DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

Draco Malfoy puffed out his chest towards Harry who was walking past. 'Oh, look,' he jeered. 'It's stinky Potter.' He tapped his badge so that it changed to a bright shade of green and Harry's face could be seen above the lettering Potter Stinks.

Harry ignored them. He'd been ignoring everyone who flashed those badges towards him. He adjusted his bag into a more comfortable position on his back and continued down the corridor, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. He breathed in deeply as he reached the fresh air outside, he relaxed a little, and glad there was hardly any one out here.

Harry glanced at his watch; he swore quietly and ran a hand through his hair. Those bloody Syltherins had made him late for class. He broke into a light jog and went down the stairs.

'Hey Harry!' a voice called out to him. Harry stopped and looked behind, back up the stairs for the speaker. He saw Cedric Diggory running down the stairs after him, his dark hair blowing about his face in the wind. Harry's stomach gave a funny little jolt, and he felt his face flush. Harry fancied Cedric; he had for a while now. Ever since the beginning of this year at Hogwarts, when he and Cedric had been chosen as Champion's for Hogwarts, not that Harry had wanted to be one.

'Hey, Ced-Cedric,' Harry stuttered, hoping the red tinge around his cheeks would go away. 'What's up?'

'I just wanted to thank you for the advice, about the Dragon,' Cedric said, shuffling nervously.

'How's the burn?' Harry asked, he remembered that Cedric had been burnt during the task, and hated the sight of it on Cedric's skin and the pain it had caused him.

Cedric ran a hand along his smooth face, grinning. 'It's all gone now, thanks to Madame Pomfrey,' he added in his quiet voice. 'Uh, what I really wanted to say was -'

Harry's heart was pounding in his chest now, what had Cedric really wanted to say him? Did Cedric know Harry fancied him? What would he say?

'Have you solved the egg yet?' Cedric said finally.

Harry tried hard to hide his disappointment. 'No, no I haven't.'

'Take your egg to the Prefects' Bathroom,' Cedric instructed Harry giving him the password. 'And just mull things over in the hot water.' He winked at Harry and then was on his way.

Cedric winked at me, Harry grinned happily to himself, but why does he want me to take a bath with my egg? Harry shook his head, and decided he'd go tonight. Now, he had to get to class, he was already late.


Harry struggled through the three remaining classes of the day; his mind was continuously slipping back to Cedric. His smile, his grey eyes, and that tall figure. The last class of the day was Potions, and Harry was more than happy to sit and day-dream for the entire lesson. Snape on the other hand, wasn't thrilled.

'Potter,' he sneered, walking over to Harry's desk and slamming his fist down on the wood. Harry's eyes snapped open with a start and the smile vanished from his face. 'Day dreaming, are we Potter?'

'Probably about winning the Triwizard Tournament,' Draco jeered. When ever Harry was being told off Draco always put in his own opinion, and had often given Snape suggestions for Harry's punishments.

'No, Professor, just thinking about the potion,' Harry said, avoiding Snape's eyes.

Snape raised his eyebrows and looked into Harry's cauldron at the foot of the desk. 'Ten points from Gryffindor, there's nothing in here, Potter.'

Harry scowled as he walked away and muttered something rude under his breathe.

'You all right Harry?' Ron asked, leaning over and passing him his notes for the potion.

'Peachy,' Harry replied, reading over the notes.

'Are you fretting about the egg again?' Hermione butted in. 'I thought you'd finished that off weeks ago!'

'Nearly cracked it, nearly cracked it,' Harry said to both of them. 'How long until this class is over?'

Ron looked down at his watch, 'Five minutes.'

'Great!' Hermione said happily, 'I'm going to the library, and Harry you should probably come too.'

Harry nodded absent mindedly and when the bell rang he let himself be dragged off by his bushy haired friend. In the library it became clear the Hermione didn't want to study or anything, she wanted to talk.

'Here is he again!' she hissed at Harry, who was wide awake once more and had stopped day dreaming for the time being.

'Who?' he asked stupidly, as he stared around the nearly empty library.

'Viktor Krum.'

'Oh, don't they have a library on the Durmstrang ship?'

'Yes, they do!' she hissed again.

'Then why is he here?' Harry asked. 'And why couldn't Ron come with us?'

'You know how Ron gets when Krum is around, babbles on about Quidditch and never stops for hours!' Hermione said exasperatedly. 'I don't know why he's here, all he does is study.'

'No,' Harry said in mock shock. 'Studies in a library, that's heinous.'

'You know what I mean!'

'No, Hermione, I don't know what you mean,' he said grinning. 'Look, I'm going to do some more work on the egg, ok? See you at dinner.'


When Harry woke, he was lying in his bed, clutching the egg to his stomach. He blinked slowly, and sat up rubbing his eyes. What time is it? He wondered, looking over the clock. 12pm, I'd better go to the prefects' bathroom now, I promised myself I'd do work on it tonight. He grabbed his invisibility from his trunk and hurried out of the common towards the bathroom.

The Prefects' Bathroom was amazing. Everything was built from the same kind of beautifully polished stone; many of the windows were made of stain glass and depicted Mermaids and other aquatic life forms. The windows were of course moving, and Harry noticed a half naked mermaid blush, and draw her long blonde hair around her body. Harry took of his cloak and draped it over his arm and as made his way towards to the bath. The bath was certainly the most amazing thing in this room; it was huge, bigger than an ordinary spa pool. It was created from the same stone as the rest of the room, as Harry got closer he noticed the bath was already full and that someone was relaxing inside it. He gasped a little, and turned around to make his way back out of the room.

