Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

To avoid the inevitable barrage of curious questions from their classmates about what the packages on their backs were for, Hermione, Harry, and Ron got up very early in tacit understanding.

When they finally arrived at the Great Hall, they found the vast chamber nearly deserted. At the staff table, only Snape sat was eating quickly hunched over his plate. Meanwhile at the Gryffindor table, there were only the three of them sitting alone.

Harry glanced up at Snape with disgust. He was truly puzzled, even after all these years regarding how Professor Watson could possibly maintain a good relationship with such an unpleasant person. But Harry's malicious gaze, burning with years of accumulated resentment, seemed to trigger some sixth sense in Snape.

Snape who had been mechanically cutting his food into precise, identical pieces, suddenly froze mid-bite, his fork was suspended halfway to his mouth, and casted an expressionless yet somehow sharp glance in Harry's direction.

Before Snape could fully detect the contempt blazing in his eyes—a look that would undoubtedly earn him a week's worth of detention scrubbing cauldrons in the dungeons—Harry quickly lowered his head. He busied himself with the arrangement of crispy bacon strips on his plate, arranging and rearranging them with exaggerated concentration.

He was not afraid of Snape, but they were planning to visit Hogsmeade later to do something genuinely meaningful, and Harry didn't want their charitable mission disrupted by one of Snape's infamous grumpiness or retaliatory assignments.

The path to Hogsmeade, which had seen few travelers during the entire Christmas holiday, was now covered with a layer of partially melted snow and ice. One misplaced foot and the slush mixed with mud was enough to completely submerge their shoes and soak through their socks.

"We should have been smarter about this, shouldn't we?" Ron said breathlessly, his words forming small clouds in the freezing morning air as he finally emerged from the dense, snow-coated woods.

He paused shortly to observe the seemingly endless expanse of white-blanketed fields stretching toward Hogsmeade Village in the distance. Ron's collection of old clothes, hand-me-downs from his five older brothers had all been carefully wrapped and mailed back to The Burrow.

Having nothing at school to donate to the orphanage children, he had naturally volunteered to help Hermione carry her large parcels, though he was now visibly struggling under their weight.

"Hoo," He exhaled dramatically, his breath misting before him, "there is no need for us to take this miserable excuse for a road, right? The secret passage on the fourth floor behind the humpbacked witch statue would have been a far better choice, wouldn't it? We could have stayed warm and dry the entire way, avoided this blasted mud, and been there in half the time!"

"Oh!" Harry, who was also carrying a package with difficulty, shot Ron an exasperated glare, "Well said, Ron. Brilliant observation. The problem is you've reminded us just a bit too early, haven't you? Why didn't you wait until we were actually standing in Hogsmeade to point out this extraordinary insight?!"

Hermione, her body nearly disappearing within her thick winter cloak, listened to Harry and Ron's bickering with amusement. She turned her head to look at them as she giggled softly. Unlike them, she walked with ease, as Ron and Harry had chivalrously divided her parcels between themselves, so she was the most relaxed one.

Suddenly, the sound of crunching snow alerted them to the presence of others.

Two more students emerged from the edge of the slightly gloomy woods they had just crossed; their figures were gradually becoming clearer against the white background.

The pair walked hand-in-hand, oblivious to anything but each other. Something about their comfortable familiarity immediately attracted Hermione's attention. She narrowed her eyes against the glare of sun on snow and looked more carefully, then suddenly inhaled sharply, and exclaimed in a low voice.

"What's wrong?" Harry stopped abruptly, his body tensing with alertness. He turned his head to look back, his hand was instinctively reaching toward his wand pocket before his brain had fully processed the situation.

At first glance, however, his expression immediately transformed from vigilance to gloom.

Ron's curiosity was attracted by the strange reactions of Harry and Hermione. He turned his head to investigate, after a moment of recognition, he said casually, glancing sideways at Harry's suddenly stiff posture beside him,

"It's that fool Diggory and his dance partner from the Yule Ball, What's the name of that girl again?"

