Broken

Chapter Five

Cedric and I were laying next to each other in the grass beside the lake. It was the day before the first challenge. I was trying to stay as calm as possible for him because I could tell he was already extremely nervous.

"Dragons." He whispered.

"Yeah, I don't know who in their right mind would think fighting off dragons would be a great challenge for a bunch of teenagers." I snapped.

Cedric laughed a bit at this, "it'll be fine, I've been practicing and researching lots of spells, and anyways, I'd say there will be a goal to the challenge, so it won't be like a fight to the death, I'll probably just have to keep the dragon at bay." He said as he sat up and smiled down at me.

I nodded my head and looked back up at him. He began stroking my cheek with his thumb. He moved his face close to mine and slowly kissed me on the lips. He laid back down next to me and we watched the sky slowly turn dark in silence. When our curfew was about to be up, Cedric stood up and offered his hand out to me to help me up. We both walked back into the castle. As we were walking down to the Slytherin common room I heard someone yell out Cedric's name.

"Cedric! Wait up!"

We both turned around and saw Cho Chang speed walking toward us. I screwed up my face in disbelief. It was like she was purposely trying to get on my nerves.

"Oh um... hi Cho." Cedric said nervously, probably because he could feel the anger radiating off of me.

"Yes, hi Cho." I snapped.

Cho rolled her eyes at me and turned to Cedric. "Just wanted to wish you luck tomorrow, I'll be cheering for you." She said as she squeezed Cedric's arm.

Cedric nodded at her and gave her a slight smile. She walked off saying goodbye to him. I could feel my fist clenched tightly, my nails were digging into my palm.

"Are you two talking again or something? I thought you cut her off." I said angrily.

"I did... I honestly don't know what that was about, Victoria, please believe me." Cedric pleaded.

I rolled my eyes at him and turned to walk into the Slytherin common room.

"I'll see you tomorrow." I snapped angrily.

Before I could move any closer to the common room entrance he grabbed my arm and pulled me into a tight hug. I reluctantly hugged him back.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too." I sighed. 

-

I had a pretty restless sleep that night. My stomach was full of nervous butterflies about the upcoming challenge. The next morning, which was the morning of the challenge, I could hardly eat my breakfast. Draco was trying to convince me to eat something but I had told him I couldn't, that I would be sick if I did.

"Can we go find a spot at the arena now?" I asked.

"Yeah, come on. I want to be in the front row to see Potter get burnt to a crisp!" Draco laughed.

I screwed up my face at him and gave him a slight nudge when we both stood up.

When we had both made it to the arena it was already pretty full. We found a seat next to Blaise and Pansy. It wasn't quite front row, so Draco was, of course, disappointed by this.

"How am I meant to see Potter get eaten alive by his dragon with all these heads in the way!" Draco sneered as he shoved a first year out of the way.

Pansy slapped him on the arm. "Shut it, Draco. The tournament is beginning any minute now."

Pansy was right. Dumbledore soon began his speech. The challenge was to keep the dragon selected at random for the champions at bay while they try and collect a golden egg, which held the next clue to the second challenge. The cannon went off in the middle of his speech when he was about to start his countdown, the first champion, Viktor Krum, made his way out to the middle of the arena. With ease, he fought his dragon off and collected the egg.

"He makes it look so easy!" Pansy gasped.

The next champion, Fleur Delacour, cast a spell on the dragon so it would sleep. She slipped past the dragon and retrieved her egg. Next, was Cedric. My stomach was turning into knots.

"I'm going to be sick." I said as I turned away and put my hands over my eyes.

"Victoria! Look!" I heard Draco shout as he shook my shoulder.

I turned back around and saw Cedric running past the dragon towards the egg. It seemed the dragon was distracted by something. Just as Cedric was about to grab his egg the dragon turned around and blew a great breath of fire toward him. The fire caught his arm and he grabbed onto it in pain. He quickly grabbed his egg before the dragon could do any more damage and exited the arena into the medical tent.

"I have to go see if he's alright." I shouted to Draco over the cheering.

"Alright, I'm staying here, Potters out next." He shouted back.

I nodded and began to push past people to get out of the stands and into the medical tent.

-

After struggling to get past everyone in the stands I was finally almost outside of the medical tent. I was about to enter when I heard Cedric and another person talking. I peaked into the tent, making sure I was out of sight. I saw Cho Chang hugging Cedric.

"I don't know what I would have done if you had gotten hurt, Cedric." I heard Cho Chang say as I strained my ears to listen.

"Cho, I can't do this. You know how Victoria will get if she finds us like this. I told you we couldn't be friends anymore." Cedric whispered.

I heard Cho groan in annoyance. "Can't you just get rid of her? I miss my best friend, Cedric."

"She doesn't trust you Cho, and I don't blame her, but... I guess I can see what I can do." Cedric sighed.

I watched Cho wrap her arms around Cedric again, pulling him into another hug, at this point I was storming into the tent and pulling her off of him.

"Care to explain?" I said looking towards Cedric, angrily gripping Cho's arm.

"We were just talking, Victoria. Please don't make a scene." Cedric sighed pulling my arm off of Cho.

"I heard your little conversation. I'm going to give you a choice, Cedric. There's going to be no "talking" or "negotiating" with me about your friendship with her. You can either stay with me or be friends with her." I spat as I glared at Cho. "I'm not going to be with you and pretend I'm okay with you being friends with her. You cheated on me with her. You're going to have to pick." I said angrily.

I expected Cedric to pick choose me instantly, but he stood there, hesitating. He looked back and forth between Cho and me, not saying a word.

"You're joking right?" I began. "Let me make this easy for you then, we are done." I yelled as I felt tears well up in my eyes. "You win Cho, you can have him."

I turned around and began to storm out of the tent. I heard Cedric call out to me but I kept walking. I was so angry, I couldn't believe he actually hesitated. Everyone was leaving the arena, the first challenge must have ended. I saw Draco walking toward me, at this point the tears were streaming down my face.

"Potter didn't get eaten, sadly." Draco began. "How's Ced- wait... why are you crying?"

"I broke up with him." I spat. "Him and Cho..."

Draco's face turned from concern to pure anger within seconds. "Did he go behind your back again? I'm gonna kill-"

"Draco, no, it's fine. It's over, I don't want to talk about it anymore." I cried.

Draco nodded reluctantly. He grabbed my hand and began dragging me away from the crowd. He led me to the lake, mumbling mean things about Cedric as we walked. He sat down and patted the ground beside him for me to sit down. I began to cry even harder now because the lake was where Cedric and I would mostly hang out. All the memories were rushing back at once. Draco pulled me into a tight hug and stroked my hair as I cried into his chest, staining his white school shirt with my tears.