A/N: So I'm super pleased you're all enjoying this. 80 reviews is absolutely manic and I love reading every single one of them. I hope you enjoy this chapter (which was quite hard to write as I didn't really know where I was going with it). Anyway, let me know what you think. Updates are going to be a bit further apart now because I'm back at college tomorrow :(


Eclairs.

by Flaignhan.


"So I thought Dorian was a bit annoying to begin with," Cedric began, his spare hand reaching behind his back so he could scratch it while his other hand kept a firm hold on his book.

Hermione looked up from her own book. "And?"

"And now I think he's completely mental," Cedric finished.

"A fair analysis," Hermione said, nodding slowly. "You're enjoying it then?"

"Yeah, it's easier to understand than the others. It hasn't got vacuum cleaners or televisions or any of that rubbish in it."

Hermione smiled. "You should have taken muggle studies. Then maybe -"

"Then maybe I wouldn't be taking the subjects that I want to take?" Cedric grinned, displaying his perfectly straight pearly white teeth. Hermione would have been quite jealous had Madam Pomfrey not shrunken her own teeth a few months previously.

"You could have taken muggle studies too," Hermione said.

"Yeah but there's plenty of muggleborns here who can explain that sort of stuff better than Professor Burbage can."

"Professor Burbage is very nice," Hermione said defensively, frowning slightly as she looked at the soles Cedric's shoes, which were resting casually on the table.

"I'm sure she is, but it doesn't change the fact that she's completely batty."

Hermione tutted and returned to her book.


"Oh look, there's Ginny, shall I make her and her friends explode?" he sounded a little too excited about explosions for Hermione's liking.

"There'll be an awful lot of questions to answer and I'm fairly sure Mrs Weasley won't be too happy if you blow her to smithereens..."

"Watch this," he said in a low voice, his breath tickling Hermione's ear.

Hermione could sense that Cedric was about to do a lot of smiling and a lot of shoulder touching. She could also sense that Ginny would be giggling for the next two weeks.

"Ginny!" Cedric said happily as he approached her, "how's my favourite redhead?"

Ginny and her friends came to a halt as they walked down the corridor. Ginny frowned while her friends looked at Cedric with dumbstruck expressions on their faces. "There are only two other ginger people in this school who aren't related to me."

Cedric smirked and took a step forward. "All right, how's my favourite third year?"

Ginny frowned again and Hermione was rather impressed that her freckly cheeks were only slightly tinged pink. "How many third years do you know?"

"Merlin, you're demanding today, aren't you?" Cedric said with a wide smile.

A couple of Ginny's friends sighed but Ginny just waited patiently for him to amend his rather poor compliments.

"Okay, how about this one: how's my favourite girl in this entire school?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow, doubting this to be true.

"Favourite-r than Hermione?" Ginny asked sceptically.

"Even favourite-r than Hermione," Cedric confirmed, crossing his fingers behind his back so only Hermione could see. Hermione felt a smile form itself on her face at the sight of his crossed fingers.

Ginny beamed and her cheeks became a little pinker. "I'm great," she told him. "How's my second favourite champion?"

Cedric's jaw dropped. "Oh Ginny, how could you hurt me so?" he cried dramatically, "although I suppose I'm not as heroic as Harry is, am I?"

Ginny blushed a little more.

"Ah well, I can deal with that," Cedric said. "I'll see you around, Ginny."

To Ginny's delight, and the amazement of her friends, Cedric dropped a kiss on top of her head before he squeezed her shoulder, gave her one last smile and walked away, Hermione shaking her head as she followed him.

"Now that," Cedric said quietly to Hermione as she caught up with him, "was a master at work."

"I'm surprised she was even able to say more than a couple of words to you," Hermione told him. "She's getting better."

"Girls always get cheeky when they want to impress their friends," Cedric replied. "Second favourite...how could she?"

"You'll get over it," Hermione assured him.

Cedric frowned. "Kitchens?"

"What, do you need some éclairs after that devastating blow to your ego?" Hermione smirked.

"No, I think you need éclairs, and I need to watch you eat them."

"Pervert," she smiled despite Cedric's unsettling habits.


"What was it like?"

"Amazing..." Ginny replied dreamily, twirling a strand of hair around her index finger.

