The Last Fight

“Jennifer, are you sure this will be safe?”

“Yes Sarlanda, it’ll be fine. Like I said, it’s got all the same enchantments as the Burrow, and I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen any Death Eaters breaking into there yet.”

Sarlanda frowned at me as she stacked some of my books onto the couch. “Jennifer… do you really think that’s going to stop Lance? I mean, I’m surprised he hasn’t already found you.” I sighed. “Don’t give me that, Jen. This could be what he’s been waiting for. We both know you’re not as well protected with Cedric. No offense to him.”

My jaw tensed up. “Sarlanda, I’m perfectly safe with Cedric, thanks. We’ve got this. As for Lance, yes, he’s strong, but he’s also been lying low, and since he’s under Voldemort’s orders, I doubt he has a lot of free time.” If I was going to make any changes about how I thought about Cedric, then I had better start sticking up for him. “Besides, Cedric is a great wizard. It’s not like he needs a baby sitter.”

“Fine. But I still don’t agree with it.”

“You never had to.”

“You’re a stubborn git.”

“So are you.”

We both smiled a bit and continued cleaning.

I have no clue how my things had become so spread out over the course of a week. I found several books under the couch, three socks in the couch, and at least four of my shirts in with her laundry. We ended up just using Accio to collect all my things, and Sarlanda made them pack neatly into my trunk, something I’ve never been able to accomplish.

“You’d think I was going back to Hogwarts,” I chuckled as I shoved the trunk lid closed.

“What about Fiona?” Sarlanda asked, but I shrugged.

“She’s delivering something for me. I’m sure she can find me.”

“Alright. Let’s head out, then.”

I gripped my trunk handle in one hand, Fiona’s bird cage in the other, Sarlanda gripped my arm, and we Disapperated to the exterior of Cedric’s building.

He was waiting for us at the entrance. “I’ll take that,” he said, taking my trunk from me. I nodded gratefully, trying to catch my breath. I hadn’t even walked that far, dragging the trunk behind me, and I was already having problems breathing. I made it to the end of the hall where the door to the flat was, but Sarlanda had pulled Cedric aside and were having a conversation that I apparently wasn’t privy to. Finally, Sarlanda left and Cedric joined me, pulling out his wand with his free hand in order to open the door.

“What was that about?” I asked, noting the look of mild irritation on his face.

“Just… ugh, forget about it.”

We got inside and he deposited my trunk. I had just enough time to set down Fiona’s cage before Cedric’s hand on my face pulled me into a kiss. He kissed me breathless, and when we broke apart, it took me a moment to remember what was going on.

“Seriously though. What did Sarlanda want?”

He pressed his forehead to mine and sighed. “She just, she doesn’t think you’ll be safe here. She doesn’t think I can protect you, or that the flat is properly charmed, or—”

I cut him off with a quick kiss. “Don’t worry about her. We both know it’ll be fine. She just needs to figure that out for herself.”

He smiled and nodded. “Alright. Yeah. Thanks.”

I looked around and saw that Cedric still had several boxes lying around. In fact, it hardly seemed like he had touched them at all.

“Cedric?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you even tried unpacking yet?”

“It’s only been three days!” he cried out, attempting to defend himself. “And besides, I was… I was waiting for you.”

“Uh-huh,” I teased, and we got to work.

We sorted through all the boxes first. In the box labeled “Furniture” had a fair amount of doll-sized furniture that we had to make big again. Cedric took to doing the charms while I sorted through all the boxes and then my trunk. The single bookshelf was placed in the living room and was overflowing with books, multitudes of potion ingredients piled on top, broomsticks leaning against the side on the right and cauldrons stacked on the left. Our clothes were shoved into the drawers of the small dresser, his clothes occupying much more space than mine. I hung up our robes in the small closet and continued on to the kitchen, where we were severely lacking in both cooking supplies and food. I sighed and promised to go to Gingotts tomorrow to exchange some gold for Muggle money and shop.

After a few hours, everything was at least out of the boxes, and I was sitting on the couch reading a Muggle novel to take a break when I smelt something burning. I jumped up and pulled out my wand, running for the source of the smell. I sprung into the kitchen only to find Cedric fighting a flaming pot of pasta.

“Aguamenti!” I said, extinguishing the flaming pot. Cedric panted a little and set the pot on the counted.

“Thanks Jen.”

“What were you doing?” I asked, lowering my wand. Now only if my heart rate would go down as fast.

“Um, trying to make dinner…” he said, flustered. I shook my head and looked into the pot to see black, crispy noodles.

“Okay. Here, just let me…” Cedric merely sat down at the kitchen table while I started all over.

I was practically starving by the time everything was ready. I set our food down and began wolfing down the steaming pasta and meaty sauce. “You’d think you never get fed,” Cedric chuckled, twirling some pasta on his fork.

“Being homeless will do that to you.” I finished off my plate of food. “I need to teach you how to cook, otherwise you might kill yourself.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, grinning. Cedric finished his own food and took my plate. “You cooked, I’ll clean,” he offered, and I smiled.

“Sounds like a plan.” I headed for the bathroom and changed into my tank top and pajama pants. I was so ready for bed. Exhaustion seemed to have finally caught up with me. I lay down onto our freshly made bed face-first, still sort of overwhelmed with what exactly my decision to move in with Cedric really entailed.

Cedric walked in, yawning. I kept my face in the pillow while he changed, and didn’t look up until I felt him lay down next to me.

I looked up and smiled. He returned it, and asked, “Well? Are you glad you moved in with me?”

“I don’t really know yet. But at least I’m not homeless anymore, so that’s what counts.”

He smirked. “Oh, I don’t think you’ll regret it at all.” He got under the covers and pulled me close, kissing me for a long moment. “Goodnight, Jen.”

“Goodnight, Cedric.”

-

An extremely bright light filled the room, waking us up at some time in the middle of the night. Kingsley’s lynx stood there, and his deep voice spoke from it. “Jennifer, Cedric, we need you at the coast now. Death Eaters are attacking, and they have Giants.”