Unedited.

Unfinalized (12/12/23)

After the first task, things had improved a lot. Apart from the Slytherins, no one else was bothering her and things had begun to go back to normal. Well, except Malfoy whose overly large ego had taken a hit after the Ferret incident, and a Malfoy without an ego twice the size of his head was far from normal. 

A pleasant change though and who was Hailey to complain?

And since Natasha had signed her permission slip for this year, she went on the Hogsmeade trip with her friends for the first time (legally). She'd also fire-called Sirius and arranged for him to meet her at the edge of the large forest near the cave he was hiding out in.

They waited until a large shaggy dog- Hailey instantly recognized as Padfoot pulled them into his cave. As soon as they were inside the cave lit only by the tip of Hermione's wand, Sirius pulled her in for a hug.

"I am so glad you're okay," he said finally letting her go. "Sorry about getting you dirty,"

And he was right. Sirius was dirty, extremely dirty. His long hair had matted and he looked like he hadn't eaten in days and the glow of Hermione's face gave him a gaunt-like appearance.

"Sirius, you don't look too well," Hailey said.

"Well, I am on the run Hailey and I live off the rats I catch. Can't steal too much from the village without them getting suspicious," Sirius shrugged and sat down on one of the stones.

Hailey, Hermione, and Ron followed. They each took a seat on one of the several stones in the cave.

"But you can't live like this," Ron said. "You might get caught and living like this?"

"And the winters are going to get worse," Hermione said.

"I'm going to stick around until the tournament is over and then, I might go somewhere else. Besides, I have Padfoot and that blanket to keep me warm," Sirius said.

"Sirius, please," Hailey said. She could not bear her godfather living like this all for her sake.

"We don't have much time. If you are gone for too long, it won't go unnoticed," Sirius said getting back to business. "Hailey, keep a lookout for Snape AND Karkaroff. They're both known  Death Eaters and I know Dumbledore trusts Snape but I don't. With Dumbledore and Moody around, I doubt anyone will be able to get to you but be careful,"

Sirius warned for the fifteenth time and Hailey listened patiently. She knew that behind all of these warnings whether it be Sirius, Natasha, or Steve, everyone meant well.

She promised him and emptied out her pockets full of all of her Honeydukes treats and handed them to Sirius. Finally, they bid him goodbye.

As soon as Hailey got to Hogwarts, she called Dobby and asked him to send meals over to Sirius carefully and discreetly.

He promised to do it as carefully as possible and make sure Sirius was well-fed. At least, Sirius would no longer be living off Rat meat and scraps the Villagers gave him. With that out of the way, Hailey made her way down to the dungeon. 

 As she neared Snape's classroom, she deliberated whether she should tell him or not. Recently, she had started feeling her magic building up inside of her and it was different from before, she could tell. Well at least, before the whole Ultron thing.

And she felt as if she could explode anytime and she had no idea where this magic was coming from. She had debated telling Dumbledore but then for some reason decided against it.

She trusted Dumbledore, she really did but something in her just told her to keep this piece of information from as many people as possible.

Merlin knows why she even thought it should be Snape she was going to confide in with this piece of information since she had not even told Sirius but the truth was, she trusted Snape. At least a little bit after their weekly lessons, he was genuinely trying to make her the best possible version she could be when it came to dueling and she had learned so much in a short period.

But there was Sirius' warning too.

About staying away from Snape and Karkaroff and out of everyone, she knew for sure Sirius wanted the best for her. After all, he was staying in caves and eating rats to stay close by. 

Then, there was the second task too. She had no idea what it was and how to open the egg in a way that her ears would not bleed off.

"Potter, daydreaming again I see?" Snape asked but the usual snarl missing from his voice. It was almost- a joke? 

"I think I am dreaming. Did  you just crack a joke, Professor?" Hailey asked with a bewildered expression. He turned around and his eyebrows furrowed and then...she had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming but the corners of Snape's mouth twitched upwards.

"Enough dilly-dallying. We will start with Occulemency today," Snape said. Hailey's face visibly fell at that before she could even hide her dismay. 

Fortunately, Snape did not seem to notice.

"Prepare yourself, Potter, I will attack your mind. You must kick me out or I will access all of your memories and use them against you as I see fit," Snape instructed.

