Forbidden [d.m.] || rewritten

chapter 10

- year four -

Let me tell you just how much fun I had at the Quidditch World Cup. This summer had a very nice end to it, if you will. Cedric Diggory looked particularly astonishing with eye black and Quidditch gear on. He came back to the Burrow after the World Cup ended and practiced with Fred, George, and Harry for the week after.

That's when I suddenly took an interest in playing Quidditch. When they needed two more players because Percy refused to play, I so graciously volunteered Hermione and I. It was just my luck that Cedric and I ended up on the same team. Let's just say the Seeker build did him wonders.

The seventeen-year-old Hufflepuff was the bloody definition of perfection. Suppose it was the chiseled arms. Maybe the prominent biceps. Or those incredible hands. All of the above, perhaps. He was undeniably one of the most attractive wizards at the school.

We spent the summer sharing discreet glances that were a bit prolonged. I remember one night the lot of us stayed up late when Arthur and Molly went out for a date night and he and I got a bit cozy. There were a couple pats on the thighs when the other left. His hands snaked their way to my waist when he had to get by. That's all there was. Nothing really physical.

Hermione would have hounded me for getting on with someone two years older. But was that enough to get me to stop gazing at the boy from across the Great Hall? Definitely not.

From what I heard from the older Gryffindor girls, he was the heart-throb among the sixth-years. Ginny told me that she found out Fleur Delacour tried using her Veela charm on him to get him to go out with her. And then I heard Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell talking about how "devilishly tall" and "good-looking" he was. Any girl who had a pulse at Hogwarts was dreaming of going to the ball with him.

The Yule Ball would be commencing in just a few days and I was yet to find a date. Harry and Ron as well. Hermione was inundated with joy when Viktor Krum, renowned Seeker and Bulgarian from the Durmstrang Institute, asked her to be his date. She didn't have a right to judge me about Cedric when she was doing just the same. I was considering of going with Leo, but he was quick to get a date, being one of the best-looking among the fourth-years. He had seven different girls ask him after our first ballroom dancing lesson when we learned of the ball.

I had no clue who would potentially ask me. It's not like I would go with Ron, not with how proud he was acting about the ball. I had an inkling he had a thing for Hermione, anyway. Fred and George both found dates, too. They were sort of my last resort.

Cedric and I strolled through the corridors between classes, reminiscing on this one night in the Burrow when Ron tumbled down the stairs after George tried his first Jelly-Legs jinx. That's when I realized the answer had been in front of me the whole time.

Cedric.

I was half-expecting him to part ways with me and go off with his Hufflepuff friends, but he merely sent them a wave from across the courtyard. We linked up a couple times throughout the first two months of this year, taking a few trips to Hogsmeade and walks down by the Black Lake.

He motioned for us to take seats in the courtyard and we snagged an empty bench right where the sunlight hit. Ironically enough, Draco Malfoy and his goons were standing under their notorious tree right in plain sight.

"That first task was nasty business, Ced." I sighed as we took our seats. "Didn't Moody say they only get more dangerous as they go on?"

He nodded with pursed lips. "S'alright. All that dragon left me with was a few scars here and there." Cedric rolled up his sleeve to show the faint red marks left on his arm. "Makes me look edgy, doesn't it? You should see the other guy."