Thank you very much for reading this and reviewing. It warms my slashy heart.
Disclaimer: Not my toys, they are Jo's. Sue me and you get my dirty boxers.
Warnings:
Rated: R
Also, I'm going to be using Athenian and Spartan terms interchangeably, if you have a problem with that I'm sorry. It was done intentionally and for my own reasons, but I understand if that's a turn-off to you as readers.
Chapter III
"There can be no greater benefit for a boy than to have a worthy male lover…nor for a lover than to have a worthy object of his affection." Platonius the Bizzare (Wizard's Symposium)
The night before the trip to Hogsmeade, Harry had a recurring nightmare. No, not the one with strange, once handsome Half-blood with delusions of grandeur, nor the one with the murderous man escaped from a prison whose name reminds of Arabian deserts, no, not even the one with Harry himself, naked as a baby, playing at the Quidditch World Cup for the Canons.
On this night, Harry's nightmare consisted of the much anticipated Hogsmeade visit. He wondered how they would solve the nasty little problem of the unsigned permission slip. The Boy Who Lived tortured himself all week with nagging doubts as to the exact purpose of outing. Was it an outing between friends, or was it a date between would-be lovers? He had dreaded seeing Cedric in the halls and yet his eyes sought-out the Golden Boy every time he was out of his Dorm room.
"Ask him already," prompted Hermione, shaking her bushy hair out of her face.
"Ask who, what?" said Harry, unconvincingly. "I can't," he burst forgetting to pretend ignorance. "I can't just go over to him and say, 'Erm, is this a date? I mean you delicious hunk of Hufflepuff flesh, are you going to be snogging me? Because if you are I'll be wearing my emerald colored turtleneck, it really brings out my green-toad eyes."
"Harry, look at me," said Hermione, a twinkle in her eyes.
"Yes?" said Harry suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.
"Wear your turtleneck."
In the dream Harry arrived at a romantic restaurant with Cedric, they asked for what the older boy informed him was the best Gorgon meat made in these parts. Cedric would then order a bit of contraband muggle wine (which seemed to work quite magically on the senses. Harry felt unbalanced and happy, he knew his speech was slurred and that everything Cedric said sounded terribly profound and hilarious simultaneously. The lights dimmed and before he knew it he had leaned it, pushing his tongue insistently inside the Golden Boy's mouth.
What happened next left him so horrified and filled with dread, he would not go to sleep again that night in fear of reliving it.
Standing up, Cedric would upset the table, his face would transform with fury and he would scream at the top of his lungs, "How could you do this! I was your friend and you do this to me!"
"Oh—oh," Harry seemed unable to say a single word, the humiliation combined with the hopelessness he felt left him mute.
"Who do you think I am! A MALFOY!
At this point Harry would wake up screaming, "No, no, no." This had happened every night for a week, and Justin, who was Neville's current lover, apparently had enough of the interruptions and yelled from across the room, "Harry, seriously mate! Unless Ron is raping you, would you please, PLEASE have the kindness and affability to SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"What do you think looks better?" said a shirt-less Cedric presenting two shirts to an ogling Kane, "This one or this one."
"Dear Merlin, not that I don't mind getting asked, specially since it affords me an opportunity to look at your gorgeous bod, but are you seriously asking me this? You've turned into an uber dandy," said the Japanese hufflepuff appreciatively smiling.
"Afraid I'll take away your title of Dandy King? No, Kane, not seriously asking, I'm just nervous about it all," said Cedric, throwing the shirts on his bed and putting deodorant on.
"What about exactly?" said Kane, bouncing on the bed taking care to wrinkle the shirts as much as possible. "Is it a shag-a-virgin, is it infatuation, or is it—is it—
"I want to become his Inspirer, I think he needs one," said Cedric, looking at himself in the mirror and combing his hair.
Kane looked up sharply, "Oh, ho-ho-ho, Cyd this is some serious business. You barely know the enfant and you want to marry the babe. Be his Protector?" said Kane, with a mirthless laugh.
