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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
- 7
- 8
- 9
The day is unseasonably warm for late October, I find myself once again reading Austin, if this is because of my obsession with the books or the one I have recently been harbouring for Cedric I don’t know.

Down by the lake it is quiet, only a few students mill about around me and the giant squid is being strangely docile with Durmstrang’s ship occupying its habitat. Harry and Ron declined to join me outside in favour of Wizard Chess, which for some reason I have never gotten along with, I know the rules but don’t seem to get any pleasure out of playing… first year might have had something to do with that.

‘Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them.’

I close the book with a gentle sigh and a smile before rooting in the bag by me feet to retrieve my Transfiguration textbook. Why do I find this so hard? Why can I not get the stupid pincushion to turn into a bloody hedgehog? I scowl down at the offending pincushion, which has half fallen, out my bag.

“That’s one hell of a death stare you have there Granger.”

Turning I see Cedric striding up to me, when he reaches me he sits, none too gently on the grass beside me. “Hello stranger.” I say before I can stop myself, oh god why did I say that?

“Sorry about that, it’s just been real hectic you know?” Before I can say if I do or not he carries on. “If I’m not in lessons I’m being cornered in the Sett and if it isn’t that it’s that bloody Skeeter woman from the profit hounding me.”

Smiling I tell him it’s okay. “How are you coping?” I ask knowing how hard and stressful it has been for Viktor.

Cedric makes a so-so gesture. “I’m between emotional breakdowns right now.” I snort. “No, seriously. Sometimes I’m scared out of my wits, then I get a bit confident because the cup chose me and it’s supposed to know what it is doing which means it thinks I can handle it, then I worry about my school work which I am just not putting enough into because I’m worrying about the tournament and I kinda miss our secret agent act we had going in the library.”

Inside my heart goes into overdrive beating at a hundred thousand miles an hour, he missed me? He liked the time we spent together? Outside I try to be cool and just smile at him… I am not sure if I pull it off or not. “Me too.” I admit quietly.

“Okay so, I was thinking of killing two birds with one stone if you are up for it?” He asks raising his eyebrows at me, it seems like a challenge.

“Well from what you said I assume I am one of these poor little birds who is about to get stoned, what is the other?” I ask mirroring his own eyebrow raise.

Cedric smirks at me. “Helping me prepare for the tournament of course.” The pause that follows only lasts a beat before he continues almost incoherently due to the speed of his speech and the fact he doesn’t take a breath. “If you still want to, I mean if you don’t want to just say, I wont mind, I mean I would love you to, but you don’t have to.”

“Yes, I would love to, if you still want?” I ask.

Cedric’s answer is a grin before he jumps to his feet. “No time like the present Granger, Flitwick found an old classroom he said I can use any time for practice.” I ram my book back in my rucksack before taking Cedric’s outstretched hand, he pulls me up with surprising force so I almost bounce back down again. Once I am standing he reaches over and snatches my bag from the floor. “Merlin’s pants! What the hell do you have in here?”

I look sheepish. “Books…” All I get for my comment is a roll of the eyes and a gesture to say lets get going.

Cedric leads the way through the castle and down into the dungeons, not towards Snape’s classroom but towards where I think the kitchens are from Fred and George’s descriptions. “Here.” Cedric says holding a door open for me.

We are in a large classroom, probably about the size of the potions classroom but not tiered like a theatre. The room is flat but still round with desks and chairs piled up around the edges of the room save for two which are placed a few yards apart in the centre, Cedric places my bag on one of them before walking to the other to use as a chair.

Walking to my bag I sit on the table opposite Cedric. “Did they mention anything about the first task to you, something to give us a clue?” I ask, Viktor said they hadn’t but he may have wanted to keep it from me, everything about this whole tournament is secretive.

“Just that it requires bravery, quick thinking and the only thing we can take with us is our wand.” This was what Viktor had said. Cedric looks down at his hands. “Someone let something slip though, I wasn’t meant to hear but I kinda did.”

I raise my eyebrows. “You know what it is?”

“Dragons.” Cedric answers with a grimace. “I don’t know what we are meant to be doing with them but I heard Hagrid talking to Charlie Weasley by his hut…”

I make a face to indicate I have been stupid. “Of course!” I sigh. “Charlie said he would be seeing us at school and that he couldn’t say anything further, it makes perfect sense!”

“Some of the teachers have given me a little advice, just that I should concentrate on what I am best at.” He explains. “I assume they know what the task is and might be trying to give me a hint on what I should do but I’m not sure.”

“Even if they don’t know what they say makes sense, you can’t learn loads of new things just in case, where would you start? Without knowing anything about the task at hand how can you be sure you are learning what is important?” I reply

Cedric jumps up from the table. “That’s what I thought but if they do know then my best subjects aren’t going to do anything against a dragon.”

I bite my lip. “No magic does much to a dragon.” I agree. “What are your best subjects?”

Cedric paces a little, back and forth in front of his table, running his right hand through his already messy hair. “Charms and Transfiguration.”

