Quidditch practices had left Cedric exhausted and sore all over, but the idea of the weekends kept him powering through it. Gryffindor and Slytherin always had the pit on weekends, and he was not about to argue with their captains (both first year captains) for more time. He already worked the poor team enough throughout the week as it was; adding Saturday and Sunday would just push them to the point of exhaustion.

It felt as though he had just laid his head on the pillow one night when he found himself awake the next morning—a Saturday. He wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, but then he remembered what exactly was supposed to happen that day. Hermione Granger, a friend of Harry Potter's, had asked him and a few friends to meet them at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade for a clandestine meeting about Defense Against the Dark Arts.

He got out of bed and started to get dressed, drawing the curtains tight around his four poster. He had wanted to try to eat breakfast with Maddie before Umbridge could do anything about it. Maybe they could even hold hands; the new rules made him frightened to even do that.

When he drew the curtains back, Edward had already left. He rolled his eyes at this. Edward would have jumped over a cliff without a broomstick or a wand if it meant avoiding him.

Breakfast passed without incident. Maddie looked lovely as ever. Neither one mentioned their complete lack of touch, nor the meeting with Harry that they both had planned on attending. While Cedric never laid so much as a finger on her throughout the meal, he did promise to, "See you later, sweetheart," when she left. He stared after her as she left, bitter and angry at Umbridge's rules, but also completely infatuated with his beautiful girlfriend.

He got himself dressed for Hogsmeade before he, Joseph, and John (the latter of whom had been invited by Hermione just earlier that week to the Hog's Head) made their way to the inn.

On the way there, Cedric's heart skipped a beat when he saw Maddie and two of her friends making the treacherous hike through the snow. The young girl's cheeks were flushed red from the cold. While they ordinarily were red as it was, there was something about the blush that made him want to skip the meeting and just spend time with her.

The three girls stopped so that the two groups could finish the journey together. Both Cedric and Maddie promised to catch up with their friends later, then slowed their step so that they had fallen behind the groups. They walked together in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Cedric asked, slipping an arm around the young girl's waist, "Your friends are going to the meeting, too?"

Maddie nodded. "Sierra and Boo hate Umbridge. Amber's meeting us there, but Allison stayed behind—she's too afraid of Umbridge to sneak around like this."

Cedric vaguely remembered Allison. He had spoken to her once before, when he was trying to find Maddie to apologize to her about Cho. He tried to ignore how his heart broke again and again whenever he thought about the incident.

Gingerly, he moved his arm off her waist. As he did so, Maddie removed her left hand from her pocket, revealing the delicate white skin. She was not wearing gloves.

"Aren't your hands cold, baby?" he asked, taking her left hand in his right and squeezing it.

She shook her head. "It's tolerable."

"Not what I asked." Carefully, he squeezed both of their hands into the right pocket of his jacket. "Don't want you to get sick."

She rolled her eyes. "It wouldn't be the end of the world."

"Well, I suppose not. And if you did, I'd take care of you."

They were outside of the inn at that point, but Cedric didn't want to go in just yet. Instead, he took his hands out of his pockets (and Maddie's hand, too), placing both of them on her face and tenderly gave her a warm kiss. He tried to focus only on the amazing thrill of that simple action, the simple display of affection, but he couldn't help but think that after being forced to fear touching Maddie for so long, he felt so much relief being able to show his adoration in this way. Her cool skin, both her hand and her lips, left sparks on his. She was so cold, yet usually she was so warm. It was a bit of a welcome change.

Once he withdrew from her, he took her hand in his once more before letting her go inside. To his great surprise, there were plenty of people inside the little tavern. He led Maddie to a place not too far from her friends and Joseph. When she sat down, he started to trace little patterns into the back of her hand, looking at Hermione and Harry, who seemed to be having a heated discussion.

Fred Weasley began counting as his younger brother, Ron, pulled out more chairs for the people still flowing into the little inn. The bartender seemed either rather annoyed or rather alarmed by the large number of people, which was only made worse when Fred finally said, "Hi. Could we have…thirty-three butterbeers, please?"

