"is that Barty crouch?" Cedric whispers harshly to Harry. Harry just nods minutely in reply.

"He looks like.." shit, he looks like shit. Harry finishes mentally for Cedric. His knees are all bloodied and his face was gnarled and drawn with exhaustion.

He's raving like a lunatic about the Triwizard tournament, Percy Weasley and Dumbledore.

They're all alone with Barty. Harry desperately doesn't want to leave Cedric but Barty doesn't look like he'd survive a trip to the castle.

"Harry go get Dumbledore, it's okay, I'll be fine." Harry stares at him intently for a beat before Cedric wraps his hands up in his own. "Really, just hurry." he pleads emphatically.

Harry takes off at a sprint. He casts a wandless Lumos maxima over his shoulder for good measure, hoping desperately that the light keeps Cedric safe.

He runs into a few obstacles on the way to Dumledore. Like Snape and illusive passwords. His stomach sinks a little bit every second that passes. By the time he makes it back to Cedric a certainty that he's too late has settled into his bones. Too late for what he doesn't know until he sees Cedric and Barty Crouch's prone forms lying side by side.

Cedric's eyes are glassy and for a heart stopping minute Harry thinks he's dead. He drops to his knees next to him and runs his hands frantically through Cedric's hair, tears already building in his eyes and a lump building in his throat. Thousands of horrible thoughts start swimming through his head.

"Harry. Harry!' Dumbledore calls at first softly but then sternly. "He's just stunned."

The words shatter Harry like glass and relief fractures through him. He can deal with stunned. He read the counter curse in a text book but Dumbledore cats it before Harry can even begin to fumble for his wand.

Cedric opened his eyes. He looked dazed. He tries to sit up but Harry puts a hand on his shoulder to get him to lie still. Cedric looks up with a jolt at Harry's touch. "He attacked me." He whispered. Harry doesn't t reply. He still can't breath, the image of Cedric's prone form running circles in his head sending shivers of dread running down his spine.

He thinks he might grip Cedric's shoulder so hard it bruises, but if he notices he doesn't say anything.

Then Moody is there and Hagrid and they're all talking fast but Harry zones out a little.

Then they're getting up. As soon as Cedric's on his feet Harry throws himself at Cedric with so much zeal he almost knocks him back down again. There is an ugly mess of emotions roiling in Harry's gut but all of them are drowned out by warm fierce thankfulness that Cedric's here.

"You sure know how to make a guy feel loved Harry.' Cedric says after getting over the shock of the sudden armful of his boyfriend. He slowly puts his hands around Harry. He's not sure exactly what brought this on but he can take a good guess when he remembers what Harry saw when he was attacked by dementors. He presses a kiss onto soft raven hair and just enjoys holding him.

"Come on Harry, let's get up to the castle. It's getting late."

Harry looks like he's going to protest but cuts himself off with a large yawn.

"Seriously don't make me deduct points for being out past curfew."

Harry mumbles something incoherently and mashes his head further into Cedric's chest.

They eventually make their way back to the castle. Fingers intertwined.

Harry thinks about going back to the Gryffindor homeroom. He really does. But somehow he finds himself outside the hufflepuff homeroom and he's just so tired and really hufflepuff is unfairly homely. Also have you seen Harry's boyfriend?

He wakes up on a yellow couch surrounded by strong arms and staring up at the stern face of one Zoe Nott.

"Fifteen Cedric. Fifteen!" Fourteen Harry supplies mentally but thinks this it would be counterproductive to share this thought.

"Not to mention this is the common room meaning for common folk. As in anyone could see you."

Harry turns his face into Cedric's chest because this is so not his problem and have you seen his boyfriend? Why would Harry want to move.

"Relax, Zo, we just slept," Cedric says strenching languidly and dislodging Harry. " Notice the copious amount of clothes we're wearing." He adds far too pompously for someone who's just woken up.

Harry smacks Cedric lightly on the arm, not appreciating being forced awake.

"You have to get up wanker everyone's staring."

Harry suddenly feels a lot less tired. As somebody who despises attention the prospect of the entirety of Hufflepuff seeing him and Cedric in an admittedly slightly compromising position is extremely worrying. His eyes snap open and he scans the room frantically. Only to find it's still dark inside and the only other person in the room is a third year hufflepuff known affectionately as peeping peter for, obvious reasons. Teenagers are hysterically unimaginative with nicknames. Harry hopes he hasn't been there too long.

