A Dozen Fallen Roses // Cedric Diggory

chapter forty-three. the swings.

sunday, december 28.

"Home sweet home," Cedric announces, pushing open the front door of his squat little cottage in an English suburb, not far from the city of London. The garden in the front is well-kept and is surrounded by a blinding white picket fence. It's almost exactly the home I would imagine to escape in my mind when I was a child.

The living room is filled with a short, stout red couch in front of the fireplace and a matching loveseat in the corner.

Cedric takes my coat and hangs it on the rack beside the door. I slip off my boots and he takes my suitcase and sets it at the base of the stairs.

"Hungry?" he asks, hitting all of the light switches in the living room and heading to the kitchen. I follow him, taking a seat on a barstool at the counter and facing him as he fills a cup of water.

"I could eat," I shrug and he pulls out a paper takeout menu.

"We can order chinese or pizza if you want," he suggests, handing me two menus.

"Yeah, pizza sounds good," I nod and he grabs the landline phone from beside the sink.

"I didn't know wizard homes had landline phones," I laugh, having grown up in a muggle household I know about all their technologies, but from Arthur Weasley's fascination of it all I assumed it wasn't normal.

"Yeah, I mean we're not completely cut off from the outside world," he shrugs, dialing the number for the pizza place.

As he makes the order, I slide off the stool and wander around the house. The mantle over the fireplace is decorated with family photos and pictures of young Cedric. I smile to myself as it's almost like watching him grow up. He was such a smiley child and he's had his cheeky grin that I love so much for nearly his entire life. He seems to have grown up in a family of love.

I wander up the stairs, one creaking slightly as I put my weight on it. At the top, there is another large family room of couches with a half-played board game scattered on the coffee table in the middle. Three doors lead to what I assume are the bedrooms. Choosing one randomly, I step into Cedric's bedroom. It's fairly simple with mostly bare walls and a bed against the back corner. There's a corner with a table and a stack of records with an empty square place that I assume he keeps his record player on in the summer months. I flip through the records reading off names of famous muggle bands my parents are fans of.

"Hey, I ordered the pizza for pickup. Thought we could walk around a little," Cedric says, coming into the room and leaning his shoulder again the doorframe, his hands in his pockets. I turn and smile at him, feeling like I know him even better now that I've seen his childhood.

"Sounds good."

It's freezing outside, but Cedric's arm around me keeps me warm. He points out his old elementary school and the pole that he accidentally pushed a kid against with magic, which got him suspended for a week. I notice his eyes lighting up as he shows me his favorite restaurant, the movie theatre he always went to as a kid, and the quick mart his friend stole a candy bar from and pinned it on him when the manager caught the two. I love learning about his past and I start to see everything about why he is who he is.

Cedric pulls open the pizzeria door and I step in, expecting a bit of a shady joint from the alley that it's located in, but we're greeted by the delicious smell of melting cheese and the cheery smiles of two men. One of which is a tall man with short gray hair flipping the pizza dough in the air. The man beside him is short and stout with a round pot belly, grinning widely.

"Cedric! You're home!" the short man jeers.

"Hey, Elio," Cedric smiles, removing his arm from around me and shaking each man's hand. The short man, who I now deduce is Elio, takes Cedric's hand in both of his, shaking it excitedly. The tall man sets down his dough and reaches out for Cedric, returning a short, stern shake.