Happily ever after? /// Cedric Diggory

3

"Christopher. let. go. of. me." I commanded through gritted teeth. "There is nothing you can say to me that will make me forgive you. Haven't you tormented me enough?" I accused, ripping my arm out of his grasp and exiting the dining hall before he could follow me. Walking out, I ran into someone, but I was too distraught to care. Once in the hallway, I ran until sinking against a wall, feeling my lungs constrict and heart rate increase hysterically. I was angry. Angry at Christopher for even talking to me. Angry at the Slytherins who made me feel as though I was less just because of my heritage. Angry at my friends for treating me like a breakable child. Angry that people could be so cruel. But mostly, I was angry at myself. Angry for feeling everything so intensely, for feeling too much, and for never being enough. Angry that after months of trying to get over him, Christopher still had a hold over my happiness.

Feeling the signs of an anxiety attack, I focused on controlling my breathing before it worsened, although that didn't help anything. Beginning to hyperventilate, I tried instead to envision my life pre-wizard, when I was just a normal girl with a normal family. I meditated on that picture. In my panic, I felt someone else's presence join me on the floor, and assuming it was Becca, I leaned into her shoulder and calmed down. After several minutes, the symptoms started to subside and I felt a soothing cool return to my body. With a heavy sigh I composed myself.

"Um I don't want to startle you or pry or whatever, but are you okay?" a voice that was definitely not Becca's asked, their voice vibrating me to the core and startling me beyond belief. Glancing up I saw none other than Cedric Diggory seated next to me, his face full of worry and concern. My face felt like it had just been set on fire; I was no doubt blushing beyond all measure.

"Well this is terribly embarrassing, I am so so sorry. I thought you were my best friend Becca, but clearly you're not. I definitely should've checked before pushing all my mess onto you, I'm so so sorry. I swear I'm not some mentally unstable weirdo who sits in the halls and cries or has nervous break downs all the time, it's just been one of those days, yanno? Oh gosh I've probably kept you from dinner too now, I'm so sorry!" I rambled on, completely and utterly humiliated. Could this night get worse?

"Hey hey hey, let's just breathe right now. It's okay. This is not the first time I've been mistaken for a girl, and I doubt it is the last, so don't worry about it. Also they're probably still sorting first years so we're not missing much. In fact I came out here to apologize to you when I saw you ran out, clearly upset by the way you almost bulldozed me over. What's going on? Please tell me I didn't cause this," he inquired further, clearly not bothered by the fact that we have never spoken to each other before or the fact that he had a stain of my tears ruining his robes.

"Oh, it's really nothing, and honestly you don't need to apologize for earlier, my friends are just very protective of me and my mental state, who would wonder why," I say, not really in the mood to discuss my emotional breakdown.

"But I do need to apologize because I feel awful, and clearly it's making you feel awful. To be completely honest, the reason my friends and I were talking about y'all was because I was enamored with you and your interesting, gravity defying cat. I'm really sorry it upset you, that was not my intention at all and I feel responsible for the whole thing, so you're allowed to hate me, but please don't blame my friends," he added sheepishly.

"I promise, you are mistaken! I promise this whole little meltdown had nothing to do with you, in fact I believe that had I not heard what you guys said, I would be in far worse shape. Trust me, I don't hate you or your friends at all," I reassured him. Wanting to make sure he knew he did nothing wrong, I allowed myself to be honest about Chris for the first time. "Okay, this may be way too forward and not at all what you thought you would hear on your first day back, especially from a stranger, but I feel for you to understand my reaction to everything, you must know the whole story, plus I really need to get this off my chest. You know how one of your friends mentioned I dated a Slytherin last year? Well, that is actually where this story starts, would you like the abridged or unabridged version? I don't want to keep you from dinner," but looking at his face to continue, I figured that if I'm going all out, might as well go the whole 10 yards. "His name was Christopher, Christopher Lawerence. You see, for the entirety of my stay at Hogwarts, I was hardly noticed, especially considering how fabulously perfect my best friends were, I typically just faded in with the scenery, which I was totally content with. However last year at a quidditch match, I met Chris. At first it was just him wanting to know me better, but I shut him down, as I had issues opening up to people and putting myself out there. But like every other horror story, I started to believe he actually wanted to know me and that he was a good guy. It was nice to feel pursued and important, though looking back at it know, I can't believe how naive I was to allow a relationship to define who I was, but we started dating at the beginning of second term and it was perfect. Chris was everything my 15-year-old self had wanted in a guy, and for a while, he was wonderful, even my friends approved, and you saw how crazy protective they are. Y'all knock Syltherins all you want, but they are as charming as I'll get out. Towards the end of the year, though, I felt something was off. Turns out my suspicions were correct. I had planned a surprise picnic date with him to try and figure out what was happening between us and sort through it. Fast forward to me showing up to the Sythlerin common room to see all his friends snickering at me and him smacking lips with some other girl. It was the most humiliating moment of my life, I've never felt more like an idiot.He ran after me and tried to apologize or whatever, but then said it was partly my fault because I was such a prude. Somehow I went from being a tease to basically a prostitute in a matter of days, crazy how people can twist situations. Now I can't walk past a group of Slytherins without them calling me filthy names. I mean it used to strictly be mud blood, which I was used to, but honestly it was impressive the names they came up with, I never realized how many guys I got busy with until then... He just now attempted to talk to me and apologize, leading to the mess you are currently looking at," I continued, gesturing to the disaster that was me.