Well, due to a lingering sickness, I've found myself with an abundance of writing time, so my suffering translates into a bit more romantic nonsense for your enjoyment.

So, please enjoy.

Chapter Five: Inevitable

"I swear, sometimes I absolutely hate that brother of mine," Daisy grumbled.

"Oh, you do not," Hermione said with a wry smile at her. "What's he done now?"

"He didn't ask you to be his girlfriend!" Daisy all but shouted, and Hermione glanced about the library with a wary eye kept open for Madame Pince.

"Do try to keep your voice down, won't you?" she hissed. "We're going to the Yule Ball together; that's progress, isn't it?"

"But you were supposed to realize you had feelings for each other on your date!" Daisy said with a pout.

"And snog," Mafalda added, nodding sagely. Daisy gestured at her with her thumb.

"Yeah, and snog," she repeated.

"That's now how real relationships work, you mad little things," Hermione said, feeling her face heat up. "It takes time to go from being friends to being…more than that."

"Well, hurry it up!" Daisy huffed with a grin. Hermione hastened to shush her again, but too late. With a familiar quiet whirl that Hermione had in the past come to associate with impending blissful silence, she found the full force of the stern librarian's intolerance for disruption turned on her. In a bizarre twist, she herself was shunted from the library along with the two little noisemakers, Madame Pince's threats of a lifetime ban echoing in her ears as she followed the little ones into the corridor. Outside, she glared down to see two impish smiles fixed up at her.

"Welp, guess we can just sit in the lounge, then," Daisy said.

"Does Harry just happen to be spending time in the lounge?" Hermione asked flatly.

"Probably," Daisy said without an ounce of shame.

"Let's go find out!" Mafalda chirped.

"So you two had an agenda, did you?" Hermione asked them with an arched eyebrow.

"I don't know what that means!" Mafalda said cheerily as they set off.

It was only a day before the First Task, and Cedric was neck-deep in preparation for the big mystery event. Cho was going spare fretting over it, leaving Hermione and Marietta to attempt to distract her. Even the news that Hermione would be attending the Yule Ball with Harry (and had asked her, to boot) had provided only a moment's respite from Cho's mounting panic. It was sweet, in a way, to see her worry over Cedric so much—though only to a point. Eventually, unable to distract Cho and unwilling to deal with the secondhand anxiety of constantly watching over her, Hermione and Marietta had agreed to take it in shifts to keep her company and assuage her fears however they were able.

In fact, it was such an endeavor that had brought her to the library in the first place; while Cho and Marietta talked Yule Ball looks (or Marietta attempted to while Cho worried over what manner of horror awaited her beloved), Hermione had decided to devote her "day off" to looking up all she could about the Triwizard Tournament, its tasks, and their accompanying perils.

At least until the two gremlins had found her.

"You two are going to have to answer to Cho if Cedric gets himself maimed tomorrow," Hermione cautioned the pair as they led her along.

"Oh, how very dangerous could this whole thing be?" Daisy asked in sardonic tones, and Hermione was about explain exactly how dangerous it could when a figure came bounding around a corner ahead. A familiar mop of messy black hair whirled about before Harry fixed his eyes on them and hurried in their direction.

"Oi, Hermione!" he said, and Hermione couldn't help a small flutter in her chest. She had graduated from "Granger" to "Hermione" quite recently, and it was still such a ridiculous little thrill to hear him say her first name.

She was well aware that it was utterly mad.

"Good afternoon, Harry," Hermione said, watching as he dashed up. "Is everything okay?"

"Where's Cho?" he asked, and for a frightful moment Hermione wondered if he had suddenly gotten up the courage to Cho out or invite her to the Yule Ball or perhaps profess his undying love and demand her hand in marriage—but that was silly. Even if Harry was still pining after the girl, he seemed to have enough respect for Cedric not to attempt to steal her away.

Not that he would have any luck; Cho was positively smitten.

