after potter's death - cedric diggory

chapter 5: lovebirds

a/n:
so i realised after reading this through that i started writing in past tense during this chapter which i guess now will be how i'm writing this story lol

"Harry Potter was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes." Cedric blurted out.
"Excuse me say what?!" Sarah suddenly shouted in shock.
"Yeah...." Cedric started and began to explain everything that Albus Dumbledore had told him only a few hours ago.

Lord Voldemort had created seven horcruxes, Harry Potter being the last one. But it had all happened in the wrong order. And Harry had just become a horcrux by accident, the night he lived. Saved by the love of his mother. It was all a mess. A big and confusing mess. When he finished talking Sarah was just gasping.

The last thing he had said was that him and Dumbledore went to destroy a horcrux tonight.
"Merlin's beard." was all Sarah could say.
"Yeah..." Cedric mumbled.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked. Obviously knowing he wasn't.
"I kinda have to be you know..."

"Maybe I can he-"
"Sarah, no. Don't offer your help." Cedric interrupted. She shook her head.
"I did say I'd help you defeat Voldemort, now if this is not that, then i don't know what it is."
"Yes but it's... I'm not supposed to be telling people about it and..." Cedric began.

"People? I'm just... people?" she mumbled and stood up. Suddenly tears had started to appear poring down her cheeks from her eyes. It because of the people comment he had just made, honestly the whole situation was too overwhelming. The tears weren't because she was hurt, they were tears of worry.

Cedric got up on his feet too and grabbed her hand in his.
"Sarah." he said. "You'll never be just people to me. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put it that way, I just meant that Dumbledore seemed to want Potter to have this mission, and now he ended up having me instead, and i'm just scared to do anything that would mean me losing his trust."

She shook her head, tears still pouring down.
"What?" he asked, now with a little bit of panic in his voice.
"I- I just don't want you to end with his faith."
"What?" Cedric repeated and tried to look her in the eyes, but she repeatedly avoided his gaze and turned away from him, letting go of his hand.

"I'm not upset with you. Yes, calling me just people felt kind of awful, but I accept your apology. So I'm not upset with you. I'm- I'm scared for you."
"Sarah..."
"Don't tell me you're gonna be fine and all is gonna be well and what so ever because it doesn't help."

"Merlin- Please just..."
"Cedric, Potter fucking died." she stated and turned to look him in the eyes again.
"And therefore I need to do this." Cedric explained, walking closer to her.
"I know, and I'm not trying to talk you out of this. Not at all. But it scares the fuck out of me that this is all happening. I told you, I don't want you to share his faith."

Cedric wrapped her up in a warm hug, and the room fell silent apart from a few quiet sobs.
"I'm doing this so that I won't. I'm doing it so that he'll be the last one with his faith." Cedric mumbled, then kissing her forehead.

"I'm realising I can't stop you." He shook his head and Sarah sighed.
"Let's take that bath then." she said, to switch subjects. She got into the water and waved at him to get in too.

Later on that evening they snuck Sarah into Cedric's dormitory, and she stayed the night. After placing a silence charm so that the rest of the guys in the room wouldn't hear them, they stayed up talking until the sun came up again. Of course they didn't just talk, but around three o'clock they'd stumbled upon the subject of Sarah's father.

She was laying next to Cedric, with her head resting on his chest and he had wrapped one of his arms around her. With the other hand he was combing through her hair with his fingers. He took a deep breath and then uttered the words he had been thinking of how he would express.

"Sarah..." he began.
"Yeah?" she whispered.
"There's something we should discuss." he explained.
"Oh?" She lifted her head and looked up at her boyfriend, who shook his head.
"Your father."

"Oh." she sighed and laid back down, with her head placed on his chest.
"We don't have to talk about it unless you want to." he reassured her.
"It's not that." Sarah explained. "There's just not a lot to say, besides what I told you already."

"So you're just not speaking anymore?"
"Basically. What I don't get is how he still wants to talk to me, especially when I make it quite clear that I don't want to have any contact with him."
"Shit, does Eve know?"

"Yeah... That's mostly why she offered me to stay all summer instead of just a couple of weeks."
"Ah."
"What?"
"Can't believe I didn't know." Cedric said and all of a sudden Sarah sat up in the bed.

"Don't make this about you." she stated.
"No, no, no. Sorry, that's not what I meant." he tried.
"Can't believe i didn't know." she imitated. Cedric was sitting up now too, started to get upset with her.

"I understand how it sounded, okay? But I did not mean that I'm upset that you did not tell me. Because I'm not. I kinda just felt some sorta feeling of that I'm a bad person for falling in love with you without even noticing how much you're struggling with something big like that. Like how could I not notice?"

"Oh." Sarah mumbled. "That's not your fault."
"Kinda is?"
"No, not at all." she explained and reached out to take his hand. "I've been pretending that I don't care about it so much that it got to a point where I myself even believed in that. And I know I said Eve knows, but we haven't actually talked much about it."

"Really? I thought you talked about everything." Cedric said. Sarah shook her head and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Right. Sorry?"
"Don't be sorry." Sarah told him. "I agree with you about not telling her we're dating."

She cuddled up in his arms again and took a deep breath.
"He sends me howlers sometimes." she then said to him.
"Your father?" Cedric asks.
"Yeah. And I don't open them... Not ever... And it's- It's horrible." she explains.