When the first weak rays of sun came in through the high windows, Cedric started to roll over so that he could block out this light—but froze when he realized that there was something that was preventing him from doing just that. Something was pressed up against him, and to his alarm, he had an arm wrapped around that something. And that something was in his bed.

He opened his eyes, confused on several accounts. Firstly, he didn't have a blanket on him, and secondly, he felt very oddly warm for not having a blanket. Third, he was not in his dormitory at all, but curled up on the sofa in the Hufflepuff common room. And lastly, fourth, the something that prevented him from rolling over was not a something, but a someone.

Maddie was asleep next to him on the sofa, her glasses still on her face and her body curled up into a ball—as neatly as it could be, considering how cramped they were. Cedric was hopelessly confused for a few moments, until the memories of the night before came flooding back to him, in an odd, jumbled order. He recalled holding Maddie as she drifted off to sleep; he remembered seeing the fire being reflected off of her glasses, the same way that it was now; he could vividly picture every time that they kissed; he reminisced about coming down the stairs feeling exhausted yet unable to sleep and finding, to his surprise, that she couldn't sleep either; he thought about what she had said to him last night, and what he had repeated back to her:

"I love you."

They must have fallen asleep together, apparently drunk off of the other's love. As he thought more and more about the previous night, he suddenly remembered Maddie falling asleep in his arms, and him whispering in her ear, cajoling her to sleep. It was so easy to do just that when he was so in love with her. But a pressing issue arose in his mind when he thought about where they were.

Nobody had seen them, had they? Nobody had come down here, unable to sleep as well? Or perhaps somebody had gone to use the restroom in the dead of night and had seen them? Or maybe people were already going to breakfast?

Cedric tilted his head up to see what time it was by looking at the large clock above the fire, dispelling his final theory when he saw that it was only six o'clock in the morning. Nobody would be leaving for another hour, because breakfast didn't start until seven fifteen and continued until nine thirty, since it was Saturday. There was no reason for anyone to be up so early anyway because of the weekend. But they couldn't stay there forever; they would eventually have to get out of bed.

Not out of bed, he reminded himself. Off the couch.

Gently, he removed his arm off of her side, propped himself up with the other arm, and began to gently shake her awake. "Maddie, sweetie," he whispered in her ear, but found that her features contracted at the sound of his voice, then fell relaxed again as she slumbered on. "Maddie," he said louder, shaking her with more vigor.

Her facial muscles contracted again, but this time, her eyes opened after the contraction and she turned to the sound, the surprise on her face evident when she saw who had woken her. She sat up straight, apparently already remembering the night before.

"Good morning, sweetheart," he said to her.

"What time is it?" she asked in the groggy voice that he loved so much. Her apparent sleepiness made a bashful smile cross his face as he answered her question.

"It's six."

"In the morning?"

Cedric nodded at her. "I didn't want to wake you, but we can't stay asleep out here forever."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Only about two minutes."

She ran her fingers through her blonde tresses, then covered a yawn with her hand. Finally, she turned to look at Cedric. "We said it last night, didn't we?"

Assuming that 'it' referred to 'I love you', he nodded. "Yes, we did."

"And the world didn't end?"

He laughed. "No, it didn't." He quieted himself down when he saw how tired she looked. "Hey. You should go upstairs and get a little bit more rest before breakfast, alright? Go back to sleep. In your bed," he finished off with a smile.

Cedric waited until Maddie stood before standing himself. She nodded and took off for the direction of her dormitory, but as he watched her walk away, he couldn't resist. "Hey—Maddie?"

She turned around and he beckoned for her to come back over to him. When she was standing before him, he held her in a tight embrace, saying, "I love you." With that, he kissed her, so gently and so quickly that it was like it almost never happened. But he could feel it; he could feel his lips tingling from where they had brushed hers.

"I love you, too," she said.

"Go to sleep, sweetheart. I'll see you later."

Once she had disappeared up the stairs, he turned and went back to his dormitory, feeling his heart pounding. Merlin, he would never get used to how it felt not only to love her, but how it felt saying the words aloud. It was anyone's guess why they had waited so long to say it to one another.

