Hey all! Hope the story so far has been somewhat entertaining. Many thanks to my wonderful reviewers:
Sweet-single: Thanks again for the support!
Monica: Yeah, I can see why you might think Harry isn't gay--but look at what happened at the end of the sixth book, why did he leave her? Hehe, besides it's funnier when he's gay. Glad you are enjoying some parts of the story.
Sara: Thanks for thinking my story is funny!
Nobody: Excellent choice for an anonymous name! Thanks for the compliment!
PadfootsMoony: Sorry, you don't hold the record for most reviews anymore, hehe.
And finally, I want to let you know that there are some sexual themes in this chapter, so if you don't like that sort of thing don't read it (but doesn't my saying that make you want to read it even more? ha ha ha)! Don't tell me I didn't warn you.
Chapter 7: Big Balls
Harry buttoned up his black blouse as he ran towards the Hufflepuff common room.
"Damn," he muttered to himself. He had forgotten to put gel in his hair! (Little did he know, however, that Cedric preferred untidy, product-free hair). Harry walked up the spiral staircase, through an open door and into the common room that was packed with students celebrating Cedric's victory.
"Excuse me, d'you know where Cedric is?" Harry asked a seventh year Ravenclaw.
"He's over there," she said pointing at a mob of girls, "Doubt you'll be able to talk to him though, he seems kind of busy if you know what I mean," she added giving Harry a wink.
Cedric couldn't be enjoying the attention of all these girls. Surely he wanted to get out of here and go bowling with Harry. Or had Cedric forgotten about their date? He couldn't have, Harry thought growing with jealousy. He quickly squeezed his way through the wall of women until he reached the swashbuckling Hufflepuff.
"Cedric!" Harry yelled over the screaming and giggling.
"Oh, Harry! Glad you're here—hey everyone, the other Hogwarts champion is here!"
But no one seemed to notice what Cedric was saying—they were mesmerized by his manly beauty (he was wearing a tight fitting t-shirt and red leather pants).
"Um, listen everybody!" Cedric began more loudly, "I really have to go pee, so would you please let me through to the bathroom!" Moans and sighs of disappointment rippled throughout the room. Cedric looked at Harry and motioned for him to join him in the bathroom.
"Whew! Never thought I'd get away from them!" Cedric exclaimed, his voice echoing throughout the tiny room.
"Was that really the best excuse you could come up with? I have to pee?" Harry laughed.
"Well it's true, I do have to go pee!"
Before Harry knew it, Cedric unzipped his pants and proceeded to relieve himself in a nearby urinal.
It was huge.
"So, ready to go bowling?" Cedric asked nonchalantly as he continued to urinate.
"Uh, I—Um, yeah…" Harry said quickly looking away.
"Have you diapparated before?" asked Cedric.
"No, I'm only a fourth year…"
"Well yeah I know, but you can disapparate if you hold on to someone who can." Cedric explained, "But not on school grounds—so we'll have to climb out of this window and past the gates first."
The boys climbed out of the tiny bathroom window and fortunately made it down the wall and outside of Hogwarts safely. Then Cedric motioned for Harry to hold on to him.
Harry grabbed his arm.
"You'll have to hold onto me properly," Cedric instructed, "We want to make sure that you don't leave any body parts behind!"
Harry embraced him.
"Tighter."
Harry squeezed.
"Tighter."
"I can't hold you any tighter!" Harry laughed.
"Ok, here we go."
Everything went black and Harry had a sensation of being compressed from all sides—he felt like he would suffocate. Then before he knew it, they stood in front of a rather shabby looking house.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, they just made it look like this so that muggles wouldn't be interested," replied Cedric.
They walked through the old rusty metal door of the house and into a magnificent bowling alley, at least five times bigger than the normal muggle ones. Harry also noticed right away that wizard bowling was not exactly the same as muggle bowling. The pins weren't pins, but pin-shaped creatures that would move around trying to avoid the ball. And to compensate for this, the bowling balls were giant.
"Wow," Harry said in awe, "These are big balls!"
"Are muggle balls smaller?" Cedric asked.
"OH yeah, way smaller"
"Well, let's see you try it Harry!"
Harry picked the smallest ball he could find and lifted it with an immense amount of effort.
"You know you can use spells if you want to, but only in your head—can't use your wand."
"Haven't learned how to…do…that…yet" Harry said panting as he walked slowly over to the lane.
"Ha ha, you'll never be able to throw it Harry, here let me help."
Cedric came up behind him and wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders, grabbing the ball.
There hands touched.
"On the count of three ok? 1..2…3!" They released the giant ball and it slowly went up the lane caressing the pin-shaped creatures but not knocking them down.
"Damn!" Cedric exclaimed, "I hate it when they get away! I guess we weren't fast enough."
"Yeah, faster would be better." Harry agreed, "And harder"
And so they tried several more times, throwing the ball faster and harder, until they knocked every single creature down.
"YES! YES! YES!" Harry shouted with exhilaration. He had never had so much fun.
"Oh Harry," sighed Cedric, "You were great."
"Nah," Harry said looking at his feet, "I couldn't have done it without you behind me."
"Well, I suppose that's enough for today. Let's sit for a while and have a couple of butterbeers before we go back to school."
"Alright," Harry said grinning.
They sat down at a little table with their sweet refreshments in the bowling alley's café.
"Hey, thanks for inviting me to come do this with you," Harry began, "It really did help me to relax and forget about the tournament for a while."
"Good," Cedric said, his sparkling gray eyes resting on Harry's face and then moving downwards. "Hey, I didn't know you wore jewelry."
"Jewelry?" asked Harry, "I don't wear jewelry…"
"Well what's that gold chain doing around your neck then?" Cedric asked, smiling.
Harry forgot to take off Cedric's necklace. How could he forget?
"OH! Th—that…" Harry stuttered, "It's just a good luck charm I've been wearing for the tournament, I wouldn't consider it a piece of…of jewelry."
"Let me see," Cedric said as his arm started to make its way towards Harry's chest.
"No, it's kind of private actually, I'd rather not—"
But it was too late, Cedric grabbed the necklace and pulled it out of Harry's shirt to see this "lucky charm."
Cedric's mouth fell open.
"Where did you find—I mean get this," Cedric said, quickly correcting himself. It wasn't necessarily his necklace, Cedric thought to himself. He was sure loads of people bought the exact same locket from the Jewelry shop in Hogsmeade.
"Hermione gave it to me." Replied Harry. Hermione? Why did he say Hermione?
"Oh." Cedric said turning slightly pink, "Are you two…."
"Yes." Harry answered, "I mean no! I mean…what do you mean?"
"Are…are you and Hermione Granger going out?"
"No! We're just friends!"
"Listen, Harry, I don't care who you're dating."
Harry's heart sank. It couldn't be true. Cedric had to care.
"I—" Harry began.
"I was just wondering why a stud like you was wearing a necklace," Cedric said jokingly.
Harry's stomach did a back flip. Cedric said Harry was a stud.
"Well, she bought it for me, so to be nice I thought I'd…she is one of my best friends," rambled Harry.
"I understand," Cedric replied.
Harry wanted to shout out the truth, and show Cedric what was in that locket. He wanted to tell Cedric how touched he was when he found his picture in the locket. He wanted to…
"We better get back to school now Harry, grab my arm." Cedric said.
Only his arm? Now he'd done it. Why couldn't he tell Cedric the truth? Arg!
The next couple of nights Harry couldn't sleep. Cedric was convinced that Harry was dating Hermione, and had been avoiding him ever since they went bowling. The next time they would have to see each other would be the following Friday for the final task of the Triwizard tournament….dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnn!
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