Jealousy
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, they belong to J.K Rowling and Warner Bros.
Warnings: Contains a homophobic insult.
Chapter 2: My saviour
Oh my God! He looked at me!
Harry was practically skipping down the corridor of Hogwarts, lost inside his own little bubble of happiness. He didn't even notice Ron and Hermione giving him strange looks.
"Err...mate-" began Ron tentatively, "are you alright?"
Harry looked to his two best friends with a giant smile fixed on his face. "Of course I am." He answered, before walking off in front of them and leaving them both confused.
Harry felt on top of the world. He knew he shouldn't have, and he knew he was making a big deal over nothing, but it still made him smile like a...well, like a school boy.
Cedric had looked at him, across the breakfast tables. Harry had been looking over to the Hufflepuff table and Cedric had caught his eye. Harry was momentarily scared, and embarrassed. When the whole school knew you were gay it wasn't good to be caught staring at the school's most handsome male student, and he knew he should have looked away immediately.
But something about Cedric's grey eyes kept him there. Harry briefly wondered if Cedric cared about his sexuality? Maybe it didn't bother him, or maybe he simply didn't mind. Harry wished for that. He wished that Cedric looked and saw Harry Potter. Not gay Harry Potter.
And then, Cedric smiled at him. A small smile; a greeting smile. Harry smiled back, and he hoped it constituted as a friendly smile and not a smile that said; I love you, marry me.
Cedric had a lovely smile, one of those sunshine smiles that lit up the day. When Harry had turned back to the Gryffindor table, he had simply lay his head on his hands and sighed contently, earning a few strange looks, but he didn't care.
But as he walked ahead of Ron and Hermione in the corridor and rational thought began to return to him, it occurred to Harry that he really wanted someone to talk to about Cedric. Someone to moan too, not in a girly way, but it was like a secret and he wanted to get it off of his chest, to someone who would understand.
He snuck a quick glance back to Ron and Hermione, wondering if he should divulge this information to them, but something was telling him not to. He wasn't exactly sure why, they were both fine with Harry's sexual orientation; in fact, they had both known before he'd told the school. But if they knew that he harboured a soft spot for the school "pretty boy", he knew he'd be under a torrent of endless jokes and questioning.
He wanted to speak to someone who wasn't a student, and who knew more about life, someone outside of Hogwarts, someone that would never judge a book by its cover...
The answer to this question seemed so simple that Harry mentally kicked himself for not thinking it immediately.
Sirius.
Sirius would never judge Harry, not about anything. Harry loved Sirius as if he were his own father, and had even told his godfather he was gay before he told his own parents. Despite Lily and James's eventual acceptance, there had still been months of; "you're too young to know what you are!"
It had been Sirius who had stepped in to defend Harry, saying that Harry knew who he was and he was right to embrace it. Harry and Sirius had formed a trust after that, and Harry trusted Sirius more than anyone else he knew, even more than Ron and Hermione, even more than Dumbledore.
Quickly making his decision, Harry turned back to his best friends.
"Hey, guys, I'm gonna go up to the Owlery, send Sirius a letter." He explained quickly.
"Oh, do you want us to come with you?" Asked Ron, but Harry could see the sacrifice behind those words; Ron didn't want to miss dinner.
"No, you two go, I won't be long," Harry brushed off, glad his friends wouldn't be joining him, he would hate it if one of them read the letter he was planning to write to Sirius. He didn't want his friends to laugh at him for having a silly school boy crush. "I need to see Hedwig anyway."
"Well, give Sirius our love." Said Hermione, waving as the two of them made their way to the great hall, Harry returned the wave.
"Will do."
...
Luck, Harry decided. The owlery was empty. Or maybe it was because nobody wanted to miss half of their dinner to send a letter.
Harry walked across the owlery until he spotted a snowy white owl perched on one of the far walls, Harry smiled as he walked over to Hedwig. She turned her head and immediately flew over to Harry and perched neatly on his shoulder.
"Hey, Hedwig." Harry smiled in greeting, Hedwig nipped his shoulder affectionately.
Harry sat down and retrieved a quill, some ink and a piece of parchment from his school bag, and laid them down next to him, he liked sitting crossed legged on the floor with all of the owls surrounding him.
He dipped the quill into the ink and let it hover over the parchment for a long moment, suddenly unsure what to write. He didn't know how to explain this situation to his godfather, Harry sighed and began writing, simply hoping the words would come.
Dear Sirius,
I hope you're okay, I'm fine, everything here is fine.
