The end of the year came too quickly.
The lack of exams should have made it crawl by. But before he knew it, he and Steve had been crammed into a compartment with the Weasleys', Penelope, Harry, and Hermione. To say the least, they were packed like gnomes in a gnome burrow. Ginny was half in George's and Fred's lap, Percy was so pressed against the window it was a real danger of him falling out of it if they pressed him harder. Steve and Ron were on the floor, curled into as little space as they could possibly get.
Hermione was on his lap, funnily enough.
Well, not so funny.
Cedric was milking that for all it was worth.
It takes your girlfriend of only a few months being frozen by a dark curse and killing a giant snake for your concept of public displays of affection™ to be completely and utterly wrecked. It was an odd day he wasn't simply holding her hand, playing with her hair, reaching to bring her closer. If he could get away with it, he would be bringing Hermione home in his trunk. But, as she had holidays planned with her worried parents, he figured he would instead just hold her as close as he could until he saw her in person again.
They had already had an unspoken agreement that everyone would be converging to stay over in their shared town of Ottery St Catchpole at the end of the summer.
Hermione would be staying with the Weasleys, as would Harry, and Penelope, whilst Steve would be with him.
It was something to look forward to.