Harry and Ron sat playing chess near the fire when the fourth years came in from visiting the Hospital Wing. The girls went up to their dorm to see Tanwen.
Jon slumped into an arm chair and put a hand over his eyes. Mark sat in the chair opposite.
"What's wrong mate?" he asked.
"This totally sucks!" Jon grumbled, "I thought that Tanwen liked me-"
"She does," Dom interrupted, sitting down too.
"Don't be facetious," Jon snapped, "not like that."
"Oh, you fancy her?" Dom said.
Jon rolled his eyes, Mark put a calming hand on his arm, "he didn't know."
"Sorry mate, I guess I've kinda been out of the loop the last few months," Dom said apologetically. "what with Lou and all."
"But it doesn't matter how I feel because she still obviously has feelings for Diggory," Jon said shortly, "did you hear what she said to Clem? 'What gave you the impression that I'd be competition for Jon anyway?' it's obvious she doesn't feel the way I do!"
"But what about when she, you know?" Mark questioned.
Jon shrugged, "she said that wasn't her, I don't get what she could have meant but-"
"Do you think we should tell them?" Ron whispered to Harry.
"I don't know, it's not really any of our business is it?" he replied doubtfully.
"Yeah, but they deserve to know."
"Tanwen'll tell them eventually," Harry argued, "we should stay out of it."
"Why? Hermione never bothered to think of that when she told McGonagall about your Firebolt did she?" Ron insisted, "I think we should tell them." Their voices had risen and the three fourth years were looking at them curiously.
"Tell us what?" Jon asked.
Harry made a face at Ron as his friend told them what Tanwen had said.
"Clem did what?!" Jon growled.
"I told you we should have kept out of it," Harry said in an undertone to Ron.
The girls came back down, "She's not there, only Clem," Cassie announced, "we're going to go look for her."
"What?" Marcia asked, seeing the black look on the guys faces'.
"We know why Tanwen had that fight with Clem," Mark said.
"Why?" the girls asked immediately.
"Clem wouldn't tell us anything," Cassie said.
"Although she has a marvellous shiner," Marcia said with a grin.
Mark, Jon and Dom had just finished explaining what Ron had told them when Tanwen walked back into the common room. They didn't see her at first, because the room was full and noisy now. But she saw them and paused. About to go over and speak to them she was suddenly surrounded by people asking her what the fight was about and if she was ok and numerous other things. They were all talking at once and she looked from one to the other in confusion.
"Erm," she took a step back, her head aching from a mixture of the noise and after affects of her head wound.
"Hey, back off," Dave said, pushing his way to the front of the crowd. She smiled weakly at him as he helped her though the crowd, before squeezing her arm reassuringly and returning to the game of exploding snap he was playing with Seamus Finnigan. She was about to go up to the dorm when Cassie said,
"I wouldn't, Clem's up there."
Tanwen turned to look at her friends and then walked slowly over towards then, her eyes on the floor. She rubbed her temples in an effort to try and dull the pounding in her head.
"Are you ok?" Lou asked concernedly.
"Just a headache," Tanwen replied, her voice quieter than normal. She felt awkward, not sure what to do. All she wanted to do was to sit and cry with them hugging her but she'd promised herself she wouldn't cry. And she didn't know what they must think of her, she'd avoided them for the last week and then there was Jon.She sighed heavily and looked up, "I'm sorry you guys."
"Sorry? What for?" Cassie asked in surprise.
"I've been shutting you all out for the last week, I thought that I could be a better person if I tried to change, but it turns out that wasn't such a great plan after all."
She perched herself on the arm of Cassie's chair.
"Look, it's really noisy in here, why don't you all come up to our room where we can talk easier," Mark suggested.
"But we're not allowed in the boys dorms," Cassie said automatically.
"You can always sit in the hall," Dom said with a sly glance at Tanwen, "I've been told that that isn't technically breaking the rules."
"Although we all know that only slaves sit on the floor," Marcia retorted, grinning at Mark.
Tanwen smiled and nodded to Mark who stood, "come along then my minions," he said, patting the nearest person on the head, which happened to be Cassie.
"I am not your minion!" she retorted, batting his hand away.
They trailed up the staircase to the boys dorm, making sure Percy didn't catch them. Jon and Tanwen came last.
"Jon, I'm really sorry you got caught up in this thing between me and Clem, I didn't mean for you to get hurt," Tanwen said apologetically, taking a sideways glance at him face.
