This
was how they spent the rest of the night. They'd make love and Rose
would start crying, she wasn't being fair to Harry, she couldn't
believe she was doing this after what he did to her, but then Cedric
would kiss her and everything would be better again.
"We
can't go on like this," she said quietly, her tears spilling
onto Cedric's chest. "We just can't. You can't kiss
me and make everything better."
Cedric stayed silent,
laying on his stomach and gazing into her eyes. "I mean you're
still with Cho...I'm well I'm not with Harry, but I might as well
be," Rose continued.
"Just answer me one thing,
Rose...do you love him?" he asked, his voice almost cold.
Rose stared at him.
"Not like I love you," she answered,
putting her hand on his cheek.
"Cedric...I have something
to tell you," Rose said quietly, "you may have already
figured this out...but the night we broke up, well me and Harry
slept together."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that,"
he mumbled, turning around to face her. "If you don't love
him, why can't we be together? I'll do anything you want...I'll
be your slave if that's what you want."
Rose smiled
momentarily but then it faded, "I do love him though. That's the
problem, he's my best friend first and foremost, but then again, he's
my lover too," Rose whispered.
"I'm not going to be
able to convince you, am I?" he mumbled. She could have
sworn there were tears misting in his eyes.
"Well you should
have thought of that possibility before you cheated on me! That's not
a little thing you know, it's big. I can't just forget it like that!"
Rose snapped, snapping her fingers indicating time, "How am I
supposed to know you won't go around and go right back to her?"
"Because I love you!" he exclaimed. "I would go
right now and beak up with her if it meant I could be with you
again!"
"Go," Rose said, pointing to the door. He
got up and pulled his boxers on, and then the rest of his clothes,
"Tell her everything."
"You'll be here when I get back?" he asked, his hand on
the doorknob. She nodded curtly after a second and he smiled.
"Ok, I'll be back."
Rose sighed and pulled on a robe,
walking outside the room and crossing in front of it 3 times before
entering it again.
She entered it again and there was a table in
the middle of the room with candles floating in the air and various
chocolate desserts. There was also a bed with white silk
sheets.
Not much different from what there was before,
but as opposed to last time, the room wasn't dark anymore, everything
was white, except the desert of course. There was even a white silk
dress laying on a dressing screen for Rose.
She went over to the
screen and slipped the dress over her head. About ten minutes
later, the door opened.
She peeked out from behind the screen
and saw Cedric walk in, his eyes wide as he surveyed everything that
had changed.
"Did you tell her?" she immediately
asked.
He
nodded, walking over to her. "She was less than happy but
yeah...I got the point across."
Rose frowned and walked out
from behind the curtain, "Did you DEFINITELY get the point
across?" she asked as Cedric sat down on a chair that was in
front of the table.
"Yes, Rose, I did," he told her.
She walked over to him and sat in his lap. "So you'll
never see her or talk to her again?" she asked.
He nodded
and a small smile formed on her face, "I'm sorry Cedric...I
don't want to be the commanding possessive girlfriend...but you know,
after past circumstances," Rose began.
"I know...you
have every right to be possessive and commanding...I know I would be
to if I were in your situation," he said as she leaned her head
against his chest.
"But the whole point is you'd never have
to be because I would never cheat on you. Speaking of which, I need
to go talk to Harry," Rose said, getting up.
"In
that?" he asked. She smiled and kissed his lips softly.
"Yes, in this, is there a problem?"
"Yeah well
it's a little..." Cedric started to say, fingering the silky
material of the dress.
She laughed and went over to get her
robe. Once she had it on she looked back over at him. "Is
this ok?" she asked.
"But that's a ROBE, that's
like...even less clothes than before," Cedric whined, pouting.
Rose groaned and went back to the bed, pulling the robe off and
putting the dress back on.
She put the robe on over the dress,
gave him a quick kiss and headed for the door. "I'll be
back," she said and left the room.
"Harry?" she
asked once she was in the Gryffindor dorm and up near Harry's room.
She pushed open the door and looked inside; everyone was still
sleeping since it was only 3 in the morning.
She walked over to
the bed and shook him awake. He opened his eyes and smiled.
"Oh, hey...you're up late," he said sleepily.
She
smiled sadly, though he couldn't see it in the darkness, "Let's
go down to the common room, I need to talk to you," she
whispered. Harry nodded and got out of bed, following her down the
stairs.
They sat on a small couch in front of the fire.
Harry took her hand and asked, "What is it, Rose?"
"Harry...tonight Cedric and I, well we you know...got back
together," Rose started off quietly. Harry's eyes immediately
got wide. "What?" he asked. Rose closed her eyes and
several tears fell out.
"We talked it over and...I trust
him," she mumbled, averting her eyes from his. He just
stared at her until she finally said, "Please say something,
Harry."
"What are you wearing?" he asked,
suddenly noticing the silk dress peeking out from underneath her
robe. She laughed and took the robe off, showing him the dress.
"Compliments of the handy dandy Room of Requirement," Rose said before sitting back down.
Harry sighed. "Listen...we technically
weren't dating...so there's nothing I can do about this...all I have
is one request before you go back to him," Harry said quietly,
staring into her eyes.
"Of course," she said,
smiling.
He hesitated a little before saying, "Make
love to me." She stared at him for a moment.
"Harry
I..." she started before closing her mouth, "Ok, but this
will be the absolute last time."
