Wish Upon A Star

Triwizard Tournament

Ashlyn walked aimlessly, thinking about everything. She would have to talk to Dumbledore. But what would she tell him? How much should she tell him? What about Cedric Diggory? And Barty Crouch? And poor Bertha Jorkins. Was there any chance that she wasn't killed yet? Now she felt terrible. She hadn't thought about Frank Bryce, the muggle who had been killed by Voldemort earlier this year. She was just as bad as the pure-blood assholes. She cared more about the magical folk, that she had forgotten about the muggles affected. Ugh!

Suddenly a hand grabbed her wrist and turned her around. Her eyes grew wide, her breath hitched, her hand pulling her wand out as the stranger swirled her around to face them.

"Woah! Calm down" He said.

Cedric Diggory was staring at her. Ashlyn had her wand pointed dangerously at his face, a spell at the tip of her tongue.

Ashlyn blinked and then lowered her wand. "Sorry. You just surprised me" she said as she put her wand back, but she never removed her hand from it.

"More like scared you," Cedric Diggory said grinning. "I saw you walking past my compartment, so I came to say hello. I called you a couple times, but you didn't respond," he continued.

"Oh. Sorry, I was lost in thought" Ashlyn said sheepishly.

"What were you doing out here?" Cedric asked.

"Just taking a walk. It was kinda stuffy inside. What about you?" Ashlyn said.

"I see. Oh, me. I came to talk to you," Cedric said.

"Me? Okay... I guess" Ashlyn said, slightly confused.

There was an awkward silence as they just walked the corridor of the train. Ashlyn was interesting herself with the fast-moving scenery outside.

"Did you hear about Mad-Eye? Um, you may not know, but Mad-Eye is--" Cedric started.

"Oh, I know who Mad-Eye is. Alastor Moody, Auror, super paranoid, half the cells in Azkaban are filled because of him, yeah. I stayed at the Weasley's for the summer. And about the dustbins, I've heard about that too," Ashlyn said hurriedly. She was nervous like hell, but she didn't know why! She had never thought she would be the one to lose her cool around a good looking guy, but apparently, she was...Maybe she wasn't. Yeah. She was just worried about him dying in the end.

"Yeah. Dad said you were there in the kitchen at that time," Cedric grinned. "He didn't say anything weird, did he?"

"No, not really," Ashlyn said simply, as her train of thoughts took her elsewhere.

"Mad-Eye probably is just paranoid, I guess," Cedric said.

"He has a good reason too. Maybe they should check for an intruder anyway. I mean after the Quidditch fiasco, and all that,"  Ashlyn explained.

"Did it scare you?" Cedric asked.

"Hmm?"

"The incident at the World Cup, are you scared?" he repeated

"The Dark Mark? I'm not sure. Maybe I am," Ashlyn shrugged.

"They won't hurt you. Not at Hogwarts," Cedric said reassuringly.

"I know," Ashlyn sighed. "But what about others, the ones who are out there?"

Ashlyn was frowning worriedly. She didn't notice the smile on Cedric's face.

The sky was getting darker, and it was raining harder than ever. Ashlyn stared at the raindrops splattering furiously on a window.

"You know what, let's walk you back to your compartment," Cedric said, placing his hand on her shoulder.