Chapter 20

Sage let out a gasp as her head pierced the surface of the water. She coughed and spluttered, clinging tightly to the person who was holding her. She wiped the water away from her face, pulling the hair out of her eyes, and looking around.

She was in the Black Lake, and not far from where they floated, where three large towers with platforms of people cheering. Sage's ears were still blocked from being submerged in the water, so all she could hear was the muffled chanting of the students. 

Her skin had wrinkled slightly and her eyes were still adjusting to the lighting change as the person beside her pulled her towards one of the towers. When she reached the ladder, the person let go of her, holding her arm and helping her up the ladder. 

On top of the platform, several people grabbed hold of her, pulling her up as her legs didn't seem to be working. She recognised Olive and Jill among them, and then it hit her. She spun around to see Cedric climbing up the ladder after her, not looking in her direction. 

"Cedric?" She called after him, but he ignored her. "Cedric." She tried to stand to her feet, but Olive and Jill pulled her back. "You can't stand, Sage." They sighed. "He'll come around. This proves it."

"What just happened?" Sage turned to her friends. "He just rescued you from the bottom of the lake, it was apart of the second task. Sagie, you're Cedric's most prized possession, the one he cannot live without. Every champion had someone sent down there for them to rescue for that reason." Olive informed her.

"Me? Cedric hates me right now, why wasn't it Cho or something?" Sage frowned. "Sage!" Athena threw herself at her sister. "I was so worried." She hugged her tightly. "We don't know why it wasn't Cho." Jill shrugged.

"Oh, yes. I thought Cedric was angry with you?" Athena pulled away. "He can still value her above everyone else, even if they're fighting. Speaking of fighting." Olive pointed behind them, and Sage turned around to see what she had meant.

Cedric and Cho Chang had engaged in some sort of argument, and Cho kept pointing over at Sage. "I think she's angry that she wasn't the one sent down there. Seeing as she's his girlfriend." Athena laughed.

"I don't see why she'd want to. Clearly it doesn't change anything between Cedric and I, and I feel quite horrible after spending overnight underwater. I look like a prune." Sage frowned. Just then, Harper appeared. 

"Are you okay..?" He asked sheepishly, this was the first time he'd spoken to Sage since the Yule Ball. "I'm okay. Thank you for asking." She smiled. "I'm sorry i've been a dick." He frowned. "Don't be. I deserved it." She laughed. 

"Can we be friends again, Harper?" She bit her lip. "Friends..? Sure, we can be friends." He smiled sadly. "I figured i'd better give this back." Harper reached his hand out and passed her a book. Sage took the book, and read the cover. It was her 'Tales Of Beetle The Bard' book. 

Sage looked up at him and smiled, she understood what the gesture meant, and he smiled back at her. "I don't think Cedric's as happy about your reunion as you and Harper are." Jill nudged Sage when Harper left them to go speak with Rowan.

Sage turned to the side to see Cedric was glaring at her, but when he noticed her looking, he quickly averted his gaze back onto Cho. 

----

In the weeks leading to the third task, Cedric still refused to speak to Sage. Rowan and Harper engaged in conversations with the three girls when Cedric wasn't around, but for the time being, they remained in their seperate trios. 

Sage rarely saw Cedric, and she assumed he was avoiding her. Sage also had not seen Cho since the second task, and she believed it to be for the same reason. During potions, Cedric had moved even farther away from her desk, and she very quickly gave up all hope of him ever reaching out to her again. 

She had tried in the last couple of weeks to speak with him. Ambushing him whenever she'd see him, but he'd quickly escape her, and he soon learned to avoid being alone with her. Sage noticed how he surrounded himself in people Sage didn't know.

Sage felt much more comfortable approaching Cedric when he was with Harper and Rowan, but seeing as she didn't know these other boys, she kept her distance, this must have been why he did it. Sage had also noticed that whenever she'd see Cedric, he was rarely with Cho.

"Maybe now she feels threatened by me." Sage frowned. "She definitely avoids me, she even limits her time with Cedric in trying to keep away from me. I've only seen them together twice since the second task." She sighed. 

"And they've rarely talked in those times." Olive laughed. "Maybe they've broken up." She added hopefully. "I doubt it, we would know by now if they had of." Sage shook her head. "I don't think they're even having problems, otherwise everyone would be talking about it."

"Speak of the devil." Jill nudged Sage, and she looked up to see Cedric entering into the library, accompanied by a herd of Hufflepuff boys. "He doesn't even look at me." Sage pouted, she was free to watch him all she liked whenever he was around, he never looked in her direction anyway. 

