THUNDER CRACKLED through the heavens, searing the sky and leaving an uncontrollable trembling deep in her bones. The world seemed muffled in the wake of it, like someone had stuffed cotton in her ears, and in the dark of the night, deaf and blind, she stumbled around like a newborn child. The sky was so black it was as if every violet cluster of stars had been snuffed out, leaving bruises like impenetrable voids against the impossibly dark heavens. There was no light, not even a wink of it, anywhere.
Even the sun itself had died.
Elaine stumbled forward, the grass brittle and dry and dead beneath her bare feet. Rocks scuffed her heels, roots pulled at her steps. Ghostly fingers of fog wrapped frigid hands around her ankles, leeching the warmth from her blood like death. She had never felt so alone, so lost — like she'd become untethered from the earth. Hands outstretched, she fumbled for a lifeline in the darkness.
What she found first was a vine. It was thick and corded, coiled like a snake around what felt like a massive stone structure, cold and cracked, rough beneath her fleshy palm. Elaine gingerly ran her fingers along the vine — and abruptly withdrew them with a sharp hiss of pain.
Thorns. Crimson blood rushed to her pricked fingertips, bubbling red and hot as it fell to stain the dead ground. The quiet pattering of her blood against the grass filled her humming ears. It smelled like rot and ruin, like cloying, overripe fruit bursting with decay.
A sudden flash of lightning threw everything into searing, horrifying relief, and all at once, the world assaulted her eyes in an onslaught of too bright, too dark images.
A hooded visage of Death loomed over her with a single black crow perched upon his shoulder. From his scythe sprung the vine, thick with razor thorns and crowned with wilted, dying roses that wept with bloody petals. They fell like thunderclaps to the earth, each one a tolling of time expired.
With a cry, Elaine jerked back and fell to the ground, her back colliding with another massive slab of rock. Hesitantly, she raised her fingertips to search it, and the moment her blood touched the cool stone, light flared to life and pierced the dark like knives, letter by letter by letter. It was a gravestone.
The gleaming, golden letters seemed to make a mockery of her — they laughed at the gaping sorrow that swallowed her ravaged heart. Look, they seemed to say, with their false, malicious glint. Look. You couldn't save him.
She was trembling uncontrollably as she traced the name on the headstone before her, tears welling up thick enough to blind, empty cries caught in her barbed throat. No, she wanted to shout. No. This isn't real — he couldn't be gone. Nothing bad ever happened to a boy so beautiful and pure.
HERE LIES,
IN ETERNAL PEACE,
CEDRIC AMOS DIGGORY
His voice filled her head, deafening deafening deafening — Why didn't you save me, Elaine? You've known all along something bad would happen, why didn't you do something? I'm gone, and it's your fault. I'm gone because of you. You could have saved me!
"No!" she screamed, her voice raw and mangled and tortured. There was blood falling all around her as the dead skies began to weep red. She couldn't breathe as it pounded against her skin, her heart, her soul. "No, Cedric! This isn't real! Nothing bad will happen, I won't let it! I swear!"
She pitched forwards against the stone as the sobs shook her, as the blood fell, as her world fell apart. Behind her, the vines with their thorns and dying flowers snapped, the onyx crow let out a single, murderous caw, and the stony voice of Death rasped, "I am coming."
ELAINE BOLTED awake with tears staining her cheeks and a scream caught in her throat. In the darkness, her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath and soothe her terror-filled heart, and she curled herself into a tiny ball around her stuffed bumblebee. With her sweaty face buried in Sunny's fluffy side, she dared let loose a muffled sob as her delicate frame was wracked with fright.
It was just a nightmare, she told herself, sniffling and exhaling slowly. She hauled another deep breath into her aching lungs. It wasn't real.
There was soft firelight leaking in beneath the cracks in the doorframe; pale moonlight slipped through the shuttered windows. Slumbering plants waved their sleepy limbs, caught up in their own pleasant dreams of summer winds. Her quilt was tangled at the foot of her bed, kicked away by her feverish legs; the skirt of her Cinderella nightgown was tangled around her knobby knees. Daisy Atherton was snuggled in the bed on her right, mumbling about purple penguins in polka-dotted pajamas, and Maggie Macmillan was snoring quietly on her left. She knew where she was. There was light. She wasn't alone.
