Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Recipe for Disaster (Cedric Diggory)

So the last one shot was riddled with mistakes and thankfully you guys were all willing to ignore them. I'm so tempted to get a beta writer to check these before I post them but then I remember what happened last time and well, I'm not going through that mess again. So, please, continue to put up with the mistakes and I'll try to make the editing process stricter.

I think Cedric was the one character that I got the most requests for last time? Anyway, here it is Lizzy_Puff and I really hope it makes up for you having to wait for such a long time ~

With N.E.W.T.s approaching ever quickly, the Professors were cracking the whip - or maybe that was just Snape. The little tests he kept insisting we needed to go through were making me rethink taking N.E.W.T. level potions. But it was too late; I was already a seventh year. I only needed to suffer through his classes for a few months and then I'd never have to look at a potion brewing cauldron again.

If only these months would speed by quicker than they were.

Helga, at the start of the lesson alone Snape had us line up at the front of the class as if we were bloody first years again. The man then proceeded to sit us in new seats and maybe he had the ability to read minds because the other person he'd seated on my table was bound to have my grades slipping. I'd bet my right hand that the greasy git had done it on purpose so I'd get distracted and my grades would suffer. The snake had it out for me, ever since he'd heard me complaining about him in my first year. His grudge had lasted all the way to my seventh year and I wondered just what kind of professor kept grudges for so long?

Cedric bloody Diggory was sitting across from me on the square table acting as if he wasn't enough to distract a girl from her work. And why the hell had he seen the need to shrug out of his robes the moment he'd been assigned his seat? No one's shirt was supposed to fit them so well! Not only that but the ridiculous man saw the need to roll the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows and well - let it be known that the years of quidditch playing had done wonderous things to his arm muscles.

And because I possessed all the bad luck in the world, he'd caught me in my staring, pausing halfway through rolling his sleeves up. I hurried to look away, pulling my ink well and quill from my bag.

"I'm not bothering you am I, England?"

When I looked up at him there was that typical cheeky smile on his face, though this one was understandably a little more hesitant. In all out seven years in the same school, the same house, we hadn't ever been seated together.

I shook my head, assuring him quietly, "No problem." Apart from the fact you're illegally good looking.

And before he could say another word, Snape was walking around the classroom and disturbing recipes to each of the students. Before he returned to his desk, he reminded us that there was no point in attempting to copy our desk mates as we'd all been assigned different recipes - any of which we could be tested on during the exam.

I accepted the recipe Snape had settled beside my cauldron, realising it was for a love potion. One that was rather complicated to brew as well. If Snape had given me such a difficult one on purpose -

Dismissing the thought, I turned my flame on and cast a glance across the table to see that Diggory was still busy reading his recipe. Helga, this wasn't the time to be distracted. Regardless of how pretty that distraction was.

Leaving my desk to get the necessary ingredients, I followed the recipe word for word. The last thing I wanted to do was mess this potion up and make Snape's plan work. I was sure he was trying to mess with me to make me fail. Realising that I'd forgotten to get the pearl dust, I walked quickly back to the ingredient's rack, aware that my potion was bubbling away. And I would have hurried back to my table had someone not settled beside me, putting a hand on mine as I grasped the bottle of pearl dust.