A/n: Hey all! An update that only took two weeks? WOW! I made the goal and prmoise that my big three would be finished before the end of the summer. Only a month to go! I know I can do it for one, pretty sure for this one, but the third one I'm quite worried will not be finished by the end of August (when I head off to College after a year of working - woo!). Anyways, enjoy, and of course, keep those reviews comin'!

Chapter 18

On Tuesday, things got worse.

Though they completely ignored each other before, during and after breakfast, and any time they passed each other in the halls, Charms class came along just before lunch and was quite unavoidable.

"Now, as you all know," Flitwick bellowed across the room as he walked between desks handing out papers. "We're going to be starting the first of this year's major projects today." A small, group groan went around the room which Flitwick pointedly ignored. "And, as you also know, you will be working in partners."

Immediately, a wave of movement swept across the class as all the students shifted in their seats, pointed to each other, gave their friends significant glances, mouthing silently, or gesturing openly across the room or to the person sitting next to them – all the things students do when teachers announce you can work in partners.

Hermione clutched Ally's arm hopefully, and Ally squeezed Hermione's hand as she smiled and nodded.

Flitwick irritatedly cleared his throat very noisily, causing those nearest him and a few other students to jump at the sudden sound. "Don't bother picking your partners, as I have picked them for you."

Everyone groaned, louder this time, in disappointment and dismay or shook their heads sadly. Teachers always seem to have a knack for pairing you with someone who you'd rather have the flu than work on a project with. Ally rubbed her forehead apprehensively.

Flitwick cleared his throat loudly again and the room feel silent. "Against my better judgment, I have paired you with someone I think you will be happy working with. If the projects go well and turn out better while you are paired with a friend, you may be able to keep that partner for the next project."

The students glanced at each excitedly this time, wondering who they could have possibly been paired with. Ally and Hermione smiled eagerly.

"If, however, you spend your time poorly, messing around and your project turns in a mediocre effort, you can very much expect you will not be working with the same person next time." Flitwick let his "threat" hang in the air as he retrieved a high-lighted piece of paper from his desk.

"Gregory Goyle, you will paired with Vincent Crabbe." Flitwick read as Greg and Vinny high-fived. "Pansy Parkinson, you will partner with Draco Malfoy. Ally Minstrel and Ewan Fletcher."

Ally seemed happy to be paired with Ewan, especially since she and Ewan had become quite friendly the past few weeks, but then she looked worriedly at Hermione, who was biting her lip nervously. If she wasn't paired with Ally, Pansy, Draco, Vinny or Greg, who was she going to be paired with? She refused to speculate much farther than the row in front of her, which included Theodore Nott and Millicent Bulstrode. Surely she'd be paired with one of them…

"Theodore Nott and Millicent Bulstrode." Flitwick read.

Or not. Hermione thought and kept her mind as blank as possible, focusing hard on the spot of missing paint on the back of Millicent's chair.

Flitwick continued down his list purposefully, momentarily disregarding the high-fiving, quiet exclamations, laughing and whispering going on. It seemed to take ages, and she was sure she must be absolutely last on the list by now, but finally Flitwick reached Hermione's name.

"Hermione Granger and Cedric Diggory."

I knew it. She thought bitterly as her shoulders sagged and she leaned forward on her desk, burying her face in her hands so no one saw how red her cheeks were at that moment. It figures. The one time he'll decide to put us with someone we like and I'm stuck with the one person I don't want to speak to ever again.

Ally rubbed Hermione's shoulder reassuringly. "Maybe now you guys can kiss and make-up."

Hermione shot her friend a scathing glare before returning her head to her hands.

Ally smirked, though Hermione didn't see. "It was just a friendly suggestion."

Not that I wouldn't like to kiss and make-up. Hermione thought glumly, with a touch of guilt.

Flitwick asked everyone to sit with their partners, which both Hermione and Cedric did with great reluctance. They sat as far apart as possible while still sitting at the same pair of desks.

