i should have held your hand || cedric diggory

grassy fields

steady breeze. warm sun on her skin. ophelia never wanted the summer to end. the long grass was covered underneath her by the plaid patterned blanket she brought along. she was at her favorite spot to lay down at. a patch of grass in between two trees and when she looked up, the trees branches intertwined with each other. she let out a small sigh and turned to her head to the left. there he lie. cedric. peaceful as ever. nothing could disturb him at this moment. ophelia had noticed she had been staring a little too long when she saw his eyes start to flutter open, exposing the bright green.

"how long have we been here, ambrose?" his voice was a bit groggy after the nap he had taken. ophelia let the question ring in her mind as his voice bounced back and forth in her brain. she took hold of his wrist to look at his watch and brought it up to her face.

"only about an hour and a half. why?" she returned his wrist back to where it was, relaxed on his stomach. he never asked her how long they had been sitting in there favorite spot. to them, time was endless. they would spend countless hours in the one spot. talking, laughing, and reminiscing. seeing as they were childhood friends, they had plenty to talk about.

"i just needed to know. summer is ending soon and i need to get ready to go back to hogwarts. fifth year. mad isn't it? everything goes by so quickly." he gave a small chuckle and turned his head towards ophelia, still smiling. she blushed at the sight of his smile. her golden brown eyes dilated as she continued to look at him. a comfortable silence grew between the two as they looked into each other's eyes. cedric slowly inched his hand towards ophelia's while they were rested on the blanket. she took notice, but sat frozen. she didn't know what to do. just as cedric's pinky grazed her's, she bursted up and sat up right.

though they had been friends since the age of two, there was never any denying the obvious chemistry the pair had. the friendship was bound to blossom into something more and they both knew it. it was simply a matter of time when both could agree it was the right time. right now, they go to different schools, only seeing each other on holidays. it was not the time. ophelia thought about the fact logically and decided to stop anything remotely romantic this summer. while she did a good job, it was rather difficult.

"we should be going now. you've got packing for hogwarts and i've got packing for beauxbaton. best be off!" she made her way to her feet and looked down at the boy still laying on his back. she offered her hand out to help him up. he took her hand and pressed himself up off the ground. when he got up, he was towering over ophelia. cedric's height made it to where he would look down at her, making ophelia look up. their eyes locked instantly. faces only inches away. cedric took a piece of ophelia's warm, brown hair and tucked it behind her ear. she practically melted, but she knew she had to stay calm. he took one of her hands in his and rubbed his thumb back and forth along her skin. he started to look down at his shoes and ophelia began to get even more nervous.

"i am going to miss you. please owl me. as much as you can. i like hearing from you." he looked back up from his shoes to ophelia's eyes. she knew it took him a lot of courage to say that. she knew because she wanted to say it first, but alas, she would never let him know about her true feelings.

"um...yeah o-of course. i will owl you whenever i can. be sure to respond though. i like hearing from you too...so i can make sure you are doing alright of course. nothing more." she started to panic. he made her so unbelievably nervous. it was getting embarrassing as she knew her hand was sweating. the hand cedric was still holding. he gave a slight grin and began to pull his hand away. he bent down to grab both their wands and the blanket they were laying on. ophelia stood. frozen. still panicking on the inside. cedric turned back to face her, wands and blanket in hand.

"here you go," he said handing back her wand, "we best be off. don't want our fathers worrying about us now do we?" she gave him a small giggle and they walked together to the house. side by side. exchanging looks every so often. the steady breeze continued and the sun was still warm despite going down at this point. summer was coming to a close and the pair would not be seeing each other on the plaid blanket under the trees anymore.