Re-written version of my now-deleted story originally posted under the same name.
As well, this story will also be posted over at my HPFF account - the link is in my profile.
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Evermore, Evermore
Chapter One
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"Are you barking mad? Of course I deliberately chose not to do Potions with you this year."
As people packed themselves onto platform nine and three-quarters for the start of school train, I gaped at my best friend, Rebecca Lewis. To a casual eavesdropper who didn't know us, that statement would probably be enough for them to assume we weren't even friends, though. "What? But why? Why would you leave me to suffer through Snape's wrath all by myself?"
We pushed our way through the crowd towards the train doors, following behind her parents. A boy slammed into me as he passed, and I would've went flying if he hadn't steadied me apologetically, running off before I could yell at him to watch where he was going.
The ends of Bec's dead-straight fringe stopped just above her eyes as she glanced over her shoulder and gave me an incredulous look. She almost had to shout over the cacophony of voices and laughter and hooting owls and hissing cats and croaking toads. It was pure chaos. "You are barking."
"Bec, I'm serious. Why?" I demanded. As a stray elbow almost hit her in the face, she flicked her brown hair – that had the kind of straightness that I envied sometimes, considering my own hair only knew wild, practically untamable curls – around to slap the owner of the elbow in the face deliberately.
She leveled her gaze at me, "Aurora. You're easily the smartest person I know. But you're the over-achieving type who always thinks her best could be better to the point of being neurotic that it isn't good enough."
A frown pulled at my eyebrows as I shook my head, "I don't see how this is related to you not taking Potions with me."
Her voice became matter-of-fact, "Despite the fact that you're a genius who could singlehandedly solve world peace, no one wants to be your partner for potions. Ever. Including me."
I snorted, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly. "World peace?"
"Yes," she growled out, before shaking her head at me because I'd latched onto the wrong part of her explanation. "Your incessant drive to do more, even after completing work to the highest possible standard is severely off-putting and I don't think I can take another year of Potions with you when you're like that."
"What if I promise not to?" I pleaded. There was no way I wanted to face down Professor Severus Snape by myself for a whole year.
"Please," she laughed, rolling her eyes. "You like to drag your kicking and screaming partners down that horribly lit road to perfection with you. You're on your own."
"Some friend you are," I grumbled as we came to a stop near a train door, and she just grinned because she knew I'd let it go. For now.
"I'll be right behind you," she said after I thanked her parents for the lift to the train station, and Bec turned to say her goodbyes, hugging them, before shoving at her younger brother playfully. At ten years, he was too young to attend Hogwarts, and every time Bec left, he got upset because he couldn't go too.
I headed to the train doors, placing the cat carrier just inside before turning back to my trunk. I heaved at it, pushing it over to the edge of the doorway before jumping up on board to try to pull it up. I barely lifted it an inch off the platform before realizing that the only thing I would accomplish here was successfully snapping my back in half. Maybe I packed too many books this year, because it certainly felt heavier.
I jumped back down, wriggling my fingers under the edges of the bulky trunk and trying to push and slide it up on board. I was almost there when I felt my hands slipping, my palms slick with sweat. Oh no.
If I lost my grip, the whole trunk would topple back and land on me. I heaved some more, but my fingers just continued to slip around. Just as I was about to brace for the weight of a ton of books to fall back on me, the weight suddenly disappeared from my hands and I lost my balance, my knee jabbing onto the step of the train painfully.
I scrambled up quickly, looking up at whoever had helped me out when my eyes landed on God's gift to heterosexual females. No joke. God's gift.
Cedric Diggory.
Cedric bloody Diggory – the bloke every girl at Hogwarts was madly in love with. Even the ones who already had boyfriends had a hidden, secret crush on him. He received love letters on a daily basis. He was a Prefect. He was sickeningly nice.
My nose scrunched up in annoyance.
I did not like Cedric Diggory for one major reason; over-achieving was my thing, and he was trying to ruin it. He was the enemy, the competition – we were constantly in battle for the highest mark. Normally, I wouldn't mind, but the thing was, Cedric Diggory actually stood a chance of knocking me from the top spot.
So, naturally, we were at war. That may have been a bit dramatic, considering he was unaware of this fact and of my existence, but I was not going to come second to him.
Especially when he already had everything else. He had popularity, he was good at sports, he was Adonis reincarnated – everybody loved him. And to top it off, he was smart. If you took away my intelligence, all you'd have was a misplaced Ravenclaw, easily provoked and with a temper that was quick to rear its head.
