"Hey Harry, all right there Harry?-How's it going Harry…."
Cedric was pacing back and forth outside of the hospital wing like a nervous father waiting for his child to be born. He was muttering to himself how he could greet Harry and exactly how he would talk to him.
"BOY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE?" a hoarse voice yelled out that made Cedric jump.
It was Filch the groundskeeper of Hogwarts. Filch was an old squib that was always in a bad mood and only caring about his cat. His cat was by his feet also staring at Cedric with piercing red eyes.
"Nothing sir I was just-"
"Don't SIR me! What are you up to?" Filch asked suspiciously.
"I'm visiting someone at the hospital wing um…sir"
"What are you doing still out here?"
"Um, I was just.."
"AHA! Don't try lie to me boy! I can tell when you rotten kids lie to me!"
"NO! Mr. Filch! I'm visiting a friend of mine, I swear!" Cedric pleaded.
"Well you better get in there before I give you detention!"
Cedric slowly turned around put his hand on the doorknob, turned it and entered the hospital wing. He resentfully shut the door behind him and looked around the room.
Madame Pomfrey the school nurse was no where to be found. He then scanned the beds nobody else was there except somewhere on the left hand side in the middle of the room was Harry Potter himself sleeping on one of the beds. He looked so peaceful and innocent to Cedric, he wondered if he really should bother him right now.
Cedric tried to walk as quietly as he could up to Harry so not to disturb his sleep but his wet footsteps echoed loudly in the spacious room. He tried to ignore it but the ringing of his own ears made him admit that he was being too loud. He decided to take of his shoes. He sat on a bed and had already pulled his left shoe when he heard the sound of thundering footsteps heading towards the hospital wing.
Cedric with one foot with only a wet sock on quickly tiptoed to the door and let a crack open to see who were coming. The blood on his face rushed down it was the Gryffindor Quidditch team and two other Gryffindor kids one was a girl with bushy brown hair and the other was a boy with flaming red hair marching towards the door. They were all as wet and as muddy as Cedric was. Cedric shut the door quickly, he couldn't let them see him, he didn't know why for the moment but he just couldn't let them see him.
Cedric looked around frantically for a place to hide. He started clutching his hair with his hands one of them was still holding his Quidditch boot.
"I sure hope he's alright," he heard a female voice right outside the door.
Cedric quickly dived under the bed in front of Harry's just as the door opened. The group of Gryffindors made their way to Harry's bed and started whispering to each other.
"I thought he was dead for sure."
"But he didn't even break his glasses," someone said waving Harry's glasses around.
Cedric was lying tummy down on the stone cold floor when he realized something. WHY THE HECK WAS HE HIDING? Well he couldn't let himself out now; it would be strange for him to come out from under the bed and acted like nothing happened. THIS must be the reason why he wasn't in Gryffindor where the brave dwell.
All of a sudden Harry sat up. Good thing everybody gasped because if they didn't they would of heard Cedric gasped.
"What happened? Are we doing a replay?" Harry asked.
There was a long silence. Cedric looked nervously at the Gryffindors muddy wet boots.
"Diggory got the Snitch," one of the Gryffindor players said.
A familiar awful feeling was rushing over Cedric, guilt. He had an image of Harry's face of the mention of his name, it was disappointed and disgusted. He slowly laid one side of his head down looking onwards towards the door. Maybe he could crawl and nobody would notice…that would be really stupid. They began talking about strategies of how to get ahead in the game; Cedric put his arms around his head not wanting to hear a thing. His ribs were hurting because of the position he was in but was afraid to move because he would surely be discovered.
Soon Madame Pomfrey came rushing in and demanded the Gryffindors to leave so that Harry could have his rest. The red haired boy and the bushy browned haired girl begged to stay; Madame Pomfrey allowed them a few more minutes. The Gryffindor left leaving their muddy footprints behind them, now Cedric couldn't crawl away even if he wanted to.
"Anybody got my nimbus?" Harry finally asked.
There was a long paused.
"Well…you know the whomping willow right Harry?" the red hair boy said slowly.
"Oh Harry! It hit the whomping willow!" the bushing brown haired girl said as she places some broken sticks on Harry's bed, it was what was left of his broom.
None of them said anything for a very long time. The red haired boy was rubbing Harry's shoulder and the girl was staring at the ground. Cedric had the sudden urge to come from out of the bed and give Harry a big warm big hug. He felt very sympathetic towards the little guy.
Many minutes passed and the other two left the hospital wing, which left Cedric alone with Harry and his broom pieces. Cedric's ribs started hurting real bad. He wanted to leave once Harry would go to sleep but he just sat there and stared at the splinters and sticks on his bed. The pressure on his abdomen was excruciating, he couldn't take the pain anymore.
With a bit of difficulty he clawed his way out from under the bed and pushed himself up. Cedric stood there stretching his body while a slightly shocked Harry watched him.
"Hello Harry," Cedric said with a smile as he limbed up to Harry clutching his ribs.
"I'm Cedric Diggory, you know the Hufflepuff seeker," Cedric added seeing the who-the-heck-are-you look on Harry's face.
"Oh,s-sit down" Harry said unsurely gesturing to the end of his bed.
Cedric lay down on Harry's bed below Harry's feet, his legs on one side and his feet touching the floor. He was still trying to catch some air for his lungs.
Harry sat and stared at him for a while and waited for Cedric to catch his breath.
"Where did you come from?"
"Under the bed," Cedric said staring at the ceiling.
"Why were you under the bed?"
"Hiding"
And seeing the new suspicious look on Harry's face Cedric turned to him and quickly added.
"I wasn't spying, I wanted to talk with you alone and after losing a game I don't think they would be happy to see me" Cedric gave an awkward smile.
To Cedric himself it sounded like such a lie.
"Yeah I guess your right," Harry agreed to Cedric's surprise.
For a moment they just looked at each other. From time to time Harry eyes would look around the room then back to Cedric who just kept staring at him and nodding a little. Cedric couldn't help notice how impossibly bright and beautiful Harry's green eyes were in such a dim room. How could they be so bright? Harry on the other hand felt a little freaked out.
"So…"Harry finally said to break the freaky silence.
"Huh?" Cedric said sounding like he snapped out of a trance.
"You were going to tell me something," Harry leaned slightly forward.
Cedric suddenly stood up bolt upright.
"I feel really bad about all this. Your team should have won. I just got lucky that's all and if those dementors weren't there…" He looked up at Harry who said nothing. "That all I wanted to say" Cedric placed his hands behind his head.
"No don't worry about it, it's my fault," Harry said in a plain voice still staring at his broom pieces. He looked up. "Don't worry about it so much you should go back to your dorm, I bet their celebrating your victory."
"Are you-"
"Yeah its fine" Harry said quickly looking back at his broken broom pieces.
Cedric just stood there for a while.
"Sure," Cedric said nodding his head.
He slowing made his way to the door. As he put his hand on the door knob he gave a loud sigh and looked at Harry.
"Harry," he said.
Harry looked up at Cedric with his brilliant green eyes. Cedric took a moment to admire them.
"If you ever need anything, I'm always here for you."
Harry gave Cedric a puzzled look for a while and then looked like he was thinking about it.
"Sure, thanks," Harry said unsurely.
Cedric gave Harry a very charming smile that made Harry's heart beat differently as Cedric walked out the door.
