It was a lovely autumn day.
“One of the last good ones we’ll have,” Hermione had said to Ron and Harry at breakfast hours before. Presently she was in the girls toilet on the second floor. When she was in the area Hermione often popped in to say hello to Myrtle and of course, to do her business. Today however, Myrtle was no where to be found and the bathroom smelt musty. More musty then it usually was. Just as Hermione was flushing the toilet she heard her name being called.
“Hermione! Hermione,” the voice echoed.
Very curious indeed.
She unlocked the stall door slowly and peeked out. She saw a disheveled looking Cedric Diggory pacing the girls bathroom. His hair was in a mess, he continued to run his hands through it only making it look more rugged. He was out of breath as though he’d ran there from Hogsmeade and his face was whiter then Dumbledore’s beard. His tie wasn’t straight and had you seen him from a distance you couldn’t have recognized him. In fact, he looked like the alter ego of Cedric.
“Merlin Cedric! You scared the--”
She was about to say “pants off me!” but thankfully corrected herself before it was too late.
“You just really scared me!”
“Sorry Hermie,” he apologized.
“Did he just call me Hermie?” she said to herself while she walked to the sink to wash her hands. She used plenty of soap as to look proper and then sat down on the basin of the broken sink waiting for Cedric (who was still pacing) to explain himself. He finally slowed and then looked at her.
“Are you going to explain why you’ve just ambushed me in the toilet?” she impatiently asked.
“Oh yeah,” he replied as though he had forgotten the entrance he made only moments ago. He was then silent for longer then Hermione could stand.
“Hmm hmmm,” she cleared her throat, attempting to signal him to begin.
“I need your help,” he explained regrettably.
He told her that he was worried about the notes he was receiving, he explained that he feared for his family and his father. She saw the sadness and worry pass over his face and he described his fathers latest injury which was a mirror image of his own fall down the stairs.
“I don’t have the time to get to the bottom of this and to finish the tournament,” he concluded.
Hermione looked at him, she knew this was a bad idea. In hindsight she saw the entire ordeal blowing up. Harry would be angry, Ron would be more angry. Cedric would be happy but he wasn’t one of her best friends. Looking into his grey eyes she saw her own reflection in front of the sadness plaguing him.
“I’ll help you. But if you expect me to do anything that’s going to get me expelled, your mental,” she said with a smirk. He thanked her graciously and then slowly and with hesitation he dug into his robe pocket.
“So soon?!” Hermione joked. Cedric smirked but his voice soon turned grave when he pulled out another note. Hermione assumed this was the “friend” the other note was describing as it looked identical to its predecessor. He cleared his throat and with difficultly read it aloud to her.
The note generally said that the writer was going to put Cedric through a series of tasks much like the tournament (written in a series of hideous and almost comical rhymes). The first clue was on the bottom of the note and it directed Cedric to a secluded part of the Forbidden Forest, he was to retrieve a very important object from a small cave. It then described a series of hideous and gut-wrenching situations involving Cedric’s father which Hermione wouldn’t let him read to her.
“Lets go down for some lunch,” she abruptly said as they both sat in silence in the bathroom, “We can both think this over and I’m famished! Oh, but I need to do one thing before we go…”
They left the bathroom together. There was a first year girl who was hiding from a young man who was trying to kiss her and she saw them leaving the washroom together but neither of them noticed. Hermione took a left and Cedric followed, then a right, straight down a narrow passage and then finally stopped before a portrait. She turned around to see if it was clear and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw that Cedric had followed her.
“Hermione,” he gave her a confused look, “what are you doing?”
She could already hear footsteps coming up the nearest stairwell.
“Oh, come on!” Hermione said regrettably and grabbed his hand. She ticked the pear, it squirmed and giggled and then turned into a large green door handle.
“Is this the kitchen? I thought you didn’t like breaking rules,” he questioned with a mischievous grin.
“Wipe that smirk right off your face Mr. Diggory!” she scolded whilst the elves brought them some tea and biscuits. Cedric settled down in a chair and waited, he had a sneaking suspicion that something interesting was about to happen.
