Ten:

The train ride home was, once again, fairly uneventful, Cedric was still beyond pissed about not being able to play Harry in the last match, so he had to spend the majority of his time keeping up the facade of a calm and collected person. Jona acted as usual Jona and babbled away about meaningless topics just to hear the sound of his voice, while Cedric nodded along, not even remotely paying attention.

Instead his mind was whirring away crafting ideas and making plans to make sure that next year would be the year that Potter finally noticed him. He would occasionally write down a plan or two, flipping past a few illegible pages that he'd splattered in ink in a fit of rage or something of the sort.

Sooner than he liked, the train came to a halt, and the students disembarked meeting their families and loved ones with smiles and open arms. The sight made Cedric feel a bit queasy, and the feeling only worsened upon making eye contact with his unusually somber-looking mother. It seemed that the chilly treatment that he'd given his parents over Yule Break was still in the forefront of their .

-0v0-

His summer had started out orderly and as expected. He'd wake up in the mornings, brush his teeth, skip breakfast and sleepily lumber out onto the field behind his family's home. He would jog for thirty minutes and then practice flying for about an hour and a half and then cool down with a few stretches and then a cold shower. After that he would review whichever subject that corresponded with the day of the week (for example: Potions and Astronomy on Tuesday, Transfiguration and History on Wednesday, ect.) for as long as he felt necessary, it would usually take up the majority of his day. Occasionally, he would pause in his studies to eat the lunch that their house elf would set out for him, though generally, he would only eat once a day and join his parents for a stilted dinner and then retreat to his room.

Around this time is where things would become a tad less orderly. He would go through his nightly motions; shower, clean his teeth, change into his nightclothes so on and so forth. But, once his head would hit the pillow, things would go awry.

Sleep was becoming a rarity for him, and he would often lie awake until the early hours of the morning, rolling and spinning in his sheets, trying to clear his jumbled up thoughts in search of sleep. But, his mind would churn and churn away moving miles a minute unable to even focus on a singular concept, he would just think and think and think about nothing at all.

And at some point in the night or another, he'd look over at his window sill and stare at the little white anemones there and idea would strike him. Every night it would pop into his head as though it were new and fresh despite it being nothing of the sort and he'd reach under his pillow and pull out his journal and write. They would always be strange little fantasies of him becoming something special, someone worth being proud of. He'd write about how Potter, would look upon him with such pride and admiration, large green eyes sparkling and rosy lips stretched into a smile.

These little fantasies would plague his dreams and would be taken a step or two further than he could ever consciously imagine. Images of moonlit skin and blown pupils would fade from his mind the next morning, everything forgotten.

And then it would start all over.

Cedric had assumed his entire summer would progress in this manner, and while he wished that he could get a few hours more sleep at night, he would not have particularly minded if it had progressed that way. However, about a three weeks into the summer, his father had called him downstairs, interrupting his Herbology studies. When he was about halfway down the staircase he found his mother and father standing somewhat awkwardly in the foyer, looking up at him matching lopsided smiles on their faces. He simply remained silent and held onto the banister, waiting for one of them to elaborate.

"We..." began his father, his voice weakly trailed off and he sent a pleading look towards his wife. Her smile stretched further, becoming even more forced.

"What your father means to say is that we're very proud of you Cedric, dear."

Cedric simply stared and clutched the banister of the stairs a bit tighter, expression blank. His parents appeared further disheartened by his lack of reaction, glancing at each other somewhat nervously.

His mother continued, her voice outright quivering as she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "N- not to say that we're not always... Proud. But, we're very happy... that you've been working so hard in school."

The teen blinked slowly and sighed, face still slackened and cold. "Is there a reason you felt the need to tell me this now?" His tone was even and unforgiving, betraying no emotion whatsoever. His mother opened her mouth to respond but seemed to lose confidence and instead reached into her pocket, pulling out two folded pieces of the familiar, off-white parchment that Hogwarts used for official letters.

Cedric's eyes immediately narrowed at the sight of the letters and his feet carried him to the bottom of the stairs before he plucked them from his mother's outstretched fingers. His empty expression nearly broke into anger as he caught sight of the addresses on the back of the letters and the broken seal.

Mr C Diggory,

The Second Floor Bedroom,

Stoatshead Hill,

Ottery St. Catchpole

Not lifting his eyes from the address, he said as calmly as he could possibly muster. "This is addressed to me."

