Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Outcast
By: ChoCedric
Eloise Midgen learns at a very young age that many people in the world are extremely superficial. She's never been particularly pretty, so nobody exclaims over her looks. She's also very shy, and finds it hard to make friends. So that, on top of the fact that she's not beautiful, makes it very difficult for her.
When she starts at Hogwarts, puberty starts to take its hold on her. It's just her luck that she gets a terrible case of acne, and many people don't want to talk to her because of this. She also gets whispers and stares in the hallway, and she spends a lot of time crying in the girls' bathroom.
One day, she is cornered by one of the most popular boys in the school, Cedric Diggory. She is extremely nervous, and ready for him to make a crack about her face, but he doesn't. He talks to her like she's a real human being, not just someone to poke fun at. For once, she feels like she's got a friend.
When he gets chosen as champion for the Triwizard Tournament, she is immensely proud. She wishes her first friend luck, and the other girls in her dorm ask, "Why is he even talking to you?" making her feel awful about herself again. She goes to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to cry, and they find sympathy in each other.
When the Yule Ball comes around, Eloise feels the worst she has ever felt in her life. No boy will ask her to go with them, and Jared Burrows, a boy she has liked for ages, laughs in her face when she attempts to ask him. So it's off to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom again, and off to the Yule Ball alone. But her evening lightens a little when Cedric shares one dance with her. It is plain to see that he and Cho Chang are falling in love, but Eloise cannot express the gratitude she feels when she gets that one dance from him.
Before the third task, she says "see you afterwards, and good luck!" to him, but hours later, she feels like she's always doomed to cry, for Cedric didn't come out of the maze alive. Her only friend, dead. Why does life have to be so cruel? She looks into his face, and realizes that at that last moment, he felt as vulnerable and as alone as she always does. Guilt squeezes at her; she couldn't help him when he needed it the most, she couldn't return the kindness he had given to her.
After Cedric's death, her life continues to go downhill. "Hey, zit face! Missing your only friend? Pity, pity." She knows that the loud, drawling voice belongs to Draco Malfoy, because who in Hogwarts hasn't heard of Draco Malfoy? Beside him, Pansy Parkinson snickers and jeers, "Yeah, because only Pretty Boy Diggory ever gave a damn about you. You're so ugly, no one wants to know you. Why don't you just go ahead and die?"
Yes, thinks Eloise miserably. Why don't I? No one will even notice I'm gone, especially the great, famous Harry Potter. She knows his friend Ron Weasley laughs at her behind her back, as does the rest of the world, so she feels the only solution is to go and join the only person who ever talked to her. The day after Draco's taunt, she is ready.
She goes into the prefect's bathroom, gets her wand out of her pocket, and transfigures it into a knife. Then, she begins to cut open her wrists.
Her world becomes hazy after a while, and she is filled with fatigue. Goodbye, cruel world, she thinks bitterly. Eloise Midgen's had enough. Suddenly, Cedric is there, his arms wide open but looking very, very sad. Eloise falls into them, sobbing, and says, "I hated the world, Cedric. I'm really sorry if I disappointed you, but no one cared about me. Not my parents, who wished they'd never had me. Not the girls in my dorm, and not the rest of the school; I was a complete laughingstock. Harry Potter's too good and famous to care about me, and ..."
"Shhhhh, El, shhhhh," Cedric says softly. "Listen, it's not your time yet. People do care about you, I wasn't the only one. Roger Davies has found you, and is taking you to the hospital wing. You'll recover there."
Eloise looks into Cedric's kind face. "But I don't want to leave you!" she wails. "And the whole school will find out what I did!"
"Roger and Madame Pomfrey agreed to keep it hush-hush," says Cedric, stroking her hair. "But you need to go back. Goodbye for now, El. Know that I will always care about you."
"Thank you, Cedric," Eloise weeps as the handsome boy begins to fade away. The next thing she knows, she is in the hospital wing, Roger by her side. He tells her over and over again that she's not going to be an outcast anymore if he has anything to say about it. He apologizes profusely for never paying any attention to her, never noticing how upset and pale she always was. He vows to become her friend, and Eloise cannot explain the feelings that are pouring over her.
And from then on, she has a friend. And she discovers that life isn't at all as bad as she thought it was. She still misses Cedric, and Roger never tries to replace him, but she is so happy now that she has someone she can rely on. The taunts from Draco Malfoy don't really bother her anymore, for she's now happy with the way she is. With Roger by her side, even just as a friend, she can conquer anything life throws at her. And Eloise Midgen smiles, because she's no longer an outcast.