Author's Note

This is my first work of fan fiction, though not my first written work. I do hope that you enjoy it, as my desire is to entertain readers just as much as it is to get this story out of my head.

I despise typos, continuity errors, and formatting mistakes. Do not hesitate to point them out so I may set them on fire, though I would prefer you DM me so my shame does not live eternal in the reviews. Unless it relates to apostrophes, which I have learned I have no control over.

Please. Review. I cannot stress this enough. Your feedback, both positive and negative, motivates me and helps me to become a better writer.

Do. Not. Post. Spoilers. In. Your. Review.

Disclaimer: I am not the immensely talented and inspiring woman known as J. K. Rowling, and therefore hold no claim to the fantastical world she allows our imaginations to frolic in.

Chapter 10: Worlds Collide

The corridor was mostly empty as Harry walked quickly towards the Great Hall. He caught sight of a few older students milling about here and there, but he knew almost everyone would already be at the start of lunch. He looked down at his robes as he moved, checking for any sign of dust or grime, but was happy to see that everything seemed normal. He was just about to round the corner towards the Entrance Hall when a hand caught his shoulder.

"Harry!" Came the slightly out of breath voice of one of the people he had spent most of the morning with.

"Cedric? What's wrong?" Harry asked, turning around and looking quizzically at the older boy.

"I looked away for a moment and when I turned back you had already gone. That whole thing was brilliant, I can't believe we got to spend the entire morning with Dumbledore down in the Chamber of Secrets!" He exclaimed excitedly.

Harry smiled back. "What about you? If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have found that new passageway. I won't have to visit the girl's bathroom every time I want to train. Though I really have been meaning to talk to Myrtle . . . "

Cedric was bouncing on his feet with energy as he looked up the hall. "If it wasn't for you we never would have been able to get it to work, doesn't matter if I thought to look for it. Listen, I'm not going to be able to get over it for the rest of the day, grab a bite with me?"

The younger boy was taken aback by that. "You mean, have lunch together? But we're rivals aren't we?"

The Hufflepuff laughed. "Potter, we're obviously both Hogwarts Champions no matter what some Goblet says. Come on mate, grab your two friends and come over to our table. Or can lions and badgers not eat together now?"

Cedric grinned in that broad way he seemed to do often, and Harry couldn't help but return the gesture.

"Alright, give me a minute to check on them. Getting Ron to move while he's eating might be impossible."

The older boy nodded with a laugh and they both moved quickly into the Great Hall. As Harry suspected it was packed with students, but people had only just started to fill their plates. It didn't seem like their underground adventure had taken as long as it seemed.

A few heads turned when Harry entered the room, as was usual for him, and it was possible that the volume of conversation increased slightly. But he was used to it by this point, and for once he was too excited for his mind to dwell on it. He looked up and down along the Gryffindor table and quickly caught sight of a bright head of red hair sitting across from a bushy mane of brown. Hermione it seems had been keeping her eye out, because she was already waving towards him.

He smiled and moved quickly down the table, giving a few nods to a few of his favorite housemates. When he reached his two best friends he was happy to see that Hermione only had tea, and that Ron was still loading up his plate and hadn't started yet.

"There you bloody are, we haven't seen you all morning mate. We thought we would meet up right after History got out." Ron grumbled, but in a tone that told Harry he wasn't actually that upset.

Hermione had been sipping her tea, but she turned to him and he knew a minute long question was about to spill out of her mouth. Instead of allowing that to happen he held up his hand to speak first.

"I'll explain later, although I am sure you will hear about it in a minute. Listen, how would the both of you feel about having lunch with Cedric today?" Harry asked somewhat hastily.

Ron immediately looked up from his food, while Hermione's eyes did an amazing impression of an owl.

"You feeling alright, mate? You know he's the enemy right?" Ron said, looking extremely puzzled.

Harry simply shook his head. "He told me that we're both Hogwarts Champions and invited me to lunch. He even said I should bring the both of you. Actually, that's where I was, I ended up with him all morning. He's honestly a nice guy."

Hermione's cheeks flushed lightly as her eyes shifted into a far off look. "You were alone with Cedric all morning . . ." she said in a small voice that almost seemed like she was talking to herself.

