A/N: I'm seeing panic soon bitchessss. Brendon Urie could run me over with a truck and I'd thank him.
The seven most frightening words for a person to hear hit me like a sledgehammer as I watched McGonagall make a dinner announcement: "It's time to think about your future".
She was poised with her back ramrod straight as usual and an expression of general disapproval creasing her face.
She's such a bad bitch. I wanna be her when I grow up, I thought to myself. That didn't erase the fact that she'd just forced me to think about things that actually matter - something that I hated with my very soul.
A flaw of mine is that I tend to procrastinate on literally everything, so much so that I've even put off thinking of my future career.
"I, for one, know exactly what I'm going to do." Hermione said primly, turning to me with a look of excitement. "I'll graduate with straight O's, do a couple internships at the ministry of magic, get some work experience of course," She said, waving a hand as if all of this was simply expected. I nodded along, pretending to understand what it was like to have things planned out.
"And then after the two years in New Zealand, I'll join the civil rights and law department of the ministry of magic and begin on emancipation and equal working rights for house elves and other magical creatures." She ended and looked at me expectantly. "Well? What do you think?"
I stared at her dumbly for a few seconds. "That sounds like a solid plan. It's really cool that you know what you want to do with your life."
"Well, what about you?" She asked, "What do you wanna do."
I shrugged. "Not sure yet."
"Well that's okay," She replies, "McGonagall is gonna be handing out some career and aptitude tests for us to gauge what career would be best for us. We can do it together later!"
I smiled and grabbed her hand. "Sounds like a plan."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
In preparation for a Charms midterm that was coming up, I headed down to the library with the intent to focus on studying and nothing but studying.
"I like books. Especially textbooks." I tried to convince myself, "I'm so excited to study. I'm gonna read allll the words."
Half an hour in, I fell asleep with my face on the book. Who knows, maybe I'd be able to soak in the information through osmosis.
An hour later, I peeked my face off the book and groaned, squinting at the clock.
"12 am? Jesusss."
"Y/n?" I heard a masculine voice from behind me and turned to see Cedric.
"Oh, hi Ced." I yawned, "I was trying to study but I think you can probably tell that it's not going so well. What are you doing up this late anyways?"
He took a seat next to me, and I noticed that we were the only people left in the library. Lovely.
"Couldn't sleep. Decided to come down here and be productive, but I can already see that's not gonna happen."
He winked at me playfully and I blushed.
"These wooden chairs are kinda uncomfortable. Wanna go somewhere better?" I asked.
"I'd love to." He stood up and offered a hand to me, which I gladly accepted.
"I know just the place."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
A couple minutes later, we stood in front of a blank wall.
"Uh...Ced? I love the view, but I thought we were gonna go somewhere a little more accessible."
He laughed softly and pressed a palm against the wallpaper. "Trust me, it's here."
He began pacing back and forth while muttering under his breath.
I was in the verge of calling a psychiatrist when a large oak door suddenly appeared in the wall.
"Oh my Jesus." I breathed softly.
"It's called the room of requirement." Cedric opened the door for me and I entered to find a what looked like a cozy living room, complete with candles, a couch with comfy pillows, and a crackling fire.
"It's perfect." I smiled at him and jumped onto the plush couch.
He sat next to me and I admired the swell of his muscled shoulders against his t-shirt, and the way his profile was accentuated by the flickering fire.
"Cedric..." I started, then paused
"Yeah?"
"I can be honest with you, right?"
He took my hand, his larger palm engulfing my own. "Of course, Y/N."
I sighed and shifted to face him.
"It seems like everyone knows what they want to do with their lives, and I'm just...aimless. Like a dandelion seed in the wind. Everyone knows even remotely what they want to work in, but I have absolutely no idea and it gets kind of overwhelming."
He chuckled lightly, "Is that all? Doll, everyone feels like that at some point or another."
"Not you," I said pointedly.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Believe it or not, I'm not as perfect as everyone would have you believe."
I noticed how his jaw clenched slightly, and he continued in a more strained tone.
"At first glance, yeah, I have it all. Head boy, captain of the quidditch team. But I'm also under an enormous amount of pressure to maintain this perfect facade. I can't allow even the slightest slip up, in case people start to think I have flaws like every other human." He laughed bitterly.
I touched his shoulder and squeezed it lightly, offering my support.
"It's my father, too." He ran a hand through his soft hair frustratedly. "He's always making such a big deal about having my life planned out to the second. I just wanna...I want to be impulsive. I want to do something wild, without having to think about tarnishing my precious reputation." He stood up and began pacing restlessly.
I stood up to meet him, and held his hands in my own to calm him.
"Slow down, or you might wear a hole in the carpet," I joked gently.
"I'm sorry, Y/N." He bowed his head and I moved closer, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my head on his hard chest to face the fireplace.
He held me tightly to him and murmured, "I'm sorry to get all heavy about this. There's not a lot of people I can talk about this with, you know."
I lifted my head to make eye contact with him.
"I'm here for you, Ced. If you need anything, I promise I'll help as best as I can."
He smiled at me. "You're so amazing. What did I do to deserve meeting you."
"Probably something very bad," I replied, and he laughed.
We sat back down on the couch, and I nestled closer to him. He lifted an arm to put it around my shoulders and I leaned into him, feeling my eyelids starting to droop.
"Cedric?"
"Yeah."
"What do you really want to do. Not what your father wants, but you."
He hummed lightly, and I could feel the rumble deep inside his chest.
He smelled light and fresh. Like clean laundry and the ocean.
"I think I'd want to be a travel writer. I'd visit all sorts of different places and talk about where to go, where not to go, the local life, everything."
He became more animated and I smiled unintentionally at his excitement.
"You should do it," I said, "Fuck your dad. Not actually, but you know what I mean. If you're passionate about it, go for it."
He tightened his grip on me slightly. "You really think he wouldn't mind?"
"Cedric, if he truly loves you, he'll want you to do what makes you happy."
He grinned fully, "Thanks so much, Y/N."
"It's no problem. But we didn't even...study..."
I yawned and before I knew it, I was fast asleep once more.
A/N: If I didn't have only like $3, I would pay good money for patd to play Stall Me at the concert. I'm tired of having to slum it and listen to it on YouTube...the ghetto 👀