24

The room stopped spinning around Hermione and she was left in the headmasters office alone. It was the brightest part of the day and Hermione shielded her eyes as she turned to face the windows facing the black lake. She spotted Cedric sitting by a tree near the edge of the water and was turning to leave when she heard the door creak open.

"Miss Granger, What can I do for you?" Asked Professor Dumbledore.

"Er- uh- actually, I-I've run out of reading material, Professor. I was coming to ask if I could- borrow a book?" She stuttered as she came up with an excuse on the spot.

"Well, Miss Granger, I believe that you are highly aware that the books in this office are completely forbidden to the students of Hogwarts, but since you are such a persistently exceptional student, I am willing to write you a note to find a book in the restricted section of the library."

"Oh! Thank you, Professor. Thank you very much!" She exclaimed. She rarely got to visit the restricted section of the library, therefore she hadn't read many of the books in there besides Moste Potente Potions by Phineas Bourne in her second year, and a couple of books for a Defence Against the Dark Arts essay for Professor Moody.

Hermione entered the library in a rush and quickly showed Madame Pince her note from the headmaster, knocking over a pile of returned books and earning a "shoo!" from the ill-tempered librarian.

She ran to the restricted section and went towards the books on hexes and curses. She finally found a large book on dark arts and brought it to a nearby desk. It was old and dusty and looked as if it hadn't been opened in years.

Hermione knew what she had to tell Cedric, she just needed evidence that what she was saying was true.

As she opened to cover of the book she heard a crack come from the spine of the book and realized that the stiffness from not being opened in such a long time caused the spine to crack from the pressure of movement and the front cover of the book was separated from the back half. Hermione read the table of contents until she found the section on the Unforgivable Curses and turned to that page.

The Unforgivable Curses are three of the most powerful and sinister spells known to the wizarding world. They are tools of the Dark Arts and were first classified as "Unforgivable" in 1717, with the strictest penalties attached to their use. The three curses consist of the Killing Curse, Cruciatus Curse, and Imperius Curse.

She turned to the section on the killing curse and started to look for information on repellants or counter curses or cures, but didn't find anything helpful until the very last paragraph of the section.

The Killing Curse has no counter-curse and cannot be blocked by magical means. However, the green energy bolt may be dodged or blocked with a solid object.

Hermione grabbed the large dusty book and shoved it into her bag as she ran out of the library, not bothering to tell Madame Pince that she had borrowed a restricted book, which was forbidden. She ran until she saw Cedric, who was still laying down, propped up on his arms, looking out into Black Lake, and sat down next to him.

"Cedric!" she exclaimed, tackling him into a tight hug.

"Oh! Mia! What's going on? Why are you covered in stains?" Cedric asked when she pulled away.

"And what happened to your arms?" He asked, inspecting the cuts in her arm from her fingernails when she was hugging herself after he had died. She looked down and realized she was still wearing the jersey that Cedric's mother has given her. Thankfully, it was now so filthy and tattered that it was unrecognizable. The sleeves were barely threads, and the shirt itself had changed to a colour mixture of yellow, brown, green, and red.

"Oh, it's nothing, nothing! II was just in the library, I was holding too many books, and reading and studying curses," Hermione said, trying to subtly bring up a way to save his life. She couldn't minimize the smile that was plastered on her face because of Cedric's presence .

"Please, tell me about it. I've been trying so hard to think of other things that aren't the impossibly hard task that's happening in five hours," he said as he kissed her fingertips and the ten small cuts on her forearms.

Hermione let out a giggle and a sigh of the relief and pulled her arms away to grab the damaged book out of her bag. She took off the front cover and flip to the page with information on blocking the killing curse.

"Well I was in the restricted section, and I found a way to survive the killing curse! It's quite fascinating, really."

"Hermione! That's great! Nobody has ever survived the curse, besides Harry, of course. Tell me everything!"

"As you know, the killing curse is deemed unblockable, since you can't use the shield charm to save yourself, but you can block the killing curse with an object! Like a large rock or a boulder or a chair, whatever! If the curse is intercepted with an object it'll just break the object and won't damage the real target."

"Hermione, you're a genius! That's absolutely incredible, people need to know about this! They could live for as long as they want without danger! They could save themselves from dark wizards like You-Know-Who!"

"Cedric, I love you, and I never want to lose you," Hermione said, remembering his past fate.

