Chapter 3: Shooting Star

I wish... Oh, God, I wish for so many things.

I wish that Fred would stop trying to understand. He will never understand the friendship that Katie and I shared. It's one of those friendships that stems from respect, and soon that bond becomes so strong. Because you know that you can always trust each other. I will never be able to let go of all the sadness that this has left me with. At least, I'm pretty sure that I won't. I mean... I hope that I won't. I will never find another friendship like the one that I had with Katie.

I wish that Alicia will let go of her anger and come back to us. Especially back to Lee. He doesn't have anyone. They need each other more than any two humans possibly could, and yet...they can't see it. I need someone who understands how I feel. It doesn't matter that Fred and George have been in touch with the Bells forever. It doesn't matter that Lee could talk quidditch endlessly with her, and did every chance that they got. Alicia and me and Katie...we had something different.

I wish that I can stop feeling this way. Whenever I go outside, I can't help but thinking that the flowers won't bloom in the spring, that the sun won't rise again, that my family will disappear into thin air. I can't help it. She won't laugh again; she won't read out loud again, she won't love anymore. She can't feel anymore.

Sometimes I am envious.

And most of all...I wish that she could come back. Back to us. That none of this ever happened.

She was so young, and yet...now she's gone. That has to mean that it can happen the same way for someone else. That it will.

I've been trying to distance myself from Fred. I'm afraid that it will happen to him. I can't survive another heartache like this. I'll die. And Fred...I'd take my own life. If he died, my heart will never heal.

Katie was so lively. What she believed...there was no end. And she never thought twice about telling Alicia and me in such an extravagant way that you could almost believe that if you blew that one, pure and snowy white dandelion, your dreams would all come true.

"Let me think about what I want to wish..." Katie Bell scrunched her face up as she thought over the frosty midnight grass, her face turned upwards and her eyes bright. The moon shone down and snowflakes fell slowly...ever so slowly...as if they had all the time in the world...

"You are fifteen, Katie. And you still believe in wishes?", Alicia chattered, twisting the end of her long, dark plait around a finger. She rolled her eyes up to the sky and shivered beneath her heavy scarlet cloak.

"You're sixteen, Alicia...And you don't?", Katie never took her eyes off of the sky, dragging a toe through the ice. "Now let me just think..."

"I wish that Cedric Diggory would take me to the Yule Ball!", Alicia cried, suddenly, laughing. "That's my wish. Katie! You should be able to make one quick!"

"And I wish that I can always be with my best friends in the world!", Angelina laughed, throwing an arm around each of her friends waists. "Go on Katie!" She shifted her weight so that she could gesture to the sky.

Katie giggled as she gazed intently into the sky. "Give me a minute..." Her eyes found the small, shining speck that she was looking for. "I want this to be special. Shooting stars only come around once in a blue moon..."

Right now I am stuck in a world that is cold and dark and star-less. Katie always said that when things look the darkest, shine a new light on them. I don't think I can right now. I don't think that I want to try.

I will never forget such a kind and caring girl. Her dreamy atmosphere and laid back ways will stay with me forever, along with her anecdotes and aphorisms that you could always count on to be there. Except for now. She wouldn't have wanted us in the dark like this.

Katie Bell is a Shooting Star.

People like her only come around once in a blue moon.

Make it special.