Nine:

Cedric's stony silence where his parents was involved was strangely rejuvenating for him and by the end of the break he was in higher spirits than he'd been for the majority of the year. Having managed to fully bury away all of his worrying thoughts, he could now look forward to being able to actually play against Potter in the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match at the end of the year.

With such thoughts in mind he immersed himself further in his studies and extracurriculars, being sure to record all of his progress into his journal (and if he happened to linger on a picture or two it was by pure coincidence).

It was somewhat irksome to work alongside a team of dispassionate players, the overall mentality of the Hufflepuff team being 'well we're not gonna win anyway.' However Cedric felt that they were being awfully negative considering they had won the Quidditch cup last year. He also had a hard time putting up with them constantly spewing vitriol about Potter when the subject came up, but he thought that he was getting in better control of his temper, now that he was becoming more exposed to his new emotional extremities.

The mounting tension involving the Chamber of Secrets and continued petrifications did not go unfelt by Cedric, and he would often find himself staring at Potter's vacant seat at the Gryffindor table during most meals. It made him angry that they were driving him into hiding purely because they wanted a scapegoat for the whole ordeal. But, he sat back and waited, since there was nothing more he could do (or so he liked to console himself).

But, even with all the tiresome stress and tension and all the time he was spending practicing and studying, Cedric's sleep schedule seemed to only continue to slowly dwindle and by the beginning of February he was barely getting five hours of sleep a night, a stark difference from his original ten. Surprisingly this didn't really effect the constant jittery energy that would electrify him in his waking hours, but it did still cause faint dark circles to form under his eyes which he could easily cover up with a glamor if he ever so wanted.

With all of his running about trying to stay busy and focus on improving himself, he'd forgotten all about trivial events like holidays. Even when he hadn't been trying so hard to be presentable and spent his days lazing about Cedric really ever only gave holidays outside of Christmas and Halloween passing acknowledgement at best.

However, this year, it seemed Gilderoy Lockhart would not allow Valentines day to go unacknowledged and Cedric woke to a school decked from floor to ceiling with a dizzying amount of hearts, frills and pitiful looking dwarves dressed as cupids. Despite this, Cedric did his best to simply laugh it off alongside Jona and continue his day normally.

Then came the little ordeal in the hallway and it all suddenly became hard to ignore. He had been on his way to Care while Jona had gone his separate way to Divination when a streak of pale skin and black hair had rushed past him, turning heads as it sped down the hall. It was only when the figure tripped that Cedric realized it was Potter who had run past him at such a breakneck pace. Before he could snap out of his confused haze and help the poor boy up one of the embarrassingly pink dwarves came toddling up and began belching out possibly the worst poem ever conceived.

His eyes remained affixed to Potter's rapidly reddening face in morbid fascination as the surrounding students jeered and cackled. He disliked it, seeing Potter in such discomfort, even if his pinked cheeks looked quite nice.

He could hear the Malfoy boy hissing something no doubt goading and childish and he turned his attention to the pale haired boy. Listening as he alluded to who it was that sent the horrible little message, that sent the cause for Harry's embarrassment, that had the audacity to-

She ran away in a swirling curtain of red hair, leaving the laughing masses behind and filling Cedric's belly with a coiling jolt of electric energy, some sort of animalistic need to give chase.

He held it back, somewhat and followed at a more leisurely pace than the full on run that he wanted to break into.

He found her holed away in an empty corridor in an even emptier classroom, crying her pretty little eyes out, a journal clutched to her chest. The Hufflepuff could only stand and watch, there was some part of his mind that said he should do something to comfort a little girl in need. But, another part of his mind, wanted to simply stay and watch through the cracked doorway. Watch the way the sorrow swallowed her up and drowned her. And that part was far stronger than the little voice in his head telling him it was all wrong.

He wasn't quite sure how long he stood there, leaning on the doorway, forehead pressed against the frame as he stared through the sliver of space between the slightly open door and the wall, watching her tiny shoulders shiver and shake until suddenly it all stopped.

They moaning and crying and quivering and whining all suddenly stopped and the little girl straightened, posture becoming firm and confident, shoulders squaring and jaw setting. There was a slight pause after that, the girl staring out the dusty window, eyes cold and distant. The eyes of an entirely different person.

All the pleasure and joy he had been deriving from his horrible glee had sizzled out upon seeing those eyes.

And then she turned, bolting from the floor and yanking the door out of Cedric's lax grip, pulling him inside the classroom before slamming it shut, the tip of her wand coming to rest just under his chin.

"Who are you and why are you watching me?" It was hissed out in a voice ill-suited for a young girl.

Cedric could only gape in his disorientation, astounded at how strong the dainty little hand holding him in place was.

Brown eyes rolled in an oddly dignified manner as an ugly sneer marred her pretty features, the wand digging deeper into his chin.

"Oh, why even bother with Hufflepuffs? They can barely formulate a thought without being scared shitless. Legilimens."

The past few hours sped through his mind in rapid succession, leaving him with a horrible sense of vertigo and a slight headache. He of course knew what legemency was, his father being a Ministry Official who is trusted with sensitive information, one of the few things the man had taken the time to personally teach Cedric was how to try and avoid mental attacks.

