Amelia Merlin

Part Sixty Two: Cedric had a conversation with Mrs Merlin

After a gorgeous dinner, they sat in the library on a couch, Amelia with her head in Cedric's shoulder. "What's your favourite room here?" he asked.

"The library. But it's not my favourite spot in the house." she felt his fingers stroke her hair gently. "My favourite is this little trap door in the ceiling of the third floor. It painted over so no one knows about it except for me. And if you climb the bookcase you can get up high enough to open it. And then there's a little tunnel you have to crawl though, but at the end is this little window seat. And the window beside it is this gorgeous stained glass image of a sunrise. And it looks over the field and you can just see the Burrow through it." She used to go there when she needed to escape from her father, it was her safe place in this strange house.

"Sounds incredible." he murmured. "I think it's really cool your house has secret passageways. It's like Hogwarts."

"This place is the farthest thing from Hogwarts." She laughed lightly. "I wish I could live at Hogwarts."

"Summer is almost over." he smiled down at her and Amelia raised herself from his shoulder so she could look at him. "Then we can see each other more! And now you'll be allowed to go to Hogsmeade and I can take you on a proper date."

"Where would you take me?" she tried to control the smile that gripped her lips.

"Anywhere you wanted." his thumb traced across her jaw. "I'd take you everywhere. The classic places like Zonko's and the Three Broomsticks. And I'd take you to all the back roads and shops and to the Shrieking Shack."

"I'd love that."

"I'm glad," his low voice floated across air waves and Amelia felt them hit her heart and make it race. He leaned in slowly, their foreheads touched, then their noses, then their li-

"Amelia!" her mother called. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting this guest!"

Amelia groaned and whispered so only Cedric heard, "I am so sorry about her, and for anything she says." he just smiled graciously of course and stood up to shake Mrs. Merlin's hand.

"I'm Cedric Diggory, madame." Amelia felt a strange sense of pride as he introduced himself. Most people quivered under her mother's gaze, but not him. And surely her mother would have to try very hard to find any fault in him.

"Amelia?"

"Yes mother?" she rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Could you leave me alone with your charming friend?" Her mother's eyes bored into Amelia and she stomped out of the room. It was better not to antagonize her mother in front of Cedric. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to listen in. Amelia went down the hall until she found the portrait of Demelza Merlin. She poked her on the nose and the painting swung open to reveal a small passage way that lead to a chamber where you could hear everything that was happening in the library.

"So you two have been together long?" her mother said loftily.

"Yes. She's a wonderful girl. You raised an incredible daughter." Amelia blushed slightly at his words.

"Did I?" her mother wondered. "Because she has never mentioned you to me before."

"Amelia's a very private person. I don't mind." said Cedric.

"That's not all she is." her mother seemed to be steering the conversation into a way Cedric would think rude things about Amelia, but he was having none of it.

With a light chuckle he said. "No, she is much more than that."

"I wonder if you know everything about her, her secrets and such." her mother's voice had raised slightly.

"I think it's nearly impossible to know everything about a person. It would take much more time than I've had with her, I'm afraid." he said firmly.

Amelia heard her mother sigh loudly. "Cedric, dearest, I'll just get right to the point. Amelia is no good for you. You seem like a nice boy. She is not. She sent her own father to prison. She is an attention seeking brat and I think it would be best for everyone if you didn't see her anymore."

It was quiet for longer than anyone was comfortable with before Cedric spoke up. "Not to be rude, Mrs. Merlin, but I think I will keep seeing her."

"I would pay you very handsomely if you stopped. I could get you any job you wanted and any position your heart desires. Same with your father and your mother. But you must  stop seeing my daughter."

Again, a silence stretched before them and for a moment Amelia thought he might accept, until he spoke up. "Amelia is a wonderful person. She is kind and gracious and clever and anyone would be blessed to have her in their lives. I know I certainly am." her mother started to speak but Cedric kept going. "I will not take a bribe, and I will not leave your daughter until she wants me to."

It was all Amelia could do not to burst from the bookshelf and kiss him. She listened intensely as her mother started to speak again. "And if I threatened you? "

"It wouldn't change anything."

"Very well then. I see you are quite stubborn enough for her. But I must warn you, for your own good, don't let her get to close. She rips the people she loves apart." Her mother said lowly.

"Thank you for your advice, Mrs Merlin. But I will make my own decisions." She heard her mother leave the room and Amelia ran out of the tunnel. She charged in to the library and saw Cedric standing in the middle of the room, looking stunned.

"I heard everything." she said, breathless.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" she laughed. "Why on earth would you be sorry?"

"Your mother-" he started but Amelia walked over to him and pressed her lips against his, cutting off his words.

She broke away and said, "I don't give a damn about my mother."

A/N comment whether you ship fredelia, Olivelia, or amedric!