A/N:

Alright, I was struck with the impulse to write a fic featuring, of course, our favorite lonely ship, mione/ced. Whole sentences in italics are Hermione's thoughts. Bold are cedric's thoughts.

Disclaimer: HP belongs to JKR...y'all know it.

Hermione sighed. The history of magic project was beginning to take its toll. She opened yet another dusty tomes and sneezed.

'Honestly.' She thought to herself. 'you'd think they'd have come up with an anti-dust spell or something' She let out another sneeze and sniffled. 'Ahhh! Not another cold.' She knew very well that she hadn't fully recovered from the one she had just a week and a half ago, but she had had a Transfiguration quiz the next day, and needed to study! She couldn't stay in bed for a whole day, just lying there!

As she turned the page in her book, she inhaled to keep herself from sneezing again, and accidentally inhaled a cloud of dust. Her eyes watered, and she coughed loudly, grateful that the library was empty, save Madam Pince. Or so she thought…

The book on goblin enslavement was so hideously tedious. As much as she believed in equal rights, the book was like a History of Magic lesson in writing. In a moment of inspiration, Hermione flipped the book over to look at the cover. She snorted with suppressed laughter. The author was one H. A. Binns. Rolling her eyes, Hermione set herself to the task of notetaking.

She knew she would thank herself later, when all the students would be in the library finishing their homework on Sunday, and she had gotten everything done that Friday. Besides, she hardly had a need for 'date night' as the Hogwarts students had dubbed Hogsmeade Fridays. Inwardly, Hermione shuddered.The idea of dating one of the boys who had recently expressed an interest in her in that way was enough to keep her in the library for the rest of the year.

Besides, she wasn't in the habit of pretending. Sure, she told the occasional white lie, but pretending about ones emotions was quite a different matter. And she NEVER lied to teachers.

By now Hermione had been lost in thought for about 20 minutes. So caught up, she hadnt noticed a somewhat bemused looking Cedric Diggory standing right in front of her. She dropped the book. The 1089 page, 6 inch thick History of Goblin Captivity, Enslavement

And Emancipation. Yes, that book. She dropped it.

Now, Hermione was hardly what you would call graceful. She had taken roughly a year of ballet, because all little girls want to become ballerinas, right? But this didn't help. No, Hermione was definitely a klutz. Tripping, falling, bruising, breaking, spilling, dropping, you name it and shes done it a million times. She could trip over absolutely anything. It didn't help matters that she usually had a bookbag slung over her shoulder that weighed 'a bloody ton' in the immortal words of Ron Weasley.

Introspectively, she was getting distracted incredibly easily. Especially for her. Normally she could concentrate very well. Back to the present, Cedric was still standing in front of her. Waving his hand in front of her eyes. And asking if she was alright. Despite herself, she was slightly amused. Generally this behavior annoyed her to no end. His expression was, however, admittedly quite comical, and regardless of the fact that she didn't approve of his 'fanclub' (not that she blamed him, he was a bit like Harry in that respect. Although definitely more experienced…but of course Hermione hadnt been paying attention…) she couldn't help noting that he was rather good looking. Mentally, Hermione slapped herself. NO, bad thoughts! Baaad Hermione!

She shook herself out of it again and said

"Oh!" Brilliant, Hermione. Absolute genious. Oh, shut up. Honestly, its not like we care what he thinks. Getting slightly schitzophrenic here, are we? I don't know. Are we? Totally. Okay, Hermione Granger does not say totally. So what if I do? Ugh. I give up. See? I cured you of your schitzophrenia! Says who? Me. But if I'm talking to you, and you're me, then techinically I'm still schitzophrenic. No, you're just talking to yourself.

