Six:
Jonathan had gone to Lithuania over the break. How did Cedric know this, you might ask? Well, Jonathan had told Cedric about it, in fact he was still telling Cedric about it, in minute detail. However after droaning on for at least an hour the shorter boy stopped rather abruptly, trailing off mid-sentence, his eyes wide an apparent awe.
"You look good!"
Cedric had blinked at this, swiping his bangs out of his face as he looked up from slouching over Quidditch Through the Ages.
"Oh... er, you think so? Thanks."
Jona nodded rather enthusiastically at this and Cedric wasn't quite certain if he should feel proud or embarrassed by his friend's fervent praise. He resolved to prod a bit further.
"What prompted this... exactly?"
"Oh!" blinked the other boy a somewhat thoughtful expression crossing his face, his head tilting while he squinted at Cedric in inspection. "Hmm... Well... y'know I dunno actually. You just look less..." he paused tapping his chin, eyes trailing towards the ceiling before the popped back to their original inspection in realization. "Less doughy!" he stated proudly as though he hadn't just said something rather offensive.
Cedric could tell that Jona hadn't meant to insult him, but honestly he wasn't sure if that made it hurt more or not. In the end he let is slide.
"Yeah, well I've been working out a lot this summer. I'm hoping to replace Cesaria this year."
"Well, I think you're a shoe-in, that girl is more nervous than long-tailed kneazle. I swear! You'd think she were a first-year with the way she carries on!"
The older boy chuckled and nodded. "Ha, yeah. I overheard McKinley once say she's afraid of heights!"
Laughed filled their compartment and the Hogwarts Express chugged happily onwards. But even in these merry moments, Cedric had to wonder if Jona would be the only person to notice how much Cedric had changed over the summer.
The image of awe filled green eyes floated distantly in his subconscious for the rest of the trip.
-0v0-
Potter wasn't there.
It was the first thing Cedric noticed upon stepping foot into the Great Hall, his grey eyes swiveled immediately towards the Gryffindor table, only to find it devoid of the messy-haired saviour. He tried to console himself in the idea that Potter was perhaps in the lavatory or maybe just wasn't interested in attending the start-of-term feast, but his hopes were dashed when he caught sight of the clearly concerned, frizzy-haired side-kick (that he couldn't for the life of him remember the name of).
"Where's Potter?" he hissed to Jona who was watching the sorting with a rather bored expression.
"Huh? Well, the Gryffindor table, right?" said the shorter boy, not taking his eyes of the quivering first-year situated under the Sorting Hat. "I'd say a Puff for sure, eh? Look at the way he's quakin' in his boots."
Cedric completely ignored the remark, continuing on his earlier assertion, "He's not there, though!"
Jona actually looked at the Gryffindor table at this, his expression still rather bored. "He's prolly in the loo or somethin.'"
Cedric rolled his eyes; Jona could be so useless sometimes. Biting his lip he looked back at the Gryffindor table as if Potter would have just suddenly appeared in the few seconds he'd looked away. That was not the case of course, and Cedric ended up spending practically the entire feast staring at the Gryffindor table between bites, wondering desperately where the Boy-Who-Lived was. The entire time all he could imagine is the trouble the boy was always getting into.
It was only when Potter and his obnoxious red-headed friend came stumbling through the double doors, kicking up a ruckus as Snape came swooping down to cart them away, that Cedric was able to huff a sigh of relief. Potter seemed alright, if not in a boatload of trouble judging by the furious expression on Snape's face.
Yet, even though Cedric knew that Potter was just fine and that even if he weren't fine, it really shouldn't have been any concern of Cedric's he somehow had a hard time falling asleep later that night and stayed up to the wee hours of the morning, plaguing himself with morbid thoughts of Potter in danger, only eventually falling into a fitful sleep.
Despite being nearly unable to fall asleep the previous night, Cedric felt almost unnervingly energized the next morning. It was a strange, jittery sort of energy like how one might feel after drinking one too many cups of coffee. Still, when he sat down for breakfast he was in good spirits and listened curiously as his housemates described Potter (and that one Weasley kid that he couldn't recall the first name of) flying an enchanted muggle contraption into the Whomping Willow.
Jonathan seemed to find a great amount of humor in the story, but Cedric just felt a muted interest, a bit disappointed about Potter getting in trouble. He did however laugh along with the rest of the school when the youngest Weasley son received a colorfully worded howler mid-breakfast.
Overall it was his best first day of classes yet. There was not a single class where a teacher berated him for not completing his summer homework, or for staring listlessly off in space during a lecture, there were even a few times where he managed to get a couple extra points for Hufflepuff by answering a question correctly.
