Draco {CHAPTER THREE RELEASED}

Chapter 3

Cedric Diggory. Every girl from Hogwarts' fantasy boy. Head Boy of Hufflepuff, and Captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. No, you can't get much better than that. Last year, we both admitted we had feelings for each other. Cedric and I would take daily trips to Hogsmeade, occasionally even shop for each other. We became the best of friends. We never seemed to pass that stage, at least when Cho came into the picture. 

Cho and Cedric dated, when he picked her over me. That was a hard and miserable time for me. After a few lonely months, he ended things with Cho, and we started hanging out at Hogsmeade, wandering the corridors, until the year came to an end. We weren't great at keeping in contact and writing to each other over the summer, so nothing changed away from Hogwarts. It was almost as if Cedric and I reserved ourselves for each other. If I felt reserved for Cedric, I couldn't take any action on Malfoy.

The Great Hall was crowded with all of the existing Hogwarts students. The house banners hung high underneath the Enchanted Ceiling. I was sitting at the long oak table with the rest of the fourth year Hufflepuffs surrounding me, waiting for the Sorting Ceremony to begin for the year. I glanced around the Great Hall, and behind me to the Slytherin table. His platinum hair, like no other, caught my eye immediately. He seemed occupied with Crabbe and Goyle, too occupied to notice me looking at him across, perhaps, the largest room in Hogwarts.  

"Lily," Ginerva was sitting next to me and got my attention. "What're you looking at?" She said, both sarcastically and jokingly with a small chuckle. I rolled my eyes. Ginerva had known me well enough and long enough to know when someone had caught my eye. 

"Oh...nothing Ginerva. Don't worry about it." I answered, shaking my head. It was worth a try, but she knew right then and there I was looking at Malfoy. She looked and me bluntly. 

Meryl turned over her shoulder sharply, overhearing our conversation. She had been talking to Susan Bones. "I thought you and Cedric were a thing, Lily." Turning back around to Susan, Ginerva nodded in agreement with her.

"Meryl's right. What can be better than Diggory?" Turning her head to the Slytherin table to see for herself, she said, "You know everything that Malfoy, his family included, have done?" Said Ginerva. "One day, he'll be a Death Eater, just like his parents. You know how much the Weasley's hate him too, Lily. They're your family." She finished sincerely. I continued to think that trying to find the good in Malfoy was worth it. However, Ginerva had a point. I nodded in agreement with her statement. He would end up a Death Eater one day, and to my own cousins, he was entirely disrespected.

"Where is Cedric anyways?" I asked, looking up and down the Hufflepuff table. "I haven't seen him." Ginerva laughed hysterically. Her eyes drifted up and behind me and back. "What?!" I exclaimed. She took her finger and pointed directly behind me. 

Turning around, I saw a tall, Hufflepuff robed figure standing up behind me with a huge grin strung across his pale face. Cedric had just gotten there, standing behind me and waiting for me to turn around. It all came back to me in that moment. Why I chose Cedric. His silver grey eyes, you could stare into them forever. The chestnut brown hair. All of it. I stood up with the most excited expression on my face. 

"I was waiting for you to look behind you, silly." He said jokingly in his deep voice. I practically sprung into his arms, latching around his shoulders. I didn't care that we were the only two people standing in the entire Great Hall. I couldn't form words, and I didn't know what to say. I was so happy to see Cedric, I couldn't stop smiling and laughing. "I've missed our trips to Hogsmeade." He added, releasing from the hug. 

"Me too. I've missed you." I couldn't restrain myself from smiling. Cedric's pale face was lit up with his extremely rosy cheeks. 

Dumbledore stood up from the row of professors in front of all the students. Setting his golden goblet down, he made direct eye contact with Cedric, with a small smile across his wrinkled face. "Just sit here," I whispered, pointing to the miniscule space between me and Ginerva. He sat down quickly, knowing Dumbledore was telling him to, indrectly. 

Tapping his silver spoon against the Goblet, Dumbledore silenced the entire Great Hall. His booming voice echoed, "The Sorting Hat Ceremony will begin momentarily, followed by a feast. I expect all of you students to be examples to the first years, and congratulate them on their houses. Professor McGonagall will lead the students in, represent your houses well." He finished, sitting back in his tall velvet chair. I felt a hand touch mine. Looking down on the bottom of my robes, was Cedric's hand laying on mine. Looking up to his face, I smiled again. We took the entire Sorting Ceremony to whisper and catch up about the past summer. 

Every now and then, I looked back to the Slytherin table. Malfoy had found me, and began looking at me again.