This is very sad. I think it's quite good though. I love Cedric!!
Special thanks to Leafdrop and xNymphadoraxTonksx
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Pieces of My Heart: A Tribute to Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang
Cedric Diggory.
It has been several years since I saw him disappear into that maze, never to come out alive, and that name still brings tears to my eyes.
Cho Chang. That's the name I had always answered to. I still wish it was Mrs. Cho Diggory.
I stand in a white wedding dress holding a book of old photos. My make-up is smeared from the tears that fall from my eyes. More tears fall as I remember how I had come to stand here and why I was crying on my wedding day, a day most girls are happy.
He wouldn't have wanted me to cry. He would want me to be happy no matter what. If he were here he would tell me to cheer up and to stop living in the past and to pick up the pieces of my broken heart and move on. He gave great advice. He would always talk to me when I needed someone to talk to. He always gave me a shoulder to cry on. He was so loyal, a true Hufflepuff. I still remember the first time he spoke to me.
It was near the beginning of my first year, his third. I was lonely and very shy. I had few friends in my house at the time and I had just received word that my dog who I had shared everything with as a child had been hit by a muggle car and had died.
I tried to hold the tears that threatened to fall that autumn morning, but I couldn't. They had begun to fall on my toast that morning as they had done many times in my life. People were staring at me by this point. Some made attempts to comfort me, but I took little notice.
Cedric saw me cry. He rose from the Huffelpuff table walked over and sat in the empty seat next to mine. Some of the boys he was sitting with stared and one or two even laughed. He took no notice of them. His eyes were all for me.
"Why are you crying?" he asked me.
I showed him the letter. He read it and looked up at me.
"I lost a dog once. I know how you feel. He just went off exploring one day. He never came back."
"I'm sorry," I said.
"Don't be," he replied, "They say that when someone we love dies or leaves us they take a piece of our heart with them. That piece can never be fully returned, we will always miss them, but gradually we learn to love others and we remember the good times we spent with them and they become a fond memory and happiness gives that piece back, little by little."
"That's so poetic," I said drying my eyes, "What's your name?"
"Cedric," he said.
"Cho."
"That's a beautiful name."
"Thank you."
"May I have the honor of walking you to your next class?"
"Sure. I'd like that."
Cedric Diggory became my friend that day; when he gave me back a piece of my heart. He walked me to my next class and every class after that. We became great friends and soon I had begun to like him as more than a friend. I wondered at the time if he felt the same way about me.
By my 4th year Cedric wasn't my only friend any more. I had become much more confident and that alone had earned me many friends. It had also earned me a place on the Ravenclaw team, as seeker. The exact position Cedric played on the Hufflepuff team.
This made me really nervous. The idea of making a fool of myself on a broom in front of him was more terrifying then the idea of Sirus Black running around Hogwarts to the 14 year old me.
That passed. I was actually pretty good. Or at least I thought I was pretty good. My big head was put right when Ravenclaw played Gryffindor. Their seeker, Harry Potter had only ever lost one match. To Cedric, he had lost to Cedric.
I remember that game like it was yesterday. They flattened us. I was never more embarrassed in my life. I had lost a game in front of Cedric only to stare at Potter. I couldn't have feelings for him! No I just couldn't! I had seen the way Ginny looked at him. I wasn't going to mess things up.
My 5th year was the best and worst year of my life for several reasons. Enough reasons to fill a tear-stained photo album. At the center of all this was Cedric and Harry. Each gave me a piece of my heart; each would take one away later. I struggled with my crush on Harry and my growing love for Cedric.
He put his name in the Triwizard cup Cedric did, the very same day he asked me out, and I said yes as I had dreamed of doing since the day he first spoke to me. I remember that day well, it was of the happiest moments in my life.
He had approached me when I was walking to the great hall that morning. I was surrounded by a group of my giggly Ravenclaw friends as I was on most days. When he stopped in front of me my heart skipped a beat and I held his gaze as if he was the only thing in the room.
My friends giggled and walked away, whispering, as if they already knew what Cedric had come to say. Gossip gets around at Hogwarts.
"So," I said when they had disappeared from sight.
"So," he said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Cho," he began, his voice filled with sudden propose, "Do you, well. Huh, this is harder than I thought."
"What's harder than you thought?" I said.
Cedric smiled. "Asking the prettiest girl in the world if she wants to go out with me."
My heart was racing five times its normal speed now. "Would it be easier if you knew that that girl loved you?"
"It would be, because I love her too."
"I love you Cedric. While other girls stared at Victor Krum I stared at you. Nothing in the world could make me happier."
He said nothing more, all was said in the kiss we shared after that.
