I am exceedingly proud of myself! La la la…

Woot!

I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. Being sued is not fun.

Then again, neither is homework.

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Cedric was leading Wyn down the now familiar hallways on the way to the Hufflepuff common room. She stopped as he went to say the password and lead her in. They didn't bother sneaking anymore. Everyone knew Wyn now, she was an honorary Hufflepuff. They glanced up when the portrait door swung open, and all went back to normal after about 10 seconds.

She was explaining Gorgon Potion to a group of third years when her owl started pecking at the window.

"We should let you stay in the Gryffindor common room more," Cedric said playfully, recognizing Ickle Burstein. Wyn snorted.

"Yeah. I'll have you know that Fred and George are pretty sure you brainwashed me, or something to that effect. Cannot actually believe that I like the Hufflepuff common room better than the Gryffindor common room. Whacked out, right?" she said. Cedric laughed.

"Oh, but we're so obviously better than those stupid Gryffies," she said. Wyn shot him a glare.

"One of those 'stupid Gryffies' is in the room right now, if you please," she said irritably as she turned back to the potions book that she was borrowing from one of Cedric's third year friends.

"Please, Wyn. You're totally a Hufflepuff. I keep on trying to tell Professor Sprout that the Sorting Hat just made a mistake but-"

"Don't waste your time. She doesn't like me," Wyn said, walking over to the window to let Icky in. "Hello, pretty bird," she said, producing a treat out of her pocket. Icky sat contentedly and Wyn quickly read the letter.

He was getting worse.

She glared at the letter. Before she could pry her eyes away and stuff it in her book bag and pretend like nothing had happened, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She wiped them away ferociously. Cedric came over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong, Wyn?" she shrugged off his hand.

"Nothing. So, uh, the Gorgon Potion? It's not that hard, just a few tricks to make it work so well not even Snape will be able to find something wrong with it-" she stopped. Cedric was looking at her carefully. He knew she was lying.

Cedric sat on the couch and patted the spot next to him. "Talk to me."

"I don't want to talk to anyone. I can handle it. You guys need help on the Gorgon Potion, aren't you doing it tomorrow?" Wyn snapped.

"You obviously need to talk to someone," Cedric said. God, she hated that he was right.

"Not you. Not now. When I feel like it," she said fiercely, turning to the group of third years again. Cedric got up and pushed her down onto the couch.

"You. Need. To. Talk."

Wyn looked away from him. She knew she needed to talk. Talking to someone about what she was going through consumed her. Cedric kept prodding her, and tears started flowing freely down her cheeks. He was pissing her off now.

"I don't want to talk about it," Wyn said, her voice radiating danger. Cedric just looked at her.

"Wyn, you'll feel better after you talk," he said.

"Whatever," Wyn said, turning to the group of third years yet again.

"Wyn!" Cedric said, anger rising in his voice.

"Shut up, Cedric. I said I don't want to talk about it. Just drop it. You're happy right now, and there's no need for me to tell you depressing things you don't need to know," she said softly. Cedric looked at her, his big brown eyes showing great concern.

"Wyn…" he said. Wyn turned away from him. He kept pestering her.

"If you want me to go, just tell me to bloody go!" she shouted. When she didn't get a response, she stalked out of the Hufflepuff common room, leaving a multitude of very confused Hufflepuffs in her wake. She heard footsteps behind her.

Turning around a corner, she headed as quickly as she could back to the Gryffindor common room. She was not telling Cedric. Kip had made her promise not to tell Cedric. He hadn't wanted him worrying. And that's exactly what he would do, being the true Hufflepuff he was.

Wyn felt someone grab her arm. Cedric whipped her around quickly so she was looking him in the eye.

"I know something is wrong. Please, tell me what!" she looked up at him, anger burning her vision.

"FINE! YOU WANT TO BE MISERABLE?" she said, she was going to regret this, and she knew it, "KIP ISN'T AT DURMSTANG."

"Why? That doesn't make any sense," Wyn calmed herself down a little bit, "Wynnie…" he kept pestering her.

"I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Like bloody hell, Elwyn," Cedric said, finally getting angry. She could feel herself getting angry all over again.

"Let go of my arm, Cedric," she hissed through gritted teeth.

"What's wrong?"

