⋅︓︒︑∘∗✧∘︑︒⚬∙︓⋅⠄✯∘⠄✧⠄

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙭
𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦?

  ⋅︓︒︑∘∗✧∘︑︒⚬∙︓⋅⠄✯∘⠄✧⠄

It hadn't been ten minutes when I entered the Common Room, and professor Sprout ran into the Common Room and ordered the Perfects to lead the Puffs to the Great Hall. All she told us was that the Fat Lady who guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room had escaped from her painting and was destroyed. Apparently Sirius Black wanted to break into the Gryffindor room.

When we entered the Great Hall, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were already there, Slytherin came moments after us. Each house lined up next to their tables and we waited for professor Dumbledore to tell us what to do. As soon as he told us that we had to spend the night in the Great Hall, I could see by the looks on the students' faces that they weren't too happy. Including me. Whatever, but a bed is more comfortable than sleeping bags on a cold and hard floor.

When everyone took their sleeping bags and chose their sleeping places, I sighed loudly and looked around the room.

"Quite a crib, eh?" I heard behind me and turned abruptly to meet Cedric.

"A bit," I laughed. "Do you happen to know if Percy has announced the changes yet?"

"Just now, we're supposed to turn up at three in the morning," he said, and I tilted my head and growled. Cedric laughed. "I agree. I would prefer now or in the morning."

"Of course, we got the worst time," I muttered, closing my eyes and running my hand over my face. "After all, it's not like I'm already tired of studying for OWLs, let's give me the three o'clock shift for good humour."

I rolled my eyes and started walking towards where I spotted my and Cedric's friends.

"Nicolas Newt Scamander, you either get up from that seat or I'm going to bake cakes out of your body!" shouted Amy, and Cedric and I laughed when we finally joined them.

"Do they always do that?" Asked Thomas, standing next to me.

"Mhm, day in day out without break," I smiled, watching my friends beat each other with pillows.

"Honestly, how do you put up with them?" Eve interjected, laying down on her stomach in her sleeping bag.

"In five years I've managed to get used to it," I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed my sleeping bag, which was waiting for me next to Amy and Nicolas who were still fighting.

With the help of magic, I changed into more comfortable clothes than my school robes and climbed into the sleeping bag, where I began wriggling to find a comfortable sleeping position. When, after about five minutes of growling and rolling from side to side, I found myself in a comfortable position. I was facing Cedric, who was lying next to me. We looked at each other blankly for a moment when I finally smiled slightly and yawned immediately afterward.

"Good luck waking me up at three," I smirked, closing my eyes.

And I was right in wishing him good luck.

"Joslyn. Joslyn. Joslyn!" I heard Cedric's voice.

"Five more minutes, Mum," I said with a groan and covered myself with the sleeping bag, even more, turning my back to the boy.

I heard a quiet sigh and the sound of standing up, and footsteps. I smiled to myself and hugged my pillow tighter, ready to continue sleeping, when suddenly something ripped the sleeping bag off me and picked me up, throwing it over its shoulder. I let out a loud gasp. I lifted my head slightly and was met with a yellow t-shirt with black badgers on it from the Hufflepuff emblem.

"Cedric!" I hissed quietly as he continued to carry me. "Cedric, you better put me down. Cedric!" I yelped. "This is not funny!"

When I heard him giggle, which pissed me even more, I slapped him on the back, but it did nothing to help. As we left the Great Hall, I heard more giggles.

"You can go now," Although I couldn't see his face, I knew he was smirking stupidly.

"I'll wash that smirk off your face in a moment," I growled as the two older Hufflepuffs entered the Great Hall.

"I've heard that a few times before," Cedric put me down on the ground and immediately earned a punch on a shoulder. "Ouch! Not so hard!" He pretended that the place where I hit him hurt him.

I couldn't hide the smile that was on my face any longer.

"I swear on Merlin, Cedric," I said and rolled my eyes with a smile, sliding on the floor next to the wall, Cedric right after me.

"Oh, don't be angry," he stabbed me in the side with his elbow, and I returned it.

We sat in silence for a while, staring into the quiet and peaceful darkness of the corridor, every now and then hearing the soft snoring of some paintings. It had been a long time since Hogwarts had been this quiet, even though somewhere in its lands Sirius Black was prowling, having just escaped from Azkaban. Nothing looked threatening or magical. Everything looked asleep.

I heard quiet humming beside me and turned my head towards Cedric, who was sitting with his head leaning against the wall and his eyes closed, humming some kind of tune. In the soft moonlight that fell on his face, Cedric looked even more gorgeous. I looked at his perfectly straight nose, his slightly pinked cheeks, and his lips, which were also gently puffed out. His already prominent jaw showed even more as he clenched his teeth slightly and his thick eyebrows crinkled every so often.

"We like what we see?" He asked suddenly, opening his eyes and looking at me, and I quickly looked away abashed.

"You wish," I blushed and I hoped that thanks to the darkness it could not be seen.

"Maybe," he said and I turned abruptly towards him, surprised by what he said.

After a moment of silence, I decided to speak up.

"Come on, I'll show you something," I got up from the floor and brushed off the invisible dust, walking towards the Hogwarts exit.

"Joslyn, where are you going? We're supposed to guard the entrance," Cedric said, also getting up from the floor.

"They'll manage for a while without us, now come on and don't make me ask, you'll like it, I promise!" I shouted and walked ahead, not looking to see if Cedric was following me.

In a moment, I heard the sound of running and felt Cedric catch up with me.

"I swear, if we get in trouble because of you, I won't give you a break for the rest of your life," He muttered.

"Then I hope we don't because I don't want to have you on my head for the rest of my life," I smiled and winked at him, to which he smiled back.