Putting away her hysterical notions for a moment (which she was quite good at by now), Hermione pointed vaguely off in a westerly direction. "She's with Cedric practicing spells or – "

"I need to talk to Cedric," Harry cut her off urgently. In fact, he looked positively panicked; Hermione had never seen him so twitchy before. "It's really important."

"What happened?" Hermione asked, reaching out without even really thinking about it and taking Harry's hand to lead him off. "They're this way."

"I've been—out," Harry said. "Visited with Hagrid. He showed me something I think Cedric really ought to know about."

"What is it?" Hermione asked. "Did you find out what the First Task is?"

"Yeah," Harry said with a fearful look. "He has to fight a dragon."

…

Cho was torn between absolutely blinding fear and an all-consuming rage so white-hot that Hermione was afraid she might actually go and attempt to curse Professor Dumbledore. Cedric, meanwhile, seemed resolved, his face impassive save for a slightly wide-eyed expression upon hearing the news.

"Thanks for the heads-up, Harry," he said. "I owe you one."

"Reckon you do," Harry said with a little grin. "You can repay me by not dying. I've grown fond of embarrassing you on the quidditch pitch."

"You altruist, you," Cedric chuckled before slumping against the teacher's desk in the empty classroom he'd been using to practice. "Bugger. A dragon, eh?"

"A dragon!" Cho shrieked, for the fifth time, her voice beginning to go hoarse from the shouting she'd been doing. Hermione had cast a silencing charm on the door and walls just in case. "I can't believe Dumbledore would – "

"Cho," Cedric spoke smoothly, and she huffed through her nose, peering up at him with a positively petulant look. "I signed up for this, remember? I put my name in that goblet."

"Stop making such good points while I'm trying to be mad on your behalf!" Cho spat, and Harry chuckled at that, earning a wan smile from her. "I want to thank you as well, Harry. At least he has some warning."

"Listen," Harry said, "I was thinking on my way here—what would I do if I had to fight a dragon, right? And I was thinking I'd want mobility, meet it on its own terms, yeah?"

"…My broom?" Cedric asked. "I can only take my wand."

"Summoning charm, though," Harry told him. "If you've got the range, if you just happen to have your broom stashed where it can reach you…"

"It's…a longshot but…not actually a bad idea," Cedric said thoughtfully. "I'm not half bad at a summoning charm, after all."

"I'll help you," Cho insisted. "We can practice. I'll stay up all night with you if I have to."

"I'd best track down Daisy," Harry said, backing for the door with a glance between the pair, who were now maintaining rather intense eye contact. "Ced, good luck?"

"Yeah, thanks, mate," Cedric said. "Don't expect me to go easy on you next time we play, now."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Harry said. "You show that dragon how it's done."

He slipped from the room, and after a harried fluttering of the hands from Cho, Hermione got the message and followed, hurrying after Harry and falling into step beside him.

"That was really nice of you," she told him, "warning him like that."

"Well, I saw Karkaroff skulking about while I was visiting Hagrid, and I'm sure Hagrid's told Maxime," Harry said. "I just wanted to even the playing field, is all."

"Still, you didn't have to do it," Hermione said. "Especially given…well, Cho and Cedric are getting rather serious."

"…I suppose," Harry shrugged. "I reckon Daisy was right, though. Cho and I—the more you tell me about her and the more I get to know her, she's a bit too… I dunno."

"Doesn't feel suited?" Hermione asked, and Harry made a strange noncommittal gesture with his hands. "What was that little hand thing?"

"It's my 'eh' thing," Harry said, repeating the gesture with a small grin. "When there are no words, it's just 'eh'."

"You're revolutionizing communication, aren't you?" Hermione giggled.

"It'll catch on, I bet," he said, and Hermione smiled up at him. "So, I think it's about time I find a new girl to moon over, I suppose."

"Well, make sure to pick a good one," Hermione said, her heart in very real and imminent danger of thudding out of her ribcage. "Have you already got one in mind?"