Hailey knew the drill. She wasn't a complete idiot, she had read the instructions but she just had never successfully followed them.

"Legilimens!" 

Snape did not even have to try to get easy access to all of her memories, especially the ones she was trying to hide since they came to the forefront of her mind. The memory of her touching the stone came to mind first and Snape exited her brain.

"What was that memory?" he asked her.

"It was the Mind Stone," Hailey replied trying to catch her breath.

"And you touched it?" he asked. "Have you felt any different ever since?"

"I wanted to tell you about it, Professor," Hailey said. "I've been feeling a strange amount of Magic. It's like it's always at my fingertips- I can't explain it-"

"It feels like you will explode at any second," Snape said his face as unreadable as always.

"Yes sir," Hailey replied. 

"You will speak of this to no one Potter, no one," Snape said. "You have an unimaginable amount of power surging through your body that you do not know how to harness. If somebody else learns how to before you, your life is at stake. Do you understand, Haile- Potter?"

They both noticed the slip-up. Snape, the evil, vicious bat of the dungeons had accidentally called her by her first name WITHOUT any snark, snarl, or insult.

"Do you understand?" he asked repeating it slower as if talking to a Dunderhead. There he was, the original Snape.

"Yes Professor," Hailey replied. "What do we do until then?"

"Train harder," he replied.

And from that moment on, Snape made her regret sharing that information with him every single day. Their training shifted from every week to every other day and they trained for hours to the point that when Hailey returned to her dorms, she would be too tired to even keep her eyes open.

There were two good things about that.

One, her magic no longer felt like it was bursting and the next day when she rested, she felt much better about her magic.

And Two, she was growing much stronger. She could feel herself pushing her limits and reaching levels of magic people two years higher could not. Her spells no matter how simple they were became powerful.

After a month of this, Snape gave her the week off and Hailey realized it was because the Second Round of the Tournament was next week and she had not opened the egg yet or even learned what the task was.

"Did you figure it out?" a voice said behind her. She turned around to see Cedric.

"You have to stop sneaking up on me like that," Hailey said smacking him lightly with the Herbology textbook she was holding. He laughed and looked so hand- snap out of it Hailey.

"So did you figure out what the next task is?" he repeated.

"No," Hailey replied.

"Well, then meet me by the Prefect bathroom on the fifth floor, four doors to the left of a statue of Boris the Bewildered with your egg at 11:00," he said.

"I really don't need pity-"

"It's not pity. I am returning a favor you did first by telling me about the dragon," he said and began walking away. Hailey didn't know why she was smiling uncontrollably.

"And Potter," he called out turning to face her while he continued walking "Be ready to go for a swim,"

He gave her one of his signature smiles before turning back around.

The rest of the day, Hailey continued to tell herself that this entire thing meant nothing more than Cedric returning a favor she had done first, and if only the butterflies in her stomach would stop having a rave party she could believe it too.

The clock struck 10:30 and Hailey began getting ready. She transfigured one of her shirts into a simple swimsuit and then, tapped it again to remove one strap making it one shoulder, a style she found quite flattering on herself.

She spent the next ten minutes fixing her long black curls into a 'no-effort messy bun' but really it was a lot of effort and her hands were tired. She looked into the mirror and decided something was missing.

She tiptoed to where Hermione was fast asleep and decided to borrow her tinted lip gloss from where she kept it in her drawer. It smelled like fresh apples and Hailey quite liked the way it looked on her.

As the clock struck 11:00, she put on her bathrobe, took her egg, and wrapped an invisibility cloak around herself. She'd be exactly four minutes late so it did not appear as if she had waited all day for this- which she had not.

When she reached the Bathroom, she saw Cedric waiting there leaning against the wall. A smile automatically made its' way to her lips and she forced it away as she took off the invisibility cloak to reveal herself.

"Blimey!" Cedric exclaimed. "You have an invisibility cloak?"

"Yeah, it's a family heirloom," Hailey replied. He took the egg from her hands, freeing her of the wait. He was swift and chivalry was attractive- not to Hailey of course. Just in general. 

"You're late by the way, Potter," Cedric said whispering the password to the portrait. The man crinkled his nose at two teenagers sneaking into the washroom at this ungodly hour but opened it nevertheless.

