𝚂𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚢 & 𝚂𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚝

Chapter Twenty Two

"Who would've known I was going to be standing here, in front of my older brother's dead body"

After weeks of planning, the school year had finally ended and Cedric's funeral was planned and ready. Grace was fixing her hair in the mirror in her house near the front entrance, her eyebags were prominent even if she was trying to cover it with makeup.

Last month, Enzo and Mattheo talked Grace into taking a leave on the last month of school to be with her parents, and even though it was nice. She was still really sad, her parents didn't dare change anything in Cedric's room so everything of his was still intact in his bedroom.

Sometimes Grace will go into Cedric's room and sit on his bed staring at all his stuff. His acceptance letter hung on the wall, along with his Quidditch broomstick and wand that the professors returned to the family. Grace truly missed her older brother, and it was the hardest on her.

Even though her parents fed her, she wouldn't eat much. Only small portions before disappearing back to her bedroom to cry, or to go to Cedric's room to stare at the walls. Her parents could understand, Cedric protected Grace throughout his life when he was alive. 

Cedric protected Grace from any physical harm and mental harm, he was truly the best older brother and son the Diggory family could ever ask for. For them, losing Cedric meant losing the best part of their family, and for Grace, it meant losing one of her only protectors. It hurt, to say the very least.

Grace sighed as she stared at herself, She wished nothing more than all of it to be a dream and she woke up from it and her brother was still alive. "Grace honey, it is time to go" Grace heard her father say, the blonde girl looked over and saw her parents waiting at the door. She quietly follows them, not saying a word.

The funeral was going to be held at a small graveyard near the Diggory residence, upon arrival Grace stood there greeting family and friends. She had a sorrowful look on her face no matter who came and greeted her and her parents, even the Weasleys who arrived all together along with Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Cho came.

However, their presence didn't make Grace change, if anything Harry's presence made her more depressed even if she didn't want it to, he was the only person with Cedric when he died. She quietly waited, noticing that Lorenzo and Mattheo hadn't arrived.

Grace looked down, "They must not be coming..." She thought as she walked to her parents who were greeting the Weasleys. Grace stood there with her head down as someone took her hand, She looked up and saw Hermione, Luna, and Cho standing there. Hermione held Grace's hand trying to comfort her, Grace let Hermione before looking down once more.

It wasn't long before the ceremony began, only a small group of people were at the funeral. Grace's family wanted to keep it small and intimate, so almost everyone got to reminisce about Cedric's time when he was alive and talk about it with everyone.

Grace sat in the front staring at the casket, She couldn't listen to what anyone had to say about Cedric because it would only make her cry even more than she already had. Suddenly someone touched her shoulder, taking her out of her own thoughts.

She looked up and saw Luna hovering over her shoulder, "You should say something, you were the closest to him" Luna said softly. Grace looked at the empty podium, she bit her bottom lip before getting up slowly and walking over to it. 

She got to the podium and looked at her hands before looking up, the moment she did she saw Lorenzo and Mattheo along with the rest of their group standing in the back quietly watching. Mattheo noticed and waved to her slightly, this caused the blonde to smile a little bit. The first smile she had since Cedric's passing.

Harry looked back seeing them before looking forward, "I am surprised they showed up" Hermione whispered to Harry who just nodded a bit. Grace looked at her hands, "My earliest memory of Cedric was when we were quite young. Mom and Dad loved quidditch and it grew on me and Cedric at quite an early age" Grace said making their mother and father smile a bit.

"I wanted to learn how to ride a broom, and I took dad's old one from our broom closet Cedric had kept telling me to not do it because I would get hurt, but I didn't listen to him" The blonde continued, "He kept telling me until I got on. He was right, like always" She said before letting out a small giggle.

"I ended up breaking my arm, I was so scared but...Cedric was there to comfort me, he comforted me the entire time while I was put in a cast" Grace said softly before looking at the casket. "He was the first person to sign my cast, and he told me that he would learn quidditch because he didn't want me to get hurt again" She said starting to feel the tears brimming her eyes.

"Ever since then, Cedric has been my protector...My first broken arm, my first spell mishap, my first heartbreak, my first fight... Cedric always came in to protect me" Grace said letting the tears fall. "He was the strongest person I knew" She added before covering her mouth to cover her loud cries.

"He will always be the strongest person I knew, and now...I will continue to strive for his dreams because I know that he would've done it for me if the roles were switched" Grace finished before going back to sit down with her parents.

She sat there crying, grieving, unsure if she would ever truly recover from the biggest loss in her life.