Chapter Text
Thirty-Five:
Cedric received a letter the next morning from what was perhaps the most prim owl that he’d had ever seen. Even Cesaria commented on the bird’s unusually prissy posture as she offered it a slice of her bacon.
Upon inspecting the back of the letter Cedric immediately recognized the neat, spider-like script, a sharp PW scrawled on the back.
Keeping his expression neutral Cedric slipped the envelope into the inner pocket of his robe. Weasley seemed sensible enough so it was unlikely that he would put any information pertaining to Harry’s safety in a message sent by owl post, but Cedric thought it better safe than sorry.
Thankfully no one seemed particularly interested in the letter, far too distracted by the unusually snooty owl.
“So Cedric,” piped up one of Hufflepuff’s (technically former) beaters, Dawley. “Be honest, what’s going on with you and Chang?”
At the mention of Chang, the entire table in comical union turned their heads towards the Ravenclaw table. Chang could be seen whispering furiously to Marietta Edgecombe, sending Cedric surreptitious glances every few moments.
Upon catching Cedric’s stare, she froze momentarily, before looking determinedly away.
This was a new development that Cedric had only peripherally noticed, far too busy thinking about Harry to give it too much attention. It was apparent the girl didn’t remember their ‘clandestine’ encounter at the ball, or the rumor mill would have been churning with the news, but clearly there was some remnant of it somewhere in her mind, as she suddenly seemed rather off-put by Cedric.
Just as well. Took the stupid bitch long enough to figure out he didn’t want anything to do with her.
Still, with all this mental energy being focused on getting Harry to like him again, he’d not devoted any time to figuring out how to address his and Cho’s sudden rift.
Thankfully, he was rather good at lying on the spot these days.
He heaved a sigh, painting a slightly disheartened expression on his face for effect. “I... would rather not get into it. We had a bit of a spat is all.”
“A spat?” questioned an upper year girl, a few seats away from Dawley. “But, you two seemed to be having so much fun at the ball. When was this spat?”
“Well, Chang seemed to be having fun.” said another of Cedric’s former teammates, Cadawaller. “Diggory looked a little out of it when I saw him.”
Cedric was simultaneously touched and concerned that Cadawaller knew him well enough to determine his mood. He really needed to work on his masking. Perhaps he ought to practice in the mirror this evening...
Jona, the snake, felt the need to add his two cents, eyes glinting gleefully at the sudden inquisition. “Yes, you did seem a little down, Ced’. What was the matter? You were so excited that you managed to snag the lovely Chang as your date, after all!”
“I sure was.” Cedric smiled through gritted teeth, delivering a swift kick to Jona’s shin under the table. “But, it became apparent to me pretty quickly that I wasn’t really Chang’s first choice for that event.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” questioned Dawley, looking rather indignant. “You’re practically the King of the school at this point! What better choice than you?”
Cedric resisted the urge to puff up with pride, rather fond of the image of being the King of Hogwarts. Instead, he ducked his head modestly. “You don’t have to flatter me, Dawley. I know I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. I just wish she’d turned me down if she was going to talk about another guy the whole night.”
It rather pained Cedric to play the part of the spurned, pining, lover, especially over Chang of all people. But, he knew that if he played his cards right, he would come out of this looking as kind and gentle as he needed people to believe he was.
“That’s ridiculous!” snapped the upper year girl. “It was Potter, wasn’t it? She spent the whole night pining after Potter, didn’t she?”
Cedric grinned internally, they were falling for it hook, line, and sinker. “It’s- well, it’s not my business to tell. The person she was interested in didn’t know, so please don’t direct any anger at er... whoever you think it is.” he noticed a few people turning their incensed gazes away from the Gryffindor table at his request. “And don’t be angry at Cho either!” he added hastily, having to fight down a laugh at the sight of their skeptical expressions. “I’m serious! She was just trying to catch his attention. We... worked it out after the ball and agreed to, you know, leave it be, I suppose. No hard feelings.”
