Chapter 10

"And I told Sage that she should cry in front of you, but she's too nice." Olive sighed as the small group of Hufflepuffs made their way out of the school, to Hogsmeade. "No. I'm just a decent human being." Sage laughed. "Cedric. If Sage had of cried in front of you, would you have forgiven her?" Olive turned to Cedric, who was staring off into the distance. 

"Is that Athena?" He squinted, and Sage followed his eyes to Athena, who had locked lips with Blaise Zabini. The two second years were sitting in a space between the pillars, tongues in each others mouthes, it was disturbing.

 "Oh. My. God." Sage's jaw dropped open. "She is snogging a boy?!" Sage took a step towards them, but Cedric grabbed her arm. "No, Sage. Let her live." He laughed. 

"Cedric are you seriously telling me this is okay. She's twelve!" Sage tried to free herself from his grasp, but he was too strong. "Fine. But I will be speaking with her later." She scoffed, exiting into the outside. 

"And isn't he friends with that terrible Draco Malfoy." Sage rambled on, and on about Athena and Blaise, all the way to Hogsmeade. "And he was so smug. Did you see how smug he was?" 

"Yes, Sage. He was smug." Rowan chuckled. "I'd be pretty smug." Harper grinned. "Don't tell me you want to snog my twelve year old sister, too." She growled. "No." He raised his hands in the air as a plea for his innocence. 

"Are you sure you're not just jealous that your sister's making out with boys, and you haven't even had your first kiss?" Jill raised her eyebrows cheekily. "Oh, please. I don't need a boyfriend." She rolled her eyes. "Speaking of, how's your girlfriend, Cedric?" Harper snickered. "Not my girlfriend, never was." 

"Butterbeer?" Cedric asked when they arrived at the bar, and everyone nodded. "I'm kind of bored of butterbeer." Olive rested her head on the table as their drinks arrived. "What?" Rowan scoffed. 

"We always drink it, we need another interesting drink. Add more variety." She concluded. "There's Hogshead." Sage suggested. "I said a new drink, not a new bar." She groaned. "Athena can go to Hogsmeade next year.." Sage changed the subject.

"Oh yeah, that's great." Olive smiled. "No. She's going to bring that Blaise Zabini to the three broomsticks on a date, or maybe they'll go to Hogshead, it's dark and quiet. Good place for a snogging date." 

"You're obsessed." Harper rolled his eyes. "What if you and I were caught snogging by Athena? Do you think she'd be as pedantic." Harper laughed. "Why? do you want to snog Sage?" Cedric scoffed, his body visibly tensing up at the idea. "What- I never said that." Harper frowned. 

"Just checking." The two boys looked at each other for an uncomfortable amount of time, both silent. "Anywayy.. Who wants to go to Honeydukes?" Sage tried to ease the tension that had set at their table.

"I'll go." Cedric got up, following Sage out of the bar. "What was that, Cedric?" Sage sighed as they wandered down the street. "Honeydukes is there." Cedric pointed behind them as Sage kept walking. 

"I don't want to go anymore, let's sit down." She kept walking. "So.. What was that about?" She repeated. "I don't know." Cedric shrugged. "You do know. Are you still mad at Harper?" She led them over to a large tree that was off the side of the street.

"No, i'm not. I was just asking. You were all over each other just a week ago, can you blame me." Cedric sat down, leaning against the tree. "Cedric, we've been over this." Sage raked her fingers through her hair. 

"So you were trying to piss me off? Then why was he going along with it, what was his motive? Simple. He likes you." Cedric told her, and she scoffed. "Oh, please. You can't honestly believe that."

"I do." He folded his arms. "He was just helping me out, or maybe he just didn't want to reject me or something?" Sage shrugged. "I doubt it." Cedric rolled his eyes. "You're still upset about it, aren't you." 

"No." Cedric answered. "You are." Sage pouted. "Tell me what's on your mind. Let me fix this." She pleaded. "Nothing's on my mind." Cedric lied. "But I know there is.. What did I do that's still upsetting you?" 

"I dunno." He shrugged. "Cedric, do you want to resolve this?" She smiled sadly. "I do, I jus-It's already resolved." He sighed. "Ced." She frowned. "Okay, fine. uh-" He thought for a moment, but Sage knew he already knew what he was going to say.

