Backfire

The lake in front of the castle was serene, Holland wanting nothing but to take her shoes off and dip her toes in. The weather was perfect, too. It wasn't the usual sunny day, the skies were painted grey, but there were no winds nor rain. Holland preferred this weather, making her feel like it was always an opportunity to be outside. Holland woke up that morning, smiled at the sky, and looked for her friend, Harry. She hadn't spoken to him in ages, and she had always wanted to find the time to check up on the second Hogwarts champion.

"Amazing," Neville mumbles to himself, the boy sporting rolled up bottoms as his lower limbs were submerged in the lake. Holland, Neville, and Harry were all by the lake, just talking and trying to spend some time together before Holland would be off to see Cedric again.

"So how have you been doing?" Holland asks Harry, sympathy in her voice. While Neville had been in the water, Harry was perched up and leaning on a tree as Holland sat opposite of him, the two examining 'Winogrand's Wondrous Water Plants', a book that Moody had given Neville when the two had spoken after his traumatic Forbidden Curse demonstration.

"Majority of the school hates me, though that's not exactly news." Harry mutters. "And to top it all off, my best friend thinks I'm a cheat." Harry says in a tone as if he was happy, though he clearly wasn't. A mannerism he'd grown to keep after all the years of peace and joy in Hogwarts. Holland did her best to refrain her chuckling, for a boy who was known to be the one to grow up and defeat You-Know-Who, he sure had a lot of attitude, always sassing as if he were a hormonal teenage girl. Holland fumbled and played with the cool stones she and her friend were sitting on, bringing a smooth one up to her face as she studied it. It was a wonderful looking stone, majority of it black but lined by strips of jagged white, like an inverted zebra.

"Harry," Holland begins, trying to imagine how the boy felt. "I know this probably won't mean much but there are still people here who believe and believe in you." Holland says, gesturing to Neville who had practically been flirting with the greens and plants in the lake. "And you know little Ronald. As if there'd even be some kind of universe where he doesn't believe in you. He's just being stubborn. He'll come around."

"Amazing!" Neville exclaims once more, Harry and Holland turning their heads to face him.

"Neville, you're doing it again." Harry notes, earning a mumbled 'sorry' from Neville. Holland chuckles, not knowing who to feel sorry for more. She took one last look at the stone and stood up before positioning herself a little to her right, then throwing the stone, admiring it as it skipped forward, creating ripples and ripples on the water. She sat back down and stared at the lake, deep in thought before she could remember what she was talking about.

"Anyway, back to what I was trying to say. I know things are mad scary, but when has near-death experiences ever actually stopped you, Harry Potter?" Holland playfully challenges, determined to put a smile on the boy's face.

"Let's not find out." Neville mumbles, immediately shying away from the looks the two had given him. Neville had always been such a sweet boy, Holland thought. There were just times where he'd be a lot sweeter if he kept his mouth shut.

"Thanks, Neville." Harry mutters as Neville says his apologies once more, Neville then waving behind Harry and Holland. Holland turns to see Ron, Ginny, and Hermione coming from the trees behind the lake, Ron not exactly sporting a friendly face. Hermione and Ron were now talking as they walked towards them, obviously having another quarrel with the poor third year trailing behind them. Holland squints her eyes in focus as she tried to make out what the two were saying to each other.

"If it's already gone through so many people, why don't you just go and tell him yourself?" Holland snickers, Ron clearly wanted to talk to Harry, but was too stubborn and into their little fight to do so. Harry filled Holland in on what went down in their dormitory that night, even though Holland knew Ron wasn't happy about Harry being a champion and thinking he intentionally entered, Holland was surprised at how Ron behaved and reacted to the situation. Holland still couldn't believe it.

"He told me to piss off. I couldn't exactly do that, could I? Our beds are right next to each other." Holland recalled Harry saying to her earlier that day in that sarcastic tone he's basically owned at this point. Holland remained staring at the pair, waiting patiently to find out what they were there for.

