warmth - cedric diggory

chapter thirty two

the books along the table appeared to be there as decoration, a way to be unbothered by others, but ivy's stone cold expression seem to be enough to scare off her peers

her usual ocean colored eyes felt more like a darker sea as she glared to her friends before her, trying her best to avoid eye contact with cedric. she was hiding something within her four walls and they all knew it.

"ivy, darling, come on." edmund's usual playful banter and tone has sunken under, revealing a more desperate tone now. in his mind, he knew how scared his friend cedric might be, edmund was rotting from anxiety so he couldn't imagine what he was going through.

"please," the word almost came out as a whimper, cedric needed to know what draco malfoy could possibly know, malfoy's life wasn't at stake, he had nothing to lose.

ivy's eyes finally met cedric's and the immediate feeling of guilt splashed behind them. with a loud sigh, she slammed the book in front of her, that was only opened to the third page.

"look, this is just a rumor guys. take it with a grain of salt, draco could've easily said it just to upset me." the purple look was pushed to the side. "he was going on and on about how you-know-who is coming back."

the friends turned cold, as if medusa herself looked them each into their eyes, freezing them into stone. cedric found himself wishing athena wasn't tutoring a second year right now and instead holding his hand, no matter how selfish it seemed.

rumors had been flying around all year about voldemort, where he was, what he was doing, but no one truly believed it. there was no way he had returned, there was more comfort in believing it wasn't true.

"he heard his father speaking to his mother about it, but his father was terrified. he couldn't figure out how or why but he just said it was a feeling." ivy's eyes were almost watering at this point, remembering draco's voice shaking as he whispered it to her.

she knew draco didn't care about cedric or harry or even his fathers fears about the tournament, he only cared for his own. he cared for the pressure of being beside voldemort in a war that he didn't want to happen. even if he was a selfish boy with a horrible mean streak; he still remained terrified.

"he told me to keep the information close to me, he told me they wanted potter to join the dark side, they always have. if they were going to do it, it would be now." the words no longer seemed real when she said them, but she secretly believed it was all true.

cedric, belle, and edmund stared at her blankly, like the words couldn't even be processed in the first place. a million and one different questions flooded their heads but their shaky hands overruled any feeling.

"how would he even do that? get potter to the dark side?" edmund wanted to kill malfoy for telling her these things, for coming up to her the way he did, for making her feel scared and alone. but he also wanted to thank him for giving away the information.

"no idea, we had absolutely no idea." the slytherin responded, her slender fingers tracing along the wooden table softly. everyone knew potter would rather die than do so, but could he be tricked?

cedric tried to come up with a million different ways on what this could mean, what he could do, how he could save it all. "potter has to know something we don't, he seems to always be one step ahead."

"it's going to be something during the tournament, something the judges can't see. the main problem is we have no idea what the last task is." belle's light blonde hair fell over her flushed face, barely lifting her head as she spoke.

they sat in a stiff silence, waiting for someone to speak, waiting for something new to happen. just waiting. and then waited some more. no one made eye contact, no one spoke, they barely even sighed. the next move was uncertain and unclear, they were stuck.

if only athena was here, cedric though over and over. if only her yellow painted nails held his shaking hand, telling him what to do. sooner than later they would tell her what draco said, but right now everything was blurry and terrifying.

if he was apart of his trap, this diabolical plan, what would happen? would he win the tournament at the cost of potters life? would he lose his life? would anything even happen?

cedric knee athena would know exactly what to say during this time, how to comfort each and everyone one of them, how to fix everything in one second. but what if she didn't?