It had been about a week since Cedric and I had graduated, and we had already started to look at apartments. Though I loved my family dearly, I didn't want to live with my parents anymore, and neither did Cedric.
My parents were happy for me, as they were about our age when they first fell in love. My mom showed me her wedding dress and all their wedding photos when I told them that Cedric proposed.
Cedric and I sat in the dining room at the table as I ate breakfast and he was flipping through the morning paper. He looked so gorgeous as he was doing it, his face stern with thought and his eyes dancing across the pages.
"Ooh, love, what about this one?" Cedric inquired, passing the newspaper over to me.
Circled in red ink was a quaint blue house - not too big and not too small. It would be perfect for our first rental.
It had a beautiful herb garden as well as trees and bushes, as well as a small rock wall.
"Holy crap, it's perfect." I gasped.
"There's an opening to check it out this Thursday, would you be interested-"
"Yes." I blurted almost immediately.
He laughed and kissed my cheek, soon heading to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee.
"Get me one too!" I yelled as he entered the kitchen.
"How many cups have you had?" he sighed.
"Three — but that's besides the point." I defended.
"I'm cutting you off."
I groaned and put my head down on the table, laughing at his remark.
"When do you think we should start planning for the wedding?" I queried as he sat down next to me.
"Whenever you want, darling. Hell, we could get married in 20 years and I'd still love you just the same."
—————————————————————————
Thursday had finally arrived, and we had previously called the landlord to set a time to view the house.
The landlord was an elderly woman and who's salt and pepper hair was slicked back in a neat bun. She wore a floral dress and was of short stature, a kind smile spread across her face.
We decided to meet her at a local coffee shop where she sat at a small round table, waiting for us to arrive.
"Hello! You're the young couple looking at my house, am I correct?" she grinned warmly.
We nodded our heads and sat across from her, our hands intertwined under the table.
"My name is Beatrice — I'm so glad that you're interested in the house — it's a special one, really. Quite beautiful if you ask me." She began.
"My husband passed away several years ago, and we used to live there. It's a perfect starter home."
Cedric and I grinned at each other.
"I can tell you that as soon as we saw the house in the paper, we fell in love. It seems perfect for us." Cedric agreed.
After meeting with the landlord and discussing the house, we finally went to go see it.
It almost felt like the house was from a fairy tale. It was so utterly perfect — lush green grass surrounded the charming dusty-blue house as flowers and herbs flourished in the garden.
It would be perfect for late night picnics and having gatherings outside.
A small rock wall was laid after the driveway, and the beginnings of ivy growing across the rocks.
Cedric and I walked in hand in hand as Beatrice followed behind us.
As soon as we turned the golden nob to enter the white door, our eyes were met with absolute perfection. I had never seen such serenity in a home — everything was so peaceful and in unity.
The walls were painted a faint sage color and the floors were made of a lightly colored polished wood. The house must have been remodeled fairly recently, as there were new appliances as well as modern countertops and lighting.
There were two bedrooms — the master bedroom and the guest bedroom which you could access if you went up a set of stairs with a white trim and railing. The two bedrooms were gorgeous, even the guest bedroom, but the master bedroom was better.
The master bedroom had a bay window with a cushion installed, as well as créme colored wallpaper with the intricate carved trim towards the ceiling. A crystal chandelier dangled in the center of the room. The bathroom had a slightly vintage look to it, yet it was still sleek and modern.
There was a white stand alone bathtub with a gold rim as well as golden handles. In the other corner of the room was a glass step-in shower with black and white patterned tiling on the floor.
The guest bedroom had no bathroom, but it was just as beautiful. It had several large windows throughout the room, as well as Athena white gold wallpaper. Just like the master bedroom, there was a white chandelier in the center of the room used as lighting.
Cedric and I were surprised as to how absolutely perfect the house was for us, and we decided to rent it. On Monday, Cedric would attend his job as a bartender, and after the summer he would further his studies of becoming an auror.
We informed Amos as well as my parents about the great news, and they were more than happy to help us pack and move our belongings. Hermione, the Weasleys, and Ada also helped us in the process.
A few days after viewing the house, I was clearing out my closet. This was my least favorite part of packing, because of all the clothes I had to get rid of and fold.
Just as I was finishing up, a small brown box in the corner caught my eye. It was slightly tattered, and it looked like it had been there for quite some time. The word "pictures" was written on it in black sharpie.
Confused, I opened the box to find tons of pictures of me and my friends from when I was younger.
I completely forgot about this.
I began to sift through the photos to find pictures of me at Ilvermorny, but as I kept flipping through them, they became older and older.
There were pictures of my first birthday, me at my first day of school, and my tenth birthday.
It was nostalgic to see all of these photos that brought back such fond memories — it was comforting in a sense.
There were also tons of photos of me at my favorite park when I was younger. Dominic and I would play there all the time with this one boy our age, who always showed so much kindness towards me.
I was around 8 when these photos were taken, and in one of them it clearly showed the boy. I was in the back of him, my arm wrapped around his shoulder, both of us giggling and laughing.
There was something about him, something that I couldn't put my finger on.
He seemed familiar.
As I was going to ask my parents who the kid was, I bumped into Cedric who was packing up my desk.
"Hey, lovely." he grinned.
"Hi, I was just finishing my closet, and then I found this box of pictures. There were tons of them, especially ones of me when I was like, 8 at my favorite park. There was this one kid I used to hang out with and I just don't know who he is-"
My jaw dropped and the picture slid out of my hand.
"Cedric Diggory" I gasped.
He looked at me, confused as I stared at him.
He picked up the picture and soon had the same shocked expression on his face. He began to smile and placed the picture to the side of my face.
I smiled as I turned my head around too look at it once more.
"We knew eachother when we were young." he gushed.
"Yes! That's why your name sounded familiar when we first met." I replied.
"Why did we stop being friends?" he asked, trying to rack his brain with answers.
"I would say it was because I moved, but that wasn't until I was 11 and about to go to Ilveromony." I replied.
His face suddenly lit up, and he soon began to explain.
"I remember, I had such strong feelings for you, but I was too young to understand what it was. Then you told me that you had feelings for your Dominic. I was devastated. I thought you hated me, so I stopped talking to you." he explained.
I chuckled as it all started to flood back.
We had been really good friends, and wrote each other almost every day. One day Cedric just stopped replying to my letters. I was so sad, and I figured he had simply forgotten about me, so I stopped writing to him.
I slowly started to make new friends at Ilveromony, and I completely forgot about him.
"I can't believe it — I guess we were always supposed to be together." I smiled before bringing him in for a kiss.
For the rest of the afternoon we continued to look through the old pictures and noticed a couple more of us. We chose a few of our favorites, decided to get them printed to hang on our wall, and called it a day.