With each and every moment that Analeigh Heart and Cedric Diggory spent together since that fateful day that they met, there was no questioning that their feelings for one another had grown incredibly stronger. They had gone from being strangers to friends, to partners in a dangerous tournament, and finally to significant others. If she was to be completely honest with herself, Analeigh even felt quite overwhelmed with how strongly she felt about Cedric recently. It was a far cry from when she first realized she simply liked him, which was already over a year ago — now, it was something more that she couldn't quite put into words just yet.
However, the two of them hadn't spoken to each other at all in the days that followed their fight. For Merlin's sake, they wouldn't even spare a single glance at one another in any of the times that they so happened to cross paths in the corridors or during meals. As stubborn as Analeigh was, she still cared so much about Cedric that she wanted more than anything just make up with him as quickly as possible. She felt as if everything she had built up with Cedric had been flushed down the drain — she scolded herself for being so dramatic, but it wasn't like she could do anything to control her emotions.
She tried to keep her worries to herself for a while, but a certain bushy-haired girl was soon able to pick up on her change in mood. In the end, Analeigh gave in and decided to confide in Hermione, but she made her promise not to tell Harry or Ron because they all had too much on their plates at the moment. She didn't want to add her petty relationship problems into the mix. They already had O.W.L.s and their upcoming detentions with Umbridge to worry about, and Harry still had Occlumency lessons with Snape, too.
It was a gloomy evening when Harry and Analeigh exited the Great Hall together. Harry had yet another one of those dreadful Occlumency sessions, while Analeigh simply did not want to stay in dinner any longer — despite there being hundreds of students in there, it felt as if she could only find herself looking for Cedric. She didn't want to dampen her mood further by doing that knowing fully well that they weren't talking to each other, so heading back to the common room earlier was probably the best idea.
"Leigh," Harry suddenly broke the silence. "How come you haven't been around Cedric recently?"
Analeigh tensed up, not quite expecting that from Harry. She was sort of hoping that he wouldn't notice that she and Cedric had been keeping their distance.
"Oh... we had a fight," she said awkwardly. Harry raised his eyebrows at that. He thought Analeigh and Cedric were perfectly fine, especially since it was only a few days ago that they were learning the Patronus Charm together. That is, before the entire D.A. was caught red-handed.
"What happened?"
"Er, we didn't agree on something about the D.A.," Analeigh replied. She caught a flicker of guilt in Harry's eyes — he had been carrying the weight of everything to do with the D.A. since he was their teacher, after all. "But it's not a big deal, I swear," she said hurriedly just to reassure him.
"I hope you work things out with him," Harry tried. Analeigh bit her lip, feeling as if that wouldn't be happening any time soon.
"Have you talked to Cho?" Analeigh changed the topic. Harry's eyes flitted elsewhere, a clear giveaway that he hadn't.
"No," he mumbled.
"Maybe you should try —" Analeigh stopped short when she noticed that the very girl they were talking about was standing at the other end of the hall.
"Why did you — oh," said Harry in realization, also noticing Cho not too far from them. She looked hesitant as she stood there on her own, almost as if she had been waiting for Harry so she could speak to him privately.
"I suppose this is your cue to talk to her," Analeigh said with a hopefully encouraging smile. "I'll head to the common room now. See you later, Harry."
Harry sighed to himself as Analeigh walked up the staircase, leaving him there. Knowing that he couldn't just run away now, he reluctantly made his way to Cho Chang.
"Harry," she said in a small voice.
"Cho," he acknowledged. He fidgeted in place uneasily. "Umbridge hasn't been asking you more about the D.A., has she?"
"Oh no," said Cho quickly. "No, it was only... well, I just wanted to say... Harry, I never dreamed Marietta would tell..."
"Yeah, well..." Harry said moodily. He believed Cho could have chosen her friends a bit more carefully, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it anymore. The damage had been done.
"And... and I only confessed because of the Veritaserum, I promise. Umbridge called me in again and I think it was in her tea," Cho continued. That eased some of Harry's anger for a moment. He felt as if he had dodged a bullet because Umbridge also questioned him after the whole fiasco, but he luckily decided not to drink the tea back then due to his suspicions that they were spiked with truth serum. He was just about ready to forgive Cho when she added, "And about Marietta... she's a lovely person, really. She just made a mistake —"
"A lovely person who made a mistake? She sold us all out!" Harry said incredulously, his temper rising once again.
"You know, her mum works for the Ministry, it's really difficult for her —"
"Ron's dad works for the Ministry too! And in case you hadn't noticed, he hasn't got 'sneak' written across his face —"
"That was a really horrible trick of Hermione Granger's," said Cho fiercely. "She should have told us she'd jinxed that list —"
"I think it was a brilliant idea," Harry cut in coldly. Cho grew flustered and her eyes flashed dangerously.
