I ran into Peaches, Juliet and Wilda outside the classroom.
"Told you she'd be here." Juliet said haughtily as Peaches squealed my name, grabbing my arm.
"Are you still mad at me?" She cried helplessly, and beside her Wilda rolled her eyes.
"Mad at us, Peaches." Wilda said, examining her nails. I looked at my three friends.
"No, I'm not mad." I said with a heavy sigh. I was tired, and could feel it behind my eyes. "I was never actually mad. Just a little hurt."
"I know, I told them you'd be upset if you found out!" Juliet rushed to assure me, grabbing onto my other arm. Peaches hugged the one she held to her chest, bursting into a grin.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're not mad. Where were you last period?"
"Did you see the fight?" Wilda tacked on.
I groaned, tipping my head back as they two of them began to pull me towards the dining hall, Wilda trailing close behind.
"Yes, unfortunately, and McGonagall caught me skipping. Now I have detention."
"But why were you skipping? You're pretty behind." Juliet pointed out as the four of them reached the great hall. I felt a little nervous at being in the crowded room, but was relieved when my friends decided to sit at the far end, where it had mostly emptied out by now.
"I ran into Fred." I said cautiously as I reached for a plate, not looking any of them in the face. Peaches let out a little squeal.
"Fred Weasley!" She exclaimed, and I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, the only Fred we know." I deadpanned, but they ignored me.
"Why were you hanging out?" Juliet prodded, leaning forward, Wilda placing a full cup of coffee before her.
"It better be to shag, otherwise it probably wasn't worth falling behind in your classes." Wilda added simply, pouring another cup of coffee for me, and then tea for herself. I scrunched up my face in disgust, helping myself to a portion of mac and cheese.
"No, Jesus, we just hung out at the library. It really wasn't that deep- Cedric joined us after a little while, then we heard about the fight and obviously Fred had to go check it out."
"Cedric again, huh?" Juliet said in a light tone. I glanced at her.
"Again?"
"Well, it sounds like you guys have been hanging out a lot, lately." Peaches continued,
"I mean, we're just hanging out. I am able to have male friends without being in love with them, you know." I gave Juliet a pointed look, and she ignored me, flipping her glossy hair behind her shoulder.
"No idea what you're referring to." She said haughtily.
"Anyway, Fred mentioned that I shouldn't worry about the groupchat."
"Well, yeah, of course he'd say that." Wilda's voice was laced with amusement, and I let out a frustrated sound.
"Will you guys just tell me what it's about?" I exclaimed in exasperation.
"No." Juliet said simply, and I could practically see the red heart emoji in her tone. I grumbled nonsense into my food as Peaches started to fill me in on all of the things I'd missed in class.
"I'll give you my notes tonight, though." She assured me after she finally noticed that I hadn't really been listening.
"I don't know when I'll be out of detention, so don't wait up for me. I can always get them tomorrow."
"What's the point of getting them tomorrow? You'll be just as lost in class as if you'd just never gotten them at all." Peaches pointed out, and I nodded at her logic.
"Wait, if you were with Fred when you got detention, does that mean you'll be in detention together?" Juliet asked suddenly, a sly smile decorating her face.
"Well like, yeah, why?"
"How romantic." Wilda drawled, and I kicked her under the table. She let out a cackling laugh, shaking her head. "He's been staring at you, you know."
"Who?"
"Fred, you dimwit."
I swung around to face the Gryffindor table, and just barely caught the boy's eye before he hastily turned towards his brother, who was telling a story rather animatly.
"Way to be subtle." Juliet mumbled into her coffee. I looked between the four of them.
"Okay, what is going on." I said in a serious tone.
"What do you mean?" Peaches asked with an innocent face. I pushed her a little, and she giggled.
"Guys, is Fred like, out to get me or something?" I prodded after they refused to answer.
"I suppose, in a manner of speaking." Juliet mused. I cried out in frustration.
"Y'all are so fucking annoying." I dragged my hands through my hair anxiously.
"Drink." Wilda said gently, and the three of them took great gulps of whatever drink was in font of them.
"Why do you guys do that?" A voice suddenly questioned from above my head, and I looked directly upwards to see Cedric hovering behind me.
"It's for when Diana says 'y'all'" Juliet informed the boy sweetly, mimicking my American accent perfectly. He let out an amused huff.
"I've never heard her say that."
"That's because she only says it when she's annoyed." Peaches piped up.
"Nobody knows why," I grumbled as I turned back to my food, "-since I'm from the East Coast."
"I guess I'm happy to hear I've never annoyed you." Cedric laughed, moving slightly closer to the table. I could feel the warmth of his hand behind me, and felt a little nervous at the thought. I wondered, idly, if Fred would notice.
"You could never annoy anyone, Cedric." Peaches practically purred, sitting so that her arms emphasized her chest. I knew exactly what Cedric's expression would look like in response to Peaches's antics, and didn't even bother looking up at him as the other three girls burst into giggles.
"Why don't you sit with us, Diggory? I heard you and Diana ran into the fight earlier today." Wilda gestured to the free space next to me, and Cedric took it quickly. He sat with his legs on the outside of the bench, but his torso was turned in towards the conversation. His knee bumped lightly into my back every now and then as he relayed what little we'd seen go down between Potter and Malfoy.
