Golden- Cedric Diggory

Chapter Three- The Charm

 It's been six weeks since we've been at Hogwarts, and I've slowly started to learn it's not all bad. Sure, I miss Cedric everyday. Everything reminds me of him, like when Fred's cauldron blew up in his face, I thought; Wow, Ced would've ran to go help him, then he would've laughed. Instead, I helped Fred whilst laughing incredibly hard. Snape docked five points from Gryffindor for the scene we caused. We do have Herbology and Charms with the Hufflepuffs, though. Both of those classes Cedric and I scramble to find a seat together. Today, we were learning about the wand-lighting charm.

"In order to properly light the end of your wand, you must say 'Lumos'. Softly, but with feeling. Be confident, but not too cocky. Casual, but not too lazy," Professor Flitwick explained.

Cedric concentrated hard on his wand.

"Lumos!" He announced with the grandeur of a quidditch commentator.

I giggled at him, and then started practicing the charm for myself. I had read ahead a bit in The Standard Book of Spells: Year One to the point where I had already begun this charm. All I could manage up until this point was a dim, hazy light that would flicker out after about thirty seconds. This time, I took Professor Flitwick's words to heart.

"Lumos," I said quietly, giving the end of my wand a reluctant stare.

Instead of a dim, flickering light, the end of my wand glowed brightly. Until I got too excited and ended up dropping it.

"Incredible, Ms. Smith!" Mr. Flitwick commended, "Two points to Gryffindor."

I grinned, sitting back in my chair. Cedric gaped at me.

"How did you do that?" He hissed.

I tried to explain to him the best I could, and by the end of the class, his wand was lighting up too. Professor Flitwick smiled at the both of us as we collected our books.

"Thanks for your help, Eva." Cedric said sheepishly as we walked out of the classroom, "How did you already know how to do it so well?"

I explained to him how I had been reading ahead.

"That makes sense now! Do you think we could study together after our classes today?" He asked.

"Oh, today won't work," I said awkwardly, switching my books to my other arm. "Fred, George, Angelina and I were planning on studying Potions together. We really want to get some points from Snape, all he does is take them away from us."

Cedric bit his lip and looked down at the ground.

"Oh, that's okay." He said softly.

We stopped in front of the Astronomy tower, as that was my next class.

"I'm sorry Ced. I can do it another day, though? Does tomorrow work?" I frowned at his saddened state.

"Tomorrow I have plans with some friends from Hufflepuff."

"Oh." I sighed.

I shuffled my feet awkwardly on the floor, while Cedric pretended to find something very interesting on the ceiling.

"Well, we can always work out a different time, right?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, of course," He mumbled. "I'd better get to Defence Against the Dark Arts."

I nodded, and watched him hurry down the hallway. For the first time since the sorting, I felt that pit in my stomach.

Two weeks after Cedric and I's failed plans, we hadn't spoken much. One day, I found my Charms seat beside Cedric taken by another Gryffindor, Kenneth Towler. He gave me a strained smile, then stared down at his blank sheet of parchment. I suspired and hurried to sit beside Angelina.

"Don't you usually sit beside Cedric?" She said curiously.

"Yeah, but not today, I guess."

She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips.

"You two have a row or something?"

I quickly turned to look at her, confusion written all over my face.

"No! Well, possibly. I suppose it was a disagreement of sorts," I admitted, and then explained the situation to her.

She shrugged.

"Doesn't sound like much to me." She said, turning to grab a quill from her bag.

"That's just it, it was nothing. But I haven't seen him enough outside of class to make plans to hang out, before I would see him all the time in the halls."

Angelina shrugged again, then turned her attention to Professor Flitwick. I frowned at the back of Cedric's head. It was nothing, right?

After class, I ran to catch up with him, gently pulling on the sleeve on his robes.

"Ced!" I breathed.

He gave me a reproachful look.

"Hey, Eva." He mumbled.

"Everything okay? I haven't seen you in a while." I said.

"I've seen you. But you've been too distracted to even say 'hullo' to me." He sighed, giving me a sideways glance.

I stopped, knitting my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'll give you a wave, but you seem so busy with your new friends. It's like you don't even see me anymore." He said, looking down at my shoes.

I tilted my head, just enough to make eye contact with Cedric again.

"Well, I'm sorry Ced, I didn't mean to ignore you. But if you really needed my attention, you should've said something." I huffed.

He looked taken aback.

"I don't know your friends, and I don't really want to have to interrupt your conversations with them just for you to notice me." He hissed, stepping closer to me.

"Come on, Cedric. Everyone knows and loves you, it really wouldn't be that awkward," I sighed. "I just get caught up sometimes. But they are in my house, I inadvertently spend more time with them. Sometimes I'm forgetful."

"So, you've forgotten about me?" Hurt flashed in his eyes.

"No, Cedric. I didn't mean that."

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair.

"You know, I really shouldn't have to beg you to give me a second glance, Eva." He said, before turning and hurrying down the hall.

"Cedric!" I called, trying to rush after him.

I lost him in the crowd of third years coming out of the nearby classroom. I stood in the hallway, the pit in my stomach growing bigger by the second.

AUGUST 20TH 2020