Pride and Polyjuice Potion

Chapter 24

The next morning.

Hermione Granger was only wearing a scarf because it was a frosty December morning and she decided she would rather like to avoid catching a cold. No further reason, of course.

That was most certainly how it appeared to everybody else. No one would have guessed that Hermione Granger woke up a whole hour before she normally did - and mind you she normally woke before everybody else anyway - to try and deal with what appeared like a skin disease that had spread across her neck and chest.

No charm, no incantation, no form of muggle makeup could cover or conceal the marks of Cain he had bestowed upon her. They were deep and electric with passion.

Why had she let him mark her like that? At least leave them in places she could easily hide. But on her neck and the top of her chest - everybody could see that.

That's the point, she imagined he would say with a sinister smirk.

After an hour of trial and error, she gave up and picked up her red and gold scarf, knowing she would have to throw it on as soon as people started waking up.

Would the professors make her take it off during lessons? They weren't allowed to wear hats in lessons, so they probably wouldn't tolerate scarves either.

All this man did was cause inconvenience wherever he could.

~

Other than receiving a strange wink from Luna at breakfast, nobody commented on Hermione's choice of apparel that morning.

She wasn't even the only person wearing a scarf in her first two lessons that morning. Everything was going smoothly.

She was making her way through the quad at break time, smiling to herself with a strange sort of triumph, when she was approached by a figure that blocked her path.

"Hermione, hi, how are you?" panted Cedric Diggory.

No, no, no. His could she have forgotten? The previous day had been so eventful that it has somehow entirely escaped her mind that she was now engaged to go to the ball with Cedric. And to make it worse, the exact same day that he had asked her, she had willingly let herself be touched by somebody else. Begged for it, even. And that someone wasn't just anyone: Cedric Diggory and Draco Malfoy despised one another.

How could she face him? How could she even speak to him? She had entirely betrayed his trust, completely and utterly disrespected him, when all he had done was treat her with respect and kindness.

The look on his face was so golden, so radiant and so full of hope that she could not dare to destroy it. What had she done?

"Oh, Cedric, hi," she spoke, trying to make eye contact but only managing to look somewhere just past his shoulder. "I'm alright, yeah, you?"

"Better than ever," he smiled. "Hey I was just wondering if maybe - at some point - you wanted to go into Hogsmeade with me? I get it, you're probably really busy and may not have much time, but if you do..."

She was his date to the Yule Ball - of course she was supposed to say yes. But she knew, deep down, that she would be destroying him.

But how would he ever come to know? Malfoy wouldn't be spreading round the word that he fingerblasted some Gryffindor muggle born. What he didn't know couldn't hurt him.

She also noted that all she had done was consented to be his date to the ball. It didn't necessarily mean anything.

"Uh, Cedric, I would really love to, but can I just say something?"