Chapter 24 – Apologies & Sunsets

Cedric had been sitting in the Great Hall, his eyes on the door to the entrance hall. He was waiting on Hermione to enter, he needed to apologize to her. He felt horrible for the fight that they had just had, and he knew that he shouldn't have acted so.

Much to his surprise, Hermione did enter, but not in the way he had expected. She had came running in, her hair flying behind her, and what looked like a distraught expression on her face. He rose quickly fro his seat, running out of the Great Hall in pursuit of her.

"Hermione!" She wasn't stopping though. So, Cedric slipped up a flight of stairs and down a corridor to head her off. He caught her just as she came around the corner of the third floor corridor. "Hermione!"

"I'm sorry," she wailed before throwing herself into his arms and sobbing violently.

"Sorry? You shouldn't be sorry," Cedric soothed. "It's me that should be sorry."

"No, no! I'm sorry... I didn't want him to kiss me," Hermione bawled as she raised her head to look at him. He couldn't bare to see her ears red and puffy like they were, tears clinging to her eyelashes and fear in her eyes.

"Who kissed you? Krum?"

"Yes-s," she hiccuped. "I didn't want him to, but he did it anyways!" She pressed her face to his chest once more as she was overcome with a fresh wave of tears.

"Shhh," Cedric cooed as he hugged her tightly. "I'll just have a word with h-"

"No! Please don't," Hermione cried. "Just let it go... I want nothing more to do with him."

"All right, all right," Cedric whispered as he stroked the back of her hair. "I won't say anything." He listened to her sobs for a moment, they lessened with each passing moment he held her, and that's when he realized he should apologize. "Hermione, I'm terribly sorry for giving you such a hard time about Krum, though."

"It's f-"

"No, it's not fine. I should have explained myself before I snapped at you like that. I just didn't trust him because he said that he was willing to take you away from me," Cedric sighed. "I was just afraid that he might actually be able to do that."

"You were?"

"Yes," Cedric admitted.

"I would never let him," Hermione assured him as she sniffled. Cedric smiled at her sweetly and wiped her cheeks gently with his thumbs as he cupped her face in his hands.

He leaned down, his lips connecting with hers in a watery, but tender kiss. It was short, but comforting to them both at the same time. He pulled away, Hermione opening her eyes which were still sparkling with tears. He didn't care that this kiss was watery because he knew that her lips were moist from tears that only he could dry for her.

"C'mon... let's go to the Astronomy Tower for some fresh air," Cedric suggested as he grabbed her hand and pulled her gently toward the stairs.

Hermione and Cedric had spent the next few days sneaking up to the Astronomy Tower to be together, sitting and reading Cedric's Christmas gift to Hermione in the comfort of each other's company as Hermione read aloud. But on one particular night, Hermione lost track of time as she sat talking with Harry and Ron. Harry had been in Dumbledore's office and saw something quite extraordinary.

He said there had been a stone basin thing in one of Dumbledore's cabinets and it had been swirling with silver liquid. He continued to say that he got pulled into Dumbledore's memories and he watched trials of Death Eaters. He said that he saw how Crouch convicted his son.

Harry also said that he talked to Dumbledore about Voldemort and the trials he had seen. Once Harry had finished telling them these things, they felt thoroughly disturbed, but Ron finally broke the silence.

"Dumbledore reckons You-Know-Who's getting stronger again as well? And he trusts Snape? He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"

"Yes," Harry replied. Snape was one of the ones that Harry had seen on trial for accusations of being a Death Eater along with Barty Crouch, Jr.

Hermione was too stunned for words. She had just heard things about people she trusted and would never like to think could be possible for them to be involved in. She put her forehead in her hands and stared at her knees. She was fascinated with the way the firelight danced upon her own skin, giving it a shimmering orange glow.

"Rita Skeeter," Hermione finally spoke up.

"How can you be worrying about her now?" Ron's voice sounded disbelieving and slightly annoyed at Hermione's mention of the evil reporter's name.

