Disclaimer: I own nothing but the shoes on my feet...wait...they are my sisters.

Romeo & Juliet
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
-William Shakespeare

Intro:

The story is drawing to an end. I assume that there will be two more chapters after this one bum ba dum! But hey, i'm the type of person who is just long-winded enough to draw out pivital moments in writing. Haha. Anyways, this chapter was a really strange one to write mainly because they weren't together. More importantly it was really hard to make Cedric a little bit on the emo/sulking side. But I do believe I have done it.

Chapter 14

All around him it seemed that normal life resumed for the students. The buzz about the second task had died down and now the anxieties for the final task were aroused. Only two of the champions found themselves completely absorbed with finding a way to best this maze. The other two found themselves severely distracted. For some reason Cedric took amusement in poking the tip of the quill he was holding into the edge of the hardwood table. The small skritch skritch sound that emitted from his actions seemed to be driving the high pitched noise right through the mind of the girl before him. Long obsidian hair trailed down her shoulders and face as she continued to read the book stretched before her. Jaw clenched with her attention span as far from the book as it possibly could get, Cho Chang finally snapped the cover shut. The force of the snap made some of her hair float in the five-second breeze, making Cedric look up. In his eyes reflected something that much mimicked the expression of a lost puppy.

"You're doing it again Cedric," she growled.

He looked around as though not quite sure what he was doing. Cedric looked down at the study table he was facing. The black surface of the table was marred with several little scratch marks that might suggest a tiny mouse of some sort had been trapped and decided to claw its way out. The Hufflepuff stared a little more, as though caught in a daze. He had been moping again, hadn't stopped all week in fact. No, it had surely been more than a week...or perhaps less. Cedric had lost all hopes of keeping track of the date or the time as it passed him by. Ever since Fleur had broken up with him, he found his heart sunk and his mind vacant.

"Oh...sorry," Cedric flopped back over on the pile of books in front of him.

Cho stared at him with a slightly annoyed expression, which soon faded to an expression of friendly concern. She hadn't known the details of any of it, not wanting to hurt Cedric's feelings by asking what was up with him and Fleur. But Cho knew that something was different about the couple; they didn't even look at one another. It was almost as though because Fleur was gone from his life, Cedric was useless. Seeing such a sight made the Ravenclaw girl very uneasy. Though she had no romantic feelings for Cedric anymore, she still wanted him to be happy. Cho was not the sort of girl who would take joy in seeing the woman who had stole her boyfriend away from her break up with him. Things were tough enough without someone glowering over you to say 'I told you so!'.

Carefully, she leaned forwards so that she was looking into Cedric's eyes.

"Alright buddy, what's up?" she asked.

"Nothing," he sulked.

"That's funny because normally when nothing is wrong with you, you realize right away when you've just dipped the sleeve of your robe in your parchment ink," Cho indicated, seeing the black and yellow robe lined with thick blue ink.

Cedric seemed to have taken a moment to register that. His eyes fled from hers to the ink bottle that he had forgotten to cap a while ago. Feeling much like he had been caught red handed in the middle of a crime; Cedric capped the bottle and made every attempt to stop his sleeve from panting a lovely pattern on his Charms homework (which had been decorated with several box-shaped doodles anyways). He sighed and pulled out his wand, casting a small spell that cleaned the fabrics of his robe out.

"I'm not myself, okay?" he countered.

"I noticed," she pressed.

Silence ensued as Cedric was reluctant to keep information away from Cho. He knew that he shouldn't have been even hanging around her due to Fleur's suspicions but it seemed too mean a thing to ostracize her because of a mistake on his part. Cedric just couldn't bring himself to spill all his problems on the dark-eyed girl before him. Cho wouldn't be happy to know that she was the source of his unhappiness...though unintentionally so. Someone walked by behind them but his attentions never left the scribbles on the desk top.

"It's Fleur."

Somehow Cedric assumed that Cho already knew that much. Would she hate Fleur if he told her the whole story? Maybe she would just hit him on the head and tell him he was an idiot. Was he really wrong for having hugged her? Surely not. But he still loved Fleur, even if she didn't trust him or even look at him. Saving her little sister had made that so very clear to him. He hadn't done much but the administrative board had cracked down hard on him. Receiving no point reductions, he was warned by Dumbledore that another disobedience of the rules of the tournament would get him thrown out of it. Strangely enough, he really wouldn't mind if that happened. Shame meant nothing to him at this point, so long as he could get back Fleur.

