DISCLAIMER: I Don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 5: Fool For Fire We Fall

He was beginning to love her. He realized that now.

When he interacted with her at the library, he knew he wanted to be her friend. When they were becoming friends, he knew he wanted to be someone very close to her. When he realized she's hurting, he wanted nothing but to take it away from her. When she greeted him for the first time outside the library, he realized he wanted her permanent in his life. All along he considered this as a brotherly feeling. If he was really honest with himself he knew it was always more than that, but it was so confusing he never entertained those thoughts.

Now, this was something more.

He was worried enough when she didn't appear that afternoon at the library. He was more worried when she wasn't in the Great Hall for dinner too, but then again, Potter and Weasley weren't either. He knew they went on another one of their dangerous quests yet again. He felt unnerved throughout dinner, until he was on his bed. Sometime while he was lying down, he heard a piercing howl outside the grounds. He prayed she wasn't outside.

He didn't enjoy his sleep, and the first thing that came to his mind was her closed-lip smile. He was about to ask a third year Gryffindor about Hermione's whereabouts, when he heard it from one of the Weasley twins. Seeing Hermione all bruised up, he felt so angry and relieved at the same time. But most of all, he felt so helpless. He wanted her safe, he wanted to be the one to protect her.

As he asked for her to keep her promise, she looked at him and all he wanted to do that time was to kiss her senseless. By then he knew, he wanted everything to change now.

It has been a week after the incident and the their friendship was nothing if not tighter. But both of them were right. Everything changed, it was just not that noticeable. Cedric made it a habit to walk around Hogwarts with Hermione everyday. Whether it was just in passing or walking her to her next class. He also started to walk her back to the Gryffindor tower after their stay in the library. He knew she's noticed, but didn't say anything about it and they both knew why; Because she enjoyed it.

Before they knew it, it was already the end-of-the-year feast and Cedric would always find himself staring at her. He tried to avoid it but everywhere he looks, he always ended up needing to look at her. Time flew so fast and they were now all walking to the Hogwarts Express. After moments of discreetly looking around, he finally saw her infamous hair among the crowd. She was talking to Ginny Weasley when he went to her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but can I talk to Hermione for a moment?" Cedric asked them both politely while smiling in charm.

He was sort of thankful that it was Ginny Weasley whom he tried to pry away from Hermione, not Harry Potter or Ron Weasley. That would have been a harder task. the young redhead didn't say anything, just dazed off a little, nodded, and went to her right to walk with Neville Longbottom. Hermione rolled her eyes playfully at his antics.

"What?" Cedric said, seeing her expression. "It worked, didn't it?"

"It's Ginny, of course it worked." She said good-naturedly. "Anyway, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Nothing in particular." I just want to be around you. imagining myself holding your hand while everyone minds their own business. "I just want to walk with you for the last time, since we'll not each other for months." And I won't be able to stop thinking about you, like I do now, because as ridiculous as it sounds, it's not even the first day of summer and I already miss you. "And I'm going to miss you greatly."

His voice was so heartfelt that she had to look at him, and found herself surprised to see that he was already looking at her with the warmest crooked smile. She realized that she's already missing him which is, well, ridiculous.

She squeezed his arm. "You say that as if you're the only one." She said. "I'm going to miss you very much, too."

He held the hand that was in his arm to keep it there. He's been looking for an excuse to have some physical contact with her, and now that it ended up her being the one to initiate, he would not let it slide. He feels soothed by her mere touch, even if it's a few layers away from his skin.

They walked like that, arm in arm like a prince escorting a princess to a ball. They never said anything, just enjoyed the company. Hermione noticed that they walked on a slower pace than normal, resulting for most of the students to walk past them. She smiled affectionately. Cedric was always expressive of his thoughts.

"As I am sure we won't be granted a time together in the train, I wanted to enjoy this last moment of serenity." He said.

She rolled her eyes playfully. "So overdramatic."

"Says the brightest witch of our age." He teased. He then pulled her closer to prevent her from saying anything.

"You're going to write to me, yes?" He asked with a hopeful voice.

"If you want to." She answered sincerely. She'd been thinking about it for a while now. She didn't really want to impose, or decrease his time from whatever he wants to do. But it has never been opened between them, so she kept mum.

"You don't have to say it like that." He chuckled and looked at her. "I'll always want to hear from you."

She almost melted by his gray stare. Who knew eye contacts could be so powerful? She suddenly wished they weren't on their way home. Loads of things could happen in the summer, in the next school year even. Their library days might soon diminish and it is possible that things with him will not be the same anymore. They could drift apart.

She brushed it off as overthinking, forgotten at the moment.

"Likewise, Cedric." She looked back at him and smile softly.

They were nearing the train and Hagrid could be seen monitoring at the dock.

"Things wouldn't change between us, right?" She asked, somehow needing reassurance.

He wasn't sure how to answer that. He wanted nothing but to turn their relationship into something more, but of course he didn't want to pressure her.

"Maybe it will," He decided to say. "For the better."

She seemed to accept that because she nodded, smiling.

"I'm not going anywhere, Hermione." He said with conviction, as they stood in front of the train door, the last one to aboard Hogwarts Express.

And that was enough for her. So, she opened her satchel and pulled out a journal. She took one of the folded papers that were attached in between and gave it to him. Perplexed, he reached for it and opened. It was an envelope but as he turned the envelope, he realzed it was her first Howarts' Letter. His eyes widened a little, knowing this is very important to her (because almost all Hogwarts students kept safe their first letters) and wouldn't give it just to anyone helps.

"That's the only parchment that indicates my address. You can send letters there." She said.

Then, unexpectedly, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek with the softest pressure. He stood there, dumbstruck, barely feeling anything but also feeling so much at the same time. Never had he felt so warm in his entire life. He felt her breath so near from his, and all coherent thoughts were gone. She slowly pulled away, cheeks flaming and smiling at him.

"See you soon, Cedric." She said. "Keep safe."

He didn't get a chance to respond, or even say goodbye. She immediately climbed up, took one glance of his frozen stature, smiled and went to find Harry on Ron.

Cedric knew his cheeks were flaming. He started at nothing in particular as he placed a hand his cheek. He knew he didn't get to say goodbye and although that upset him a bit, he could somehow feel that they weren't saying goodbye at all. Not really.

"Cedric? What are you still doing here?" Hagrid's booming voice shook him out of his reverie. "Get on board now, boy!"

He immediately hopped unside and scrabled to re-arrange his belongings. He felt a parchment on his other hand and saw Hermione's letter. He grinned.

This is going to be a great summer.

AN:

Sorry for the grammatical errors!

I wanted to thank everyone who read this story, and more thanks to thos who reviewed. Made my day! :) Please continue to read and review :D