Author's Note: All right, now we've skipped ahead about another week, Leslie can't seem to get her mind off the encounter with the three-headed dog. She starts having dreams about it, and begins feeling that she has to tell someone about it, but she can't so it's eating away at her. But there's one person she can say anything to, no matter what it is, and he (hint, hint!) is going to get her recount the entire story. Happy reading!
09-19-2001
Dear Diary,
There's really no such thing as a boring day here. Every new sunrise seems to bring about a new adventure. Harry and Ron only seem to have adventures on their minds these days. Honestly, they really are the limit. All they can think about is sneaking out at night to explore the castle, and I agree with Hermione here, get themselves into trouble. We had a very close call the night of the duel. But that apparently just gave them an adrenaline rush that they liked very much, and wish to experience again. As for me, I hope I never leave Gryffindor Tower at night again, though I know better than to get my hopes up.
It's been almost a week since we discovered the three headed dog and I just can't seem to get it out of my mind. Two nights ago, I even had a nightmare about it. I have nightmares often. As you know, I revisit the night my parents died in my dreams, so I'm used to it. But this dream was almost as awful as the one I've had since childhood, though my old dream is still the worse one.
I was standing in the forbidden corridor and the three headed dog was standing in front of me. I tried to turn away towards the door, but my feet were planted to the ground. But strangely enough, the dog didn't attack me. It just stood there, looking at me, almost hungrily, as though he wanted nothing more than to rip me apart, but he couldn't.
"Help!" I screamed. "Somebody please help!"
Then I heard laughing behind me, and there was Filch, the caretaker, his cat Mrs. Norris at his feet. She was meowing nastily, and he was grinning equally as nasty. I cried for him to help me, but he wouldn't. He just stood there laughing.
"That's what you get when you don't follow the rules," he said to me. "Tell a student not to do something and they'll do it as quickly as they can."
"Mr. Filch, please get me out of here!" I yelled, but I knew he wouldn't.
Then I heard someone else calling out my name, and I turned around to see Cedric running towards me. He was scared, it was obvious.
"Leslie!" he yelled to me. "Leslie run!" But I couldn't run and he knew it. He shouted out to me, "Take my hand! I'll get you out of here, I promise. Grab my hand!"
He extended his hand towards mine, and I tried to reach out to him. I stretched my arm out as far as I could, but I just couldn't reach him. With my feet pinned to the ground, there was no way I had any shot of getting to him. He kept running towards me, and our fingertips had almost touched when the three-headed dog got over its surprise and lunged at me.
That was when I woke up. I woke panting and sweating, and it took me several minutes to get my breath. I didn't scream though, thank the Lord. I stopped waking up screaming years ago, after I started having my childhood dream. Besides, if I had screamed, I would've woken up the whole house, but I just gasped. I think I woke Hermione, but she didn't say anything, and I was glad she didn't. She's figured out by now that when I don't want to talk about something, it's better to just not ask at all. I lay back down, but I didn't really get back to sleep that night.
It's been really hard to concentrate in classes the last couple days, just because of the fact that the headmaster, who's supposed to be the greatest sorcerer in the world, is keeping a beast like that locked up in his school. I can't understand why Dumbledore would have that…that monster locked up in here. I'm sure he's got spells on the door and the wall, so the dog can't leave the corridor, but what if it did somehow get loose? Even if it is guarding something, it's still dangerous and still shouldn't be in the same vicinity as students trying to get an education.
So as I said, it's hard to imagine this is a school and that I have work to do, when there's a monster in the next corridor. I've been getting all my assignments in and I've been keeping my marks up, but I know the teachers have noticed something is wrong. I'm usually very good at hiding what kind of condition I'm in; it's something I learnt how to do very, very quickly. But I've never encountered that monster before, so I'm a little unnerved, and the teachers have noticed. Maybe I'm not as tough as I thought I was. I even think they told Uncle Jerry. I got a letter from him yesterday, reminding me to concentrate in class and get all my work done.
What's worse is that not only does he know, but Cedric knows too. I think Uncle Jerry must have sent him an owl saying to keep an eye on me for a little while. But he's going about it in completely the wrong way. He's been following me around like a puppy, making sure I get to all my classes all right, and barely letting me out of his sight. If he wanted to watch me, he should be a little more discreet, and not make me feel as though I'm being stalked.
