inertia || a Fred Weasley love story

ten.

"Is he a hufflepuff?" Aurora's quiet voice surprised me, and I glanced at her as I was shuffling through my trunk, trying to find a pair of pj shorts.
"Yeah uh- do you know Cedric?"
"Diggory?" She sat up suddenly, and I gave her a curious look as I pulled out a pair of men's boxers- the ones with stars on them, that Alice had bought me for my sixteenth birthday.
"Um- yeah. Duh. Is there another Cedric?" I said absently as I pulled the shorts on.

"Cedric Diggory is sneaking into the girl's dorm." Aurora said bluntly. I looked at her with an incredulous look.
"Yeah Sherlock, nice deduction skills."
"Isn't he a prefect? He could get in serious trouble for that."
I rolled my eyes, bouncing back onto my bed.
"And who would report him, exactly? Himself? Besides, it's not like we're gonna fuck. You're still here."
Her face turned bright red, and I was surprised to see something more than shock dance across her face.
"Yeah- well- he- how- since when are you even friends with Cedric Diggory?"

"Heh?" I said with an exaggerated expression, "We've been chillin' since day one, babes."
She huffed, and I was kind of taken aback. I'd never seen Aurora so worked up before.

"It's just- well- I didn't realize he kept company with the likes of-" She cut herself off as I felt my face melt from surprise to disbelief. There was a moment of heavy silence between us, before she shook her head and curled up into herself. Her face was bright red, and she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Are you guys, um, dating?" She said very quietly, and it dawned on me that Cedric's popularity might have touched Aurora the way it had a lot of girls in our year. I let out a little laugh, which startled her into looking back up at me.
"No, no, we're honestly just friends." I said, then moving to sniff my shirt. I undid my messy bun and leaned over to shake my hair out, gathering it once again, and tying it into a high ponytail.
Aurora was still watching me when I pulled up my phone, and I looked back at her.
"You're not even going to put on, I don't know, some perfume or something?"
I made a face.
"No? Why would I waste perfume on Cedric?"
Her face flushed again, and she shrugged, mumbling something I couldn't hear, and picking her book up again.
It was silent for a moment, before she got up from her bed suddenly. I looked up at her with an amused expression as she looked at herself in her own mirror, patting down her mousy brown hair and thumbing the bottom of her form fitting tank top.

"Do you like Cedric or something?" I let out with a little laugh, and Aurora froze, before crossing her arms and getting back into her bed, flipping the blanket to cover herself up to her neck.
"No." She said weakly, and it made me laugh louder. She threw a pillow at me, and I caught it in one hand.
"Oh my god, you have a crush on Cedric."
"I do not." Aurora said weakly, sitting up and moving to hug her legs. "I just think he's um... Really cool. And smart. And he's so funny.." She trailed off, curling a stray piece of hair around her finger. Aurora was pretty, in a plain, quiet way with her long straight nose and splattering of freckles. But I'd never really thought about what her social life would be like- much less consider the fact that she may have some sort of interest in anyone I knew.
"Do you guys talk or anything?" I asked lightly, flipping my phone, waiting for Cedric's text.

Aurora's face blushed again, and she shook her head slightly.
"So how do you know you like him?"
"We have Potions and Arithmancy together. And he- he sits in front of me in Arithmancy. I.." She trailed off, hiding her face in her hands, "I listen to him talk to his friends a lot."
I giggled hard at that one.
"But you've never even talked to him?"
She shook her head again, from behind her hands. My heart went out to her, a little, and I felt the pain of what had transpired between my friends ebb a little in response. It was like being reminded that I should be happy to be with the friends I was, and be able to talk to the people that interested me. My phone buzzed.
"Is that him?" Aurora's voice was higher than usual, and she dropped her hands to clutch the edge of her blanket.
"Um-" I glanced at the screen, reading that Cedric was on his way, and nodded before looking back up at her. "Dude, you look like you're going to faint."
"I feel like it too." Aurora said faintly, and a laugh escaped my throat before I could stop it.
"Like, he's literally just a guy. He's pretty normal. Actually- nah he's like, he can get kind of chaotic when he lets loose. But- he's nice. You should try talking to him."
"Oh my god-" She brought the blanket up to hide her face this time, "I can't believe Cedric Diggory is going to be in my bedroom, but to see you."
Okay, that hurt this time. Like, before when she'd said something in that tone I'd kind of let it slide, but this time,
"What's that supposed to mean?" I said in a stronger tone. She didn't say anything for a moment. "Hey." I threw the pillow back at her, and she squeaked as it hit her, diving so that she was laying on the bed now. "Aurora, what do you mean? He's literally my friend."
At that, a soft knock came from the door, and Aurora hid under her covers further.
"He's not going to talk to you if you look like you're sleeping." I said in a teasing tone, picking the pillow up from where it'd landed and tossing it at Aurora again. She moved so she was hugging it to her, but kept her back to the door.
"Suit yourself." I muttered as I went to open it. Behind the door stood Cedric, looking nervous and a little disheveled, holding a cup of coffee and a wad of napkins.
"I wasn't sure if I'd gotten the room right." He whispered, letting out a big sigh of relief before pushing into the room quickly. I held my hands up as he pushed me out of the way, closing the door with a push. It clicked shut, and Cedric stood there awkwardly. I looked at the objects in his hands expectantly.
"Oh-" He said with a little jump, as if he'd been so nervous he'd forgotten he had them, "These are for you."
I gave him a great, grateful grin as I took the coffee and wad of napkins, which I suspected had a muffin inside.
"I didn't know how to carry it without raising suspicion- the coffee already was cause for alarm, I guess." He offered as explanation as I went back to my bed, folding my legs as I sat, and balancing the coffee between them so that I could unwrap the wad.
He followed me a little, before hovering between my bed and my roommate's. He hadn't even noticed Aurora in the third bed yet, and she had yet to move.
"Thanks man, you're literally a life saver." I practically moaned as I brought a piece of the muffin to my mouth, relishing in the sweetness. "Literally sit anywhere, by the way. Lily's like, never here." I gestured to the bed he was standing in front of, and Cedric nodded curtly, dropping to sit on the edge stiffly. I laughed at him a little. "Bro, what the fuck, relax." I said around a second mouthful of muffin, taking a sip of the coffee.
"Oh-" He fumbled in his pockets, "I didn't know if you liked cream in or not, so I grabbed some from the hall.." He trailed off as he stood to leave them on my desk, next to my bed, before hurrying back to sit on Lilly's bed.
It was then that Aurora shifted, and Cedric jumped so hard he practically fell off the bed.
I burst into laughter.
"There's someone else here." Cedric hissed, and I looked at him incredulously.
"Yeah, Cedric, why wouldn't there be?"