Chapter 3

Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter, it all belongs to JK Rowling!

The next day the schools had a hard time adjusting to the idea of having four champions and they weren't the only ones, Fleur was still trying to work out how Harry had done it, he was obviously incredibly clever to have fooled the Goblet of Fire as well as Dumbledore. She was sitting in the dungeons waiting for the dreadful lesson of double potions to begin. She had always enjoyed the subject back in France, but here, the professor was a beast of a man and didn't seem to like anybody.

Cedric was in the third row, sitting behind Fleur. She seemed bright and perky as usual, or as hap so he guessed that she didn't have the same sort of celebration as he did the night before. Or she had just come up with a better excuse for leaving. He'd been kept awake until the early hours of the morning, the sun had just begun to rise when he was finally able to fall asleep peacefully, so all in all he had probably only had around three hours sleep. He had managed to hide it convincingly though, or at least he hoped he had, it had been dark in the bathroom when he had dragged himself up and the thought of turning on the lights to reveal his reflection had seemed to scary to imagine at that time.

The door to the dungeons flung open at the same time by themselves, or it looked that way until Snape came in flicking his wand over his shoulder back towards the door when they shut by themselves too.

"Page 912 class;" he drawled, making his way through the classroom and around the tabled up to the front of the classroom where he lazily took a seat and glared at specific individuals in the class.

Cedric had always managed to stay out of trouble with the narrow minded potions teacher, he normally only went for the Gryffindors though. He was extremely biased when it came to marking and grading and the only top marks in the school went to those from his own house, Slytherin. A select few Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's had managed to scrape a high mark before now but never any Gryffindor's. At least none of whom Cedric knew.

"Read the chapter." He said simply, not bothering to look like he was doing anything other than observing them work. The next 15 minutes were spent in silence, only the occasional sneeze that was a product of the increasingly cold weather that surrounded the Hogwarts grounds at this time of year.

"I trust that you have all finished reading?" Snape said not looking around to check whether everybody had finished or not. "You have read about the ingredients for the Jehri Flower Potion, now I want you to make it. The ingredients are in the store cupboard; I want this written up on a foot of parchment."

Groans filled the room at the thought of having yet another long assignment to complete in time for the lessons in which they were due.

"I will pair you up so don't even think of starting just yet."

"Jenkins and Herbert" The two Ravenclaw's sat behind Cedric and he heard the grunts of approval from both of them, "Rabel and Kinsman, Harvey and Jones, ah yes we'll have the two champions paired up, see if you actually live up to your expectations and reputations, Diggory and Delacour."

Feeling the uncomfortable dread creep through his veins he watched as Fleur glanced at him and gathered her belongings in a silent agreement that she would come and sit next to him. He was sure he was going to have to do all the work, princesses don't work, he thought to himself as he re-read through the instructions. He heard the soft thud of Fleur sitting besides him and acknowledged her with a nod and a slight smile.

"Ello Cedric," She greeted as she too opened her potions book to the correct page, "What do we need?"

"Sorry?"

"For zee potion, what ingredients do we need? I shall go up and get zem." She offered taking out a bit of parchment and a quill.

This girl was just full of surprises. Cedric didn't hesitate in listing the ingredients and their measurements so Fleur could go to the store cupboard and collect them from the teacher.

"Okay, we need to decide on what we want zee potion to do." Fleur said as she noted down the Flourign onto the parchment. Seeing his look of confusion she remembered that obviously only she had learnt the how to make the potion before when attending Beauxbatons.

"The Jehri Flower is known for its capability to morph itself into zee shape of what eez most needed by zee person who eez holding it. Only of course zere are some exceptions. Zee flower eez most commonly used in emergency's as blankets or candles." She explained while Cedric listened carefully, his surprise having worn off.

"Oh right, they didn't, uh mention it in the book though."

"Yes, we only read about zee ingredients, not zee use. I expect Professor Snape eez trying to trick us into just making the flower." She replied glancing at Snape and glaring.

"I suppose we could make a cauldron or something that perhaps Snape could use , perhaps get into his good books for a while."

Fleur smiled brilliantly and nodded her glowing white locks before noting the extra ingredients needed and gracefully making her way to the cupboard. Cedric felt a sharp jab in the back after collapsing in his seat and waiting for his partners return. He turned to face the culprit.

"How the HELL did you manage that one?" Sean asked looking half angry and half bemused.

"I didn't, Snape chose the partners, you saw yourself!"

"Yeah, well." He said looking wistfully at Fleur talking to Snape, "Enjoy it mate! I know you don't really mean what you say about her, you know the whole 'snobby princess' remark you made last night. You looked way too cozy a minute ago."

Cedric rolled his eyes and turned his back on his friend as he saw Fleur make her way back to their table.

"I got zem." She announced, dropping the armful of jars onto the workspace. Cedric picked one of them up and read from the label, 'Terriwinkle Dew'.

"What's this for?"

"Zee part needed to make zee Cauldron, eet gives eet zee polished finish."

The next hour and a half were spent measuring the ingredients and adding them to their potion, carefully following the instructions that Snape had written on the board. Cedric enjoyed Fleur's company more than he thought he would and she the same with him. They had realized that they had many similar interests and that their family backgrounds, no matter how different in the past seemed to enjoy the same activities now. By the time it was the end of the lesson, Cedric and Fleur were well into the making of their potion, they stored it in a vial and handed the progress sample to Snape for analysis.

"So, uh, I'll be seeing you around then I suppose." Cedric said as they stood by the top of the stairwell that led down to the dungeons where they had just appeared.

"Yees, I expect we will, be seeing a lot of each other," She nodded brightly.

"So, I'll see you at dinner then?" Cedric asked, swinging his loaded bag onto his bag and waving a hand impatiently to his friends who were yelling for him down the corridor.

"Of course."

A.N – Sorry this is so late, I got caught up with so much work and I didn't have any time to work on this little story. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for all the absolutely wonderful reviews I received for the last chapter, they made my day. Please read and review!

Hope you all are well;

LJ
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