"You called me an asshole. There's a start." He laughed. "You were being a little bit of a- JUST A LITTLE BIT!" She blocked her face as Cedric picked up a small pile of leaves and threw them at her. "I tried to resolve it, Cedric. And you totally ignored me! I shouldn't have called you an asshole.. To your face." She grinned mischievously.

"I hate you." He laughed. "You love me." She teased, but her smiled faltered for a moment as Cedric showed signs of surprise at her response. "I-I was joking, Ced." She smiled awkwardly. "Oh- Yeah." He laughed.

"And what about when you asked for a hug, and then just walked away." He continued, and Sage could tell this one had upset him. "I didn't think you wanted to hug me. You didn't look happy when I asked, sorry.." She apologised. "You still could have.. I didn't hate the idea, I just didn't want to tell you."

"And." Cedric paused, evidently debating whether or not he should bring this one up. "It's kind of silly, really.." He looked at the ground. "Tell me." She smiled comfortingly. "It's just- Well since before this fight.. You haven't once tried to hug me, or hold my hand.. Or anything like that. Like we used to.."

"Oh." Sage was surprised at first that he'd brought it up, but as she thought about it, she grew increasingly bitter. As of recently, she seemed to be the only one out of the two of them who would display physical affection to the other. He was too embarrassed because of their friends. Now that she had stopped, obviously, the interactions had stopped too.

"You haven't either." She rolled her eyes, as Cedric looked hurt at her snarky attitude. "I don't know.." He looked back down, and Sage felt instantly guilty. "I'm sorry.." She apologised, and Cedric shrugged.

"Here.." Sage got up from her spot across from Cedric, and took a seat beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Oh." He laughed, before reaching his hand down to hers, and locking their fingers together. 

"Thank you." He stroked her hand with his thumb. "No problem." She smiled, looking up at him. "Did you cry while we were fighting.." He asked. "No." She shook her head. "Good." He released her hand, wrapping his arms around her.

"I hate seeing you cry.."

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"SAGE!" Athena screamed, running down the centre of the train, as all the students took a step to the side, avoiding the jinxes that shot out of Sage's wand. "YOUR HANDS WERE UNDER HIS SHIRT! YOU ARE TWELVE YEARS OLD!" Sage ran after her, shooting jinxes left, right and centre.

"YOU'RE CRAZY!" Athena slammed the compartment door behind her, locking it. "Let me in!" Sage pointed her wand at the door, before Olive and Jill tackled her to the ground, Rowan, Harper and Cedric panting behind her. "I'm thirteen! You know I am!" Athena yelled from inside her locked compartment.

"Get off me." Sage whined as Athena sat on the floor of her compartment, breathing heavily. "I won't do it again, please don't kill me, Sagie." She pleaded. "I won't kill you, i'll kill him." She scowled. "But I forgive you." She pushed Jill and Olive off her, getting up.

"Now let me in." Sage smiled. "Absolutely not." Athena shook her head, and Sage sighed in disappointment, allowing her friends to guide her anxiously back to their compartment. 

"We have O.W.L's next year." Olive complained. "Rowan will be tutoring all of us." Jill laughed, Rowan was the smartest of the group. "And we'll get Ophelia to join. She's super smart." Sage turned to Harper, who shrugged at the proposal. 

"Who you reckon will be our DADA professor?" Rowan asked. "Hopefully not another Narcissistic Fraud." Harper scoffed. "Do you think we'll ever get a permanent Professor." Said Jill. "I highly doubt it."

"I reckon our Professor next year will be a Quidditch player." Cedric said. "I think it'll be the Minister of Magic." Olive told them. "I think it'll be a nobody they pulled off the street." Jill laughed. "I think they'll have one of the Hogwarts Professors teach DADA and their own subject." Rowan suggested. "Maybe Snape."

"I think we'll get a squib." Harper shrugged. "I think we'll get a painting." Sage smiled. "Like how a ghost teaches muggle studies." She went on. "So what's the bet?" Jill asked. "Five Galleons." Harper suggested. "Ten Galleons." Cedric added.

"Twenty." Olive grinned, and they all agreed. "What if none of us are correct?" Cedric asked. "Then whoever was the closest." Rowan shrugged. "Looks like I'm getting one hundred Galleons." Harper whistled. "You wish." Everyone rolled their eyes.

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