The Power of Premonition
Chapter Eight
Cedric grabbed Ginny's hand and pulled her out of the library. She followed clumsily, still not sure what he was about to do.
"Are you sure you need Firewhiskey?", she asked whilst he dragged her onto an empty staircase, heading upstairs.
"Yes", he merely replied.
"But, it's not even –" She looked around, realizing that she didn't know what time of day it was. There were only a few pupils in the hallways and through the countless windows of the castle she could see a darkening sky. "Wow, it's already evening?", she corrected her first thoughts.
"Perfect time for a little Firewhiskey", she heard Cedric say as he stopped in front of a small door embedded in one of the walls of the corridor.
"Where are we?", Ginny asked, after successfully avoiding to bump into Cedric as he stopped suddenly.
"You'll see."
"Ah, you're being cryptic…", she mumbled, looking up and down the deserted corridor.
She then watched how Cedric got out his wand and pointed it at the door. He mumbled words Ginny couldn't understand and then, with an almost silent bang, the door jumped open and revealed a shelf with various things on it.
"What is this?", Ginny asked, poking her head close to Cedric's to look into the shelf.
"This is where we prefects keep confiscated stuff", Cedric said matter-of-factly while rummaging through the shelf's departments. He then waved his wand again and made the shelf spin around to reveal yet another side filled with collections of things pupils were not allowed to have.
"Whoa", Ginny mouthed as she spotted a large amount of dusty bottles in one corner of the shelf.
Cedric looked the same way and grabbed two of the bottles. He blew of the dust and checked the sign on the bottle's belly.
"Oh yeah, I remember those. I took them from some fourth-years several months ago", he said with a satisfied grin.
"You seem to really enjoy this job, don't you?", Ginny mocked.
"It has its advantages", he replied, looking at her with a smirk.
He handed Ginny one of the bottles and then waved his wand to shut the door again.
"Now what?", Ginny asked, looking a little uncertain at the heavy bottle of Firewhiskey in her hand.
"We drink."
"Right here?"
"No, silly", Cedric laughed and motioned her along the hallway.
She followed him and watched how he vanished around the next corner into a small chamber. She entered it after him and looked around as he closed the door behind her.
"Um, where are we now?", Ginny asked.
"This is one of the few secret chambers –"
"Could you use other words for that, please?", Ginny hissed, feeling something twirl inside her stomach, being reminded of the Chamber of Secrets.
"Of course, um, this is one of the few hidden rooms of Hogwarts, that only few know about. Basically this is just an old classroom, used as a storage room. But once you go deeper, you'll discover that nothing is as it seems", Cedric explained, shoving Ginny gently further into the seemingly small chamber.
Yet when they passed the only equipment of the room, a large shelf that touched the ceiling, she saw what he meant. Behind the shelf a larger room revealed itself, with a round ceiling and stone walls covered with old tapestries. There were chairs piled in one corner and rotten looking armchairs in the other. More shelves parted the room into several departments.
"What a weird room", Ginny said, looking around, whilst Cedric walked into one corner of the room and rearranged some of the armchairs. "A perfect make-out room, huh?"
She blushed as soon as the words left her mouth, yet Cedric didn't seem to have heard them.
"How – how did you know about this room?", Ginny asked instead, following him.
"Well –", he replied and looked around at her with a huge grin on his face.
"Oh right, I forgot you're old and experienced and –" Ginny quickly stopped herself, her eyebrows raising slowly. "Um, Cedric?"
"Ginny?", he asked, watching her closely.
She swallowed, suddenly feeling something else inside her stomach.
"I, um, why – why are we here again?"
He tilted his head and walked towards her, one of the Firewhiskey bottles loosely in his hand. Once he reached her, standing only inches away from her, he raised the bottle and smiled.
"To drink, dear", he said as if it was obvious.
Ginny looked down at the bottle in her own hand, before she faced him again.
"Well, I'm –"
"Look", Cedric began, opening his bottle, while still looking at her. "We both need a little time out from all this… stress that's behind and ahead of us. I surely need this to get my head clear again. And I just thought you might accompany me. For your own good. After all you've been through, you deserve this, Ginny."
While talking he leant down to her and shoved his open bottle into her free hand and grabbed her bottle from her other hand. He opened it with his eyes locked on hers. Raising the bottle in his hand, he motioned Ginny to do the same. As she did, he carefully plonked the bottle's bellies together.
"Cheers!", he simply said, before raising the bottle to his lips.
Ginny watched him. "I can't believe you're doing this", she said, causing Cedric to lower the bottle again.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean this, drowning your problems in alcohol!"
"Ginny, I was just dumped by my girlfriend, apparently I'm going to die in three days, and actually I don't see why I shouldn't do this! My life sucks and I think a little bit of Firewhiskey couldn't hurt!"