"Oh yes, I forgot. Of course, if it was darling Hermione's idea —"
"Don't start crying."
"I wasn't going to!" Cho shouted defiantly.
"Yeah... well, good," said Harry. "I've got enough to cope with at the moment."
"Go and cope with it then!" Cho said furiously before turning on her heel and walking away. Harry huffed to himself and did the same, stomping towards the direction of the Gryffindor tower.
★ ★ ★
As if Analeigh's and Cedric's fight — and now, Harry's and Cho's as well — wasn't enough for a bunch of stressed teenagers, Umbridge finally scheduled her detentions for the D.A. members who got caught. On their first day, they gathered in the Great Hall where the four long tables had been pushed aside and replaced with single desks spread out across the room. Each desk had a piece of parchment and quill, but no ink. The sight of this sent the hairs on Harry's arm standing up — he knew all too well what they were going to go through, and he didn't like it one bit. His stomach felt queasy as it registered that all his friends would have to write lines using their very own blood, and they would undoubtedly be leaving detention with scarred hands. He didn't want all of them to experience the pain that he did, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice. They were all skating on thin ice already, and defying Umbridge yet again would only make things worse.
Nobody said a word as they settled into their seats. Mostly everyone found it strange that all they had on their tables were a parchment and quill, but Harry, Analeigh, Hermione, and Ron already knew the meaning behind it.
"Good evening, children," Umbridge greeted from where she sat on the large, brass chair at the front and center of the hall. "I'm sure you're aware of why you are all here today, and it pains me to have to punish you for your wrongdoings."
It pains her? Analeigh thought in disbelief. She revels in our suffering. She resisted the urge to make a disgusted face at Umbridge's words. Hermione saw this and sent her a pointed look, almost as if to warn her before she was spotted and dug herself deeper into a hole.
"However, I do believe that what you will be doing today will allow you to reflect on your actions and understand why it is necessary that I must discipline you," Umbridge went on with a sickly sweet smile. "If you did not realize it yet, you will be doing lines. Nothing more, and nothing less."
Analeigh could see the D.A. members exchange looks with one another. She knew they were probably wondering why their punishment seemed too easy, but they were going to be in for a terrible surprise in a matter of minutes. She felt her heartbeat quickening — she couldn't deny that she was afraid of how writing with her own blood would feel. She knew it hurt Harry a lot, even if he didn't like admitting it.
"Um, Professor," Dean Thomas had the guts to say. "We haven't got any ink to write, though."
Umbridge's smile only widened at that.
"No need to worry, Mr. Thomas. These are some of my very special quills — you won't be needing any ink."
Harry clenched his fists at that, wanting to attack that wretched woman right then and there. But before he knew it, Umbridge was ordering them to start writing.
It wasn't long before people started gasping and wincing. Analeigh was already mentally preparing herself for what would happen, but it didn't make it any less painful when she felt the sharp pains on the back of her hand. She forced herself to not make a sound, but it was a challenge when it felt as if words were being written into her skin using a scalpel.
By the end of their detention, every D.A. member walked out of the room with fresh wounds on their hands. They couldn't even complain about it while Umbridge was around, so all they could do was retreat to their common rooms in a painful silence.
The next couple of days that followed didn't get any better. Everyone was already busy enough with their exams fast approaching, and Umbridge just had to burden them even more with her punishment.
Analeigh walked out of the Great Hall for the nth time that week with a slightly shaking, red hand. She tried to write her lines faster to get them over with, but it didn't seem to make a difference; it still hurt. She sighed to herself, cradling her hand to her chest as she made her way towards to the steps and sat down on them. She knew Harry, Hermione, and Ron would be done soon, so she decided to wait for them.
Now that she was alone with her thoughts, her mind wandered off to a certain Hufflepuff: Cedric, who she hadn't spoken to in days by now. It was like silent torture, both because she missed him and because she hated leaving arguments hanging like that. She was the type to confront people in situations like this, but all Cedric was doing was keeping his distance. It even almost ached to not be around him — to simply walk with him down the halls in between classes, or to spend time together alone in their favorite spot in the castle. She didn't realize that arguing with Cedric would affect her like this, and it made her feel pathetic. She questioned if he thought of her at all these past few days, or if he was too focused on studying to do so and truly just didn't want anything to do with her after they didn't see eye to eye.
