【come inside of my heart,
if you're looking for answers.
look at the stars, go a little bit faster】
—

IV Of Spades, Come Inside Of My Heart

『𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄: 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐙𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐒』

𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃 with her—not having anything really aside from her mandatory journal and a quill that's not even self-writing—Solar was losing her mind drowning in the awful symptoms of complete boredom as she remained locked up in the Dungeons. Her sister and cousin had kept her company for a few hours, updating her about Kairus's condition who was still in recovery im the Hospital Wing, but they were forced to leave after Mr. Filch told them to do so. She felt like a prisoner with limited visitation. The only bright side she could think of was that this could not be worse than Azkaban.

Night had fallen yet again and Legacy gave her another bottle of Dreamless Sleep Potion in case she had another case of insomnia. But Solar didn't feel like sleeping. Sure, the growing bags under her eyes were a sign that she should sleep more, but that was not an option when you've got so much on your plate.

And she swore, a couple of years just got subtracted from her life when she saw the familiar silhouette of a Hufflepuff emerging from the shadows in front of her cell.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin, kill me now." Solar groaned.

The shadows peeled away from the fair complexion of the boy and revealed Cedric in a navy blue cable jumper, and black trousers, blending in nicely with the dark. He was holding a box when his eyes landed on her untouched food tray inside her cell, his interest in snapping a witty comment back at her vanishing.

"You haven't eaten anything the entire day?" He asked.

Solar shrugged. "Not the first time."

Cedric rolled his eyes and shook his head before closing in the distance between him and the bars that separated the two of them. He crouched down and slid the box into her cell, the sound of hard paper scraping against the rough surface of the ground echoing in the large, almost unoccupied room.

"Don't eat that, it's been sitting out for too long. You should take this instead." Cedric told her. Solar didn't move from her bed, she remained seated as she glared at the boy.

"I'm not eating anything you give me—" Before Solar could even finish insulting the Hufflepuff, he immediately jumped in.

"It's a dozen Yorkshire puddings. Your favourite." He said. Solar caught her tongue, her eyes immediately dropping to the box that now rested by the bars inside her cell. Somehow, the box suddenly looked appealing to her...appetising to be more specific.

Solar resisted the urge to lunge towards the box of Yorkshire puddings that she could now smell from where she was sitting, tickling her nostrils like a tease. The eldest Dragonne attempted to look tough as she brought her eyes back up to Cedric's face and crossed her arms, when really, she just had to keep her arms tangled to stop herself from reaching for the box. Then she spoke. "H-How did you know it's my favourite?"

A small, triumphant smile curled on Cedric's lips. She might be trying to act tough, but she didn't do well enough to convince him that. The stutter that came out of her was enough proof. The Hufflepuff stood up from crouching on the ground and tucked his hands in the pockets of his trousers.

"We've been classmates for five years, Solar. The puddings don't disappear by themselves." He responded.

And here she thought she was being slick about it all these years.

"I would appreciate it more if you gave me the key to this blasted prison instead." Solar said, an attempt to sway their conversation in another direction, one that would most definitely help her get out of the place they call a room.

The smile on his lips faltered, averting his gaze away and settling it on the ground as he shook his head lightly. "I can't do that."

She thought so. "Then take your puddings and go."

"I can't do that because you're safer here." Cedric clarified, bringing his eyes back up to the girl, his concerned expression softening at the sight of her again. She might have been locked up in here, but for some reason, her buttery blonde hair still shone.

Solar tilted her head at the same time she narrowed her eyes and finally stood up from the bed, her arms untangling and falling to her sides as she approached the Hufflepuff. The bars between them prevented Solar from going any further.

"Try saying that again after spending the night with your bed and the loo in the same room." She challenged as she marched toward him. "What does that even mean?"

Cedric sighed deeply before looking around him, checking to see if anyone was down here except for them. When he saw no sign of anyone, he looked back at the Dragonne and spoke.

"I spoke to the headmaster today. He said keeping you here was a means to protect you." He said, his voice a bit quieter to keep it from echoing like their previous conversations have been earlier. He expressed his worry through the tone of his voice and the look on his face, hoping that Solar would believe him. "Whoever hurt Kairus originally broke into your room to leave something behind that could be dangerous to you. And until they've recovered it, you are to remain here."