"I know you didn't."
"I'd never intentionally do anything to hurt you, you know," Tanwen said quietly. "I've really missed you the last few weeks."
Jon smiled sadly.
They had reached the dorm now and the others were all inside now waiting for them, Tanwen pulled the door to, leaving her alone with Jon in the corridor. She hadn't finished and she needed to get this over with before she lost her nerve.
"Jon I." she struggled to find the words, "I love you very much, but only as a friend. I can only say I'm sorry if Clem led you to expect something else and I hope that you understand the way things are between us can never change." she bit her lip, not knowing whether to say more.
He took a deep breath, "It's ok Tanwen, I know you still like Cedric, and sure it would have been great to have been with a pretty girl like you, but I'm not in love with you or anything. Let's just pretend like it never happened ok?"
She nodded and hugged him, "thanks Jon."
He held her tightly and smiled sadly, "you're welcome."
Then they opened the door and went to join the others.
****************
Tanwen was much happier in the next week. Things were slightly strained between her and Jon, but she hoped things would get back to normal between them soon. Oliver Wood had increased the number of Quidditch practices so six days a week she had practice. She tried to ignore Clem and focus her energy on schoolwork and Quidditch, in fact she was pretty sure that she was the only one of the team glad that Wood had scheduled so many practices.
In fact, she thought she was almost over Cedric, almost. She still thought about him a lot, wondering if there was ever a chance they would get back together. Most days something would happen and her first instinct was to run to him. Worst, she had found out Cedric was dating Sarah Lamb, a pretty Hufflepuff in the year above. It had been hard to pretend that she didn't care, but whenever she saw them walking up to corridor hand in hand she felt slightly ill and always went the other direction to avoid them.
What she didn't know was that Cedric saw this too. Lizzie had told him that there was nothing to what he had seen when he had seen her sleeping in Jon's arms, and Clem's betrayal was common knowledge. He knew she didn't fancy Jon, even if Alex had admitted under pressure that Jon fancied Tanwen. He felt slightly guilty when Lizzie had told him that the whole reason for why Clem had even had a chance at getting to Tanwen was because she was worried that people thought badly of her because of what he had said to her. But all the same he found it hard to forget the sight of her and Jon kissing. And hearing a report about something from someone outside the whole situation just wasn't the same as hearing it straight from the only one who truly knew the truth of things.
Tanwen left practice with the others. It had been one of the better practices they'd had since Harry had had to practice on a Shooting Star. Wood had finally stopped making up wild play schemes in case Harry didn't get his Firebolt back in time. The most recent of which involved Fred and George giving Harry a head start, by speeding along either side of him effectively launching him into the air. Wood still wasn't thrilled about how practice was gone, to which Fred had replied, "the day you don't have a single complaint to make is the day it starts raining gold!"
With long suffering expressions, the team listened attentively to their captain, the twins rolling their eyes every time Wood's back was turned. And then with a final, "But I'm sure it will be fine as long as Harry gets that Firebolt back! By the way, how is that coming?"
Harry grimaced, "I've been asking about it at the end of every lesson, but she still isn't done with it!"
"Never mind Harry," Katie said comfortingly, as Angelina dug her elbow into Wood, stopping him from saying whatever it was he was going to say.
"I'm sure it can't be that much longer now," Tanwen agreed.
"Perhaps this is a new form of McGonagall punishment," George suggested.
"And don't you say another word about it," Katie warned, turning on Wood, who looked rather shocked.
"What did I do?" he spluttered.
"Harry's doing the best he can to get his broom back, so lay off!" Tanwen told him, on hand on her hips and the other firmly holding her broom.
"Not another word about it to him, you hear?" Angelina added.
The three girls were now in a row between Harry and Wood. The twins were grinning madly, enjoying seeing their captain under pressure and Harry's face showed a mixture of confusion that the chasers had suddenly defended them and gratitude that they had detected his feelings about his Firebolt.
Wood flushed, "ok, ok," he agreed hastily.
"Good," said Tanwen.
"Just so long as that's clear," Katie said, grinning suddenly.
Then she caught Tanwen's eye and they both started to laugh at the look on Wood's face.
"Ahh, Quidditch," George sighed, "not only is the play amazing, but seeing the players turn gradually mad is also one of the finer moments."
"I bet Muggle games aren't half as fun as Quidditch," Fred said smugly.
"Perhaps not, but some of the kids games they play are great fun though, I always liked 'it' and 'stick in the mud'," Tanwen replied smiling.