"What about her?" he had known that was coming.

"She," he begin but had to take a deep breath before finding the right phrasing, "listen, Fleur saw me hug you after you told me that you weren't in love with me anymore and now she just thinks I was trying to get close to her to get extra information about the tournament. Haven't you seen the way she ignores me? I tried apologizing but I can't even get close to her without the Beauxbaton girls hammering me with dirty looks and insults!"

Cedric stopped on that last note, watching the emotions displayed across Cho's face. Curiosity. Shock. Anger. He didn't like the reactions that he saw in her face. But soon the anger faded to a slight smile. For a moment there he thought that Cho was happy he had been dumped by Fleur but then she spoke and the world came back into place...well as much 'in place' as it could be without Fleur besides him smiling.

"That's it?" she raised her eyebrow.

"Yeah," he waited for her joy at his failed relationship.

"Why don't you write her a letter?" Cho suggested.

"I don't want to bug her. I've told her I'm sorry and that's all that I'm going to say," he responded sullenly.

"Did you tell her exactly what happened?" she raised her eyebrow once more.

"Not exactly..." Cedric's eyes shifted downwards. Cho rolled her eyes.

"Then that's your problem. She probably still thinks you are just playing her for information and we both know that if that were the case we wouldn't be having this conversation. Now...are you going to write a letter to her or not? I can get it to her." Cho pushed.

For a second he seriously considered her idea. But...a letter? That seemed too impersonal. He wanted to tell Fleur to her face but that would never work out at the rate things were going. The scratches on the table seemed very interesting to the heart-broken man right now. From where he sat he could hear Cho's annoyance with his reluctance to bother Fleur. If she didn't love him anymore than that was that, he had told her that he would wait and he certainly didn't want her to think that he was stalking her. If Fleur still loved him...wouldn't she come back?

"No thanks. Hey I got to go, herbology is next and I don't want to be late," He grabbed the strap of his bag, standing up and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Cedric!" Cho said, frowning. Cedric paused and stared back at her.

"Thanks for the help though Cho, I appreciate it."

There was no use in trying to tell Fleur what happened, to make excuses for something that he had never committed. Cedric was sure that he would wait forever for the beautiful half-veela. Even if she never understood how much he loved her, Cedric would wait. Sending her a letter with petty excuses seemed so impersonal, so against what he had said that Cedric didn't even want to think about it. Cho was trying to help but the only help that he could receive would be help from his beloved; Fleur.

- - -

It didn't take long for him to get the to greenhouse, in fact it was a very quick amount of time. Cedric paused, his hand over the door knob of the great structure. He had herbology with Fleur...did he really want to cause her all the trouble of him being there? Cedric remembered the last class with a broken heart. Fleur had done everything possible to avoid him, including sitting on the edge of her chair, avoiding eye contact, doing everything herself so as not to have to ask him. He was finding it more and more painful to even enter the greenhouse.

With a heavy heart he shook his head and turned around, beginning to walk in the opposite direction; Fleur didn't need that stress right before the third task and neither did he. Cedric knew that he should be studying up, hitting the books like the other three champions, but he couldn't seem to concentrate. All around him he had people cheering for him, telling him that he was a winner, they were routing for him. But all he could think about was Fleur. Cedric felt like he was turning his back on his school just by loving her. Though one thing was sure in his mind; he'd turn his back on the whole world just to love Fleur Delacour.

Cedric had been walking so long that he didn't even realize he was trotting down the halls of Hogwarts until he nearly side swiped a kid with the large bag he carried. Feeling sheepish, he apologized to the first year who squeaked by with a fearful expression as though Cedric were some sort of god not to be touched. For some reason the very idea brought him to laugh lightly. The sound of footsteps behind him sounded and someone called out his name. He let his eyes fall back and, for a second, saw a flash of blue. Expression lit, he whirled around and found himself disappointedly looking at Roger Davies.

"Cedric! What are you deaf man?" he asked, panting slightly.

"Sorry," Cedric sighed, "what's up?"

Roger Davies. As in Roger Davies, key seeker for the Ravenclaw team. Roger Davies, the guy who had loved Fleur and lost her to yours truly. Perhaps the longest Quidditch rival that Cedric found himself competing with; the beau of ravenclaw. There was only one reason that either of them ever talked; competitive chatting. However Quidditch had been resigned this year due to the tournament so then why was Davies bothering to even chat with the Hufflepuff? Cedric couldn't seem to grip an explanation with his mind as he stared at the Quidditch seeker.

