A/N: Hi everyone! First off, as always, thanks for my reviews...loving them! Second, I know I said I would post another chappie and didn't so sorry but here it is! Yay! I had a little catch up on other fics, mainly my Let the Rain Fall one which I haven't updated in yonks so if anyone likes that one, expect an update soon!

So here's the next one. This one is where the excitment starts, it's halfway through the school year (almost) and plently of action ahoy! Now, tell me what you think about Cedric in this one as he is after all a teenage boy with one thing on his mind and I know from experience that you don't always stay sweet when there's totty about! He's more OOC than my already OOC Cedric but it felt right. And as for the ending...well, you'll see what happened in the next chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty - New Year's Eve

The four friends had left Hogwarts on Christmas Eve to go home to their respective families for Christmas as they always did, each one going back to either end of the country. Oliver back to Scotland, Marcus to London, Cedric to Cornwall and Roger to Wales (even though he often pointed out that he wasn't Welsh, he just lived there).

Every year, since the four boys had met, they always went to Cedric's for a New Years Eve party that his family held. It was tradition for them to go back to school the next day on January first with plenty to talk about and blinding headaches until one of them had the savvy to look up a hangover cure. Of course, hangover's were a new thing to the boys, except to Marcus who got blind drunk as a first year on several sips of Firewhisky he sneaked from someone's glass while they weren't looking.

So with Christmas over, it was time for the annual Diggory get together…

- - -

"So you invited Katie right?" Oliver asked feverishly, worrying his hair into an unruly mess.

"Yes, she is family, automatic invite," Cedric sighed but he smiled at his friend. "What's all the worry for anyway?"

"I just want to know if she liked her present or not," Oliver replied, looking to Cedric for any indication that she did. "I haven't heard from her since we left school."

"I'm sure she did," Cedric replied calmly and squeezing Oliver's shoulder reassuringly. "What did you get her anyway?"

Oliver was about to speak but a new arrival cut him off.

"Happy New Year everyone!" Marcus shouted as he Apparated in the middle of the Diggory's living room. Oliver noticed he had several bottles in his arms and it looked like Marcus had already been sipping out of them all.

No-one really took much notice of him for the music was loud and the room was fairly dark but Oliver and Cedric made their way over to him.

"Hi Marcus," Oliver said, biting his lip. Marcus was already quite drunk which meant he would be quite an embarrassment.

"Wood!" Marcus shouted. "And Cedric! Thanks for inviting me!"

"I do every year," Cedric smiled and added in undertones so only Oliver could hear, "And regret it every year too."

"Already in the party mood I see?" Oliver asked, trying to pry the bottles out of his arms before he dropped them.

"I brought some drink, well, I stole it from home. Those bastards won't care," Marcus explained loudly.

"Another Merry Christmas in the Flint household?" Cedric asked gently but he had to shout quite loud so it wasn't as sympathetic as he'd liked.

"My Dad introduced his girlfriend as my Mum's Christmas present," Marcus said, laughing but his heart wasn't fully in it. "Silly old codger, she's a year older than me!"

"Bet your Mum loved that," Oliver said dryly, shaking his head.

"Chantelle, that's her name, is in St Mungo's I think," Marcus replied with a smile.

"Merlin!" Cedric exclaimed. "Remind me never to meet your mother!"

"She's been drunk since Christmas Day I think, don't know, I went to Roger's for most of this week then went home today to get my stuff for school and thought I'd bring along some festive cheer," Marcus explained, shaking the bottles in his arms.

"You should've said mate, you know you could've come to mine," Oliver said, concerned.

"Or mine," Cedric added. "Always welcome."

"Yeah well, me and Roger had some business to attend to anyway but thanks all the same," Marcus said, an evil smirk playing on his lips. "I'll go mingle. See you later."

"What have they been up to I wonder?" Cedric asked, watching as Marcus pushed his way through the room.

"No idea. Surprised they didn't murder each other if they've spent a week together," Oliver smiled, sipping his drink.

"Well no sign of Roger yet," Cedric laughed but he spoke too soon as the afore mentioned Davies appeared right in front of them with a small pop.