Cedric watched as the girl arched an eyebrow at him as a smile so bitter he could taste it stretch along her glossy lips.

"So, you're saying I'm stuck here because the Weasley boy and his rat are trying to kill me? Well, isn't that bloody brilliant?!" She threw her arm around in frustration, backing away slightly from the bars while she proceeded to rant. "That's a lot more humiliating! People would think he actually has a chance!"

The Hufflepuff had no time to nurse the girl's bruised pride. His current mission was to make her understand that remaining in the cell is the safest option for her. It might be a hard one, but it's a mission he eagerly needed to accomplish.

"Your dragon was attacked, Solar. If they could do that to Kairus what more could they do to you?" He told her, in a voice so careful and soft to avoid triggering the girl's exasperation even more. Solar merely looked at him with the same frustrated look as if asking further to convince her. And he did.

"Just trust the headmaster. It's for the best. Maybe it was Weasley, maybe it wasn't. But he's doing what he can to uncover the truth." He said.

From the way Solar exhaled deeply—and because she didn't immediately snap at him like she normally does as a counter argument—, he'd say he had successfully swayed her.

"Well, they could've picked a better room to lock me in than the Dungeons." She just replied.

"Out of sight, out of harm. It's the only room they could hide you in." Cedric roamed his eyes around the Dungeon as he continued to explain. "Professor Dumbledore made sure that no one could find your cell apart from a selected few."

She raised her eyebrows. She knew some of the selected few. Of course they included Aris, Legend, and Legacy because they were able to visit her. Argus Filch, for sure. Dumbledore, no doubt. But Cedric?

"And you're one of the selected few?" She questioned.

A smile returned to his lips then he shrugged. "What can I say? He sees me as a good influence on you."

Solar visibly grimaced at his words and smugness, which only made Cedric's smile widen. "I might eat these puddings just so I could vomit at what you said." She remarked.

The boy softly laughed at her comment, flashing the girl his perfectly pearl white teeth that made up the smile that could shine like the sun. Merlin, he missed this. He missed annoying her. It had been a while since they last talked. Which reminded him...

"I'm sorry about that day. I didn't—" Cedric said, but before he could finish his apology that he had been practising for so long, Solar cut him off.

"It's fine." She said, in such a down tone that made Cedric think that she was...sad. She shifted her gaze away from the boy and fixed it on the empty, undecorated wall to the left of her cell. "I'm used to everyone thinking it by now."

He observed her, jaw clenching, eyes stern. The one thing he hated more than seeing her hate him, was seeing her hurt.

"You shouldn't have to." He said, with a slight shake of his head. "They don't know what you and your sister and cousins went through."

Solar lifted her gaze to meet his, an unreadable expression lingering on her face as she responded.

"You don't either. So what makes you different from the rest of them?" She asked.

This might be the first serious conversation that they had. But instead of being nervous, it felt...easy. Like it was natural. Like they should have been doing this from the start. He just hoped she felt the same way.

"Regardless of if I know or not, I see it in all of your eyes that every day is a battle. As if...you're putting yourselves on trial to see if you deserve to continue." He pointed out, half expecting Solar to shut him down. But was slightly surprised when she simply swallowed hard, not saying anything to counter what he just said. "No one should have to live like that everyday."

Cedric witnessed the way Solar shifted under her feet, her hands sliding up to caress her arms as if to find comfort. It was killing him how he couldn't hug her right now, not that Solar would even let him anyway. But it was still hard for him to just stand there and watch her comfort herself because she had no one to do it for her.

He wanted it to be him. But he had waited for her for four years, what's a little more waiting?

"I have to go back up before anyone notices I'm gone. I'll come back tomorrow night to bring you some books to read." He said.

The sandy-blonde Dragonne cleared her throat and forced herself to return to her typical tough facade as she arched an eyebrow at him. "Don't bother."

A mere smile tugged on his lips. "Good night, Solar." Then he turned around and walked out of the Dungeons.

Solar listened to every step he took, the echo bouncing against the Dungeon walls. Once she no longer heard him, her eyes landed on the box of Yorkshire puddings.

And the beginnings of what seems like a genuine smile curled on her lips.