"Hello.." He trailed off slightly, wondering what she was thinking about. It was obvious that the Gryffindor was deep in thought, and Cedric found himself wondering precisely what was so captivating. He took the opportunity to subconciously study the 5th year. Hermione, meanwhile, wasn't as preoccupied as she looked. She was merely trying to think of something remotely intelligent to say, whilst frantically trying to think of what he had said while she was off in Oz. It didn't escape her that he was watching her with the oddest expression on his face, a mix of curiosity and amusement, which, she couldn't help but notice, made him look even more dashing than usual. Dashing? Aha! I tooold yoooou...Told me what?You faaaaaaaaancy him... Had the voice in Hermione's head been a real person, she would've stuck her tongue out at it. However, it wasn't, so she didn't.

"Hello; Oh! I'm so sorry, did you want to sit down? Here, I'll move.."

"No, no, I was wondering if I could sit here, but you stay, really, It's fine."

"Are you sure?" Hermione sat back down and moved a few of her books over so he could sit on the opposite side of the table.

"Thanks, really, I don't want to disturb you, or anything." Cedric looked rueful.

"I was having difficulty concentrating anyway, to be honest." Hermione laugingly admitted. Cedric smiled and opened his Transfiguration text. Not 20 minutes later, Hermione was disturbed from her ahem research by the sounds of tittering coming from approximately 5 aisles over, in the flying section. She looked up, unnerved, to see Cedric also, looking somewhat ruffled. Hermione frowned at the sound of the giggling getting closer. Cedric, however, was looking increasingly alarmed.

"How close are they?" He whispered urgently.

"About 3 rows over." She replied in an undertone. He cringed visibly,and Hermione couldn't hide a small smile. Cedric shot her a mock glare, and she smiled back sweetly.

"Right," he said, as the voices drew nearer.

"Time for drastic measures" Hermione barely had time to stifle a giggle before Cedric had grabbed her hand and pulled her under the table, along with any evidence that they had previously been sitting at the aforementioned table. As soon as he looked around, he groaned inwardly.

Should've gone with the bookshelf thing...No, cause then you wouldn't be under a table with possibly the smartest girl in school. Not to mention prettiest. Hey, arent we dating Cho? Technically we arent, because I havent asked her to the next Hogsmeade trip yet. Well, you were supposed to ask her to the trip tonight but no, you were too chicken.

Cedric was too affronted at the fact that the voice in his head had called him...oh wait. That made him insane, didn't it? He supposed it did. Cedric smiled bemusedly at the voices in his head.

Hermione saw him smiling and idly wondered what he was thinking about. His hand was over her mouth and his other arm was crushing her to him. She didn't think he'd noticed that he was still holding her to his chest in what felt like a death grip, and yet was far to comfortable to be called one. She could feel his heart beating through his robes, and suddenly grasped what being this close to him was doing to her.

She tried very hard not to think about the fact that since she was so conveniently pressed against him, she could now had positive proof that Mr. Diggory did, in fact, have very nice abs. She smirked at the thought of telling her roommates this. She and Lavendar and Parvati had developed an interesting friendship, and although they werent very close, the three were good friends in their own way.

In order to distract herself, Hermione looked at the books on the shelf in front of her.

A History of Great Goblin Rulers, Goblin Societies of the 19th Century, it went on, and on, and on. ALL of these were by the same H.A. Binns. Hermione was beginning to wonder what it had been like for Professor Binns, whos was obviously related to this author. She shuddered, and tried to focus on something else when she realised that the giggling had stopped. Cedric seemed to notice this at the same time, and let go of her.

"Well, that was close." He sighed. Hermione glared at him.

"Aren't you going to explain?" She demanded, attempting to force her hair back into its messy bun. Cedric laughed.

"To be honest, I just didn't feel like dealing with them right now." Hermione nodded sympathetically.

"Bad day, then?"

"Not so much, just the need for a bit of peace every now and then." Hermione snorted.

"Not bloody likely, with your whole fan club following you around. They seem to have discovered that you like the library." He grimaced.

"Yes, well hopefully the hiding has thrown them off the scent." Cedric said, smiling mischeiviously. Hermione couldn't help but smile back.

A/N:

Okay, so let me know what y'all thought!

Love & Chocolate,

Milli