Driven by a sense of responsibility, Katherina met with Cedric the following day and tried to explain herself as softly as possible, but that wasn't exactly her most noticeable feature. They had met by the Black Lake during their lunch hour. He had brought her lemon tarts. She didn't dare to look at him as she spoke and he listened in dead silence. It reminded her of Orpheus, doubting that the love of his life really did follow him out of the Underworld, except... this was different - opposite, even.
"I'm sorry that I haven't been honest from the start. I shouldn't have allowed this in the first place, but...!"
Cedric's warm hands caught hers. He wanted to pull her into his arms, but refrained.
"I told you I love you... but you haven't told me once. Do you?"
Taken by surprise, she couldn't avoid his eyes anymore. She felt hers burning up as her vision fogged. Cedric stood firm, but she could see him falling apart inside. His bright smile was gone, his gray eyes looked lifeless, and he was still like a corpse.
"I-I... I don't know," she whispered.
"Then think... you're good at that, way better than you are at feeling, aren't you?" he asked on a harsh tone. "If you tell me you love me, I will take care that you won't lack anything. I may not be as rich as Malfoy, but we would have everything we need. We can build everything we want from there..."
Katherina looked away. "I'm so sorry... I don't want you to suffer, I don't want to-!"
"It's a bit late for that..." he sighed. "I don't know why you wanted to toy with me, but I guess it's what Slytherins do. You're all snakes, after all, aren't you?"
She stared into the water, the memory of Richard Avery sneaking up on her coming back into her mind briefly.
"If you only wanted a tutor, you should have said so."
Katherina shook her head. "I swear it wasn't just that! I didn't lie to you for one second, I just... I should have told you about the arrangements."
That's when Cedric grabbed her wrists again and pull her into him, pressing her lips on hers. He had tears running down his cheeks and he was rough. Katherina tried to pull away, struggling to free herself from his grip without any luck. Her heart was racing, but in panic more than anything else.
"Let her go, Hufflepuff!"
The sound of his voice shocked both of them enough for Katherina to push herself away and fall backwards on the grass. The distance and the sight of Draco pointing his wand at him made Cedric step back slowly. He was crying quietly, watching the younger, richer, and braver Slytherin move between him and the girl he thought his.
After a moment, Katherina stood up and brushed the back of her robe with her palm. She seemed shaken, but she wiped the tears off her face. She had a salty sweet taste in her mouth and realized she had the smallest cut on her lip.
"Are you alright?" Draco asked after a long awkward silence between them. One of his cheeks was kind of pink.
The girl licked her bleeding lip and nodded slowly. "Are you...?"
"Yes." He sighed heavily and went to the edge of the water, gazing into its depths. "I told Parkinson," he stated proudly, but he didn't look victorious.
"How did it go?" She joined him by the lake.
"She hates me, and will probably find herself a new subject for her obsessions. My bet's on Zabini."
Katherina began to laugh. "Are you serious? He's been eyeing Selena for nearly a week."
"Not my problem," he raised his eyebrows in indifference. "As long as she's out of my sight, she could be chasing after Potter for all I care!" A question was burning in the back of his mind, threatening to devour his entire consciousness. He didn't know if he should ask, but he decided that he had to do it. "...Do you love him?"
She took a moment before responding. "I think... I admire him, and I wish him all the best, and perhaps in some way, I love him, because I don't want to ruin his life, but... I wouldn't want to be with him for the rest of my life. Cedric is... He is like chocolate," she said with a small laugh. "He's great, but I can't survive on that."
Draco looked at the box of lemon tarts on the ground. "I wouldn't know. As long as he's not in my way, I couldn't care less for his existence."
"I do care, though." Before Draco had a chance to ask for an explanation, she looked him straight in the eyes and continued. "I don't want you bullying anyone from his house."
He blinked in confusion. "...I'm not going to bully him, I'm going to punch his teeth down his throat!"
"No, you're not! Listen to me, please - it's not about Cedric. I was supposed to talk to him so I could get the Hufflepuff house on our side."
Draco rolled his eyes and began to walk away. "I thought you said you were going to break it up with him! Now you're protecting that asshole!"
The girl followed him quickly and cut his path. "He's anything but an asshole, Draco! Just... let's convince people to not bully Hufflepuffs anymore, starting right now! We'll have their house back us up, no matter what, because their most notable trait is loyalty. Think about it... They're kind enough to forgive, loyal, and capable."
He tried to move past her, but Katherina caught his arm. "Let me go. You're still head over heels about him. Did it mean nothing to you? Last night..."
"It means everything! You promised me that there would be no more secrets between us and this is why I am telling you everything!"
Draco sighed heavily. "I guess... but I can't see why we would ever need them."
"Anything, really. Can't you see? Everyone underestimates the Hufflepuff house, this is their greatest advantage. I've been among them, I know they're smart, they work hard, they're resourceful. Let's just try this for the remaining of this year and if it backfires, I won't ask for this again."
"This semester, that's all!" Draco was not very comfortable with the idea, but if she really wanted it, he could make a compromise and try - just because her eyes lit up when she spoke about it.
Katherina nodded. "One semester, that's fine. If all goes well, we'll keep it up."
