Hey everyone! This story was brought to you by Home Economics and Domestic Magic: House Elves assignment, Insane Prompt List, Meet Cute Marathon, and Supernatural Fanclub Merfolk on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Also for Shipping Wars, Link Maker, Spring Bingo, and Trope Bingo on Monthly Challenges for All.
Home Economics and Domestic Magic: House Elves assignment: Task 1 - Write about a servant.
Insane Prompt List: 335. (character) Cedric Diggory
Meet Cute Marathon: Prompt 21 - A is a stable hand for the Queen's Riders. While tending to the horses, B stumbles in, trying to hide from the clinking of armour outside the stables, taking refuge in a pile of hay in the stall A is mucking out. B cries out, "Don't tell them I'm here. Please!"
Supernatural Fanclub Merfolk: Mermista (AU) Royalty
Shipping Wars: Harry Potter/Cedric Diggory (Desperately Seeking), Spring Big List (borrowed clothing), 1,168 words
Link Maker: Meet Cutes, 1,168 words
Spring Bingo: 4B (renewal), 1,168 words
Trope Bingo: 3C (The Hero's Journey), 1,168 words
Warning for King Arthur!AU, Royalty!AU, mentions of character death, and a bit out of character. Word count is 1,168 words. I hope you all enjoy the newest chapter of The Cutest Meetings A New Camelot.
The smell of horse manure and hard work always made Cedric smile. He doesn't know why but it does. His job being one of the most rewarding he knows of in the kingdom.
"Easy there, Barnabas," he said as a nearby horse whickered as it stamped impatiently waiting for it's stall to be mucked good and proper. "I'll be done as soon as you know it."
The whinnied and stamped again. Cedric smiled and shook his head as he moved towards the nearest pile of hay. That was when the strangest thing he'd ever seen happened.
A dark-haired, green-eyed boy ran into the stable panting and looking behind. Without looking to make sure he was alone, the boy jumped straight into the hay Cedric was about to thrust his pitchfork into.
Raising an eyebrow at these antics, Cedric walked to the door and was about to open it when a voice called out to him, halting his actions.
"Don't tell them I'm here," the green-eyed boy said, fear coloring his voice. "Please! They'll kill me if they find me."
"Why?" Cedric asked in concern. "What did you do that was so bad?"
"It's not what I did." The admission of this was more shocking for Cedric than it was for the boy obviously. "It's who I am."
"Who are you?"
"I can't say now. They just can't find me, alright?"
Cedric sighed. "Then why did you come into the Queen's stables to hide? Don't you think there are much better hiding places than this?"
"The company wouldn't have been quite as attractive in those other places," the younger man said with a smirk and a wink. "Do you even know who I am?"
The clink of armour sounded like it was getting closer and closer by the minute. If this boy was in true trouble he had a weird way of showing it. Running into the stables and then gabbing as though he hadn't just pleaded for his location not be given away.
"I don't know who you are," Cedric sighed, "but if you don't stay quite and get further down into that haystack you're going to be found. I am not taking the blame for it if you are."
An impertinent snort was heard from the haystack, then the sound of someone burrowing into it. At least this boy knew when to save his own skin, Cedric had to give him that one.
A few minutes later the door was thrown open unceremoniously, making Barnabas whinny and knicker about in concern. The guards came crashing into the stables and looked around as though expecting to find someone. All they found was Cedric and the poor frightened horse.
"What can I do for you fellows?" Cedric asked, soothingly stroking the horse's neck to calm him down. "You should know better than to scare the Queen's horses like this."
"We were chasing a boy," the lead guard, a troll of a man named Marcus, said, looking around the stables as though expecting the boy to pop out of nowhere, "we were just wondering if he came in here?"
"Nope," Cedric said, popping the p in the word for enthesis. "I haven't seen anyone all day except for yourselves."
"Are sure?" Marcus pressed anxiously. "Queen Bellatrix needs to know where this boy is. He's a pretender to her throne and needs to be dealt with promptly. If you know where he is and tell us, there could very well be a lordship in it for you, Diggory."
"I'd rather earn my title the right way, sir. Through hard work and discipline."
"So be it. But if it comes to our attention that you've harbored this criminal, his fate will be your own. Do hear me?"
"Loud and clear."
Marcus's dark beady eyes traveled around the stables once more landing on the haystack they boy was hiding in for way too long than was necessary. He did a double take before stepping closer for a better look. He must not have found it interesting because he stormed from the stables with a flick of his hand to indicate that his men should follow.
He waited until he was sure that he couldn't hear the armoured men any more before he went over to the haystack and motioned for the boy to come out of hiding. He took a closer look at the boy this time. Taking in every feature of the upturned face. The messy, flyaway black hair that was so much like the old king's that it should have been a dead give away. The kindly green eyes that were much like the former queen's it made Cedric's heartbreak. The smooth pale skin that wasn't cracked from the sun or hard work. The smooth, soft looking hand with their uncracked nails, that Cedric wouldn't mind feeling running up and down his back.
Mentally berating himself for thinking such things towards the crowned prince of the kingdom he looked towards the door. He knew the guards were gone but if they came back it would spell trouble for the boy.
"Prince Harry?" Cedric asked, taking a closer look.
"Yes," Harry said with a nod. "You were my mother's stable boy when she and my father were still alive." He looked around the stables to find only horrible looking, unfriendly black steads were in the place of the softer toned ponies and horses that his family was fond of.
The only one left over from King James and Queen Lily was Barnabas and that was because Cedric had bought him outright. He'd paid for being allowed to stable the horse in the royal stables, dearly so. He could still feel the pain of his payment at Marcus Flint's hands to this day.
"I was," Cedric told him proudly. "I saved your mother's favorite horse, Barnabas. I suppose he's your horse now."
"What happened, Cedric?" Harry asked, surprising the young stable hand that he even knew his name. "What happened to my parents kingdom?"
"I'll tell you that later," Cedric said urgently. He looked around for his spare set of clothes that he usually brought for when the horses were particularly frisky. He knew that the only way to get Prince Harry out of there without his being seen was in disguise. "Here." He thrust the clothes into Harry's arms. "Change into these and go to this location and wait for me there. We may be able to spark a renewal in the forces that would dethrone the queen. But only if you are willing to help us, King Harry of the Potter kingdom."
"But Cedric, I'm just a boy…"
"So was King Arthur and he started one of the most fabulous kingdoms in all of the world." He nodded towards the next stall. "Change quickly. We don't have much time."
Harry sighed taking Cedric's spare clothes and going into the next stall to change. Everything would change because of this one boy and it all started with Cedric and this one meeting.
I hope you all enjoyed A New Camelot as much as I enjoyed writing it.
