Happily ever after? /// Cedric Diggory

23

EVAN'S POV

Walking down the hallways, the ever present whispering followed Evan with every step. It had been weeks since the Daily Prophet released that article regarding her and Cedric and Cho, and yet the whispering seemed to only intensify with every passing day.

"-and apparently she knew the whole time that Cedric and Cho was a thing-"

"-can't catch a break can she?"

"-it's Christian all over again"

"would she dare show her face at Yule Ball with him?"

"what if it's all fake-"

"I knew she was fake, no one is that nice-"

"-skank-"

"-homewrecker-"

The voices overwhelmed her  and threatened to pull her under. The anxiety was building and made it impossible to focus on anything. 

"Evan?" Rebecca looked back at her friend with confusion. "Did you hear anything I just said?" But looking closer at her friend's face, understanding dawned on Rebecca's face. "What's wrong?" 

Unable to keep it together anymore, Evan burst into tears in the middle of the bustling hallway. Trying to take control of the situation, Rebecca hastily grabbed her friend's shoulders and veered her into a quieter hallway in hopes of calming her down. The two of them sunk to the floor and Rebecca pulled Evan to her chest and held her friend while she calmed down. 

Minutes later, Evan pulled away slowly from her friend to lean her head against the cool wall.  

Looking at her friend with a look of defeat, she simply asked, "Will it ever end?"

Rebecca's heart broke looking at Evan, seeing the toll that one article was having on her. She wanted more than anything to heal her friend, but knew she couldn't.  She wanted to curse the gossips all the way to Azkaban with a flick of her wrist. Instead, she just mimicked her friend and leaned her head against the wall as well. "It will. Not sure when, but it will."

An uneasy sigh escaped Evan's lips and she finally got over her panic attack. A newfound resilience entered her body as she was determined to be happy, regardless of the whispers and regardless of all the crap she had been through. She wiped her face of the dried tears and dragged Rebecca to her feet. "Today I am choosing to not care, lets go," Evan told her, and pulled Rebecca back into the main hallway. 

She had plastered a smile on her face, and while she was still hurting, the smile became more real every second. Linking arms with Rebecca, they made their way down the hallway without incident. They made it to the library, their destination long before everything happened, to study. They plopped down at a table in the furthest corner to avoid being seen and interrupted, as they direly needed to study for Snape's practice exam in a few days.

Pulling out her notes and  pens, Evan heard approaching footsteps and knew exactly who it would be. Looking up, her suspicions were confirmed when a chipper looking Dallas approaching the two of them. 

Though they both denied it, Evan knew there was something going on between Rebecca and Dallas. Over the past few weeks, he seemed to coincidentally end up where Rebecca was, and they'd end up hanging out for hours in hushed whispers and loud laughs. Seeing a light in Rebecca's eyes that she had never seen before, Evan was completely on board with that relationship. The only downside with being around the two of them so much made her think about a certain Champion a little too much, that wound still fresh on her mind. 

She knew that everything he told her by the lake was true, about Cho and Rita, and Cho had even come and explained and apologizing profusely about the whole situation, but Evan knew the two of them were from different worlds and she didn't think she would be able to trust again. She didn't want to force him to wait for her while she figured her life out, that wouldn't be fair to him. He would move on, and she would eventually heal.