Dear Diggory

chapter 4

A week later everyone had fallen back into the routine of school. The teachers begun every class assuring us that although we had fewer lessons, the extra workload preparing for our NEWT mock exams would take up a lot of our time.

I had chosen to attend Potions, Muggle Studies, Apparition and Geographic Orientation for the year. Of course everyone also had to continue Defence Against the Dark Arts until graduation. During our free periods the majority of us studied in the great hall so that we could mix and sit with friends in other houses.

When we had recreational time I spent most of it with Carlisle and Evelyn, or in the dorm room. Maisie, Dakota and Evelyn liked to try the spells from Witches magazine and I frequently laughed at them as they backfired, causing them to grow monobrows or end up with clown face paint rather than makeup.

The only thing different was the increasing gossip surrounding Cedric Diggory.

As the week went by the girls in our year had grown practically obsessed with all things him. Rumours became wilder each day; the latest was that he was personally responsible for fixing the overpopulation of Canadian Pixies.

Every time he was brought up I tuned out, not wanting to hear anymore dramatic recounts. My father had taught me that a smart thinker never believed wild rumours, and instead investigated the truth for themselves. Despite Cedric being in all of my classes, I had ignored his presence at the back of the classrooms, instead resolving to leave him alone.

I felt guilty for the way everyone else hounded him and knew that he was probably exhausted. Even Evelyn had volunteered to sit next to him in potions class, leaving Carlisle free to sit with me.

When we left class that day she had whispered to me in frustration, "he is nice enough but we didn't have much to talk about."

And that was that. She got over what little crush she'd had, although plenty of other girls approached him to test theirs. So far it seemed that no one had caught his interest. I knew the fascination would die down eventually and until then I just had to endure the chatter.

It was Saturday and our dorm had decided to spend the afternoon at the Great Lake. Maisie invited some of the girls from other houses and the ten of us headed down to a small cove that a lot of students liked to hang out in.

When we arrived it was relatively quiet so we placed the picnic blanket down in the centre of the beach. Maisie pulled out her wand and chanted picnic canistro and the large wicker basket materialised in her lap. She handed out the sandwiches and I took a chicken one, biting into it as I surveyed the beach.

To our left a large group emerged, mostly consisting of Hufflepuffs, easily identifiable by their yellow and black scarves that matched the autumnal trees.

I guessed they were in our year and spotted Cedric amongst them. They sat a few hundred yards from us, just close enough so that I was able to see their faces. I noted two of my friends, Max and Alastair, laughing and joking amongst them. They were very popular in our year and so it was no surprise they had adopted Cedric into their group. Max caught me looking and waved, to which I returned his gesture with a small smile.

"Oh my gosh there's Cedric!" a girl in our group named Abigail commented. She nudged her twin Amy and the others turned to look at him.

Amy spoke up then, "ooo he is so good looking, I can't believe you get to sit next to him in potions Evelyn."

My best friend nodded, seemingly unfazed by the wonder boy's presence as she conjured a glass of juice, "yeah he's really nice... and smart too, he knows all of the material. He could easily be a Ravenclaw."