At Hogwarts, Ajla Greengrass is beginning her fifth year with her usual cold composure and razor-sharp focus. A Slytherin Chaser with a flawless academic record and a reputation for being untouchable, Ajla lives by one rule: never let anyone close enough to matter.
Behind her polished perfection is a world few get to see - a home that treats her passion for Quidditch as a childish indulgence, a family name heavy with expectation, and a mother whose illness is slowly stealing the last thread of warmth from her life.
Enter Cedric Diggory - steady, kind, charming in a way that never tries too hard. A Hufflepuff golden boy with a quiet strength and a smile that somehow disarms even the most guarded hearts. He doesn't mean to fall for Ajla.
But he does. Quickly. Unapologetically.
She wants nothing to do with him - or so she tells herself. But as Hogwarts life unfolds with Quidditch matches, midnight parties, stressful exams, and the whispered weight of growing up, Cedric's constant presence becomes harder to ignore.
Their paths keep crossing - in the skies above the pitch, in dim corridors after curfew, in moments too quiet to deny. What begins as cold glances and biting remarks slowly shifts into something neither of them expected.
He falls first.
But when she falls, she falls harder.
Set against the backdrop of a castle full of secrets, with storm clouds gathering outside and emotions rising within, Ajla and Cedric's story is one of slow-burning affection, reluctant vulnerability, and the kind of love that breaks past every wall you swore you'd never let down.
Because sometimes, the hardest hearts fall the fastest.
And sometimes...
They don't break.
They bloom.
Everyone knew the cliché. It wasn't a secret. Cold hearted Slytherin falls for a warm and overly loud Gryffindor.
That wasn't Beatrice's case. She was the cold hearted Slytherin, but the simple concept of love bored her to death. She had known love, yes. But not the kind he was offering.
Love at first sight? She probably would have laughed on anyone's face who dared mention the most classic trope of them all. "Utter bullshit," she answered every single time.
Until, it happened to her and struck her between her sapphire eyes like a stunning spell. Tumbling down everything that she had ever known and believed in.
But she was stubborn.
And so was he.
Disclaimer: I only own the characters that I created, everything else belongs to she who must not be named. This fanfic does not follow the events of the books and only contains certain aspects of it since it is an AU. We do not support JKR's beliefs in this household so if you do please kindly get out.