You're released from the infirmary, and the first person you look for is Cedric.
~~~
You were stuck in the infirmary for a week after that. Apparently, falling asleep in below-freezing weather meant you would end up with most of the symptoms of hypothermia, which meant you were stuck in an uncomfortable bed with Madam Pomfrey checking in on you every thirty minutes for an entire week.
Sure, your friends came to visit, and your professors brought you your homework, and Juniper brought you your books, and even Draco came by for a couple Potions answers, but the one person you wanted to visit wasn't visiting, and nobody would tell you why. Since he had been released the evening before you went to the infirmary, it had been over a week, by this point, since you'd been able to see him.
So, once you were finally released, you trudged back up to your dorm with your bookbag full of your books and finished homework, and found Juniper sprawled out in your room, writing on a parchment.
"Y/N!" she squealed when she saw you. She jumped up to hug you, and you dropped your bookbag to hug her tightly back.
"We were so worried about you," she said as she held onto you, her voice sad and small. "I don't know what we would've done if we'd lost you."
"It was my fault for going out when it was so late and I was so tired," I said with a shrug. "I'm just glad Jordan found me, I guess."
Juniper shook her head. "Draco found you. He brought you back to the Common Room. Jordan just took you to the infirmary."
Your stomach flipped at the mention of Draco, and you cursed yourself for it.
Then, looking back up at Juniper, you asked the question that people had refused to answer the entire week you'd been stuck in the infirmary.
"Where is Cedric and why didn't he ever come visit me?" you asked, knowing you sounded pathetic. You knew that he and Draco were far from getting along, but you'd visited him in the infirmary, and he'd only been there overnight.
Juniper sighed. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Cedric and Draco got into a fight."
"What!?"
"Yeah. It was actually a fight over you. Cedric asked Draco where you were, and Draco absolutely exploded on him. To be fair, though, was all words at first. Cedric threw the first punch."
You jumped a little, shocked at hearing that Cedric had thrown the first punch. Between the two of them, you would've put all your money on Draco swinging first.
"I have to go find him," you said quickly, standing to leave the room.
"Be careful, y/n. I don't know if it's worth hurting both of them," Juniper said quietly, but you simply turned and left.
After what felt like a lifetime of searching, you found Cedric in the library. You realized you didn't know nearly as much about Cedric as you did Draco, because you would've found Draco in ten minutes if you'd wanted to.
You winced at the yellowing bruise on Cedric's jawline, and you tried to slide into a chair across from him at the table as subtly as possible.
His eyes flitted up to see you, but they didn't light up the way they had been.
"Hi, Cedric," you said timidly, trying to start off the conversation.
He sighed, closing his book and looking up at you. "Hi, y/n."
You fidgeted with your hands, not wanting to come outright and ask the question, because you knew it would sound needy and pathetic. "I...how are you?"
"Y/N, this isn't working."
You halted, looking back up at him. "I—what?"
"Whatever this is between you and me. I can't do it. I thought I could handle Draco being a dick about me being with you, but I also thought it would be a much more occasional thing. Draco's around when we're together the entire time, and I'm fed up with it. You keep saying that you're telling him off, but either you aren't actually doing that, or he just isn't listening. I'd like a girlfriend that doesn't come with a jealous stalker who hits me when I talk back."
You bristled. "Juniper told me you hit him first."
"I did," Cedric admitted. "But it was only after all the awful things he'd said about me being with you. How you would always run to him and all that."
"Cedric, I—" you started, feeling your eyes fill with tears.
"Y/N, I'm sorry. You're a lovely girl. I just don't want to be with someone who's clearly attached to someone else."
"I'm not attached to him!" you begged, reaching out for Cedric's hand. He pulled away, shaking his head as he stood up from the table.
"You can keep telling yourself that," he said with a shrug. But the way you two look at each other is not the way people who hate each other look at each other."
With his words ringing in your head, he left the library.
You sat there for a few more moments, shocked into silence as the tears slid down your cheeks. You didn't even know how to react.
At least you knew why he'd never come to see you in the infirmary.
You walked slowly back to the Common Room, somewhat surprised at how upset the whole situation had made you.
But then again, you had really been excited to have someone who was genuinely interested in you. Not someone like Emerson, who, looking back, had really only wanted an easy fuck. And certainly not someone like Theodore, who had been so horrendously cruel throughout the entirety of your relationship.
You were so wrapped up in your own self-pity when you walked back into the Common Room that you didn't even notice Draco sitting on the couch watching the fire.
He noticed you, though.
Jumping off the couch, he ran up to you, causing you to flinch at the sudden movements.
"Are you crying?" he asked tentatively.
You shrugged, not wanting to tell the truth, but knowing you looked bad enough that Draco wouldn't buy it for even a second.
"Y/N, what happened?"
You looked up at him, confused at how soft he was acting. You'd never seen him so timid, like he was afraid you'd break if he spoke too loudly.
"Nothing, Draco, leave it alone."
"It's obviously not nothing," he pressed, putting a hand under your chin to force you to look up at him. "You're crying."
You stepped back, taking his hand off of your face. "Cedric broke up with me."
You moved to step around Draco, but he moved with you, continuing to block your path.
"What? Why?"
You shot him a look that you hoped was angrier than you were able to feel.
"Because he said he didn't want a girlfriend that came with a jealous stalker who hits him when he talks back."
Draco stepped back, his arms falling down to his sides. "I—I'm sorry," he said quietly, seemingly unable to say anything else.
You shrugged. "I guess you and I come as a package deal, whether I like it or not," you said simply, moving to step around him again.
