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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐊
"𝐼'𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟, 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑟—𝐼'𝑚 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟."
—𝐶𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑔 𝐹𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑜𝑛
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟒𝟎𝟔𝟐

⋆⋆⋆✧⋆⋆⋆

𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐔𝐏 only three hours after she had gone to bed, but she didn't feel exhausted in the least; she was more than awake, thanks to the buzz of anxiety in her stomach and the pounding of her heart in her chest.

She stuck to Cedric like glue throughout the first two classes, using any excuse to kiss him or hold his hand. Though, this still didn't help her nerves, and she was fearing that she would get a heart attack before the task even began. 

The hours flew by as the classes went on, the minutes moving far too quickly for Liliana's liking. One moment, it was eight o'clock, and then it was twelve o'clock the next. 

As the time for lunch greeted them, the five of them headed to the Hufflepuff table, settling in their normal spots.

"What do you reckon the task'll be?" Devon asked as he piled a spoonful of potatoes onto his plate.

Cedric glanced at Liliana for a moment, knowing that he wasn't supposed to tell them what he knew.  "Uh . . . I don't know?"

"Then how did you prepare?" Wesley questioned with raised eyebrows. "You were training with Liana until, what, three in the morning?"

A look of realization dawned on Riley's face. "Aha! I know what you were doing!" His lips spread into a rather childish grin as he jabbed an accusatory finger at the couple. "You weren't training! You were snogging!" 

Liliana scrunched her nose. "Until three in the morning?"

Riley shrugged as he took a large bite of his ham-and-cheese sandwich.

"No, we were training," Cedric corrected as he shook his head. "We were just practicing as many spells as we could cover."

"And snogging?" Riley questioned, the hope in his eyes causing Liliana to wrinkle her nose.

"No."

Riley slumped in his seat. "Damn."

"You're gross." Devon wrinkled his nose as he chewed his potatoes. "And I'm saying that."

"I'm gross?" Riley repeated with a scoff. "You're gross! Don't you remember that one time . . ."

As Riley and Devon began their banter on who was grosser (with some extremely gruesome examples that no one wanted to be reminded of), Liliana turned to Cedric, noticing that both his mouth and plate were empty.

"You should eat." Liliana nudged him before gesturing to the grand variety of food in front of them. "You can't fight dr—I mean . . . erm, complete the task on an empty stomach."

"I think I'm a bit too nervous to eat." Cedric gave her a small smile, his fingers fidgeting with the hem of his robes. "What about you? You haven't even touched your fork."

She sighed. "I think I'm a bit too nervous as well. But you should at least eat something, you need energy. Maybe just some plain toast?"

"Yeah." He nodded, reaching over and grabbing one of the plain slices of bread. He ripped a small chunk of it and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly.