Cedric learns a lot and has many questions. Dumbledore's actions are questioned. Bethany tries to avoid talking about the Dursleys. I headcanon.

December 1994

Bethany paced up and down the seventh floor corridor, as much to work out her nerves as to summon the Room of Requirement.

She had barely eaten anything at dinner, too busy trying to figure out the best way to explain how dangerous she was without making him think she was a nutcase.

He was already a little late, and for a moment she worried that maybe he had already come to his senses, when he rounded the corner, carrying a basket.

"Sorry," he said with an easy smile. "I noticed you didn't eat much, so I asked the house-elves to pack a few things."

Of course he did.

"You're annoyingly thoughtful, you know that?" Bethany asked, without breaking stride.

"Thank you," Cedric said cheerfully. "You've got quite a fan down there."

"Oh, Dobby," Bethany said. "Yeah, he's … sweet."

The door appeared and she pulled it open, finding a room not dissimilar to the one in which she, Hermione and Ginny had discussed the dragons.

Cedric let out a low whistle. "Never knew this place was here."

"It's … not, really," Bethany admitted. "It's the Room of Requirement. It only appears when you need it, and becomes whatever you …"

"… require," Cedric finished. 'That makes sense. I'd heard rumours, but nothing concrete until now."

They took a seat at one of the sofas, and Cedric opened the basket, passing her a sandwich. Bethany set it on her lap, her stomach still twisting too much to eat.

"Let's clear the air, shall we?" Cedric said, as though he could hear the thoughts that were running through her mind. He turned to face her, grey eyes meeting green. "There have been a lot of rumours doing the rounds since you arrived, and each one is as completely insane as the last, so I've been trying not to listen to them. The fact that you're so worried tells me that at least some of them must be true in some way."

Bethany shrugged, because she'd heard a lot of the rumours too, but … "Actually, most of them are rubbish. The truth's actually stranger."

"And you're worried I won't believe you?" Cedric asked softly.

Bethany nodded. "I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. It is … unbelievable."

"Except you're not a liar," Cedric said. "You don't shout it from the rooftops. You're only telling me now because you think I need to know, and you're doing that despite being so nervous about it that you still haven't eaten. Those aren't the actions of a liar."

Bethany relaxed a little at that. "Or a madwoman?"

"You're not mad either," Cedric said firmly.

"I don't know where to start," Bethany admitted.

"Start from the beginning," Cedric suggested with a grin.

Bethany rolled her eyes. "Thank you, you're so helpful."

Cedric pointed at his Prefect badge. "That's my job."

Bethany couldn't help smiling back, relaxing fully back into the cushions of the sofa. "Okay, so … do you remember me missing the last Quidditch match of my first year?"

"Yeah," Cedric said slowly. "Against … Ravenclaw, if I remember. They said you were in the infirmary and they didn't have a reserve."

Bethany nodded. "And then we got all those points at the leaving feast?"

Cedric grimaced. "Yeah, which seemed a bit unfair to Slytherin - no offence."

"None taken," Bethany said. "At the time, it seemed brilliant, but … Yeah, I wish he'd done that beforehand, not at the feast." She took a deep breath. "Okay, so … I suppose if I'm going to tell the story properly, it starts when I found out I was a witch, and Hagrid took me to Diagon Alley. When he took me to Gringotts, he also picked up something at Gringotts for Dumbledore. Just said it was the 'You-Know-What'. I later figured out that whatever it was … You remember there was a break-in?"

"Yeah, no one got caught," Cedric said. "The goblins said nothing was taken because the vault had been emptied the same day. It was that vault?"

Bethany nodded. "Didn't think much else about it, to be honest, until just after I got on the Quidditch team. Malfoy challenged me to a wizards' duel in the trophy room at midnight."

Cedric winced. "He set you up, didn't he?"

Bethany sighed. "That obvious, huh?"

Cedric shrugged. "Well, he could have done it after dinner in the Great Hall. It's not like they're against the rules as long as they're properly managed."

"I … did not know that," Bethany admitted. "Neither did Ron. He was the one who accepted for me. We ended up running from Filch with Neville and Hermione."

"Ron and Hermione, I get," Cedric said. "Why did Neville go with you?"

"Well, Hermione wasn't actually friends with us yet," Bethany said. "She'd been trying to stop us, and got stuck outside the Common Room, and Neville had been stuck out there because he'd just got out the Infirmary and couldn't remember the password. So they came with us. We ended up hiding in what we thought was a room on the third floor."

"It was the corridor?" Cedric asked. "The one that was out-of-bounds? Why wasn't it locked?"

"It was," Bethany answered. "Hermione knew the Alohamora Charm."

"Let me rephrase," Cedric said, "why wasn't it locked in a way that first years couldn't get in?"

Bethany snorted. "Trust me, you are going to have so many questions before I'm done." She finally took a bite of her sandwich, belatedly realising how hungry she was.

It was one she would have picked up, and she wondered if Cedric had noticed that, or if Dobby had just packed her favourites for her.

"Do I want to know what was in there?" Cedric asked.

"Probably not," Bethany said with a shrug. "But it's kind of important, so it was a three-headed dog."

"A Cerberus."

"If that's what they're called, yes."

Cedric passed her a bottle of pumpkin juice from the basket. "What the hell was … Never mind, carry on."

"Well, obviously, we ran for it," Bethany said. "Hermione was the one who noticed that it was standing on a trapdoor. Why she was looking at its feet, I still don't know. I was more focused on its heads."

Cedric shook his head. "I don't blame you. So whatever was in the vault at Gringotts and was clearly being targeted by someone powerful enough to get past the goblins and not get caught had been moved to a school and hidden underneath a Class XXXX animal behind a door locked with a charm that first years could get past?"

"The older I get," Bethany said, "the less it makes sense." She cleared her throat. "And then my first Quidditch game … Oh, no, wait. The troll happened first."

"The troll in the dungeons?"

"It wasn't in the dungeons," Bethany said. "Ron and I went to get Hermione on the way up - she was crying in the toilets - and we may have managed to lock her in with it. So then we had to deal with it."

"When you say 'had to'," Cedric said, "you could have fetched a teacher."

"Hermione would have been dead by the time we got back," Bethany said grimly.

"Okay, but you're lucky all three of you aren't dead," Cedric said.

"I know," Bethany said heavily. "I do know that. McGonagall called it sheer dumb luck. Which it was, to be fair. Anyway, my first Quidditch game, my broom started acting weirdly."