"I'm not worrying about her. I'm just thinking... remember what she said to me in the Three Broomsticks? 'I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl.' This is what she meant," Hermione sighed, "isn't it? She reported his trial, she knew he's passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky too, remember... 'Ludo Bagman's a bad wizard.' Mr. Crouch would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home."

"Yeah, but Bagman didn't pass information on purpose, did he?" Ron sounded as though he was trying to save Bagman from becoming a bad name to them, and quite frankly, anyone who had known him like the three of them would have wanted to too. "And Fudge reckons Madame Maxime attacked Crouch?"

"Yeah," Harry answered Ron, "but he's only saying that because Crouch disappeared near the Beauxbatons carriage."

"We never thought of her, did we? Mind you," Ron said, "she's definitely got giant blood and she doesn't want to admit it-"

"Of course she doesn't," Hermione interrupted. "Look what happened to Hagrid when Rita found out about his mother. Look at Fudge, jumping to conclusions about her, just because she's part giant. Who needs that sort of prejudice? I'd probably say I had big bones if I knew that's what I'd get for telling the truth."

Hermione looked down at her watch and realized that she was now one half hour late on meeting Cedric. She had to find a way to get away from the boys, though. Suddenly something popped into her head.

"We haven't done any practicing! We were going to do the Impediment Curse! We'll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on, Harry, you need to get some sleep," Hermione pressed.

Much to her pleasure, both boys rose from their seats and went upstairs, leaving her alone. She pulled out her wand, checked her reflection in a window pane, and summoned Harry's Invisibility Cloak to her. She had borrowed it from him only a week ago, and still had not given it back. She would, though, all in good time when she didn't need to sneak out late at night anymore.

She sneaked out of the common room and down the seventh floor corridor to the Astronomy Tower. She was on her way up the stairs when she ran into someone. She gasped and held her breath as she strained to see who was there. It was Cedric.

"Cedric?"

"Hermione?"

"Boy, am I glad it's you," Hermione sighed as she pulled off the cloak, light flooding the stairs from her wand. "I thought I was about to be in some serious tro-"

"Oh, but you are," said a voice from behind the both of them. Hermione whipped around and gasped as she saw Filch standing before them. He was grinning evilly as he held up a lantern, light reflecting again a crooked yellow grimace that was his twisted smile.

Hermione backed up a few steps until she bumped into Cedric. She fiddled with the cloak, hoping Filch wouldn't notice as he congratulated his cat on helping him find the two students. Without warning though, Hermione and Cedric had disappeared. While Filch wasn't looking, Hermione had slipped the cloak over their heads and they had raced up the stairs and out onto the roof.

They heard Filch's angered yells as he searched the room below for them, his voice filtering out the open windows, but he never found them. He grumbled and complained as he left the tower with his cat, Mrs. Norris. Once Filch was gone, Hermione and Cedric opened the trap door on the roof and peeked down in.

"I don't see him," Hermione whispered as Cedric pulled her back up.

"I think... it's best that we... stay up here for a while, though," Cedric panted as he let the door down easily so that it didn't make noise.

"Yeah," Hermione sighed as she leaned against the stone wall. Cedric crawled over to her and wrapped his arms around her. He listened to her sigh in a contented way which made him smile and flush a bit.

He was happy to know that he could make someone else so happy. He wanted her to know how much she meant to him, but words just didn't seem like enough of an explanation to sum it all up. He thought about it for a minute, and finally he decide that he had to tell her even if he couldn't fit it into words the way he would have liked.

"Hermione?"

"Hmm?" Her voice sounded sleepy as her head rested on his shoulder, but he paid no attention to this as he tried to think of the first thing to say.

"I need to tell you something," Cedric sighed in preparation. He suddenly felt a bit nervous, but as he opened his mouth, he was interrupted.

Hermione snored softly and snuggled up to him as he craned his next to see her. She was asleep in his arms. He chuckled softly to himself as he let her continue to sleep for the next half hour. He just sat there, figuring that it gave him more time to contemplate what he had to say to her.

He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head as he nuzzled his nose into her hair. It had a sweet smell of blueberries and cream with a hint of lilac. An intoxicating scent that carried him away. He leaned his head down on hers as he saw a shooting star pass over them.

