CEDRIC:

"When's your meeting, Ced?" Henry asked as he dramatically draped himself across the foot of my bed after a particularly challenging Quidditch practice. I followed suit and laid on my back next to him, running my fingers through my sweaty hair.

"Tomorrow morning, fairly early. I'm guessing you'll be right after me, with the last name Furls."

"Yeah, should be." He sighed heavily.

I waited a minute for him to explain the sigh, but I reckoned I knew well enough why he was upset. "Any idea what you'll say, or are you still planning to wing it?"

"Well, I reckon Professor Sprout would be happy to hear that I want to intern at the Ministry of Magic after I graduate. Nowhere near as impressive as your internship at St. Mungo's this summer, of course, but at least it's something."

"Hey, no need to compare yourself to me. It's not your fault I've wanted to be a healer since-"

"Since the second you knew what it was," Henry finished for me, laughing. "Don't worry, I know better than to compare myself to you at this point. I'm still allowed to think it's bloody awesome that my best friend landed an internship even before he's taken a single O.W.L."

"You know it was my dad's idea." I lowered my voice to impersonate my dad as best as possible. "'Think of me and your mother. You want to make us proud, do you not? Bring a new level of prestige to the Diggory name? Think of your sister! Don't you want to set a good example for her to try to follow? Yes, yes, I know, you tell me she's done quite well for herself, but son, think of all there's still left for you to accomplish!'"

"You know your sister thinks the world of you no matter what, right?"

I sighed. "I know. Honestly, sometimes I worry I've set too good of an example. Not that I don't think she's capable," I amended quickly, "I do, 100%. I just... I don't want her ever feeling like she has to do exactly what I do, if that makes sense?"

"It makes perfect sense, mate. I have a sister, too, even if she is a lot younger than me."

I sighed and sat up. "Speaking of my dad and my sister and my intership, I guess I should go study."

"Oh no you don't," Henry said, grabbing my arm and pulling me back down next to him.

I tried to squirm free, but Henry had always been stronger than me. Keepers needed to be bigger than Seekers. He wrapped his arms around my chest and held me in place.

"Henry, let me go!" I grunted, wriggling uselessly.

"No."

"No?"

"You studied every waking hour of this entire Easter holiday. I was surprised you even scheduled a practice for today, the way you've been revising. You're working too hard."

"Hufflepuffs are unafraid of toil," I argued in a monotone voice, quoting the Sorting Hat.

"Well, maybe we should be afraid of toiling too much. I'm not letting you go until you promise to take the rest of today off."

"But-"

He tightened his arms around me and laughed. "Alright, guess we're staying just like this, all day long."

"Alright, alright, I won't study today," I relented. He released me, and I rolled off him back onto my bed. "I'll go find Cho. After a shower, of course."

"I don't know, mate, maybe she wouldn't mind your natural-"

I stripped off my outermost layer of robes and tossed it onto his face in one fluid motion.

He coughed and threw it right back at me. "Never mind! Go shower, you smell like a badger that just rolled in dragon dung."

"Oh, come on, I don't smell that awful," I protested, grinning nonetheless. I grabbed my newest and cleanest set of robes out from my trunk and showered quickly. I stopped in front of the mirror, combing my wet hair more carefully than usual and triple-checking to make sure I smelled like a pine tree rather than a dirty badger. Once I was satisfied, both with my appearance and my scent, I set out in search of Cho.

I didn't have to look for long. She was walking --- alone, oddly enough, and heavily laden with books --- in the opposite direction of the library, and the second her eyes met mine, my heart fluttered, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I was wondering if you'd emerge from your Hufflepuff hole before the end of holiday," she teased.

"Henry told me I wasn't allowed to study for the rest of the day. Something about working too hard."

"Henry's right. It's nice to see your whole face again, instead of just your forehead over the top of a book."

"It's nice to see your whole face again, too," I replied. "Where are you headed?"

"Wherever you're going," she said with a smile that made me weak in the knees. She was beautiful, no doubt about it.

I swiftly recovered from my swoon and held my arms out. "If you let me carry your books, I'll go anywhere you want to go."

"Or," she said, giving me a couple of the books off the top of her pile, "you carry half, I carry half, we drop these off in my dormitory, and we find a quiet place where we can sit and have a real conversation, just the two of us, without books or anything else that might tempt you to study."

I grinned. "I like the way you think."

She disappeared into her common room and emerged a couple minutes later with something that looked suspiciously like a Golden Snitch clenched tightly in her fist. She smiled again, and I smiled back, and we made our way outside, settling under a tree wide enough around to hide us from view of the castle.

"I figured this could keep us both amply occupied," she said, releasing the Snitch from her grip and letting it zip around our heads.