"I remember that," Cedric said. "There was a bet going about whether it wasn't really a Nimbus or if you were trying to show off. Neither option seemed that likely to me."

"It was really a Nimbus," Bethany said, "but someone was jinxing it. Hermione thought it was Snape so went to distract him, and she managed to knock over Quirrell in the process, which broke his eye contact."

"Quirrell?" Cedric asked. "Quirrell tried to kill you? Why?"

"I'll come back to that," Bethany said. "Hagrid told us that none of the teachers would have jinxed the broom, and whatever Fluffy was hiding, it was between Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel."

"Two questions," Cedric said. "First of all - Fluffy?"

Bethany sighed. "It belonged to Hagrid and was highly dangerous, of course the dog had a sweet name."

"Second of all - why was the Philosopher's Stone here and not with Flamel? He's been keeping it safe for centuries."

Bethany pouted. "It took us months to figure that out."

Cedric chuckled. "It would have taken me months in first year as well."

Bethany sighed. "I don't have an answer to that, I'm afraid. Ron, Hermione and I spent the next few months trying to figure out what it was. Let's see … I suppose the next thing that happened was Norbert. Or … well, no, I got an Invisibility Cloak for Christmas and found the Mirror of Erised in a random classroom, but that's not really important."
Except it had been, hadn't it?

Because if she hadn't known what the Mirror was, what it did, she would have been utterly confused down in that dungeon room with Quirrell.

Cedric had gone very, very still, and she assumed it was the mention of the Invisibility Cloak, but then …

"The Mirror of Erised? That was here too?"

"You've heard of it?" Bethany asked.

"Only in passing," Cedric answered. "My mother's aunt was an Unspeakable. It's dangerous. People have just … wasted away in front of it."

"I can understand that," Bethany said softly, remembering the moment she had seen her mother for the first time.

She had known - sort of - what her father looked like, given Hagrid's comment that she looked like him, but she had always assumed that her mother must have looked rather like Aunt Petunia.

The image in the mirror had opened pathways to memories she wasn't completely sure were real, soft strands of red hair brushing her cheeks, a soft smile, a quiet lullaby.

They were hard to grasp, lingering just out of reach of a proper memory, taunting her with how close - and yet how tenuous - they were.

"Were you alright?" Cedric asked softly.

Bethany shook herself out of her thoughts. "Yeah, I … Dumbledore found me, on the third night. Told me what it was, and warned me not to go looking for it again. And I didn't."

"Good," Cedric said, relaxing. "You have an Invisibility Cloak?"

"It was my dad's," Bethany said, pulling it out of her bag. "He used it at school. Mainly to pull pranks, I think."

"That's incredible," Cedric said. "Most Cloaks lose potency after a few years. Who gave it to you?"

"Dumbledore," Bethany said, "but I didn't know that then. The note was unsigned. 'Your father left this in my possession before he died. Use it well.' Or something along those lines. What?"

Cedric was frowning. "Nothing, it's just … Your parents knew they were in danger, right?"

Bethany nodded. "Yeah, they'd had a warning or something like that. Why?"

"Well, if I knew You-Know-Who was after me," Cedric said, "I'm not sure I'd give up an Invisibility Cloak."

Bethany faltered.

Why had James given the Cloak to Dumbledore?

The Cloak couldn't be Summoned, she'd tried it. It blocked any revealing spells.

A quick Silencing Charm, and Lily could have had her and Bethany under the Cloak, and Voldemort would never have found them.

Had James been that secure with the Fidelius Charm?

That certain that there was no way they would ever be found?

She would have to get Hermione to ask.

"Who was Norbert?" Cedric asked.

"A Norwegian Ridgeback," Bethany answered absently.

Cedric sighed. "Why was there a dragon?"

"Hagrid won an egg in a game of cards," Bethany said wearily, "and decided the best place to hatch it was his hut."

"Of course he did," Cedric said, more to the ceiling than to her. "And obviously you got involved."

"Well, we couldn't leave the dragon there," Bethany said, "and we didn't want Hagrid to get into trouble."

"If he'd gone straight to the Ministry, he wouldn't have been in trouble," Cedric said gently. "He just had to tell them that he'd removed the egg from someone trying to sell it."

Bethany frowned. "That's odd. We wrote to Charlie, Ron's brother, and he didn't … Wait. What would the Ministry have done with the dragon?"

Cedric grimaced. "Well … there aren't any reserves in Britain. And the paperwork to transfer a dragon abroad is extensive, and would have taken longer than it took the egg to hatch, so …"

"So they would have destroyed it," Bethany said flatly.

Cedric sighed. "Unfortunately, yes."

"We saw him hatch," Bethany said softly. "He was this ugly little thing, but quite sweet, in his own way. Charlie wrote back and told us that if we could get the dragon to the top of the astronomy tower on a certain date, he had some friends that could swing by and take it back to Romania. That's where he works, as a dragon-handler."

"Is that what you lost 150 points for?" Cedric asked. "Because you got off lucky - dragon smuggling is highly illegal."

"If I'd lost the points for that," Bethany said, "it would be one thing, but no. No one else knows about the dragon. I think Pomfrey suspected because Ron got bitten and he was in the Infirmary. Malfoy figured it out and tried to get us caught, but got caught out of bounds by McGonagall. And then Hermione and I left the Cloak at the top of the Tower. Neville had heard Malfoy bragging and was trying to warn us. And McGonagall got it into her head that I'd made up the story about the dragon to get Malfoy into trouble, and took fifty points each from Gryffindor for all three of us …"

"Wait," Cedric interrupted. "How many points did Malfoy lose?"

"Twenty," Bethany said softly.

"And she thought Neville was another 'victim' of a prank?"

Bethany nodded.

"So why did he lost fifty points?" Cedric asked. "For that matter, why did you? Being out of hours after curfew doesn't lose you that many points. Not normally. And if it was a prank to get Malfoy into trouble, why would you have been out?"

"My dad was a trouble-maker," Bethany said softly. "And I look quite a bit like him. Sometimes teachers assume I must be just like him and … I think McGonagall was trying to stop that."

"The whole school turned on you," Cedric said softly. "I remember thinking how ridiculous it was, that Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw could just … try and win the House Cup themselves."

"Gryffindor was worse," Bethany admitted. "Hermione stopped trying to answer questions in class, because the others mocked her. We were pariah's in the Common Room. The Quidditch team stuck by me, bless them, but … they couldn't be there all the time."

