The Exchange Student - Cedric Diggory⁴

➣ 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝟕 "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣"

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The last rays of sun filtered through the dense clouds up in the sky as the dim tentacles of the night's darkness twisted their way upon the reserve's grounds. And even as the light weakened, the heat stored in the land persevered, turning the sundown into a suffocant event.

Nicolás liked to think that he was a sensible romantic teenager, but perhaps his overloaded sense of poetry at the sunset's sight was merely his coping mechanism after putting himself in stupidly life-threatening situations.

Today was the day.

Their stakes were high, but Nicolás couldn't help the excitement building up inside him—the same kind fools felt before doing their stupidity. This could mark a pivotal moment in their quest to defeat Voldemort or an utter waste of time—not to mention the risk to their lives—, but Nicolás didn't want to delve too much on that possibility.

In front of him, Caelum was pacing a small portion of the room fidgeting with his hands. Funnily, he hadn't done anything to be more prepared, or less anxious.

Lazy fuck his cousin was, always leaving the brains to others, like a good Gryffindor—not counting Hermione.

"Okay, can we please go over the plan once more?" asked Caelum, the small vibration in his voice showing how nervous he felt.

Nicolás was also moving around his room, albeit with a real purpose. He was taking small phials of potions and putting them inside his school bag.

"It's simple. We leave after sunset, we go and find Huǒ Yì Hǔ, you let me speak with her, I use Legilimency to show her where we need to go, and she'll probably take us," Nicolás explained, as if their plan wasn't one of the most flawed and least fool-proof up to date.

"Okay, first of all, why wait after it? Wouldn't it be better to leave now? There's still a bit of daylight. And second of all, how can you be sure she'll help us?" asked Caelum, throwing his hands around.

"Well, I don't know if you remember it, but today there will be a full moon, and I'm sure it'll be a horrible one, Dad could barely stand up the entire day, and I already feel horrible for not being there with him, Mom and Aunt María will do," Nicolás sighed.

"This better be worth it," he muttered, closing his bag. "To your other question, I don't know, the prospect of being in freedom for a while will surely be tempting for her, or I can promise her extra food, I don't know," Nicolás shrugged.

Caelum nodded. "Okay, and what about Harry?"

"I spoke with Abu Pedro; he'll be having an extra class tonight with him in the study, so he doesn't hear Dad wolfing out in the forest. He and Abu Angela will be teaching Harry how to make some salves and stuff."

Caelum stopped for a moment, clearly impressed, and perhaps more confident. "Well, you clearly have every single detail planned."

"When don't I?" Nicolás smirked. "We simply need to go to her, show her the cave — hopefully the cave is a real place — she'll take us, we make our little scout mission, see what the hell is wrong with that place — hopefully we don't die doing so — and then we come back, simple."

"Okay," Caelum said. "What are you bringing in that bag?"

"Many things. Blood Replenishing Potion," Nicolás showed a phial with red liquid. "Antidote To Uncommon Poisons," a phial with green liquid. "Essence of Dittany," a phial with silver liquid. "And water," he showed Caelum a large bottle of water.