Written For - The 365 Prompts Challenge

Prompts - (Plant/Flower) Rose

Summary - [ Cedric/Cho/Harry ] A single red rose symbolizes love and respect. This does not explain why Cedric Diggory is giving Harry one. In front of his girlfriend. Who knows flower language.

Notes - I'm sorry. Idk why these three are the only ones I can seem to write nowadays. I promise, next time it will Not be Cedric/Cho/Harry

Title From - 'Roses' by Shawn Mendes

Word Count - 885

Harry and Cho sat by the Black Lake, taking turns throwing anything they could get their hands on into the murky waters. Cho had dragged them there that morning, claiming that she wanted to get back at it for keeping her at the bottom, trapped, but Harry just suspected she wanted to let off some steam.

He heard a rather large splash! Behind him, and turned around to see Cho grinning at the remnants of her throwing a heavy rock in.

"Nice one," said Harry with a grin, picking up a rock of his own and almost tumbling over himself with the weight. She flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"I know," she said, flippantly, then grinned widely at him. "Oooo," she said, seeing the massive rock Harry was struggling to hold. "That'll be a good one!"

"Yeah," Harry said, managing a laugh. He tripped to the edge of the lake and threw it in, utterly satisfied and impressed with the huge splash he had accomplished.

"Merlin, Harry," Cho said, smiling at him. "Go big or go home, am I right?"

"Why, of course," he said. "There's no other way." Cho laughed. She glanced behind Harry for a moment, softly smiling. Harry took a moment to admire her, with her half rolled up flannel sleeves and ratty old jeans. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, her wand poked haphazardly through it.

"Cedric's coming," she said. "He looks nervous," she shrugged. "Also, hot, but doesn't he always?" Harry shrugged. He did not feel his input was particularly necessary when it came to Cho's boyfriend.

Harry turned to glance at Cedric, and he did look nervous, and weirdly so. He still wore his robes over his muggle clothes, so whatever he held in his hand was mostly obstructed from view as he jogged over to the two.

"Why the hell does he look so nervous?" asked Cho. Harry looked back at her, just in time for her to have an epiphany, the worried crease between her eyebrows disappearing. "Nevermind," she said, but she sounded almost guilty, a light blush appearing on her cheeks.

Cedric stopped next to Harry. He grinned at the two of them for a moment, then took a deep breath. "Just came out of the greenhouses," he explained. He loosely held out what was in his hand to Cho, revealing it as two full red roses.

Cho took one of the roses, holding it up to her nose with a serene smile on her face. Harry cocked his head. Why didn't she take both?

Cedric turned to look at Harry fully, holding the flower out with a tentative smile.

"Er, What are you doing?" Harry asked after a moment. Cedric's smile flickered.

"I'm giving you a flower," said Cedric. He held it out a little further. "Here, I want you to have it."

"Why?" asked Harry, bewildered.

Before Cedric could answer, Cho interrupted: "A single full rose means 'I Love You', red means 'Love or Respect'." she turned to Harry. "He's in love with you, is my guess."

Cedric was turning a nice shade of red, it seemed, as he looked over at Cho. "Yeah, well, thanks for that," he muttered, sounding quite embarrassed. Cho shrugged and grinned.

"I'm your girlfriend, of course I'm going to help you with your little plight, here." Cedric sighed.

"Yeah, yeah," Cedric muttered. He turned back to Harry. "So will you? Take them, I mean. You don't have to, obviously."

"Your girlfriend is literally right there," said Harry, gesturing to Cho, who had just thrown a rock into the water.

"Er, well, so here's the thing," Cedric closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. He figured it was to soothe his nerves. "Me and Cho were talking and, er, well, uh." He paused, sending Cho a longing look as she threw a tree branch as far as she could into the lake. "I kind of like you?" said Cedric after a long moment. He didn't look at Harry, instead rushing on to say: "And so does Cho, and we both know you have a crush on Cho and Cho thinks you have a crush on me so here I am and please take this rose before I cry right here, right now."

"Huh," said Harry. He paused for a moment, waiting for Cedric to laugh at him, or grin and say something along the lines of 'haha, fooled you!', but it never came. He just watched Harry back, looking increasingly nervous about the whole thing.

Harry reached out his hand, and took the rose in two fingers. He brought it up to his face, inspecting it, then took it to his nose, smelling the flower. Cedric grinned at him experimentally. Harry grinned back, then hugged him quickly. "Thanks, Cedric."

"I wasn't joking," called Cedric as Harry walked back to throw things with Cho. Harry grinned over his shoulder at him. He held up his rose.

"I know," he said. "I want talk to Cho about it, first, though."

"Oh, yeah, right," said Cedric, awkwardly turning to leave. He waved his hand the tiniest bit. "Bye."

Harry watched him leave for a moment.

"Hey, Ced," he called, Cedric turning around instantaneously. "I like you too."

Cedric beamed at him.

They would be alright.