"I might," Harry said without meeting her eyes. "Haven't known her long, but we've really been bonding lately. I actually quite like spending time with her, which is rare for me."

"It's Mafalda, isn't it?" Hermione asked, giggling at the look on his face as he smirked down at her.

"Listen here, you," he said warningly, and Hermione cackled now as he gave her a playful swat on the arm. "Maybe…we could go to Hogsmeade together again, next visit? But…for real this time?"

"As in not just an outing?" Hermione asked him, and it was certainly warmer in here than it had been moments ago. How did breathing work again? In…out…

"A date," Harry nodded resolutely. "I… Listen, I like you, Hermione. I like spending time with you and…talking with you and just being around you. So I'd sort of like to do that more often, if you don't mind."

"I wouldn't mind in the least," Hermione said, embarrassed at how fluttery her voice sounded. Was this really happening? Had she dozed off in the library and dreamt this whole thing? She fought the irrational urge to pinch herself; even if this was a dream, she wasn't eager to wake up.

"Well…brilliant," Harry said with a smile. "Um…fancy helping me hunting down my sister? Only she does need to send a letter to Mum or there will be a Howler in the future."

"I'm almost inclined not to help you just to see that happen," Hermione giggled, and Harry bumped her with his shoulder.

"And make me suffer the shame of secondhand embarrassment?" he asked her. "That would be much too cruel."

"I suppose you're right," Hermione admitted, bumping him back but being daring enough to remain so close. Heart hammering in her chest, she tried a technique Cho had shown her once, reaching up brush a lock of her hair back behind her ear and gazing at him through her eyelashes. To her delight, his face went very slightly pink at that, and felt a rush of satisfaction that she could have such an effect. "I'd hate to embarrass you, after all."

Dropping her hand, she felt his brush against the back of hers, which sent a jolt like lightning up her arm. Oh, goodness, this boy was bad for her health. And, she realized, only getting worse as his hand actually sought hers out, fingers grazing against hers as he gently laced them together.

"Um…" he noised, glancing down at her, clearly unsure if he was crossing some unspoken boundary they had created. Perhaps he was, but Hermione wasn't about to stop him. He could probably snog her in the corridor right now, and she'd be rather fine with it.

They'd need to have a lengthy discussion afterward pertaining to the nature of their relationship, of course, but she'd be quite okay in the moment.

For the time being, she gave his hand a small squeeze, enjoying the grip of his larger one, the feel of callouses along his palms and fingertips. He hated flying with quidditch gloves most days, he claimed; they hindered him more than they helped his grip on the broom or the snitch.

"Easier to keep track of you this way," Hermione told him, and he grinned at her.

"I do have a tendency to wander off," he said.

…

Cho wasn't in her bed the next morning; she'd either gotten up ridiculously early or (much more likely and quite a bit more scandalous) stayed out all night helping Cedric with his summoning charm. Hermione was inclined to worry only briefly—while she wouldn't put it past Cho to attempt to "distract" Cedric from his work every so often, Cedric was a consummate gentleman and unlikely to take advantage.

"Morning," Marietta yawned as she made her way into the dormitory from the showers, already dressed in her uniform. "Cho getting up to no good with Ced, then?"

"I very much doubt it," Hermione said with a wry smile. "Probably doing everything she can to make sure he survives the day. So she can get up to no good with him later."

"Excellent point," Marietta giggled. "And what about you? Things with Potter getting rather serious yet?"

"Well, we've…declared our intentions, if that counts," Hermione said, feeling her face heat up.

"'Declared your intentions'?" Marietta asked with a dubious laugh. "Are you characters in a Victorian romance novel?"

"Well, he said he's over Cho and…fairly spelled out that he likes me in a more-than-friendly way," Hermione went on. "And I told him I feel rather the same, and then we held hands."

"…Scandal of the century," Marietta said in awed tones. "Hermione Granger held hands with a boy!"