"Well." Harry said slightly puzzled. "Me, him, and Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore!?" They both said at the same time in raised voices. A few people looked their way, but only for a moment. Harry simply grabbed Ron by the arm and halfheartedly tried to pull him to his feet.

"We'll talk about it, I promise. But Cedric's probably saving seats for us. Do you want to come, or am I going alone?" Harry said in a slightly pleading voice.

But at this Ron stood up quickly, unbalancing Harry for a second. "No way are you going over there alone. I know they are badgers, but it could still be a trap or a prank. We'll go with you, right Hermione?"

Hermione wasn't looking at either of them, and had gone back to muttering into her tea.

"I need to stop reading those books Lavender leaves out . . ."

"Her-My-Oh-Knee." Ron said again, much more forcefully.

"What?! Oh. Yes. Of course we'll both go." She said quickly, setting her tea down and grabbing her rather hefty book bag.

Fortunately the Hufflepuff table was directly next to Gryffindor's, so they didn't have to go far. It only took Harry and Ron a few seconds to meet Hermione and then look for Cedric. That also only took a few seconds, as there was only one gap along the entire row where no one was sitting, and it happened to be facing the Gryffindor side of the table.

Harry quickly moved towards it, and found a smiling Cedric sitting on the opposite side. Two older Hufflepuffs were sitting on either side of the gap, both fifth years that he recognized. Albert Summers was a wiry dark skinned boy who, like Harry, wasn't very tall for his age. Harry remembered him as one of the people who attempted to cross the age-line with an aging potion. He was being pushed against somewhat roughly by the people sitting next to him. But he grinned up at Harry all the same, seeming to ignore it.

On the other hand Maxine O'Flaherty, one of the Hufflepuff quidditch team's beaters, was frowning at him with her arms crossed. She had bright blonde hair that was unusually short, and the sleeves of her robes were rolled up to expose her muscular arms. Although only a fifth year she was the tallest girl in the school, and if her ability as a beater was any indication she was one of the strongest as well. Unsurprisingly no one was pushing against her.

"The famous trio arrives. Welcome oh mighty lions to the realm of us humble badgers. I hope you find our food acceptable compared to your usual fare." Cedric proclaimed magnanimously, holding his arms out wide in greeting. Summers snorted deeply and smacked the side of the table, while O'Flaherty's frown deepened.

"It's literally the same food they have over there, Cedric." She stated flatly. Her voice was husky, but not as deep as Harry would have thought.

Ron, at mention of food, had already sat down besides the older boy and was piling up his plate. Hermione shot a somewhat timid look towards the remaining seats, but carefully sat next to the Hufflepuff beater. Harry grinned at Cedric's antics and slipped between his two friends to sit opposite Cedric in the final seat.

"Let me introduce you all, this over here is my friend Albert, who is the cleverest in our house." The dark skinned boy grinned and gave him a quick wave, which Harry returned. "And the person with tree trunks for arms is Max, the best beater Hufflepuff's ever had."

Harry nodded towards her and was surprised to see that instead of being offended she seemed rather pleased with her introduction.

"Er." Harry began awkwardly. "This is Ron, and this is Hermione." He paused as he thought for a moment. "Ron has the best appetite in our house, and Hermione is basically a library."

Hermione promptly smacked him in the back of the head, much to Cedric and Albert's amusement, while Ron had started eating and didn't seem to have noticed. He only nodded down towards his sandwich when his name was mentioned.

"Putting that aside. . ." Hermione said with a slight scowl. "Harry says that you invited us over for a friendly get together? A rather odd thing for a rival champion to do?"

Cedric simply smiled back, which actually did cause Hermione's scowl to lessen.

"Friendly rivals, at worst Hermione. Harry and I are still both Hogwarts students, and I think we can all agree that the most important thing is to bring glory to the school. Besides, Harry's years younger than the rest of us. He needs all the help he can get, and friendship is some of the best help I can offer." He concluded before taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"This is the fire crab all over again Cedric . . ." Maxine, or "Max" said in a warning tone.

"Professor Kettleburn said to stroke it to calm it down." Cedric said while specifically looking towards his pumpkin juice.

