You could see his face. You were looking down at him as his empty eyes stared at you. Cedric was lying before you, and he was gone.

You felt your breathing quicken as you dropped to his side. You felt like you couldn't breathe as the world stopped around you. Your best friend. Your best friend was dead.

You sat up, gasping for breath, in a dark room. You looked around at your unfamiliar surroundings, still breathing heavily until you realized that your were in the Gryffindor dorms. You were in George's bed, but George wasn't in the bed with you. You peered over the edge of the bed and noticed him lying on the floor beside the bed, blinking slowly at you. He groggily murmured, "Y/N?"

You reached down for his hand, your hair falling over your face as you hung off the bed. You shakily whispered, "George?"

He sat up quickly, grabbed your hand, and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I had a nightmare. Why are you on the floor?" You whispered as you tucked your long hair behind your ear.

"So that you didn't feel uncomfortable if I was in the bed with you," George told you as he gently touched your hair.

You pleaded, "I won't be uncomfortable. Will you please come up here?" Your body started to shake a little again as the images of Cedric on the ground began to flash through your mind.

George noticed this and hopped into the bed beside you. You shifted back under the covers as he pulled the covers over himself. You faced one another as you wrapped their arms around each other. You calmed down once again and snuggled your face into his chest. As you began to drift off to sleep, you whispered, "I love you, George."

You squeezed him a little more with your words, and George whispered into your hair, "I love you too, Y/N."

Feeling the comfort of this exchange, you sighed into his chest and fell back asleep, feeling safe once again.

-

The next day, the students and teachers all sat in the Great Hall as Dumbledore addressed them. You and Susan held onto one another as he told you about how You-Know-Who was back and had killed Cedric. You were shaken from hearing everything, but you didn't cry this time. You took deep breaths to stay in control of your emotions when Dumbledore sighed, "Cedric Diggory was a fierce, fierce friend."

Susan squeezed the life out of your hand the entire time while Hannah and Megan looked at Dumbledore with solemn expressions.

You could feel the absence of Cedric in the seat next to you. No one had wanted to sit in Cedric's normal seat, and so you felt the empty space beside you where he should have been. You tried not to look at his seat, knowing that it would only make matters worse for you, so you just focused on Dumbledore's authoritative voice ringing out over the room and the feel of Susan's hand shivering in your own.

You noticed the way everyone in the room was destroyed at the loss. Cedric was well loved by those around him, and this loss cut deep into the student body at Hogwarts that year.