"Oh, hush – "

"Hermione, you held hands with Harry!?" a shocked voice blurted from the corridor, and the dormitory door flung open to reveal Padma and Lisa on the threshold. "Really!?"

"Well, um…yes," Hermione admitted. There was a moment's silence before both girls squealed in joy, bounding over and wrapping her in a group hug.

"Progress!" Padma gushed. "Were you blushing?"

"Was he blushing?"

"Who held whose hand?"

"Cupped hands or laced fingers?"

"Oooh, did he sometimes do the little squeeze?"

"I love the little squeeze," Lisa said, snagging up Padma's hand to demonstrate, "like he's not holding your hand enough and needs to hold it even more."

"Ladies, you're going to deafen her," Marietta said, and the two stepped away, beaming smiles at Hermione.

"This is so good for you," Padma insisted. "And I'm not just saying that because it's been fun to see Parvati beside herself with fury."

"Oh, certainly," Hermione said with a giggle. "At least until she starts getting catty with me in the corridors."

"…What?" Padma asked, frowning. "Is she being mean?"

"It's just a comment here and there," Hermione said with a wave of her hand. "Nothing I'm not used to."

"I'll talk to her," Padma said with a cross look. "She's no business taking out her insecurities on you."

"Well, at least one of you is emotionally mature," Marietta said, running a brush through her hair. "Enlightened Ravenclaws, putting others to shame as usual."

"Dunno about that," Lisa said. "We've our share of bullies, too, don't we? I know nearly all the third-years have ganged up on poor Luna Lovegood."

"That mad girl that thinks Cornelius Fudge is a vampire?" Hermione asked. "I've heard her spouting ridiculous theories like that at meals and trying to get everyone to read The Quibbler."

"Even if she's odd, that's no reason to pick on her," Padma insisted, and Hermione held her hands up defensively.

"No, I agree," she said. "If someone's odd, let them be odd."

"For a house full of eccentric scholarly types there's still quite a lot of pressure to conform," Lisa pointed out.

"Well, it's still a school," Marietta said, turning away from her mirror. "Pressure to conform is rather part of the experience."

Downstairs, the energy of the Great Hall was at an all-time high, even more so than last year, when the Quidditch Cup had been down to the finale between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Harry had of course clinched an easy victory, securing his place as the best seeker in Hogwarts history.

Today, there was more than a fancy cup on the line; three of the hall's inhabitants were about to face down a dragon, and while Professor Dumbledore had insisted that safety measures had been drastically improved for this year's Triwizard Tournament, there was still the chance that things could go horribly.

She wondered if anyone was having second thoughts. She wondered how anyone could have possibly had first thoughts. Signing up for anything with a nonzero chance of killing you in the name of glory and gold seemed mad, to her. Then again, quidditch was also potentially lethal, and here she was acting as the coach to one player while potentially dating another.

And there was her heart, going quite spastic while a smile pulled at her lips—she and Harry were…well, they were something, something decidedly more-than-friendly. Granted, the most they had done was hold hands and perhaps gaze into each other's eyes more than once, but there was chemistry and a date in the books. That was more than enough for her, for the moment.

Seated at the Ravenclaw table and watching Cho (who had greeted them looking bedraggled and wearing the same outfit she'd been the night before) pick disinterestedly at some black pudding, Hermione found her eyes scanning the Gryffindor table before she even realized what she was doing. And there he was, chatting with an animated-looking Daisy and Mafalda, with that warm smile he always got when Daisy was being her charming self. Glancing up, he caught Hermione's eye, grinning and casting a longsuffering look at his little sister. The two girls happened to spot where he was looking, and both waved at Hermione with their usual enthusiasm, and Mafalda even shouted "GOOD MORNING, HERMIO - !" before Daisy clapped a hand over her mouth.

"How are things going with him?" Cho asked, her tone lacking its usual intensity when discussing Hermione's blossoming love life. The poor thing was obviously just casting around for something to take her mind off things, so Hermione threw her a bone.

