Chapter One Hundred And Twenty Two: Girlfriend
Lina's eyes snapped open "say that again," she said.
"Cedric...is...alive," Remus said slowly so Lina could fully process his words.
Lina searched her uncle's eyes to see if he was telling the truth or not, he was. Lina pinched her arm for extra measure "Merlin this is real." Lina abruptly stood up and walked to her window that overlooked the back garden and surrounding forest. She was biting her thumbnail as she turned back to Remus "when?" She asked.
"Last night," Remus said standing up "his heartbeat has been getting stronger and then he just woke up."
"I need to go see him," Lina said, she moved to leave but Remus caught her arm.
"Give them the weekend, let Cedric get used to being awake, give this time to his parents."
Lina purses her lips "when can I see him?"
"Next week." Next week? That was far too far away for Lina, she wanted to see Cedric now. "We'll move into Grimmauld Place, get settled and then you can go. We'll be so busy the days will go by quickly, alright?"
"Alright," Lina agreed.
***
Grimmauld Place was a dark and dingy place. It was grand in structure but lacked in decor. The house smelt of dirt and damp and even when the gas lamps were lit there was still a sense of darkness over the place.
But the smell or the constant darkness wasn't the worse thing about the place, nor was it the bad memories it held, the worst thing was that everything seemed to be alive and full of dark magic.
When Lina first arrived she quickly understood that, especially when the portrait that should have been hidden behind a pair of long moth-eaten curtains started yelling at Lina and Sirius cursing them with a colour amount of insults. The women in the portrait was Lina's grandmother.
"Ignore her" Sirius had spat glaring at the portrait as he covered the portrait back up with the curtains. Walburga continued to scream only now it was muffled.
At the bottom of the staircase was a large umbrella holder that looked like it was made out of a troll's leg. As you walked up the staircase there were glass casings all displaying house-elf skulls.
The bedrooms were mostly the same as the rest of the house. Sirius was back in his old room he had as a child, Remus was in a spare room and Lina's who seemed to be house the least amount of dark objects, besides Sirius's, was Andromeda's old room.
The room was rather large, large enough to fit two beds in. The second had been brought in for when Tonks needed to stay over. There was a leather-bound desk but Lina didn't need to use it as she hadn't been set any homework for summer, Professor McGonagall had said something about being too emotionally distressed but Lina was too emotionally distressed to hear what the Professor was saying. Lina would use it for her books when studying.
Lina had decorated her room with pictures, Hufflepuff memorabilia and her books to brighten the place up. It worked but only just.
Lina had brought Demeter's cat bed and toys with her but even that wasn't enough to settle the cat, she seemed more agitated than normal and would only sleep in Lina's bed and Egg was always on Lina's shoulder trying to breathe fire on nearly anyone who got close to Lina.
Then there was Kreacher, Grimmauld's Place house elf that held a great dislike for everyone in the house, especially Sirius. The elf would spend more time stealing things that Sirius wanted to throw out rather than clean.
Overall living at Grimmauld Place was an experience Lina wouldn't forget no matter how much she would want to.
Remus was right though, the weekend passed quickly and on Monday Lina was allowed to go and see Cedric.
Lina had dressed quickly, she ran down the stairs, her hair bouncing against her back behind her and skidded to a stop when she saw Sirius waiting for her by the troll leg.
"Are you sure you want to go alone?" Sirius asked, "I can always accompany you as Snuffles."
Lina appreciated the offer but she couldn't accept "Dad you're meant to stay here Dumbledore's orders." Sirius scowled "I'm sorry dad."
"It's not your fault," Sirius said.
"Will you be alright while I'm gone?" Lina asked.
"I'll be fine, go" Sirius placed a kiss on his daughters head and motioned of her to leave.
***
Lina Apparated to the hospital, she appeared just outside, in the alley by the hospital. Lina walked hastily into the building straight to the reception desk. Maggie, the witch from Lina's first visit was on duty.
"I'm here to visit Cedric Diggory," Lina said, her leg was bobbing up and down, she hoped this wouldn't take long.
Maggie sighed seeing the girl "family only."
Lina opened her mouth to speak but another voice spoke: "she is family." It was Sam. Lina looked at the older girl thankful for her appearance. "Come on," Sam said, she grabbed Lina's hand and they ran upstairs, "I thought you would have come earlier."