At Cedric’s explanation his spectators looked even angrier, much to his glee. They all of course agreed to leave Chang alone, but Cedric was quite certain that by the end of this week her reputation would be in shambles.
“You’re a complete arsehole.” commented Jona offhandedly as he piled yet another stack of pancakes onto his plate.
Cedric simply shrugged in response, holding back a grin. What a great start to his day.
He left breakfast somewhat early after that, sequestering himself off in an alcove to take a glance at the letter.
The Three Broomsticks next Hogsmede weekend.
Well, it was certainly concise. Cedric presumed that meant that Weasley wanted to set up a meeting. He thought it a bit presumptuous to make plans without consulting Cedric first, but he needed the information Wealsey could provide, so he would not complain.
Sighing, Cedric burned the note and decided he’d show up a bit early to Arithmancy.
Though he still had not recasted the Tempernance spell, he’d managed to reclaim a bit of mental clarity. Now that he had a goal in mind it was a little bit easier to focus, and honestly after multiple days of near constant jerking off he was a little afraid he may actually injure himself.
He’d given some thought on what he would say to Harry, but still wasn’t sure exactly how to corner him, the boy was clearly avoiding Cedric, much to his chagrin. Cedric knew that the Gryffindor had a free period today, so he was considering skipping Transfiguration in order to flag him down. The real issue was getting Harry alone though. If it was just the frizzy little muggleborn that always stuck around he’d likely be able to separate him, but if it was ‘Ronald’ there would be some trouble.
However, at the thought of ‘Ronald’ Cedric glanced over at the desk to his right, remembering that this was yet another class that Cedric shared with the Weasley twins (surprising given their rather underachieving track records). Fred (or maybe it was George) noticed his stare almost immediately and sent him a cheeky little wave.
Professor Vector still had yet to begin the lesson, too preoccupied debating with Adrian Pucey as per usual, so Cedric took the opportunity and waved back, motioning the redhead a bit closer.
“Wotcher, Diggory.” said the boy, leaning his freckled face across the aisle. “Alright then?”
“I’m well, thank you.” Cedric replied politely, straightening up in his seat to buy him a bit of time to phrase his request. He’d always found himself the slightest bit uncomfortable about the Weasley twins; they were far too chaotic to predict and Cedric did not much like the feeling of not knowing what would happen next. They could occasionally be manipulated and Cedric had done so successfully previously before, but he generally felt they were better off avoided when possible.
“I’m well, thank you~” Came a teasing, overly posh voice to his left. It seems he had attracted the other twins' attention as well, who was now once again encroaching on Cedric’s personal space. “Positively, charmed.” he continued in the same tone, slinging the presumptuous arm of Cedric’s shoulder.
“Indubitably spiffy!” Chimed in the other with a wide grin, seizing Cedric’s other shoulder.
Cedric resisted the urge to sigh; it was astounding that Percy hadn’t murdered either one of them yet.
“Can I ask a small favor?”
They paused in their teasing to consider him, their eyes equally skeptical.
“Depends on the favor.” said the one on the left, his expression much more serious than their usual lackadaisical smugness. “Are you still trying to get back into Harry’s good graces?”
The one on the right chimed in, keeping his voice low as more students filed into the classroom. Thankfully Pucey was still loudly waxing poetic about the merits of a base eight number system to an unimpressed Professor Vector.
“If so, why? What do you want from him?”
Cedric really wished he could go back and curse himself for losing all his self control lifting the Temperance spell. He’d completely ruined any trust he may have garnered from these two in the span of a few minutes.
“Asking Cho to the ball was a mistake, I realize that now. I just want to apologize to Harry. I... I admit I knew that he was harboring feelings for her and still went behind his back to ask her out.”
The twins actually looked vaguely confused at his explanation, glancing at each other before looking back at him, eyebrows furrowed.
“That’s not... a crime, Diggory.” said one of them.