'Harry,' that familiar quiet voice said his name second time today. Harry slowly turned back around to face Cedric. He felt that blush creep around his cheeks again; Cedric was naked, though the bubbles hid his lower body.

'Sorry, Cedric, I didn't know you were going to be in here tonight, just taking the advice you gave me,' Harry babbled, his grasp tightening on the egg.

'It's ok,' Cedric grinned at him. 'Do you still want – I mean, the bath is big enough for two people. I'm here for the egg as well.'

'You mean you haven't cracked it yet?'

'I have, I just wanted to get more information out of it.'

Harry nodded, and blushed again as he began pulling of his school robes. Cedric turned his back on him, turning a little scarlet as well. 'I won't look,' Harry heard him mumble.

Once he'd removed all his clothing and dumped them in a pile beside the bath, along with his cloak, Harry stepped into the water. He sighed happily as the hot water rushed around him, and the bubbles covered him up as he sank lower. He was sitting directly across from Cedric, who was facing him again when he'd heard Harry get in.

'Enchanted water,' Cedric said. He swam closer to Harry and sat beside, with a little room in between them, Cedric had brought his egg with him. 'Never gets cold, and the bubbles don't vanish either.'

Harry grinned, he wasn't blushing as much as before, but his stomach was still doing summersaults when ever he looked at Cedric. 'You have bubbles in your hair, Cedric,' Harry said.

'Oh,' Cedric grinned a little embarrassedly, and brushed them out.

'So, how did you work your egg out?' Harry asked.

'I opened it under the water,' he said, running his hands over his golden egg. 'Listen,' he added and motioned for Harry to put his head under the water along with him. Harry stared at Cedric's body under the water, the light from the stain glass windows was reflecting off him. Harry's attention was snapped away from Cedric as he opened his egg and an eerie tune echoed around the water.

Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour - the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

The song was soft and quiet, but also disturbing in how calm everything went when the egg's hint was given. Cedric suddenly snapped the egg shut and he and Harry burst to the surface of the water, gasping for breathe.

'What do you make of it?' Cedric asked him.

'So, someone is going to take something that we'll miss, and we have to find it,' Harry stated in clearer language than that the song had used.

'Yeah,' said Cedric. 'Any ideas on what took our something's?' he grinned.

Harry shook his head, and his eyes widened as Cedric leaned in closer to him and whispered in his ear. 'Merpeople.'

'There are mermaids in the lake?' Harry asked.

'Yeah,' the older boy said, leaning back against the rim of the bath.

They sat in silence for a while, each pondering what the egg had told them. Until Harry broke the silence by saying: 'How long ago did you crack the egg?'

'About two nights ago.'

'Well, thank you for telling me,' Harry said warmly.

'Not a problem, you helped me with the Dragons.'

'Do you know how you're going to breathe under water for an hour?'

Cedric smiled at Harry, grey eyes locked with green eyes. 'I'm giving everything away, I still want some competition.'

Harry leaned back against the rim like Cedric, and groaned. Putting his hands up to his head he said 'Urgh, I'll probably just drown.'

'You'll figure something out,' Cedric said.

Harry thanked Cedric and snuggled down into the hot water, relishing the warmth. Cedric was still staring at him, with his head cocked to one side. 'What?' Harry asked.

'You were looking, weren't you?'

'Looking at what?' Harry said, feeling the tips of his ears redden. Harry knew perfectly well what Cedric was talking about.

'Looking at me, under the water,' Cedric said, Harry was relieved he didn't sound mad, upset or even disgusted. When Harry didn't reply Cedric continued speaking. 'It's ok, Harry. I was looking at you too.'

'You were looking?' Harry gasped, staring at Cedric. 'But, I thought you were- that you were,'

Cedric interrupted him by saying, 'That I was straight?' he grinned widely at Harry. 'I thought you were too.'

'What made you realize I wasn't?'

'You were checking out Viktor Krum the other day,' he said.

Harry shook his head. 'You were standing behind him.'

The laughter on Cedric's face faltered a little bit at this comment, Harry saw Cedric's throat move as he swallowed. Harry reached over and brushed some strands of hair out of Cedric's face, the older boy took this as his opportunity and leaned in closer to Harry, who was blushing more than Ron ever had in his life. Cedric leaned down and pressed his lips to Harry's softly. Harry's eyes closed almost automatically, as he kissed Cedric back. Cedric's lips were smooth and soft compared to Harry's dry and chapped ones.

'Oh,' a small squeak came from the other side of the room. The boys quickly broke apart; there was a nervous look in Cedric's eyes as he searched for the person who'd made the noise. Moaning Myrtle was floating around at the other end of the bath tub, her eyes were wide with shock, and a confused smile was painted on her face. 'Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory, kissing in the prefects' bathroom!' she giggled hysterically and looped through the air. 'What will the other ghosts say when I tell them!'

'Myrtle!' Harry cried in shock. 'Please don't tell any one, please?' he asked, nearly begging her.

"Humph!' she said crossly. 'No one would believe ugly little cry baby Myrtle anyway, would they!?' she shrieked the lasts words, and splashed down the drain pipes and out of sight.

'She won't tell any one, will she?' Cedric asked, looking concerned.

'I-I don't think so.'

'Good,' Cedric purred, kissing Harry again before conjuring up himself a towel and stepping out of the bath, he quickly wrapped the towel around his body before Harry had a chance to look. 'I'll see you tomorrow, ok?'

Harry nodded. WOW, he thought to himself. That certainly was a great bath.