Diggory Is Still A Loser (book 2)

34- Stepping Off The Edge

**trigger warning. This chapter discusses the topic of suicide and self-harm. If you think this will be traumatic for you to read, please stop reading after the asterisks**

Once back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore escourted Harry and Celia up to his office.
"How on earth did you know where I had gone?" Questioned Celia.
"One of the headmaster portraits has a copy of their portrait at the Ministry, and they saw you walking down one of the corridors and reported back to me. And after everything that you've been through, it makes sense that you'd go to the Ministry, as that's the source of your suffering" answered Dumbledore.
"I can't believe I thought that killing Fudge would fix my problems" mumbled Celia awkwardly.

"You received a nasty head wound yesterday, which left you concussed, and unable to make clear decisions. Anyone who knows you, is aware that you wouldn't usually hurt anyone" admitted Dumbledore.
"Killing Fudge was a stupid idea anyway, because he would have just been replaced by someone new" sighed Celia.
"The position of Minister for Magic is a revolving door, and new people are always getting elected. And after this mess, I'm not sure how long Cornelius is going to stay in office. So, we may well have a new Minister before long. But we will talk more in the morning, right now, I want the two of you to go to bed".

Harry was still too distraught about Sirius's death, to comfort Celia on her way back to the hospital wing, so they walked in silence.
Madam Pomfrey made a great fuss over Celia when she arrived, before sending Harry back to Gryffindor tower.
The matron even confiscated Celia's wand for the night, so that she couldn't disapparate again.
Celia was tired, but once she was back in bed, she was unable to sleep.
She had just attempted to assassinate the Minister for Magic, and she knew that even Dumbledore wouldn't be able to protect her from the consequences of her actions.
Celia felt sure that a group of Ministry officials would be waiting for her when she woke up, to take her to Azkaban.
Afraid of what the future would bring, Celia couldn't fall asleep.

****
When dawn arrived, Celia knew what she had to do.
She wrote a goodbye note and left it on her bed, before heading to the owlery.
Celia sat down in her favourite placed in the world, and watched as the sun came up over the mountains.
Her owl Angel flew down and stood beside her, allowing Celia to stroke her gently.
Once the sun was fully in the sky, Celia looked out at the beautiful view one last time, before picking up a shard of broken mirror and slicing her wrists.

**
When Harry entered the hospital wing that morning and found Celia's suicide note, he immediately began running towards the owlery, because he knew that was her favourite place to go.
When he arrived, he found her lying on the floor, covered in her own blood.
"CELIA!" Screamed Harry, as he dropped to his knees, and scooped up her body into his arms.

Celia's eyes fluttered open at the sound of Harry's voice.
"Harry... I'm sorry" she mumbled, her voice no more than a whisper.
"No! Don't you leave me too. You're my best friend. I've just lost Sirius, so don't leave me. I can't do this without you. Please don't die" begged Harry.
Celia said nothing, as her eyes rolled back in her head, before closing once more.

*
Celia opened her eyes and found herself lying in a strange white bed.
It looked like a medical facility, but it was definitely not the hospital wing at Hogwarts.
As she looked around she saw Harry sat on the chair beside her, with his head resting on the bedside table.
Celia looked down and saw thick bandages covering both of her arms.
Realising that she had failed to kill herself, Celia groaned loudly, causing Harry to wake up.

"You're awake" smiled Harry.
"Where am I?" Asked Celia.
"We're in an isolation room inside St Mungo's" answered Harry.
"Great. I don't expect I'm ever going to be allowed to leave this place" sighed Celia.
"What makes you say that?"
"I just tried to take my own life after attempting to assassinate the Minister for Magic. So I can't see the Healers just letting me walk out of here"
"You're not well right now. But they will make you better, and then you will be allowed to leave"
"I doubt it. They have a long stay ward here for crazy people remember, we saw it at Christmas".

"You're not crazy" insisted Harry.
"Aren't I?" Questioned Celia.
"No. You weren't thinking straight, that's all. Like Dumbledore said, you hit your head and it made you concussed" replied Harry.
"We both know that I cannot blame my actions solely on my concussion, since you saw the scars I made to my wrists last summer"
"You only did that right after Cedric's death, so you were very distraught, you haven't been self-harming all year, right?"
"No, I haven't. But I wouldn't say that I've been the most stable person this year"
"None of us have been, with Umbridge and all the other bad stuff that happened this year. But Umbridge is currently lying in the hospital wing at Hogwarts, after being rescued from the Centaur camp by Dumbledore. She definitely won't be returning to school any time soon"
"That is good to hear".

"The Ministry also released a statement confirming that Voldemort is back, so now everyone knows the truth. And Dumbledore has officially been reinstated as Headmaster of Hogwarts. Which means all of the Ministry decrees have been scrapped and Hogwarts can finally return to the way it was" revealed Harry.
"That's great. Although I fear that I won't be allowed to return to school. People will think that I'm a danger to others, when they learn that I attacked Fudge" admitted Celia.

"You don't need to worry about that, Dumbledore has sorted it all out, by explaining to Fudge that you weren't well. Besides, you didn't really attack him, you just entered his office and pointed your wand at him. You didn't place one single spell on him, which means that you are not going to be punished" announced Harry.
"I'm not?" Questioned Celia.
"Nope. Like I said, Dumbledore handled it all" reassured Harry.
"So, I will be able to leave this place?".

"Yes... I mean, technically since you did try and take your own life, the Healers will probably want to talk to you, and maybe even issue you a therapist... Look, I know that we always think it's best to hold our true feelings in. But I think that maybe you should tell these people how you really feel. It might be good to talk to an unbiased person, and get everything off your chest" suggested Harry.
"Yeah, maybe I will. Keeping my feelings in hasn't been the smartest thing to do. And I'm sorry for pushing you out" replied Celia.
"I should be the one apologising to you, for being a bad friend and not seeing that you needed help".

"It wasn't your fault. I pushed you away, because I didn't want you to get involved and end up getting hurt" admitted Celia.
"Well, from now on we tell each other everything" insisted Harry.
"O.K" replied Celia.
"I want you to promise me that you will tell me when you need help, and in return I will do the same"
"Alright then, it looks like we have ourselves a deal"
"Good".