Cedric was aching.
From head to toe.
Covered in slime and blood and he didn't even want to know what else. Seeped into his robes, into his bloody socks, he felt disgusting. And as Steve squelched next to him, a nasty cut above his blonde brow, trickling into his eye, and what looked like a slight limp, centering around where he had hit his knee very early onto their fight with the basilisk, Cedric hated to think how bad he looked. Because Steve looked like he had been run over by a herd of hippogriffs than nabbed by the Giant Squid for good measure.
Or maybe fought a centuries-old basilisk. With four other boys who weren't even of age yet. And barely lived to tell the tale.
He looked awful. And Cedric felt awful too.
"Harry Potter just killed a basilisk," Steve said in a dull tone, his bright eyes staring at the corpse of the snake. Littered with scrapes and gouges of their spells, eyes scratched out, "A more than hundred-foot basilisk that was put in the school by one of the founders of the school… And he also killed the memory of a six-teen-year-old You-Know-Who."
"We helped," Cedric told him, nudging his shoulder. Cedric cringed when a string of slime stretched between their shoulders as he pulled away.
Steve snorted.
"Right. We helped."
"Remember when we were worried about our O.W.L.S. next year?"
"I will laugh in the face of O.W.L.S."
They were silent, watching as Ginny, Ron, and Percy huddled around each other, trying to calm down, still sobbing from what was a well deserved crying fit, poor Harry looking torn between joining them, just hovering awkwardly, with the phoenix just pecking awkwardly at his ear.
"Hey, Ced?"
"Yeah, Steve?"
"Was it me, or was You-Know-Who unrealizable handsome?"
Cedric blinked. Felt his stomach roll. But he was also a very honest person.
"...He was, wasn't he?"
Steve snorted again, letting out a giggle. An honest to Merlin giggle.
"The worst dark-wizard in British History was a ten."
Cedric let out a giggle himself.
"What the hell, Steve?"
Steve nudged his shoulder, and then kept his shoulder pressed against Cedric's shoulder. Almost in unison, they sagged into each other. Cedric did not mention how hard Steve was trembling, and Steve was a good enough mate not to mention how heavy Cedric was when he felt all his weight drop almost completely onto Steve's smaller frame. They slid to a sitting position together, and Cedric tried not to think about what else was seeping into his already unsalvageable robes. They sat, and just pressed each other's weight press into the other as their already spent adrenaline wore off.
"Hey, Ced?" Steve asked, voice hoarse.
"Yeah, Steve?"
"How much money do you think we can make off of the basilisk parts? Because we killed the bloody thing and by law, its body is ours, doesn't matter where the fuck it's been or where it came from."
Cedric blinked.
And blinked again.
Looked at the body.
And had to blink one more time.
"...Sweet fucking Merlin."
