Title: Loyalty
Author: Ashanta
Rating: PG
Summary: For some strange, unexplainable reason, I had the desire to write a Justin/Cedric story. As in, that "curly haired kid, Justin Finch- Fletchley" having some kind of innocent boy-crush on the all around good- guy and crush-worthy Cedric Diggory, and Cedric being his usual sweet, kind self about the entire matter, not wanting to hurt Justin's feelings, and thus...this thing evolved. Or mutated. Whichever.
Pairing: Cedric/Justin
Setting: PoA time-span, perhaps GoF later
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Loyalty
Chapter One: A Secret Between Friends
"Really, Cedric, you can't go blaming yourself--we won the match fair and square," Zacharias Smith said as the Hufflepuff Quidditch team entered their common room to a roar of applause and cheering. "Potter fell off his broom; you didn't. You caught the snitch, and we won. It's as simple as that."
Ernie Macmillan chimed in with a hardy, "Hear hear!" and Hannah Abbot nodded vigorously from their arm chairs by the fireplace. Justin Finch- Fletchley nodded his agreement too, but a little less noticeably.
Cedric still looked slightly remorseful, but accepted the bottle of butterbeer pushed into his hands by an eager second-year and smiled thankfully at her. She blushed and ran back over to join her giggling friends as he took a small swig.
After a while, the common room began to empty out as people started to head off for bed, but Justin decided to stay down a little while longer. He told Ernie to go to bed without him and that he still had some Transfiguration homework he needed to work on before he went to sleep. He felt the quiet would be good enough for him to concentrate in, and he took out his quill and parchment and began to write when he noticed faintly the sounds of slow breathing, as if someone was asleep.
Justin peered around the back of his armchair and found Cedric asleep in the fluffy chintz he sat down in when he first entered the room, his empty butterbeer bottle resting against his chest. Justin noticed, dully, that Cedric was still in his Quidditch robes as well, still slightly muddy and wet.
"I'd better just wake him up so he can at least change and go to sleep properly," Justin muttered to himself, and set his materials to the side and pushed himself up from the armchair and walked towards Cedric. He poked him lightly in the shoulder a few times before Cedric awoke with a slight jump.
"Oh...hi, Justin," he said sleepily, stifling a yawn. He looked around the common room with calm, though heavy-lidded gray eyes, and then turned back to face Justin. "What time is it?"
"Nearly after two." Justin answered. "I figured you'd want to change out of those wet clothes, and all," Justin instantly regretted the choice of words as soon as he said them, but Cedric didn't seem to notice. Then again, Cedric had probably never seen campy Muggle movies with cringe-worthy pick up lines, so Justin felt a little better for it.
"Yeah, you're right...thanks," Cedric said, and stood, sweeping his dark hair from his face, and stood up. Somewhere in the back of Justin's mind, he marveled at how tall Cedric was, especially when standing next his 13-year- old, due-for-a-growth-spurt-any-day-now self.
Cedric had begun to make his way towards the dormitories when Justin suddenly spoke up, "I heard about you wanting a rematch because of what happened to Harry; I thought that was really good of you." Cedric stopped walking and turned back to face Justin. "I, uh, I thought it was really fair, I mean. Very becoming of a Hufflepuff, and all that. I don't think Zacharias would've called for a rematch if it were him."
Cedric allowed himself a small smile. "I dunno...he might've. And thanks."
"That catch you made was brilliant, though," Justin continued, feeling a strong urge to keep the fifth year talking to him; he very much liked his company. "The way you dived and everything--I could never do that on a broom."
The older boy's cheeks flushed slightly. "You know, I'm not quite so tired anymore; how 'bout a game of wizard's chess?"
Justin beamed at the idea.
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The next morning at breakfast, as Justin sat next to Hannah and Ernie, he had the strong desire to tell his friends about his late night chess- capades and conversation with Cedric Diggory, but a nagging voice in the back of his subconscious decided against it. He didn't have to share everything with the two of them, did he? That little impromptu meeting was just between him and Cedric, anyway.
Why did he care, though? It wasn't really that big of a deal; they had play a couple games of chess, discussed some more about Quidditch in general, and speculated a bit about the whereabouts of Sirius Black now. They even talked a little bit about Justin's Muggle parentage, and Justin even got a small laugh out of the look of confusion on Cedric's face when the younger boy tried to explain his rides on the Underground to him.
Still, all in all, it wasn't really that significant of a meeting, but Justin wanted to keep it to himself all the same. Something about he and the ever-popular and handsome Cedric Diggory sharing a secret midnight conversation no one else knew about made him feel special. Made him feel something, anyway, he thought as looked down the table at the boy in question, who was busy chatting with another fifth year.
"Justin!" The curly-haired boy snapped out his daze and looked at the slightly irritated face of his friend. "I've been calling your name for the past five minutes; where's your head?"
"Sorry, I was distracted." Justin apologized in a low tone. "What is it?"
"Oh, forget it now," Ernie grumped, and reached for the sausages himself and began piling them onto his plate.
"Ooh, I know that look," Hannah piped up excitedly, and set her book down that she had been studying. "You were thinking about someone, weren't you?"
"No," Justin lied, and began digging at his plate, hoping his face wouldn't betray him. It did, of course.
"You were! Look at you, you're blushing!" she lowered her voice conspiratorially and asked, "Who is it? I promise I won't tell, come on, Justin..."
"Now, Hannah, leave the poor kid alone," Ernie said, slightly bewildered at her enthusiasm. "He might not have been thinking about anyone..." Ernie pushed his plate away from him and stood up. "I'm going off to the library for a bit before class, care to join me?"
"I'll come, I have to return this anyway," Hannah said, holding up the book; she still cast a look every once and a while at Justin to see if he would crack and tell her who had been on his mind. We he didn't, she sighed, and left the Great Hall with Ernie.
He finished his breakfast quickly and left the table, noticing Cedric was no longer there, and then proceed down towards the kitchens to the Hufflepuff common room in order to get his schoolbags. He only gotten halfway there when he got another pleasant surprise.
"Cedric, hi!" Justin said, stopping just inches before bumping headfirst into the tall boy. Cedric smiled his slow, warm smile at Justin, causing the younger boy to experience funny little flutterings in his stomach and chest he would've rather ignored. "I was just going to get my bags, and uh..." he trailed off, at lost for anything else interesting to say.
Cedric, luckily, filled in the blanks. "I was thinking maybe tonight we could meet again; you could teach me that move you made with your knight that seemed to have stumped me twice in a row."
"Sure! Um, I mean, sure..." Justin said, trying not to sound as eager as he felt. "Same time, then? Around two?"
"Yeah, that'll work." he replied. "You can tell me more about the Muggle world too; it sounds interesting. Especially that 'tube' thing you kept talking about," he said, making his charmingly confused face again. "Anyway, it'll just be between the two of us; a secret between friends."
Justin grinned almost half-wittedly. "Yeah, sounds great."
"Great. See you then."
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Author's Note: Just updated to fix some grammar errors. Thanks for the reviews; keep them coming!
