Sirius and I entered the dining room in silence, Cedric shooting me a confused glare, while I shrugged innocently.
Sirius suddenly looked at me as if he realized something, "How did you come here again?"
I frowned, "In my motorbike?"
His eyes widened as a smile made its way onto his face, "You have a motorcycle!?"
"Yes," I said, my eyes reciprocating his state.
"Wow. Moony?" He called out to Remus who had taken the job of answering to Fred and George.
"What is it now Sirius?"
"Did you hear her? She has a motorbike," he said, stressing the word 'motorbike'.
"Really?" Remus asked, surprised.
"Yes," I replied
"You drive?"
"Yes, Moony, I drive. What is so surprising in this?"
"Well, I have known someone just like you.." He said, indirectly mentioning Sirius and his theory of me being an inexplicable replica of Sirius, I mean not that I am complaining since Sirius is pretty much my most favorite character and he falls under the category of cool people.
I gaped at him, "I don't even know how to react."
"What happened there?" Cedric hissed, pulling me further away from the earshot of others who seemed too busy to mind our disappearance or they pretended so.
"Nothing" I tried to look innocent but gave in the moment he started glaring at me, "let it go, Cedric,"
"(Y/N), just..."
"I can't control Cedric, you know how this all is to me, like, 5 years ago I dreamed all of this happening but now it's real and- ugh!" I ran a hand through my hair.
He sighed, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me closer, "I know, love, I know," he slowly tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, gazing deep into my eyes as if worshipping every hidden detail of me with a small smile on his face, "maybe we could, you know, try to keep it on the low,"
"You don't know how much I do already," I said, pouting and looking away.
He chuckled, "Goodness, is this your low?"
"Yep, I mean if I didn't have to keep it low, you guys would have a really hyper fool to take care of,"
"Well, it wouldn't be a big of a task to me seeing I already do it every day,"
"Ah! How dare you, Diggory!?"
"See, like-"
"Oi, lovebirds!" Fred's voice cut through Cedric's sentence, "don't shag here, there are kids in this room!"
A couple of items were thrown on him from the table as Cedric and I looked like red tomatoes and I buried my head in his shoulder. "that's exactly what he said not to do, mon amour,"
I pulled back, "What the-?" He just chuckled and moved his arms back to his side.
"You suck, Weasley!" I yelled, smacking his head as I walked to sit next to Tonks who seemed to have just arrived.
"You are the new kid!" she yelled standing up quickly and knocking over a goblet in the process.
I chuckled, "yeah"
"And you are that nosy one!" she exclaimed pointing at Cedric.
"Nosy?" Cedric asked, chuckling.
"Oh man, you wouldn't know how nosy you were, like I remember I presumed you would be an obedient first year but did I know the tiniest bit that you were the nosiest thing I would ever meet in my life."
I burst out laughing after hearing her comment and Cedric's red face which was starting to fade from the first embarrassment, "Enlighten me please,"
"No need!" Cedric yelled when Tonks started to speak, "please we don't need any more of this today."
Soon few of the order members, Moony, Tonks and Moody had to leave to get Harry back to Grimmauld place safely.
"So?" I tried breaking the awkward silence enveloping Sirius, Cedric, Mr.Weasley, Bill, and me.
"So?" Bill repeated.
"Can we speak something?" I cringed after asking the question, "I mean like it's awkward."
"OK, Moony was pretty interested in your "love life" as he liked to ca-" Sirius said.
"Alright! No need, I would rather bask in this silence," I said, my cheeks heating up after recalling how much Moony was interested in the topic.
"Ah wait a minute, I heard about someone else's love life that I am pretty sure we all will be interested in," I said, smirking as I turned towards Bill.
"Oh shut it!" he grumbled leaning further into his seat.
I broke out laughing but quickly stopped when I heard a distant screeching noise, "Did you wake your mother again, pads?" I joked.
Sirius scoffed, "I would be pleasured hearing that noise than my mother yelling nonsense,"
Before I could reply, Cedric nudged me, placing a finger on his lips and then his ears asking me to stay silent and listen carefully.
Now with the screeching noise that awfully sounded like a high-pitched laugh was nearing closer seeing it was heard louder than first.
I scrunch my eyebrows standing up and walking to the nearby window, raising the curtains slightly to see three Empousa cornering a boy, who seemed no older than 11, shaking vigorously.
Having the slightest interest in Greek mythology that turned into a full-blown obsession I knew better than to leave the poor kid alone.
"What?" Cedric asked, getting up from his seat too.