Cedric opened the door to his dorm room as quietly as possible, shutting it slowly so as not to wake his sleeping roommates. His bed was just as he left it, and he started to cross to it, suddenly feeling pretty tired himself, when…

"Where have you been?"

Cedric jumped at the noise, but looked up to see that it was just Joseph.

"Why do you have to do that to me?" he asked quietly, feeling his heartbeat slow down to normal.

"Do you know what time it is? Because I do. It's six o'clock in the morning, Cedric. Where have you been?"

"When did you turn into my father?" He was whispering and it was a bit of a rude remark, but he said it with a wide grin on his face, hoping to counteract the comment. "What are you doing awake right now?"

"I could ask you the same question. You seem to be forgetting that I wake up with the sun. And this morning when I woke up, your bed was empty. Did you get any sleep at all last night?"

"I did…just not in here. I…was feeling insomniac, so I went down to the common room…"

"You fell asleep in the common room? Why in the world would you—"

"Maddie was there," he said, finally climbing into bed. "I told her that I loved her."

Joseph immediately stopped speaking. When he finally opened his mouth, the statement caught Cedric off guard: "Well, it's about time that you did. I've been waiting to hear you say that for over a year now."

"And I've been waiting over a year to say it. She's really something, Joseph."

A little bit later, he managed to fall asleep for another hour and a half, then he woke up around seven forty-five to the sound of his friends' voices. He got up and got dressed, wondering whether Joseph had said anything to the rest of them. Nobody said anything, so he assumed that they were none the wiser, and so they finally went up to breakfast as a group. He did not exchange a word still with Edward.

When they arrived in the Great Hall, Cedric saw Maddie sitting with a group of her friends, seeming about twelve times happier than he had ever seen her, and he was about to walk up to her, when he heard a very confused question from Joseph:

"Cedric, aren't those your parents?"

He looked up and found, to his surprise, both of his parents seated across from one another at the center of the Hufflepuff table. They seemed to be waiting for something, maybe someone—was it him?

His father looked up and saw him, calling, "Cedric!"

Cedric turned to his friends. "I'll catch up with you later," he said, then walked to join his parents. His mother stood to hug him, then he sat in the empty seat next to her. Before he started to eat breakfast, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Didn't you hear?" his father asked, in a loud, booming voice. "The parents of the champions have been invited to watch the Final Task!"

"And we've got quite the catching up to do," his mother said, "since you weren't home for Christmas."

His father immediately set into discussing all the things he had heard about the tournament, both from Cedric's letters and from the newspapers and word of mouth. Cedric spent much of breakfast correcting his father's errors, confirming certain pieces of information, and listening to his father boast about his accomplishments. He spent very little time actually eating.

His father's statement was confirmed, however, when he looked across the hall to the Slytherin table where Krum sat with his father; Fleur, at the Ravenclaw table, sat with two people who looked alarmingly beautiful—and very strikingly similar to her—and who seemed alarmed by the hubbub of Hogwarts; and Harry, whose own parents were deceased, sat with Molly and Bill Weasley.

His father forced him to attention when they asked how school was going and he teased, "So…are there any girls?"

How does he not know? was Cedric's first thought, but he swallowed the pumpkin juice raised to his lips, dried his mouth with the back of his hand, and cleared his throat. "Well, uh…there is one."

"Oh?" His father seemed very attentive. "What's her name?"

"You…you know her already."

"Who is she?" His father looked very confused, very fast.

It's now or never. Cedric looked back and forth from his mother and father, cleared his throat again (was this becoming some nervous tick?), and said, "Mum…Dad…I'm dating Maddie."

There was dead silence for a few seconds as the color drained from Amos' face and as surprise (but not anything else; not disgust or contempt like her husband) crossed Lucy's face. When one of them finally spoke, it was Amos, who said, "How—how old is she?"

Rather than answer directly, Cedric said, "She's a third year."

Amos dropped the fork that was halfway to his mouth. Cedric momentarily forgot how to breathe, but regained his composure when his father spat at him, "Is…is this some kind of joke?"

