Insomnia | Fred Weasley |

11. Cedric Diggory, the "enemy"

Classes eventually were let out and as the corridor filled with students, no one seemed to pay mind to the clearly upset girl sitting at the window.  She stared outside, sniffling every once in awhile as sat there, trapped in her own thoughts. People only glanced at her before hurrying to their destination, not wanting to get involved.

To them, it just seemed to be a case of a teenager dealing with hormones. But it was so much more than that.

Every once in awhile, Alex wiped her face of the fresh tears that had fallen, keeping her gaze outside.  Her mother's words kept echoing in her head and she couldn't help but think that was actually how her mother felt.  When Andrei was attacked that day, Alex should have listened and left and they would have maybe been able to get him help, but from what she remembered, he was long gone.  She closed her eyes, trying to drone out of the noises of students walking by to get to wherever they were headed.

A few minutes later, she heard someone sit down next to her, but still kept her eyes closed until they cleared their throat.  "Are-Are you okay?" The voice asked.

She opened her eyes to see a familiar and older boy sitting next to her, a soft smile on his face.  Alex recognized him immediately.  Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff quidditch captain and Seeker and recently appointed prefect for the year, was sitting next to her.

Sniffling, she shrugged.  "As well as can be expected, I guess," she told him.

"Is there anything I can help with?" He offered.

She shook her head.  "Unless you know how to change a boggart or obliviate memories, I don't know how much you can help," she told him with a dry laugh.

Cedric gave a small nod of understanding.  "I assume you had Defense Against the Dark Arts then?"

Slowly, she nodded, her gaze falling to the floor.  "And as if the images I saw didn't haunt me enough, now everybody saw it and so much worse," she admitted to him.  She didn't know why she was talking to him, they had never seen each other or interacted other than in a quidditch setting and even that was limited as she was a chaser and he was a seeker.

Cedric gently patted her knee.  "I'm not gonna tell you it's going to be okay because it seems like whatever you saw really shook you up," he began softly, "but I can tell you that keeping it bottled up won't help.  Talk to someone, someone you trust, okay?"

She looked up at the older student, a soft smile making its way onto her lips.  "Thank you, Cedric," she whispered.  "I needed that."

He smiled back.  "Of course, Alex."

Her brow furrowed.  "How do you know my name?"

He laughed.  "You're Harry Potter's best friend, to not know your name would seem like a crime," he joked, causing her to let out a soft laugh.  "Besides, I saw you on the quidditch pitch last year and you're very impressive."