Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews! Here's the last installment of Cho's year with Cedric. The season was summer and the prompts I had to incorporate were: heat, sun, outdoors, smile, lake, yellow. Read and review, please!

Summer

Cedric gave Cho a nervous peck on the cheek as he dropped her hand and headed to the tent with all the other champions.

"Good luck!" Cho screeched and immediately turned to Marietta. "I'm so nervous," she quietly admitted.

Marietta rolled her eyes. "Really?" she asked sarcastically. "You look perfectly put-together." Seeing that Cho wasn't in the mood for jokes, Marietta switched gears and placed a calming hand on Cho's arm. "Hey," she said tenderly. "Cedric will be completely fine. He's battled a dragon and faced angry mer-people. Do you seriously think a simple maze will affect him?"

Cho nodded gamely. "You're right. I'm being silly." Still, she shivered slightly, despite the heat of the day, as she stared at the maze.

As Ludo Bagman made his introduction to the challenge, Marietta watched Cho force a pleasant smile as people came up to her, the girlfriend of the most popular champion, and murmured their encouragements. As soon as Cedric and Harry took off into the maze, however, Cho dropped all pretenses and anxiously stared at the hedges, as if trying to penetrate a hole through one.

The challenge passed and Cho felt like she was in a daze. The spectators were absolutely silent, and even the creatures that lived outdoors were still and respectful. Everyone was waiting for something to happen, and finally it did. A high pitched scream of terror was heard coming from the depths of the maze and everyone broke into fervent chatter, wondering who it was.

"We'll wait for sparks!" Bagman assured the crowd, staring anxiously at the spot the scream had come from.

But there were no sparks. Marietta squeezed the hand of Cho, who had gone chalky white. "It sounded like a girl," Marietta whispered.

Cho nodded in agreement, feeling a slight twinge of relief and then a wave of guilt crushing it. Fleur was a nice person, and Cho was relieved that it was her that was hurt? What kind of person was she? "There were no sparks though," she pointed out to Marietta, hoping that meant nobody was hurt and not that Fleur had been attacked before she had the chance to send off sparks.

But then there were sparks, coming from a spot a little away from the spot where the scream had come from. The crowd erupted into nervous speculation and Dumbledore and Bagman strode into the exact spot where the sparks had come from. A few minutes later, they came back, laden with the body of Krum.

The crowd burst into frantic whispers and one small boy screamed out, "Is he alive?!"

The judges were huddled into a small group, their quietness pierced by Karkaroff's angry shouts. Bagman withdrew from the judges and looked out on the crowd. "Krum is now out of the tournament," he boomed, with an odd air of relief on his face. "He is alive, he had just been Stunned, and our healers on call are reviving him as we speak. No need to panic, people!"

People still panicked, of course, amongst themselves. "This seems dangerous," one first-year Hufflepuff squeaked.

Not everyone was concerned. Cho overheard Fred Weasley say excitedly, "If that Fleur that screamed, it could be down to Cedric and Harry…and Cedric's no match against Harry Potter!"

Marietta looked at Cho reassuringly. "He doesn't know anything," she whispered. "And you know, Cedric beat Harry in Quidditch!"

Cho nodded, but at this point, she was past caring if Cedric won or if Harry won. She just wanted Cedric to come out of the maze, unharmed. She stood with Marietta, her heart in her throat, for what seemed like hours, waiting with the rest of the crowd for another shriek, more sparks, or the triumphant roar of the winner. They waited until the sun began to set, and finally, something happened.

Harry emerged from the maze, clutching the golden cup in one hand, and holding Cedric up with the other. The crowd stared in shocked silence- What was wrong with Cedric?- until Mad-Eye Moody and Dumbledore rushed towards Harry and Cedric. That broke the spell, and people started screaming.

"HARRY!" Cho heard a frantic Hermione scream.

"Harry!" Ron echoed.

"He's all right," Cho heard Hermione say with a gush of relief in her voice. "He's talking to Moody, but Ron, Cedric is…"

Cho didn't hear anymore. She lunged forward, broke free of Marietta's restraining grip, and ran to the front of the crowd. "Cedric!" she screamed, her voice breaking. "Cedric!!"

Cho dimly registered Mr. and Mrs. Diggory rushing towards Cedric and a silent Harry being led away by Moody. She screamed Cedric's name once more and pounded the restless crown, desperate to get to him, but she was restrained and slowly sunk to the ground, weeping uncontrollably.

When she came to, Madame Pomfrey was staring over her. "Oh dear," she said quietly. "You're awake."

Cho looked around her. She was in a tent, with Fleur and Krum who were peacefully sleeping. "What happened?" she rasped. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she looked at Madame Pomfrey. "Where's Cedric?"

Madame Pomfrey bit her lip as she adjusted Cho's sunny yellow bed-sheets. "You've had a great shock," she said, evading Cho's question. "Dumbledore will be here to talk to you shortly."