"What's so wrong with that? Tell me. He needs Protection, I'm available, qualified, and I'm attracted to him. He has those qualities which, well, I can't explain it. I'm not like you Kane, good with words and ready thinking, but I think I could easily fall in love with him."
"He's earnest, like you, I don't doubt he'll make a nice little Listener, goggle eyes, giggles and all. So, that's good," looking directly into Cedric's eyes, "you've gotten over Gabriel."
Cedric paled considerably and swallowed, "I'll never get over Gabriel."
"I'm sorry, Cyd-luv, I didn't mean that. I know," Kane sighed and putting his arms around Cedric whispered, "It was jealousy talking."
"I'll always love you, Kane, but now that you've been so horrid to me—
"Here it comes," said Kane releasing him and rolling his eyebrows, "What do you want?"
"Can you please give this to Harry? I don't want him to worry about the Hogsmeade visit."
"Cyd, you're insane, there's no way in Palla I'm giving this note to the Boy Who Lived But Can't Comb His Hair. You know how repulsed I am by any and all clichés. Find someone else to send him this misbegotten note," said Kane, sneering.
"Don't sneer Kane, you look like a Malfoy," said Cedric, laughing, pushing the note inside the fellow Hufflepuff's pocket.
"I could not look like a Malfoy no matter how much I sneered, they have a tragic predilection for the most unattractive hair-styles," said Kane, shaking his stylish mane, "Alright then, I'll see that it gets to him."
"Thank you," said Cedric, trying to straighten his wrinkled shirt.
"You're very welcome," said Kane, walking to the door, stopping suddenly while holding on to the doorknob, "Oh, by the way Cyd, be sure to get first dips on the Potter-boy, because Percy's up in line right after you."
"What? I thought Oliver was with Percy, you said—"
"He is, but it's his duty as a Weasely's. That scary Molly woman would expect it, now wouldn't she? I've heard she consider Potter his son. So you better slip something else in there," said Kane suggestively moving his hips, "so that you can slip something else in there," and he jumped out of the room before the Commemorative Snitch hit him.
&&&&&&&&&&&
Harry had read the note Parvati had given to him, but he still felt scared at giving a blank piece of parchment to Filch, so he brought his invisibility cloak and tucked it in his pocket, just in case. As he took out the paper, Filch poked at him with a stick and said dreamily, "Move along Potter, we don't have all day," not bothering to even glance at the parchment.
"Mental," muttered Harry to himself his eyes immediately scanning the area for any sign of Cedricness.
"'Lo, Green-Eyes," Cedric looked strangely pleased with himself.
"Did you do something to Filch?" he asked as Cedric inadvertently pecked him on the cheek.
"Only gave him a bit of a daydream, one might say. You'll study them soon enough, don't worry."
"What about?" he said breathlessly, still reeling over the peck on the cheek.
"The daydream? Mrs. Norris in a bathing suit," said Cedric, smiling.
Harry laugh, but a second later became quiet. The golden boy, noticing the sudden change of attitude frowned and looked side-ways at him.
"Diggory," said Harry seriously.
"Yes, Mr. Potter," mocked the older boy with a weak smile.
"Are we—I mean when you invited me to come with you to Hogsmeade—
"Yes?"
Something had occurred to Harry: if he knew what they were about to do, where they were to go, then he would certainly be able to guess where their relationship stood, wouldn't he? Whether it was friendship or, possibly, something more intimate?
"What is it Harry? You don't want to go with me anymore? Changed your mind," he seemed to be trying to laugh, but the laughter caught in his throat.
"No, I mean yes, I mean I want to go with you, it's just I'd like to know what you had planned for us" finished Harry, flagellating himself mentally for being such a blubbering fool.
