Dear Diggory

chapter 36

The next morning I woke up fairly early.

We'd spent the rest of last night with Cedric's family and their larger than life house elf. He had made sure to recount his history and the last family he'd served.

It had turned out to be Agatha's family. If I didn't have good reason to dislike her before, I certainly did now. Dobby had told me about how cruel they had treated him over the years until he finally ran away and Cedric found him sleeping in a cardboard box in Hyde Park.

Cedric was visibly upset whilst the story was recounted and I felt new sympathy for him. What had happened in the hall hadn't just been about me and my ribbon, it was much more personal than that.

The rest of the night had been wonderful, the family made me feel extremely welcome and I envied the love they all had for one another. It reminded me of my own family before my mother had passed.

I got up from the soft bed and began to get ready for the day ahead. I had agreed to meet Cedric near the door at 9:30 and I began to got nervous about what was to come.

We didn't know exactly what we were walking into but I knew it might be dangerous. The only reassurance I had was that magic was on our side, and I knew my dad would be proud for what I was going to do.

I rushed down the stairs once I was ready to find Cedric waiting for me. He had a bag in his hand and I assumed he'd packed us a breakfast so we wouldn't waste time.

"Morning, are you ready for this?" he asked, opening the door and letting me go first. He quickly followed suit, shutting it behind him quietly.

"Yeah, I'm just nervous. What if something bad happens you know, if you got hurt I would feel terrible about it." I admitted and crossed my arms across my stomach, squeezing my sides in an anxious gesture.

He seemed to notice this as he stopped in his tracks and prised my arms away from my chest. He pulled me into a brief hug and I relaxed against his cosy warmth.

"It's going to be okay I promise. We'll keep each other safe." He spoke gently and it's soothing effect was instantaneous.

I nodded against his chest and slowly stepped away, although a part of me wanted to stay there all day.

We exited the gate and began walking to the underground. We'd considered a portkey, but I had missed the city and didn't mind taking muggle transport.

We rode to Tower Hill station, eating our breakfast on the train. Cedric was quiet and I knew he was contemplating what might happen today so I didn't bother him with my own paranoia. We took the steps out of the station and could see the bridge in the distance.

We walked solemnly and I noticed a lot of the protesters were already gathering in the streets, holding an array for signs and wearing t-shirts that said justice on them in bold lettering.

Once we reached the bridge, I began to weave through the large crowd as Cedric followed. We reached the first tower with little difficult and stopped amongst everyone.

I lowered my voice, "we need to go somewhere out of site, somewhere we can observe the action without being amongst it."

Cedric nodded and used his height to scan above the heads of the crowd. His eyes locked onto something to our left before he turned back to me.

"There's a door into the tower on this side. I'm sure we could bust it open and climb to the top. Maybe there's a lookout up there."

I nodded and began to follow him through the crowd. It would have been a lot easier if we could use our magic to float up there, but that would mean breaking a few of the Ministry's underage wizard laws, the muggles weren't that unobservant after all, and so we had to climb physically.