As the end of January arrived, Harry still hadn't discovered another method to stay underwater for at least an hour. While Analeigh was extending some help to Harry, which Cedric was also aware of and fine with doing, she didn't think it would be fair to let Harry use the Bubble-Head Charm when it had been Cedric's idea from the beginning. She even brought it up with the Hufflepuff boy, but being the kind and generous person he was, he was more than willing to share the charm as well — especially since it was Harry's idea to tip Cedric off about the dragons in the previous task without question.

However, Harry was too courteous and stupidly daring for his own good, perfectly exemplifying how being a Gryffindor could be his downfall. He wanted to be considerate towards Cedric and challenged himself to find another way to survive underwater for such a long period of time. And, it was proving to be counterproductive because his tendency to procrastinate was stronger than ever.

Analeigh found herself alone in the library one afternoon during her free period. According to Lee Jordan, who she bumped into as he was just about to retrieve his books from his room, Harry was fast asleep in his room even though they had planned to do another round of searching in the library.

"He's sleeping like a rock, Heart," Lee had told her, sounding both amused and apologetic before he left the common room with the Weasley twins to head to class. Although she was slightly irritated, Analeigh decided to let the boy have his nap considering all the things he had already gone through in that school year alone, and they were just about halfway through it.

More than an hour later of searching and taking notes, Analeigh was growing restless. She had moved on from the Charms section and to the Transfiguration section, only to find that all the spells to transfigure oneself to become marine animals were way above her current skill level. Merlin, even those in their seventh years struggled with that type of transfiguration.

With a sigh, Analeigh pushed her seat back to return the book, only to find Cedric a few feet away behind her, a hand raised in mid-air as if he was about to tap her shoulder.

"Good Godric," said Analeigh, startled. With a huff, she lightly hit the boy's arm. "Were you planning on scaring me again, Cedric?"

He grinned and nodded almost childishly.

"You're quite a jumpy person," he said, sliding into the seat next to her.

"So that's why you like startling me so much?"

"Well, I like you." As cheesy as that line sounded, Analeigh blushed but covered it up with a groan.

Taking note of her reaction, Cedric asked, "Too much?" He chuckled when Analeigh nodded honestly in response.

Ever since their confrontation at the Great Hall where Cedric just had to kiss her in front of almost everyone, Analeigh realized that Cedric loved grand gestures and was far from shy in displaying his affection. He was already a naturally charming and flirty person without commitment, but now that he and Analeigh established that they liked each other, he was even more straightforward with how he felt and how he wanted to show it. And, though Analeigh wasn't exactly overly conservative or shy, she was still mildly surprised when Cedric snuck a quick kiss on her cheek. Butterflies erupted inside of her; it still threw her off how these were supposedly normal gestures now.

Cedric had just leaned back with a satisfied smirk when a small thud brought him and the dirty blonde next to him out of their little moment. Their heads turned to find the source and they found Cho Chang a few feet away from them, her eyes trained on them for a second before she hastily picked up the book she dropped.

"Sorry," she muttered before straightening up and glancing at the pair with a pointed look.

"No problem," said Cedric with a small smile in hopes of easing the tension in the air.

Cho cleared her throat awkwardly. "Just a thought," she began. "I advise you two to not do... that here in the library. You know how Madam Pince is. She wouldn't be happy to see public displays like that in the library."

She gave a smile that did not quite reach her eyes before leaving Cedric and Analeigh on their own. Once she was out of earshot, Cedric let out a breath.

"What do you suppose that was for?" he said.

Analeigh shrugged. "Maybe she's still not over... you? I mean, you two kind of dated, didn't you?"

Cedric raised his eyebrows at her. "I thought I made it clear I never dated her."

"Well, the whole school thought you did, and apparently, she kind of did, too."

Cedric sighed. "I was kind of hoping that her crush would fade eventually. We were friends, and like I said before, I selfishly wanted to keep the friendship."

