(i)
"I wish we could … I don't know, find somewhere cosy," Harry said.
"Me too," Cedric said. "Even the prefect's bathroom is chilly at the moment."
"Stupid February!" Harry said.
They were walking back up towards the castle. It was beginning to get dark, and more frost was gathering on the grass. They weren't holding hands any longer as they were in sight of the castle, but they were walking so close together that their bodies kept brushing.
The entrance hall was full of smells of supper, loud with the noise of people. Harry found himself moving closer to Cedric's side, not father away like he knew he should. He didn't want to face people, and loose this time that was only theirs.
"Shall we go to the kitchens?" Cedric asked, his breath ruffling Harry's hair.
"Yeah," Harry quickly said, turning left, towards the Kitchen and away from the Great Hall.
Cedric found them bread, and slices of warm chicken, mayonnaise, tomatoes and huge wedges of fruitcake.
They ate in the prefect's bathroom, for want of a better place, sitting almost on the water-heater, trying to eek out every scrap of heat from it.
"Can't we make a fire?" Harry said.
Cedric made a little blue fire in a soap-dish, but it didn't cast much heat.
They ate their supper huddled close together. Harry didn't feel like talking. He felt like he'd said enough. It was enough to feel Cedric's warm body beside him, enough to watch him lick mayonnaise from his fingers.
"Harry?" Cedric said.
"Yeah?"
"Have you got your invisibility cloak?"
"I think so," Harry felt around for the roll of material in his pocket, and found it.
"I had an idea," Cedric said, with a faint chuckle.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Why don't you come into the my bedroom with me? You could hide under the cloak, and I could pull the curtains around my bed."
"I have a feeling someone would notice," Harry said.
"Not if we were quiet," Cedric said. "There's a good spell that makes people around you unable to hear you. They just hear buzzing, not words. They hear sounds but they would know…"
"Good spell!" Harry said.
"It's great. Professor Snape taught it to us once when he was substituting charms."
"He never taught me anything that cool!" Harry said.
"So will we try it then?" Cedric asked eagerly.
"Okay," Harry said. "How would we do it?"
They decided that Harry would hold onto Cedric and allow himself to be lead to the dorm behind him. They'd just hope no one would step too close to Cedric. Harry thought it would be simpler just to follow Cedric, but Cedric said it would never work.
They practised a few times in the bathroom mirror, Harry hidden and holding onto Cedric. Cedric tried to walk as naturally as possible, which had limited affect. Harry kept on laughing and trying to stifle it. His cock was beginning to harden with the rubbing against Cedric's body as they walked.
"Do you think it will work?" Cedric asked.
"Might do," Harry said. "That, or we'll have some really difficult explaining to do."
Cedric gave him a long kiss, which made his trousers even tighter.
"Right. Let's try," Cedric said, and they made their way downstairs, Harry already carefully hidden in his cloak.
"It's not going to work, is it?" Harry said.
"We might as well try," Cedric said, talking to a spot well to the left of Harry.
Harry found himself giggling again. All the sadness of the afternoon seemed to have evaporated, and he felt light and silly, like the first time he drank butterbeer.
"On your head be it," Harry said, quoting one of McGonagall's favourite sayings.
"Get your arms round me then! Quick, I can hear someone coming!"
Harry ducked behind Cedric. His hands were on Cedric's hips when someone rounded the corner.
It was Aidan. "Where've you been all day?" he said, grinning.
"Eh, practicing Quidditch," Cedric said.
"Why?"
"You never know, it might come in handy," Cedric said. Harry forced back a giggle and made a slight chocking noise.
"What'd you say?" Aidan said.
"Coughing up chicken bones," Cedric said.
Aidan raised his eyebrows. "What did Potter want?"
"Oh, you know, the usual…"
"What, a quick shag in the library?" Aidan said. Harry could tell from his voice it was a joke, but he could almost feel Cedric's blush.
"N-no," Cedric said, coughing. "Who'd want to do it in there with Madame Pince staring at you?"
"Who knows, Diggory, maybe you're kinky," Aidan said, with a slightly forced laugh.
"Yeah," Cedric muttered. "Look, are we going in?"
"Hedgepigs!" Aidan said, and Harry wrapped his arms more tightly around Cedric, his vision obscured entirely in the black Cedric's robe.
The room was thronged with people. Harry could feel them pressing around on all sides. He understood now why Cedric had laughed when he'd ask why he couldn't just slip through the people instead of clinging onto Cedric. He felt himself bumped and jostled several times. He edged his head slightly away from Cedric to peer around.
The room was much smaller than the Gryffindor common room, its walls lined with cheerful hanging and books and brightly coloured boxes. It was full of comfortable bright yellow chairs and sofas, and little tables. It reminded Harry of a much brighter version of the Divination classroom. It didn't have fireplaces, but instead there was a squat wood-burning stove in the middle of the room, with a long slim chimney disappearing into the roof.
"Stop gawking!" Cedric whispered, trying to navigate his way through the throng of chairs to one of the many spiralling staircases that cluttered up the edges of the room.
"What, Ced?" a slim girl said, leaning close enough to him that Harry could smell her.
"Nothing Flo," Cedric said.
"Really?" Flo said. "Could have sworn I heard you whisper something."
"No honestly, I was probably just yawning," Cedric said. "I'm dead tired."
