Hard truths
Lirum stared at the almost empty section their favourite Gryffindors usually resided, and realised there wasn’t a Weasley. Until she spotted Ginny near the end of the table speaking to some other second year Gryffindors. She seemed utterly unbothered by the lack of, well any of her brothers presents.
“Hey nev? Do you know where the Weasley’s are?” Lirum asked, curiosity getting the better of them.
“Which one?” The younger boy asked, looking stressed more than usual.
“Any of them I guess?” The ravenclaw asked.
“Woods had the whole quidditch team on the pitch since the afternoon, Ron’s spent most of the day out there watching studying for next years try outs…” He explained, shifting awkwardly in his seat. “Oh and Ginny’s over there!” He finished pointing down the the end of the table where she sat laughing with the other students.
“You’re acting weird.” The prefect accused, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
“N-no I’m not!” Neville stumbled out.
“And you didn’t mention Percy. Who you know I’m friends with.” He paled visibly. “Don’t try to hide things from me you’re a bad liar. What aren’t you telling me?”
He took in a deep breath knowing he’d been caught. “Percy and Wood share a dorm, and then today Percy locked himself in, and then Wood dragged everyone onto the Quidditch pitch won’t let them leave, and no one knows what’s going on, but we’re all too scared to talk about it because we don’t want to lose house points.”
“Oh,” Lirum mumbled, not expecting that as the answer. “That’s-“
“It’s bad! It’s awful, and no one know what’s going on!” He panicked.
“It’s not that bad, Lirum’s a prefect. They can fix it.” Luna chimed. “It’ll all be fine in time for our study session tomorrow.”
“While I appreciate your confidence, I can’t make any promises.” Lirum started only to see the panic on Neville’s face returning. “I mean- not alone! I can’t take all the credit-ah teamwork! I’ll go get Cedric, he can cover the quidditch captain and I’ll get Percy-pft. An easy fix!”
Lirum shot up from they’re seat giving a pat on the head to the anxious Gryffindor. Then started they’re march to the Hufflepuff table. Cedric eying them suspiciously as they approached.
“Are you ok? You look…disturbed?” Cedric said, giving them a concerned look.
“You wanted to be best friends, right? It’s best friend time, we’ve got a…situation.” Lirum explained nodding. “Needs two prefects, definitely, definitely us only.”
“The fact that could mean literally anything from you is very concerning.” The Hufflepuff shook his head but stood from the table anyway. “If this is relationship drama, and not an emergency, you owe me dinner.”
“I think this counts as both, maybe?” Lirum said, unsure. They began leading him out of the Great Hall.
“Oh, well that’s comforting to hear from you.” He said sarcastically, side eyeing the Ravenclaw. “Are you going to tell me?”
“Once we’re re away from the other students.” They explained stepping out, and ushering him to follow. “Percy locked himself in his dorm and Oliver had the whole quidditch team out doing drills on the pitch though dinner because of it.”
“Alright, I know you're prone to dramatics this year- Ah- worse than me.“ Cedric stated, cutting Lirum off when they tried to argue. “You’ve fainted twice this year. I love you, I do but that’s dramatic even for me.”
“It was medical!” Lirum snapped, trying to keep their voice down so no one in the Hall would hear.
“You insisted nothing was wrong with you after! Twice!” He quipped back, at the same hushed tone.
“You-“ they stumbled looking for the right words.
“What? You got into several fights with Percy, starting dating his little brother then got angry with all of us for not telling you about a party you weren’t invited to, then got mad at Percy for defending you-“ The Hufflepuff listened progressively getting louder.
“I didn’t get mad at him for defending me, I got mad at him for telling me how to feel!” They corrected, hushing him again when he tried to argue.. “And what does this have to do with anything?”
“The point is it’s been three ish months, just about since school started. You can let the Gryffindors sort out one thing for themselves.” He shrugged. “You can have dinner, one dinner this year where you're not stressing about something you know.”
“Well I’m sorry I’m actually taking the concerns of the students who come to me seriously!” Lirum quipped, before attempting to take off down the hall.
“Did you ask Alicia? It’s her house, you should have reported the issue to her?” Cedric pointed out, turning them back around. “No? You just tried to fix it yourself?”
“She’s on the quidditch team! You dunce!” They argued, swatting his hand away. While he remained utterly unimpressed, as they continued “Meaning she’s stuck on the field!”
“Oh yeah huh, what about Kenneth? He’s no on the team, did you tell him? or are you going to admit you didn’t even think to ask for help?” Cedric asked knowingly.
“I tried to get your help, didn't I?! Mr. Oh so helpful and wise!” Cedric rolled his eyes, resting his hands on their shoulders while they continued. “Not even an hour ago you were trying to convince me that your my best friend again!”
“Lirum, I need you to understand that I’m saying this because I am your friend. I want to be in your life and I want you to be in mine in return alright.” He started staring into their soul. “You have gone beyond burning the candle at both ends, you have snapped it in half and lit it on fire there as well. You are going to burn up and out until there is nothing left. It’s not your job. Take a nap, read a book, go run off and snog your boyfriend after lights out, anything but destroying yourself for people who don’t care about you.”
“T-that’s not true! It is my job, I'm a prefect!” They argued, stubbornly.
“Not for Gryffindor. Besides, who made you a prefect? Dumbledore, you hate him, don’t do it for him.” The Hufflepuff argued.
“I’m not doing it for Dumbledore I’m doing it for-“ Cedric cut them off again.
“He who can’t pull his head out of his own arse? Percy? who can’t realise you have always been in love with him? Oh and because he’s too busy daydreaming about being minister of magic one day, to see how much of a miserable repressed twat he’s become.”