"We held hands," she said, watching Cho's eyes widen, "and there's a date set for next Hogsmeade visit."

"…What!?" Cho shrieked. "Tell me everything!"

Hermione regaled Cho with perhaps a more detailed account of events than she would usually have given, and Cho drank up every detail with wide eyes and a great big smile, even scarfing a bit of food as she listened.

"He was mooning over another girl?" Cho asked. "Who?"

"Um…that's a bit private," Hermione hedged.

"It was me, wasn't it?" Cho asked, and Hermione nearly spat out her tea. "Well, it was a bit obvious. But he's over me now and into you! That's amazing, Hermione!"

"How did— You knew!?" Hermione asked her with what she felt was a rather appropriate amount of shock. All the trouble she'd gone through to keep Harry's secret, and he'd been so obvious anyway!

"The both of you may be absolutely oblivious to matters of love, but the rest of us aren't, dear," Cho told her.

"Naturally," Hermione said in rueful tones. Any biting retort was withheld due to Cho's rather delicate emotional state. At least she wasn't beside herself with worry for the moment.

As the day wore on, however, even Hermione and Harry's deepening relationship wasn't enough to distract Cho, what with the First Task looming imminently ahead. Lessons would be ending at lunch, and they would then be dismissed to go observe the proceedings. While Hermione would normally give such a thing a miss, Cho was looking in such a lost and aimless state that Hermione couldn't bear to leave her alone. Not that she eventually had much choice in the matter; when they stood to depart from lunch, Cho was clinging to Hermione's arm in a grip to rival any permanent sticking charm.

"I feel like I'm about to be sick," she said in a faint voice.

"Well, lucky you ate a light lunch," Marietta pointed out.

"Marietta," Hermione chided her. "Come on, let's go get good seats."

"Maybe he'll slay the dragon and get a million points or something," Marietta said as they left the Great Hall. "And they'll take a picture of him standing all triumphant-looking on its body."

"Shirtless," Hermione added.

"Ooooh, and a good breeze blowing through so his hair looks proper windswept," Marietta said.

"Cho can go clinging to his leg like the cover of a romance novel," Hermione snorted.

"Stop making me laugh, I'm trying to have a panic attack here!" Cho said with hysterical little laugh.

They made their way out into a chilly November morning. There was no wind, giving the grounds a silent tension, like the day itself was anticipating the coming task. Hermione clutched her cloak around her, withdrawing an old and soot-smudged jar from her bag and casting her well-practiced cold-fire charm into it. Now huddling around the source of warmth, the trio pressed into the edges of the Forbidden Forest, down a marked path dotted with signs warning anyone who might feel the urge to wander off exactly how dangerous the Forbidden Forest was.

"Never understood the reasoning behind building a school next to forest filled with all manner of dangerous creature," Marietta said.

"I never understood how the forest is so very forbidden yet they send you in for detentions," Hermione said. "What if someone were to get hurt?"

"Or killed," Marietta said. "Imagine you wander a bit far and get eaten by an acromantula or something."

"According to Uncle Sirius, that's happened," Harry's voice spoke, and Hermione jolted at the sound, rounding to see him and the two girls not far behind. "Alright?"

"Harry!" Hermione said before she could help herself, blushing at how very much she sounded like an eager girlfriend.

If only…

"Didn't startle you, did I?" Harry asked, falling into step next to her and easily taking her hand. The action sent a thrill up her spine, and the heat in her face likely rivalled the warmth of the jar of flames in her free hand. Behind her, she could hear the two girls giggling to each other.

"Lurking about in the Forbidden Forest, you were bound to," Hermione said, and Harry chuckled, his breath misting in the chill air before him.

"Next time I'll make sure to announce myself, plod along," he said, stomping his feet in the twigs and brush coating the ground.

"Then I'll just think someone's angry at me and marching up to berate me," Hermione giggled.

"D'you make it a habit to upset people enough that they'll come after you in a fit?" Harry asked her, and Hermione shrugged.

