CHAPTER 15
The game was exciting. Cedric never rooted harder for Gryffindor in his life. He was sitting around his house mates and they seemed to be rooting hard for Gryffindor too. That wasn't really a surprise because pretty much everyone rooted against Slytherin when given the chance.
After a few minutes into the game Cedric along with everyone else noticed Harry seemed to have a rogue bludger following him around. Cedric looked across at the Gryffindor seats and saw Ron, Hagrid and Hermione heading for the exit. Cedric got up to leave as well and by the time he got down to the pitch Harry was laid out on the ground with a group of people surrounding him.
Cedric made it just in time to see Lockhart turn Harry's arm into jelly.
"Hermione!" Cedric yelled from outside the group hovering around Harry to get Hermione's attention.
Hermione squeezed out of the huddle and made her way to Cedric.
"What the bloody hell happened?" Cedric asked.
"A bludger was following Harry around and it broke his arm after he caught the snitch. Lockhart tried to help him but he seems to have gotten rid of all the bones in Harry's arm." Hermione explained.
"Yeah that part I saw." Cedric rolled his eyes at his incompetent teacher.
After reluctantly leaving Harry in the hospital wing, Cedric, Ron and Hermione started for the Great Hall to get some dinner. Upon entering the Great Hall Cedric's friend Malcolm steered the three of them to the Hufflepuff table.
"Come on Ced hang out with us for a change" He then turned to Ron and Hermione. "Come on little lions you can join us too if you'd like."
They sat together with Anthony, Herbert and Malcolm. The boys started talking about quidditch and Hermione became bored very quickly.
Cedric knew Hermione was bored of the conversation. She was sitting across from Cedric with her elbow propped up onto the table and her head resting in her hand.
Cedric smiled at Hermione's bored appearance. She was oblivious to Cedric's stare but Anthony next to him caught him staring. He elbowed Cedric in the side which caused Cedric to jump and turn angrily towards his friend.
"What!?" Cedric yelled.
"Nothing." Anthony smirked.
"You're an idiot." Cedric mumbled.
Hermione excused herself after a few more minutes to go to the lavatory. Cedric watched her go.
"So Ced, I haven't seen Marietta around lately what happened with her?" Herbert asked.
Ron rolled his eyes at that. "Oh please don't bring her up."
"I ended it on the last day of school last year. She just wasn't… nice to my friends."
"She was nice to me." Malcolm said. "She sure seemed nice to you Ced, so what was the problem?"
"Nothing we hardly even dated. I took a few walks with her we went to Hogsmede together." Cedric said with a shrug.
Cedric had noticed Marietta moved on with a boy from Ravenclaw that he didn't know the name of. Cedric was glad she wasn't still hung up on him. He never should have asked her out in the first place. He still felt guilty about everything that happened with Marietta.
"She said something to Hermione didn't she." Anthony asked.
"No… that has nothing to do with it we just… it was a mistake asking her out in the first place."
"Yeah, whatever Diggory." Anthony said not believing what Cedric was saying.
"What about you guys? Why do we always talk about my dating life? Why don't one of you get up the courage to ask someone out." Cedric said defensively.
"Well you're the one with the fan club. You're supposed to be the one with the interesting love life." Malcolm explained.
Cedric just shook his head at his friends. "I don't want a love life right now."
"Jeez Ced you don't have to get married. You have girls following you around between classes. They look at you like… I don't know like Ron looks at food." Malcolm said.
"Hey!" Ron said glaring at Anthony.
"Well it's true. If I was you Ced I'd have snogged every girl in the whole school by now." Anthony said.
"Well luckily for them you're not me." Cedric said and the rest of his friends laughed.
"I'm just saying who knows how long you're going to be everyone's golden boy. Pretty soon you're fan club could get sick of you and find someone else to follow around. You should take advantage of it while you can." Anthony said.
"I'll keep that in mind." Cedric said with no intention of actually keeping it in mind.
Harry couldn't sleep that night in the hospital wing. After being disturbed by Dobby Professor Dumbledore, Snape, and Madam Pompfrey came in with a petrified Collin Creevey. They put him in a bed a few rows away from Harry. Harry couldn't wait to get out of the hospital wing. He needed to tell Hermione Ron and Cedric what happened.
The rumors about Collin Creevey getting petrified were around the whole school by breakfast the next morning. Everyone around the school seemed to be on high alert, and to help make the children feel safer Professor Lockhart started a dueling club.
It didn't work because at the dueling club Harry decided to talk to a snake and everyone freaked out even more. Everyone thought Harry tried to make the snake attack Justin Finch-Fletchley.
The days following the dueling club event were tough on Harry and his friends.
Practically the whole school thought Harry was the heir of Slytherin. Every Hufflepuff except for Cedric looked at Harry like he was the devil himself. Cedric got a lot of flak from his housemates for continuing to talk to Harry but nothing they said to him would turn him against Harry.
Things got even worse after Harry found Justin and Nearly Headless Nick petrified.
Harry became an outcast and by association Cedric, Ron and Hermione did too. Cedric's fan club stopped following him, and the Hufflepuff quiddich team stopped practicing with Gryffindor much to Cedric's chagrin.
Walking back to Hogwarts from the quiddich pitch turned into one of Cedric's least favorite things to do because that's when his Hufflepuff teammates would talk about Harry.
"You really don't think he's the heir of Slytherin?" Anthony asked Cedric.
