An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Forty

"So, Alexa, tell us about Cedric."

Did I hear him right?

"Wha- what?"

"Your new boyfriend, Cedric," Pietro repeated, a truly shit-eating grin on his face. "Tell us about him."

"I- how the hell do you know about that? I was trying to think of a way to bring him up and break the news tonight, but you already knew?"

"Jackson told us at Friendsgiving when you were out of the room!" Wanda burst out, looking insanely excited. "And can I just say: finally! I've been hoping Aledric would happen since this time last year."

"Ha, Aledric," Pietro snorted. "It sounds like an allergy medication."

For one of a truly small number of times in my life, I was completely speechless. I mean seriously, what do you say after all that!

"Uh... well, he's a Hufflepuff?" I finally managed. Everyone around the table snorted or shook their heads or rolled their eyes, or even all three.

"We mean, what's he like," said Uncle Rhodey.

"And how did you meet, and all that sweet stuff," added Pepper with a kind smile.

"And when can you set up a video call so I can have a nice, long talk with him." My dad, the intensity in his eyes making me a little nervous.

"Okay... well, he's really sweet. He's such a kind person, and just... warm. I feel warm when I'm around him, like he's giving off sunshine just by being in the room." My family melted at that, even the most hardened and sarcastic members. "We met after a Quidditch match, actually, after his team won under... abnormal circumstances, and he was arguing with the ref for a rematch. And Dad, I love you, but I'm not setting up a video call just for you to intimidate my boyfriend."

My dad raised an eyebrow, but Peter jumped in before he could say much else, bless him. I knew that conversation wasn't over, and that if Cedric and I kept dating he would definitely meet my dad someday, but I wasn't about to help that day come any sooner, especially when we'd barely been dating two months!

Finally, after a lot of awkward questions, sappier answers than I meant to give when I started speaking, politician avoidance of 'when do we get to meet him' questions, and glares at Strange to threaten him against helping my family show up uninvited, we managed to change the subject.

"So yeah, I'm glad we get to be partners for this whole thing. There's nobody I can think of that I'd rather face a dragon with."

"FACE A DRAGON?"

"Cool!"

"You better not mean that literally!"

Sorry, did I say managed to change the subject? I meant dropped a distracting bombshell.

A lot of dinner was dominated by questions about the dragons, and even though I'd brought it up I still tried to duck some of the questions that would make the whole thing sound more dangerous. I really didn't want them worrying about me, and telling them how close I'd come to being flame broiled wouldn't exactly help them sleep at night.

After assuring everyone that I was perfectly fine, they were all incredibly excited to hear that dragons were real. They asked me a million questions, and since I'd asked Charlie pretty much the exact same questions over the summer, I had all the answers.

I could honestly talk about dragons for days and not get bored.

Eventually, the conversation rolled around to other things, like how Harley was doing at MIT and some of my dad's latest projects. We stayed up talking even later than Jackson and I had for Friendsgiving last night, and even as I started drifting off mid-sentence and still sitting up around two in the morning, I didn't want the night to end.