"That's not fair," Cedric said. "If you'd been a random student, no one would have noticed."

Bethany snorted. "Yeah, well, welcome to my life." She sighed. "And then we had detention in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid at night."

"Oh wonderful," Cedric said, sarcasm lacing his voice. "As punishment for being out of bounds after hours, we going to send you out of bounds after hours."

Bethany sniggered. "Yeah, I know. And Hagrid was trying to figure out what was hunting unicorns."

"Nothing hunts unicorns," Cedric said, all humour vanishing from his voice. "Nothing. Even Class XXXXX creatures won't usually harm unicorns. And there aren't any of those in the Forbidden Forest."

Bethany grimaced. "Do Acromantula count?"

"Well, yeah, they are …" Cedric trailed off, looking at her with something akin to horror. "There aren't Acromantula in the Forest. There's one colony in, I think, Bosnia, but there's nothing this far West."

"Don't be so sure," Bethany said darkly. "It wasn't them killing the unicorns anyway."

"No," Cedric said faintly. "No, it wouldn't be. So what was?"

"Well, Malfoy and I found it," Bethany said softly. "It looked … so awful. Just … I mean, any dead animal isn't going to be nice to find, you know, but that poor unicorn … and then …. Then there was this … thing. This cloaked figure, that came crawling out of the bushes and began to drink its blood."

"Why would anyone do that?" Cedric asked.

"Well, Malfoy just booked it," Bethany said. "And my scar started to hurt. And the Firenze turned up - he's a Centaur, he helped me."
"That's unusual," Cedric said. "Centaurs don't normally come to the aid of humans."

"Yeah, the others weren't happy with him," Bethany agreed. "He told me that only someone truly desperate would drink the blood of a unicorn, because it would keep you alive but at a terrible price. You'd be doomed to a kind of half-life and cursed from that moment on."

Cedric frowned. "But who would be that …?" He trailed off, and Bethany lifted her gaze to him, seeing the colour drain from his face. "He's not dead. Is he."

Bethany sighed heavily, shaking his head. "That was when we realised that whoever was after the Stone wasn't doing it for themselves. They didn't want the gold, they wanted the Elixir of Life. For … for him. I told myself it was okay. That the teachers were protecting it. That no one knows how to get past Fluffy. Everything would be okay. And then just after the exams … it hit me. Who walks around with a dragon egg in their pocket? And if breeding is outlawed, I bet they're worth a fortune on the black market. So who would just give it away in a card game?"

"Someone trying to get information out of their opponent," Cedric answered wearily. "What was the trick?"

"Play music," Bethany said. "He'll go right to sleep. We went to warn Dumbledore but he wasn't there. He'd received an urgent owl from the Ministry and left for London. McGonagall didn't believe us - told us that the Stone was well-protected. So I … I decided I'd have to go. If Voldemort got his hands on the Stone …"

"Bethany," Cedric interrupted. "You know that wasn't your responsibility, don't you?"

Bethany was silent for a few moments. "It felt like it was. My Cloak had been returned, ended up tucked under my bedclothes with a note. Just in case. Neville tried to stop us from sneaking out and Mione hexed him, which she's still apologising for. We used a whistle to get past Fluffy and then we jumped down the trapdoor and landed in … in Devil's Snare. Hermione conjured bluebell flames and got us out. That was Sprout's protection. The next was Flitwick's. The door to the next room was locked and the key was among about fifty others, charmed to fly around the room. But there were brooms and …"

"And you're an exceptional Seeker," Cedric finished flatly. "I believe you," he added, seeing her hesitation. "I completely believe you. This is just … Carry on. What was the next room?"

"McGonagall's," Bethany answered. "Giant Chess. Ron got us past that but got taken so he got knocked out. And there was a troll in the next room, but that was already unconscious."

"Quirrell's," Cedric concluded. "But he … fainted when one got into the school?"

"He faked it," Bethany said.

"Well, obviously," Cedric said. "But wouldn't Dumbledore have noticed? Especially given he'd apparently already put a troll in the school. Which the wards should never have allowed."

Bethany sighed. "Honestly? I think he knew the whole time. The next one was Snape's - a logic puzzle. Hermione figured out, but there was only enough potion for one of us to go forward, so I told her to go back and get Ron and then go and send a letter to Dumbledore, which we should have done in the first place, in hindsight."

"And Quirrell was in the next room?" Cedric asked.

Bethany nodded. She hadn't thought about this in so long, not since she and Jess had sat in her living room picking the whole thing apart.

Jess had been furious and - at the time - Bethany had thought she was being overprotective.

Now she was older, knew more about the magical world - and understood it far less.

"He … um … He was with the Mirror of Erised," she said, feeling the words begin to stick in her throat. "He told me that he was the one who'd tried to kill me at the Quidditch game, that Snape had tried to save me. And then there was this voice - telling him to use me to try and get the Stone out of the mirror. When I looked, I saw myself holding the Stone and when my reflection put it in her pocket, it landed in mine."

"Where was the voice coming from?" Cedric asked.

"I wasn't sure," Bethany said, picking at a loose thread on her robes. "I lied. Said I saw myself winning the Quidditch Cup. And then the voice said I was lying, and Quirrell took his turban off and there was a … face … on the back of his head."

Cedric had turned very, very pale. "You-Know-Who was possessing him? The whole time?"

Bethany nodded. "Quirrell couldn't touch me. He grabbed my wrist but it burned him so … so I held on, even though it hurt, and then I passed out. I woke up in the infirmary three days later."

"Dumbledore?" Cedric asked.

"Said he realised when he got to the Ministry that something wasn't right," Bethany said. "Said the Stone had been destroyed. That I'd nearly died. He was quite impressed I knew about Flamel. Said I'd done the thing properly."

"Did he intend it to happen?!"

Bethany grimaced. "At the time, I thought maybe he felt I had the right to face him, if I wanted to. The older I get, the less right that feels."

"It's not right," Cedric said tersely. "Was it a test? And if it was, was it for you or him?"

Bethany shrugged. "Who knows?"

Cedric sighed. "I believe you," he said again. "I do believe you. It just makes no sense."

"I know," Bethany said heavily. "Believe me, I know."

Cedric rummaged in the basket again, and then a familiar scent wafted over to her. A plate appeared in front of her, with a slice of treacle tart. "Sugar makes everything better."

