The Golden Quartet (Harry Potter x Reader x Cedric Diggory)

Fourth Year - Chapter 12

"Okay... why did that sound weird?"

Ron, Harry, and Hermione stood up. You held up a hand— they understood that you would meet them in five or so minutes. You and Cedric walked to the Hufflepuff common room so you could get Padfoot and then meet your friends. Cedric listened to you tell him what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, and the almost kiss.

"So, you two are being all weird because you almost kissed?" Cedric asked as he knocked on the barrel.

"We're acting normal."

"(Y/N), he walks you to class every morning. He walks you from Potions every time Defense Against the Dark Arts comes after it. I'm genuinely shocked when I'm around the two of you and you're not holding hands."

You shook your head. "I've heard of almost every one of Harry's crushes. He gets so awkward and strange around them. I don't think he could ever walk them to class, let alone hold hands with one of them."

"Am I missing something?" Cedric asked,

You picked up Padfoot and shrugged. "No, not missing anything. You're just looking for what isn't there."

You left and began a tiny journey to the Gryffindor common room. Cedric wasn't actually missing anything— if he knew what he was looking for. It wasn't his fault that you failed to mention that you wanted to see what it was like to kiss for real after the accident. Soon after you realized that you had a crush— very mild if you do say so yourself— on Harry. It wasn't that you wanted to know what a real kiss was like. You wanted to know what a real kiss from Harry was like. And you realized it on the second day of school when he bothered to walk you to the Hufflepuff common room after late night Astronomy class in the observatory tower. You liked the way that he always slightly trapped you in whenever he reached over your shoulder to tap on the correct barrel to let you into your common room.

But there were many reasons to not voice how you felt. One, you weren't lying about his crushes. Ever since being accepted by the golden trio, you got to know all their secrets. And secrets involved which girls Harry had crushed on at some point. The second was your fear. You always had a fear of rejection and failure— it was unfortunately a familiar feeling every time you attended a class that required practical magic. A squib's life revolved around rejection. But, you weren't sure if you could handle that from Harry.

The third reason was Harry was unsure. You watched him wait to talk to new people. There's a reason he never talked to any of his crushes. Harry was always very unsure of who liked him because he was Harry Potter and who liked him because he was the Chosen One. You, Hermione, and Ron were the constants. The ones that he knew liked him because he was simply Harry Potter. Liking him as more than a friend would complicate that. That's what you told yourself when he met you at the stairs and petted Padfoot before grabbing your hand as he led you into the common room— not letting go until you were comfortably on a large floor pillow.

"Do you think anyone's going to put their name in tomorrow?" Hermione asked.

Ron nodded. "Definitely. Already all the Durmstrang seventh years saying they were going for it."

"It's crazy," you said as you let go of Padfoot so he could play with Crookshanks. "It's a dangerous, potentially deadly competition. Who wants to be in that?"

"I don't know." Ron shrugged. "You'd be kinda famous, plus the thousand galleons."

"Not worth it. It's just a thousand galleons— I mean they should be giving you more if you're risking your life," you quickly added.