Hope's POV:
The next day Harry comes up to me and apologizes to me. He said this whole tournament thing is stressing him out. I just smacked him upside the head and told him to never do something like that again. It's now Hogsmead weekend and I'm waiting for Cedric in the Great Hall.
I grin as I see the older Hufflepuff approach. "Hey, are you ready?" He asks me when he gets close enough. I grin and nod. He offers me his arm which I gladly accept and together we walk out of the great hall, heading for Hogsmead.
The entire trip to the small town next to the school is spend with us talking about everything under the sun. School, quidditch, New Orleans, Devon, where he's from, everything. We even played a round of twenty questions to get to know each other better.
When we do finally reach the town our first stop is, per my suggestion, Honeydukes. I have a think for candy. I grab some peppermint toads, acid pops, chocolate frogs, and sugar quills. He grins when he sees the excessive amounts of candies in my hands.
"Do you not get sweets often?" He laughs as we walk towards the check out. "Oh of course. Mrs. Weasley makes the best homemade fudge, but never anything like these. There's always some sort of candy laying around the house, but I never bother."
His face tells me I need to explain further. "They could be normal or it could be one of Fred and George's experiments and I've only been on the wrong side of those once." I say, shivering at the memory. Let's just say the boys never pranked me again. He laughs at this.
"I can imagine the fear factor. Those two are mad geniuses." He tells me. I grin. "You got the mad part right." We finally reach the check out place and as I reach for my money I turn to see Cedric has already paid for my things. My eyes widen.
"Hey, no. Let me pay, they're my things." I tell my, pouting a little. He laughs and just shakes his head as the witch behind the counter hands me my bag. "Sorry, no can do." I frown as we leave the store. "Why did you pay for them, they were my sweets to overindulge in." I tell him.
He just grins down at me. "Can't I do something nice? I mean, I did drag you here." I roll my eyes and sigh. "Well, thank you. And you didn't drag me here. I'm here on my own free will." "Well that's good to know." After that we head toward the Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer.
I also wanted to get down to the reason he asked me to come with him. We quickly find a booth and order our drinks. When they arrive I start the questioning. "So, why did you invite me here. Not that I'm not having an amazing time, but you said you needed my help with something."
He nods, like he's just now remembering why he asked me here. "So you know my friend Nathan Green?" I nod, remembering the brunette boy who's always hanging around Cedric. He's also a seventh year.
"Well he has this thing for Cho Chang and I was wondering if you could help me give him advice to help him ask her out." I can't help it, a laugh breaks through. He gives me a confused look. "What's so funny."
"Nothing. I'm sorry, it's just, out of everything I could have thought of that you would have me help you with, getting your friend a girl would not be one of them." I laugh. He grins when he understands my outburst.
"Yeah, sorry, but we can't really go to a Hufflepuff girl and Cho is your age and you're the only girl in your year that I felt comfortable enough with to ask for help." I nod, smiling softly when he said he's comfortable with me.
"No, it's fine. So, advice. Well, tell him to be himself, as cliche as that sounds. No girl wants a guy to change who they are to get then to like them. When guys do that we don't see who they really are that causes us to have hesitation before saying yes to go out with them." He nods, thinking.
"Another thing. Tell him to man up and just talk to her. If their friends, I get that it can be scary. You might ruin that friendship, but if you really like someone, sometimes it's worth the risk." I finish. I start to think of my words. I was talking not only to him but to myself.
I shake thoughts off. "Wow, that's great advice Hope, thanks. I know he'll really appreciate it. Speaking from experience?" He asks a little hesitantly, nervousness clouds his eyes. I blush and look down. "Uh, no, not really. I don't have a good dating history." He looks at me, confused.
"Long story, one I really don't want to talk about." He nods, I think I see a flash of relief in his eyes, but it's quickly gone. With that he changes topics. Something is nagging at me in the back of my mind though.
I feel as though Cedric wanted to tell me something, but for some reason he didn't. I try to shake it off, but I can't. What could he have wanted to tell me? Why didn't he tell me? So many questions in my head that I'm too chicken to ask out loud.
I just love when I decide that I'm too scared to ask questions when I really want the answers, it always happens at the most inopportune times. Eventually I just shrug it off. If it's important Cedric will tell me another time. When he's ready. Well, at least, I hope he does.
If he doesn't, well, that's none of my business. I think. Ugh, I hate not knowing.