PRANKSTER [1] ↝ C. DIGGORY

fifty-five

"Merlin, it feels good to wear jeans again." Cedric mused with a smile, folding his pajamas neatly and setting them on the edge of the bed in the Hospital Wing before reaching a hand out to Clary.

In the past few days since Cedric had woken up, he'd spent his time recuperating, while Clary had finally begun attending classes again just in time for final exams. Her professors had agreed to be lenient with her grades after all the lectures she'd missed, though as those had mostly been review, she found herself scraping by with passable grades, and that was all she really cared about. Any time outside class was spent studying, whether it was in the Hospital Wing with Cedric, who'd been excused from his exams, or out near the Black Lake with Newt and Vasantha, finally getting a small glimpse of the sunshine.

Clary took his hand in hers, the smile never leaving her face as she led him out of the Hospital Wing, and down the stairs towards the Hufflepuff dormitories to help him pack his things, her own belongings having been already packed that morning when she bid goodbye to her room for the summer. Newt had already gotten a head start on helping Cedric pack, folding most of his clothes into his trunk, though a few things still lay scattered around the room, including a small gift from Clary that laid across his pillow.

As they walked through the corridors, cheers emitted from passing students, congratulating Cedric both on his tournament win and for making it back onto his feet again. He took each word with a kind smile, even stopping to talk to a few of their fellow classmates that lingered about in the halls, even if they only had a few hours before the Hogwarts Express was about to depart, taking them back to London for their summer vacation.

"Alright, so I've been thinking," Cedric began as they reached the Hufflepuff Common Room, lively with the hustle and bustle of students packing up to head home, or spending a few more minutes with their friends while they still could before going home for the next three months. "Ireland plays Bulgaria in Dublin in three weeks, and Viktor offered us tickets if we'd like to go to the game. Fancy another bet on who's winning the match?"

"Bulgaria's winning, hands down." Clary said adamantly with a grin. "There's no way something like at the World Cup happens twice in a row."

"Alright," Cedric said, "and if the great Clarissa Weasley wins, then what does she get in return?"

"The great Clarissa Weasley will win, and a month with no detention's too easy, you already look the other way these days." she thought for a moment. "If Bulgaria wins, then you have to do my Transfiguration homework for two weeks."

"Alright," he said. "If Ireland wins, then you have to go two weeks without pranking anyone."

"Oh, come on," she sighed, "yours was so easy. You're killing me here, Diggory."

Cedric smirked in response as they reached the sixth year boys' dormitory, pushing the door open to reveal only his and Newt's stuff left in the room, though the Scamander boy was nowhere to be found. On Cedric's bed, laying across his pillow sat his golden yellow Quidditch jumper, neatly folded and waiting to be packed.

"What do we have here?" he asked with an amused grin. "I thought I wasn't getting this back."

"Oh, don't worry," she insisted, "I'll get it from you again one way or another."

Clary took a seat on his bed, Cedric sitting down next to her, and Clary laid her head on his shoulder, taking a deep breath. While they still had yet to speak about it, focusing more the past few days on getting Cedric up and around, she'd always felt the weight of Harry's words that night lingering over them, though she'd been unable to focus on them until now.

"What do you suppose happens next?" Clary asked. "If You-Know-Who's really back."

"I don't know if there's much we can do." he said, "But, if there is, then I think we owe it to ourselves to try."