Things weren't much better with Chen.
Although he greeted me with a fierce hug when I finally came across him in the Entrance Hall, it was soon clear he felt highly uncomfortable around me.
"You do believe me, don't you?" I asked when he failed to respond to my comment about Hannah and Susan calling me a liar.
"Uh-" Chen nervously rubbed the back of his neck, his face flushing. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't visit when you were in the hospital wing, but everyone's been saying that you had a bad knock on the head and weren't making any sense. I didn't want to overwhelm you whilst you were in recovery."
"Well, that's very fucking thoughtful of you, Chen, but you didn't answer my question. Do. You. Believe. Me?"
"I believe you believe you."
I dumped his sorry arse.
I didn't know what do. Lord Voldemort was back and no one was listening to me; everyone around me was acting as though I'd simply lost my marbles.
Only Dumbledore knew it was the truth and that's only because he'd heard it from Barty Crouch Jr's mouth himself before a Dementor came along and snogged his face off.
Dumbledore: a supposed saviour who hadn't even been bothered to check up on me since that very night it happened. I tried turning up at his office numerous times, but I kept getting turned away when I couldn't come up with the correct password.
Well, screw him.
So, I concentrated on locating Ron and Hermione, anxious to share with them their friend's final moments before we departed for the summer.
But they too seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Frustrated and never feeling more alone than ever, I dramatically threw myself down on the bottom step of the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall and screamed into my hands.
"Trying not to think about it, are we?"
I looked up, my heart instantly racing. Striding towards me from the dungeon staircase, were three furious looking Slytherins; three Slytherins whose parents I had been trying to tell everyone were Death Eaters.
Oh... shit.
Draco Malfoy, closely flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom were simultaneously cracking their knuckles and trying to look menacing.
"Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"
"Go away," I said a lot more bravely than I felt as I shakily got to my feet, my hand gripping my wand - Harry's wand - beneath my robes.
"You've picked the losing side, Diggory!" Draco continued fiercely as he pushed his face angrily in mine, snapping his fingers tightly around my wrist and preventing me from raising my wand. "And if I hear one single word about you blabbing lies about my father again then you'll be joining Potter in the cold hard ground."
His fingers tightened around me, pinching my skin.
"Let go of me," I said vehemently, my breaths jagged and uneven. "And you know they're not lies!"
He was so close my nose tickled with the scent of his cologne and, out of nowhere, a memory flooded so violently into my mind. A memory of that night, in this exact spot.
I looked up into Draco's steely grey eyes, my own widening in shock. "It was you," I whispered.
"What the fuck are you talking about, Diggory?" He spat, but I noticed his grip slacken the tiniest fraction.
"You tried to stop Moody - I mean Crouch - from taking me away. You wanted to help-"
"I'm warning you, bitch," he snarled, anger flashing in his piercing eyes, "if you don't keep that lying little trap of yours shut, then I'll personally gag it for you."
Suddenly, he whipped his hand up, and long slender fingers clamped around my jaw, clasping it so tightly that I felt for certain he was going to break it.
I tried to yell, but I couldn't move my mouth to speak, so instead I began to writhe and squirm, desperately trying to shake him off. But he was surprisingly strong.
His eyes never left mine as I continued to struggle against his hold, and I was shocked to see the flicker of greed in his eyes and the twitch of a smirk upon his lips; his fingers squeezing harder and harder as cold metal rings pressed into my flesh.
Fuck me, he was actually enjoying this.
Which he proved the second he leaned further in and pressed his mouth against my ear, his lips whispering words that only I could hear.
"Beg me to stop."
"OI! Malfoy! Leave her alone!"
His hand dropped in an instant. I could hear my heart racing and feel the heat in my cheeks as he stepped back, smirking widely past me towards the owner of the voice.
I wheeled round to see Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger hurrying down the marble staircase towards us. Finally!
I could have wept with relief, except I was too busy nursing my tender jaw, wondering if Draco had left any marks.
"What the fuck do you think you're playing at?" Ron continued to bellow, pushing past me to barrel straight into Draco's chest, knocking him flying to the ground. "Come on, get up and fight me you stinking coward! Or do you only fight girls?"
Crabbe and Goyle immediately stood guard in front of Draco, answering his question.
"Ronald!" Hermione hissed as she draped a comforting arm around me, "will you come back here at once!"
Ron scoffed as he flipped his middle finger up at a hastily retreating Draco over Crabbe and Goyle's shoulders.
"Wanker," Ron muttered, turning back to us as Crabbe and Goyle lumbered off after their boss.
"Did he hurt you?" Hermione asked, her eyes searching me in concern.
"Nah, not really," I shrugged, wincing as I touched a hand to where Draco's fingers had just viscously assaulted me. "After receiving the Cruciatus Curse, everything else feels kinda... I don't know... numb in comparison."
It was meant to be a joke, but I found myself thinking how true that actually was. It was hard to feel anything that came even close to the level of pain the Cruciatus Curse had inflicted.
Again, I touched my jaw, my stomach knotting as I vividly recalled how Draco's fingers felt as they dug into my flesh.
Beg me to stop.
But the thing was, even if I could have been able to speak, I would not have said stop at all.
******
"So, he's definitely back then?"
I nodded as both Ron and Hermione looked at me with curiosity. We were sitting under the beech tree, overlooking the lake where I quietly told them everything, from the moment Harry and I both reached for the Cup, right down to his very last word.
I had respectfully looked away whilst they both broke down sobbing, Ron holding Hermione tightly in his arms, rocking her gently in his lap as though soothing a distraught child.
"You- you believe me, then?" I asked bewilderedly once I had told them everything. It felt odd that they weren't looking at me as though they thought I'd just escaped from the Janus Thickey Ward at St Mungo's.
"Of course we do," Hermione said, shaking her head in befuddlement. "Why would you lie about this? Besides, we've been suspecting something like this might happen for some time now. Harry had been going through things which suggested You Know Who was returning."
"Everyone thinks I'm lying," I said morosely, and was shocked to discover tears rolling down my cheeks. "Even my parents."
A hand slipped into mine, and I looked up into Hermione's sympathetic face, her own eyes full of tears. "You've got us, Cece. And Dumbledore."
I wrinkled my nose, trying not to scoff. "I haven't even seen him since the night it happened - almost a week ago now. So much for him being a loving and supportive headteacher."
"He'll have his reasons," Ron said confidently, "I'm sure old Dumbly is out there gathering the troops as we speak."
"And he's probably found Harry's death difficult too... they were quite close, you know." Hermione added. "Perhaps he just needs some space to grieve."
Hmmm, I was going to need a little more persuasion to come around to the idea that Albus Dumbledore was the Greatest Wizard Who Ever Lived. For a start, he was kind of responsible for the untimely death of Harry Potter. That wasn't going to look good on his CV.
But until then, I was relieved to have Ron and Hermione on side as I reluctantly stepped into Harry's questionable taste in shoes.
For I was Cecilia Diggory.
The Chosen One.
******