A/N: So there seems to be some confusion from the last chapter. Yes, Cassius is the other Hogwarts champion. Hopefully, this chapter explains what happened better.
Like Hermione, Cedric had known that something was wrong the minute the task started. And when his boyfriend entered the maze, the feeling had only intensified. Cedric knew then that he had to do something.
While his first instinct had been to get the officials to stop the task, Hermione wasn't exactly having much luck with that. She was worried as much as he was, and it made him more determined to get something, anything, done.
He had crept around towards the back of the maze. There weren't a lot of people over there and he figured he would have an easier time trying to get in. Strangely, there was an unprotected entrance. Cedric took a deep breath and entered the maze.
Inside the maze, things were rather eerie. Fog filled the air, creatures crept in shadows. Cedric was frightened, but he kept moving. He fought his way in, stunning Krum when the horrid feeling overwhelmed him. He kept moving, knowing that Krum wasn't the only source of the feeling.
He was just a few feet behind Cassius when the champion saw the cup. And Harry saw the cup from the other side of the path. Cedric was grateful for his long legs as he pushed his boyfriend away from the cup, accidently touching it at the same time as Harry Potter.
There was the familiar lurch from the navel that came with portkeys and they disappeared from the maze. They landed in an abandoned graveyard. All Cedric could think was that it was a bad sign. He was almost certain it wasn't part of the task.
"Kill the spare," an almost reptilian voice rasped.
Cedric didn't have time to think. Harry had sent a stunner at him before the voice hand finished talking. He collapsed to the ground, a killing curse missing him by a hair.
He missed everything else, being unconscious on the ground. But he was alive, and he supposed that was enough. He certainly didn't want to be dead.
When he finally came to in the hospital wing, he had found quite a few people waiting for him to wake up. He had almost expected Harry to be there. Cassius was fairly obvious, and the one person he had desperately wanted to see.
Cho was a surprise, but he suspected that she was there for Harry more than him. There was Hermione, and he wasn't sure why she was there, but he had a sneaky suspicion.
Viktor had been waiting, and he was the one that most surprised Cedric. After all, he had hurt Viktor more than Viktor had hurt him. He no longer held the uncomfortable sensation that he had held in the maze. The Bulgarian was no longer threatening.
Viktor explained out of earshot of everyone save Hermione, who he seemed reluctant to let out of his sights, that he had been put under the imperius curse. It explained so much. And Cedric and Viktor became weird acquaintances.
A few days later it was announced that the Triwizard tournament would end with a duelling contest. While Harry would have technically been the winner, the extenuating circumstances had caused enough grief that the organisers had to agree with the schools.
With the outside influence, death eater intervention, and the use of an unforgivable curse on one of the participants, no one could claim that Harry had actually won. And even Dumbledore gave his consent for a new task.
Hermione found that such a thing actually eased her nerves. She wasn't worried about anyone getting hurt, though she was a little uncertain who to root for.
On one hand, there was Harry, who was her best friend. And school spirit. Several of her classmates would be upset if she didn't root for Harry or Cassius. Even if she didn't really know Cassius that well.
And on the other hand was Viktor. Her sweet, amazing, Viktor. He had captured her heart and she desperately wanted to support him. And then there was the small little matter of his birthday.
In all the commotion, it had sort of snuck up on her and was the next day. And all of the ideas that Hermione had of celebrating felt as though they were cliché, or not special enough.
"For the thousandth time, would you tell me what you want?" she asked him.
"I haff already told you, I haff everything I vant," Viktor said. He pulled her closer to him, enjoying sitting next to her in the library. "Though if you vant, I vould like to take you on a proper date soon."
She lightly whacked him with the novel she was reading. "Oh no, you don't Mister. It's your birthday, so I get to do something."
He smiled at her determination. She really didn't have to do anything for him. He already had everything he could possibly ever want. And then some things that he wasn't sure he would have thought of on his own. But she seemed determined to think of something.
The next morning came far sooner than Hermione wanted. She hardly wanted to miss any of it, but she knew that she had stayed up far later than she should have. Which wouldn't have happened if she had thought of what she did earlier.
She had stayed up most of the night working on knitting a scarf. She had used her wand instead of one of the needles, and it had imbued the work with magic. It would feel like a hug from her, and always smell of her. Hermione hoped it would help ease the separation.
She practically bounded over to him at breakfast, both of them sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Hermione had sat with Padma enough that no one questioned it, and it wasn't Gryffindor. That would have caused some trouble with Viktor's headmaster.
Or it would have if he had been present. Karkaroff had disappeared, and no one knew where he had gone or why. Though, there was a theory going around that he had disappeared to hide with the return of He-who-must-not-be-named. Though there were quite a few people who believed that Harry was making the story up.
"Hello," Viktor said to Hermione.
"Happy Birthday," Hermione said and shoved the box with her present in it at him.
"You did not haff to get me anything," Viktor said.
"I wanted to. Open it." She could hardly contain her excitement.
Viktor unwrapped the gift, and a shocked look came over his face. It was March, and he hadn't expected a scarf, even if Hogwarts was still chilly compared with Bulgaria. It wasn't cold compared to Durmstrang.
"Vas not expecting this," he said as he wrapped it around his neck. It was a nice grey, one that wouldn't clash with anything he wanted to wear. A look of shock came over his face as the sensation of a hug, one he hadn't forgotten in the short time since he'd had one the day before, wrapped around him.
"Do you like it?" Hermione asked.
"Is best present I haff had in a long time," he told her. "Did you make it?"
She nodded, a shy smile on her face. She knew that she wasn't the best knitter, having learnt only that summer from Mrs Weasley. But she was proud to have made something with her own hands instead of buying something.
"I'm glad you like it."
"Would you two just eat breakfast?" one of the Ravenclaws asked.
Hermione blushed and turned back to her food, even as Viktor dug into his pancakes. He had quite the affinity for them, but he didn't look away from Hermione for longer than a second, a smile in his eyes.