Getting the Guy

Chapter One: Meet Sarah The Tomboy

A/N: This is just a short story, and isn't expected to go over six or seven chapters (at least I hope). As for why I wrote this story? I used to write Harry Potter fanfics way back when, but never published them, and wanted to try again to see if I could still come up with something good.

So here, it is. A Cedric Diggory fanfic for your reading pleasure.

(By the way, in this story, he is alive and well...not dead, and the twins are in the same year as him)

Enjoy.

Hi. For those who don't know me, my name is Sarah.

Sarah Nelson.

I know, what the hell does that have to do with anything?

I'll give you a good reason why it does.

I'm a witch.

How did I find out?

I got a letter from Hogwarts, that's how.

But the messed up part?

I'm American, not British.

So you're probably wondering, why are you going to Hogwarts when there are plenty of schools in America that educate wizards?

Simple.

I'm nothing but trouble. I used to get into so much mischief, and apparently these wizard people knew this.

And my parents wanted me out of the house. To be blunt, they are tired of me.

Honestly, what is wrong with me? I'm just a troubled adolescent trying to express herself!

I think they love my stupid muggle brother more than they love me.

Yes, I have a brother. His name is Walter.

Unfortunately, we're twins…but no one would ever know it from looking at us.

He has a blond afro, and I recently dyed my hair hot pink and gelled it up into a Mohawk (it's actually a poof, but I just pretend it's a Mohawk). I also had several peircings. Two on my left eyebrow, a lip ring, a tongue piercing, and a nose ring. I must have had three pairs of gauged holes in my ears too, but who really cared?

We were quite the pair. Don't get me wrong, I love my brother to death, but I also feel that my parents favor him over me.

I don't understand why. Walter is the biggest spaz of all time. He can trip over flat surfaces, he's crashed three of my parent's cars, and he always leaves the house with a comb stuck in his hair (he doesn't know it until he comes home from school).

What else?

He's a clean freak! I can't friggin stand him when he's cleaning everything he sees.

I think he as OCD, but my parents (who are child psychologists) firmly believe he is just expressing himself and pursuing his interests.

What a bunch of bullcrap!

So anyways, it was the end of summer and I was going into my seventh and final year at Hogwarts.

Once again I would be leaving Brooklyn and going off to jolly old England with all those stuck up jerks!

Well, not all of them were jerks. Unlike here in New York, I actually had friends.

The Weasley twins, Lee Jordan, and the famous Golden Trio.

I was two years ahead of Harry Potter and his friends, but we were all in the same house.

As for Fred and George, I was in the same year as them…as well as another special person.

Okay, it was a guy. But not just any guy…

It was Cedric Diggory.

The same Cedric who almost died in the tri-wizard tournament last year, but was saved by Harry Potter. Rumors flew around that Voldemort had used Avada Kedavra on him, but Harry blocked it with a shield spell, miraculously saving Cedric's life.

And the guy has been grateful to him ever since. Now they're practically best friends (not that Harry doesn't have enough friends) and Cho Chang broke up with him because of that.

So in other words, Cedric is single.

And this year…I was going to go for it.

The next night I arrived at the King Cross Station in London by myself.

This was how it always was. I would fly over here alone and arrive at the train station by myself.

During my first year, it was different. Professor McGonagall was my guide and brought me to Diagon Alley to get school supplies and bring me to the train station.

But she never told me how to get to platform 9 ¾...

-0-0-0-0-

I was standing between platforms 9 and 10, completely clueless. I thought for sure someone could've been playing a practical joke on me…

Then Cedric came along with his father.

"Now Cedric, just run right through the barrier when the muggles aren't around, and you'll be on platform 9 ¾ in no time."

"Okay dad."

"Hey you there, do you need some help too?"

"Uh…yes. I don't know how to get to platform 9 ¾."

"Just watch Cedric, and you can go in right after him."

"Okay."

After Cedric went through the barrier, I followed through after him.

"Do you want to ride in a car together?" He asked me. "I don't really know anyone here."

"Sure," I said taking some of my things with me.

That day we sat together in the box car at the end of the train with a few other kids, and got to know each other.

"So you're from New York, what are you doing here?"

"Apparently I have issues and my parents wanted me as far away as possible."

"That's too bad. My mother died after I was born."

"I'm sorry." I said.

"It's okay. So, what house do you think you'll end up in?"

"They have houses? Is that like those Greek houses or something?"

"What?"

"Sorry, it's an American muggle thing."

"Anyways, our houses are named after the four founders of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin."

"Wow. That's wacked right there."

"Wacked? Is that another American thing?"

"Yes. It's another way of saying weird or crazy. Kind of like how they say wicked in Boston."

"Wicked?"I

t took me a while to explain all the New Yorker things to Cedric, but he seemed to understand once we got off the train.

-0-0-0-0-

After that, we were separated into different houses and he never spoke to me again. He became Mr. Popular-big man on campus, and I became the weird tomboy from New York that snorts when she laughs.

But there was one thing I had that he didn't have…

Fred and George.

Those two were my best friends in the whole world, and probably better than I was at causing trouble and pulling pranks.

During our third year, I got this crazy idea to prank Cedric, so the three of us ended up sneaking dungbombs into his cauldron during potions class.

It was pretty funny, seeing Snape run out of the room covered in dung, and Cedric trying to get it out of hair.

To this day, I swear that I can get a whiff of it whenever he lights his cauldron during potions class. The best part is that he never found out it was us.

Yeah, we're cool like that.

