Ginny wouldn't stop staring at Cedric. He stood a little bit away from them, talking with Mr Weasley, Mr Diggory and Harry. Irritation was beginning to scratch at Hermione's nerves.
'Do you think he'll be near us?' Ginny asked, giving Cedric a calculating look.
'Oh…well, I don't really know.' said Hermione.
Their conversation had been more than a little stilted since they had joined the Diggory's. It was reduced to nothing more than the odd question from Ginny regarding the handsome boy, to which Hermione replied that she didn't know. It was really quite frustrating. She and Ginny had at first whispered to each other, sharing what little they knew about him while shooting Cedric's back furtive glances. As it turned out, they knew nothing about him except that he was a sixth year Hufflepuff, seeker on the quidditch team and that he was exceptionally handsome. After a few appreciative comments from both of them on his appearance Hermione had tried to divert the conversation, knowing that as gorgeous as Cedric was the topic would quickly grow boring considering how little they knew about him. Unfortunately, Ginny was still peppering Hermione with questions which they had ascertained that she knew nothing about.
'Is he-'
'Look, Ginny,' Hermione began, cutting her off. 'I don't know the answer to whatever you were about to ask. He's hot, sure…but…is he really worth obsessing over this much?'
'I suppose not.' Ginny sighed. 'I'm just trying to do what you suggested so that I can get over Harry a bit. You know, relax a bit, try and date a few other boys.'
Hermione smiled. 'Yes, but you can't just forget Harry by forcing yourself to show interest in other boys. In fact, I'd say that's only going to make you think about Harry more – you'll be constantly comparing. I think you have to actually like a boy to date them.' She teased.
'Yeah, you're right. It shouldn't really be a surprise that you're right though, should it? Cedric is really hot and everything, but… I don't know. He's not Harry.'
'Exactly. Besides, maybe you should set your sights on boys in our year levels, not sixth year. I doubt he'd go out with a third year, even though he seems really nice… he'd probably just pass you over as being too young before he even got to know you. Not that you are too young or immature, or anything like that,' she added hastily as Ginny bristled, 'It's just what he'd think. Besides, he doesn't know that you're nearly fourteen.'
Ginny grinned sheepishly. 'Sorry. Cedric probably would think I'm too young. Anyway, listen!' she cried, pointing at Mr Weasley, who was saying something to Harry, 'The portkey's leaving in a minute!'
'Thank goodness.' groaned Hermione. 'Maybe we can get some sleep when we get there.'
'Oh, I doubt it,' Ginny said distractedly as they stood up and moved towards the unscrupulous boot. 'You know how Dad is, I bet he'll want us to do everything the muggle way… it'll take ages to set up our site…Dad'll keep getting in the way and slowing us down.'
Hermione laughed and Ginny flashed her a quick grin as she walked off to stand next to George. Hermione went to join Harry, just in time for Mr. Weasley to look over at them and talk.
'You just need to touch the portkey, that's all, a finger will do-'
He moved to get closer to the portkey and Harry and Hermione followed. There was a bit of jostling as they tried to fit around, their bulky backpacks proving a hindrance. Hermione nearly lost her balance as Fred accidentally pushed her; then they stood in complete silence as the wind swept over them. Hermione found the absurdity of their position comical, all clustered around a dank boot in the semi-dark like some sort of strange cult. She saw Harry half-smile too and wondered what he was thinking about.
Mr Weasley began counting down as he looked at his watch. Hermione gripped the shoelace she had grabbed more tightly, a little nervous. She knew what to expect, of course, having stumbled across portkeys in some book or other but she suspected that like flying, the experience would be somewhat different.
