AN: I've moved the Final Task up to the first week of May, because I find it annoying they had it at the end of June and ate up a huge part of the summer.

Jamie spent a quiet weekend surrounded by her friends and brother, holed up in her dorm room. She had awoken after her night with Cedric to find him gone, which is what he had promised. It was still eating at her, days after, as March reared its' head.

"Was it hard," she asked her godfather one evening in the week or so after the second task, "loving my mum from afar, that is?"

"Incredibly, I wish it on no one," Severus replied in a way that made it obvious he wasn't ready to continue the conversation. She sighed deeply, silent as she watched him brewing for a lesson the following day.

She sighed once more and he lifted his head in agitation, shooting her a soft glare.

"Are you going to sigh the entire time we spend together tonight?" He retorted. She shrugged, slumping at the table he was working at.

"What's bothering you," he sighed, setting down his stirring rod. He moved some of his hair away from his face, and she noticed again just how well kept he had become this year. He was handsome when he took care of himself.

"Stupid boy troubles," she mumbled. He rolled his slightly, sighing and grabbed hold of a nearby chair. He turned it backwards and straddled it, resting his forearms on the back of the chair to talk with her.

"The Diggory boy?"

"Yep," Jamie sighed. "He chased me all year and I pushed him away, and then he was really kind and nice and he didn't have to be—I didn't deserve it, after the second task and he's been so…I don't know, I just…I blew it. I blew everything and it's killing me."

"Explain to me how you blew it," Severus asked.

"I told him I wouldn't ever let myself get into a serious relationship and I would never have feelings for him and I told him to leave me alone every time he tried to be nice to me," she said in a rush.

Severus blinked, trying to figure out what to say.

"Well, if I understand correctly, it seems like he has refused to give up on you thus far," her godfather pointed out. "For good reason, you're a wonderful young woman. How are you to know he's truly given up on you? Has he said as much?"

"He won't say anything to me at all, that's the problem," she groaned. "He ignores me, avoids me, won't even look at me!"

"Well…" Severus scratched the stubble on his chin. "Why don't we unpack your unwillingness to let yourself fall in love? What is that all about?"

"My parents," she muttered. "You. Harry. Fear of losing everyone I love…you saw the second task, I totally freaked out when I thought my dad and Fleur hadn't made it out of the lake."

"I'm not the greatest expert when it comes to love," Severus said after a moment, his voice solemn. "In fact, the only person I've been in love with was quite unhappy with me for years, even in her death. It never went away—hasn't gone away, Jamie. So, I cannot possibly counsel you on how to be in love with someone the right way, Jamie, but what I can do is serve as a reminder on why you should follow love.

"I foolishly believed love was a weakness," he continued. "I thought my soft spot for your mother would be my undoing, and it was, but it was because I never allowed myself to love her and I waited far too long. Now—I don't regret it for the most part, and that is something I've come to terms with in the last few months, because it gave me you. My goddaughter, and I treasure our relationship. However, I will always regret not letting your mother know that I loved her, regardless of how it would have turned out in my favor."

"So you're saying if I don't tell Cedric how I feel, I'll regret it," Jamie mulled over his words.

"Precisely," Severus nodded. "You can't make someone love you, but when they do…I believe it has to be the most empowering feeling. However, there's also a freedom of letting your heart be open and vulnerable and I think you need to remember that. The biggest weakness in life isn't love…it's closing yourself off from it."

Jamie felt herself nodding, processing his words. Cedric had always been there for her, all year long. He had waited, had proven his feelings, his faith in her. She needed to tell him she was ready, that she could love him. She knew she could do it.

"I need to find him, I need to tell him," she stood up. He stood as well, a small smile forming on his face. She flung herself at him, sweeping him into a bear hug. "Thank you, Severus, I needed to hear that very badly. Thank you…and I love you, too, you know."

"As I love you," he told her simply. She gave him a big beaming smile as she left his office, practically running from the basement dungeons of the school and toward the main thoroughfares of the school where Cedric was often known to hangout in.

"Hey Shack, where ya running to," Lee called out to her from where he was walking down the hall toward the Great Hall, Alicia at his side. In the evenings the Great Hall was open to students who wanted to play board games or hangout quietly in a supervised environment, and often tournaments in chess or cards went on in the wintertime.

"Can't talk, gotta find Cedric!" Jamie called over her shoulder as she dodged down a hallway, toward some empty classrooms she knew Cedric and his housemates frequented in the evenings. Her heart was beating wildly, a smile across her face. She was bursting with love, she couldn't wait to find Cedric and tell him how she felt.

she couldn't find him soon enough!

She heard his laugh in a classroom and flung open the door—

"Cedric, I have to tell you something!" She gasped for breath, leaning forward slightly, her eyes glazed for a moment as she processed the scene in front of her.

She had startled a group of Hufflepuff upperclassman, all of them sat in a circle at desks pushed together. A card game in the works, and they all turned to her in surprise and annoyance. Cedric was perched in his chair facing her, but he was mostly hidden by Cho, who was in his lap, arms around his neck, giggling in his ear.

"Oh hey Shack, what's up," Cedric smiled at her, his face flushing slightly, pushing his hair out of his eyes. Cho and another girl tittered, as if they were laughing at her. Jamie straightened up, feeling awkward.

"Ah, I needed to tell you something…" she looked down at her feet, scoffing the toe of her shoe against the floor. Another boy snickered and she felt her face flush with heat.

"Okay, shoot," Cedric grinned at her, his hand rubbing Cho's back.

"I uh…well it's about class," Jamie mumbled, feeling stuck. One of his friends told her to hurry up already, she was interrupting a game, and she felt like she really needed someone to come down the hallway that moment and hit her over the head with a bat.

"What about it?"

"It's…private." Her face must have been beat red.

"Anything you have to say to Cedric, you can say in front of his girlfriend and friends, right Ced," Cho said snootily before pressing a kiss to his neck, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Er, right," Cedric shrugged, flashing Jamie an annoyed look. Her mouth fell open in shock and they locked eyes as she silently tried to communicate with him why she needed to talk to him privately. He shook his head at her, turning to press a kiss to Cho's lips.

"So are you two officially together now, then?" Jamie asked the couple.

"Yep, together forever," Cho giggled, leaning over to whisper to the girl beside her, who burst into giggles as well.

"Well cool, anyway," Jamie forced herself to remain calm and swallow the bile threatening to climb up her throat. "Professor Snape said your potion sucked and he was going to make you redo it tomorrow in class or you'll fail the course, I was trying to warn you discretely but there ya go."

She spun on her heel as Cedric yelped in horror and the rest of his friends made sounds of embarrassment and horror at his behalf. Slamming the door behind her, she marched down the hall, tears threatening to overflow as she returned to Severus' office.

He took one look at her before getting up to find the teakettle, looking apologetic.