Henrietta Potter || Draco Malfoy

17 - Let's Take it Together

So here it was. The second task.

I was saved, not by Hermione, but by Dobby. I never thought he would come in useful. But there he was - offering me this stuff called Gillyweed.

It was the morning of the task. I'd already given myself up for dead so you can imagine how grateful I was.

Carrying the Gillyweed in my hand, I joined the other champions besides the lakeside. The whole school was watching us from the temporary stands which had been erected in honour of the second task. I glanced up, looking hopefully for the friendly faces of Ron or Hermione, but I couldn't see them anywhere.

I shivered in my swimsuit as I stood next to Cedric. He smiled down at me, looking rather dashing in his trunks.

"You okay, Etta?"

My eyes lingered on his bare chest longer than I should have allowed them to.

"Y-Yes," I stuttered. I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. "Just a bit... cold, you know."

I quickly folded my arms across my chest, praying that the coldness had not been showing in more ways than one.

"Well, good luck," he said in his silky soft voice, his eyes creasing up in amusement.

So, there I was, stuffing this green shit in my gob before diving into the lake. It was fucking freezing! Honestly, the things I did for this stupid school.

Fighting my way through the absolute horrors of the lake, I finally found myself at some kind of underwater village. There were figures, unconscious and tied up. I recognised two of them instantly - Ron and Hermione!

Merlin! What kind of fucked up school event was this supposed to be?

Seeing as Krum had swum past me and started to untie Hermione; the other prisoner was Cedric's dad; and I had zero idea who the blonde chick on the end was, I could only deduce that my prisoner was Ron.

Cedric grinned at me as he finally approached and rescued his dad. I was about to follow him with Ron, but then I realised there was no sign of Fleur and I felt very uneasy about leaving the little girl all by herself.

So naturally I decided to save her as well as Ron.

Well that went down well.

Actually, it really did as it earned me extra points for being so awesome.

Get in.

***

"It would have been you, you know."

I turned towards the silky soft voice. Cedric had caught up with me as I headed towards the changing rooms. Water was still dripping from his hair, he shook his head, flipping specks around him just like a dog.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my damp skin causing me to shiver.

"If you hadn't been a champion, you would have been the one I needed to rescue."

"Oh." I didn't know how to respond. Cedric was admitting he cared for me. "Thank you."

He suddenly looked bashful, his hand nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "Look, I'm sorry if it seems as though I've been keeping my distance lately. I was just worried that I'd upset you during the ball and I wanted to give you some space."

"Upset me? How?" I frowned. As far as I could remember he had been the perfect gentleman.

"You know... the Malfoy thing. I feel I may have been slightly full on in warning him off. But the way he was looking at you... it had me, I don't know - alarmed."