"No, Dad."

"But you can't be serious…"

"I'm dead serious."

Amos sputtered for a few moments, apparently unable to form a coherent thought. When he spoke, his face was very white; Cedric could feel his blood turn to ice as his father said, "Do you think this is funny, Cedric? Do you? Because I'm not laughing. This isn't the least bit funny."

"Dad, it's not a big deal…"

"Not a big deal?" Cedric cringed when he noticed how loud his father was getting; several people turned to look in their direction. "Cedric, do you not understand the severity of this situation? Maddie is thirteen. She is a child. And you are a grown adult. I don't think I could stress to you how—how—how alarming this situation really is…"

"She's not a child, Dad!"

"You mean to tell me that you think thirteen is now adulthood? Do you?"

"Dad, you don't know her the way that I do. She's so much more mature than anybody else her age. I don't even see her as that young."

"You know how absolutely disgusting that sounds? Do you?"

Lucy, who had been sitting silently, watching the argument like a Quidditch spectator, finally piped up (complete with a reddened face) to say, "Amos, stop it."

"Do you not understand this situation, Lucy? Are you trying to encourage pedophilia? Do you want him to get charged with rape?"

"What are you talking about?" Cedric spat. Rape? Pedophilia? What in the world…?

"You do know how an intimate relationship between the two of would look, don't you?"

"An intimate relationship?"

"Are you sleeping with her, Cedric?"

Cedric could finally feel all the anger bubbling up in him as he and his mother simultaneously shouted at his father. It was Cedric who said, "For Merlin's sake, it's not like that!" while his mother snapped, "Amos! That was entirely out of line!"

"You know, I have half a mind to go inform her parents right now. Do you really think that they would approve of their daughter being in a relationship with a grown man when she's so young? Do you?" With Cedric searching for an answer, his father finally said, "You know what you have to do, don't you, Cedric?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Dad," he said, feeling him go so rigid and his voice so tense that it was as though he was arguing with Joseph when he had heard about how their relationship had gone sour. Now, with things in the opposite direction, he found himself arguing over it again with another important person in his life. He didn't think that he wanted to know what his father was talking about.

"You have to break up with her."

Finally losing his temper, Cedric spat, "I am not going to break up with Maddie!"

"And why not?"

"I love her!"

Then, at that exact moment, all the color drained from his father's face. It looked as though he had just stared death head on, in the flesh, and he didn't know how to react to it. His mother, on the other hand, while a bit surprised, seemed to be very happy for her son.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me! I love her! She is my girlfriend, and I love her!"

"You don't know the first thing about love if you think that what the two of you have is love!"

"Amos, settle down…" Lucy said, but Cedric immediately started yelling back at his father, silencing her.

"You don't understand how I feel about her! You don't even know how I feel!"

"I know that what you're feeling is abnormal! And if you don't go and break up with your little girlfriend in the next five minutes, then I'm going to do it for you!"

Cedric froze, suddenly feeling rigid, fear sinking into the core of his being. "You would never."

"But I would. Don't you dare underestimate me, Cedric Amos Diggory. I am not happy right now. And I am going to do whatever it takes to stop this nonsense once and for all."

"Why are you treating me like a child?"

"Because you're acting like one. At least you and your girlfriend are on the same level."

"That's it!" Cedric snapped, rising to his full height and towering above his father, shouting at him so loud that several people turned to look at them. "You're my father and you can say what you want about me, but don't you dare bring Maddie into this! I have heard enough about her this school year to last a lifetime and I'm not going to have my own father insult her just because he can! And don't you dare tell me how to feel about her! You just don't understand what we have! She is so much more than a child, Dad, and you just don't get it! I love her and I'm not breaking up with her, and that is final!"

His father, too, stood up and leaned forward in Cedric's face. "You know what your outburst just told me? That you're not mature enough for a relationship, not even the one that you're in. I have never been more upset with you in your entire life, young man." He stepped away from the table, calling back to his wife and son, "I'll see you two later. I'm need to go for a walk to clear my mind."

