Author's Note: I edited every last chapter, so if you're a reader from the start, you might want to check it out, for any new readers, welcome aboard, just note that between this seventh chapter and the last lie years, so my style and ability to write has changed, hopefully for the better since then but I'll leave that up to you...

I can't promise you when I'll post the new chapter but I had this written and I thought, why not put it out here for the patient waiting :) Thanks for coping with my lateness!

Chapter Seven

Into The Blue

The first glimpses of spring reached Hogwarts Castle unexpected, in late February. It had been awful, London-ish, rainy weather and suddenly the clouds parted and the sun shone warm on the castle grounds, the lake and the forbidden forest.

Lily had her bare feet dangling into the still cold lake, sitting on a wide rock with books lying next to her and a book of blanks she jotted down notes into.

She ran her mind through the song of the mermaid once again: "Come seek us, where our voices sound, we can not sing above the ground, an hour long you have to look, to recover what we took"

And once again she was sure that this didn't hold a clue for how the Triwizard-Champions were going to even be able to look under water for a whole hour.

There surely had to be an answer and it was upsetting her that neither her, with her cheater's knowledge of the future to come, nor Cedric with one year of school ahead of her, had an idea whatsoever.

"Lily", she jumped at her name being called from the edge of the wood behind her, though she was momentarily happy when she recognised who's voice it was.

He looked stunning as always, responding to the sunshine in wearing short khaki-pants and a large brown hoodie. He was smiling from ear to ear as he leapt towards her and let himself fall down to the stone and kissed the back of her neck, which was free to the air with all the hair tied up into a messy knot.

"Good morning", Lily said cheerfully, enjoying the thrill of his touch rushing through her body right down into her feet.

"Anything new?", he was referring to the frustrating search for a solution to the Great-Lake-one-hour-underwater-problem, obviously.

"Surprisingly not", Lily sounded rightfully pissed off, "I don't get it, I've been through all the books. It makes no sense at all. How do they expect you to do this task, when there's no way to stay under water for so long?"

"There must be a way...but Lily...", he stroked her back gently and she heard him pull a smile.

"What now, Ced?", she was already ill-tempered with that bloody task and as much as she was happy to see him, he still could piss her off in a seconds notice. And now she hated, that he was laughing at her.

"Give it a rest. I don't even know why you are doing so much for me. I don't deserve a fourth of your time and effort"

Lily's features softened and she replied in a quiet smile: "You have no idea"

"Aren't you cold...you little catching-a-cold-magnet?", he was picking on her and pointing to her bare feet in the water. Apart from that she was appropriately dressed for early spring, long jeans, a sweater and a thick jacket.

"I'm fine", the hazel-eyed said and leant against Cedric who automatically stiffened to secure his balance, played a little with it and then corrected his position a bit so it was comfortable for both of them.

They used to sit like this always, in sweet unison, since the first conversations in mid winter at the lake and nothing of Lily's affection and positiveness about her fate being tied to his, had changed since then. Although she was non the less smarter about how this fate could turn out well.

A few days after Christmas, Cedric had written her a letter from home telling her about his break-up with Cho Chang.

She still reminisced most of what it said.

Dear Lily,

I hope you're not having a cold again (of course she had) and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I wish I could be with you, but you know...my father wants his family united in holiday seasons. He's going on and on about the tournament. I don't think he has the faintest idea how hard it really is.

I miss you here, if not having you close, just having someone with me who really understands me. You always get where I'm at. I just love how you don't need so many explanations, you just always know. I think I told you that before.

Anyway, I just wish you were here. (She had wished that, too...all alone on Christmas)

I talked to Cho yesterday. She came over for dinner and I told her I wanted to end it.

I said it was because of the Triwizard-Tournament and my N.E.W.T.s and all that. She believed me.

But I feel horrible for lying. It's better this way though, isn't it?

I asked her not to tell anyone. For both our sakes. She agreed because I think she knows about Rita Skeeter's extended research and that it could get ugly.

I still feel bad and not having you here to tell me it's all going to be okay doesn't help.

I miss you.

I hope to get away here earlier, I don't know if it will work out, but I might be able to come back before New Year's. (he didn't, due to Daddy's refusal)

Love,

Cedric

"Cedric", she breathed quietly.

"What?", he asked nibbing on her ear.

