The Most Precious Snitch
Chapter 2
Harry didn't bother to go to the Great Hall for dinner. He couldn't believe what he just did. He just kissed Cedric Diggory. Well, his wound anyway. He ran as fast as he could towards the Gryffindor tower, still dragging Hermione with him. He was so embarrassed… So flushed… So… so… so…
"Erm, Harry? When you're finish debating with yourself… let me know…" Hermione cut in between jagged breaths.
At this, Harry stopped dead on his track, causing Hermione to bump into him. This, clumsily resulted in both of them falling.
"Just when I thought the two of you can't get any more stupid than usual…" drawled a silky voice.
Harry, in his 'state' couldn't put together who it was but thankfully, Hermione had already spat out 'Malfoy'.
"Potter, you look like you've just been done…" continued Malfoy, when Harry blushed even more furiously –if that was possible- and made no comment, Malfoy arched an eyebrow, "what, hit the head in the nail didn't I?"
"Nail in the head. Hit the nail in the head, Malfoy… Honestly, I bet you don't even know what a nail is…" came a new voice, which turned out to be Ron's, who just came down from the Gryffindor tower.
"Of course I don't, I wouldn't waste my time familiarizing myself with MUGGLES and their TOOLS, as they thought they so cleverly puts it… Unlike you of course. Tell me Weasley, have your father been promoted yet?" sneered Malfoy, backed up by Crabbe and Goyle.
Ron suddenly grew purple and muttered a 'no'.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot, he hasn't been promoted for quite a while now has he? Must be quite a strain there with so many children to take care of-" replied Malfoy in a mock-pity kind of tone.
Ron almost jumped at him but was restrained by Hermione and the now slightly focused Harry.
"Malfoy, if I see a hand on those three, you're going straight to detention," cuts a new voice. Namely Cedric Diggory.
Harry was so surprised that Cedric was there; it didn't help that all the earlier events were replaying itself in his mind like a broken VCD player. He was so shocked and embarrassed that he suddenly let go of Ron. Ron's body took an involuntary jerk forward, leaving Hermione with no choice but to release her grip. Malfoy and his crew laughed mockingly as Ron fell down face-first.
Harry's eyes widen and quickly helped Hermione pulls Ron up. Blood dripped down from his nose.
"I don't NEED to lay a hand on them. See? The Weasel managed to injure himself without my help…" laughed Malfoy as he walked away.
"Harry!" Ron complained. Harry looked really apologetic. He couldn't bring his eyes up to see Cedric, Oliver and the twins. He murmured a sorry to Ron who couldn't stop fidgeting as Hermione tried to fix his bleeding nose.
"Don't be so hard on him Ron. You wouldn't be able to think straight too if you've just kissed Hufflepuff's golden-boy…" laughed the twins.
Upon hearing this… Ronald Weasley fainted.
"… Ron?"
"Honestly Ron, you freak out too much! You know you can't trust the twins. Harry didn't KISS Cedric," Hermione explained to the conscious Ron who looked very relieved after hearing it, "He just, you know, give him a little peck in the cheek-" Ron grew purple again, "as gratitude!" finished Hermione quickly.
Harry, who figured he had better stay away from Ron for the time being, went off with the twins and Cedric to sneak some food from the kitchen. He was really reluctant at first, not daring to meet Cedric's eyes –so much for Gryffindor's bravery- but he gave in as soon as Ron started to wake up.
He didn't really understand why Ron's reaction was so violent.
"If you're wondering why Ron is reacting so violently… It's because he thought Cedric and I were dating…" said Fred, breaking the ice.
Harry's heart skipped a beat. He felt sick.
"Of course he's not though… Ron's an idiot… The whole school thought Cedric's dating Cho… Why on earth would he think he's dating Fred, right?" grinned George.
Harry felt nauseous.
Cedric chuckled and shooed the twins off who happily turned into the kitchen while Harry kept walking with lots of thoughts swimming in his head.
"Harry? We've missed the kitchen," stated Cedric matter-of-factly.
"Oh, yeah…" but Harry didn't exactly care. All he could think about was 'Cedric is dating Cho?', "You're dating Cho?"
Cedric arched an eyebrow and smirked, "You are so transparent Harry. And no, I am NOT dating Cho… She's nice and all but she's not exactly my type…"
Harry felt like a thousand elephants had just been lifted from his chest. He wanted to ask him what his type is but he didn't want to seem 'transparent' so he just nodded, feigning total understanding. Cedric saw this and chuckled to himself. 'He's SO transparent' he laughed. He reached Harry's hand with his own, earning a surprised 'oh!' and a scarlet Harry. He tugged at Harry's hand and led him back towards the kitchen.
Cedric, who was leading the way, smirked in satisfaction and slipped Harry's and his hands into his robe pocket. Harry had finally stopped turning redder and redder, instead, he felt as if his heart was about to burst any minute then.
"Hey guys, we don't want to disturb you or anything, but the elves had a new 'muh-keens' or something. You insert a Knut into the 'coin-receiver' and it'll tell you whether your eating habits are healthy or not! It's hilarious!" greeted Fred.
"Yeah, never seen anything like it before. We suspect it's a muggle-thing. Bet dad would love to have a look at it…" continued George.
