"I love her," he had said aloud to his mirror one day, and his reflection nodded back solemly. It wasn't even a lie, was it. His mother could ask 'have you found someone, Cedric,' and he'd simply reply "There's a girl that I love," and he meant every word of it. Didn't have to dodge a Bludger and stammer, 'Er, well, there's someone I'm interested in, but they'd never like me back--", and what was it that Cho had called it? The pronoun game. He supposed it was a Muggle saying.
He loved her, and he asked her to the Yule Ball because -- well, who else could he have taken? Cho was the one he should take, the one he loved, even if he couldn't quite bring himself to be in love with her.
After all, she was a Seeker, but she flew in blue, not red. Bronze instead of gold, and the significance wasn't exactly lost on Cedric. Dark hair, but no scars. She wasn't Harry Potter and he'd never be in love with her.
She had told him about Katie, of course, and he'd been a little surprised. She was lucky, he thought wistfully, that she had someone like Katie. He'd never had anyone - no fumbling kisses behind the broomshed or anything, but just a thought and a wish and a longing for something that he wasn't allowed to touch.
And after the Yule Ball, that was his first - and he hadn't known what to do, where to put his hands or his mouth or anything, really, and he was just sober enough to know that he'd ruined absolutely everything. He couldn't look at her afterwards, couldn't stand the thought of seeing the reflection of himself, and she'd asked him to pretend.
Pretend not to hit walls when he heard his father's voice calling someone gay and meaning not good enough, son, he'd taken that to mean.
Six months later, he was lying motionless in a graveyard with only Harry near, and not a soul to help.
He watched her for a while after, and wondered why she called him her boyfriend. Wondered why she cried talking of how she loved him and wondered why she never said that they weren't like that. She watched his father, confused, as his father broke down, and Cedric didn't understand why either.
I don't have any problems, she said to them all, and he wished he could have ever said the same about himself.