The Slowest Heart

I Like You

After the butterbeer fiasco, Cedric disappeared without so much as a goodbye. Keoghan's heart still fluttered and she went over the memories of their dancing again and again. How it had sprialled from making her happy to Ginny. Over and over again, she reminded herself that Ginny was her real friend and Cedric invited her for status. She returned to her dorm and sat on her bed, annoyed with how the night had ended, when Hannah Abbott, her roommate, ran up to her.

"Keoghan!"

"Hmm?" she asked, looking up at the other girl.

"Cedric Diggory asked for you. He said he'll meet you on the Astronomy Tower."

~

"Cedric!" Keoghan called as she arrived on top of the Astronomy Tower, still clad in her Yule Ball dress. "Why did you ask me to come?"

He asked me to come to tell me he hates me, she thought. To remind me that we got too close at the ball, and we are nothing more than fake friends. God, I should have done what Ginny said and gone with Theodore fucking Nott.

Cedric's head turned to look at her. He smiled, and patted a spot next to him.

"Come sit."

She obliged and took her seat at his side. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes until Cedric spoke up again.

"Keoghan, I... I think I have feelings for you," Cedric admitted. "And I'm so, so sorry for saying that I only wanted to bring you to the Yule Ball for status. It was never about status for me."

Keoghan was taken aback. He was so upfront with his feelings, something she could never have the trust in others to do. It was his trusting, loyal Hufflepuff side that she admired so much and... fuck. That she held the same feelings for.

She glanced up at him, his face and body illuminated solely by the moonlight, and placed her hand on his face.

"I think I return the feelings. About everything."

And then, her lips met his in a soft but fierce kiss. Chaste, almost, but there was fire behind it that could not be held back. When they broke away, Cedric was blushing. This, Keoghan knew, was her ticket back into her family's good graces.

~

"So," Ginny said angrily, "Not only did you go to the Yule Ball with Cedric Diggory. You told him you had feelings for him and FUCKING KISSED HIM?"

Keoghan looked at the ground. In hindsight it was foolish, but she felt in her heart that this was what she wanted. "I did."

"This has gone beyond status now," Ginny lamented. "You're going to leave us behind and spend all your time with him now."

Lifting her gaze from the ground, Keoghan looked to Red, May, and Clementine for help. None of them said a word.

"I promise you, it's just for status," she lied. Maybe if she said it enough, someone would believe her. Nobody had a problem believing Ginny.

Perhaps it was the fact that she was a Slytherin Weasley, an anomaly who saw power and took it. Who had no problem lying, cheating, and living up to her brothers' beliefs about Slytherins. She simply radiated power.

Keoghan couldn't help but feel the need to defend herself and Cedric. After all, he had admitted that she was more than his fake friend, and she would often defend her friends to him during their meetings. But all it took was one look at Ginny's icy stare and any defense crumbled.

"I'm sorry, okay?" she said, "It just... happened."

"Well, try not to make it happen again. Your goal is to get back into the Mercury-Malfoy alliance, not to get hitched with a goddamn Hufflepuff Pretty Boy."

Keoghan nodded, but she knew that it would happen again and again. There was nothing Ginny could do about it if she didn't know about it.