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The Beginning

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Arden groaned as she heard three knocks on her bedroom door. She slowly rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillow.

"Five more minutes!" She groaned. She heard the door creak open and groaned into her pillow again.

There was a small chuckle, "Arden you know you need to get up," a low voice sighed. Arden stayed still, hoping that she could stay in bed if she pretended to fall asleep again. The person who was in her room sighed and gently nudged her shoulder to try and wake her up, but she remained motionless. "Come on Arden, you do this every year," the voice whined.

They gently pushed her, so that she rolled onto her back. Arden then let her tongue hang out of her mouth, pretending to be dead. The person laughed, "Arden this doesn't work on me-"

"I'm sorry, this is the end for me..." Arden spoke in a shaken voice, limiting her breaths.

"Arden I used to use this on you-"

"I bequeath to you all of my earthly possessions. Spread my ashes over my bed." The person then began to violently shake her body in order to get Arden to snap out of her behaviour. Arden shot up and glared up at the person who woke her up. "Alright Ced! I'm up!" She whined.

Her older brother, Cedric, laughed at his little sister's childish ways and began leaving her room. "Come on! You know we've got to go," he urged. Arden rubber her eyes and looked out the window, mentally cursing herself as she saw the sun already high up in the sky. She ran her fingers through her curly hair as she shuffled out of her room, glaring at the bright lights in the hallway.

Cedric rolled his eyes at his younger sister and tossed a green apple to her, "here, we don't have much time."

Arden cringed, "I hate green apples," she grimaced. Cedric ignored his sister and began dragging his trunk out to the front door. Arden took a bite out of the apple and tried not to focus on the tart taste. She quickly got changed into a pair of jeans and a sweater Mrs Weasley knitted for her last Christmas, and began moving her trunk out of the house.

"Arden! You'll scratch the floorboards if you don't pick it up!" Arden's father snapped. The young girl huffed in frustration as she tried to lift her trunk off the ground, but couldn't walk more than a metre without dropping it again. Cedric grabbed the handle of his sister's trunk, and carried it along with his own out the door.

"Just wait a few more minutes and it would have been done myself," Arden sighed.

Cedric smiled and shook his head, not believing a word his sister spoke, "you do love to make jokes don't you?" Arden didn't respond, as she was too busy following her father towards the Portkey that would take them directly to Kings Cross Station. The three held on tightly to the manky old boot at the top of the hill behind their house and counted to three. In an instant, the three were spinning in the air, being transported to their destination. Arden couldn't help but laugh at the spinning sensation, triggering memories of Harry's first time travelling by Portkey to the Quidditch World Cup.

The Diggory family then landed in an empty alley next to the station. Amos Diggory pulled out his pocket watch and noticed that it was six minutes until eleven o'clock. His eyes widened as he quickly kissed the foreheads of both of his children and pulled them into a group hug.

"No time for any long goodbyes. Have fun you two! Make sure you both study a lot since Arden you have your O.W.Ls and Cedric you have-"

"Don't worry dad, we'll be fine," Cedric laughed. The Diggory siblings quickly hurried out of the alley, and into the station. They pushed past numerous Muggles to get to their desired platform. Cedric took a deep breath, "alright on my mark-" Cedric began, but cut himself off as he watched his sister sprint through the wall between platforms nine and ten. He rolled his eyes at his sister's impatience, then ran through the platform also.

Cedric used his height to his advantage to search the platform for his sister, but couldn't find her through the thick crowd of parents and students. He cursed under his breath at his sister for abandoning him, but proceeded to give their trunks over to one of the staff who store them on the train.

Meanwhile, Arden was pushing past numerous classmates just to get onto the train. It had been a while since she'd seen her friends, and she was so eager to see them that she didn't care about the tiny first years she pushed out of her way. She looked behind her and saw Cedric following her. She poked her tongue out at him, and quickly ran onto the train. Cedric decided to give up, he knew how badly she wanted to see her friends, so he let her.