"Oh I loved 'it'!" Katie said excitedly, "I was always really good because I could run fast!"
"Me too," Harry added grinning, "that was one of the games I liked playing at school. Dudley and his cronies could never manage to catch me!"
"'it'?" Wood questioned, the twins and Angelina looked equally puzzled.
Tanwen grinned, "yeah, Muggle children play it when they're little-"
"-and sometimes when they're not so little," Katie interrupted with a laugh.
"-anyway, one person is 'it' and that means he has to chase the other people playing to tag them and then they're 'it' and it's their turn to chase," Tanwen said, doing her best to explain.
"So what are these people exactly?" Angelina asked.
"Huh?"
"Well you said they're 'it', what is it that they are?"
Harry, Tanwen and Katie laughed. "No that's just what you call the person who's job it is to chase," Harry explained.
Tanwen grinned, "want to play? You're it," she tagged Katie and sprinted away up the lawn, dropping her broom. Harry sprinted away across the ground before Katie could tag him, thrusting his broom into Angelina's hands with an apologetic grin.
Katie laughed and dropped her broom too, "you're it," she tagged Fred and ran after Tanwen.
Fred winked at the others and made to set off after the two girls and turned and tagged George instead.
"Oh no, I'm not playing!" Angelina said, backing away with her hands up as George advanced on her, "I'm way too knackered, I don't know how you guys have the energy!" She bent and picked up the other brooms, "but I will take all your brooms back."
"Thanks Angel!" said Fred grinning and passing his broom to her.
"Whatever," answered Angelina rolling her eyes.
The other five fled across the lawn, yelling and screaming at each other as the twins two began to catch up on Harry and the girls. The Hufflepuff team was halfway down towards the pitch to practice and paused, looking on in amusement as George let out a yell of triumph and rugby tackled Katie to the ground.
"Oof!" Katie breathed, winded, "you're only supposed to tag the other person George, not try and kill them!"
He grinned at her, "really? I had no idea!"
She rolled her eyes and accepted the hand offered by Will, who had crossed the short distance between the two groups to help her up.
"Some people just don't know how to act like a gentleman," Will said grinning as he linked his arm with Katie's.
Tanwen laughed as she approached, Fred and Harry close on her heels, "don't tell me you're holding yourself up as a model of gentlemanly behaviour?!"
Will pretended to look offended, Fred snorted, "don't even try to say you are Griffiths, you're no closer to being the perfect gentleman here than me!"
"So what were you guys doing anyway?" Cedric asked, as he and the rest of the Hufflepuff team came to stand next to Will.
"Having a Muggle Studies practical," George grinned with a wink at Katie and Tanwen.
"We were teaching them about Muggle games," Katie explained, gesturing to Tanwen and disentangling herself from Will with a barely noticeable flush in her cheeks.
Tanwen saw it and hid a grin under her hand, so this was the mystery guy she had been talking about in the changing rooms.
"Like kiss-chase?" one of the Hufflepuff girls asked.
Several of the guys' faces lit up.
"What did you say, Kierra?" Will asked the chaser, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
Katie groaned and put a hand over her eyes, her voice tinged with amusement, "now look what you've done, you just had to mention it didn't you?"
Tanwen laughed, and Harry looked a little uncomfortable. Jen Ferris, a Hufflepuff chaser, a tall, lanky girl in the sixth year wrinkled her nose, "man, that's a rubbish game; and I for one don't fancy being chased around the grounds by guys trying to kiss me!"
"What?" Fred asked immediately.
"That's how you play that game?" George asked, and identical glint in his eyes.
"More or less," the blond girl replied, "it's like 'it', except that the one who's 'it' has to kiss the other person not tag them."
"I think we should play that then-"
"-Just in the pursuit of a better understanding of Muggles," his twin interrupted.
"Of course," Tanwen replied dryly.
"How about we chose a different game in the interests of actually getting people to play," Sam Davis suggested diplomatically. He was a slightly podgy boy in Tanwen's year in Hufflepuff, a beater on their team.
"Yeah, because at the moment your little game of Kiss-chase would probably only contain you two and Will," Katie told the twins, grinning.
"Ok then.how about 'Blindman's Bluff'?" Kierra suggested.