What I said back then was true, and it still is. Nothing has ever made me happier than finding out Cedric loved me. We would spend the next few months being happy together. I loved him so much it hurt.
It hurt when I saw him disappear into the maze that day. I didn't know if he would come out.
It hurt when he did come out. Dead. His body returned, his spirit didn't.
I still wonder today why that bloody cup had to chose Cedric, my Cedric.. Maybe if that thing had picked someone else it would be his mother that was comforting me and fixing my make-up. Maybe I would have gotten to be Mrs.. Cho Diggory.
How could I be so selfish? I was so proud of him at the time. All he wanted to do was to make his family proud, and to bring glory to the Huffelpuff house.
I remember Dumbledore calling his name. After that bloody cup had decided his fate. I screamed and cheered with the rest, he gave me a kiss on the cheek before he got up from the seat next to mine.
What came next shocked everyone. He wasn't the only Hogwarts champion.
Harry Potter. The boy, who had unknowingly made my life difficult over the past few months, was champion.
Fate liked him better. He came out of the maze alive, dragging Cedric's body with him.
He asked me to go to the Yule ball with him, Harry did. Of course Cedric had already asked me and I had said yes, but yet I wanted to kiss him, like Cedric. I liked him.
I told him no. It hurt him, I know it did. I took a piece of his heart that day, but I loved Cedric more. I had seen Ginny look at him. We weren't meant to be. I wouldn't interfere with that.
It was very hard to keep that promise when Cedric and I danced across the great hall. I saw Harry out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting with a girl from Gryffindor. He was staring at me. He stared at me the same way I stared at Cedric.
At that moment a small part of me wanted to go dance with Harry. The bigger part felt like a fairy tale princess dancing with her prince charming. No foolish knight was going to change that. The bigger part won when my eyes once again saw Ginny stare at him with such longing and passion.
I loved Cedric so much that it hurt.
It hurt me to see someone else I had almost grown to love stare at me.
It hurt when I talked to him for the last time, before we went to the third task.
"Cedric! Why do you have to do this?" I cried to him as he prepared to leave "People have died in these tasks Cedric. You, too, own a big piece of my heart Cedric, I don't want to lose you!"
He smiled. "You won't lose me Cho. I promise you that. I love you.." He wiped a tear from my cheek and kissed me softly, "But I want you to promise me one thing."
"What might that be?" I sniffled.
"Promise me that no matter what happens tonight you'll let someone else give you back the pieces of your heart. I don't think I'll die tonight but if I do, promise me you will move on and be happy with someone else. I want you to be happy no matter what. Pick up the pieces Cho."
A few hours later I sat in my seat at the third task. Fleur and Krum where no longer in the running for champion. It would be Cedric or Harry. I was at ecstatic when those horns blew, announcing the winner.
Then I saw him. Harry crying, Cedric's body. Nothing, nothing compared to how I felt at that moment. He was dead. Cedric Diggory, dead. He would never talk to me again. I cried and cried. I yelled and screamed. I begged him to get up. I hated myself for letting him compete; I knew I would never see him again.
And so Cedric took a piece of my heart.
I tried to move on. I knew he would have wanted me to be happy, but he was just too big a piece to lose. I never really moved on. I still wish that it was Cedric's mother that was fixing my ruined makeup and brushing my tangled hair.
I joined the D.A. in my fifth year to fight the very thing that had taken him from me and to get closer to Harry. I had begun to care for him as more than a friend.
I denied that I felt that way. I felt like I was betraying Cedric by loving him. Even as I kissed him, I cried.
I should have tried harder to forget. I loved Harry but I just couldn't forget. Harry and I sort of feel apart. He was just too busy with the destiny fate had in store for him. I just couldn't forget. We just couldn't be together.
And so Harry took a piece of my heart.
I cried then too. I loved him even though we weren't meant to be. Ginny was much better suited for Harry. Knowing that still didn't stop me from crying at their wedding all those years later.
Those first few years after Cedric and Harry were almost unbearable. I became more and more lonely and depressed. More than once I wondered why I was even still alive. My life was so meaningless without them. If it weren't for Sam I don't know where I would be now.
Sam is the name of the muggle I am preparing to marry. He's the person who tried his best to help me pick up the pieces of my broken heart. He always made me laugh. He made me forget about my broken heart and gave it time to heal.
Even so I still love Cedric and even as I walk down the aisle of the church in my wedding dress I miss him. I miss him even more when my eyes meet the eyes of Amos Diggory. Those eyes… there the same ones that meet mine before he disappeared into that maze, never to come out alive. I know that Cedric would be happy for me. I promise you this Cedric; I will pick up the pieces of my heart and learn to love another.
But I still love you Cedric Diggory… and I always will.
End.