Sometimes I see him coming forward as if to talk to me, and I dash away before he can really catch up to me. I don't really want to talk to him right now, because if I do, I'll tell him everything, and I can't afford to let anything slip. I won't put Harry and Ron in that position; they'll most certainly be expelled. I know I'm probably irritating Cedric by doing that, but I have my loyalty to my friends to consider, even if Cedric is my oldest and dearest friend.
I don't like running from Cedric, mostly because of the feelings I have for him. But if I tell him everything now, he will turn me in. I have no doubt that he will, no matter how much he cares for me. All the same, it's getting harder to run from him. He knows the castle better than I do, considering he's been here for two years already, whereas I've only been here for two weeks.
I knew I couldn't run from him forever though, and yesterday I was proved right in that. He came up behind me as I was on my way to Transfiguration, and grabbed my arm. I jumped out of my skin and dropped all my books, ink splattering all over everything. He knelt down to help me, using his wand to clean everything up for me, and when I saw that it was him, I calmed down a bit.
"Cedric," I said, trying to catch my breath. "You scared me half to death. Please don't do that."
"Stop running from me Leslie," he said.
"What?" I asked, looking down at my books, and pretending that I didn't know what he was talking about. "What are you talking about? Since when do I run from you?" It didn't fool him.
"Don't play dumb with me," he said seriously. "Look at me." I turned my eyes towards him, even though I really didn't want to. "I want you to stop running from me."
I wanted to say that I had no intention of doing that. I wanted to keep running, but I knew he wouldn't let me. He continued, "something's wrong, and you aren't telling me. I want you to be able to tell me things. So, you and I are going to have a talk on Saturday directly after breakfast, whether you like it or not."
The bell rang at that moment, and I quickly gathered my books and started away. But he grabbed my arm again, and made me stop.
"Will you please stop doing that?" I asked him.
"Just remember," he said to me. "Talk on Saturday, and you will tell me everything." That look he gave me, it was so…I don't know how to describe it. It was so imperious, yet at the same time, so soothing, so comforting, like he wanted me to be able to trust him with any and all of my secrets. But of course at that moment I didn't want to tell him anything.
Today was Saturday. I went down to breakfast with Hermione, and began thinking of ways to avoid him. I glanced over at the Hufflepuff table every so often, but I didn't see him there even once.
"This is good, right?" I asked myself. "Maybe he's changed his mind, has realized that I have the right to say whatever I want to say and knows that I don't necessarily have to tell him anything I don't want to. Maybe he's just decided not to come at all."
But I shouldn't have held my breath. After we had finished breakfast, I found Cedric outside the Great Hall waiting for me. He must have come in earlier, and eaten before I got in. He smiled politely at the two of us, and said to Hermione, "I'd like to speak to Leslie alone if you don't mind."
Hermione nodded and headed off for the library, her little safe haven, leaving me all alone with Cedric.
"Hermione, wait a minute!" I called, trying to run after her, but Cedric wouldn't let me. He grabbed my arm again and began to drag me up the stairs. Every time I tried to wrench my arm away from him, he only tightened his grasp on it.
"Cedric, where are we going?" I asked him, trying to fight my arm out of his grip all the while. "Please let go. I am capable of walking on my own two feet."
"If I let go, you'd just run off again," said Cedric, a little testily. Finally, we arrived at an old, abandoned classroom. The whole place was covered in dust and cobwebs, but in a way, it was almost peaceful. It was as though while we were in there, we could say anything we wanted, and it would stay between the two of us. We went inside, and he shut the door behind us. Then with his wand, he pulled up a chair and told me to sit. The tone of his voice made it sound more like a command than a suggestion, so I did. He sat down beside me and said, "all right Leslie, what's going on?"
"What do you mean 'what's going on'?" I asked him. "There's nothing going on."
"Don't lie to me," he said sternly. "You're hiding something and I want to know what it is."
"I can't tell you."
Those four words were the hardest words I've ever had to say but they were necessary. It pained me to say that, and I could tell from the look on his face that he was hurt by hearing it. In an effort to explain myself, I quickly said, "You were right about what you said Cedric, that I am making new friends. And if I were to tell you what's happened, that would put my friends in such a position to get them expelled. I won't betray them, even to someone I trust more than anyone else."
