On Sunday, with the bandages finally gone, Hermione was able to push Blaise off somewhat.

"I can get up the stairs fine, now," she told him huffily. "I don't need you holding my elbow all the time."

"You have nerve damage," Blaise objected. "How do you know how well you can feel the bannister?"

"Because I can feel it in my hand," Hermione emphasized, annoyed. "Really, Blaise. I got a bit injured. I'm not an invalid."

After Tracey quietly spoke to Blaise at lunch, Blaise looked reluctant but didn't offer to walk Hermione to the library, and Hermione happily tossed her hair and set off herself, delightedly alone.

The library was quiet, and not very crowded. Most students were outside taking advantage of the nice weather, and the few left in the library were absorbed in their studies. Hermione perused the shelves idly for a bit, stopping when she caught sight of someone sitting at her favorite table.

She paused for a moment, considering, before she slowly went over and sat down.

Cedric Diggory raised his head to look at her, his expression turning from surprise into a pleased smile.

"If it isn't the Heroine of Hogwarts," he teased. "Have you come to save me from the monster of my exams?"

Hermione flushed but grinned.

"If only," she said. "Actually – I was hoping you'd let me study with you."

Cedric's eyebrows went up.

"For your exams?" he asked.

"No," Hermione said. "For yours."

Cedric regarded her for a long moment, before he grinned, his eyes sparkling.

"I would like nothing more," he told her grandly, standing from his chair and sweeping his books into his bag. "However, if we are to study together, might I suggest somewhere else? We are supposed to be quiet in the library."

"Do you have a place in mind?" Hermione asked, leading the way out.

Cedric's eyes sparkled. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Following him down through the castle, Hermione wondered if he was leading her to the Hufflepuff common room when he stopped at a perfectly normal-looking patch of bricks.

"Synstylae."

Hermione watched as the bricks shifted, forming a door that swung open on invisible hinges, revealing the bright sun of the outside. Cedric grinned at her, gesturing for her to go first, and Hermione stepped through to the outside.

She blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the light, and there was an overwhelming scent on the air that caught her off guard. She looked around and gasped, her eyes flying to Cedric, who was closing the door behind him, a soft look in his eyes.

"It seemed appropriate," he murmured. "I hope you don't mind?"

"It's beautiful," Hermione breathed. "I didn't even know Hogwarts had rose gardens."

Cedric smiled. "Not many do."

Hermione followed Cedric through a path that wound through bushes of brilliantly colored roses of every different kind, looking around with wide, curious eyes. He stopped them at a bench that was near a pond, lavender roses and ones of deep crimson on the bushes nearby. He gave her a smile, one that made her breath catch, and he reached down into his bookbag.

"I was reading up on the theory of the Summoning Charm and Banishing Charm," he told her, pulling a textbook out. "I can't always get the hang of the Summoning Charm, and I want to be able to cast it perfectly for Flitwick's exam."

Hermione spent a happy afternoon with Cedric learning to summon rocks from the pond and then banish them back, sending them skipping over the surface magically. It was tricky for her at first until she tried using her magic like a magnet, instead of her magic physically tugging the item to her, and then her summoning and banishing worked wonderfully – all she had to do was reverse the magical polarity, and the object would go flying away.

When she tried to explain it to Cedric, he just sort of boggled at her.

"A what?" he asked. "What's a magnet?"

Hermione had winced and awkwardly promised to try and get one in time for exams to show him what she meant.

After Cedric felt relatively confident in his summoning, they just stayed in the gardens for a while, chatting between review sessions.

"My parents wrote to me about you," Cedric told her, teasing. "My mother knew I'd sent you a rose for Yule, and she was horrified to see your picture in the paper saying you'd faced down a basilisk."

"I won, though," Hermione objected, her face hot.

"She's a mum; she worries," Cedric dismissed. His eyes sparkled. "My father, however, wrote to say that I should clearly get to know you better."

There was an implication laden in Cedric's tone, and Hermione flushed while Cedric laughed.

"How did your parents react?" Cedric asked. "To the whole basilisk thing?"

Hermione loved how casual Cedric was about it. It wasn't a big deal, it was just 'the whole basilisk thing'. He wasn't awed by her defeating it; it was just fun to tease her about being 'the Heroine of Hogwarts'. It made her feel more comfortable with him, able to relax and be open about it all.

"I haven't told them yet," she admitted. "Tracey's been making a scrapbook of all the articles for me to show them. But I told them about the attacks over break, and my dad was the one who encouraged me to get a sword."

"I saw that sword." Cedric's eyes gleamed. "Tell me, Hermione: how did a second-year manage to get a goblin-made blade?"

"I asked them very nicely," Hermione said, tossing her head, and Cedric laughed.

Conversation shifted to other classes, Hermione telling him about Lockhart's epic, vivid retellings of the Goblin Rebellions, Cedric laughing.

"It's good, though," Hermione argued. "People are paying attention. And he's actually very good at capturing both sides of the story and being factually correct. Wizarding history texts tend to be very revisionist."

"I'm not disagreeing," Cedric said, smirking. "He was telling us about the Giant Wars. I didn't even know there were Giant Wars. Long story short, a bunch of giants tried to take on the Ministry, and now there aren't very many giants left. They hide deep in the mountains now."

"Giants... I can't even imagine fighting one of those." Hermione shuddered. "A troll was bad enough."

"A troll?" Cedric questioned, and Hermione winced.