“ELVES OF HOGWARTS UNITE!” her voice sounded so unexpectedly Cedric actually choked on a biscuit, “YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR RAGGED CLOTHING!”
Cedric was still choking on his biscuit but between his wheezes he was laughing hysterically.
“Cedric?” Hermione turned around for she heard a deathly barking noise from by the fire, “CEDRIC!”
In a panic Hermione did the only spell she could think of. Holding her wand high she screamed, “ACCIO BISCUT” and pointed her wand at Cedric’s throat. She gave a loud wince when his neck bubbled up like a balloon.
Amazingly, the piece of biscuit flew up his esophagus, right out his mouth and the spitty mucus covered biscuit flew directly into Hermione’s’ hand. By this time the house elves had gathered to watch, not because they wanted to unite but because they had never seen dinner theatre before.
Hermione screamed, flung the piece of biscuit across the room and was in absolute hysterics. She wasn’t usually squeamish but she didn’t usually have chewed partially digested food flying at her. Cedric found this uproarious, tears were running down his face and he was very glad he had used the washroom before they left for dinner because he was certain he wouldn’t have been able to hold it through that catastrophe.
He staggered over to Hermione who was feverishly scrubbing her hand, he gave her a little extra soap and tried to control his laughing. The noise of chuckling, wheezing, giggling and flat out hooting made Hermione’s blood boil and before she had even realized what she had done, she had regurgitated a gruesome spit wad in her own hand and rubbed it on Cedric’s neck. Once the action was complete she resumed washing her hands. The look on Cedric’s face was altogether comical, he wasn’t as squeamish as Hermione but was amazed at her spite more then anything.
Hermione dried her hands and with a good deal of grace and dignity began removing tiny little hats (Cedric even thought he saw a tiny pair of knickers) and tiny little socks out of her school bag. She presented each elf with a tiny hat or sock before their feet and hoped one would have the nerve to pick it up. But Hermione’s luck had failed her, and before she could lay the last hat down, her and Cedric both felt tiny little hands on the smalls of their back pushing them out of the kitchen.
“Yuck! Its getting crusty,” Cedric complained.
“What’s crusty?” Hermione asked.
“Hmm… I don’t know? Maybe the mucus you smeared on me!” he remarked.
Hermione laughed as he picked dried saliva off his neck. He smiled back at her and by the time they entered the Great Hall they were both in hysterics. A group of young Ravenclaw girls gossiped about the pair and remarked about the large red mark on Cedric’s neck.
“Oi Cedric!” hollered Ben from the Hufflepuff table indicating a seat beside him. Cedric nodded goodbye to Hermione and sat down next to him. Beside him was Al Cadwallader, and across from them were seated Brandon Harrison and Arnold Summers.
“Who’s she?” Al glanced towards Hermione.
“She’s a friend. Just a friend,” he clarified when he noticed the look on Al’s face. Al was a strong buff bloke in Cedric’s year. He wasn’t bright, he was a cheater, a coward and deceptive but he didn’t have the need for power or status like a Slytherin. His friends often remarked that he really didn’t belong in any of the houses and that’s why they stuck him in Hufflepuff.
“Ced’ mate, would you like to come for a fly with us tonight?” Ben asked. Ben was much like Cedric, he was intelligent, good hearted (and close friends knew him as a bit of a party animal) but unlike Cedric he was an excellent listener and was very sympathetic.
Cedric, who had just remembered a previous engagement Cedric declined the offer, and then leaned over to the Gryffindor bench.
“How about we meet in the library tonight to talk about the note,” Cedric whispered in Hermione’s ear.
She agreed that they would meet in the library at six o'clock. Looking up Hermione saw Ginny giving her a very devious kind of look that read “Tell me all the details” and Ron, well Ron wasn’t looking at Hermione at all and instead was eyeing Cedric with contempt.
“Ron,” Hermione said, “Ron… RON!” she raised her voice slightly and got his attention.
He ripped his eyes off Cedric and gave her an even worse look. Hermione shook it off and began telling him about her S.P.E.W plans, occasionally glancing in Cedric’s direction and once or twice catching his eye.