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Hopping down the stairs all the way to the basement, your heeled shoes clicking against the stone stairs, your right hand trailing past the smooth walls in a repeating manner.
In your left hand, you had a small box clutched in a tight grip, a pastel brown ribbon carefully tied around a soft yellow book sized box.
You skimmed past the kitchen corridor and greeted the house elves happily just as the gigantic silver fruit bowl portrait automatically moved back to conceal the kitchen before hurrying over to the right hand side of said corridor, nearing the stack of barrels tucked away in the nook.
You began tapping away on the barrels softly, two from the bottom and the middle one of the second row, all to the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff, a Welsh witch who was one of the founders of Hogwarts.
Everytime you entered the common room to your house, you had to carefully tap the rhythm, id you failed to do so correctly, the person who'd attempted to enter one of the barrel lids would burst off, dousing the intruder in vinegar and prohibiting them from accessing at all, it happened to Hannah Abbott once, or so you've heard, and oh boy it wasn't pleasant.
Once the lid swung open, you crouched and got down on your knees and hands, crawling through the bottom barrel through the passageway leading to the basement.
When you finally reached the end of the passageway, you huffed and stood up, rubbing your hands together and patting your knees in an attempt to fling some of the dust off your school robes.
The sun immediately fell upon your face as you stepped foot into the common room, the basement was always sunny after all. Your eyes skimmed over the round walls, taking in the shelves with plants placed in front of the round windows, some of them even dancing and talking, all courtesy to Professor Sprout. The yellow hangings, burnished copper decorations and cozy looking sofas and armchairs colored in yellow and black gave a nice touch to the honey colored wood.
Right underneath the portrait of Helga, a round fireplace directly faced one of the biggest sofas in the room, your eyes immediately locked themselves on a figure sitting on said sofa.
You grinned and quietly tip-toed over to the other student, pressing your front against the back of the sofa, carefully shifting your hold on the yellow box, placing your free hand softly in front of the student's eyes.
"Guess who?" You said in a sing-song voice, pressing your cheeks against the top of Cedric's head.
Cedric hummed for a good second, crossing his arms and leaning his head back into your touch. "I wonder who.. I sure didn't just hear you talk right now."
You could feel Cedric's eyelashes flutter against the palm of your head, his brown hair pressed against the underside of your chin. Pouting, you removed your hand from his eyes and jumped over the sofa, sitting down on Cedric's left thigh, wrapping your arm around his neck.
"Don't be a git Ced," You pecked him on the cheek and pressed a soft kiss to his lips once he circled his arms around your waist, tilting his head up to you and leaning closer.
"Sorry sorry." Cedric laughed in response, quickly letting the conversation die down in order to snuggle his head into your robes.
"Hey hey, you're not going to fall asleep on me just yet, okay? I know that the second task is tomorrow, but I have to show you something before you go to bed." You shifted off Cedric's lap, curling your legs together and sitting down next to your boyfriend, handing him the yellow box.
Cedric's eyes trailed over your form down to the box, his calloused hands carefully pulling the brown rope loose, letting it fall down onto the sofa. Giving you one final look, at the sight of your ecstatic and encouraging smile, he lifted the top of the box off, his breath hitching at the object stored away in said box.
"Do you like it..?" You fumbled with the brown ribbon that you picked up from the sofa.
Inside the yellow box, a dainty gold necklace with a small yellow badger shaped sapphire pendant attached to it laid in the middle of the black padding, half of the necklace disguised behind said black padding, showing off the pendant to the eye.
Just as Cedric was about to reply, he squinted his eyes and looked closer at the badger pendant, his grip of the box tightening at the small 'C.D.' engraved in the badger, the sun gleaming off the gemstone.
"What the hell do you mean 'do you like it' [F/N] bloody hell this is brilliant." Cedric put the box gently down behind him before hauling you up and lifting you into his arms. Peppering kisses all over your neck and face as he spun you around, laughter and squealing echoing through the empty common room.
"I'm gonna get dizzy! Ced don't you dare!" You pushed your hands against his clothed shoulders, squealing when Cedric slid one arm down to your knees, the other still wrapped around your waist as he laid you back down on the sofa, avoiding laying down on the box as he hovered on top of you, detaching his lips from your bare neck and pressing them against your lips instead, engulfing you in his body heat and a soft kiss.
"Thank you [F/N].. I love it." Cedric's mouth was hidden in your bundled up robes, keeping you from seeing his blinding, toothy smile, all you had that showed off his genuine happiness was the arch in his eyebrows, the size of his pupils and the squinching in his eyelids, a spot-on Duchenne smile.
Heat crawled up to your cheeks and you awed loudly, placing your hands on the back of Cedric's head, lifting him towards you and pressing a kiss to his forehead before motioning at him to sit up.
You leaned forward and grabbed the box off the sofa, taking the necklace out of the black padding, "Close your eyes baby."
Cedric hummed and let his eyes flutter shut, tilting his head down for you to properly clasp the necklace together behind his neck, before combing your hand through his hair in one motion and placing your finger under his chin, lifting his head back up.
"Now open.."
Cedric opened his eyes and glanced down at his chest, readjusting the necklace pendant in his hand and gawking at it with a fond smile.
The sixth year let the pendant fall back against his hufflepuff tie and brought his hand up to your cheek, leaning forward, pressing a soft kiss against your lips yet again.
Just as you were about to deepen the kiss, you heard someone crawl through the passageway and pulled away from Cedric's lips, glancing at the other side of the room.
"Merlin [F/N] you're so hard to find.." Hannah blustured, ruffling her hair out of her face.
"Professor Sprout wants to see you in her office."
Cedric stood up along with you from the sofa but was quickly stopped by Hanna, "Not you Cedric, only [F/N], it's already late and the second task is tomorrow, go to bed."
You nodded at Hannah's words and trailed your hand down Cedric's neck to his necklace, "She's right, get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow." You glanced up at Cedric and stood on your tippy-toes to press a last kiss to his lips, ignoring Hannah's fake gagging.