"I ship them." Juliet said simply after he'd finished.
"Ship them?" Cedric repeated curiously as Wilda shook her head.
"No way, that Potter boy is definitely straight. Haven't you heard the way he talks about Quidditch?" She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"But he cuffs his jeans." Peaches pointed out, and Wilda seemed to take that into great consideration.
"I cuff my jeans." Cedric piped up innocently, and we all looked at him in surprise. He lifted up a leg, pointing at the ends of his wool pants, which really were neatly folded up a couple of times, showing off a pair of yellow socks.
"Are those bumblebees?" I asked, being the closest one to his leg and thus the one able to see the tiny decorations on Cedric's black school shoes. His face flushed pink, and he swung his leg back down hurriedly.
"Cuffed jeans and bumblebee shoes?" Juliet said with a light giggle, "Are you trying to tell us something, Diggory?"
"I don't know what you guys are talking about." Cedric said anxiously, shaking his head and hugging his bag to his chest, "Anyway, it's almost time for Arithmancy. Diana, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to walk together?"
I groaned dramatically, looking at my only half eaten plate.
"Right now?" I whined, and he looked slightly taken aback.
"I mean- sorry- we don't have to-" He stuttered, but Wilda shook her head.
"You can't get in between Diana and her food. Besides, she's always late. To everything." The girl leaned heavily across the table to emphasize as she reiterated, "Everything."
"Oh my god okay, not everything." I interrupted, pushing my friend's face away as she burst into giggles. "But I do fucking hate Arithmancy."
"I know." Cedric said simply, "You tell me everyday. I can wait for you to finish, though. We've still got a couple of minutes before we'd be in danger of being late."
As I rushed to finish my food, and my friends continued conversation on around me, I felt an odd tingling at the back of my neck. Without thinking, I glanced towards where I knew Fred and George were sitting with their friends. Sure enough, I met the latter's gaze again, albeit this time it was unwavering. I raised a brow at him, and held up a couple of fingers in a small wave. He blinked, and scratched his nose before doing the same, but his face remained pretty still. The lack of a smile was uncomfortable, and his eyes flit back and forth between Cedric and I. They weren't sitting too far from us, and if I wanted to I was sure I could tune in to the conversation George was engaging in with an overly enthusiastic looking Lee. Fred's shoulders were hunched in, the same oddly shy way they had been when we were talking earlier this morning. I turned back to my food, shoveling the last bites into my mouth hastily.
Where Cedric made me feel uneasy, Fred made my heart flutter with excitement. I hated it- the way I could hear blood rushing in my ears at the idea that Fred was probably still looking at me, looking at Cedric, probably wondering what we were doing together. Something in me wanted him to be looking- wanted him to see me leave the hall alone with Cedric. Part of me wanted to see if the Weasley boy would do anything- if he would care in some way. But another part of me was scared to get my hopes up. I'd been told so many times by Judas a long time ago that getting my hopes up was stupid- that boys wouldn't pay attention to me the way that he had for so long.
"Ready to go?" Cedric said gently once he realized my plate was empty.
"Um, yeah." I said with a shy smile, collecting my belongings and saying goodbyes to my friends. Before we turned to leave though, I glanced back at the Gryffindor table, and my stomach lurched when I realized that Fred wasn't looking in my direction anymore.
"Are you going to go to that party thing tomorrow night? You know, the end of term thing that the Slytherin kids always do." Cedric was asking as we walked through the now crowding halls.
"Oh- the woods thing, right?" I hugged myself at the thought of being out in the cold. The Slytherin house had a tradition of throwing end of term parties, considering they were usually the kids who had enough money to not get caught or get out of any consequences. Plus, with Crabbe and Goyle being the school's go to for alcohol, it always made sense that they would be the ones providing. I'd never gone to one, though, as last year I was kind of young, and still with Judas, and had been pretty overwhelmed at the prospect of couch surfing for an entire summer.
"Yeah- yeah the woods thing. I just, you know, I've never been and I remember you saying last term that you'd never been so I thought that maybe we could- well, I don't know, maybe we could go together?"
I glanced up at him, but he was keeping his eyes straight ahead, pushing and dodging kids as they walked past in the opposite direction.
"Yeah, we could go. I'm sure the girls would be ecstatic to hear you'd be joining us."
I watched Cedric's face grow hard, and his brow furrowed a little. I knew, realistically, that he'd been asking if I wanted to go just the two of us. And sure, maybe there was a good part of me that would have loved to go with just Cedric. He had such a stunning face, and he was so nice and kind and sweet. But then there was that pesky part of me that wanted to know what was going on with Fred- dangerous, rebellious, chaotic Fred. It seemed stupid, but the idea of the popular, older boy having some sort of interest in me was such a rush of adrenaline that I didn't want to jeprodize it by showing up to something with a date- even if the date was someone I could really use in my life right now.
"Yeah, with the girls." Cedric said finally as we reached the door to Arithmancy. He sounded a little put out, even maybe a little sad, and my chest constricted slightly with guilt.