Elaine uncurled her taut limbs and grabbed for the lucky rock on her bedside table, allowing her eyes to drift shut as its gentle, soothing waves washed her fear away. No blood on her fingers. She took several deep breaths before she reopened her teary eyes and slipped her rock into the pocket of her nightgown.
In a tiny polaroid, Bill and Ben twirled goofily around Parker, who was dressed like Cupid with a pair of angel wings and a headband of hearts bobbing above his golden head. She smiled slightly at it, where she'd tucked it into the frame of her and Ben's Christmas picture. She imagined that she could hear their laughter — Ben's, booming and loud and full of vibrant life, laughter that filled her heart with light; Bill's, light and musical and soft in a way that wound around your soul in warm, golden ribbons. She imagined that it was Parker's soft fur her fingers were wound into, smooth as silk and smelling of his spearmint and eucalyptus shampoo.
Elaine hauled another deep breath of warm, cinnamon apple-y air into her lungs, and then slipped her legs over the edge of the bed. Her baby blue nightgown tumbled down over her knees as she stood, and silently, she slipped across the room, careful to avoid tripping over Daisy's haphazardly discarded broomstick and quidditch goggles or Maggie's piles of dreamy Muggle records. There was only one place where she truly felt like she'd be able to breathe easy enough to get back to sleep — and it wasn't there. ( Nothing against Daisy or Maggie, of course! They really were lovely! )
A fire crackled through the empty common room, keeping Helga Hufflepuff warm and cozy in her rocking chair, draped with cozy yellow blankets. A pink sleep mask embroidered with flowers covered her eyes, and she didn't stir as Elaine poked some more life into the flames beneath her. As she skirted the overstuffed furniture, Elaine tickled the base of her favorite hanging ivy, and the mischievous plant seemed to shake with drowsy giggles as it clumsily swatted at her fingers.
No thorns, no wilted roses. It was just a nightmare.
Soundlessly, her bare feet carried her down the winding hall with the boy's dormitories, and, almost at the end, she paused outside the sixth years' door — big and round and cheerfully yellow, with a unique drawing of all the boys within taped to it, courtesy of Blake. Cedric, with a grin so wide it spilled scarily over the sides of his face, was standing like a flamingo on a purple skateboard with one arm around the waist of a giant Milo ( whose glasses were comically large and looked more like scuba goggles and whose long legs were dramatized considerably ). Blake had drawn himself flashing finger guns while riding on the back of a pink dinosaur on Cedric's other side. Frowning Hal Blumenthal, complete with cherry red devil horns and a pointed tail, was giving Luke Callahan a piggy-back ride, and the boy on his back bore a scaly chartreuse merman's tail and a bottle of firewhisky the size of Milo's legs.
'Cool Kidz Only!' was written below the drawing in Blake's familiar, barely legible scribble. 'No narcs allowed!'
Elaine slipped into the haven of peaceful dreams and feathery snores as quietly as she could. Weak orange firelight followed her in, softening the vibrant color of Luke Callahan's hair and warming Milo's hickory cheeks. Across the room, Cedric flopped over onto his stomach with a sleepy groan. His gentle breathing toyed with a few stray curls that fell across his face. His chest was bare, and the muscles in his back seemed sculpted from silver marble in the glow of the moon — he was an angel pulled from her sweetest dreams.
Quidditch posters were plastered on the wall over his bed, and the array of his favorite players seemed to act as a guard standing watch over their slumbering hero. His pink hat rested upon one of the bed posts, with his knitted pink and golden snitch scarf draped below it. On his bedside table, his pocket-sized Swedish Short-Snout from the First Task was curled up in a little blue bed ( that Elaine had knitted to compliment the dragon's scales and to keep the tiny thing comfortable! ), and as it snoozed, it released stray whorls of smoke that curled against a framed picture of the four of them from last summer. Everything was neat, tidy, organized.