“Yeah,” agreed the other. “You snooze, you lose. If Harry thought he had a chance with Chang he should’ve asked her first. You shouldn’t apologize to him for that.”
“Is that what you meant by getting him to like you again? We thought you’d like... I dunno, bullied him or something.”
Cedric was appalled at the very concept. “Of course not! We’re friends!”
“Alright. Then you don’t need to apologize. Harry’s a reasonable bloke. He may still be a bit angry right now, but he’ll cool off.”
“Definitely. No chance he’ll hold this against you mate, just give him some time.”
While Cedric was glad that he was so easily able to win the twins favor again, this conversation wasn’t really taking him in the direction he needed to go. He didn’t have time to let Harry cool off; he needed him now. He didn’t really want to admit that he wanted to give Harry intel on the tournament as cheating implications could potentially be used against Cedric, or even Harry, but the twins seem like they wanted the best for Harry overall, so he’d have to take that risk.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of time.” He beckoned them even closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. “I need to speak to him before the next task. His safety may depend on it.”
The twins eyes widened at this, understanding dawning on their face, before morphing into a look of determination.
“We get you now, mate.”
“What do you need?”
-0v0-
“Diggory.”
They stood on the wooden bridge that overlooked the Black Lake, bathed in the afternoon light, snowdrifts tangling in their hair.
Harry looked as resplendent as ever, even with the slightly cold, cautious expression adorning his face. His breath came out in little clouds, and his scarf was settled sweetly just under his chin.
As usual, Cedric wanted to reach out and touch. But now, with his self-imposed chastity no longer clouding his perception, Cedric finally understood exactly why he wanted to touch Harry and how he wanted to touch him.
There likely should be some shame, but Cedric simply couldn’t bring himself to feel it when Harry looked so tempting in front of him.
“Fred and George said you needed to speak to me?” The boy’s tone was a slightest bit impatient, no doubt irritated with Cedric’s lack of response.
“I- Sorry. Yes.” Cedric briefly considered throwing himself off the bridge to spare himself of this useless stuttering. “The second task. Um- I... have you made much progress there?”
“I’m... working on it.” admitted the boy with an uncertain shrug. “Still trying to decipher the egg.”
Cedric nodded, fighting to not show his excitement on his face; this was going fairly well. His plan would have been ruined if Harry had already cracked the egg. “Do you know the prefect’s bathroom on the fifth floor?”
“Yes.” nodded Harry after a moment’s contemplation. “It’s near the professor’s quarters, right?”
“That’s right.” Cedric agreed, vaguely surprised that Harry actually knew where it was. “It’s not a bad place for a bath.” He paused, and leaned in conspiratorially, doing his best not to do anything unsettling, like take a sniff. “You should bring your egg there tomorrow night and... mull things over in the water. The password is ‘Pine Fresh.’”
Judging by the expression on the boy’s face, his attempt to not come off as creepy had not been all that successful. Despite this, he responded politely, if a bit awkwardly. “Alright. Thanks.”
They just sort of stared at each other, neither seeming to know what to say. All of Cedric’s charm seemed to disappear when he was around Harry and it seemed to be even worse without the Temperance charm to hold his less than savory thoughts at bay; all he could think about was how much he wanted to put his hands on Harry and his lips and his tongue and hi-
“Was there anything else?”
“I should apologize!” he blurted out in a tone loud enough it caused Harry to jump. He continued in a much more even voice. “For the ball. For- for Chang.”
Harry shrugged, turning to look out towards the lake. “It’s nothing to apologize for.” he admitted begrudgingly. “You asked her first and she said yes. Only fair. Besides, I don’t even know if she actually would’ve wanted to go with me anyway...” he trailed off, looking a bit forlorn, before he shook his head. “Whatever. Bottom line, I can’t blame you for asking the girl you like to the ball.”