"You think your life sucks? Hey, in three days the magical world will be conquered once again by You-Know-Who and well, you won't be part of it anymore, but I will still be here. So my life sucks more!"
Cedric stared at Ginny who stared right back.
"Wow, we've got serious issues, don't you think?", he said after a while.
"I guess", Ginny said, looking at her shoes.
"So, for once, let's forget about it, forget about everything, shall we?"
She looked up at him, before she nodded hesitantly. "We shall!"
With that they said cheers again and both raised the bottles of Firewhiskey to their lips. The first sip made Ginny's insides burn. She almost choked and tried hard to keep her face in front of Cedric, who already took another sip. She swallowed hard, coughed a little, before she drank again. With pressing her eyes shut, she also shut out everything that worried her only minutes ago. Her visions, the terribly close future and those other feelings that twirled her stomach.
They ended up on two armchairs, both their bottles half empty. Ginny's world was already spinning heavily and she tried hard not to collapse. Her fingers clasped the bottle so hard that her knuckles stood out white. She looked around, finding herself in a deep conversation about how it was for to have six brothers.
"Well, you see, I'm … um", she just tried to say, her tongue awfully heavy in her mouth, her speech more than slurred. "I actually learned … a lot … from them, you know? I don't think… I would be … me … if Fred and George would have been… girls…"
"I see", Cedric chuckled, sitting in the armchair opposite her, his long legs over one side of it, one arm behind his head, the other clutching the bottle of Firewhiskey. "But that would have been an interesting image…"
Ginny giggled, about to raise the bottle to her lips again, when Cedric suddenly jumped up and held her back. "Hey!", she uttered, staring at him unfocused.
"I already feel bad to have seduced a third-year into alcohol", he whispered, looking at her.
"You haven't… seduced me…", Ginny said with her eyebrows twitching.
Cedric grinned, before grabbing Ginny's hand that held the bottle of Firewhiskey. "I think you've had enough."
"No!", she proclaimed, trying to bend away from his grip. "I… hey, why aren't you all… all… well, you know!"
"I'm old and experienced, remember?", he smirked, putting his own bottle down to grab Ginny's other hand.
"So this doesn't have… any… effect… on you?"
"Not as much as it has on you", he said, watching her.
"Life's unfair", Ginny mumbled, finally letting him put her bottle down too.
"It is", he agreed, still leaning a little over her, holding both her wrists. "It is indeed!"
Ginny looked up at him, her eyes moving quickly over his face. She couldn't help but feel her cheeks redden. The alcohol in her blood wasn't of much help either. Biting her lip, she remained silently sitting in the armchair. Cedric then moved a little – what Ginny interpreted as moving back to his chair – for she leant forwards too quickly, her head bumping into his, making him tumble backwards, knocking over both bottles with his foot.
"Oh god", she squeaked. "I'm sorry!"
She jumped up clumsily, moving too quickly towards Cedric's chair where he sat crouched with one hand on his forehead. She forgot about the alcohol in her system and suddenly, losing her balance, found herself sitting on Cedric's lap. As she realized her position, she jumped up again – just to knock her elbow into Cedric's face. She then stumbled around her armchair and hid behind its back, her face as red as tomato juice. She felt stupid and awkward, feeling the alcohol rush through her veins, eager to prevent her from feeling embarrassed. It wasn't helping.
She buried her face in her hands, as she heard quiet footsteps coming around the armchair.
"Hey, you okay?", she heard Cedric's voice very close to her.
She slowly lowered her hands and found herself facing Cedric.
"I guess it's better if I bring you back to your common room", he whispered, standing up slowly again.
"No", she mumbled, looking at his shoes.
"What?"
"No, I – I don't want to go there…"
"Why not?", he asked and knelt back down.
She avoided his gaze. "I don't want to fall asleep…"
Cedric watched her closely, how she crouched behind the armchair, her cheeks red, her hands fighting with each other on her knees.
"I don't want to see any more of –"
"It's alright", she heard him whisper. He gently put his hand on hers. "Too bad our little drinking session hasn't worked as we hoped it would, huh?"
She slowly looked up at him.
"Don't worry, Ginny, not tonight. It was a fun evening after all, wasn't it? Why ruining it with such bad topics…"
She blinked several times to focus on his face. It was then that she discovered his black eye.
"Oh my, look at you!", she muttered and moved a little closer to him to examine his swollen eye where her elbow had hit him. "I am so sorry…", she said barely audible, one of her hands reaching up to his face, one finger gently touching the area around his eye.
"Never mind", she heard him whisper.
"Does it hurt?", she asked, sitting up on her knees, her other hand wandering up his arm absentmindedly.
"No", he replied, watching her as her hands cupped his face.
"You sure?"