As the bartender started to hand them over, a prominent vein in his neck protruding out, Fred called to the not-so-small group, "Cheers. Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these…"

Before Maddie could react, Cedric pulled enough gold out of his pocket to pay for the two of them and passed it to Fred. She glared at him as he did so.

"What?" he finally asked.

"I have the money to pay for that myself."

"I'm the gentleman."

"I don't believe gentlemen are sexist."

"No, but they are supposed to pay for the lady."

"We're not exactly on a date, Cedric!"

"I've already done it now, Mad—no, put that away, I won't take it." She had been trying to hand him a gold Galleon in order to make up for what he had just spent, but he refused. It went back into her pocket, a sour look on her face as she pocketed it again.

Immediately after, everyone fell silent as they looked expectantly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Nobody dared utter a single word. Finally, Hermione offered up, "Er—well—er—hi."

Not a single eye was on her, however; all thirty pairs of eyes that didn't belong to Harry, Ron, and Hermione were staring at the Boy Who Lived himself.

"Well…erm…well, you know why you're here," Hermione continued, finally forcing some people to look at her before flitting back to Harry. "Erm…well, Harry here had the idea—I mean—I had the idea—that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts—and I mean really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts—well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells—"

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" a fifth year that Cedric didn't recognize asked.

"Of course I do. But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because…because…" She took a deep breath before she said, "Because Lord Voldemort's back."

Cedric stopped tracing the patterns into Maddie's hand when she suddenly went rigid next to him at the mention of You-Know-Who's name. He gently and reassuringly squeezed her hand, trying to push all thoughts of the events of the graveyard from his mind. It was bad enough that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was alive, rather than dead as everyone presumed. Having to relive the experience he had with him—awake or asleep—was far worse.

Many others gave noticeable reactions, but Hermione plowed on, "Well…that's the plan anyway. If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to—"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" called a voice that Cedric recognized all too well.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it, and—"

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him."

"Who are you?" Ron asked.

"Zacharias Smith"—Cedric sent him a scathing look—"and I think I've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," Hermione said, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about—"

"It's okay, Hermione," Harry said, finally speaking up. He walked up to Zacharias and spoke directly to him as he continued, "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back? I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

"All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory"—several people began to look at Cedric, as though they only just noticed his presence—"was nearly killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought him back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us what happened to Cedric or how exactly he came back to life, I think we'd all like to know—"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone, I can't help you. I don't want to talk about Cedric when he's in this room, all right?" All of the remaining eyes that had yet to notice him suddenly looked over at him. "And I don't need reminders of what happened to us, and I'm assuming he doesn't, either. So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

He gave a scathing look to Hermione. As though it was planned, Maddie's grip on Cedric's hand tightened, completely synchronized with the turning of Harry's head. He again began to trace patterns into the back of her hand with his thumb. As he did so, he couldn't help but think that Harry was right; he needed no reminders of what had happened just four months prior.

As though Harry wasn't looking at her (though her voice was slightly higher pitched), Hermione said, "So. So…like I was saying…if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to…"

"Is it true," interrupted Susan Bones, a fifth year girl from Hufflepuff, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

Other than a few people whispering excitedly, it went dead silent. Cedric suddenly looked at Harry with a newfound interest. Could he produce a Patronus? A real, true one?

"Yeah," he said at long last.

"A corporeal Patronus?" Susan continued.

"Yes."

"Blimey, Harry!" Lee Jordan said, looking just as impressed as Cedric was sure everyone else felt. "I never knew that!"

"And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" asked a boy that Cedric didn't recognize. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year…"

"Er—yeah, I did, yeah."

Now Cedric's interest was definitely piqued. He always known that Harry was a great wizard, but he had no idea he had been able to slay a basilisk or make a Patronus—a real, corporeal Patronus—by the age of fifteen. Other people were obviously just as impressed as he was. A boy a few years younger than him from Hufflepuff whistled loudly and a Gryffindor girl muttered 'wow' under her breath. Though Maddie hadn't been phased by Harry's revelation about the Patronus (she had been very close to him just a year prior, so Cedric assumed she already knew), she suddenly sat up straighter when it was revealed that he had slain a basilisk.

"And in our first year," said another Gryffindor boy, "he saved that Sorcerous Stone—"

"Sorcerer's," hissed a voice from the front.

