Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Lioness And The Badgers	By : sawahhaych Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Cedric Views: 7550 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter (Although I am British I am unfortunately not the amazing JK Rowling!). I do not make any money from the writing of this fic.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
It's the night before the second task and I should be with Cedric, wishing him luck but instead I find myself in the headmasters office freaking out about the fact that I am going to be underwater for over an hour, in an enchanted sleep yes but... I don’t really like water all that much, I can swim, my mother made sure of it but not so very well. Most children would swim at least once a week with their school at my age but Hogwart's doesn’t have a pool and the thought of loading us all in minibuses to go to the local council run baths is just ridiculous.

And it will be cold! It's only February, we'll all catch hypothermia or something!

“Miss Granger, we thought it best that you be Mr Krum's hostage and Mr Summers be Mr Diggory's.” Dumbledore whispers to me with a knowing twinkle in his eye. I just nod mutely at the headmaster.

Dumbledore claps his hands once. “Good, then if you will all be seated.” He gestures at the three chairs, one for me, one for Luke and one for Fleur's little sister. We obediently sit down, Dumbledore hands each of us a vial of potion. “This will put you in the enchanted sleep. The enchantment will break once your head breaks the surface of the water.”

Luke give me a sideways smile before holding his vial close to mine. “To Ced.” He says as he clinks his vial with mine, a toast, I smile before downing my own potion. The last thing that enters my mind before I black out is that I have nowhere to put the empty vial.

-xXx-

I gasp as if I have been holding my breath for a long time, the water is absolutely freezing and I can feel my teeth chattering as my body shivers. My wet clothes are dragging me down in the water so I have to make a strong effort not to sink. “You okay?” Viktor asks wrapping one arm around me, under my armpit to keep me afloat.

I nod. “Bloody cold though.” I add which elicits a smile from Viktor.

We make our way to the stands, I kick my feet furiously just to get some feeling back into them, Viktor hasn’t let me go, he half drags me along with his superior strength.

I am pulled onto the doc by Cedric, Luke helps Viktor. Cedric crushes me in a hug before grabbing a blanket from the chair behind him to wrap around me. “Thanks for bringing her back mate.” Cedric says to Krum offering him his fist to bump.

Viktor gives me a quizzical look before bumping his own fist against Cedric's. “She is dear to me too.”

I smile, happy to be wrapped in the warm blanket which is in turn wrapped in Cedric's arms, we watch the scores be decided. The stands go wild when Cedric's score is announced, I scream and jump up and down along with the rest of the school, proud of my Hufflepuff. Cedric is in first place, then Viktor, then Fleur.

-xXx-

Later, Cedric and I seclude ourselves in the kitchens, it is one of our special places where we can be alone, yes there are loads of house elves around but they ignore us except to ask if we want anything every once in a while.

I am sitting sipping hot chocolate next to Cedric who has some whipped cream on his nose. I laugh at him until he realises what he has done.

“I was so worried yesterday, when I couldn’t find you or Luke.” Cedric admits, I was due to go meet him when I was called to the headmasters office.

I smile at him. “I know... if I could have warned you...”

Cedric puts a finger to my lip. “Shh. It's okay.” I smile behind his finger which he removes and then plants a quick kiss where his finger was.

“Fear is a funny thing.” I observe. “It can make you fight harder or just give up all together.” I know this from the many times with Harry, Ron and I, we seem to fall into the fight category but I have seen others who shy away from things, give up when they shouldn’t, like Neville's fear of Snape and Malfoy's cowardice when he is cornered. “I've got a new one.” I say completely out of context, I think Cedric gets it though. He nods for me to continue. “What is your greatest fear?”

Cedric sighs. “You sure you want to know this one?” He asks avoiding my eyes.

“If you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to.” I say resting my hand on his.

“It's just...” Cedric pauses. “...To be able to tell you why it is, I have to tell you a few things about my best friend, he... everyone knows of course, who was around at the time anyway so...”

This has me worried, I have seen Cedric angry and happy and even sad, this is even deeper than that, the light goes from his eyes for a second as they glaze over, thinking of the past.

“My greatest fear is people I love dying.”

I admit this would be traumatic but surely people fear their own deaths the most? “Not your own death?” I voice the question.

Cedric snorts a little in amusement. “No, if I was dead I would have to deal with it would I? I would be dead, but to be left behind...” His voice trails off. “I have known Luke since practically before we were born, our mothers were friends from school and they never lost touch.” I see Cedric's eyes clouding again. “We played together as boys before coming to school then we were both put into Hufflepuff and it was the best day of my life, finally coming to Hogwarts and not being alone, to already have a life long friend to share it with, I knew it was special even at eleven.”

I bite my lip. This doesn’t sound like it's going to be a very nice story, I take Cedric's hand from the table and drape it around my own shoulders.