“I- well-” Cedric could feel himself unraveling, reaching up to pull at his hair in a manner that was no doubt unbecoming. He didn’t like Harry looking like that. Especially over Chang. “You’re too good for her Harry! You- She’s not what you think she is.”
Harry looked briefly taken aback by Cedric’s frantic ardor, but he nodded sympathetically after a moment. “Yeah, I heard about her... treatment of you at the ball. I’m sorry about that. It was unkind of her.”
He brought his hands up to wring his scarf absently and Cedric felt the keen desire to reach out and warm those fingers that were painted pinkish at the knuckles from the cold. “You’re a good guy, Cedric. I’m sorry for giving you the cold shoulder. I was just... jealous is all.”
Cedric smiled at the imploring look on Harry’s face and permitted himself the luxury of reaching out to place a gentle hand on his arm.
“You never need to apologize to me, Harry.”
-0v0-
Cedric’s willpower lasted all of 10 minutes after his meeting with Harry before he convinced himself that he should be present when Harry visits the Prefects Bathroom.
It makes sense, really. Harry would be there after curfew, probably, so he should be around just in case there’s... an issue. Like if a professor, or another Prefect stumbles upon the boy. Sure, there was the invisibility cloak, but Harry could... trip or something. Whatever. Who cares?! Cedric needed to be there. For Harry’s own good!
And that was why he was currently disillusioned and crouched atop the toilet in one of the bathroom stalls, one that was conveniently out of order. It had perhaps been a bit overkill to make his way over there the moment classes let out, but Cedric couldn’t be sure when Harry would decide to stop by. But, after nearly 2 hours of crouching uncomfortably in the stall, Cedric’s back was screaming for relief. He was thankful that no one had decided to use the room that evening as that surely would have been an exceedingly awkward experience.
It was just when Cedric was starting to think that Harry wasn’t coming after all that he heard the door swing open.
Cedric felt his heart leap with excitement, pressing his face up to crack in the stall door, desperately scanning the room for any sign of Harry. He nearly jumped when the boy suddenly appeared near the edge of the giant, pool-like tub. He’ll never get used to that cloak.
His eyes caught a glint of gold as Harry placed the egg on the edge of the tub before disappearing from Cedric’s line of sight as he went to grab a towel and turn on the faucets.
Cedric was practically vibrating with anticipation. He could just barely hear the sound of fabric against skin over the rushing water as Harry removed his robes and when the boy came back into view he was-
Cedric slapped both hands over his mouth, cutting off the ragged moan that escaped his throat.
Thankfully, Harry did not seem to hear him over the rushing water.
Harry was a fucking vision.
His skin practically glowed in the lamplight, milky and smooth aside from a few (actually, kind of a lot, maybe even a concerning amount of) scars that Cedric itched to know the origins of. His back was to Cedric, and his head was bowed in a way that drew attention to his pale, perfect little neck. Cedric clenched his teeth at the sight of it, desperately wanting to bite the little patch of skin until it was bruised and bleeding, until he marked it permanently.
As the pool filled Harry moved closer to the edge, extending a leg to dip a toe into the water, and drawing attention to the length of his thigh. Cedric wondered if the skin there was as soft as it looked and how Harry would react if Cedric ran his tongue along the inside of it.
When Harry bent over, he realized all too quickly that this may have been a mistake.
He slapped a hand to his face, to stifle his moan, thankfully still quiet enough to go unnoticed over the sound of the bath. However, he knew the sight of Harry wet, gleaming and nude would be too much for him.
Cedric forced himself to turn around, his back entirely to the door. He couldn’t do this, he just couldn’t. If he watched any longer he just- he’d- he’d-
Well, he didn’t know what he’d do, but whatever would happen would potentially lead to him being caught and subsequently expelled... maybe even arrested.
