Just Like Magic (Cedric Diggory and Hermione Granger Fan fiction)

Chapter 9: Changes

Cedric and I made promises to try a date after the school year was over. Everything was hectic and crazy now and we needed to wait until it simmered down a bit before finding time for a date. The papers were already swearing that Harry was telling lies about Voldermort's return and Cedric was truly his only witness. Dumbledore and Mr. Diggory would let no one near the hospital wing in order to wade off the onslaught that was sure to occur.

We had all the time in the world for a date.

I still couldn't believe he asked me.

Cedric already had me in so many ways-my heart, my mind, my body. In the small amount of time that we had gotten together we had already been through so much. He had opened me up in ways I didn't know existed in me. Cedric was what I wanted and I wasn't going to let him go. He commanded attention in every part of me and heat now ran through my veins. I no longer had to hide behind my books in fear that no one would want me. Cedric wanted me and he was willing to do it the old fashioned way by courting me.

We ran through ideas from magical to muggle and finally settled on something that would work for us. A mixture of our two worlds. That was what our relationship was like-a simple teenage romance that had the added bonus of us being undeniably drawn together, like magic. We were in this for the long haul. Wherever life found us, we would be together.

After Cedric had fallen back to sleep-a side-effect of the medicine-I removed myself from his embrace to sit beside Harry. He was constantly surrounded by visitors that it seemed that this would be my only opportunity to talk to him in the hospital. He was perched up on his bed eating a chocolate frog when I finally sat beside him.

"How are you feeling, Harry?"

He shrugged. "Better. Madame Pomfrey said I should be ready to be released today."

"That's good." My eyes wandered to the bandage on his arm. "What happened that night?"

"It all happened so fast, Hermione." He finished off the chocolate frog and discarded the wrapper on his nightstand. "One minute Cedric and I are excited because we're both going to win, and then we're in the cemetery and Peter Pettigrew is using my blood to create a body for Voldermort. Then I saw..."

His voice drifted off and I could tell he was worried about how I would take what he said next. My hand reached over onto his open palm on the bed and I squeezed. "What did you see, Harry?"

"My parents." He looked away from me. "They saved me."

My mind was immediately wracked with all possible outcomes for why Harry would see his parents in that cemetery. It was impossible to bring back the dead-every witch and wizard knew that. Surely, Voldermort couldn't bring them back as a cruel way to torment Harry. I was reminded of our first year when Harry wandered off and stumbled upon a mirror. The mirror showed Harry standing with his parents who admired him proudly. The mirror was the Mirror of Erised, an ancient magical heirloom that showed the looker his heart's desire. I knew all about the mirror having seen it in some light reading I had done the previous summer. Many wasted their lives standing in front of it and I was hoping that whatever had happened in the cemetery didn't drag Harry back down to that lonely little boy.

When his eyes met mine again, I saw all the hope and fear that hid behind them. Harry was only a young boy who wanted his parents more than anything in the world. The fame of being the Boy-Who-Lived meant nothing to him. It only reminded him of what he had lost. As much as it hurt me to answer him truthfully, I had to be his friend. He couldn't live in a dream.

"They weren't really there, Harry." His face fell. "It might've been their ghosts or one of Voldermort's tricks but... they can't come back."

The silence stretched on between us, but I knew better than to interrupt it. Harry needed to deal with this and I knew when Dumbledore sought him out again an answer might be remedied. Dumbledore dealt with Harry in a way I couldn't. Smart as I might be I truly didn't know everything.