Star Girl | Cedric Diggory

|*| Sixty One |*|

|*| I can't believe you guys thought... WHY? |*|

Jennifer's eyes opened, and she gasped for air, almost as if all of her oxygen had been ripped from her lungs. "What did I just say?" she asked. When Cedric didn't respond, she asked him again, this time while shaking him. "What the devil did I say, Diggory?!"

How was he supposed to explain what she said? He was still in a state of shock himself; the stars had spared him? Spared him from what?

"Nothing," Cedric told her. "You didn't say anything."

"We've got to get out of this maze," Jennifer said, tears forming in her eyes. "Oh bloody hell, the visions! They're getting worse!" The girl began once again screaming and rolling around. She gripped her hair tightly as of pulling it off would resolve her problem.

"I-I don't know what to do!" Cedric cried. He was completely at a loss as to what to do; his knowledge of spells had failed him, and sending up red sparks never crossed his mind.

"Just magic us outta here!" Jennifer yelled. "Wave that damn wand! Just do something!"

Cedric had no idea what to do. He had no idea if his plan would work, but he thought it best to try. "Hold on," he told her. He grabbed her hand and attempted to apperate back to Hogwarts.

|*|*|*|

"Merlin's sweaty balls!" Aquila shouted, standing up. "Cedric!"

Cedric hadn't apperated entirely correctly, and when he arrived back, he appeared to have died. He was lying limply on top of a writhing Jennifer Trelawney.

However it wasn't his dead-looking state that caused Aquila to freak out. It was what he didn't have that scared her the most. Cedric had splinched when he tried to apperate, and he not only lost a few fingers, but also he lost his most important feature.

His eyebrows.

Cedric had lost his eyebrows, and even from where she sat, Aquila could see that. "Cedric!" Aquila called to him. "Where are your eyebrows?"

She ran down the stairs, pushing past students and professors alike, until she got to the bottom where Cedric was. Professor Moody blocked her way, but she darted around him quickly. He didn't even have a chance to stop her as she ran the rest of the way over to her boyfriend.

"Cedric, oh stars..." she trailed off as she touched the place on his face where his eyebrows once were. "I can't even begin to process this... what am I supposed to call you now?"

"I'm missing my middle finger," Cedric said, "but if I had it, you can imagine where it would be."

"The Boy Who Does No Wrong would flash his middle finger in front of the entire school and his father? I don't think so."

"I said imagine-"

"HE IS IN THE GRAVEYARD," Jennifer's mechanic voice rang out. "AND HE SHALL SUFFER HIS END."

"Is Harry gonna die?" Aquila asked. "Joyous day!"

"No!" Cedric yelled, waving around his bloody hand with only three fingers. "Not a joyous day!"

Madam Promfrey arrived on the scene and took Cedric to the infirmary. Professor Moody took Jennifer to his office to try and find out what her visions meant.

"Whitman," Severus Snape said, walking over to her. "Should Potter return, notify the headmaster or myself immediately."

"Yes, Professor," Aquila said compliantly. She wasn't in any mood to argue, however, she didn't care if Potter came back at all. If he did, she'd be sure to be as slow as possible at informing everyone.

As she waited by the entrance to the maze, she looked up to the sky and saw what the stars had left for her.

You are in a great debt to us, Star Girl; for we have spared your friend from a deathly end.

"I am forever grateful," Aquila whispered to the night sky, but she didn't know what they were talking about. Was Cedric supposed to die? Had the stars saved him?

Aquila's breathing sped up, and she found herself hyperventilating. Just the thought of not seeing him, not having him around, not being able to talk to him filled her with a horrible sadness. The stars knew that, and they had taken pity on her.

The stars saved Cedric to spare Aquila from all the sadness and grief. However, if Aquila was of no value to them, those selfish stars would've let Cedric and grab the cup and meet a horrible fate. They needed Aquila for their own benefits, and they couldn't have her grieving or saddened or pained by the loss of the one she loved.

If it was Cedric she needed, the stars would do everything in their power to keep him around for her.

|*| I wonder why those stars need her... actually, I already know why! I'm the freakin author! |*|