It's been a week since the (H/C) haired Hufflepuff attended Hogwarts. Lessons were coming in steadily and she managed to turn in any assignments that were needed to turn in during that week, following the criteria she needed in order to get a good grade.

The lessons in Hogwarts didn't seem as advanced as it was in Mato, but (Y/N) didn't complain. In fact, she liked how she already knew everything about the subjects so she could still have time to practice with Cedric and the other Hufflepuff Quidditch players and the upcoming second year players that wanted to do the tryouts.

(Y/N)'s knowledge of the subjects advanced her further from the other students, all except Hermione. She is the smartest witch of Hogwarts after all. Had she been in Mato, she'd be wearing that gold robe around the palace in a heartbeat.

Draco Malfoy, who was always behind Hermione when it came to studies and academic intelligence, didn't seem to like the fact that another muggleborn was on the verge of overtaking him in studies. His father wouldn't have been happy if he heard that not one, but two muggleborns were the reason why he's the third ranked student in all of Hogwarts.

Frankly, (Y/N) didn't care too much about rankings, just like how she didn't care too much about how everyone didn't believe that a student from Yosamu was one of the top students in Mato. She just liked to study and read through her textbooks in advance so she wouldn't have to worry about them, especially since she was a Quidditch player.

As for Harry, (Y/N) doesn't know why but he seems to be busy with certain things. It's not that he constantly avoids her, he just looks like he doesn't have the time to talk to her. (Y/N) respected that, of course, and left him to whatever he needed to do.

They weren't kids anymore to always be constantly hung up against each other - they were soon to be fully-fledged witches and wizards.

Recently though, (Y/N) felt like something or someone is always staring at the back of her head in the distance. She didn't know why, but she can't shake the feeling that she's always being watched. It doesn't help that she sometimes hear the faint sounds of a camera clicking in the distance too.

She doesn't want to get the idea that she's being stalked on her first week at the school. But if she were thinking logically, it's really creepy that someone is taking pictures of her without her consent.

If she saw who this student was, she'd immediately tell them off and ask them to delete the pictures.

Finally, it was the day where she could get her broom and play a little bit of Quidditch again. She longed to fly on her Mato broom once more and just hold the quaffle between her arms.

Skipping through the hallways and towards the courtyard where she said she'd wait for Cedric after classes so they could go together, a huge smile was on her face while imagining how nice it'd be to wear a Quidditch gear once again and riding a broom. She has not seen the dark haired boy since last night when they separated ways.

Cedric was on prefect patrol, so (Y/N) needed to go to bed.

She waited for about ten minutes, a Charms book on her lap as she waited for Cedric to come and lead her to the Quidditch field. She didn't mind waiting, she understood that Cedric finishes his classes a bit too late considering that he's in his sixth year, plus she has her book with her.

However, she felt uncomfortable once more when she felt another pair of eyes watching her from the distance. It's like an itch that just won't go away at this point and it's somewhat annoying (Y/N). She turned around and scanned the courtyard to see if there are any students who are staring at her, but there were none.

They were too busy chatting with their friends as they sat on the grass and on some benches. (Y/N) frowned, hoping that everything is only in her imagination and she's just being anxious and paranoid.

As (Y/N) was about to bring her eyes back down to her book, she felt a shadow hovering over. Looking up, she was surprised to see Harry's emerald green eyes staring back down at her. He looked like he was in a rush - his messy black hair was messier than ever and his Gryffindor robes seemed a bit disheveled too.

(Y/N) paid no attention to those however, and only smiled at the presence of the Gryffindor boy. "Hey, Harry." She greeted.

"Hey uh..." Harry began to look around the courtyard before back down at the (H/C) haired girl. "Do you... want to go to the library with me? To study and all that." He asked, his grip on the handle of his bag tightening.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Harry." apologized (Y/N). "I'm supposed to be waiting for Cedric right now. We're going to the Quidditch field together, you see."

Harry gulped and almost cracked a small smile when he was about to reply to the Hufflepuff. He seemed way too excited to tell her about what happened to Cedric last night.

"H-Haven't you heard?" stuttered Harry as he put up a concerned look on his face.

"Heard about what?" (Y/N) frowned. She felt like something bad is about to happen.

"Cedric fell down from one of the tall stairs in  the castle and... kind of smashed his face in."  replied Harry, making (Y/N)'s eyes widen in disbelief and concern for the dark haired Hufflepuff boy.