The moment class had ended, Cedric shot out of his chair like he'd been scalded and made a beeline for Professor Flitwick. Hermione wondered if she should follow until she heard what Cedric asked. Then she was right beside Cedric at the teacher's desk just as fast.

"Sir, Hermione Granger and I strongly request different partners for this project." Cedric said.

Hermione nodded, hoping Flitwick would switch them with someone else, but at the same time praying he wouldn't and force them to stay together.

Flitwick adjusted the sizeable glasses resting on his large nose as he looked up from the paper he was writing on. "And why, exactly, is that?" he said, gazing quizzically at Cedric, then Hermione, and back again.

Hermione swallowed and her eyes flicked briefly to Cedric. Was he going to just tell the Professor the truth?

"Hermione Granger and I are not friends, sir." He said calmly and it stung Hermione, though she knew it was true. What also stung was the cold way he kept saying her first and last name together like that. "We therefore request different partners."

Flitwick studied Cedric and Hermione critically one at a time before replying a moment later. "Mr. Diggory," he sighed. "I do not wish to get involved in any way in your lover's spat."

Hermione ducked her head to stare at her shoes, feeling her cheeks grow suddenly very warm.

Cedric went rather pink and uneasily averted his own gaze away from Flitwick. "Sir, it's not a – "

"A lover's quarrel then." Flitwick cut in. "You two will have to work it out then." He stated as if it were the most simple thing in the world – which, in all truth, it really was – before going back to his paper.

"But Professor – " Cedric started, his eyes on Flitwick's shining bald head.

"That's quite enough, Mr. Diggory." Flitwick said firmly without looking up. "Even if I decided to grant your wish and put you and Miss Granger with other people, I would have to break up a pair who is happy to work together, which isn't entirely fair."

"Professor, I – " Cedric tried again, but was again talked over authoritatively.

"Good day, Mr. Diggory." Flitwick said sharply, indicating clearly that there was no room for any argument. He looked up this time, if only to glare sternly at them. "This discussion is quite over, sir." He paused, turned to Hermione and inclined his head slightly. "Miss Granger."

She nodded and walked back over to her desk to retrieve her things. Cedric stalked past her and began gathering his things in a rush. Hermione bit her lip, feeling like she should say something, but had no idea what.

"Ced, I – " She began, but he snatched up the remainder of his things and was out the door before she got a third word out.

Hermione stared after him for a moment before slowly following.

The rest of the week passed quite similarly. Hermione and Cedric continued to avoid each other as much as possible. Hermione shot Cedric guilty glances when she knew he wasn't looking, and unbeknownst to her, he did the same. Ally encouraged Hermione often to just talk to Cedric, and a few times Hermione even plucked up the courage to do so. However, she would then see him and the angry scene in Hogsmeade would flashed in her mind, causing her to swallow and forget her words and turn around to go somewhere else.

On Wednesday they had another Charms class, which was spent mostly with Flitwick dictating the details of the project and the students feverishly taking notes. Cedric was once again out the door the door before Hermione even had a chance to speak a single word to him.

Thursday, she barely saw him at all, even in passing, though excluding meals. Gryffindor had no classes with Ravenclaw that day and Hermione spent the evening catching up on homework in the Common Room with her friends.

Friday, Gryffindor attended Care of Magical Creatures with Ravenclaw, and Hermione kept a good distance between herself and Cedric the entire time, nit once meeting his eyes. At the end of the class, it was Hermione instead who was the one to rush away before a word could be spoken. Cedric had stared after her, regretting once again not being able to say anything to her, and yet still not possessing the courage to say anything anyways.

It was Saturday when things became quite "interesting".

The day started out normal enough, with Hermione having breakfast with her friends as usual. Afterwards, they left the Great Hall and begun ascending the Grand Staircase, again, as usual. When they'd barely stepped onto the second floor, there was a spectacular crash from above, punctured by some yells of pain, shouts of surprise, more loud noises, a few hard thumps, another deafening crash, followed by a handful more very loud thumps.