Cedric starts back up. “We were in second year, it was only three weeks before we would break up for summer. Luke was excited, summer meant he would be going to see his dad.”

“His Mom and Dad weren't together?” I ask curious.

I feel Cedric shake his head. “No, they split up when Luke was one, his dad was good though, always came for birthdays and Christmas and Luke always spent half the summer in Florida where his dad lived.”

“That's nice.” I say smiling, just imagining a little Luke running around Hogwart's hyper, getting ready to go visit his dad.

“They said it was the traffic lights, they were faulty which meant that when the green man came up to tell her to cross, the lights didn’t go red for the cars.” Cedric's voice has taken on this otherworldly monotone. “They say that she died instantly and there was nothing they could do.” He looks down at me, tears shining in his eyes which are rimmed with red. “I was there when they told him, Dumbledore thought it would be best if he had a friend with him when they told him.”

Cedric stops and breathes for a few moments, squeezing his eyes tightly shut as if to banish the tears.

“The sound that came out of him... it was worse than the egg... nothing should ever make that noise, it was like... like... like his soul being ripped out or something.” Cedric shakes his head. “He clung to me, shouting at Dumbledore and Sprout, accusing them of lying, swearing up a storm at them, screeching and crying and all the time he clung to me like we were in water and I was the only thing stopping him drowning.”

Cedric wipes his eyes with his free hand. “His dad arrived that very night, floo'd right into the headmasters study and swept both me and Luke up in his arms, Luke still wouldn’t let me go but I didn’t mind, I wanted to be there for him and I was crying as bad as he was, Luke's mother... she was like a second mother to me, we even used to joke, when I would go to his house I would call her mommy two, he still does to mine.”

“Luke stayed at the castle for another week, his father had to arrange everything, move back to England, sort the funeral and everything so Luke stayed at the school for a week.” Cedric stops again, taking a deep breath. “I haven't ever seen anybody who has been kissed by a dementor but I imagine it looks just like Luke looked that week. Everything about him was gone, he wouldn’t eat or talk or do anything, just sit by the fire alone or lie in bed with his curtains drawn. We were so young, we didn’t know what to do, should we leave him or force ourselves on him or what? I would just sit there, next to him by the fire, not talking or anything, just sitting with him. Later, after the summer when he was mostly back to being himself he told me it helped.” Cedric shoots me a watery smile at this. “He said it helped.”

I throw my arms around Cedric. “I am so sorry!” I say gently into his ear.

Cedric sniffs and I pull away to look at him, his eyes are less wet and his smile is back. “It's your turn now Petal.”

I smile at him. “Well I am afraid that this isn't as horrific as what happened to you, it is just a simple thing that I have been told time and time again that has stuck and I can't get rid of it.”

Cedric gestures for me to continue.

I take a breath. “I am terrified of failure.” Cedric snorts at me. “No really I am.”

“Failure of what?” Cedric asks eyebrows drawn.

“Pretty much everything but mostly of academic things, if I fail my owls Cedric they could snap my wand and banish me to the muggle world!” I admit quietly.

“They haven't done that in over two hundred years Petal, I don’t think they will bring is back now just for you.”

I narrow my eyes at his patronising tone. “I didn't say it was a rational fear.” I pause for a beat. “It isn’t just that though... I'm scared of turning into her, being as unhappy as she was, messing stuff up like she did, repeating her mistakes.”

Cedric knits his brows. “Who?”

“My mother.” I answer simply. “She got pregnant at sixteen when she was out clubbing, some one night stand she doesn’t even know the name of...” I start the rant. “Then she didn’t finish school because of me, then she was chucked out by her mother and had to live on the streets for a while before she found a hostel to go to.” I take a breath. “The only time anything went right for her was when she met my dad... well step dad I suppose, he supported her whilst she went back to school and then university and now they’re finally happy running the surgery together and I am out of the way at Hogwart's so I cant ruin any more of her life.”

Cedric holds me as I start to cry pathetically. “Has she told you this? That she thinks it's your fault?” Cedric asks gently.

I nod in his embrace not trusting myself to speak. “I just have to pass my exams so I don’t have to go back into that stupid world Cedric.” I say between sobs, after a few minutes I have regained composure and untangle myself from Cedric.

“Do you know who he was?” Cedric asks. “Your real father?”

I sigh heavily. “No... all she has ever said is that he called himself Chris, she doesn’t know what it's short for or his last name or anything, all she said was that he was tall with blondish hair and very handsome and that I have his eyes.”

“She didn’t mention anything about a wand or where he took her?” Cedric asks.

I shake my head. “I asked her everything I could think of to try and figure out if he was a wizard or not, she says she doesn’t know, she was very very drunk and can't remember everything.”
- 13
- 14
- 15
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Lioness And The Badgers