A/N I am so sorry about this but I am so stuck on the yule ball, like super glued to the floor kind of stuck, that I am just going to have Harry and Cedric talk about it and the second task.

Important!!!!!! This chapter will be starting the night before the third task and will encompass the maze. Just so you know there is at the most two more chapters most likely only one left to this story then I am going to work on third one. I am truly sorry for writing twelve chapters of filler but trust me there would have been a lot more filler and less coherency if I had tried to write a story per year like I originally planned. I promise you if you stick out the next few filler chapters the third story will be an actual story again.

I am going to try and have this story finished in the next twenty four hours or so it depends on how badly it fights me.

Last note the last book in the trilogy will be completely au not just slightly au as the others.

Chapter Eleven

The End of an Era

The two brunette wizards were lounging in what had quickly come to be their favorite spot in the castle, the black and silver draped bed in the corner of the room of requirement.

"The Yule Ball was hilarious wasn't it Cedric? I can't believe Colin actually got a picture of Dumbledore's face when we kissed. I thought the man was going to have a heart attack and keel over but alas, you can't have everything in life." Aidan said to his laughing partner.

Aidan, although being two years Cedric's junior, had taken the dominant role in the relationship and they were sitting in such a way Aidan had his back against the head board and Cedric was leaning against him with one of Aidan's arms around his middle and the other hand playing with his hair. They were both way to comfortable like this to even think about moving for the next hour or so. They had been rehashing the events of the past few years and Aidan's descriptions of the first task and the Yule ball had sent them both into gales of laughter.

Cedric was still laughing at Dumbledore's reaction to them and added into the conversation. "Can you believe that Rose was the only champion to have to fish a non living thing from the lake, thank you again by the way, not only was the thing not living it was a mirror for heavens sake. I guess Dumbledore figured the champions couldn't actually save themselves so he had to come up with something. At least Diarmid saved someone from the lake even if it was his father." Cedric said with an exasperated sigh. Once he had been cleared of all grandiose thoughts of those two he had quickly come around to Aidan's way of thinking.

"I hate them still, but I do think it is a waste. I know the Potters well, a bit too well for my liking, those two would be incredibly strong magically but being famous early on really went to their heads. They have been told since they were small that they could beat anything if they had defeated the Dark lord. With that kind of attitude drilled into you would make anyone not care about much of anything else. After all if they faced a Dark Lord once and won when they weren't much older then infants then why do they need anything more now? That attitude is going to get them killed. I hate them but I don't necessarily want to see them dead." Aidan said in answer to Cedric's observation.

"I worry when you talk so much about dieing. We both know by now that someone is after you. I don't know what the heads had planed for tomorrow but I do know it will be deadly dangerous. You can take care of yourself I know that much but I would much rather you not have to go through that." Cedric said leaning back further into Aidan gaining as much contact as he could.

"I promise you I will come back." Was Aidan's only response. It wasn't lost on Cedric thaqt he made no mention of being alive when he returned.

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Exactly twenty four hours after the two lovers had drifted off to sleep in each others arms Aidan's body slammed into the ground two things clutched in his hands for dear life, one the smooth metal of the tri-wizard cup the other was the now cooling flesh of a slightly overweight wrist.

"Aidan, oh come on please open your eyes, please no don't be dead." Aidan heard the worried voice coming from what sounded like miles away.

Aidan was able to whisper two words before passing out again, "I promised."

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The next time Aidan woke up it was to the blinding light of the infirmary, the moment his eyes opened blearily someone was questioning him.

"What happened after the task?" Aidan immediately knew his inquisitor was Dumbledore.

"Voldemort has returned sir. He needed the blood of an enemy to complete a ritual. That was why he took Rose and me. He took both our blood but Rose's didn't work. Wormtail was ordered to kill her and then to take my blood. My blood worked where Rose had failed and he was able to come back.