"Distract me. Tell me something"

"I'd rather ask you something", Cedric smiled.

"Go ahead then, as long as it keeps my mind off of that lake-mess", the next second she regretted having agreed to being asked every question, fearing having to lie again.

"Why weren't you with your family on Christmas?"

Damn.

"Um...Dad had business and my Mum went with him...to Japan", she answered and crossed her fingers mentally that he would buy it.

"Hmm", he sighed, "Don't you miss them?"

It crushed Lily like a tide wave. Of course she missed them. Every second. Cedric had distracted her for most of the time, keeping her head circling around him but every now and again she felt the pain like a thousand little stings in her heart. Just like it did when she was in her bubble, before she'd known her purpose in the past. Except that it was worse now.

She had been lying awake mostly through the nights when Cedric hadn't been there thinking either about losing him or thinking about her family and friends who were probably mad by now or even – which would be harder to take, if she was honest – already dealing with never seeing her again; moving on even.

She remained quiet for a while, not able to speak without weeping, she feared and didn't want to concern Cedric or make him conspicuous, but when she caught the worried look on his face and the silent question in his features, she dared to open her mouth again.

"I miss them like crazy", she spoke through her teeth, swallowing a sob down her throat, "it's like...I haven't seen them for so long, I have never been away from them. I have a humongous family and we're very close and now...it feels like I'm all alone"

The battle was lost. She was crying.

"Lily", he let go of her, only to turn her around to look at him. His face was drenched in her pain, mirroring it, as if feeling the same way.

He raised his hand and wiped away the thin line the tears had made down her face, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to upset you, I..."

"It's okay", she was still sobbing, "I just miss my Mum and I miss my Dad and all of them"

"Tell me about them, tell me how they are", he encouraged her, reaching for her hands and squeezed it lightly.

Lily couldn't manage to speak any more, she just clung to Cedric and cried, feeling horrible about making him the witness to her outburst.

"It's okay, just talk to me, tell me, Lily", he said calm and held her tighter, "Tell me about your mother"

"She's the best person in the world", she whispered into his shirt, "she is so funny and she always cares and I used to be mad at that, because she always told me to be careful and she reminded me of every single thing I had to do, as if I had no mind of my own but now I miss that because I really tend to forget things and I...I...I just miss her so bad and I want to talk to her, tell her about you but I can't and my father, he's...I can't describe it really, he is so strong, I can always count on him, he would always be there", her crying got less once she focused on telling Cedric about them.

"I remember when I was turning nine and I'd always wanted my birthdays to be super special and then it started to rain and everything seemed messed up...my dad took me to our garden and I got soaked, I was yelling at him, because I was getting wet and I was getting a cold out there and then he took my hand and everything turned around. When I opened my eyes again I was on an island. Can you believe it? He apparated me to a sunny island just to make me happy on my birthday"

"And your brothers? James and Al, right?", Cedric stroke her hair like the caring mother Lily missed and craved.

"James is a git. But he's great underneath it all, he's brave and honest. A lot like you in that aspect. He's always picking up fights though because he's extremely arrogant. I guess he just needs the right girl. And Al is about the shyest creature on earth, it's a miracle he even talks to people other than family and he somehow found himself a girlfriend that rarely shuts up. They are so happy together – You know, I always hated being the youngest, being with them picking on me all the time. Funny how you can even miss something like that"

"When will you be seeing them again?", Cedric asked comfortingly.

"At the end of the school term, I guess", Lily's throat was even dryer than before and now something else flew along in her voice that she hoped Cedric wouldn't catch.

"I can't wait to get to know them", he said and like on cue, Lily was again crying.

This was all so wrong, she thought when she nestled closer to him, pulling him even tighter, surprised that this was possible.

She just wanted to hold on to him and never let go, clinging to the wild idea that she could be with him forever if she just wanted it enough.

"Lily", Cedric muttered, "You're breaking my rips"

She loosened her grip on him and before she could notice anything else, she was drenched in a kiss, the sweet taste of his tongue mixed with her salty tears as his kisses became more forceful.

He felt her tension, trying hard to ease it and succeeding a bit doing what he did.

"I'm here for you", he said to her when he paused the kissing at once, leaving her wanting more, "I will not leave you"

"Don't say that", she sighed bitterly and buckled away from him. Her body didn't like it, it felt like it was pushing itself back to the object of its desire, but Lily fought it, keeping the distance to get her message clear.