But Analeigh couldn't be more wrong. He did think of her every day that went by since that happened. Cedric just hated fighting — it just wasn't something he did often. He always made it a point to resolve issues that might cause a strain in his relationship with the other person. If he could say so himself, it was a quality of his that he found commendable. So, it bothered him to no end that he and Analeigh let their emotions get the best of them that day, and now they were in such a rocky place in their relationship. However, he didn't know why he couldn't just approach Analeigh and talk things over with her. The mere thought of it sounded difficult, and all the more he didn't have it in him to actually do it.
These ate Cedric up alive as he walked down the halls of the castle after visiting Professor Sprout's office. Just that morning, the woman noticed that some of her students had alarming wounds on the backs of their hands and immediately offered her help without Umbridge knowing. So, Cedric made sure to finish writing his lines much quicker that evening to visit Sprout, who ended up giving him a generous amount of Murtlap Essence.
Cedric turned the corner to the corridor that led to the Great Hall. He was planning on waiting for his fellow Hufflepuffs to finish detention, but instead, he spotted the very girl he could not stop thinking about sitting on the steps next to the giant door.
Analeigh raised her head, and her eyes met Cedric's. They held their gazes for a moment, and Analeigh was already anticipating him to leave when he started crossing the hallway towards her, which mildly took her aback.
"Hey," he said, stopping directly before her.
"Hi," Analeigh replied, looking up at him. There was a brief pause, and then Cedric cleared his throat.
"How's your hand?"
"It's alright," she said, but in truth, it was stinging from the constant reopening of the wounds due to their many detentions. Analeigh was caught off guard once more when Cedric crouched down to be at eye level with her.
"It's still bleeding and shaking, too," Cedric pointed out, gently taking her injured hand into his own. Analeigh's heart raced as she found herself missing his touch — no, she missed his overall presence. Then, Cedric retrieved a vial containing a greenish blue solution from the pocket of his robe. "This is Murtlap Essence. It soothes and heals cuts."
Analeigh didn't say a word as Cedric opened the bottle and began applying drops of the potion onto her wounds. She couldn't even focus on how it was already soothing her because all she could think about was the boy in front of her.
"About what happened the other day..." she began. "Can we talk about it?"
Cedric didn't reply right away, trying to pay more attention to the wounds on Analeigh's hand and applying medicine on them.
"Look," he said after a few seconds. "I... I don't think we should discuss this right now, Analeigh."
"Why not?"
"We've both got other things to worry about at the moment."
"So, you're just gonna pretend we didn't fight and now you're going to run away?" Analeigh asked, slightly irked by his answer.
"I'm not. I just don't think this is a good time for either of us."
"Cedric, we've literally ignored each other for days, and frankly, I... I can't stand it," she confessed, hating the way she sounded so desperate. "All I want is to talk things out and —"
"I think we need a bit of space for a while."
Analeigh tensed up at Cedric's words. All of a sudden, she felt herself get annoyed by him. What was so hard about discussing their fight? Why couldn't he just say what he was feeling? And now, he was going to escape that by putting more space between them than they had already created in the past few days?
The doors to the Great Hall opened, diverting their attention. Several of their classmates came walking out, including both Cedric's and Analeigh's closest friends.
"Fine," Analeigh said quietly, pulling her hand away from Cedric's grasp. Cedric couldn't ignore the slight pang in his chest at that action. "Thanks for your help. I'll... I'll give you the space you need."
With that, Analeigh stood up and left Cedric there. Her mind was whirring madly, wondering what this all meant for her relationship with him. How could they have gone from being so intimate in the holidays to this tense atmosphere? Did that fight make him realize that perhaps he didn't want to be with her any longer? Is that why he wanted space? Thinking about this hurt, and she didn't even make an effort to join her friends' conversation as she reunited with them.
Meanwhile, Cedric felt just as awful, if not worse. He couldn't help but think that maybe Analeigh was right when she called him a coward before. The reason he didn't want to talk about their fight was because it was unlike any other that he'd been in before. This time, it was with her — his girlfriend, the girl he deeply cherished and held dear to him, and the person without whom he couldn't imagine life anymore. Somehow, the thought of dissecting that argument scared him. Would it lead to another fight that would further pull them apart? What if it turned out they weren't a good match after all? What if their views on what happened to the D.A. and the imminent war were just too different? Would they end everything just like that? He didn't want to encounter those possibilities and would rather prolong this torture. Not everyone could be Gryffindors; Cedric just couldn't find the courage to face these problems head-on.
And so, all he could do was stare longingly after Analeigh as she walked away from him.
A/N: Writing fight scenes hurt me LMAO. Don't forget to comment your thoughts bc I enjoy reading them hihi :') Only 3 more chapters left!!