At his bedside, Elaine crouched and planted her chin on the mattress, her face right in front of his, and then she proceeded to poke at his cheek. After several gentle prods, Cedric grumbled in his slumber and clumsily grabbed at her hand. His fingers slipped over hers like a summer evening breeze, soft and warm and lazy.
Dreamy lavender hues clung to his gray eyes as he blinked at her in mild, sleepy confusion. "Ellie?" Cedric rasped, his brows furrowed adorably. His half-lidded eyes scanned her face, read every inch of fear and fright written there. "Come here, angel."
As he rolled onto his side, he grabbed her wrists and effortlessly tugged her into the bed. Elaine melted into him, their bodies molding together perfectly — like they had been made for each other. He pulled the quilt back up and over them, and beneath the covers he draped his arm over her waist to pull her closer to his warm chest.
Cedric ran his thumb soothingly over her hip bone, and her stomach fluttered at the pure tenderness of it. She tangled her legs with his, his pajama bottoms soft against her bare skin, and wriggled her cold toes into his socks, relishing in his ceaselessly warm glow.
"Why are you always so cold?" he murmured sleepily into her ear with a tired laugh, his warm breath tickling her neck.
"Because I'm cool," Elaine whispered back as she snuggled deeper into his chest.
She laced her fingers through his, both where their hands met beneath his pillow and where his arm captured her waist, and a contented smile pulled at her lips as she felt the utter peace and comfort that Cedric carried with him everywhere he went — a sense of home that was a magic unique to him. He nuzzled his face against her hair, and the slow beat of his heart at her back urged her own to match it. The stone in her pocket pulsed like a melody of love between them.
He's safe. Cedric is safe. He'll be safe, as long as I'm here.
Safe and sound and home within Cedric's arms, Elaine allowed herself to relax. The dreamy lavender and pink hues of slumber pulled at her heavy limbs and tugged her eyes closed. She felt herself slipping away, sleep pulling at her like sand washed away at the beach. Nothing mattered except Cedric's warm, tender arms around her, his melodic heartbeat at her back, the gentle caress of his breathing against the shell of her ear.
It had been a nightmare, nothing more. It meant nothing. They were together, and he was safe. That was all that mattered.
Cedric pressed a soft kiss upon her neck and murmured something against her satiny skin — but Elaine was too far gone to the silken oasis of a kind, dreamless sleep to hear him.
HOW DID he get so lucky? That was Cedric's first thought, when he awoke in a halo of golden hair to the faint aroma of honeysuckles and frosting. Elaine clung to him like a koala, still enraptured with pleasant dreams as she nuzzled deeper into his chest. Tenderly, he brushed her hair out of her face, ran his thumb over her pale temple. Her freckle-dusted cheeks were tinged with rose, and her eyelashes glittered in the early morning light that fell upon them in a cloud of gold. She was a fairy, a goddess, a radiant star. Waking up beside her, he decided, was his new favorite thing.
Their hearts were beating in sync, he noticed, as he trailed a hand gently over her back. Beneath the thin fabric of her nightgown, her shoulder blades were sharp, taut, but at his touch, she relaxed completely. He wondered what had scared her the night before. He'd never seen her eyes so bright with visceral terror — and the way she'd looked at him... it was like it was the last time she ever would, like he had been a ghost.
The boy in the bed to his left stirred. "Guys," Blake Barrett said, wide awake and alert as he pushed himself up onto his elbows. "Buttholes are like pockets. Like, you can store stuff up there and keep it safe."
"It's six in the goddamn morning. Shut the fuck up, or you'll be storing my foot up your arsehole," Hal Blumenthal groaned on Cedric's right, and a second later, a pillow sailed across the dormitory to smack Blake in the chest, and a dramatically anguished gasp filled the room.
Milo let out a particularly loud snore and promptly woke himself up. He bolted upright in his bed, squinting around the room blindly without his glasses on. "Whuz-go-on?"