Those that knew what she was talking about agreed and then set about explaining it to the others. Most of whom seemed eager to play, apart from Kev Warren, the Hufflepuffs seventh year beater, who left to go and set up the things for their practice. Cedric was about to follow when Jen nominated him as 'it'. So many of the others were so quick to second this that he sighed resignedly,
"Ok, ok, but just one game, we still have practice remember team?"
Tanwen briefly thought about backing away and finding some sort of excuse not to play, she felt so awkward around Cedric now, but things were organised so quickly that she didn't have a chance. 'And anyway,' she thought to herself, 'I'm sure I can easily stay out of his reach.'
Cedric was blindfolded and set in the middle of them all. Will taking great pleasure in turning him round and round, until he was so dizzy he staggered from side to side.
"Griffiths, you great prat, I can barely stand upright," Cedric complained as a laughing Will backed away from him.
The students then seemed to regress a few years or so and had silent battles trying to push one another towards Cedric who stumbled forwards with his arms outstretched, swinging round whenever he thought he heard someone move. Because of his seeker reflexes he turned out to be rather a good choice for 'it'.
Xianna Chen, the other Hufflepuff chaser, let out a muffled scream as he almost brushed her arm with his fingertips and darted away to hide behind Katie and Tanwen. Cedric wandered purposefully after her, trying to track her movements. Muffling giggles the three girls tried to back away as quietly as they could. Katie span away to the left, round behind Will, who winked at her as she passed and Xianna dodged the twins who had crept up behind them, grinning madly, but Tanwen turned and run straight into them.
They span her round and lifted an arm each, sniggering quietly. Tanwen struggled and hissed insults at them under her breath as they carried her closer to Cedric. The others had an amused expression on their faces, except from Will who looked slightly worried. Tanwen sent him a pleading look and he hesitated, trying to decide what to do.
Cedric's fingers closed round her forearms as the twins deposited her in front of him. With a silent sigh she stood still, waiting for him to guess who she was. Determinedly she fixed her eyes on the Quidditch badge her eyes were level with on his chest, trying to prevent the rising flush on her cheeks as Cedric's fingers felt up her arms. When his arms reached her face she began to count the number of stitches across the badge, increasingly aware of his gentle touch on her skin.
'Why me?' she thought miserably.
As his thumb brushed over her lips he seemed to pause and withdraw his hands a bit, a flicker of a frown passing over his blindfolded face. He traced her cheekbones and ran a hand over her hair. He averted his face slightly and said, "Tanwen." He reached up and pulled off the blindfold.
"Right," Tanwen agreed with a weak smile.
He threw the blindfold to Will, Tanwen flinched as his arm swung upwards. His eyes widened, surely she didn't think he was going to hurt her. She bit her lip and stared at her feet.
"Right, hand over the blindfold if you guys are off to practice," George ordered, holding out his hand.
"Yeah, you guys go and get warmed up, I'll be along in a minute," Cedric told his team, who moved off obediently.
As Fred and George fought over who was going to wear the blindfold Tanwen mumbled something about needing to finish an essay and hurried away from them.
"Wait!" Cedric called, running after her, "wait a minute."
Tanwen turned unwillingly to face him, a questioning look on her face.
He stopped a few feet in front of her, "Well, I was just wondering about what happened just now." Tanwen looked apprehensive, "you know, when I threw the blindfold to Will."
Tanwen looked slightly puzzled.
"You flinched.you didn't think I was going to hit you surely!" he asked worriedly.
"N-nooo," Tanwen replied unconvincingly.
"You did! But why?" He took a step closer to her and she took a step backwards, "Tanwen," he said in a pained voice, "I'd never raise my hand to strike a woman."
He looked so concerned that Tanwen took a step forwards, "I know that.it's just." she stopped and sighed.
"Just what? Please Tanwen, tell me."
She frowned and shifted uncomfortably, not meeting his eyes, then she sighed again, "well, it's just that, I don't know, I thought that maybe you had a right to."
"What? What on earth are you talking about?" Cedric asked, taken aback.
Tanwen bit her lip, she might as well tell him now, she'd already made a lame start it couldn't get much worse. "I just thought that maybe you would have had justification to.I know it's stupid, and you probably wouldn't anyway because you're so-" she stopped herself and looked away.
Cedric didn't know what to say, he just stood there then, "what made you think I would have reason to hit you?"