Just as Mr Weasley reached 'one' in his countdown, Hermione's stomach lurched as an invisible force grabbed her around the navel and flung her into the air. She was thrown around, her shoulders hitting Harry's and Fred's as the wind buffeted them and the kaleidoscope of colours the world around them had taken on was only making her feel more and more sick…then it was over and she was slammed into the ground, causing her to stagger and fall. Groaning, she looked around to see that Ron and Harry had managed to get tangled in the fall and were now a mess of limbs; Fred, George and Ginny were sprawled on the ground as well; and Mr Diggory, Mr Weasley and Cedric had managed to keep standing, though they looked distinctly windswept. Cedric extended a hand to her. She took it gratefully and dusted herself off, blushing as he deftly pulled a twig and a couple of leaves out of her bushy hair. He twirled the slender piece of wood casually in his fingers.
'Thanks. It always seems to be my hair that ends up with dirt in it…everyone else's looks fine.' said Hermione, feeling a tad disgruntled. Why did her hair have to be such a disaster?
Cedric's smile made him look – if it was possible – even more handsome. 'You're welcome. By the way, you look a bit pale; you might want to sit down: portkeys can give people really bad motion sickness. Some of the people I've seen…it wasn't pretty.'
Her dignity somewhat recovered after hearing that Cedric had seen much worse than twiggy hair, she raked a hand through her hair to dislodge any other leaves and turned in the direction everyone was walking in.
'I'm fine, but thanks.' She told him.
'Hermione, isn't it?' Cedric asked as he lengthened his stride to catch up with her. 'I've heard about you. Some things involving a basilisk, solving an unsolvable riddle to save the philosopher's stone, a werewolf and a troll. Plus some things about your grades. No one in the other houses are too happy with how you keep earning Gryffindor so many house points by answering all the questions in class.'
Hermione sighed. 'I suppose I haven't really been inconspicuous in my time at Hogwarts, have I? Should have known what I was getting into when I covered for Harry and Ron about the troll.'
'So there was a troll?' Cedric's eyebrows rose. 'I thought it was just a rumour. There's a lot of false information about you three going round the school. Like this one I heard a couple of years ago: You, Harry and Weasley all decided to stop Snape treating Gryffindors so badly, so you overpowered him and threatened him with till he caved in. Never mind the fact that when that rumour started, you were only halfway through your first year and there was no way you could've beaten Snape…'
'Well, that's completely false, but yes, there was a troll. I didn't know that people spread rumours about us.' said Hermione curiously.
'Absolutely. You three are what keep the rumour mill at Hogwarts in business. Every other week someone claims that you and Harry are together, then the next someone says that you've ditched him for that 'Weasley kid' and that you two were making out in some corridor.'
'What? People think that Harry and I – that we're together? That's absurd!' As she finished her protest, her eyes couldn't help but flick to Ron – she wished there was a cause for the rumours about the two of them. He was annoying sometimes, but he was funny and loyal and his goofiness was endearing.
Cedric didn't notice that she hadn't included Ron in her indignant response. 'Yes, but after a couple of months a lot of people started ignoring those rumours. They weren't very believable, what with you changing who you believed your true love was every week or so.'
'I should certainly hope so.' Said Hermione. 'It's nice to hear that some people have faith in me.'
They walked in silence, which quickly became awkward. Hermione silently cursed herself for not picking up the conversation faster: It only took seven seconds for a silence to become awkward, after which all attempts at conversation looked like desperate and feeble attempts to disturb the awkwardness.
Cedric saved her. 'Do you play quidditch?' He asked casually; then added as an afterthought: 'What's your team?'
Hermione was relieved at Cedric's subject choice. Quidditch, the most natural thing to talk about at the Quidditch world cup final. Her relief quickly fizzled out when she realized that her quidditch knowledge was negligible.
'No…I don't play. I don't really follow any quidditch team either. What about you?' She asked politely.
'As you probably know because of Harry, I play seeker at school, although I'm really too tall for it. Been hit with bludgers quite a few times, my height means I'm not able to move as quickly. But I'm rubbish at any other position, except for beater, which I'm fair at. Bit ironic, isn't it?' He said, smiling at his own expense.
Hermione quickly steered to conversation away from quidditch, trying not to reveal how little she cared about it. 'Wasn't it hard being quidditch captain and studying for OWL's at the same time last year? I'm worried that next year I'll have to do all of Harry's homework for him.'
