ALWAYS (Harry Potter fanfiction) (Snape fanfiction)

Chapter 25

Men are shit. That's the conclusion Arabella arrived to. Cedric literally ghosted Arabella for the rest of the summer (which was only a week, but still), and then again on the train, he literally hid in the bathroom or something, because she couldn't find him anywhere.

"Men are shit" Arabella said as she plopped herself between Fred and George in the train compartment, in front of Lee Jordan.

"Well, baby, that's probably the nicest thing you've ever said about me" Lee smirked at her.

"Don't make me hit you, Jordan" Arabella warned him.

Arabella laid down, with her head in Fred's lap and her legs in George's. They just shifted their positions a little in order for them to be comfortable. George was pleasantly surprised by the shift of attitude of Arabella towards him, a year prior, she wouldn't even sit next to him, and now she was making physical contact with him in a regular basis. Arabella was not the kind of girl that let anyone hug her or even touch her, she expressed a lot of her feelings through physical contact and only felt really comfortable with certain people, whom she'd be constantly hugging and holding hands with. So it surprised George when she started subtly touching him, like a simple hand on the shoulder, or that very moment, with her legs above his lap.

Arabella made a mental note, she had to talk to her dad, and ask him to transfer her from Arithmancy to Advanced Care of Magical Creatures. After her talks with Charlie Wasley, she realised she wanted to work with them, especially dragons and Thestrals, Charlie mentioned that it was a real pain to transfer all the rescued dragons to Romania, especially if they were hurt or if they were adults, but no one had wanted to open up a sanctuary in Scotland as he had suggested. Arabella thought it was a great idea, and she wanted to do just that.

When they arrived to the station, Lee Jordan went to find Angelina and Katie, for the carriage ride to school, and instead, Blake Downey, Arabella's roonmate, sat with them. She was a quiet girl that mostly kept to herself, but she was one of Arabella's biggest emotional supporters after Altan's death. Most of the girls tried to avoid Arabella, they didn't know how to talk to her, they acted as if they were walking on broken glass around her, but not Blake, she sat down with Arabella and straight down asked her how she felt, and told her that everytime she felt like chugging down a bottle of fire whiskey, she could go to Blake, and they'd overcome that together. Blake was Arabella's first girl friend.

"Heard you were involved in what happened in the World Cup" Blake told her quietly. Her grey eyes looking at Arabella through her dark hair.

"Yeah, I got a cool scar now, I'll show it to you at the dorm" Arabella winked at Blake, who laughed and nodded.

When they arrived to school, Arabella saw her father waiting for her at the door of the Great Hall. She really didn't want to talk to him right at that moment. She rather not have drama before dinner. So Arabella just hid between two tall guys and then scurried away to sit between Adrian Pucey and Blake. The sorting went by, and before dinner began, Dumbledore announced the Tournament, and told them Durmstang School and Beauxbatons Institute would be arriving on Halloween. Dinner was filled with excitement and expectations.  Arabella felt as if a ribbon was untied from her wrist, and when she checked, the gold scar in her hand was not there anymore, only a small gold tint was left there. After dinner, Snape approached Arabella.

"I know you wanna talk, Dad, but, I really need to catch up with Cedric before bed, I promise I'll come to your room right after, I'll bring hot cocoa, okay?" Arabella told him quickly. Severus Snape smiled and nodded.

Arabella sprinted out of the Great Hall, and caught up with the Hufflepuff house. She spotted Cedric and sneaked in between them. She grabbed Cedric by his robe and pulled him into a broom cupboard. If anyone else noticed this, they just ignored it.

"What the-?" Cedric asked. Arabella lit up her wand and sticked it in her ponytail, so the cupboard was dimly illuminated, she pinned him against the wall and gave him her most serious face "Arabella! Was the abduction necessary?" Cedric smirked.

He flipped them around, and looked down at Arabella, she felt her face heating up and turning red. He cupped her face with his hands and kissed her. This kiss was rougher than the first, Arabella was surprised by this, she would have never guessed Cedric could act like that.

"Stop, Ced- stop" Arabella said between kisses. Cedric stopped, and looked at her.

He wanted to kiss her again, he wanted to feel her skin in his. Ever since their first kiss, he had longed for her. That was more than enough for him to prove himself that they were meant to be together. He physically needed her to feel at ease.

"What is it, Bella?" Cedric asked with a raspy voice.

"Wh- what is it? Are you seriously asked me that? You tell me you love me, then you ignore me for over a week, you kiss me and you ask me that?"

"I know, when we returned from the Cup, I was... in shock, I was thinking how to break up with Cho but- when I returned home, my mum gave me a letter that had come for me. Cho's dad passed away"

"Th- that's awful, I'm so sorry to hear that" Arabella felt a pang of pain for Cho, knowing how painful it was to lose someone.

"Her parents were divorced, she wasn't close to him, but he was still her father, and, she is still hurt from Altan's death, you know that" Arabella nodded, Cho was Altan's best friend, and she knew Cho loved him and had been there for him since his first day at Hogwarts.

"I don't mean to be insensitive but... how did she take the breakup?" Arabella asked him, Cedric tried to look away, but Arabella took his face by the jaw and turned him to look at her, "Cedric..."

"I couldn't do it, Bella. I wanted to, because I want to be with you, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't hurt her feelings like that" Cedric excused himself, he walked a couple steps back and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Her feelings! You were worried about her feelings?" Arabella asked, her eyes watered in frustration, "What about my fucking feelings, Cedric? What about them?" She exclaimed, with a knot in her throat.

"I know you are stronger than her" he tried to say.

"No! Don't give me that bullshit!" She yelled, "I won't be the other girl, Cedric. So if what you said was true, and you do love me, you'll tell her, because that's the honourable thing go do. Until then, you and me, we are just friends, and we'll act as we have always acted" Arabella told him, and then pushed pass him as she opened the door, "I'll see you tomorrow" Arabella said as she walked out.

Arabella went to the kitchen, she told her dad she would bring hot cocoa.