He knew that the girl walking alongside Diggory was also a student in the physical education class. But what puzzled Ron most was Harry's weird reaction. Rather than answering Ron's question about her name, Harry was now walking forward in silence at a pace much faster than before.

"Hey, wait up! What's gotten into you?" Ron shouted after him, his bewildered expression was telling that he was completely oblivious to the emotional undercurrents swirling around them.

"That girl is Cho Chang from Ravenclaw, a year above us," Hermione explained softly. After looking at Harry's back with sympathy, she discreetly tugged on Ron's sleeve, urging him forward. "Let's go, Ron. I really don't want to explain to them what these packages are for—"

But as is often the case in life, things have a way of developing contrary to one's wishes and planning. The moment Hermione, Harry, and Ron spotted Cedric and Cho strolling happily through the snow, the couple also became aware of the trio's presence on the path ahead.

Before Cho could place a hand on his arm or whisper a word of caution, the enthusiastic Cedric had already raised his arm in a friendly wave and called out with genuine happiness, "Hey, wait up!"

Cedric grasped Cho's hand more firmly and began running quickly forward through the snow, inadvertently dragging the slightly embarrassed Cho along with him. Her cheeks flushed pink, partly from the cold and partly from the awkwardness of the situation that Cedric seemed completely blind to.

He looked puzzled as to why the three Gryffindors had not responded to his cheerful greeting, but assuming they simply hadn't heard him over the muffling effect of the snow, Cedric quickened his pace further.

The packages strapped to Harry and Ron's shoulders hampered their movement, making a quick departure impossible. By the time Cedric's repeated shouts were just thirty feet behind them, even Harry couldn't plausibly pretend he hadn't heard the calls.

He reluctantly paused his steps and waited for Cedric to approach with a gloomy face. Making a point not to look directly at either of the approaching two, Harry instead pretended to have sudden fascination with the snow-covered landscape stretching into the distance, his eyes were focused firmly on a distant point on the horizon as if the couple were just a passing scenery.

"Oh, good morning—" After removing his mud-covered boots from a particularly deep snow pit with some effort and giving them a quick, ineffective kick against a nearby tree trunk, Cedric flashed his trademark winning smile and nodded warmly at the three Gryffindors.

He remained completely oblivious to Cho's increasingly unnatural expression beside him.

Ron simply shrugged in response to Cedric's greeting. He wasn't familiar with Cedric, and in fact the two had barely exchanged more than a handful of words throughout their entire time at Hogwarts.

Hermione glanced quickly at Harry and immediately recognized that she couldn't expect Harry to engage in cordial conversation with Cedric.

"Good morning, Cedric, Cho—"

"What are you all doing?"

Just as Fred and George had often described, sometimes Cedric was indeed very socially dull-witted. He didn't realize that the three people opposite didn't particularly want to talk to him. He still looked at Hermione, his handsome face wearing a bright smile. "What are you going to do... I mean, with these two enormous packages? They look quite heavy."

"Oh, um—" The awkward group began moving slowly forward again. After a moment of hesitation, Hermione responded with what she hoped was casual nonchalance, "They're just some old luggage. I'm going to mail them home because my trunk is getting too crowded. The school owls obviously can't handle such heavy packages, so I'm heading to Hogsmeade. The post office there can help solve this problem—"

The puzzlement between Cedric's brows disappeared at once. With a chivalrous impulse, he released Cho's hand and turned to Hermione attentively,

"Those packages look quite heavy for such a long walk." His concerned gaze swept between Harry and Ron, observing their already strained postures. After a brief moment of consideration, Cedric chose the more familiar of the two boys, "I can help you carry one, Harry—"

If it weren't for the fact that during the first round of the Triwizard Tournament, Hermione had secretly reminded him that the champions would face dragons, he would likely have failed the test spectacularly. This kind gesture was simply Cedric's way of repaying that debt of gratitude by helping Hermione and her friends.

However, Cedric did not expect that his enthusiasm would not be reciprocated at all. Harry's steps faltered and he avoided Cedric's outstretched hand. Facing the slightly caught off guard Cedric, Harry just mumbled without making eye contact, "No need—I've got it under control."