'At first, yeah, definitely. I kept procrastinating and then trying to finish all my homework at one in the morning on the day it was due or something…I don't think I've ever seen Snape look so happy, I was doing really badly. But Professor Sprout was great, told me that I'd fail if I kept going how I was. Bit harsh, but it was reality. She offered to get a couple of teachers to help me catch up and kept checking up on me to make sure I was fitting everything in.'
'Somehow, I don't see Harry going to McGonagall. She'd help him of course, but Harry would be too scared.'
'Harry Potter? Are we talking about the same person? Harry Potter can slay a basilisk with nothing but a sword, but he's scared of what Professor McGonagall might say when he doesn't get his schoolwork done?'
Hermione giggled. 'Oh, yes! He'd be terrified of what she might do when she realised how badly he was going.'
Cedric shook his head in amazement and opened his mouth to speak, but Mr Diggory called him over to walk with him.
'I'll see you around.' He called over his shoulder at her. Hermione nodded and gave him the ghost of a smile and a small wave before hurrying to catch up with Ron, who started talking about the Irish chasers. She listened patiently, but wasn't entirely sure if Moran was actually the keeper or a chaser, despite her best efforts to keep up with the conversation. She resolved to buy a program so that she wouldn't be totally lost during the match.

Ginny's predictions about Mr Weasley slowing them down turned out to be completely accurate. Even though she and Harry had worked out most of the poles, Mr Weasley insisted on helping. He'd tried to set the tent up on its side at first before she and Harry had finished figuring out where everything belonged. His clumsy enthusiasm with the mallet had been funny but it took him an age to get the peg in, then he tripped over the ropes holding the poles up and they'd had to redo them. Despite all that, they ended up with two fairly respectable looking tents – although she noticed, looking at them dubiously, that they were much too small to fit ten of them. She and Harry exchanged a confused glance.
Mr Weasley seemed to have no such worries. 'We'll be a bit cramped,' he announced, dropping to his knees and peering into the first tent, 'but I think we'll all fit. Come and have a look.'
Ginny had spotted Hermione's bemused expression and burst into a fit of giggles. 'Oh, come on! You'll see once we're inside.' said Ginny as she tugged on Hermione's sleeve.
Hermione raised the flap and stooped a bit as she walked in. As she straightened up, she couldn't help but gasp. 'Of course! How do they do it though? I don't think undetectable extension charms work on objects this size…' She trailed off as she realized no one was listening.
The inside of the tent was like a small apartment, complete with a kitchen, bathroom and bunks. The place had a homely feel and looked as though it could have belonged to an old lady; with crocheted covers and oddly matched furniture. Inhaling the strong smell of cats, Hermione was fervently grateful when Ginny sidled over to her and whispered 'Ours is the other tent…it's a bit smaller than this, but it doesn't smell of cats and we'll have it all to ourselves.'
Nodding to show that she'd heard, Hermione looked over at Mr Weasley. 'I borrowed this from Perkins at the office,' he was saying, 'doesn't camp much anymore, poor fellow, he's got lumbago.'
He plucked a dusty kettle from the kitchen bench and examined the inside with a somewhat disappointed look. 'We'll need water…'
'There's a tap marked on this map the muggle gave us,' said Ron, who looked completely oblivious to the tent's impossible proportions. 'It's on the other side of the field.'
Hermione went over to check the map as Mr Weasley started talking again. 'Well why don't you, Harry and Hermione go get us some water, then-' He thrust the kettle and a few saucepans at them, '- and the rest of us will get some wood for a fire.'
'But we've got an oven,' said Ron perplexedly, 'why can't we just -?'
'Ron, anti-muggle security!' Said Mr Weasley very excitedly. 'When real muggles camp, they cook on fires outdoors, I've seen them at it!'
They quickly checked out the girl's tent, which Hermione noted smelled much better than the boy's, and then they set out across the campsite with the sun hanging low in the sky. Ron glanced at Hermione.
'Do you really use a fire to cook on when you go camping?'
