✓ epiphany ━━ cedric diggory

﹙ 𝐱𝐢𝐱﹚ a change of ways

     Realisation dawned on me as I reached the edge of the pumpkin patch where it was nestled. It was a Hippogriff, a proud creature, elegant and powerful. They were very territorial creatures and felt threatened easily. Knowing that all the bird needed was a sign that it could trust me, I reached my arm out towards it, my feet shuffling forward only a few inches at a time, so that I could keep my distance.

     "It's okay," I smiled, softening the bends in my fingers, talking to the animal despite knowing it wouldn't understand me nor reply. "I'm not going to hurt you."

     At my words, the creature tilted his head, as if it did in fact understand me, its big eyes growing, the first rays of sunlight twinkling in its irises. In response, I bowed, as one should when first encountering a Hippogriff.

     After a moment of hesitation, it bowed too. Lightly sighing in relief, I let my feet carry me further until I was close enough to place a hand on its neck, stroking softly. Its feathers tickled my palm, and it didn't take long for the bird to feel comfortable enough to tuck its head under my shoulder, so much so, that I toppled to the floor, the animal eventually settling, and resting his head on my lap.

     I felt its breathing rise and fall against my arm, where I had draped it over its body. I watched as its eyes fluttered shut and I clung tight to the peace of it all, my own eyes feeling heavy with satisfaction as I watched the sun rise higher, the wind brushing my neck, the clouds parting as the day approached.

     "Beau'iful, in't he?"

     I don't know how long I was sat silently in Hagrid's back garden, a Hippogriff under my arm. It wasn't until the man himself came out of his hut, a bucket in hand, standing in his doorway when I turned to look at him that I realised I wasn't the only person in the vicinity.

     Without hesitation, I craned my neck to look up at the newly named professor, my eyes squinting against the sun, my lips tipped up at the sides. "Absolutely."

     "Ya know," Hagrid descended the steps up to his hut, flinging a cloth over his broad shoulder, "Buckbeak 'ere don't really like 'umans that much. He mus' be quite fond of ya, y/n."

     Hagrid left me with that thought before walking up towards the castle. His words floated around in my head; Buckbeak, as I learned the bird was so named, still lying undisturbed in my lap. I smiled to myself, for no one to see.

     Or so I thought.

     "That makes two of us."

     The words snapped me roughly out of my reverie until I realised who it was that had disturbed me. Cedric's words took a second to settle in my mind, but when they did, I was rattled with a warmth spreading in my chest.

     "You're up early," I said, the boy now approaching me, as if from behind Hagrid's hut. I wondered if he had spotted me, also out on a morning walk, and didn't even hesitate to follow me out here. He was obviously close enough to hear the Groundskeeper's statement about the Hippogriff being unusually fond of me.

     "I could say the same," he said, his eyes narrowing into mine as he got closer, "but I think this is a norm for you, isn't it?"

     "How could you tell?" I asked. I hardly even think Ava and Spencer are that aware of my early morning tendencies. They're always still asleep by the time I head back to the dorm to get changed into my uniform.

     "I remember you mentioning it in one of your letters," Cedric said, coming to sit cross-legged beside me, the bird now asleep on my lap. "How you're always the first one up in your household."

     "Technically, I'm the—"

     "Second. But your dad has left for work by the time you get up. And you like how quiet and still your house is when it's only you pottering about before your brother makes a racket at around eleven."