"Why shouldn't I? I won't leave you", he said with more emphasis on every single word.

"You can't know that. There are always reasons to leave...or to stay behind", her eyes filled with tears yet again.

"What are you saying? Do you want to leave me behind?", he looked puzzled and even a little hurt.

"I'm saying we both can't know that. I might have to go somewhere, where you can't follow me or would not want to follow me and I could never force you to do something you don't want to do"

"Lily, you're being all cryptic. What is it?", now he seemed angry.

"We can't know what will happen eventually. I want it all to be nice and I want, I need to be with you, I want us to be together but no one knows, if we can", Lily said resolutely, "That's all I'm saying"

She was also lying. She knew that they couldn't be together.

Cedric remained silent for a while until both their self-control crumpled and they held each other close again.

"I don't want to leave you", he whispered after some time and kissed her, "ever"

When she went to sleep that night she was exhausted, exhausted from her emotional explosion, from the unsure future of her relationship and from fighting with Cedric over something they both agreed on.

She dreamed weird dreams and woke up soaked in sweat several times during the night. She saw her parents and her brothers laugh happily together as if she had never been there, she saw Rose and Corey walking around the Burrow, messing around as if their little Lily had never existed and she saw Cedric lying dead on the ground with a black cloaked monster with red eyes leaning over him.

When she sat up straight in bed for the one millionth time, she got up and wandered down into the common room, where the flames still danced around in the fire place.

The wide couch was cosy as always but it couldn't calm Lily down. She had manoeuvred herself once again to a place where she saw no getting out.

Given she could save Cedric, how was she going to get back? Did she have to stay here? She didn't want that...unless...if she stayed, she could stay with Cedric. But she would never see her family again. And Voldemort was on the verge of returning, dark and difficult times lay ahead and no one could be sure to survive them.

Restless and incredibly tired, Lily got up again, wrapped in the blanket she took from her bed and made her way up the stairs. The dorm was silent, except of the slow and regular breathing of Camille and Tara and Janice's babbling in sleep.

She never shuts up, Lily thought in slight amusement as she let herself fall onto the hard mattress. Absent mindedly she reached for the lamp on her bed-side-cupboard and she gasped, when her fingers touched a weird surface. She reached to grab it and found that she had the little leather-covered book, that she was supposed to give to Hagrid, in her hands.

Suddenly curious, she reached for the lamp again and this time managed to turn it on, not taking her eyes off of the mysterious book.

It was tiny and it held no title, no description on the top. Lily supposed it was a book about something concerning Hagrid position as Ground Keeper but couldn't resist to take a look.

Her breathing ceased the moment the written words sank into her tired brain.

Danger, Time Turning is a risky, mystified aspect of uncommon magic, only use it when well trained in sourcering and on your own behalf.

Lily shook her head in disbelieve. That was it! That was her ticket home. Frantically, she turned the pages, trying to find a spell that she was able to do.

Time Portal

In order to produce a fully functional Time Portal, that will get you to each and every time in the future, a wide space between two fixed abutments, two walls or two trees for example, is needed.

You need to mark the abutments with two gallons of the following potion:

1 ounce of pure wizard blood

2 ounces of liquidated Bertwurtz sprouts and

4 ounces of rattle snake saliva

(the potion is ready once hot steam elopes from the pot)

After marking you have to say the following spell:

Protinus Temporis

In between your abutments fog should rise, this fog is your time travelling portal.

Walk through it, speaking the correct date, place and time of your destination.

After your passage, the gate will close itself and can not be produced again at this place.

That sounded easy. The ingredients weren't so hard to get, they had rattle snakes in the Forbidden Forest, she could tell Professor Snape something to make him give her the sprouts – he was still, if not more than before, fond of her – and she was a pure blood, so she could use her own blood for travelling. Though one full ounce seemed a bit much but Lily didn't have much of a choice.

But this was all weird, she suddenly thought, why would Ron give Fred this book and then take it to Hagrid? What was that about? Had someone else made this fag she stepped through? For themselves and she just slipped in by accident? Someone who knew Hagrid or Ron or both?

Wondering on, she eventually fell asleep, the book, closed and inconspicuous, clutched to her side.

