Cedric Diggory
Cedric Diggory is a fictional character from in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Cedric is one of the main characters of the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as he represents Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Triwizard Tournament alongside Harry Potter. Cedric is murdered by Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew during Voldemort's resurrection in Little Hangleton.
Cedric's death becomes a point of trauma and guilt for Harry and continues to haunt him, which leads him to form Dumbledore's Army as a way to help teach his fellow students protect themselves in battle so what happened to Cedric will never have to happen again. Cedric's death is also a focal point of the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Cedric was portrayed by Robert Pattinson in the film adaptation of The Goblet of Fire and was briefly portrayed by Joe Livermore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Fictional character biography
Cedric Diggory first attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1989 and was sorted into Hufflepuff. It is presumed that Cedric was familiar with Fred and George Weasley as they were in the same year level. Cedric was also close with Cho Chang and the two were romantically involved. Eventually Cedric became a popular student and was elected as Seeker for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and became captain of the team during his fifth year, becoming a prefect that year as well. Cedric first faced Harry Potter during the Quidditch tournament that year, and ended up catching the Golden Snitch after Harry was overcome by Dementors. Cedric offered to replay the match but the offer was declined by Gryffindor captain Oliver Wood, who felt that Diggory had won the game.Triwizard Tournament
The next year, Cedric and his father, Amos, attended the Quidditch World Cup alongside Harry, Hermione Granger and the Weasley family. Upon arriving at Hogwarts for his sixth year, Cedric learned that the Triwizard Tournament would be taking place at Hogwarts that year. Cedric put his name forth in the Goblet of Fire and was selected as the Hogwarts champion alongside Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons and Victor Krum from Durmstrang. Despite all three champions being chosen, the Goblet of Fire had emitted a fourth name, Harry Potter, to become the fourth Triwizard Champion. Cedric remained kind to Harry whilst everyone else assumed he was lying when he stated that he did not put his name in the Goblet of Fire. Despite having two champions from the school, the majority of Hogwarts students supported Cedric during the Tournament, with students even creating enchanted badges that said "Support Cedric Diggory, the Real Hogwarts Champion". Cedric was opposed to the badges and asked people not to wear them. Before the First Task started, Cedric was informed by Harry that the subject of the task would be dragons. The dragon chosen for Cedric was the Swedish Short-Snout and was to retrieve the Golden Egg the dragon was guarding. Cedric achieved this by transfiguring a rock into a labrador to distract the dragon whilst he retrieved the egg. The dragon was distracted by Cedric and burned half of his face. After completing the task, Cedric was informed by Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody to place the egg underwater and listen to it. Cedric took the egg to the Prefect's bathroom and took a while to figure out that the second task would be involving merpeople. Cedric was then required to attend the Yule Ball and attended with Ravenclaw student Cho Chang. Towards the end of the night, Cedric informed Harry about placing the egg underwater as repayment for Harry warning him about the First Task. Knowing he would have to breathe underwater for one hour during the Second Task, Cedric applied the Bubble-Head Charm and retrieved Cho, his hostage, from the Black Lake. He quickly warned Harry about the time limit before finishing, as Harry was worried about Fleur's hostage as she had been eliminated. After both tasks were completed, Cedric was tied for first place in the Tournament with Harry.Cedric's father travelled to Hogwarts to be with his son for the third and final task in the tournament. Amos was displeased with Harry due to the media storm that was covering him during the tournament, for which Cedric apologised for and informed his father that it wasn't Harry's fault. Due to being tied at first place, Cedric and Harry entered the maze together, but eventually split up. After escaping a Blast-Ended Skrewt, Cedric was attacked by a bewitched Viktor Krum, who tortured Cedric before being rescued by Harry before splitting up again. Cedric spotted the Triwizard Cup and raced towards it before being attacked by an acromantula. Harry and Cedric reunited again and defeated the beast together, finding themselves at the Triwizard Cup. Cedric urged Harry to take the Cup as a favour for saving his life twice that evening, after realising that they both helped each other, they agreed to both take the Cup. The Cup turned out to be a Portkey, a teleportation device used for travel, and were transported to a graveyard in Little Hangleton.
Death
Soon after arriving in the graveyard, Cedric drew his wand, suspicious about their surroundings. Peter Pettigrew emerged carring a small being, which turned out to be Lord Voldemort. While Harry was suffering through searing pain through his scar due to Voldemort's presence, The Dark Lord ordered Pettigrew to "kill the spare", regarding to Cedric. Pettigrew used Voldemort's wand to murder Cedric in cold-blood. After Voldemort's revival, he duelled with Harry, during the duel their wands connected, Cedric's ghost emerged from the wand along with the ghosts of Harry's parents. Before distracting Voldemort, Cedric asked Harry to take his body back to his father. Harry broke the connection and sprinted towards Cedric's body, summoning the Cup to transport back to Hogwarts.Impact after death
Now back at Hogwarts, Harry refused to leave Cedric's body. The crowd began to scream and panic after the realised that the boy was dead and his father raced down to mourn the loss of his young son. Harry was eventually pulled away from the scene by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Due to the tragic events, the Leaving Feast on the last day of the school year was instead turned into a memorial service for Cedric. Dumbledore informed the students against the wishes of the Ministry of Magic that Cedric was murdered by Voldemort. In the following months, the Ministry of Magic, lead by Minister Cornelius Fudge began a smear campaign on Harry and Dumbledore in an attempt to silence panic at the Dark Lord's return and hush up the death of Cedric. Cedric's death proved to be an inspiration for the students of Hogwarts, and eventually rebellion against the iron fist Dolores Umbridge had imposed onto the school. This led Harry, Ron and Hermione to form Dumbledore's Army for the students of Hogwarts, considering Umbridge was refusing to allow students to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry believed that students needed to know how to defend themselves, due in large part to the return of Voldemort and the re-forming of the Death Eaters, so that what happened to Cedric would not befall any Hogwarts student again. Harry continued to honour Cedric's memory through Dumbledore's Army and by keeping one of the "Support Cedric Diggory" badges.Production
auditioned for the part of Cedric Diggory but lost out to Pattinson. Ironically, Cavill was also Stephenie Meyer's first choice for the role of Edward Cullen in Twilight, a role which also went to Pattinson. Pattinson has stated that he would prefer to reprise his role as Cedric Diggory over portraying Edward Cullen in the Twilight films again. Pattinson credits his experience during the production of Goblet of Fire for keeping him in acting.Reception
Cedric's death was listed by Insider.com as the most devastating death in the Harry Potter films, particularly noting the mourning of Cedric's father and Harry's refusal to leave Cedric's body.Cedric's death is a major plot point in the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child where Harry and Ginny Weasley's son Albus uses a Time-Turner and prevents Cedric's death. Due to his humiliation in the Triwizard Tournament, Cedric eventually becomes a Death Eater and kills Neville Longbottom. Due to Neville's death, the final Horcrux Nagini was never destroyed, and Voldemort is never defeated. This change was controversial for fans of the series, especially considering that Cedric was an embodiment of good-natured and kind-heartedness. While the play and novelisation were controversial enough with fans of the series, the idea that Cedric's "heart of gold" would turn evil was a difficult idea to stomach for some readers, especially with the idea of him murdering another beloved character in Neville Longbottom.