Author's note: Don't worry, don't worry; Rita Skeeter, the Yule Ball, all will be revealed soon. For now, a little fluff and bonding is necessary to set the stage for later events.

In real-life-news, the new job is going well, I am in charge of a wonderful staff of twelve, my apartment is slowly starting to feel like home.

I cannot begin to tell you have happy I am that I seem to have finally beat my writer's block on this story. It his a special place in my heart (I admit, especially Emil). I hope all of you are enjoying the story as well!

-Emmette

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

"Look Krum, I've already told you; I don't care how many of your friends you get to come over here and point their wands at me, I'm not taking you to see Harry."

"I can help! I just vant to help him! Merlin be damned vhy can't you see that I care about him?!"

"I do see that. I'm neither an imbecile nor completely blind, so of course I see that," Cedric said, and despite the circle of intimidating Durmstrang students that had been growing outside the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room for the past hour, he actually gave Viktor a small, almost indulgent smile. Viktor, in turn, threw his hands up in the air with a frustrated cry, but his anger drained quickly, and he slumped down until he was sitting with his back against the wall, hands sliding roughly through his hair as he looked up at Diggory with a lost expression.

"Then… I do not understand. Vhat have I done that you vill not let me go to him vhile he is hurting?" Still ignoring the wands pointed at him, Diggory lowered himself down so he was crouching at eye level in front of the distraught seeker. When he answered, his voice was calm and soothing.

"This isn't about you. I know this is hard for you, but I need to do what's best for Harry." When Viktor sat forward to argue, Cedric simply held up a hand and frowned at him, making it clear that it was not the time to interrupt. "You said it yourself, Krum; Harry is hurting. But Harry isn't the kind of person who wants to be held and coddled when he's hurt—he needs to show the world that he's 'okay,' that he's strong enough. And lately, he especially needs to be strong in front of you."

"Explain." Emil was the only one still pointing a wand at Diggory now, the other students having lowered theirs as they perceived the Hufflepuff was no longer a threat. Emil, though, still saw the one person standing between his distraught brother and the boy he had fallen for, and that made Cedric enemy number one in his book. Diggory raised an eyebrow at the sharp demand and looked pointedly at the wand, but when Emil made it very clear after several long moments that he had no intention of lowering the wand, Cedric shrugged and started talking again.

"Look, Harry came here my third year. There were all kinds of rumors that year, about Harry Potter and his supposed adventures: taking down a mountain troll, rescuing a baby dragon, facing monsters in the forbidden forest, riding on a centaur… it was fun and exciting to hear about, yeah, but I mean no one really believed they were true, you know? And then the biggest rumor of all, at the end of the year; about our defense professor being possessed by You-Know-Who, and Harry battling him and saving the sorcerer's stone. He was the hero of Hogwarts, overnight. It was a great story to end the year on."

"It vasn't a story, it vas the truth; Harry told us about it," Viktor growled, and Diggory just sighed and shot him an annoyed look at the interruption.

"I'm not arguing with that, I'm just trying to explain how things were for Harry. Did he tell you that he came to the end-of-year feast a few days later, hands still wrapped in bandages? That he held his head high and walked proudly into the room, knowing that every single student would be sitting there and talking about him and questioning him? No, I thought not. Any other kid, and their family would have been at their side in the hospital wing, day and night after something like that. They would have held them and wiped their tears and taken them home for the summer early, but Harry had no one there for him, no one to protect him, and I'd be willing to bet he never once cried, even after all he had been through." Cedric paused, watching for a reaction, and he must have found something that he was looking for in Viktor's face because he shifted into a more comfortable sitting position and said, "As far as I can tell, telling you about that year was the first time he talked about it with anyone other than Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore. That's a major kind of trust, Krum, especially since Harry has been fighting tooth and nail all year never to look in front of you."

"I… didn't realize…"

"Did he tell you about his second year?" Viktor could only shake his head, a growing sense of dread building as he wondered what could possibly have Cedric looking so grim when not even the terrible events of Harry's first year had warranted such an expression. And then Cedric began to talk about the events of that year—the blood on the walls, people being petrified, the disaster at the dueling club…

"Wait, stop. He spoke parseltongue? The Harry Potter is a parselmouth?" Diggory wasn't the only one surprised by the sudden and gruff interruption.