"Well." there was a pause and then it all came pouring out, she looked up, ".I'm so sorry Cedric, I never meant for you to get hurt- it wasn't my fault, well maybe it was, but I didn't mean it- I know you must despise me for the whole thing with Jon, but nothing, nothing went on- maybe he liked me, but I didn't know- I swear to you I didn't.and when you came back and saw us.there was really nothing to that-he was just the only one who came to see me- and I was so unhappy, I just wanted someone to comfort me, I felt so alone. and.I guess I didn't think..It's just, I'm just so sorry." she gulped and blinked, looking up in an effort to stop all the tears that were beginning to fill her eyes. 'Don't you dare cry,' she told herself sternly, 'not now, not in front of him.'
He stared at her in horror, he never had any idea how upset she'd been. Had he really been that hard towards her? He couldn't believe the way she pictured herself through his eyes! "Tanwen," he made his voice as gentle as he could, "I don't hate you or think you're a bad person. And no-one ever has the right to hit you-who told you that?" he looked closely at her, "has someone else hit you before? Other than Contay."
She dashed away a tear with her sleeve, "not for a long time."
His eyes widened, "When-"
Tanwen raised a hand and shook her head, "I don't want to talk about it." She furiously blinked back tears.
He sighed, "I hate all this awkwardness between us. Let's just forgive and forget alright? Friends?" he held out his hand.
Tanwen managed a small smile and shook his hand, "friends."
He hesitated before giving her a small hug and flashed her a smile that made her go weak at the knees before running to join the rest of his team. Tanwen watched him go with a sad smile; it was going to be painful to be his friend. Wiping her eyes with her sleeves she turned and made her way back to the castle.
Halfway to the pitch Cedric turned and watched her retreating back. He sighed and shook his head before making his way to start his team's practice.
Tanwen pushed open the door and started towards the marble staircase then paused when she heard familiar voices.
"I was just wondering whether you might perhaps, sometime, want to meet up with me, or go with me on the next Hogsmeade visit," Cho said, hastily adding, "you don't have to."
"No, I'd like that," came Jon's voice, "next time the weather's good, we could go for a walk."
Tanwen smiled, it was nice that Jon finally had someone, even if it was Cho. For some reason she just felt irritated by the Ravenclaw sometimes. She had been perfectly amiable towards her but sometimes Cho could be so superficial. In small doses she was nice, but she couldn't envisage herself being best friends with her.
Feeling a little better she made her way to the common room via a different route. She rounded the next corner to see a tall, pretty blond girl walking towards her, Sarah Lamb.
'Just great, the perfect way to end this episode,' she thought glumly.
Sarah spotted her and headed towards her, "Tanwen right?" she said in a nervous voice.
Tanwen nodded.
Sarah spoke so fast that Tanwen had to listen really hard to catch what she was saying. She pulled a book from out of her bag, "this is yours, I found it in the library earlier."
"Oh. Thanks." Tanwen replied in a monotone voice.
Sarah looked at her anxiously, "I know that you won't want to be my friend or anything, but I don't want you to think badly of me." she gave a small smile, "I know Cedric still really likes you, you know."
Tanwen looked at her. She thought this was helping?!
Sarah looked down shyly, saying, "and I don't think we'll be together for much longer. I never really liked him as much as you did, I was just really flattered and well, he's such a gentleman. I never thought anyone would be interested in me before, but if Cedric liked me then I guess I can't be that bad after all."
Tanwen felt a rush of resentful sympathy, "you're very pretty you know. I'm sure lots of guys would like to go out with you."
Sarah blushed, "Well.anyway, I just thought you might like to know." She smiled again and dashed off like a startled rabbit. Tanwen smiled faintly, well that was distinctly odd.
She walked slowly back to the common room, even more confused than she had been before. What had Sarah meant when she said Cedric still liked her? That wasn't the impression she had got from him before, but then again she'd been wrong before. There was only one thing for it. It was girly chat time.
************
A/N: Hehe, yes indeed, girly chat time, which coincidentally is what the next chapter is called ^__^
And bits with Harry, they don't happen hardly ever! Sorry for people who want to see him more, but this story won't feature him much until next year, and even then he won't be that major. Umm as for Siruis he'll be in it a lot more in the sequel to this, well at least I think it'll be a sequel, this is getting really long. Just in case you were wondering I think this will finish in approx the same place as PoA does. But things are subject to change at my random whim ^__^
Umm, don't have much else to add this time, thanks for all the reviews, it's always nice to see new reviewers! I'm really impressed with myself that this has somehow managed to turn into being posted at the same time of year it's supposed to be in the story! Hehe well please review ppl! Your reviews give me licence to spend hours writing this ;)