"My uncle said to give his parents the weekend," Lina said, she tripped over the stairs falling forward, Lina quickly pulled herself up and was running again.
The door to Cedric's room was closed, Sam nudged Lina forward and with a shaking hand, Lina opened it.
Cedric was sat up in his bed talking to his parents but when the door opened he anxiously looked at the door, he hoped it wasn't another healer. "Eve," Cedric said.
Lina could cry out in happiness "Cedric" everyone else in the room seemed to disappear, all that mattered was each other.
From behind her, Sam stepped forward "Mr and Mrs Diggory, maybe we should let these two have a moment of privacy."
"I will no-"
"Dad!" Cedric said sharply looking away from Lima.
"Amos," Mrs Diggory said calmly placing a hand on her husband's arm "let's give them some space, Cedric's only been asking for her since he woke up after all."
"Fine" Mr Diggory huffed, he hastily got up from his chair and Lina moved out of the way as he and Mrs Diggory left the private room. Sam closed the door behind them.
There was a silence between Lina and Cedric, they couldn't look away from each other and Lina didn't know what to say.
"You know you're going to have to come over here to me right?" Cedric said breaking the silence.
"I'm scared if I get to close you'll just disappear" Lina admitted.
Cedric held his hand out to Lina "I won't, I'm really here, I promise."
Lina slowly walked forward and when she was close enough she took his hands. It was warm, it was alive. Lina cried out in relief, Cedric pulled Lina forward so she was sitting on the bed, Cedric kept one of his hands on Lina's waist, the other held her hand.
"Told you so," h said.
Lina shook her head and smiled "I missed you."
"I missed you too," Cedric said playing with Lina's fingers "when I woke up you were the only person I wanted to see, of course, I wanted to see my parents but I knew they'd be there. Every day I kept asking you when you were coming and had you been to see me. The healer, Sam, said you'd been once."
Lina grew embarrassed, her cheeks heated up and she couldn't look Cedric in the eyes, she should have visited earlier "I wanted to see you, every day, but I was so scared what I'd see. Danny was the one who gave me tough love and told me I needed to see you before it was too late. I'm sorry."
Cedric cupped Lina's face and rubbed it with his thumbs "it's alright Eve. Merlin if it was the other way around I don't know if I would be able to see you looking how I only imagine I did."
"Sam, she erm, she told me to talk to you when you weren't awake, she said you might be able to hear me."
"I did," Cedric said, "if felt like echoes of words that disappeared when I tried to hold onto the, but yours I tried so hard to hold onto."
"Oh no," Lina said, she placed her head into her hands hiding her face.
"Marriage, kids, you think about all that?" Cedric asked.
Lina nodded "when I look into my future all I see is you."
Cedric chuckled and moved Lina's hands away from her face "I love you so much, Evangelina Marlene Black."
"I love you to Cedric Amos Diggory."
They both leaned in and their lips connected, it felt like fireworks were going off inside Lina's head and when they broke Lina shivered from the loss of contact.
"I'm never going to get tired of kissing you," Cedric said.
'Good" Lina leaned down and gave him a quick peck on the lips "because neither am I."
Cedric pulled Lina closer, Lina complied and laid down next to Cedric on the bed, she curled into his side and rested her head above his heart. Hearing the steady beating of it was the best sound Lina had ever heard.
"I want to ask you something," Cedric said, he was looking down at Lina, she looked at peace with the world.
Lina hummed and snuggled further into Cedric "sure, anything."
"So...I know people don't usually ask for a girl to be their girlfriend before they've even had a real date but-" Cedric paused waiting for Lina's reaction.
Lina shot up and turned around to look at Cedric, she sat on her knees and was half straddling him
"-but considering I've been in love with you for quite some time now and you the same and we've said I love you to each other-"
'Quite a few times" Lina interjected.
'Yes, quite a few times" Cedric chuckled "and we've kissed-"
"There's also the fact that you nearly died."
"And there's been times when I thought you were going to die. I don't want to wait any longer, marriage, kids I want all of that but I only want that with you, so the first step in a future is asking if you Evangelina will be my girlfriend."
Lina was smiling so hard it hurt "I don't think there's anything I want more." Lina cupped Cedric's face and leaned in to kiss him but the room door opened. Lina and Cedric froze, they didn't dare look up, if it was Cedric parents Lina was sure to die of embarrassment.
