Loving Lily: A Snily Story

Chapter 77 - Strategy

Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Harriet returned home that summer with a heavy heart.

She had said her muddled goodbyes to Tom in a stupor.

For once, her dear friend was not the most prominent person on her mind.

"......Harriet?" Hermione asked.

She and Ron watched Harriet stare out the window at the unusually gray summer day as the Hogwarts Express hurtled along its track.

Ron frowned when Harriet failed to look over.

"........We all miss Cedric." Hermione said quietly, "It's normal to feel sad, really you-"

"-Sad, Hermione?" Harriet snapped as she finally turned her head to meet her friend's gaze.

Hermione stopped talking as Harriet scoffed and went on, "I suppose everyone's sad, sure, but it's......it's not even the sadness, it's the.....it's the guilt."

"It wasn't your fault!" Ron frowned.

"Wasn't it?" Harriet laughed mirthlessly as her emerald eyes flickered to Ron, "If I hadn't......If I hadn't been so weak, if I had made it to the final task, Cedric might still be alive."

"Having a medical emergency isn't a weakness, Harriet." Hermione chided.

"It isn't a strength, either." Harriet retorted.

"Who's to say he would have lived even if you had been there?" Ron asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"I dunno, he might have." Harriet shrugged, "Maybe he would have been lost in the maze and I would have gotten there first, or we would have been lost together and no one could have......no one would have......"

"Harriet, you can't blame yourself for something that happened when you weren't even present." Hermione said comfortingly while she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, "That isn't fair. If Cedric were here now, he wouldn't want you to bear the blame."

Harriet shook herself loose from Hermione's hold and turned to stare out the train window at the depressing day once more.

"..........There's something I don't understand and it's driving me mad." Harriet confessed quietly.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

Ron scowled as he waited.

Harriet looked at them both with a remorseful frown as she asked, "............Why Cedric?"

While Hermione and Ron began to contemplate her question, Harriet grit her teeth.

Lord Voldemort.

Lily and Severus had never spoken that name to her or her brother, but at the Death Eater meeting a few months prior, Harriet had overhead her dear friend addresss himself as exactly that.

She abhorred her own ignorance.

Who had she thought he was?

Did his kindness to her excuse everything else?

Harriet sighed as she passed a hand over her face.

For once, she dreaded the summer.

Instead of looking forward to spending time with her family, she dreaded a season of dodging Draco, being forced to face her......friend, and being left alone with her thoughts.

Once the Hogwarts Express reached its destination some hours later, Harriet wore a grim scowl that could have rivaled her father's as she disembarked from the train without waiting for Ellery, Ron, or Hermione.