Chapter 4

"Oh I'm so excited to meet your family, Sage. Especially Athena!" Olive gushed as the Hogwarts Express set off for London. "She can be a bit annoying, so be wary." Sage giggled, yawning as she rested her head on Cedric shoulder. 

"Have you got a dog?" Olive gasped. "No, but I've got August." Sage smiled, stroking her cat which laid in Cedric's lap. "Are you tired?" Cedric whispered. "A little." She shrugged. "You can sleep, if you want." 

"Thanks." Sage yawned again, closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep on Cedric's shoulder. A few minutes passed, and once everyone was positive she was sleeping, Rowan spoke up. "She's very pretty when she sleeps, you're lucky Cedric."

"Why am I lucky?" Asked Cedric. "I wish Sage would fall asleep on my shoulder." Rowan sighed. "Oh, yeah.." Cedric chuckled, resting his head on the top of Sage's head, protectively. He didn't like how Sage had spoken so much with Rowan this year, he was her best friend, not Rowan.

"Sage.. Cedric. We're here." Olive nudged her two friends gently, as they slowly awoke from their nap. "Come on, we're in London." She whispered. "Oh.. London?" Sage blinked, squinting her eyes as the bright light.

"Yes, Sage. We're not at Hogwarts anymore. It's Christmas, remember." Jill giggled as they helped Cedric and Sage off the train, they were both very sleepy. "Sage!" Athena ran forward at the sight of her sister, pulling her into a big hug.

"Hi, Thea." Sage smiled tiredly at her younger sister, introducing her family to her friends before they made their way home. "My mothers here, got to go, bye!" Jill waved her friends goodbye as they set off in opposite directions.

"And then I'm going to decorate my whole dorm room! Sage told me you have birds in your common-room, I hope i'm in Hufflepuff, I do love birds." She rambled to Olive, who was very willing to listen to her whole plan for when she came to school. 

"Your sister talks a lot." Harper laughed as they reached the outside of Sage's house. "We'll be over in a bit." Cedric, Harper and Rowan departed from the small group, making their way into Cedric's home.

"And then in the backyard we have two chickens!" Athena enthused, leading Olive into the garden, where two chickens wandered around. "This is Jill, my chicken, and there's Noel, Sage's chicken, Sage loves Christmas. Did you know that?" Continued Athena.

"Didn't your chicken Jill die?" Olive asked. "The first one dies after two days, yes." Athena pouted. "So I named another chicken after her." Athena continued to give Olive a tour of the house, while Sage took their belongings upstairs. 

"Hello, again." Olive and Sage greeted the four boys who had entered through the front door. "Amos, Cedric, Harper and Rowan. 

"Cedric, where's your mother?" Olive suddenly asked. "Oh, mother is working in America." Cedric's smile faltered for a moment, he rarely saw his mother. "What's her job?" Asked Rowan. "She teaches Muggle studies at Ilvermorny." He explained.

"How awkward would it have been if his mother was dead." Athena whispered to Sage. "Athena, don't say that." She stepped on her sisters toe, trying not to laugh. "I'm just saying." She giggled as Sage rolled her eyes. 

Sage had only seen Cedric's mother a few times. Sage's parents would keep her and Athena away from the Diggory manor whenever she was visiting, not wanting to draw Cedric's attention off his mother. 

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(I know I'm moving through the school years pretty fast, i'm trying to get onto where they're a bit older, sorry.)

"I hate Pre-Quidditch games." Sage sighed as she and Cedric wandered down the hall, heading for lunch. "Everyone always gets so aggressive." She frowned as a pair of Slytherins jinxed an unsuspecting Hufflepuff boy. 

"I love Quidditch." Said Cedric. "One day I'll be team captain." He grinned. "You're not even on the team." Sage laughed. "Oh, I will be, just you wait and see." He puffed his chest out as a Hufflepuff yelled across the corridor at a first year Slytherin. 

"We'll see, maybe i'll be captain." Sage raised her eyebrows cheekily. "Oh please, you don't even like Quidditch." Cedric rolled his eyes. "I like Quidditch, i'm just not obsessed." She retorted. 

"What about Quidditch?" Asked Harper when they reached the Hufflepuff table. "Cedric wants to be captain of the Quidditch team one day." Sage told them. "Captain? No way, i'll be captain." Harper scoffed. 

"Oh please, i'm going to be captain." Jill interrupted. "You? But you're a girl?" Said a nearby Hufflepuff. "A girl? And what's wrong with that? You don't think girls can play Quidditch?" She raised her voice as the Hufflepuff boy shrank back. 

"Yeah, that's what I thought." She scowled at him. "Nicely done, Jill." Said Olive. "Boys are naturally stronger." Said Harper. "And girls are naturally smarter, clearly." Olive frowned at him. "Otherwise you would've kept your mouth shut." She finished. "Just saying..." Harper grumbled.