He wasn't versed in Occlumency or anything of that matter, but he could at the very least detect a mental invasion.

"Y- you..." he stuttered out, unsure of what to say. No child at the age of 11 should be able to penetrate someone's mind with such thoroughness. Before he could figure out what to say, the redhead let out an ill suited cackle.

"How unexpected! You're quite sickening, aren't you? Even better is that you haven't any idea just how horribly you're ruining yourself, it's hilarious, actually."

The sadistic delight faded from her face, leaving only an ugly sneer of vivid hatred. "How poetic~" she sang out sardonically. "The saviour of the light turning a man dark."

His hand twitched towards his wand at those words. He had no clue who the crazy little bint was or what she was on about, but he wasn't going to sit around and allow her to speak nonsense about Potter.

However, the wand under his chin twitched and she leaned ever closer, standing on her toes to bring their faces nearer. "Ah, ah ah. None of that. As much as I'd like to hang around and watch your downward spiral, I don't have time for irrelevant little Hufflepuffs. So, let's just forget this all happened, shall we? But, don't worry I'll leave you with that little show earlier."

Her eyes glinted a horrible crimson for the barest of moments.

"Obliviate."

He awoke in an alcove further down the hall, moments before the bell to the next block sounded, wondering when it was that he decided to lay down, and if the little girl was still crying her eyes out in that classroom.

-0v0-

Jonathan Davies was and is a good friend.

He did things like send his friend a gift on their birthday and Christmas. And he always remembered the sort of special things, like their allergies, their favorite activities, what makes them scared. And most importantly, he was there for them, he listened to them and did his best to console them when there was an issue, because even if he couldn't fix it, he could make them feel a bit better at the very least.

'They' meaning Cedric, of course. It was very common for Hufflepuffs to have very few friends that they were extremely close to. Cedric was probably the only person that Jona really considered his friend (not including his brother, but Roger could be a dick at the best of times anyway).

With that being said, Jona could read Cedric like a book and even with these recent 'changes' that Cedric had been going through, his mannerisms and moods were still readable despite being more unstable as of late. Therefore, Jonathan could easily conclude that there was something very serious on his friend's mind.

But, if there was one thing he had learned from being friends with Cedric, it was that Cedric didn't ever 'wants to talk about it.' Sure, he liked to whine about silly little things, just for the sake of being annoying. But, if the idiot had an actually important issue, he'd either ignore it or try and fix it himself, but never would he mention it to the people who cared. It wasn't that he was independant or anything so noble, he was just a very private and oddly self-conscious person who didn't want to be judged for his problems. Jonathan also suspected that when Cedric had relayed his issues or fears to his parents, that he was met with disinterest.

Jona didn't really get it, as he was always the type to ask for help if he needed it, but he didn't really need to get it to understand how to work around it. If Cedric wasn't going to tell anyone about his issues, then Jona just had to figure it out for himself.

Alarm bells had gone off the moment Cedric had actually started trying in class, as much as Jonathan wanted to be proud of his friend for taking his future more seriously, he knew that Cedric had no drive or self-worth and therefore would never give his future any sort of consideration. If Cedric was doing something good for himself, then it was because there was something else influencing him.

At first he'd written it off as the Diggory Patriarch finally taking a hands on approach and giving a shit about his only son's issues. And he felt his suspicions were only further confirmed when Cedric expressed how he was dreading returning home for the summer no doubt annoyed at the fact that his parents would no longer allow him to laze around.

However, after a few weeks into Second Year, it became clear that Cedric was not doing this because his parents wanted him to, the way the boy would bin their letters without even opening them showed that he couldn't have cared less about their opinions of him and certainly wasn't being controlled by them.

Yet, Jona still knew that Cedric hadn't just decided to be a contributing member to society. No, there was someone or something influencing him.

Ever since this all started, Cedric had been getting more and more volatile and moody, but it was in a rather odd manner, where strange topics would randomly set him off. Jonathan couldn't make heads or tails of it.

When May had rolled around, he had put his friend's curious behaviour out of his mind. Cedric had come back from Christmas break surprisingly chipper and hadn't once blown up about some random topic.

On May 8th, he settled into his seat in the Hufflepuff stands, looking forward to being able to see the culmination of his best friend's hard work. Cedric had been getting up early, wether practice was scheduled or otherwise to train for this very match. He knew that Cedric was beyond excited to face off against Potter and possibly win the Quidditch Cup.

But, when McGonagall came nearly sprinting on the field, ordering all the players to dismount their brooms, Jona feared that all of Cedric's practice may have been for naught.

Jonathan expected Cedric to be mad. He expected the guy to pull faces and bitch and moan and maybe even pout for a day or two. It was understandable, Jona would've been mad too and he wouldn't've minded a bit of childish behaviour from his roommate given the circumstances.

So, when Cedric returned from the locker rooms to the Hufflepuff dorm, Jona and most probably everyone else present was a bit surprised to see he was the least angry out of the surly lot of players, despite being the one who had been looking forward to the game the most. In fact Cedric had looked positively calm, walking past the mass of Hufflepuffs gathered in the Common Room without a passing glance, making a beeline for the stairs, which Jona quickly followed him up.

