Hermione went to the library after classes had finished on Friday. She was pleased none of her classmates wanted to tag along, most of them groaning at the thought of more schoolwork after a long week full of it. Hermione contented herself looking for books on formal logic, elementals, and ancient rune arrays while she waited, finding several tomes she thought looked interesting.

"Hermione…" A familiar voice came down the aisle. "You came."

Hermione turned.

Cedric Diggory stood at the end of the aisleway, looking at her. He seemed even taller, now, as if he'd grown another inch or two over the summer, and his shoulders were broad. His hair was slightly tousled, making Hermione want to brush it back from his face. She felt breathless, watching him - she always seemed to forget just how handsome Cedric was until he was up close.

Cedric's eyes were on her, warm and intense, as if drinking her in.

"I did," Hermione said. A small smile played around her lips as she drifted towards him. "Should I not have?"

Cedric exhaled.

"I mean," he said, looking away. "I didn't come to your election..."

Hermione's eyes softened.

"Well," she said, her voice gentle. "I came anyway."

"I'm glad you did," he admitted. "I was worried you were still upset."

"I'm not upset, Cedric. Really," she assured him. "Parents can be ridiculous. It wasn't your fault."

"Yeah, but still." Cedric sat down at their study table in a nearby alcove. "I should have done something."

"It's all in the past," Hermione reassured him, taking the other seat.

Cedric still looked decidedly torn up about it, though. His eyes seemed pained, like he couldn't believe she was actually there, like it was amazing that she'd actually forgiven him (when she hadn't even realized she'd been slighted at the time), and it was making Hermione kind of uneasy. Was this some thing with boys, torturing themselves over stupid things like this? Wanting to go back in time and redo things to take the more heroic option and impress a girl? Instead of just moving on?

Well. She wasn't having that.

"Third years had their Special Lecture on Monday," Hermione told him, sitting down across from him. "Hogwarts thinks we're all adults now, apparently."

Cedric's eyes went wide, and he was startled into laughing. Hermione smiled fondly.

"Merlin, I remember that," he said, thinking back fondly. "Snape just about killed us all. Sullivan asked him how old he'd been when he'd slept with someone the first time, and Flitwick had to disarm Snape to stop him from cursing us."

Hermione laughed.

"The girls' session was a lot less dramatic," she said, amused, "but rather awkward at first. Has Hogwarts always done this sort of thing at the start of third year?"

"Not always, but they have for a while now," Cedric said. "They did when my Dad was in school, but not my granddad, I think. Gradual loosening of morals, I think, along with more Muggleborns bringing in their own ideas when they came to school."

"It was fascinating," Hermione told him, her tone cheeky. "I didn't know a lot of the magical details around all of it, like potions and whatnot."

Cedric grinned at her.

"Third years can go to Hogsmeade on chosen weekends," he said. "It's not like people get out of the school often, so Hogsmeade trips often default to the date of choice. Better to make sure everyone knows all that stuff before they start openly dating."

"And… do people do that?" Hermione bit her lip. "Just… date?"

"As opposed to formal courting and whatnot?" Cedric asked. Hermione nodded, and he considered. "Some people," he said finally. "I'll admit it seems to be more of a thing with the other houses than with Slytherin. Most Slytherins, if they are dating, go in small groups to chaperone each other. A few of the Ravenclaws, too, maybe - the more traditional families."

"Why?" Hermione sat back in her chair, huffing. "It seems so unnecessary, really."

"Well, they take everything very seriously, don't they?" Cedric's eyes sparkled, impish. "You can't waste something as important as a date on something as frivolous as liking someone, Hermione – it has to be a carefully-calculated potential union of the sacred bloodlines."

Hermione scoffed audibly, and Cedric laughed.

"That said, Slytherins still date around, but mostly in secret and not in public, especially the purebloods," he said. "I know Nicola Dodsworth was getting off with Lysander Lestrange in abandoned corridors last year."

Cedric tilted his head at her, eyes dancing.

"Why do you ask so many questions about it, Hermione?" he teased. "Are you interested in dating this year?"

There was playful suggestion in his voice, and Hermione blushed.

