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Halloween was the night for everything dark, mysterious and horrid to come out and play, for people to be scared and feel jumpy, for the lights to flickers and the wind to have a certain bone chilling breeze to it.
Yet, at Hogwarts, Halloween was a night of celebration, with a feast containing every sort of food you could imagine, ghosts moved around the dark halls, pumpkins and candles floated above your heads in the Great Hall.
Nearly every year, each house organised a Halloween party for every house member to attend, and this year, the responsibilities of organising decorations, food, events and music fell on Cedric’s shoulders, much to his dismay. But even though he pleaded with Professor Sprout to pass on the responsibility to someone else, the older woman would not budge, instead just smiled at the boy and pattered him on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry Diggory. It’ll be fine. Y/N L/N is going to help, they’re an expert in the party organising department. And, it is part of your responsibility as a prefect.” Sprout let out a small smile at Cedric’s worried face and pattered his shoulder as she spoke next. “I’ve told them that you’ll be meeting them in the library to plan, they expect you to be there in ten minutes, so if I were you, I would pick up your bag, stop your pacing, and leave now, there’s a good man.” With that, the professor left Cedric standing in the middle of the Hufflepuff common room. The brown-haired boy let out a sigh and shook his head, resting his hands on his hips. But he did as the professor told him, swung his bag strap over his shoulder, ran a hand through his hair, and then left the common room, heading in the direction of the library.
When he got there, the large room filled with shelves stacked high with books of all sorts was mostly empty of people. He could only see the librarian although he quickly thought about leaving knowing you probably weren’t going to still be here, especially when he was twenty minutes late, he sighed and stepped further into the room. Winding around the various shelves and stepping between tables and chairs, he finally found you tucked in the back corner of the room, a golden light from the lamp illuminating your face and the various pieces of parchment paper you had spread across the table in front of you. You looked up when he approached, he smiled down at you for a moment before placing his bag on the ground and sitting down in front of you.
“Hey, Y/N. I’m Cedric. Professor Sprout told me that you would be helping me organise the Halloween party for our house?” Cedric extended his hand towards you as you spoke, and you only glanced at it before looking back at him and rolling your eyes. You rested your chin on your hand and pushed the papers towards him, filled with notes on decorations, food, guest lists and much more.
“Diggory, I’ve known who you were since the first day we got here. I’m in your year…” Cedric’s face paled then, and he drew his hand back slowly, gulped down the lump in his throat and turned his gaze to the papers in front of him. “Look, I know you don’t want to be here, and Professor Sprout dumped you with this task, so if you want, you can go, I’ve got most of it already organised.”
“You…you do?” Cedric looked up in surprise from the list of materials you need to make the decorations, and you nodded back to him, mouth drawn in a thin line.
“Of course, it’s not hard to do when you’ve organised the same party every year for the last four years. I already have the food all ready, the theme is done, and I’ve finished most of the decorations.” Cedric just looked at you, blinking slowly as he took in your words, and for a while, the both of you just sat there in an awkward silence until he opened his mouth to speak, saying something that nearly shocked you.
“Well, have you handed out the invites and organised the band? Because I know a couple of students who might be willing to play, and I also could take care of the invitations.” He leaned over the table and took the invitation list from you, focusing his gaze on it as he picked up a quill and jotted over the page. He concentrated on his task with a quiet concentration that you hadn’t seen from him before, and as you watched him circle some names, underline others and scribble down notes in the margins, you couldn’t help but be slightly impressed. “There, I underlined all the people I have class with or are in the quidditch team, meaning they’re easy people to give the invitations to since I see them regularly. The ones I circled are the ones you have classes, and who also hang out in the common room or Great Hall the most, making them easy for you to give their invitations to.” He pushed the list back towards you, and your eyes widened, because for a boy who started off the afternoon wanting nothing to do with party planning, he was now making an effort, and a real one at that.
So, you grinned at him, nodded your head and ticked off the invitation check box on your long list. By the end of the day, the two of you had planned everything else that needed to be sorted. He had asked his mate to arrange his band to play in the evening and had even offered to help you finish making the decorations the next day.
“But, Cedric. You have quidditch practice. It’s not like you can just blow it off, you have a game this weekend.” He laughed at your reply to his offer and ran a hand through his hair before looking back at you, a bright glint in his eyes.
“Don’t worry about it, Y/N. I already talked to the team and changed practice to the day after tomorrow, because the weather is supposed to be foul. How about this, meet me at four o’clock in the Great Hall tomorrow, I’ll be waiting.” He picked up his bag and left the library then, leaving you in stunned silence, a reply of acceptance and thanks hanging from your lips.
The next day, when you entered the Great Hall right on four pm, he was already waiting for you at the Hufflepuff table, surrounded by empty table space and holding a mug of tea between his hands. You walked slowly over to him, a large box of party decorations in your arms, and as soon as he saw you, he stood up, moved towards you and took the box from your arms, setting it on the table. He looked inside of it, and let out a long and low whistle, shaking his head gently before looking back to you.
