[✓] 𝐴𝑆𝑇𝐸𝑅𝐼𝑆𝑀 | 𝐂𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐂 𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐘

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄

𝐎𝐍𝐄'𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒
"𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡."
—𝐽𝑜𝑑𝑖 𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑡, 𝑀𝑦 𝑆𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝐾𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑟
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟒𝟒𝟕𝟕

⋆⋆⋆✧⋆⋆⋆

𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 in her bed, her Transfiguration notes spread out next to her. She had a Transfiguration test the next day, but she hadn't been able to concentrate on studying for the past few hours.

Her mind was stuck in a constant loop of thoughts. She continuously replayed her interaction with Cedric from a couple of days before in her mind, each replay weighing down on her more than the last. She felt as though there were infinite elephants plus one baby elephant piling on top of her chest, rather than the air that simply existed.

It had been a week since the choosing of the Champions, and Liliana was still barely sure where her feelings stood. She had spent the last couple of days laying and thinking, just as she was doing now.

She knew that Cedric was sorry, he had made that more than clear. It was just taking her some time to get over the actual action that he had committed. She knew it was out of her best interest because he didn't want her to get mad (although, how well did that plan really work out?).

Was she still mad at him? Of course. Did she miss him? Of course. Did she know what that meant? Not at all.

Wesley, Riley, and Devon, on the other hand . . . She was actually in a similar situation with that, she also wasn't sure what she should do. Sure, they hadn't really done anything, but they kept the secret from her the whole time.

She knew that in the end, she would, of course, apologize, accept their apologies, and everything would return to normal. She just wasn't sure when that would happen.

What Hermione had told her continuously rang in her head. 

'If you're really afraid of him getting hurt, or even dying, do you really want your last memories with him to be of you not even talking to him?'

Liliana sat up, ruffling her hair. Hermione was right. 

Liliana was still mad. She was so, so mad. She wouldn't get over this for some time. How the hell could she? This was one of her worst nightmares, for Merlin's sake. 

But an even worse nightmare was Cedric being dead. And if that happened, with Liliana having not forgiven him or helped him—she would never forgive herself. 

She immediately got up from her bed, quickly combing her tangled hair before leaving the dormitory. 

She pondered as she climbed through the portrait hole: Where would they be?

It was the early evening of a Tuesday, meaning that they could be in about a million places. The Hufflepuff common room, their dormitory, the library, the Courtyard . . .

She decided to just check each place, starting with their common room. It was most likely that they were there.

As she walked through the third-floor corridor, something sailed past her head, resulting in a loud clanking noise as it hit the wall and fell to the ground.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Liliana furrowed her brows as she narrowed her eyes to see what the mysterious object was.

She barely had time to look as she felt a pair of hands grab the back of her sweater and yank her backwards.