"Make a wish, Cedric," he said to himself. He closed his eyes and squeezed Hermione tight as his mind worked to think of a wish. "I wish that... Hermione could be truly happy," Cedric said at last. Little did he know, she was already truly happy just as she was, wrapped in his arms asleep. Little did he know that he had just wasted a wish that should have been wishing for safety for the both of them, harm to be a stranger to them both.

Cedric stirred a bit, but Hermione did not wake. He had no idea what to do with her, she wasn't waking. So, he made up his mind within about three minutes as he stood up, picked her up in his arms bridal style, and grabbed the cloak. He made his way carefully down the ladder into the Astronomy Tower and laid her back down for a moment as he tossed the cloak over himself and picked her back up in his arms.

He carried her down the seventh floor corridor, down six flights of stairs to the entrance hall. From there, he made his way to the Hufflepuff common room. Once inside, he went up to his dorm that he shared with three other boys, and slipped Hermione into his bed. He changed into his pajamas, crawled into bed, pulled the hangings, and then snuggled up to Hermione, pulling the blankets over the both of them.

The next morning, Hermione went to stretch, but found her arm trapped. She squinted against the dim light that made its way into the crack in the yellow hangings. 'WAIT! Yellow hangings!'

Panic took over Hermione as she realized that she was not in her own bed. Her hangings were red, not yellow. She looked around frantically and spotted the source which trapped her left arm. Cedric's head was resting peacefully upon it, but this did nothing for her panicked state.

She gasped as she pulled back the covers and looked to see that both of them were still fully clothed. She sighed with relief as she saw that he had on blue and white striped pajama pants and a muscle shirt and that she still had on her school uniform. She smiled sweetly as he gave a gentle snore as she pulled her arm from under his head as easily as she could.

She slipped out of the bed, found her shoes and the cloak, put them both on, and slipped out of the sixth year Hufflepuff boys' dorm. She made her way through the common room unnoticed and out into the hallway. She raced back up to the Gryffindor Tower, hurriedly got ready and hoped that Harry and Ron hadn't missed her.

She made her way down to breakfast and saw that she was the first of the trio to make it there. She settled down for a peaceful breakfast as she realized that she had enjoyed sleeping in Cedric's company last night. He hadn't tried to invade her privacy and it was like a dream to sleep in his strong Quidditch toned arms.

Hermione smiled to herself as she poked at a sausage with her fork. She had never been so happy. She wasn't alone for much longer after this, though as Harry and Ron joined her, both looking rather tired from the night before. After breakfast, they set off for their first classes, and then at lunch time, they went to the empty Transfigurations classroom to help Harry practice Impediment Curses.

Later that night at dinner, Hermione spotted Cedric across the Great Hall and blushed as he cocked an eyebrow and looked at her with a cheeky smile. She grinned sheepishly and tried not to giggle as he winked at her and then nodded toward the Great Hall doors. They got up and left dinner early to take a walk out on the grounds.

Many more of their nights were spent just like this, leaving dinner early to bask in each other's company. They had canceled their late night excursions due to their almost getting caught, but that night wasn't the last time Hermione had sneaked into the Hufflepuff common room under the Invisibility Cloak with Cedric. They made a weekly occurrence of this, Hermione coming down every Friday clear into June.

Around the middle of June, Hermione and Ron could be found in the empty Transfigurations classroom, still helping Harry practice curses. They were just finishing up on practice when Ron called their attention to the window. He was pointing to something and looking vaguely puzzled.

"Come and look at this," he said. "What's Malfoy doing?"

"He looks like he's using a walkie-talkie," Harry said in the same puzzled way a few moments later after he and Hermione had joined Ron at the window. Draco Malfoy was standing with Crabbe and Goyle while talking into his hand.

"He can't be," Hermione reasoned. "I've told you, those sorts of things don't work around Hogwarts. Come on, Harry, let's try that Shield Charm again."

June the twenty-third arrived very soon for everyone. Hermione had been working her best to keep up with school work, helping Harry, and meeting Cedric. She had even dropped her obsession with catching Rita Skeeter for the moment, wanting desperately to put down anything that she could to make more time for other things.

