Chapter Text
if the stars collided, i believe that it wouldn't be nearly as destructive as us.
---
The train whistled loudly as Celeste watched her brother say goodbye to their father and mother at the platform. She loved Cedric dearly, but it hurt her heart to see the stark difference in their parents’ goodbyes to them . Her goodbye was an awkward, silence-filled standoff between her and the two people who lived with her.
Her father was a proud man that desperately wanted to see Cedric succeed, whether it was for his own benefit or her brother’s. When it came to her, his opinion was indifference at best, and well, she didn’t enjoy thinking about when he was actually upset with her.
Cedric hugged their parents tightly before walking over to Celeste and grabbing her hand. She watched his eyes light up and sparkle with excitement as he whispered to her, “C’mon, we wouldn’t want to miss the train, would we?”
Celeste looked up at her brother with a small smirk and whispered back, “And be left here with Amos? I’d rather swallow my tongue.” Her brother laughed at her response despite his own complicated feelings about their father and shook his head at her.
Celeste always felt bad after making small comments about Amos since she understood that Cedric loved him and was close to him in his own way. However, she wouldn’t dare to allow herself any sympathy for her father, whose personal mission was to always be disappointed in her. Or even her mother, who decided that ignoring her existence would be the easiest solution.
Their treatment began when they found out she had been sorted into the Slytherin house at Hogwarts. She had written to them to deliver the news, but after that, they never sent back a letter or talked to her like normal, like she wasn’t a worthless child. At first, it was difficult to accept the change in her parents’ behavior towards her, but this was her fourth year, and she needed to move on. At least she had her brother’s love which she could feel some sense of safety with.
Celeste was more on the quieter side and felt as if she didn’t completely fit in with her housemates. In her three years attending Hogwarts, her only friend was Astoria Greengrass.
Astoria was a year below Celeste, and is the youngest daughter of the pureblood Greengrass family. Celeste met the younger girl on the first day of Hogwarts, after she was sorted into Slytherin. She remembered Astoria sitting down on her left side, seeming very nervous for someone whose destiny was to end up at the Slytherin table. Celeste didn’t dare to look her in the eye out of fear of being met with a sneer or a look of disgust. However, she noticed that the young girl’s hands were shaking rather violently and a sudden feeling of sympathy overwhelmed her. Before she could even fully think, she quietly spoke to the girl, “It’s quite loud in here.”
For a moment, she hadn’t thought the girl heard her, but she felt eyes on the side of her face. Celeste turned to her left to a shocking sight of a girl who looked overwhelmed yet so beautiful simultaneously. Astoria possessed an unnatural beauty with her long blonde hair that reached her lower back, and light green eyes that had a hint of grey in them. Her eyes swirled with more grey as she frantically observed Celeste for any hints of mal intent.
Once she had looked over Celeste, her eyes relaxed slightly as she responded “It is, isn’t it?” The two young Slytherin girls continued their conversation until they were forced to split apart. Astoria had to meet with the other first years for the tour the prefects gave every year. However, their tentative friendship grew as Astoria realized that Celeste was truly only trying to be kind and Celeste realized that Astoria genuinely wanted a friend like her.
---
“Celeste! Celeste! Come over here right now!”
A yell shook Celeste out of the fond memory of meeting Astoria and she quickly looked to see who was shouting her name. The corners of her mouth lifted as she spotted Astoria, the sweet girl waving to her from across the platform. She looked over to Cedric, who was already looking at her knowingly and with a beaming smile.
Her brother was quite handsome with light brown eyes that softened at the corners when he looked at her. He had soft brown hair that was slightly wavy, but she knew that he styled it every morning to look that way. He was also taller than Celeste which he never failed to mention whenever they got into an argument. However, he exuded kindness in a way that came naturally to him, as though it never took a second thought.
She loved her brother dearly and felt a fierce protectiveness for him that only rivaled his for her.