She immediately stood up from her seat and held her Charms book tightly in her arms. "W-What!? That's terrible!" She exclaimed as she immediately stuffed her book inside her bag, swinging it over her shoulders.

"I... I have to see if he's doing alright!" (Y/N) was about to leave but turned to Harry hastily, still keeping her concerned look on her face. "I'm sorry, Harry. I um... I have to go. Maybe we'll go to the library together next time." She said, almost stumbling upon her own words before skipping off towards the hospital wing herself. She didn't even give Harry a chance to speak.

Harry was about to call out for the Hufflepuff girl again but his facial expression became neutral as he watched her figure run off towards the hospital wing. He silently scoffed to himself and stared down at the ring on his finger.

He suddenly remembered what happened last night as he snuck out of the Gryffindor common room with his invisible cloak on and the Marauder's Map clutched on his hand. Everyone in his dorm room were already asleep by the time he snuck out, so he didn't have anyone to question him about where he went.

It was probably somewhere around 11 pm in the evening. Harry wanted to find a certain Hufflepuff prefect that was going to invite (Y/N) over this afternoon. He had to prevent it from happening, as much as it breaks his heart to see (Y/N) sad.

He was in luck to see Cedric patrolling the castle all by himself with his wand and his prefect badge pinned on his Hufflepuff robe. Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes at the boy. He followed the Hufflepuff prefect around and wondered what he could do to prevent him from going out with (Y/N) after classes.

Suddenly, his eyes drifted towards the tall set of stairs that Cedric was about to climb down to. Cedric was already creeped out and felt like someone was following him. He had his hand on his wand at all times and tried to keep his heartbeat steady, thinking that it might just be Peeves that's messing with him.

Harry thought about his actions for a while. Should he really do this? Isn't this technically a physical assault towards other students, which means he could get in serious trouble if people knew it was him?

He shook his head at the thoughts. No one would know it was him. Besides, isn't it Cedric's fault for trying to keep (Y/N) away from him? Had Cedric not entered the picture, all of her attention would've only been towards Harry only at all times.

It even took him a while to find Cedric and (Y/N)'s broom in one of the storage rooms in Hogwarts where Filch keeps all of the brooms of each students based from their houses. It's mostly the reason why he was busy throughout the whole week.

(Y/N)'s broom wasn't that hard to distinguish from other brooms in the room - hers was colored red and was the only one that had Mato's crest and her initials in it.

He made sure to bring the Hufflepuff Quidditch team's brooms to the Whomping Willow, especially Cedric's, so they wouldn't be able to play anymore. Harry had to take the others too for good measure - who knows if the other players would also try and take (Y/N)'s attention away from him?

As for (Y/N)'s, he made sure to hide it somewhere safe in the Shrieking Shack. No one would be able to get inside the house, except for Hermione and Ron, but Harry knew that they wouldn't have any business in the Shrieking Shack other than last year, where Sirius Black's identity was revealed.

Harry wasn't going to break (Y/N)'s broom. He didn't want her to be devastated, so hiding it was better. He'd probably return it someday.

Once he snapped out of his thoughts, he looked back at Cedric. He thought that what he was doing was justified enough. After all, he's doing it for her.

With a smile, Harry harshly pushed the Hufflepuff boy down the stairs and watched as Cedric exclaimed, his body and face crashing through the steps of the stairs with a loud thud.

Harry heard a sickening crack somewhere in his face, for sure. He was kind of disappointed that it wasn't his neck since he heard Cedric groan in pain once he stopped crashing through the steps.

It was at this moment that Harry felt fear and disbelief creeping up on his mind. Once he saw blood trickling out of Cedric's head from a distance, he took a step back and felt his heart beating rapidly in fear.

How could he have done such a thing?

Trembling, Harry jogged away from the scene but careful enough to not make any distinguishing sounds of footsteps to not alarm any other prefects or professors, especially Filch and Ms. Norris, that were patrolling the area.

Harry himself didn't think that he'd actually do it. He thought that it wasn't going to be such a big deal, but hearing a crack from Cedric's face as he fell down the stairs made him extremely guilty.

It made him guilty and yet...

Why can't he stop smiling and resisting the urge to laugh?

He took pleasure in seeing Cedric in pain, even though the boy has done nothing but being kind to him ever since they met before the World Quidditch Cup. He liked it.

He knew he shouldn't, but he does.

Harry felt like he was standing up for himself for the very first time. He liked how it felt like he was getting a message through Cedric's head to stay away from (Y/N).