As Amos exited the Great Hall, walking as fast as his legs would carry him, Cedric crumpled back to his seat, burying his head in his hands. He looked up to see his mother sitting before him. Apparently having forgotten that he was there, he said quietly, "It's good to see you, Mum."

"Cedric, sweetheart, I'm so sorry about your father…" she explained quickly, but her son interrupted her.

"Don't start. I know that I've just been a disappointment to him recently…"

"Cedric, that could not be further from the truth. We're both so extremely proud of you. It's just that…this just is a bit of a bump in the road…"

"Don't tell me that you're upset with me, too."

"No! Not at all. In fact, I'm very happy for you two. I've honestly always thought that the two of you would be very good for each other." The smallest of smiles flashed across his mother's face. "And to me, it seems that she's been an amazing influence on you."

Cedric glanced down at where Maddie and her friends sat once more. They seemed ready to go back to the common room, and Cedric could feel a strong, overwhelming emotion—a bit like what he had felt the night before while kissing her—wash over him in next to no time at all.

"You have absolutely no idea."

"Just give your father some time to adjust to the situation. I'm sure he'll come around."

Cedric nodded, hoping beyond hope that his mother knew what she was talking about. He wanted his father to accept his relationship, even though the likelihood of that happening was next to none. He watched as Maddie and friends exited together, knowing deep in his heart that his love for his girlfriend was deeper than anything else he had ever felt in his life, and if his father didn't accept that…

Was he really his father?

As Amos walked throughout the halls, thinking back to his own time at Hogwarts, he just could not wrap his head around the thought thatCedric, his son Cedric, was dating a child. He cringed at the thought, knowing that he just couldn't even bring himself to call it 'dating'. What other word could he use though—if Cedric was going to throw around the word 'love', what else could it be?

And what in the world did he have to use that word for? That wasn't a word that his son should even be thinking about, let alone be using in regards to a young child. The idea that the two of them would think that they were in love absolutely disgusted him.

"I don't know, he wouldn't tell me. We never really got around to it."

Amos turned to the sound of the voice, recognizing it from somewhere. As the voice got closer, he realized that it belonged to Maddie, who was walking down the hallway with a group of her friends. She seemed somehow much older than he remembered—she had a more womanish figure, and her long blonde hair fell with a sort of elegance that he had never seen on her before—but he couldn't shake the fact from his mind that this group of girls were all thirteen years old. They were discussing Merlin knew what, but he knew that they weren't going to be discussing it for long.

He walked up to her, saying coldly, "Hello, Maddie."

She stopped talking, looking up at him with a smile on her face. "Hello, Mr. Diggory. How are you?"

Amos simply couldn't believe he was conversing with a child, but he answered, "I could be better. Do you mind if I have a word with you?"

She turned to her friends again, saying, "Go on, I'll catch up with you all later." The four of them exited, and once they were out of earshot, she turned back to Amos, asking, "Is something the matter?"

"Well…look at you. You're all…grown up." He cringed at the word, thinking about what Cedric had told him.

"So I've been told," she said, with the smallest hint of a grin on her face.

It was gone as quickly as it had come. "Please tell me that this is just a phase."

"I—I beg your pardon?"

Amos narrowed his eyes, lowering his voice as he did so. "Don't give me any of that. Cedric sang like a bird. He told me everything. Do you have anything to say to defend yourself?"

Maddie's lower lip quivered, her mouth hanging open, as she searched for something to say. "What exactly did he tell you?"

"Don't act like you don't know. He told me all about the—the—the relationship the two of you have got going on at the moment. And it doesn't make me happy in the least."

"I'm sorry to hear that…"

"Are you? Are you really? Because it seems to me that everything is just peachy between you two. Well, let me tell you, even if you're not a little girl anymore, you've still got some growing up to do. Don't tell me that you're old enough to be running around with a grown man the way that you're doing. You're a child. Cedric needs a woman his age. He doesn't need to be babysitting you."

