mahogany ; d.m

37 - aftermath

CW: drug use
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She went straight to sleep that night. Shortly after he left, Hermione had come upstairs, obviously having seen something off with Cedric's mood. But Athena was already 'asleep' by the time she entered the dormitory.

Her recurring nightmare had intensified when she slept. It was more vivid, more graphic and worst of all, she felt everything. All of the pain and emptiness so much more effective than usual.

Therefore, of course when she awoke, she was in no pleasant mood. However, as time progressed and the nightmare recurred more and more, the feeling didn't faze her as it once had. As awful as it was, it was as if it was a part of her now; an emotional unrest that she couldn't get away from.

The next day at breakfast, she had felt rather ill at ease, especially when she looked over to where Cedric was sat. It was only for a split second and he hadn't noticed her, so she thought. But she avoided any eye contact with him for the remainder of the morning.

Luckily, she didn't find it at all difficult to avoid Malfoy as she hadn't seen him since the night before. Though she dreaded the moment she would next have to come within proximity of him, still feeling extremely incoherent of what had cast over her.

It wasn't like her at all. That's what she would tell herself. That she was simply going through something. It would be over soon. But perhaps it wasn't a phase at all. Perhaps, she was growing into herself. The possibility of that struck her alarmingly.

Athena needed someone to speak to. She reckoned the only person she could confide in without feeling too embarrassed and without having to hide too many details, was Maeve.

Therefore, after breakfast she approached the girl and suggested that they go for a walk, which she was willing to do.

Weather wise, it was a rather nice day for mid March. The temperatures remained slightly nippy from the previous Winter but the sun was out and gave a warm tint to the air.

They strolled quite far from the castle until they were far out of earshot. They spotted a bench and rested on it, watching the view of the nearby mountains that sat in front of them.

"Oh no. We're sitting down. Should I be scared?" Maeve chuckled rather nervously.

Athena began by giving her a brief rundown on why she had asked to speak to her but did not expose any of the details about what had actually happened.

"Go on. Tell me what happened then," Maeve said whilst leaning forwards on the bench, giving her full attention.

"Oh bloomin' heck. It's too embarrassing," Athena groaned, burying her head into her hands.

"Oh come on 'Thena. I doubt anything you could tell me would actually faze me," she chuckled. "What happened with Cedric?"

She raised her head from her hands and looked up at her friend, bracing herself to spill the story. She would definitely leave out the first part of the evening. The events which led to the embarrassing half of the night.

Maeve waited patiently, taking a few inhales of the cigarette she held every few minutes or so.

"Well first we were..."

"Having a shag, right. Then what?" she interrupted.

"I happened to get a little bit too carried away and...I asked him to do something—to me," she said, leaving a pause which Maeve interjected into.

"Let me guess...it was some freaky shit wasn' it. Oh lord, how bad was it?"

"I um...I asked him to er–to choke me," she cringed.