Star Girl | Cedric Diggory

|*| Eighty Six |*|

Christmas was quickly approaching, and Aquila still hadn't gotten Cedric a gift. She thought about what to get him for hours on end, but nothing proved good enough. He didn't need a new broomstick, and because she didn't know much about Quidditch supplies, she didn't know anything about other Quidditch gifts.

She wanted the gift to be personal-something he'd open up and say, "Merlin's left sock! This is so thoughtful of you, Quil!"-but she couldn't think of anything. She considered writing to Alexis or Nash about the matter, but she didn't know where Alexis was, and she didn't want to risk her mother finding any letter she sent to Nash.

"Where does your mother think you are right now?" Cedric asked her one evening when they were snuggled up in a blanket by the fireplace. Aquila rested her head on his shoulder, and he had his arms wrapped around her.

"She thinks I'm staying at Hogwarts," Aquila told him. "You won't believe what she wrote to me in my last letter... But I don't want to talk about her right now. The whole matter highly disturbs me."

"Alright, then I'll change the topic," he said. "How's the Animagus business coming along?"

"I haven't started yet," she admitted. "I want to wait until after Christmas. Your mother's cookies look so delicious, and I want to enjoy them before I put that nasty leaf in my mouth."

"And you're sure it'll work?" Cedric asked. He was skeptical of her transformation working properly. She had never cast a corporal patronus before, but she was so certain she'd become an eagle. Cedric hated to doubt that it would work, but he wasn't going to deny the possibility of it being a flop.

"Of course I am," she said. "I want this to work more than anything. Just imagine it, Ced. You and I flying together; you on your broom and me as a mighty eagle by your side."

He smiled. "I can't wait." The two sat together in silence, listening to the crackle of the fireplace.

"Do you kids want some hot chocolate?" Amos asked, walking into the room with four cups of hot chocolate following behind him. Aquila smiled, getting up quickly and taking one of the hot beverages, leaving Cedric shaking his head on the floor.

"Weren't you content down here with me?" he asked her.

"I was until your dad brought chocolate," she told him. "You're great and all, but I'm a sucker for chocolate."

"We'll come drink it down here," he suggested.

"Get your lazy butt up and come sit at the table, Cedric," his mother jokes from the kitchen. "Don't make me accio you."

"You can do that?" Aquila asked the woman after sitting down at the kitchen table. "Summon a human with that spell?"

"You can summon anything, dear," the woman said. She was wearing a Santa Clause apron, and her hair was pulled up into a bun on her head. "Want a cookie?"

Aquila nodded. "I never knew you could use the spell on people though. If I had known this before, I could've used it to pull some sick pranks on the professors. I could just randomly summon Professor Binns from his class out of the blue."

"That's a dumb idea, Quil," Cedric said, walking into the kitchen. "Don't mess with the professors; they already hate you as it is."

"Are you a trouble maker, Aquila?" his mother asked as she handed the green haired girl a cookie.

"It's not me you should be concerned with," she said, cracking a smile. "It's golden boy over here." She motioned to Cedric who sat down beside her with a cup in his hand.

"Oh really?" he asked. "Name one time when I did a bad thing."

"You were put past curfew," she said, "at the Black Lake."

"You were there too!" he exclaimed. "Stop acting all innocent!"

"Cedric!" Amos scolded jokingly. "You shouldn't be dragging innocent Aquila out past curfew."

"I wouldn't have gone," Aquila admitted, "but Cedric was relentless. We were almost caught, and it would've been all his fault."

"Shut up, Quil," Cedric said, laughing. He took a sip of his drink and ended up with a chocolate mustache. Aquila saw it and began laughing so hard the hot chocolate came out of her nose. Even the adults found them funny, and couldn't keep their laughter hidden.

|*|*|*|

Aquila loved staying with the Diggorys. Their house had a guest bedroom that she was able to sleep in; the bed was comfortable, and there was a window that looked out at the snowy yard outside. She could get a good look at the stars from there, and was able to see a message in the sky one night.

You're lonely.

Aquila shook her head and whispered, "I am not lonely, assholes. I'm just alone. There's a difference."

Why be alone when the one you call Responsible Mom is just down the hall?

"You don't get it do you?" she asked. "It's late at night, and people need to get some sleep... alone."

Do you want to be alone?

"Yes," she told them. "And I'd like it if you left me alone as well."

Fine. But you can go to him if you wish.

Aquila sighed. "He's probably asleep."

We beg to differ.

"I hate that you know everything."

Just go to him already, Star Girl. You're making this way too difficult.

"Ugh, fine!" she exclaimed. "If I do, will you leave me alone?"

It's worth a gamble, isn't it?

Aquila glared at the sky from her window, and walked away from the window. She was careful to be quiet with the door, and the green haired girl walked silently down the Dark hallway until she reached the room with a paper taped to the door: Keep out. It looked like it had been drawn by a tiny Cedric because the blue and green crayon marks all over the paper were messy. She smiled at the silly sign and pushed the door open just a smidge.

"Ceddy Bear," she whispered. "Are you awake?"

"Aquila?" he asked, surprised that she was still awake herself. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I could ask you the same question," she said, walking into his room and closing the door behind her. She couldn't see much in the dark, but she was able to spot a poster of Victor Krum on his wall by a window. "Mind if I crash here tonight? Don't get me wrong, I like the guest room, but the stars wouldn't shut up, so I had to get out of there."

Cedric chuckled. "I don't mind at all. I was actually thinking about going to find you."

"Great minds think alike," she said, walking over to where he sat on his bed. She jumped up and sat at the foot of it, smiling sillily at him. "How's life?" she asked.

"Great now that you're here," he told her.

"Stop being so cheesy all the time," she said with a laugh. "You act like you came right out of a cliche Shakespeare play."

"I am not cliche!" he told her, offended.

"You're the star quidditch player, you're Head Boy, you're mildly attractive, and you're dating a girl from the Capulet house," she listed. "Doesn't get more cliche than that, Romeo."

"Well, this mildly attractive Romeo is very happy to have his green haired Juliet staying with him for holiday."

Aquila smiled and crawled to the front of the bed. She lied down next to Cedric. "Am I gonna be the little spoon or are you?" she asked.

Her question caught him off guard, and he he began sputtering out nonsense from his mouth, unable to come up with an answer. Aquila sighed. "Why are you always so indecisive?" She rolled over and let him wrap her arms around her.

The two teenagers fell asleep together, and they would wake up in each other's arms the next morning.

|*| this chapter was so fun to write :) |*|