🖇·˚ ༘ ┊͙[ chapter twenty ] ! ˊˎ

╰─▸ fit seekers, exhaustion, and sarcasm

     "HEY, Y/N! WAIT UP WILL YOU?" A voice I easily identified as Ava called out to me.

     She and Spencer caught up with me in a matter of seconds and soon we walked in step towards the courtyard.

     Ava looped her arm through mine immediately. "Where have you been?"

     "I'm going to need you to specify what you mean," I replied back expressionless.

     Spencer too locked arms with me. "It just feels like we have seen less of you recently," she said, a solemn hint to her tone.

     Side-eyeing them one after the other, my brows furrowed. "I saw you like twenty minutes ago . . . in Defence . . . you guys sit behind me?"

     Realisation dawned on Ava's face but she quickly shook it away, "Okay, well, yeah, but we mean like outside of class."

     I'm still lost in how they seem to think anything has changed since previous years. "You mean where we share a dormitory and sit together in the common room?"

     "Can you just be serious for one minute, please, y/n?" I don't understand Spencer's annoyance.

     "I am being serious," I retorted. "I live with you, Spence. I don't get how I can see you more than that?"

     Ava and Spencer shared a look and eventually, after a simultaneous sigh, Ava jabbed me in the side, giving in, it seemed. "Merlin, y/n, what we mean is that Diggory is obviously stealing you away from us!"

     My cheeks instantly heat up. Is that what they were trying to get at? For me to admit that I've been more distant recently because I made a new friend? Who happens to be a very good-looking, very charming friend?

     "Oh, please," I huffed, striding forward a little faster in hopes they'll get the message and drop the subject, "I'd much rather spend my time with you two."

     "Sure you would," Spencer said sarcastically.

     "Okay, then," Ava then said, "study session, tonight, just the three of us. No fit Seekers allowed."

     I audibly groaned. "Anybody'd think Diggory and I are attached at the hip or something!"

     "Doesn't sound that ridiculous to me," Spencer mumbled, her eyes wandering elsewhere as if avoiding eye contact with me.

     Poking my tongue against the inside of my mouth, I freed myself from my friends' grip and stepped away to stare at them. "Enough about me leaving you for fit Seekers, okay?" I moaned, making bunnies with my fingers. "So how's eight? At the library?" I raised an expectant eyebrow.

     "And what would Ced think about that?" Ava smirked, folding her arms across her chest. The nickname is obviously intended to mock me and I don't find it very funny.

     "Yeah, are you sure he'd survive a couple of hours without you?" Spencer continued to tease me.

     Another grunt from my end. I was about to open my mouth to retaliate when the boy in question came right up behind my two friends and poked his head in the gap between them.

     "What that's about me and fit Seekers?" He grinned from ear to ear.

     "Been eavesdropping, Diggory?" I asked, my head cocking to one side.

     "Only on you, y/l/n," he winked and the next minute he was waltzing away, out of the courtyard and out of sight.

     "What was that about not being stolen away by Cedric Diggory?" Spencer asked with a quizzical look.

     "He's kidnapped her into a relationship, I reckon," Ava answered back for me.

     Rolling my eyes at my two best friends' antics, and trying to ignore the heat that had gone to my cheeks after Cedric's wink, I pushed Ava and Spencer in the direction of the Charms classroom we were expected to be at soon. "Not kidnapped. Not relationship."

     "Whatever you say, y/n," Spencer muttered. "Whatever you say."

' ੈ˚ ❃

     "I MISS LUPIN."

     "Me too."

     "Me three."

     Twenty-four hours was not nearly enough to write an essay and it was only something Professor Snape would do. Professor Lupin, on the other hand, would take mercy on his overwhelmed, work-loaded students and never even think of being so cruel.

     Fighting off sleep, the three of us were dwindling in motivation despite knowing that this essay on Werewolves had to be done for tomorrow and there wasn't much we could do about it.

     "Nope, I'm surrendering," Spencer announced to the group having just spent a solid five minutes staring into space, trying to force her brain to work efficiently.

     "You haven't finished the essay?" I pointed out, watching as the blonde girl gathered her things, hauling them into her arms haphazardly, not even bothering to pack them into her bag.

     "I'd rather face the detention than try and finish this now," Spencer said.

     "Count me in," Ava huffed before turning to me. "You coming y/n?"

     While the thought of a good night's sleep was appealing, I for one, didn't fancy the detention and had fought hard to get on Snape's good side and I wasn't going to jeopardise it now.

     I shook my head. "I'd like to outlive Snape one day, so no, I'm alright," I replied. "Besides, I've got some extra Charms revision I want to do anyway, so you go ahead. I'll see you back at the dorms."

     Spencer winced, "No, you won't."

     "Yeah, I assure you, we'll be dead asleep by that point," Ava finished with a deadpan expression.

     "Duly noted," I grinned back with my last remaining shred of energy. "Night guys."

