A/N~ Hey! I'm posting this after my long Harry Potter Hiatus! I think this story is more developed and more descriptive than the rest, and longer too! Sense I got these requests I figured I'd try to incorporate them in my next piece! Also, make sure you check out Olive Greene she's this great new writer I found on here (And also a friend) and I'm really liking her stuff. )
My brother says I was built by Harlem. That instead of being made of cells and sperm, my bones were made of highways, my heart the beating rhythm of car horns.
My body is the city. The blood flowing through my veins is from the sewers, the main water supply makes up the contents of my stomach where boats cast their sails and throw down their anchors.
I am not flesh, but dirt and pavement and skyscrapers.
–Excerpt from a story I'm writing
Once, as I was falling off what must have been the edge of the earth, I saw the ground jumping at me, and wondered if the grass had a heartbeat. When I look at it now, I think it does. The wind rolls through the hills and I breathe. The sun was so hot that sweat was starting to mat blond locks against my neck, and my skin was burning red, but the train didn't leave until tomorrow, and I had nowhere else worth being.
"You're not very good at this whole hiding thing." Cedric says from behind me. I could tell he was expecting me to turn, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Instead, for his sake, I wipe the sweat from my face and neck, tying up the loose curls around my head in a knot atop my head.
"Who says I'm hiding?" I quirk a brow at him. To be honest, I wasn't so happy about him showing up here. Sure it was public property, as parks usually were, but staring at Hogwarts' golden boy when your face was bare and your hair was unwashed was enough to shoot anyone's confidence.
"I know you too well, Bey." He throws around my last name as if he calls me it often, sitting next to me on my patch of grass. The park was nearly empty. Though the green hills were often full of young kids, many of them were too nervous about their first day of first year to be out and about this last week of August.
In truth, Cedric did know me too well. More often than not, we would sit on these hills and talk about everything we couldn't talk about to everyone else. We shared out expectations, from others and ourselves, and our goals; our fears and our accomplishments. We had no judgment for each other. We could brag freely, without the need to feign modesty or embarrassment. We also shared humor, and hopes, and inspirations, and once, a kiss.
"You're inner coward is showing." I accuse, and his brows shoot up.
"Is that so?" He chuckles, as if he finds me amusing.
"It is. I think you're afraid to go back for fourth year." I counter, and he grins that grin he gets only when he thinks that I know HIM too well.
"Stand up." He tells me, as if it's a challenge. As if I should rise for the occasion. I stand, and he circles me, as if appraising something. In a second, he charges me, throwing me over his shoulder. Before I could yell, he charged down the steeps hill.
My arms spread wide as I open my eyes to watch the grass flash by beneath me. We called this flying. it was the closest I'd ever gotten without a broom. When he reaches the end of the hill, Cedric falls down in exhaustion, bringing me with him. In a fit of hysterics, I push myself on the ground, ready to curse at him.
"That you Diggory?" Fred Weasley calls from a few feet away, where he stands with his twin, brooms slung over their shoulders from a game in their backyard. "Come for dinner, have you?"
As far as friends go, the Weasley's were good people.
Besides making jabs about height, or rather, my severe lack of it, they were amusing. My head whips back and forth as the twins banter with their mother about whether or not she had invited us for dinner or not. In the end, we stayed. Cedric's dad and Arthur Weasley were good friends, Cedric tells me, and he was invited over a few times for dinner these days.
"Mum, I-" Ron Weasley walks in the room, stopping short when he sees me. For a minute, I half expect him to openly question why I'm here. Then, deep blush covers his face and he looks away, seating himself at the other end of the table. I didn't really know Ron, but he was in my year at school, and he was friends with Harry Potter.
Being a Gryffindor, I had a good number of friends, all of whom seemed to like Ron and his family, so I figured I might as well do so. That and his mother makes good pork. I stick another piece in my mouth at the thought.
"Looks like Ron's found himself a crush." George elbows Fred, who smirks at his younger brother.
"Have not!" Ron jumps up, his face red, as he avoided my gaze. I myself had three older brothers. I felt his pain. The torment was endless.
"I'll steal you a pair of her knickers." Cedric winks at him, which makes me blush. It wasn't so much the mention of undergarments, as much as it was the mention of MY undergarments that had my cheeks ablaze. Cedric getting them had the slight indication that he's seen them before, or that he sees them often. I had half a mind to stand up from the table and announce that I was NOT sleeping with Cedric Diggory, and we were in no way in cahoots, except for the one time that we kissed a year ago, but that didn't even count because I had just scrapped my knee. I stay seated though, and kick him under the table.
"Sorry I'm late." Harry Potter walks into the room, and for a few seconds, I can't think of anything smart to say.
"This is-" Cedric introduces me, but Potter cuts him off.
"Tennyson Bey." He says, than blushes and looks away, as if I would think he was a stalker or something. "Doesn't everyone know that?" He covers for himself. I wonder what he means by that. I was in no way loud or obnoxious or anything of that sort. I liked to think of myself as well put together. Strong even. And if it came down to it, I'd like to be thought of as interesting. I bit my lip, tucking some hair behind my ear. Cedric looks at me, holding my eyes for a minute. Whenever he did something like this, I always remember how he said I had the nicest blue eyes he'd ever seen. It was my first compliment from Cedric, and it was something I cherished like a newborn child.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask Cedric, when Potter has taken his seat, and the twins go off in a story of adventure.
"It means everyone knows who you are, Tenn." He rolls his eyes, forcing a whole dinner roll in his mouth. At first I think he means because I was friends with him. Then, I wasn't so sure.
"But why? I don't know half the people in my House, let alone the whole school." I squint at him. Was I the butt of immature jokes? Did children laugh about me when I walked past them in corridors, and imitate me during charades to get a good laugh?
"Have you seen yourself, Bey?" He looks me up and down, and I feel my heart sink into my stomach. I knew I wasn't as good looing as Cedric, but I didn't think I was so helpless as to be made fun of. I was no Snape. "You're gorgeous." He meets my eyes that state clearly how unfunny I think he is, and his sighs in exhaustion. "Guys literally trip when you walk in a room." He tells me, but I wave him off. I didn't want to talk about it anymore.
"Pass the pumpkin juice please." I look at Ron, who sits halfway between me and the juice. He fumbles for a second; almost spitting out the food he had in his mouth while he nodded. He passed down the jug, smiling at me through his pork. A laugh escaped me as I thanked him, taking the jug and pouring myself a cup.
When dinner was done, I figured it was time to get home, but Cedric had a different idea. Walking to the living room, I squeezed myself in a seat between him and Harry, resting my arms in my lap. "Let's play a game." I suggest, and everyone nods in agreement. Though I suggested it, I had no idea what game should actually be played, and instead let Cedric take it from there.
"How about truth or dare?" Cedric suggests, and everyone nods in agreement, except Ron who doesn't know how to play. After a few rounds, Fred was sitting on his brother's lap, Cedric had Harry's underwear on his head, and I was wearing my bra outside of my shirt. Also, we had found out who George's last girlfriend was, and how many times Ron threw up before his first fay of first year.
"Tennyson." Fred calls on me, "Truth or dare?" I look at the people around me. This was definitely a dare kind of crowd.
"Dare." I say as if I'm doomed, because who had a better dare than Fred Weasley?
"I dare you….." He trails off, looking around the room. Suddenly, his face light sup, and then he smirks at me, and I know I'm done for. "I dare you to kiss Draco Malfoy tomorrow."