Bethany couldn't help smiling, taking the fork he offered. "Thank you."

For a few moments they sat in silence, letting Cedric digest everything she'd just told him.

"Any questions?"

"Questions?" Cedric repeated. "Loads. Questions I think you have the answer to? Only one."

"I might have the answers," Bethany said.

"Alright," Cedric said with a faint smile. "What was Dumbledore playing at?"

Bethany wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, I don't have that one. What question did you have then?" She had a feeling she knew - she had not mentioned what happened to Quirrell, after all, and she knew she would be curious if it was her.

"How did you not know you were a witch until you were eleven?" Cedric asked.

Bethany flinched. "I grew up with my mum's sister, Aunt Petunia. She …" she faltered. "She wasn't very fond of my mum."

Cedric's eyes narrowed at that. Apparently he had heard what she didn't say. "Is she fond of you?"

"Not really," Bethany muttered. "None of them are. I don't really want to talk about it."

Cedric didn't look reassured, but nodded all the same. "What about Quirrell? What happened to him?"

And there it was.

Bethany flinched, her spine stiffening. "I killed him."

"How?" Cedric asked, his voice surprisingly even.

"Dumbledore said Mum died to save me," Bethany said flatly, her eyes fixed on the wall opposite, "and she left a protection in my skin that's pure love, and that's why it burned him. So I held on so he didn't have a chance to kill me. When Voldemort's spirit fled, he … he died."

"Well, I'm not sure about the first part," Cedric said carefully. "I would imagine that a lot of mothers have died to save their children and not left that kind of protection. But then your mother was an incredibly talented witch by all accounts, so maybe she did something else that no one else knew about."

"You don't think I'm a monster?" Bethany asked in a small voice, finally looking at him.

"No," Cedric said immediately, before the words had even finished leaving her mouth. "You are the furthest thing possible from a monster, Bethany. You were trying to stop him from killing you. Anyway he was probably already dead the moment he was possessed, which would probably explain the garlic smell. He must have been trying to hide the odour."

Bethany wrinkled her nose, but she wasn't entirely convinced.

"Did you talk to anyone afterwards?" Cedric asked. "A Mind-Healer? Anyone?"

"I spoke to Jess," Bethany answered. "She's my neighbour. Probably shouldn't know about magic, being a Muggle, but she has True Dreams so technically she told me first. She was horrified."

"Does she think you're a monster?" Cedric asked.

"No!" Bethany said hastily. "No, she's brilliant. She was horrified because she said she didn't know anything about magic but that all sounded horribly wrong."

"It was," Cedric said firmly. "That's not … That's not normal, Bethany."

Bethany automatically flinched at the word.

"And it wasn't your fault," Cedric said, his tone softening. He sighed. "What about your second year? That was the year the Chamber was opened, right?" He gave her a suddenly serious look. "I never did apologise, did I?"

Bethany faltered in her reply, wrong-footed by the question. "Apologise? For what?" She racked her brains for memories of second year but couldn't come up with anything at all.

She hadn't met Cedric until that first game of third year.

"For not saying anything," Cedric said.

Bethany frowned, revisiting her memories. "For not … I mean, I'm fairly sure you weren't one of the people hounding me for being the Heir of Slytherin. I feel like I'd remember that."

"No, but that's the problem," Cedric said, sounding disappointed in himself. "I knew you weren't. That you couldn't possibly be. And I said nothing."

"No one would have listened," Bethany said.

"That's not the point," Cedric said a little sharply. "You would have listened. You can't tell me it wouldn't have helped."

Bethany grimaced. "I'm not sure I would have believed you to be honest. I was so paranoid that year that … I might just have assumed you were trying to lull me into some kind of false sense of security. So it's okay."

"It's really not," Cedric said.

Throwing caution to the wind, Bethany slid her hand along the sofa cushion and covered his. "It's okay."

Cedric didn't respond, but he did turn his hand over to lace his fingers with hers.

Bethany took a second to compose herself, to make sure that her voice would sound normal and that her heart wasn't actually beating in her throat. "Okay, so second year. That's when I met Dobby. He spent the year trying to get me to leave Hogwarts or not go because I was in danger. But he couldn't tell me anything. That's what led to Ron and me flying the car - he'd blocked the barrier on to the station."

"And obviously flying the car was the best solution," Cedric said teasingly.

Bethany giggled. "Look, in hindsight, it was stupid, but I was twelve, it was Ron's idea, and no one thinks clearly when they're panicking."

Cedric chuckled. "Fair enough."

"I started hearing voices," Bethany said, the smile fading from her face. "No one else could hear them, and … Well, I was scared, so I didn't say anything. And then the duelling club …"

"I wasn't there," Cedric said softly. "What did you actually say to the snake?"

Bethany wrinkled her nose, thinking back. "Leave him, I think. I didn't know I could do it. I thought I was speaking English. And then Justin was …" She took a shaky breath. "It felt like someone was out to get me. We were convinced it was Malfoy."

"They're not descended from Slytherin either," Cedric said absently.

Bethany shrugged, deciding not to tell him about the Polyjuice Potion. Not today anyway. "Not long after Christmas, I found an old notebook in Myrtle's bathroom …"

"Myrtle?" Cedric interrupted.

"Oh, Myrtle Warren," Bethany said. "She was a student here years ago and now she haunts the girls' loo on the second floor. No one uses it unless they have to - it's constantly flooded. They call her Moaning Myrtle because she's always crying."

Cedric frowned. "That seems unfair."

"Hufflepuff," Bethany teased. "And, yes, it is, but … she seems to revel in being miserable, Cedric. Trust me, I've tried. There is no helping her. Someone had tried to flush this notebook, but that didn't make any sense, because it was empty, aside from the name TM Riddle."

"I know that name," Cedric said. "Where do I know that name from?"

Bethany tried not to scowl. "Prefect, Head Boy, Special Award for …"

"… Services to the School," Cedric finished. "Of course. I've cleaned that trophy more than once."

"You?" Bethany asked in mock surprise. "What were you in detention for?"

Cedric gave a long-suffering sigh. "Befouling of school property," he answered monotonously.

"Muddy Quidditch practice and Filch was having a bad day?"

"Exactly."

"Yeah, been there." Bethany cleared her throat. "Anyway, he'd never written in the diary, much to our disappointment, because the diary was fifty years old, and we knew the Chamber was last open fifty years ago, and Hermione thought maybe he'd got the award for catching the Heir, but no luck."