She had sat her exams, her last one on the next day, but right now she was searching the dinner hall for Cedric. He was nowhere to be found for the first ten minutes. He had usually taken to walking her to dinner and lunch even, but he just wasn't there now.

Hermione's brow knitted as she abandoned her uneaten food and continued to stare about the Great Hall. Then, suddenly, her eyes landed on Cedric. He was standing at the door of the Great Hall motioning for her to come and join him. She smiled broadly and bounded from her seat toward him. He grabbed her hand and without a word, led her out onto the grounds.

They didn't speak until Hermione noticed that Cedric was leading her to the Quidditch pitch. She knew that the third task was to be held down here, both Harry and Cedric had told her so. And it dawned on her that Cedric shouldn't be down here because he could be accused of cheating.

"Cedric? Why are we going down here?"

"You'll see," Cedric said as he pulled her out of the dim light that lit the grounds. The sun was slowly starting to set, it's bright orange glow casting the last warmth of the day upon the already dew covered grass.

"But you shouldn't-"

"I know, I know," Cedric laughed as he pulled her inside the stands and up the stairs toward one of the towers. "But I promise you that's not what I'm here for."

Hermione still eyed him suspiciously as he led her into the seats of one of the wooden towers that was mounted and towering about the students' stands. Hermione looked around the many seats and saw that there was a blanket, her book, four bottles of butterbeer, and some cakes and pastries.

"Did you-," Cedric said nothing to her question, he just simply nodded and pulled her down into a seat. She sighed contentedly as he opened the book to the next to last chapter and began to read.

She made no bother to stop him as she sat there with her head on his shoulder, listening to his soothing voice read aloud to her. She was reminded of how her father would read to her as her mother sat on her bed with her and brushed her hair. She smiled and breathed deeply, his cologne tingling her nostrils and making her skin break out in goose flesh.

He smelt wonderful. His cologne was a mixture of amber, musk, and a light cedar scent. It was a dreamy, entrancing smell that made her want to close her eyes and breath it forever.

"Are you awake?" He laughed as she sighed dreamily and looked up at him with a smile of pure delight.

"Yes, I'm awake," Hermione replied playfully as she traced an imaginary line over his chest with her fingertip. She wrapped her arms tightly around him when he laid the book down and picked up his butterbeer, lacing an arm around her shoulder and staring off into the sunset.

They watched the colors sinking. The yellow of the sky the first to disappear behind the trees of the Forbidden Forest as the orange twinge of the sky danced upon the trees' leaves. Hermione stared at the sky, clouds a dark neon pink and the rest of the sky a bright, vivid red.

It was warming just looking at the sky's color. Within the next few minutes, the orange had all sunk behind the trees as the sun and Earth made their orbit of each other. The sky was left with nothing but red, even the clouds had soaked up the color and changed from the dark neon pink to a red orange color.

With each passing moment, the sky became a darker and darker red color. By eight o'clock, it was a blood red and the clouds were a cranberry color. Hermione remembered what her father had said about a sky like this once. He had told her that a red sky at night was a sailor's delight and a mother's fright. He was the only one she had ever heard say this, but she believed it.

"Neat, isn't it?"

"Hmm?"

"The sky, I mean," Cedric said quietly. "How it can be so different all the time. It changes in a matter of seconds."

"Yeah," Hermione breathed as she snuggled into Cedric's chest. She would rather be nowhere else in the world at that very moment, or any moment for that matter.

"I guess we had better get back up to the castle, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah, I suppose we should," Hermione agreed as she sat up. Cedric grabbed the bottles, the blanket, and the left over pastries while Hermione grabbed the book. They were no their way out when the first star of the night became visible. A shooting star to be exact.

Both backs turned on the red sky, they missed the white streak of beauty. It was their one chance for redemption. Gone in a fleeting second and never to be seen by them again. Cedric smiled at Hermione unknowingly as he grabbed her hand and they descended the stairs, both unaware of what horrors lie within the coming day.