"It was On. Fire. Cedric." She stated very firmly, emphasizing each word.

"We were upsetting it, there were too many of us, it could have had a heart attack!" The other Champion said pleadingly. "I was out of the hospital wing before lunch in any case, nothing bad happened."

She slammed her hands hard on the table, a few of the nearby goblets shaking as she did so. "We had a game the next day Cedric, what if you couldn't catch the snitch because your hand was burned?"

"He'd pull a Potter and swallow the thing." Came Albert's voice for the first time. It was bright but drawled slightly at the end.

Harry wanted to forget about how his very first game of quidditch had ended by swallowing the snitch. It didn't seem like other people were willing to do the same, however. Ron actually laughed and almost lost the last of his sandwich. Luckily it didn't seem like Hermione was willing to be distracted by the conversation.

"Yes, well, getting back on topic. I still find it highly suspect that you would invite us over out of the blue like this. I am also especially surprised to hear that you and Harry happened to spend the entire morning together in the presence of the Headmaster." She said while giving Cedric a significant look.

Max looked surprised at this while Albert gave a low whistle.

"You didn't mention that to us Ced?" He said while looking expectantly at the taller boy.

"We didn't have the chance yet. Honestly, besides getting to know each other more the main reason I invited you over was so we could talk about this morning."

As Cedric spoke his smile became brighter and brighter, and Harry noticed a slight tremor in his body. He recognized it instantly as the look of someone whose knee was bouncing like a rubber ball. Harry was used to seeing it from other students during the last minute of almost all of his classes.

"It was just brilliant! I can't believe you've known where it was for years and haven't gone back down there!" He exclaimed so forcefully Harry realized he must have been holding back for some time.

Everyone else looked completely confused. Even Ron, who was now taking small bites of a roll, his original sandwich nowhere in sight.

"I didn't exactly have good memories associated with that place." He replied somberly. Noticing the sudden look on Cedric's face, however, he quickly continued "Oh, but now I do! I feel a lot better about it now that we've cleaned up. Plus having Dumbledore around always makes a place feel safer."

He shot Cedric a grin that he hoped would reassure him. He really did feel fine about the Chamber now, but he didn't think Cedric had ever understood the feelings he had about it before. After a few seconds the boy nodded and his usual smile returned to his face.

"What are you two talking about!?" Hermione said in exasperation while looking between the two of them.

"Bloody hell, you both went down to the Chamber of Secrets?"

The volume around the Hufflepuff table suddenly dropped by half. There was a clatter of silverware as heads swiveled sharply in their direction. Even people who had seemingly been in deep conversations had stopped talking instantly. A few of the closer students at the nearby Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables were craning their heads towards them as well.

Harry hunched a bit in his seat, embarrassed by the attention. While it wasn't the whole hall, it was still a lot of people. He looked towards Ron who was staring at him dumbfounded, his food forgotten.

"Dumbledore wanted to go down while I was out of class. Cedric was already in his office when I got there." Harry admitted in an apologetic tone. "I wouldn't have gone down there otherwise, but I am glad I did. Seeing it with Dumbledore helped me get over what happened."

Ron was frowning and clearly upset as he looked back towards him. He could hear Hermione behind him squirming in her seat, dying to say something, but obviously holding back until it was appropriate. He knew Ron would probably not like that he had gone on an adventure without him, no matter how small, but it really was mostly, at the Headmaster's urging. He had to say something to fix the situation.

"I'm sorry." Both Harry and Ron said at the same time.

Harry blinked in surprise. "What do you mean you're 'sorry'? What do you have to be 'sorry' for?"

"You having to go down into the Chamber without me being there like last time. I should have been there for you, I know you don't like thinking of the place. Why in the bloody hell are you sorry?"

"From going down there without you?" Harry replied somewhat dumbly.

". . . boys." Hermione sighed.

"Um, alright, excuse me, can we get back on topic of the Chamber of Secrets please?" Albert demanded, looking from Harry to Cedric.

"It was so much bigger than I expected!" The older Hufflepuff exclaimed, a bright smile on his face. There were some sudden murmurs from the surrounding people.