I lunged forward and snapped it up. "A little extra practice never hurt a Seeker."

"Stupid Harry Potter and his Firebolt," she muttered, shaking her head. "I was so excited to finally play again, after Bole gave me a bloody concussion in the last match, then all of a sudden, Harry Potter has the best broom ever made!"

I laughed. "I'm glad he finally had something good happen to him this year, but it's rather unfortunate for you that it happened two days before you had to play him."

She joined in on the laughter. "Exactly. I promise I'm not a sore loser, but..."

"Don't worry, I know," I said, letting the Snitch loose again. She shot forward and snatched it with lightning-fast reflexes. "You're not a loser, sore or otherwise."

"Why, Cedric, I'm flattered. I don't think you're a loser either."

"That's a relief. I was beginning to worry."

Cho laughed again, shaking her head. "Why are we this way?"

"What way?"

She let the Snitch go and leaned her back against the tree. "Practically dating in every way except officially? Flirting and teasing and sitting under trees just the two of us but still not dating?"

"You know how badly I want to, darling," I said, leaning up against the tree as well. "But I don't want to call you my girlfriend until I'm able to give you all the love and time and attention you deserve, and until O.W.L.s and my intership are over, I just can't, as much as I wish I could."

"I know," she said softly. "And I appreciate the thought, really I do, I just..."

"I know," I echoed. "Trust me, as soon as my internship is over, I'm all yours. No more studying and preparation every hour of the day, just you and me. I promise."

"And my O.W.L.s," Cho pointed out.

I grinned. "I'm sure you wouldn't mind a certain O.W.L. veteran helping you study?"

"Only if you kiss me every time I get a question right," she said, resting her head against my shoulder. "I hope you realize how difficult it is to try to revise with you around. Maybe it's a good thing you hide in your dormitory to study --- nobody in the library would get anything done otherwise."

My face grew hot, and I didn't know how to respond for a bit. You'd think after so many years of so much attention for no real reason, I'd be used to it, but I wasn't. I doubted I ever would be. I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Well, for what it's worth, I wouldn't get anything done with a bunch of people staring. I'm no good at blocking everything out, as much as I wish I was."

"You don't have to change, Ced. You're perfect just the way you are."

"So are you," I murmured, resting my hand against her knee. I took a deep breath of the March air and released it in a sigh. "You make me feel so human. So normal. It's like... it's like you see me for who I am and not just who you think I should be. And you love me and want me anyway. No other girl makes me feel like that. They all just want... the 'Golden Boy.'"

Cho reached forward to interlock her fingers with mine. "Well, for what it's worth, you make me feel more than human. All of my worries go away with you around, like you're lifting me away from them."

"Sounds like we make quite the team."

"We could, if you'd just date me already."

I squeezed her hand gently. "Soon. I promise. Soon." I released her fingers and lunged forward to catch the Snitch. "In the meantime, I still like the Seeker rivalry we've got going. Should make our next match interesting."

"You're immune to my natural feminine charm," she complained with an adorable pout. "Harry didn't know what hit him. I think your sister figured out that I was trying to make him flustered and tried to distract him from me, but as soon as the match started and she was busy, it was so easy to hold his focus."

"Cho," I said, bringing her hand to my lips with my free hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles, "I don't think I'll ever be immune to your charm."

She blushed then, smiling ever so slightly.

I chuckled. "Especially if you blush every time I compliment you like that."

"I'll never be immune to your charm either, I suppose," she said, adjusting her head on my shoulder so the top of her head, warm from the sun shining on her black hair, rested against my neck.

I released the Snitch with a smile, and we watched as it soared off into the sky.

Professor Sprout was beyond excited when I walked in for my appointment. The St. Mungo's internship was no secret by any means (though how so many people knew was baffling to me --- I had only told Henry, Cho, and Lucy... I guess they did all of the bragging for me), so she was only too eager to hand me a list of N.E.W.T. classes I would need and send me off with a smile. But there was one more person I needed to talk to about my future, one more person central to the plan.

Unfortunately, when I got to the Great Hall, Lucy was nowhere to be seen.

I made my way over to the table and flagged Harry down.

"Have you seen Lucy by any chance?" I asked. "I wanted to talk to her."

He glanced quickly at the twins before looking back at me. "She took off in the direction of the Black Lake after Charms. It looked like she wanted to be alone, though, so I didn't follow her."

"Okay, thanks, Harry! It's somewhat important, so I'll take my chances."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, and I left in the direction of the Black Lake. Surely enough, Lucy was standing on the shore, squinting at the horizon and arms wrapped around her middle. I positioned myself next to her and shoved my hands in my pockets.