Out the corner of his eye, he could see his father nod with an uncomprehending look on his face, however his mother seemed to catch on quickly.

"I know it must seem like an invasion of privacy bu-"
"Seem?" Cedric hissed, the letters crumpling in his fingers. He watched them flinch at his sharp tone and felt a festering sense of satisfaction somewhere in the pit of his stomach.

"Would you have told us?" Amos finally found his voice and he looked up at his son with an imploring expression. "You didn't even tell us when you were accepted onto the Quidditch team, in fact you rarely even write us! Excuse us for being concerned about our own son!"

The teen's face returned to it's original slackened countenance and he turned, shoving the letters into his pocket, starting up the stairs, stopping only for a short moment to hiss "It's a bit late for that." over his shoulder.

When he reached his room and his door was firmly closed behind him, he read the two headings of the letters aloud.

"Congratulations Mr. Diggory on becoming the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain. Congratulations, Mr. Diggory on becoming a Hufflepuff prefect."

He let out a long sigh, eyes closing contentedly. His legs slowly gave and he slipped down to the floor, back against the door. He felt a warming sense of relief.

Everything was going right.

-0v0-

Cedric rarely spent any time around his parents after that point, even going as far as making his own food so to avoid them at meals. They seemed to be getting increasingly desperate to see him however, and would often come up to his room and stand in his doorway while he was studying or reading, asking irksome, meaningless questions about what he was doing. During dinner they would actually come up to his room, proclaiming that 'it was his favorite' (he still wasn't quite sure how they could possibly be serving his favorite every night) and that he ought to come down and eat with them. He would always turn them down, politely but coldly.

However one rainy morning, Cedric had only been able to complete his daily laps before he was soaked to the bone and shivering. In the end he decided there was no choice but to go back inside, hop into a warm shower and reschedule his training for when it was drier.

Though upon entering the house he was immediately accosted by his mother, who dragged him inside and pushed him in front of the crackling fireplace, slinging a thick blanket over his shoulders.

"Cedric!" she had exclaimed, hand on her hips. "What were you doing out there in that kind of weather?"

"Training." Cedric had replied, swiping the blanket off of his shoulders and heading towards the stairs. She attempted to call him back, but after he proclaimed he was going to take a warm shower, she quieted. But, once he stepped out of the bathroom she was back on his tail.

She had enough nerve to grab him by his arm and practically lead him back downstairs into the dining hall, fussing obnoxiously all the while.

"Honestly, training in the pouring rain? I'm certain you'll have caught a cold or something of the sort. At least there's Hopsy's soup to warm you up-" ect. Ect. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes, who did she think he was fooling? He'd ran around in the rain plenty of times before and no

one had given it any mind.

He'd been plopped down at the table, his father across from him, his mother next to him and a steaming bowl of tomato soup pushed in front of him by a doe-eyed house elf who popped away after a deep bow.

He stared into the thick red liquid for a fair few moments, revelling in his parents silence, before looking up to address them, hand folded in his lap.

"What?"

It was almost comical how they both flinched in unison, glancing at one another minutely before looking off in opposite directions.

"What's what, son?" exclaimed his father, the confusion in his voice over-pronounced and clearly fake. His dark brown eyes seemed to look in every direction besides Cedric's own silver.

The teen merely drew a long sigh hitherto tucking into his soup, keeping his eyes firmly on the pale grain of their dining room table. He could feel his parents eyes boring into him, but he ignored them, instead allowing his mind to wander onto more important topics, namely how he was going to make up for the lost training due to the rain.

He'd been so focused on this, that he didn't even notice when his parents began to stiltedly converse with each other. However a certain topic came up that he could never tune out.

"Yes, well since Potter is staying at the Leaky Cauldron currently, the extra Aurors are necessary."

His spoon froze halfway to his mouth, grey eyes tracing up to look his father directly in the face for the first time in a saddeningly long period.

His parents didn't notice his stare and continued on.

"Harry Potter in the Leaky Cauldron? No wonder they need all those Aurors with Black on the loose. The boy is certainly brave though, I would be scared out of my mind if I knew the monster responsible for my parents' death had broken out of Azkaban."

Cedric stood, chair pushing out behind him with a loud screech. The sound caused his parents to flinch rather exaggeratedly and look over in his direction.