"Harry, why in the world would Dumbledore take you down there now? Aren't there a few more important things going on right now?" Hermione said. "Maybe the tournament?"

"It was for the tournament, Hermione." Harry responded quickly. "I needed a place to train for the tasks, and Dumbledore said all the other places were taken by the three Champions. He had the idea that the Chamber would be big enough, as well as . . "

"As well as you being the only person able to open it!" Hermione completed in a single breath. "Of course that's brilliant. Not even Dumbledore could get down there if you didn't let him it, it's unlikely anyone from the other schools will be able to interfere with your training."

"Right." Harry said while nodding. "So the three of us went down there to clean it up a bit and get it ready. It actually looks fairly comfortable now. There's lots of places to sit, and there's a place to store some books as well. And best of all he said I could take anyone down there to help me train."

"I want to go!" Albert said brightly. Even Max nodded slowly as she thought this over.

"Guys, it's Harry's training room." Came Cedric's voice. "I'll be more than happy to take the two of you to my training room if you want."

"Your training room isn't the Chamber of Secrets is it?" the dark boy responded in a humorless tone.

"It would be a bad idea to let people know where the entrance is." Hermione said a bit sheepishly. "Someone already put your name into the Goblet, what's to stop them or someone else from attacking you the moment you leave?"

"I can think of a few Slytherin's who would do it regardless of the tournament." Ron said darkly, shooting a glare towards the far table crowded with green robed students.

"Hufflepuff's aren't Slytherin's." Max said in a very firm voice.

"Cedric, you were down there." Harry said, looking towards the older boy. "You helped clean up the place. If you want to show it off to your friends that's okay with me. We just can't tell everybody."

"Then let's go right now then!" Albert said enthusiastically, while pulling up his book bag.

"Unfortunately we," Hermione said, indicating herself, Ron, and Harry. "Have Herbology after lunch. The first free period we have isn't until tomorrow morning."

Albert looked upset at this, but then brightened up. "Then first thing tomorrow then? I am sure it is worth the wait."

Cedric tapped his fork against his plate in thought. "I have Care in the morning. But Professor Hagrid would be okay with it if I said I was practicing for the tournament. I don't want to drop the class if I can help it, but it's the only one I can really afford to miss."

"Pffft." Ron snorted. "Harry dropped half his classes."

Cedric nodded approvingly. "Makes sense, you're only a fourth year. You still have to take classes like Astronomy which won't really help you later in life."

"Not all of us are sixth years Cedric . . . " Max growled softly in his direction.

"Well focus on your O.W.L.'s this year, and then you won't have to lose sleep star gazing next year." He replied.

"I like astronomy . . . " Albert said while taking a swig of pumpkin juice.

"Back. On. Track." Hermione said, getting everyone's attention. "Harry, if you really want to do this then we should all agree to meet tomorrow at the second floor landing." She finished in a hushed voice as she looked around suspiciously.

"Er, best make it the entrance hall Hermione. We don't need to go upstairs." Harry replied with an equally subdued voice.

"What are you . . " But before Hermione could finish there was a loud tapping sound coming from the head table. Professor McGonagall was tapping her wand and looking down sternly at each of the students.

"I would say that it is time for you all to hurry off to class with the rest of your schoolmates, wouldn't you say?" The professor said, her voice loud and clear throughout the hall as she stared in their direction with a disapproving frown.

Harry looked around and was shocked to see that over half the Great Hall was no longer present. But it wasn't his fault that he hadn't noticed, considering the other half of the Hall was completely surrounding where he was sitting. Almost every student within several feet of where Harry and his friends were sitting was still present, and from their expressions equally shocked by the revelation that the rest of the school was gone.

There was a sudden loud scraping of benches against stone floor as the dozens of students quickly gathered their things and headed for the door. Ron shoved half a sausage into his mouth before scrambling half way over Albert and making for the doorway.

Harry simply grabbed his bag before standing up, making sure to help Hermione with her always overloaded book bag as they headed out.

"That was a bit strange . . " Harry mused to her as they made their way outside towards the greenhouses.

