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Willow's fears became a reality the next day, as much as she wanted to blame Cedric Diggory, she knew it was all in her own head.
She was terrified of things being tense or awkward between them, which had become more than true. She knew it was all her own fault.
As she entered the classroom that morning, deciding to take the long way to mentally prepare herself, Cedric immediately sent a smile her way.
She mustered every ounce of courage she had to send one back, sinking in her seat beside Maeve and Anita.
They still didn't know she had been planting kisses onto Cedric Diggory's lips, maybe even more than once, and she wasn't sure when she wanted them to know.
She was new to all these things that came with crushes and love, including the pain and anxiety that came in the package.
Would her telling them make things even stranger? They'd surely act different around him and she wasn't sure she wanted that intimacy to be thrown into the world. Once your friends knew, it became undeniable.
The feeling of his lips lingered on hers that night as it remained, leaving her restless, as she listened to the sounds of Apollo and her roommates slumber away.
At least he was lovely, she thought. At least her first and only kiss was a beautifully kind boy. One that she wouldn't be embarrassed to tell her kids about in 20 years.
The thought of talking to him after, knowing their feelings had been intertwined, made her want to jump off a cliff.
What were they to say now? What if they kissed again? Would the embarrassment be there? Would he think differently of her now?
The humiliation of knowing someone who knew exactly how you felt consumed her. She was a Malfoy, people weren't supposed to hit her walls and crack them down. People weren't supposed to know how she felt.
Part of her wanted to write to her mom and tell her everything, begging for some sort of answers out of this funk, but she couldn't risk her father seeing.
It was a possibility that her mother would be disappointed in her being with a Hufflepuff boy, but Willow didn't see it being the end of the world.
Regarding her father, it would be the end of the century. She could imagine her father talking to Dumbledore now, demanding she be transferred instantly or burning down the village Cedric lived in.