"Dickwad." Harry mumbles petulantly.

"Maybe that'll teach you not to leave a man high and dry in the presence of angry women, and to keep your hands to yourself."

"You might want reconsider your lesson plan Diggory." Zoe says with a laugh.

When she's met with twin blank looks she says. "Think about it boys I have faith in you."

Cedric looks at Zoe then at Harry, then at himself before turning bright red.

"also did you think I was actually angry? Honestly Cedric we've known each other since we were in nappies as if I thought you capable of sex before marriage."

"Fuck off Zo I'm not that bad."

"Honestly Harry if a parent wanted a girl to practice abstinence they'd as Cedric to hook up with them. Sure fire way to remain virginal. Have fun with your V-card bro.'

Cedric, who by now is the colour of Lily potter's hair, screeches, actually screeches ,"literally a minuet ago you were yelling at me for being untoward."

"Because I'm never going to have an actual opportunity to do that so I had to invent one."

"Merlin you're a menace."

"Pot, kettle"

Harry wrinkles his nose, "isn't that a muggle phrase."

"Muggle studies bitches, makes the world go round."

Now it's Cedric's turn to wrinkle his nose."that makes no sense."

"Your face makes no sense." Zoe says determinedly. Then she seems to deflate. "Sorry I get a little high in the mornings."

"I'll say." Cedric mutters.

"Anyway," Zoe exclaims loudly, "You've distracted me from the point. As much as I adore your lovely face first thing in the morning, why are you here, really?"

Harry goes to answer then realises he doesn't really have an explanation. "I felt like it?' Harry asks dubiously.

Cedric laughs lightly and fills in for Harry, "We came back late from the Triwizard meeting and neither of us had enough energy to go to Gryffindor tower and Hufflepuff tower."

"So what your telling me Is you've reached the attached at the hip stage of the relationship and I should expect to see Harry around a lot more."

"Is that you giving us permission?" Harry asks a little slyly.

Cedric groans and Zoe grins.

When Harry takes his seat at the Gryffindor table that morning Hermione immediately fills the seat next to him.

"Rumour on the grape vine is that hufflepuff gained an extra member last night."

"Oh?" Harry asks coyly even though he's secretly freaking out. News spreads super quickly in hogwarts

"don't play dumb Harry it's unbecoming." Says Blaise as he takes the seat next to Harry.

"Yeah and save yourself some effort and be yourself. Being dumb comes naturally to you afterall." Tracey quips taking the spot next to Blaise.

"quit being mean" harry pouts.

"quit being skimpy with the the details" says lavender after appearing out of nowhere.

"merlin, are you guys swarming to devour me or something cause y'all keep multiplying and I feel like prey."

"Is that an invitation Harry?' Fred asks slyly.

"Oi, back off." Cedric exclaims through a shoving Blaise a side to take a seat next to Harry.

"The Alpha male has arrived to claim his territory. Blaise snorts.

"I resent that." Harry protests but lays melts into Cedric anyway because he's a weak asshole and Cedric's warm.

"Yeah, from what I hear the claiming happened last night." Lavender says through a laugh.

Harry stiffens at this. Not because he thinks Lavender was being malicious, or trying to make fun of him. Everybody is lauhing, it's all in good fun. Except the thought of sex makes Harry a little uncomfortable. He's not ready for it. He knows he isn't and Cedric hasn't pushed but. Cedric's older. A decent amount alder too. 3 years isn't a ig deal when your 23 and 36 but Harry's 14. He thinks he should be ready though. Sometimes he wonders what he's doing in a relatonship. He feels so juvenile. Too young for love too young for sex. He loves what he has with Cedric but he feels like a five year playing at being an adult when it comes to labelling it.

HE feels like a that most of the time in his life.

"Chin up love.' Cedric says softly.

"Quit trying to think Harry, you only hurt yourself." Blaise quips.

"Bugger off." Harry says with a huff.

" Can't get rid off us now Harry. Fealty may be a widely neglected Slytherin trait but its one Blaise and I exemplify beautifully.' Tracey says with a grin.

"That's just because we're exemplary though, don't go expecting any loyalty from the likes of Pansy Parkinson." Blaise grins.

Tracey's face goes a little stony then. "Don't talk about things you don't understand Blaise.' She says curtly.

" Pansy's a right bint is what I understand perfectly."

"Just because she and Draco had a falling out doesn't mean you can treat her like dirt she's still a slytherin."

