𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗻, cedric diggory

˗ˋ 60

CHAPTER SIXTY
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH ITS THE NIGHT BEFORE

. . .

After Rosie's sudden panic attack, Cedric had refused to do anything for practise that night, and forced Rosie to relax and not work any more. This had included their whole practise, and he had even joined her when she insisted that she had to go check on the potions.

For some reason, Rosie wasn't letting him see them, but he just let it go, and waited outside the toilet stall that the Kersey girl was hiding the multiple cauldrons in. 

Since then, Cedric had been trying his hardest to make sure that Rita Skeeter was nowhere near Rosie, whether that was when she came out of classes, just walking around the castle or on her way to their practises.

That had been one of the things that occupied his mind over the next week. Making sure Rosie wasn't to get like that again and the third task. Which had seemed to approach now with the speed of a racehorse, a striking difference between how the days had crawled throughout March and April. 

It didn't help that for everyone else, including Rosie, during that final week was their end of year exams. As they were in their sixth year, it was nothing more than a progress check, but for people like the Kersey girl, she had plenty more things on her mind. 

And as a result of everything esle that she had to think about and do, she hadn't had a chance to revise. Cedric had complete faith in her that she didn't even need to in order to get adequate scores, she had that much knowledge in her mind that it would be easy to pass. 

On the eve of the third task, Rosie was in the Room of Requirement before Cedric had expected her to be - her Transfiguration exam had finished an hour earlier than their usual meeting time, and so it seemed she had been in there for a while. 

She was sat with three cauldrons in front of her, and Cedric frowned as he set beside her, knowing that she was supposed to be making two. She sat with a ladle, holding up one of her coloured glass vials. This one was a pale pink, and the potion was a deep red. 

"Blood replenishing?" Cedric asked, and Rosie nodded, glancing up for just a moment, her hand steady as she filled the bottle. "What's that?" he asked, as she saw the Kersey girl take another vial, a pipette attached to the top.

It was a clear gold coloured potion, a certain shimmer appearing in certain lights. Rosie took a deep breath, dropping a couple of drops into the pink vial. Nothing happened, and a satisfied smile appeared on her face. 

"It's just something that I mixed up that should strengthen the potion. I wasn't exactly certain whether or not it would react or not, but it seemed to have mixed just fine." Rosie shrugged, putting the cork stopper in the neck of the bottle and holding it up. "Have you got pockets or anything?"

"I think so." Cedric replied, gently taking the vial. "Maybe some in the trousers? But they're not big enough to hold this in."

"Would they be big enough to hold this?" Rosie asked, holding up a tiny velvet drawstring bag. Cedric nodded, and she looked rather proud of herself, taking the potion back. 

"But it's too small-" Cedric began, as Rosie dropped the potion into it. The pale pink vialdisappeared like there was no material barrier there. "Oh.. an extention charm."

"Mhm.. if there's anything else you want to take you can put it in there, and it should be just fine. Now - pass me that green bottle." Rosie pointed at the location of said vial, and Cedric passed it to her, watching as she filled it with a blue potion this time. 

She did the same as before, adding multiple drops of the golden mixture, holding it at arm's length in case anything happened. It didn't, and Rosie let out a sigh of relief, adding the stopping and putting it in the bag. 

"Would you like me to put this in as well? Just in case?" Rosie offered, holding up the bottle of the golden potion. "I'd say just take it if you're feeling in need of some extra strength." 

Cedric nodded, and Rosie ignored the twinge of guilt that she felt as she changed the stopper for the small, clear vial and put it in thhe bag. "I'm not really sure whether or not you're allowed potions - I checked a book on history of the tournament but it didn't really give me much information so-"

"I won't tell anyone." Cedric said quickly, and Rosie grinned, nodding. Cedric was a smart guy, but clearly didn't recognise the potion to be Felix Felicis. Rosie supposed that he trusted her, having seen her extrensive knowledge on potions and that the golden potion was simply a strengthening solution, like she had told him. 

"Good.. now is there any specfic spells you want to try? And this time I'll actually do something instead of making you try them on a lump of pillows. Just not anything that could hurt me too much." Rosie suggested, and Cedric looked skeptical. "Really - I have more blood replenishing and the strengthening potion, you know?" 

"Fine." Cedric said. "But we can't be too late, I need to have an early night."

"I have a potion for sleep if you want." Rosie said, digging out yet another vial of a dark blue liquid and handing it to Cedric. "And I agree - you need to have a good sleep."

"I'm not going to die, remember? I promised." Cedric reassured her, recognising the flicker of worry that ran across her face. "Now come on, let's practise so those risks are lowered a little bit more."

And so, Cedric and Rosie practised until late into the night, despite their promises of an early night. It was calm, the final night before their worlds were plunged into a dark replica of the peaceful one that they once lived in.

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