A/N: Hullo! I like cheese!
Sitting in the living room the dog is catching caramel corn,
I never wanted a change,
Brushing teeth and combing hair,
I guess they do this everywhere,
I guess it's time for a change,
I never wanted a change,
I think it's time for a change.
-Murder by Death. Song: Intergalactic Menopause
Blue Roses.
Chapter eighteen: Times are changing
Skye held on to Amos's arm, her fingernails digging so hard into his skin there were drops of blood dripping onto the arm of his chair. She had a slight twitch under her eye that was returning that usually occurred when she was extremely nervous.
Amos, meanwhile, didn't notice Skye's nervous tendencies as he was in shock, himself, to see before him his lone son standing in front of a Swedish Short-Snout that had it's head raised up to the heavens as it puffed smoke out of it's nostrils. Cedric stared at the creature, desperation in his eyes. He looked up at where Skye was sitting, smiled at her, looked back at the dragon and ran towards it, more confidence within him knowing that she was there to support him.
He flicked his wand and said an incantation that was inaudible over the crowds cheering as he approached the dragon. A spark shot out of his wand and hit one of the eggs, causing it to transform into a dog. The dragon turned it's attention from Cedric to the dog and began chasing the dog around the arena, attempting to set the jumpy dog aflame as it bounded from side-to-side.
Cedric ran towards the eggs, caution in his step as he kept one eye on the sparkling golden egg and another on the dragon.
Skye gave a scream as the worst of her came true; the dragon finally burned the dog to a crisp and turned onto Cedric, an odd fire in it's eyes as it saw Cedric climb up the mountain of eggs, trying to get to the golden egg which sat at the top, glinting in the sunlight.
"CEDRIC!" Skye tried to shout above the crowds, getting his attention to alert him of the oncoming dragon.
Skye wasn't sure if Cedric had heard her or if it was good luck, but after calling his name Cedric turned around to see the dragon running towards him, whipping her head back and giving out a shrieking call.
Cedric's mouth went open as he saw the rampaging dragon open his wings and begin to hover above the ground, charging towards him. Cedric scrambled through the other eggs, tripping on one and reaching out his arm so that the golden egg was just past his fingertips. He was beginning to stand so he could make his final leap to the egg when the dragon opened her mouth wide to reveal rows of teeth, and fire spurteded out of her mouth, hitting Cedric square in the face. Skye jumped up and gave a loud scream as she saw her boyfriend being burned to a crisp. Once the dragon had taken a deep breath to give another spurt of fire, Cedric had leaped forwards enough that he could grip the egg in his arms before stumbling down the mound of eggs and running out the exit where he had came in, swerving to avoid the jets of fire the dragon shot at him.
At this point, Skye was almost in hysteria at seeing what had happened to Cedric. She ran out of her seat and down the flights of stairs, skipping two or three stairs with every jump, causing her to trip and fall flat on her face at the landing of the last flight of stairs. She stood up and shook her head, feeling disoriented as she ran, swerving, towards the champions tent.
She swung open the flaps to the tent, breathless as she saw Madame Pomfrey mumbling angrily as she applied a thick orange paste to his face.
"Oh, Cedric!" Skye cried, running over to his bedside and taking his hand. "Is he going to be alright?" Skye asked, addressing Madame Pomfrey.
"He'll be fine, dear. He just needs some time to heal."
"Wonderful!" Skye said, squeezing Cedric's hand. Cedric gave her a half-grin from the side of his face which wasn't as severely burnt.
Madame Pomfrey continued to apply the paste as Skye and Cedric turned their ears to the stands, trying to hear what the news on the other champions were. They mostly heard occasional gasps or cheers as the other three champions completed the task.
"You did great, Cedric," Skye said, when she figured the last champion, Harry, had finished.
"Except for this!" Cedric pointed to his face.
"But it was a brilliant bit of Transfiguration with that dog!"
"Thanks, love. I'd give you a kiss, but I'm pretty sure you don't want paste on your face."
Skye giggled and Cedric stood up when Ludo Bagman came in to usher him to the other side of the tent. Skye took this as the time to leave; she exited the tent to see Amos outside, wringing his hands together in worry.
"Is he alright?" Amos asked, putting his hands on Skye's shoulders. She smiled at him.
"He'll be fine. Though they're some nasty burns, the school nurse knows what she's doing."
Amos pulled Skye into a tight embrace, apparently happy his son was ok.
When he let go, he looked Skye in the eyes, a smile on his face. "I'm so proud of him; he's achieved such great things. He's just like...just like his brother."
Skye nodded, a tear welling in the corner of her eye. "I know."
Cedric walked out of the tent a few moments later, a stupid smile on his face and the golden egg tucked under his arm. Amos pulled his son into a tight hug.
"That's my boy, getting past dragons! I knew you could do it! I'm glad you ended up with just the Short-Snout, you have no idea the temperament of the Hungarian Horntail!"
Cedric laughed lightly, feeling bad for Harry knowing that he had to conquer the Horntail instead of him.
"Excuse me!"
Cedric turned around, finding himself face to face with a scrambling woman. She had tight blonde curls and horn-rimmed glasses. She had a dragon-skin handbag in her long fingernails that slightly resembled the color of Skye's nails after digging them into Amos's skin.