"Please Draco is a bint to he may as well not exist for all I care about his brown nosing sheep ass. They deserve each other, the cowards."

" You spend all your time around them but you see nothing Blaise, absolutely nothing." Tracey says venomously and then she's stalking off.

Everybody stares bewilderedly at Tracey's retreating figure before they turn imploring stares at Blaise.

Blaise puts up his hands defensively, "don't ask me I always through Tracey hated Pansy and her lot, they've treated her like shit for years."

"Didn't Tracey hook-up with her though?" Hermione asks with a tilt of her head.

Blaise shrugs, " that doesn't mean anything. Pansy and I hooked-up and I still hate her pug face."

"Maybe it was more important to Tracey than it was for you."offers Lavender.

"Clearly." Blaise grits out before stalking off after Tracey.

The rest of the meal passes in a meaningless blur.

Cedric gives Harry a lingering kiss before he leaves for his classes and Harry is warm all over for hours afterwards.

Dinner is nowhere near as peaceful as breakfeast. Harry receives a worried letter from Sirius which Hermione nosely reads of his shoulder. It's all such shite. Sirius is going on about how he should be more careful and even goes as far to call him out for waiting around in the woods with Cedric. Harry is a teenager. He wanted to hangout with his boyfriend. Sue him. Now he wants him to train extra hard as if Harry wasn't going to train extra.

Hermione's immediately on him about it and Harry gets so frustrated he almost cries. Honestly Cedric's been attacked, Sirius is pulling shit in public despite being a wanted convict and nobody has tried to kill Harry all year. People need to quit worrying about him. So what if the tournament is clearly rigged against him ? He doesn't understand how that equates to him being cautious all the godamn time. Harry's at Hogwarts he's safer here than anywhere else in the world. It's the people around Harry that should be worried.

To think he was worried about teenage drama at breakfeast. The life and death of it is really starting to get to him.

Hermione starts talking about researching and schedules. Ron for the first time in his life is onboard with researching. He thought Harry was an attention whore not 3 months ago and was going to leave him for dead. Where does he get off being overprotective now?

Harry immediately regrets that thought and doesn't voice it.

He's just so frustrated.

Harry almost breaks down crying for real after three days of non stop spell casting assigned by Hermione. She's got all of his friends involved. Harry tries to stop her from riling them up too hard. Tries to downplay the seriousness of it all, but by the end of it everybody else is starting to catch on about the life and death of it all. Sometimes he catches Cedric looking straight through him, as if Harry's gone already.

He considers doing something stupid to let off some steam. (Like punch Draco Malfoy in the face,) but then he remembers something else teenagers do to let off steam. Harry skips Care of magical creatures last period on a Thursday when Cedric has a spare. They should really both study but instead Harry pulls him into an empty classroom and latches his lips to his. It's not the most co-ordinated thing, Harry is kind of frenzied and it takes a few seconds for Cedric to match his enthusiasm, but fuck is it nice. They just kind of make out for a decent while and Cedric pins him to the wall. They only break apart when Cedric tries to hoist Harry up on the desk but miscalculates and bangs the back of Harry's hip against it real hard.

They break apart breathlessly and Cedric presses Harry's face against his chest and laughs into his hair.

"what brought all this on?" Cedric asks

"Just felt like it" Harry says with a laugh.

"You bit my lip." Cedric accuses.

"Oops." Harry says flushing brilliantly.

"S'okay, I appreciated the enthusiasm." Harry feels Cedric's accompanying laugh rumble through his entire body.

"I know something's up Harry.' Cedric whispers quietly. " I think your afraid."

"I'm always afraid." The words are out of Harry's mouth before he can stop them.

Cedric's looking at him intensely. "It's not supposed to be like that you know Harry. You have a right to feel safe."

Does he? He shouldn't even be alive. He owes it to his parents, that died for him, died for the war to protect their freedom. He can't imagine a life where he's safe and doing what he's supposed to. "Not much that can be done about.'

In that moment Cedric looks overwhelmed by hoplessness and Harry hates it.

"Where are your guardians Harry? You know the people who are supposed to be looking out for you?" Cedric asks heatedly.

"They're muggles." Harry says like that explains everything.

" You know I read that other letter I got and it wasn't from my dad or some scorned member of the public it was from my mother. She wasn't mad Harry she was worried. She said she read dad's letter and if he had pressured me into entering the tournament she'd help me get out of it. She promised to support me if I just didn't want to compete and I made the decision myself to enter. Who's doing that for you Harry?