"Looks like Ceddy Boy is already getting some action" Danny whistled.
Lina and Cedric sighed in relief, it was only Lucy and Danny.
Lina made a move to get off the bed. "Oh no don't let us stop you," Lucy said teasing her friends "we can come back in fifteen minutes if you'd like."
"Make it twenty-five just to be on the safe side," Danny said.
"We're gonna have this for the rest of our lives, aren't we?" Lina asked Cedric.
"Yeah," Cedric said but he was smiling, happy to see his friends.
Lina got off Cedric's bed to allow Lucy and Danny to greet him.
"Welcome back mate," Danny said, he clapped hands with Cedric. Cedric was beaming and Lucy gave him a hug.
"We're glad your okay" Lucy said and then she threw a sly smile to Lina "but it was a good thing you woke up when you did, I don't think Lina could have gone on much longer without you."
"Shut up," Lina said shyly blushing red.
"You're adorable," Cedric said to Lina, he reached out and held her hand.
"You two weren't all smiles either if I remember correctly," Lina said "Danny cried a lot, more than me" Lina teased.
"Now that I can believe" Cedric chuckled.
Danny flipped the two the bird.
"Do you remember much from what happened?" Lucy asked, the mood in the room instantly shuffled and while Cedric didn't necessarily mind talking about it, especially not to his closest friends, he hadn't yet voiced aloud what had happened.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to" Lina said softly.
"No it's fine," Cedric said pulling Lina closer to him "it's weird because I don't remember what happened after the green light. Everything feels like some distant dream, but I remember flashes I guess of voices but no clear picture. I can hear Harry screaming, voices of people I don't know begging forgiveness, You-Know-Who."
"So he's really back?" Danny asked.
"Definitely" Cedric confirmed "and I heard the name of the man who attacked me."
"Who?" Lucy asked.
"Oh, what was his name, some kind of animal" Cedric thought for a moment and snapped his finger when he had it "Wormtail."
Wormtail, that name sent a rage coursing through Lina she had never felt before. That man, the coward, was the reason her mum and godparents had died, he was the reason why her dad bad been wrongly spent twelve years in Azkaban and missed out on Lina's childhood and now that rat of a man nearly killed the love of her life. No that was one step too far.
All Lina saw was red, she detached herself from Cedric and turned around clenching and unclenching her jaw.
"Eve?" Cedric questioned confused, he looked at Danny and Lucy but they were equally as confused as he.
"I'm going to kill him" Lina hissed.
"Who?" Danny asked.
"Wormtail" Lina spat, her anger growing as she said his name, he didn't deserve it, that name was given to him by his friends, the ones he betrayed.
"Why?" Lucy asked.
Lina turned back to her friends, she was still angry and her eyes had darkened slightly "remember when I told you the truth about my dad and everything that happened thirteen years ago?" They all nodded "Peter Pettigrew, the one who betrayed anyone who ever cared about him, went by the name Wormtail."
Shocked silence filled the room and the three suddenly understood Lina's fury.
Cedric pushed himself up in his bed and swung his legs over the edge ready to stand up. Lina saw this and rushed to his side, her anger subsiding.
"Cedric you shouldn't be out of bed," Lina said softly, she attempted to push his back but he wouldn't budge.
"I'm alright," he said and held her waist "I understand you're angry with him, I do, and I support you in the actions you want to take but there is nothing you can do at the moment."
"I could go and find him," Lina said stubbornly but even she knew doing that would be stupid.
"That's a suicide mission, we're not losing each other again alright."
"I just, I don't want him to take any more people away from me" Lina's anger was replaced with sadness.
Cedric rubbed circles on Lina's hip bone "he's going to get what's coming to him if you don't believe another word I say believe that" Cedric reached up and kissed Lina.
"Thank you" Lina whispered.
"Anything for my girlfriend."
The mood in the room lightened again after that, there was no mention of what Cedric went through again or Wormtail, although Lina made a mental note to talk to her about it.
An hour later when Cedric's parents returned and Lina, Lucy and Danny left.
"Will you come back tomorrow?" Cedric asked Lina.
"You want me to?" Lina asked.
"If I had it my way you wouldn't be leaving" Cedric kissed Lina again and let her go.
On the way out of the hospital, Lucy only had one question for Lina. "When did you become his girlfriend!?"