| HIDDEN IN SECRETS |

chapter sixty-six

HONOUR

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She thought Death had already dealt its hand. Verena was wrong; it was only the beginning. It had taken her mother and now it had taken her friend. What more would it take? How many more?

Verena would gladly be dead. That's all she could think about the next morning when she awoke. Dead. The white light. The peace. The silence. The calm.

"Hear me, Death, and take me," she would think to herself. "Reunite me with my mother, to Dahlia, my family."

And then Verena would remind herself that she was being selfish. She told herself not to beg for death. She had to keep living, for if Death did not take her, there must have been a reason. That was what Verena kept telling herself.

That same morning, Harry and Verena were greeted by familiar faces. Cedric's parents came into the ward along with Cho Chang. Suddenly, Verena felt an immense pain of guilt.

"How... Was it quick?" Mrs Diggory asked.

Harry nodded and began to explain how it happened. He explained how the Cup took them to the graveyard and how Cedric had bravely tried to protect them, and how that ended with his death.

"He suffered very little then," she said with relief. "And after all, Amos... he died just when he'd won the tournament. He must have been happy."

When they got to their feet, she looked down at the two and said, "You look after yourselves, now."

Harry seized the sack of gold on the bedside table.

"You take this," he told her. "It should've been Cedric's, he got there first, you take it— "

"Oh no, it's yours, dear, I couldn't," she said, backing away from him. "You keep it."

"Verena," Cho spoke softly.

"I'm sorry," Verena said in a whisper. "I tried... I'm sorry."

"Professor Flitwick asked me to give you this," she said, holding out Verena's wand. "They found it in Professor Moody's office."

"Thanks," said Verena as she watched Cho set it down on the bedside.

"He loved me, didn't he?" Cho asked. "He— "

"Of course, he loved you," Verena assured. "He always came asking about you. He loved you, Cho, don't doubt that. Let those memories be the last you remember of him – not his death... You don't need to bear that memory."

Over the next few days, Verena kept to herself. She attended her classes, though it was hard trying to ignore the whispers and stares from her classmates. During her free periods, she would escape to the Black Lake. She'd stand on the shore and let the waves wash over her feet. Calmness always came to her there. There was always the Astronomy Tower, too, which gave her a quiet space. It was secluded and no one would even notice she was there. She would avoid the crowds in the Great Hall, preferring to visit the kitchens for food instead.

Verena had just finished her last class of the day. She was about to head to her dorm to start packing when someone called her name. She knew it was Damien, and she did her best to run away. She didn't want to speak to him. She had slowly grown to dislike her family and their cowardice...

Although, Verena was also running away from her problems. She was running away from her visions, running from her family, and she was running from the Dark Lord. She was afraid that she would see her family suffering, and she knew that once she did, she would just go back to them, even if it was wrong.