"Only four minutes," Hailey replied.

Hailey was taken aback by how grand the Prefect washroom was. On one side of the room, there were the stalls with toilets inside. Opposite the toilets, there was a large, swimming pool-like tub with bath taps surrounding it. The pool-like bath was built into the ground. There were hundreds of taps surrounding the bath each with a jewel on top. The bath taps all ran different-colored bath water, soap bubbles, and foam. There was a stack of towels and bathrobes on the other side along with shampoos, conditioners, bath oils, and everything you can imagine.

Cedric walked over to the other side and shed off the outer robe he was wearing leaving on nothing but swim trunks. Hailey wanted to squish to death every last butterfly fluttering around in her stomach and she also wanted to gouge her very own eyes out that would not stop gawking at him but my goodness was he built nice.

Cedric crouched over the taps and adjusted a couple of the taps until the water started flowing. For its' size the tub filled up surprisingly fast. He motioned for her to climb in first. She took off her own robe and glasses and carefully lowered herself into the tub. Cedric followed her in.

"You can swim right?" he asked.

"Not my strongest skill," Hailey replied. "What if someone sees us here? They'll think..."

"Think what, Potter?" he asked with a smirk that caused Hailey to blush intensely. She had to look away from those striking blue eyes and that smirk...UGH! That smirk.

"I'm just kidding," he replied. "It's the Boys' Prefects washroom and I told them I'm using it tonight,"

Hailey replied with an 'O' and began doing small strokes for lack of anything better to occupy herself. 

"You know, there has been something on my mind last year," Cedric said breaking the silence between them. "I should have called for a rematch last year,"

Hailey remembered the time Cedric was referring to. It had been Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, the opening match and she had fallen off her room after a Dementor attack. Many people had called for a rematch but between Wood and Cedric, they had decided Hufflepuff won.

"You won the game, fair and square," Hailey said quoting Wood's words.

"Yea but not just that. I saw you falling and I chose to go after the snitch and then you ended up in the Hospital Wing. I felt horrible after you know," he replied.

"You don't need to," Hailey replied. "I am no stranger to the Hospital Wing,"

Cedric laughed and then they both stopped after a moment. They were too close amongst the bubbles to the point where they were almost touching. Cedric moved a step closer and the butterflies wouldn't fucking stop. Hailey was the first to lean in. They both closed their eyes...

Hailey pulled away and took a shaky breath.

"How do I open the egg?" she asked no longer making eye contact with his captivating blue ones.

Cedric tried to hide his disappointment and smiled again.

"You have to open it underwater and listen to it there," Cedric said. Hailey nodded and ducked into the water with her egg. Cedric ducked with her as she opened the egg and the loud screeching had been replaced with a beautiful song.

Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching ponder this;

We've taken what you'll sorely miss,

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took,

But past an hour, the prospect's black,

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

She came back up after the song finished and Cedric followed the next second. It was the sound of Merpeople, she knew that much.

"Are there Merpeople in the Black Lake?" Hailey asked.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! You got it," Cedric said once again taking the egg out of her hand and plugging a hole in the wall.

"Just so Myrtle doesn't barge in," Cedric said.

"Cedric..." Hailey said quietly unsure of what else to say. She wanted to kiss him and the tension between them was still going strong but she was...she was just scared.

"You wore lip gloss," he said without looking at her.

"What?" Hailey asked.

"You never even wear lip balm," Cedric said turning around and he smirked. AGAIN. That smirk would take her down one day and Merlin's beard, how had he noticed?!

"I-"

"I've had the biggest crush on you all year. Please let me kiss you, Hailey," he whispered edging closer. 

Hailey swallowed, her cheeks were burning up and her ears were probably red by now. Cedric was also softly blushing. He lifted her chin and she looked into his eyes. Merlin, she wanted to kiss him. 

She closed her eyes and leaned in. He did not say another word and their lips connected...

And they kissed. 

And they kissed again.

And again.

It was her first ever kiss and boy, was it straight out of a movie.

A/N: I have never kissed so I have nothing else to add to this lmao. Just fill it up with your imagination.

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Next Chapter: Saturday @ [7:00 PM EST] 

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