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THE NEXT MORNING CEDRIC and anthony sat in dumbledore's office in complete silence. the two chairs they sat in were on the other side of dumbledores desk.
cedric's normally perfect hair had one strand out of place in the front of it. his face was bruised near his right temple. there was still a prominent cut on his lip. his hands were worse than his face, during the fight he had almost broken his hand. his knuckles were black and blue.
anthony on the other hand, wasn't much better. madam pomfrey had fixed his broken nose last night. he had a black eye and a cut on his left cheek. his knuckles were as bad as cedrics, they were only slightly bruised. anthony pursed his lips together and began to whistle.
"will you stop that?" spat cedric, he cleared his throat and calmed himself down. "please?"
anthony looked at him, his face empty of emotion and stopped whistling. instead, he began tapping his food on the ground.
cedric looked annoyed, "anthony-"
the doors of the office opened and dumbledore walked in, towering over professor sprout, who was walking next to him. dumbledore sat down in his chair, across from the boys. professor sprout stood behind dumbledore.
dumbledore cleared his throat, "so which one of you would care to explain what happened last night?"
"it was all cedric's fault," anthony spat out.
cedric scoffed, "you were the one to started it."
the two began to argue over each other, raising their voices with every comeback and insult.
"maybe if you just stayed away from harlow like i asked this wouldn't have happened and we wouldn't be in this mess!" cedric yelled.
anthony went silent, dumbledore and professor sprout stared blankly at cedric. cedric's face flushed in embarrassment.
"so this is what all this ruckus is about? the potter girl?" inquired dumbledore.
cedric and anthony blinked at dumbledore, silent. they didn't have a clue what to say.
"ah, however i don't think it matters what got you two in this... entanglement, shall we say. professor sprout has slept on it and has come up with a punishment for the both of you."
professor sprout began speaking, "fifty points taken from hufflepuff. each."
cedric let out a sigh of relief, and professor sprout continued, "and in addition to that, you will both serve detention tomorrow... with professor snape."
ϟ
harlow sat on the leather couches of the slytherin common room. she was reading over a book that she had grabbed from the library earlier that day. she heard the door to the common room creek open, and in walked anthony.
harlow looked up and studied his face, with a gasp she got up, placing her book down on the couch. "anthony, what happened to your face?"
"i need to talk to you, about cedric." he told her
harlow furrowed her eyebrows and sat back down on the couch, patting the spot next to her on the couch, signaling for him to sit opposite of her.
"what's up?" she asked.
"look i don't know how to tell you this, but cedric warned me to stay away from you." he said with false sympathy.
harlow laughed lightly, "so?"
"and when i didn't comply," anthony motioned towards his face.
harlow cut him off, "he beat the shit out of you?"
he nodded, "yeah."
harlow shook her head, "why would he do that?"
"he's thinks i'm going to use you," admitted anthony, "i don't know what's gotten into him lately."
harlow scoffed, "that's none of his business."
"i know, i kept refusing. i told him i wouldn't stay away. so naturally he broke my nose."
harlow furrowed her eyebrows, "why would you do that? get the shit beat out of you for me? you hardly know me."
"but i want to get to know you," he told her and grabbed her hand in both of his, "i have been eyeing you for much longer then yesterday when you asked me to come with you to hogsmeade with you."
harlow blushed and looked down, curling her lip slightly, "really?"
"really. cedric knew that." he sighed. "i suppose he wants all the guys to stay away from you."
harlow's body filled with rage, she couldn't understand why cedric cared so much. she never said anything about his countless girlfriends, why was his standards for her so different then her standards for him?
"do you know where cedric is right now?" she asked.
"quidditch practice, i'm supposed to be there but i skipped today." anthony told her.
ϟ
harlow stormed to the quidditch pitch, from afar she saw the team going into the locker room. practice must've just ended. a few minutes later harlow burged through the door of the hufflepuff locker room.
she saw the hufflepuff quidditch teams getting changed. some were in their underwear, some were already changed.
"what the hell are you doing here?" one of them shouted.
"where's cedric?" she inquired with one of them.
he pointed towards the showers, "thanks." said harlow.
she opened the door to see cedric, taking a shower. he whipped his head around to look at the door.
"lo? what the hell!" he shouted and pulled a towel to his waist, trying to cover himself as fast as he could. he shut the water off and tied the towel around his waist. "what are you doing?"
harlow struggled to find the words, her anger took over but for a fleeting movement only one thought echoed in her head. he was hurt. his lip cut and his temple bruised.
"no cedric, what are you doing." she spat.
cedric crossed his arms around his chest, and raised one of his eyebrows. "showering?"
harlow scoffed, "no, i mean what are you doing, trying to get anthony to stay away from me!"
"oh, that's what this is about." he sighed. "he's just gonna use you lo, i'm just trying to look out for you."
"what makes you think he's gonna use me?" harlow asked.
"because i know him, he doesn't care for anyone but himself."
"why is it so hard for you to accept that a guy is actually interested in me and not just fucking around with me" raged harlow.
"i didn't mean it like that," he stepped closer to her, his wet hair dripping onto the tile floor, causing echos to irrupt throughout the room.
"then what did you mean, ced?" her voice cracked, "just because you don't think i'm good enough doesn't mean i'm not just as good as the rest those girls that you fancy."
"harlow-" he reached out for her, guilt consuming him.
harlow stepped back, and shook her head. she turned around and ran out of the locker room. the door slamming loudly behind her.