He merely nodded, their eyes meeting, their faces only inches away.
It was him who was the first to move. Without realizing it, Ginny felt how his lips brushed over hers. He drew back right after it, with their eyes still fixed on one another and her hands still cupping his face. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off as his lips once again touched hers. She felt how his hands ran over her back and finally ended up caressing her cheeks.
Running his thumbs over the sides of her face, he drew back again, watching her. As she didn't say anything, he moved in again, pulling her closer to him, his hands holding her face, his lips playing with her bottom lip. It was then that she finally responded. Closing her eyes she leant into the kiss, her hands wandering to his neck, playing with his hair. He kissed her gently, his lips closing around hers.
He pulled back after a while, with Ginny still breathing against his lips, her fingers growing motionless. She opened her eyes and drew back a little, biting her lip as she watched his reaction. He smiled at her, his hands still caressing her cheeks.
"How do you feel?", he asked, one of his fingers playing with a strand of her hair.
She watched him for a while. "Pretty good, I think", she muttered, throwing him an uneasy smile. She continued watching him, before something rushed through her body like a jolt of electricity. She almost jumped up if it wasn't for Cedric to hold her back.
"What's wrong?"
She looked around rather distracted, before she found his eyes again. "I really don't want you to die", she then mumbled, feeling a lump growing inside her throat.
He tilted his head, smiling at her sympathetically. His hands then moved down her back and pulled her into a tight embrace. "I don't have to", he whispered into her ear, while her hands clutched the back of his shirt, eager to not let go again.
Yet it was Cedric, who let go first, leaning back on his knees to watch Ginny.
"We'll make it, Ginny", he said, still trying to fight her doubts.
"Really?", she replied, twiddling her hands nervously in her lap. "I still don't know how."
"Well, we know what's going to happen, right? At least we think we do. So we just have to convince Dumbledore –"
"- who doesn't believe us! Harry already talked to him –"
"I don't think Harry is the best one to solve this problem", Cedric said, his voice suddenly tense.
"I know we shouldn't lean on Harry for this, but he's the only one –"
"No", Cedric interrupted her and stood up slowly. "Not Harry."
"Cedric", Ginny said, watching him turning his back to her. He got out his wand to hex away his black eye rather absentmindedly.
She clumsily got to her feet as well, walking slowly towards him. She reached out her hand to gently touch his back, but withdrew her hand again, walking past him to sit on the side of one of the armchairs, her mind loaded with new emotions.
"Alright, no Harry, agreed. But how –", Ginny began, trying to sort her thoughts.
Cedric turned to her, looking down with his expression unreadable. "This wasn't at all how I planned it…", he said, his voice quiet.
"What – what do you mean?", Ginny asked, feeling very insecure.
"This, I wanted to forget about it just once, but it's always coming back! And whenever it does, it comes back even worse. I –"
"I think I better go now", Ginny whispered, standing up and pushing past him in a rush.
Yet it was Cedric who held her back by grabbing her upper arms.
"Don't", he said, looking at her. "I'm sorry –"
"No, I am sorry. I'm sorry that I bothered to tell you what I saw, maybe I'm wrong. The more I think about it, the more I am sure that I'm wrong. There's no plot. It was just Moody who had a bad day. Those dreams, visions, whatever, were just nightmares, weird products of a stupid girl's imagination. It doesn't mean anything!"
With that Ginny struggled out of Cedric's grip and ran out of the room, onto the seemingly deserted, dark hallway – right into the arms of Mad Eye Moody.
She shrieked as she recognized him, but was silenced immediately as he threw her an angry, yet surprised look. Suddenly the world began to spun around her, the portraits on the walls flew by and the dark mixed with green lights and red eyes. She tried to close her eyes but felt herself motionless. It was then that a single word came to her ears.
"Expelliarmus!"
After that she felt something loosen around her and the next thing she felt, was falling to the ground. She landed on her back as she saw Cedric standing over her, glaring at someone behind her. He held his wand in his outstretched arm, pointing at it with a weird look on his face.
"You don't know what you are doing, boy", she heard Moody's voice from behind her.
Ginny tried to sit up and look around, as she heard robes rushing closer.
"What is going on here?", she heard a voice she hadn't heard since her latest vision. "Mr Diggory, lower your wand! Alastor, what is happening here?"
Ginny watched Cedric lower his wand, before he also lowered his gaze, meeting Ginny's. He bent down to grab her hand, helping her up. As she stood beside him on her feet again, she looked around to see Dumbledore watching her very closely. She couldn't help but feel reminded of how he had accused her to be of fault of Cedric's death.
She quickly looked up at Cedric to make sure he was still alive and no one was yet to be blamed. He met her gaze silently.
"Explain yourself", Dumbledore addressed the two of them.
"Professor Dumbledore, we –", Ginny began, unable to look into the headmaster's face.