"Okay, but who would try and flush an empty diary down the toilet?" Cedric asked.

"Exactly," Bethany agreed. "And then one of my ink bottles broke and all the books got covered. Except that one. When I wrote in it, it wrote back - and yes I know, but I was twelve and I grew up in the Muggle World. Tom showed me the memory of him 'catching the Heir of Slytherin'."

"Who was it?" Cedric asked.

Bethany raised an eyebrow. "You're not …"

"Oh, no, writing in the diary was a spectacularly bad idea," Cedric said, "but that's not my lecture to give and it sounds like you've already had one anyway."

Bethany smiled sheepishly. "Just a bit. And it … Well, he caught Hagrid."

Cedric snorted. "And people fell for that?"

"The Ministry probably had to be seen doing something," Bethany said bitterly. "And … well, Riddle was a Prefect and charming and … very good at persuasion."

"Handsome too, I'd wager," Cedric said.

Bethany scowled. "Not at all."

That was a lie.

She had noticed that in the memory, that Riddle was exceptionally handsome, but once she had discovered who he really was, she could no longer see his face without seeing the monster he would become.

"Not my type anyway."

That was true at least.

"Oh?" Cedric asked. "And what is your type?"

Bethany felt her cheeks heat up. "I would hope the fact that we're sitting here would answer that question."

Cedric chuckled, his fingers squeezing hers gently. "So what happened next?"

"Hagrid got taken away by the Ministry," Bethany answered. "Dumbledore got removed, and then someone broke into my trunk and took the diary. A few days later …" she faltered. "That was when Hermione was attacked."

He squeezed her hand again. "That must have been awful."

"I'd heard the voice again," Bethany said softly. "She'd gone running to the library - said she had an idea and … Hagrid had told us to follow the spiders, so we did. Snuck out under the Cloak and …"

Cedric groaned. "And that's how you know there are Acromantula in the Forest."

It wasn't a question.

"That was the creature Hagrid had been expelled for," Bethany said. "Aragog. He was able to tell us that the creature in the Chamber was the one spiders feared above all else. And that the girl who died died in a bathroom. It was later that night that it hit me - what if the girl that died in the bathroom never left the bathroom?"

"Myrtle," Cedric concluded. "Aragog just … gave you the information and let you leave?"

"No," Bethany admitted. "His children tried to eat us, but we got away."

"Merlin, of course you did," Cedric muttered.

"We … We found out that the mandrakes were nearly ready," Bethany continued, "so it wasn't really necessary. Hermione would have the answer when she woke up. But we got a chance to sneak off and we took it except McGonagall caught us, so we pretended we were going to visit Hermione. Except then we actually had to visit Hermione."

"Poor you," Cedric said flatly. "Did it - and I don't mean this horribly, Beth - but did it ever occur to you that it wasn't your job to figure it out?"

"No," Bethany answered honestly. "Anyway, Hermione had pulled out a page from a library book and was still holding it."

"And the teachers didn't notice?" Cedric asked.

Bethany shrugged. "Clearly not. She'd figured out that the monster was a basilisk."

"A basilisk," Cedric repeated. "They don't petrify people."

"They do if people don't look them in the eye," Bethany said. "Mrs Norris saw the reflection in the water on the floor. Colin saw it through his camera. Justin saw it through Nick. Nick got the full-force, but obviously couldn't die twice. And Hermione, when she'd confirmed it, warned Penelope, who checked around each corner with a mirror first. It was getting around in the pipes, that was why I kept hearing the voice in the walls - and it's a snake, which is why I could hear the voice but no one else could."

"That's brilliant," Cedric said faintly.

"We went to the teachers first," Bethany said. "That's when we found out Ginny had been taken into the Chamber and they were going to close the school. So we went to Lockhart."

"Can't imagine he was much use," Cedric said scathingly. He hesitated. "You weren't one of the witches who went mad for him, were you?"

"I'm offended," Bethany said flatly. "No. Despite his rather unnerving interest in me, I just found him … fake."

"Good." There was a satisfied note in Cedric's voice that Bethany wanted to explore, but then he asked, "Was he helpful?"

"Not even close," Bethany said. "Admitted he hadn't done any of the stuff in his books, just Obliviated the people who did. We Disarmed him and made him come with us to the girls' toilet and asked Myrtle how she did. She told us there were eyes by one of the sinks, and … There was a snake etched on to one of the taps, so I tried to talk to it. And the Chamber opened."

His hand tightened around hers again but he didn't interrupt.

"We ended up what felt like miles under the school. We got so far and then Lockhart managed to get hold of Ron's wand. He tried to cast the Memory Charm on us, but Ron's wand had been broken for months and the spell backfired. There was a rockfall and … and we were separated so I … I kept going on my own. There was another door and then …" her voice caught in her throat. "She was just lying there. She was so still. And then Tom was there."

"Riddle?" Cedric asked sharply. "Was he a ghost?"

Bethany shook her head. "A memory. Trapped in the diary. Ginny had been writing in it since the summer. He'd been possessing her. Using her to open the Chamber and release the basilisk. She'd … She'd seen me with it and panicked and …"

"And taken it back," Cedric finished heavily. "Why didn't she hand it in?"

"He was in her head," Bethany answered. "Convinced her that no one would believe her. He told me that he didn't care that no one had died. That I was his new target."

"Why?" Cedric asked. "He was at Hogwarts years before you were even born."

"Well," Bethany said tiredly, "it turns out if you rearrange the letters of Tom Marvolo Riddle, you get the phrase 'I am Lord Voldemort'."

His grip on her hand was almost painful now, but his thumb was rubbing gentle circles on the back of it so she didn't mind.

"He wanted to know how I'd survived him. And then he … he summoned the basilisk. That was around the time Fawkes appeared. Dumbledore's phoenix," she added, before he could ask. "And he brought the Sorting Hat, which seemed weird. I just closed my eyes and ran, but I knew I needed to do something. He'd said that … that the weaker Ginny became, the stronger he did. If she … If she d-died, he would be alive again. So I knew I had to do something. Fawkes took its eyes out, which helped. But I was still on my own, so I … I put the Sorting Hat on, which seems stupid now, but what else was I going to do with a hat? I was hoping it might give me some advice, but instead this sword fell out, and I just …" she made a gesture upwards with her free hand, mimicking the thrust into the snake's mouth.