"Blake's being a fucking moron again," Hal said gruffly, and then pulled his patchwork quilt up and over his head. Cedric snickered as he twined his fingers through Elaine's hair, the strands slipping over his fingertips like finest silk.
"Blake, stop being a fucking moron," Luke Callahan beamed cheerfully from across the room, ruffling his hyacinth purple hair.
"Tha'zimpossble," Milo slurred, flopping back down. Something Cedric had noticed in all their years living together — Milo was a morning person, but he wasn't functional until at least 6:30. Those extra thirty minutes were critical.
"Aw, thanks for supporting me, Miles," Blake crooned. "You know me so well." The bed beneath him creaked as he shifted onto his side.
Cedric couldn't help the little laughter that escaped him. Merlin, he was friends with a bunch of idiots. Lovable idiots that he couldn't imagine living without, but, still, idiots. ( Especially Blake. ) He moved his fingers in slow circles up and down Elaine's back, tracing the curve of her spine, and she exhaled a sleepy little sigh as she curled her fingers tighter against his chest. And one of those adorable idiots was his girlfriend. He means that as endearingly as possible! It had been a few weeks, but he still couldn't believe it. How did he get so lucky? Elaine was his girlfriend!
Blake had noticed the long blonde hair spilling over Cedric's pillow, and his grin grew steadily wider as he realized who else was in the dorm. "Well, butter my buns and call me Betty Crocker. Hey slutbags," he whispered. "Everyone stop talking right now. The lovebirds are in the nest, I repeat, the lovebirds are —"
"You're the one running your mouth," Hal shot back grumpily.
"Henry, I'm going to fuck your mum if you don't zip your lips," Blake sassed, hurling the pillow back across the room at its original thrower.
At that, Cedric rolled his eyes. "Blake," he said shortly. Milo, he wanted to say, control him, please.
Blake groaned and pulled at his long, dark curls. "Fine. Hal, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I'd rather screw your dad."
At that, all hell broke loose in the sixth year boys' dormitory — something Cedric was all too familiar with. Hal was up and out of bed in a flash, fully ready to wallop Blake senseless with a pillow whilst telling him it was too early for his bullshit. Luke had tumbled out of his bed an instant later to grab Hal by the shoulders, and was urging him to try getting back in bed and then out of it on the other side, to see if "getting up on the right side" would give him a sunnier, more forgiving attitude.
Milo was frowning as he shoved on his glasses, smudging them with his sleepy fingers and having to then take them back off to clean with his striped pajama shirt. "Blake, say you're sorry. Come on, sweetie. That was a little much," Milo was calling, though he seemed quite resigned to Blake's chaotic morning shenanigans.
Because these outbursts were a daily occurrence in the sixth year boys' dorm! They happened most mornings as Blake was apt to 'Sleep Epiphanies,' though he usually waited until to "grace them all with his sexy genius" until Hal was wide awake, because Hal hated being woken up and had a very short temper in the mornings. Cedric had had to wake him up once before and had vowed to never do so again. He'd never been more terrified of someone in his entire life than he'd been of Hal that morning. ( Though Hal was typically very kind and good natured, just not before noon! )
And while the typical chaos unfolded and the boys in the rooms on either side of them pounded on the walls to try and get the sixth years to shut up, while Milo and Luke gave up on Blake and Hal — Cedric just laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about something Elaine had said to him during dinner the day before. About how Milo and Blake were two pieces from completely different puzzles, yet they somehow fit together perfectly.
Well, technically Milo and Blake weren't boyfriends, yet. But they'd shared a cheese fondue and spent a lot of time together — and Blake hadn't hooked up with anyone in weeks. ( Which was probably why he was being so aggressive about Hal's parents at six in the morning on a Tuesday. Pent up sexual energy. ) Cedric and Elaine had made a bet that they'd be together by the summer — Elaine had said they would, Cedric had said they wouldn't. The winner got to plan a date, because that was the type of cheesy couple things they did now. ( Not that he was complaining! )
Hal's angry half-shouting and Blake's guffawing were loud enough that Elaine, who was a heavy enough sleeper that she'd snoozed through a screaming baby mandrake in Herbology, began to stir.
