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"Reducto!"

Cedric had found a spot in the grass of this strange city's park from which to work on his spellcasting, starting with some target practice. He'd pushed back the sleeves of his plantsuit as far as was possible and made long movements with his wand, alternating between creating fast streams of bubbles and shooting them down. The almost childish game of bubble-popping was a simple diversion from the stream of thoughts that was flowng just as fast, one that hadn't stopped since the moment he realized he was alive: I'm about to die. It was hard to comprehend, when it seemed like his life had been going so well just hours ago.

Yet these Ohm had thrown everything off balance. Cedric had gone straight to Stacy to ask for his memories restored, as he'd never rest until he knew the truth of what happened. It had been just as hard to remember as that unicorn princess had predicted. Sure, the curse that was meant to kill him had been thrown off by another attack, but he'd heard awful yells. Harry's. When the sedation had worn off and he'd opened his eyes, he'd had to struggle not to scream.

That was what had happened to disrupt the course of history. For now, he had been given days, weeks, maybe months or a year or two to live, that long until he left this crew behind and met his fate. People had talked about their worlds being restored after the war. The Ohm were supposed had something that would fix things as they were meant to be, and 'meant to be' was his death. If he didn't die during the war, he'd be meeting his end immediately afterward. Time couldn't be changed, not even with a Time Turner. It had to happen.

Cedric was living on borrowed time. No one knew how long it would be until they won. They were going to win, he was sure. A small selfish part of him hoped that it would last a while, that he would have time to finish his unfinished business and learn more, but that was unfair. He couldn't allow the needless deaths to hang over his conscience any longer than necessary. The countless innocents killed during the Ohm's attack needed to live, not him. Billions of lives resurrected in exchange for his death, that was fair. He was the spare, not them. No matter what his father said or the Goblet decided, he wasn't special in the eyes of the universe, was he? He was just...

The spare who had been temporarily spared. A bubble waiting to be popped. Pop, pop, pop went the bubbles as his wand moved more precisely. If this was all the life he had left, he might as well do it right.

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"Yeah, he is. He's one of the best roboticists in the world! He even made my family..."

Atom gave him a little smile. "I'm going to help out any way I can. I want to make sure the people here don't have to be afraid."

"So he's like a father?"

Right. Robots were made...that was still hard for him to grasp. People made other people, and not through the normal way. But Atom seemed fine by him. And he was so optimistic and kind...had he gone to Hogwarts, Cedric was sure they would've been housemates.

"You know, I think I'd like to do that too. It's hard not to be afraid of all of this."

"Um... kind of, I guess. Or maybe like... a grandpa?" He liked that idea, thinking of Professor Ochanomizu like a grandpa, even if the Professor already had a grandson of his own.

Atom smiled at Cedric. "Then let's do it together! I'm sure there's lots of stuff we could do to make people feel better." Of course, he wasn't quite sure what those things were yet, but he'd figure it out.

Cedric nodded. Yes, he could do that! Speaking of grandpas...

"Maybe we could start by offering support. Most of us lost our families, and not everyone's used to feeling alone out in the world. Is there something we could do there?"

"Maybe..." Atom frowned a little, thinking. "But I don't think there's anything that can replace someone's family. It'd be nice if we didn't all have to stay in those weird living rooms, though. I mean, they're okay, but they're kind of creepy."

He might be getting a little off track here.

"No, but I like that. Let's find somewhere for them to go. Could one of the buildings here work, do you think?"

Cedric had passed quite a few interesting-looking buildings on his way here, but he had yet to explore any of them. Maybe there was something nice inside.

"Okay!" Atom set off on foot (after all, without his broom, Cedric couldn't fly, right?), looking over his shoulder at Cedric. "This way, right?"

Even if they didn't find anything, exploring the City could be fun!

"Coming!" Cedric scrambled to his feet, brushed the grass from his suit, and set off after Atom. There was so much to see. They were by the river, tall buildings on every side. Some sort of white building, a dome, a house, something like a garage, a school---there was even a castle, though he was disappointed to see that it was not Hogwarts. Wait, that assumption was silly. Hogwarts couldn't have gotten here, it was gone.

"How'd it get an entire city down here?"

"Hmm... I don't know. I guess the same way we got here? Maybe a mass teleportation device..." He looked around; his vision showed him a giant gate in the distance. Had that been used to get some of the buildings in here?

"Whoa, that castle's pretty cool. I don't know if it'd be good to live in, though, since it's made of stone." He made a note to explore it later.

"You can't move things around with magic?"

"You could, but it wouldn't be easy. Stunning a large dragon takes a whole team of wizards, so moving a whole stone castle would take a massive amount of magical power. I doubt there were enough wizards to do it."