He wondered perhaps, if it was the calm before the storm, and that Cedric would suddenly erupt in rage once they were in privacy.

Oddly, that wasn't the case. Cedric simply sighed and shrugged, proclaiming that it was a shame that it was cancelled and then reached into his school bag, pulling out his unfinished charms essay.

There was something very wrong with all of this.

"You're... very calm 'bout all of this."

The brunette looked up from his homework, grey eyes narrowed in confusion. "About what?"

Jonathan was almost certain he was being purposefully obtuse. "The match being cancelled, of course. You were really looking forward to playing Potter."

A twitch of sorts, shoulders rising and falling in rapid succession, but a blank smile entered his face. "Sure, I s'pose. But, it's just a game. I can always play him next year, or the year after."

Jona simply stared, watching as the meaningless little smile on Cedric's face remained firmly affixed. There was something wrong, he just knew it. Or...

Or maybe he just wasn't as good of a friend as he thought.

"Yeah... I agree."

-0v0-

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

There would always be other chances.

There would always be other games.

It didn't matter.

It didn't fucking matter!

It had been resonating through his mind for the past day. He had tried and tried and tried. To take it all gracefully, to be level headed, to keep his cool. But, he couldn't, not in privacy, not to himself. Sure in front of everyone else, he was the picture of placidity, a responsible little Hufflepuff who focused on his studies. But the few moments of privacy that he could salvage, the whole facade would crumble and he'd find himself whispering and hissing in anger, hunched over his journal staining page after page with ink guided by rage.

He wasn't even mad for the right reasons! He didn't care a lick that all of his practice and training had gone to waste, it didn't matter to him that his team was let down. It didn't matter that two innocent girls were petrified, that Dumbledore had been removed as Headmaster, hell, he didn't even care about whoever it was that had been taken into the Chamber or that Hogwarts may very well be closed for good.

He just wanted Potter to see him. To notice him. Appreciate him. He knew that it was a bit odd to be so focused on one person. But, just because it was odd didn't mean it was wrong. He knew that what he was doing, what he was striving for was the right thing. Or at least, it felt that way.

He'd spent a sleepless night, staring at his bed curtains as Jona snored away, hating and hating and hating the circumstances, that nothing was going his way. It wasn't fair, not in the slightest. And the next morning, when he still not had been able to expel such thoughts from his head, he trudged downstairs with his roommate, paying no notice to the overcrowded common room and he quickly made his way towards the exit, following Jonathan's hurried pace towards the Great Hall. The hallways were oddly empty, and people were still cautiously walking about in groups, fearful of being petrified. But, once the school was firmly settled in the Great Hall, the Deputy Headmistress stepped forward, face as severe as usual, but looking oddly relieved.

"As you all know there had been rumors of Hogwarts being closed due to the recent unfortunate events involving The Chamber of Secrets. It is my pleasure to inform you all that this is no longer a concern and that all of the petrified students are currently being administered mandrake draught. I am also pleased to note that Headmaster Dumbledore has been reappointed his position and will be joining us for the feast this afternoon."

There was a chorus of cheers at this revelation, though Cedric was hardly listening, his eyes instead fixed firmly upon the Gryffindor table, eyeing the empty spot where Potter would generally be seated. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the little Gryffindor wasn't involved in all of this and he only hoped that the boy hadn't ended up back in the Hospital Wing from his no doubt dangerous escapades.

He was jerked out of his worrying when Jona elbowed him rather harshly in the ribs. He glared and raised an eyebrow, dropping his fork. His friend simply grinned.

"This is great isn't it? I was pretty worried that we wouldn't even get to finish our term and that we'd have to transfer to poncey ol' Beauxbatons or somethin'."

Cedric simply nodded, turning back to stare at the Gryffindor table, only to be elbowed again.

"What, Jona?"

The shorter Hufflepuff frowned at him, blinking slowly and glancing towards the Gryffindor table then back at him. "What're you lookin' at, mate?"

Cedric scoffed and shrugged, dragging his eyes to squint down at his food. "Nothing."

Jona paused before grinning widely, slapping him on the back. "Oh, I see you, Ced, you dog. I didn't know you we're into Gryffindors though! Like 'em fiery eh?"

Cedric nearly choked on his forked, turning rapidly to look incredulously at his best friend. "What?! No, it's nothing like that!"

Jonathan simply laughed, waving him over with a lofty hand and a long grin. "Sure, sure whatever you say..."

He rolled his eyes, deciding to ignore him and slowly, he found his gaze drifting back towards the Gryffindor table, his thoughts turning back to Potter.

He didn't notice, in his intense focus, the curious stare Jona was pointing in his direction.

A/N: A bit of an odd note to end it on, but this pretty much marks the end of Second Year. I should say, that I'm very sorry for taking so long on this update, especially since I have so little to offer, I have no excuse outside of me being a bit busy this past week or so.
Also, shout out to Jooheika. Is this the kind of debacle you were looking for?

Feel free to give me feedback, I'm always happy to see it.