DUSK; Cedric Diggory

Chapter 45

Cedric whipped around quickly, smoothening his hair and licking his lips at the sight of the Ophelia. "Fee!" he exclaimed.

Harry looked between the two sixth years and his eyes widened slightly, sending an encouraging smile to Ophelia before slipping past her and up the marble staircase. She stepped down from the step she was standing on and made her way to Cedric, her hands hidden in her oversized hoodie as she tugged on her sleeves.

"I hope you're happy," she said bitterly, her fists hammering on his chest. "You're such an idiot!" one punch. "Why did you enter?" another punch. "You—" another punch. "stupid—"

Cedric wrapped his hands around her wrist softly, but he was strong enough to stop her from punching him. Ophelia tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but gave up after a few seconds and collapsed into his chest. He immediately wrapped his arms around her soothingly, and god—did he miss having her so close to him.

"That's it?" Ophelia whispered, although there was no one else in the hall. "There's no going back?"

She felt him shake his head.

She let out a heavy sigh that held her stress the past week. His sandalwood cologne engulfed her, and all she wanted to do was stop ignoring him and to tease him, hold him and kiss him.

"Almost two weeks of us not talking really sucked, huh?" she mumbled, lifting her head up from his chest to look up at him.

"Yeah, it did." Cedric smiled in relief that she finally wasn't yelling at him, or punching him—he had missed her in the short time they were apart. "I'm sorry for upsetting you, love. I really am, I just—"

Ophelia silenced him with a kiss, and the only thing going through her mind was how addicting the taste of butterbeer and the taste of him was as he melted into her kiss. They stayed, neither deepening the kiss for a few seconds before he pulled away.

"I—erm...uh..." Cedric said, dazed and blushing.

Ophelia chuckled, cocking an eyebrow teasingly. "What, the first time you've gotten a kiss?"

Cedric's cheeks reddened even more, scratching the back of his neck.

"Boys and their hormones," Ophelia tutted. "Can't even last two week without kissing."

"What?" Cedric protested. "I managed just fine!"

Ophelia decided to play with him a bit, now that they were talking again. "Huh," she huffed. "I guess you'll be fine for another few weeks, then?"

Being the sweetheart that he is, he pulled her into a much needed hug and buried his face in her hair. "C'mon," he said after a while, pulling her towards the door on the right of the entrance hall.

Ophelia paused in her footsteps and grinned, breaking out of his grasp. "Go celebrate with the rest of the Hufflepuffs," she shooed. "I have to talk to Harry anyway."

"Do you believe him?"

"He's been through enough his whole life," she replied with a small smile. "I don't see why he needs more fame than being the Boy Who Lived."

Still, Cedric didn't seem completely assured, but kissed her on the forehead to say goodnight, and Ophelia quickly made her way back up the Gryffindor common room with a wide grin and a twisting gut feeling that she decided to push back.

By the time she had gotten back to the common room, it had emptied out a bit, but the buzz between the upper years was still there. She looked around, trying to find Harry, or even Ron and Hermione, but there was no sign of either three of them.

"Fred!" she called to one of the redhead twins. "where's Harry?"

Fred turned around from playing exploding snaps and jerked his head up to the boys dormitory. "I would watch out if I were you—he seemed a bit moody. Bummer, really, we were all expecting a huge party like the one going down in the Hufflepuff dorm."

Ophelia nodded and climbed up the boys dormitory steps, trying to be as quiet as she could.

"Well...no one else got across the Age Line," she heard Ron say. "Not even Fred and George. What did you use—the Invisibility Cloak?"

Ophelia knitted her brows together and tried to hold her impulse to slap some good sense into Ron.

"The Invisibility Cloak wouldn't have got me over that line," it was Harry.

"Oh right," Ron said, almost sarcastically. I thought you might've told me if it was the cloak...because it would've covered both of us, wouldn't it? But you found another way, did you?"

"Listen," Harry said. "I didn't put my name in that goblet—"

Ophelia paused, and decided to head back to the girls dorm for a good nights sleep and let the two teenage boys figure it out on their own, because it seemed like they had a lot of talking to do, and she was sure that Harry's sassiness could handle Ron's hot headed temper fine for the night.