"It hasn't happened yet, but I imagine I've come close."

Eventually, the path led to a large stadium of sorts set up in an even larger clearing. Hermione wondered if it was naturally-occurring or if they had simply vanished a bunch of trees.

Either way, the centaurs likely didn't appreciate all the hullabaloo on the edge of their lands.

As they approached the high wooden wall, an absolutely blood-chilling roar echoed over the treetops, a sound that screamed danger in the back of Hermione's mind. Realizing the source, she looked over to see that Cho was white as a sheet and whimpering.

"Y'know what I realized the other day?" Harry spoke up as they followed a group of Hufflepuffs into the stadium and up a narrow wooden staircase into the stands. "Ced's never been hit by a bludger."

"…That can't possibly be true," Hermione said, mentally poring back through every match she'd seen Cedric participate in.

"No, it is," Harry said with a nod. "He joined the Hufflepuff team in my first year at Hogwarts, and I went to every quidditch game. Never saw him take a hit, and he hasn't since. He always dodges. Drives the Weasley twins mad. I remember one game they were talking about seeing how many times he could dodge before he got hit, but Wood put a stop to that. Didn't want us getting fouled over and over again."

"Ooh, what's that one called?" Mafalda asked.

"Borking," Harry said with a grin. "'Any excessive targeting of a single player by the beaters of the opposing team.'"

Giggling, Mafalda dissolved against Daisy's side as they sat, apparently finding the word 'borking' unaccountably hilarious. Hermione couldn't help but smile at the girl's infectious cheer.

"She loves quidditch fouls," Daisy explained. "Apparently they're all funny-sounding to her."

"Borking!" Mafalda gasped.

"It's like I've adopted another little sister sometimes," Harry said, taking a seat next to Hermione and peering out over the paddock in the middle of the stadium. The peat and moss of the Forbidden Forest was gone in here, transformed into a rocky crag that wouldn't look out of place in the higher mountains in the distance.

The perfect habitat for a dragon.

"I think it's good for you," Hermione said. "You have a natural sort of big brother energy to you."

"An unfortunate side-effect of my upbringing," Harry told her gravely, and she giggled, shifting a bit to lean against him. Hesitantly, he brought an arm up and draped it over her shoulders, and Hermione felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold. In fact, it was rather warm, warmer even than her bluebell flames had ever made her feel.

"Harry," Daisy piped up, "doesn't this whole paddock setup remind of you that movie we saw last summer? With the dinosaurs?"

"Jurassic Park?" Harry asked.

"Yeah!" Daisy said. "D'you think they have to fight a T-rex?"

"I think they'd be lucky to," Harry chuckled with a glance at Cho, who was bouncing both legs anxiously.

The stands filled around them, a hum of conversation growing louder and louder until it was a dull roar. Soon enough, a booming voice filled the stadium.

"Welcome, one and all, to the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament! Today, your champion must march bravely into the unknown in order retrieve…the golden egg!"

As the voice spoke, a glint of gold materialized in the middle of the paddock in front of them, along with a massive bundle of blackened stones and what looked like charcoal embers still glowing a reddish orange.

A dragon's nest.

"Oh, no," Hermione muttered.

"Nesting mothers," Harry sighed. "They have to take an egg from a nesting dragoness."

"Is that really bad?" Mafalda asked.

"Remember what I told you about a mother grizzly bear?" Harry asked her, and Mafalda winced. "Yeah."

"Now, let us bring out our first champion—representing the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, let's hear a big cheer for our hometown hero, CEDRIC DIGGORY!"

A roaring cheer went up, and even Harry sprung to his feet, bellowing out a yell. Yanking Cho up as well, he egged her on until she too let forth a sound that seemed somewhere between a cheer and a despondent wail.

"GO, CEDRIC!"

"And his foe, from the remotest reaches of Scandinavia, the Swedish Short-Snout!"

