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by horcruxerin

by horcruxerin

"Errol just left to send letter to your uncle. You can stay overnight, okay dear?" a red haired women who had introduced herself as Molly said. I simply nodded and gave her a grateful smile. I looked around me and recognized few things that Malfoy had mocked Weasleys about. Sure, the house was cozy, but it did kind of look like it would crash down any minute now. I turned my gaze up and saw a weird looking clock, which didn't tell the time but instead had spoons on it. In every spoon, there was a face of each member of the family. Now that we had came to burrow, the spoons of Fred, George and Ginny turned to point at the word home.

"You know you're not that bad, for a slytherin" the Weasley girl said, which made me startle a bit, since she was behind my back and I had no idea she was even standing there. I turned around to face the girl, small smirk forming on my lips. "For a slytherin?" I questioned and crossed my arms on my chest. "Oh come on you know how some of you guys can be. I bet they piss you off too sometimes?" She giggled at my movement. "That I do admit" I chuckled lightly.

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I took few steps forward and before I even had any time to react, I felt two protective arms around me. "Ced, let me breath please" I chuckled, but still wrapped my hands around his torso. "I was so worried. Don't you dare ever do that again" Cedric said as he loosened his grip and eventually let go of me. "Oh yes, I'm sorry that I got pushed away against my own will" I said sarcastically as I also hugged my uncle.

"Thank you for helping my niece" Amos said and walked to shake Fred's hand, who just smiled at my uncle and winked at my direction afterwards. I shook my head at him, amused expression on my face.

It turned out to be much less awful to spend whole night with the Weasleys than I had thought. Even Potter and Granger surprised me with being somehow entertaining company after they found their way back from the World Cup. We chattered the whole evening, which was more than okay to me since I really didn't want to think how worried about Cedric and Amos I was. I believe it was also nice to them, just doing something casual and not worrying about the attack in the World Cup.

They seemed to forgot about our different houses. To be honest, I may have forgotten as well that those were all Gryffindors I was with. We had quite decent time, compared to the beginning of that night.

"I'll see you at Hogwarts?" Cedric turned his gaze from me to the other under-aged witches and wizards who were present. "It was nice to get to know you. Both of you" Harry suddenly spoke and glanced at me exactly the time he said both. "Pleasure is ours, Potter" I said and tilted my head a bit with a small grin on my face, as usual. "Goodbye. Hope we don't have to rescue you again, Esme" the twins said in sync, probably mocking the way I still used their last names. "Oh shut it" I mumbled sarcastically and scrunched my nose to their direction. "Who would've believed you would actually make some friends?" Cedric smirked and nudged my side with his elbow. "Don't be ridiculous, cousin" I shook my head at him as we turned to leave the burrow.

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Me and Cedric had arrived quite early to the platform 9 and 3/4. Mostly because Cedric's parents had something to do in the city, so they dropped us off on the way. I said goodbye to my cousin as he had seen one of his friends sitting in one of the many compartments of the Hogwarts express. After few minutes of walking along the train I gave up on finding my own friends and opened the door of an empty compartment. I sat down and sighed. Here it goes again, Hogwarts year number four.

The platform behind my compartment's window started to fill with people. Kids hugging their parents, crying moms and running little siblings made a smile appear on my lips. But as soon as I heard someone opening the door, I diverted my gaze towards it.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me"

And there they stood. My best friend with two, not so pleasant guests. "Esme! God it's so good to see you" words escaped from Leona's mouth as I was already hugging my best friend. She hadn't changed almost at all during the summer. I could still see the warm wide smile on her lips, her blonde hair tied up on a high ponytail, just like almost every day I've know her. Only thing that had changed was the two boys, now standing in the same compartment as we were. I pulled myself back from the hug and diverted my gaze to Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy.

"I'm guessing you weren't joking when you owled me that you guys were dating" I sighed as the picture of Leona's letter came back into my mind. She just rolled her eyes at my comment. "God, girl what happened to us versus them?" I complained and crossed my arms on my chest, my gaze shifting between Leona and the boys. "Now now Diggory, she just can't help my dear friend's charm" Malfoy said with a grin and sat next to me, giving the opposite seat to the lovebirds. "But did you really have to bring him too?" I looked straight to my best friends eyes, nodding towards Draco. "Sorry, we're a package deal" Blaise said as he sat down with Leona next to him. "You'll survive" Leona chuckled, which made a small laugh escape my lips too. It was good to hear her voice again and see her blonde ponytail move as she laughed.

"So what did you guys do in the summer?" I asked, glancing between Leona and Blaise. It took me some time to acknowledge that I needed to spend time with these boys too, but since I had no choice I just decided to at least try and be nice to them. I saw a wide grin spread on both of their faces as they looked at each other. "Never mind, don't answer that" I said quickly before they even had time to think what to say. It would spare my mind that way.

"At least I'm sure they had better company than you" Draco commented, which made me divert my gaze towards him. We locked eyes and I saw a smirk forming on the corner of his lips. "Wait, what am I missing?" Leona asked, suddenly more curious about this conversation than before. "Nothing" I said, not moving my gaze from those grey eyes next to me. I gave Draco a look that practically screamed do-not-say-anything-else-about-that. I wasn't really in the mood to explain what happened that night during the attack in the World Cup. It was quite embarrassing, if I'm being honest.

"Esmeralda Diggory you tell me right now why this moron knows anything about your summer!" Leona said, clearly wanting answers. Her gaze moved between me and Draco as she suddenly lifted her brows like she had just realized something. "Oh my god!" She gasped. "Don't tell me you two-" Leona started with a surprised voice but I cut her off quickly. "God eww no!" I said, both me and Draco looking at her disgusted. "We met in the quidditch World Cup" I sighed, trying my best to avoid telling everything more about that night. "She and her dear cousin were spending some quality time with the Weasleys" Draco said as his lips curled into a very annoying grin. "No you weren't" Blaise decided to step into the conversation with a small laugh. "I'd appreciate if we didn't have to talk about that. Thank you guys" I said, my voice demanding them to stop. Fortunately they got my hint and stayed quiet.