No! For nev-“
“Neville Longbottom is the physical manifestation of anxiety. There is no fixing him, that’s all gotta be personal healing.” Cedric said bluntly. “Also a Gryffindor and therefore not your problem.” He shrugged.
“What about Luna? She’s a Ravenclaw! Literally my job.” Lirum argued, knowing he couldn’t deny them that.
“I promise you, you are not ready to hear that right now. We can discuss it after your mental health crisis is resolved, but for now that’s a for later problem.”
“Well that’s definitely not concerning at all.” Lirum started sarcastically before they froze. “Actually, I’m terrified of the implications of whatever that could mean, so no. I don’t think I want to know.”
“Good because I doubt you’ll be ready any time soon, but we’ve got so much time to get you ready for that.” He nodded, making Lirum far more concerned. “Now you go sit down and we’ll let the Gryffindors sort this out.”
“No, because I still have to go sit with Neville and Luna! Crisis not everted!” Lirum corrected.
“Then don’t sit with them.” The prefect shrugged, smugly.
“Oh yeah? Then where do I sit genius? With Penelope? The girl who hates my guts? Maybe I should see if Rodger Davies has gone and turned over a new leaf? Oh, or better yet with all the random Ravenclaws that stare at me like they’re trying to solve a riddle?” The Ravenclaw gestured around exacerbated. “Honestly even if they actually gave up and decided to ask whichever of the plethora of questions they seem to have about what or who I am and why I’m approaching them I really don’t feel like having that conversation now either.”
“Or picture this…” Cedric started dramatically, “you could just sit with me!”
“We can’t just do that.” Lirum argued.
“People do it all the time.” He insisted
“No way, people would have to notice.” They pushed back.
“Lirum, dude eighty percent of the student body couldn’t care less about the rules.” The Ravenclaw scoffed, but Cedric continued “Me and Cho have sat together several times, the Patil twins are in different houses and literally-“
“The Patil twins are in different houses?!” Lirum asked, shocked, absolutely having seen them both in the Ravenclaw common room, and worse on Halloween coming out of the dorms.
“Yeah one of them’s a Gryffindor.” He shrugged.
“That’s not true right? No way no one’s noticed. I would have noticed.” They questioned.
“Lirum people ask if Fred and George are really twins. I think you underestimate how dumb the general population is.” Cedric laughed, while Lirum froze mortified. “Think of the lack of common sense in the average first year, now remember half of them are dumber than that.”
“That’s…depressing.” Lirum replied, solemnly.
“But you know what’s not depressing? Having dinner in the kitchens?” Cedric said, gesturing down the hall. “We can even pretend it’s not because you’re to much of a cowered to brake one rule and sit with me.”
“I was tempted up until that last line you arse.” They teased wishing they had something to chuck at him. “And I’m not afraid of breaking the rules!”
“Sure your not, that’s why you haven’t done anything fun this year.” Cedric shrugged leading the way.
“We had a sleepover which is both fun and breaking the rules! And I got a boyfriend! and I went on a date! I kissed a boy at school! That’s so many broken rules!” Lirum defended themselves before huffing and chasing after Cedric who was quickly making his way down the corridor and away from the Great Hall. “Are you even listening?”
“Oh me? All I hear are excuses. Maybe you should ask your boyfriend for advice on breaking rules because you technically only broke one rule and acted like you broke twenty seven.” He smirked, continuing toward the kitchens. “Or maybe i should ask him about your habit of overworking yourself. See if he has any solutions to make you stop.”
“You think George can tell me what to do?” Lirum asked, mildly offended.
“No, but he may have better powers of persuasion.” He chuckled. “Or at least distraction.”
“I can’t believe you, you nonce!” Lirum couldn’t help it they were cherry red. From their cheeks to the tips of their ears., they burned hot.
“I thought you were over calling me that?” He asked, peaking back over his shoulder at him.
“You admitted to lunch dates with your fourth year girlfriend, she’s fourteen. I’m allowed to call you a nonce.” Lirum said, matter of fact.
“Then I can call Percy a nonce? You’re sixteen he’s seventeen? Or should I call you one? George doesn’t turn sixteen until April making you also a year older than your boyfriend.” He said, turning on his heels to face them.
“That’s not-“ They stopped dead in their tracks.
“Oh no you started this conversation you get to hear it now. This is the problem you refuse to grasp with why Percy won’t choose you. He sees you the way you see Cho. She's a year younger than us which makes her a child. You’re two years younger than him! You are the same age as him little brothers! The ones he practically has to raise since his parents decided they couldn’t have enough kids.”
“No, that’s not true! He sees me as a friend we-“ they tried to defend themselves but Cedric continued.
“This? This is the other half of the problem! When you argue, you show you're not mature enough to understand that he set this clear as day boundary. You’re proving that he is correct in thinking you’re not ready for a real relationship.”
“I get it ok! We’re never going to be a thing! I get it, I’m trying to move on.” Lirum snapped.
“As we can all see with you immediately running to figure out what’s wrong with Percy-“ Cedric mocked.
“He’s still me Friend!” They screamed, frustrated before doubt could get the better of them. “…kind of…i think?”
There was a moment of silence between the two tensions slowly ticking down.
“I’m sorry, I probably took that too far.” He started, apologetically.
“No, I probably needed that.” Lirum replied. “I’m sorry for yelling, I just- I’ve been trying. I don’t know? to get over it? I just really don’t want to have to think about anything, and I don’t have time for anything. It just feels like everything is so much.”
“I get it, you have an insane schedule.” He cracked a small smile. “Has anyone ever told you you act like one of those little yippy dogs when you get mad?”
“Cedric Diggory I will end you if you say another word!” Lirum said, warningly.
“Alright, let’s get you some food before you start biti- Ow!” Cedric, whined as Lirum punched him in the shoulder.