"Who do you reckons gonna win the match?" Rowan attempted to ease the tension that had set between the group. "Us, for sure!" Harper cheered. "I'd like to say we'd win, but Slytherin smashes us every game." Sage laughed.

"You're disloyal." Cedric gasped, trying to look offended. "Oh, shut it." She giggled. "I'm only being honest, you're all just blinded by your love for your house." She sighed. 

"You don't love Hufflepuff?" Asked Rowan. "I do! I'm just not blinded by it." She explained. "Love is blindness." Said Harper dramatically. "Olive would know, she tripped twice this morning." Jill laughed. 

"Who does Olive love?" Cedric asked. "Every boy on the planet." Jill teased as Olive sank into her seat. "I do not." She whined. "Oh I get it! Love is blind, and she tripped." Rowan gasped, catching onto the joke a bit late.

"Do you love anyone?" Rowan turned to Sage, slightly pink in the face. "Me?" Her eyes widened. "I'm not in love with anyone, no." She shrugged. "But I love my friends, and Athena, and August." She smiled, pointing at the cat which had curled up in her lap.

"Do you love Cedric?" Rowan continued, as both Sage and Cedric choked on their food. "As a friend, yes." They both laughed, people often mistaken them for a couple, but Rowan was their friend, he should have known.

"Just asking.." Rowan chuckled. 

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Over the next couple of months, Professor Sprout had told the second year students about their third year electives and what they were about. So, naturally, all that the second years were talking about as they passed Easter, was what electives they would be choosing.

"I know I'll definitely do Care of Magical Creatures, and I think maybe I'll do the study of ancient runes too." Sage told her friends one night in the common room. "Really? I wanted to do those two as well!" Jill gasped. 

"I want to do Care of Magical creatures and Divination." Olive pouted. "I'm going to do Muggle studies and Ancient runes." Said Cedric. "I'm doing the same as Jill and Sage." Added Harper.

"This sucks, I'm going to choose Arithmancy and divinations, I won't be with either of you." Rowan turned to Harper and Cedric. "Those are terrible subjects." Cedric laughed. "Well I like them." Rowan frowned. 

"I'm surprised Rowan isn't doing the same subjects as you, seeing that he likes you." Jill whispered to Sage who shook her head in disagreement. "He wouldn't go that far, even if he did like me." She said. "But he does like you, he keeps calling you pretty, and you should have heard him on the train ride during Christmas break." Jill giggled. 

"He said he wished you'd fallen asleep on his shoulder, not Cedric's." She explained. "Why? It's just sleeping?" She asked. "Because that's what couples do, duh." She rolled her eyes. "You're so naive, Sage." 

"I'm not naive." She pouted. "You and Cedric are both naive." She teased. "Cedric, are we naive?" Sage asked Cedric, who was drawn out of his conversation with Olive. "No? Why?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "Jilly says we're naive." She pouted. 

"Because you guys do things that couples do, but you don't even know that they're couple things." Jill reasoned. "That's true." Added Rowan bitterly. "Like what?" Asked Cedric. "Like kissing each other on the cheek, holding hands, hugging, falling asleep on eachother." Olive laughed. 

"But we've been doing that since we were toddlers!" Sage defended. "But we're big now, we're teenagers." Said Olive. "We're only thirteen, most of us." Said Cedric. "Yes, thirteen." Jill rolled her eyes. "See, naive."

"Don't worry, Sage, we know that we aren't naive." Cedric whispered to her as the rest of the group resumed their conversations. "Yeah." Sage giggled. 

"See they're whispering and laughing with one another." Harper pointed out. "You wouldn't be saying we act like a couple if I was whispering and laughing with Jill or Olive!" Said Sage. "But Cedric's a boy, Jill and Olive are girls." 

"Shut the fuck up, Harper." Jill stood to her feet as Olive gasped dramatically. "Don't say that word!" She cringed. "I'm not being sexist! I'm just saying." He raised his hands in the air as a plea for his innocence, and Jill slowly sat back in her seat.

"Jill stop cussing all the time! it's bad." Olive frowned. "Oh, Olive. So young, so pure." Jill raised her hand above Olive, patting her on the head as if she were a small child. "I'm not a baby." She hissed, pushing Jill's hand away. 

"You won't even let me say ass." Jill reasoned. "Don't say that!" Shrieked Olive. "Ass." Harper joined in, teasing Olive, who became hysterical at all the 'foul language.'

"One day you'll cuss too, all big kids cuss." Said Jill. "I'm older than you, Jill. You're still twelve." Olive pouted. "I'll be thirteen in a month!" Jill frowned. "In a month we'll almost be in summer... Woah we only have around a month left." Olive gasped.

"I'm staying home for Summer, again." Sage sighed. "Me too, so this year we can hang out!" Cedric grinned. "Oh, yay!" She squealed, though quickly quieted down when her friends began to discuss how they were too couple-like to be best friends, once again.

"They're just jealous they aren't as close as we are." Cedric chuckled. "I heard that." Muttered Jill. "And Sage and I are very close!" She defended as another war broke loose.

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