becoming the next big threat after Voldemort.
And that’s it for this ‘what if’ - I hope you enjoyed it.
Just having a bit of fun.
If you enjoy the content please like the video and subscribe to the channel.
Until next time
"We'll celebrate a boy who was, kind and honest, and brave, and true right to the very end."