𝓣YPE ── .✦ ( mini-series )
cedric diggory is determined to prove himself and falls for his best friend in the process or lines blur and reader is determined to keep her’s where it is in the sand but somehow manages to find herself meeting cedric halfway anyways
₊⊹ cw/tags : cedric diggory x reader. friends to lovers. intentional lowercase. mild angst. slightly self-deprecating reader. pov switches. original side characters. 3.1K words
you found solace in sitting by the black lake being by yourself and breathing in the earth kissed air, watching sycamore seeds pirouette to the crackly, warm toned leaf covered floor in autumn; plumes of cold frosty white air escape your mouth in winter; dandelions push their way through to the sky in spring and the perfervid merpeople flash gleams of their iridescent tails on the surface of the deep water in summer.
it was comforting to get away from the constant buzz of the castle. which, at times, felt almost overwhelming even though you were often found at the root of it. even the silence wasn’t really silent, something was always in motion; a staircase impulsively deciding to manoeuvre itself to a different hallway, peeves the poltergeist wreaking havoc like second nature (it was), filch muttering bitterly to himself about ‘insolent children’ and ‘godric knows half of this rot wouldn’t have been allowed to happen in his day’, madam pince tutting irritably to herself in the library at the sound of pages being turned.
but the one thing you don’t think you’d ever tire of was cedric. he was a constant in your life an unabating low-hum that you’d never get sick of. when you were together, things made sense; clicked into place. you’d read in a small clipping of a muggle newspaper from kings cross station that humans were made of stardust and even though you thought it was utter tosh, you could believe that cedric was made of the entire galaxy. the way his voice went when he was talking about something he loved or how his eyes crinkled before his face split into a grin or the warm scent of his cologne and just the distinct smell of him, something you flushed deeply at in potions when you realised it was the scent of the amortentia you’d been assigned to brew.
you knew deep down, though, that everyone thought of him that way. you don’t even know why he insisted on including you in every little thing he did or rather, distancing himself from the centre of the gleaming, white hot, solar system of popularity to find camaraderie in you.
he’s always sort of gravitated towards you, in a subtle way: waiting for you to clear up your things after divination, inviting you to sit with him and his seemingly growing circle of friends, tutoring you when you lamented over your history of magic grades in the mock O.W.Ls last year.
in turn, you cared for him. listening when he frustratedly deplored over his father and how he, amos,expected cedric to be an obnoxious, prideful caricature of himself or how he’s scared to let people down or how, in the soft glowing tranquility of the hufflepuff common room you comforted him when he earnestly confessed he was terrified of not living up to the mounting expectations that were placed on his head and not pleasing everyone around him. how he could feel himself slipping from the pedestal he didn’t want to be on in the first place.
cedric felt like an imposter in his own skin, perhaps that’s why he allowed his friends, to drag him through the torrential downpour of rain in the courtyard and into the great hall to put his name in the gleaming blue and silver gilt goblet of fire. he didn’t think much of the eternal glory attached to winning, nor did he think much of winning at all.
he supposed he just wanted to prove himself that he, cedric diggory, was worthy of the praise he so often, undeservingly in his opinion, received.
perhaps that’s why he allowed himself to be dragged into a world to which he knew he didn’t belong; a world of loud applause from his fellow hufflepuffs when he walked into the great hall at breakfast and boisterous friends who he liked but weren’t you and silently abandoning the quiet corner of the common room where you usually in the evenings sat with him. where lianas grew around the cobbled walls and your large, frumpy brown cat, whatsit, with bottle green eyes usually curled up in his lap as the two of you exchanged quiet laughs and soft inexplicable gazes.
he missed the private parts of his life and found himself growing irritated by fellow housemates and other students alike who viewed him as something to be placed in a glass box, like a statue or a trophy to be watched and admired from a pristine shelf on a wall of accolades never to be forgotten but never to be remembered. he felt embarrassed by being doted on and waited on by hand and foot, he missed you— the way you laughed at him unapologetically when his teacup still had a rat’s tail in transfiguration or cracked jokes at his expense, the way you took him to your spot by the black lake during a free period with an expression of something calm he couldn’t quite place on your face as you looked into the dark depths of the water, a soft zephyr pushing fly away hairs from your face. he thought you were beautiful then, unguarded and unaware of the way nature seemed to favour you.
it scared him a little if he was being honest, not your beauty, never that but the way he was becoming aware of it. the way it made him flush deeply or think meticulously of what to say when he spoke to you as to not make a complete fool of himself it irked and exhilarated him all at once.
perhaps that was why he was avoiding you like a coward.
you don’t know why you rushed into the champions tent after the first task, it was clear that cedric was avoiding you like you were something bubonic but he was still your best friend, or you at least considered him to be.
you saw what that beastly short-snout’s flames had done to cedric’s pretty face and you couldn’t fight the tears that were already glistening on your face. you wished cedric would have reached out, godric knows you would have if it weren’t for your own obstinate pride. you missed him more than you’d like to admit, but it was clear his father’s fulminations bested your consoling advice. damn him, you had thought, ever the people pleaser.
as you skidded in through the taupe flaps of the tent you couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath that escaped your lips at the sight of cedric causing his troubled grey eyes to lock with yours.
madam pomfrey was clearly just finished dabbing what looked like a thick, citrine-yellow textured paste onto the side of cedric face. cedric stood up abruptly from the rickety, three-legged, mahogany stool he was perched at the sight of you and for a second you both stood still, breathing heavily then, as if a band had snapped you rushed towards him colliding into his arms.
you were really crying now, taking great gulps of air as if you had been submerged in the lake and you had just come up for breath.
