Cedric Diggory (character)

Cedric Diggory is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. The character was the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain and Seeker through Harry's third year of school. Cedric was two years ahead of Harry in Hogwarts. His father is Amos Diggory, who works at the Ministry of Magic; Cedric has been described as "the strong, but silent type" and "extremely handsome"; as a character he showed a notable streak for modesty and fairness. He was a Prefect for the Hufflepuff House.

In the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film, he is played by Robert Pattinson.

Character overview

Remember that and Cedric Diggory will not have died in vain. You remember that, and we'll celebrate a boy who was kind and honest and brave and true and right to the very end.

— Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts's Headmaster, in the film version of Goblet of Fire

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry, in his third year, races to the Snitch against Cedric in a Quidditch match, only to find out that he loses due to a number of Dementors.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Cedric, then a sixth year, was selected to be the Hogwarts champion in the Triwizard Tournament. After Harry was mysteriously selected as well, Draco Malfoy made Support Cedric Diggory badges for the Slytherins that could be changed to read Potter stinks.

For the first task, Harry told Cedric that their task involves dragons. During the task, Cedric Transfigured a rock into a dog which distracted his dragon, but unfortunately, his dragon lost interest in the dog mid-way and went after him instead. Cedric successfully retrieved his golden egg but received a burn on the cheek in the process. Because of that, he lost points, resulting in him ending in third place for that task. He later took Cho Chang to the Yule Ball as his date, much to Harry's dismay. After Cedric's death, Cho is depicted as not being able to totally overcome the grief.

Cedric, along with Moaning Myrtle, assists Harry in solving the clue of the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. He drops a very vague clue by telling him to take a bath in the fifth floor prefects' bathroom, take the egg along, and just "mull things over in the hot water". Cedric did this in return for the help Harry had given him for the first task. He was the second of the champions to reach the village of the merpeople and successfully saved Cho, his hostage, using a Bubble-Head Charm. He surfaced one minute over the one hour time limit earning him forty-seven points for the second task, placing him in joint first with Harry.

During the third task, Harry saved Diggory's life twice while in the maze, and in the race for the cup, Cedric refused to take the cup without Harry, so they grasped it together. The cup turned out to be a portkey which transported them to a graveyard where Voldemort and his servant Wormtail were waiting. Wormtail killed Cedric using Voldemort's wand, for no particular reason other than that he was there. When Harry escaped the graveyard, he took Cedric's body with him at his request and brought it back to Cedric's parents.

Dumbledore reveals to Harry, who asked him where Cedric's parents were, that Professor Pomona Sprout was chosen to comfort Amos and Mrs Diggory, as she was Head of Cedric's House and knew him best. Through Cornelius Fudge, the Ministry of Magic instituted a cover up and publicly attributed Cedric's death to an "accident", which Harry and Dumbledore felt was an insult to him. At the year's end feast, Dumbledore revealed to the entire school that Cedric was killed by Voldemort and stated that to attribute his death to an accident would be an injustice to Cedric. As a boy who was "good, and kind, and brave", he was the embodiment of all things Hufflepuff. Dumbledore ended the speech by saying "Remember Cedric Diggory".

Name

It has been suggested that J.K. Rowling borrowed Cedric's last name from Digory Kirke in C. S. Lewis's Narnia series; Rowling claims Lewis as one of her favourite authors.