2.| ✮𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝓑𝓲𝓵𝓵. ✮ {𝓑. 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂}

\𝓉𝓌ℯ𝓃𝓉𝓎-𝒻ℴ𝓊𝓇\

Even in her sweatpants and purple Weasley sweater, the entire castle felt cold to Eleanora that day. She avoided people as much as she could, heading to the library to read for the day. There were only a few tables of first and second years occupied. She started for her favorite corner in the back, but stopped abruptly halfway there.

"Eleanora," Cedric said, shaking her slightly and immediately feeling bad for having to wake her up. After the whole scene with the twins growing beards, she'd found him and they'd gone to a little corner of the library where nobody ever went. He'd brought some chocolate frogs and a book, and they'd curled up on a window seat together all afternoon, Eleanora asleep on Cedric's shoulder.

"Eleanora..."

"Hmmm." She shifted a little and opened her eyes. "What?"

A small smile crossed Cedric's face. "We've got to get to the feast. It's in..." he checked his watch, "twenty minutes."

"No..." she sighed, closing her eyes again and resting her head on his chest. "Let's just skip it."

"What if one of us is the champion?" he said, but he didn't make a move to get up.

"Someone'll tell us after. It would look cooler anyways, like we're too good for the tournament." Cedric grinned and ran his fingers through her hair.

"And are we too good for the tournament?"

Eleanora sat up, climbing over to straddle him and looking at him with mock-seriousness. "Of course we are, have you seen me?"

Cedric laughed and she leaned down to kiss him. "We really do have to go," he said into her lips.

"Mmmm, we can afford to be fashionably late."

~

She turned and stormed to a different table. When she slid into her seat, she pulled out a piece of paper, wanting more than anything to write to Bill. What would she say, though? She couldn't tell him how she felt about him. There was no way he felt the same way. Not when he had any number of girls to date outside of Hogwarts. She knew he'd never seen her as more than a family friend. And anyways, she wasn't ready to come to terms with her feelings yet. She was still yearning for Cedric, just wanting some form of affection after he'd left her so suddenly. She still hadn't gotten any clarity on their breakup. She had a sneaking suspicion that Cedric had meant one of the twins when he said she loved someone else.

Fred and George found Eleanora in the library a long while later, still staring at the blank piece of parchment.

"Hey," George said, taking the seat next to her. "You haven't been at any meals today. What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing," Eleanora said quickly, not meeting their eyes. "Just tired is all." Fred eyed her suspiciously, knowing for a fact that it was more than that. "What's he doing here?" Eleanora said before the conversation could continue. Cedric had entered the library by himself, carrying a handful of books.

"Studying?" said George. Eleanora scowled. To her dismay, Cedric approached their table before anything else.

"Hey," he said congenially. "How're you?" Eleanora didn't answer. Cedric narrowed his eyes. "Could-" Cedric turned to the twins. "-could I have a word with Eleanora? In private?" The twins glanced nervously at Eleanora and she hesitated, but nodded her head. Fred and George got up and migrated a few tables away, watching the interaction carefully.

"Eleanora," Cedric said quietly when the twins had left. "I thought we said we would still be friends."

Eleanora raised an eyebrow at him. "You mean you said we could still be friends."

"You agreed to it!"

"I was in shock!" Her voice cracked and her hands clenched into fists under the table. Of all the days Cedric could've confronted her, this was the worst.

"El, you had to've known it was coming. I explained everything to you, I thought we would be okay-"

"You did not explain it to me." Eleanora's voice rose. "You gave me bullshit excuse after bullshit excuse to avoid conflict, and then you pretended like nothing happened."

"They weren't bullshit excuses! I told you, we weren't in love anymore-"

"I was in love with you!"

Cedric shook his head hard. "No, you weren't, Elean-"

"Don't you dare tell me how I feel," Eleanora practically shouted. Heads turned across the library and Madame Pince shushed the two. Eleanora lowered her voice with some effort. "You don't have any idea how I feel, Ced. You just wanted to run off with Cho because you got bored of me, didn't you?"

"That's not true."

"Stop lying to me!"

"I'm not-"

"You are!" Eleanora bellowed, standing up so fast her chair fell backwards. The twins were by her side in an instant, but she shook them off. "You keep lying to me! You told me we were both in love with other people just to shut me up. Because you were in love with Cho and you didn't want me to get upset because you'll do anything to get yourself out of difficult situations, won't you, Cedric?" There were tears in her eyes. "And there's no way you could've known- I'm not in love- you can't-" she stammered, trying to get back into her rhythm. It was lost. "I loved you," she said simply. The whole library was looking at them, but she didn't care. She bit back tears, watching Cedric's face change.

"El... that's not true," he whispered. "You're- I thought you were in love with- with... Bill. He's all you ever talk about and the way you got upset about him ignoring you, I-" He looked almost panicked. "I thought I was doing the right thing."

This was too much for Eleanora. She brushed past Cedric, ducked her head, and ran towards the library door, tears streaming down her face. She didn't stop until she was two floors away from Cedric, away from the library. She leaned against a stone wall and tried to catch her breath, wiping her eyes furiously.

"Miss Marks?" a sharp voice came from a little ways down the corridor. Eleanora's heart sank. She lifted her head to see Professor Snape striding down the hallway towards her.

"Hey," she said, her voice breaking a little.

"Are you... alright?"

Eleanora opened her mouth to tell him she was fine, but burst into a fresh wave of tears before she could get the words out. Every time she tried to speak, only sobs came out. Snape looked alarmed, not sure exactly what to do. He put a hand out and awkwardly patted her shoulder once, and then retracted it.

"What's- um- what seems to be the trouble?"

"It's Cedric- and- and it's Bill- and I don't know- I'm so tired-" she raised a shaking hand to her eyes to wipe some of the tears away. "Sorry."

"Perhaps- the hospital wing... would be best?" Snape said hopelessly. Eleanora nodded and leaned back against the wall, pressing both hands to her face before removing them and taking a deep, shuddering breath.

"Yeah," she whimpered. "Yeah."