“Come on now, go meet up with Tori! Unless, you’d rather sit with me” Cedric replied, he watched his younger sister’s face scrunch up as she imagined doing so.
“I’d rather not sit in between you and your fellow Quidditch fanatics for hours, listening to all of you go on about how brilliant Krum was.”
Cedric heartily laughed at Celeste’s brazen, yet accurate response and shooed her off towards Astoria.
---
The two girls entered the train and immediately began searching for a quiet, secluded compartment near the back, one that was away from everyone else. They were able to locate one that was empty and rushed in before it was taken by someone else.
Astoria sat across from Celeste as both sighed dramatically once their bottoms touched the seats.
“Well, I’m already exhausted and dreading classes.” Astoria moaned as she lifted her feet up to lay across the seat.
Celeste shook her head fondly at her friend who insisted that classes were a waste of time and that she’d rather spend it reading books.
“Astoria, we just sat down. How can you be exhausted?”
The blonde-haired girl rolled her eyes and sighed again. “Well, Celeste, if you must know, I stayed up all night trying to decide what books I should bring and what clothes as well.”
Celeste snickered at the thought of her friend frantically looking through her massive closet and debating what to pack. “You should’ve packed during the daytime and not the night before we had to go to school.”
Astoria slowly blinked at Celeste as though the idea had never struck her before. She opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of the compartment door sliding open. As both girls looked up to see the disruption, they were surprised to be met with the gaze of their fellow housemates.
At the front stood Daphne Greengrass, Astoria’s older sister, who looked nearly identical to her except her eyes were bluer and had an intense sharpness to them. Next to her stood Pansy Parkinson, a pale-skinned girl with long limbs and short black hair, and Theodore Nott, a handsome boy with dark brown hair and eyes that always seemed mischievous. Behind them stood three boys who were each beautiful in their own way. There was Lorenzo Berkshire, who also had dark features and always had a smile playing along his lips. Blaise Zabini stood to the left of him and held a bored look on his face, but his eyes looked over the girls with slight interest. He looked like he belonged in one of those Muggle magazines that Cedric’s girl friends had shown Celeste. With his impeccable bone structure, intense eyes, and muscular yet lean body, he looked as if he were from an entirely different world. Celeste may have had a slight crush on him in the past, but always summed it up to be an aesthetic appreciation. Astoria simply called it a crush but that always seemed too simple and too romantic to Celeste.
In between Lorenzo and Blaise, there was a boy who always seemed to surpass Celeste’s appreciation for any of the other boys. He had icy blonde hair, accompanied by pale grey eyes that always seemed to be in a glare whenever she looked at them. He was taller this year, growing into his body, and even more confident. She watched his eyes narrow as he met Celeste's gaze, she looked away quickly as though even his stare burned her.
“There you are Tori! Thank Merlin you found a compartment for us! Nott was running late and we nearly missed the train because of him. Ugh, I didn’t wait to wait for his lazy arse but all the boys were insistent on waiting for him.” Daphne said with irritation leaking into her voice as she and her posse all shuffled into the compartment that had previously been occupied by Astoria and Celeste.
“It wasn’t my bloody fault Daph and y’know it! My father forgot it was the first day back and we had to rush over!” Theodore exclaimed in a rush to defend himself.
“Whatever! We all still almost missed the train.” Daphne humphed as she settled into her seat next to Astoria, who quickly sat up to make room for everyone.
Everyone started bickering and discussing amongst themselves as to who was at fault. Celeste simply moved closer to the window and stared out at it. She knew how these interactions went, which was everyone ignoring her existence, or if they did acknowledge it, she was simply Astoria’s friend.
She had no desire to try to fit in with Astoria’s childhood friends because she knew they didn’t care to get to know her. They all made that obvious during her first year when they found out her brother was Cedric Diggory and a Hufflepuff. Between her parents being displeased with her house placement, and her housemates never seeing her as a true Slytherin, the irony caused Celeste to smirk to herself. She was destined to be alone and to only be friends with the animals living on the grounds at Hogwarts.