Cedric laughed and took a closer look at the right object. Sure enough, Harry saw a coin receiver and a little speaker at the bottom. At the top, an 'Eating-Habits Judge MACHINE' was engraved.
"… Er, that's a muh-sheen… not muh-keens…" explained Harry, "it's a common muggle electronic and they have lots of it in London… Weighing machines, telephone booths, even some fortune-telling machines!"
The three raised an eyebrow in sheer amazement, both at Harry's knowledge and the fact that 'weighing machines' and 'telephone booths' actually existed. However, they broke out laughing as they heard the 'fortune-telling machine'.
"Fortune-telling machine? That's GOT to be a fraud. They couldn't have possibly fit a Seer into the machine could they?" Cedric laughed.
"No, you're right, it's a total fraud. Muggles do it to make themselves feel better, I think. The machine usually chunk out a bunch of nonsensical predictions. Like fortune-cookies…" answered Harry.
"Well, fraud or not, it's got to be better than Trelawney's prediction," the twins laughed. Harry couldn't help but to smile.
Then, the twins suddenly stop laughing, "Harry, you do realize fortune cookies are real though?"
"Well, that was interesting…" Cedric commented.
They were walking away from the hysterical twins who couldn't get over teasing the elves and their new machines. Fred had apparently tricked an elf into 'demonstrating' the machine. Harry didn't know where they were headed and one of his hands was still tucked into Cedric's robe. So he just nodded in agreement and continued letting himself be led away by Cedric.
"But that 'machine' was rather interesting. Do muggles actually waste their money like that? I mean 'telefones', really, they could've just used the fireplace…" Cedric continued, trying to get Harry to actually say something.
Harry laughed, "The muggles don't know how to 'operate' fireplaces Ce…" he paused as he felt Cedric arched an eyebrow and smirk, "dric…"
Cedric smiled and led Harry into an empty classroom, "I've got another 'machine' to show you Harry."
Harry was confused and he couldn't think very clearly at that point. All he could think about was the fact that he was led into an EMPTY classroom by CEDRIC DIGGORY. He was ready to faint; his heart was beating at a 100 beats per second –or so he thought- and he bet his face was extremely red. He didn't know why he was feeling so flustered. He'd been in empty classrooms with loads of other people before. Ron, Hermione… Snape… Even Oliver! Well, in Oliver's case it was usually empty hospital wings and most of the time Oliver was lying on the bed himself.
But this was so different! It's an empty classroom! With nobody else but him! And CEDRIC DIGGORY!
"Harry, stop debating with yourself," Cedric said, his eyes amused.
Harry mentally kicked himself, 'Why am I SO transparent?' he thought.
"Anyway, Mr. Harry Potter, feast your eyes on the 'Cedric Diggory machine'…" Cedric smiled, gesturing to himself. Harry's brows knotted in confusion.
"Wasn't there something you wanted to ask me?" Cedric continued.
Harry looked even more confused for a while before turning red. He remembered; he had previously almost asked Cedric what his type was before he stopped himself.
"I wanted to know-" Harry started.
"Wait, THIS machine operates like any other kind of machine, you need to 'pay' me first, or as I like to call it, 'make a 'deposit' before I can answer your question," Cedric cuts in, finally turning to face him and letting Harry's hand out of his pocket. His fingers grasp around Harry's and he felt Harry blushed.
"Oh," Harry said, his free hand reaching into his pocket, trying to get a Knut out.
Cedric chuckled and used his other Harry-free hand to stop the fumbling hand, "No, no that KIND of deposit…"
Harry looked confused once again. He tilted his head, thinking hard. Cedric let the younger boy get lost in his thought before letting one of Harry's hand go and using his own hand to cup Harry's cheek.
"Kiss me," Cedric finally explains, his eyes focusing on the younger boy's.
Harry's eyes widen and he blushed cutely. Before he knew what was happening, he felt Cedric's hand pulling him forward. His eyes widen in shock and before he could pull away –not that he REALLY want to- he felt Cedric's lips on his own.
Harry Potter almost died of heart attack.
It took Harry a moment to realize that Cedric, who was seated on a table, had circled his hands around Harry's waist. Without realizing it, one of Harry's hands had reached Cedric's neck and his other hand was placed on Cedric's chest. Then it hit him, he, Harry Potter, was actually MAKING OUT –well sort of anyway- with CEDRIC DIGGORY!
Yes, Harry Potter was POSITIVE he'd die of heart attack.
Thing is, he had never kissed anyone before. Cedric seemed to have taken care of the problem though. His tongue led Harry's through-out the make-out session. Harry didn't know if he was doing it right or wrong. Heck, he doesn't even know what he was doing. But after Cedric pulled him even closer, he stopped caring.
After a while in heaven, they had to pull apart for air.
"You," Cedric whispered.
Harry let out a dazed 'huh?'
"You're my type…" Cedric answered.
Harry went back up to heaven.
TBC
Yaviel's Notes: Wow, all the shameless flirting (although it was mostly on Cedric's part). I can't help making Harry super transparent here. 'Cause he just is! WAIII! I'm sure lots of you out there would LOVE to have a go at the 'Cedric Diggory machine'. Lol, how was this chapter? Review please!