"If I was, I'm sure I'd want to know as much about it and the typical customs as possible," Hermione shot back, "before potentially eschewing them to make whatever statement I wanted to."

Cedric grinned. "So… yes?"

Hermione's heart skipped a beat at his grin, but she rolled her eyes.

"I just… I just don't get it," she admitted, frustration leaking into her tone. "All the formality of it. Why not let people date each other, and then start worrying about betrothal contracts?"

"The more uptight pureblood families… they approve who their kids can or cannot see beforehand," Cedric said. "They don't want their children falling for someone that's not 'appropriate' to them." He shrugged. "They intermarry a lot, to keep their bloodlines 'pure'."

"Sounds like a great way to get inbred and breed insanity," Hermione muttered, and Cedric laughed.

"I mean, you're not wrong," he said, eyes sparkling. "The Black family is known for being unstable, and I know the Gaunt family practically interbred themselves into extinction."

That was news to Hermione, and interesting to know. She wondered if other old families had any conditions or recessive traits that emerged from intermarrying each other all the time. She'd have to look into it – if there were, she wanted to know. That was potentially valuable information, especially if one of her dorm mates might go mad as they all got older.

"But back to the real question," Cedric said. His eyes met hers, soft, and a half-grin played on his lips. "Do you want to date this year?"

Hermione raised her head, her eyes meeting his.

"Even if I did, I haven't yet been asked out," she said. "I'm not so uncouth as to not know that a girl asking out a boy is still scandalously forward in the magical world."

"Do you want to be asked out?" Cedric's grin was spreading, and Hermione's face colored. She wanted to toss back some other flirtatious remark, but it was becoming harder to keep up the banter.

"…it would be nice," she admitted. "Maybe."

Cedric's eyebrows waggled, and he smirked.

"How daringly modern of you," he teased, "wanting to date and not formally court a person."

"No one's extended a proper offer to court me yet either," Hermione said. She tossed her hair back, haughty. "Hardly daring, if it's not a choice but rather not an option."

Cedric turned serious suddenly.

"Would you want that?" he asked. His eyes lost their playful sparkle, and his mirth was gone. "A formal courting offer?"

"I… what?" Hermione faltered.

Cedric was looking at her now, but it wasn't with light-hearted flirtation anymore. His eyes were oddly intense on her, and she felt caught off-guard at the sudden mood change. He reached across the table, taking her hand in his.

"Would you want to be formally courted, Hermione?" Cedric asked her again. His voice was steady, but only just. "I've been presuming you wouldn't, judging from comments you've made and your upbringing, but if I've been wrong or I'm mistaken…"

"…if I did," Hermione said slowly, looking at Cedric carefully, "would you offer?"

Cedric's eyes softened.

"Do you really think I wouldn't?" he murmured. He squeezed her hand, rubbing his thumb along the back of it. "I've been as clear as day with you about my intentions."

Hermione's breath caught in her throat.

"Nevertheless," she said, her mouth dry, "there's something very different about dating someone for fun and courting them with marriage as an end goal."

"Muggles date to find a spouse, too," Cedric said lightly. "Just a bit of a different way to go about it, is all."

Hermione bit her lip. It was hard to find words when Cedric was stroking her hand like that, looking at her with such emotion in his eyes.

"Magical people… you'll find they don't date quite as freely as muggles do," Cedric murmured. His eyes held hers, and a small smile toyed at his lips. "With some people, your magic just resonates right. You can feel how compatible you are with someone, independent of your physical attraction to them." He smiled a little wider. "With magic guiding your path like that, why bother waiting longer?"

"It does?" Hermione blinked. Her academic curiosity roused, she found herself able to speak more easily again as she tried to remember where she'd heard about such a thing before. "I think someone told me about this. They compared it to muggles looking for chemistry with each other, but different."

Cedric raised an eyebrow, and he started to smirk.

"Regardless of your lack of courting offers," he said, "you've definitely had a few people you know express interest in you at this point, right?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "Why?"

"When you think over them," Cedric said, "what do you feel?"

Hermione blinked. "Think over them?"