He could easily say by the end of the day that his hard work was paying off.
-0v0-
For most people who tried out for Quidditch, the day of tryouts was a nerve-wracking and exciting day. Though for Cedric it had always been... fine, for lack of a better word. He just considered it a part of a process, especially since he'd never actually been aiming to be on the team. His father just encouraged him to do it and he'd never seen any reason not to.
This time it was a bit different, however.
He was not nervous nor was he particularly confident. He just felt that for once, he had something to be proud of, even if some second year ends up coming out of left field and steals the seeker position out from under his nose, Cedric still thought that he could feel accomplished in knowing that he tried his very best. Which was something new for him.
Nothing of the sort happened though, of course. Surprisingly skilled second-years were the type of thing to crop up at Gryffindor or Slytherin tryouts, maybe even Ravenclaw, but certainly not at a Hufflepuff tryout. In fact, there hadn't even been a second-year trying out for seeker.
No, in the end it was just Cedric, Cesaria and some third-year by the name of Grayson. Grayson hardly counted as a contender for the seeker position as he could barely stay on his broom after doing a lap around the field.
Cesaria, however was quite the contender, more so than Cedric had expected, in fact. McKinley had them do a multitude of things such as laps, loops, dives and corkscrews all of which, the two fourth-years performed flawlessly.
It wasn't until the Hufflepuff Captain released the snitch that the balance was forced to tip.
The two potential seekers mounted their brooms, Cedric glancing at his competitor calmly meeting her almost terrified gaze. He sent her a smirk before kicking off, his Flyabout picking up speed rapidly, leaving her Cleansweep in the dust.
He caught the snitch before Cesaria could even spot it.
When he landed back on the green, snitch clutched in hand, Cesaria was already there, watching his descent, with a crestfallen look on her face. As he caught sight of her expression, a strange feeling welled in his gut, guilt, he surmised after a moment's thought. It was not a winner's guilt. Rather, he felt guilty at not feeling particularly anything for the seeker position. He felt no excitement at finally being accepted onto the team, no excitement at the prospect of future games. He just felt...
Accomplished. The kind of distant accomplishment that comes with completing a menial project. He could not even call it pride.
It seemed a bit wasteful to take the seeker position from someone who truly treasured it, because it was clear that Cedric did not.
He bade a mental apology to Cesaria as he shook the hand of the winningly grinning Quidditch Captain.
Oh well, he had plans and no amount of heartbreak on Cesaria's part was going to stop him.
-0v0-
Jonathan was very happy for him.
This did not surprise Cedric much, as Jonathan was always happily surprised when Cedric did something besides eating, sleeping or breathing. Upon finding out that Cedric had gotten seeker position, he'd dragged Cedric down to the kitchens for a celebratory snack. He'd treated Cedric to a few rounds at The Three Broomsticks the next Hogsmeade weekend.
Again, Cedric was not surprised by this. Jona was a good friend, and thusly did good things for Cedric when warranted.
What surprised Cedric was that other people were happy for him.
Professor Sprout had taken him aside after Herbology to tell him how proud she was to have him on the team. Almost all his other Professors, even the other heads of houses (besides Snape, of course) congratulated him on his new position in some way or another.
Stranger still, was the amount of people he rarely ever talked to who came up to congratulate him. He felt a bit guilty about these people, however as they were often people he couldn't even recall the name of. He had housemates come up to him in the common room or during meals and express their excitement for his first game and all Cedric could do is nod dizzily as he wracked his brains trying to put names to their forgettable face.s
It was strange really, even he, a Hufflepuff, found the majority of his housemates to be nothing more than supporting roles to the more important students from other houses.
It made him feel horrible.
And hate being a Hufflepuff.
Almost two weeks later Cedric received a package from his parents as well as a somewhat miffed but congratulatory letter, questioning why they were only just now hearing of his acceptance to the Quidditch team, from a co-worker, no less. The package turned out to be a fairly expensive broom-servicing kit that Cedric was sure he'd put to good use.
He binned the letter, however and only sent a short reply explaining that he'd forgotten all about it.
He wondered if they'd read between the lines and realize it was them he'd forgotten all about.
-0v0-
If the world made any sense, then there would be a unanimous agreement that Gilderoy Lockhart did not belong at the front of any classroom anywhere. This was not the case, for some horrible reason, which is was ultimately what lead to Cedric now sitting in the front of the DADA classroom, bored out of is mind as the man droned on and on about topics completely unrelated to the curriculum.
