ATLAS. ( cho chang ) ✓

i.

" but even if i fall in love again
with someone new
it could never be the way
i loved you"

cedric diggory | gone too soon

When Cho first met Cedric Diggory, she had a feeling deep in her gut that he would be famous.
Some people's names sounded that way, like they were meant for people to know their name.

It felt as though the universe had played a cruel joke on her when Harry returned with the cup, crying over her boyfriend's dead body.
She did not remember the days after Cedric's death. They were a blur of weeping interposed with periods of complete silence, staring at the wall. The girls in her year tried to console her, snuck her food from the Great Hall. She skipped the rest of her classes for the year, devoid of any energy to move from her bed.
Before Cedric, Cho couldn't think of a single person (or animal for that matter) that she cared about who had died. She had never experienced the death of a loved one, and now she was being forced to live through the death of someone she felt shared her soul.

It took all of her strength to go to his memorial during the closing ceremony of the year. Dumbledore's words were lost on her. She cried silently as Marietta held her tightly. In that moment she felt that if Marietta were to let her go, she would fall apart.
She wished that she had.

The funeral was simple, tasteful, humble. Exactly how Cedric would have wanted it.
The line of mourners went out the door and wrapped around the building. She found herself sandwiched between Cedric's parents (Amos and Sylvia) as wizards and muggles alike prayed in front of his body and expressed to the trio how sorry they were for his loss. At one point Sylvia drew her into a hug, the fabric of her black dress absorbing the tears that leaked from Cho's eyes. Sylvia had run a warm hand up and down Cho's back comfortingly. Cho wondered idly if Sylvia did this to Cedric whenever he had been upset.

Once the last of the mourners drove (or apparated) away, Amos, Sylvia, and Cho were left alone in the room with Cedric's body. Cho excused herself for a moment to give the couple some privacy to say their last goodbyes.
She stood in front of the bathroom mirror primping. She had been disappearing every so often to place cold, damp paper towels over her eyes so that they wouldn't puff up. Now she adjusted her hair just so, exactly how Cedric had liked it. She applied the barest of makeup, previously hidden in her clutch.
If Cedric was going to see her one last time, and vice versa, she was going to look nice for him.

Cho kneeled at the pulpit, hands just grazing the outside of Cedric's coffin. She closed her eyes and offered up a quick prayer to whoever was listening, and a second just in case they hadn't heard the first time.
She took a shallow breath and opened her eyes once more, taking in the last look of her boyfriend.
Her first thought was that his hair was too neat. It took everything in her to not reach out and ruffle it; she didn't want to risk touching his skin, knowing she would find it ice cold.

This was normally where Cedric would jump in to lift her spirits, cracking a stupid joke or telling her about locker room shenanigans. But he didn't speak. He never would again.

—

As the years passed, Cho found that she and Amos were sort of kindred spirits. At first, they only spoke of Cedric. They traded stories of sweet moments, big victories, small victories, moments when they felt they loved him so much their hearts would burst. Eventually, they spoke of embarrassing stories, funny stories, stories that made them relive how frustrating he could be. How he was a real (and flawed) person.

Later, they would talk over cups of coffee, plates of dinner, bowls of cereal (Cho was always a welcome guest in the Diggory household) about themselves. Cho filled him in on muggle university, the people she met who were not magic by blood, but had their own little magics in them. She complained about her first job, her second job. Amos told her about falling in love with his wife and how he wasn't sure if she was the one at first. How it wasn't until she was gone for Christmas break and his heart ached with the distance that he realized how much he wanted her in his life. He talked about how they had considered adoption but felt as though they would be betraying their son. Later, he talked about all of the foster children whose eyes lit up when he and Sylvia took them home.

Sometimes, particularly near his birthday, they talked about Cedric. Favorite memories, little quirks. It was strange, he had been gone from her life for so long, but Cho had never felt closer to him.

It was not until much later, when Amos was giving her relationship advice after a bad break up, that they realized just how the unlikely pair had become friends. The wound of Cedric's untimely death would always be there, but it felt more like a paper cut than a stab wound.

"When he died I didn't think I would ever feel okay again."

"But here we are." Amos said.

"Here we are."