"Yes, that, from You-Know-Who."

Cedric remembered this incident. Maddie didn't; she hadn't been enrolled at Hogwarts at the time, so suddenly it seemed as though her eyes were about to bulge out her head.

"And that's not to mention," Cho Chang said, "all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year—getting past dragons and merpeople and acromantulas and things…"

Her eyes whipped over to Cedric (naturally, he also had to face these tasks, and Cho was, after all, his ex-girlfriend), but he kept his gaze intently on Harry and squeezed Maddie's hand even tighter. She seemed to get the message, because she looked at Harry once more as though nothing had happened. For the rest of the meeting, Cedric was sure to keep one eye on her to watch for any sort of lingering feelings she might be having.

"Look," Harry said through the impressed murmurs that had fallen over the group, some of which belonged to people who were looking at Cedric with the same kind of respect, "I…I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but…I had a lot of help with all that stuff…"

"Not with the dragon, you didn't," said a boy that Cedric didn't recognize. "That was seriously a cool bit of flying…"

"Yeah, well—"

"And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer," Susan said.

"No, no, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is—"

"Harry."

All eyes turned to Cedric when he spoke up. The looks on people's faces made it seem as though he had just turned up from the dead. He sat up slightly straighter, looking Harry in the eye, before he continued, "You and I tied for first in the tournament last year. Do you think that was just coincidence?"

"But…I had help from—"

"It doesn't matter. You're three years younger than me. So many people expected you to fail in that tournament, but you didn't." He wasn't quite sure where this was coming from, but he continued to speak as though nothing had happened. "It wasn't just dumb luck that got you so far. It was your own courage and talent."

"But I—"

"And," Cedric continued, ignoring Harry completely, "you saved my life in that maze."

There was dead silence for a few moments, then Harry finally said, "You're the one who held your own in that duel with Voldemort…"

While people shuddered at the name, Cedric did not react as he said, "And he would have finished what he started if you hadn't been there."

"I wasn't trying to protect you or anything, so…"

"But you did. You saved my life." He glanced over his shoulder at Maddie, looking at her as he finished his speech. "And you have no idea how grateful I am for that."

He glanced back up at Harry, who seemed rather dumbstruck by this spiel.

Finally, Hermione broke the silence. "Right. Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there any point in meeting less than once a week—"

"Hang on," said Angelina, "we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"No," said Cho, "nor with ours."

"Nor ours," Cedric agreed.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," Hermione said, sounding a bit impatient, "but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters—"

"Personally," said Ernie Macmillan, a fifth year prefect from Hufflepuff, "I'm at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon us at this critical period. Obviously they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells—"

"We think," Hermione said, "the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts is that she's got some…some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."

There was a long, subdued silence. Nobody dared say anything.

"Hem, hem," Ginny said in such a perfect imitation of Umbridge that several people looked around in alarm and Cedric immediately relinquished Maddie's hand. "Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and get Defense lessons?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "Yes, we were, you're right… Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet…"

Another subdued silence followed as people realized there really was no good place to be having this meeting. Several people rolled this question over in their minds for a few moments, Cedric included. Where exactly would be a good spot? He tried to think back to his fifth year, when he Maddie snuck off around the castle to spend time together without being caught. The Hufflepuff common room around dinnertime didn't seem to be a good place, since about two thirds of the people there wouldn't be able to come in… Nor did abandoned classrooms seem to be much better, because that would be too easy for Umbridge to find…

"Library?" Katie Bell finally suggested.

"I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library," Harry said.

"Maybe an unused classroom?" said a Gryffindor boy, almost as though he had read Cedric's thoughts.

"Yeah," said Ron, "McGonagall might let us have hers, she did when Harry was practicing for the Triwizard…"

"Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," said Hermione, as though she had the same reservations about the situation that Cedric did. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting." As she spoke, she ruffled through her bag, finally producing a piece of parchment and a quill. "I-I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge—or anybody else—what we're up to."

Several people seemed hesitant about doing so, but when the list was passed to Joseph and he added his name without hesitation, many others started queuing up to do the same. Many of the hesitant people were prefects, Cedric noticed, and he figured that perhaps watching the Head Boy add his name made them a bit less reserved about signing up.