"You trust me?" asked Cedric.
"I do. I've always trusted you. Don't you know that?"
"Then you should trust me enough to know that I won't rat you out for anything," and he gave me the sweetest look as he said that. I wanted to believe that so badly, but the cynical side of me wanted to get the heck out of there and not have to deal with this confrontation.
"This conversation is over," I said, trying hard not to look at him, but before I could get up, he had cupped my face in his hands and lifted it so that I was looking directly into his eyes. He said, "in no way is this conversation over. If there's something you prefer stays between us, then I swear on the sun and moon, I won't breathe a word of it to anyone unless you want me to."
I knew he meant it, and I couldn't keep silent any longer. I burst out and told him everything, about the incident with the Remembrall, which he'd heard about, Malfoy's challenge, sneaking out of Gryffindor Tower and into the trophy room, running away from Filch and entering the forbidden corridor on the third floor, seeing the three-headed dog and about my nightmare. I left out the part about the package from Gringotts, I wasn't sure if I was ready to tell him about that just yet. He let me talk him into silence, and it was a minute before he spoke.
"You found your way into the forbidden corridor?" I couldn't tell whether his voice was disappointed or angry or worried, probably a mixture of all three.
"Unintentionally of course," I reminded him.
"What drove you in there?" he asked.
"I told you, we just wanted to get away from Filch. We didn't know exactly where we were until it was too late. We had no idea what we were getting into, I swear."
"I believe you," said Cedric. "I don't like you sneaking around the corridors at night though. Hogwarts is the best magical school in our world, but it's also very dangerous at night. Promise me you won't leave your dormitory at night again."
"I can't do that Cedric." I don't know what exactly made me say that. I wanted to swear to him that I wouldn't break any more rules, but I couldn't. I don't know why, but I just couldn't tell him.
He sighed and said, "if Harry and Ron go on any more night time wanderings, you'll probably go with them, won't you?"
"I might very well," I said. "I don't want to, but Harry is my friend, and I told him I'd help him figure out something that's puzzling him, so if that means sneaking out of the dormitory at night, then that's what I'm going to do."
I realized then that I had said too much. I had come very close to telling Cedric about the package from Gringott's, which I really should not have done. I knew he was bound to ask me about it, and sure enough, he said, "what's puzzling him?"
"That's a secret I'm afraid," I said. "I'm the only one he's told about it."
"You're the only one he's trusted enough to confide his secret to?" asked Cedric, and for a minute, I could have sworn I could see something else in his eye, something that looked remarkably enough like jealousy. He wasn't surprised at the fact that someone had confided in me, he knows I can keep a secret. But when I looked into his eyes, I could see clearly that what surprised him was that the first person Harry had told it to wasn't his best friend, Ron, but me.
Cedric spaced out for a minute, so I waved my hand in front of his face, and said, "is anybody in there?"
He shook his head and said, "sorry about that. Listen, if you sneak out at night again, then at least promise me you'll be careful."
"Of course I will. You needn't worry about me Cedric, I'll be fine."
"I'll always worry about you," he told me, and he took my hands as he said this.
"Why do you care so much?" I asked him. "You follow me all over the school as though you're my own personal bodyguard, you ask me what I've been doing, you look as though you'd rather be forced to drink poison rather than hear that something has happened to me."
"I would rather drink poison than hear something has happened to you. I'm not ever going to let anything hurt you, not while you're at Hogwarts."
"You're so sweet Cedric," I said, and I reached up and gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around me in turn, and I think my heart skipped a beat as he did. Then I got up and said as I left, "thank you, but as I said, I'll be fine." I winked at him, and then headed back to Gryffindor Tower for my midmorning nap. Like I said, I haven't been sleeping well ever since the other night.
What do you think? That look on his face was a bit strange, as though he didn't like the fact that Harry confided in me rather than anyone else. Perhaps he does care for me the way I do him. Because I think I am falling for him. I'll write back soon with an update on our relationship.
Love,
Leslie
Author's Note: Okay, so we have a new step in Leslie and Cedric's relationship, and Cedric now knows about the three-headed dog. I will go ahead and tell you that's he not going to go after the Sorcerer's Stone with the others when we get to that part, but he's still going to be part of the story. Stay tuned!