Hermione laughed. 'No, we use a stove! Of course, it's not like the stove in the tent – it's much much smaller and you have to hook it up to this thing called a gas bottle. We still cook outside though, in case anything goes wrong and the tent catches fire.'
Ron scowled and muttered something that Hermione couldn't quite catch. She glanced at him a few more times, wondering what he was thinking about.
Hermione couldn't help but smile at the tents she saw around her, laughing at the dismal attempts to blend in with muggles. There was one tent with four stories, a balcony and an observatory and another which constantly changed colours. One tent was made out of scales which looked suspiciously like a dragon's and had flaps made out of strange feathers that she couldn't identify. As she looked at it, a pair of wings unfolded from the sides and flapped vigorously. The tent pegs started lifting out of the ground. A harried looking witch tumbled out of the tent to stop it from flying away.
There were witches and wizards of all different ages and nationalities. She saw Harry watching a young boy zoom across the grass on a toy broomstick. They turned the corner, where Hermione spotted a wizard flying between the tents on a magic carpet as well as a gaggle of young Indian witches, dressed in vibrant robes. Their cooking fire was emitting a smell with a strangely soporific effect and Hermione hurried onwards. She noticed that out of the few people that were trying to light a fire with matchsticks, none of them had anything to prove for their effort except for broken matches.
'Er – is it just my eyes, or has everything gone green?' said Ron.
Hermione looked at the surrounding tents, which were all covered in grass and clovers. On closer inspection, they proved to be shamrocks. It looked as if the tents had simply grown out of the ground.
'Harry! Ron! Hermione!'
Hermione swivelled around to see Seamus Finnigan, one of the boys in Harry and Ron's dormitory. He was seated outside his own hillock-y tent, with someone who looked like his mother as well as Dean, the other boy in the dormitory.
'Like the decorations?' said Seamus, grinning as they headed over. 'The ministry's not too happy.'
Privately, Hermione thought the ministry had far more conspicuous tents to be worrying about, remembering one they'd seen earlier that day which had looked more like a silk castle than a tent.
'Ah, why shouldn't we show our colours?' said Mrs Finnigan. 'You should see what the Bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents. You'll be supporting Ireland, of course?' she inquired, fixing them with a beady stare.
As Harry and Ron assured them that they were indeed supporting Ireland, Hermione looked around to try and see where the Bulgarian tents were. They set off again, Hermione still craning her neck to spot the Bulgarians.
'Like we'd say anything else surrounded by that lot.' said Ron, who was wearing an expression that looked as if he'd just escaped a lion's den.
'I wonder what the Bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents?' said Hermione.
'Let's go and have a look,' said Harry, pointing to a large cluster of tents farther ahead, where several Bulgarian flags flowed proudly in the breeze.
Instead of shamrocks, the Bulgarian tents were all covered by a large picture of surly looking man with thick, low black eyebrows. She watched it for a few seconds, but the image merely glared at them.
'Krum,' said Ron. He was so quiet, Hermione almost missed it.
'What?' she said.
'Krum! Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker!'
Startled, Hermione said the first thing she thought of. 'He looks really grumpy.' she remarked. Multiple Krums scowled at her.
'"Really grumpy"?' Ron rolled his eyes. 'Who cares what he looks like? He's unbelievable. He's really young, too. Only just eighteen or something. He's a genius, you wait until tonight, you'll see.'
Feeling slightly guilty, Hermione reminded herself again to find a program before the game. From the way Ron was talking, Krum sounded like a really good seeker.
They finally reached the small queue for the water tap. They joined it behind a pair of men in the middle of an argument, and Hermione could see why. One elderly wizard was wearing a very flowery nightgown. The other was clearly a ministry wizard, who was brandishing a pair of trousers and on the verge of breaking down. Hermione giggled a little at their conversation.
'Just put them on, Archie, there's a good chap, you can't walk around like that, the Muggle on the gate's already getting suspicious-'
I bought this in a Muggle shop. Muggles wear them.' Archie insisted.