"HE'S NOT AT DURMSTRANG BECAUSE KIP IS BLOODY DYING!" she shrieked. Cedric looked stunned and dropped his grip. She turned around and sprinted down the hall, leaving a stunned and heartbroken Cedric to eat her miserable dust.

She flew into the Gryffindor common room and up to her bed. She pulled her curtains closed and put a closing spell around it. For the umpteenth time since coming to Hogwarts, she cried herself to sleep hours before dinner and soaked in her misery.

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Hermione walked into the dormitory after dinner and studying. She heard the muffled sobs of Wyn next to her. She tried to open the curtains, but to her dismay found that she had a very good closing charm surrounding her bed.

"Wyn," she said softly, "Calder is downstairs looking for you. He says something's wrong."

"Tell him I know," Wyn said, her voice obviously strained.

"Wyn, he looks like he's about to cry," Hermione said.

"Tell him that I'm going home tomorrow, and that he can join me if he pleases," Hermione sighed, but went downstairs to relay the message to Calder. Wyn heard some yelling and scuffling and moments later she heard someone knocking on the window. She immediately knew it was Calder, and flung the windows open.

"C'mon, Wyn," he said, tears in his eyes. She nodded and climbed onto his broom. He guided them back to his dormitory and lay down on his bed with her. The two slept like that all night, ignoring questions from the boys. They didn't matter right now; all that mattered were the words on that damned piece of parchment.

He'll be going soon.

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The next morning, Wyn felt pressure on her ring finger. She looked down at it, knowing very well what was happening.

It was glowing. Kip was leaving.

She woke Calder and showed him her ring. He immediately jumped out of bed, and when she dashed out of the common room, he asked no questions. He had already figured out where she was going. To get Cedric.

There were a million things Cedric didn't deserve, and not getting to see his best friend—Kip, practically his brother—dying was one of them. She ran down the hall and stood in front of the portrait, knocking frantically.

"Cedric! Anyone? Please let me in! Cedric has to come with me immediately!" she cried, hoping someone would hear her.

"Wyn?" a very confused Justin asked as he opened the portrait.

"No time! Where's Cedric's dormitory?" Justin pointed blearily at the second doorway. She ran up the stairs and looked around for a minute. One beds curtains were closed tight, and the other three held boys that she didn't know.

She tried to open the curtains to no avail. She muttered a counter-curse under her breath. To her relief, he hadn't been thinking too clearly when he put on the closing spell and she was able to un-do it with ease.

"Cedric?" she yelled, tearing the covers off of him.

"Ugh, what?" he said, clearly not thinking it was Wyn.

"It's Wyn. We need to go, right now."

"WYN?!" he screeched, rolling over and falling off of his bed, "What in the bloody hell…"

"No time, Kip is dying."

"So you told me last night," he said, anger in his voice.

"No. He has less than the rest of the day to live," she said, pleadingly.

"How do you…?"

"Calder and I have portkeys that tell us when we're needed," she said quickly, thrusting the ring in front of Cedric, "They're supposed to grow when Kip is close to dying," Cedric inspected the ring. He nodded at her. Grabbing his hand, she began to rub the stone. A second later they were standing in Kip's room, with Calder already sitting on his bed.

"Hey," Kip said weakly, "I was wondering when you were going to come. Thanks for bringing Cedric," Cedric looked up, tears in his eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me, Kip?" Cedric asked quietly, his eyes brimming with tears. Wyn squeezed his hand as Kip looked away from his best friend. With an equally quiet voice, he tried to explain.

"It was bad enough that Calder and Wyn couldn't fall asleep without worrying if they'd miss my death, I didn't want you to go through that, too," he said, a quietly pained smile on his face, "You'd worry more than they do. You're such a Hufflepuff," he laughed and Cedric turned white.

"Yeah, I guess I am…" he said, rubbing his neck. He grabbed Wyn's hand harder and squeezed it again. Wyn said nothing, but squeezed back, a slight smile spreading across her face.

The three Hogwarts student gathered around Kip's bed. Cedric and Calder were sitting next to each other on the foot, and Wyn had crawled into Kip's arms. They sat in silence, waiting for someone to come up with an appropriate goodbye. It was Wyn who spoke first.

"I suppose you'll be bad at writing from heaven," she said quietly, snuggling closer to her brother, "You were never good at writing."

