"Are you playing hard to get?"
"Oh please, you think I'd play anything for you? I'm just simply hard to get"
"Just admit it, you're in love with me LeStrange"
"Don't flatter yourself, Diggory"
...
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Aspen watched as Amora knelt beside her best friend, crying profusely and giving Belle a small kiss on her forehead. Cedric had taken a seat beside Ned, looking at his friend as if he was willing him to wake up. Aaron was trying his best to hold himself together, but Aspen saw the tears.
Aspen wrapped his arms around Hazel, someone he knew he could help comfort. She buried her head into his chest, not letting herself look at the bodies.
"It's all my fault. I-I thought I was protecting us b-but..." Hazel choked out. Aspen furrowed his brows and pulled her out to arms length so he could look her in the eyes.
"Hazel, what are you talking about?" Aspen asked. She simply shook her head, and Aspen prayed she was just talking nonsense.
"Guys!" A voice called out. Everyone turned around, and saw Neville running toward them with a wide grin on his face.
"Oh no," Aspen muttered under his breath.
"I blew up the bridge! Did you see me? Wait 'til Ned gets a load of me," Neville whooped.
"Neville," Cedric started, but it was too late. Neville's eyes fell upon Ned on the floor, and then wandered over to Belle. His face turned pale and he looked over to the group around him.
"No...n-no please," Neville whimpered. He collapsed next to Ned, taking his hand.
"They fought bravely. I don't think they would have wanted to go out any other way," Amora explained.
"So we have to keep fighting. For them," Neville said firmly. He wiped the tears away and straightened his back. Aspen looked at the young boy, and remembered the scared first year he met. Aspen realized that Neville really was a Gryffindor.
"Let's go into the Great Hall, see where we can help," Aspen suggested. Amora took one last long look between Belle and Ned, and reluctantly got to her feet and trudged towards more heartbreak.
☀︎︎☀︎︎☀︎︎☀︎︎
"A bloody explosion caught him and Perce. H-he didn't make it," Ron explained. Amora looked down at Fred, and could see the ghost of the smile still on his face. His red hair was dirty with grime, but under all of that Amora still could vivdly remember the smiling trickster from Gryffindor.
"Have you seen Tonks?" Amora asked, glancing around the Great Hall. The tables had been shoved to the side, and a dim light of the sunrise revealed dying or dead people on cots, with others muttering their condolences around them.
"Her and Remus. They..." Ron trailed off, his eyes spacing out. Amora sucked in a breath, trying not to scream again. No. Tonks, Remus, Fred, Belle, and Ned. They would want her to keep going. She had the rest of her life to mourn, but now had to be the time when she fought.