     "Night, y/n."

     And with that, I was alone.

     After moving my books and bag to the end of the aisle, so that I was by the window, I tried to refocus myself as best I could. Soon enough, I found myself slumping in my seat and watching as the raindrops raced down the glass beside me. I found myself listening out for the calming sound of pages turning and the fresh scent of parchment. If I listened close enough, I could just about make out the contact of the quill onto paper and the ink spreading.

     I had probably been staring at my charms textbook for about twenty minutes and yet nothing was going in. I had never struggled before with self-discipline when it came to revision. Being alone was usually what made me motivated to just concentrate and get the task out of the way.

     Evidently, that was not working today and I was probably far too tired.

     Just when my eyes were fluttering shut and I could feel my head lolling towards the desk, a slight slam woke me right up again. After readjusting to my surroundings, my eyes now fully open, I found Cedric staring back at me, his expression eager.

     "Good morning," he said jokily. Evidently, he had seen me almost fall asleep and took the first chance he got to mock me for it.

     Rubbing a hand along my face and beginning to regret staying in the library for longer than my friends did, I imagined my bed and wanted to be in it even more. "Piss off," I groaned. It was only half a joke – I could barely function, let alone socialise.

     "No," Cedric replied. His posture was perfectly straight while mine slumped and made me look haggard. "I failed, y/n." His tone had taken a serious turn. "Abysmally."

     Forcing myself to accept the fact that sleep wasn't an option right now, I looked over at the essay Cedric was now pushing in my direction. Snape had written, very nicely, a rather large D at the top, signalling a Dreadful grade, in Wizarding terms.

     "Congratulations, Cedric," I said, my tiredness coming through in my tone, "Now what do you want me to do about that?"

     I could feel my eyes wanting to shut again and frankly, no offence to him, but now was not the time for anyone to ask anything of me because I was too exhausted to operate. He should just leave me be. And if that means falling asleep in the library on top of the pile of work I had let accumulate over the past few weeks, so be it.

     "You've got to help me," Cedric said, desperately. It was the worst thing he could have possibly uttered because, subconsciously, against my own better judgment, I automatically groaned in response. "Snape said he'll deduct my Prefect duties and my Quidditch spot."

     "Oh no," I gasped dramatically, fighting a smirk, "not your Prefect duties."

     "I'm not in the mood for your sarcasm right now," Cedric deadpanned.

     "Oh, please," I said, "if you're not in the mood for sarcasm, you most definitely should not have come and bothered me because you know full well, I'm your primary source of it."

     Cedric was not impressed. His eyes bored into mine and he barely moved an inch until he figured out that the tired act wouldn't work on me because I could be certain that I was infinitely more knackered than he was.

     His shoulders slumped and he began to plead. "Please, y/n. You're great at Potions."

     "I know."

     "I can't fail."

     "Yes, you can." I fought back my smile as I nodded to his paper which he most obviously failed. "See?"

     "You think you're funny, don't you?" He cocked his head to one side.

     I couldn't help but shrug innocently. "Yes, yes I do."

     Apparently, in Cedric's mind, desperate times called for desperate measures and so he rounded the table, discarding his paper, and knelt down next to me. "Please. I'm actually begging you. And this is not my proudest moment, I can assure you."

     I stared at his clasped hands and couldn't help but feel sorry for him. I wouldn't be caught dead praying to someone for them to help me (I wouldn't even admit I had failed an exam) and I could tell this was hard for him.

     "Oh, don't worry," I told him, "I know."

     He still didn't appreciate my attempt at jokes right now as I eyed his embarrassing last resort with a judgemental expression. But I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Which was how I know something must be seriously wrong with me because a Slytherin should never ever feel sympathy for a Hufflepuff.

     Sighing, I gave in. "What did you have in mind?"

     Cedric's eyes opened wide eagerly and he got up from the floor. But because I found his begging far too hilarious to let it end, I side-eyed him and used a single finger to push down on his shoulder to get him to resume his imploring position. He wasn't done begging for my help just yet – it was only right.

     "Study session? Tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

     I made a face to show him I was pondering this query. I knew how much his stupid prefect duties meant to him – even if I didn't understand it completely – and I didn't know what I would do with myself if I couldn't play Quidditch, so, reluctantly, I agreed. "Fine."

     The boy on the floor before me let out a puff of air as if I had just taken a huge weight off of his shoulders. He mouthed a very grateful thank you.

     "Tomorrow. Seven O'Clock. Be here," I said punctuated. "Now, shoo, I have a lot to get on with because I don't fail exams."

     Despite my insult, Cedric bit back a smirk and finally got to his feet. "You're a terrible Slytherin, you know that?" He said because he knew it would irk me.

     As he retrieved his discarded essay from the table, I visibly gagged. "Ugh, don't ever say that again, arsehole."

     Cedric walked away laughing and I suddenly realised, I was no longer tired.