It irked Cedric rather greatly that he had to have a sort of professor like this this year. Only two years ago he would have been happy to have such a wishy washy teacher where he could get by doing less than the minimum, but since his decision to improve himself, Cedric had put a lot of stock into his studies and it was extremely irksome to have a teacher who was of no use to him especially considering OWLs were only a year away.
So, despite it being clear that Lockhart was not going to say anything relevant, Cedric still forced himself to pay attention on the off chance that the idiot might say something useful. Nevertheless it's extremely hard to pay attention to someone so useless, so in the end his mind still wandered a bit.
It made him curious, actually. How could someone so clearly worthless be popular to the point of fame? Cedric could see no apparent redeeming qualities in Gilderoy Lockhart and yet the man's name was still known in every wizarding household world wide.
So what was it that made him so loved?
"-I know he's a bit of an airhead, but just look at those sparkling blue eyes..." the stray comment came from one of the two Ravenclaw girls who always continually gossiped; Marietta Edgecombe and Evelyn Gradie.
"I know, and his smile..." Their wistful sighs tickled the back of his neck and fluttered Jona (who was snoring away)'s hair, but Cedric couldn't even bring himself to be annoyed as an epiphany struck him.
Lockhart was attractive. That's all he was, but he was extremely so. The concept made the Hufflepuff boy's head spin. All Lockhart had to do was look good and everything would just fall into his lap?
It was that easy?
Cedric of course knew of attractiveness and could tell when people were attractive, but he never gave it much consideration. Good looking people were just good looking, it's not like it mattered to him.
Why should it?
Good looking or otherwise no one would give him the time of day, especially not in a romantic manner.
But, now that he thought about it, a lot of the popular people were physically attractive in one way or another, whether is be classically handsome or roguish, girly or graceful.
This thought made Cedric very worried, actually. He rarely even looked in the mirror, he had no clue if he was attractive or not.
He supposed not, though, else he's be popular, right?
He could recall when Cho Chang and Alicia Spinnett had been talking about him in the library, a bit after he'd gotten the seeker position. It had really caught his attention since he'd never heard anyone talk about him before.
He'd simply remained bent over his textbook, eyes still as he listened intently to their remarks. Jona, who was, as usual, sitting next to him had also paused in his reading to listen.
"That's Diggory?" Chang had hissed, surprise coloring her voice.
"Mmn hmm." had been Spinnett's response. "Yep, that's Diggory, the new Hufflepuff Seeker."
He heard an unattractive snort, that most likely came from Chang. "I mean Cesaria wasn't the best, but at least she didn't look like a dork."
Spinnett snickered a bit, "Yeah, I mean I honestly didn't even know he existed until he got seeker and we have 3 classes together!"
Cedric had still been staring resolutely at the faded pages of his text book, grey eyes wide as he'd listened to the girls giggle at his expense.
Jonathan's finger's had curled over his right shoulder, his friend leaning closer to whisper to him.
"Don't let those bimbo's comments get to you. They're just being petty."
Cedric had levelled his friend bewildered stare at this, brow furrowed in confusion. "Get to me?" he had questioned.
Jona blinked back, his expression mirroring Cedric's. "Well yeah, don't let them hurt your feelings, you know?"
"Why would that hurt my feelings?"
Jona hadn't done anything besides shrug and remove his hand from Cedric's shoulder.
It wasn't until now that Cedric understood why he should have been offended by their comments. Attractiveness is what made people popular!
...well, maybe not. There were plenty of fairly fetching people who didn't matter at all, perhaps there were just some personalities that good looks couldn't make up for.
Cedric supposed the most popular people had both good looks and an interesting personality, like Daphne Greengrass, or the Weasley twins.
Or Potter.
That notion struck him a bit.
Was Potter attractive?
Cedric had always supposed that appealing men had manly features. Tall, strong and chiseled. But Cedric did not see any of those features in Potter. In fact, he was rather the opposite, petite, weak and soft.
He couldn't help but think back to that stolen moment in the Infirmary and the way Potter's skin almost glowed in the soft light.
No no, Potter was attractive, just in a very untraditional way.
He was...
Ethereal.
It made Cedric wonder if Potter ever thought he were attractive.
'-I mean I honestly didn't even know he existed-'
He frowned and turned his attention back to a still preening Lockhart. He should be focusing.
A/N: And so second year has begun. I'm rather excited for this year as I get to introduce a character who will be playing an interesting role later on. They wont necessarily be important, but they'll have an effect. I'm happy about the size of this chapter, though a bit annoyed at how it flows, it jumps around quite a bit, I hope it wasn't too hard to follow.
I'd like to point out that I've slightly changed the chronological order of Second Year, however it wont have any effect on the overall outcome of Harry's escapades, so don't worry about that.
Feedback is appreciated as always.