Are we flirting? No, no, we're just teasing each other, right? Right?

When we finally reached the place I was leading us to, I smiled widely and pulled out my wand. I illuminated the boundary between the meadow and the Forbidden Forest and looked around to make sure no one was looking.

"Please tell me we're not going to the Forbidden Forest," Cedric said and also reached for his wand, afraid something would happen.

"Are you scared?" I raised an eyebrow playfully.

"Not at all," he replied and looked nervously around him and I smiled.

"Relax, we're not going in there," I laughed. "Lumos."

I walked over to the stones and started looking at them carefully until I noticed the reflection of the light of my wand.

"Alohomora," I whispered with a smile, and the trunk that most of us brought to Hogwarts with our clothes opened in front of me.

"What the hell—"

"Quiet, follow me and lock it behind you," I said and entered the trunk, slowly descending the stairs that were there.

A small ball of light was shining from my wand all the time, allowing me to see where I was going, and my hand was holding onto the wall so that I could keep my balance, as I had already managed to fall down those stairs more than once. Once it got lighter, I put my wand away and began to descend with more confidence. Finally, we reached the bottom and I opened the door with a wide smile, and a large meadow appeared in front of us, illuminated by skylights and various lights.

When we left the room where the stairs had been, we also saw several trees with Christmas lights on them, which I had hung up a long time ago. I looked around me and saw a creature flying towards us.

"Betty!" I shouted happily and went up to the hippogriff that had landed, which set its head towards me and let me stroke it, purring softly.

I stroked the pure white hippogriff for a while longer and then turned to Cedric, who was walking with an open mouth next to all the creatures that lived here.

"You take care of all this?" He asked, watching the bowtruckles, taking one of them in his hand.

"Almost, I take care of it with Hagrid," I folded my arms across my chest, watching him carefully.

"Since when?"

"I started when we were in the second year, that's when Hagrid asked me to help," I beamed at the memory of my first encounter with fantastic animals.

I heard a screech and the soft thumping of paws on the ground and I turned around with a smile, crouching down and letting niffler jump onto my shoulders.

"Hi, Pooki-Snooks!" I laughed, hugging the creature.

Pooki-Snooks is an adorable little niffler, but very mischievous. He managed to escape us more than once and Hagrid and I had to search for him for hours all over Hogwarts and the Forbidden Forest, sometimes even Hogsmeade. The little guy was clever and agile, which made it hard for us to find him. Although, when Hagrid and I improved the entrance, it hasn't happened yet that he escaped us and I hope it will stay that way, although I highly doubt it.

Betty — the hippogriff — is a beautiful half—ogre, half—horse. She has incredibly white and fluffy feathers on her head, which makes her nice to stroke and she also likes it. Although Betty is a hippogriff, she's extremely trusting and friendly. When most of the hippogriffs have to be approached with caution, keep eye contact, and bow, Betty can come to you on her own and demand to be stroked, which is why she's an unusual hippogriff.

I looked at Cedric, who had been standing by the bowtruckles the whole time and watching them with a gentle smile.

"You like them, eh?" I asked, walking up to him.

"Mhm," He muttered, not taking his eyes off them. "What are their names?"

"This—" I pointed to the smallest bowtruckles "—is Todd. This—" This time I pointed to the widest "—is Brad. This one's name is Lina," I took the tall bowtruckles in my hand. "And this scallywag is Carlos."

"They're adorable," he answered.

"Yeah," I looked at him and smiled. "Would you like to see the rest of the animals?"

"I'd love to," Cedric smiled and followed me.

In mine and Hagrid's garden, we had billywigs, phoenixes, occamys, swooping evils, fwoopers, nundu, thunderbirds, salamanders, and murtlaps. Hagrid was constantly finding or bringing in every new fantastic animal, or animals that are already there but he didn't want them to be alone, which was adorable, and honestly, I would've done that too. I myself brought some bowtruckles here that I found on Hogwarts grounds and was worried that the students would trample them by accident without noticing.

Hagrid and I hope that one day we can bring a griffin, all kinds of fantastic dragons, a sphinx, a manticore, and a unicorn here. It's quite a lot, but it's doable and Hagrid and I've been talking to professor Dumbledore about it and he has happily agreed to help us look for them, for which we're incredibly grateful.

I often came here to study. It was quiet here and I didn't have to worry about anyone interrupting my studies, apart from Pooki-Snooks who, as I said, was an extraordinary mischief-maker and even if you gave him a Galleon to play with, he continued to interrupt you because he wanted so badly to be looked at. Nonetheless, Pookie-Snooks was adorable and really lovable, and definitely better than a bunch of loud students at Hogwarts.

Hagrid and I take great care of this garden. We both divide shifts between us so that they fit into our schedules and we still have time to ourselves, although I still know that Hagrid comes here more often because every time I come back after school, everything is nicely laid out and taken care of.

As soon as Hagrid asked me to help out with the garden in the second year, the first thing I did was hang Christmas lights and skylights everywhere and bring a lovely white table and chair, especially for Hagrid to sit at. On our first trip to Hogsmeade, I bought Hagrid a mug which, when warm, showed a picture of nifflers, and when cold, of bowtruckles. Hagrid nearly cried when he saw it, and I myself got emotional by his reaction.

"Do you come here often?" Cedric asked as we sat under one of the trees, sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows.

"Quite often, I come here after school, or on weekends and days off," I said, taking a sip of my drink.

"That's why I can never find you after school" He laughed softly.

"You're looking for me after school?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Sometimes," Cedric scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Just want to talk to you."

"Then now you know where to find me," I smiled after a while.

"I guess so," He returned the smile.