03

Hermione's stomach fluttered with butterflies as she, along with Ron and Harry, ran through the barrier leading to platform nine and three quarters. Finally, they were going back to Hogwarts. Finally, she was able to see Cedric again, and finally, they were going to spend their time in classrooms with most of Hermione's favourite teachers. Oh, how she longed to see Professor McGonagall's look of approval when Hermione handed in her first assignment of the semester.

As they boarded the train, Hermione caught a glimpse of Cedric up ahead. She wished that she could go see him, but she and Ron had to go to the prefects' compartment for their first meeting of the school year.

"Who do you think are head boy and girl this year?" Hermione Asked as she and Ron made their way to the front compartment.

"I bet Katie Bell is Head Girl, but I don't know about Head Boy," he replied.

"It's probably a Ravenclaw," Hermione suggested.

"Maybe that one who was a prefect last year."

"Who, Octavian Brown? I don't think so, he's not very responsible. I'm surprised he even made prefect in the first place. I always see him abusing his powers. Did you know he makes first years do everything for him? I swear I saw one feeding him once."

"I'm all for using our status to play jokes on first years, but that's a bit much, isn't it? Those little midgets are still confused at Hogwarts, I remember trying to find my way around the castle for the first few months, it was brutal."

"Ron, come on, stop calling them midgets. Don't you remember how short you were in first year? They're a whole head taller than you were at their age," Hermione observed as they passed a group of young students with confused and excited looks on their faces.

"Okay, okay, whatever, 'Mione."

Hermione and Ron pushed through the last compartment until they got to the one belonging to the prefects. At the front of the carriage, as they had guessed, was Katie Bell, and beside her, Cedric, disguised as Cormac McLaggen.

"That guy?" Ron muttered. "Seriously? He's so dull he can't tell the difference between a rock and a potato."

Hermione held her breath; Ron didn't know who the head boy actually was, she reminded herself. "Dumbledore must have picked him for a reason, there's got to be more to him than it looks."

"I think Dumbledore's finally lost his rocker."

Hermione caught Cedric's eye and gave him a small smile. "Let's go sit down," she told Ron. "We should get ready for the meeting."

Ron grumbled the whole way to the front of the compartment, they had to sit closer to the front since they were experienced prefects.

The meeting began when the last prefect walked in, Draco Malfoy. Ron's scowl grew deeper and Hermione rested a hand on his shoulder to keep him from provoking Malfoy.

"Relax Ron, just ignore him," she whispered as Cedric and Katie stood up in front of the group of prefects.

"I know that most of you know what you're doing," Katie started, "but you've got to understand that after everything that our school has been through recently, we've got to be extra careful when we're going about and on patrol. That means escorting students back to their dormitories when you catch them sneaking out at night, we've got to make sure they actually go back inside. There's no telling what will happen this year, we all know that every year is a wild card, so be prepared, and expect the unexpected."

Hermione and the rest of the prefects let out a chuckle. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cedric, trying to talk to a Hufflepuff boy, but he was ignoring Cedric.

"Now, everyone, your patrol hours are listed on the bulletin board, so make sure you check it when you leave. We've paired you all with prefects from different grades, so the older prefects can help out our new prefects, and you'll form acquaintances with different people, instead of just your partner. That's all for our first meeting. You're all dismissed, unless you have questions, in which case, please come to me."

As soon as Hermione was sure that every other student was gone from the compartment, she walked over to Cedric and entrapped him in the tightest hug she had ever given. "I missed you so much," she sighed.

"I missed you too, Mia. How are we supposed to have a relationship if I'm a completely different person?"

"Well, we could meet in private. It won't be so hard, Gryffindors have parties after every quidditch match, whether we play or not, so nobody will really paying any attention to us."

Cedric smiled. "I forgot that I've never been to a Gryffindor party," he said. "But you've seen a Hufflepuff party, how would you say yours are compared to ours?"

"Well, Gryffindor is a lot more crazy, and we don't usually get food from the kitchen, we get it from Hogsmeade. However, those crisps that the house elves made were to die for. If I could live off of those crisps, I would." Hermione's mouth started watering at the thought, and it was perfect timing, because the Trolley Lady just came out of the captains compartment with her trolley of sweets, and her first stop was the prefects compartment.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?"

"Oh, yes! I am absolutely starved. Thank you so much!" Hermione exclaimed. "Can I please have a chocolate frog and two packages of liquorice wands? Thank you."

Hermione paid, and the trolley lady moved on to the next compartment.

"I know my parents are dentists, but I can't help my adoration of chocolate and liquorice, they're too delicious." Hermione let out a quiet moan as she bit into a chocolate frog and liquorice wand at the same time. "And not to mention how delicious a combination they are," she added after swallowing her mouthful of sweets.

Cedric laughed. "You are a rare woman, Hermione Granger. I don't know what I would've done without you these past two years. Which reminds me-" Cedric pulled out a small package from his robes' pocket and handed it to Hermione. "Happy -almost- two year anniversary, Mia."

Hermione put her sweets down and unwrapped the gift to find a small box inside. When she opened it, she found a heart-shaped locket with an engraving on the front. C & H.

Hermione's eyes started to water as she opened the locket. Inside were two miniature photographs of Cedric and Hermione, one from two years prior, taken by Cedric's mother before the final task. They grinned brilliantly, Hermione wearing her yellow I'M WITH DIGGORY jumper, and Cedric clad in his quidditch robes. The other picture was of them in Grimmauld place, the two of them lay asleep on the couch, Hermione's head and hand on Cedric's chest.