"A word," Davies looked at the bustling halls around them, "privately please."

For a moment Cedric was wondering if Davies had hatched some half-brain scheme regarding a competition...or maybe he just wanted to toss Cedric's heart around because of the Fleur incident. It was much like Davies to be overly protective of the girl who had once stole his heart (and probably still had it). Roger would surely jump at a chance to expose Cedric for someone he really wasn't. Cedric, at this point, couldn't bring himself to care about his own image.

"Sure," he replied.

In silence they walked towards the outside, sat down on a picnic table that nobody had used for years it seemed (mainly because the table had been hidden behind some sort of strange tree and faced the lake). With a clash, Cedric's back flopped down on the table as though it were a representation of his very beaten soul. Davies sat down before him, strangely the entirety of his school stuff consisted of a few books and a much scratched up quill. Cedric wondered if the thing would poof to dust if he touched it. Better not chance upsetting Davies anymore...he snickered mentally.

"The final task is tomorrow," Davies started and paused as though to make sure Cedric were listening.

Cedric, though tempted to talk back rather rudely to Davies, kept his mouth plastered shut and his ears open to the words that were spoken before him. He hoped that Davies had a point to make and that he made it fast...thought his last class for today had been herbology and well...he had skipped that one unfortunately. If only his old man heard of that...His thoughts were interrupted by Davies starting up again.

"It would be, I mean you," Davies struggled to find words and then sighed before starting up again, "Listen. Cedric. I don't really like you because of the whole competition thing, but you are still one of my friends and so is Fleur. I know you don't think that she has any feelings for you left but I can assure you that she still loves you. I wanted to date her myself, and if I were a sleaze I'd take advantage of this opening you've left, but I'm not and I truly just want to see her happy so..."

Cedric blinked a couple of times, not believing what he was hearing. Was Davies serious? Davies...an intelligent thought? More importantly, he was talking about Cedric and Fleur getting back together again. So then...did that mean that Fleur loved him still? His heart seemed to flutter with these words. She still loved him? How could Davies be sure? Cedric felt the clock work of his mind spinning round and round.

"Just tell her you messed up and make up already," Davies finished, as though just ending a very complicated math problem.

For a moment, Cedric just stared. The he spoke.

"You serious?" his eyebrow was poised quizzically.

"Of course I am! She talks about you constantly, though she pretends to make it insults I can tell that she's really thinking about you. I may be a dense guy but when it comes to Fleur Delacour I'm pretty much an expert. I don't know what you did to her but make it better, if only for her sake. I know that you aren't the type of guy who would do anything to intentionally hurt her," Davies's face was serious, for once.

"You think she'll listen to me?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't she? I've never heard her talk so much about one guy in my entire life," Davies grinned and moved to stand up, gathering his stuff, "well I got to get going, I've got another class unfortunately and I can't skip classes because I'm not a Triwizard champion," Davies scowled and began to walk off.

Before he was almost gone, he paused and turned around to face Cedric.

"Oh, and, Cedric! If she gets hurt out there...I'm going to have to kill you!" Davies yelled across the lawn.

"I won't let her!" Cedric yelled after him, grinning.

With one last grin and a thumbs up, Roger Davies disappeared behind the pillar and back into Hogwarts. Cedric found his heart racing; his thoughts were all over what Roger Davies had told him. She talked about him. A lot. She still loved him. Fleur Delacour still loved him. Cedric Diggory. He still had a chance to make things right after he had really screwed them up. One chance. Cedric seriously found himself contemplating going to the greenhouse and apologizing right now. Only the time told him that by the time he got there the class would already have left on their excursion to plant trees on the edge of the forest and he would be the only one in the greenhouse.

So then it was decided. He would tell Fleur in person tomorrow. No matter what. He would make her understand. Tell her that he loved her more than anything, more so than he had told her before. The Hogwarts champion would not give up on her as he had planned to do. No matter how long it took. No matter how much she pretended to hate him. Not matter if the world wanted to stop him.

Nothing mattered to him except Fleur Delacour.

End Note:

Alright so the next chapter is going to have a bit of a gap I think, i'm going to start it off right at the maze, no interlude in between. When you really think about it that's what they did with the movie. For the life of me I couldnt' remember any event inbetween the 2nd and third task other than the death of Barty Crouch (wouldn't they keep that underwraps and away from the champions anyways?). But, for interest purposes i'm going straight into the final stretch. Be prepaired for angst! Bwahaha.