"Meems?" Cedric yelled slamming the doors open wide. They made a bang as they made contact with the walls.

"Mr. Diggory, really!" Madame Pomfrey yelled recognizing the voice right away.

"Oh sorry Madame." Cedric said sheepishly.

Madame Pomfrey sighed. "She's in the restroom right now putting on the cream to rid of some of the residue."

"Wait so she's okay?" Cedric asked finally calming down.

"Of course she's fine you bloody idiot!" Ian yelled before bending over and taking deep breaths. He had literally run after Cedric all the way from the Hufflepuff dorm.

"Wait then what happened?" Cedric asked.

"Well Ms. Granger's here, why don't you ask her?" She said shaking her head at the two boys before going idly back to what she had been doing before the boys had barged in.

Cedric whipped around. "Mimi?"

"Cedric, Ian, what are you two doing here?"

Before either could answer Cedric pulled her into a hug. Hermione flung her arms around a bit trying not to let her pus filled hands touch him at all. She ended up falling backwards and caused Cedric to fall on top of her.

Ian meanwhile watched the whole thing and couldn't help but burst into laughter when the two flailed before falling down.

Hermione opened her eyes to see herself staring straight into Cedric's grey orbs.

"Hi." Cedric said putting his elbows on both sides of her.

"Cedric..." Hermione said sounding as if she was struggling.

"Yes?" He said making himself comfortable.

"You're heavy."

"Oh." Cedric said then scrambled to get off her. In his haste he fell back on top of her.

"Umph." Hermione groaned.

"Really, Mr. Diggory! No PDA in the infirmary!" Madame Pomfrey said shocked as she saw two of her students on the floor, on each other. She ushered the student beside her into a bed and closed the curtain.

Ian's stomach was starting to hurt from laughing so much. Both Cedric and Hermione glared at him. Cedric had finally gotten up and gave Hermione a hand. Temporarily forgetting that her hands had been hexed, she grabbed it.

"Oh that's nasty." Ian said as he looked the disgusting pus that was now all over Cedric's hands.

"Well you imagine having both your whole hands filled with it." Hermione scowled at him.

"But that's still nasty." Ian said. "But it'll make a good story to tell. Pretty darn hilarious actually."

"You are not telling anyone." Hermione said as she pointed the sink to Cedric.

"And how are you going to stop me?" Ian joked.

"Easy." Hermione said as she started to advance toward him both her hands out in front of her reaching out.

Ian's eyes widened. He started to back it. "Oh Mimi you wouldn't." He said unsure.

"You want to bet?"

"Uh." Ian said unsure. Then he began to run with Hermione at his heels.

They ran around the Infirmary for five minutes before Cedric came back in.

Ian hid behind Cedric as soon as he saw him.

"What the? Ian what are you doing?"

"Hiding, you think she's sees me?"

"And you call me the idiot."

Hermione was laughing as she stopped in front of the two.

"Thanks guys, I really needed that." Hermione said referring to how they made her laugh and happy.

Both boys looked at each other confused.

Hermione just rolled her eyes. "Okay, one of you has to help me bandage my hands since Madame Pomfrey is busy with someone."

"Not me." Ian said raising both his hands.

The three of them parted ways with much reluctance on Cedric's part. He didn't want to leave his Mimi but was dragged away by Ian so that they wouldn't miss any more classes.

___

Hermione was frustrated as hell. She could do practically nothing with her bandaged hand. Holding a quill was difficult enough and trying to write legibly was near impossible. Her mood seemed to sour the more she saw the stupid Slytherlins, especially Parkinson. She would laugh like a crow every time she saw Hermione. The rest would just snicker.

That evening Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table that evening struggling to even use her utensils. She felt almost like crying. Finally she just gave up as she vowed revenge on Rita Skeeter.

The two boys groaned and she couldn't help but roll her eyes at them. They never seemed to ever want to do anything to fix problems.

"Wait Mione where are you going?" Ron asked when Hermione stood up.

"To the Hufflepuff table." She said simply.

"But-"

"You two aren't listening to me anyway." Hermione snapped.

Both Harry and Ron blushed.

"Hey Brice, do you know where Cedric and Ian are?" Hermione asked as she sat beside her fellow fourth year, Ernie.

"Hey Mione, I haven't seen or heard from them at all today." Brice said unsure, almost like as if he was asking a question.

Hermione raised a brow.

"I don't know." He said rather unconvincingly as he wouldn't look at her and started to play with his food.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Brice, I'm not in a very good mood toady. So I'm going to count to ten and you better tell me where they are or better yet what they did."

Brice didn't know what to say. He looked everywhere but her.

"One, two, three."

"They got detention for hexing a Slytherin!" He exclaimed then cringed.

Hermione didn't know what to say. "Where are they?"

"Potion's, Snape's class." Brice squeaked.

Hermione left without a look back.