"Ron, this is your problem. Not mine." Hermione whispers back, clearly not too keen on relaying a message for Ron. She was approaching Harry, the siblings quietly watching from behind her. Holland gave Ginny a sympathetic smile, knowing it must have been torture for the girl to just listen to the two bicker and not be able to say anything.

"Ronald would like for me to tell you," Hermione's tone wavering, clearly still trying to remember what she had been told to say. "that Seamus told him," Holland snickers, watching the witch appear helpless and unsure for once. "that Dean was told by Parvati that.. Hagrid's looking for you." She nods, seemingly relieved that she had finally said what she had to say. Holland who was listening, cocked her head to the side, clearly not understanding what she'd just heard.

"Did you get that?" She asked the boy encapsulated by the water plants that was surrounding him, the boy shook his head. Hermione stood there, waiting for Harry's response with an unsure smile on her face.

"Is that right?" Harry asks, Holland smiles once more. Harry really was such a sassy boy, most of her time with him, when he wasn't talking about You-Know-Who, he'd have that exact tone for almost anyone he'd be talking to. Holland then remembered seeing Harry meet another good friend of hers for the first time, Draco. It didn't exactly go too well, as he'd outwardly called Ronald as somebody from the wrong sort of people you'd like to be friends with, Draco offered his hand, and suggesting Harry befriend him instead as he knew the right sort of wizards and witches to be talking to. "I think I can tell the wrong sort out for myself, thanks." Harry sasses after giving Draco's hand a look instead of actually shaking it. What a king, Holland says to herself at the joyous memory of her friend embarrassing her other friend. Holland really loved Draco, she just knew she loved him better when he weren't to speak around people outside the house of Slytherin.

"Well you—what?" Harry seemed to be so caught up in this tiny rage for Ron, suddenly confused as he realized he didn't understand what Hermione had said, after all. Hermione looked mortified to say the least, scared to restate the train of names she'd just enumerated. She goes back to Ron, the two whispering again. The two argued for a bit, Holland no longer able to hear bits and pieces of their conversation like before. Hermione makes her way back to Harry, the girl clearly having lost her patience. Holland was now entangling her fingers in her hair, rubbing her temples after as the situation stressed her out.

"It's times like these where I realize that maybe I should have remained friendless." Holland jokes to Neville, the boy silently chuckling.

"Dean was told by Parvati that—" She sighed, "Please don't ask me to say it again." She gave up. "Hagrid's looking for you." She says sternly before turning to leave.

Harry, probably not able to handle not having the last word in the encounter, decided to ask Hermione to relay a message for him as well. "Well you can tell Ronald—" But he's clearly made a mistake, as Hermione angrily cuts him off.

"I'm not an owl!" She scowls as she faced him again, fed up with the two's immaturity. She began to walk away, tugging Ginny along with her, leaving Ron behind to give Harry a good, long stare before leaving himself.

"What do you suppose Hagrid wants to see you for?" Holland asks, thinking about the tournament. Hagrid was an owner and breeder of many sorts of creatures. Holland began to think about the race around Hogwarts with Hippogriffs.

"No idea." Harry says quietly, gnawing on his nails as he fell silent, deep in thought.

"It could be about the first task, you know." Holland tells him. She debated on whether or not she should tell Harry about her friendship with Cedric, but was too worried that it might make him even more anxious to do so. "Harry, I should let you know," She trails, not wanting to keep anything from the boy.

"Yeah?" Harry asks, wanting the girl to continue.

"You see, Diggory and I," Holland pauses as she notices the look of confusion Harry had given her. "Wow, I really haven't talked to you lot in ages, huh?" She mutters, realizing that it had been only Draco to completely understand and go through the entire process with her. "Draco and I had planned to prank him in the best, and worst way possible. We'll get to that some other time, I just really want to tell you what's going on right now." Holland rambles, eyeing Neville to see the boy being in his own world as he'd been the entire time they were in the lake. "So it began when I tried to pour slime on him, he knew and had the slime move on to me. That didn't exactly sit well with me, so Draco and I planned on having me as his useful little tutor in the tournament, nothing lethal of course! Just thought it'd be a great opportunity to make him look like a fool out there, is all." Holland breathes, her storytelling knocking the wind out of her, despite her summarizing.