"It's 'just Harry,' Khal. You know he hates all that hero worship crap," Lina teased, but her voice was hesitant, and most of the others wore matching expressions of uncertainty as they watched Khal after his strange outburst.

"Is there some problem here, or…?" Cedric didn't have time to finish his question before Khal had spun on his heel and practically fled from the hallway they were all crowded into.

"What the actual fuck?" Ibraim asked, gaping after him. Viktor watched Khal's retreating figure and bit his lip. He could see his friend was upset, and normally he wouldn't have hesitated to go after him, but he also felt like he was right in the middle of learning some very important things about his little survivor's past.

"Someone should go after him," Emil said quietly, but when Viktor looked up to agree, he saw that Emil was sending pointed looks at the others, rather than hinting for Viktor to chase after him.

"I'll go," Lina said immediately, still looking guiltily down the hallway despite the fact that Khal was long out of sight. "Ibraim can come with me," she added, when Rumen and Adriana frowned at her from their posts on either side of the group, watching both ends of the passage for trouble.

"But—"

"They'll fill us in later, let's go," she said pointedly, a hand tugging insistently on Ibraim's arm. While he didn't look too happy about it, he also didn't put up a fight as he was led away from the group, and Viktor settled back into his place by the wall uncertainly.

"Riiiiight." Cedric said, finally breaking up the silence that had followed Lina and Ibraim's departure. "So after the incident at the dueling club, rumors started flying all over the school about Harry being the heir of Slytherin…"

By the time Cedric had described the stories of Harry, the Chamber, a basilisk, and the sword of Gryffindor, Lina and Ibraim were walking back towards the group empty-handed.

"So Ginny was taken into the Chamber to die, and a day later Harry is back in the Great Hall with a bandaged arm and his head held high?" Emil clarified, whistling admiringly at Cedric's nod.

"The Phoenix," Viktor said quietly.

"Phoenix? What phoenix? Dang it Lina, I told you we'd miss the good stories!"

"Harry told me about it in one of his letters," Viktor explained, rolling his eyes at Ibraim's whining as he rejoined the group. "He said a phoenix healed him with its tears, and helped him fly out of… somewhere. He had started writing it and then scribbled it out. It must have been the Chamber. Phoenix tears would be the only way he could have survived a bite from a basilisk."

"I never even heard about a phoenix… So you're saying Harry's adventures are even more amazing than the rumors suggest? Now that's a rather startling thought," Cedric said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What about last year? Anything we should know about?" Emil asked, realizing the conversation was starting to derail. They all quieted down quickly when they saw the somber look that immediately wiped Cedric's smile away.

"Yeah. Yeah, last year would be the year that a mass-murderer escaped Azkaban to come after him, and he nearly got kissed by dementors…"

xXxXxXxXx

While Viktor and his friends sat enthralled and appalled listening to the horrors that a thirteen-year-old had gone through while just trying to have a peaceful year of school, Albus Dumbledore was in his office watching his four Head of Houses shout at each other, and desperately wishing he hadn't run out of lemon drops earlier that week.

"I should have been consulted before a Gryffindor student was removed from his dormitory, this entire thing has gotten completely out of hand!"

"Well yes I'd quite agree with that Minerva, I think we can all concur that a child feeling so unsafe in their own quarters that they had to seek other arrangements is certainly 'completely out of hand.'"

"Oh don't go making Potter sound like some tragic martyr, Filius, he only wants the attention, as usual."

"Severus you've always had it out for the boy, just because he looks like—well. You have your reasons. But I hardly think—"

"You hardly think? Well you said it Minerva dear, not I; though weren't you a moment ago arguing that young Harry shouldn't have removed himself from Gryffindor tower? Yet when Severus said the same thing…"

"Filius, behave. Now I think all of us just need to calm down. If Harry is happy in Hufflepuff dorms, what is all the fuss about? I don't mind. Nor, it seems, do my badgers. No harm no foul, I say!"

"Well how delightfully naïve of you, Pomona. The 'foul,' is that once again, the Golden Boy has blatantly disregarded school rules! That famous Harry Potter needs to learn that he cannot simply wave his regal hand and have the rest of the world fall to their knees to accommodate—!"