Cedric pulled her into a hug and they stayed silent for a moment. "I love you too, Hermione. Don't worry, you'll never lose me, I'll always be by your side, no matter what."

"What about the task? You're going to be in so much danger! I don't want to have to see you go through that. Just promise that you'll come back, please." She whispered into his chest.

"I promise," he said, brushing his fingers on the nape of her neck. She shivered from the touch and he pulled back. "Oh my goodness, Hermione, you're ticklish!" He exclaimed.

"No I'm not!" She replied. He went to touch her again and but she stiffened her muscles.

"Yes you are! Hermione Granger is ticklish!" He laughed as he tickled her abdomen and her neck. She laughed and continued to refuse.

"I'm-not-ticklish!" She panted as she spoke and gasped for air.

"I think your giggles beg to differ, Mia," he laughed, continuing to tickle her underarms and neck.

"Ah-stop! Stop!" She cried out in a fit of giggles.

They heard someone clear their throat above them and they sat up and looked towards Madame Pince, the ill-tempered librarian.

"Pardon me, Miss Granger, but you know fully well that books from the Restricted Section of the Library are not permitted for outside use! Now, I will be taking this book back to where it belongs and you will not be permitted into the Library until next school year. If you even try to get in I'll make sure you don't step foot in the Hogwarts Library for the rest of your schooling, and the next time you take a book from the library without permission, you will earn at least months worth of detentions! Do you understand me?" She barked.

Hermione squeaked out a small "yes!" And Madame Pince scurried back to the library.

"Who are you and what have you done with my Hermione?" Cedric laughed as Hermione's face lost it's redness.

Hermione gave him a sly smile and raised her eyebrows. "Rules are meant to be broken," she grinned jokingly.

"Not in your eyes!" Cedric was baffled at his girlfriends new attitude.

"I know! I feel so bad... I just had to tell you!"

"What?"

"Oh! Nothing- never mind."

Cedric grinned at Hermione and tackled her into a hug and started tickling her again, but this time she didn't laugh.

"What's wrong? Don't feel guilty about the book, Madame Pince will probably forget about your banishment from the library by next week. And even if she doesn't, I'll grab some books for you to read."

"Yeah, if you're still alive..." Hermione grumbled and hugged Cedric tight. "I really don't want to lose you" ...again.

"And you won't. You won't lose me, because I'm going to get through this task, win the prize money, and buy you all the books you want," Cedric cooed, hugging Hermione comfortingly tight.

"Alright. But you have to come back."

"I promise I will."

Hermione glanced at the watch on Cedric's wrist and noticed the time: 4:00 p.m.

"Oh my goodness, Cedric! I'll be right back!" She had remembered that earlier around 4:30 she had left the library and came to see Cedric by the lake. She went to stand up but was interrupted when Harry came up to the two.

"Hermione! You've beaten me outside! I thought you were staying in the library for longer to finish your potions essay!" He exclaimed, completely unaware of her new cuts and her dirty jumper and robes.

"Oh yeah, well, I just needed some fresh air," replied Hermione, who was flustered and wanted to leave so she could hide from her past self.

"She really just wanted to see me," said Cedric with a smirk and a kiss on Hermione's cheek. Hermione felt the heat rising to her face from both her anxiety of getting caught (by her past self) and her love for Cedric.

Harry gave a small smile and was going to talk again but was interrupted by the motion of Cedric pulling Hermione onto his lap and started kissing her cheeks and hands.

"Er- right. I'm going to go-" said Harry awkwardly, knowing that he wasn't wanted at that moment. He walked towards the courtyard and met halfway with a steaming red Ron, who marched angrily next to Harry's calm strut.

Hermione and Cedric laughed at the comparison of the two and Hermione got off of Cedric's lap, glancing again at Cedric's watch. 4:28 p.m.

"Cedric, I really have to go. I lied to Harry and I haven't really finished my Potions essay," Hermione whined as Cedric pulled her arm when she tried to stand up.

"Alright, alright, but I'll see you before the task right? You'll be in the stands, yeah?"

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"I love you Hermione Granger."

"I love you too, Cedric Diggory."

For the next three hours, Hermione spent her time talking with Moaning Myrtle in the unused girls lavatory.

"So, Granger, why were you in the Prefects bathroom with that handsome Cedric Diggory? He is quite the charmer," Myrtle sighed when she said his name.