"You're lucky you weren't bitten," Cedric said faintly.

"I was," Bethany said matter-of-factly. "But Fawkes cried on it."

He seemed to freeze beside her, and she finally looked at him, having been telling the story to the fire thus far.

He was staring at her - not in disbelief, but in pure horror, a glimmer of fear in his eyes that seemed ten times worse than it had before the dragon.

"What's wrong?"

Cedric blinked, leaned forwards, and then he was kissing her, his mouth hard and hot against hers.

Her heart skipped a beat, but the kiss only lasted a second or two, before he had released her hand and retreated to the other end of the sofa, his face bright red.

"I'm sorry," he said, staring at the ceiling, causing her heart to sink. "That was … incredibly inappropriate of me."

"Inappropriate?" Bethany repeated.

"To just … do that, without your permission."

Oh.

Oh.

"It's …"

"It's not fine," Cedric said sharply. "Was that your …?" He trailed off, and Bethany turned very red as well, knowing what he was asking, but nodded.

"Then it's definitely not fine," he said.

"What …" she cleared her throat, trying not to focus on the way her lips were tingling. "What set it off?"

Cedric was silent for a moment. "You could have died. My father works with Magical Creatures; I've grown up learning about all sorts. There's only been a handful of basilisk sightings in the UK in the last five-hundred years. And no one has ever survived being bitten by one."

Bethany frowned. "But … if phoenix tears work as a cure …"

Cedric laughed shakily. "Phoenixes don't just … give their tears. They choose to, and only if they really, really like you. Only about 30 people have ever been known to receive them in recorded history. I … I don't think you realise just how lucky we are that you're still here."

Bethany could barely hear him over the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. She had known she was lucky - of course she had - but Fawkes had cried so readily, and Dumbledore had seemed so unsurprised by it, that she had assumed it was a normal occurrence.

"Okay," she said quietly. "I see where you're coming from. But I really am okay." She rolled up her sleeve to show him where the fang had pierced her flesh. "See? Not even scarred."

"I'm so sorry," Cedric said again.

"It's okay," Bethany said, more firmly this time. "I understand why you reacted without thinking. If you're really that worried about it, we'll call it an exception."

Cedric shook his head, but she could see the beginnings of a small smile. "Alright … so what happened to Riddle?"

"I used the same fang to stab the diary," Bethany answered. "And it disappeared."

"You're saying the bite was so bad the fang broke off in your arm?"

Bethany winced. "Not good?"

"Not really," Cedric said tiredly. "Please tell me that was the end of things?"

Bethany chuckled. "Pretty much. Fawkes gave us all a lift out of the Chamber. Myrtle was very sad I hadn't died. I tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing Dobby."

"He was the Malfoy's elf?" Cedric asked. "So how did he know what was going to happen?"

"Well, I'll give you one guess," Bethany said dryly, "as to how a teenage Voldemort's cursed diary accidentally ended up mixed in with the books Ginny got in Diagon Alley. Dumbledore seemed to think he wanted to discredit Mr Weasley so the Muggle Protection Act wouldn't go through. Not that anyone can prove it, with the diary destroyed and all."

"You did the right thing," Cedric said with a sigh. "And then last year you had the Dementors and … That is all that happened last year, right?"

Bethany hesitated, weighing up how much to tell him. "I can't tell you everything," she said slowly, "but … there was an … incident at the end of the year. With Sirius Black."

"Were you alright?" Cedric asked immediately.

Bethany smiled. "I'm fine. Sirius is my godfather. He was never actually after me, he was looking for Ron's rat, Scabbers. Who was actually Peter Pettigrew."

Cedric's eyes darkened, and for a second she thought he didn't believe her, but then he said, "Are you saying that there was a grown man hiding in Gryffindor Tower?"

Bethany nodded. "Pettigrew betrayed my parents to Voldemort, and Sirius went after him. But Pettigrew blew the street apart and turned into a rat."

"How didn't that come up at the trial?" Cedric asked.

Bethany shrugged. "Still trying to figure out that part. The Dementors turned up and nearly killed us all, and we didn't really have much of a chance to talk."

"Were you alright?" Cedric repeated, taking her hand again. "I mean, obviously you weren't Kissed or anything, but … How do you get out of that?"

Bethany smiled, flicking her wand. "Expecto Patronum."

"That's brilliant," Cedric said, sounding awed. "We just started learning that Charm last week and I can't get more than mist. How … Why a stag? Do you know?"

"It was my dad's Animagus form," Bethany said softly, watching the stag fade into nothingness. "Rem - Professor Lupin taught me, after the Quidditch game. He was friends with my parents too," she added. "I've spoken to him a few times since." She sighed. "Sirius got away, but so did Pettigrew, so he's still on the run, and I'm still stuck with them, because Fudge thought we'd all been Confounded and never bothered to bloody check."

Cedric squeezed her hand. "Are you still in contact with him?"

"Of course not," Bethany said. "He's an escaped convict."

Cedric returned her smile. "Oh, of course; what was I thinking?"

"If I was in contact with him," Bethany added, "he might have warned me that Karkaroff was a Death Eater who got out of Azkaban by naming names."

Cedric scowled. "That explains things. No wonder Moody hates him so much."

"Do you understand now," Bethany asked, her eyes fixed on their joined hands, "why I needed to tell you all of this first?"

"I do," Cedric said. "I understand that You-Know-Who has an unhealthy obsession with you in all incarnations. I understand that the Headmaster has done a bang-up job of keeping you safe. And I understand why you're so calm about being entered into the Tournament, relatively speaking." He smiled at her. "I even understand why you felt I needed a warning."

"People get hurt around me," Bethany said softly.

"People you know have been hurt," Cedric corrected gently. "That's not the same thing. It's not your fault, Beth. You haven't caused any of the things you told me about."

"Yes, but …"

"I am still willing to get caught up in them," Cedric said firmly. "I have known that for months. I spent most of last year telling myself it was just a crush. And then you outflew a dragon, and I swear it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen."

"Boys," Bethany said, rolling her eyes with a smile. "Give them a broomstick …"

Cedric grinned at her. "I'd still like to take you to Hogsmeade, if I may?"

Bethany hesitated. "Can I suggest an alternative? Because I have a feeling Rita Skeeter is hanging around and - no offence, but I'd rather not have it plastered across the Prophet."

"That's fair enough," Cedric agreed easily. "What's your suggestion?"

