A Dozen Fallen Roses // Cedric Diggory

chapter fifteen. the dungeons.

I feel myself being shaken awake, breaking out of my sleepy haze.

"Ava, wake up," Harry whispers. I sit up and look around, taking in my surroundings. I'm on the couch back in the Gryffindor Common Room. It's dark out and the fire has just died out in the fireplace. The few leftover embers crackle with their white and yellow heat. I look back at Harry and he has an extreme look of concern on his face.

"Harry, what's up?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing," he responds. His speech tells me he isn't upset, but something definitely happened. "I was coming back up to the common room with Ron tonight and found you slung over Malfoy's shoulder outside the door,"

"Oh my god," I put my head in my hands as memories from tonight's adventure come rushing back. "Wait, where are the twins?" I jump up, remembering leaving them asleep at the bottom of the staircase.

"They weren't with you, I haven't seen them," Harry responds. "But are you going to tell me why you were in Draco's arms?"

"I genuinely do not have an answer for you, Harry," I respond honestly, headed for the door. "But, we have to go find the twins."

He reluctantly follows me out and we rush back to the staircase that leads to the Slytherin dungeons. There's no sign of them anywhere.

"Dammit!" I mutter, rushing down the stairs and searching every broom closet and classroom for them. The only door left on this floor is Snape's office. I approach it slowly as Harry follows.

"Snape could be in there, there's plenty of castle we haven't searched. We should check upstairs," he tries to talk me out of the hallway. Ignoring this, I go further and hear Snape's muffled voice echoing through the door. I exchange a glance with Harry and he shakes his head. The door handle jiggles and we jump into a broom closet. Our bodies have no choice but to be pressed together and I can feel his hot breath. He shifts back and forth on his feet, clearly uncomfortable by the situation because although we may be on good terms again, things will never be exactly the same.

"You two imbeciles should report directly back to your common rooms. I don't want to see either of you out after curfew ever again," Snape demands, pushing the twins out of his office. They both laugh as they walk down the hallway, recounting the events after I was carried away by Malfoy.

As soon as Snape disappears back into his office, I rush out of the broom closet and up to the twins.

"You absolute idiots!" I whisper-yell. They whip around to see me and Harry standing in the hallway behind them.

"Where the hell have you been?" George asks.

"You two fell asleep in the middle of the hallway and I couldn't wake you up so I went up to get help," I lie. Harry shoots me a confused look, but I think it's best to leave out the Malfoy part. It's safe to assume they weren't sober enough to remember any of it and they would make it into a bigger deal than it is.

"Well you just left us out in the open for everyone to see, so lovely old Snape found us," Fred says, clearly blaming me as we start up the stairs.

"What'd he say, are you guys in trouble?" Harry asks.

"Not much, actually. I feel like he's pretty used to us fucking up," George replies.

"He took 50 points from Gryffindor, though," Fred continues.

"And we have a week's detention with him."

We make the rest of the way back to the common room in silence other than occasional giggles from the twins who still aren't totally sober.

"Goodnight, you guys," I say to the three boys as I head up to my dorm. The twins head towards theirs, but I feel a hand grab my wrist.

"I'm not trying to tell you who to be friends with or anything, but I would seriously avoid Malfoy, Ava," Harry suggests.

"I know. I promise, I'm not friends with Draco Malfoy," I laugh. "Goodnight."

He smiles a bit, satisfied with my response, then heads towards his room. I turn back and climb the rest of the stairs, quietly opening the door to my room and shutting it behind me to avoid waking Ginny and Hermione. Exhaustion overwhelms me as the high wears off and I'm again left with the pain of Cedric.

I'm filled with regret for avoiding him all of last week. Hermione assured me that it was the best thing for me, but I hadn't thought about what Cedric would think. It probably seemed like I didn't want him around and I was done with whatever we were doing when it's the complete opposite.

I love him and he doesn't know. Maybe he will never know. I just hope Cho makes him happy.

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im sorry, short chapter! but I'll post another in about an hour!