The next morning was chillier than the days before, at breakfast, Lily was looking out for Cedric but he was no where to be seen. She swallowed down her cereals and stood up from the table, having sat there not more than fifteen minutes.

"Lily?", Tara said bewildered, "Are you walking out on us again? Remember we have an exam in History of Magic coming today, we wanted to learn together...do you recall?"

"Yes, I do. And I will be there, Tara, I just need to go now. I have to...well, find someone", Lily felt bad for not telling them about Cedric and herself, but it was simply too risky.

"It's all right, Lilz", Janice entered the conversation, elbowing Tara, "we're just saying that we miss you around"

A sorrowful smile spread on Lily's face as she walked away from them, backwards: "I'm sorry, really"

When she turned around headed for the Hufflepuff dorms, she felt even worse because it occurred to her yet again, that there were more people to be left behind, when she returned to her future.

Lily didn't know when this urge to be with Cedric at any time started building inside of her but it was growing steadily, it was almost unbearable being away from him for too long, not knowing if he was okay. And never the less, not being around him was wasting the time they had together and that pained more than worries or jealousy.

On her way into the cellar she wondered why Cedric hadn't been there or if he was just late and if she was completely overreacting and bugging. She hesitated and considered walking away again, but she couldn't.

The still life protecting the Hufflepuff entrance was hanging there innocently and the snorts of its only inhabitant, the round waisted peasant, filled the silence of the deserted corridor.

Lily remembered their first encounter, when she wanted him to get Cedric out of bed in the middle of the night and Lily felt bad from having to wake him once again.

"Young lady, it's the Diggory boy again, right?", he asked, his voice still low from sleeping.

"As always, yes", Lily answered. They were common now, Lily stood there quite frequently asking for Cedric to come out.

The peasant stood up noisily and disappeared out of his frame, he wasn't angry at her any more, they'd been through it too often.

Only half a minute later the door swung open and there stood Cedric, yawning and smiling at Lily, who hoped that this meant he wasn't mad at her any more from their fight the previous night.

"Hey", he smiled, looked around quick to make sure they had no audience and then kissed her briefly onto her forehead, "you okay? You look worried"

"You weren't at breakfast", Lily pointed out wryly.

"No...I was just coming. Lily, you're confusing me. First you say you want to leave me behind and now you check on me as if I was trying to walk out on you", he didn't seem sour at all, it was just a statement.

"I'm not trying to walk out on you", she answered him helplessly, "I was just saying. Can we not talk about this any more?"

Silence filled the corridor yet again and Lily sighed quietly at Cedric's flawless but elliptical expression.

"I don't want you to walk away from me", Cedric said in his most silky tone and Lily melted at the spot.

"Me neither", she was telling the truth.

"Then, we don't have to talk about it any more", Cedric said and smiled, taking her by the hand to walk her down the corridor only to let go off her, when they heard steps coming through to them.

A short girl, probably in year three passed the two shooting heavy glances at Cedric and blushed severely, when Cedric grinned at her.

"Don't look so smug", Lily muttered.

They crossed the entrance hall and because it was already crowded with people rushing for their classrooms they held a greater distance than before, with Cedric a few steps ahead of Lily, who almost missed what he said when he turned around to her.

"Are you coming to see the Quiditch match?", he asked as if she was just someone to have that kind of small-talk with.

"Um...yeah sure...I'm going to sit in the first row", she joked back just as small-talk-ish and made her way to her Divination-class with Professor Trelawney.

The Quiditch match was uneventful as ever but for the first time ever, Lily felt excited, with Cedric catching the snitch and everyone celebrating him, she was proud and even though she couldn't say it out loud, she was happily bragging in her head; That's my boyfriend, that's my boyfriend...

Due to the secrecy of their relationship, Cedric's greeting as he passed her on the way back to the castle was curt and almost indifferent, but she caught his wink and new they would be seeing each other soon.

Then she saw Snape take on the same path up and thought of the things she wanted to ask him.

"Professor Snape", she said and he stopped and turned to see who had spoken, "here"

He found her and waited for her to catch up, waiting for her to speak.

"I was wondering if you could get me two ounces of liquidated Bertwurtz sprouts for a potion I want to try", she said happily and hoped innocently.

