Hey everyone,
This chapter is going to dive a bit deeper into the Diggory backstory. And to be honest, I think that's going to become one of the new themes of this story, alongside the Tournament and Voldemort's planned return. Though just to be clear, I plan to foil that last one entirely by the end of the Second Task. I have to be honest with you all. I'm kind of surprised that, even a year after I last wrote for this story, I still remember my plans for it.
Go me, hihi,

Venquine1990

Chapter 30
Christmas With Family

26th of December 1994
Cedric's Private Chambers
Cedric's POV

"What is your problem here, people? Why are you so constantly against this? It's tradition for this to happen!" Aunt Melina is still trying to convince mum, dad and myself now that the three of them have arrived here. Upon their arrival I had checked with Jillian and the girl had been perfectly fine with Angelina taking over where I left off. "I know it will be ours one day, but it's still your family for now. I don't think it will mean much coming from us."
Jillian had told me and I would have argued with this if not for the fact that I want some answers from my aunt. And naturally, mum and dad had not been happy when, upon their arrival, they had instantly spotted the fabric, as I already decided not to deem that thing worthy of being called a dress. Yet mum had still been her usual caring self and asked about Angy and Jill. I had winced and muttered: "Jill's going through her first period." And mum had winced as well.

By now all three of us are glaring at the woman and I snarl: "Our problem is your lack of consultation. We're against this, because you're abusing our history to do what you want. Tradition doesn't need to happen right away when it concerns two or three people who are still in their teens. And then I'm not even talking about the disgrace that is that – that – that sliver of fabric. And don't argue with me, Melina Diggory. Tradition or not, that stuff isn't worthy enough to be called a bra, let alone a bloody wedding dress."
"Seriously Melina, you don't even know Jillian. All you know about her is, as far as I know, what Cedric has been telling you about her through his letters home. Which just makes your choice for d – you know what, Ced's right, that thing doesn't deserve to be called a dress. Still, why did you chose that fabric for a gift? I know the Diggory gowns. I saw all of them myself when I married Amos. You had over 3 dozen different options. So why this one?"

By now all three of us are with our arms crossed and either glaring or frowning at the woman. And to my annoyance the woman has the gall to roll her eyes and says: "Allow me to correct you. It's not just Cedric who keeps me up to date on his future. Because he's part of the Tournament, its reporters do so as well. And I based my choice on those articles." To this dad growls: "You mean the ones that made me decide to sue Skeeter for 50.000 Galleons? Each?"
This shocks us both, my aunt and myself. I turn to him and he says: "I know I asked Albus to keep those damned Skeeter articles away from you and Jill, because she's been through enough, but – it would seem that little miss Skeets didn't want to accept just writing that one article a few days after you were made Champion. She got her hands on all kinds of little tidbits of information and wrote an article on you and Jill that might as well be made of grime, it was that disgusting.
All-together, it just reminded me of all the garbage that the youngest Weasleys and that Muggleborn have been spewing these past few months. Needless to say, Minerva suspects that most of Skeeter's garbage came from them, though young Ronald now makes me think otherwise." I nod at this explanation and dad glares at his sister as he says: "Not that that changes anything about your careless decision and course of action."

Aunt Melina is gaping at us and dad snarls: "I warned you. I warned you each and every bloody single time that you felt like believing that witch's crap and lies. I kept telling you that that woman will lie about anyone and everyone as long as it benefits her. I kept reminding you of all the garbage that woman wrote about mum and dad in her early years and yet – it just doesn't seem to stick. You just don't seem to get the picture."
Aunt Melina has the gall to turn from her brother to me, as if she's expecting me to back her up. But I turn away from her and focus on glaring at the fabric still lying on the floor. A small part of me wonders why an Elf hasn't come to remove it yet, but I decide that it's for the best as it, right now, allows me a focus point to vent on. Both anger and disgust, both aimed at the fabric, my aunt and even myself, ring through my voice as I say: "You know, I have to be honest here.
I don't know whether to be angry – or to feel insulted." My parents also turn to me and I turn back to look at my aunt as I say: "After all, tradition or not, I really thought you knew me better than this, Melina Diggory. That you knew I would never lower myself to want that kind of a bride. What did I ever do to give you that impression?" And instead of replying, the woman seems too dumbstruck to give any kind of response other than weak stuttering.