"Oh," the older boy sighed apparently relived, "well, I was thinking we could go to Honeydukes, eat some fudge there, then to Rosemerta's for a couple of pints of butterbeer. Some of my friends will meet at Zonko's and then we can have a quiet talk at Puddifoot's."
Damn it, when he put it like that it all sounded so innocent. Well, perhaps it was all innocent. That's how it was with Cedric, one way or the other, it was all innocent.
"Harry? Harry?" Cedric looked anxiously into Harry's eyes. Harry had been thinking none too innocent thoughts himself.
"Yes, sorry, yes, that sounds great."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Everything had gone excellently, that is until Harry overheard Rosemerta and Cornelius Fudge talking about Sirius Black in the street. The two boys had bought some candy and fudge at Honeydukes. Cedric had insisted on paying for the whole thing himself, but Harry had argued against it, not realizing that the only way the argument made any sense was if they were really going to be seeing a whole lot of each other.
Passing Zonko's they saw some strangely bizarre new potions on the window and although it was too early to meet Cedric's friends, prodded by their curiosity, they had gone in. Browsing through the shelves, Harry overheard a fourth year from Slythering talking to her friend about how Cho Chang had potioned-up a boy to make her fall in love with her and how when the concoction had gone wrong, it had given the boy diarrhea for a week.
It was on the way to The Three Broomsticks, both boys with hands inside their pockets, elbows touching, that he heard the adults talking about Black, and how they needed the Dementors to protect "the Potter boy."
"Harry, what do you think they meant—the Dementors here to protect you?"
"Cedric, I'll explain everything to you later and I'm sorry we have to interrupt our… outing like this, but I simply must know what they're talking about."
"Yes, of course, but what are you going to do?" the older boy instantly started looking at the foundations and the roof of The Three Broomsticks for a place to climb.
"Don't worry, I've got this," and before Cedric could utter a word, he had covered himself with the Invisibility cloak and was running up the stairs into Rosemerta's private rooms above the cavern.
Hearing about how his parents had been betrayed had sent Harry into a horrible shock. He had run out of the Three Broomsticks, bumped into Cedric and kept running. The young boy knew someone was running after him, heard footsteps behind him, but didn't really know what to do about it, he just knew that when he stopped he'd have to do something and he wasn't prepared. He wasn't prepared.
Finally, he collapsed, his knees buckled and the cloak fell off him like snake skin.
"He killed—killed—he—I spending time with you—today—I just wasn't—wasn't—Oh, Merlin, why—
"Harry, Harry what is it?" said Cedric, kneeling next to him.
Harry didn't answer, but curled himself into a ball, closing his eyes. Usually he kept his emotions hidden, but the day had left him without armor and he couldn't react with his typical compunction.
"Come here, Harry, come with me," Cedric helped the younger boy to his feet without looking at him.
They walked a long while without talking, away from Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, up a great hill. "I'm sorry Cedric," said Harry, keeping his eyes on the ground below him. The older boy lifted his hand and shook his head, still not looking at Harry.
Since Harry had been looking down the whole time they were climbing the hill, the view caught him so unexpectedly that he gasped, "Dear Merlin, wow. It's incredible." He could see the castle of Hogwarts from a distance, the lake, Hogsmeade and the beautiful mountains that surrounded the whole, and it was truly spectacular.
"I know, my love, it is. I knew you'd love it. I come up here when it all gets to be too much and I want to clear my head," said the Golden Boy with an introspective expression in his face which surprised Harry. Surprised him so much, he heard himself saying, "Why won't you look at me?"
Cedric then looked into his face intensely, the beautiful eyes burning holes into him like spheres made of fire, "I thought you didn't want me to." Harry looked down, flushing, he let his mouth open a bit, feeling short of breath, and before he knew it he was in the older boy's arms, the hard musculature of an athlete pressed against him, a hungry mouth ravishing his own tentative one. Cedric's hands pressed him down into the ground, and he felt his thighs swiftly parted by impatient knees, the hardness of a crotch pressed between his legs, forcing against a place he didn't yet have a name for.