Arden shuffled through the tight walkway of the train, dodging past numerous flying objects that most definitely belonged to the Weasley twins. She knew she was getting close when she heard a mini explosion followed by a mix of laughter and mostly screams. A familiar face then stumbled out of a compartment followed by a cloud of dark green smoke. The boy coughed and fanned the smoke out of his face. He took off his rounded classes and cleaned the soot off of them and put them back on. Arden grinned widely as she stared into the emerald green eyes that she had missed so much.

"Arden!" The boy exclaimed.

Arden could feel her already rosy cheeks turn crimson at the sight of him. "Harry!" Arden then began to run down the tight walkway, using her agility well to avoid bumping into people in her way. She slowed down slightly as she got closer to Harry, then wrapped her arms around him tightly. His laughs caused butterflies to erupt in her abdomen, and her heart to beat rapidly. She smiled as Harry placed a chaste kiss on her cheek, then pulled away to look into her silver eyes.

"Blimey, I didn't know you could run that fast," Harry laughed. He let go of her, letting Arden say hello to her other friends. She pulled Hermione into a tight embrace, where the two quickly conversed over the excitement for their O.W.Ls, then she quickly hugged Ron, where he scolded her for wearing his mother's embarrassing sweater.

"Wow Ron, I'm gonna tell mum you don't appreciate her hard work!" George teased.

Fred poked his head out of the smoking compartment to join in on the conversation, "yeah Ron! Worst son award goes to you!" Ron simply groaned as he, Hermione and Harry quickly snagged the compartment opposite the smoked one.

Arden peeped inside of the compartment and coughed. "Did you two do this?" She asked the twins.

Fred smiled at her proudly, "of course we did!"

"Nice!" Arden exclaimed, high diving Fred in the process. "Got any big shenanigans planned for this year?"

George shrugged, "well we were told to take school more seriously..."

"But we thought continuing to invent more stuff would be a better value of our time," Fred continued. "So expect to see a lot of little things occurring between friends thanks to the products they buy off us!"

"Speaking of products, we've got one custom made just for you!" George enthused. He pulled out a small box. On the lid, was a cartoon drawing of Draco Malfoy's face on the body of a white ferret. "Use it on that little git, but we're not going to say what it does."

Arden smiled devilishly as she pocketed the box. "I'll save it for a special occasion, thanks guys." Arden then made her way into the compartment where Harry, Ron and Hermione were. She sat down next to Harry, where she began to catch up with everyone about their Summer holiday.

Arden felt something off with Harry when he spoke. He seemed to speak in shorter sentences, and only when spoken to. She understood that he was definitely in shock after what he saw during the Tournament, but she hoped that he would be able to recover from the trauma he faced so he would be back to his normal self again. Arden knew it was selfish, but she would never rush him.

She placed her hand on his, looking into his green eyes as he told the story of seeing a Dementor in Little Whinging, and how he thought Cornelius Fudge was a coward. Arden remembered getting letters from Harry about his hearing, and she couldn't agree more. Fudge was so afraid of Lord Voldemort, that he refused to believe he even existed, despite Harry and Cedric seeing him at the end of fourth year.

"You know what happened, forget anyone who fights you on it! It's their own loss that they choose to be naive," Arden fought, gripping Harry's hand tighter as her blood began to boil. Harry had been hurt so many times, and barely anyone was there for him in those times; Arden was sick of it as much as Harry was.

Cedric was walking by the compartments, but stopped as he caught his sister and Harry holding hands. He peeked through the doors and glared at the two. "Watch it Harry..." Cedric warned, but with a smirk on his face, telling Arden that he wasn't serious.

Harry became flustered and quickly let go of her hand, but Arden leaned her head on Harry's shoulder and poked her tongue out at her brother.

"Go make out with Cho or something Ced," Arden said tiredly. Ron held back a snicker and hid his grin with his hands. He saw Cedric look at him blankly and quickly recollected himself, a part of Ron definitely had a bit of a crush on Cedric whether he liked to admit it or not.

"Well make sure you get your prefect badge from Professor Sprout when we get to Hogwarts, otherwise you'll have no authority at all," Cedric warned.