"We meet back here after lunch," Bethany said. "More private that way."

A little too private for a first date really, but it was better than conducting it under a spotlight, and having it announced in the papers.

"It's a date," Cedric said with a smile. He shifted a little closer to her. "I'd like to make up for my earlier behaviour."

"It's an exception," Bethany repeated, blushing. "It's fine."

His thumb was rubbing the back of her hand, and it was very distracting, and she almost missed his next words.

"Still, you deserve a proper first kiss. May I?"

Bethany's breath caught, but she nodded. His smile was bright, and he leaned in to press his lips softly to hers. This kiss lasted longer, and her eyes fluttered close as she leaned in to him.

She felt his smile widen, his free hand touching her face. As they parted, she couldn't help echoing his smile, aware she was blushing, but not even caring.

"Saturday?" He asked softly.

Bethany nodded. "Saturday."

December 1994

That Saturday, Bethany arrived back on the seventh floor, too relieved about being back in the castle to be nervous about what was technically a first date.

Then again, they had spent a few hours talking and then he'd kissed her goodnight the week before - did that not count as a date?

Or did they both have to agree it was a date beforehand?

Bethany shivered, shucking her cloak off, grimacing as she dripped water on the stone floor. "Dobby?"

Dobby appeared in a pop beside her. "Miss Bethany Potter Miss!"

Bethany winced. "Dobby, can you just call me Bethany? Or just Miss Bethany," she added hastily, before Dobby could dissolve into grateful sobs again.

"Dobby can be doing that, Miss Bethany," Dobby said, to her relief.

"Thank you. Can you clear up the water I've managed to bring in to the castle?" Bethany asked. "I don't want to give Filch any more reasons to hate me."

Dobby scowled, but wiggled his ears, and the water marks vanished. Her cloak was also now dry in her arms.

Bethany breathed a sign of relief. "Thanks, Dobby."

"Miss Bethany should be remembering to call Dobby for help," Dobby said.

"Miss Bethany is not used to having a house-elf," Bethany retorted, rounding the corner to see Cedric waiting for her beside the door.

He looked as drenched as she had a second ago.

"How don't you look half-drowned?" He asked in greeting.

Bethany grinned. "Dobby, could you …?"

With a snap of his fingers, Cedric was dry again and he grinned. "Thanks."

"Is that being all, Miss Bethany?" Dobby asked.

"Could you please send us up two hot chocolates?" Bethany asked. "Other than that, no, that's all."

Dobby bowed and disappeared with a pop.

"He's a weird one," Bethany said wryly, smiling at Cedric. "Hi."

"Hi," Cedric returned softly.

There was a brief moment of awkwardness, then he dipped his head to press a soft kiss to her lips. "Shall we?"

The Room of Requirement looked almost the same today, except smaller - one two-seater sofa in front of a roaring fire, and a coffee table bearing two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

"That was a good idea," Cedric said, picking up one to inhale its scent. "I needed that."

"It's hideous out there," Bethany agreed, curling up on one end of the sofa. "I wouldn't have gone at all, except I needed Christmas presents."

"You know owl order exists, right?" Cedric teased.

"That's all well and good if you know what you're getting," Bethany said. "I'm not very good with ideas."

"Me neither," Cedric agreed. "I tend to fall back on chocolate, and then someone gets me a really thoughtful gift and I feel guilty."

Bethany nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Then again, I am always happy to get chocolate."

Cedric grinned at her. "Well, that's a relief."

Bethany smiled back, taking a sip of hot chocolate. It was lightly spiced, and travelled all the way through her, warming every single inch of her. She let out a tiny little sigh of contentment. "So what about you?"

"What about me?" Cedric asked.

"Well, if owl order exists," Bethany said, "what were you doing, drowning out there?"

Cedric chuckled. "Well, to be honest, I also forgot about owl order until I was on the way back here."

Bethany sniggered, nudging him with her foot. "Hypocrite."

"Guilty as charged," Cedric said cheerfully.

"Got to be honest," Bethany said, "not entirely sure what you do on a date."

Cedric shrugged. "Mostly this. Talk. Learn more about each other."

"In that case," Bethany said, "there's something I've been wondering about. What made you enter your name? No offence, but you're not exactly the … glory kind of guy."

Unsurprisingly, Cedric did not look offended. On the contrary, he looked almost thrilled at her observation. "I'm not. Honestly, I'd so much rather have had Quidditch this year. Same reason as Krum, I assume."

Bethany raised an eyebrow, even though the same thought had crossed her mind too. "You don't think Krum's in it for the glory?"

Cedric shrugged. "I mean, he's already an internationally famous Quidditch star. Why would he risk all of that by entering a Tournament where he could get seriously injured and destroy his career? I think Karkaroff's put the pressure on."

"So who's pressuring you?" Bethany asked, correctly surmising his point. "Your father?"

"When is it not my father?" Cedric muttered a little bitterly. "Sorry," he added, before she could respond. "I know that's not fair, considering …"

"Considering I don't have mine?" Bethany finished with a sad smile. "My lack of a father doesn't make your issues with yours any better. You are allowed to be upset with him."

"I swear, all he cares about is how many bragging rights he can get," Cedric said wearily. "Well, you heard him in the summer. So sorry about that, again."

"Forget it," Bethany said firmly. "We will get a rematch, and I will beat you, and all will be right with the world again."

Cedric laughed. "Bit confident there, aren't you?"

Bethany grinned. "Hey, if there's one thing I am confident in, it's Quidditch."

"So you should be," Cedric said. "You're exceptional. Are you planning on continuing after school?"

Bethany paused at that, taking another slow sip of hot chocolate. "I … hadn't really thought about it. Well, I had a moment during the summer, at the World Cup. And people have asked me before, I just … hadn't really thought about after school. With anything." She'd said that to Hermione once and received a lecture on why it was important to think about these things early.

Cedric did not give her a lecture. "Can I ask an awkward question?"

"Yeah of course," Bethany said.

"Is that because you're in fourth year and just haven't thought about it yet, or because you're not convinced you're going to live long enough?"

Bethany froze, the warmth of the mug in her hands the only thing grounding her. She wasn't sure how long she sat there, but he was suddenly gently tugging the mug out of her hands to place it on the coffee table.

Then his arm was around her shoulders, and she allowed him to pull her into his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

"No," Bethany said, aware her voice was shaking. "It's just … You know how sometimes you don't realise you were thinking something until someone else says it?"