"Empousai," I said, collecting my phone from the table and moved to leave the room, "Stay here,"
"But-" Cedric started,
"No, I want you to stay here alright?"
He hesitated for a minute before nodding. "Where are you going?" Mr. Weasley asked, alarmed.
I took a deep breath, "Business to deal," and with that, I left the house.
I had my stygian iron sword out, gripping the handle tightly between my fingers and stayed low behind a wall from where I could clearly see the three Empousai taunting the little boy.
One of the Empousa sniffed in the sir, "I smell a mortal,"
"A mortal?" another one asked,
"You might be smelling people from inside, Elley," the third one said. Listen to her!
And then I couldn't hear anything so I dared a peek at what was happening and as soon as I did I regretted it.
It was such a rookie mistake for me and a very easy trick for those monsters to pull. Why the hell do they even still do that!?
"Look at that. You are that Hades' descendant as he likes to call you? Says you are really powerful," one of the three hissed.
I held my sword higher, pointing it at the three of them. "Well, trust me I would live up to his thoughts,"
"Only if you live any longer" And with that, the three charged Empousai at me leaving the kid alone and that was my main goal and I had accomplished it but now I have some other thing on my tail.
It was a blur of moment, the anxiety and nervousness of fighting a greek monster for the first time and the slight pride of hades calling me powerful and the sense of success I gained in saving the kid and the adrenaline from my coffee, I slashed, sliced, dogged, rolled and did almost every move I had practiced and before I knew it the three of them burst to dust.
I rushed to the little boy who was curled up in a ball against the wall shivering and tears streaking down his cheeks.
"Hey, kid, you alright?" I said, crouching to meet his icy blue eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"What were those...things," he breathed, pointing at the dust on the ground.
"Empous - wait, you could see them?" I asked him.
"Yeah,"
"Oh. Those were Empousai," I looked at him, wiped his tears and ruffled his sandy blonde hair (slight guess who it might be? And sorry if it doesn't make any sense), "you can go back home, right?"
He stared at me, disgruntled, and then nodded.
I strolled back into Grimmauld place by mistakenly ringing the doorbell. The moment I stepped in I was engulfed in a hug by Cedric. I buried my head into the crook of his neck, inhaling his cologne that felt oddly like home. He placed a hand at the back of my head, letting me tune out the horrible yelling of Mrs. Black.
"Are you alright?" He murmured, his arms still wrapped tightly around me.
I hummed, nodding into his neck and moving closer to him. Cedric gently kissed the side of my head releasing me from his grip and placing his lips against mine in a soft kiss that calmed me down at the same time leaving me slightly breathless.
He let out a deep sigh, resting his forehead against mine, "I hate u doing this, my love," he whispered.
"Trust me, Cedric, I hate it too"
He stayed silent for a few seconds before pulling away, placing a long kiss on my forehead and taking my hand leading me inside.
"What happened!?" Mrs.Weasley asked, concerned as I stepped into the dining hall, "I leave you all for a few minutes and everything goes haywire!"
Cedric and I chuckled, "Your our anchor, Mrs.Weasley"
She glared at me, "Are you hurt?"
"Nope...I guess" I said, uncertain of what is happening to me. Cedric slowly turned his head towards me, his eyebrows raised.
"I dunno," I said, shrugging. He rolled his eyes, his grip on my hand tightening as he pulled me closer to him.
"Hey Harry," I waved at Harry who had taken my seat next to his godfather.
"Hey!" He lazily waved back.
"How are you?"
"As good as someone who had-"
"Ok! I get it"
Soon the rest of the kids were sent out of the dining room all screaming about how Cedric and I can stay here at the meeting and they can't.
The order members had taken their seats at the table, almost everyone shooting confused and sympathetic glances at us for which Cedric and I pretended nonchalance.
And then Snape walked in and stopped dead in his tracks, "How do I not feel surprised at your presence," he drawled.
"Just like how I am not surprised," I said beating Cedric to it before he could do the polite answering thing.
His nose flared, "What do you mean?"
"Well, you don't often see a 35-year-old who bullied his students amongst those who protect them," I said, looking away, a smirk visible on my face. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Cedric's jaw drop in amusement, Sirius' smirk, and everyone's eyes now trained on me.
"Learned it from this jerk, didn't you?" he hissed, his gaze pointed as Sirius.
I put my hands in the air in mock defense, "Well, I didn't learn anything from you,"
He glared at me before swishing his cloak and taking a seat at the table too. I had a really big grin on my face as I turned to Sirius who had a similar smirk on his face.