Star Girl | Cedric Diggory

|*| One Hundred Four |*|

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"Cedric, this is where I draw the line," Aquila told him sternly. "I have let you drag me into countless endeavors-each one exciting, no doubt-but this is not happening."

"Come on, Quil!" Cedric pleaded. "It could be fun!"

"By no definition is riding on a magical cleaning stick all the way from Hogwarts to your house with wind and dust and bugs in my face 'fun'. No, Cedric Bungalow Diggory. Absolutely not." She shook her head and would not change her mind. The argument between them had been going on for quite some time, and the other students around them were all in conclusion that Aquila would win in the end.

"Don't you trust me?" he asked. He tried to win her over with his signature, charismatic smile, but she wouldn't not change her mind. She shook her head, allowing her hair to flop around dramatically.

"This is not about trust," she told him. "This is the last time in our lives that we'll be riding the Hogwarts Express. I will not be flying home on a broomstick. I want to hang out with my friends and laugh like kids one more time before real life starts, and the magic dies."

"The magic never dies, Quil," Cedric said reassuringly, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Not if you don't let it."

"You know that I don't have a choice," Aquila reminded him. "My assholes of parents are hell bent on enlisting me to the army on the wrong side of the war, and I don't have the power to stop them. Hogwarts is the only thing I have to keep that away, and it's almost gone forever. We can take that broom ride some other time, Cedric."

Cedric met her eyes with an intense emotion behind them-which, she could not comprehend. "You can run away, Aquila," he said. "We can find a place somewhere in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees. We... we could go to the city and pretend to be Muggles. We can move to a foreign country and open a restaurant with probably two stars-two and a half if we're lucky. I could become an Animagus too, and we could live in the wild together.

"Quil, there are a thousand things you can do to prevent this."

"I admire your optimism, Ced; really, I do, but... no matter where I go, no matter who I become, no matter how hard I try, they'll find me." She emphasized "they" so Cedric knew she spoke of the Death Eaters.

"You're acting like you're alone in this."

Aquila bit her lip. "I'm not," she replied. "But if they find me-"

"They won't find you," he promised, cutting her off before she could foreshadow. "You've got an army of friends behind you-literally. The DA: that doesn't just disappear when you leave. We will always have them."

"I'm just afraid that... that they won't always have me," she admitted. "Machines only work when all of the bolts and wires are properly in place. I'm a loose bolt of a complete machine, Ced. I don't want them to find out about the DA because they put me under truth potion."

Cedric tried to be reassuring, but the Slytherin wouldn't allow him to help calm her down. "Aquila-"

She interrupted him before he even began. "I don't want them to find out about what's happening here. What if they already know? What if Umbridge told someone outside of the school? What if they get the information out of her? What if-"

Cedric tried again. "Aquila-"

She continued her previous sentence. "-they get ahold of one of the members? Do you know what they'll do to someone like Neville? Or Luna? Or Richard?"

"Aq-" She wasn't even listening to him.

"Richard! Poor, defenseless little Richard! They'll crucio the gay right out of his tiny body! He won't even know what's coming!"

Cedric placed a hand on her shoulder. "Aquila, no one could ever kick the gay out of that kid. Trust me."

She nodded. "You're right. I'm just a bit worried about everything, you know?"

"I know, Quil," he said, "and I also know you'll get through this. Come on-we've got a train to catch."

|*|*|*|

"This stupid bloody radio won't work!" Carlos cursed, slamming his fist on the small radio in the train car. Aquila, Cedric, Alexis, and Carlos were all together in the train car, singing songs and telling stories about their Hogwarts experience.

"Never mind that stupid radio," Alexis told him. From where she sat behind him, she wrapped her arms around his chest and pulled him onto her lap. She began stroking his hair. He tried to shake her away, but he ended up laughing.

"Lexi! Stop it!" he said through a fit of laughter.

"Fine, fine," she said, letting him sit upright beside her. "It's hard to believe all of this is over."

"I know," Aquila said. "It seems like only yesterday I cut holes in your socks because I was convinced you were the evil twin."

"I still haven't forgiven you, you know," Alexis said with a sly smirk.

"And I haven't forgiven you for tossing me off my broom," Carlos added.

"Oh, come on, Carlos," Aquila said with a laugh. "You practically begged me to push you off."

"I almost broke my arm!" he shouted.

"Me too, Carlos!" she countered.

"Not to mention," Cedric added, "that time you put Fred and George's joke bombs in your dress at the Yule Ball."

"Or when you-"

"Guys," she said, stopping Carlos from adding anything more. "I know I was reckless and mean in the past, but that's behind us now. Forgive and forget."

"We can try," Alexis said. "So, we heard about Carlos's future plans of becoming a medicinal potions maker. What about you, Ced? Any future plans?"

"I've been trying to contact Quidditch leagues," he told them. "And I'm still waiting for a response."

"You'll be a future star, baby," Aquila said, wrapping her arms around him.

"How about you, Quil?" Alexis asked. "Any plans."

Aquila shrugged. "I'm moving in with Nash for a while. I'm thinking of a career with the Secret Security Sorcerers."

"A Secret Security Sorceress with bright green hair?" Carlos asked. "You'll be uncovered quickly."

"I'll wear a wig," she said.

"And isn't the SSS a top secret organization?" he asked. "How will you ever get in?"

"I'll just fly over," she said as if it was obvious.

"What about you, Lex?" Cedric asked. "Any plans?"

"Yeah," she said, "the Weasley twins offered to let me stay with them at their joke shop. I'm looking to go into the veterinary field."

"Work with animals?" Aquila asked. "I was sure you'd become the next history of magic professor since you love the subject so much."

"You know I hate that class," Alexis joked. "Besides, Hagrid got me an interview with a woman in Diagon Alley. Says I might find work with her someday."

"So this group of graduates," Carlos said, "will become a veterinarian, a Quidditch star, an SSS agent, and a medicinal potions maker. What an odd group."

"Odd indeed," Aquila agreed.

The Hogwarts Express later dropped these four friends at the King's Cross Station, and their lives were about to go off into different directions, just not the directions they thought.