Chapter Nineteen: The White Rose

"Holly?" Holly looked up from the book she was trying to distract herself with and was surprised to see Mrs. Diggory, her face looking tearstained but a strong smile lighting up her features.

"Mrs. Diggory? What can I do for you?" Mrs. Diggory entered the room and held out a broomstick to Holly.

"I believe this is yours," she said. Holly frowned and examined the broomstick. Soon, when she recognized it, she beamed.

"The broomstick he won from me," she laughed. "For the twins." Mrs. Diggory nodded. She sat down on the bed beside Holly.

"You know, he wrote to me and told me all about you," she said, the smile on her features broadening and a light dancing in her eyes again. "He told me how devoted a friend you were and how much you cared for each other. He told me about that broom and how you used the profits to help a friend of yours. That was very sweet of you." Holly found herself blushing.

"Well, yes, I suppose…" she mumbled.

"He also wanted you to have this…" Mrs. Diggory said, holding out a coin in the palm of her hand. Now, she seemed confused. "He wrote to me once… I think it was after the First Task. He said that he thought he might give this to you for Christmas, but then he forgot because he was so busy trying to figure out the egg. He was so mysterious about it, I don't know what you would want with his lucky coin, but…" She dropped the silver coin into Holly's hand, whose fingers closed around it, then opened.

"Yes," she muttered, remembering when she had returned it to Cedric and he had done the same gesture. "Peculiar… Well, Mrs. Diggory, thank you," Holly said with a forced smile now. Mrs. Diggory nodded.

"No, Holly," she said as she rose off the bed. "Thank you."

Holly hugged her knees on the train back home that day. She had taken an empty compartment, away from the twins who were still frustrated with Ludo Bagman and away from Lee and Harry and Cho and everyone. She was surprised she had found one, but everyone seemed to want to be with their friends and had squished together in other compartments. She even thought she saw Fred and George enter Harry and Ron's compartment. But she didn't dwell on the thought.

The thought she did end up dwelling on was Cedric and the pain she felt in her heart. It felt a thousand times worse than any torture she had ever experienced. It felt as though a knife had been stabbed straight into her heart and someone started turning the handle of it. The tears stung her eyes once more. She had never cried so much in so little time.

"I'm sorry, Cedric…"

She cried until she had cried herself to sleep and she lay sprawled out on the seat.

"What's this I hear about you crying over me?" Holly spun around and noticed Cedric in his dress robes, much like her father had been, except Cedric was holding a white rose.

"Cedric, I'm so sorry!" Holly groaned. "I never wanted you to… I never wanted you to l-l-leave me. I loved you, Cedric, with all my heart, and I feel as though I've fallen in that icy cold lake again except my hero isn't there to bring me out. You've left me to drown, Cedric, you've left me to drown, why can't I find you?"

Holly fell to her knees and began to sob. Cedric, to her surprise, merely laughed.

"Oh, quiet, you twit! You're blathering on about nonsense." Holly was so shocked, she stopped crying and merely stared at him with disbelief and offense. He grinned.

"Yes, well, I tend to do that when there's no one here to snap me out of it like you so bluntly just did!" she snapped.

"Hm, you're right… Can't the twins do that, though? Slap you when you get hysterical?"
"You do it best," she said with a twisted smile. He laughed again. Oh, how I love that laugh, Holly thought, Oh how I miss it…

"I miss you…"

"I miss you too," he said, his smile gone. "And I forgive you. It wasn't your fault anyway, but I don't want to argue, so I'll just forgive you." She gave him a wan smile.

"I never told you…"
"Your mind seems to be clouded, Holly. You did tell me." Holly frowned. Cedric continued. "By the lake, remember?"

"But we never… We never…" he smiled.

"We will," he promised. He offered her his hand and she took it, her face confused. He pulled her close to him and stared straight into her soft brown eyes.

"I love you, Holly. And I always will."

"I love you too, Cedric…" He smiled softly and kissed her warm lips.

It was like nothing Holly had ever experienced, more than a dream, more than any earthly things Holly had ever known. It was like butterfly wings fluttering against her skin on a clear, spring day. It was knowing all that she ever was, all that she would ever become, would forever be a part of Cedric.