So now I was sitting between them at the sorting hat ceremony, watching all those scared little first years getting placed into houses, pretty much against their will.

But out of that, we got eighteen new Gryffindors.

"So Sarah, how was your summer?" Fred asked. "Did those extendable ears work out well for you?"

"Yeah, but there was something I discovered."

"What did you discover?" George asked.

"Do not use them on your siblings girlfriends!"

I was curious about what my brother and his girlfriend were talking about…and let's just say it was an interesting conversation."

"Of course not," Fred said. "I really don't want to know what Fleur is doing to poor Bill."

All of us laughed.

"So let's move on to the skiving snack boxes, did they really work?"

"Oh yes they did. The puking pasties got me out of visiting my grandmother in New Jersey."

"So you didn't vomit uncontrollably?" Fred asked.

"Nope. But those nosebleed nougats aren't that great. Walter almost passed out when I gave him one."

"Not good," George said. "Your muggle brother knows?"

"No. He just thought it was some wacked out wizard candy. Walter isn't exactly a genius."

Lee Jordan came over a minute later, and soon all of us were talking about Quidditch.

"So does anyone think Gryffindor will actually win this year?" Lee asked.

"Um…good question," I said. "Wood is gone, so we'll need a new keeper. Angelina definitely has her work cut out for her this year."

"Sarah, you could be keeper."

"Um. No. Do you remember what happened last time I tried to ride a broom?"

"Yeah, you crashed into Cedric."

"Ooooh!" Fred said. "Now that Chang is out of the picture, what do you plan on doing about that?"

I rolled my eyes at his comment, but deep down, I wanted to jump up and down and tell everyone that I was going to win him over this year.

"Uh…maybe I'll get him to help me with my Charms homework…or something…"

Lee laughed.

"Sarah, we all know that you could kick Diggory's butt any day of the week in Charms."

"You don't need to dumb yourself down for him to like you." I turned around and Hermione had joined our conversation.

'Easy for you to say,' I thought. 'Krum was all over you last year, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ron marries you one day.'

"Speaking of Diggory, here he comes right now," Ginny said.

"What?" I looked up and Cedric was walking by our table, looking as perfect and handsome as ever.

Nearly every girl in the room had their eyes on him. A group of first year girls smiled and waved as he walked by, and they nearly died when he smiled back at them.

That smile of his…I wished that he would smile at me for a change.

Cedric was Head Boy at Hogwarts, which meant not only was he ridiculously popular, but he also had to be a goody-two shoes.

Not like me, the girl who is one of the four class clowns in our year.

Cedric didn't think highly of us. We were the ones giving him the hardest time.

Well…Fred, George and Lee were.

But we were good at not getting caught.

Harry and his friends weren't. Every year they cost our house at least 100 points, but somehow they always redeem themselves by earning back 250 points.

When Cedric walked by me, I instantly looked up at him.

"I hope you four plan on behaving this year…unless you want my house to win the cup this year."

What a bastard! How dare he say that? What makes him think Hufflepuff would ever win the house cup? They suck at everything!

It sounded like Helga Hufflepuff got the shaft after the other three houses took the purebloods, brave hearts, and geniuses and put them in their houses. And what was Helga left with?

The rest. But they weren't misfits. Do not get me wrong, the kids in Hufflepuff are nice and all, but they have no chance of winning the house cup.

Not with Gryffindor and Slytherin constantly going at it. Our houses have had a rivalry for over a thousand years, and were weren't going to let some lame badger house take that from us!

"Behaving? What does that mean again, George?"

"I don't know Fred, but I don't think it sounds like fun. Not with Umbridge wanting to run our school."

"Into the ground," I added. Lee laughed and gave me a high five.

Cedric simply looked at us as if we were a bunch of mutated swamp freaks, and simply walked away.

"Harry, how are you…"

"Prick," Lee said. "I'm sorry Sarah, but I really don't know what you see in him."

"Yeah, he's almost as bad as Percy," Ginny said.

"Now, now. I know we don't all approve of Diggory, but he owes all of us after Harry saved his life last year. The very least he could do is take our Sarah on a date."

"Date?" I sunk into my seat. "Who would want to date me?"

"Not even a troll would want you." I turned around, and stupid Draco Malfoy decided to enter our conversation. Standing behind him were his two idiot troll friends, Crabbe and Goyle.

I would rather get a root canal than associate with those three losers. "Get lost twerp!"

"Twerp? You American mudlboods never cease to amaze me. So, you really think that Diggory would want to date you?"

"Ha! How would you like to have more adventures in Goyle's underwear as a ferret? Professor Moody isn't the only one who knows that spell." I wanted to reach for my wand, but I wouldn't want to waste any entertaining magic on him…Not after spending three weeks worth of detentions with Snape.

"Draco! Some stupid girl wants to talk to you," Pansy shouted from afar.

"Well then, duty calls. Diggory may be head boy, but I am still a hot commodity."

He walked away, making sure to bump into a group of second years, and Goyle made sure to knock a Ravenclaw into the table on their way out.

"What a git!" Hermione said. "Honestly, I think the girls would rather kill him than go out with him."

I looked over at the Hufflepuff table, only to see that Cedric was surrounded by pretty girls.

"But he is right…Cedric is never going to look at me…like this." I looked at my reflection on the golden plates.

I was a tomboy.

I didn't look anything like those girls that Cedric was paying attention to.

I sighed and simply watched as Ron and Hermione (the new prefects) showed them to the Gryffindor dormitory on the seventh floor.

This was going to be a very long year…

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