DAMN IT I HATE YOU GUYS (not really) arrgh! This my lovvies was a ONESHOT! But you guys are so persistant. So here you go "Afterwards" Chapter 2
Harry couldn't sleep. He kept turning over everything that had happened in his head. What had happened last night was a mistake. It had to be. Emotions were running high, that's all, nothing more. I mean, Harry told himself, he didn't like Cedric like that. He wasn't gay.
He had woken up arm in arm with Cedric in the lukewarm bath, his skin starting to go blue and goose pimples starting to appear. The half moon shone through the stained glass windows onto the bath. And he looked perfect - Cedric.
Something inside Harry told him to panic - to run. And he did. And that was why Harry was here back in the Gryffindor fourth year boys' dormitory, looking up at the red velvet canopy, trying in vain to sleep.
I mean, what he felt last night - or thought he felt was wrong. Him and Cedric were (are?)- well, damn it! There is no "Me and Cedric", Harry thought bitterly.
He continued speaking to himself. He wasn't gay, he repeated. How could he be? For Merlin's sake (Harry found himself suddenly angry), he had been trying to get closer to Cho all year. But , interrupted a nagging voice inside his head. What if he was trying, in fact, to get closer to Cedric? Harry shook his head, making his scar prickle…
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For the next few days Harry managed to stay as far away from Cedric as possible. It wasn't hard. Maybe Cedric, like himself, felt misgivings about what had happened maybe-
"Hey! Potter!" Harry was knocked out of his train of thoughts by Draco Malfoy ambling up to him.
"How about a replay of the other night, Potter?" he asked cockily.
"Right," Harry answered not caring. "You round up the others and…"
"I was thinking," Malfoy said, a blush rising in his cheeks (Malfoy blushing?) "Maybe this time it could just be you and me."
"Oh so you have finally decided that you are gay after all." Harry spoke deliberately loudly so that several people stopped to look at them. If possible Malfoy turned even redder and strode away without a backward glance at Harry.
Harry smiled to himself. He knew really that he shouldn't have done that. Malfoy had looked embarrassed enough as it was. And at least he had the balls to admit he was gay. Unlike himself…
Harry was in so much deep thought that he didn't notice he was about to walk into someone.
"Woah!"
You guessed it, Harry said to himself. Cedric. It's the oldest bloody cliché in the book!
"Cedric." Harry addressed him curtly, averting his eyes.
"Cut the bloody introductions. Where did you get to the other night?" he asked rudely.
"I …I had second thoughts." He didn't know what to say. 'Sorry Cedric, I'm not sure about my sexuality after all…' Yeah as if!
"Second thoughts?" The boy repeated with a frown. Harry found himself looking at the tiny details of Cedric's face; the small wrinkles forming at the corner of his eyes . "Harry, you and I—"
"Cedric," Harry painfully broke eye contact and stared at the wall directly over Cedric's left shoulder.
"I'm sorry if you expected anything more. But… well the other night. It was a mistake."
"No it wasn't—Harry?"
But Harry had turned quickly.
"DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, HARRY POTTER! I KNOW YOU FELT IT TOO!" Cedric called after him, his voice echoing off the stone corridors and ringing in Harry's ears. He rushed along through a tapestry and out of sight, tears prickling at his eyes as he went.
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Harry didn't see Cedric again. As the school year drew to an agonizing close, Harry found himself returning to more pressing matters: the Dursleys.
Going back to Privet drive didn't seem a much safer option that walking down Knockturn Alley at night, but it had to be better than the uncomfortable feeling that accompanied him at Hogwarts.
At least, Harry told himself when he returned to Hogwarts, Cedric (who would be in his last year) would hopefully have forgotten everything.
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When the last day of term arrived Harry found himself dragging his trunk down into the entrance hall. Several minutes later, Hermione emerged from the grounds, tears twinkling on her face in the weak summer sun.
"I just saw Fleur off." She explained with a sad smile wiping the tears off her face with the sleeve of her robes. "Look, there's Ron." Harry pointed in the direction of a red head bobbing in the sea of students milling around.
"Where have you been?" Hermione asked skeptically.
"Saying goodbye to Victor."
"So it's Victor now, is it?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrow mischievously .
Harry felt so much better, he felt like he had no worries….
Ron kept insisting all the way down to Hogsmeade Station that his friendship with Krum (he had reverted to using his last name) was just that - a friendship. ("I'm as straight as Harry's Broomstick.")
The three settled themselves into an empty compartment and let themselves once more speed through the countryside, south towards Kings Cross.
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Harry stepped gingerly onto the platform some time later, looking for Ron and Hermione. He couldn't see them. Odd. Shrugging to himself, he started to heave his trunk onto the platform beside him.
"Harry?" Harry turned around mid-tug at the sound of his name. Cedric stood right before him, but before Harry could really think of any thoughts beside "bugger", the trunk suddenly slipped from the train and fell with a loud THUMP on his foot.
Without turning to look at Cedric again, Harry lifted the trunk off his foot and onto one of the station trolleys. That was smooth, Potter.
"Harry?" Cedric repeated. He didn't answer. "Listen, we're not going to see each other for a while." It seemed very rehearsed what he was saying, Harry thought, as he started to pull the trolley across the platform away from Cedric.
Suddenly the trolley jammed. Cedric had stuck his foot in font of the wheel. "You will listen to me." He took a deep breath, Harry wasn't sure whether it was anger that had gripped his features or fear. "I wasn't sure that night either." It was a statement. "I've been thinking and thinking. Damn it, ever since the night my father died I've done nothing but think and I keep coming up to the same bloody conclusion. I'm sorry I can't be like you-" he stopped for a moment "-and forget everything and walk away. But I just need to be sure. And then if…if you still insist … that…" He faltered again.
Harry couldn't move. He felt rooted to the spot. Clinging onto Cedric's every word. Trying to move seemed like such a hard feat, something utterly impossible.
"And if that's the case, I'll leave you be. I won't forget! Merlin! I'll never forget. But I'll let you be. But Harry, you understand that I need to be sure, don't you?" He ended in a whisper, tears sparkling in his hazel eyes, threatening to fall onto his soft, lovely cheeks…
Harry shook his head clearing his mind; but Cedric seemed to take this as Harry's acceptance because the next thing he knew was that he and Cedric were kissing…
He didn't know how to feel. Bliss. That all he knew. He was in the white light. But all too soon for his liking, it ended.
"Tell me you don't feel it?" Harry could feel Cedric's breath hit his face. He shook his head again. No, it couldn't be…
But it was.
"Yes," he whispered, dotting kisses on Cedric's neck.
He had tried so long to deny it. But really, Harry knew, deep down in a part of him that remained hidden from everyone. He knew. And when they kissed that part of him burst open filling every cell of his existence.
Smiling Cedric took hold of Harry's hand.
Together the two boys walk through the platform. Past the staring students and their parents ("Is that Harry Potter with that boy?") Past Hermione who was grinning from ear to ear. And together they walked through the barrier dividing the magical platform from the rest of the world.
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No really I love you all. I'm glad you liked the first chapter so much and sorry for the long wait. Big it up to all the Cedric/Harry shipper out there MUCH RESPECT!
If you like this (and aren't put off by me being rather weird) then send me a comment please. As I'm a comment whore.
Kerrie x-x-x-x