"I love it," Hermione grinned before launching at Cedric, trapping him in a bone-crushing hug, then repeatedly pecking him all over his new, beaming face. Cedric opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by a knock at the compartment door. On the other side were three male Gryffindor students who were in seventh year. They waved at Cedric, grinning, and motioned for him to leave the compartment and join them in their's. Hermione nodded at Cedric, it was probably best if they split up for the ride anyway, she didn't want anyone to become suspicious of them.

Hermione slipped the locket into her pants' pocket before exiting the compartment, several minutes after Cedric left with Cormac's friends. As she made her way through the carriages of the train, she found Ron, who had just finished his prefect's rounds with Hannah Abbott. Hermione and Ron made their way to the last carriage, where they knew Harry always sat. As they passed the compartment filled with Slytherin students from their year, they hissed and booed at Hermione and Ron, shouting things like "Blood traitor!" and "Mudblood!" their way. They weren't at all surprised to see that Malfoy was among them, despite him having his rounds during that time-slot. Hermione rolled her eyes at their hecklers as Ron shot them a hand gesture that would make his mother cry. They pressed on through the carriage, until they finally found Harry, who sat with Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom.

"Hello Neville, hello Luna," Hermione greeted as she sat down next to the window.

"Oh, hello Hermione," Luna replied. "Have you been infected by fiddlespats? They cause lack of sleep, which is evident from the fairly large bags under your eyes."

"Uh-"

"Hi Hermione! How was your summer?" Neville asked joyfully.

"Oh, er- it was alright, I suppose," Hermione replied. "How was yours?"

"Mine was excellent! I thought Gran was going to be furious about my wand -it was my dad's when he was young- but she was proud! She kept telling me how I was finally turning out to be like my dad. She even bought me a new wand! Cherry wood and Unicorn hair!"

"That's great, Neville! I'm glad that your grandmother wasn't upset."

"Harry! You'll never guess who we saw on the way here: Malfoy, all cozied up with Parkinson in their compartment. He isn't even doing any of his prefect duties!" Ron huffed.

Harry's interest was piqued, and he asked more questions about what Malfoy was doing, wondering why he was acting so strange.

"If only he had transferred to Durmstrang like he said he would," Hermione sighed. "I've had enough of that git, the school would have been so much more peaceful without him."

The others in the compartment looked at Hermione, amused. She rarely spoke ill of anyone, and to hear her insult someone, was a rare yet hilarious sight. With all the others staring at Hermione, Harry took this as his queue to leave without being noticed. However, with the attention on her, this left nothing for Hermione to be distracted by. She watched quizzically as Harry left, giving him a look of suspicion.

Cedric jumped into the carriage behind the other boys, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what was pulling it.

"Why is that here?"" He asked the Dalton, pointing to the Thestrals. "I thought they were just in London."

"Cormac, lad, that's air. It's everywhere. You breathe it in to stay alive," Dalton explained with a chuckle. "Now are you riding with us, or are you walking?"

"Right- yeah, I'm coming," Cedric replied, still very confused. Could they not see them? Now that he looked properly out ahead of them, he could see that there were several of the creatures, at least two of them pulled each carriage towards the brilliant castle in the distance.

The five of them finally made it to the castle, and they entered the crowd of people rushing to get inside. It was a humid September evening, and Cedric, along with his new gang of acquaintances, were all starved, or so they had mentioned at least a half dozen times since they got into the carriage.

As Cedric and Cormac's friends entered the Great Hall for the beginning of term feast, he saw Hermione talking frantically with Ron. She looked nervous. Cedric sat down with his crew and watched her from his end of the table. He wasn't aware that he was no longer listening to their idiotic voices until he was snapped out of his trance.

"Cormac! Cor!" Dalton waved his hand in front of Cedric's face, which was still watching a nervous Hermione. "Cor, what are you so distracted by?" He asked.

The other boys looked in the direction that Cedric had been looking only seconds prior.

"Mate, I thought you were over Granger!" One of the boys- Henry, he recalled- exclaimed.

"Er- I guess not," Cedric shrugged.

"I mean I guess you have a shot now that her boyfriend's dead," Dalton said, a small amused smile plastered on his bulky face. Cedric clenched his jaw, trying not to let his emotions get the best of him.

"She's got a reputation you know, I bet it wouldn't be that hard to get with her, considering all that drama two years ago," Henry added.

"Well didn't you see them in the compartment?" Dalton asked. "She was all over him! She'd better be a good shag, if she's that desperate."

Cedrics blood was boiling at his 'friends'' words.

"I saw her snog Malfoy in the middle of the library last year- Malfoy! Of all people..."

"Oi, mate! That was nonconsensual! She didn't ask for that, and she didn't want it!" Cedric exclaimed, raising his voice slightly. "And she was only dating m- Cedric Diggory two years ago!" Cedric had caught the attention of the students surrounding them, and lowered his head, taking a swig of his polyjuice potion, much to his utter disgust.

"Alright, Alright, we get it. Granger is one of a kind, you've never felt this way about any other girl," Dalton laughed. "Don't worry, mate, we support you. Just make sure she isn't still obsessed over her dead boyfriend before you go after her. Cho Chang didn't even date Diggory and she still gets hysterical whenever his name is mentioned." Cedric rolled his eyes. Cho Chang, ever the drama queen.

Cedric snuck another glance at Hermione, to see that her tension had finally been released. Next to her sat Ron, the two of them grinning towards the doors of the hall, where an oddly bloody Harry was emerging.

Cedric smiled to himself: as long as Hermione was happy, so was he.