Letters- Cedric Diggory

11

Tw: Violence
October 1993

Cedric and I walked along the first floor corridors in silence. We would have to walk along them until 10:00, when Filch and Mrs.Norris would take over. I couldn't stop replaying what happened with Brendon in my dorm no matter how I tried.

"Alexandria what's wrong?" Cedric asked as we rounded the corner for the third time.
"Nothing, I'm fine" I said, still looking straight ahead.
"You're not fine, I can tell. You don't have to tell me but you can i-if you want, I mean" He said. I stayed quiet.

I could tell him, and just get it off my chest, he might hurt him. He would hurt him, Cedric had said that if Brendon did anything he would beat him up. I can't do that. Everyone would know that something happened. Cedric isn't the type to beat someone up for no reason.

We rounded another corner again, this time there was someone. Brendon stood there giving me a deadly smile. I moved behind Cedric, it was instinct. Brendon stood still moving his eyes to me.

"What are you doing Lex?" Cedric asked, turning to look at me. I couldn't answer him. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. It felt like there was no air left in my lungs.
"What the fuck did he do" Cedric whispered, grabbing my arm. I flinched. He immediately let go and walked over to Brendon.

"What the fuck did you do to her!" Cedric pinned him against the wall.
"Chill out man! I didn't do anything she did!" Brendon tried to push Cedric off of him but he didn't budge.
"You're a fucking liar! Look at her! She's scared to even be within five feet of you!" Cedric shoved him into the wall again, harder.
"Fuck! Fine! I came onto her! She told me to stop but I didn't!" He admitted it.

Cedric knows.

I completely stopped breathing. I knew what was going to happen. I couldn't stop it, he was going to do it anyways. I would just hold my breath until It happened.

Cedric's right fist collided with Brendons cheek. He didn't stop. I just stood there, not doing anything. I couldn't do anything, I froze.

Once I came back to reality, I walked up to Cedric and Brendon and pulled the back of Cedric's shirt. I had managed to pull him off.
"Get up" I told Cedric. He actually listened to me. I didn't expect him to but he did. He got up and kicked Brendon hard in his shin.
"You're fucking disgusting" He said, giving Brendon one final disgusted look.

I grabbed Cedric's arm and pulled him towards the common room. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, refusing to let the tears fall from my eyes.

I finally let go of him when we got into the common room. I took a deep breath before walking up the stairs to my dorm as calmly as possible.

Cedric followed me up the stairs, he stopped me before I could get the chance to touch the doorknob.
"Lex, I'm not letting you be alone right now" He said, looking at me.
"Fine. Come on" I opened the door and let him in first. I walked in after him and closed the door.

I could see that Cedric was trying to keep his bloody hand away from everything.
"Do you need help with your hand?" I asked. He nodded. I lead him into my bathroom and ran his hand under the running water.

I gently dried his hand with a towel and cleaned the scrapes and bruises. We stood in silence as I wrapped his hand in bandages.

"You've been calling me Alexandria for five years and tonight was the first time you called me something different" I said quietly.
"I'm still going to call you Alexandria, I like it more, but I do like Lex too" He smiled.
"I'm sorry for what he did to you" He sighed. Tears flooded my eyes and it took everything inside of me not to cry in front of him.
"You didn't do anything, you don't have to apologize"
"You have a cut on your cheek by the way" I said, looking up to meet his eyes.

I gently cleaned the cut on his cheek, spreading some dittany on it, then putting a bandage on it. He still had blood stained on his clothes. I didn't know if it was his or Brendons.

"Did he even punch you?" I asked, shocked that Cedric wasn't hurt that badly.
"Only like once, it was my cheek" He said, looking around my room.

"Are you okay? I don't want to leave you alone right now." He asked.
"I'm fine" I'm going to cry.
"I just need to go to sleep" I said, hoping that would make him leave.
"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning" He smiled. 

Once I heard my door close I completely broke down. The tears I had held in for so long streamed down my face. The lump in my throat being more present and noticeable than it ever had been.

I undressed myself and climbed into my bed, wrapping myself in blankets just so I could feel an ounce of safety.

***

Cedric,

I love you. I really do. I know I've called you an asshole before, even if you didn't know it. But you really are amazing. You probably shouldn't have beaten him to a pulp but you did it for me.

You knew he hurt me so you did something about it. It's really fucking stupid but you were being a gentleman, in a way I guess.

I did lie to you today. I'm not okay, you could probably tell. I should have let you stay, but i'm a really ugly crier so that's not going to happen. I'm sorry I lied.

It only took you five years to call me something other than Alexandria, that's a little long but I can deal with it. 'Lex' is now my favorite nickname.

Thank you for everything Cedric.

-Alexandria