She looked deeply offended, but Amos ignored her, plowing on, "I don't know what exactly is going on between you two, but no matter how mature you act, you just are not old enough to be in a relationship with a grown man. With my son. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"

"I—I'm sorry, I'm not sure I do. Are you telling me to…"

"Well, for such an intelligent young girl, I'm surprised I have to spell it out for you. I don't want you ever coming near my son again, let alone whatever the two of you have got going on between you. Don't ever kiss him, or hold his hand, or even speak to him ever again. Do you understand me? Do I make myself clear?"

Maddie looked as though her heart had been shattered into a thousand pieces; it was as though she was on the verge of tears, but she nodded and spoke in a voice that seemed to be carrying the weight of the world's sadness. "Loud and clear. But Mr. Diggory, I don't think you're being fair. Let me just…"

"I'm not having this discussion with a child!"

He turned and walked away, and as soon as he was gone, Maddie burst into tears, walking down the hallway again towards her friends. How in the world could Cedric's own father try to keep them apart the way that he did? What right did he have to do such a thing?

Cedric walked down the halls at a brisk pace, looking around everywhere he went. He had said goodbye to his mother with a warm embrace, giving a cold goodbye to his father as he promised to see them before the final task. There were some people he had to go talk to, but one person in particular…

There.

In front of him was the long blonde hair and short stature that he had grown to recognize so fondly and dearly. He raced up to the retreating figure, calling, "Maddie! Maddie, sweetheart, I've been looking all over for you…"

He had turned her around to look at her, but immediately stopped talking when he saw how much she was crying. "Honey, what's wrong?"

She shook her head, but whimpered out, "Why don't you go ask your dad?"

Dad.

What had he said to her? What had he done? This couldn't be good.

"What did he say? Merlin, I will kill that man."

Maddie couldn't even look him in the eye; she stared at her shoes as she said, "He said that I'm not right for you. That you needed a woman your age. That he wasn't going to waste time speaking to a child. He told me to never come near you again…"

Cedric could practically feel his heart breaking. It wasn't just breaking for himself (because he certainly felt horrible that his father would sink so low as to say that they could never even go near each other), but his heart really went out to Maddie. She was crying so much; this obviously shook her up…

Wait, had she said 'a woman'? And 'a child'? The same things that he had said to Cedric? There was just no reasoning with that man, was there?

"Ah. Maddie"—she looked up at him with the green eyes that he adored so much, and he tried to give her the most heartfelt look that he could muster, dropping his voice to just above a whisper—"if I could have anything in the world, I would still choose you. I don't want a woman my age if there's nobody exactly like you."

"Exactly like me?" was all that she could manage.

He shook his head. "Not even that. If I had to choose anyone, I'd choose you. In a hundred lifetimes, in any version of reality, I would find you and I'd choose you. Not a woman my age, or even remotely close to it. I just want you." He pressed his lips to her in the most affectionate way that he could muster, then pulled back, smiled at her warmly, and said, at a normal volume, "Besides, have you seen girls my age? Absolutely mental. Feral, I tell you. I tried it once. I'm never going back."

"But your dad said…"

"Forget what my dad said. He doesn't understand our love. He just…doesn't get it. But you need to trust that I love you and nobody will ever, ever come between us. Not my friends, not another girl, and especially not my father. As long as I have you, I have everything I could ever need."

He held her in his arms for a moment, holding her as tightly as he could. She had her arms wrapped around his neck, and she was standing on tiptoe in order to accomplish this feat. Merlin, just another thing that he loved about her.

He turned his head to the side to kiss her cheek before they disentangled themselves from one another, then he said, "I'm going to speak to my father about this. Trust me. I love you, Mad."

"I love you, Cedric."

"And that's all I need."

WOO LAME ENDING WAS LAME AND A DAY LATE HOLLA. Hey I warned you that it probably would be. Because of this delay, the next chapter will be up shortly, on the sixth. I had meant for this chapter to be longer and include the very beginning of the first task, but that'll have to wait until the next update. I really liked this chapter, though, to be honest.

I'm super tired because it's almost midnight and I have school tomorrow. Also, my wrist is healed! :) Okay um please review and stuff. Good night world!

- Hatter of Madness