“Merlin, Y/N. How long did you spend on some of these things?” He sat back down across from you, sifting through the box and waiting for you to answer.
“I dunno, a couple of hours, I guess. In between studying.” Cedric let out a soft hum in reply, and then pushed the box out of the way and turned to you, catching your attention.
“You know what I think? I think your decorations are insane, and so creative. I mean, the dancing spider cut outs are great, the golden pumpkins look cool, but…” He cut himself off then and took a sip of his tea. In the time he had spent looking through the box, you had poured yourself a mug of hot cocoa from the jug sitting on the table, and as you drank it slowly, you watched him.
“I think we can go even bigger this year. I mean, it’s our last year at Hogwarts, let’s make this party the biggest and most phenomenal yet.” You nodded your head at him and watched him with an amused smile as he started moving his hands around in an erratic manner, trying to explain his ideas to you in a big rush, hardly stopping to suck in a breath.
The two of you didn’t waste any time scrapping the old decorations, nor did you waste any time with making the new decorations and using nearly every spell in the book to make every decoration different. Soon you had gravestones that sprouted skeletal arms, lanterns shaped like skulls that had dark blue fire coming out of the eye sockets, cauldrons that glowed in the dark and spewed out steam that was a bright green and many more decorations that you could fill the Hufflepuff common room with.
It was dinner by the time the two of you had finished making the decorations, and as the both of you placed them gently in the box, you could see Cedric’s friends watching him from the other end of the table, trying to catch his attention.
“Cedric, your friends are waiting for you.” Cedric looked up from the box, glancing in the direction you were looking, and let out a soft sigh, rubbing the back of his neck and resting a hand on his hip.
“Right uh, yeah. I guess I should probably go hang out with them, haven’t seen them all day.” You smiled at him and closed the box and pushed it away slightly.
“Of course, Cedric. We finished up here, we don’t have anything else to do until Friday when we actually have to set up everything. Go on, go see your friends and have some dinner.” You sent him another kind smile, but the boy was still not moving, instead he kept glancing back between you and his friends, stuffing his hands in his pockets and then letting out a huff.
Okay, I’ll see you on Friday then? Before the feast?” You nodded your head and sat down at the table, picking up a plate in front of you and pouring yourself a glass of pumpkin juice.
“Mhm, I’ll be there Diggory.” You turned your attention to the food in front of you, and slowly filled your plate as Cedric walked away, glancing back at you as he moved closer and closer to the group of friends that waited for him.
When someone sat across from you as you ate your food and concentrated on reading the transfiguration textbook that was placed in front of you, you didn’t look up, too focused on the words in front of you. You stayed like that for the next five minutes, even after your plate was empty, until someone was clearing their throat loudly across from you. Looking up, your eyes widened in surprise. Cedric was sitting in front you, gazing at you with a dopey smile as you closed your book with a snap and placed it on your lap.
“I thought you were going to eat dinner with your friends…”
“I was but then I remembered that for the last six years, I had spent nearly every moment at this school with them, and it’s probably time to make some new friends anyway.” He scooped a spoonful of mashed potato into his mouth and waited for you to speak, but all that came out of your mouth was a confused huff, before you gathered your thoughts and leaned your arms on the table, resting your chin in your hand.
“And what…you chose me to be your new friend?” He nodded at you as he chewed the food in his mouth, placing his utensils down on his plate and folded his arms across his chest.
“Well, who else would I choose, Y/N? To be honest, the two of us make a great team, and I know we don’t know each other well and the only real time we’ve spent together was while we were planning the party, but I would like to know you better.” He stopped speaking for a moment, and you could see his cheeks taking on a pink hint and how his gaze moved to stare down at the table. “I’ve enjoyed spending my time with you, Y/N, I really have. I just think it would be a shame to stop hanging out after the party is done.”
You couldn’t respond to him, couldn’t even think of what to say as he stared back at you with a mix of hope and sincerity on his face, and suddenly you had this massive urge to run and hide, to duck your head down into your text book and pretend like he hadn’t said what he just said, because to be friends with Cedric Diggory was to come closer to the realisation that you were in love with the boy, in love with a boy you hardly knew and who hadn’t paid you any attention until yesterday. But you also knew that you couldn’t say know, so you gave him a weak smile, one that he didn’t notice wasn’t fully formed, and nodded.
“Of course, Diggory, we can be friends.”
The night of Halloween approached much to quickly for your liking, and though you were looking forward to hosting the party and hoping it was a grand success, you also knew that you would have to spend even more time with Cedric, and as your feelings grew stronger for the boy, you were starting to feel anxious about the festive night.
He met you in the common room right after everyone else had left for the feast, leaving the Hufflepuff dorms empty. And when the both of you started decorating and rearranging the furniture, the two of you were too busy to even think about talking. Pushing the large sofa towards the edge of the room, and standing on it to hang up the skull lanterns you had made a couple days before, you watched as Cedric kept brushing his hair out of his face as he tried to remember the spell to make the small metal spiders dance, tapping his wand against his leg gently.