"What exactly happened between you two, anyway? I realized I never asked how you ended things."

"Remember when she went to the infirmary after the First Task? She asked me out, straight up — no beating around the bush. So, that's when I told her how I felt: that I was glad to have her a friend, and I really am until now. But I honestly didn't — don't — feel anything for her beyond that."

Not knowing how else to respond, Analeigh teased, "You really do have girls falling for you everywhere you go, don't you?"

The Hufflepuff puffed his chest out proudly. "What can I say? It's hard not to when I look like this."

Analeigh rolled her eyes, about to make a snarky remark when he continued to speak.

"But really, though," he started. "She said we shouldn't be doing 'that' here in the library? Helga knows we didn't even do anything close to inappropriate."

"Of course we weren't."

"Right. Unless you want to?"

"Cedric!"

"Shh!" Madam Pince had appeared out of nowhere from behind the shelves, a stern look on her face and both hands on her hips.

"Sorry, Madam Pince. It was my fault," said Cedric, charming as ever. Though the strict librarian was rarely ever swayed, it seemed like Cedric's charm was enough to let her leave the pair alone without consequences.

"You're lucky all the professors and staff of Hogwarts like you," Analeigh whisper-yelled, not wanting Madam Pince to come back and reprimand her again.

Cedric gave a lopsided grin, knowing it was true. He was sincerely kind to the professors and staff at school, but he couldn't deny that it certainly was helpful when he needed to get out of small trouble sometimes.

"Can I see your timetable?" he suddenly asked.

Analeigh raised her eyebrows at the random question but obliged, reaching for her bag. Once she retrieved the paper that held her daily schedule, she handed it to the boy next to her. He scanned it for a few moments as if he was searching for something in particular. Eventually, his eyes lit up and he nodded in satisfaction.

"What?" Analeigh asked curiously. "What is it?"

"Nothing," he teased, giving timetable back to her.

"Tell me," she demanded. She never liked it when she wanted to know something and wasn't given an answer or she didn't find one herself. She was just too curious to let things like that slide.

Cedric only grinned wider at her whiny tone.

"You'll find out soon enough."

★ ★ ★

Another day full of classes that dragged on way too slowly for Analeigh's liking passed. Finally, they reached the last period of the day, but unfortunately, it was Potions. Though Analeigh wasn't as gifted as the top students in her year like Hermione and even Malfoy in this subject, she was decent enough to get by with above average grades. However, having Snape as their professor was always a downside and made it harder for Gryffindors to excel. Hence, she was dreading this class just like she always did.

Thankfully, Harry and Ron were attempting to lighten the mood by making fun of Snape's greasy hair on the way to the dungeons after their Transfiguration class, much to Hermione's disapproval. She insisted on discussing more about the Second Task since the day was drawing closer and closer by the minute, but it was the only thing they talked about for weeks. Even when Analeigh spent time alone and left the trio to do their own thing, or when she ate meals with Dean, Seamus, and Neville instead, the famous trio would still be talking about the task.

"You're disrespecting a teacher, for goodness sake," Hermione said haughtily. "Besides, we still need to talk about the Second Ta —"

"Hermione, I only have one question for you now and you must answer it," said Ron, his voice sounding grave.

"What is it?"

"Answer us honestly. If you say no, then we'll stop talking about Snape this way."

"Just get to the point," Analeigh butted in, wondering what Ron was going to ask.

"Do you or do you not think that git has greasy hair?" he said seriously.

Analeigh knew that making fun of teachers was rude but she couldn't help it; it was funny. She burst into giggles, using her hand to cover her mouth because she knew Hermione would get annoyed. As expected, the bushy-haired girl slapped her arm disapprovingly.

"What? We all know what the answer is," Analeigh defended, still laughing. Harry and Ron made sounds of agreement before looking towards Hermione expectantly.

"Well?" said Harry with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Well," Hermione began, struggling to phrase her answer. "Okay, yes —"

The boys cheered triumphantly, glad that Hermione was admitting that they were right.