"I know he's not the heir of Slytherin." Cedric said annoyed at having this conversation again.
"But he talks to snakes! What more proof do you need?" Herbert exclaimed.
"You should at least show some loyalty to your own house. Or did you forget you're not a Gryfindor?" Malcolm said his annoyance at Cedric clear on his face.
"Look. Harry is my friend. I know him better than the lot of you do. I know he didn't do anything to those petrified students. He's not the heir of Slytherin." Cedric said to his teammates.
"If I were you I'd keep a close eye on your little book worm. She's a muggle born too. If Harry is the heir he will probably try to petrify his friends next to draw suspicion away from him." Anthony said.
"He's not the heir of Syltherin!" Cedric shouted and walked back to the castle as fast as he could.
'I hope Hermione's polyjuice potion finishes soon.' Cedric thought to himself.
The month it took to brew the Polyjuice potion dragged on for what seemed like a year. When it was finally ready the four young friends could hardly wait for classes to be over so they could try it out.
It turns out Malfoy didn't have four friends so Hermione, Ron and Harry got hair from Millicent Bulstrode, Crabbe, and Goyle, and Cedric figured the three of them were enough to get what they needed out of Malfoy.
Hermione poured a disgusting looking green liquid into three goblets. The three Gryffindors put their hairs into their goblets.
"Well cheers everyone." Ron said as they all looked at the drink disgusted before downing the potion.
"I gotta say. I'm really jealous I'm not going to get to taste this stuff." Cedric smirked as the three Gryffindors glared at him.
At the same time Harry, Ron and Hermione grabbed their stomachs and looked to be struggling to keep the potion down.
Ron ran to a bathroom stall, and Hermione ran to her own. Harry grabbed the sink to keep from doubling over and Cedric looked on horrified.
"What should I do?" Cedric asked Harry worriedly.
Harry ignored him and continued leaning on the sink his face wincing with obvious pain. Harry's body began to change right in front of Cedric's eyes.
"Merlin's beard Harry! You're Goyle!" Cedric yelled in disbelief.
Ron walked out of his stall as Crabbe but Hermione stood in her stall.
"My potion didn't work. You two need to go alone. Hurry we don't know how long the potion is going to last." Hermione said in a shaky voice.
The three boys looked at each other confused.
"Hermione are you okay?" Harry asked worried.
"I'm fine just hurry!" Hermione yelled.
Ron and Harry ran out of the bathroom towards the Slytherin common room leaving Cedric with Hermione who was still inside the bathroom stall.
Cedric walked over to the stall and knocked lightly.
"You're obviously not okay in there. Please come out and show me what happened." Cedric asked softly.
"No I don't want to come out." Hermione said as her voice cracked.
Cedric was very worried now.
Just then Myrtle decided to show up.
"Wait until you see it, it's awful." Myrtle said popping up above Hermione's stall with a smirk. Poor little Granger." Myrle said laughing.
"Just leave her alone Myrtle. Hermione what happened?" Cedric asked leaning into the door.
"The hair I got off of Millicent Bulstrode's robes wasn't her hair." Hermione said.
"Well that's okay right? You couldn't have possibly turned into someone worse than Millicent Bulstrode. Right?" Cedric said trying to joke.
"Please don't joke. It wasn't a person's hair."
"Hermione you're starting to scare me. What did you turn into?"
"I'm a cat!" Hermione cried.
"A cat!" Cedric exclaimed.
Hermione started crying and meowing. Cedric was practically flush against the door as if he could step through it if he pushed hard enough.
"Hermione it'll be okay just open the door for me."
"What if I'm like this forever?" Hermione asked through her tears.
"You won't be." Cedric said through the door.
What if I am and everyone is terrified of me and no one ever speaks to me again, and I'm not allowed to see my parents ever again." Hermione cried.
"None of that is going to happen. Please open the door." Cedric begged.
"What if you're terrified of me?"
"I won't be."
"What if you laugh at me?"
"I won't. I promise everything will be alright."
There was a long silence before Cedric heard a low whisper "Okay" From the other side of the door.
Cedric stepped away from the door and Hermione finally opened it. Hermione still had tears in her eyes as she looked right at Cedric to see his reaction to her. He didn't really react he just stared at her.
Cedric was scared for Hermione, but he didn't want Hermione to be, so he figured he would try to do what he always does and diffuse the situation with a joke.
Hermione looked away from Cedric as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. That got Cedric to snap out of his thoughts.
"I don't know Hermione I think you make a cute cat. My parents would definitely let me keep you. We can buy you a scratching post, some catnip and even a little bed we can put in the corner of my room." Cedric smiled warmly.
"I hate you." Hermione said smiling through her tears. She stepped out of the stall and hugged Cedric as she cried on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around the little witch err... cat.
"You won't be stuck like this forever I promise. Madam Pomphrey will fix this." Cedric said with his arms wrapped tightly around Hermione.
Hermione started to relax. She believed that Cedric was right. If Madam Pomphrey could grow back bone she could make her a human again. She relaxed into Cedric's embrace and to her dismay actually purred.
She jumped away from Cedric and if her face wasn't covered in cat hair Cedric would be able to see that it was actually the shade of Ron's hair.
Cedric laughed nervously.
"Sorry." Hermione said.
Just then Ron and Harry came back into the bathroom as themselves.
"Bloody Hell Hermione you have a tail!" Ron laughed and Cedric gave him a warning glare.