𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆, cedric diggory ²

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

he walked down the busy halls of hogwarts. he saw some people packing their things to go home for christmas, others hugging their friends goodbye. he turned down the hall and went down the stairs to the dungeon. he pushed open the door the the slytherin common room that had students carrying luggage bags with some of their things in them. cedric knocked on the door of harlow's dorm room. he heard excited yells and then the door opened.

the face of pansy parkinson's appeared, "yes?"

"i'm here to see harlow." he told her.

pansy opened the door all the way, behind her was daphne, "we thought she was with you."

"where else could she be?" he asked.

"check her brother's dorm, room 132." she suggested before slamming the door in his face.

cedric sighed and made his way back up the stairs. he twisted and turned through the walls of hogwarts, eventually making his way to the gryffindor common room. he then made his way down to room 132 and knocked on the door.

a short brunette boy with gapped teeth opened up the door, "who are you?"

"cedric, who are you?" asked cedric.

"neville." the boy, neville, answered shortly.

"sorry," he apologized "i thought this was harry's dorm."

another boy appeared behind him, this one was a redhead, "it is."

cedric saw harry walk up to the door, "what do you want?"

"have you seen your sister?" cedric asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

"no, not in a few days." he responded.

"is something wrong?" the redhead boy said, "where's harlow?"

"that's what i'm trying to figure out, no ones seen her."

ϟ

cedric stood in dumbledore's office along with harry, fred, george and the redhead boy, whose name he found out was ron. dumbledore and snape stood on the opposite side of them.

"what's the matter of this urgent meeting?" dumbledore asked, "shouldn't you be getting packed up to go home for the break?"

"it appears, professor, that harlow's missing." cedric told him.

"what do you mean missing?" asked professor snape with a concerned look on his face.

"no ones seen her since last night." george explained.

"perhaps she just wondered off." suggested dumbledore.

cedric shook his head, "she wouldn't have just gone off without telling anyone."

"me and george were the last ones to see her." fred spoke up.

"where's the last place you saw her?" inquired dumbledore.

"near the boys bathroom." said george.

"she said she was going out for air and walked away." said fred.

"i suppose we should check the entrance." muttered dumbledore.

ϟ

the seven of them walked down the halls, navigating their way through the school. they opened the door to the main entrance of the school. the snow on the ground was thick. it would've been a beautiful sight if cedric wasn't worried out of his mind.

cedric looked at the ground, a glimmer of light caught his eyes. he bent down to see what it was, he saw a piece of gold buried in the snow. he digged it out of the snow, it was a hair clip.