A Dozen Fallen Roses // Cedric Diggory

chapter fifty-four. the seeker.

monday, february 10.

"Stop doing that!" Ginny groans, clearly frustrated with her brother's constant antagonization.

Hermione rolls her eyes, taking an aggressive bite out of her bread roll as Fred and George crack up at their brother's work. While it is a bit amusing, I don't laugh out of fear of Ginny getting me back somehow later.

She goes to take another bite of food and, once again, Ron uses his wand to levitate the chicken off of her fork, hovering it just in front of her.

"You're insufferable, you daft ass," Ginny insults, slamming her fork down, and stands up, leaving the hall in a huff.

"Seriously, Ronald. Enough!" Hermione scolds him. 

Typically, Ron would turn stark red and keep his mouth shut for at least ten minutes after getting scolded by Hermione, but whether it's because of the encouragement of his brothers or some new grown ego, he ignores her and continues to laugh along with Fred and George. I see Harry's smile fade a bit, possibly feeling the least bit of empathy for Ginny, but it doesn't last long.

Thankfully, everyone is nearly finished with their meals and we stand to leave the hall. I notice Cedric getting up as well, and I linger behind my friends to let him catch up with me.

"See you on the pitch, Diggory," I nudge him playfully.

"Ready to lose?" he says cockily.

"Oh, as if!" I laugh, splitting off and catching up with my friends, only turning over my shoulder once to make sure he's watching me as I disappear around the corner.

"Rootes!" Oliver exclaims as we run into each other. "How're you feeling about the match?"

"Good, I feel ready. Thanks for the practice yesterday," I smile.

"No problem, you looked good out there," he compliments me and my pregame butterflies appear, the typical occurrence catching me by surprise.

I take a few deep breaths as we enter the warm common room. Half of the team is already dressed and strewn around the room talking amongst themselves.

"I'm gonna get dressed, I'll be right back down," I say and Oliver nods, turning to talk strategy with Ginny and McLaggen.

Ginny looks up at me helplessly, already in the mindset that we're gonna lose, which I find a bit offensive as it's ultimately up to me whether we win or not.

Hermione's pulling on her winter coat when I enter our dorm and I give her a nervous smile.

"Hey," she stops me. "It's okay to be nervous, but you've been playing for years now. You know what to do, Chaser or Seeker."

Her words are comforting, but don't even begin to help with my nerves. I respond to her with an anxious grimace disguised as a smile before crossing to my closet and putting on my Quidditch robes.

"Ready?" she asks when I'm finally dressed and prepared. I nod and she leads us out of the room to the common room where the team and fans anxiously await 8:00.

"Hey Ava," Fred greets me at the bottom of the stairs as Hermione slips by to stand with Harry and Ron. The room is stuffy as more and more team members and supporters fill the empty spaces, not to mention the strong fire in the front of the room, emitting a substantial amount of heat.

"You feel ready?" George asks.

"Ready enough," I sigh, looking around at all of the only semi-familiar faces and wishing Cedric was here. Not that I'm not looking forward to playing against him, but he usually knows how to calm me down. My heart starts pounding, drowning out the loud speech and laughter of everyone in the room.