"So I pranked him, making sure professors would see so that we'd both be punished and it worked. They think he and I need to spend time together without trying to murder one another, so we'd be completely wandless and paintings and ghouls are the ones to tell professors if we're actually doing so or not. So he and I have to spend time every day!" Holland feigns cheerfulness, as her plan would have been working, had not Cedric been the idiot to soil it with his love potion. "And going to detention for a week straight." She says. "But the fun hasn't started yet, nope." Holland shakes her head, cringing as she had begun to relive one of the most tragic days of her life, watching Peter Pettigrew transform back to a rat included. Harry was staring at her with a look of disdain in his face, as if he were offended by what he was hearing. Harry was known to pull such facial expressions, the boy was just simply confused.

"He tried to get back at me with a potion by pouring it in my flask, I didn't know what it was, then I'd very much fortunately given him a special chew that would turn mad spicy so he'd drink the water he'd just spiked." Holland says, ignoring Harry's face as he looked even more confused. "He tried to give me a love potion, drank it himself. I mean, I offered him my flask, which was a huge mistake. I'd rather see his potion backfire by him falling in love with himself, but seeing as the flask had come from me..." Holland trails off, knowing Harry would understand.

"So you're now friends because he's in love with you?" Harry asks, not impressed nor understanding what he's hearing. Holland thanked the heavens she'd talked to him and Hermione about this separately as she realized that explaining this to the two of them at the same time might have been even more chaotic.

"Oh, Merlin no. He and I are forced to spend time together, remember? I initially told him to back off until the potion wears off, that is until Hermione and I find out that the potion would wear off after 150 days."

"Merlin's beard, Holland!" Harry sat up straighter in surprise.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not the one who brewed it! Dane Oliver thought he'd made the draught of peace and read that more spoons of moonstone would be higher chances of it working. Speaking in love potion terms, each spoon of moonstone would be a total of 30 days of efficacy. The bloody idiot put 5!" Holland rants. "Imagine if he'd actually made the Draught of Peace, I'd probably be asleep for the rest of the bloody term!" Harry tried not to chuckle, keeping silent as he waited for her to continue on with her storytelling.

"I snuck into the kitchens for dinner one night because I couldn't exactly handle dinner knowing George was still upset with me," Harry's eyes soften. "And I saw Cedric—Diggory, I mean Diggory— there, as well. He'd been honest." Holland admits, remembering the night the boy had confided in her. "He was scared, not only for himself. But you, too, Harry," She tells him. "And I'm not going to lie, I kind of felt bad trying to continuously make the boy look bad when he'd already been going through so much with himself. So I offered to be of some kind of help. Actual, useful help this time." Holland finishes. Harry was silent for a moment, Holland not liking the tension while she waited for what the boy had to say. She stared out into the water again, deep in thought. How bizarre things have turned out for her in such a short amount of time. Was she to solve all of this by herself? Things seemed to become darker and darker, more and more difficult for a mere fifteen-year-old to solve on her own. Maybe this was the universe's practice for her. She's got ambitions to become an auror, after all. Maybe this was an exercise for critical thinking in critical situations.

"Does George know?" Harry asks, breaking Holland out of her trance as he, too was staring straight into the water, observing the small ripples caused by small insects landing on the surface here and there.

"Yes, he does. I told George that Diggory and I are trying to think of clues for the tasks." Holland answers before Harry turns to face her with a cheeky grin.

"No, does he know that you and Cedric are probably going to end up snogging every day now?" Harry teases, the question finally earning Neville's attention.

"You're joking. Cedric Diggory, Holland?" He asks in bewilderment, seeming to be impressed more than alarmed.

"No, Neville! Harry's just being a git." Holland whines, hitting Harry on the arm. Holland knew somewhere deep inside her that Harry had been hoping for some cliche love-story moment like this, it was perfect. Two people starting out hating each other, the tension being too much, and then end up snogging and dating. It was almost elementary. Holland had to remind him that they're all well over the age of 10, though.

