In a different life, I would have ended up with Cedric Diggory. But as this life would have it, I didn't. I learned that very abruptly, and very unpleasantly.

Cedric pulled me aside, right out front of the Hufflepuff common room entrance. I could smell the lingering scents of dinner from the kitchen down the hall (roast turkey breast and pounds of stuffing), but told myself to focus when I noticed Cedric's normally smiling eyes sadden. What could possibly be wrong? Cedric had just done very well in the First Task at the Triwizard Tournament earlier today, and had come away with both the golden egg and most of his face still intact.

"What's wrong?" I clutched his hand, which fell limp in my grasp. He was avoiding eye contact. This was bad.

"Michie, I've been thinking… And it's really hard for me to say this, because I still care a great deal about you. But I'm not… in love with you anymore."

I could hear students inside the common room hollering for Cedric's arrival. The clinking of dishes inside the kitchen. Peeves knocking over a suit of armor on the floor above us. My heart felt like it had just been pounded by a heavyweight boxing champion. My eyes burned with tears, but I couldn't let them out.

I opened and closed my mouth, searching for the right words. "I… You… What?"

Cedric honestly looked upset. His forehead crumpled and his eyes reddened a little, like he too was feeling the sting of tears. He reached out and grabbed my shoulder. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have led you on like this."

Led me on? How long had he been planning this? All of the triumphant images of Cedric and I emerging into the Hufflepuff common room, hand in hand, victorious for our house, dissolved like old film. Suddenly, I was very alone, my stomach very sick with nausea, my heart running like it had just conquered a marathon.

I didn't reply, only because I couldn't. Two years just became nothing. My heart ached, and my body shivered. I didn't let Cedric see my eyes.

"I'm so sorry," he said quietly. After a few silent moments, I heard him whisper the new password ("Dragon slayer") and disappear behind the portrait.

It didn't take long for Kelly or Kim to find me huddled on the ground outside the common room. It was like they had Michelle sensors that told them when I was upset. After Cedric left, a time bomb seemed to go off inside of me. And now I couldn't stop crying.

"What happened?" Kelly asked, brushing strands of my blonde hair from my face. Both she and Kim had huddled next to me, keeping me warm in my misery. Their steady, tempered breathing relaxed me. After a convulsion of tears, I had steadied my breath enough to detail my latest encounter with my now ex-boyfriend.

"He is so tactless," Kim spat, quaking with anger. "Right after the first task?"

"Seriously, what a douche," Kelly angrily agreed.

"He said he had been thinking about it for a while." I shrugged, hoping some of my sadness would roll off of my shoulders. "At least he was honest."

I didn't want to talk about it anymore than I had to. My body felt weak and sick. Two years with Cedric Diggory. He was the dream boyfriend. He was handsome, kind, intelligent, a great athletic, and a prefect. He always remembered my birthday, and our "anniversary," and always made sure we did something special whenever the occasions occurred. He wasn't embarrassed to hold my hand in public, and wasn't shy about kissing me goodbye in front of his friends. If I had a problem, Cedric would listen, and rationalize a satisfactory solution. He helped me earn ten O.W.L.s, and was my biggest supporter in my ambition to be a Healer.

Cedric told me we would be together until we couldn't see, our hearing muffled, and our knees didn't bend.

But today, he was gone.

Tonight, he wouldn't kiss me good night. He wouldn't hold me in front of the fire or tell me about how nervous he was before the task, and how relieved he felt afterwards. He wouldn't wait for me for breakfast tomorrow, or lunch, or dinner.

My eyes burned and I let out a wild sob. Kelly and Kim instinctively held me closer. They were the best friends I ever had.

I heard two familiar voices bouncing off the walls from down the hall. They were approaching the kitchen, probably to supply a Gryffindor celebration party. The sound of footsteps matched the volume of voices and soon Fred and George Weasley were standing in front of us.

"Blimey… what happened?" George asked, sympathetic.

No one replied right away, so Fred shot his twin a "hurry up and let's get it on with it" look. George didn't budge.

"What's wrong?" he insisted.

When I wouldn't speak, Kelly conceded, "Cedric just broke up with her."

"Just now?" George sounded worried. His shadow covered my body, and I knew he had knelt down in front of me. "Are you all right?"

No one spoke again. George resigned himself to the fact that I would be all right.