"Actually, Myrtle, we were listening to the clue that was in the egg for the second task. It turned out that we could only listen to it underwater. I know that Harry went in a few days after us, did you happen to see him in there too?" She asked, cringing at the memory of Myrtle seeing her in only her undergarments.

"Well, Of course! He's Harry Potter, why wouldn't I want to see him in the bath? He was completely nak-"

"-Myrtle! I don't want to know what he looked like in the bath! I just wanted to know if you saw how long it took him to figure out the clue!" Snapped Hermione as she covered her ears.

Hermione could see the silver tears in Myrtle's eyes and immediately regretted yelling at her. "Oh, Myrtle I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout, I just really love Harry as a brother and when people gush about him it makes me uncomfortable. I truly am sorry, Myrtle."

The water in Myrtle's eyes vanished and Myrtle gave her a smile. "Oh, Granger it's alright. I always knew you were kind, I get just really scared sometimes when people yell at me. It's rather odd, considering I'm already dead, and I could haunt them for the rest of their life."

"Yes, Myrtle, you can stand up for yourself. You're not alive anymore, you could scare people into not bullying you," hermione suggested.

"You're right! I totally could," cheered Myrtle. Hermione felt glad that she had changed Myrtle's attitude.

"Say, Myrtle, when Cedric and I were in the Prefect's bath, you mentioned something about polyjuice potion? Could you tell me about it?" Hermione flashed back to that moment and had a lot of questions about it.

"Well, I was crying because one of the Slytherin girls called me fat, and I flushed myself down the toilet so I couldn't hear them anymore, and when I reached the sewage area underneath the school, I noticed some polyjuice potion leaking out of one of the drains. I thought it was you and Potter and that red haired boy again, you know, the brother of those awful twins, Gred and Forge? They always insult me and make me cry," explained Myrtle with a smooth but high pitched voice.

"I'm aware of them. Where was the potion coming from?" Asked Hermione curiously.

"Well, when I followed the drain it led to the back of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's office. I've never been in there except for that one time when I was a student here. This time, there was a large screaming box at the back of the room, and when I drifted through, there was a man with one eye and one leg. His skin was bubbling! It was terrible!" Cried Myrtle.

Hermione pieced all of this new information in her head and figured out the puzzle. She grabbed a piece of parchment from her bag and one of her ballpoint pens so she could write a letter. She checked the time: 6:30 p.m. The tournament was over by now and hopefully Cedric came back alive.

Professor Dumbledore,
I have discovered recent information that gives me reasons to believe that Professor Alastor Moody is not who he seems. Check his wrist, for his dark mark should have appeared by now. Hurry!

"Thank you Myrtle! Thank you so much! Hermione yelled as she ran to the owlry to find an owl.

She ran further and further up the stairs of the tower until she was greeted with the stained hardwood floor and the happy hoots of brown and black owls and the one snowy white owl that belongs to Harry.

"Hedwig! As quick as you can, bring this to Dumbledore and I'll give you bread at breakfast tomorrow!" Said Hermione and the snowy owl took the envelope from her hands into it's beak. The owl flew quickly out the window towards the quidditch pitch, where she could hears cheers and chants coming from the crowd. She released a large breath that she didn't know she was holding when she saw the students leaving the quidditch pitch. A figure was getting up off the ground and spun the other Hermione in a circle, kissing her as he did so.

She checked her watch again. 7:00 p.m. She had an hour left before she had to go back to Professor Dumbledore's office so she ran quietly to Professor Moody's office, where she was sure that Professor Dumbledore was right then. She looked inside to see Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape holding a young man back as he thrashed around. Professor Moody's false eye and leg were laying on the ground and Professor Dumbledore was shouting down a large trunk at the back of the room.

Hermione caught Harry's eye and motioned for him to come to her. He looked around to see if any of the Professors were paying attention, but they were all too preoccupied. He creeped over to her and gave her a hug.

"Hermione! Thank goodness! Professor Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr, the Death Eater I told you about a few months ago. He was pretending to be Moody to help bring back Voldemort! He's back, Hermione. He's back and I'm scared. I don't want anyone to die. He almost killed Cedric, but he blocked it and passed out from the impact of the boulder exploding in his arms. He almost died. I thought he did, he was laying unconscious when we got back, and everyone thinks he's dead, but Dumbledore just told me, and I'm glad he's alright. I don't know what I would've done, what I would've told his parents- what I would've told you!- but-"

Hermione cut him off by trapping him in a very strong and tight hug. "It's okay, Harry," she said, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"It's all okay."