"Hey."

She didn't look at me, but she didn't need to. I could hear the tears in her voice. "Hey."

"What's wrong, Lu?"

"Existential dread." She sniffled. "Nothing new."

"I take it you heard about the career advice meetings today?"

"Yeah. Herbology was canceled since Hufflepuffs were having their meetings today and Professor Sprout thought we were far enough along in the cirriculum to take a day off. I managed to get through Charms without giving in to said existential dread but..." She sniffled again. "Now everyone in my house is buzzing about what they want to do when they graduate, and..." She sniffled a third time and wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of her robe. "And I just have to sit there and listen to it all, knowing I'm very much hopeless."

"Well, that's why I wanted to talk to you," I said. "Because I don't think you are."

"You want to be a healer. You have an internship at St. Mungo's this summer. You have an incredible future ahead of you, Ced, and I don't-"

"I have to stop you right there, Lu," I interrupted gently. Her voice was shaking violently --- I only had a couple of seconds before she dissolved into an anxious breakdown. "You're right, I want to be a healer and I have the internship. But I don't want an 'incredible future' unless I know you'll be able to share it with me."

"What do you mean?"

"There's more to the plan than just becoming a healer," I explained. "Lucy, I would never leave you to navigate your future all by yourself. I was hoping you'd want to live with me, at the very least until you find a job that you adore that would help you support yourself."

"But Ced, I don't want to hurt you or your reputation," she said in a fragile voice. "Can you imagine what people would say if they found out you were being held back by trying to take care of your pathetic werewolf little sister?"

"Let them say it," I replied with a dismissive shrug. "You never hold me back. Taking care of you is the least I can do, until I find a more permanent solution to lycanthropy."

"You... you want to do that?"

"Of course I do. Lucy, if I become a healer, I'll have all of the resources to try to cure lycanthropy within arm's reach. Why wouldn't I want to take away the one thing that's caused you more pain than anything else in the world?"

Lucy sniffled and inched closer to me. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she turned to sob into my robes. I let her cry for a couple minutes before speaking again.

"What do you say, Lu? Sound like a plan? We live together, until I find a cure, or you find a path that welcomes you exactly as you are, or both. Do you think you can do that? For me?"

She managed a nod, swiping at her eyes. "I can do that."

She pulled away slightly, so I dropped my arm. "Do you want to head back to the Great Hall?"

Lucy shook her head. "I was going to head down to Hagrid's as soon as I finished crying. I should go now, really, I still have so much work to do-"

"What do you mean, Lu?"

"I'll explain while we walk, if you want," she said, briskly walking in the direction of Hagrid's hut. I followed, and she began to talk. "Well, Buckbeak the hippogriff was provoked by Draco Malfoy in our very first Care of Magical Creatures lesson, and since his dad is one of the school governors, Buckbeak has a trial coming up to decide if he's sentenced to death or not. I've been researching cases since before Christmas trying to find arguments we could use to ensure Buckbeak lives."

"All by yourself?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, everyone else is too busy."

"I can help, Lu-"

"No! Ced, you have O.W.L.s! I can handle it, I promise, you don't have to help. Buckbeak is one of my favorite hippogriffs of the dozen Hagrid has, anyway, he's really quite sweet once you get to know him."

"Alright," I said reluctantly. "Well, if you do need help, just ask, okay?"

"I can handle it, honestly, it's alright," she replied, but the anxious modulation of her voice told me she was far more stressed than she was willing to admit. I knew how she was with creatures; I knew she would fight for Buckbeak with everything she had.

I reached over and squeezed her shoulder. "Just promise me you're taking care of yourself, okay?"

"I'm doing my best," she muttered. "It's Harry I'm worried-"

She screeched to a sudden halt.

"What is it, Lu?" I asked, following her gaze. She was staring at the Forbidden Forest, but I couldn't see any disturbances among the trees. "Do you see something I can't?"

"No. But I know what I could do to protect Harry." She turned to face me, her eyes flashing with determination. "I need to talk to Professor Dumbledore. Right now, if possible. Will you come with me?"

I nodded without second thought. "Of course. Let's go."

A/N: Hey everyone! I really hope you liked this chapter. As a hopeless romantic, it's been SO HARD not having any romance in this story yet, so when I had the chance to write about Cho and Cedric, I was thrilled! I haven't written romance in several months, so I hope you all liked the little bit of fluff I included.

I also hope you liked the glimpse into Cedric's future plans! I love this boy so much. Like seriously, so much. I wish I had an older brother like Cedric. (Quite honestly, my younger brother is more like Hermione than anything, so it's really easy writing Lucy and Hermione's relationship a lot of the time. 😂)

Thank you all for reading!