Looking at her

When he saw her down there, tied beside Ron, someone from Durmstrang and most likely a girl who was Fleur's sister, he felt like the only right thing to do was to swim straight to her and untie her. It felt like it was the right thing to do. They had taken what he would miss the most... What he would miss the most was Hermione, he realised. And then he remembered the first time they'd met each other. Of course they had seen each other at school before, but they'd had no reason to get acquainted. And he thought back at the day of the Quidditch world cup...

The Weasley's plus Harry and Hermione came towards them, with heavy backpacks, sweating and panting. He said a polite 'Hi', and looked around at each of them. He didn't notice Hermione especially, he tried to convince himself, as he found his gaze linger a bit longer on her than on the others. It was just the fact that since last time he saw her, she had grown a lot, and become more than a little child... But of course anyone would pay attention to that, not just him, he thought.

He listened to his father's awful bragging about him as they walked, and shot an apologetic glance at Harry, who just sent an understanding back. He kept on walking, and looked at a small dot some way away, and thought it must be the portkey. Cedric turned his focus to a voice none other than Hermione's. "Of course, I've read all about it, did you know, that at the Quidditch world in 1942, a player named..." She trailed of, probably because she didn't remember the name, he thought.

Cedric turned to look at her, and almost like some sort of magnetism, she looked up too, to look around at the others. Hermione's big, brown eyes sought out his especially. And he found it he couldn't look away. But that didn't matter, because it seemed as neither could she. It seemed like a whole eternity as they stared, only eyes for each other. It was something special, Cedric thought, with the look in her eyes. A curios look, a warm, friendly look, a confused look, and something entirely else he couldn't place. There was no insecurity or nervousness. It was nice. He opened his mouth as to say something, even though he didn't know what, when he tripped, perfectly ungraceful, over a bloody root.

As he fell he looked at Hermione as her face fell for a second, probably thinking it had been as nice looking at him as much as he liked looking at her, then her face split into a grin and she laughed loud. Oh well, that spell was broken now, and he couldn't help but miss it. Their moment was over.

Hermione laughed loud, and looked around to share some giggles with Ginny. Cedric blushed, a deep red colour rising into his face, as he laid there on the ground.

"Need some help mate?" Harry said, unable to keep the laughter away, and reached out a hand. Oh, right, probably best if I got on my legs again...

"Thanks," he said and covered it all up with a slightly too big grin.

"How d'you think the match'll go? You're going for Ireland, right?"

"Hm, yeah, but it'll be tough, with Krum on the other team... Hey, did you hear about that match with the Tornadoes?" Cedric said, glad for something to distract him with. Soon he was engrossed in a conversation about the upcoming match with Harry.

He pointed his wand at her, and cut her loose. She immediately started to float upwards. Cedric caught her around the waist and it almost scared him how right it felt. His bubble of air was soon fading, and he took an extra good grip on her and kicked himself up towards the surface. Both their reactions were to gasp for air, and splutter slightly. Hermione's second reaction was to thrash around, flinging her arms and kicking for a slight minute panic. Cedric brought a hand up to stop her from hitting his face, and then he moved it slowly to her cheek. It stopped her. She looked into his eyes again, and all the earlier shouts and whoops seemed to fade away around them, almost like last time...

"Come on, you can do it," his best mate grinned and hit him playfully on his shoulder.

"Yeah, here goes!" he said, took a deep breath, and stepped over the age line, and put a small paper with the words 'Cedric Diggory – Hogwarts' written on it.

At once whoops and encouraging words were thrown into the air. He grinned with relief, not that he had expected the Goblet to put up a fight, but still, it was a big step to take. Cedric scanned the room, harmless enough, but then his gaze landed upon a girl sitting in the corner with a very big book in her lap.

Hermione immediately looked up with a frown and looked around. When her eyes landed upon Cedric's own grey, her frown disappeared at once. He felt the corners of his lips twitch a bit towards the upside, into a curious little smile. Hermione's mouth fell open to a little 'o'. They looked at each other for a long time.

"Hey, Cedric!" his mate called.

Her eyes held so many emotions. Her skin was pale, and it looked soft. Her small hands held the book in her lap, he suddenly wished he could feel her hand in his. And her hair. He chuckled to himself. Hermione's hair was wild, living a world of its own, but oh, how he just wanted to run his hands through it right now. In fact he took a step forward to do so, but stopped himself, thinking of how stupid and awkward that would be.

