THE BEGINNING
July 1989
A young boy of eleven opened his eyes as the sunlight cut through his bedroom window. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and ran his hand through his messy light brown locks. Bedhead was something he was perpetually cursed with. He pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around his room. It was littered with memorabilia of his favorite teams: Puddlemere United and the Chudley Canons. There was no doubt about it, when he grew up he wanted to play Quidditch professionally. Suddenly, he remembered what day it was, and it seemed that the boy had a much better reason for getting out of bed this morning!
As he dragged himself out of bed he went over to his closet and reached into the back pulling out his favorite bit of memorabilia: his father's yellow and black tie; his tie from Hufflepuff House. The boy's father had been Hufflepuff Prefect in his sixth year and so had his mother. That's how they had met. Right before the Dark Times of Lord Voldemort, his parents had married and joined The Order of the Phoenix. But even after all the terrible events during the Dark Times, the boy's parents could not say enough wonderful things about their years at school.
The boy wanted what his parents had. He wanted to go away to school and meet the love of his life as his parents had. He wanted to have an adventure.
As he hurried down the stairs he heard hooting outside his house. He glanced out the window before continuing down the stairs. A brown barn owl swooped down from the sky holding a single white envelope in its beak. Releasing the envelope, the owl flew away and the envelope glided into the mail slot of the nearby house and landed squarely in the lap of the young boy who sat under the mail slot patiently waiting. A slow smile spread across his face as he looked down at the writing on the parchment envelope.
Cedric Andrew Diggory
11 Stratford Lane
Ottery Saint Catchpole
England
Cedric ripped open the envelope and read the piece of parchment within it:
Dear Mr. Diggory,
We are delighted to inform you of your acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
Cedric smiled as a stray strand of his light brown locks fell into his sparkling grey eyes. He tucked the hair behind his ear as he pushed himself up off the ground and ran into the next room shouting, "Mum! Dad! I got it! My Hogwarts letter is finally here!"
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Cedric's first two years at Hogwarts blew by and before he knew it he was on the Hogwarts Express about to head into his third year. He pulled his trunk through the portal to Platform 9 ¾ and left his trunk for the baggage handlers while he said his last goodbyes to his parents.
"Have a good year, son," his father said, hugging him.
"Dad!" Cedric whined through clenched teeth. He could always could on his father to thoroughly embarrass him.
"Do you have everything? Your robes? Your tie? Your Hogsmeade permission form?" his mum asked concernedly.
"Yes, Mum. You've already asked me three times and you helped me pack my trunk," Cedric reminded her.
"Okay, good. I love you," his mum said as she kissed her son on the cheek.
"Love you too, Mum. I'll see you at Christmastime," Cedric said, giving her one last hug and waving goodbye behind him before climbing onto the train.
"Oy! Cedric!"
Cedric turned to see his best friend Liam Reed hurrying toward him.
"Hullo, mate," Cedric said, waving at him.
"Compartment's down there. Way ahead of you, Diggory. Hey! Did you hear? Harry Potter's come to Hogwarts!" Liam looked excited at the prospect of meeting the famous boy.
"Yeah, Dad mentioned it. Where do you suppose he is?" Cedric asked, looking over his shoulder for no apparent reason.
"Dunno," Liam said, "but let's go into the compartment. Maybe we'll see him on the way."
As Cedric and Liam made their way to their compartment they were greeted by their friends Fred and George Weasley, who said that Harry Potter was wandering around with their younger brother who was starting his first year as well. The twins joined Liam and Cedric in their compartment.
"Blimey! I can't believe it's Harry Potter!" Liam said, still amazed at the celebrity of it all.
"He seems a little weird to me," George said.
"Yeah," Fred agreed, "he doesn't say much at all, really."
Cedric listened as his friends chatted on about Harry Potter as he looked out the window watching the countryside go by in a flash. Cedric heard the compartment door slide open and he looked over to see Cho Chang in the doorway. Cho was a sweet second year that he had met last year when she had told him that she thought him attractive. Although he didn't feel the same way about her, he didn't want to be rude, and was always kind when he saw her.
"Hullo, Cedric," Cho said, smiling sheepishly and looking down at her shoes.
"Hullo, Cho. Nice holiday?" Cedric asked.
"Yes, thanks. I was wondering if you wanted anything from the trolley because I'm on my way over there."
"No thanks, Cho. I'll see you later maybe," Cedric said, smiling at her before she quickly shut the door and scurried away.
The boys whistled and hooted at Cedric and he said huffily to them, "What are you on about? I don't like her. I've told her and I don't understand why she keeps flirting with me!"
The boys continued to tease Cedric, only stopping when it was time to change into their school robes.
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The first month of school passed quickly and before Cedric knew it, Halloween was upon the students of Hogwarts.
On Halloween, Cedric, Liam, and the twins were outside in the courtyard chatting after class when Cedric saw Harry Potter, the twins' younger brother Ron, and a few of their friends all laughing and talking about someone as a small girl with bushy brown hair stormed past them crying. Cedric was shocked that they could be so mean as to talk about the girl when she was right there and after they were a bit further away, Cedric excused himself from his friends and went in search of the girl.
Cedric knew that he had seen her in the library on the occasion that he was there and so he decided to try there first. All the way in the back of the library he heard soft whimpers and found the girl huddled in a ball, her knees hugged at her chest, crying quietly.
"Excuse me?" Cedric said softly.
The girl turned to face the corner and sniffled, "Go away."
"Maybe I can help you," Cedric said, placing a hand on her shoulder. He felt her flinch under his touch.
"No thank you," the girl said, wiping his hand off her.
"Suit yourself," Cedric said, "but I'm just going to sit right here when you're ready to talk."
Cedric slid down the wall into a sitting position and watched as the girl wiped her eyes with her palms and turned around saying, "Why are boys so horrible?"
Cedric laughed in spite of himself, "Usually because we're smitten over a girl."
"So you make fun? That makes no sense."
"Girls don't make any sense to us either, Hermione Granger."
"How do you know my name?" she asked, turning to face him.
"I have my ways," he said with a sly smile. "I'm Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff," he stated, holding out his hand.
Instead of taking his hand, Hermione threw herself into his arms, sobbing. Cedric wrapped his arms around her and said soothingly, "There, there. Boys your age are still immature. You need someone older and more mature. I hear how smart you are. You can do with someone a bit older than yourself.
"Really?" Hermione asked, pulling away to look at him.
As his grey eyes locked with her brown ones, something sparked. Cedric knew something sparked between them. This was no magic he could find in a spell book; this was the magic his parents found at Hogwarts.
He smiled an almost knowing smile saying, "Yes, really."
