I Lived - Fred Weasley

Midnight

Scowling, Draco quickly drops the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking," he defends before slipping away with Crabbe and Goyle. He makes sure to send Celeste a mean look before leaving, she rolls her eyes and sits back down.

—

Celeste walks down the corridor with George and Fred. The three are on their way to meet up with Lee in the Great Hall, who swears he's found a new secret passage they can use to sneak out of school.

The blonde had been with the twins when Oliver Wood, a burly fifth year and captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team, excitedly told them that Harry Potter had gotten the spot of Seeker. Apparently, he'd gotten into some trouble with Draco, resulting in him doing some fantastic flying that McGonagall happened to witness.

The three see Harry as they enter the hall, immediately scurrying over to the first year.

"Well done," George says in a low voice to avoid attention. Wood had instructed the three to keep the new addition to the team a secret. "Wood told us. We're on the team too— Beaters."

Harry gives Celeste a curious look, the girl had previously mentioned to him that she had no real skill when it came to flying. "Not me," she explains. "I'm an announcer with Lee Jordan."

He nods in understanding as Fred continues talking.

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch Cup for sure this year," Fred smiles as if imagining the victory. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

"Anyway, we've got to go," George begins.

"Lee reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school," Celeste tells Harry.

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week," Fred adds on.

"See you," Celeste bids Harry farewell and she and the twins leave to go find Lee.

Fred ends up being right. George passes him two sickles as Lee tells the three how Gregory the Smarmy's passage works. Celeste huffs and passes Fred a galleon. Lee's disappointed that they already knew about the passageway, but Fred's certainly happy about it.

—

Celeste's up late, roaming the grounds. She doesn't want to go to bed after her nightmare last night. In it, her father had found a method of torture that was much more effective. He had started hurting her friends. No matter how much she screamed for him to stop, he wouldn't.

She sits down at the Black Lake, watching the waning moon reflect against the dark water. It's peaceful, something she's not used to. Her life is always hectic, the opposite of peaceful, in one way or another. Either she's at home and her life is scary and violent, or she's at school and her life is full of mischief and confrontation from the students that don't like her.

The thirteen-year-old girl kind of likes the peace, it's nice. A break from the chaos that defines her life.

"You should really go to bed," a voice says from behind the blonde, disturbing her from her thoughts.

She turns and is surprised to see Cedric Diggory. Yes, she met him while roaming the corridors late at night. But he's not usually the type to be out past curfew. He's responsible like that.

"So should you," she tells him. "What are you doing out this late?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he smiles.

"Not really," the girl counters, "you know I'm out a lot."

The boy chuckles. "I do know that, don't I?"

Celeste pats the ground next to her, gesturing for the fourteen-year-old boy to sit down. His birthday had been a few weeks ago, she had gotten him a color-changing inkwell to make his studies more colorful. He always uses it when they study together.

"Why are you out here?" she asks him as he sits down next to her.

"Fell asleep while studying," he admits.

"You have got to stop doing that," she laughs.

"This is only the second time in three years," he defends with a smile. "It's not that bad!"

The laughter dies down and a silence follows. It's a comfortable one. Something Celeste has noticed about her time with Cedric, the silences are always comfortable. Almost peaceful.

"So, how about you? Why are you out here this time?" He ends the silence with a soft voice.

Celeste sighs. She doesn't want to tell him the truth, that she's scared of her nightmares, because that'll mean having to explain that she gets regular nightmares in the first place. The thing is, she can't think of a convincing lie at the moment. And so she just stays silent.

"Celeste?"

"Yes, Diggory?"

"Are you going to tell me?"

"Honestly, I was hoping you'd suddenly get amnesia and forget you asked," she chuckles.

"Why?"

She sighs again. Might as well... "I get these nightmares sometimes... They get really bad and I wake up screaming. I had one last night and... I guess I'm scared to fall back asleep," she admits.

Cedric stays quiet for a while, processing this new information. Celeste never admits weakness or fear unless she has no choice. She understands that he might need a moment to process. She's never admitted anything like this to him before, always doing her best to appear invincible.

"Do you want to tell me what they're about?" He finally asks, carefully.

"Not particularly," she responds.

He opens his arm for her to lean into his side as they stare out at the lake.

She hesitates for just a moment before leaning into him, placing her head on his shoulder.

This isn't something they've done before, but it feels right in this moment. It's not weird or awkward for either of them. And, for once in her life, Celeste lets herself be comforted. She needs this, more than Cedric even realizes.

The two stay like that for a while, staring at the Black Lake. Eventually, they both agree that they should go to bed and they get up and Celeste walks Cedric to the Hufflepuff common room.

During the daytime, Cedric walks Celeste to her common room before going off to his own. But, in the nighttime, Celeste's better at not getting caught by Filch, Peeves, or Mrs. Norris. So she drops him off at his common room before making her way to her's.

"Pig snout," she says to the Fat Lady, who grumbles about a group of first years who had just rushed in from being out late as well.

Celeste makes her way up the stairs and into the Third Year (plus Katie) Girls' dormitory. Angelina Johnson is still up, waiting for the blonde to return.

"You didn't need to stay up for me," Celeste quietly says to her friend. The other two girls in the dorm are fast asleep.

"I wanted to," Angelina dismisses. "Do you need anything?" The raven-haired girl is possibly the best at trying to help Celeste with her nightmares, even though the blonde has said countless times that she's fine and doesn't need anything.

"I'll be okay," the green-eyed girl assures as she slides into her bed, still wearing her robes. "But thank you, Angelina, really."

The fourteen-year-old girl smiles, though it's hard to see in the dark. "Of course."