"George?" Fred urged his twin, "We should really get going…"

"Right." My friend stood, and walked towards the kitchens with his brother. I could hear the pear in the portrait giggle, and knew they had gotten inside.

"That was nice of him," Kim muttered ominously, trying to provoke a response from me.

"He's a nice guy," I admitted, hastily brushing away the tear stains on my cheeks with the back of my sleeve.

The unexpected arrival of the Weasley twins gave me something else to focus my energies on besides Cedric. After a few minutes in the kitchen, Fred and George reemerged, their robes bursting with stolen sweets. When they walked by, Fred winked at me–his only notion of sympathy. George smiled kindly and waved. Just when they seemed to have disappeared down the hallway, I heard the familiar pounding footsteps.

George whipped out a small chocolate cake from underneath his robes, and handed it to me. He smiled goofily.

"Sweets for a sweet," he winked, and then ran to meet up with Fred. A rope tightened around my stomach, and I cracked the tiniest smile.

Kelly and Kim exchanged excited smiles. And then, Kelly stood.

"Come on," Kelly coaxed me. "Let's get inside. There will be drinks."

"Ahh yes, fire whiskey sounds great right about now," Kim quipped, and also stood. The two each offered me a hand. I held onto my friends as they pulled me from the ground.

I wasn't much of a drinker, but I was enticed by the potential mind melting abilities of fire whiskey. And the smug look on Cedric's face when he realized what he had done to me. Cedric never let me drink too much. And now I would show him.

"I wonder when I'll get him back," I thought aloud. Kelly and Kim exchanged disapproving looks.

"Don't count on it," Kelly said harshly. When she saw the shocked look on my face, her face softened. "Just… Don't get your hopes up."

"Come on, let's try to have some fun," Kim beamed. "I'll grab the drinks and we can start dancing."

"What if Cedric-"

"I'll beat the shit out of him, if he does," Kelly told me pointedly, as if reading my mind. "Try not to worry about it. And hey, no one's blaming you if you support Harry Potter now."

I smirked, and my mind drifted up to Gryffindor tower, where Fred and George had surely arrived to a roaring party. My aching heart soothed a little at George's sympathetic smile.

"Let's go," I declared confidently, or so I hoped.

Sometimes I thought I was the only person who could tell the difference between Fred and George Weasley. Both were rowdy troublemakers, of course. And both were my friends. George, however, was my confidant. He was smoother around the rough edges of his personality, whereas Fred could be harsh and jagged. Fred was more impulsive. George was willing to let a thought settle before committing to it.

I had met the twins in my first year at Hogwarts. Kelly, Kim and I had all intentions of attending the Salem Witches Institute in America, our homeland. Three letters from Hogwarts changed all of that, though. Our families decided Hogwarts could provide a better education, and we all moved to London. The transition certainly wasn't easy on our families, and my family has since vowed to return to America as soon as I finished my seventh year at Hogwarts; in other words, in another year. Kelly had a younger sister who was only invited to attend school in Salem, and so her family moved back to America a few years ago. Kelly lives with Kim's family. Kim had two older siblings who finished school at Salem a year before we started at Hogwarts.

My friendship with Fred and George took time and precision, almost like an advanced spell. They were both eager to befriend me, since I had a quirky American accent and all the charms of a pretty American girl, but trust was another issue. When I proved knowledgeable about clever pranks and ideas, they both came to respect me. Where my keenness to George over Fred developed sometime in that mess, I'm not sure. George resented my relationship with Cedric, and let me know it frequently. George hated the way Cedric "controlled me," and the way Cedric would scowl if I wanted to pull a prank with Fred or George. George also resented Cedric because of the Quidditch rivalry between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. Cedric never spoke of my friendship with George, because I don't think it bothered him. Cedric was considerate, anyway.

Cedric and I had also met as first years, and grew into close friends quickly. As with any boy-girl friendship, it developed into a relationship—in our fourth year. I was spending all of my free time with Cedric. I would visit him for long stretches of time over the summer. Thinking about the Quidditch World Cup made my stomach churn–there Cedric and I had been allowed to sleep close together in our sleeping bags, hands touching. And he had protected me so valiantly in the forest once the Dark Mark had shown and chaos erupted…

Fred and George were sort of like the annoying big brothers I never had. But Cedric… Cedric was my soul mate.