“Well, goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Cedric,” she said, smiling.
Cedric quickly stooped to kiss her, meeting her lips for only a moment before retreating. She seemed not to notice his indifference, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she turned to enter her common room, smiling brightly back at him just before she disappeared. The moment she could no longer see him, he was off at lightning speed.
It had been easy enough to put off spending any sort of significant amount of time with Cho between her O.W.L.s and his preparation for the Final Task. Cedric knew, however, that he couldn’t put off a date with his girlfriend forever. Time had been planned, he had met her, spent the evening with her, walked her back to her common room, done his duty.
Her fate had been sealed with that kiss.
To be fair, Cedric also had known throughout the evening they had spent together that he really couldn’t be with Cho any more, but he had told himself that if the kiss had held any spark whatsoever, that he would keep trying with her.
Whereas before, Cedric had felt guilty and confused, he now felt...
Guilty and confused.
He wondered how in the world was he supposed to tell Cho it was over.
The summer air hit him like a wave of slight relief. He knew he would be breaking curfew by the time he even got to the Quidditch stadium, but that wasn’t even the least of his worries right now. He needed to think, alone preferably, and he knew that going back to the Hufflepuff common room would have him finding his two best friends waiting on tenterhooks to find out how the evening had gone.
Ed and Porter had waited all of a day and a half after that afternoon with Katie before sitting him down and making him tell them what was bothering him. In Ed’s words, “It’s obvious you’re agonizing about something, and it’s really starting to make a lad paranoid!”
Needless to say, they were just as apprehensive as he was about what tonight’s date would mean for Cedric’s decision, and all Cedric wanted was to be able to figure some things out by himself first.
He wondered why he’d really let things carry on so far with Cho. Last fall, Cho had asked him to go to Hogsmeade, but he’d been busy trying to figure out what the screeching from his egg had meant, and so he had taken the chance to stay and work on it.
Cho was nice, and he felt bad for declining. When he then needed to find a date for the Yule Ball, he thought it would be a nice way to make things up to Cho, and then they’d be even. One thing had led to another, and they’d held hands, and he’d been quite amazed at how much she liked him. It was quite flattering, and... Shouldn’t he feel the same way back? It didn’t make sense that she could like him that much without him liking her back. After all, there was nothing wrong with Cho. She was smart, and talented, and even prettier than she was nice. He was lucky to have her, and so, well, he liked her back well enough. Feelings like those he saw between his parents just came with time, and he had all the time in the world that he could give to Cho in the future.
There were only two things he could say he didn’t like about Cho. She sometimes just... did or said such odd things. He and Ed and Porter, after discussing these oddities, had just chalked it up to her being a girl, and he couldn’t really hold that against her. The other thing about Cho, the thing that he had known, but had really only been brought into focus that afternoon with Katie, was that Cho was...
Well, Cho was very nice, but she was nice to the point of boring.
Cedric groaned internally. He felt bad for even thinking that as he finally entered the Quidditch stadium.
“Oy, Cedric! Over here!”
Cedric snorted, shaking his head. There, halfway up the stands, were Ed and Porter. He trudged up to where they were waiting for him. “You two are unbelievable,” he said, shaking his head at them again.
“Did you really expect us to stay up in the castle when we [i]knew[/i] you were going to come down here first?” Porter asked, patting the empty bench next to him.
Cedric sat down next to Porter, rolling his eyes. “Unbelievable.”
“Go on and tell us, then,” Ed pressed, anxiously.
Cedric regarded his friends for a moment, almost cautiously.
Porter could obviously tell he was hesitant, because he looked at him very seriously and said, “Curiosity aside, we’re your best friends, Ced, let us do our duty to help you out here.”
“Who are you going to chose?” Ed asked again.
Cedric bit his lip, looking down at his knees. “Who do you think I should pick?”
“Oh, no!” Ed protested. “There’s absolutely no way we’re going to tell you that.” Porter chuckled quietly.
Cedric thought silently again. Once he said it out loud, he would not change his mind. He looked out over the expanse of the maze and smiled slightly, remembering that afternoon with Katie. How could he make any other choice?
“Katie,” he answered simply. When he looked back at his best friends, they had broad grins on their faces. Cedric matched their smiles for a moment. Then his smile faltered. The decision was made, he felt like it was the right thing in his heart.
“What’s wrong?” Porter asked.
“What am I supposed to say to Cho? ‘Hey, you’re really nice, and it’s been fun, but I just don’t like you as much as I like Katie. Those were a great almost-six months we spent together’?”
“Right,” Ed snorted, “even I know that’s not what you should tell her.”
“Oh, really?” Cedric asked, his voice coated in sarcastic shock.
“Yeah, really,” Ed confirmed.
All At Once by electronicquillster
Chapter Notes: Thanks to Roommate of the Quillster who allowed me to borrow OCs Ed and Porter (though I did help her brainstorm them up). This chapter is dedicated to Shanae and Anna.