Standing I also start to pace. “You will have your wand, you can’t really injure or do anything to the dragon because its skin is so thick, you could go for the eyes which is their weakest point…” I say thinking aloud. “…But from the ground you might not be able to get the angle, and you will need to stay out of sight as much as possible or it will turn you into charcoal…”

Cedric picks up the train of thought and continues where I left off. “Exactly, so I need to stay out of sight, I can disillusion myself but they wont fool it for long, their sense of smell is too good, it will find me quickly…”

I turn abruptly and grin at Cedric. “Distractions.” Is the only answer I give to his questioning look.

“Animal transfiguration?” I don’t think he is asking me the question but himself. “It might work, distract it long enough to do whatever the hell it is I am meant to do.”

I nod vigorously. “As many as you can as fast as you can, there has to be something in there with you otherwise the dragon would just be able to get at you straight away and since they are trying to make it safer and no one would be able to survive a full blown attack there must be stuff you can hide behind.” I conclude.

Cedric perches on the edge of his table grinning. “See, this is why I asked you to help, you are bloody brilliant!”

I smile back at him whilst trying to think of a plan. “I don’t know how much help I will be, I’m not doing too well with animal transfiguration, my bloody hedgehog has half quills, half pins, but I can cheer you on.” I say hoping he will let me stay even though I am of no use.

Cedric frowns at my self put-down. “Why don’t I show you? Whenever I have helped people in the past with stuff it gives me a better understanding too.”

I look up from my hands and offer him a smile. “If you think it would help.” I say.

Cedric obviously decides it will so strides over to where I sit. “Right then, get out the pincushion show me where you are at and then I can see what’s off.”

I hand the pincushion over smiling to myself, not once did Cedric indicate I was doing it wrong, just that it wasn’t perfect. Cedric places the object onto the table he had previously occupied then takes a step to the side to watch me perform the spell.

Taking a deep breath I say the incantation and do the wand movement described in all the books I have been pouring over, the result as every other time I have performed this spell is that the cushion turns mostly into a hedgehog, a portion of its quills on the right hand side are silver and thin.

I turn to Cedric with a questioning look, he seems deep in thought. “I know what it is.” He simply states before reversing the spell so the cushion is just a cushion once again. “How did you get on with the other spells so far?”

I shrug my shoulders. “Fine, up until now I was able to do them all perfectly after a couple of tries but this one for some reason I can’t.”

Cedric offers me a half smile. “This is the one that ups the game, it is bigger and more complicated and looks less like the animal you are trying to make it, I think that’s what is messing you up.”

“Okay” I say nodding, I feel better now, I don’t think Cedric would lie about this and I think he is right about the difficulty, no one else is even getting close to where I am yet.

“Right, I need you to follow my every instruction and trust me, okay?” Cedric asks gently.

I bite my lip but nod at him.

Cedric roots around in his pocket before placing a length of string on the table next to the cushion. “I am going to tell you something about transfiguration that isn’t in the books but it’s really important if you want to be good at it.”

I furrow my brow. “Why would they leave it out?” I ask.

Cedric shrugs at me. “Maybe because it’s a bit new age.” My confusion deepens. “Transfiguration isn’t all about the wand movement and the incantation, it’s a feeling.” Cedric is pacing again. “It takes a good imagination and the ability to really know what you want and to almost will that image into existence.”

I smirk.

“As you know from your lessons the easiest transfigurations are ones that make something that looks like the original object, so I want you to look at this sting.” He says pointing. “Just go with me on this…” I turn to nod at him before staring at the string. “…now close your eyes.” I turn to him again with my eyebrows raised. “…Just do it Granger…” I do. “…I want you to imagine a quill, the length of that string. And I don’t want you to just imagine it, I want you to memorise every detail of it… what it looks like, how it feels in your hand, how soft is it? how it writes…” Cedric pauses for a few seconds before continuing. “Have you got it fixed in your head.

“Yes.” I say really thinking about it.

“I want you now to open your eyes, look at that string and replace the string in your head with the quill, I need you to really see it in front of you before you do anything so take all the time you want, then when you feel ready, when you feel the magic building in the base of your belly I want you to cast the spell.”

As I open my eyes they fix on the string, I do as Cedric says, really trying to see the quill and not the string. After about thirty seconds I can feel it, just like Cedric said, an almost fizzy sensation in the pit of my stomach, I raise my wand. “Scribblifors.”

Before my eyes the string stiffens then swells, the barbs sprouting out of the string, pure white. I gasp at the perfection of it before picking it up. “And you thought I was talking bull.” Cedric comments nudging me with his elbow, I carry on studying the quill for another minute before Cedric speaks again. “How about that hedgehog?”

I place the quill down and take a step back form the desk, this time Cedric says nothing, and he just waits for me to be ready. I fix my mind on what I want, see it inside before opening my eyes, this time I only need a couple of seconds before I cast the spell.

The small creature on the desk in front of me is a hedgehog, an honest to god proper hedgehog with proper quills and it even curls up when I go to touch it, after a moment of awe, which I must say couldn’t have been very attractive as I had my mouth open, I let out a sound I have only heard other girls make.

I squeal, high-pitched, complete with jumping up and down. As I jump I turn and see Cedric grinning at me. “Told you, you could do it.” He says. I leap into his arms; he catches me, his hands around my back as I thank him a thousand and one times.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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The Lioness And The Badgers