"I just caught Ginny here, wandering the corridors. I was about to bring her back to her dormitory – when Professor Moody fetched us", Cedric explained, causing Ginny to stare up at him. "He surprised us, that's why I pointed my wand at him."
"What were you doing here, Miss Weasley?", Dumbledore asked.
"I –", she began, trying to find a proper reason to be wandering the hallways so late at night. "I –"
"Well?"
"She was coming out of that room", Moody chimed in after a while, pointing at the still open door.
"He was hexing me!", Ginny replied, pointing at Moody – causing everyone to stare at her.
"What?", Dumbledore asked. "Miss Weasley, I beg your –"
"It's true", Cedric said. "Professor Moody hexed Ginny with the Impedimenta Charm. He was about to drag her away, as I exited the room and stopped him with the Expelliarmus Spell."
Moody glared at Cedric, while Dumbledore looked from Moody to Cedric to Ginny.
"That boy is delusional!", Moody defended himself. "I would never hex a student!"
"That is not true –", Ginny blurted out.
"I would check the inside of that room, Headmaster", Moody went on. "I am sure you'll find two bottles of Firewhiskey inside, half empty."
Ginny exchanged a frightened glance with Cedric.
Dumbledore looked both of them over before he entered the room – only to come back after a while, empty-handed. "I am afraid there was no such thing, Alastor", he said.
Ginny shot another glance at Cedric who looked past her at Dumbledore.
"I don't think we will learn what happened tonight until we all calm down. Alastor, please accompany me to my office. Mr Diggory, Miss Weasley, I want you two in my office as well, the first thing tomorrow morning. As for now, Mr Diggory, if you would walk Miss Weasley to her dormitory and then immediately go to your own?"
Cedric nodded and motioned Ginny to follow him. "Good night, Professor."
Ginny walked next to him down the hallway, leaving Dumbledore and Moody staring after them. As they turned a corner, she turned to Cedric.
"What was that?", she asked, her voice hushed.
"We got an invitation from Dumbledore. Now he will finally listen to us!"
"I meant that you caught me wandering the corridors!"
"Ginny, I had to say something like that, otherwise Dumbledore would have never believed us."
She watched him for a while, before looking away again.
"Don't be mad."
"I'm not. I'm just… confused. Aren't you?", she asked, looking up at him again.
He met her gaze and threw her a smile. "I am."
"So what do we do about it?"
They just reached the stairs leading up to the Gryffindor tower. Cedric grabbed Ginny's hand and led her upstairs until they stood at the corner to the hallway that led to the portrait of the Fat Lady. He stopped abruptly, looking around, before he turned to Ginny.
"What do you want to do about it?"
"I don't know", she said. "I mean… we… well, you know what we did –"
"Kissed, Ginny, name it, it's fine", Cedric replied with a smirk.
"We… kissed, alright, yeah, we did and it was… nice but very confusing and –"
Cedric suddenly grabbed her upper arms and pinned her gently to the wall.
"The best thing to do after a confusing kiss, is to forget about the confusing part and just enjoy the kiss", he whispered while moving closer to her.
She watched him curiously, before a grin broke from her lips.
"It seems as if Cho was actually right about me, huh?"
Cedric watched her with an eyebrow raised. "It does…", he then agreed, before leaning in to close his lips around hers.
She pulled her arms around his neck, having to stand on her toes to reach him, and responded his movement; completely leaning into that new amount of emotions running through her veins. It seemed like hours until they broke apart again.
Ginny licked her lips, tilting her head. "Thank you", she then whispered, causing him to grin.
"You're welcome", he replied and leant in once more to kiss her cheek. "Good night, now", he then added and backed up a little to make way for her to go to her dormitory.
"Good night", she whispered and smiled at him.
"And tomorrow, the world will look a little better, trust me", he said and winked at her.
"I hope you're right", she replied.
"Me too", he said, watching her as she turned to leave.
"Oh, before I forget", Ginny said, turning around again, facing him. "What did you do with the bottles?"
Cedric merely grinned. "I stored them for further drinking nights."
Ginny smirked at him, before she waved him goodbye.
This night she knew she would dream about Cedric again.
Yet this night, he wouldn't die.
A/N:
A new chapter. Yes, believe your eyes! I finally fought my writer's block and wrote a new chapter.
Mostly because of a review by Bumblez 24: Thank you so much for encouraging me to write on. I needed something like that to finally break the block! Thanks! Even though I wouldn't mind for you to re-read this story xD Maybe you will nevertheless, although here is finally an update!
I also thank everyone else reading and reviewing this story; I really appreciate that! Thank you!
Disclaimer:
I still don't own HP.
Up Next:
Will Dumbledore finally believe what Ginny has to say?
Please reade and review!
