Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: Yes, there is a bit of a theme right now. I'm teaming up with a few other players on Mc4A to knock out a list for a specific team. I'm also debating if I want to make as big a mess as yanking all my poly fills out The Round File would make. ...probably won't do that because I'll be the one cleaning up the mess.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A
Individual Challenges: True Colours; Writing with Music; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Magical MC (x2); Neurodivergent (x2); Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Lovely Triangle; Ship Sails; Hold the Mayo; Gender Bender; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); In a Flash; Bucket Listing; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Aces Wild [Huddling for Warmth]; Skittles [Bisexual Femme]
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 12 – Post-Term
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [](); 365 [](); Herbology Club [3-9]("Predictable" - Good Charlotte)
Other MC4A Challenges: Su Bingo [3B](Beach); AU [3C](Shifter); Hunt [Su Writing Diversity](ADHD Character); Ship (Chosen Seekers) [Sp Medium 1](Sharing a Blanket); Chim [Limu](Sharing); Fire [Medium](Yellow Ribbon Delight); Garden [Bed Types](Castle)
Representation(s): Desi & Fem Harry Potter; ADHD Cedric Diggory; Developing Cho/Cedric/Harry
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Clio's Conclusion; Three's Company; Broom's Only; A Long Dog; Unicorn; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Middle Name; Nightingale; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice); Chorus (Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Tether); SN (Rail; Negate); LiCK (Poppy; Tansy; Yarrow); FR (Satisfaction); War (Ennui; Sanctuary)
Word Count: 754

(^^)
Wingless Flight
(^^)
Why am I scared?
What am I afraid of?
I don't even know.
- Good Charlotte, "Predictable"
(^^)

Harini shivered hard as she shook off the chill of the breeze coming off the lake. She hated the memory of going under the surface of it. The pressure of all the water around her had felt particularly crushing. Even now, over a month later, her heart was racing in remembered terror.

She knew it was just an instinctual fear for all bird shifters. She knew that Fleur and Viktor probably weren't panicking over having been forced to enter the lake during the Second Task. Both of them were bird shifters as well. Fleur was a swan, and Krum was an albatross. Yes, their shifted forms were both bigger than her tiny shrike form, but that couldn't matter that much.

After all, Cho had also been under the water, and as a magpie she wasn't much bigger than Harini.

She shivered again but forced herself to look out over the water again. She struggled against the memories threatening to drag her under again. She had to get over this. She couldn't spend the next several years unable to look out over the Black Lake.

She couldn't do this.

Harini curled into a ball on the rocky beach, shuddering with the fear moving through her as much as from the cold of Northern Scotland in March. She should give up or at least go back inside to warm up, but she was too miserable to gather the concentration together to stand up.

"Oh, no," someone said right before Harini felt the stones near her scattering. She barely recognized the sound of Cedric's voice, despite how they had been drifting closer since they had both realized that they could help each other in the tournament. With blackness edging her awareness, she curled into the warmth he always radiated. She whimpered as her skin prickled at the sudden contrast between that heat and the cold of the world. "I'm so sorry, Harini. I should have come as soon as Cho suggested it instead of finishing my Potions essay. Let's get you inside and warmed up."

Cedric scooped her up in his arms like she weighed nothing. Who knew? She was so much smaller than her classmates. Maybe she really didn't weigh anything to him. Strangely, the idea made her feel safe instead of vulnerable. Cedric had never made her feel afraid, of course, not even the few times he had stepped in this year when the bullying of the other students gotten a bit rough.

Cho was a lucky, lucky girl to be dating Cedric. Just like Cedric was lucky to be dating someone as awesome as Cho. Harini was just lucky that she had become friends with both of them, that neither of them thought that she was bothering them. She had seen how jealous Ron got of any time Hermione spent with other boys, and Ron wasn't even dating Hermione. He just liked her a lot, even if she appeared to only tolerate him for Harini's sake. Cho would have been well in her rights to dislike Harini diverting even a little of Cedric's attention.

Yet Cho had welcomed her. It was not as a necessary evil or endured vice either. Cho sought out Harini on her own just as often as Cedric did. Cho had taken to tugging on the ringlets of Harini's hair or tucking a springy curl behind her ear whenever they saw each other. Occasionally, she even kissed Harini's cheek like the Beauxbatons students did to greet their friends. Once Cho had even done that in middle of the entry hall, right in front of most of the visiting students.

Ron had blushed harder than the time he had caught Ginny using Dean Thomas as a pillow on the couch in the common room. He refused to talk about why. All of the purebloods had started acting weird since then, too. They either taken to trying to flatter her or ignoring her completely. Even Malfoy wasn't being his usual annoying self.

Harini couldn't help the little groan that escaped her as Cedric wrapped a thick quilt around both of them. The soft warmth was nearly more than she could bear after the lake. Cedric pressed his lips to her forehead. They swayed together, similar to how Cedric liked to rock when he was stressed. She let herself drift, safe in his arms and comforted by the motion.

Whatever the future held, whatever misfortune there was waiting in the wings, for right this moment, all that mattered was that she was held.