"I don't believe you. Why would Cedric Diggory kiss you? I thought he fancied Hermione?" a blonde girl with glasses said doubtfully, her eyebrows knitted tightly together in a jealous frown.

"You weren't there, Diane," another girl said exasperatedly. "He kissed her, on top of her head, and he said that she was his favourite girl in the school."

"That doesn't make sense. He's a sixth year, and he was going out with Cho Chang. Why would he ditch her and then...I mean, no offence Ginny, but she's older and -"

Hermione cleared her throat loudly, causing the group of girls sitting in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room to jump.

"I can assure you," Hermione said, addressing Ginny's friend Diane, "that Cedric did kiss Ginny, and I can also assure you that he doesn't fancy me."

Diane's jaw dropped. "I want every detail," she said excitedly, turning back to Ginny.

Hermione rolled her eyes and made a mental note to hex Cedric if he ever did anything that caused a reaction as annoyingly giggly as the one he had caused today.


Ginny elbowed Hermione in the ribs at breakfast, causing her to choke on her cereal.

"Look!" Ginny hissed, jerking her head over to the Ravenclaw table, where Viktor had stopped to talk to Cho, who was blushing slightly as he spoke to her.

Hermione's jaw dropped slightly. She glanced over to the Hufflepuff table to see Cedric, spoon halfway to his mouth, which was hanging open, staring at Cho and Viktor. His friends were laughing at him, glancing over to Viktor and Cho every now and then as they spoke.

Slowly, Cedric turned to meet Hermione's eyes. 'Fast!' he mouthed, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

'Jealous?' she mouthed back.

He shook his head vehemently then mouthed: 'Surprised'.

Hermione couldn't argue with that, so instead she decided to finish her cereal, only half listening to Ginny's chatter. She frowned when she noticed Dumbledore watching Cho and Viktor's exchange, a small, triumphant looking smile on his face.

Cedric caught up with her as she was walking to Transfiguration. "She took a long time to get over me, didn't she?"

"What were you expecting?" Hermione asked, "her to be on her knees begging you to take her back for weeks on end? Aren't you glad?"

"Well yeah, I am glad," Cedric admitted, "but it's a bit insulting, isn't it?"

Hermione tutted as a group of girls turned their heads as they walked past Cedric, in order to get a longer look at him. "And of course she wasn't offended at all by the fact that you left her in the bottom of the lake to drown..."

"I didn't leave her to drown," Cedric said with a frown. "I just...left her."

They had arrived at Professor McGonagall's classroom and the other students were already beginning to file in. "Yes, you left her because you were too busy rescuing the girl who she was quite sure you were cheating on her with. You're really the perfect gentleman, aren't you?"

"If you two are quite finished discussing inane matters," Professor McGonagall was standing in the doorway, an unamused and impatient expression on her face, "then I can get on with my lesson, and I'm sure, Mr Diggory, that Professor Vector can get on with his."

Hermione blushed, unused to being told off by Professor McGonagall and squeezed past her into the classroom.

"Mr Diggory I would like to see you in my office at break time. No excuses."

"Professor..." Cedric groaned. "We were only talking..."

"No excuses," Professor McGonagall repeated firmly, before she shut the door in his face.


He was waiting outside as Hermione, Harry and Ron left the classroom and she gave him a grim smile.

"Why aren't you getting told off?" he demanded.

Hermione shrugged as Professor McGonagall, who was sitting at her desk sorting through homework, beckoned Cedric in with a bony finger.

"Wait for me," he murmured, and then went into the classroom.

Ron frowned. "You're not actually waiting, are you?"

"Yes," Hermione replied. "He'd wait for me."

Ron rolled his eyes and Harry shook his head in amusement, although Hermione failed to see what was funny. "See you in Herbology," he called over his shoulder.

Hermione sighed, and hung around in the corridor aimlessly for a full ten minutes before Cedric reappeared, looking like he'd spent the first half of his break being as mind numbingly bored as Hermione had.

"Well?" Hermione asked as they set off down the corridor, towards the stairs that led to the entrance hall.

Cedric smirked.

"What's so funny?" Hermione asked. "Didn't she give you detention?"

Cedric laughed, which only served to make Hermione more impatient.

"What did she say?"

