Title: Curiosity
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: (pre) Fleur Delacour/Cedric Diggory
Prompt: 001 - Beginnings
Word Count: 403
Rating: G

Disclaimer: Characters are the property J K Rowling.

Authors Notes: Written for Livejournals Fanfic100 challenge community.

The night the foreign students arrive at Hogwarts, there's an instant rumour going around about one of them.

There's a girl, this one girl from the French school, Beauxbatons, and rumour has it she's a little more than just human. A girl, too pretty to be just human: word on the grapevine is that she's a Veela. It appears that this is a very big deal.

A Veela.

Cedric saw the Veela at the Quidditch World cup. They were beautiful, yes, without a doubt. But it's all a clever ruse, isn't it? It must be, considering the creature lurking beneath.

Still, the threat and knowledge of that less-than-appealing secondary form isn't enough to deter the enthusiastic mumblings amongst his friends, and really, when Cedric thinks about it, he is rather curious.

Unfortunately, every time one of the guys tries to point her out during the feast that evening, Cedric turns around just that bit too late. He catches the back of someone's head or the entire back of the Beauxbatons teacher, but never the girl his friends are raving about. She's sitting at the Ravenclaw table, a couple of places away from Cho Chang apparently, but Cedric isn't going to make himself look a prat by craning and twisting his neck around to catch a glimpse of some pretty stranger all night. Plenty of guys already seem dead set on doing that, and there's really no need to add to the madness. It's not exactly polite to stare, anyway.

But then, five minutes later, he's being nudged in the shoulder and, instinctively, he turns his head.

Finally he sees her, a very pretty girl with long, shimmering blonde hair, standing over by the Gryffindor table near Harry Potter and his gaping flame-haired friend. Momentarily, Cedric's stumped for words.

A split second, that's all, and then he turns back around.

A few of his friends look at him expectantly.

"Maybe." He shrugs, and for some reason he finds himself faced with a collection of disappointed expressions.

Soon enough, though, they're chatting away again, nothing but excitement concerning the upcoming tournament fleshing out their conversation, although Cedric doesn't miss the way some of their gazes flit across to the Ravenclaw table.

It's contagious, in fact, and before he can stop himself, Cedric casts one last hesitant glance over his shoulder, stealing a fleeting glimpse of the girls' profile.

He wonders if curiosity really did kill the cat.