Cedric's friends had indeed found a new place for them to hold their study group. Professor Sprout gave them the key to one of the unused classrooms on the third floor.

"The benefit of being a prefect." Cedric told them slyly as he unlocked the door on their first night, during the last week of term.

Now, it was Thursday night, the eve of the last day of term, and they were all excited that this was the last time they would have to study for two and a half weeks. That night they were working on an Arithmancy essay. It was long torturous work, but slowly the six people started trickling out of the room as they finished. Lexi had always been slow at writing essays so it didn't surprise her when she was one of the last two people in the room. She was surprised that Cedric was the other person.

As she finished her last sentence, she looked over at him. "Done."

"Wait." he told her, not looking up from his own roll of parchment. "I just need an ending. Give me something."

"And they all lived happily ever after." Lexi teased.

"Yeah. Vector would love that." he chuckled as he penned the last punctuation mark.

Lexi rolled onto her back from where she was laying on the floor, gazing up at the ceiling. Cedric looked at her while he stood up.

"You leaving or not?" he asked.

Lexi didn't move. "I'm not tired."

"Want some company?"

"Sure."

Cedric laid down next to her and put his arms behind his head, relaxed. "I heard you're going home for the holidays?"

She nodded.

"So no Yule Ball for you?"

"That's the general idea."

"Why not?" he asked with honest curiosity.

She didn't mind telling him; he didn't make her feel self conscious. "No one asked me. Well, except Kenneth, and you know Kenneth."

"I see."

"I heard you're going with Cho."

"Yeah."

"Is that a relationship in the making?" she quickly regretted the question when she saw him bite his lip. "Sorry. I didn't mean to intrude."

"No. It's okay." he quickly said. "Honestly, I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. We haven't really talked since I asked her out."

"Why not?"

"I don't have time. And neither does she. She's in her O.W.L. year and I have the tournament to worry about."

"How are you doing with the egg by the way?"

He turned his head to look at her, a smirk playing across his lips. "Are you going to turn traitor and run off to tell Harry?"

Lexi laughed. "Maybe."

"I guess I'll take my chances." he nudged her arm playfully. "Actually, I have no idea what the clue is supposed to be. I've tried every spell I know on it, but nothing works."

"You'll figure it out. I know you will."

"Thanks."

Silence fell on them. They lay side by side for five minutes before someone spoke again.

"Cedric? Why did you enter into the tournament?"

"I have no idea. I think I was high on something when I put my name in the Goblet."

"So it wasn't the whole glory thing that was getting to your head?" she laughed, trying to lighten the mood. Her attempt worked and he laughed with her.

"Maybe that was it." he joked, but she noticed that part of his voice sounded serious.

"Are you nervous?"

"You should have seen me before the first task. I was shitting in my pants the whole time."

"But you were really good."

He looked at her skeptically.

"I'm serious. I was impressed." she tried to assure him. "I know I would have cracked under the pressure."

"I doubt that. The adrenaline rush keeps you up."

"I still think you were good."

"Harry's was so much cooler. I can't believe that three of us are seekers and only one of us was smart enough to use a broom. I could have hit myself after that. No, instead I use a stupid dog."

"Well, I like dogs." Lexi argued.

Cedric chuckled at her persistence. "I'm glad. You know, I could probably transfigure one of these chairs into a dog for you right now if you want."

He started to take out his wand from his robe pocket, but Lexi smashed her hand down on his chest to stop him. "No! You'll wake one of the teachers or something."

Her hand was still on his chest, and she noticed how rock hard it was from the years of quidditch training he went through. Starting to feel awkward, she slowly removed her hand. Cedric didn't seem to notice anything was wrong.

"That's true. But we could still set it loose on the school. That would be funny to watch Filch chasing a dog around all night." he suggested. They both laughed at the image. But then Cedric yawned; a great big yawn, at that.

"I'm sorry. You're probably really tired, huh?"

"Just a little bit."

Lexi jumped up and helped Cedric to his feet. "I'm supposed to be the gentleman." he frowned.

"Too bad." she shot him a sly smile. But she did let him open the door for her, and he was pleased about that.

"When are you leaving for the holiday?" he asked her before they left the privacy of the room.

"Saturday morning."

"You better tell me bye tomorrow." he warned her.

She giggled. "I will. Goodnight, Cedric."

"Night, Lex."

They waved each other off as they turned in opposite directions to go to their respective dormitories.

Lexi hated that she only had one class with Cedric on Fridays: Arithmancy. The worst part was that the class was right after her Care of Magical Creatures class that took place outside and lunch, meaning she usually was tired and not clean when she arrived to her Arithmancy class. But she had promised him she would see him before she left, and that was a promise she really wanted to keep. Unfortunately, she had procrastinated on her Care of Magical Creatures essay, and spent her entire morning free period and break doing that, before rushing off to class five minutes late. Then she looked for him at lunch, but he was no where to be seen and she assumed he was doing his prefect duties somewhere else, which was common for him. That didn't worry her because she knew she would see him in her next class.

But he wasn't in Arithmancy either. She started to panic; she really wanted to see him before she left. Professor Vector had to call her name three times before getting a wrong answer because Lexi wasn't paying attention at all during the entire class.

After the class ended, she thought it was best to take a quick shower before going down to dinner. But Lexi got real panicked when Cedric wasn't at dinner either. Bree, missing nothing of course, noticed Lexi twisting her hands together in her lap instead of eating her food.

"Lex?" Bree took one of Lexi's hands and shoved her fork into it, signifying her need to eat. "What's wrong?"

Alicia and George were with them and they both stopped eating to look curiously at their friend.

"It's nothing." Lexi lied and stuffed some food in her mouth to please Bree.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire. You've been weird all week, which I shouldn't have noticed because you've also been nonexistent in the common room. What's going on? This all started when you started hanging out with Diggory and his friends."

"Why do you automatically assume that everything has to do with Cedric!" Lexi glared at her. "I don't like him, okay? Get over it."

Lexi stormed out of her seat and into the entrance hall. She didn't know where to go to be alone. The Gryffindor common room was always packed and Bree and the others would find her there in an instant. Then it hit her, and she hoped the unused classroom on the third floor was still unlocked from their study session the previous night.

When she reached the hallway, she saw that the door was slightly ajar and the lights were off. Relieved, she made her way to the room, opened the door and flicked her wand to turn on the lights. Her heart stopped beating.

Standing in the middle of the room was Cedric in a tight embrace with Cho Chang. They were kissing, her arms around his neck, and his arms around her waist. But when the lights came on, Cedric looked up curiously. Lexi watched as his eyes grew wide with surprise and horror when they met her own.

Lexi couldn't breath. She could only manage a weak "sorry" before she turned and ran down the hallway. As she reached the stairs, she heard Cedric call her name from the door, but she didn't turn around. She couldn't. All she could see was Cedric's and Cho's lips meshing together.

All her friends were in the common room when she burst through the portrait hole. She hadn't realized she had started to cry until they all started freaking out. Patricia and Bree got her up to their room and laid her in her bed. They kept asking her what was wrong, but Lexi still couldn't speak: the shock was still too strong. Eventually they left her and she cried herself to sleep, the whole while picturing Cedric shouting her own name while kissing Cho.