"Cedric, wait." Cedric tore himself from Harry's body so swiftly the black haired boy felt bereft. Had he meant wait? Now it seemed he had meant go on, don't stop, don't ever stop. Harry felt his swollen lips, and realized he wasn't wearing his glasses anymore, that place between his legs that he had never even thought of was throbbing in time with his cock, with his ass, his toes pressing down into the ground as if they were bound by gravitation.
"I'm sorry," said Cedric laughing nervously, "I suppose I got carried away." The Golden Boy walked around a bit, and looked at the incredible panorama again, though he looked a bit distracted.
"It's alright, I," Harry looked up at Cedric, "liked it."
"You'd like to do that again? In the future, I mean?" said Cedric, watching his face.
"Do you come here alone?" replied Harry, standing up, squinting, searching for his glasses.
"Is that your way of asking me if I do this often, with others? Why don't you just ask me things directly, Harry?" said Cedric, rescuing Harry's glasses and putting them on himself.
"Because, I don't know-- give me those," said Harry laughing as Cedric lifted the glasses just high enough so that he couldn't reach. "Hey, not fair."
"You are fair, but I'm taller," said Cedric, stealing a kiss, "Hmm?" stealing another.
"So you come here by yourself?" said Harry, moving away and sitting on a rock.
"Yes, when I feel really alone, I like to come here," giving back the glasses.
"Ha. You come here alone when you feel alone?" said the black-haired boy.
"Yes, I know it sounds weird, but—
"No," said Harry, breathing on his hands, pulling his coat closer to his body and looking at the mountains, at the castle, at the lake again, "it's not. It's not weird at all."
"I can't always express myself too well, Harry, I'm not like Kane. He's a ready thinking, ready talking kind of bloke. But when I come up here, away from all the people who call themselves my friends, away from all the responsibilities, from my duties to my school, to my parents. I just feel free here, and I wanted you to have this too, this freedom. I've seen you," said Cedric running his hands through his hair, "look so incredibly melancholic sometimes, like you've got the world on your back. You don't have to tell me about what happened at Rosemerta's if you don't want to, I know you'll tell me when you're ready."
He stopped speaking, looking at Harry, "You can come here alone too, and later, when we—when it becomes more, perhaps I can show you something else."
"Perhaps you can."
&&&&&&&&&&&
"It was incredible Kane," said Cedric as soon as he came into the room, taking off his shirt, and throwing it on the bed. "I'm telling you, it was—
He stopped, realizing he had just walked in on Kane having sex with a Slytherin. "Was it," said Kane, as if he wasn't pumping himself into a boy, "well, that's good, yeah—that's – that's very good." He climaxed, and pulled himself out, slapping the boy's ass and telling him, "Bye-bye- bird, how lovely it was, thank you for the shag, best I ever had."
"Dear, Merlin," said Cedric pulling his shirt back on feeling a mix of disgust and hilarity, watching as Kane threw the Slytherin out of the room without even letting the poor soul get his pants on.
"Not the best I ever had, really," said Kane closing the door, "but I don't like to be unkind, you know my soft, soft --"
"Hmmph, right. Well, let's get some inscense going here, shall we?"said Cedric, lighting a stick.
"What for? They should make sex-scented inscence. Sex scented candles, sex-scented perfume. I'd wear it."
"I don't doubt it."
"How did it go, my friend? Did you have a nice time," said Kane lifting his eyebrows, "or did you have a nice time," making an obscene gesture with his hand.
"I had a beautiful time, it was incredible. He needs me so much, more than I thought, Kane. There's something hounding that boy, it has to do with Black. It's really amazing. I really want to be his Inspirer," said the Golden Boy sitting on the bed.
"Did you ask him?" said Kane, looking archly at him.
"Not yet," said Cedric throwing himself back on the bed, his arms under his head.
"Does he know about it?"