"Think it's quite funny that you've spent all your time in Hogwarts trying to hex him, but it takes one late night conversation with him to completely change your mind! I knew you had something for him somewhere deep down inside that heartless cavern of yours." Harry says, laughing and appearing to be triumphant. Holland was unimpressed, to say the least.

"Whatever, Harry. Don't you have an acromantula hugger to meet up with?" Holland says, desperate to have the boy to leave. Harry began to look up at the sky and had noticed that it was becoming darker before getting a move on and tidying up his things, shoving a few books in his bag.

"Yeah, you're right. It's getting dark, I best be going." Harry says, hurriedly fixing up his things. Holland looked at him in confusion, surprised he was actually listening to her. She called Neville over, as the three should get back to the castle. "Wouldn't want you late for your date with Cedric, Miss Holland Avery Diggory!" Harry yells, teasing Holland as he began to run away.

"You are so dead, Harry James Potter!" Holland calls out after him, staying in place as she had no plans on leaving Neville behind.

"What was that all about?" Neville cluelessly wondered, to which Holland responded with a shrug.

-

"Hello there." Holland greets, still not used to talking to Cedric as if they were friends. Her walk to the windowsill that night was eerily quiet, students seemed to be tucked in their beds or simply enjoying their time in the common rooms as there were no longer any student out and about by the time of 8 in the evening.

"Hi." He greets timidly, visually aching to try and sit right next to Holland again. Holland noticed the longing in Cedric's eyes, she knew she needed to straighten things out for the two to be actually able to work with one another. She strode over to him, the smooth and thin material of her pajamas rubbing against her thighs as she walked and sat, with great distance, opposite to Cedric.

"Let's talk about house rules to make sure our little bonding sessions don't turn into peril." (A/N: I accidentally typed little boning sessions at first I can't breathe) Cedric behaving the way he did, was slowly beginning to earn Holland's trust. But even then, Holland couldn't help but still be careful and take precautions with the boy, not wanting to take any chances of any relapses from the potion and whatnot. To her surprise, the brown-haired boy before her seemed to be alright with what she had said.

"Alright. Lay it on me." Cedric smiles, looking mildly adorable in his Holyhead Harpies t-shirt and yellow and black bottom pajamas as Holland thought to herself.

"Now, you won't understand this right now," Holland breathes, knowing clingy Cedric would be in tears when she said this. "But we really do have to keep our distance." Cedric's smile slowly fades, but it was evident that the boy tried hard to keep it on. Holland figured that when this was all over, maybe he and her could be friends. To have that happen, she'll have to make sure that absolutely no mishaps happen while the boy's still intoxicated. It was an absurd thought, but certainly one that didn't hurt.

"Cedric," Holland winces, catching herself calling the boy by his first name. Keep it up, and he might just expect you call him sweetheart the next time you speak!, Holland tells herself. "Let's not make things personal." Holland tried to think up ways to explain. It wouldn't be best if she'd go to him saying, for 150 days, we shouldn't stand so close to each other because I know you'll want to just shove your tongue down my throat because you drank your own bloody love potion!, now, would it?

"Let's be professional! This is a serious tournament, a very dangerous one, at that! Let's just make sure we keep this very controlled, not at all emotion-involved, you know? So we could focus." Holland suggests. Cedric faced her now, letting his feet hang from the windowsill they were both sitting on.

"I understand. Good looking out, Holland." He says softly, his voice lacing with a tone that told Holland he wasn't happy. Holland felt uneasy, like she wanted to do something to make sure Cedric didn't remain upset for the rest of the night. But if she did, he'll just take it as another opportunity to make an advancement. Holland had to stay strong, and just as she said, to be professional.

"Anyway, Harry's out to meet Hagrid! Got me thinking, it did." Holland admits, rambling on to make Cedric forget about it. "I think the first task has something to do with magical creatures." She said.

"What, like a Hippogriff race?" Cedric teased, earning his very fist signature Holland Avery head smack.
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