"Brice!" Wendy cried. "She wasn't supposed to find out!" She said whacking him on the head.

"Well none of you were offering to help."

"Cedric will be so mad when he finds out you told her." Ernie said shaking his head at him.

___

Hermione ran to the Potion's class. She slammed open the doors. "Cedric Diggory, I can't believe you hexed someone, you better have a darn good reason."

"Oh hell." Cedric whispered as he dropped his cloth.

Ian grimaced knowing that Hermione would be really mad. "Good luck mate." Ian whispered before trying to get up and getting out of the way of the line of fire.

"Oh no you don't Ian, you're not an innocent here either."

"What exactly did you two do?" Hermione asked as she stood right in front of them.

Cedric and Ian looked at each other then back to Hermione. Both feigned innocent expressions as they looked at her.

"Don't give me those looks, now tell me what you two did."

Hermione sighed. "Oh fine. I'm going to the library. Come see me when the two of you are done."'

Cedric and Ian waited for her to leave. Once the doors closed both gave a sigh of relief.

"That was close."

"Tell me about it, I thought she was going to yell at me."

"You, she's going to be yelling at me the moment we're alone." Cedric shuddered.

"Yes, but we all know you love it."

"I do not."

"Sure." Ian said unconvinced.

Cedric threw the towel at Ian's face.

___

The rest of the week went by without any troubles. Slytherins avoided making fun of Hermione, afraid that they would be hexed by Cedric and his friends. Hermione continued to get threatening letters but she was getting better. Her hands were no longer pus filled.

The end of the week though brought the looming third task back into everyone's minds. Before anyone knew it, it was the night before the third task. Both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff houses were silent that evening. It seemed neither knew what to say or do. The silence was broken however when Hermione Granger came running in. Her caramel curls were bushier than ever, making her look almost like a mad scientist.

"Cedric, I need to borrow you. Sorry guys." Hermione said apologizing to his friends before grabbing him and walking fast before anyone else was able to react.

"I have something I have to tell you." Hermione said real loud. It was almost like as if she was announcing it.

"Meems, I think the whole hall heard you."

"I know that's the point." Hermione whispered as she kept peering around her.

Teachers and students alike stared at the couple unsure of what to make out of it.

Hermione led them both all the way to the lake where Hermione showed him a jar. The jar had a large piece of lettuce and sticks and something sweet.

"Okay, you've got me utterly confused Mimi."

"Kiss me." Hermione demanded.

Cedric blinked as his jaw opened in shock.

"Please."

This time he didn't resist. Just as he leaned in she whispered softly on his lips. "Keep your eyes open. If you see a fly or bug freeze it." Then she proceeded to kiss him.

Cedric closed his eyes on instinct but immediately opened hem. As soon as he did, he saw a bug buzzing near them. He reluctantly stopped their kiss. "Immobulus." He said.

"You did it Cedric!" Hermione cried happily as she got the jar and put the immobilized beetle into the jar. "I've got you now Skeeter. Knew you couldn't resist eavesdropping on me and Cedric." She said as she lightly tapped the jar. The beetle soon went crazy and began to buzz around wildly.

Cedric was just confused until Hermione turned around and gave her briefest explanation yet.

"Cedric, meet Skeeter's illegal animangus form."

Hermione was humming as she skipped to the Gryffindor section. Meanwhile Cedric was still in shock.

"Um, Cedric, I'm going to put her away in the girls's..."

"Oh, of course, I'll wait here."

"Hopefully this teaches you not to spy on people." Hermione said as she placed the jar into Crooshank's cage and put a double covering over it. "I'll free you as soon as the Triwizard tournament is over. You're lucky it ends tomorrow." Hermione scowled then she placed a silence charm on the cage so that Skeeter wouldn't hear any gossip from her roommates.

Cedric leaned against a column as he waited for Hermione to come out. He was avoiding the portrait as much as he could. He shuddered as he remembered the last encounter with it.

A couple of the Grffyindors stared at him as they walked past. He just waved. One of the girls giggled as she waved back.

"He's so hot." He heard the girl whisper.

Cedric shook his head. He was so used to hearing comments like that they no longer affected him like they used to.

"Hey, sorry about that." Hermione said as she approached him. He smiled as he stood up.

"Let's take a walk." Cedric said giving her his hand.

She took it and the two just began to wonder.

"So, the third task is tomorrow." Hermione said looking up at him.

"Yeah." Cedric said somewhat quietly.

"I'm scared for both of you Cedric, you and Harry."

"It's okay Meems." Cedric said pulling her in front of him and wrapping his arms around her waist. He kissed the top of her head.

"Ced, we're in the middle of a corridor."

"I don't care."

Hermione sighed. "I know you don't but-"

"Spend the night with me Mimi."

"I'm sorry what?"

"Spend the night with me, please."

"But... okay." Hermione said.