Mischief - Book Two of the RP Saga

25. An Object of Value

"But please, Cedric!" Rachel pleaded for the millionth time, her hands folding over one another as she stood in the boy's way. "The task is tomorrow and he doesn't know what he's doing!"

"You know it's not allowed." Cedric huffed.

For the past ten minutes Rachel had been, quite annoyingly, pestering Cedric by following him and practically chanting to him. He knew the answer to the mystery of the golden eggs that led to the second task, he had figured it out. So why should he not help a fellow Hogwartian? Cedric was still slightly offended by the fact Rachel had ridiculed the idea of the two of them dating.

He couldn't help it if he liked her.

Although it had upset him, he was no way ready to let her go; Rachel was obviously oblivious to this, she had well and truly friendzoned him. It was bugging Rachel most of all that Cedric knew but would not say anything, Harry had after all warned him about the dragons - Cedric owed Harry!

"Please." Rachel begged once more. "For me?"

She then smirked, ridding of her puppy eyes as she noticed Cedric's shoulders drop a little in defeat. He let out a sigh and looked back at the girl, his eyes meeting hers. Cheekily smiling, Rachel looked back which melted Cedric's slight coldness before he too smiled.

"Why not?" He said, giving up entirely. "Let's go find your brother."

"Thank you, Cedric! Honestly it means so much!" Rachel relaxed a lot, relief washing over her.

The two began walking back from where the had came, slowly treading past Hagrid's hut and towards the bridge. It was in silence, minus the birds singing spring songs and the whomping willow flitting them away from its branches. The trees were regaining their leaves and over all, spring was returning.

"So, um, you and Fred?" Cedric awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

"Huh?" Rachel snapped her head up at him.

"You two, you're... uh-"

"NO." Rachel's eyes widening, a blush creeping onto her face.

"Oh..." Cedric nodded. "It's just you two seemed-"

"No, Cedric." Rachel looked to her feet. "There's nothing going on between us..."

They fell to silence once more as the bridge came into view, Rachel's hands fidgeting under her robe sleeves - feeling a burst of anxiety to Cedric's comment. She was almost certain she had gotten over Fred, but then again she was so conflicted at the minute. For a fact, Rachel knew she hadn't moved on from Draco's kiss; though he probably had, he probably did it for a laugh or something. But going back to Fred, Rachel had always liked him, much to her disappointment.

Of course it had to be Fred who Rachel liked. Fred made butterflies flutter in her stomach no matter how much she tried to ignore it. They were best friends, she was closer to Fred than George; despite the fact George had been in a relationship, no matter how dysfunctional, with her. She still remembered that night on Christmas where the twins had stolen some of the adults alcohol and Rachel with Fred got drunk silly. Rachel smiled to herself, remembering when they had ran outside and lay in the snow talking about the moon.

"What are you laughing at?" Cedric looked down to his left.

"Oh... um, just thought of something funny." She admitted with a smile to Cedric.

He nodded, before running after Harry who stood at the other end of the bridge by Hermione. Sighing, Rachel came to a stop as she watched Hermione walk over to her. To be quite honest with herself, Rachel felt pretty guilty for Cedric, without realising it she had become a hypocrite herself. She had never felt such pain and anger at, ironically, Fred for leading her on but there she was, already leading Cedric on.