Hello, I'm back! Usual disclaimer applies: I own nothing.

"Hey, Cedric," said Jessica from the doorway of his room.

Cedric looked up from his nearly-complete Calculus work. It was really rather like Arithmancy, execpt of course without magic. He was beginning to wonder why he had been taught that Muggles were dull and stupid; it was harder to do things without magical aid, especially difficult school subjects.

"Yeah?"

"I was just wondering if you felt like watching a movie tonight," said Jessica. "I'm going with a friend to Port Angeles to see Dead End. I think it's about zombies."

"Well," said Cedric. "Who's the friend?" He did not know, to be sure, what "zombies" might be, but watching a "movie" was undoubtedly a Muggle activity, and he needed practice being a Muggle.

"Bella Swan, the girl I told you about. She invited me to go to a movie with her."

Cedric almost winced. He had seen the obvious pain in the white face and expressive dark eyes of the delicate-looking girl when she had first seen him, and when he had mentioned Edward. Merlin's beard, what did he do to her? "Well, perhaps. . ." He hedged. "Are you sure it'll be all right with her? She didn't invite me."

"I'm inviting you. Do you want to come?"

Cedric thought he detected a hint of petulance in her voice. What's she got against Bella?

"Well, I've got homework to finish. . ." He tried again.

"It's not going anywhere! C'mon and have some fun."

Cedric was sure it would be, to say the least, hard on Bella to have to spend the evening with him. It was certainly going to be less than pleasant to spend an evening with her if the mere sight of him made her turn as white as if she had seen a ghost. And he did not want to get involved in whatever grievance lay between Bella and Jessica. On the other hand, he had heard about non-magical moving pictures from Julie, and he had not yet seen such a thing before. It sounded interesting. . .

"All right," he gave in. "I'm coming. When are we leaving?"

"In half an hour."

"I'll be ready," he promised. Jessica grinned and left the room, calling as she went, "Mom, Dad, we're going out to see a movie tonight."

Cedric struggled through the rest of Calculus and put on his shoes. By then it was nearly time to go, so he came out of his room and went downstairs.

Jessica led the way to her Muggle car, and Cedric climbed into the front passenger seat. He very carefully mimicked what he saw Jessica doing with her seatbelt, as it was only his second time in a Muggle car. Jessica turned on what you or I would know as popular music, but Cedric had never bothered his head about Muggle Music (or for that matter Muggle anything). He was now wishing rather vehemently that he had.

"So what part of England are you from?" asked Jessica.

This immediately put Cedric on his guard. "Oh - near a small town in Devon," he said. "Sort of obscure area, in the country really." A wave of acute homesickness swept over him.

"Not the big city type, huh?"

Cedric smiled. "Not really." He had been to London on several occasions. "It's just that there's not much of anybody there, when you're in the country. I like to see people."

"So how's Forks working out for you so far?" There was more than a hint of avid curiosity in Jessica's question.

"Haven't seen hardly any of it yet," rejoined Cedric, flashing her a grin. Jessica giggled.

"It's not like there's that much to see," she admitted. "What made you decide to come to America?"

Well you see, Jess, I actually got killed by the most powerful evil wizard in the world. And then I came back from the dead to get myself killed again, as like as not, fighting against him. Till then I'm sort of in hiding. Kindly don't tell anybody, will you? "It's a long story, Jess."

Jessica couldn't ask more about it just then, for she was pulling up in front of what must be Bella Swan's house. In front of it sat an old faded red truck. Jessica blew the horn a couple of times. "Hopefully she'll be ought in a few minutes," she remarked. "She seemed to really want to see this movie, so she'd better not make us late."

Cedric decided to get it out into the open. "Is there something going on between you and Bella Swan?"

"Oh no, not at all," said Jessica in an ever-so-slightly higher-pitched voice.

Cedric raised his eyebrows at her.

"Oh, okay," sighed Jessica. "I guess in a way it's not really her fault - but ever since the Cullens left in September, Bella's been moping around and not talking to anyone or doing anything. It was just today she asked me if I wanted to see a movie with her, and it was the first time she'd spoken to me in months."

"I expect she's still torn up about this Edward chap who looks so much like me," said Cedric. "Was he - hullo, here she comes." Oh, joy.

Bella Swan had indeed just emerged from the house. In the moonlight Cedric might have been mistaken, but he thought that Bella looked rather sickly. She certainly had the look of one who has just tumbled out of bed and hastily made herself presentable. When she caught sight of Cedric she stopped dead in her tracks and turned considerably paler even than she had been before.

Jessica rolled down her window. "Hi, Bella!" she said in a cheerful voice, as if she didn't notice her friend's deathly pallor.

Bella's eyes never left Cedric's face. "Who's this?" she asked in a queer, flat voice that betrayed nothing of the torment evident in her wide brown eyes.

"A friend of mine, Cedric Montgomery," returned Jessica (this was Cedric's assumed name). "I thought it would be okay if he came along."

"Is this a date or something? I can leave you guys alone if you want."

"No, it's not a date, Bella! I just thought he'd be welcome to join us."

Cedric was biting his lip and looking from Bella to Jessica. "Look, I'm really sorry, Bella," he began.

"No, it's fine," said Bella, seeming to pull herself together. "Don't worry about it, Jess." And she climbed into the car behind Jessica without another word.

The silence was uncomfortable, and quite unusual considering that Jessica was around. Once Cedric glanced back at Bella to find her staring fixedly at him. He did not look at her again after that. The whole car ride was quiet.

Jessica drove straight to the theater. After she had parked and was turning off the car, Cedric leaned over and whispered to her, "Jessica, could you get the tickets? I'd like a word with Bella."

"Good luck with that," muttered Jessica, but she left them alone. Cedric turned to Bella, who looked as if she had intended to slip off after Jessica.

"Bella," he began cautiously.

"I thought I told you I wasn't interested," she said.

"I know," said Cedric. "But I thought it might help you a bit if - "

"No," said Bella in a flat, final voice.

Cedric knew he probably shouldn't, but he reached out tentatively toward Bella's mind anyway. To his surprise he encountered a barrier, and pushing gently against it found that it felt quite strong. He withdrew quickly, wondering what had gone wrong.

Bella was gaping at him.

How am I doing so far? Should I continue with this? Should I pair up Cedric and Bella? I won't know unless you tell me!

What Cedric is doing here is not quite the same thing as Legilimency, which has been described as "the act of magically navigating through the many layers of a person's mind and correctly interpreting one's findings." I think it would be closer to what Madeleine L'Engle calls "kything," which is a form of mental and spiritual communication which can be called "telepathy" though it goes a bit deeper than that. Cedric can do it without a wand because the Elves taught it to him. If I didn't explain that well enough, leave me a vicious flame. I hope the minor edit in Chapter 2 helps.

See y'all later!