Arden rolled her eyes, "don't worry, we've got ages until we get there, I'll remember!" Arden whined. Cedric then left for his own compartment, no doubt a compartment with Cho. Hermione and Arden began conversing about O.W.Ls again, until a nasty group of Slytherins stopped at the doorway of their compartment, coughing uncontrollably.

"Ugh! Did you lot set off some sort of bomb in the last free compartment!?" The platinum blond boy snarled.

Ron flashed a devilish smirk his way, "a welcome back gift just for you, Malfoy," he sang.

Draco scowled, "typical of you weasels to pull something immature like this!"

"Typical of you entitled ferrets to whine about something so minor!" Arden retorted, rolling her eyes as she did so. "There are people dying in the world Malfoy, get over yourself." Harry held back a laugh, while he squeezed Arden's hand tighter to praise her for humiliating the blond.

Draco scoffed, noticing Harry's amusement. "Don't get too comfortable Potter, I'm surprised the Ministry let you walk free!" He taunted. Arden felt Harry's grip on her hand tighten out of anger, to the point where she wanted to snatch her hand away to relieve the pain, but she knew it would just show Draco that he was getting to Harry. "You bet tee enjoy it while you can. I expect Azkaban has a cell with your name on it-" Draco quickly cut himself as Harry shot up from his seat, ready to fight Draco. Ron, Arden and Hermione quickly got up to hold Harry back, while he yelled obscenities at Draco as he fled away into the compartment opposite them.

Harry ran his fingers through his hair as he sighed, trying to calm himself down. He was about to sit down until a taller girl with short brown hair and doe brown eyes stood in the walkway, looking at the four worriedly for a moment. She locked eyes with Harry, and her frown instantly turned into a grin so wide that her cheeks began to turn pink.

"Hey! Do you guys know a Blaise Zabini? I was with him but then he ran off and-"

"He's in there," Ron answered tiredly, pointing to the closed compartment across from them. The girl looked behind her and her smile dropped.

"Oh, they were the ones causing that..." She mumbled. She sighed but turned back into her normal happy self. She held out her hand for a handshake, "I'm Lena Oxton, just moved from Durmstrang," she chirped.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked at the oddly happy girl, but Arden smiled, and was the only one who shook her hand.

"I'm Arden Diggory. This is Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and-"

"Harry Potter!" Lena chimed, causing Harry to let out a small sigh in annoyance. 

Arden knew Harry didn't like it when people recognised him, but she chose to ignore it for she was fascinated by the new girl. "Did you want to sit with us rather than Blaise and his goons?" Arden asked. She ignored Ron's gestures telling her to stop, and Hermione's nudges for him to cut it out. Fortunately for Ron, Lena shook her head and declined her offer.

"No, Blaise is my step brother, my father told me to stick by him as much as I can, but thank you!" Lena exclaimed. She waved the four goodbye and went into the compartment where Draco and his friends were.

Ron let out a sigh of relief, "blimey, that girl's voice alone was giving me a headache!" Ron cried out in pain as Hermione punched his shoulder, scolding him for being so rude.

"I just can't believe Malfoy is associated with someone who smiles," Hermione said. The four sat back down, eventually having to make room for Neville. A few minutes later, they watched the train begin to leave the platform, on their way to begin their fifth year at Hogwarts. 

Arden could feel butterflies in her stomach from excitement, she was always excited for a new year at Hogwarts. She knew this year would definitely be something different. She was Hufflepuff prefect, she had her O.W.Ls that she had been studying for since first year, she had Cedric's graduation, and she had all of her friends together again.

But there was something else in her gut that told her that this year would bring something else, something completely unexpected, and maybe even unwanted.

~

Here it is, the first chapter of the rewrite! A lot has changed...

Arden is a Hufflepuff

Harry and Arden are dating

Cedric is alive!!

I know this is very different from Imperio (that's the point) but I feel like if I began writing this story now, I would begin where Arden is at a point in her life where everything is great, rather than her struggling to prove to her father that she doesn't belong in Slytherin, and trying to not be in Ced's shadow, etc. I hope you enjoyed, I can't wait to continue this!

To clarify again, this rewrite is in no way connected to Cassies. Think of this as like an alternate universe!

Toodleoo xx