Another gut-wrenching roar met their ears, and a group of dragon-handlers with their wands held aloft preceded the entry of a rather beautiful-looking silvery-blue dragon. Golden talons stomped and crushed the rocky terrain beneath her to rubble, and the beast issued forth a burst of blue flame not unlike the ones flickering in Hermione's jar though infinitely more dangerous, from what she had read.

More importantly, it was huge; Hermione had seen pictures in books of course, but none of them had prepared her for the sheer scope of a real live dragon. The thing took up nearly half the paddock, dwarfing Cedric as it loomed over him. There was simply no way a single human being could go up against a dragon and hope to achieve anything that the dragon did not want him to do. And the Swedish Short-Snout did not want Cedric anywhere near her clutch. Curling her tail protectively around the nest, she issued another warning roar at Cedric as the handlers went dashing from the paddock, leaving only the pair of them.

And then a cannon sounded, signaling the start of the task.

"Oh…" Cho whimpered, ducking into Marietta's shoulder and squeezing onto her. "Just…tell me if he gets hurt or something!"

In the distance, the too-small figure of Cedric lifted his wand, and Hermione could just make out his words:

"Accio Firebolt!"

"…Firebolt?" Hermione asked. "Doesn't Cedric have a Cleansweep Ten?"

"Actually, he just upgraded to an Eleven over the summer," Harry said. "But the Firebolt's unmatched for speed, so I figured he'd like as much of an edge as he could get."

"You loaned him your broom?" Cho asked from Marietta's shoulder. "Harry!"

She flung herself at him in a hug, and Harry let a bashful laugh as he gently squeezed her back. Hermione felt a flare of jealousy that she quickly quashed; there was no sense to such ridiculous thoughts.

"I told him if he gets the thing singed, he's buying me a new one," Harry said into Cho's hair, and she snorted a giggle against him, extricating herself and watching as the broom zipped over the treetops and toward Cedric's outstretched arm.

"What on Earth is young Diggory's plan—my word, is that a broom he's got!? I do believe it is! Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to witness wizard versus nature!"

Cedric hopped astride the broom and kicked off into the air to an uproarious cheer from the crowd. Sensing a threat to her brood, the Swedish Short-Snout fixed him in her sights and spat out a ball of electric-blue fire that Cedric only barely dodged to gasps from the crowd.

"By jove, can the boy fly! Krum, it looks like you'll have competition in a few years! Diggory is ducking and weaving tail and talon and flame alike! The Short-Snout can't even touch him!"

And it was true; just as Harry had said, Cedric was untouchable, zipping between attacks from the dragon as easily as though he were being pelted with bludgers. He made the whole thing look as effortless as though he were simply floating on a wind, taking a winding path heedless of the obstacles.

"He looks so cool!" Cho cooed in spite of her worry, watching Cedric from between her splayed fingers with her hands pressed over her eyes. "Oh!"

"That was a close one!" the announcer shouted as the dragon's tail came within a hairsbreadth of hitting Cedric. "That Short-Snout is getting agitated, Diggory! Best act fast!"

"That's the idea," Harry said, watching intently. "He's baiting it."

"Trying to get it to take off?" Hermione asked as she nestled against him. Seemingly unconsciously, his arm came up to wrap over her shoulders once more.

"Right after takeoff, it's bound be slow, clumsy in the air," Harry said. "Lot slower than a Firebolt. Once it's off the ground, he can swoop in, snatch up the egg like the world's biggest snitch."

"And he's really good at catching snitches," Hermione said.

"Not the best there is," Harry said with a roguish grin, "but pretty good."

"Oh, hush," Hermione smirked. "Now's hardly the time for bravado."

"The Short-Snout has had just about enough of Diggory's antics, it would seem!" the announcer boomed as the dragon's wings slowly unfurled, kicking up an almighty cloud of dust and dirt. "I hope you know what you're doing, lad!"