"What do you mean? You think he doesn't know? Dear Athena, of course. He was brought up by Muggles, and only the Old Families do it anyway, it's considered too old-fashioned by anyone else."
"I could tell his friend, Hermione, to give him a crash course," said Kane, shrugging, digging into his drawers and taking out an apple.
"You know her?" said Cedric, looking suspiciously at the fellow Hufflepuff.
"Of course," said Kane bitting into the apple, "she's a girl."
"Yes, of course. You propositioned her?" said Cedric.
"Ummhmm. I," Kane swallowed, "in their first year."
"Isn't that a little young? Do you have another apple in there? I'm starving, we never went to Puddifoot's."
"Dear Palla, now that would have been embarrassing," said Kane throwing him an apple.
&&&&&&&&&
The next Monday the whole school knew Harry and Cedric were going together.
"Say Potter."
Harry seethed, "Damn that git, what does he want now. "
"Is it true?" said Draco Malfoy, smirking, allowing a strategically placed bang to fall near his eye. "Is poor, scardy-wee Potty going out with Golden Boy Cedric." The way he spat out the title almost made it sound derogatory.
Harry gave Draco what Kane latter called "The Avada Kedavra Look," yet decided admirably to remain silent. Cedric had warned him that some people would talk and that it would probably even reach the Daily Prophet, but that he shouldn't worry. The warning speech had warmed him at the time, but had left him quite unprepared for how he felt in face of the constant murmuring and direct attacks. In the past when people had spoken about him behind his back, it had all been petty speculation and paltry rumors that did not amount to much. Now they were smearing his private life, both underhandedly and directly, and he felt they had crossed the line. Harry realized he'd rather they went back to fearing him or pitying him, than having them corrupt his budding relationship with pernicious innuendo.
Ron and Hermione, arrived at that moment, and joined Harry throwing nasty looks at the beautiful Slytherin boy.
"Shut up, Malfoy, you don't know anything about it," said Ron, standing between the boys.
"Move out of the way Weasely, go back to snogging the Mudblood, that's all you're really good for," said Draco dismissively, all the while looking into Harry's eyes.
"Malfoy," said Hermione pursing her lips and looking sternly at the amused-looking Draco, "you sound like a six-year-old. What's next on your repertoire of silly ad hominem attacks? I know what you are, but what am I?"
"Yeah," said Ron, still a little stumped by the words 'ad hominem', "what Hermione said."
"Stay out of it, Mudblood, Mudblood-lover," said Draco with a sneer on his face, "I know exactly what he is," flicking his index finger in Harry's general direction, "and if he thinks that his little incursion into old magic is going to serve him, he's very mistaken."
What the hell was Draco talking about?
"Harry, is it true? Are you going for an Erastes? Poor Percy, he was so happy with Oliver, I suppose he'll have to try out for you now," said Ron.
"What the hell are YOU talking about?" said Harry, exasperatingly running his hands through his hair, unconsciously mimicking his boyfriend's quirk, and succeeding only in getting his fingers stuck in the mess.
"Ron, don't confuse the poor boy, he's lived all his life with Muggles, he doesn't know about that stuff," said Hermione, pulling them along so they wouldn't get late to Magical Creatures class.
"Blimey, I don't know too much about it either. Which is lucky I'm with you, because those unions only happen between males," said Ron, kissing Hermione on the cheek.
"Yes, well, boys seem to need more guidance, you know. In fact, I'm kind of your Erastes," said Hermione, winking at Ron.
"Will someone PLEASE explain to me what the hell Erasmes, what union? What? What! What! What! What!" screamed Harry, making a couple of first year girls scatter like frightened mice.
"Erastes, anyway, no one uses those words anymore. The whole thing is awfully old-fashioned if you ask me. Anyway, Harry, we'll tell you afterward, during lunch hour, perhaps?" said Hermione, walking faster and pulling them both by the arm. "No time now."
Plato.