Backfire • Cedric Diggory [✓]

INTRODUCTION

"Now, as apparent as matters already are, you are all here as a consequence to your poor behaviour in your classes," His cold eyes rest on a student, then narrows them to another, "or perhaps in the corridors." Snape drawls raising his eyebrows, then eyeing every single student who had managed to score the afternoon with him. It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Holland's small fingers found their way to her necktie and began to adjust it to a looser fit before fiddling with it, a mannerism she had when she realized she needed to stop biting her nails and tapping her foot when she was getting impatient.

"Or if you're anything like Miss Avery and Mister Diggory here, you might have been caught foolishly waving wands and incantations that result to no actual positive significance to one's future." Holland inwardly groaned, wanting to be outside if it weren't for the detention she had landed herself in. At the end of the day, she'd remember that she had hexed Hufflepuf's golden boy Cedric Diggory once more, and managed to get him in trouble as well. Therefore, also remembering that this would be worth it.

Girls from all houses had him in burning at the bottoms of their chests with desire, and boys from all houses wanted to be at least a tad bit like him. But dare she say it, Holland Avery just did not find herself understanding what the girls would all fuss about. She may have long, brown locks of hair she takes care of, fingernails she tended to everyday, daily routines that she made sure would accomplish, and all that other complete sexist nonsense that made her eligible to be a so-called "average girl", but nevertheless, she wasn't as gullible as everyone else in Hogwarts. 

On a less sugar-coated note, she wasn't an idiot. She immediately saw through his Prince Charming personality, his Prince Charming charm, Prince Charming looks, and she wasn't convinced he was truly the boy the entirety of Hogwarts paints him out to be. She wanted nothing but to wipe that permanent grin off his face, to drain his chiseled cheeks of the permanent boyish scarlet that everyone fawned over. Her first year in Hogwarts, she couldn't even stand the mere sight of him. She didn't put effort in keeping her extreme disdain to herself, either. 

But Cedric being the annoyingly understanding boy he had always been, he simply let her be. Especially since she was two years younger and could have been just having a hard time adjusting in school. Even when he realized she just really wasn't fond of him, he never did anything about it, and Holland saw no problem in that at all. She was pleased, even.

Holland was at peace knowing she could hate him, not speak to him, and live the rest of her life in Hogwarts that way unbothered by him. Until that one afternoon in the Great Hall her second year, Cedric's practice for Transfiguration wherein he had to replace his cup of water with a cup of Goblin slime managed to turn into a messy Holland Avery, having just emerged from the doors of the dining hall, with her neat and pretty hair and robes tidied up as she was ready to bat her eyes at George Weasley. She turned her head as she began to look for the culprit of the vile crime, eyes landing on the frazzled Hufflepuff. Before the boy could apologize nor explain himself, she immediately hexed back her favorite bat-bogey spell, a signature of none other than Ginevra Weasley. It left Cedric a mess in the hall, and both of them in front of Professor Snape, Professor Sprout, and Professor Dumbledore that night. 

Holland's 12-year-old self promised herself to never let Cedric Diggory forget what he did to her, nor forget to not try crossing her again. She knew she had to get back at him, and it had to be a revenge that would last a lifetime. Mortified at the memory of being seen as a slime-covered hag in front of George, she would and couldn't ever let the boy live it down. That being said, she saw to it that annually, she were to leave Cedric little surprise hexes to make sure he remembered her. And with Holland's tricky scheming nature, it was inevitable that she befriended the Weasley twins, as it was their expertise, after all. And in time, Holland's infatuation with George grew even more.