“you are the world’s biggest prat!” you choked out, talking into his slightly singed robes.
“i know,” he replied simply, running his fingers through your hair whether to sooth you or himself you couldn’t really tell.
“and a bloody idiot for entering this blasted competition!” you said whilst pulling away from the embrace, and aggressively wiping your face with your sleeve as if to prove a point.
“i know,” he replied breathlessly, he didn’t seem to care all that much. looking down at you with dilated pupils as if you were the only person in the room. which, embarrassingly, you weren’t; you could spot harry potter a rather unfortunate fourth year, you knew in passing though the weasley twins’ little brother, who seemed to have everything happen to him, fleur delacour the eerily attractive beauxbatons champion and viktor krum the stoic reticent durmstrang champion all uniting to exchange bemused glances you spotted in your peripheral, causing your cheeks to flood with heat.
cedric took your hand in his larger one, his thumb stroking your knuckles subconsciously and opened his mouth to say something when a sudden blinding flash and an awfully grating shutter noise came from in front of the two of you, plumes of smoke surrounded you and cedric causing you to cough violently.
you turned to face whoever had caused this commotion.
rita skeeter. of course, as if there wasn’t enough fracas in your life now you had this prying, ninny to put it on page six of the daily slop-it. brushing her shiny red acrylic embellished hands down her brown, dragon hyde jacket, a noxious outfit, of course, but rather fitting for the occasion.
you looked at her with the most venomous eyes you could muster, which seemingly had no effect on her as she grinned or rather bared her sharp white teeth at you and cedric, running her tongue over them as if you were a particularly succulent piece of meat on her plate for supper. her acid green quick-quotes-quill positively jittering with excitement to get the story down.
just then, viktor krum stepped forward bravely, pushing her cameraman to the side and glaring at rita, “you have no bees-ness here, this tent ees for champions—”he scanned the room and spotted you, adding “and friends.” he snarled gruffly in his thick bulgarian drawl, that’s the most words you’d ever heard him string together since his arrival at hogwarts you thought to yourself.
rita, being the cauldron stirring witch that she was looked him up an down in an almost predatory manner, making you shudder in disgust.
“so!” she started pointedly, clapping her hands sharply, startling everyone in the tent. “looks like our brave, bold champion has fallen for a—“ she looked gave you a once over, her eyes peaking over her bejewelled cat eye glasses judgementally, scarlet lips forming a disingenuous smile that didn’t quite reach her sharp blue eyes. “—nubile lover,” she tittered to herself. “though of course, no one can visually compare to our very own hufflepuff hunk can they?” she asked rhetorically, circling cedric and you like a bird of prey, musing his hair with her claws.
cedric’s jaw clenched, as he fought not to say something unfortunate. you placed yourself between him and rita, causing his eyes to soften.
“why don’t you just shove off to the cave you came from you awful woman!” you retorted, temper rising by the second. cedric held you back by the crook of your arm gently, leaning down to whisper in your ear saying your name like a healing spell “it’s alright, really, please don’t cause a fuss, even though you jolly well should. the more you say, the more material she has to lie about you.”
rita raised her eyebrows unfazed by your ourburst. “looks like our fiery damsel is in distress,” she smirked, though her eyes were stone cold; eyeing you like you were something unpleasant at the heel of her hungarian horntail heel.
you exhaled shakily taking cedric’s previous words into account.
“shame,” she sighed theatrically, “the prettiest one’s are all a bit barmy aren’t they?” she asked cedric sympathetically her nose scrunching. you turned your head away from her, unwilling to show that her word’s effected you and spotted professor mccgonagall approaching with purpose her usually straight face twisted into one of anger you hadn’t ever seen before.
rita turned sharply her flaxen ringlet curls bobbing against her head, it seems she’d spotted the pointed professor too. she gave her cameraman a look of urgency and quickly shuffled towards an open gap at the back of the tent from which she had entered and exited but not before popping her head in one last time “well darlings, it was splendid seeing you all again! i have a feeling we could become great friends don’t forget to look for your names and faces in the papers. toodles!” she smiled in a disgustingly charming fashion, blowing a kiss and hastily leaving.
mcgonagall, walked with haste into the tent, only to have found rita gone. “you ‘ave just missed ‘er,” fleur said glumly from across the room to mcgonagall, her chin slumped regally on her elegant, white hands “zat awful reeter woman left ze minute she saw you coming ‘ere, quelle lâche salope!” she exclaimed half to herself and everyone in the room. harry, you spotted, looked like he didn’t know whether to implode with laughter or rage.
cedric was determined to win and not the competition (though that would be stellar) no, he was determined to win you back. though the first task had brought you back into his orbit, he couldn’t help but feel something had shifted.