He was already wearing his uniform, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, tie knotted loosely. With a polite quirk of his mouth, he looked down at me and held out a hand, "I'm Cedric Diggory."
Reluctantly, I shook his hand, "Aurora Marinova."
His mouth curved into a very nice smile, and for a second, I could see why girls called him the Hufflepuff Hottie. I wondered if he knew the names girls had for him.
He was tall, broad with a chiseled facial bone structure and soul-penetrating eyes. Think classically handsome with a kind of endearing modest charm and ever so slight brooding undertones that hinted at a keen mind. His DNA was obviously made up of a mortal mix of the Greek Gods. "You're lucky, you could've hurt yourself."
My contemplation of him immediately came to a stop, irritation flaring. Behind me, I could hear Bec laughing as she helped Sue Fawcett, our other best friend, lift her trunk up onto the train as well. My typically lazy, judgmental, completely black cat – though she was prone to fits of rambunctiousness – Belladonna sat in her cat carrier, watching Cedric with an unnervingly critical gaze, disapproving of him.
"What?" My question came out as a warning. If he knew me at all, he'd have known that was a dangerous tone. This was his opportunity to back-track from the line of thinking he currently had.
He didn't hear it, though. Instead, his brow furrowed, completely serious and baffled, as he asked, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like he was questioning my grip on reality, "You…do realize you're tiny, right? If that trunk fell on you, it'd kill you."
I stared at him with an expression of someone who'd just been slapped, eyes wide in blatant annoyance, jaw clenched. I could hear Bec and Sue's laughter subside, having finally managed to make their way onto the train properly, but they snapped up straight suddenly from their doubled over positions, glancing at each other and murmuring, "Oh no."
Yes, I hadn't grown an inch over four-foot-eleven in the last sixteen years, but that didn't mean I wanted to be reminded of it. And I'd had everything under control until he came along and helped me. My chin lifted into the air pointedly, a terse, aggravated countenance on my face, miffed.
"You're making fun of my height?" I asked incredulously, before shaking my head in disbelief at his audacity and huffing indignantly. Cedric Diggory had never spoken a single word to me and the first time he did, it was to insult my height? "I am perfectly capable of handling my own belongings, thank you very much."
His eyebrows shot up in surprise, clearly not expecting that response. But he shook his head easily, smiling politely, "I didn't mean to offend you. Have a great first year at Hogwarts!"
He was so earnest and oblivious. Then he turned around and started down the corridor.
My jaw dropped.
Did he just…
Did he just call me a First Year?!
My heart thrummed in my chest, anger flying through my system. I may have been shorter than average, and my green eyes may have been large, slightly wide-set, giving a child-like appearance, and my chest region may be practically nonexistent. But seriously?
How could he mistake me for a First Year?!
I went to lunge at him, tackle him, my hand reaching into my pocket to grab my wand so I could hex his ass into next year, but Bec's arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me back, trapping my arm. Cedric Diggory kept walking down the corridor, unaware of the scuffle taking place behind him as Sue helped to drag me back. I glared at his retreating figure, about to let loose a torrent of profanities at him for thinking I was a ruddy first year.
I wasn't that small. Maybe because he was such a giant freak of nature, everyone else just looked small to him.
"Just let it go," Bec was saying, trying to restrain my struggling.
Sue's wavy blonde hair fell into her eyes as she jumped in front of me, holding her hands out to impede my progress. "I'm a Prefect," she reminded, "please don't make me deduct points for fighting before we've even reached Hogwarts. Again."
"He just implied I'm short enough to be a first year!" I shrugged them off. "And Kenneth Towler deserved it, the git."
I took a deep breath, releasing the tension in my shoulders. They were right. I knew they were right. It was easier to provoke me than I wanted it to be, but I couldn't help it. Sometimes, all my thinking, all my reasoning and logic and rational thought processes went out the proverbial window, and I'd be swept up in whatever emotion had powered through me at that particular time.
It was almost like I felt it so strongly that there was no more room inside my body for anything else but that feeling. It consumed every part of me, every appendage, every cell. I didn't even think past the sudden instinct – I had no idea what I would've done once I'd tackled Diggory.
"You are short enough to be a first year!" Bec sighed. I scrunched up my nose at her, huffing, but the anger had gone just as quickly as it had come. "Come on, you know it was an accidental insult."
"I don't know," I grumbled, running my fingers through my unruly black curls. "He's supposed to be smarter than that."
Sue snorted a laugh, "Let's just go find a compartment."
"Fine."
A/N: Thanks so much for reading!
Let me know what you thought! Continue, maybe?