I'm not a coward, just shy (Hogwarts fanfic)

ch 16 - lake escape

My eyes shot open and I coughed uncontrollably, my arms thrashing and my legs kicked uselessly. I couldn't my vision was so blurred. I couldn't touch the ground, there wasn't any ground, I was going to drown, I was going to die.

"Taylor, Taylor! Calm down, I have got you" I felt Cedric's arm snake around my waist and keep my head above, as I dared to pull more air into my burning lungs, Coughing up more water as the cheers of the crowd around me deafened me.

"Just kick your legs, ok, we are close to the shore now" He said and I did so even though my robes caught my legs. I heard louder shouting from the shore line and before I knew it strong hands were pulling me out the water. God it was so cold, but I welcomed it with open arms as two familiar red heads helped pull me out of the water. I was swirled around and I was pulled into a hug, Cedric's warm lips pressed into mine. I wasn't sure if the cheers were getting louder or quieter. Heat flooded my body in a rush and shock of the last 5 minutes. The lips pulled back.

"Don't you ever do that again, You stared the living day lights out of me" and before I knew it His lips were against mine again. I melted into them, the world and Static seeming to melt around this moment, Seeing this kiss from a thousand different angles. From hate to jealously to joy, Everyone's emotions, as well as my own rushed into my head.

"Ok, Break it off love birds" I was gripped arm in arm by Fred and George as I dragged my heels as they pulled me to a white blur that must have been a tent. I Heard more cheers at we entered the tent. The momentary warmth was gone from my body and I was beginning to shiver.

"W-What has happened?" I stuttered as my teeth clattered. I was handed a blanket and I pulled my dripping robes a little self-conscious about my scar and the fact Cedric might be watching. I wrapped the blanket around myself, fumbling for my glasses before dropping the robes and Putting them on my nose. I watched Fred as he grabbed a towel and dumped it over my head, ruffling up my hair.

"Cedric was the first out, Fleur was attacked my Grindylows and had to be saved and Krum just broke the surface in the middle of the lake as you went into the tent." George filled me in. Madam Pomfrey pushed a mug of tea into mine and Cedric's welcoming hands.

"How about the little girl, Ron and Harry" I asked slipping at the tea.

"He was their first and stayed behind to make sure that everyone was good, He is still down there" Cedric said between slips of tea.

"You'd think they would do this something when the warmer weather started up" I mutter, my hands were still blue. Just then a dripping Hermione and Krum walked.

"Hello, Hermione, are you all right" I asked , she nodded.

"For the most part, chilled to bone though" She admitted, I realised her eyes had slipped down, pity and memories. I realised that my blanket had fallen down my shoulders revealing the large four clawed down my chest when I was slipping me my tea. I pulled the blanket closer to me. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Krum and Cedric staring but I played it off as I didn't notice. I looked at a small clock which had been placed on the table.

"Harry should be coming in 40 seconds, he has Ron and Fleur's sister." I said looking into the future.

"He is really bring up two" George said incuriously.

"That's harry for you, always the selfless one" I said and a few seconds later hear cheering and the booming announcer voice. Everyone went to peer out of the tent. I felt a warm trickle on my upper lip. I wiped under my nose. It was only a drop but I knew blood when I saw it. I wiped under my nose again and it calm away clean. It was probably nothing.... Right?

"Aaachooo!" I sneezed loudly blowing my nose into a tissue. Of course from the amount of time spend in the lake had given me a cold. Add that to my ever increasing list of aliments. "This sucks" I said my voice not sounding my own.

"Maybe you should go to the hospital wing" Hermione questioned, I shook my head.

"I'll go if it gets worst" I mumbled and slipped at my coffee. I hadn't slept the previous night, half because of my cold and half because of the future I couldn't remember. I felt the pain and the suffering and would see this horrifying future but could never remember what is was about. All I was sure of was something big was about to happen and it was soon coming across us. I felt another sneeze building as the owl post fought in showering us with cold droplets of rain that slide of their hydrophobic wings, dropping letters and papers. A medium size barn owl dropped down, dropping a newspaper almost in Hermione's juice.

"You get the Daily profit, now?" I ask referring to the most popular wizarding newspaper. She dropped a Knut in a pooch tied to the birds leg and it fought off.

"Yes, for some time how, ever since Rita Skeeter started covering the Triwizard tournament. She has already- What!" She spited staring at the headlines. One the front page was a picture of harry and Hermione walking together taken from afar. They were laughing and smiling at something neither one had said. I was sure that they weren't the only ones present in this encounter but it had been made to look like that. The article's Headline read "Harry Potter's secret heartache". I didn't get to read much more but Hermione had ripped out that page and was crunching it up in angry.

"How goes that women EVER get the Headline by spreading nonsense gossip!" She growled, slamming the rest of the down on the standing. She stood up, folding the newspaper under her arm and angrily storming off, myself forget, cursing so colorfully that Mrs Weasley might have dropped dead on having heard it.

Signing I finished my coffee looking at the dregs at the bottom. Tea leaf reading actually worked if you knew what you were doing and I have found it works just as well with coffee grounds. Divination wasn't a completely useless class. I looked down. It was a cross. I shuddered a little. Trials and suffering and dark days ahead, certain danger. It's never a good sign when you start believe one of Professor Trelawney's reading. She was a seeing, just didn't have as much insight as I did. The future is so unclear to me, nothing is being decided. Fear and self doubt were starting to rot away in my head and if I wasn't carefully I would be consumed. I just need to look harder.