I'll Wait for You

Rating: M for safety, although it should perhaps be T

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Harry Potter…unless, of course, you count the movies, the books, some posters, and a few calendars. I do own most of this plot. For other information on that, see below on the author's note. Though, I must confess, I wish I owned Cedric Diggory. That would be my heaven!

A/N: Fleur/Cedric pairing. Please don't flame, unless you actually have some real advice.

I must admit, not all of this stuff is mine. Some are direct quotes or ideas taken from either authors ShanMah or Miarae's works. Most is of this stuff is mine, though. I started thinking about Cedric and Fleur when I saw them onscreen, played by Robert Pattinson (oh, yum) and Clémence Poésy (the hot/beautiful French girl—no, I am not a lesbian). Much of this was inspired by ShanMah and Miarae's stuff, so thanks to them! They are great writers, and you all ought to check their stuff out sometime. This fanfic is mainly based off of what happens in the movies.

Writtenpartly forLiveJournals fanfic100 challenge community. Prompt030 - Death

I'm finally out of this stupid Triwizard Tournament. I almost wish I had never entered. I've faced things in this tournament that nobody should have to. Especially when Viktor Krum hexed me—but I forgive him, as he appeared to be under the influence of a curse—perhaps the Imperius.

Let me go back a few months and tell you how this all started.

Madame Maxime forced me to enter. She told me that my parents would be proud, and this made me want to do some, shall we say, unladylike actions.

My parents wouldn't have cared. My parents couldn't care. My parents…

Maybe they weren't dead. But they were dead to me. They abandoned Gabriele and I when I was only four years old, making Gabriele barely a few months old. I don't know why, and neither do any of my relatives, or so they say. All they have ever told me was that my mother was an alcoholic and that my father was an even worse one. We've lived with my grandmother since then.

After my parents left, I felt that I could never love again. I was broken, confused, and scared. I never wanted to trust anyone again. I even shut myself off from Gabriele, my sister, the closest person to me.

When I heard about the Triwizard Tournament, I never knew that it would be this challenging. I thought it was a waste of time. I wondered why the Ministry had even bothered to bring it back. People had died in this tournament before.

I thought this all before I finally arrived at Hogwarts. I must admit, I expected better from someone with a name such as Dumbledore. I never thought I'd be at home, or feel even the slightest bit comfortable here. It seemed cold, dreary, and extremely unimpressive compared to what we have back at Beauxbatons.

Then I saw you. You walked in during the middle of Dumbledore's speech, a welcome distraction, in all of your handsome glory. Nobody seemed to notice you, except for me, as if you were ordinary. But you weren't. No ordinary person could have attracted me to you the way that you did. You were, in short, to quote one of those famous American pop singers, a beautiful disaster. Everything about you made me feel as if I had been waiting for you my whole life. The way you smiled, the way you walked with such confidence and grace, and the way your eyes twinkled when you laughed. The way that you treated everyone with kindness and respect.

And when I saw you, I knew that you were that man. The man that I had been waiting for my entire life. You were everything I could have hoped for; talented, pleasing to the eye, brave, and kind. Abruptly, I decided that I was glad I had rejected all of those boys at my school who had only asked me out because of my undeniable beauty, being part veela and all. I had been waiting for you my whole life, before I had even met you.

"Hey Cedric!" someone whispered loudly, and you smiled at them.

So, your name was Cedric. The name rolled nicely off of my tongue, and I felt inclined to say it over and over again.

After I was done scrutinizing every inch of you trying not to be totally obvious, I realized who you were laughing your beautiful laugh with and smiling your knee-weakening smile to. It was a beautiful, seemingly Asian girl who had long, gleaming black hair flowing down to the middle of her back. She was pretty, glamorous, and anything but ordinary. To make matters even worse in my eyes, you were holding her hand and walking entirely too close to her.

You caught me staring at you, and had I been standing up I would have fallen over immediately. You seemed completely oblivious to the fact that I was part veela and that half of the people in the Hogwarts Great Hall, men and women alike, were staring at me. You only had eyes for the girl beside you. Then, after you held my gaze for a few seconds, you smiled.

This caused me to promptly drop the goblet of pumpkin juice I had been holding, dumping it all over the table and partly on my sister. I didn't even notice, because I was too busy looking at you.

I came back down to earth once again when you walked the girl to her table, and with a smile returned to your own. I didn't even know this boy, I thought to myself. Just because he had amazing physical features didn't mean that I should stare at him inappropriately in such a way, and besides, he had that girl.

Speaking of which, that girl made me want to scream and tear my hair out. I had bet that she didn't even deserve you, and perhaps there was the chance that she really didn't. Her name, I found out, was Cho. The famous Harry Potter himself seemed to have taken a liking to her also, as I derived from his constant glancing in her direction.

I would wait for you. Patiently. And I would wait until you noticed me. I never was really the type to wait for someone, but for you, I would. I knew you would be worth it.

But half of the men at my school were swooning over me; I could have any of them! They were all nice, polite, well brought up; gentlemen. Instead, I felt obliged to want the one thing that I knew I couldn't have.

You.

A few days later, I had entered into the Tournament and was in the Great Hall, waiting for the Goblet of Fire to choose the champions. When he called my name and my friends cheered, I felt a little happy, but that was it. So what if I was in the Tournament, representing Beauxbatons? Half of my school hadn't even had the courage to consider placing their names in the Goblet, let alone actually do it.