Hermione let out a long exasperated huff as she shouldered her bag. "Harry, I love you like family, I honestly do. But Dumbledore was right, you need to start understanding the influence you have."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You really think that was strange?" Hermione gave him a look that was almost pitying. "Harry, we just told you last night, people look to you. It doesn't matter what you are doing, their eyes search for you when they have nothing better to do. Imagine we went to school with Peter Pan, it wouldn't matter if the stories were true, you would still watch him to see if he could fly. "

As the greenhouse game into view she looked around pointedly before turning and talking straight to him. "And now imagine you have half an eye and ear on someone, especially considering everything that happened last night. And then they start talking about the Chamber of Secrets? Of course half the hall is going to forget what they were doing!"

Hermione squeezed her book bag and spun on the spot, quickly walking into the greenhouse with Harry catching up just behind her.

"Five points from Gryffindor." Came Professor Sprout's stern voice from the other side of the room. "For being the last to arrive so late, Mister Potter."

Harry frowned as he headed over to the table were Ron was hastily filling what seemed to be a random pot with soil. It wasn't the loss of points that bothered him though, it was Hermione's words. They hadn't been speaking about the Chamber in raised voices at all, and it didn't seem like everything they talked about was being listened to.

It must have been because of Cedric. Cedric was handsome, popular, and now a Triwizard Champion. That and the fact that Harry, a Gryffindor, was sitting at the Hufflepuff table, was probably what drew so much attention.

Having completely rationalized Hermione's comments away Harry now began to focus on their work, re-potting some wispthistles. He pulled his gloves on and stood firmly next to Ron, taking in his progress.

"Are you sure about this Harry?" Ron questioned as he reached for the nearest plant.

"It has the purplish hue." Harry replied, turning the small plant in his hands. "And I can smell the hint of butterscotch."

"Not the plant Harry." Ron said in a frown. "I mean the Chamber, and going down there tomorrow. Are you sure it's a good idea?"

Harry lowered his voice considerably, just in case. "Ron, really, it's completely different down there now. You wouldn't recognize it from the first time."

"Didn't bloody see it the first time, did I?" The red head stated as he slammed some dirt into the pot. "I was babysitting the peacock, remember? But what I meant was, you sure about letting the competition down there?"

Harry sighed. "Ron, Cedric's already been down there, he helped fix it up. In fact when Dumbledore said there was nowhere I could train Cedric volunteered to give up his space. He's a decent person, and I need to trust people if I am going to get help for the tournament."

His best friend showed him a skeptical look as he roughly pulled the plant out of its pot, tearing away several of the roots. "So you aren't nervous at all about tomorrow?"

The dark haired boy simply shook his head.

"Ron, trust me, there's nothing to be nervous about."

Author's Thoughts

OF COURSE we're going to see more Hufflepuffs, can you blame me? I promise that every house is going to get some love, but it's going to happen organically rather than be planned out. I have a good number of well-known students from other houses, mostly in Harry's year, that we'll see more and more of as time goes on. I hope my versions of them will live up to others I have read, but as almost none of them have speaking roles in the books you can't really blame me if I put a lot of spin on them.

Have I mentioned The List yet? I think I may have briefly, but I'll explain it again. In all of the books we honestly only meet a small handful of students, and there are TONS that we not only never see but that are never mentioned at all. So where do I look when I need to introduce an older or younger student that we don't know already?

Well, before I started writing I made The List. It's a list of every Hogwarts student during the Triwizard Tournament. That's two hundred and eighty names, with about a dozen others I've set aside in case I need any from Durmstrang or Beauxbatons. Somewhere between a quarter and a third of them are actually mentioned (thought never seen) during the books, but most of them aren't. I pieced them all together from various lists of students found on different websites.

Sometimes it's easy, like with Emily Richards who we know during Harry's second year stated she thought Harry played a prank on Filch's cat, but couldn't believe he was the Heir of Slytherin. However, Steven Osterley isn't from the books at all! He's an "older Gryffindor student" that apparently was in one of the old Playstation games. Not ideal, but I needed more older Gryffindor's, so now he's on the list.

Unsurprisingly Hufflepuff was the hardest house to fill out. No one writes about Hufflepuffs. *sob*