"Kind of your immediate first impression at the idea of spending time with them romantically," Cedric clarified. "Does the idea intrigue you? Revolt you? Scare you?"

Hermione thought.

Anthony Goldstein had expressed overt interest in her for ages, including his family sending a courting proposal to her father, apparently. The thought of dating him was—

"No, no, no," Cedric interrupted, shaking his head. "You don't get to keep it quiet. Go through it out loud. I want to be a part of this."

Hermione rolled her eyes but conceded.

"Well, there's Anthony Goldstein," she began. "He's… I don't think I'd be upset at dating him? But the idea just feels kind of… uncomfortable, if I really think about it."

Cedric nodded encouragingly. "Anyone else?"

"The Macmillan family apparently sent my father a courting proposal over the summer," Hermione recalled. "It doesn't count, of course, as they sent it to a muggle."

"Ernie Macmillan? From my house?" Cedric raised an eyebrow. "And how does the idea of seeing him sound?"

Unable to stop herself, Hermione shuddered.

"Bad," she said. "It's… Ernie's a fine person, I'm sure, but the idea is just…"

It felt slimy, to her, deep in her chest and her heart. The idea of dating Ernie felt like dark sludge curdling and creeping and congealing on stone corners, a raw, repulsed reaction to something repugnant. If that was her magic causing that response, she wondered if her magic was somehow tied into her intuition.

"Who else?" Cedric prompted.

"Umm, Theo." Hermione said, thinking. "His father made an offer, though Theo was embarrassed…"

"We're just entertaining hypothetical scenarios," Cedric assured her. "How does your magic react to that idea?"

Hermione considered. The idea of being romantically entangled with Theo… it wasn't appealing, but it wasn't unappealing. It was just sort of… neutral. She explained this to Cedric, who nodded.

"That's unsurprising," he told her. "Some families tend to have children with more stable and smooth magical cores than others-"

There was no chance in hell Hermione's core would ever be something like that.

"-so there's less chance of a passionate relationship, to be sure," Cedric continued, "but less chance of friction or conflict with each other."

Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"And by 'some families'," she said, "you mean the Sacred 28?"

Cedric grinned.

"Well, not all of them," he said, "but I daresay a fair few."

"I guess that makes sense," Hermione conceded. "If you're going to arrange marriages regardless of your child's preference, better to keep them as easy and painless as possible."

"Exactly." Cedric tilted his head. "Anyone else, Hermione?"

There was something in his tone, and Hermione looked back to him, his eyes catching hers. There was a glimmer of light in his eyes, though his pupils were large and dark. Hermione's breath caught in her throat at his expression.

"Anyone else?" he murmured.

Carefully, almost as if she was afraid to, Hermione considered the idea of a romantic entanglement with Cedric.

Her heart skipped, joyous just at the thought, and she could feel her face blush.

There was a sense of almost glee there, an innocent excitement and feeling of being flustered and delighted. Hermione would have described it as butterflies in her stomach, but it didn't quite feel like her stomach that they were fluttering around in – more around her heart, her magical core, or her head.

Though Hermione hadn't said anything, she could feel her face growing redder and redder, and Cedric's smile was slowly spreading.

"So…?" he teased, eyes sparkling.

"Alright," she said. Her voice was faint. "I see what you mean. About your magic feeling different with some people than others."

Cedric gave her a slow smile, charming, making him seem even more handsome. He took her hand, pulling it towards him and kissing the back of it.

"Hermione," he murmured. "Would you do the honor of accompanying me to Hogsmeade on the first Hogsmeade weekend?" He didn't let go of her hand, rubbing his cheek on her inner wrist and kissing her there as well, though his eyes never left hers.

"As a date?" Hermione's voice was breathless.

His eyes glowed. "Yes. As a date."

It was a struggle for Hermione to find her voice, with Cedric looking at her like that. She was trying to pull herself together, to act confident and unaffected and light, but she couldn't seem to find her footing. And it was only becoming harder, Cedric's eyes molten on hers like that, making it hard to think…

"Yes," she breathed. "I would."

Cedric's smile deepened. "Perfect."