I walked confidently into the room where the champions would eventually all meet together and discuss the first task, seeing Viktor Krum already sitting in a chair next to a large fire. He merely grunted in acknowledgement, so I ignored him.

As I sat, waiting for the other champion and Madame Maxime, my thoughts were on you. Would it be awkward if I tried to talk to you about my sudden feelings for you, especially since my English was not that good?

I was deep in thought when I heard footsteps, and I immediately stood up, expecting to look up and see Madame Maxime.

Well, I did look up.

As I did, I saw your looming 6'2" figure, and I could hardly believe that you were standing right in front of me. Your eyes held mine, and I felt faint for the second time in a week. You were close enough that I could reach out and touch you, and I almost did so.

And then you did what I never could have imagined in my pleasantest daydreams. You reached out, just as I had wanted to, encircled my waist with your arm and pulled me to you. I breathed out sharply, and leaned forward. The top of my head barely touched your chin, and I melted into your arms. You had a distinct, spicy, and sweet smell that infiltrated my head and made me feel dizzy.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside that seemed to be growing louder and we sprang apart, startled. We both realized that Viktor had been watching us, and blushed simultaneously. As Dumbledore, Mr. Crouch, Karkaroff, Mad-Eye Moody, Madame Maxime and the Potter boy burst into the room, I caught your eye once again. You blushed harder, beautiful as ever, and looked away, appearing to be ashamed of yourself. This set me back in reality, and I remembered Cho.

You couldn't look at me again until half and hour before the third task around a month later.

We were standing inside, right in front of the door to the stadium where we would enter the maze in front of all of our classmates.

I was feeling extremely self conscious. For the first time, I was completely concentrated on something that wasn't you. I had gotten by on the first task all right, and I had gone completely crazy on the second one, not paying attention to my surroundings and bent on finding Gabriele, which had caused the grindylow to catch me when I was completely unaware.

Well, if I thought that the grindylow had caught me when I was unaware, then I was sure in for something.

I had felt a hand on my shoulder, and, completely surprised, I turned around and spun right into you. You didn't seem to mind the tiny distance, barely an inch wide, separating us.

"Fleur," I heard you whisper, your lips dangerously close to my own. "I want you to know…"

The cheers outside became louder, and this encouraged you to speak faster.

"If anything happens today, inside the maze—"

"Don't say it," I whispered. But the question entered my mind unheeded, and I wondered what could happen in the maze. What was in it? Was this where many champions had been killed?

"Fleur," you said again, this time with a tinge of desperation in your voice, and I shut up. "I want you to know, incase anything happens today inside the maze, I think I'm falling in lo—"

The door opened, and light streamed in, brightening your face and letting me gaze upon it for what I hadn't known to be the last time before you died.

"I'm in love with you," you finished quickly, as the champions' names started being called. Just those words coming from you, directed at me even, were enough to make me sink to the floor. And I would have, if not for your arms holding me up.

Then you kissed me, and I felt as if I had died and gone straight to heaven. Everyone else disappeared, and it was just you and me. After a few seconds, which really felt like a few nanoseconds, you stepped outside with your father, and I felt like the room had gotten a bit colder.

Then I was in the stadium, waiting for you to come out of the maze, smiling triumphantly, like I knew you would. After Viktor hexed me, I was unfeeling and didn't even feel myself being pulled under the walls of the maze until I had been retrieved, thanks to Harry.

Suddenly, you appeared out of thin air. Harry was looking at you with blood, sweat, and tears covering his face, weeping his eyes out and yelling something about Voldemort. Why hadn't you gotten up? Why were you still lying on the ground, unmoving, and why hadn't you come to greet me yet?

Then Dumbledore, who had obscured my vision of you, moved.

I saw you, and it hit me.

As I gazed upon your face, your eyes devoid of their spark that I loved so much, I felt my mouth open, and I might have screamed. I didn't know. I wasn't aware. It was as if I couldn't hear anything. Every molecule in my body was concentrated on you.

I ran, pushing Dumbledore, Harry, Fudge, and your father aside. All looked shocked, bewildered, even, but I paid them no attention.

"Cedric?" I whispered, and your eyes stared blankly up at me. I drew in my breath and reached out, my fingers closing your eyes gently.

I pulled you into my lap and held you close. You weren't Cedric anymore. Nothing but a body, who looked like you. If I had been given the chance to die so that you would live, I would have taken it. Anything to keep you from being gone, anything to keep you with me.

I lay there with you for what seemed to be ages. Eventually, Madame Maxime pulled me away, and I let myself be pulled. I was completely empty. I couldn't feel a thing. Everything in my life was gone. There was nothing left to live for.

Now I'm sitting in the carriage. I'm leaving Hogwarts, going back to France, back to Beauxbatons. My home. Or what used to be my home.

Because while I was at Hogwarts, I had discovered a new home. Home now, was where you were.

You, Cedric, were everything I could have hoped for. Loyal, brave, fabulous in everything that you did. I wish I could have known you longer, but you taught me the most valuable lesson I would ever learn.

To quote that famous movie that my friends like so much:

The greatest thing you will ever learn is to love and be loved in return.

A/N: So, that was it! I hope you all liked it. Please review and tell me what you think! That would make me really, really happy. :) Also, please let me know if I should do a thing about Cedric's thoughts of Fleur. :) PLEASE REVIEW AND MAKE ME HAPPY!