Harry shrugs. "My guardians are muggles they don't really car-er understand about the wizarding world, I guess Dumbledore is my guardian in the wizarding world and he says there's nothing to be done."

Cedric is looking at harry with wide sad eyes and Harry doesn't understand.

"My mum's worried that I might be upset and she said she'd fight tooth and nail for me, you might die Harry."

Harry shrugs again, " that's kind of a constant state of affairs."

Cedric looks like he's been punched in the gut. HE has that awful hopeless look in his eyes and he holds Harry so tightly Harry can't breath.

"Please don't die." Cedric whispers into his hair.

"I'll try not to." Harry says with a huff. "please don't die either."

"I'll try not to." Says Cedric.

Harry and Cedric train with renewed vigour. With so much vigour that between impedimenta curses, knockback jinxes and snogging Cedric in abandoned classrooms and more importantly nightmares Harry isn't sleeping much. So much so that he falls asleep in the middle arithmancy.

He falls asleep in the middle of arithmancy and dreams of Voldemort and crucio and massive carnivorous snakes.

He falls asleep in the middle of arithmancy and wakes up screaming.

Hermione was next to him yelling his name. "Harry, harry, Harry!"

He comes too clutching his scare which burns.

"Come on we have to get you to Dumbledore." Hermione begs. "Can you stand?'

"mione no lemme sleep." Harry says groggily. He's completely disorientated but suddenly so tired.'

"Harry come on we have to go."

Blaise, who takes this class gets up and slips his hands under Harry lifting him up. Harry would protest but he's just so sleepy, he thinks he hit his head when he fell out of his seat.

"I'm not taking him to Dumbledore." Blaise says vehemently to Hermione." He needs the hospital wing. "

"You don't understand Blaise, his scar-"

"What I understand is that his head is bleeding and nothing should be more important than that."

Harry's a little in and out after that but he ends up in the hospital wing anyhow .

It's only a mild concussion. Harry is in and out in under an hour even with a nap. Everyone is still worried.

"It's nothing." Harry asserts. " It's just a nightmare." To no avail. Harry's lying and everyone is acutely aware of it. Hermione makes Harry see Dumbledore which Blaise is significantly and oddly displeased about.

"He's not the be all and end all you know Hermione." He exclaims frustratedly. "When has he ever actually fixed anything for Harry?"

" He saved his life! Harry might've died in first year."

"From the story Harry tells its Dumbledore's fault he almost died in the first place, what kind of security measures can be overcome by first years?" Who puts an artefact that is being pursued by a dangerous individual in a school?"

"It's not that simple, if Voldemort had got his hands on that stone Harry would probably be dead now anyway, Hogwarts was the safest place for it."

"and yet Dumbledore erects defences passable by three eleven year olds."

"Don't diminish our efforts. Hermione was bloody brilliant, you weren't there." Ron angrily chimes in.

"Quit shouting I'll go see Dumbledore at the very least it won't hurt anyone." Harry finally explodes.

Cedric, who had been watching all this stoically, helps Harry up to his feet silently and they make their way to Dumbledore's office silently.

When they reach the entrance Cedric opens the door by saying "cockcroach clusters." At Harry's questioning look Cedric offer, "Prefects need to be able to contact the headmaster in case of emergencies."

"Doesn't it defeat the purpose of the password if so many people know it?" Harry asks

Cedric shrugs he thinks it's a sign of overconfidence but he's not going to voice his opinion.

"See you after?" Harry asks tentatively."

"Sure."

When he comes out of dumbledore's office at the end of the night his headache is worse then the ache in his scar. Cedric, bless his soul has fallen asleep waiting for him. Harry just curls up next to him and lays his head on his shoulder.

"Everything alright love?' Cedric asks sleepily.

"Ever come across the expression 'curiosity killed the cat' in muggle studies?" Harry asks.

Cedric hums affirmatively in response.

"Meow." Harry mutters despondently into Cedric's shoulder.

"I kind of want to pet you now."

Harry's tired beyond caring so when Cedric lifts his hand and starts running his hands through Harry's hair affectionately Harry presses into the touch.

"Do you know what a pensive is?" Harry asks Cedric

"Yeah sometimes they're used in criminal proceedings."

"Pro tip, don't stick your face in random ones you stumble across, could be traumatising.'

"You're such a menace"

"Shut up.'