But again, he moved with you. "Y/N...we could be a package deal, without worrying about anyone else."
You cringed at his horrible timing. He never could be patient; he always had to have everything he wanted right at the moment when he decided he wanted it. You shut your eyes, not wanting to deal with that at that moment.
"Y/N, look at me," he pleaded, his hands grasping your wrists. You did as he asked, your bloodshot eyes meeting his stony grey ones.
"Y/N, I'm—"
"Save it, Draco, please," you said, even though you didn't resist when his hands moved up to cup your face. "I can't handle so much heartbreak in one day."
"I won't break your heart," he whispered, but you just barely heard it. His thumbs came up brush your tears away, but you pulled away when he moved in to kiss you all over again.
"Y/N, please," he said as you pulled away fully, not wanting to make any physical contact.
"Draco, you have to give me space if you want any of this to end up working," you said, knowing you were begging and not caring that you sounded as pathetic as you did. "I cannot handle so much happening to me. I nearly died because of my own stupid decisions, the first person to ever show genuine interest in me has just broken up with me, and now the guy who's been nothing but a dick to me for the past three years is professing his love for me. I just need some time to think about all of this. I can't process so much all at once."
"Okay," he agreed immediately. "Okay. I can give you all the time that you need."
"You promise?" you asked.
"I promise."
You nodded. "Okay. Then I'll see you on Monday for tutoring."
His eyes lit up. "And then I can take you on a date?"
"What part of give me time didn't you understand?" you asked, wiping your tear-stained face with your sleeve. "Two days is not enough time, Draco. I said I'd see you for tutoring. And tutoring is all it's going to be."
He deflated a little bit, but nodded anyway. "Okay."
"This is on my terms. You haven't had to deal with the shit you've given me, but you're going to deal with the consequences."
He nodded again, his stance still uneasy, unsure. "Okay."
"Okay."
And then when you moved to step around him again, he didn't move against you.
~~~
Juniper held you in her arms for what felt like forever after that. You cried to her about everything, from Cedric breaking up to you to everything Draco was pulling.
"I-it was Draco's bed that I fell asleep in," you admitted finally. "I didn't mean to, though, it just happened. We'd gone to Hogsmeade and we were just talking, and I ended up falling asleep."
She nodded, her arms still wrapped tightly around you. "I figured, to be honest. There weren't a lot of options, and you would've been a lot more excited about it if it had been Cedric."
You squeezed your eyes shut at the mention of his name. You were still surprised at how upset you were, the two of you had only been together a few weeks.
"God, I don't know what I'm gonna do about him," you breathed. "I'm going to have to play against him in all our Quidditch games against Hufflepuff."
"So? They've only won one game against Slytherin so far," Juniper reminded you. "Just keep beating his ass in every game, that'll help you feel better."
You had to admit, the thought of kicking Hufflepuff's ass in every Quidditch match did make you feel a bit better.
"Come on, y/n, let's get dinner," Juniper said finally, pulling you up off the bed. "You can't stay in here and mope forever."
"I can, and I will," you argued, flopping back down on the bed.
"Either you eat, or I'll tell Draco you're refusing to eat," Juniper threatened.
You hopped up off the bed, your desire to avoid the white-blond boy larger than your lack of hunger. "Fine, let's go."
Juniper laughed as the two of you left your room. "Thought so."
You met up with Marin and Silver at dinner, and you recounted the story of your breakup and what had happened between you and Draco after that.
Silver shook his head. "That boy's got it bad for you," he said as he ate his dinner. "He just doesn't know how to handle those feelings. You're the only person he's ever genuinely liked. He dated Pansy to try to get over you since you hated him so much, and he did sort of like her, but obviously when that fell through it only made things worse."
You rolled your eyes. "He was the meanest he'd ever been to me for like two months after that," you said. "I'm surprised he didn't try to throw me down a flight of stairs."
Your friends laughed at that.
The three of you kept talking as you left the Great Hall, ending up in the room you shared with Juniper as you kept gossiping about your rollercoaster of a love life. From Cedric to Draco to Emerson Albatross, you wound up spending the evening eating way too much candy and telling way too many dumb stories.
Juniper and Marin also both recounted the things you'd missed in class that week. You didn't realize just how much you'd missed, from Draco's actions to Cedric's...lack of actions.
"You should've seen Draco in Divinations, really," Marin said with a laugh. "He was jumbling his words and stumbling over everything. I'm shocked Trelawney couldn't see right through him. He was so nervous and shaky all week. And when Trelawney made a prediction that he was going to lose someone important to him, he looked like he was going to throw up for the rest of class."
"Well of course he was, we were all scared to death for y/n," Juniper cut in, popping a chocolate frog into her mouth. "Until he found out when you were being released, he was terrified that he'd wake up to find out you hadn't made it through the night."
You rolled your eyes. "Madam Pomfrey told me the minute I woke up that I'd be fine," you said indignantly. "Granted, I apparently don't remember that first memo, and she had to tell me again a couple days later once I'd fully come around, but it definitely did happen. She knew I'd be fine the whole time."
"I guess he just didn't listen when she said that." Marin shrugged.
"Typical Draco," you said with another eyeroll.
The rest of the night went like that, with the three of you talking and laughing until the wee hours of the morning. You had to hide Marin at one point when the Prefect came through telling you to be quieter, but that didn't help any of you to actually be quieter.
Instead, you simply laughed harder and talked more. And despite the lurking knowledge of Draco's feelings for you, when the three of you fell asleep on your bed all together, your heart felt fuller than it had in weeks.