With everything said and done, people began clearing out of the Hog's Head in droves. Cedric took Maddie's icy hand in his once more, saying to her, "You're very cold today, love."

He suddenly realized he had never followed through with his plans to see Hogsmeade with her, just the two of them, and their second anniversary had just recently passed…

"Come with me."

She looked perplexed, but followed him out of the pub and down the road a bit. Ahead of them, they could see Liam and Amber in the snow together, clearly enthralled with one another's company. Maddie stepped closer to Cedric, and he gently moved his hand from hers, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"They're quite nice together," she said, breaking the silence. "She's completely enamored with him."

He fought a grin at her casual use of 'enamored'. What made him want to smile even more, though, was how oblivious she seemed to be to the fact that he was also 'completely enamored' with her.

"Liam seems a bit more sane around her, too," he said. After a long pause, he said, "You remember when I promised you to take you to Hogsmeade—just the two of us?"

"Yes."

"I figured now was the time to make good on that promise."

A small grin crossed Maddie's face, her cheeks even redder than they had been against the icy winds. She was clearly embarrassed, and Cedric found it absolutely adorable. "Where exactly are you taking me?"

"You'll see."

Eventually, he found it—Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. He hadn't been here in ages, but he thought that it would have been the perfect place. The last time he had been here, it had been filled floor to ceiling with couples everywhere. By peering through the windows, he found that it had calmed down some, but that the atmosphere remained.

The sign outside the shop announced that the specials of the day were a hot peach tea, as well as a sweet tea. He glanced at the sign as he stopped and held the door open for Maddie before stepping inside himself.

He recalled the first time he had ever done this for her, after developing feelings for her as more than just a friend but before realizing how deeply these feelings ran. It had been two years prior. She had looked awfully pretty that day, and they had had a short conversation once Cedric realized just how much he wanted to be around her. Some of her friends had appeared, inviting her to dinner, but she wanted to be sure to finish the conversation before she left.

Cedric walked her to the entrance of the common room, eager to continue their conversation but knowing it had to be cut short. As they reached the door, instinct told him to hold it open for her. She frowned as she saw this, asking, "What're you doing?"

"My mum—she told me that you always hold the door for a lady."

"You've never done it for me before."

"I guess it never occurred to me that you're a lady."

Immediately he regretted saying this, but she laughed in her beautiful laugh, like the tinkle of fine china, and said, "I'll see you around." She smiled politely before she ducked out of the room, and as the door fell shut again, Cedric wondered why he had wanted to kiss her.

He was forced out of these memories as the bell over the door chimed as they walked in. He looked around the room for a table, and found one dead center. Cedric linked his fingers through Maddie's for what felt like the umpteenth time and led her there. He was forced to let go of her hand as he began pulling out a chair for her. She seated herself as he took the chair opposite her.

Before long, Madam Puddifoot herself appeared. "What can I get you two?" she asked.

"Coffee," Cedric said.

"Peach tea," Maddie said.

As Madam Puddifoot disappeared, Cedric took one of Maddie's hands that was laid across the table. "Get that from the sign with the specials?"

"No. Peach tea is my favorite."

He wrinkled his nose. "How do you like tea?"

"Mum would always give me lemon tea with honey whenever I was sick. She said it's a Muggle home remedy, but it works."

When she mentioned that, he could remember Katie bringing his own mother a box of lemon tea when she caught a cold in his youth. He personally would rather have just taken some pepper up potion from Madam Pomfrey. When Maddie was a first year, he remembered that she had caught a cold since it was running rampant around the school. He had tried to take her to Madam Pomfrey, but she had refused. She hadn't responded to the potion too well after the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament the previous school year, either.

In the lull of conversation, he again began tracing patterns into the back of her hand. "You're letting me pay for this."

She sighed. "Cedric…"

"Look, I have the money. I sort of won a thousand Galleons from the Triwizard Tournament last year. Paying for this isn't going to make me go bankrupt."

She shook her head, saying, "Well, of course not, but…"

"But nothing. I'm paying for it."