during meals, he noticed you preferred to sit with katie bell; an olive-skinned gryffindor girl in his year with pin-straight, brunette hair and her close friend leanne shaw; a striking, dark-skinned sixth year, slytherin girl with coily, black shoulder length hair, at the gryffindor table near the weasley twin’s gaggle of friends instead. though, he noticed, you didn’t say much often times just staring at the food you stirred restlessly around your plate. not that he was watching you from afar or anything, he just noticed.
he tried to be as understanding as he could, especially after rita skeeter had released a particularly nasty tall tale in her column of the daily prophet about you and him, he hadn’t even known until you stormed into the great hall waving it around wildly, eyes ablaze earning some callous laughs from the slytherin table (coming from insolent third and fourth years, their older housemates remained mildly interested), curious looks from the ravenclaw table (a friendly smile from luna lovegood who was reading her edition of the quibbler upside down) and good-natured jeers from the gryffindor table (the weasley twins and lee jordan he presumed).
jonathan martinson, jon to everyone down to the breeze in no man’s land (one out of the three of cedric’s mates who had urged him to put his name in the goble) had been the one to spot you approaching, running a hand through his bristly, brush-like short cropped brunette hair his sorrel eyes practically lit with alarm signals whilst he nudged scott summers, a chap with long, silky fair hair and cornflower eyes who whistled lowly at your expression as you sat next to cedric before you glared menacingly at him and he hastily pretending to be deeply interested in his soggy cheerios.
it was only calvin emery, the most sensible of the quartet, whose gaze locked onto yours unabashedly through his rectangular framed black glasses, shaking his head causing his curly almost black hair to bounce, “skeeter wrote about you and ced?” he asked mildly after scanning the page you had folded that was facing him, cedric looked up from his breakfast with interest as you nodded feverishly.
“’smart-mouthed scarlet woman canoodling with our charming champion?’” you read the headline aloud, voice shaking with nerves and disbelief, cedric’s hand found your bouncing knee under the table as he leaned his head close to yours from his fry-up to scan the article, an eyebrow raised in interest. as his eyes progressed down the ‘scandalous’ article and he couldn’t help but flush with embarrassment at rita’s choice words, he hoped he wasn’t making you uncomfortable.
“she’s rather crude, isn’t she?” scott offered, trying to make light of the situation.
safe to say, the situation did not get any lighter.
you stared blankly at him before resting your head down on the oakwood table, hitting your forehead unceremoniously and letting out a faint ‘ow’.
leanne plopped herself down next to you and across from jon (who blushed deeply down to the roots of his buzzcut at the sight of her) seeing house seating arrangements this term were rather askew anyways.
she snatched up the paper took an unsolicited sip of your apple juice “what’s this then? you know i like the tarot bits of the papers, babes, so why are we reading rita skid-mark’s colu—” she started jovially in her thick cockney accent, before her face fell at the headline.
“what the fuck..?” she whispered uncharacteristically to herself, nibbling on her lip as she concentrated on the passage, which she barely read before crumpling it up and dropping it into your barely drank juice as you popped your head up to protest feebly. “i never thought i’d live to see the day where i’d be met with anything as slimy and unappealing as the mop on severus snape’s head that is allegedly his hair but here we are,” and though she sold the remark it as a joke the finality in her tone let you know that was her way of letting you know she didn’t think much of the story.
“don’t stress yourself over this, love,” she said soothingly, whilst nicking a grape from an awe-stricken unopposed jon’s plate. “has your guy’s head of house announced a random meeting too?” she asked conversationally, flipping her long hair over her shoulders. “katie and the twins told me mcgonagall addressed them this morning, how odd!” she shrugged.
it didn’t help that professor sprout had called all the fourth years and above into one of the greenhouses to listen to waltz music on a positively archaic gramophone and explain that the yule ball was going to be held that year and that they were to look for partners if they deemed it necessary, as she so prudishly put it.
though he hated to boast, cedric knew he had no issues in the area of trying to get a date, rather asking the right person.
he knew, deep down, who he wanted to ask but he buried the niggling feeling down, he didn’t want to risk yet another potential chasm in your friendship.
it seemed that his fellow denmates were all having the same issue. everyone and their mother except leanne herself knew jon wanted to ask her, calvin stated simply enough he wanted to ask padma patil, a stunning fourth year ravenclaw witch who was wicked at wizard chess, but needed to quote-un-quote build up the moral fibre which was calvin speak for “i’m a wimp and will wait until the last moment” a cruel joke cracked by scott, who, despite poking fun at everyone, lacked the gall to ask fleur delacour out at all. who cedric knew from past observations would step on scott to get to dry ground if he fainted in a puddle.
cedric, of course, knew he wanted you.
𝓫ree speaks, sorry if the writing seems really clunky right now!! i’m working on trying to build a believable(-ish) world and i thought cedric would need some friends as none are specifically mentioned in the books nor films and i wanted to get rid of the excessive house rivalry so there will be a lot of intermingling between the four houses, this was originally a one-shot but i got carried away so it will be split into three parts (i hope!!)
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