As Harry's memory of what happened last night ended, he unknowingly smiled to himself and strutted towards the hospital wing. He didn't mind that (Y/N) was going to Cedric, but it still kind of irked him.

He internally regained his composure and walked back to the Gryffindor common room, remembering that a certain third year Gryffindor has something for him today after classes.

»»-----　♡　-----««

Reaching the hospital wing, (Y/N) almost bursted inside the room and immediately scanned the place to see where Cedric was. Once her eyes caught a patch of familiar dark brown hair, she hastily walked over towards the bed and almost cried when she saw Cedric.

"Oh my god, Cedric!" The (H/C) haired girl exclaimed, causing the boy to turn around and look at her. He had a bandage wrapped on his head, a few stains of blood visible on where his wound was supposed to be in.

He had a few scrapes on his cheeks and his nose looked red and swollen, which made (Y/N) assume that he broke his nose but it seems like it's been fixed.

He gently put up an apologetic smile as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Be honest. I don't look good right now." joked Cedric, which made the girl playfully roll her eyes as she sat on an available wooden chair next to his bed.

"You fell down the stairs and the first thing you say to me is say a joke?" She scoffed, but couldn't resist the small smile that curled up on her lips. "Are you alright? I heard from Harry that you... 'smashed' your face in."

"Potter said that?" asked Cedric skeptically.

"Well, yeah. He's the reason why I know you're in the hospital wing right now." replied (Y/N). "Why?"

"No, it's just... I expected one of the team to tell you that." said Cedric. "I told them to tell you that I wouldn't be able to come today since... this happened."

"You weren't waiting for too long, were you?" Cedric frowned and immediately felt guilty when he thought about how long (Y/N) was waiting for him in the courtyard. "I'm so sorry. I didn't expect things to turn out this way."

"Goodness, you don't need to worry about that." said (Y/N) in disbelief. "I'm just happy that you're doing fine. It doesn't matter to me if we didn't get to do the tryouts today - all that matters is that you're alive after what happened." She sent the boy a gentle smile.

Cedric blinked and paused, staring at the girl with a neutral expression. He felt his heart... skip a beat?

(Y/N) was confused of Cedric's sudden silence and tilted her head to the side. "Ced?" She called out to him using his nickname, which caused him to snap out of his thoughts as a light blush invaded his cheeks.

"Uh yeah." He cleared his throat and tried to regain his composure, drifting his gaze away from the girl.

"You're not having any other visitors around this time, are you?" asked (Y/N) as she leaned on her chair to make herself more comfortable.

"None that I know of, no." replied Cedric, shaking his head. (Y/N) smiled at his response and pulled out her Charms book out of her bag.

"Mind if I keep you company?" asked (Y/N). She just felt like it wasn't right to keep Cedric alone in the hospital wing with no one to talk to - all of the beds were empty, except the bed that Cedric's occupying right now.

The least she could do was keep him company so he wouldn't feel bored. (Y/N) knew the feeling of never having someone to talk to when she suffered a major injury during a Quidditch match in Mato, and it sucked.

Cedric smiled at the girl's question and nodded, her eyes twinkling at his response as she inched closer towards his bed and propped the book open to see if she could cast some of the spells that were in the book and discuss some of the things that fourth year students are supposed to know in their Charms class.

»»-----　♡　-----««

A certain Ravenclaw watched as the two Hufflepuffs laughed and conversed with each other. The (H/C) haired Hufflepuff, who the Ravenclaw knew was the Japanese transferee that came to the school a week ago, was showing Cedric some spells that she got from the Charms book with a smile.

Cedric, who seemed to be lovingly staring at (Y/N)'s enthusiastic face with a laugh, watched these spells and looked to be amazed with them, even commenting some of the things that he remembers about his fourth year during Charms classes to help (Y/N).

The black haired Ravenclaw girl frowned and decided to not enter the hospital wing, her heart aching at the sight of her crush getting along with somebody else other than her.

She never really got the chance to get along with Cedric since she saw him because she was too shy. She silently cursed herself for her nervousness and thought about how different things could've been if she approached Cedric earlier or was even one of his friends. Maybe then, she would've had a chance.

Even the transferee that just came into this school a week ago had better chances than her.

Sighing, Cho Chang walked through the halls and back to the Ravenclaw tower with her conflicted feelings.

»»-----　♡　-----««

wc: 2,853