Lillian 'Anna' Potter || Order of the Phoenix

Chapter Eight: The Memorial

The Hogwarts castle was as great as she remembered it, standing brightly in the pitch dark of night, the surrounding woods and nature complementing the wondrous architecture.

“We’re finally back, Mom!” Boudica cheered, circling quickly around Anna’s legs in excitement. “I wonder if Silver Eyes will notice how strong I've gotten.”

It was true: over the course of the summer, Boudica had grown more lithely and muscular - Anna suspects that Mrs. Weasley had been sneaking her more snacks when she wasn’t looking. Though she didn’t know how long it took panthers to mature, Anna guessed Boudica was probably the mental age of an older teenager. “He’s with the prefects, remember?”

“Yeah, but I’ll still get to see him! More likely here than in the Dog’s house.”

She had to hold back a snort at Boudica’s nickname for Sirius.

Anna sighed as they finally got out of the stuffy compartment and stretched. The ride had rejuvenated her some, and she was now clad in her school robes - hair finally untangled and silky smooth.

“You know the drill,” She said, turning back to Boudica quickly. “Pet-er...creatures aren’t allowed in the Great Hall. Especially you - everyone still thinks you’ll take a bite out of them soon enough. You’ve got to go to the Gryffindor common room with Crookshanks.”

“I haven’t eaten anyone yet, have I?” She deadpanned.

“If you go, I’ll nab you a juicy steak.”

“See you tonight!”

And Boudica was already gone.

 “That cat really likes food, no?” Ginny laughed as the two girls made their way to the castle. “I think I fed her like - 5 meals for every 1 over the summer.”

“I knew someone was feeding her extra.” Anna muttered under her breath, but stopped when she caught sight of something that made her stomach drop.

For a second, it felt like she couldn't breathe. “I...I didn’t know they put this here.”

In the middle of the gardens, where all the students were entering the school, lay Cedric’s memorial. It was beautiful, made of some sort of colorful glass spiraling with some sort of dust and colors as water flowed from the center and encased the orb, almost like a fountain.

Ginny squeezed Anna’s arm reassuringly as they separated from the crowd and went closer. “I heard that they sealed his ashes in here.” She whispered, pointing to the little white-grey pieces of dust scattered about the sculpture. “His parents allowed it, since they thought he’d like it best here in the garden.”

“Y-yeah. He would’ve.” She stammered.

Down in the recesses of her heart, the first glimmer of sadness over his death began to form into a tendril, encasing her with the tiniest bit of grief. After all, he had been one of her precious people for almost 3 years, hadn’t he?

And in some ways, he had known her better than herself.

Anna then heard a sniffle behind her turning to see Cho Chang once again, and the moment was lost. All she could see now was a thousand terabytes of Cedric kissing her in that tent all over again.

“I...I love her.” His velvety voice repeated, over and over again.

“We - we need to go. Now.” She quickly began stomping off towards the castle.

Too little, too late.

“Anna! Anna! Wait up!”

Oh god. Not now, please not now.

Cho Chang ran up to her side, enclosing her hand in hers as she looked to Anna with watery eyes. “I’m sorry I just - I just wanted to see how you were doing with all of this. I didn’t get to see you after he….” She trailed off, presumably unable to speak the words.

Please get this bloody girl off my bloody arm right now.

“Yeah. Uh...sorry.” Anna said wryly, pulling her hang away from Cho’s grasp. “I was trying to stay low. There’s only so much ‘sorry for your losses’ a person can take.”

Cho nodded, as if she understood completely. “He was so important to me, as I’m sure he was to you. I’m...I’m really grateful how good you were to him. You were his first love, you know? You guys should’ve lasted-”

That was the last straw.

“Can you please stop?!” Anna finally snapped, finally having enough as she spun around, flooring Cho with her hate-filled glare. “I know, okay? I know everything. Don’t pretend anymore. I can’t stand people who just bloody pretend all the time. So just. Stop.”

For a second, Cho almost seemed to pale before her expression evened out. “You saw us, didn’t you? That day in the tent.”

“I did.” She reaffirmed. Anna then looked around to make sure that no one had paid them any attention, other than Ginny, standing confused a few feet away from the two of them. “Look, I know what happened, but I don’t feel like telling the whole world about it because Cedric doesn’t deserve that. What he did with you...it doesn’t define who he is.”

Cho scoffed, her nice girl act instantly dissolving. “You make it sound like it was such a bad thing.”

What? Is this female dog on crack?

“He cheated on me - with you. It was wrong. No matter how we put it, Cedric betrayed me. But he’s dead, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Anna leveled her with her own mastered side-eye. “So do us both a favor and stop talking about him like he was your lost love. You’re damaging his memory. I don’t care about how much he may or may not have loved you. As far as everyone else knows, Cedric was a faithful and caring soul - and I’d like to keep it that way.”

But the girl only scowled. “What we had was special. Unlike your...delusional fling. Whatever you had with Ced was a lie. He was always real when it came to me.”

Merlin, please help me before I decapitate this girl.

“....right.”

Knowing Cho’s type of person, Anna thought it best to summon all the self control she had and just walk away before things got messy. Quickly, she grabbed Ginny by the arm and stalked off to the entrance of the school.

“You’ll regret this, Potter!” She cried from behind them. “By the end of all this, we’ll see who Cedric really loved!”

“I have no doubt it was you.” Anna muttered lowly. She hadn’t even stepped foot in the actual castle yet and trouble was already brewing thickly all around her. Though Cho’s words kept echoing in her ear.

“You’ll regret this, Potter! You’ll regret this, Potter!” Cho Chang's high pitched voice echoed in her mind.

Holy grail of Sir Lancelot - what exactly is she planning?

---

Anddddd I’m a day late. But another fun fact to make up for it: in the original plot, I was planning to keep Cedric alive until the alluring thought of a Draco Malfoy ship came to me and I killed him off. Honestly, I really liked the idea of their relationship(Cedric and Anna), but in the end, I think their ship was too simple and nice and my job as a writer is to just make my characters suffer. Sooo we went with Draco.