"Cedri-" began his mother, however he didn't allow her to finish.

"I'm finished," he motioned to his half-eaten bowl of soup. "Thanks."

He swiftly stepped out of the dining room before his parents could even process exactly what had happened.

He'd spent a solid thirty minutes pacing back and forth before he came to a decision. He couldn't in good conscience leave Potter alone at the Leaky Cauldron while Sirius Black was on the loose, he didn't know what his mum was on about when she said he'd been the cause of the Potters' death, but he wasn't gonna ignore it. Sure, there was most probably a horde of Aurors stationed in every corner of Diagon, but those Ministry fools didn't know Potter like Cedric did. They didn't know how unpredictable and elusive he could be, but Cedric. Cedric knew. It would be morally wrong not to lend his efforts in protecting the little savior.

So, that night he packed his his school trunk, under the assumption that Potter would be remaining in the alley until school started back up. He did, however omit his school robes, he'd been planning to buy a new set as he was still wearing ones from first year that had been only slightly altered to reach his ankles, although the alterations had been in made in his third year so they only actually reached his mid-calf. He also thought that he might perhaps get a more flattering cut, since his figure seemed to be the most desireable part about him.

Wardrobe plans aside he prepared himself to leave in the morning, it took him quite a bit of self-control not to hop into the floo the moment his parents revealed that Potter was staying in Diagon, but it took him even more to wait until the next morning.

But, after a sleepless night of staring at (certain photos within) his journal, he scrambled out of bed at around 6:00 AM and clambered down the stairs, trunk balanced on his left shoulder, and summer robe slung over his right. He stepped into the fireplace in the entrance hall, ducking his head with a sardonic smile, it was only this time last year that his head didn't even brush the top of it. With a flare of bright green his disappeared from the Diggory Family home.

-0v0-

It did not take him long to figure out which room was Harry Potter's. An interesting thing about the Leaky Cauldron was that is was only two floors, the bottom being the bar along with a few private parlors and the top being the floor for the tenants. This floor was a fair bit larger than the former, expanded by a liberal use of space charms, but it was still only a singular hall of rooms. All Cedric had to do was watch how that Auror's tended to linger around room 11 after nightfall to see which room was Potters.

Within the second day of his stay at the Leaky Cauldron Cedric could easily tell where Potter was staying and what the basics of his schedule was. Potter's day would start with him settling onto a barstool at the Leaky Cauldron and ordering breakfast. For that reason, Cedric would settle into a booth preferably one that would give him a good view of both Potter and all the entrances (but just Potter worked fine as well) and would order whatever Potter did. Doing this oddly made him feel like he was back at Hogwarts, eating another meal and it made him realize just how often he would watch Potter in the Great Hall.

After Potter would finish eating (whether Cedric was finished or not) he would follow the boy into the Alley, making sure to keep a fair amount of space between them, after all, Potter was very independent and deserved his space, he most probably wouldn't appreciate the idea of someone following him around, whether it be for his protection or not.

Cedric would then spend the next few hours or so trailing after Potter as the boy would move from shop to looking at all the magical items with fascination. It amazed Cedric how Potter could enter the Alley day after day and still find something to captivated by. Magic seemed so much more wondrous through the Gryffindor's eyes. It made Cedric a bit more aware of how growing up in a Pureblood family had raised him to be somewhat unappreciative of magic.

But, watching Potter's eyes grow wide with wonder was a truly entrancing sight that would leave the teen with a deep longing to approach. Cedric would spend much of his time wishing he could stand beside Potter and speak with him, share with him, rather than watch him from a distance. He would imagine it, his eyes firmly fixed upon Potter. He would imagine them side by side, he would imagine looking down into Potter's bright green gaze, meeting the boy's cheeky grin with one of his own. He could imagine they way their shouldesr might bump on occasion while they walked together. And he could almost just almost imagine what it would sound like to hear his name upon those lips.

Not quite though.

But he could wait.

Cedric didn't actually tail Potter constantly, he was certain that if he did it too frequently he would garner suspicion from the Aurors stationed around the Alley, so when the boy seemed like he wasn't going to be much moving for awhile, Cedric would go off to complete some of his own shopping.

On the third day of Cedric's stay, Potter had settled down at Florean Fortescue's to work on homework, so the Hufflepuff had headed over to Gringotts to get some money for school supplies, however as he had been exiting the bank he'd been stopped by an elderly wizard, who'd tapped him on the shoulder, expression looking urgent.

