"Lexi!" Patricia and Bree shouted to her down the hall. "Wait up!"

Lexi had hurried out of Potions class quickly because she was starving for dinner. Apparently a lot of people felt the same way. Kenneth Towler, another sixth year Gryffindor, bolted out of the class as soon as Snape released them; although that may have been attributed to his intense fear of Severus Snape himself. But a group of Hufflepuffs passed quickly by her as well, including Nick Hornsby, Lucille Richards and Cedric Diggory. The dungeon passage was so tight that Cedric accidentally knocked into her in his haste to maintain speed with his friends.

He turned quickly around, his face apologetic. "So…sorry." he muttered out, his mouth hanging open slightly as he looked at her. Nick pulled at his arm and the three were off again. That's when Bree and Patricia caught up, both giggling.

"Did you see the way Cedric looked at you?" Bree giggled silently so the people around couldn't hear. Lexi nudged her in the side.

"Please." Lexi scoffed. "He was just surprised that I was there."

Lexi looked ahead at Cedric and his friends, already ascending the stairs into the entrance hall, to make sure she was right. It looked like nothing had phased him. She was right, which was a good thing; Lexi didn't like it when guys groped at her with their eyes, not that it happened often, but Kenneth Towler did it enough in their classes that she found it a complete turn off. But there was a difference between Kenneth Towler and Cedric Diggory that made it much more acceptable in her eyes for Cedric's groping as opposed to Kenneth's groping. Kenneth was smart, and he knew it. He had no qualms with telling people how to do things the "right" way. Not only that, but he was also shorter and skinnier than her, which was another turn off because Lexi was only 5'4". Cedric on the other hand was modest, almost too modest for her taste. He sat quietly in his seat for every class they had together -- Potions, DADA, Charms, Transfiguration, Ancient Ruins, and Arithmancy…basically most of her classes -- and he was very polite, almost too polite, whenever the teachers asked him to do something. Also, Cedric was known as one of the best looking guys at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Lexi could not see why people obsessed over his looks so much. She did think he was good looking, but she didn't think people should make such a big deal out of it.

Then Patricia bumped into her, shaking her out of her reverie. She hadn't realized they were already in the Great Hall and going towards their normal lunch spot. Lexi, Bree, and Patricia always ate with their fellow sixth year Gryffindors, with the exception of Kenneth, who included Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Fred and George Weasley, and Lee Jordan.

"Hey beautifuls." Lee greeted the three girls as they sat down. The eight of them had gotten really close since their first year at Hogwarts. Angelina, Alicia, Lexi, Bree and Patricia shared a dorm room, but they would always sneak into the boys room, much to the chagrin of Kenneth, to hang out.

"Guess who was checking Lexi out!" Bree said in a sing-song voice. Lexi rolled her eyes, but felt her face grow hot. Bree always did this. She was the group gossiper; she knew everything about everyone.

"Stop it, Bree. It was nothing." Lexi argued. Everyone ignored her.

"Who?" George asked with a wicked grin on his face.

"Cedric Diggory." Patricia answered.

"Tricia!" Lexi looked at her with betrayal.

"What? It's not a big deal, right?" Patricia taunted. They all laughed, except Lexi, who saw how she got herself stuck in that one.

"You know what I think, Lex?" Fred laughed.

"What?"

"I think you should work your magic on him."

"My magic?"

"Yes. Use your dazzling charm to make him fall head over heels for you so he'll ask you to the Yule Ball." Fred mocked her, laughing even harder when Lexi threw her piece of meat at his face. With a swish of his wand, he deflected it into his plate and then stabbed it with a fork and ate it.

"I'm so happy that my love life entertains you so much." Lexi laughed sarcastically.

"It doesn't matter anyway." Bree piped up. "He already asked Cho Chang."

"Already?!" Fred looked at her in disbelief. "McGonagall only announced it today!"

"See." Lexi smiled smugly at Fred.

Fred didn't say another word. They changed the topic of discussion over to the long essay Professor McGonagall assigned them for tomorrow. But Lexi's eyes unconsciously drifted over to the Hufflepuff table, looking for Cedric. He wasn't hard to spot. He sat in the middle of the long table, laughing with his large group of friends made mostly of girls. Lexi knew most of them were only over there because they had a huge crush on him, and thought that was kind of sad. Her eyes then brought themselves over to the Ravenclaw table, where she found Cho Chang in a similar situation. Cho was very popular, she always had her group surrounding her where ever she went. Two insanely popular people; it was like a match made in heaven.

The next day in Transfiguration, McGonagall collected the essays, which had taken Lexi all night to finish because, as usual, she procrastinated. As a result, she was exhausted and nearly fell asleep in class. And in Ancient Runes, she turned in an incomplete translation to which Professor Babbling chewed her out for being lazy and then went on to rant about the youth of the world and politics and such, as per usual. Then in Arithmancy, Professor Vector assigned them an obscene amount of homework, and Lexi got in an argument with her about it. As she walked out of the classroom, defeated, she heard a velvety voice quite close to her.

"Bad day?"

Lexi turned quickly and found herself face to face with Cedric Diggory. Cedric had never so much as talked to her except with the cordial hello and goodbye. Why was he talking to her now?

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry. We've had the last three classes together and I've noticed that you haven't had the best of luck today." he gave her a warm smile. She had never noticed that his eyes were a clear gray blue.

"Right." Lexi remembered. "You sit behind me in Babbling's class."

"Yes."

"Yeah. Not my best day, but what can a girl do?" she noticed he was walking with her to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Well, I have to agree with your argument in Vector's class. She's crazy." he chuckled.

"Thank you!" Lexi was happy someone agreed with her. Stupid Kenneth Towler.

"Hey. What are you doing after dinner?"

Lexi eyed him suspiciously. "Homework."

"Well, a group of us are going to the library to work on Arithmancy after. You want to join?"

Lexi considered this. Knowing Cedric's group, they probably had it all organized already, meaning little work for her. "Sure. Sounds good."

Cedric gave her a dazzling smile. "Great. See you then." he headed off to the Hufflepuff table to meet his friends as Lexi went in the opposite direction to the Gryffindor table.

Lexi was disappointed to see that Bree didn't miss anything. "Was that Cedric Diggory you were talking to?"

"Yes." Lexi rolled her eyes. She saw Bree and Alicia share a significant glance and a smile. "Oh, stop it!"