Cedric sighed, and she felt him nod, his fingers tracing patterns up and down her arms, acting as effective a grounding tool as the hot chocolate.

"I hadn't thought about it like that," Bethany said softly. "But … yeah, there is a little bit of that. Not much point in making plans if …"

"You should always make plans," Cedric interrupted. "It gives you something to aim for."

"What about you?" Bethany asked. "What do you want to do after school?"

"Promise you won't laugh," Cedric said, sounding a little sheepish.

"I promise," Bethany said, steeling herself to make sure she definitely didn't, no matter what he said.

"I want to go pro," Cedric said, almost in a rush. "Join the League."

Bethany twisted a little so she could look at him. "Why would I laugh at that?"

"You don't think it's silly?" Cedric asked.

"You were just asking if I was going to do it," Bethany pointed out.

"Yeah, but you're brilliant," Cedric said matter-of-factly.

Bethany rolled her eyes. "You're brilliant. I saw you play last year. Who told you it's silly?"

Cedric didn't answer, and Bethany rested her head on his shoulder again. "Your dad?"

Cedric gave a short nod.

"I thought he liked the Quidditch thing," Bethany said tentatively.

Cedric laughed a little humourlessly. "Oh, yeah. The school Quidditch thing, he likes. The beating the Girl-Who-Lived, he likes. Sacrificing my brains to go off and play Quidditch, that he doesn't like. Says I'm being fanciful and I should have grown out of that kind of thinking a long time ago."

Bethany scowled, making a conscious decision not to tell him what she thought of his father. "Well, I think you should do what makes you happy."

Cedric sighed. "I'm still aiming for good NEWTs. I can't play Quidditch forever, so I know I need to make sure I've got a back-up plan. And, with no games this year, I'm not sure it'll happen."

Bethany grimaced. Cedric hadn't been in the team her first and second year, so he had only had one year compared to her three.

Which meant, if she did decide to go pro, by the time she reached seventh year, she would have five years under her belt.

He would still only have the one.

"Okay, but you're really good," Bethany said. "So I think you should still go for it." She tilted her face up to look at him.

"Thank you," Cedric said.

"It's purely selfish," Bethany said. "I'm hoping for tickets."

Cedric laughed, kissing her cheek. "I'll get you a VIP box. What's your Quidditch team?"

"Puddlemere," Bethany answered. "Is that a deal-breaker?"

Cedric sighed. "Well, there had to be something wrong with you. They're not the Wasps, but I guess I can deal with that."

"Bagman's put me well and truly off the Wasps," Bethany admitted.

"Yeah, he's not what I expected," Cedric agreed. "You grew up in the Muggle world, right? Without Quidditch?"

"I'd never been on a broom until I got here," Bethany confirmed. "That I can remember anyway."

Cedric groaned. "You are indecently good, you know that?"

Bethany giggled. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm wondering if you can be convinced on Puddlemere," Cedric said, a glint in his eye that told her he was kidding.

"If Ron had coaxed me into the Chudley Cannons, maybe," Bethany said. "But no, I support Puddlemere for two reasons."

"Go on," Cedric prompted.

"Well, first, Oliver's now their reserve Keeper," Bethany said.

"Fair," Cedric said. "What's the second?"

"It was my Dad's team," Bethany said quietly.

Cedric winced. "Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Sorry."

"Don't be," Bethany said. "You didn't know." Throwing caution of the wind, she reached up to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I guess I can cope with the Wasps, as long as they're not playing us."

Cedric smiled at her. "That's very magnanimous of you."

"Well, they need all the help they can get," Bethany said, straight-faced.

Cedric slid his hand down her arm and poked her waist, causing her to giggle. "That was mean."

"You're right, I'm sorry," Bethany said, grinning.

His hand stayed on her waist, its warmth seeping through her robes and the shirt underneath. "So can you forgive me my Quidditch team enough to accompany me to the Ball?"

Bethany nodded. "I think so. Are we allowed though? If we're both champions?"

Cedric turned a little red. "Professor McGonagall says there's nothing in the rule book."

Bethany let that sit for a little, realising that he must have intentionally sought out her Head of House to ask that question, just so he could ask her to the Ball.

"What's your favourite flower?" Cedric asked suddenly.

"My … what?" Bethany asked, startled.

"Your favourite flower," Cedric repeated. "Feels like a good thing to know. For future reference."

Other people had given Bethany flower-themed things before, mostly birthday cards, but Christmas of her second year, all the gifts appeared to have a lily theme.

She'd never said a word, beyond grateful that people were giving her gifts in the first place, but …

"I don't like lilies," she admitted. "Aunt Petunia had them in the garden and I had to take care of them, and she'd never let me wash my hands before dinner, and those were the days when she insisted I ate something."

Cedric frowned. "Aren't lilies toxic?"

"Yeah," Bethany said softly. "It wasn't fun."

A little too late, she realised she had probably said too much about her life with the Dursleys, and she felt her entire body go tense.

"Beth," Cedric called softly, his voice at odds with the fury in his eyes. "Beth, stay with me, sweetheart. Breathe."

The name broke through, and she sucked in a breath, only just realising she'd stopped.

"Did they do anything else?" Cedric asked. He must have seen the terror in her eyes, because he closed his own and pressed his forehead against hers. "You don't have to answer that. If you want to talk about it, you know where I am."

"I learned not to talk about it a long time ago," Bethany said quietly. "It never helps. My neighbour, Jess, has called Social Services so many times, it just gets swept under a rug."

Cedric looked like he wanted to curse someone, but he took a few deep breaths, pulling her into his arms. "That's okay. You don't have to talk about it."

Bethany nestled into him, his heart beating reassuringly in her ear. "Thank you."

"So not lilies then," Cedric said with forced lightness. "And I'm guessing not petunias either."

Bethany giggled. "Definitely not. Or roses," she added.

Aunt Petunia had never allowed her gardening gloves when she pruned them, and the thorns left her fingers torn to shreds.

Jess did her best, but there was only so much she could do without causing trouble with Uncle Vernon - and Uncle Vernon was much bigger than Jessica was.

"I like orchids," she said, a little shyly. "And irises."

"Orchids and irises," Cedric repeated, kissing her temple. "Got it."

I'm not going to post too many spoilers but for those of you concerned, if you've ready my other series, Veritas, there are some things that will remain the same - I am a sucker for a happy ending. Trust the process.