"Excuse me, dear boy, but you wouldn't happen to be the son of Amos Diggory would you?"

Cedric blinked nodding slowly and extended a hand to shake. "Yes, that's me. I'm sorry have we met?"

The man ignored his hand, but Cedric couldn't bring himself to be offended as the elder wizard seemed quite panicked.

"We met once at a Gala when you were a fair bit younger, but that's besides the point. What're you doing here, lad?" he exclaimed, eyes wide. "Your father told me you'd been missing for almost three days now! Your parents are worried sick about you! Have you been in the Alley this entire time?"

Realization dawned upon Cedric with those words. He'd been so caught up with Potter that he'd forgotten to tell his parents that he was even leaving the house. He felt a bit worried by that actually, three whole days and something as important as that hadn't occurred to him even once.

He nodded to the man smiling somewhat apologetically to the man. "Thank you for informing me of this, sir. It seems I've made a mistake, I'll contact my parents as soon as I'm able."

The man still looked a bit unconvinced, but curtly nodded all the same, eyes narrowed. "See that you do." he said before hurrying into the bank.

Cedric had intended to make a beeline straight back to the Leaky Cauldron and floo his parents, however halfway down the Alley he saw Potter still sitting at a little outdoor table at Fortescue's, stopping Cedric in his tracks. He couldn't leave Potter here for who knows how long, defenseless, just to assuage his parents' 'worries.' His parents would just have to wait until Cedric was certain Potter was settled safely into his room.

That turned out to be hours later, after Cedric had watched Potter eat his dinner and trudge upstairs to his dorm. By this point the sun had gone down and the majority of the other tenants had retired to sleep as well. Cedric didn't actually even remember that he was supposed to be flooing his parents until he saw a family of three come hurrying out the floo and up to the bartender to ask for a suite.

He felt a bit guilty for a moment for forgetting, but then remembered that this was his parents it's not like they actually cared that Cedric had been missing for days. They were no doubt asking about his whereabouts to keep up appearances more than out of actual worry.

With a put-upon sigh he took his last bite of baklava and a final swig of his butterbeer before meandering over to stand behind a man crouched in front of the caller's floo, who seemed to be trying to placate his very aggravated spouse.

It was at least another three minutes before it was open again, and Cedric squatted to a crouch, throwing a handful of floo powder into the fireplace waiting for the ruby flames to turn fully emerald before sticking his face inside and calling out the Diggory floo address.

Surprisingly it was his father who answered rather than Hopsy, who usually checked to see who was calling before turning it over to whomever they were calling for. The man looked rather distressed, with dark circles under his eyes and his hair sticking up in odd places, as though he hadn't brushed it in a day or two, there was a sheen of sweat across his forehead.

"If this does not have any relation to the whereabouts of my son then kindly fuck o- Cedric!"

His father's scream made Cedric flinch so hard the top of his head smacked against the fireplace, his vision blurring for a split second.

"Hey, dad." he replied, rubbing the crown of his head.

"Cedric, where-" His brown eyes widened behind his crooked glasses and he turned around, head disappearing for a moment, but Cedric could still hear him scream "ELAINA! ELAINA GET IN HERE QUICK!" It was a moment more before both his mother's and his father's head was crammed into the fireplace, side-by-side. Cedric blinked owlishly at their actions, recoiling a bit.

His mother seemed to be in an even worse state than his father, Cedric had never seen her with a hair out of place and makeup on her features, so it was very strange to see her bare-faced and messy-haired.

"Oh, Cedric! My baby boy!" it was almost impossible to understand what she'd said as her voice was thick, tears falling freely from her eyes. "I- I had thought... Where have you been?"

Cedric blinked, he'd never really seen either of his parents show so much emotion, let alone cry. He wasn't certain how to respond. The looks on their faces seemed genuinely worried and fearful, but something somewhere in his mind was screaming that it was a lie, that they didn't care.

He wasn't really sure where it came from.

"I-" he trailed off, unnerved at how they seemed to be hanging onto his every word. It seemed wrong to say that he'd been staying in Diagon Alley, but there wasn't really anything else to say. "I've been staying at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Why, son?" his father boy was astoundingly pained, and along with the flood of guilt that washed over him came the tiniest curl of euphoria, of control. His father continued, "Is this about us reading your letters? We're so sorry! Please, please just come home! We di- we didn't mean to make you feel... Whatever it is your feeling."