"B-But that's still no way to talk about a teacher!" she tried but Harry and Ron were too proud to pay attention to those words.

"Lighten up, Hermione," Harry said, nudging her as they walked.

"We were just joking," Ron added but muttered only for Harry to hear, "Well, not really."

The four students finally arrived at the dungeons where the Potions laboratory was located. A group of sixth years were filing out just as they got there. Analeigh, Hermione, Ron, and Harry stood by the sides near their other Gryffindor classmates and began chatting with them conversationally.

Once most of the previous students were out of the room, the fourth years began filing in. Hermione, Ron, and Harry were in front of her and she followed behind, only to lock eyes with Cedric who she was pleasantly surprised to see was part of the class before her. The Hufflepuff boy made a motion towards his friends, one of which Analeigh now recognized as Alden Brown, to go ahead without him. Alden nodded and sent a friendly smile towards Analeigh, which she returned, before he and the other sixth year boys walked down the hallway.

"What a surprise to see you here," said Cedric as he approached Analeigh, though he sounded like he knew this would happen.

Analeigh narrowed her eyes and said, "Doesn't sound like you're surprised, though."

He shrugged. "The universe just has its perfect timing."

"Or you memorized which of our classes take place in the same room one after another."

Cedric sighed and shook his head. "I thought you'd be more flattered."

Analeigh fought a smile and jokingly said, "Not at all."

"I sacrifice five minutes of my time to talk to you instead of going straight to class and this is what I get in return? I could lose my Prefect status for this."

Now used to his dramatic antics, Analeigh rolled her eyes playfully.

"Thank you for doing all that just to see me," she said just to appease him. It was apparently enough as he smiled triumphantly at her words, sending a wave of butterflies in her stomach. Godric, she felt like a little girl talking to her crush at the playground.

"Can I see you again la —"

"Mr. Diggory and Ms. Heart." The pair of them froze at the sound of Snape's voice and found him by the door of the Potions room. "I would very much appreciate it if you two went off to your respective classes. Especially you, Heart — I'm only stepping out now to retrieve a sample of the potion we will be brewing today, so you better be at your table by the time I come back."

"Sorry, Professor," Analeigh and Cedric chorused, abashed.

"I'll head inside right now," she added hastily. Snape merely sent her a pointed look before turning on his heel, his jet black cloak swishing behind him as he did.

"We should really get going," Analeigh reminded Cedric, already stepping back to enter the classroom. "I'll see you later?"

"Of course," said Cedric. Just before Analeigh could leave, he bent down and snuck a quick kiss to her cheek before hurrying away, leaving the younger girl stunned. Eventually, she rushed into the classroom, not wanting to encounter Snape again before he returned.

The moment she slid into her seat next to Hermione, the latter asked, "Where have you been? I thought you were right behind us."

"Er, I bumped into Cedric on the way," Analeigh explained.

"Oh," said Hermione, the corners of her lips turned up knowingly. "No need to explain."

Analeigh scoffed at the tone of voice she was using.

"Don't tease me or I'm going to call Viktor over here so he can watch you brew a potion."

A/N: It's been way too long since I updated HAHA but here it is! This chapter is almost entirely different from the ones in the original version since I scrapped a lot of things, added some other stuff, and revised the timeline in here haha.

Anyway, I'm almost done rewriting and merging the original chapters so just a little bit longer and I'll be writing new ones :> I hope some of my old readers are still here! I know it must've been annoying to wait more than double the time I took in writing the first version of this book, but to be honest, it's because I'm a bit disappointed with the plot and details of this story so I've been unmotivated for the longest time. There's a lot of things I wish I could change, but I also don't want to throw away what I started many years ago when my love for fanfics began (even though my ideas were basic and not very well-planned lmao). I hope that despite the flaws in this book, you guys still enjoy it :) See you in the next update!