"I know," Harry replied, leaning in and
capturing her lips.
She was slightly taken aback but quickly
melted into the kiss. He pulled her closer and started to pull
the dress over her head.
Rose knew she probably shouldn't be
doing this, especially after pretty much vowing she'd never cheat on
Cedric ever, but she owed Harry this.
She worked at his buttons
before removing his shirt and moving to his pants.
She loved the
way Harry liked to tease her body until she couldn't stand it
anymore, that was one thing that set his lovemaking apart from
Cedric's.
Once all their clothes were gone, Harry whispered, "I
love you," before loving her for the last time.
Rose walked slowly back to the Room of Requirement an hour later, her robe and dress back on like they were before.
In some respects she'd rather stay with Harry,
or well, be friends with major benefits with him, because this way
she knew she wouldn't get hurt as much. Being with Cedric again was
taking a risk, a very big risk. If Cedric had loved her so much in
the first place, why didn't he break it off with Cho after they broke
up?
She entered the room to find Cedric sitting at the table,
waiting for her. He looked up. "Well? How'd it
go?" he asked.
Tears started to form in her eyes.
"It...It went good," she mumbled, not looking him in the
eyes.
"Took long enough," Cedric grumbled, getting up
as Rose went over to the bathroom in the corner of the room.
"I'm sorry I was so long," she called distractedly, her
tears threatening to spill. She wasn't sure if she was doing
the right thing.
She ran the cold water and splashed it under
her eyes so that they would appear less puffy. She sighed and emerged
from the bathroom, walking over to the table and sitting across from
Cedric.
"Is something wrong, love?" he asked, placing
his hand on hers. She smiled a little and said, "No...I'm
just a little tired is all."
You seem to use that excuse a lot," Cedric mused, removing his hand and staring at her from across the table. He knew...he had to know...the way he was acting...
"We've been doing nothing but making love all day," she told him, looking down at the table. "I have a right to be tired."
He nodded, but still gave her that skeptical look as he gave her a piece of the rich chocolate cake that was sitting nearby.
She sighed and didn't look up at him. He put the fork down and walked over to where she was sitting, kneeling next to her. "Tell me what's wrong," he whispered, placing a hand on her leg.
She flinched by accident and his brow furrowed as he slowly removed the hand, standing up as well.
"You did tell him it was over, right?" he asked, staring skeptically at her. "Yeah," she murmured, still not looking him in the eyes.
"And...?" Cedric asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets nervously as he gazed down at her, sitting on the chair very rigidly.
"He...he asked me if we could make love one more time before I came back here," she whispered, still looking down at the floor.
"Well?" he pressed. "Did
you?"
"I owed him that much!" Rose cried out,
standing up and going to stand over near the bed.
"You...you
promised..." he began but Rose interrupted him.
"Calm down, Cedric! I...I'm with you
now," she told him.
"...You PROMISED, and then you
went right behind my back and betrayed my trust! You just made the
biggest hypocrite of yourself!" Cedric continued as if she
hadn't said anything.
"What was I supposed to do, say no?" she cried. Cedric looked at her as though it were obvious.
"Yeah, you were!" he exclaimed.
"At least he asked me...didn't seem that
Cho asked you, 'Oh, Cedric, is it ok if I make out with you while
your girlfriend is down the hall in the bathroom?'"
"Don't
bring her into this!" Cedric growled before turning around and
marching into the bathroom.
"Oh so now your defending her?"
she shouted after him.
Cedric didn't reply to her and Rose got
up, storming over to the bathroom and pushing the door open.
"I
can't believe I ever even considered going back to you!" she
shouted. "Goodbye, Cedric Diggory." And with that,
she turned on her heel and ran out of the room.
She knew she was
taking a risk by running down the hallway in the middle of the night,
but she had never gotten in trouble before, so she figured why not?
She didn't stop running until she reached the common room, where
Harry still sat. She ran right into his arms and began to cry.
"I hate him," she mumbled. "I hate him, I hate
him, I hate him."
"Whoa...Cherry calm down...calm
down," Harry said soothingly, rubbing her back, "What
happened?"
"He kept asking me all sorts of
questions...why I took so long, did I really tell you the truth...and
then I told him what we did and he just lost it!" she cried,
sobbing even louder. "I thought he would understand!
I thought he would trust me!"
Harry sighed as Rose cried
brokenly into his chest, "I just want everything to go back to
how it was before that wretched Yule Ball, before those blasted dance
lessons," Rose whispered.
"I wish I had never met
him," she continued. "I wish he didn't exist."
"Don't say that Cherry, don't say that, you're angry you know
you don't mean it," Harry said in reply, taking her shoulders
and looking her in the eyes.
She gazed back into his. "I
don't know what to think anymore...everything is just screwed up,"
she said, fighting back more tears.
"Listen...I think you
should go upstairs and get a good night's sleep. When you wake up
tomorrow, then you should make all your decisions...not now, not when
you're feeling like this," Harry suggested, helping her off the
sofa.
She nodded and hugged him. "Thanks, Harry,"
she whispered and kissed his cheek. "And listen...I'm
sorry about Dumbledore...I know how much he meant to you."
His
eyes sort of darkened but he smiled. "Thanks...now, go get
some sleep and I'll see you in the morning," he said as she
walked up the stairs.
Rose trudged up the stairs and pulled her
dress and robe off, slipping into her most comfortable pajamas, and
literally falling back on the bed.