Instead, he contented himself with just listening, allowing his mind to wander as he envisioned Harry splashing around in the gigantic tub (and determinedly ignoring the raging hard-on in his pants for Merlin's sake-). By the sound of it, he’d started swimming. How cute. Cedric wondered if Harry was any good at it. Surely he must be, Harry seemed to excel at everything, he almost turned around to confirm if his suspicions were true, but before he could an ear-splitting shriek filled the room reverberating around the echoing washroom in an awful manner.
Right, yes. The egg.
The wailing was cut off within the second and Cedric jumped at the sound of an irritating nasally voice, coming from somewhere in Harry’s direction.
“I’d try putting it in the water if I were you.”
Oh fuck. How the Hell did Cedric forget about Myrtle? Though the girl rarely revealed herself while committing her little voyeuristic acts, it was well-known among the male prefects (most especially the handsome ones) that she had a tendency to peep. He couldn’t help but turn back around, peering through the gap in the door and jumped at the sight of her looking directly at his stall with a secretive little grin from Harry’s side.
Thankfully, she seemed to be more interested in harassing Harry (an act which she should be exercised for, but that is not something Cedric could do right now) than revealing Cedric’s location.
Bizarrely, Harry seemed to be already acquainted with the undead pervert and apparently had a rapport as the ghost slowly coached him into solving the egg’s riddle, well, until she got offended by something Harry said and flew off like usual in a tearful huff.
It was not long after that Harry finished up his bath and toweled off. Shamefully, Cedric allowed himself a final glance at Harry’s nude form before the boy pulled back on his clothes and disappeared under his invisibility cloak.
Disillusioning himself, Cedric followed after him, or, well, his general direction, he couldn’t exactly see him.
He made his way towards the nearest staircase that would lead back to the Hufflepuff commons, but stopped when he heard a metallic ‘BANG’ from the stairwell to just to his right, leading upwards. Another quick succession of bangs followed, and Cedric realized with a start that it was the Egg that had fallen, tumbling down the stairs. When it reached the bottom it snapped open, and the screeching began.
“PEEVES!”
It was the unmistakable hunting cry of Filch the caretaker. Cedric could hear his rapid, shuffling footsteps coming nearer and nearer, his wheezy voice raised in fury.
“What’s this racket? Wake up the whole castle, will you? I’ll have you, Peeves, I’ll have you, you’ll... and what is this?”
Filch’s stopped just next to Cedric’s still disillusion form; there was a clink of metal on metal and
the wailing stopped as the caretaker picked up the egg and closed it.
“Egg?” Filch said quietly at the foot of the stairs. “My sweet!”
It was then that Cedric noted Filch’s mangy cat twining around the man’s ankles.“This is a Triwizard clue! This belongs to a school champion!”
“PEEVES!” Filch roared gleefully. “You’ve been stealing!”
His eyes darted around rapidly as he searched desperately for the poltergeist, who was obviously nowhere to be seen.
Cedric slowly edged backwards, looking for somewhere to obscure himself and remove his disillusionment.
“Hiding, are you?” the man said softly. “I’m coming to get you, Peeves... You’ve gone and stolen a Triwizard clue, Peeves... Dumbledore’ll have you out of here for this, you filthy, pilfering, poltergeist!”
Filch started to climb the stairs, his scrawny, dust-colored cat at his heels.
Cedric had just managed to sneak behind a tapestry that hid one of the many hidden halls in Hogwarts when yet another voice joined the fray.
“Filch? What’s going on?” came Snape’s dark drone from just down the hall.
Merlin’s fucking beard; Harry’s luck was atrocious .
Admittedly Cedric wasn’t even sure if the boy was still there, but if he recalled correctly from his Prefect rounds that stairwell had the nasty habit of trapping students who were out past curfew. Meaning he was probably just a few feet away from Filch, an invisible, sitting duck.
“It’s Peeves, Professor,” Filch whispered malevolently. “He threw this egg down the stairs.”
“Peeves?” Snape replied softly, the barest hint of confusion in his voice. “But Peeves couldn’t get into my office...”
“This egg was in your office, Professor?”