"But what school rules have been disregarded here, Severus? I've read the rule myself, it does not truly specify which house dormitories a student need reside in…"

"I shouldn't be surprised that everyone bends over backwards to find loopholes to protect precious Potter and—"

"I agree," Dumbledore finally cut in, pushing himself to his feet and peering sternly at his suddenly silent staff over his half-moon spectacles. "I agree, with Filius. Mr. Potter is breaking no school rules by moving his things to Hufflepuff dorms, and given that Madame Sprout can find suitable accommodations for him and none of the Hufflepuff students object, I see no reason that any of us should object to the situation." He glanced only briefly at Snape as he stressed the word, but from the man's scowl he knew that he had made his point.

"Albus, I really must—" Dumbledore cut off Minerva's objections with a single sharp look.

"You 'really must' look into the bullying and harassment that has driven a student from his own house table and dormitories, find those responsible, and put an end to the behavior? Yes Minerva, I quite agree. Please, don't let me detain you." He gestured pointedly at the door, and though he felt the smallest tickle of guilt at the way his deputy headmistress's cheeks flushed with shame at being so obviously called out in front of her colleagues, it wasn't anything compared to the guilt he felt for once again allowing himself to get tunnel-vision for Harry's safety, and allow his happiness and well-being to fall through the cracks.

After it was obvious that the headmaster had nothing more to say on the matter, Snape swept out after McGonagall with a haughty swish of his cloak, followed shortly by Flitwick and his barely contained amusement, and Sprout, who smiled kindly at Dumbledore and simply looked relieved that the argument had come to an end.

"Perhaps, Fawkes," Dumbledore said thoughtfully as he stroked the phoenix's smooth feathers with a faraway look in his eyes. "Perhaps Harry has finally found protectors who will have the luxury of putting him first before the needs of the rest of the world… I only wish I could forgive myself for not always doing the same."

xXxXxXxXx

"C'mon Harry, wake up, there's a good lad. Time for breakfast." Harry opened his eyes blearily to find his glasses being held out for him a few inches from his face. He slid them on, blinking groggily at the smiling face of Cedric Diggory and then past the kneeling teen to the rest of the room, memories of the day before slowly coming back to him.

"Where…?" Harry trailed off, brow wrinkled, as tried to remember if there really had been two other beds in the room when he crawled under the covers the afternoon before, or if he had simply imagined it.

"The others moved their beds to the fifth year dormitory. None of them minded, and we all thought you could use a little privacy and space after… well after everything lately."

"No, I didn't mean to force anyone out, I…"

"Nah, no Harry we know, really. It was their idea, no one minds, honest. Now come on, you've been asleep for nearly sixteen hours, you must be starving. And I may have managed to keep your Durmstrang friends and the Weasley twins out of here yesterday, but if you don't make an appearance soon I'm not putting it past them to start dismantling the castle walls just to get in. And to be honest, I don't fancy facing the wrath of Ginny Weasley or Hermione Granger, either." He shuddered exaggeratedly, and considered it a personal victory when Harry chuckled in return.

Cedric watched carefully out of the corner of his eye as Harry got up and ready for the day. He looked less pale than he had lately, and the bags under his eyes seemed to have gone down a bit. Cedric had a feeling he would be kicking himself in the arse for some time for not realizing how serious the treatment from the other Gryffindors had gotten.

He had fibbed a bit to Harry: it hadn't exactly been the two other sixth-year's idea to move their things to another dorm room, but Madame Sprout's. She had come down to the badger sett the night before after Harry had gone to bed, and asked Viktor and his friends for their version of what had happened in Gryffindor tower that morning. She hadn't given them details about her own conversation with Dumbledore and the other professors, but enough that Viktor knew two important things: first, that the headmaster had made it very clear that no one was to challenge Harry about staying in the sett (a fact for which Cedric found himself extremely relieved), and second that through all of the bullying that year, that had been little—if any—teacher intervention. It hadn't taken more than a gentle suggestion to have the others eagerly transferring their things out of the room to help Harry feel a little bit safer.

Even now, the next morning after the conversation, Cedric still felt anger build at the thought of how much Harry was forced to go through on his own, and he vowed to talk to Viktor about stepping up the Durmstrang's protection of Harry. As guests rather than students of the school, they may have more freedom to intervene than he did.

"Hey Cedric?" Diggory made sure to wipe any anger from his face before he turned to smile at the soft-spoken boy.

"Yeah Harry?"

"Thank you. For helping me. Thanks for everything." Cedric very slowly reached out to put a hand on the boy's shoulder, squeezing softly and looking steadily into his eyes.

"It doesn't have to be just you against the world from now on, Harry. I promise you that."