"Will the both of you just bugger off?" Cedric finally snapped, shifting both his hands to cover Elaine's ears. He really didn't want to disturb her, she just slept so peacefully, like an angel crafted from a silver cloud of serenity. "My girlfriend is trying to sleep."
That just made them all turn on him. "I'm losing everything at this school. First, all my quills. Then, my self motivation," Blake complained dramatically, ticking his list off on his fingers. "Now, my best friend's love and support in my immature arguments. What do I even have left?" He shook his head sadly, and Milo patted his shoulder supportingly.
"Cedric, this is supposed to be a bachelor pad," Hal sighed. "A man cave, or fucking whatever. I don't actually give a shit. But, you brought a girl in here?"
"Well, I'm glad I didn't sleep in the nude," Luke commented solemnly.
"Yes," Milo nodded. "Thank goodness for that."
Cedric pinned them all with an annoyed glare. First Blake, who had started all this chaos and was grinning madly, his dark curls messily framing his face. Then Milo, eyes still droopy with sleep as he slowly leaned more and more against Blake. Luke, with his characteristic dopey grin; Hal, who was still basically fuming. "If one of you wakes her up," he grumbled, waving a hand dismissively at them, "you'll be sorry."
"Ooh," Hal hissed, and Blake followed closely with, "I'm so scared!"
"You should be scared," put in a new voice, soft and light and dreamy.
Elaine lifted her head off of Cedric's shoulder and rubbed at her sleepy eyes with her fist. Her blonde hair was sticking up every which way, and there was a spot of drool turning the corner of her rosebud lips silver, and he thought that she was the cutest human being he had ever laid eyes on.
"Why's that, Ellie Bellie?" Blake taunted, planting his hands on his hips.
"Because," she began, and then broke off with a little yawn. "Because, I'm going to call you something mean." She laid back down and snuggled her nose into the crook of Cedric's neck, and then she said, lips alighting against the strong column of his tan throat, "Bitch."
Hal let out a loud bark of laughter, a bright, beaming smile lighting up his face and replacing his morning anger. Luke patted a suddenly despondent Blake's cheek, and Milo helped the dark haired boy back to bed. Blake was almost stricken with shock, muttering to himself, "She called me a bitch. A bitch. Elaine... she called me a bitch. I can't believe it. I can't..."
Elaine was giggling, and Cedric felt her smile against his skin. His fingertips danced upon her hip, and she squirmed as her laughter grew. "Nice one, babe," Cedric cheered, and then slipped his other arm around her waist to pull her even closer to him. Her body burned like a sunbeam, her pure warmth caressing his soul with tender hands.
Still, he felt their hearts hammering in sync, he felt the glow of her lucky rock in the pocket of her nightgown. The memory of her terror from the night before suddenly washed over him. "Ellie?" he asked softly, and for a moment, he worried that his voice was lost amidst Hal's grumbling. "Are you alright? What happened last night?"
She burrowed further into his embrace, her arms tightening around him. The chewed down nubs of her fingernails scratched faintly against his shoulder blades. She began to tremble beneath his touch. "I-I-I can't... I can't remember," Elaine stuttered, the warmth of her breath pooling against his chest. "I was scared... I-I had a — a dream, but I can't remember."
Cedric didn't reply, he simply traced soothing circles along her spine and breathed in the sweet aroma of her wild hair. He'd never seen her so terrified. It was for the best, he thought, that she didn't remember the dream. Elaine deserved eternal sunshine, her face always radiant with the glow of her smile. Besides, a dream was just a dream, nothing more. That was what he told himself as his eyes slipped closed and he cuddled closer to Elaine, hoping to enjoy these last few minutes of bliss and peace before the busy day began.
author's note!
hi my loves! so sorry to have kept you waiting on an update for awhile! hopefully you enjoyed this chapter though! it was a bit of a filler, but I missed writing blake and his chaos, so we got to witness a chaotic morning with all the sixth year boys + elaine hehe!
two chapters left !!! hopefully, I'll be able to get the next chap written within the next week or so! I love u all!!!!