Star Girl | Cedric Diggory

|*| Eighty Four |*|

|*| little kids dressed in bunny ears are the cutest things ever just sayin |*|

It was finally time for Winter Holiday, and Cedric and Aquila boarded the Hogwarts Express together. They found an empty compartment and began talking excitedly about the next week they'd be spending together.

While their conversation was happy and cheerful, if you were to walk a little farther down the train, you'd find a conversation that was the exact opposite. Ethan and Cassie sat together, discussing foul matters in hushed tones.

"When the time comes for you to show where your loyalties truly lie, you mustn't show fear," Cassiopeia told the Hufflepuff boy. "If they see fear, they'll think you're weak."

"But I am weak," Ethan said. "And I'm a coward. I can't do this, Cass."

"You can, and you will," she told him. "If you back down now, the consequences will be more severe than if you didn't."

"This isn't the wizard I want to be," he said. "I want to be good-"

"There is no good in the world, Eth," she said sternly. "There is just darkness. So you have to pick the side that will benefit you in the end. The side that will win the war."

"And this side will?" Ethan asked. "How are you so sure?"

"Because this side is stronger," Cassie said. "This side has wizards who aren't afraid to die for their cause, who aren't afraid to kill for their cause. That's who you need to be, Ethan. You need to be ruthless."

"Have you met me, Cass?" he asked. "I'm not ruthless."

"You'd better be soon," she said. "Your initiation to the Dark Lord's cause is this week. If you aren't ruthless by then, they will show no mercy in your death."

Cassie stood up and left the compartment to find Abby Greenwall, leaving Ethan alone. He made sure she was gone before he began crying, letting the tears roll down his cheeks. The phrase, "What have I done," repeated in his head over and over as he cried. Eventually, he pulled himself together, wiping the tears away.

"I have no other choice," he whispered. "This is what has to be done. Cassiopeia wants what's best for me; this is what's best."

But there was a part of him that didn't want this. He knew somewhere in the back of his mind, that there was a way out. He remembered Cedric, who would never let him do something like this, and Aquila, who would kill Cassie if she ever found out about what was going on.

If he had only let them help him instead of going back to Cassie. Ethan wished he wouldn't have shut the two out. Yes, they were friends with Alexis Greenwall and Carlos Blake, but that didn't make them bad people too. Maybe Aquila was telling the truth when she said that the two Slytherins were on the right side now. He shouldn't have left them; if he hadn't, he wouldn't have been in this mess.

"I have to find them," he whispered. Nodding his head, he walked out of the compartment in search of the two people who were his best friends.

|*|*|*|

"And then we'll build a snowman and enchant it to do backflips," Aquila said. "And we'll name it Cuddles and give it hugs."

"We'll sit by the fireplace together with cups of hot chocolate in our hands and talk about how handsome I am," Cedric said.

"Then, we'll lay down on the couch and diss on all of the DA members," Aquila continued.

"After we're done with that fun activity, we'll get a bath-"

"Together," Aquila added. Cedric almost didn't hear her."

"-and then-Aquila!" he exclaimed, realizing what she said. "You had to go ruin this picture perfect idea with your dirty suggestions."

"Personally, I feel like it would make the holiday more picture perfect," she said. "Come on, Ced! We've been dating for a year now, and there's nothing wrong with-"

"Quil, can we not talk about this now?" he asked.

"Are we ever going to talk about it?" she asked. "If we don't do it over holiday, we'll have to do it in a broom closet or something when we get back, and that's not very comfortable."

"We'll talk about this some other time," he told her.

She sighed, knowing that this conversation was going nowhere. "Fine, after our individual baths, we'll lay down in the grass outside, and we'll play tick-tack-toe in the stars."

"How will that work?" he asked.

"I have a few ideas," she told him. "And then, we'll-"

She was interrupted by a knock at their compartment door. She stood up and pulled the door open. "Ethan?"

Cedric stood up and walked to the door to make see for himself that Ethan was there. "Hey, guys," Ethan said. "Mind if I come in?"

"Only if there's a really good reason that you're here," Aquila told him. She didn't trust the he was there on his own accord. She was sure that Cassie was sending him to spy on her.

"There is," he said. She let him in, and he sat down across from Cedric and Aquila. "I need help."

"I need an explanation," she told him. "So get on it."

"I'm in a bit of a sticky situation right now, and it's because of Cassiopeia. I didn't know who else to go to; I just thought you guys might be willing to help me."

"Help you with what?" Cedric asked.

"She's trying to get recruit me," he said. "For the Death Eaters."

"We'll help you," Cedric said, but Aquila shook her head.

"No," she said. "No, we will not help him. He comes in here, asking for our help, when he should really be here asking for our forgiveness. You just walked right out of our lives like our friendship meant nothing. You didn't even tell me about your parents' divorce because you were afraid I'd overreact. Well, now I'm overreacting! I refuse to help the person who walked away from me because I made a new friend. Why should I accept you back when you weren't willing to accept Alexis and Carlos? They're good people, but I'm not so sure about you anymore.

"You left me to become buddy-buddy with Cassiopeia. What was she offering you that was better than lifelong friendship and acceptance? What made her so much better than me? Better than us? I honestly thought this friendship would last forever, but because of you, it didn't. I can't believe that you came back here to ask for help. You shouldn't have come back at all.

"There was a time in my life when I would've jumped at the opportunity to help you, but now, I hope that you get yourself killed. Get out of my compartment."

Ethan stood up to leave. "I just thought-"

"NOW!" she yelled.

He left, and she turned to Cedric. "He doesn't deserve our forgiveness."

"He deserves a chance," he told her. "You gave Alexis a chance."

"Yes, but I also gave Cassiopeia a chance, and I am not making that mistake twice," she said.

"He's going to become a Death Eater, Quil," Cedric said.

"Can't we just talk about that perfect holiday again and forget he ever came in here?" she asked. "I don't want to talk about him. Ever again."

|*| lol you're gonna regret that decision later |*|