Yet I ignore this as I turn from her to the fabric and then back to dad and ask: "Besides, is this kind of fabric really from the vaults? Was there really once a Diggory who got his bride to marry him wearing – that?" Dad nods and horrified disgust fills me from within. "It's part of the dark pages of our family history. These kinds of things can be found in any family history, Cedric. Or at least any family that dates back to the Dark Ages, back during Medieval times. Though not all families use a wedding dress to express their role in those times."
I roll my eyes and mutter: "I really don't want to know." But mum smiles at me and says: "You probably will, Ced. After all, you are marrying two witches who both have families that date that far back and further. Though the Potters are still known to have been the least involved in all this. They worked the most neutral kind of approach to address this and that was more to keep their daughters from having to succumb to peer pressure at the time."

Then suddenly a knock is heard on the canvas of the portrait that guards my chambers. All four of us turn to it and dad asks: "Who wants to bet that Dobby got Lord Black to come here?" To which I can't help but think: "Only Melina would be stupid enough to take that bet." But I don't voice this and just say: "Come in, Lord Black." And while the man looks concerned, he makes sure to convey noble strength as he walks over.
Yet I also notice his eyes quickly assessing the situation and they even, shortly, land on the fabric near my feet. Furious rage makes the grey in his eyes turn dark, but that's the only indication of his emotions as his face is a mask of professional strength and noble birth. He comes to stand next to dad and me and mutters: "Amos and Melina standing opposite each other and fabric on the floor. Do I even want to know what's going on here?"

"Three times a guess who decided to sent that fabric, regardless of how often we argued against her and her – need to follow tradition.""You three still have the next four years. Why would your aunt, who doesn't even know my daughter and probably hardly even knows Angelina, be this bloody impatient? Does she think the Tournament is going to kill you or something? Does she not trust that the Goblet might have chosen you as Hogwarts Champion for a reason?"
A single look at the woman opposite us says enough. Melina hadn't even thought about the fact that I was the Hogwarts Champion or what might have made the Goblet chose me over all other Hogwarts students that entered their name. Dad shakes his head and mutters how, yet again, his sister let her one-track mind lead her astray. The woman in front of us glares at her brother for this, but her anger pales in comparison to our own.

Then suddenly Angelina and Jillian both exit the bathroom. Instantly Lord Black and I rush for the two. Lord Black moves himself to the right of Jillian and I move to her left with Angelina now on my own right. "Wait, that can't be her! She looks nothing like the Prophet has been claiming!" Melina shouts and my annoyance grows as I notice that she's staring at Angelina instead of Jillian. Angelina rolls her eyes and asks me if my aunt is blind by chance.
"After all, Lord Black is right there, with his daughter, so you'd think she'd be able to keep us apart like that." She continues and while the woman is my aunt, I feel my annoyance replaced with amusement at the way that my fiancé just scorned the woman. Melina seems less amused, but when she wants to yell her objection, Angelina pulls her wand and aims it at her. And because she's a Chaser, I'm sure any curse will hit.

"Or maybe I should prove to your aunt why I felt confident enough to enter my name, Angelina Johnson, to the Goblet of Fire. Perhaps by demonstrating what House Johnson was known for during the Dark Ages." As Angelina speaks, a magical force of power starts to resonate through her voice. The tone is both incredibly powerful, but it also proves one thing; why the Johnsons were considered Grey with a hint of Dark in the past.
"You love traditions so much, do you? Because it's a Johnson Tradition for the Heir or Heiress to learn the best and worst spells ever invented by the family upon their seventeenth birthday. And the worst spell in the Johnson arsenal – will see you behave like the women who actually like wearing fabric like that. So why don't I give you a taste of your own medicine and help you realize how badly you insulted all of us with that – that!"
But while my parents, Lord Black and I all keep quiet and our faces prove that we would happily support her in this, Jillian actually speaks up. "Because you're better than her." Those five words floor me and the fact that they come from the one person most directly insulted by the gift astounds me. I turn from staring blandly at Melina to staring at Jillian in shock. The younger girl stares at Angelina for a few minutes and she says:

"You're better than her, Angy. You know who I am and what I like and love. You've helped me since I became who I am and even before then. You had me in your House for the last few years and on your team. You could have easily bragged that you had the former Boy-Who-Lived on your team, but you didn't. Instead, you became my friend. And to me, that's more important. More important than some woman who thinks she can ruin my Christmas.
Because I won't let her. She may be Cedric's aunt, but she's not worth the notion that our Christmas gets ruined. Let's just let Lord Diggory take care of his sister, as is his job and responsibility, and enjoy our time here. If we really want to punish her, we can just exclude her from the Diggory home this Christmas break. That will teach her." Melinda looks affronted, but dad nods in agreement and Trebble pops the three of them out of the room.