.・゜゜・

September 12, 1993

Dearest Fucker,

     The headmaster said it's not necessary to write entries daily, but when you're stuck in a room with the bed only ten feet away from the fucking toilet, it's giving me a lot of homicidal thoughts. I don't have anything to throw or break, so I resorted to writing so hard in this paper with the hopes of ripping it with every stroke of the sharp end of the quill. But alas, this useless piece of shit paper can't even do that right.

And of course, the encore of every entry: No. Still no progress.

Solaria Avril Dragonne

It was Sunday. The other three Dragonnes came together to visit their eldest. They said that Kairus was doing so much better than the day before. Though, he had done quite a bit of a mess in the Hospital Wing when he didn't see Solar in the room. It took seeing Legend, Legacy, and Aris for him to calm down. Madam Pomfrey told them that Kairus would be released the next day. And if Solar's room is still not ready for them, Dumbledore had given Aris permission to take in the dragon.

The twins proposed to take in Kairus first, but already having Legend's dragon Nova and Legacy's Storm, Dumbledore thought having a third dragon cramped in one room would result in a complication, albeit them getting along well. So, when Aris stepped up and said that she and her dragon Ice wouldn't mind seeing as they spend time with each other a lot, the headmaster agreed to the emergency compromise.

When the sky was once again blanketed in a relaxing shade of midnight blue, Solar found herself waiting for the books that Cedric had promised he would bring her. And it was ridiculous. She really didn't want him to come again. He does things to her that she couldn't quite understand.

And the last thing she needs is a foreign threat.

"You ate the puddings."

Solar glanced to her side while she was laying on her bed, seeing Cedric in a very dark green jumper that could almost pass as a shade of black, paired with another pair of black trousers. He was holding a stack of books in his hands, the tower of literature resting against his chest to balance.

"Seeing as you said you would come back tonight, I thought I should save myself from the lectures you'll surely give me when you see the untouched box." Solar said, looking away from him because she didn't trust that she was good enough to fake her nonchalant attitude. When in reality, the puddings were the only good thing she had during her 'stay' in the Dungeons.

Cedric sensed the way Solar tried to avoid showing any gratitude toward the boy. He pursed his lips and shrugged his shoulders as he neared the bars. "Were they good?"

"They were all right." They were heaven and hell sprinkled with sweet dreams and savoury sins. It was good and evil in the form of fluffy desserts. Solar didn't mean to be so poetic, even if her words were just exclusive to her own mind. She wasn't even that familiar with the Muggle concept of heaven and hell. But it was just that good.

The sandy blonde witch managed to snap herself back to reality before her current company noticed her daydreaming about a box of Yorkshire puddings...which was kind of too late as a smile already stretched on Cedric's lips in amusement. Solar then cleared her throat and pushed herself to sit and stand up.

"What are those?" She asked the boy.

The Hufflepuff brought his gaze down to the stack made up of four books and lifted them slightly higher as he answered. "Books to pass the time. Like I promised."

"For your sake, let's hope your preferences match mine." The witch made her way over to the magic-induced steel bars. They were allowed to slip anything in between the gaps. However, any attempts to break out would result in utter, painful failure.

Solar reached forward as Cedric slipped one book at a time through the gap, tilting her head slightly to check out the stack once she had it all in her arms. "Does this imply that I'm going to be stuck here for longer?"

She questioned, seeing as Cedric brought quite a lot of books. The boy could only lower his head, unable to respond to her question as he didn't know the answer.

"Right." Solar whispered, more to herself, but the surroundings were quiet enough that the very little wind in the room blew her whisper toward the Hufflepuff, his ears catching the subtle hint of loneliness in her voice.

The Slytherin turned around and walked back to her bed, placing the books at the foot before she plummeted on top of her sheets. She didn't give Cedric another glance. Instead, she stared at the uneventful ceiling of the Dungeons.

Cedric felt bad seeing her like this. He wanted to stay and accompany her. But he knew she would rather be alone than spend the night with him. And he doesn't want to force himself into her presence anymore than he already had.

"I'll come back tomorrow. Hopefully with good news." Cedric said.

"Please don't." Solar just said. The boy didn't bother arguing with her.

.・゜゜・

how are you guys?