However, what Celeste didn’t realize was that one pair of eyes was watching her and waiting for her to notice.
---
The boy those eyes belonged to was drinking in the sight of Celeste.
She was on the taller side, about 167 centimeters, if the boy had to take a guess. Her skin was not fully pale but also not golden, a sort of in-between shade. She had long legs that seemed to take up so much room, but maybe that was the boy’s skewed perspective. Her hair was pure black, most likely transfigured to be that color, since neither her brother nor parents had a similar hair color. Her eyes were a light brown, similar to her brothers'. It seemed as if over the summer, she had explored with makeup. Her eyelashes were longer and more curled than usual and she had put on a dark lipgloss that made her full lips look even more delectable.
Celeste was undeniably beautiful, and she was also undeniably mysterious. It was a fact that seemed even more intimidating because her brother was also Hogwarts’ golden boy.
Together, the pair of siblings were complete opposites in personality, looks, and houses. However, every student knew that they had a close bond and they truly adored one another.
---
“So… Celeste. How was your summer?”
She tore her gaze away from the window she had previously been staring at while thinking of how her year was going to look like.
“Sorry, what was that?” she asked as she looked back to see everyone looking at her with various expressions on their faces.
Pansy scoffed and rolled her eyes as she repeated her question once more. Celeste felt her eyebrows furrow as she thought of a light-hearted, appropriate way to answer the question.
Her entire summer had been either spent in her room as she read books to pass the time or spending time with Cedric whenever he was home. She opted for the more sociable one.
“Oh, I spent most of it with Cedric. We went to the ocean a lot.”
The group surrounding her murmured polite responses but Pansy arched her eyebrows and inquired further.
“What did you do at the ocean?”
Celeste felt herself growing frustrated with the sudden attention on herself. She didn’t understand why after years of being ignored and overlooked, she was suddenly stuck in a train compartment with those very same people being asked questions about her summer holiday.
“We swam.” She deadpanned as she turned back to her original position of looking out the window, but she felt a hand on her shoulder stop her.
She stared at the hand resting on her shoulder and slowly followed the path up to its owner who was sitting next to her. It was bloody Theodore Nott.
He smirked at her as she narrowed her eyes at him. She moved her shoulder harshly to remove his hand, which surprised him as he wasn’t expecting the sudden movement.
“Why the fuck did you touch me?” She hissed as she continued to glare at him with venom in her eyes.
He looked at her with an innocent look in his eyes and shrugged his shoulders without saying a word.
Annoyance filled Celeste’s chest as she directed her glare from Theodore to Astoria with a look in her eyes that said “Switch with me right now or else I will feed you to the dementors”.
Astoria understood immediately and stood up to save her friend from sitting next to the boy even longer.
“Celie, switch with me. I want to look out the window now.” Astoria quickly said as she nervously glanced at Theodore who was continuing to stare at Celeste.
Celeste stood up to take her friend’s previous seat, quickly feeling relief from not being as close to Theodore Nott and his grabby hands. When she sat down, she found herself sitting in between Daphne and the boy with the pale grey eyes. Across the seat from her was Astoria, who looked equally as uncomfortable as Celeste felt, sitting next to Theodore Nott. Celeste flashed a small smile in Astoria’s direction, hoping to signal gratitude for switching with her.
Celeste really tried to settle down and relax as she felt the train continue to travel, but she was too upset with what had occurred. She despised when people touched her for no reason and even more so when they tried to converse with her over pleasantries. Her head began to pound as she thought further and further about how she was going to have to continue to see these people for the rest of the year, let alone live with them.
Daphne paid little attention to the girl sitting next to her, however, the same could not be said for the boy sitting next to her. He watched the raven-haired girl sit in complete stillness except for the rapid shallow breaths she kept taking as she stared off into nothing.