'Muggle women wear them, Archie, not the men, they wear these.' said the ministry wizard, flourishing the pinstriped trousers.
Hermione suppressed a laugh.
'I'm not putting them on,' said Archie stubbornly. 'I like a healthy breeze round my privates, thanks.'
Upon hearing this, Hermione couldn't stifle her laughter any more. She broke into a fit of uncontrollable giggles and left the queue to escape attention. But every time she looked at Archie, she started laughing again. The ministry wizard was still waving the pants around as she wandered into the next field to put Archie out of her line of sight.
'Hermione, isn't it?!'
She looked up to see Mr Diggory waving at her. She smiled and waved just as Cedric squeezed past a large group of Japanese witches, who were wearing an odd cross between a kimono and robes.
Mr Diggory said something to Cedric – Hermione noticed Cedric had to bend down to be at the same height as his father – then he started off between the tents. He paused for a moment. 'Tell Arthur I said hi, won't you?!' he shouted in her direction.
Hermione nodded and watched as he quickly slipped out of view. Seeing Cedric approaching her, she gave him a quizzical look and nodded in the direction his father had vanished in.
'Where'd he go to? Hermione asked as Cedric drew up next to her.
'He's been asked to handle some security scares. He's had a report of someone with a miniature pet manticore.'
Hermione grimaced. 'We don't seem to do a very good job of blending in, do we?'
'Why? What makes you say that?' asked Cedric. 'I mean sure, there are a few things muggles might be a bit suspicious about, but I think most people have done pretty well.' He pointed to a tent with a chimney attached.
Hermione giggled. 'You've never taken muggle studies, have you? Tents don't have chimneys. Hardly anyone here would give a muggle no reason to suspect them.'
'Oh. Anyway, what brings you here? I thought you were camping in the other field, closer to the woods.'
'Yes, we are. We came to the corner of these fields though to get some water, but…I…I wanted to…explore?' It came out sounding like a question and Hermione stifled a giggle as she remembered Archie.
'Ever the Gryffindor,' said Cedric, looking slightly bemused. 'You Gryffindors seem to quite enjoy adventures.'
'Oh, not me so much. Ron and Harry are like that though. I'm more the one that tags along and tries to stop them from killing themselves.'
'You must be very good at magic,' said Cedric. 'You three have gotten into some very bad situations in the past, but you always seem to be fine.'
Hermione blushed. 'Harry and Ron do nearly as much to save themselves as I do, really.'
He shrugged. 'You're still an amazing friend to go into danger with them like that.'
Her blush grew, but Hermione decided to accept the compliment. 'Thanks…' she said shyly. 'I'd better get going – Harry and Ron will be nearly finished at the taps by now. Better find them before they manage to discover a secret cave filled with dangerous magical objects or something.'
Cedric laughed and Hermione felt rather pleased with herself. 'Well, I'll see you around – at Hogwarts if not here.' she said.
'Bye!' Cedric called after her. She looked over her shoulder but couldn't see him.
Hermione grinned as she imagined what Ginny would say to her about talking with Cedric twice today. Even if Ginny wasn't interested in Cedric, it didn't mean she wouldn't want to hear about her chance meeting with the handsome older boy.
Hermione returned to the water taps in time to see Ron filling the final saucepan as Harry began to turn on the spot in search of her. She hurried over and took the kettle of water and then they began walking back across the field at a much slower pace as the water weighed them down. Harry was dragged away by someone Hermione vaguely recognised as last year's Gryffindor quidditch captain and she and Ron waited impatiently, shifting their pots from hand to hand in a vain effort to get comfortable. After a short stretch Harry re-joined them only for them to be pulled up by Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff in their year. Hermione wondered absently if he knew Cedric. He was boasting about how good their seats at the match were, and Hermione was just about to tell him that they were sorry, but they needed to go, when Ron spoke.
'We're in the top box,' he snapped, looking annoyed.
Ernie quickly let them go.
Hermione sent Ron a withering look but he didn't seem to care about how rude he'd just been. It was these moments that Hermione found Ron less than attractive.
