DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter.
WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.
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THE CHAMPION'S: PART SEVEN
Harry heard chair legs scraping along the floor, and the soft tapping of feet walking towards him. He didn't look up, he didn't have to, he didn't want to. Instead he grimaced, and kept his head down, staring forward into the blackness before his eyes. Picking up the scrubbing brush, he scrubbed at the dirt staining the cauldron harder. Pressing down so hard, and imagining he was grinding Snape's face into the cold stone of his own classroom.
The rhythm of feet stopped, out of the corner of his eye Harry could see the neatly polished shoes, so clean he could almost make out his face in them. Snape leaned over to inspect his work, he laughed coldly. 'You call this clean, Potter?' he asked dryly, he received no response so he pressed on. 'Neville Longbottom could actually pass this class before you get that cauldron anywhere near clean.'
Snape must have seen Harry's shoulders stiffen with anger. 'Don't like me insulting your friends, Potter?' he sneered, Harry waited for more insults to come but instead none came. Snape straightened up and pointed to an extremely large cauldron sitting by his desk. 'Clean that now.'
Harry eased himself to his feet, cringing as his stiff joints refused. He'd been cleaning that soot stained cauldron for nearly an hour without changing positions. He hobbled over to his next task and felt his eyes water from the pain as he knelt down beside it and used his wand to send a torrent of water in to it. Rolling up his sleeve, he grabbed the scrubbing brush and plunged his arm into the icy water. It irritated him that he still had difficulty producing warm water, he had to be content with freezing cold instead. As he busied himself, Snape began to talk. Well, not actually talk, but insult him some more and teach him a lesson.
'Are you going to admit that you took the Gillyweed from my office?' Snape asked, Harry couldn't tell if he was looking at him or not, his greasy hair was covering his face like veil.
Rage was building up inside of him again, he never taken the stupid Gillyweed! 'No, because I didn't take it!' he said loudly, his voice echoing inside the dirty pot in front of him. It was like cleaning an oven, except worse. He didn't know what was inside these bloody cauldrons and Snape hadn't given him any gloves, so he had to avoid touching the remainders of potions at all costs.
'Then, how, Potter,' Snape hissed, his anger rising also, 'can you explain the fact that you suddenly found you had gills and webbed limbs? Professor McGonagall assures me that you have not covered human transfiguration yet,' he sneered. 'And I highly doubt you are capable enough to learn such advanced magic in your free time!'
Harry seriously considered saying that he spent to much time around Snape in class that he was turning into a slimy git. He didn't want to tell Snape that Dobby had given him the weed, because then the elf would be punished. 'I didn't take the Gillyweed from your stores, Professor,' he said more calmly.
'Gillyweed is an extremely rare and tremendously expensive ingredient,' Snape said, his dark eyes glinting with hate. 'It has never been in any potions you have attempted to brew and cannot be purchased at any shop in Hogsmeade, so I ask you once more,' he hissed, his face dangerous close to Harry's now, 'how did you get it?'
Harry bit his lip, unable to give an answer that wouldn't get Dobby or himself into more trouble. Ultimately, Harry considered his best chances of getting out of this were if he stood up and merely ran from the dungeon room. He remained silent for a while, scrubbing hard. But eventually he opened his mouth and spoke.
'I-I can't answer that question, Professor,' he stuttered. Whipping sweat from his brow, even though the room was freezing cold, and refusing to meet the man's eyes.
'Then you'd better scrub as many cauldrons as it takes to get the truth out of you, or I could,' he paused, his eyes glinted malevolently and reached a pale ghost like hand into the drawer of his desk, pulling out a small crystal bottle. 'Do you know what this is, Potter,' he asked.
The crystal bottle reflected light, what little light there was in the dark dingy dungeon, so it appeared to gleam dazzlingly. Peering at the liquid sloshing around inside, he discovered the potion was a dull blue colour. Harry shook his head; he'd never seen this potion before.
'This is Veritaserum,' Snape informed him. 'One drop of this enough to make you spill all your deepest and most personal secrets. If I find any more items have been taken from my personal store, my hand might just slip,' he used gestures to empathies his point, 'over your morning pumpkin juice.'
A small gasp escaped his throat. The thought of him uncontrollably spilling all his secrets for anyone who happened to be in the great hall during breakfast time was horrible. He imagined announcing loudly to everyone who wished to hear that he was madly in love with Cedric Diggory, the other Hogwarts Champion. The scene that unraveled in his mind made him scrunch his face up and try to get the image out of his mind.
'Not so keen on that happening, I see Potter,' Snape observed. 'That is satisfactory,' he added, looking down at the cauldron that had just over gone a vigorous cleaning. 'You may start on those ones, in the corner.'
Muttering something rude about Snape, Harry stood and made his way over towards the other cauldrons, his knees shaking. Just as he was about to kneel down again to begin his third task of the evening, there was a loud heavy knock on the classroom door. Harry turned his head to see who it was, he prayed that it wasn't Malfoy or any Slytherin or he'd be subjected to horrible taunts the next day. To his relief and joy it wasn't any Slytherin, but instead Cedric stood there. Looking considerably out of breathe, with his hair looked wind swept, Harry blushed, he looked amazingly handsome when he was out of breathe. But Harry always thought he looked good.
'Professor Snape?' he asked nervously.
"What is it Diggory?' Snape snapped at him.
'Professor McGonagall needs to speak with all the Champions in her office now,' Cedric said. 'That means Harry too,' he added, because Snape was looking like what Cedric had just said meant nothing.
