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─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match was only eight days away. A week and a day. Nobody in Hufflepuff had ever seen Cedric Diggory so on edge in all of his life. Usually, he was a pretty laid back person who could be calm in even the trickiest of moments, but at breakfast on Halloween morning, you could practically see the anxiety radiating from him.
While everyone else in the hall gazed at the floating pumpkins hanging above them, he eyed Eleanor up as she refilled her black coffee while bickering with Joey and Luke. They had been playfully insulting her taste in books, she had said that their opinion wasn't valid because they didn't even know how to read, and from their an argument ensued.
"Don't drink that," Cedric interrupted, snatching the coffee from her hands as she went to take a sip. Weirdly enough, none of the hot drink spilled over the edge.
The banter between her, Luke and Joey came to a sudden stop. She frowned at her empty hand, then at Cedric. "Why not?" she said, slightly offended.
"Because this would be your third one in the space of ten minutes and it's not good to drink that much on the same day as training, or on any day for that matter," rambled Cedric, pushing a glass of water to the girl instead. "Drink water instead."
Eleanor took the mug of coffee back. "There's water in coffee, I'm fine," she said.
"No!" Cedric protested and snatched the coffee back. He glanced at it, and after a moment's thought, he brought mug to his lips and necked the whole thing. It scolded his throat, but he didn't care.
Joey watched him do all of this with a look of confusion on his face. "Are you feeling alright, Cedric?" he asked.
"Course he's not, have you seen him?" Luke answered for him, "Poor bloke. The fire's lit but the cauldrons empty with that one."
Cedric rolled his eyes. "I'm sat right here, you know," he drawled. "I can hear you."
"Good, you were supposed to," Luke smiled, his bright blue eyes glinting in amusement.
"Take a look at Wood," Joey started, "He doesn't look worried in the slightest! Meanwhile, you're sat here working up a sweat. Lighten up, mate, have some optimism!"
Cedric shook his head. "No. We must train as if we know we're going to lose." He turned to the three Gryffindors in front of him. "Tonight we train extra hard."
"Extra?" Eleanor gawked. "I thought we were already training 'Extra'?"
She dreaded to think what training later would be like.