"Me, too," Cho whined. On the field, the Swedish Short-Snout was lifting off with an irate roar, spitting out one last blue projectile that Cedric dodged with ease before swooping down in a blur.

"Look at him go! I do believe our lad has a plan—he's gotten it! Cedric Diggory has gotten the golden egg! My goodness, and in amazing time, as well! Will the dragon-handlers please take to the field?"

Even as he spoke, the same group as before dashed onto the field, casting a series of restraining and restricting charms on an absolutely vexed dragoness as Cedric landed on shaky legs and hoisted the egg up high.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the champion of Hogwarts! What a show!"

A tournament official hurried up and guided Cedric toward what was presumably an exit, and Hermione craned her neck to try to see where he was going.

"Can we go and see him?" she asked, but Cho was already on her feet.

"I don't care if we can, I'm going to," she insisted, striding toward the stairs even as they announced the second competitor, Fleur Delacour, who was facing off against a Common Welsh Green. Their little grouping, it seemed, had no time for such things and proceeded back down the stairs as a chorus of cheers (and a mingling of catcalls, Hermione noted) went up upon the entry of the Beauxbatons champion.

But Hogwarts had already had her say.

"Where is he, d'you think?" Harry asked once they had emerged from the stadium. "He left the stadium that way."

He pointed off to their left, and that was all Cho needed to hurry around the place. The announcer's booming voice began to commentate on Fleur's performance much as he had for Cedric, albeit with the addition of several glowing embellishments relating to her appearance.

Yuck.

Around the rear of the stadium, a medical pavilion had been erected, and inside, Cedric was being fussed over by Madame Pomfrey. As soon as Cho caught sight of him, she gurgled out a noise of relief and shot toward him with her arms outstretched.

"Oh, incoming," Cedric chuckled, squeezing her in an embrace and going a bit pink as Cho began peppering his face with kisses. "Cho, c'mon, I'm fine."

"I'm kissing you better!" Cho insisted, and Madame Pomfrey tutted but couldn't fight a small smile at the sight of the couple. Still, she placed a hand on Cho's shoulder and gently guided the pair apart.

"While I appreciate your efforts, Miss Chang, I need just a moment longer with him," she said.

Reluctantly, Cho took a few steps back, bouncing in place as Madame Pomfrey finished her diagnostic spells. While he waited, Cedric shot Harry a grin, holding out the broomstick.

"Thanks for the assist, mate," he said. "Probably saved me getting singed at least twice."

"Well, much as I hate to admit it, sometimes the equipment does make the difference," Harry told him with a smirk, taking the broom back and giving it a once-over. "And not a twig out of place."

"Maybe one, but I'll leave it to you to find," Cedric chuckled. "You didn't run into Skeeter on the way in, did you?"

"The reporter?" Cho asked. "No, was she bothering you?"

"Asking me questions about Neville," Cedric said. "Sounded like she was trying to get me to say something about him she could publish. Calling him cowardly and all that."

"Horrible woman," Hermione huffed. "And for people to just eat up that gossip."

"That's what some people need to feel excitement in their lives," Harry said, scooping up Mafalda as she attempted to clamber onto his back in a piggyback ride. "Anyway, gonna run this up to the castle. Good job out there, Ced. Glad you weren't killed or maimed or anything."

"So am I," Cedric said. "See you around, Harry."

After one last glance at the other three, Hermione found herself being urged after him by Cho, Marietta, and Cedric, and she offered them a wave before hurrying after the object of her increasing affections. Outside the pavilion, it turned out he had been waiting for her, and she blushed as he held a hand out.

"Hey," she said bashfully.

"Hey back," he said with a small laugh, sliding his hand into hers. "I hope I'm not pushing any limits here."

"Not at all, no," Hermione said with a smile as they set off. "This is…quite nice."

And, for the moment, it was—it was all Hermione really needed.

I feel there might be one or two more chapters left, though this will almost certainly culminate with the Yule Ball.

Probably.

Reviews and feedback are always appreciated!