ONCE UPON A TIME.

10. famille

    "Your boyfriend?" "What?" "Antioch - are you dating him?"

    Amata gives Cedric a look as if he'd just sprouted a third head. Defensively, Cedric raises his hands in front of him - he had held back from asking, but found that his curiosity outweighed his shame.

    A multitude of students hung out in the Great Hall, watching and waiting on the Goblet of Fire. Students only had until the end of the day to submit their names; so far, some familiar batch mates Cedric heard had already submitted were Angelina Johnson and Cassius Warrington. Cedric and Amata hung back from the crowd of expectant students milling about.

    "Well . . . aren't you?" Cedric asks dumbly, feeling his face flush at the silence Amata is giving him. The question she throws back at him is slow and deliberate. "Have you ever read the Tales of Beedle the Bard?"

     Cedric nods in response. "I had it as a bedtime story, as a child." he admits. "Do you remember that one story . . . " Amata hesitates visibly, but Cedric waits nonetheless until she continues. "The Fountain of Fair Fortune?" 

     "The one with the fountain where whoever bathed in it would get fair fortune forevermore," Cedric recites. "I remember liking that a lot. And the characters - oh."

     Amata winces before nodding. "Amata and Altheda came from that story, but our parents couldn't really name their son 'sir Luckless'. You know how the Peverell brothers were the supposed inspiration for The Tale of the Three Brothers? They thought Antioch was the nicest name; out of Cadmus and Ignotus, at least; so they settled with that."

     "He's your brother." Cedric says sheepishly. Despite herself, Amata laughs. "You can say that." When Cedric gives her a look of confusion, she lets out a heavy sigh. "We're triplets." she mumbles, as if it were something she was ashamed of. "You don't . . . look alike." is all Cedric says.

     "Triplets don't always look alike." Amata smirks. "Fortunately." she adds, running a hand through her hair. "Oi, no one knows this. And no one can know this." Amata rounds on Cedric, poking a finger in to his chest. The action merely elicits a small chuckle from the Hufflepuff. "I'm serious, Diggory!"

     "My lips are sealed." Cedric assures her, clasping a hand over his breast. The corners of Amata's lips tug upwards in an appreciative grin - she turns to the Goblet of Fire as another Durmstrang delegate enters his name. "Are you pushing through with that?" Amata asks.

     "Are you?" Cedric questions. Amata looks puzzled for a moment, but it's quick to pave way for laughter. "I was bluffing," she says, seemingly only remembering the letter she'd owled Cedric a few weeks prior. Looking up at Cedric, the amusement in Amata's eyes simmers and her smile pulls in to a thin line. "But I don't think you are."

     "No," The Hufflepuff admits, pulling out a piece of parchment from the pocket of his robes. "I'm not."