"Cedric? Hello? Ced!"

"What?" he spun around, to face his fellow Hufflepuff.

"Are we going or what...? You've been standing here, staring at nothing for at least... I dunno, five minutes?" he asked, looking at Cedric with some kind of amusement.

'Staring at nothing...' Of course he wasn't staring at nothing! He was staring at Hermione! When he thought that, a new thought shot into his head to interrupt. He was staring at Hermione. In fact he hadn't even talked to her before. He frowned, and wrinkled his nose, which made his mate laugh with amusement at his weird face, and himself to snap out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, we're going," he said, but cast a glance over his shoulder to look at her before walking away.

"Cedric," Hermione had whispered, at first she looked confused, but then she smiled. He swam with her towards the audience, where a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor helped them up. Words such as 'why her?', 'Hermione? Granger?' and other questions filled the air. Cedric just smiled at her, and she smiled back. Of course it would be her, it was only natural...

Cedric slumped down in a chair in the library. 'Dragons', of all things, dragons had to be it. Oh, well. He picked up the first book of all the once he had gathered and started to flip through the pages.

Suddenly he heard someone sit down in the chair in front of his. It was her. He smiled.

"Hi."

"Oh, hello, preparing for the first task?" she smiled. She had a pretty smile, he thought.

He just grunted as an answer, and she laughed. She had a pretty laugh too.

Cedric watched her as a frown fell upon her face, then she took a deep breath. "Cedric, you've been watching me," she stated. So this was a small part of the Gryffindor bravery was it? He certainly wouldn't have dared to say that first, at least not now.

"You've been watching me too," he smiled.

"Yes, but, erm... yes," she finished lamely. After a short pause in which she just stared at him, she picked up her own book and started to read.

And then they sat there and read in silence. The next morning they would do the same, never having a conversation, just stating the obvious, "Hermione, you looked at me in the Great Hall", "So did you", and reading.

It was nice, Cedric thought, and smiled while stealing a glance at the girl in the other chair. Hermione also had decided to steal a glance at that moment. As they locked gazes, both of them grinned a bit bashfully before blushing a bit and minding their own business again.

Hermione looked at him, Cedric looked at her. He put his own towel around her shoulders as she shivered visibly. She just smiled in thanks. Cedric lifted his hand again to touch her cheek. He caught a lock of her hair, and tucked it back behind her ear. Slowly, purposely, while looking into her eyes he moved closer. Hermione stood on her tip-toes and placed her hands on the back of his neck. It was now or never, he thought to himself... really, he thought that last time he was in this situation too, so he guessed it was now or later...

After the first task, he'd spent some days in the hospital wing, getting rid of his burns.

"And drink that up now, come on, all of it," Madame Pomfrey said, while he drank an extremely gross potion. He looked at the brown liquid once more before downing it all. He couldn't help but make a face and shudder. "Very good, now, you may go," and with those words he jumped out of his bed and headed for the large doors.

Cedric walked through the doors and around a corner. He made a 'oof' sound as he bumped into someone, and almost fell over. He quickly grabbed the girl's arms to support her. "Hermione?"

She looked up, a bit embarrassed. "Hi, Cedric... uhm... how are you?" she asked. Her eyes didn't travel to the mark of his burn, and he was grateful for that, everybody else who'd cared to visit him always ended up staring it it instead of him.

"I'm fine, thanks, what are you doing up here?" he smiled and looked down at her.

"I was actually going to see you, but now I see that you are perfectly fine... I'm glad, it didn't look very nice from up where I was sitting..."

"No, it wasn't very nice either..." he said.

A silence followed after that, and they just stared at each other for a while, and he noticed he hadn't let go of her yet. They were very close actually. Suddenly he noticed just how soft her lips looked, and just how perfectly innocent she looked, standing there in his arms. Instead of following his intentions, he straightened up and said an awkward 'bye' before leaving.

As he was a little way away he thought to himself 'just how stupid can you get?'.

He smiled, and placed his hands more tightly around her. Cedric moved one hand to her back, and the other up to her neck before finally crashing his lips down at hers. He grinned into the kiss, as catcalls and whistles could be heard around them. When they finally pulled apart, both were gasping for air. He looked at her and smiled, thinking about all the days that were to come.

A/N: I really wanted to do a Cedric/Hermione story, and this was the best I came up with. I'll try for something better another time, I think. Review please, and tell me what you think?