“Of course not,” Snape snapped. “I heard banging and wailing-”
“Yes, Professor, that was the egg-”
“-I was coming to investigate-”
“-Peeves threw it, Professor-”
“-and when I passed my office, I saw that the torches were lit and a cupboard door was ajar! Somebody has been searching it!”
Oh shit, Cedric sure hoped Snape wouldn’t accuse him of searching his office when he revealed himself. Which... he was gonna do. Any second now... Just... waiting for the most opportune moment of course and not hiding in terror of Snape eviscerating him.
“But Peeves couldn’t-”
“I know he couldn’t, Filch!” Snape snapped again. “I seal my office with a spell none but a wizard could break!” Snape snapped, clearly losing patience with Filch’s confusion. “I want you to come and help me search for the intruder, Filch.”
“I... yes, Professor, but- The thing is, Professor,” said Filch plaintively, “the headmaster will have to listen to me this time. Peeves has been stealing from a student, it might be my chance to get him thrown out of the castle once and for all-”
“Filch, I don’t give a damn about that wretched poltergeist; it’s my office that’s-”
Alright, Cedric was just gonna have to bite the bombarda and take it.
“Oh thank goodness you found it!” he called as he stepped out of the tapestry and into the hallway.
The two men turned from where they were standing at the bottom of the steps, twin looks of anger decorating their faces at the sight of him. Despite the frisson of fear he felt at the sight of Snape’s piercing gaze he didn’t allow himself to waver, approaching the men determinedly.
“I’ve been searching all over the campus for this!” He reached out, plucking Harry’s Egg from a bewildered Filch’s hands. He sent the pitiful man a sunny grin.“Thanks for looking after it, sir. Did I hear you say something about Peeves? I think I heard him banging around the trophy room on my way here.”
“That ghoul!” bellowed the man, stomping past Cedric as he made his way down the hall behind the prefect, Mrs. Norris close on his heels. “Mark my words if he knocked over another display case again I’ll-”
Cedric tuned out the rest of his tirade as he turned to address Snape. “Well, have a good ni-”
“If you overheard Filch’s ramblings about Peeves then perhaps you also heard that my storage closet was ransacked?” Snape’s figure was like a splatter of ink in the dim light. His voice was oily and leading, a clearly malicious lilt to it. A pale hand curled ominously around Cedric’s shoulder, preventing him from bolting like he so desperately wanted to do.
“I did.” He saw no value in lying to the man, Snape was far too good at sniffing them out.
“It has happened before.” The man continued. “Potion ingredients have gone missing from my private store cupboard. Students attempting illicit mixtures, no doubt.” He leaned closer trying to look into the Prefect’s eyes. Cedric turned his head; he always hated looking into those dark voids - they always saw far too much.
“You would not happen to know anything about that would you, Diggory?”
Cedric resisted the urge to sneer, keeping his face blank despite his irritation at the accusation.
“Advanced potions calls for all sorts of ingredients that could be used in illicit mixtures, Professor. I would not need to rob you to gain access to them.”
Snape leaned back at that, watching him consideringly for a moment. A greasy curtain of hair covered part of his face as he tilted his head in thought.
“Five points from Hufflepuff for your cheek.” He concluded eventually. “And another fifteen for lying to Filch; I’m certain Peeves is nowhere near the trophy room.”
He ducked in close again, grabbing the front of Cedric’s robes tightly as he growled into the boy’s ear. “I suggest you move more cautiously, boy . You’re not as cunning as you think.”
With that, he slinked off, disappearing into the nearest corridor with nary a goodbye.
Cedric let out a shaky sigh of relief. No one had any right to be that intimidating in a fucking nightgown.
After settling his nerves he made his way over to the stairway that students often got caught in, feeling around for an invisible Harry, only to find it truly empty.
Apparently the boy had made it out on his own.
Cedric vowed to return the Egg as soon as possible as he made his way back to his dormitory.