'Thank you, Diggory,' he said. 'I am perfectly aware that Potter is a Champion, you can go,' he muttered to Harry. 'But if I catch you in my stores once again…'
Harry stood and practically ran out of the room; his keenness to get away did not go unnoticed by Cedric as he reached his side. Cedric carefully closed the door behind them and pulled Harry into a kiss. 'You all right, Harry?' he asked, concern clear in his soft voice. Harry's knees had buckled under the pressure from Cedric's kiss; they were still sore and weak from the hours of kneeling on the hard stone.
'Yeah,' Harry said, wrapping his arms around Cedric. 'My knees are just sore; I was kneeling down for a long time.'
'What were you doing?' Cedric asked raising an eyebrow.
'Scrubbing cauldrons,' Harry said, slapping him gently on the wrist. 'You have a dirty mind Ced,' he teased. 'So what does the professor want to talk to us about?'
'Nothing,' Cedric said. 'Absolutely nothing,' he grinned, obviously deeply pleased with himself.
'Cedric!' Harry wailed. 'You didn't?'
'If you define didn't as: pulling you out of detention with a made up excuse, then yeah,' he smiled, 'I guess I did.'
'When Snape finds out, I'm going to be in so much trouble!' Harry said, though he as smiling all the same. 'And so will you!'
'I don't care, I just want to spend time with you,' Cedric grinned, and grabbed his elbow pulling him through the corridors that were now lit by candles. They ran down the stairs towards the kitchens.
'Ced, were are we going?' asked Harry, looking around him. 'And what time is it?'
'It is half past seven,' he told Harry, 'and we are going to my dormitory.'
This stopped Harry dead in his tracks. What did Cedric want to do? There was no way Harry would do that, not even with him, he was just too young. 'To do what Cedric?' he asked a little nervously.
Cedric sighed softly, and looked some what apologetic. 'Harry, I didn't mean to do that, I just meant we could there and talk, the boys who I share the dorm with now, Harry I told them, I wouldn't try anything with them around,' he promised, stroking Harry's cheek.
'Sorry I jumped to conclusions, Ced,' he said. 'Do we have to go there though? I don't really want everyone watching us.'
'No, we don't have to go there, I thought it would be a good place though, because of what Fleur said,' Cedric smiled at the memory. 'That we have to be more careful about where we hide.'
'Hang on,' Harry said, pulling his bag of his shoulder and fishing around for the Marauders Map. He pulled it out triumphantly and rolled it open.
'Harry,' Cedric asked, looking at the parchment and trying not to laugh at the excited look on Harry's face. 'What's that? It's nothing but a plank piece of parchment.'
'Watch this,' he grinned up at Cedric and whispered the words. 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good.'
A detailed map of Hogwarts and its grounds appeared on the map, Harry watched Cedric as his eyes widened in amazement. The older boy placed one finger on the map that showed their positions. His grey eyes darted around the map, he briefly watched Dumbledore pacing backwards and forwards in his office before he said anything to Harry.
'Harry, where did you get this?' he breathed out in absolute awe. 'This- this is amazing.'
'It was a gift,' he grinned. 'Look,' Harry pointed to one of Astronomy Towers. 'There is no one there, or any where near it, we can go there.'
Cedric nodded and let Harry drag him off, up the many flights of stairs it took to reach the tower. 'So, that map, does it show everyone in the castle?'
'Only people in the corridors,' Harry said. 'It doesn't have the dormitories on it,' he was still holding the map, and watching it to see if any teachers or students where coming their way.
'Wow, that's incredible,' Cedric said.
They reached the Astronomy Tower, panting and breathless. The two boys hadn't run into any trouble on their way up here, but they had had to dive behind a statue in order to escape from Mrs. Norris. Cedric placed a hand on Harry's waist as they entered the tower. The tower was small and compact, with tables and chairs bundled closely together. The thing that amazed Harry the most was the glass dome in the ceiling that looked up at the sky.
'Too bad it's cloudy,' Cedric said softly. 'It's a real treat when the sky is clear at night, the stars shine so brightly.'
Harry stood on tip toes and kissed his cheek tenderly, this brought Cedric back down to earth and he sat at one of the tables and pulled a chair out for Harry, who gladly took it. 'Do you think I should leave the map open?' he asked Cedric. 'You know to see if anyone is coming?'
Cedric shook his head, and kissed Harry. 'You can put it away, love. No one comes up here on Sundays.'
Harry flushed, Cedric had called him love. He looked at the older boy; the look on Cedric's face gave no hint that he'd realized what he had just said. Harry's insides where parading around with joy, he loved the expression on Cedric's face when he'd called him that. 'Mischief managed,' he whispered to the map, tapping it with his wand. Stuffing both the wand and the map into his bag, he pulled his chair closers to Cedric's and hugged him tightly.
'Harry?' he asked, after a moment of hush.
'Yes?' Harry asked, stilling hugging Cedric.
'What was it that you were going to say to me down by the lake before Fleur came?'
'Oh,' Harry was blushing so deeply now, he hid his face in Cedric's chest. He was nearly falling out of his chair; Cedric laughed quietly, and pulled Harry over onto his lap.
'You're blushing Harry,' Cedric mused, kissing his hot cheek, and stroking hair out of his eyes.
Harry blushed more at Cedric's comment, he suddenly decided he'd just go for it. Tell him how he felt straight up. 'Ced, I-' he paused to kiss Cedric, he couldn't resist kissing him then, they way the older boy was looking up at him was beautiful. 'Ced, I love you.'
For a moment, though it seemed like forever to Harry, Cedric was silent, he'd turned away from Harry but his arm was still firmly around Harry's waist. Finally he turned to face Harry again, with a smile on his face, and his cheeks, like Harry's were rosy. 'Harry,' he murmured, very quietly. 'I feel the same, I love you.'
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