Star Girl | Cedric Diggory

|*| Sixty Two |*|

Aquila spent the whole night in the hospital wing with Cedric and Ethan. She and Ethan refused to leave Cedric by himself, and not even Madam Promfrey could tell them otherwise.

Madam Promfrey did tell them that Cedric would need to remain in her care for about twenty-four hours. Even after all of his missing body parts grew back, he'd still need plenty of rest.

Cedric's eyebrows were quick to grow back, but his fingers weren't so lucky. It was going to be a painful process, but it could have been far worse for him. As Madam Promfrey explained, he got off easy for someone so inexperienced at Apparating. It would've been much worse, she said, had he lost an arm or leg or anything to that extent.

"Why was I able to Apparate in the first place?" Cedric asked the nurse. "I didn't think it would work."

"You'll have to take that up with the headmaster," Madam Promfrey told him. "He's in charge of that sort of thing."

|*|*|*|

Aquila was resting on the floor of the infirmary next to Ethan. It was the middle of the night, but she wasn't asleep. She really wanted to sleep, but her brain wouldn't let her. It kept her awake all through the night with constant thoughts-sometimes they were very random thoughts.

"Alright brain," Aquila whispered to herself. "It's time that you powered down."

But her brain wasn't ready to "power down." It decided to be evil and continue keeping her awake by asking her questions. The first one was:

Why do we exist?

"Oh no," Aquila whispered. "Not again. You listen here, brain. It's time you shut up."

What is beyond the universe?

"Now is not the time for this," Aquila whispered harshly. "I'm tired; I need sleep. Although I'd love to know the answer to those questions, please ask me again when the sun rises."

What happens when you die?

"Can't I just find out when the time comes?" Aquila asked. "I'm probably going to hell anyways, so I'll just ask Satan that question."

What if there is no hell?

"Good question," she pondered. "Well, if there's no hell then there's no heaven because every good thing has to have a bad alternative... Maybe it all just ends. After you die, maybe you're just gone... poof. Is it the same for wizards and muggles though? Is there a wizard hell and a muggle hell?"

Aquila's brain had won, and she stayed up longer, softly whispering to herself about heaven and hell.

"Who are you talking to?" Ethan whined from next to her. He had woken up and had rolled around on the floor to face Aquila.

"My brain," she told him. "It's making me question the universe again."

"Again?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah," she said, "this happens a lot. It's my nightly existential crisis."

"Cool," Ethan said groggily. "Hey, while we're discussing our existences, what were the stars talking about when they said 'Beware the final task'?"

"I think our pal Ceddy was supposed to die," Aquila told him calmly. She acted as if it was no big deal at all.

"What? Then why didn't he? You can't change the future."

"Apparently, they can. The stars I mean. They saved him from whatever Potter faced. Of course, Potter lived... I'd assume-had Ced gone with him-he'd have simply been there as extra. Like a... a..."

"A spare?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah," Aquila said. "Exactly; a spare. And do you know what happens to spares?"

"They get spared?" Ethan guessed.

"They get killed," Aquila corrected.

"He would've been a spare and gotten killed?"

"You've gotta kill the spare," Aquila said plainly.

"Kill the spare," Ethan repeated. "That doesn't sound pleasant at all."

"I'd assume it would've been done quickly," Aquila said. "He'd have been the spare after all. You can't waste much time on the spare. The spare would be killed quickly to get it out of the way."

"So, a killing curse then?" Ethan asked.

"You're catching on quick," she told him.

"How do you know all this?" he asked.

"My parents," Aquila said. "They aren't the best influences in the world, but they do know how to kill the spare."

"Hopefully you never killed anyone," he said, mostly to himself.

"I haven't," Aquila said, "but I've seen it happen..."

"That's awful," Ethan said, scooting closer to her. They sat down next to each other, and Ethan wrapped his arm around her.

"Yeah," Aquila said, "but what can I do? It already happened. You might be able to change the future, but you sure as hell can't change the past."

Ethan didn't know what to say to her after that. He was curious to know what exactly happened, but more importantly, he wanted to know how Aquila was so optimistic after everything she went through. After seeing someone murdered, how was she still so cheerful?

"You want to know more don't you?" Aquila asked, seeing the look on her friend's face. "It's okay to ask; I don't mind sharing."

"Only if you want to," he told her.

"I didn't even know the guy," she said. "Neither did my parents. He was a muggle who wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd witnessed my parents doing magic, and instead of obliviating him, my father killed him with the wave of his wand.

"I watched him fall onto the ground and... die. He never got back up. I didn't know what to do; I wasn't quite sure what I'd seen, to be honest. I was only eight."

"Quil, I-"

"Hush child I'm not done yet."

"Okay..."

Aquila took a deep breath before continuing, "After my brother explained what happened, I didn't come out of my room for weeks. I didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't make a noise. I promised myself to never be like them. I will never be like them."

|*|*|*|

From where he lied in the bed, Cedric kept his eyes closed. They didn't know he was awake, but he was. He'd heard every word they said.

He believed her. Cedric knew Aquila wouldn't be like her parents. She never go to the Dark Lord's side. She wasn't like them.

Aquila would never be like her parents.

|*| are you sure? |*|