Little Talks | Fred Weasley x Cedric Diggory

Twelve.

Uncertainty remained in his mind long after he walked out of the office doors.

An opportunity to ponder the possibilities was seized that night. Still refusing to sleep full nights, Fred often spent the late hours thinking about whatever he wanted to. Sometimes it was thoughts as simple as what he had done in his classes that day. Other times, it would be replaying the contents of the conversations that were experienced, hearing the words again, complimenting himself on a joke well told, or silently protesting the potential mistakes made in his speech. The hours of darkness provided a nice outlet for these observations.

What he had to contemplate this time was at least exciting, if not in an unfortunate way.

How had Cedric known about George?

A more scholarly view takes the first approach. It relies on the things he already knew to be true, the facts. Ghosts were capable of moving through walls and getting places where nobody else could. Perhaps Cedric had snuck out of Dumbledore's Office, drifted out of its walls, and up to pay a visit to the Gryffindor Common Room. He was able to float around when he had his conversations with Cedric; it wasn't implausible that he hovered outside of the window, listening in on the discussion between himself and George. Exposing his ghostly form was not an option, that had long since been stated. Secrecy was ideal. That would explain why the knowledge of the visit was personal to Cedric and Cedric only.

The next proposition is that Cedric came to the conclusion all on his own.

At first, it seemed ridiculous, but with more attention focused on that idea, it became more realistic. Cedric had always been and still was an incredibly intelligent boy. He was quiet about it. Never bragged, had to be coaxed into admitting it, given how humble he was. That justified the fact that it was mentioned spontaneously. He had taken all the context clues from their weeks spent conversing and merged them together, realizing that George was just as concerned for Fred's wellness as he was. It was possible was disguising his feelings as ones belonging to George, rationalizing that the twins would trust each other more than Fred would trust the close council of a ghost.

Lastly, Fred comes up with something that seems obvious.

That he's overthinking.

With all the meticulous consideration he had centered in on discovering the answer, Fred had failed to realize that there was a chance that none of it was even necessary.

Maybe Cedric just simply knew, was intuitive enough to figure everything out. Maybe he was just saying those things to provide comfort and reassurance that any decision his former boyfriend made would be alright, that he really did just want him to be happy.

Maybe, just maybe, worrying about it was more trouble than it was worth.

That's the conclusion Fred settles on.

In the last meeting of Dumbledore's Army, they worked on Patronuses.

It was a prospect that delighted everyone when Harry announced it to all those standing around in the Room of Requirement. Chatter broke out instantly, with friends leaning over to make their predictions on what theirs would be, or just to comment on the known difficulty of casting one.

The instructions seemed simple enough.

Think of a powerful, happy memory.

He had plenty of those, right?

Fred searched through every crevice in his mind, analyzed every single recollection he could muster up. All the things he had reminisced on in Dumbledore's Office came to him, front and center, but he went deeper. It had to be powerful. It had to be so meaningful. Choosing something of that much importance would be arduous, and unnecessarily so.