Author's Note: If you haven't read His Cheshire Cat Grin, you can read it as a stand alone. If you have, this is a summary of Cedric's thoughts through out that saga. It hints towards the prelude I haven't written and the storyline that I've already written.
The song that inspired this was Aqualung's Pressure Suit and I highly recommend listening to it while you read. Reviews are LOVE!! HCCG stories being held hostage!
Got writer's block and now I'm back at Uni, so I have less time to write, sorry.
In a Beam of Sunlight
She'd always stood out of the crowd. That first time he glimpsed her go by on platform 9 & ¾ he'd been caught in her eyes.
Her tawny eyes shone a warm amber then as she passed by a beam of sunlight. Her hair was a golden aureole around her face then and his throat had caught at the sight of her. A cloud passed over the sun and cast the platform into darkness. He blinked and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Once his eyesight adapted he looked around for her and saw the golden girl. She had become a lion cub once more, complete with mane.
But Cedric Diggory had glimpsed what Hermione Granger was to become, and he was willing to wait.
For three years he watched her mothering Harry Potter and Ron Weasley but was never able to pluck up the courage to talk to her, even to find an excuse to meet her.
Three years had passed since he had first seen her and the day he dropped out of the tree he saw her immediately, a lioness amongst a sea of red hair. She looked at him with her tawny eyes and again he felt the captivation, but was pulled away by his father.But as they walked to the top of the hill he saw her again with the sun's light caught behind her and the mane was touched with gold.
Her mind was mature, and their conversations were more like debates, but he found himself trapped by her personality.
Her name sounded like her-my-knee, but he thought of it as her-my-own, as in his-own-love and he had felt a pang of disappointment when he learnt that Krum was a tough opponent in the competition of winning the passionate lioness' heart. An even tougher obstacle was Hermione herself. The lioness guarded her own heart viciously and he found breaching her walls a challenge thathe enjoyed.
The precious moments that he had won from her were turned over and over again in his mind like a much loved book. Hermione looking up at him in amazement after he leapt down from the tree. Hermione jumping for a book. Hermione with a backdrop over a forever-blue day. Hermione and her tearstained face. Hermione cradled in his arms. Hermione glowing in a beam of sunlight.
And as the green light approached him, it was these memories that rushed to the front of his mind. The green in the glow faded and became a beckoning golden ray of sunlight.
He looked into it and saw Hermione, brilliant, shrouded in the gilt veil of her hair and felt her amber gaze as the sunlight was reflected in her eyes. He reached out towards her and she smiled at him. The light grew ever brighter around his lioness, but he continued to stare at it straight on.
Suddenly the light snapped out and Cedric blinked in shock.
This time, his eyes did not adjust to the darkness.