10 Movie Characters That Suffered Unnecessarily Cruel Fates

Despite Harry having first-hand knowledge of just what absolute gittery Voldemort was capable of, it wasn't until the climactic moments of the fourth instalment of his saga that our wizarding hero witnessed pure evil in all its harrowing glory.

Upon being whisked to a distant graveyard via a portkey, Harry and Cedric are accosted by Peter Pettigrew, carrying the shrunken he-who-must-not-be-named in his arms like some withered Cabbage Patch Doll. "Kill the spare," the mini dark lord orders, and that's the end of Cedric. No brave battle, no courageous defiance, just straight up cold-blooded murder.

The scene works because it serves to highlight to Harry - and to an audience - that Voldemort and his minions are willing to perpetrate the worst acts imaginable, even going so far as to kill an innocent schoolboy. But the last words that Cedric hears reminds him that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, truly a 'spare,' and Harry's trajectory in his overall objective remained unchanged, marking Cedric's death as an unfortunate coincidence as heartbreaking as it is avoidable.