"Just tell me!" Cho snapped impatiently, but Madame Pomfrey ignored her and started fussing over Fleur, who was groggily waking up.

Dumbledore entered the tent, looking like he had aged over two decades since breakfast. "Miss Chang," he said softly, nodding at Madame Pomfrey.

"Where's Cedric?" Cho asked nervously.

Dumbledore sighed. "He was killed, by none other than Lord Voldemort. The winning cup was a Portkey and it took Harry and Cedric to a graveyard, where Voldemort was waiting. He had no need for Cedric, so he murdered him, and then he used Harry for-"

Cho didn't fully register the name that made a listening Madame Pomfrey and Fleur flinch violently, or the explanation that Dumbledore recited heavily. All she could take in was the first three words Dumbledore had uttered: he was killed.

"He's dead?" Cho asked, cutting off Dumbledore's speech. "Cedric is dead?"

Dumbledore nodded wearily. "He's dead. I'm so sorry."

"No," Cho said, shaking her head. "He can't be!" A note of hysteria was in her voice, and as she struggled to get out of bed, Dumbledore waved over Madame Pomfrey.

"Something to help her sleep, I'd think," he said heavily. Madame Pomfrey nodded and forced a smooth, buttery liquid down Cho's throat, causing her to instantly stop and fall into a dreamless sleep.

When she awoke, hours later, she was in the hospital wing. It took her a minute to remember, and when she did, she ached more than she had thought humanly possible to ache. She saw that everyone in the hospital wing was surrounding Harry's bed and quietly rose out of bed.

She tip-toed past the group around Harry's sleeping form, and made it to the door without anyone noticing. Once she closed the door to the hospital wing behind her, she took off running through the halls. She ran past the cries of "Cho!" and past a concerned Marietta and didn't stop running until she reached the lake.

She threw herself down on the grass, sobbing as though her heart was broken, and it was. Cedric, the strong, gentle, funny, smart, amazing guy who told her he loved her and kissed her and even rescued her from the mer-men's clutches, because she was the one he'd miss most, was gone. She couldn't fathom it, and that just made her sob harder.

After what seemed like hours, Cho felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Marietta. "Are you going to be okay?" Marietta whispered, stroking Cho's hair.

Cho gulped back a fresh wave of tears. "I don't think I'll ever be okay again," she wailed. "My heart is broken, oh my God, Cedric!" She burst into a renewed set of sobs, feeling the pain hit her like a thousand bricks. Marietta let her sob, and when Cho couldn't cry anymore, she led her back inside.

Several weeks later, Cho had earned the nickname "The Human Spigot." It was a rather cruel way of reminding everyone that Cho now cried at less than the drop of a hat. If anyone even mentioned Cedric or the Triwizard Tournament, it was likely that Cho would run from the room, sobbing hysterically. Nobody called her that to her face, of course, with the exception of a few particularly nasty Slytherins. Cho didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore.

When the End-Of-Year-Feast rolled around, Cho was ready to leave Hogwarts, with its constant memories of Cedric and being with Cedric. She listened to Dumbledore's first mention of Cedric, and drank to his memory, with tears gushing down her face. She calmly listened to Dumbledore recounting the way Cedric had died, and felt a faint flicker of pride for her boyfriend, who had tried to stand up to the greatest Dark wizard of all time. It was the first feeling, other than soul-crushing grief, she had felt since she heard the news of Cedric's death.

She listened to Dumbledore bring up Harry's role in the tragedy. She realized with a bit of shock that there was someone else out there that had the slightest inkling of what she had been going through. As she drank to Harry, she found his face in the crowd. He looked tired, but other than that, he looked okay.

Cho faintly smiled. Seeing Harry gave her hope that maybe, once this long hot summer had ended, she would be okay too, even without Cedric to guide her through. And as Dumbledore concluded his speech with a warning to "Remember Cedric Diggory," a warning that was completely unnecessary to Cho, she didn't feel so alone anymore.

After the feast was over, Cho slipped back out to the lake, back to the spot where she and Cedric had had their first date, back where Cedric had pulled her out of the lake, choking and gasping for air, back where they had sat before going to Hogsmeade, where Cedric had told her he loved her for the first time, and back where she had sobbed hysterically after his death. This time, there was no more sobs, only a few familiar tears. Cho stared into the murky waters of the lake, and carefully touched the surface of the water with her palm.

"Goodbye Cedric," she whispered to the lake. "I love you, forever."

She waited for a sign and Cedric did not disappoint. A blazing red feather floated over to the shore, where Cho was kneeling, and she picked it up. "Thanks," she whispered, smiling through her tears.

Cho pocketed the feather and shakily stood up, giving the lake one last look. She turned around and headed back to the crowds of students waiting for the Hogwarts Express, alone and miserable, but not entirely hopeless, not anymore. And that little spark of hope, Cho thought as she hurried to the crowds, clutching her feather, was probably given to her by Cedric, who after all, had loved her with all the fiery passion of a first love.

fin.