And it was knowing that a part of her died that day, the day Cedric was interred.

And it was also knowing that that part of her would forever live on, as Cedric would forever live on, on the calm whispers of the wind, on the soft hum of the ocean, in the heat of the sun and on the beat of an angel's wings. Always and forever.

Cedric pulled away from her just enough to look longingly into those deep brown eyes. He grinned at her.

"I should tell you…" Holly began.

"I should tell you, I will always love you," Cedric finished for her. She smiled back up at him. He stroked her hair, soothingly and she felt his fingers caress her scalp, almost as if it were real. "You haven't lost me. You never will. And you have no debt to repay. By being there for me, by loving me, by breathing for me, you have repaid me." Holly sighed and let him hold her close and stroke her hair lovingly. It soothed the sea of sorrow inside her and the waves were calm and peaceful once more. He comforted her just by smiling at her. She was entranced by the sound of his voice. And she knew an angel was cradling her.

"I am always there for you," he whispered in her ear. "Always."

He gently handed her the white rose he was holding, and with a smile backed away.

"Cedric…" Holly muttered as she watched him disappear.

"CEDRIC!" Holly sat up straight, snapping out of her bittersweet dream. She looked around and noticed they were pulling up to King's Cross Station. Sighing, she got to her feet and noticed something tumble from her lap. Frowning, she bent over to pick it up and gasped.

The silk petals of an ivory blossom had fallen from the flower that laid at her feet now. Picking the rose up gently, she wondered to herself.

"I could have sworn this wasn't here before…"

"How was your year, dear?" Holly's mother asked her when they got home. "I mean, besides the fact that…"
"Fine, Mum, as usual," Holly muttered. "Peachy keen." And with that, she slammed the door to her room and didn't come out until the next morning.

A new sun, a new summer, a new day, Holly arose, still tasting the dream kiss Cedric had left her. She smiled at the white rose in the vase on her dresser and pulled on her clothes.

She remembered hearing her mother talking with her new boyfriend last night. She didn't think he would last long. None of them ever did. He wasn't even worth meeting.

As she walked downstairs and into the kitchen for breakfast, she poured herself some cereal and mumbled a quick 'hello' to those present.
"Hi, Mum, Hi Remus." Neither replied. She turned to them again, munching on her cereal and noticed them staring at her. She then dropped her spoon and it fell into the bowl as she noticed Remus was in bathrobe.

"Wait… REMUS? What are YOU doing here?"

The man shrugged with a sheepish smile, and Holly was too disgusted with the apparently correct conclusion she had jumped to to question further. Sighing, she muttered to herself.

"I'm going back to bed," she said. "And when I wake up, hopefully the sky won't be red and the trees won't be growing upside down. Maybe when I wake up, the world will just turn back to normal! Lord, who knows what to expect anymore!"

TBC

When the Next HP book is Published

A/N: OK, so I lied about this being the last chapter. I mean, sure, this is the end of this installment, but so many questions remain unanswered… Why did Holly completely flip when she heard Cedric and Harry had disappeared? How did she know something was horribly wrong? Where did that rose come from in the train? What will happen in her last year of Hogwarts? But most of all, what is UP with her mother and Remus Lupin??? Well, yes, I intend on continuing Holly's saga but only when I read the fifth book, when J K Rowling sees fit to release it (which I hope is soon). But, to satisfy your thirst, I will make an addition to this story (also to make the chapter count an even twenty) and give you a "preview" of what will be explained in the next installment which is yet to be titled. So hold tight! Holly will return, and with a vengeance! In the meantime, check out some of my other HP fics! Or you could, um, not…

Also, if you wish to subscribe to the Ramblings of Carly weekly newsletter, send an e-mail to satans_righthand_gal@hotmail.com. It includes pondering of upcoming fics, details on my life in Egypt, speculations on when the fifth book will come, quotes of the week and questions for you to ponder. It usually also makes you laugh. And the best part is, you don't have to read the whole thing! It's all nonsense anyway!

Keep smiling and until next time,
Carly