Title – Secrets

Author – Feather

Rating – G-PG

Genre – Romance/Fluff

Category – Harry Potter

Pairing – Cho/Cedric

Author's notes – This one is for Hayley-Hayley-chan, who is working her very hardest and more, in hopes she feels better soon. She deserves this recognition and so much more. Enough said.

*

Nothing could go wrong that day. The air was too light and the sky was too blue, the trees were too fresh and alive, the whole world was to alert for anything to go wrong. Cho let her thoughts run in a swift stream through her mind and let all her senses perceive the gentle coolness of the late spring night. She was too tranquil, and the air of peace was too convincing; she was in no mood to think of the dangers that the boy next to her would face next week, as she looked down at Hogwarts' transformed Quidditch pitch.

She looked over at Cedric briefly as she shifted her seat, trying to capture that image of him in her mind. He looked content but slightly nervous, calm yet tense, the thoughts in his mind contradicting the emotions in his face as they staged a playful war throughout his features. He caught her eye, smiling, and she could feel herself flush slightly. She reached instinctively up to touch her hair, a reaction she always had when she was nervous, but started to laugh silently as she realized the stupidity of it. He knew as well as she did that was certainly attracted to him, or at least had been at some point during the year, but how she could still be nervous around him was always a mystery that she could never solve; he was a great friend and mentor. She never knew how to react when she was with him, but the situations that she found herself nervous in were bemusing, slightly puzzling, and laughable. How she could still feel nervous around a person she knew and admired deeply was another mystery, but that's what kept her so secretly attracted to him; that factor of playing the game was exhilarating. These stands are rather uncomfortably close sometimes, she thought in a bemused way, as she immediately looked out over the pitch from her seat in the stands.

She bit her lip slightly, however, at the last several thoughts. He never gave her any signs of whether or not he was as interested in her as she him. The Yule Ball seemed forgotten now, as the more pressing order of the Triwizard tournament drew closer. She had seen several other male companions on trips to Hogsmeade, and she knew that she must be puzzling him with fuzzy signals; that made the situation all the more amusing to her, which she knew was delightfully twisted.

"What's the matter, Cho?" he asked kindly, his tone the gentle one he always used when he assumed she was upset.

"Well…" she paused, contemplating what to say. Now was not a proper time for heartfelt confessions, but the playful air in her, capricious as the wind, was inclined to toy with his perceptions of her a little more. "It's a secret." She smiled slightly as she mustered those words, knowing that this response could lead to some interesting results.

"I see," he said, laughing.

"No you don't," she answered promptly, right on cue. "Because if you saw what I was thinking about and this secret, then you wouldn't have asked me, now, would have you?"

"Maybe I know exactly what your talking about, Cho. Did you ever think of that?" Again, she found that he was smiling as he said those words.

You do already know my secret, Cedric, she thought, smiling with amusement, but you're so dense you haven't figured it out yet. "Of course you don't know it, you great prat! You wouldn't know it if I bunged you over the head with it!"

Pretending to be hurt, he put a hand over the mock wound in his heart. "That just hurt, Cho, it really did." He sniffed slightly, and turned his face to the Quidditch pitch, pretending not to want to talk to her anymore.

"Cedric," she said, drawing the last syllable of his name out, savoring the delicate roll of it on her tongue. "You're so silly. We can't ever have a serious conversation, because you don't even want to know what my secret is, do you?"

"Of course I do, Cho," he said quietly, and she knew that this conversation had taken a serious turn. Oh bother, she thought, though she was still slightly amused. He'll know that I'm serious as well, about what I'm going to say.

"Well, then. You'll just have to guess."

"Let's see," he said, stretching his legs out and yawning. Winking, he reached over and tweaked her nose, "It's not about a boy, now, is it?"

"And what if it is?" She raised her head slightly, trying to level the gaze between her and Cedric, who was easily five inches taller than her, but found her efforts utterly in vain.

"Do I know him?" He continued to smile, but she noticed that his eyes had an unfamiliar cast to them. Is that…jealously? she thought, even more amazed and amused at the same time.

"I should think," she said, trying to match his seriousness but ultimately failing when she gave a small giggle. "He's in Hufflepuff."

"Well that limits the amount of people you'd be thinking about by a long stretch, then." Tapping his chin as he tried to think of names, he started to lean his elbow onto the armrest between them. She felt her heart flutter rather oddly in her chest. I'm such a silly schoolgirl, she thought, reprimanding herself harshly, but he's so fun to tease! Upon seeing how serious he looked, though, she found herself growing cold. He's actually thinking about it! This does make it all the more fun, though… "What about that McArthur fellow you went to Hogsmeade with last week?" He suggested mildly. She shook her head no, hoping desperately that he wouldn't come up with the one name that would lead to her undoing. "Umm…Malfoy?"

"No!" she screeched, her ears turning bright red.

Laughing at her obvious discomfort, he said, "It was only a suggestion. What about…Harry Potter?"

She felt her stomach shift uncomfortably at that last name. She admired Harry greatly as a seeker and as a friend, and she knew that he fancied her. However, she could not return his obvious liking of her; it was too awkward to think him in any way but a friend. "No…" she said softly. A great silence then ensured.

"I can't come up with anyone," he announced suddenly. "Tell me."

"Well…I can tell you, Cedric, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Really, I'll eat you alive if you do! I do know some pretty good hexes, as well, so you can't tell." Her heart beating loudly in her ears as she knew she was about to confess one of her intermost secrets, she found herself growing all the more exhilarated from the sheer bliss of not having anything else to worry about, alone with Cedric in the stands.

"I won't tell, though I really doubt that you know hexes that could best me, let alone catch me before you could eat me. And you'd find I don't taste all that well." He was smiling at his joke, but his eyes were hard with worry.

Her heart now a deafening roar in her ears, Cho leaned over to his ear to whisper into it. "Well…you." Suddenly, it stopped, and she felt her very hands grow cold. Stupid! she thought, mentally slapping herself. She quickly pulled herself back and looked the opposite way.

He, however, looked greatly shocked. "Me?" he mouthed, his eyes free of worry and filled with some kind of emotion that she was too harried to recognize. "You could be thinking about anyone else, Cho, and he would certainly be overjoyed to know that you were thinking of him." His tone was reverent and soft and was still filled with shock.

Pretending to pout and filling her tone with a teasing air as she felt her heart lift suddenly, she said, "Aren't you?" His eyes widened as he looked at her, his entire face filled with panic, torn between wanting to tell some sort of truth and playing along with her obvious joking. He gaped at her, vaguely resembling a fish, at she laughed silently at him in return.

She grabbed her book-bag and prepared herself to leave, but she leaned down one last time, seeing him flush madly as she did so. "But remember…you promised not to tell. I'll see you at dinner, okay?" Not waiting to hear his response, she swept down the stands and exited, a great feeling of triumph washing her senses. Nothing could go wrong today. Nice to know I have that effect on certain people, she thought. Entering her dorm, she smiled and started to hum silently as she prepared herself for dinner.

*

Closing note: I know this is probably really OOC, and I know that Hayley-Hayley-chan really hates Cho, but I really like the Cedric/Cho pairing and feel that it merits more attention. I really liked Cedric, too…

Anyway, I hope that Hayley-chan likes this! Check out her story: The Red Shadow by Rouge Magie (that's her penname, silly birds!) This is an original idea as far as I know, though it's not much of one, so please don't say I stole it! Love always, Feather =^^=

Disclaimers: I do not claim to own Harry Potter or any related works