"Ho, ho, ho!" Roger exclaimed, throwing his arms open wide and grabbing both Cedric and Oliver round the neck and heaving them into a massive bear hug.

"Er, Roger?" Oliver tried as his face was squashed up against Roger's neck causing his words to come out as nothing more than a wimpy groan.

"Mwah! Mwah!"

Roger kissed both Cedric and Oliver on the top of their heads audibly before giving them one last squeeze and then letting them go.

"Thanks, er, Roge," Cedric said, running a hand through his hair and looking to Oliver who had turned a nasty shade of purple following the lack of air supply to his brain due to Roger.

"What can I say? I'm in the festive spirit!" Roger shrugged, laughing quite madly. "Is Marcus here yet?"

"Yep, he went off to mingle. That way," Cedric said pointing to the door out of his living room.

"I see. Well, I'll catch up with you later as I've got mingling of my own to do," Roger said with an exaggerated wink at the boys.

"Ok," Cedric said, smiling bravely the way you would at an axe wielding madman. "Just don't mingle too much, ok?"

"O-k!" Roger laughed and off he went in the same direction as Marcus.

"Merlin, those two!" Cedric exclaimed, turning to Oliver who had also now disappeared. "Oliver?" Cedric's first instinct was to look on the ground as that boy had a habit of passing out all over the place but he soon spied where he had trotted off to.

"Great, two nutters and a fool," Cedric sighed, sipping his drink. Katie had arrived and Oliver was pandering around her across the room.

"Hey," a soft voice said behind him. Cedric turned. It was Priya.

"Hi! Hey, you look amazing," Cedric said dumbly. Priya blushed modestly and looked at the floor. She was wearing a cornflower blue dress that was decorated with gold beading and matching jewelry. She looked like an Indian princess.

"Thanks Cedric, umm, have you seen Roger?" Priya asked, looking back at him.

"Yeah, yeah," Cedric said, remembering Roger. "He arrived just before you spoke to me. He went off somewhere with Marcus."

"Oh," Priya said. "Well, can I stay here with you until he comes back?"

"Sure, can't see why not," Cedric replied. Well, in truth he could as she was technically Roger's girl and Cedric did have Celeste but it was looking like that would be soon coming to an end as he hadn't actually done much about her.

"Have a nice Christmas?" Priya asked conversationally, smiling graciously at him.

"Yeah, it was nice. Did you?" Cedric asked, liking the way things were going already.

"No," She replied.

"No? Why not?" Cedric asked, taken aback.

"Because we don't really celebrate it, being Muslim and all," Priya replied lightly.

Ok, so things were going to be a little tougher…

- - -

Meanwhile, Oliver had found Katie…

"I'm sorry I didn't write Oliver, you know how bad post owls are this time of year and it was mayhem at my house, what with blood family and step family all round," Katie apologised.

"Hey, it's ok," Oliver said as coolly as he could manage. "I hardly noticed."

Katie gave him a hard look but they both broke out in grins and embraced.

"Thanks for my present Oliver, it was really special," Katie said with as much gusto as she could manage.

"Did you like it? Because I wasn't sure but then I remembered one of the boys saying how girls go crazy for it. You definitely liked it?" Oliver asked feverishly.

"Yeah, yeah, girls absolutely adore big bottles of bargain cauldron wash," Katie explained realizing it hadn't been a joke at all. That was in fact her first ever gift from Oliver Wood who thought he was great.

"I'm so glad!" Oliver said, feeling immensely relieved. So much so in fact that he leant right in and gave Katie a rather full on kiss, which neither actually expected. After the initial shock wore off, Oliver relaxed quite a bit and realised that it was really rather nice. Katie wrapped her arms around his neck and folded into him, deciding he was a complete idiot but a damn good kisser.

- - -

"So anyway, that's how Roger put Marcus in the hospital wing!" Cedric finished. He and Priya had found an empty corner to sit, away from the hustle and bustle of the party and had been having a good chat for about half an hour now.

"Oh my goodness!" Priya laughed, sipping her drink. "You boys sure do get up to many things!"

"Yeah," Cedric smiled. "But they're such good lads underneath it all. I'd do anything for anyone of them."

