tell me you love me (cedric and draco)

nineteen

a/n: happy christmas! hope you guys like the new cover for this story!

Goodnight, Cedric.

"Still better than seeing you and Pansy having sex," I retort, smiling.

He closes his eyes and winces. "Remove that for your memory. For forever, please."

"No, I don't think I will," I tease.

He opens his eyes and returns my smile. "I was actually worried when I saw that you were one of the people out there in the lake," he says gently.

I raise my eyebrows at him. "Cedric and I are still together..."

"Can I not be worried as a friend?" he mocks.

"People can, but you are not people."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I'm still not sure what we are," I admit, all the playfulness gone from my voice. "I want to be friends with you Draco, I really do. You can be kind, and funny, and witty when you want to be. But you're also the person who's a bully and torments people not of your blood status," I pause. "Which includes me and all of my friends except Ron, but you still make fun of him anyways.

"And I don't want you to have to change your personality," I say, as he was about to interrupt me. "I just... I can't, Draco."

He stays staring at his feet and I shiver in my towel. I turn on my foot to to and change, but he grabs my arm lightly. "Wait," he says, turning me around.

"Oh, you make this so difficult," he murmurs at his feet. He looks up at me, into my eyes. "I don't care about your blood status, okay? You're interesting, you're not like some of the girls here, like Pansy, who hangs onto my every word and agrees with me on everything. You fight me with fire, an equal.

"I'll try to restrain myself from most of my usual personality around your friends, okay?"

"Most?"

"You said you didn't want me to change my personality," he points out.

I silently curse myself. I did say that. "You promise to never call anyone a... well you know, a mud... in my presence?"

"I'll try my best," he says with a smirk.

"And no funny business," I add, staring at him the most intimidating that I can manage.

"But that's the best part," he fake whines, smiling. He sees my face and throws his hands up in surrender. "I'm joking! Joking."

I roll my eyes and shiver again. "I need to go," I tell him, pointing behind me at the castle. "See you later." I don't wait around to see his reaction, but I'm almost positive that he's smiling. Crazy, right?

I step into the common room from my dorm, finally clean from the lake. Thankfully, there's no celebration here, even though Harry won second place in this task, though I know there's one happening in the Hufflepuff common room. I heard a few of the girls from my house talking about it earlier today.

I'm actually grateful that Cedric and I aren't attached at the hip right now, and I know my friends are too.
"Nice job today," I say to Harry, sitting down beside the fire next to him. The common room was fairly empty, Hermione walking around with Krum and Ron sulking in his room because Hermione was walking around with Krum.

"I was being stupid," Harry says, his knees drawn to his chest. The flame of the fire reflects off of his glasses, miniature flames dancing in his eyes. "The girl would've been just fine. I took the whole task way too seriously."

"As you should," I say, nudging his shoulder with my own. "In the end, you received more points, and everyone believes that you're noble."

He scoffs and smiles. "Very noble," he repeats, laughing. I smile too, realizing how much I've been missing this, him, these past few months. "Sorry I've been MIA," I start, my cheeks starting to flame. "We haven't really hung out in forever, just the two of us. I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, Banana."

I gasp at the nickname. "You told me you'd forget about that! You swore to never call me that again!" I say, pushing him over. He falls, laughing, to the floor.

"I swore to no such thing!" he laughs, sitting up.

In our second year at Hogwarts, we were eating breakfast in the Great Hall, the four of us. I decided to have a banana for the first time ever, all of them watching me eat it, making jokes. Everything was fine until I started to get purple spots on my face. Turns out, someone had hexed the banana, and I've never touched another one again.

"Is Purple Spot better?" he asks, snorting on his laugh.

"Harry James Potter, I will kill you!" I say, pushing him back onto the floor and falling next to him. We lay there and laugh, like the kids we are. That's all we truly are. A bunch of kids.

He sits up and holds his hand out to me. "C'mon."

I raise an eyebrow, making no attempt to sit up. "Where are we going?"

"Astronomy tower," he responds. I immediately smile and sit up, making him laugh. He stands up then pulls me up as well, brushing off his pants. "Cloak?" I ask.

He checks his watch. "No, we shouldn't get into trouble just yet. I'd say an hour until Filch starts monitoring the halls."

"Brilliant," I say grabbing his hand and pushing the portrait of the Fat Lady open. My heart momentarily stops and my smile falters. There stands Cedric. "Should've brought the cloak," I mutter to Harry, thanking Merlin that he had let go of my hand to open the frame. "Can I meet you there?" I say louder, turning to Harry. "This shouldn't take long."

He eyes Cedric wearily, then nods and walks away. I turn to Cedric and stare at him. "Do you need something?" I can tell he's surprised by my hostility. "I thought you weren't speaking to me."

"I am," he says quietly, "right now."

"Isn't there some huge party for you in your common room right now?" He stares at me, surprised once again. "Word travels fast."

"I'm not mad at you-"

"Well, I am at you," I say, feeling my anger rising. "This may seem childish to you, but you can't just walk away when we're in the middle of a conversation! Why did you even do that? You know that there's nothing happening between me and Harry."

"I was jealous, okay?" he says, his temper matching my own. "He's known you all this time, all these years, and you've gotten to grow so close to one another. That's something I'll never get with you."

"Now we're just wasting more time by fighting about it!" I tell him, my anger not ebbing. "And I'm sorry, but that's hardly an excuse. Why have you never said anything? It doesn't make sense."

I check my own watch, seeing how minutes have passed. "Look, I need to go. Harry's waiting for me in the Astronomy Tower."

Cedric looks at his feet, his cheeks red and hair completely disheveled. "Before you go," he says softly, "can you make me a promise?"

"Like what?"

"Even when we're fighting, even when you're mad at me, or I you, though I doubt that would happen because I can't stay mad at you for long," he laughs softly, "that we'll say goodnight. Always say goodnight."

I feel my face soften as I nod. "Goodnight, Ced," I whisper.

"Goodnight, my love." He brings my hand to his lips and kisses it softly. He drops it slowly back down to my side and I turn around slowly, Cedric watching me walk away to the Astronomy Tower.

a/n: i totally forgot about valentine's day! would you guys want a chapter about it? or should i just forget it all together? please comment and vote!!