Beneath Her Skin

Chapter Thirty-Three

Alastriona Breen walked into the Great Hall for the final time in her fourth year at Hogwarts.
As soon as she walked in she wanted to retreat. She gripped the warm hand she was holding tightly, when the hand tugged on hers she turned to look up at Draco. 
He saw the panic in her. The urge to run. "Hey," he called to her soothingly, it didn't work, one of his warm hands brushed a mass of her curls over her shoulder, "hey, just focus on me." It was hard for her to do. The drapes in the Great Hall that usually displayed the winner of the House Cup were black, as though Hogwarts too, was in mourning for Cedric. 

Alastriona shook her head, doubting her resilience entirely. 

Draco ignored the stares of people who passed by and simply stared into Alastriona's dark eyes. "You can do this." He vowed. "You need to be brave, this," he gestured vaguely to the Hall, "is for Cedric and you need to be brave." He glanced quickly over Alastriona before meeting her gaze again. "I can't sit with you." He said. The urge to run came back in full force but Draco gripped both of Alastriona's hands now. "Darcy will be with you the entire time."

Alastriona flinched at the hand that fell upon her shoulder, comforted briefly by the fact it belonged to Darcy. 

She had to be brave. For Cedric.
She closed her eyes and nodded. She felt Draco's soft kiss on her forehead and opened her eyes when she felt him leave her. 

Darcy Mint lead her best friend to the Hufflepuff table. They sat by Cedric's other friends and the Hufflepuff quidditch team. 

Alastriona couldn't bring herself to eat. During the feast, she, and the majority of Hufflepuff's remained nearly completely silent, unable to find any joy in the Leaving Feast. 

The quiet chatter ceased entirely when Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet.

"The end of another year." He stated. The usual twinkle in his blue eyes all but gone. His eyes fell on the Hufflepuff table, Alastriona briefly met his gaze but found her eyes welling with tears already. "There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight, but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very person, who should be sitting with us, enjoying out feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory."

Everybody in the Hall stood and raised their glasses, at the same time everyone in the Hall echoed Cedric's name and Alastriona took a few deep breaths once she sat down again to try and control her emotions.

"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff House. He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. I think you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how it came about." Alastriona stared at Dumbledore. She knew how it happened because she believed Harry but she knew others didn't and she wanted to hurt them for believing Cedric's death to be anything else than murder. 

"Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort." Panicked whispers erupted in the Hall at the mention of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, they were silenced as soon as Professor Dumbledore continued on. "The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so - either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to his memory."

Alastriona sucked in a breath at this. The tears began leaking from her eyes and she clenched her hands into small fists, her nails digging into her skin. The truth is generally preferable to lies.