Courage

-35-

"Say what?" said Layla with a small frown. "You're making me nervous, Ced. Is everything alright?"

"More than alright," said Cedric with a smile, grabbing Layla's soft hands in his. "Layla, I would really like it if you would be my girlfriend."

Layla froze for a second, her eyes widening and her heart rate increasing. Cedric took her silence negatively, his smile dropping slightly.

"I-I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. I just thought I'd ask because I felt something with you and I thought you felt it, too, but if you don't, then don't feel pressured to say yes. We can still be friends and—"

"Hey, hey, it's okay," chuckled Layla, coming out of her shock. "You just took me by surprise. I was hoping that this would happen soon, and when it didn't, I was beginning to think that I should just be the one to ask you. But I'm glad you asked, and I would be more than happy to be your girlfriend, Ced."

Cedric's smile returned, wider than ever, and he planted a soft kiss to Layla's lips. It was short and sweet, but it was all they needed to seal the deal.

"Can I walk you back to your common room?" asked Cedric.

"Of course you can," said Layla with a wide smile of her own. Together, they stood up, their hands automatically finding each other, and made their way to Gryffindor tower, bidding farewell to each other with another soft kiss, this one a bit longer.

"I'll see you later, okay?" said Layla once they'd pulled away from the kiss.

"Okay," said Cedric happily. "Would you want to sit at my House table with me for dinner tonight? I've talked a lot about you and my friends are dying to meet you."

"I'd love to," said Layla. "See you later."

Layla waved goodbye. Cedric kissed her cheek softly and then turned to leave. Nothing could ruin either of their happiness in that moment.

Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Oliver Wood, this was good news for Gryffindor, who would take second place if they beat Ravenclaw too. He therefore increased the number of team practices to five a week.

Hermione's immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her. Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the common room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes; she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted.

"How's she doing it?" Ron muttered to Layla and Harry one evening. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books.

"Doing what?" asked Layla.

"Getting to all her classes!" Ron said. "I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Hermione can't've been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie MacMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she's never missed one of them either!"

"I don't know what to tell you, Ron, but I've got a boyfriend to go visit," said Layla with a grin, standing up. "I need to go get my Firebolt. I told Ced he could ride it."

On her way to the dorm, Hermione peaked over at Layla from behind her pile of books.

"No funny business!"

"Hermione!" Layla flushed in embarrassment, disappearing up the stairs to her dorm to grab her Firebolt.

"Why does Hermione talk to Layla but if we walked over to her, Hermione would snap at us that she was busy?" Ron grumbled in frustration to Harry, who wasn't paying attention. "Harry?"