Sage watched glumly as Cedric laughed at one of Rowans jokes, she had missed him terribly, she felt as though apart of her was missing. "I hate this. I miss him so much it's physically painful." Sage sighed. "I think Sage is in love with him." Olive giggled. "In love? No." Sage laughed, shaking her head, but as her friends changed the subject, she dwelt on Olive's suggestion. 

Perhaps, she thought, she was in love with Cedric. In the months that they had been separated, Sage's thoughts were never not occupied by him. She would ponder on their trip to Italy. Where they'd walk the streets of Venice and Florence. Where they'd go to art museums and Cedric would tell her random facts on the art. He was quite knowledgeable on all things art related.

She'd think about how he'd held her hand when they were alone, and how affectionate he'd been when his mother died. She remembered how they'd fallen asleep together, and when she'd awoken, she found that he'd clung tightly to her through the night. 

Sage would remember how he'd held her hand gently, painting her nails with great care. How kind he always was with Athena, and how gently he was with her cat, August. She'd recalled the moments where they'd been apart, and she'd always missed him greatly. However, overtime when they were reunited, he was always more tender and warm than usual.

Could she be in love with him? It was possible. After all, who wouldn't be? They'd been best friends their whole lives. Cedric had always been far more caring with her, than anyone else. As a child, he would treat her delicately, but as she'd grow, he'd treated her with more respect. He understood she was now a woman, seventeen years old. 

And so she came to terms with her feelings. She acknowledged her love for the boy, and she made the decision in her heart. She was in love with Cedric Diggory, but what do to about it? She did not know.

----

Sage sat in her dorm room, reading a book as her friends discussed the third task, which would begin in a couple of hours. "Speaking of, there's our champion." Rowan nudged Olive, and the group looked up to see Cedric leaving the common room. Sage stared after him, but he did not look at her.

"Should we go down to the pitch?" Jill asked when Cedric disappeared. "You guys go, i'll meet you there later." Sage waved her friends goodbye, and continued reading her book. The book in which she was reading, was a muggle book, which Cedric had given her.

It was called Alice in Wonderland, and it was a present for her 10th birthday. Sage was just a few chapters from the end, and then she would join her friends to watch the third task. So Sage continued reading, she continued all the way to the end, where she noticed a piece of writing in the back of the book.

"For Sage, because you are wonderful. Mother used to read me this book before bed, and i'd always tell her that Alice reminded me of you. Stubborn, but imaginative. I hope you enjoyed it, your best friend - Cedric." Sage read the writing aloud. 

When Sage finished, she decided to read it again. So she read it for the second time, and then the third time, the fourth, and the fifth. Sage continued to read it over and over again, until eventually the tears in her eyes flooded her vision to the point where she could not make out the words any longer, but this didn't matter. She had already memorised it.

She set the book down, wiping the tears out of her eyes. It was of no use, she felt completely helpless and alone. Cedric loved Cho, not her, and so she told herself, that if he had ever loved her, he certainly did not now. And for this, she only had herself to blame.

Although Sage's body, and her appearance had grown significantly since she'd first come to Hogwarts, her maturity did not accompany it.

She felt just as foolish as the girl who had once cried when Cedric Diggory stopped holding her hand in front of their friends. She was just as foolish as the child who had blamed Cedric when she'd fallen down the hill chasing him.

How silly she had been, blaming Cedric when she could not catch him. Perhaps, instead of pinning the blame onto Cedric, she should have just ran a little bit faster. It was the least he deserved.

She was seventeen, now. And yet, she didn't feel a day over eleven. Why had she not just told him how she'd felt, expressed her emotions rather than resulting to cruel methods to provoke his emotions. Why had she insisted on trying to make him jealous?

All Cedric had ever done was hold her hand when she stumbled, be by her side and forgive her regardless of her wrong doings. It was no surprise to her, that he had chosen Cho.

She had to tell him. She had to make him know of her feelings towards him, but then if Cedric accepted them, she'd be stealing Cho's happiness for the sake of her own. Sage could not be so selfish, and though Cho had not been kind to Sage, she had been nothing short of an angel to Cedric. If Sage could not make Cedric happy as his friend, how could she make him happy as his girlfriend.

Cho made him happy, Sage believed she did. By stealing Cedric from Cho, she'd not only be taking Cho's happiness, but perhaps she'd be taking Cedric's as well. Maybe this was supposed to be their end. The end to their tragic love story, that had never quite reached its full potential.

But even still, she had to tell him. Whatever happened then, would happen. It seemed cruel to rob Cedric from knowing her true feelings. She had taken enough from him. So regardless of whether he felt the same, she decided she would share them with him.

And so Sage got up from her pitiful state, and she set off down the hallway. She would find Cedric before the third task, and she would tell him. Even if he hated her for it.