Snape furrowed his brow slightly, "To which purpose, Bertwurtz is very rare in this particular region"

"Just this one potion...uh", Lily said and had to think fast, "Er, Professor Snape, you have to promise to not tell anyone"

Now, Snape also raised an eyebrow, additionally to the furrowed brow.

"See, I'm trying out some of my own potions", Lily said on a whim and tried to look sheepish enough so he would believe she thought it was embarrassing to try her hand on her own potions.

Snape looked at her for a moment and the nodded curtly, "I will provide you with what you need, I think more students should show the effort you're continuously showing"

"Thank you, Professor Snape", Lily said happily and then bid her farewells to him.

Later by the lake at nightfall, at their usual meeting point, Cedric met her radiantly.

"Lily", he almost yelled as he ran towards her, "I found a way to take on the task"

Lily smiled brightly and kissed him as hello, "How?"

"Fleur slipped up", he said, "After the Quiditch game, she came up to me and we started talking about the task and she said something about having a hard time practising with the 'stupide bubble', so I checked a spell-book for impregnating whatever gadgets and there is a tiny sub-chapter in face-bubbles, with which you can easily stay under water for however long you want"

"That's great", Lily exclaimed and flung herself into his arms, "Now, nothing can go wrong"

"No, nothing at all", Cedric said and picked her up from the ground, spun her in a circle and only put her on down her feet to kiss her.

Their irregular meetings continued on until the night before the second task where she agreed to not seeing him one night because he had to be well rested the next day.

Lily on her part couldn't sleep at all, she wasn't so worried for him to fail the task, because she already knew that he wouldn't but she wondered once again how she would keep him from entering the maze. Time was running out on her and she could feel it. Between the second and the third task only lay a month: one month. It was all the time she had left, she had to work, fast.

The day of the task flew past around her, after lunch every one took the boats to three platforms in the sea and Lily boarded the third, where most of her Gryffindor friends and Cedric of course were.

Their communication remained quiet and subtle, through looks and gestures, she could see that he was worried but she managed to throw him an encouraging smile shortly before he, Krum and her aunt Fleur followed the opening shot and jumped gracefully into the water, seconds before Lily saw her father stumble in after them and reappearing in a great dive from the water to everyone's astonishment; he actually had fish-feet.

This, for the first time within the last two days, made her smirk and then she felt his piercing stare on her.

"Miss Potter", he said so that only she could hear.

"Professor Dumbledore", she answered him dutifully.

"Now all this time had passed and you haven't been searching me out to find out why I am not helping you to get back to your time", he said, straightforward, not waiting to say what he wanted to, "I can not keep from being irked"

"Remember how you said that I was here for a reason, maybe?", she said quickly and quietly, seeing Barty Crouch approach them, "I found the reason"

Dumbledore smiled knowingly and turned over to Crouch who told him about Fleur, who was getting out of the water with a defeated look, that Lily had never seen on her aunt before.

"What eez going to 'appen wiz Gabrielle?", she could hear her faintly with her still heavy French accent that had later lessened through the years of living with Bill Weasley.

Lily turned back her eyes to the lake and then, sooner than she had anticipated, Cedric hit the surface with Cho Chang at his side.

So this was the treasure they had to retrieve from the bottom of the lake. Funny enough the Triwizardian comity had not noticed that they'd picked the wrong treasure for Cedric but seeing that no one was supposed to know about them this was a good sign, showing that no one indeed knew about their blooming relationship.

Still, she couldn't keep from waving frantically at him, he'd done it and he was the first to have completed the task, he won!

Of course she'd known, although dimly, she could've been mistaken, remembering falsely that he'd won the second task but now she was sure, he had won and she had helped.

As he got out of the water, Cho dripping and cold behind him, she grinned at her and winked yet again, both, sworn to silence but still united in this instant in their triumph. It had taken many sleepless nights and over the course of the task at hand, they'd fallen in love and without realizing both their worlds had changed by becoming one.

For Cedric, Lily knew, everything was perfect now, for her it was a great moment but it wouldn't be long until she would have to start worrying again.

And when they heard the next day about Barty Crouch being murdered, Lily knew that this was her very own Quest drawing to a close.

Now, the only thing that mattered was Cedric, her Cedric and to keep him breathing, living.

Nothing else counted and Lily felt her own life focus it's whole entity around this purpose and for the first time in her life, she felt really and thoroughly scared for her own.