We Meet Again(Cedric/Edward)

26-Spilling it All Out

Leo

Sabrina was mesmerising. She was pretty, smart, and kind. There was nothing more enchanting than that—at least, not to me.
And right now, she was walking with me through the streets of Forks. I felt lucky.
Then at one point, she suggested we go to her house; her dad wasn't there anyway. Of course I accepted.

When we came in, she made me some tea and we talked a little. To be honest, I didn't really like the taste. But I guess that's because I'm not English. Maybe all Brits like tea.

Once we'd finished, my undivided attention was then focused on her every gesture, which made me realise that she was slightly on edge. I didn't question her about it, but I was eager to find out the reason.
After a long small talk, she finally said—
"Leo."
I liked how my name sounded when she said it. I wanted her to say it again.
"Yeah?"
She blinked.
"There's something... Er, kind of important I have to tell you."
My heart was beating.
   "I'm listening."
I leaned in towards her a little.
   "Okay, alright. I'm actually... doing this," she said, as if giving herself a pep talk.
   "So, er, this might sound slightly... odd."
I said nothing; I was impatient to hear her say more.
   "Before I came to Forks, I went to a special boarding school in Scotland."
Okay...
   "It's very isolated, and only... a select group of people are allowed in."
I sat in silence.
   "And... There was one man."
My eyebrows furrowed.
   "He...er, he threatened the school. He was, one could say, a psychopath."
A psychopath?
   "And," she looked up at me nervously, looking adorable as always, "that man... He was a threat not only to our school, but to the whole of England."
How come I've never heard about this? I don't live under a rock.
   "He was quite well-known for his terrible actions," she said, looking down, and I swear I saw her eyes water.
   "He... killed many people."
I was truly worried now. Sabrina went to school with a psychopath murderer?
   "Including...," she paused, "Well, he came back every year, getting more and more dangerous every time. But no matter how many times we attempted to defeat him, he always came back. Always.
   "He killed many. Young and old. Women and men. And children."
My eyes widened whilst my brain debated with itself; how was I to believe this? that a psychotic murderer threatening a well-known country had never even reached my ears to the slightest? The media said nothing of it--there was absolutely not a shred of proof which could turn this statement into a fact in my eyes. I was struggling to believe her, and yet, I felt as though her expression was so sincere, so truthful, that no liar could ever execute it whilst practicing their craft.
   "Do you remember me telling you about that one previous boyfriend I had? Cedric?"
Oh no.
   "He was one of this... man's victims,' she added quietly, as a long, silver tear welled out from her eye and fell down her cheek.
"And, er," she looked down, sniffing, "well, he gained many, many followers over time. Eventually, he had a whole army at his service. And then two summers ago, our headmaster was killed by one of them, and he took over the school."
I shuddered.
   "My three best friends and I decided that we would be the ones to finish what our headmaster had started and stop him. And for that, we needed to find certain...objects. Seven of them. Scattered around England. One had already been found, and we went searching for the others."
This didn't make any sense. How could seven random objects defeat a psycho like that?
   "On the way, we were caught by his most loyal followers. That's where I got this," she said, rolling up her sleeve and revealing a large, deep red scar spelling out the word "Mudblood" into her skin. I was horrified at the sight and, looking up, I saw her eyes water once more, tears threatening to violently spill out.
I had seen this already. I'd seen a vision of a black-haired madwoman carve that word into her... but it had been with the help of a wand.
I felt my heart rate accelerate.
   "Sabrina, I-I'm so sorry," said I, attempting to comfort her. She silently nodded, took a deep breath in, and went back to her tale.
   "But what that witch did to me was nothing compared to my best friend, Hermione."
What an unusual name.
   "The woman engraved this on her too, and then..." she paused.
Her cheeks were completely wet now.
   "And then she killed her," she said in almost a whisper.
I felt a chilling shiver run up my spine.
   "Mudbloods, as they call us, were not allowed into Ho-the school after the psychopath took over. He didn't like us. We were... one could say, different. That is how we were able to avoid the school year to go looking for the seven objects. Hermione had even ensured her parents forget her completely before leaving with us to not endanger them. She knew that this psychopath's followers would come and threaten them."
What was a Mudblood? Clearly it was an insult, referring to, I assumed, dirty, filthy blood. But what in the world made Sabrina's blood filthy?
   "Then, after finding most of the... objects, Harry found out that one of them was inside the school itself. And so he, Ron and I went.
We searched and searched, and the psychopath knew that we were there. He launched his army onto the school. It was horrible," she said the last sentence with wide eyes, staring into nothingness.
   "Many, many people died. Too many. And the psychopath took that to his advantage and made Harry feel guilty for it all. He told him to come sacrifice himself to stop any more blood from being spilled. And of course, heroic and chivalrous as he always was, he did. And the next morning, the psychopath came back with his dead body, announcing that Harry Potter was dead, and that he was our new master. After that, many ran away, including myself and Ron. We talked it over, and I decided to come back here to live with my dad, safe from the psychopath's prying hands. I don't know how Ron is. He could be dead for all I know. But we have a particular mailing system, and...people like me aren't allowed to use it."
We sat in silence for a few moments.
   "I'm so, so sorry, Sabrina," I said, and I felt myself on the verge of tears.
Not only for her scarcely believable story, but also out of pure confusion.

Was this the reason for those damned nightmares I'd been cursed to endure? Were these visions a window to the past? Were they real? Was I going insane?
I didn't blame Sabrina for it at all anymore. I had realised that she didn't even know I had them, let alone made me endure them.
She had suffered too much in her life to wish such pain on anyone else.

I hugged her with all my might, and she hugged me back. She sobbed into my shoulder, and I knew then, that she was telling the truth.
   "I know this must all be confusing and frightening and odd, but I had to tell someone. Or else I was going to burst."
   "It's alright, it's alright," I said quietly, silently crying at how much she'd secretly suffered.

Once we broke apart, our faces were so close that I could even examine the tiniest freckles on her face. She slowly calmed down, breathing in and looking at me with those big, emerald eyes of hers.
None of us broke apart. So I leaned in and gently pressed my lips onto hers.