Instantly Sirius embraces his daughter with a huge grin on his face and exclaims how proud he is of her. Yet Jillian sighs and mutters about how she just made the worst first impression in history. I sincerely disagree with this and say: "No, that was my aunt. You shouldn't judge how you behaved on how she responded. Her stubborn pride has always been like a stain on my family. Dad would have disowned her years ago if not for gran's will."
I grin at how the girl slowly cheers up as I speak and then I joke that she might as well have just given dad the gift of the decade. The girl looks at me confused and I turn red as I rub the back of my neck and say: "To be honest, neither my parents or I ever thought of outright exclusion. We've usually been using times like our birthdays and Christmas to gauge Melina's behavior and learn where we need to do damage control. It's never fun.
But while disowning would go against grandma's will, exclusion doesn't. And dad will probably even set up an expulsion contract, which will allow Melina to come back into the fold once she's learned her lesson. Though while she will be able to keep the Diggory name, it won't allow her to make use of the privileges that come with our House and its reputation. Not to mention that if she mucks up, it will be on her and her alone, not the House as a whole. And I know that that has been the biggest thorn in dad's side for ages."

Sirius and Angy are smiling widely at me as I explain this all with a huge grin on my face. Yet Jillian seems less convinced and mumbles that Melina is my family. But to this, simply because of the few times that we've talked about our personal lives, I pull her close and tell her: "Sometimes, that woman is no more family to me than the Dursleys are to you. Yeah, she can get those levels of embarrassing." Jillian winces and concedes with a smile.
And yet again the girl seems just totally oblivious to how beautiful she looks when she smiles. The way her lips curve make her cheekbones stand out beautifully. And while her eyes are slightly sunken into her face, they shine like gems when happiness is clearly visible within their depts. And while her face is slightly pale thanks to her now going through her first period, she still looks radiantly beautiful in an almost ethereal manner.

We all move back to where Jillian, Angelina and I were seated when we found the packages. Thankfully, Trebble seems to have taken the fabric with him when he left. I breathe a silent sigh of relief and Angelina takes charge. She grabs a gift from the pile that is set against the back wall of our shared rooms and hands it to Jillian, who is leaning against Sirius' side. The youngest of us all still looks pale, but she smiles beautifully as she accepts.
"I don't like the idea that Melina and I seem to have nigh-on similar ideas for Christmas presents, but it's like they always say. Out with the old, in with the new." I really don't like the reminder of what just happened. But while I have always adored most of the Diggory traditions that I grew up with, I wholeheartedly agree with the Johnson Heiress. And when Lord Black tells me that he has been busy redefining a lot of old Black Traditions to make them more modern and that he even abolished some, I silently decide to have dad do the same.

But when Jillian reveals the beautiful Bordeaux red and chocolate brown evening gown that Angelina bought her, I decide instantly to just leave that thought for later. Right now I have a Christmas celebration to partake in. And the rest of the day is spent joyously. Jillian, as Angy and I expected, felt that we had spoiled her with the large amount of presents we bought her, but we argued that she had done the same and this had silenced the girl.
And while we've only been together for a month, I feel utterly amazed at how well Angelina and Jillian know me as their gifts are incredibly thoughtful. Jillian mostly bought me stuff that I know can help me survive the Tournament, though one gift really astounds me. It's a whole set of robes and armor and all of it is made of – "Basilisk Armor. Professor Dumbledore agreed that the skeleton was rightfully mine by conquest.
And while Bill might have taken my Parsletongue skill, using the memory of when I went down into the Chamber back in Second actually helped immensely. The Goblins were very happy to skin the whole fiend as long as I got 10% of all their produce and the profits of selling the stuff was split. One third went to the Goblins, one third went to Hogwarts for new brooms and stuff like that and one third went to my own vault.

You'll find everything in that suit. The armor is even enchanted with an intent rune. If someone touches that wants to do you serious bodily harm or see you dead, the poison that is seeped into the skin will be absorbed into their skin instead. There are also daggers made out of a few fangs stuck to your sides and the twins even managed to fix the eyes and turn them into sunglasses. The Goblins were reluctant to part with those, but still.
Again, Bill put the same intent rune on the glasses too, though the pocket that it's in is also enchanted. You can only open it if a threat on the same level as Voldemort is near. I still can't believe that Dumbledore got permission for that from both the Wizengamot or the ICW – or that your dad kept quiet about it." Sirius laughs at this and says that he told dad and that he and mum have been working together on that effort.