He could tell that she was upset with Theodore Nott’s previous actions and he was too for some odd reason. He never really cared what his friends did, but when he saw Nott place a hand on Celeste, he felt a twist in his gut. He shook off the feeling as something he ate settled wrong, but the feeling lingered.
---
Students slowly shuffled into the Great Hall and sat down at their respective tables. The Great Hall filled with laughter and excitable chatter once more as the teachers walked to their own table.
The Sorting Ceremony began and concluded as slowly as it usually took. Dumbledore’s speech also took up a lengthy bit of time but at least this year, something interesting was happening.The Triwizard Tournament.
Celeste watched as the Beauxbaton girls arrived elegantly. Their uniforms swished around them as they followed their headmaster. All of the boys around Celeste seemed enamored by them, some even sighed, like Ron Weasley.
Next, the Durmstrang students entered the Great Hall in such an organized fashion that even Professor McGonagall seemed to admire. She recognized one of the boys as Viktor Krum, a famous seeker who was handsome in a rugged way. Not Celeste’s choice of look but one she could admire from afar.
The Great Hall was bustling with loud noise, even more than usual due to the increase in students. Celeste poked at her food as she tried to listen to Astoria’s chatter.
“I, for one, cannot wait to see the tournament! It will be quite exciting and a nice change of pace.”
Celeste glanced over at her friend with a look of apprehension. “I don’t know. It all seems rather dangerous.”
Astoria rolled her eyes and stole a potato off of Celeste’s plate before continuing as if she had never heard Celeste’s reply.
“Some of the Durmstrang boys look cute. Don’t you agree? Obviously in a more masculine way. And those accents? To die for. And the Beauxbaton girls? They are gorgeous. I know that some are probably Veelas. Well, most of them actually. But still, I’m so jealous of them…”
“Oh shut it Tori. We all know you love a good piece of gossip but we are trying to enjoy our dinner here.”
Astoria was taken aback by her sister’s sudden remark. Celeste just narrowed her eyes at her.
Astoria tried to shake it off, but Celeste could tell that Daphne’s words got to her. Celeste believed that was a big reason why she and Astoria became such close friends. Both girls had been told constantly that they took up too much room. So when they met and accepted each other without judgment, they found a safe space within each other.
Celeste’s frustration grew even more. She didn’t understand why Daphne could be so mean to Astoria and why everyone around them kept silent. She thought back to when Pansy tried to ask her questions and Theodore touched her shoulder.
Why did they feel like they could do that? They weren’t friends. Hell, they never even talked. So why were they trying this year?
---
The first day of classes began like any other year, which meant that it was utterly boring. The day felt like it was purposefully dragging on in an attempt to mock the students who were sitting restlessly in their classrooms.
Celeste’s first few classes, Herbology and History of Magic, felt like the most dreadful hours she had to spend with obnoxious students and droning professors. All she wanted was to rip her own hair out and scream after listening to Professor Binns mutter about Merlin knows what.
However, it was her next class that made her jaw hurt from grinding her teeth with frustration. She was in Divination, and all she could smell was the disgusting incense that Professor Trelawny was burning to help guide students. It was not helping her concentrate on whatever nonsense Trelawny was spewing this time. Instead, she was concentrating on not being sick in front of all of her classmates. The only thing helping her through class was watching Neville Longbottom, a peculiar Gryffindor, look petrified at the thought of getting an ominous reading.
When classes for the day finally ended, Celeste felt a steady pounding behind her head. She knew that it was from all the loud noises and busyness surrounding her. As she entered the Slytherin house, she was rubbing her temples to ease the headache when she felt eyes on her.
She looked up to see Daphne and her friend group lounging in the common room like usual. The person those eyes looking at her belonged to was Theodore Nott. She froze and stared back at him for a few brief moments before her eyes slid over the rest of his friends. They were all chatting amongst themselves, not even realizing that one of them had become silent and inattentive.