"No, I guess I never was," Kip said, pulling his sister closer to him. He laughed a bit, as did Cedric. They never wrote each other over the summer, one would just show up at the others house. They were both horrible at owling each other.

"Promise you'll send us some signs?" she asked, not looking up at him.

"As many as I can," he said.

"Promise not all of them will be bludgers aimed at my boyfriends?" everyone laughed at this. Kip had realized when Wyn turned ten that she was going to be very… popular. They were at a pureblood party, and he had to fight off about ten older, horny guys. She had always looked several years older than she was. That night he had said 'Anyone who wants to hit on my little sister is going to get a bludger to the bloody face, and I hit pretty damned hard, so back off!' After that, any boy who showed an interest would get to play 'dodge the enchanted bludger' until someone saved him.

"I don't think I can promise that," he said, "But if there's an owlery in heaven, I'll have a long time to get used to writing more often," he grinned at his little sister. She was smiling, but openly crying. He looked up and Calder and Cedric, they were crying also. Cedric spoke up.

"He won't have to kill them from heaven. We'll be doing that for him," he grinned at Calder. Kip saw right through it and gave Cedric a look, making sure Wyn didn't see it.

"Fred and George don't have enough younger sisters to protect, and we all know Wyn is going to have horny teenage boys going crazy," Calder said with a mischievous grin.

"I resent that!" Wyn said, still crying, "Guys can go bloody screw themselves. More trouble than they're worth."

"Good," Kip said, "Continue to think that. Maybe then I'll be able to focus on signs other than bludgers."

Wyn rose from her brother's bed and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll be back in a second, I want to see my boys," she said, heading into other areas in the house in search for her little brothers. As soon as Wyn was out of earshot, Kip shot Cedric another look.

"It's slightly disgusting that you think my 11-year-old sister is hot," Kip said nonchalantly. Cedric turned bright red, and Calder nearly exploded.

"You're so see through," Calder said, "'Oh, Wyn! I need help with potions! Can you come to the Hufflepuff common room to help me and some of the guys with my potions essay?'"

"You really enlisted my little sister to help you with potions?" Kip said with a grin, "God, you're pathetic. Why don't you chase after someone else, at least for a few years?"

"I wasn't planning on asking her out or anything. But you lot have HELLA good genes," he said playfully.

"Calder?" Kip said.

"What?"

"Make sure that Cedric doesn't do anything with Wynnie until she enters fourth year."

"Can do, boss," he said, saluting him. Cedric laughed.

"You know, I'll be 17 then. Are you sure you want a 17-year-old boy who has been waiting for three years for the same person to be dating your sister?" Cedric said playfully.

"You say that like she'll definitely say yes," the brothers said, looking at him.

"Because she will," Cedric smiled. They lapsed into a comfortable silence, which was interrupted when Wyn came in, holding Radley and with Aiken in tow. Aiken looked up at Cedric and then at his brother.

"Why are we crying?" he asked, settling into Cedric's lap.

"Because your brother is going to leave soon," Cedric said sadly, looking at his best friend.

"That's what Mummy said," Aiken said, "Where are you going, Kip?"

"Somewhere where there's lots of chocolate," Kip said happily, smiling at his younger brother.

"Do I get to visit you?"

"No, Aiken. But I'll come back and get you, one day. And then we can go back and eat chocolate together," Wyn's eyes were overflowing with tears. She knew Kip had practiced this part every day since they had found out the disease was terminal, but it was the perfect thing to say to Aiken. Absolutely perfect. She put Rad on Calder's lap and crawled back into Kip's arms.

They sat in silence again. The boys got tired, and Wyn picked them up and took them to their rooms.

"Kip?" Cedric asked.

"Yeah?"

"I never had a brother."

"Yes you did, Ced," Kip said and smiled, "You've been my brother for as long as Calder," Cedric looked down at his best friend, the closest thing he had ever had to a brother. Cedric grabbed one of his hands and Calder grabbed the other.

"The Gryffindors are going to be devastated," Calder said, "The only one who is a better Gryffindor sweetheart is Wyn. And we all know she'll never take your place."

"Sure she will," he said, closing his eyes with tire, "She's an Adworth."

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So… Review, yes? PLEASE?