Personally I can hardly believe the effort Jillian went through to get this for me and I want to thank her. But then I see the look on her face and notice that she's even paler than she was earlier thanks to her period. And four small words that are whimpered out by a tiny voice say it all. I can't lose you. Instantly I have Jillian in my lap, the robe and armor spread out before me and I whisper soft words of both gratitude and reassurance.
Sirius and Angelina silently let us have our moment and I am very grateful to the both of them. Jillian then whimpers and says that she also bought everything else for me with the Tournament and my survival in mind. Again my heart sings with love for how thoughtful the young girl is and weeps with pain at how scared the girl seems to be at the chance of losing me. And the fact that the teachers aren't allowed to help probably doesn't help matters.

Yet then I decide to reassure my girlfriend – while I also reaffirm my decision to keep a little something-something quiet and I softly tell her how I already figured the riddle behind the Golden Egg that I had to take from the Dragon in the First Task. Jillian seems to relax in relief at this and a stab of guilt hits me from within. All because of one line that has been haunting my nightmares ever since I first heard it.
And while you're searching, ponder this: We've taken what you'll sorely miss. The line is horrible and I have been holding back the urge to curse whoever came up with that idea straight into Azkaban Prison for weeks now. Yet at the same time I keep myself calm as I think: "I'm the fastest swimmer in Hufflepuff and the Headmaster cares too much about Jillian to let her be the one taken. That just means that I need to keep Angy safe."
But this thought hardly helps me any bit as I know one thing; just like Melina, most of the people responsible for the Tournament's organization are stubborn enough that, if they want to make Mount Everest move, they'll make Mount Everest move. I shake my head and decide yet again to leave these thoughts for later. And so, while I deeply enjoy myself, my mind is elsewhere at the same time. Back home, with dad, who I can interrogate soon.

And this notion allows me to just peacefully enjoy the rest of the day. Like she said, Jillian really bought me all kinds of other things that can help me. Boxes that have in-build invisibility charms so I can hide them near the location of the next two tasks and store potential equipment in them, a few more suits of armor also made of sturdy kinds of fabric and various books on all kinds of self-defense or how to use certain bits of magic for self-defense.
Yet while the girl have obviously not planned this together, Angelina proves that she really knows Jillian and that she knew Jillian would do something like this. The slightly younger girl has instead focused on my more artistic side and bought me a nice robe to wear if I were to ever share my love of the piano with the world, several books full of piano-driven songs and the notes to play them and even a kit to keep the piano at home in top-condition.

At the same time I feel very proud of myself for my choices of gifts for my two ladies. For Angelina I bought a new robe that is very similar to her Gryffindor Quidditch robes, but then with the Johnson sigil on her right breast instead of the Gryffindor lion. I bought her several new pairs of Chaser gloves, a Quaffle that can be shrunk down to a pendant for the bracelet I bought her and several dresses in her favorite colors.
For Jillian I mostly bought the same stuff, though than for Seekers instead of Chasers, including a practice Snitch. Yet I also bought something that I feel very confident the girl will like. And amazingly enough that is the last gift that Jillian unwraps and her eyes widen when she reads the title To Find Your Inner Gift, Tips and Tricks to Find One's Inner Talent by Ray Tharderus. Jillian looks from the book to me and I peck her on the forehead as I say: "I know you have more to offer this world than being a talented Seeker. This will help."

And yet again just the girl's dazzling smile is reward enough, especially because this time the smile is so radiant, her face loses the pale complexion caused by her period. Yet the girl also rewards me in a way that some would consider even better, though I consider it just as great as to see her smile at me. Tentatively the girl moves herself so that she is seated on my lap with both her legs parallel to mine and kisses me on the lips.
And regardless of what almost happened two months ago, regardless of everything Jillian has gone through as Harry, regardless of all the ways that the young teen had to grow up before she was ready, her kisses prove one thing. Jillian is still a virgin when it comes to love and romance. And the fact that this side of her – of the once famous hero – is for Angelina and myself alone is a blessing I intent to cherish for all eternity.

You better, Ced.
Okay, so I'm not going to lie. I'm going to probably cut the visits to Johnson Hall and the Diggory Shed short as I kind of want to just get to the Second Task. At the same time I also think that that Task will mark the end of this story. I'm really sorry, I might write a spin-off or something about this story someday to further expand on Jillian being a girl and all that, but right now I just want to get to the good part and finish this beauty.
That all cool? Good,

Venquine1990