Celeste walked the other way towards her dormitory to find her portable CD player, a muggle invention that she was fond of. She knew it wasn’t technically allowed on school property, but it was her pride and joy, her safety net. It was the only thing that made going home bearable because at least she could listen to music.
---
She found herself walking to the Black Lake that surrounded the school grounds with its murky waters. It was one of her favorite spots to sit at because rarely anyone walked by and even fewer bothered her. She sat down near the edge of the water and took her shoes off to dip her toes in slightly. Finally, she pulled out her CD player and put on Smash by The Offspring, which was released earlier that year.
Something about the music made everything in her body relax, her eyes shut close, and her head finally felt like it wasn’t weighing so heavily. She drifted off into another world, one where she didn’t feel like such a burden or such a pathetic person. One where she was loved by her parents.
Then came a light touch on her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open reluctantly as she already knew who it was that would dare to touch her so familiarly.
“Cedric…” she whispered with a faint smile on her lips.
“Hello Celie. What are we listening to now?”
“This album called Smash by that one band you don’t like. With too loud music.” She had already pulled out one of the headphones, offering it to him, which he gladly accepted as he sat next to her. His shoulder was touching hers, so she took that as an invitation to rest her head there.
“Oh yeah. They are really loud but in a way where they aren’t doing it just to be loud.” he said while nodding his head silently to the beat, showing that he actually did somewhat enjoy the song.
Celeste stayed silent as she closed her eyes once again, a comforting sense of security washed over her now that Cedric was here. His scent enveloped her, and it felt like the greatest hug to ever exist, second to his actual hugs. She just wanted some silence from the outside noise and her brother always recognized that.
They sat like that for what felt like hours with the CD finishing its tracks early on. They observed the nature surrounding them, the tall trees standing proudly and the sun slowly shifting its position as night drew near.
“I didn’t like today.” Celeste muttered, she finally felt like she could draw a full breath without her chest clenching at the effort.
“Why’s that?”
“It was so loud. Everyone was so much. My classes were boring. Fuck. I hate school, but it’s better.”
They both knew what she was comparing it to without her mentioning it. Home.
“Yeah. Everyone loves to talk, don't they? They love the sound of their own voice.” He chuckled as he ran his hand through his hair as though he was slightly nervous about something.
Celeste watched his face wash over with conflict, his shoulders tensing slightly. She felt her stomach twist slightly because she knew whatever he was going to say next, she wasn’t going to like.
“Listen, Celie. Um… I’ve been thinking. I don’t know how to say this without upsetting you so I’m just gonna go for it.” He started off before hesitating to complete his thought. He felt his sister’s eyes staring at him with an expectant look but it was harder to be honest than he imagined. Her happiness was the most important thing to him, and he knew she had had a difficult day, but he didn’t want her to find out alongside everyone else.
He took a deep breath and grabbed her hand, gripping it slightly as he told her.
“I’m going to enter my name into the Cup.”
Celeste’s face didn’t give anything away. Nothing visibly changed except for her eyes. They had widened and then quickly adjusted to the cool, empty look they usually held around other people. But not around him.
His chest tightened as he watched the walls forming around her to protect herself from whatever emotion she was currently fighting with. He knew she would react like this, but that didn’t make it any easier to see it happen in real time. He tightened his grip around her hand as though it was the only way to get through to her.
Celeste felt dread. She felt panic. She felt scared. Her skin suddenly became too tight for comfort. She wanted to rip it off herself immediately. She felt every bone in her body become weak under the pressure of Cedric telling her that he was going to enter that bloody fucking tournament. Nothing made sense. All she wanted to do was scream at him. Tell him that he was the dumbest idiot alive and needed to grow a brain because he obviously had no sense about him.
But all she could do was sit there and watch the sun go down even further because that was her brother. That was her soul. She knew why he wanted to do it, and she hated it even more for that.
So she did what she does best, and she shoved all of her feelings deep down into a secret part of herself that would only be seen when the nights had a melancholic air.