"She's very protective of her students," Cedric said, still smirking. "She said she'd blame me if you don't get Outstanding in all of your OWLs next year. And apparently Ginny and her friends have been rather distracted of late...apparently I'm causing quite a stir amongst you Gryffindor girls."

"That's it?" Hermione said, bewildered. "That's all she wanted to say? 'Stop being so charming'?"

"Well she didn't say it in quite such a complimentary fashion as that...it was more of a 'stop causing gossip amongst my girls or I'll have you in detention for the rest of the year'."

"Ah, so no more smiling and no more whispering then?"

"'Fraid not," Cedric replied glumly. "I'm gonna have to watch myself, I'm just so naturally wonderful that -"

"Oh please," Hermione said boredly, "give it a rest, will you? You know that rubbish won't wash with me."

"Yes, I've been wondering about that. Why are you so different? It appears the 'small minority' isn't so much a small minority, more a singular person with incredibly strong will power."

Hermione rolled her eyes. She found she did that a lot when she was around Cedric.

"I even got a shy smile from Millicent Bullstrode the other day, you know, that Slytherin in your year that's built like a broomshed and looks like she could wrestle a chimaera," Cedric paused, considering something, "and she'd win."

"The name would have sufficed," Hermione told him.

"Yeah but the description was thought provoking, don't you think?"

Hermione rolled her eyes again. "You actually got a smile from Millicent Bullstrode?"

"Yeah, bit worrying, really. I started Catcher in the Rye, by the way."

"Oh good!" Hermione's face lit up with a smile, "what d'you think? Where are you up to?"


"Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?" he asked, eyeing up his éclair as though trying to decide on the most effective way of devouring it.

"Yes," Hermione replied. "Why?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to get a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks. It'd be nice to hang out somewhere that isn't the library or the kitchens."

"Um..." Hermione began awkwardly, torn between wanting to take him up on his offer and seeing through the plans that she'd already made.

"If you don't want to that's fine," Cedric said quickly, "but I just thought I'd ask, you know."

"No it's not that," Hermione said hurriedly, "I do want to, but I've got...things that need seeing to on Saturday."

An accurate translation of 'things that need seeing to' would have been 'Sirius Black is in desperate need of company and food because he's been hiding out in a cave and living off of rats for the last few months' but she doubted Cedric would be entirely pleased that she was choosing to spend her time with a convicted mass murderer over himself. That would probably be one blow too hard to his delicate ego.

"We can always go another time," Cedric suggested. "Don't worry about it."

"Well it won't take up the whole day," Hermione said, "so I suppose I could meet you at about three o'clock?"

"All right," Cedric said, nodding in agreement, "three o'clock it is."

Hermione smiled, adjusting her position on the uncomfortable stone step that she was sitting on.


"Hermione, if he asked you to Hogsmeade, it's a date."

"It's not a date, Ginny..."

"It is. This is huge. Really huge. Well, it would be if you accepted the fact that he'd asked you out."

"He hasn't. We're just friends, Ginny."

"For Merlin's sake, Hermione!" Ginny said frustratedly, "he's finally got things moving between you two and all you can say is that you're just friends?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and didn't reply. She knew full well that Cedric had asked her as a friend, and Ginny's assumption that he had asked her on a date was absolutely absurd. Cedric had much better options when it came to dating, so there was no way in hell he'd ever even consider...

Hermione huffed, annoyed that Ginny had even set this train of thought in motion.

Harry walked over to their table in the common room and Hermione decided now would be the best time to tell him that she needed to be back to the Three Broomsticks in time to meet Cedric on Saturday.

"Is that all right?" Hermione asked, biting her lip worriedly as she waited for his reaction.

Harry frowned a little. "Yeah, fine," he said. "Why d'you need to be back?"

"She's got a date with Cedric," Ginny told him, smiling widely.

Harry looked amused. "Really?"

"It's not a date," Hermione told him.

"All right, I believe you," clearly he didn't.

"Harry!" she moaned. "Don't you start!"

Harry merely grinned as he got his homework out of his bag and sat down next to Ginny, who blushed furiously at their unexpected close proximity.

After a few minutes he sighed. "Help?" he asked, turning to Hermione, his hand ruffling his hair after he spoke.

"You should have considered that before you started teasing me," Hermione replied, her attention remaining on her own homework.

"Please?" he begged.

She relented.