1.
Cedric Diggory loves watching Harry in the Great Hall. It's one of the few times he allows himself the luxury of flagrantly ogling the lad.
He usually only sees Harry's back; his ropy posture covered by his robes. But still, he can see the tousled hair; he can almost smell the unmistakable scent of boy, new and fresh; can feel the soft belly of youth under his fingertips. Cedric begins to imagine Harry's back, bare and heaving underneath him; arching into him with every thrust of his hips; faced buried as he bites into the pillow to muffle his gasps of pleasure.
He doesn't notice the rapacious smile that begins to stretch over his lips.
But that doesn't mean that it has been overlooked.
"Oooh, I see that," says a young bloke in Cedric's ear.
A brush of the shoulders jolts him out of his reverie, "What...?" His voice rises, far more defensively than needed.
Jason D'mour smiles and winks at him, knowingly. The sixth-year Hufflepuff wasn't the smartest lad of the bunch, but he was an excellent observer. Cedric silently chastises himself for being too obvious.
"She's a peach, isn't she?" Jason asks, nodding at someone straight ahead.
"Wh-who?"
Jason rolls his eyes, exasperated, "Oh, come off it, mate. I've seen the way you look at her."
He leans in closer to Cedric, whispering in his ear, "Cho."
Cedric's heart begins to slow its frantic beating, "What are you on about?"
"Yeah, nice try," he admonishes, returning to his plate and slicing a fruit in half.
Jason brings the fruit to his lips, offering the other to Cedric, ""Would you like a mango?"
Cedric shakes his head before returning to watch Harry. As his eyes scan in the direction of the Gryffindor table, he realizes that he is being watched himself.
Cho Chang sits almost directly in his line-of-sight of Harry. "Has she always sat there?" he wonders. They lock gaze; Cedric's mouth opens to mouth 'hello', but Cho simply ducks down, huddling with her Ravenclaw girlfriends and giggling profusely.
"She is beautiful," Cedric says aloud, as if putting together the pieces of a puzzle for the first time.
"Figure that one out all by yourself, didja?" Jason sneers. "She likes you."
"What?" Cedric snaps his attention back to Jason.
"I mean, I'm not stupid. I see the way she looks at you."
Cedric fixes his eyes to the young girl, inspecting her. He notices the same sheepishness that he's already used to obsessing over; the same red flushes around the cheeks; the same build, although slightly shorter; the same genuine innocence.
"And," Jason continues, as if trying to sell something of great value, "she's a seeker, too. So, that's something in common, yeah?"
But Cedric already sees the only commonality that he needs.
He smiles at her.
She smiles back.
Cedric wonders if he can have that normal life he had resolved long ago was beyond his grasp.
Cho Chang represents something for him, now.
Hope.