Written for THC Round 7

Ravenclaw

6th

Standard: [Pairing] Hermione Granger/Cedric Diggory

Word count will be at end.

AN: This is an AU, Cedric never died and Voldemort was defeated in Harry's forth year. This is set several years after Hermione has graduated from Hogwarts.

Hermione

Hermione took a deep breath and sighed, leaning her head back against the chair she sat in. Books and scrolls of parchment were scattered all over the table, ink bottles bottles open several broken quills laid upon the table. There were several ink spots on her hand, she realized too late, as she reached up to rub her eyes with one hand.

Writing a letter was so frustrating.

Sighing again, she leaned forward, grabbing a quill that wasn't broken, dipped it into the ink pot, and set the tip against the paper. Then the tip just stayed there.

She stared at the ink that was gathering into a big dot, watching as the ink dot grew larger and larger. She took the quill off of the parchment, setting it down and leaned her elbows in the table, placing her head in her hands.

Why couldn't she write this bloody letter?

She had it all in her mind, all laid out. She'd write her little greeting, like you'd do on any letter, and then she'd confess. Confess her love for the man she had fallen in love with. How she had fallen in love with his loyalty, with his kindness, with his handsomeness. How, when he helped Harry in their fourth year, how the crush all began.

But, for some reason, she just couldn't write the words down. And she didn't know why.

Maybe it was because she was scared. Scared he would reject her? Scared he'd never reply? Scared he would laugh at her and tell her that he would never date someone like her?

Hermione shook her head. She was Hermione, the girl who never backed down from something. And writing this letter?

Well, it was a challenge she wouldn't back down from.

Tucking her slightly frazzled hair behind an ear, she took a deep breath as she slipped the letter she had finished writing into an envelope. She placed it on the table before her, taking up her quill, and leaned over to write the name of the man she had fallen in love with on the back.

She paused, though, the quill inches from the paper. Would he know who it was by the writing? No, he shouldn't be able to, he'd never even seen her writing. Unless he had once? She can't really remember if he ever did.

She shook her head and placed the tip of the quill against the envelope and wrote in precise and loopy cursive:

Cedric Diggory

Setting the quill down, she stared at the writing. Then she stood up and began to pick up all of the pieces of parchments that had likes and words crossed and scribbled out. She piled them in her arms and made it over to the trash that was in her dormitory, dropping them in.

All of them started with the same line: Dear Cedric Diggory . . .

Cedric

He tapped the envelope he had gotten, wondering who had sent it to him. It certainly hadn't been his mother, nor had it been his father. It probably could have been another fan but it didn't look like one; he'd know had it been one.

He traced the loopy writing, reading his name to himself.

He turned the envelope over, lifted up the flap, and took out the parchment. He unfolded it and flattened it out on the table, turning to make sure the light was bright enough, before he turned back around and began to read.

Dear Cedric Diggory,

You probably don't even remember me. Hermione Granger, the muggle-born known for being too smart and too uppity when it came to answering questions in class. The girl who was most likely annoying, and the girl you probably never even noticed. Which is fine, too, because no one really noticed me.

But I noticed you. In all honesty, it's strange, in a way. I noticed you only because you helped Harry during the tournament. You told him to place the egg underwater and listen, you helped him defeat Voldemort when you guys were portkeyed to the graveyard. You helped my friend, and I couldn't help but notice you.

Then it turned into something more than noticing. I don't know what I would've called it, maybe a crush, maybe me just being me. I don't know. All I know is that I couldn't stop thinking of you.

I realized my feelings about two years after you had graduated. I was in sixth year by then, and then, bam!, it hit me. I liked you. A lot. But I didn't know how to tell you, especially since we had never talked nor even spent any time together. So I never tried to reach you, never wrote anything. Nothing.

Recently, my feelings for you decided to let themselves be known. I've been thinking about you nonstop, day and night, and it just won't stop. Words run through my head on all the different ways I could tell you I like you, but none of them ever sound good.

You know that feeling you get when you have a word or several words on the tip of your tongue but you can't remember or don't remember what they were? That's how it is for me.

But, I think I finally found the words I wanted to say.

Cedric Diggory, I, Hermione Granger, am in love with you.

That's it. Really. It's fine if you don't like me that way, I'll probably move on after and forget it. But maybe I won't.

I'm in love with you.

Truly,

Hermione Granger

Hermione

She stared at the two sentences that were written on the piece of paper the owl had dropped before her. Her coffee sat forgotten as her trembling hands picked up the parchment and red the words again.

Hogsmeade, The Three Broomsticks, 1:00, tomorrow. Meet me there.

A smile spread across her face as she picked up her coffee and took a sip. She couldn't wait for tomorrow.

[word count: 996]