"What in the world…?" Hermione and her friends jogged up the stairs after other groups of nearby students who were dashing up to the third floor, where all the noise had finished.

It turns out, that Hufflepuff Captain and Chaser, Roger Davies, had been helping Professor Mattleburg move some particularly massive and hefty volumes about translating Ancient Runes from the Ancient Runes classroom on the sixth floor, back down to the library on the fourth floor.

Just as he'd reached the fifth floor, two things happened. The first, was that Roger had been foolish enough to think he could take several volumes at once and therefore could not see anything except the thick, dusty book spines pressing into his face. He stumbled a bit, causing his already precarious load to begin to spill. The second, which was much more unfortunate and important, was that the staircase which Roger had been about to step on to, decided to move, obviously not realizing this was a highly inconvenient moment to do such a thing.

In an attempt to not drop his load, Roger tried to lean back and bring his right arm up to slap on top of the books and try and stabilize them. This was rather unwise as it only resulted in the heavy books abruptly having no support on their right side and started falling that way instead. Had Roger been able to suddenly sprout a third arm, he likely would have been able to stop the following catastrophe.

Roger felt the books begin to spew out to the right, so he quickly leaned forward and brought his arm back down to fix this problem and catch them. He gasped in horror as he lost his balance and pitched forward into the empty space where the staircase should have been.

He'd let out sort of strangled cry and not surprisingly, stopped trying to hold onto the books. Roger did his best to twist around in a split second so he could land more or less on his feet.

He fell from the fifth floor to the fourth floor, where he was "saved" from plummeting anymore by another staircase. He fell, landing by some several startled students on that staircase who'd just been heading down to breakfast.

Roger landed more or less on his feet, one could say, as it was indeed his feet that hit first, and there was a terrible crack. His knees, chest, head, shoulders and hands followed extremely fast, in that order. All of this together created the first spectacular crash.

Since he'd landed on stairs and had a lot of inertia to overcome before he'd be able to stop, a split second after his hands painfully smacked the marble, poor Roger tumbled heels over head down the rest of the stairs, yelping as he gathered injuries. He came to a final massive crash against the wall at the beginning of the third floor.

Several bulky volumes about translating Ancient Runes came falling, spinning, thudding, colliding, hurtling, or bouncing after Roger, which explained the loud noises and hard, noisy thumps. Roger had groaned very loudly and passed out. A girl nearby who couldn't stand the site of blood, shrieked and also passed out.

Five or so Professors came running, pushing and literally elbowing their way through the huge throng of gathered students about half a minute later. They hurriedly put him on a stretcher and sped him off to the Hospital Wing. Two teachers worked together to take the fainted girl along to the Hospital Wing also.

Less than an hour later, Nott had called an emergency Quidditch meeting and practice.

A/n: Teehee. I shouldn't have, but I had a lot of fun writing and imagining Roger's accident. (snicker snicker) It's not that I don't like Roger, it was just fun to do. I even stood up and tried to act parts of it out so I could understand exactly how I wanted to describe! Anyways, leave me a review and tell me your thoughts! I adore reviews. More soooon!

A/n #2: I KNEW there was something I forgot to add in here... (that export feature thing and that replace chapter feature thing are so handy). Originally, I spent a lot of time messing around with my "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" game, assuming the layout of the castle (meaning what floor stuff was on) would be pretty accurate, and so when I originally wrote down this chapter, I had Ancient Runes on the sixth floor and the Library on the second floor. I also had a big blank spot for the Ancient Runes Professor, as I could not for the life of me remember what his/her name was. And lastly, I had Roger written down as Captain and Keeper, b/c I was sure he was the same as Oliver in that respect. Well, thank goodness for the HP Lexicon. The name of the Ancient Runes professor is not mentioned, so that would be why I couldn't remember it. According to JKR, the Lexicon and clues gleaned from the books, the Library is actually on the fourth floor, we don't know where Ancient Runes is, and Roger is a Chaser. So I edited the appropriate changes and then put up my chapter.