Harry's overreaction caused frowns to appear on everyone's faces, and Cedric looked increasingly embarrassed by the awkward situation he had inadvertently created.

"Oh, Harry can handle it just fine—" Only Hermione and Cho, the two girls, knew what Harry's indifference was about. Cho pursed her lips, a blush crawling up her cheeks, not knowing whether it was caused by annoyance or shyness.

Hermione sighed inwardly at the awkward scene, but outwardly showed a polite smile, and tried desperately searching for a way to change the subject. But even with her quick thinking, she couldn't think of what to say for a while, and could only ask awkwardly the obvious, "You two... um, are you also heading to Hogsmeade today?"

Ron's freckled cheeks suddenly puffed out comically, as if physically restraining himself from laughing at Hermione's unusually lame question—a question whose answer was obvious given their location on the only path connecting Hogwarts to Hogsmeade.

Fortunately, Cedric didn't seem to notice anything amiss. He gently took Cho's hand again and smiled with satisfaction and happiness.

"Yeah, we've got the whole day planned," Cedric explained enthusiastically. "Cho needs to visit Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop to purchase a new eagle-feather quill, and then we're planning to spend some time at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop together—"

"Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop?" Ron blinked repeatedly, genuine confusion appearing across his face. "Is there actually such a shop in Hogsmeade? I've never noticed it."

"It's in the narrow alley behind the Three Broomsticks—" Hermione, always ready with an answer to any question, replied almost automatically. "I overhead Lavender telling Parvati that place is suitable for couples dating. Ahem, I mean—"

The moment the words left her mouth, Hermione immediately realized that she had unintentionally twisted the knife in Harry's emotional wound.

She hurriedly attempted to backtrack, her words were tumbling out in a rushed attempt to minimize the damage, "Well, what I meant was, it's very quiet there, perfectly suitable for private conversations—you know, away from the usual Hogsmeade crowds. Very... practical, really."

Harry's expression tightened visibly at Hermione's explanation. Suddenly, he felt an almost overwhelming urge to simply remove the cumbersome package from his shoulder and toss it into the muddy ditch alongside the road—preferably with Cedric following closely behind it.

Meanwhile, when Ron heard Hermione's initial description of the tea shop, he seemed momentarily stunned, as if processing entirely new information. Then, he nodded thoughtfully, and his eyes were suddenly filled with an unmistakable eagerness to try.

The rest of their journey was truly torturous for nearly everyone involved. The small group walking together had different thoughts and emotions. Only Cedric, in his typical good-natured obliviousness, seemed unaware and didn't notice anything.

He chatted enthusiastically with Hermione about their recent training sessions in physical education class, describing in detail how Professor Watson had demonstrated a particularly complex defensive spell. Hermione could only respond through gritted teeth, forcing pleasantries while aware of Cho's increasingly cold gaze boring into her from behind Cedric's shoulders.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of awkward conversation, they reached the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

"Well then, see you all later—"

Cedric waved cheerfully at the trio and left in another direction, walking hand-in-hand with Cho.

Harry, who had had been silent throughout the entire uncomfortable encounter, couldn't resist stealing one final glance at Cho as she walked away. His supposedly subtle action, which he thought was hidden, was immediately detected by the perceptive Cho. The girl seemed a little startled and quickly turned her head to the other side.

Harry pursed his lips, instantly feeling dead inside.

"Why don't we—" Still staring after the disappearing figures of Cedric and Cho with curiosity, Ron's eyes gleamed with interest. "Why don't we stop by that Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop later? It might be interesting to see what all the fuss is about—you know, just to satisfy our curiosity."

"Come on, Weasley—" The emotionally drained Harry, his face as expressionless as a stone, abruptly turned and strode toward Honeydukes Sweet Shop.

Looking at his back, Hermione's eyes were filled with sympathy. After sighing, she pulled Ron, who looked rather disappointed at having his suggestion so firmly rejected, and trotted to catch up with Harry.

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