Harry spilt a considerate amount of water down his front as he waved a little overenthusiastically at a pretty girl Hermione recognised from Ravenclaw. Ron sniggered and missed Hermione's glare as Harry hurriedly pointed to a large group of people who looked about their age, asking if they went to Hogwarts or not.
Ron began to answer and told Harry about Bill's Brazilian pen pal who had sent him a cursed hat. Harry laughed, but looked slightly incredulous at the thought that there were other magical schools.
No one was happy with them when they got back.
'You've been ages,' George grumbled.
'Met a few people,' said Ron, setting the water down gratefully. 'You not got that fire started yet?'
Hermione looked over at Mr Weasley. The ground around him was littered with broken matches but he looked thrilled as he clumsily tried to light another match.
'Dad's having fun with the matches.' said Fred quietly.
Mr Weasley's match finally lit, but he immediately dropped it in surprise. 'Oops!' he said.
Hermione looked at the dwindling supply of matches and felt a stab of sympathy. 'Come here, Mr Weasley,' she said, kneeling and taking the box from him.
Much to Mr Weasley's delight, she lit the match on the first try and managed to get the fire going. He insisted on lighting matches until he was able to do it himself and couldn't have looked more pleased when he finally got the hang of it.
As they built the fire, Mr Weasley kept up a running commentary of all the ministry witches and wizards that walked past their tent. His own children mostly ignored him and played with the fire, but she and Harry listened with great interest.
They'd just started cooking breakfast when Bill, Charlie and Percy all came sauntering over from the woods.
'Just Apparated, Dad,' Percy announced loudly. 'Ah, excellent, lunch!'
Ron gave Percy a filthy look when his back was turned, furious that Percy had been able to sleep in and had already had breakfast. Hermione giggled and looked at Ron furtively before moving to sit next to him.
Halfway through their breakfast, Ludo Bagman walked up to them. As he talked, Hermione got the distinct impression that he was rather disorganized. Harry also seemed mildly incredulous when Bagman announced that there was nothing for him to do. Hermione saw a great tongue of blue flame rising up from a campsite not far from them as he said this and she saw Harry's eyes fixed on some violet sparks rising many feet into the air. Mr Weasley introduced them all and Hermione smiled politely. When Harry's name was mentioned, Bagman did a double take and searched Harry's forehead for his infamous scar. Harry ducked his head inconspicuously and raised a hand to flatten his hair to hide his scar. It looked as if he hadn't even noticed what he was doing.
Bagman tried to coax everyone into a bit of gambling and placed a bet with Mr Weasley and Fred and George before settling down for a cup of tea. Communication difficulties with the Bulgarian and Mr Crouch were briefly mentioned before Bertha Jorkins was brought up. Hermione listened with greater interest, curious to see how Bagman was handling the case of the missing witch from his department. Much to her dismay, though not surprise, Bagman dismissed their worries and Mr Weasley's careful suggestion to have someone look for her. Barty Crouch's arrival interrupted their conversation. Hermione doubted she'd ever seen a wizard dressed so impeccably in muggle clothing. Everything about his appearance suggested order.
Percy quickly rose before sinking into a ridiculous sort of bow. 'Mr Crouch! Would you like some tea?'
'Oh. Yes – thank you, Weatherby.' said Crouch, looking somewhat surprised to see his assistant.
Fred and George choked on their tea and Harry, Ginny and Ron all hid smirks. Hermione frowned at Crouch, surprised he hadn't even bothered to learn Percy's last name.
Crouch conversed briefly with them before Bagman began referring to organising some event they hadn't heard of, but would, apparently, know about soon.
Crouch shoved his untouched tea at Percy – or 'Weatherby' Hermione remembered with some disapproval – and stood abruptly; waiting impatiently as Bagman slowly rose. They said their farewells before Disapparating.
Fred immediately began asking questions. 'What's happening at Hogwarts, Dad? What were they talking about?'
Mr Weasley closed the subject with an air of mystery, while Percy stiffly scolded Fred and praised Crouch for withholding the information – whatever it was.

