Stone [Cedric Diggory]✔

for the worse

Things in Hogwarts had changed dramatically since the last year. The old friend groups of Cedric Diggory and Chrysoprase Lapis had shut themselves off from everyone and if someone even mildly pushed any of their buttons they would simply explode.

"Zabini. Come on." The boy looks up at his Draco Malfoy. "What are you doing there anyway?" "I'm writing Chrys." Immediately Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle and Theo peak up as well. "Is she writing back?" Blaise shakes his head. "Doesn't mean I'll stop." They all understand why he is saying so. "You really fell for her, huh?", Pansy mumbles, patting her friends back. He sighs and rubs his face. "I did. But it's hardly the time to tell her. Much less through a letter."
"Well.. How about we all write her one as well?", Theo suggests. "That's not even a half bad idea.", Draco nods. "Let's all let her know she's missed."

"Sweetheart.. Are you up? I'm coming in." Jean Lapis enters the room of her daughter. The girl is sitting in a corner, clutching the portrait of her sister that is talking to her in a sweet voice, hushing her as she cries. Jean sighs. This was what the followers of the dark lord and he himself were doing to people. Her daughter..., her sweet, open minded, caring, loving, little daughter, was falling apart. All of her youth wasting away like a plastic boxed orange with no peeling. It was horrible to witness. "Do you want to have some studying time today, my dear?" The dull eyes that look like they were made of milk glass glance up at her and the girl nods her head. "Will you eat something?" The girl shakes her head. Jean nods. She wouldn't force her out of her shell only to make it worse. She was already very relieved to see her do anything but sleeping and crying. And it was studying of all things. As a Ravenclaw Jean was almost proud that her daughter was using studying as her way of coping. But this was no matter to be prideful of. All she could do was shield and protect her daughter. "That boy wrote you again. He and many others." Chrys nods. "Can I have the letters?" Jean hands them to her and then leaves her daughter to herself.

Chrysoprase opens the first letter.

'Sometimes I wonder if my letters even reach you. I really hope they do and you read them. Maybe you feel a bit more connected to what's going on in school.
The pink toad has started using blood quills and illegal curses on the students... Well.. All the students but Slytherins.
Boys and girls are to keep minimal distances of six feet and many more rules have been raised. Pansy has no problem with it. We both know why. She and Reese really hit it off.
Potter is still an annoyance and sometimes I really wish you were here to threaten Umbridge with execution or something..
We all miss you.
I hope that you'll write me back.

B.Z.'

Chrysoprase reads every single letter, then gets up. She reaches for the ink and quill and grabs a fresh piece of parchment paper.

'Dear Blaise.
I don't know whether or not your letters reach me for I am unsure of whether or not I am still alive. I feel cold most days. Cold and sick and sad. I feel so terribly sad.
I'm pretty sure I've sometime around drowned in my own tears and now haunt the confides of my own room.
The feeling of hunger is something I don't even remember anymore. It's been long since I've eaten anything and kept it down. Some days I don't eat all together.
I miss you too. I miss all of you but at the same time I just want to be alone. Do you understand what I mean? I can't seem to find the right words to describe how bad my state is.
A mediwitch from St. Mungo's was here.. Three days ago. She said it was a wonder I was still alive. Maybe she was wrong about the alive part. I don't know.
I study most of the time to think of something else but what I've lost.
I'm breaking apart. Sapphire tries to help me as best as she can, but to be honest.. she doesn't really succeed.
I don't think I'm coming back. Dad organized for me to take the NEWT's at the ministry this year so I can graduate early and skip the 'underage magic clause'.
Maybe I'll work somewhere, far away from here.
I'm so tired of feeling this way.
Tell the others I love them. Maybe show Eleanor this letter so they can concentrate on their NEWT's and not on the state of me. And if Theo still has contact with her, maybe write Estelle in my name. Tell her I adore her and that we'll see each other again. I promise.

Eternally yours
Chrysoprase Lapis'

She slips the letter into an envelope and heats up some wax. The hot, golden liquid drips onto the waxy, scented paper and she presses her ring into it. Her personalized version of her families sigil. CL framed by the lilac that famously almost overgrew their home and always made it smell like spring. The same scent that seemed to linger constantly on her skin and the same scent that was also infused in the paper of the envelope she'd used. "Bring that to Blaise Zabini, Rubin.", the girl says softly and hands her owl the envelope. The large bird rises into the air and flies out of the window, soon fading into only a small dot on the horizon.

After that she gets up and makes her way to the library wing of their massive home, where she takes her first book for the day and starts reading and noting down everything she thinks to be important.
It takes her three hours to end her 'first lesson' of the day.
Her hands shake as she reaches for the Transfiguration book, opening where she last left off.
Transfiguration was always.. was always Cedrics favorite subject.

Agressively wiping off her tears she shakes her head.
She wanted to make him proud with her results in that damn subject and how was she to do that if she starts crying as soon as she lays eyes on the damn book?!