"Umm… there was a troll last year, on Halloween, you might recall," she said uncomfortably. "I was in the bathroom it decided to terrorize. Harry and Neville came running to save me, and together the three of us just managed to knock it out before it could kill any of us."

Cedric stared.

"You defeated a troll as a first-year?"

"I had help!" Hermione objected. "Harry and Neville were there, and we were all casting on it—"

"Hermione, relax," Cedric said. "It's not condemnation; it's admiration." He looked at her earnestly. "Do you even realize how incredible it is that you were able to do that, Hermione?"

Hermione flushed. "It was a fight for my life."

"Regardless… most students wouldn't have managed to survive that, Hermione." He shook his head, smiling, before looking and meeting her eyes. "For the record, I'm very glad you did."

Hermione flushed and changed the subject, Cedric grinning as she did.

As the sun began to dip, Cedric gathered up his books before they left to get ready for dinner. He paused before leading the way out, and Hermione looked up at him, watching. Cedric walked around the clearing they were in, looking at the roses carefully, before carefully snapping the stems of two.

He returned to her, swirling his wand over the two roses and murmuring, and Hermione watched as the stems of the two roses morphed and twisted into a green comb, their thorns turning into the teeth of the comb. Her eyes went wide.

"That's very impressive magic," she said, awed. "Did you just make that up?"

"I didn't," Cedric admitted. He looked her in the eye. "I looked the transfiguration up a few months ago, hoping I'd have reason to use it soon."

Hermione blushed brilliantly. "Oh."

Cedric grinned. "Oh, indeed."

Hermione fought her blush as Cedric gently ran his fingers through her hair, working to secure part of it back behind her ear with the rose comb.

"Two this time," she said, ignoring the fact her heart was beating hard, loudly. "I know what the lavender one means—" Though she daren't mention it "—but what's the yellow one?"

Cedric smirked. "Who knows?"

"You know I'll just ask someone," Hermione said, annoyed, and Cedric laughed.

"Yes, Hermione, I know," he said. The comb finally firmly in place, he pulled his hand from her hair, letting it trail down her face, cupping her cheek softly. "But then you'll have to show it to someone."

His eyes glinted with mischief, and her heart beat faster.

"You like this, don't you?" she questioned. "Knowing your gestures-that-aren't-gestures throw Slytherin into disarray?"

His eyes softened, darkening.

"I like giving a beautiful girl roses," Cedric said, his eyes meeting hers. "I like the beautiful blush it brings to her cheeks, and I like the sparkling happiness it brings to her eyes." His hand caressed her face, his eyes holding hers. "My motives with you are plain, Hermione. Anything else that results is an extra."

Hermione blushed brilliantly, and Cedric smiled.

"You're such a romantic, aren't you?" she muttered, and Cedric laughed.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," he teased, leading her through the gardens to the door into the castle, "when I can tell you quite like it yourself."

Hermione couldn't deny his assertion, and as they parted ways in the hallway, his parting smile and sparkling eyes stayed with her in her mind as she wandered towards the stairway toward the dungeons, hesitating.

The ghost touch of his hand on her face made her pause, the memory of the look in his eyes as he looked at her, and Hermione stopped, her mind made up.

When Cedric saw her walk into the Great Hall wearing the comb he'd made for her, she saw his eyes widen in surprise, but Hermione tossed her head and joined her friends at the Slytherin table, aloof despite their eyes on her. Tracey and Millie's eyes gleamed, while Blaise's and Draco's were wide in shock.

"I hear Dumbledore's coming back this week," she said, helping herself to some bread.

"He is," Theo groaned, thunking his head to the table. "All good things come to an end, I suppose. McGonagall's reign was a lot more fair – she didn't actually take out the whole 'Heir of Slytherin' business on Slytherin at all."

"I wonder what changes he's going to make," Hermione said. "Lockhart is surprisingly popular as History teacher, and with Professor Binns vanished, I wonder if he'll just, you know, opt to keep him there."

"Don't see why not," Theo said, shrugging. "There might be a protest from the older students if he tries – they're finally learning something for their O.W.L.s, and the minuscule N.E.W.T. class is ecstatic."

"Excuse me," Pansy interrupted. "Are we just going to ignore the fact that Granger has roses in her hair?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Am I not allowed to wear flowers now, Pansy?" she asked.

"It's not that," Pansy said. "They're on a comb."

Daphne gasped, and there was a flurry of movement as Pansy and Daphne got up and shoved Theo and Draco over to sit directly across from Hermione.

"It's transfigured from the stems," Daphne said, examining it closely. "A nice piece of spellwork, but definitely temporary. It'll only last a day or two before it fades and breaks apart."

"Not jewelry, then," Pansy said, nodding. "Right."

"So?" Millie looked offended on her behalf. "Hermione's of an age to get jewelry now, you know."

Daphne was amused.

"That'd be much more of a big deal, though," she said. "As it is, it's just some pretty flowers."

"Very nice," Tracey said, nodding approvingly. "Two, this time – lavender and yellow. The pale shades go well together against your hair."

"You know lavender," Daphne said knowingly. "Yellow is joy and friendship, a 'welcome back' meaning with the rose." She gave her a teasing, sideways glance. "Make up with someone, Hermione?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hermione said primly, eating her dinner, and Tracey and Daphne laughed.

Neither Blaise nor Draco said a word all meal long, though their eyes often lingered on her comb.