He broke his gaze with her, glancing around the shop at all the couples there. While it definitely wasn't as full as all the previous times he had been in the shop, it still housed many people who appeared to be on dates.

"I know I'm a bit late at this," he said, breaking the silence and moving his focus to the fluid motion of his thumb on her hand, "but happy second anniversary, baby."

He looked up at her. If it was possible for her to blush more, then that was what she did. "Happy belated to you, too. But I have to ask… Do you really consider it two years?"

"I asked you to be my girlfriend in November. That was two years ago. Considering it's now November again, I do."

"You also asked me to be your girlfriend again in February."

He suddenly went rigid at this, but Maddie said it as casually as one might discuss schoolwork. The awkward tension that fell over them made him want to exit the shop immediately. She remained calm, waiting for a response. Embarrassed, he looked down at their hands once more. Finally, he managed, "I, uh…I suppose I did."

"So considering what happened with you and Cho…"

"Let's not talk about Cho."

She seemed a bit unnerved by this sudden change in the subject, but said nothing in regards to it. Couldn't she see that he had changed?

When Madam Puddifoot arrived again with their drinks, it was much needed. Not a single word had been said since Cedric had turned the attention away from Cho. He couldn't understand why Maddie would put herself through that kind of emotional pain.

Madam Puddifoot grinned at the two of them, then said to Cedric, "Still take it black, dear?"

"Yes," he said in a monotone, then added, "Thank you," when she set the two drinks down.

She gently placed a small tray with tea things on it in the center of the table, then said to Cedric, "Haven't seen you here in a while. I was beginning to get nervous."

"Well, I do go home for the summer holiday…"

"Oh, no, I know that, dear. But during last school year, you simply stopped coming."

Slowly, his blood turned to ice. He had hoped she wouldn't say anything. Finally, he managed, "A bit of a long story, really."

"Found another person to keep you company," she said, nodding at Maddie.

He tried not to blush as he said, "Good to see you again," hoping to scare off the witch.

"And you," she said as she retreated back to the kitchen.

At first, Maddie said nothing about the matter. She simply picked up a packet of sugar and opened it, saying, "You really drink coffee black?"

He frowned. "Are you supposed to drink it any other way?"

"Some people don't fancy drinking anything bitter, believe it or not."

"It's not bitter."

He really hadn't brought her to the shop to discuss the various tastes of hot drinks, but he didn't know how to change the subject without it being as abrupt as earlier. If he was being honest with himself, he was perfectly content just staring at Maddie for the rest of their time together. She was truly becoming a lovely young woman.

For a little while, they had casual small talk. These were the conversations he loved the most—when they could just discuss nothing at all and be perfectly content in doing so. But at long last, the conversation turned in the opposite direction.

He should have known that the bliss wouldn't last, he thought. But this drastic of a turnaround was something he had not quite been expecting.

Madam Puddifoot had passed by their table again, going up to a different couple who appeared to be attached at the lips. She had set about breaking them apart in order to deliver their drinks when Maddie said the statement:

"Madam Puddifoot recognizes you."

Cedric nearly burnt himself on the coffee that had been raised to his lips. He lowered it and cleared his scalding throat before he said, "I was…here often last year on Hogsmeade trips."

She frowned, apparently onto something. "Were you?"

He cleared his throat again, clearly a nervous tick. Shutting his eyes and taking a deep breath, he finally said, "I may have taken Cho here a couple times last year on dates."

Maddie, too, set her cup down. "You may have?"

He took a deep breath again. "Alright, I did take her here."

"How many times?"

He had to think about that one. But after a short while, he found he didn't know the exact number, which was a bit of a bad sign. "Er—quite a few."

"Define 'a few'?"

Before the words left his mouth, he already regretted them: "I can't."

"What, are you keeping more secrets from me?"

This was something he had not been anticipating. He doubled back in surprise. Alarmed, he finally said, "Mad, you know I wouldn't…"

"So why is it that you were here often enough that Madam Puddifoot knows you and knows I'm not your 'regular date'?"

"Look, Mad, we were broken up at the time…"

"How many dates did you and Cho go on?"

"How many did you and Harry go on?"