Well, almost everything. I'm getting loads of stick from Malfoy about being...you' no. And I guess I really miss Mum and Dad right now, I'm not sure why, I guess it's because every time someone laughs at me because of my sexuality I remember that I came out for Mum and Dad. But I'm not unhappy, that's not why I'm writing to you.
I think I've developed a...crush, so to speak, on one of the boys in my school and I'm not sure what to do about it. His name is Cedric Diggory, and he's in Hufflepuff. I didn't want to tell Ron and Hermione because I figured they'd laugh at me and I know that you never would. I'm just not sure whether I should approach him about it, I don't even think he knows my name!
I'm really confused and I really wanted to talk to you about this.
Ron and Hermione send their love, and I hope everything is okay at your end.
Love, Harry.
Harry quickly re-read his letter and, satisfied, he coaxed Hedwig off of his shoulder and tied the letter to her leg. As Harry watched her fly off into the sky he had a moment in which he wished he could join her.
After a few long moments, Harry turned to the owlery entrance , deciding to join his friends in the great hall, but he was stopped as someone walked through the entrance, blocking his path, a scowl immediately set into Harry's face.
"Hi, Harry!" Said Cho in her usual cheery voice, Harry nodded curtly at her and walked straight past her without a word. She stared after him confusedly.
...
All the next day, Harry was still in a mood at seeing Cho. He was angry with her cheery disposition, the way she smiled at him so happily while she was tearing his heart to shreds.
He slumped against his desk and scowled at the floor in transfiguration, not even bothering to answer his best friends' questions. They were probably wondering why Harry's moods were changing so drastically in the last few days.
"Now, before we begin today's lesson-" began Mcgonagol , addressing the class. "I would like to remind you to hand in your forms for the Hogsmeade trip to your head of years at break time today..."
Harry's mood immediately perked up, he was looking forward to Hogsmeade, to getting out of the castle and having a little fun.
"Remember," continued the professor, "your forms must be filled out by a parent or guardian..." she turned to Harry at this, "Potter, did you ask Sirius to fill yours out?"
Harry was about to reply with a "yes", but was cut of my the sneer that was Draco Malfoy.
"Oh, Potter can't go! His parents are dead!"
About half of the class gasped aloud, and all happiness in Harry suddenly drowned away. He didn't even have the will power to respond, he simply stared at the floor dejectedly, not evening bothering to hide his tears.
Unfortunately, all eyes were on him so everybody saw, nearly all of Slytherin burst into raucous laughter, lead by Malfoy.
"50 POINTS FROM SLYTHERIN!" Mcgonagol thundered and everyone immediately turned to see her, red in the face with rage.
Malfoy's smirk immediately left his lips. "But..."
"Not another word!" She thundered, "Mr. Malfoy, you will join me this evening for detention!"
Malfoy scowled in Harry's direction whilst Harry, Ron and Hermione shared a smile, sharing their small victory.
...
When Harry, Ron and Hermione left the classroom at the end of lesson, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were waiting for them.
"Oi, Potter!" Malfoy called, spitting rage, walking after them.
"Just walk." Hermione whispered urgently, and the trio didn't look back.
"HEY! HOMO! I'M TALKING TO YOU!"
Harry immediately turned back to Malfoy, if one thing got to Harry above all else it was homophobia, he walked back to Malfoy with anger in his eyes.
"You got me detention!" Malfoy thundered, venom in his voice.
"Whatever, Malfoy." Said Harry icly, turning on his heel to walk away. But he should have never turned his back, because what he didn't see was Malfoy whip his wand out of his robes and point it directly at Harry, muttering a curse so low no one could hear it.
Before Harry knew it, he was flying off his feet, suspended into the air for a split second before falling back to Earth and hitting his head on the concrete floor, hard. He didn't even have time to call out in shock.
"HARRY!"
"HARRY!"
Called Ron and Hermione, but Harry could barely hear them, he could barely hear anything, and his vision was blurry; all he could think of was the pain.
"Expelliarmus!" A new voice called out strongly, surprising everyone. Malfoy's wand flew out of his hand and skidded across the floor. "Get lost, Malfoy!" The new voice continued in anger, Malfoy recoiled in shock.
Ron, Hermione, Crabbe and Goyle stared at the exchange between the two people in pure shock, Harry still was unaware of anything but the throbbing in his head, he covered his head in his hands and stayed on the ground.
Malfoy and his cronies turned on his heal and stomped off, obeying the instruction without a word.
Ron and Hermione then watched the saviour turn to Harry and bend down next to him, in complete shock.
Harry could barely see anything, head still stinging from the impact of the floor, but he could blearily make out a lean figure bending down beside him, he looked up and met a pair of worry-filled eyes.
"Harry, are you okay?" Asked Cedric.