He smiled at the castle before they moved on, though. "My school was a castle. It was even bigger than that one." And he would most definitely miss it.

On their way, he happened to spot a large wheel moving in the distance. "Hey---your vantage point's better than mine. Can you see what that spinning wheel is?"

Atom flew upward, hovering without effort in the artificial sky. "Hey, it's a ferris wheel! I didn't know there was a park here."

There was a sign in the distance that Atom could read with his enhanced vision -- 'Awesome World'. He lowered himself to the ground. "You want to see what it is? I can fly us there."

"An amusement park?" Well that was an unusual choice of things to keep around. Cedric stared in the distance, trying to get a good look at the thing.

He was surprised by the offer. It would take a while, but he could walk, but...

"You sure? Wouldn't want to bother you."

"No problem, I've carried bigger stuff before." Lots bigger. Hmm. But what was the best way to fly Cedric? In the end, Atom settled on locking his elbows under Cedric's arms, sort of hugging him from behind. That should give Atom a pretty sturdy grip and also allow Cedric to get a good bird's eye view of the City.

"Hold on tight, okay?"

Cedric had been about to assure Atom that it was quite all right and that he could walk when he felt arms encircle him. He was really determined, wasn't he?

"Where---oh," Cedric scrambled to find a hold, but he was quite relieved when he did. This might just be all right. He could almost feel the ground vibrating under his feet, the way he sometimes felt right before takeoff. In those moments, he knew the exhilaration and freedom that was waiting for him up there.

"All right. Let's go!"

And they were off, zooming through the City's skyline in a bright blue trail of energy. Maybe not quite like riding a broom, but plenty fast! They could even see some guy's mansion in the distance, and the train tracks and everything. Atom set Cedric down gently at the entrance to the park, watching curiously as a robot caretaker walked by.

"I wonder who built this place. It looks like everything's working."

During the flight, Atom would have started to hear the tentative sound of Cedric's laughter. He couldn't help but be happy when he was zooming through the air, worries so far below and the wind whipping past him. It was the first time on this whole adventure that he started to feel normal again.

By the time he'd been set down and they were moving past a group of maintenance robots, the smile was all over his face. "Did they do it? It's really very good. Clever. Wizards have never tried anything like this."

He was excited to try something, anything. "Did you want to see the wheel? Or those cars on the track?"

Atom smiled broadly back. "Let's try the roller coaster. I haven't been on one of those forever!"

Of course, it did require a certain amount of daring to ride one... but he was totally up to the challenge.

Cedric glanced at the indicated thing---the track with the cars---and grinned, heading straight up to the boarding platform. Compared to a game of Quidditch, he was sure this was perfectly safe.

They were offered secured seats in little cars by the attending robot, and Cedric could feel the excitement building up. "I haven't been on one at all! Let's see this."

Game face on, and they were off! Zooming over the somewhat rickety track, dangerous twists and turns...it was wonderful.

Atom threw his hands up as they plunged downwards, then back up again, laughter bubbling up from inside him. This must be what humans felt, right? It was fun!

Sometimes he got so caught up in all the other things he had to do that... well, he forgot what it was like to just sit back and be a kid.

It was a controlled process, and therefore not all that much like flying, but Cedric loved it anyway. The jerks and twists and turns, the really dangerous spins---it was all perfect. He loved the wind whipping in his hair, the views rushing by, and even the slightly dizzy feeling as he disembarked. He walked over to an exit railing when they were released, head bent in laughter.

"Wow! I thought we might get tossed for a moment back there."

Atom laughed happily as he caught up, waving to the robot helping them off. "Ha, that'd be a real ride! But nah, roller coasters are pretty safe. I can't believe no one's here."

He pointed to the ferris wheel. "You want to try that next?"

Cedric could hardly believe it either. This Muggle stuff was...fun! He'd have to try everything at least once.

"No lines means more time for us, right? Come on, let's go! We'll get a view of everything waiting for us here, and you won't have to do the lifting."

And he was tearing off toward the ferris wheel with a grin.

"Hey! No fair!" But Atom was grinning all the same as he ran after Cedric. Once at the ferris wheel, he scrambled into a car, looking eagerly out the large windows. Sure, he could fly, but ferris wheels were still cool. And this one was so big!

He wondered if they had cotton candy here.

Cedric piled in beside him, peeking out the other side of the wheel to view the rest of the park grounds. It was fairly small, all told, and the rest of the City easily stretched into view before them. He peered at various objects.

"I see a few castles---no, none of them are mine. And there's a funny looking tower." He pointed out various strange shapes here and there, eyes suddenly turning when they swung close to the ground. "Did that one say magic show?"

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Anything in particular you want to find?

Awesome World? Still need to talk to cast about world buildings.

Re: Awesome World? Still need to talk to cast about world buildings.

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