She turned rather red at the question, but answered honestly and easily. "One, if you must know—two if you count the Yule Ball."

"So don't be angry with me for taking Cho on a few dates."

"I'm not angry that you took her on dates—I'm just upset that in the two months that you were with her, you went on more dates than you've taken me on in two years."

"It hasn't exactly been two years with you if you—"

"You said when we got here that you considered it two years."

"I did?"

Ah, hell. You did.

Her face was getting redder and redder by the second. No longer was it from the chill or from embarrassment, though; she was now turning scarlet from anger. "Mad, I just meant that we weren't together for a couple months out of those two years. And we've gone on dates."

"Oh, really?"

"I took you to the Three Broomstricks last year in April."

"That was hardly a date, John and Joseph were there."

Dammit, they were. "Your birthday," he said, fumbling for a response.

"You said you didn't consider that a date."

Hell, he wasn't doing too well. Finally, he arrived at, "What about that time in your second year—remember, I stayed behind on the Hogsmeade trip and we—"

"Played wizard's chess? I don't consider wizard's chess to be a date, Cedric."

Shit. "Alright, so we haven't been on any dates before today. But we were secret for an entire year that we were together. How could I take you anywhere?"

"There were four months last school year that we weren't secret," she countered. "That is eight Hogsmeade trips. You could have come up with something."

"Well, it may have slipped your notice but it takes two people to coordinate something like that."

"And I asked you loads of times if you were going to Hogsmeade, but you said no."

"Look, why does it matter? Cho and I aren't together anymore. We haven't been for over ten months."

"I saw you ogling her at the meeting today."

Cedric didn't have a response to this. At the silence that ensued, he suddenly became aware of how many people in the little shop had been watching their debate. It was only their second real fight as a couple, the first being when he had to tell her the truth about Cho. Why was it that she was the cause of both of them?

"Ogling her?"

"Ogling, as in, looking at her, watching her…"

"I know what it means!"

He had not intended to shout, but it slipped out before he could control his temper. Maddie hardly seemed phased by it, though, as she continued, "Then can you explain why you were doing it?"

"Can you explain why you were ogling Harry?" he asked, clearly mocking her by repeating her words.

"It may have slipped your notice," she said, doing the same back to him, "but Harry was the spokesperson at that meeting."

"Alright, fine."

He was ready to end the discussion, but she clearly wasn't done. "Why exactly were you looking at Cho?"

"To make sure she didn't look at me!"

"That's an odd way of doing it! Just tell me—are you attracted to her?"

"Well, she is pretty…"

He regretted saying it before all the words had left his mouth. The way that he had answered her, it had sounded like he was saying 'yes'. But in all honesty, the only thing he could say that was even remotely attractive to him about Cho was her looks—which could not even come close to rivaling Maddie. Maddie was so beautiful, even when she was crying…

Wait, she was crying.

"Maddie, baby, I didn't mean it like that," he said, his voice much softer. He longed to make everything right again; he really had messed up that time.

"Don't 'baby' me," she said through her tears before she got up and ran out of the shop.

"Maddie—" he called after her. Frantically he threw some money down on the table and ran after her, but she had already disappeared before he made it out of the shop. Merlin, you're an idiot, Cedric, he chastised as he made his way back to the castle, hoping to find her. But she was absent in the common room, and all of her friends turned away in disgust when they saw him. He didn't think apologizing was going to be such a simple task this time around.

Sorry for my completely unexpected leave of absence after the posting of the last chapter. I've had a chaotic mess of a life this summer. I had my summer arts program, then I had to make time to Skype my boyfriend, and then there was just a bunch of other stuff. Plus I just moved into my college dorm on Friday, and I'm starting class on Tuesday. I'm hoping to still have time to write and stuff, but I'm taking lots of 'hard' classes this semester (my mom's words). I really wanted to challenge myself in school and I do NOT want to spend more than four years as an undergraduate, especially since I'm already thinking about changing my major.

Anyway, lots of drama this chapter. I'm hoping it was at least semi realistic drama, anyway. I realized that they didn't really fight a lot, just minor disagreements, but normal couples fight, especially after such a great amount of time together.

Alrighty then. Please be sure to review. :)

- Hatter of Madness