Golden Girl II: By Your Side (Reader x Cedric x Draco)

♡ 21 | Conversation

Your head throbs like a drum, the pulse of it reminding you that you're still alive—barely. The cool, unfamiliar sensation of your skin feels wrong somehow, like it's not entirely your own, and your mind stumbles to understand why. Are you dead? Death doesn't feel this uncomfortable, does it? The fog around your consciousness tightens. Is this the void?

But no. You remember. The Dementor. And Draco's Patronus. It must've fought the creature off in time... right? Or was it too late?

The fog clings to your mind like cobwebs, suffocating and thick, but then you feel something. A hand, warm and gentle, stroking through your hair. The sensation is so comforting, so familiar, that the sudden clarity in your chest almost makes you gasp. Cedric.

You struggle to open your eyes, the effort searing through your skull, but you manage. Just a crack. The world is blurry, the shapes around you indistinct, but you immediately know where you are. You're lying with your head in Cedric's lap, his fingers still brushing through your hair. His presence anchors you like a spell you don't need to chant. But there's more. To your side, a figure shifts uncomfortably. Draco. He's here too.

They're... talking?

"I didn't mean for that—my Patronus, to be the same as hers," Draco's voice is hesitant, edged with uncertainty.

"I know." Cedric's reply is smooth, but you know him well enough to hear the tightness in his tone, the strained effort he makes to keep his composure.

"I don't want to come between you two."

"I know." Cedric's voice cracks, just a fraction, revealing the turmoil he's been holding back. "But somehow, you always manage to. I can't hate you for it either, nor can I blame her. I knew this from the start. You two have a bond I can't understand, and I would never want to break it."

There's a long, silent pause, and you fight the instinct to sit up, to interrupt, but the words draw you in. You can't help yourself.

"She loves you, you know." Draco's voice is quiet now, almost soft. There's a tremor in it that you've never heard before.

"I know," Cedric responds, but there's something in his voice, a subtle sadness, a deep understanding. "She loves you too."

You want to flinch at the mention of your name, but you hold yourself still, listening. Watching as two people you never imagined would find common ground begin to share something raw, something painfully vulnerable.

Draco shifts, awkwardly. "You getting this weird sense of déjà vu?"

Cedric laughs softly, a brief, warm chuckle. "This is the exact same conversation we had after the Second Task."

The two of them speak as if on cue, in unison, like an old, familiar refrain: "The one who will choose is Y/N."

A rush of heat spreads across your chest at the sound of your name, but you hold your ground, resisting the urge to reveal that you're awake. The words cut deeper than you expected—those words, the ones you'd heard once before, spoken in such a different moment. Such a different time. The weight of it all is almost too much to bear.

"Seems like we've come full circle, doesn't it?" Cedric muses, his voice quieter now, contemplative.

"Diggory, she chose you." Draco's voice is suddenly firm, serious. "She loves me like a friend. I love her more than that, sure, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that she wants to be with you. Wasn't that what we agreed to after the Second Task?"

Cedric's tone is steady, but there's a crack in it nonetheless. "We'd respect her decision. Always."

"Exactly." Draco's voice hardens again, but not with malice. It's something else, something you can't quite place. "It's just a stupid Patronus. It doesn't mean anything. I love her, but you know that. Do you see her Patronus changing to a dragon?"