“Do you need some help?” You asked the question quietly, not wanting to disturb him too much, but he jumped slightly before looking up at you. His eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed as he tried to work out what you were doing, watching you tie a piece of string around one of the planter hooks.
“You know…you know you can do that with a spell, right?” You couldn’t help but laugh at his question for a minute, looking back at the boy as his cheeks turned pink and the tips of his ears turned red underneath his brown hair.
“Yes Cedric, I know I can use a spell to hang up this string. But not everything needs to be done with magic. Sometimes, it feels more satisfying to do the hard work yourself.” You finally secured the knot around the hook and leaned back to admire your work, the lanterns hanging nicely against the fireplace, the flames inside the eye sockets glowing brightly.
You heard Cedric let out a chuckle at your response, eyes glowing bright as he smiled at you.
“Merlin, Y/N, you’re something else.” You couldn’t hide the blush that covered your features quickly as he spoke sweetly to you, a mixture of awe and appreciation in his tone as he passed you the next lot of decorations to hang, his fingers gently brushing against yours.
The sky was dark now, the moon shining brightly against the clouds that covered the sky, and after watching the fireworks that the Weasley twins had released into the sky above the castle, everyone from the Hufflepuff house had made their way back to their common room to enjoy the music, food and to even have a dance with their friends. You were watching from afar, back against the wall as you held a glass of pumpkin juice in your hand, bobbing your head gently to the music as you watched a couple of fourth years dance in a group together, arms in the air and feet lifting from the floor in a rapid way.
“Well, what do you say, YN? I think we did a pretty good job, setting this up together.” Cedric Diggory sidled up next to you then, his side against yours and an arm swung over your shoulders, pulling you slightly closer to his broad frame. He looked joyful, excited and for a moment as he looked right at you, he smiled bigger than you had ever seen him, nearly splitting his face in half.
“I gotta agree with you there, Diggory. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, even Professor Sprout said she was impressed.” Cedric grinned at that, sipping the rest of the drink he was holding, before turning back to you and tugging on your sleeve gently.
“Hang on, I’m having trouble hearing, let’s step out into the hall for a moment, ey?” He didn’t wait for you to respond, just took hold of your hand and quickly led you through the crowd of students, nodding and smiling to friends as he walked past, until the both of you were outside of the common room and in the large and dimly lit hallway that also led to the kitchens.
“Merlin, Ced, give me a bit of warning before you go dragging me around the place. Now, what did you want to talk about that you apparently couldn’t say in there?”
Cedric wasn’t looking at you then, instead his gaze was downcast, focused on the stone floor and his laced-up converses. He was rubbing the back of his neck like he was suddenly anxious about something, and you noticed that the ear-splitting grin that had been there only minutes ago, was instead replaced with a look of fear and worry.
“Look I…I don’t know how to say this, and I know I’m going to sound absolutely bloody mad, but I need to get something off my chest.” He sucked in a breath and shook himself slightly, before looking right at you in a way that nearly stole your breath, made you skin feel warm and like you were safe. “I know we haven’t known each other for long, barely a week really, and I know we’ve been friends for even less time than that, but I know that I’m so insanely infatuated with you…and I totally understand if you don’t feel the same way or think I’m a total git after everything, but I needed to get this off my chest because, Helga, Y/N, I’ve had a crush on you since the first year…”
Disbelief, that’s the only thing you felt after those words left his mouth. It came at you like a punch in the gut, and you stood frozen in front of him, staring at him with your mouth wide open like a floundering fish, having no clue what to say. And then the overwhelming sense of relief and joy came crashing down upon you, and you smiled at him, moving to stand so you were nearly chest to chest, taking his hand in yours gently as he let out a sudden sigh of relief, closing his eyes for a moment as if this was all a dream.
But when he opened them again, you were still standing there, and you were looking up at him with so much hope and kindness that he shivered when your thumb brushed over his skin.
“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to hear those words, Cedric Diggory.”
“And you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to kiss you, Y/N L/N. Can I?”
When you replied, you didn’t reply in words, but instead you moved in and gently pressed your lips to his, hesitant at first, like the both of you were still expecting the other to pull away, but then his free hand was coming to rest on your waist, and your other hand was moving to his cheek, fingers brushing against soft and warm skin, and the both of you felt like you were floating.
You stood there, wrapped in each other’s embrace, ignoring those who moved around you and only focusing on the feel of his lips against yours, your fingers in his hair and the feeling of being so close to each other that there wasn’t room to breathe.
And when the two of you did pull away, you both held an expression of disbelief, clutching each other tight.
“Merlin, you know what?” His voice was light and warm, and as he looked at you, he couldn’t help but smile again.
“What, Cedric?”
“I think this has been the greatest Halloween, and possibly the greatest Halloween party that Hufflepuff has ever hosted.”
“Mmhm, you might be right about that one.”
The two of you were right, that party did go down in history as the one with the best band, the best decoration and the best hosts, but what really became the most important part of that party for the two of you, was the fact that it was the night you both realised how the other one felt. And you wouldn’t take back this night, or this party, for the world.