He watched his mother nod rapidly, eyes imploring and that little spike of euphoria made him want to milk it, to hurt them more, to watch them quiver and beg in apology. But- but, that was wrong. And that's not what the intention of this call was supposed to be. So instead of insulting them of mutilating them further he just shook his head.

"It's not that, I- had thought I'd asked you if I could stay with Jona in Diagon for the last of the break. I'm sorry for worrying you. You guys didn't do anything wrong."

The way the relief broke across their faces was oddly draining, as though they were taking away something lovely the more their expressions lightened. Cedric thought that maybe feeling that way about their previous distress might be wrong, but he wasn't certain what to do about that.

"It's alright, dear." his mother said, voice soft and deeply grateful, her baby blue eyes were warm, despite the tears still lingering along the edges. "We're just glad to know that you're safe and that you..." she trailed off, but she didn't really need to continue.

His father spoke up, his expression mirroring his spouse's. "I realize you're staying with your mate and all, but do you think you could come home? Just for tonight."

Cedric wanted to reject, he really wanted to see their countenances crumple under his cold dismissal, but supposed it was because of that heady desire that he nodded and stepped through the floo.

He could tolerate them for a night.

-0v0-

True to his word Cedric only stayed the night and bid his parents a polite farewell at around 11:00 in the morning, just in time to catch Harry on the way down to breakfast. He actually had felt a bit bad for lying about staying with Jona, especially when his mother had foisted a little care-package filled with sweets and baked-goods (no doubt Hopsy's doing) for Cedric's sole friend into his arms. He decided to assuage his guilt he would owl it to Jona as soon as he found the time.

The last few weeks of summer break went quickly after that, with nothing really remarkable happening (though in a strange way, Cedric found everyday he spent near Harry remarkable). He got his school supplies shopping done quite quickly, buying all the books that would prepare him for his OWLs. Earlier on in the summer he had actually owled the Deputy Headmistress to inquire if he could switch classes for his NEWTs. Her reply had been prompt and she had expressed her satisfaction with him reaching for higher achievements and had told him that he could join any NEWT level class as long as he completed the necessary preliminaries for it, the majority of which meant scoring an Acceptable or higher on. It was his hope that he could drop History, Divination and Muggle studies and replace them with Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, leaving a free period for him to use for studying and homework. He knew it would be an extremely tough year and that he would have to get a lot of studying in if he wanted to pass the tests, but he was fairly sure he could pull it off with enough effort on his part.

Aside from buying things for classwork he also took the time to head over to Gladrags, bypassing Madam Malkins in hopes that the pricier robes would be better suited for him. It turned out that the agonizingly boring two hours spent staring off to space as a flamboyant attendant cooed over his 'adonis-like' form and the few extra galleons were worth it, as his school robes honestly looked better on him than the dress robes he'd worn to the last ministry gala. He was so impressed by them, in fact, that he returned a day later to purchase a few sets of day robes.

Outside of school shopping, Cedric didn't do much else. When he wasn't tailing Potter, he was studying or doing the minimal amount of Quidditch training he could do in the privacy of his room. He did get to spend a day with Jona as he visited the Alley to go school supplies shopping, which had been a bit stressful as he had a hard time keeping an eye on Potter while still hanging out with Jonathan. But, it was nice all the same, especially when Jona had expressed that Cedric's new robes suited him well.

Before he knew it though, the break had come to an end, and he'd gone home the night before he was to return to Hogwarts to stay with his parents before bidding them farewell in the morning. They had been a bit surprised, though seemingly happy with his return.

Strangely enough, by morning Cedric was filled with a jittery excitement at the concept of getting to see Potter again, it hadn't even been a full day and...

It was a bit ridiculous.

But, ignorable.

A/N: So yeah, there you guys go. I think this chapter ended on a bit of a strange note, but I'm happy at the length of it. I'm sorry for how long it took me to update, I have a job and what-not so that retracts from my writing time unfortunately. I hope that it was fairly clear that Cedric's parents are fairly normal and are just worried on his behalf.
Also, if you guys haven't gone out to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, get on that! It was amazing, I really fell in love with the characters and the effects were beautiful!

As always, feedback is welcomed.