"That's very noble," Priya nodded. "You're very lucky to have people like that in your life."

Cedric looked at her as she spoke and realised just how beautiful she really was. If he had been completely sober then Cedric would've severed any future conversation right there but he wasn't and decided to just go with the flow.

"So you and Roger huh?" Cedric asked, refilling their glasses with mead. "You like him?"

"I do, very much," Priya replied in earnest.

"But…? Come on, I know there's a but in there!" Cedric egged on.

"Well, he's nice and all but we don't really click," Priya admitted, fondling her glass nervously. She looked up at Cedric. "With Roger, we can't just chat away like me and you just have. We never know what to say to each other but tonight has all been so natural with you."

"Oh," Cedric replied as he wasn't sure what else to say. Was Priya hinting at what he thought she was? Surely not…

"Please don't think I'm horrible because I really like Roger and I know he's your best friend," Priya pleaded, her big eyes boring into Cedric's.

"Of course I don't. I think you're lovely and I think Roger is very lucky indeed," Cedric replied, smiling warmly. Priya smiled back and reached out to hold his hand. Her touch was soft and Cedric turned his hand so hers rested on his palm. They looked at each other nervously.

"We can't," Cedric said, shaking his hand but he didn't take his hand from hers.

"We can't," Priya echoed sadly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Priya found a new lease of life and leant forward and pecked Cedric on the lips.

She looked at him to see what reaction he had. Cedric looked hard at her before grabbing the back of her head and pushing his mouth against her own. This time the kiss was much more than a peck and soon became much, much more once Cedric opened his mouth and deepened the kiss.

They pushed each other away very soon after it was no longer an accident and watched each other, panting slightly. Something was telling Cedric a big, fat NO but at the same time, why the hell not? Roger had done much worse to him over the years and she was so, so hot.

"Bollocks to it," Cedric said suddenly and grabbed Priya once again but this time with both hands. They kissed furiously as Cedric ran his fingers through Priya's soft as silk hair and she gripped his shoulders. The adrenaline from the chance of being caught at any minute was making them want it more but at the same time, scaring them both silly.

"Cedric," Priya breathed, breaking the kiss momentarily, "Cedric…privacy."

"Mmm hmm," Cedric agreed, not bothering to break the kiss. Priya pulled away but Cedric pulled her back and held her face in his hands as he kissed her. He didn't want it to stop, ever.

Priya pulled away again, laughing. She strained her neck away from him to stop him from catching her mouth again and got up, pulling him up with her.

"Come on," she breathed, her hair tousled from Cedric's ravishing, making her look more wanton sex kitten than ever. They grasped hands and made their way from the room, passing Katie and Oliver, who were still snogging and didn't notice them.

Cedric playfully grabbed Priya's waist as they pushed past random family members and friends to get to the stairs. Priya laughed and pushed Cedric against the wall once they were half way up the stairs to kiss him once again.

Cedric pushed Priya back against the opposite wall but before he kissed her, he held her face and murmured "You are so beautiful."

Priya smiled up at him as Cedric kissed her once more.

"Come on, we're almost there," She teased, pulling away as soon as they started. She escaped from Cedric and jogged up the stairs. Cedric could do nothing but follow.

It was a big house and there was no indication which one was Cedric's room so Priya paused and turned.

"Which one?"

"I'll show you," Cedric smiled and took her hand as he led her to the farthest door on the right. He put his hand on the doorknob and opened the door, leaving him free to grab Priya once more.

They backed awkwardly into the darkened room while kissing furiously and Cedric kicked the door to, so it didn't close all the way. A narrow crack of light lit up the far wall, showing off posters and medals.

Cedric backed Priya toward his bed and pushed her gently so she fell down and he fell on top of her.

"Woah! Oh my -! Hey!"

Not as planned, Cedric and Priya scrambled back off the bed as fast as they could as there were already two people on it.

"What is going on?" Cedric asked, fumbling backwards as he scrambled for his wand but someone beat him to it.

"Lumos."

"Roger!" Priya cried, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Cedric!" Roger said angrily, looking from Cedric to Priya.

"Marcus!" Cedric exclaimed, absolutely dumbfounded at the sight before him.