Star Girl | Cedric Diggory

|*| Fifty Four |*|

|*| I can't keep stalling forever this task needs to happen... *cries* |*|

"Three more days, Ced!" Aquila cheered, dancing around her boyfriend. "Three more days until you win the Triwizard Tournament and prove that Hufflepuffs aren't all cowards!"

"That would look really good on a pin," Ethan said from his seat in the library.

"I'm starting a club now," she announced. "The Hufflepuffs aren't All Cowards club, or HAC for short."

"That's ridiculous, Quil," Cedric said.

"Almost as ridiculous as her saying you're gonna win the tournament when she clearly doesn't believe it herself," a new voice said.

The three friends turned their heads to see Cassie Carrow smiling at them. "Nice to see you all," she said.

"Kiss my a-"

"I can't say the feeling is mutual," Cedric said, interrupting Aquila's kind greeting.

Aquila huffed, "What are you even talking about, Cassiopeia?"

"That little message you wrote in the sky last night for all of Scotland to see," Cassie told her. "The one that said, He will be the one to die."

"What?" Aquila, Cedric, and Ethan asked in unison.

"You've got to be kidding me," Cassie said. "You don't remember putting it up there, plain as day?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Aquila said, standing up and getting in Cassie's face, "but I know you're full of sh-"

"What message?" Cedric asked. "When?"

"Just last night," Cassie told him, "I was sitting in the Ravenclaw common room, looking out the window, when I saw it. She doesn't believe in you, Cedric. She thinks you're going to die."

"That's a lie!" Aquila yelled. Her sudden outburst caused everyone in the library to simultaneously shush her.

"That's a lie," she said again, this time a whisper.

"We'll see about that won't we?" Cassie asked. "The task is only three days away."

"Listen here, Cassie," Cedric said, standing next to Aquila. "I know Aquila, and if there's one thing I know for sure it's that she's always true to her word. Now, you can just run along and spread your lies elsewhere to someone who'll believe you."

"Fine," Cassie said, "but if you get in the way of the grand plan, your green-haired girlfriend's message will be your fate."

Before anyone could ask her what she meant, she was gone.

"I hate people like her," Aquila said.

"Yeah, she's full of crap," Ethan agreed.

"Well, true," Aquila said. "But that's not what I meant."

"Do we even want to know?" Cedric asked.

"I hate people who speak in riddles," Aquila told them. "The grand plan? Seriously?"

"What message was she talking about?" Ethan asked.

"If I knew, I'd tell you," Aquila said. "But I do know that the stars are acting awfully strange as of late. Putting up messages for everyone to read-not just me."

"What do you think it means?" Cedric asked.

"Something's going on," Aquila said. "And it has some connection to the Triwizard Tournament."

"Should we ask a professor their opinion?" Ethan asked.

"They'd all just laugh," she said. "But there's something else going on too. There've been a lot of rumors about You-Know-Who's return. I don't believe it for a second, but some people do, and maybe the stars just sense that."

The boys had more questions, but Aquila answered them all the same. She didn't know what was going on. Eventually, they dropped the issue and carried on studying, but Cedric still had the nagging suspicion that she knew exactly what was going on.

|*|*|*|

With just two days left until the final task of the tournament, Aquila and Cedric were oddly normal. Ethan kept telling Cedric to spend more time with her and confess his love "in case something bad happens to you."

Cedric, however, saw no such problem occurring, and neither did Aquila, who went on with her day to day life just as she always did.

But Ethan was still scared that something might happen to his best friend, and he was constantly pestering Cedric to tell his girlfriend how he really felt.

"She knows how I feel, Eth," Cedric told him. "And I know how she feels."

"Do you?" Ethan asked. "Do you really?"

"Yes!" Cedric shouted. "Stop making me question things!"

"But that's my job as your best friend," Ethan insisted. "Seriously, though. How do you feel?"

"Confused," Cedric answered.

"That's not what I meant, idiot," Ethan said, rolling his eyes. "How do you feel about Aquila?"

"I... wait. Why am I talking to you about this?" Cedric asked.

"Come on, mate," Ethan said. "You could die in two days, and you haven't told Aquila you love her? You've got to get your head in the game!"

"How'd you know-"

"I know a lot of things, my friend," Ethan said. "I know you haven't told her you love her because you're acting exactly the same. Both of you are completely oblivious!"

"There's no need to do anything dramatic, Eth," Cedric told him. "I'll tell Aquila I love her when I know she feels the same. Love is kinda a touchy subject for girls; plus, I think she'd be the one to say it first."

"Why don't I ask her for you?" Ethan suggested. "Clearly, you won't do it until you've been dating for twenty years, if you even live that long."

"I've got my whole life to tell her how I feel!" Cedric shouted.

"Two days isn't a really long whole life, Cedric!" Ethan reasoned.

"I'm not going to die, Ethan!"

"You might! People die in these tournaments all the time! My great-great grandfather almost died when he was a competitor, and he knew someone who did, so don't tell me there's no chance you could die!"

Ethan took a few deep breaths before calmly continuing, "I'm rooting for you, Cedric; I really am. If you died, I don't know what I would do. But I do know it'd be a hundred times worse for Aquila knowing that she never told you how she felt."

Cedric didn't know how to respond. Ethan was always the one who supported him through everything, and the boy had never failed to help him out.

He knew Ethan was right. He very well could die in the tournament.

And he had to tell Aquila he loved her.

|*| really fluffy chapter coming up!! |*|