"Let's go eat," he said in a low voice. Draco didn't want to think that anyone could influence him, but he knew that's exactly what she was doing. He was also unsure about Katherina giving up on Cedric, now that she insisted on getting their house of weaklings and mud-bloods to back up their own. There was strength in numbers, but why would Slytherins ever depend on another house? Hufflepuff, no less!
They walked into the Great Hall together, walking side by side, but not far enough from each other to allow another person to pass between them. They sat together at the Slytherin table. Once they walked in, the Hufflepuffs sat up and left.
"...Well, at least we know they stick together," Katherina tried to keep a positive perspective, but it was hard without Cedric lifting up the mood.
"Everything is a mess right now," he mumbled. "I would let them be. I don't know how they let out anger, if they even feel it, but I think it's best to leave them alone for now. Or... whatever they do... I wouldn't know."
She smiled bitterly. "Are you trying to empathize with Cedric?"
"I don't know empathy," Draco responded in his usual coldness. "I... might have wrote to my mother that you're with that loser."
Katherina rolled her eyes. Both aspects of that phrase bothered her. "What did she reply to that?"
"She didn't," he confessed. "That's what worries me."
Before she could attempt to guess Narcissa's reaction and the reason behind her silence, Katherina felt something hot dripping over her head. She looked up to see some of the candles tilting, pouring wax all over her hair, burning her face and her hands as she tried to shield her eyes and shift her spot. The wax kept following her, leaving pale yellow droplets all over her robes and through her hair.
"How do you like that?" Pansy asked through gritted teeth. "You must have everything, you spoiled bitch! You just need to have everything!" The girl had tears in her eyes as she kept chasing Katherina with the jinx.
"What the hell, Parkinson! Stop it already!" She lifted her hood over her head but wax kept dripping all over her.
Draco stood up and walked towards the girl in a fast, threatening pace. "You will cease this very moment, or I can guarantee, you will curse this day for the rest of your miserable life."
"Why? What do you care?" she snapped at Draco. Her knees were weak and fear evident in her eyes, but she wasn't going to back down.
"Stop pouring wax over her before I make you stop!" he yelled into her face.
"What does she have that I don't?!" the girl yelled right back, her voice cracked.
Draco took out his wand, performed the counter-spell, then disarmed Pansy. "Everything." The strength of the spell pushed Pansy into the wall.
A crowd was gathering around, which meant at least one professor was probably on their way. Not wanting to be caught dueling in the Great Hall, he stepped over her wand and walked back to where Katherina was still shielding herself under the hood of her robes. In a rapid gesture, he grabbed her hand and led her out of the room, down a corridor, and then another, taking turns randomly so they could get as far away from the incident as possible.
Katherina followed him quietly. She could anticipate all the rumors that were going to be flying around about them, but she didn't want to think about it then. She followed him without thinking until they eventually stopped in the middle of a dark hallway with large paintings decorating the walls.
"What did you tell Parkinson when you let her go?" Katherina was mad, but not particularly at Draco. She tried to take her hood off slowly. It was stuck to her hair, pulling a few strands off.
"The truth," Draco said in an apparently very calm voice as he kept an eye on their surroundings. A few paintings also seemed quite interested in them.
"How did you tell her the truth?" Katherina kept interrogating him. "She seemed mad, not just heartbroken."
The boy shoved his hands into his pockets. "All I wanted was lunch - now look, we're running away from professors!"
"I need you to tell me exactly what you two said. She's clearly targeting me! I need to understand why!"
"Sounds to me like some of that Hufflepuff stuff rubbed off on you..." he mumbled. "I told her she's annoying and that she wouldn't survive two minutes in front of my dad, that whatever fantasy she has in her mind will never be true because I only allowed her to fill up space after we fought over those rumors that she had been spreading in the first place and I will never forgive her for that, because she's been throwing dirt on me as well, and then I told her not to even try to deny it because it's so obvious she's the one behind everything that even a half-brained idiot could piece it together."
The girl rolled her eyes and took a few steps away from him, while one of the portraits began to laugh.
"Savage!" it commented.
"Poor girl," another whined.
Katherina threw them a look. "Nobody asked any of you!" She then turned to Draco. "Did you pour anymore gasoline over the fire?"
"...I told her I would never love her because she's nagging and clingy, and nobody would ever want that."
"Right... Did you threaten her in any way?"
"No!" he immediately replied. "Not really..."
Katherina crossed her arms over her chest. "Parkinson just poured hot wax all over me, in public! What did you tell her that got her this mad?"
"She kept asking if there was anything she could do for me to love her," he confessed with a look of utter disgust, "so I told her I'd rather die than go anywhere near her, and that I would make sure everyone found out she was the one behind the rumors if she kept following me."
The girl snapped her fingers. "That's the threat. So I was right - she's heartbroken, furious, and scared. Perfect combination!" The sarcasm was followed by a sigh. "This is too complicated... Why couldn't you just let her down gently, tell her you weren't really interested, and be done with it?"
"I did tell her I'm not interested," Draco defended himself. "Perhaps a bit boldly, but-"
"Boldly?" the girl laughed. "You destroyed her!"
"...Whatever! She deserves it," Draco shrugged. "You've got no idea how much she's been getting on my nerves!"
Author's notes:
Two of a kind, most of the time, except... when breaking up with someone. This was so fun to write!
As always, please follow, favorite, and review!
