LOVE ISN'T EASY (but it sure is hard enough)

DECEMBER 25TH, 1994

Cedric Diggory found Olivia Danes hunched over in front of the fireplace late Christmas Eve, a mountain of presents sat on her left hand side. Wrapped immaculately, every single present was tied with red satin ribbon and a small brown tag, neat handwriting indicating what was for who.

"Close your eyes!" She shouted in a whisper, watching as the boy scrunched his eyes up tightly, covering his face with his hands.

"Why?" He asked, perfectly matching her volume.

"This one's yours!"

He stood there, eyes tightly shut, and listened to the sound of her work. Scissors cutting and gliding down the paper, tape ripping and her skilled fingers folding corners into themselves. It reminded him of Christmas at home.

"There. You can open them now."

Cedric looked around the common room to see tons of presents lying around her, all identical and all beautifully wrapped. He spotted the names on every package- Lee, Cho, Ginny- all written in looped cursive.

"So what did you get me?" He asked, sitting down on the floor across from her.

"That's for you to find out in about... twenty six minutes."

He stuck his tongue out at her teasingly, hearing a giggle bounce around the room. Like most of the time when they were together, there was nobody else about.

"Fine then, what's everyone else getting?"

"Well, Ginny's getting a CD player to take home with her cause she has to use the one in her common room whenever she wants to listen to ABBA. Hermione's getting copies of old fairy tales that my Mum found, I got Ron a book on the history of the Chudley Cannons because I know they're his favourite team. Harry's getting new gloves for Quidditch because his other ones are getting too small-"

"How did you even know that?"

"Hermione told me! Anyway, Cho's got a necklace that goes with her dress for tomorrow absolutely perfectly. Lee's getting a lightsaber."

"What's that?"

"A weapon from Star Wars, his favourite muggle movie. I have a matching one so we can re-enact scenes from it! Fred and George are both getting a box of things from Zonkos and a new hat, but they're different colours so they won't be exactly identical. Oh! And I found a book on rare plants of the English countryside that I thought Neville might like."

"I didn't know you and Neville were mates."

"Well, we're not really. But everyone deserves something on Christmas!"

Cedric smiled at her, standing and running upstairs, leaving Olivia alone beside the fireplace. She was confused, for a moment, before he reappeared with a parcel in his hands.

"Fifteen minutes now, took me a bloody long time to find that!" He laughed, taking his seat beside her again. Her eyes seemed sadder than usual, staring into the flickering orange flames of the fireplace. The heat of it made her skin flush red, a frown set on her face.

"What's wrong?" He asked, voice softening as he scooted closer to her.

"I'm leaving, tomorrow."

"What?"

"Juno and I are going back to spend the rest of the holidays with my parents. She's had a really shit few weeks and I'm getting her out of here for a while. But I feel really guilty."

He nodded at her, signalling for her to keep going.

"I was the one who told Lee to ask her in front of Fred, and it really got to him. I'm Juno's best mate but I'm his friend too and that was wrong of me and now he thinks he's made this huge mistake and it's all my fault."