"Excuse me," she said again, holding out her hand. "Rita Skeeter, of the Daily Prophet. Tell me, now that you've completed the first task, how does it feel to finish second-best, knowing that you were beaten by a fourth-year? Do you feel discouraged? Embarrased?"
"Well, I think that Harry is fair competition..."
Amos pushed Cedric aside and said to Rita Skeeter, "Cedric has no comment." Amos then grabbed Cedric and Skye, who looked shocked and confused, by the arms and walked them towards the castle in a flurry of robes.
"Who was she?" Skye asked.
"Daily Prophet. She's been nothing but a bother to my department after she got wind of magical creatures being involved in the tournament."
"I've met her before," Cedric said, looking down at the ground, "at the weighing of the wands. All she wanted to do was talk to Harry. Harry, Harry, Harry. Not to be selfish, but she treated me like the background of Harry's portrait!"
Skye made a tutting sound, and shook her head. "Awful."
Once the three of them had reached the doors to the Entrance Hall, Cedric and Skye bade Amos goodbye, promising to see him at the next task, for Cedric was remaining at school during the holidays to maintain his duties as Head Boy.
"Come on, Skye, let's go to the washroom and get off some of this goo."
- - -
"Pine fresh," Cedric said to the door that lead to the Prefect's washroom.
The door creaked open and, with a quick glance down the corridor, Cedric stepped in, Skye following behind him.
Cedric placed the golden egg beside the large bathtub and turned a few of the knobs, sending warm bath water and a jet stream of bubbles into the tub. Cedric walked over to the mirrors, where he ran water and began splashing it onto his face.
"Here," Skye said, walking up behind him. "Let me help you out with that."
She took her wand out of her pocket and, with a flick, disappeared the gook that covered his face, revealing Cedric's handsome face once again. Cedric looked into the mirror, smiling.
"It's a bit scarred still," he said, pointing to a scar that ran along his cheek and touching a part of his forehead that was still a little raw, "but it looks much better."
Cedric turned around and slipped his arm on the lower part of Skye's back, dipping her down.
"Now, for the real reason I brought you here."
Cedric bent down and kissed Skye passionately, taking her a bit off guard. He swept her back up, threw her robes aside and began working at the buttons of her shirt.
"Ooh, Cedric, are we gonna clean ourselves up?" she asked as he stripped her down and walked her closer to the bathtub. Once he had taken everything off, he shoved her into the bathtub and unbuttoned his shirt, throwing it off to the side. He pulled off his belt and, once he had unzipped his trousers (A/N: hehe trouser XD) Skye grabbed the bottoms and pulled them down, repeating her action with his boxer shorts and pulling him into the water, sending a splash everywhere and sending the egg flying into the water
"Frisky, are we?" Cedric asked, sitting on a shelf in the water.
"I think so," Skye said, swimming towards him and placing her legs on either side of his, her knees on the shelf, and kissed him with her mouth open, slipping her tongue in and out of his mouth. She moved her hips to the rhythm of her tongue, causing Cedric to breathe deeply in anticipation. Skye smiled out of the corner of her mouth as she felt his hard-on brush against her thigh. Cedric slipped down the shelf so his ears dipped into the water, Skye still kissing him.
"Wait!" he said, causing Skye to tilt her head back in shock. "Listen."
Skye put her ears under the water, and heard voices, saying something that still seemed a little blurred from the sound of the running water.
"The egg!" Cedric said. "It's coming from the egg!"
Skye rolled to the side of Cedric as he swam to the middle of the bath, where he picked up the egg. He then turned off the taps and, plunging his head underwater, opened the egg and remained underwater momentarily. His head sprung from the top of water and he had a confused look on his face.
"You should hear this," he said. "On the count of three, we dip our heads underwater. One, two..."
Skye dipped her head into the water beneath a heavy layer of bubbles, and heard a chorus of eerie voices sing from the egg.
'Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we've took,
But past an hour - the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.'
Skye's head emerged from the surface, and she took a deep breath in. Cedric popped up from the water, as well.
"What does it mean?" Cedric asked.
"I don't know!" Skye said. "We'll take another listen."
Both of them dipped their heads underwater, listening to the song again.
"Ok, we'll take it line for line," Cedric suggested. "The first one...come seek us where our voices sound."
"Underwater," Skye said. "It's something underwater."
"But what's underwater?"
"I don't know. The giant squid?"
"Well, that could work. But there aren't multiple giant squids, are there?"
"Giant squid babies?"
Skye turned when she heard a giggle behind them, and saw a window that was made out of a portrait of a mermaid.
"That's it! Merpeople! It's merpeople!"
"Good job, Skye. Ok, next line. We cannot sing above the ground...definitely merpeople. And while you're searching ponder this...so, we have to search underwater. Ok, we're at a start.
"We've taken what you'll sorely miss."
"They're taking something valuable!" Skye said. "The most important thing to you."
"Are merpeople materialistic?"
"Very funny. And, I think, you'll have an hour to get it back, or it's gone forever. It all makes sense! The merpeople are going to hide something that's really valuable to you underwater and you have one hour to search for it and find it."
Cedric nodded, looking down at the water in thought. Something that's extremely valuable. What could they take? His broom? His Head Boy badge? His...
His head shot up, and he looked at Skye.
They were going to take Skye.
He knew what he was going to have to do.
- - -
A/N: What's he gonna have to do? Well, durr. Read on. Homies. Then you'll find out. Luff luff.