We dueled and I was able to get away from him and back to the cup. I grabbed Rose and got us the hell out of there. I hope someone is taking care of Diarmid he has never gone a day without her." Aidan said shakily only half faking, he was incredibly tired. He was telling a lot of half truths here but he would never fully trust Dumbledore with the whole story, and it wasn't time for certain facts to be revealed just yet.

"Voldemort didn't have time to call his death eaters before I got away is Father alright?" Aidan asked seriously. He knew Severus had been found out as a spy and was now on Voldemort's kill list he was uncertain whether or not Lucius was going to return to Voldemort for the time being or completely cut ties.

"I haven't heard anything from the Malfoys." Dumbledore answer unhelpfully. His savior was just killed and this boy expected him to worry over a death eater that wasn't under his control? His plan had backfired completely. The boy was supposed to be disposed of not his puppets.

"That would be because we are standing right behind you." A stern voice coming from the other side of the drawn curtain brought the presence of other people to their attention.

"Mother, Father, Uncle Severus, Draco," Aidan greeted them gratefully.

"We were so worried about you." Narcissa the only one who didn't have a reputation to maintain immediately rushed to his bed side and started smoothing down non-existent wrinkles in the sheets and plumping his pillows, overall just mother hening him.

"Headmaster I would appreciate it if you didn't hassle my son anymore while it is just the two of you. If there is anything you must know from him then you will wait until there is another person present. Aidan is still a minor and should be treated thusly." Lucius said in an authoritative voice.

"I have the right to question my students." Dumbledore replied in an hardened tone his dislike of the senior Malfoy evident in his voice.

"Only in school maters, and this is clearly not a school matter it involves the world and while you sit at your desk and plot real people are dieing because you refuse to give important information to the ministry. I will be taking my son there myself when he is able to. Therefore there is no need for you to question him relentlessly about a topic that is clearly distressing him. Now all you need to do for now is get the word out the Drk Lord has returned the exact method isn't important at the moment just that it has occurred." Lucius easily countered any argument Dumbledore might have.

In fact any retort that he might have made would have been cut off by two angry voices.

"I'm sorry Mr. Diggory you can't see him its after curfew." That was Poppy's voice.

"I don't care I will see him if it's the last thing I do. I can see the shadows through the curtains if others can see him why can't I?" Cedric demanded hotly.

"The headmaster said they were not to be disturbed but I couldn't very well stop his family from seeing him. You however have no blood ties here." Pomfrey informed him.

"It's alright Madame Pomfrey let him in please." Aidan called to the two arguing people.

"Aidan you're alright." Cedric's heavily relieved face appeared in front of the curtains a millisecond or two before Aidan found himself with an armload of Hufflepuff.

"Are you okay. I knew this task would be horrible. I can't believe you're still alive. You came back to me." Cedric's voice blurred with the pace of his speech.

"Cedric I'm alright but if you continue to cut off my oxygen supply I won't be." Aidan answered seriously. Finally Cedric lessened his hug a little but didn't let go.

"I thought I had lost you don't ever do that again!" Cedric admonished slowly working up to another rant.

"Hey Cedric?" Aidan said sweetly.

"What?" He asked stopping mid rant.

"Shut up," And with that Aidan kissed Cedric hard and full on the lips. It was a prolonged, and dman hot, kiss that took both their breath away.

When finally he looked up Aidan noticed the headmaster had vacated the premises. Severus and Lucius were sizing Cedric up as if analyzing a new member of the family. Aidan could see wedding plans already forming in his mother's eyes, and Draco was giving him a sly smirk for his performance.

He did the only thing he could think of to do. He groaned and kissed Cedric again.

A/N ok I am making this a sixth year fic so I am combining the next summer and fith year into one super chapter and ending this story with twelve total chapters. I will put a note up when I get around to writing the sequel which won't happen until I finish one more story and it has about five more chapters to go to it. I want to have all my fics including the sequel to this one completed by Christmas so I am going to try and update all of my stories more often with at least one being updated in a day.

My goal is to have the sequel up by early september but I can't garuntee anything right now.