Retiring to her tent with Ginny, they speculated for a while on what the event could be. However, when neither of them could think of anything, they fell silent for a few minutes.
Ginny suddenly gasped. 'Oh! Hermione! You have to tell me about what you and Cedric were talking about!' she said excitedly.
'I thought you weren't interested in him.' said Hermione, giving a secretive smile as she dodged the question just to put Ginny in suspense.
'No, I'm not. But what if he likes you? Do you like him? You absolutely have to tell me what you two were talking about.'
'No, I…I don't like him. Not like that.' She said, watching Ginny's face fall.
'Who do you like then? You've dropped hints this summer that you do like someone – unintentionally though. Anyway, you don't know if Cedric likes you or not.'
Hermione knew Ginny would be horrified if she told her that she had a crush on her youngest brother so she elected to talk about her conversation with Cedric rather than discuss her feelings for Ron.
'Let me think…we started talking because he helped me up after we all fell when we landed with the portkey. He mentioned that he knew who I was because of all the rumours circulating Harry and we talked about that for a minute or two…then he started talking about quidditch, but since I know nothing about it, I switched the topic to study. Harry's study,' she added when she saw Ginny's disbelieving look. 'How I thought I'd end up doing all his homework in OWL year because of his quidditch practice…then I told him Harry wouldn't go to McGonagall for help because he's too scared.'
Ginny laughed. 'Oooh, yes. I can't imagine Harry being brave enough to face McGonagall. Is that all you talked about?'
'Yes, but I actually saw him later when Ron and Harry were collecting water.' Hermione quickly explained about Archie. 'So I told him I was exploring, and mentioned how I was always going along with Harry and Ron's latest brilliant new scheme to get into trouble. He complimented my magic abilities, and that was it.'
Ginny seemed disappointed. 'Was that really all you two talked about?'
'Yes,' Hermione nodded. 'I know that he doesn't like me.'
Ginny frowned and sighed. 'No, I don't think so either. He sounds really nice though.'
'He is,' said Hermione fervently. 'I hope we become friends.'
Ginny smiled and nodded, then cocked her head to listen to the sounds outside. 'I think we'd better get going…sounds like the boys are moving around outside.'
Donning their gloves and scarves, they went outside to make their way to the quidditch cup final. But despite all the buzz and excitement, Hermione's thoughts kept wondering back to Cedric.

A/N: Okay. So to be honest, I have very little idea where this story is going. Be warned that updates will be totally irregular.
This chapter is a bit dull, sorry. I thought this was a good place to start a Cedmione, when Cedric was first properly introduced. Plus there were a couple of places where I could slot in a conversation with them while sticking to canon. Unfortunately it was a bit dull because of all the bits that were in the book. I had to squeeze the parts I wrote around what Rowling did and I feel like Hermione became more and more emotionless as I tried to skim stuff in the book. My writing got a bit clumsy at the end too, but I couldn't avoid it without making nearly this whole chapter stuff pulled out of Goblet of Fire. I'll put more of my own writing in the next chapter.
Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions as to what they'd like to happen plot-wise (apart from obvious stuff like they fall in love) please, please, please do tell me. I'm open to pretty much anything. If I use anyone's ideas, I will absolutely, definitely give them credit.
Also, this story might be a bit slow. Not that I really know yet either, but I don't want them to be like *BAM* let's have a go at kissing each other because you're cute then we'll suddenly fall in love after we kiss. I want it to be plausible. Hence the reason Hermione currently has a crush on Ron. Don't worry, that will be fixed at the Yule Ball or sooner.
Also, Ginny's birthday is in August or something? Not anymore. I changed it for the convenience of this chapter. Her birthday's early September now. Which makes her nearly a whole year older, but you'll have to cope. She's still in the same year level, so (I hope) it's okay.
Anyway, I have school off tomorrow and it's predicted to hail: I'll probably spend my day at home and will be able to write some stuff (I live in Australia so it's the middle of the school year and it's winter). However, this doesn't guarantee an update.