Flo chuckled. "Got some pretty girl stashed away, Cedric?"
"What?" Cedric said.
"I'll say no more," she said, winking hugely. Harry was pretty sure Cedric was blushing again. He was standing, frozen, and Harry gave him a light kick.
Cedric flinched, and began to walk to the staircase, which was finally beside them. He waved to Flo vaguely as he began to ascend.
This was the trickiest staircase Harry had ever climbed. It was impossible to keep completely in step with Cedric because both their feet wouldn't fit on one of the small rickety steps. Their bodies kept rubbing together as they jostled; it began to get very distracting.
Eventually Harry let go, and made his way up alone, looking back into the room below. It was bigger than he had though at first, just so cluttered that this was difficult to see. The stairs were oaken, their light polish chipped. The room wasn't as lavishly furnished as the Gryffindor common room, but it was just as cosy.
Cedric tugged at Harry's cloak as they entered the dorm, and Harry obligingly grabbed his arm.
"Mercifully, mercifully empty," Cedric breathed.
Harry laughed. "Oh, you sounded so silly talking to Aidan," he said.
"Well it wasn't easy, what with you their behind me," Cedric said, and Harry laughed again.
"Bed, then?" he said. "Better hide me before that Flo comes in to see what you're really doing."
"She wouldn't!" Cedric looked startled.
Cedric's bed was on of another two in the room. The beds were perhaps larger than the Gryffindor's, but a lot shabbier.
Cedric pulled Harry to him, and they sat on the bed, the hangings drawn around them. There was almost enough room to stretch.
"Muffliato," Cedric whispered.
They looked at each other in the warm light that came through the thin yellow hangings. Something was different now. Harry no longer felt like giggling.
"I can only see your head," Cedric said.
"What? Oh," Harry pulled of the cloak; it fell in a shimmering pile at the end of the bed.
"Better," Cedric put his hands on Harry's shoulders, squeezing them slightly. "You're in my bed."
"Yeah," Harry said, and leant forward, and they were kissing.
Their legs tangled uncomfortable together as they kissed, and for a long time they ignored the cramps in their thighs, until Harry thrust forward, and he was lying on top of Cedric, their cocks gently rubbing together through the folds of cloth.
Their lips no longer felt for mouths, but searched for necks, earlobes, nipples. Their clothes fell in a messy pile at the end of the bed, Cedric lying on his robe, Harry's underwear in a tangle around his ankles.
"Am I doing this right?" Harry asked, hesitant, as his tongue explored its way down Cedric's body.
"I think so," Cedric said, moaned, and Harry, tentatively, licked what he had been searching for.
It felt more personal than the night before, there was no warm water to make their limbs slick; they were stuck together with sweat and salvia, no layer of soap separating their hot, urgent bodies.
They were confused, uncertain, perhaps even more tonight, now that their mouths were engaged in something new. Harry had never known he could have sensations quite like this, when Cedric swallowed him, he bit so hard into his arm to control his cries that he drew blood.
Cedric peered up into his face after that, his fingers round Harry's chewed wrist.
"What happened? Harry?"
Harry smiled at him, and clumsily reached down to embrace his lover. He suspected Cedric's expression, a mixture of wonder and dazed stupidity, was a mirror of his own.
Their kisses were slow, gentle caresses on the sides of their mouths, comforting them, reminding them that they were still the same even after all that sensation.
They were pressed tightly together, in the confines of the bed, their sticky, boneless limbs meshed into position.
The salty sweat began to cool on Harry's body. He leant into Cedric.
"How about under the bedclothes?" he whispered.
Cedric made an unintelligible noise, and they struggled to get the bedclothes over them.
Harry thought he could hear the room's other occupants, and for a moment, feared Cedric's spell hadn't worked.
"Cedric?" he whispered.
"Mm," Cedric rolled over, and threw one of his arms over Harry's bare chest.
"Can we talk about semantics now?"
Cedric laughed against his neck. "If we must."
Harry didn't answer straight away. It felt too good to be here, even in the cramped bed, to feel Cedric's skin against his. The way their thighs and arms pressed inexorably together – it felt almost more intimate than their sex, and Harry basked.
Before Cedric began to drift off, Harry asked, "so am I a virgin or aren't I?"
"I don't think we could call you a virgin," Cedric said. He stretched his legs, his toes rubbing against the arch of Harry's foot. It tickled. "Remember that picture in the library? With the potion?"
"The little sketch?"
"Yeah," Cedric said, "I think, semantically speaking, that's considered sex. But I dunno though."
"Confused," Harry said and yawned.
He was beginning to drift off when he found himself compelled to ask, "so are we going to do that sometime?"
"Sure," Cedric said. "But not before a Quidditch match."
Harry closed his eyes. One of his arms was trapped a little uncomfortably beneath him, but he was too relaxed to move. His nose was pressed against Cedric's neck, breathing in the sweaty, spicy smell of him. Harry slept.
(ii)
"Harry, Harry…"
"Nrr?"
"Wake up," Cedric whispered. Harry started awake as he heard Cedric's voice.
"I'm…" he stopped.
"Yes," Cedric was sitting up, looking down at him.
"I just woke up, myself," Cedric said. "You should leave before everyone else wakes up."
Harry nodded groggily.
"What time?"
"Half five," Cedric said.
Harry allowed himself to be handed his clothes.
"Where's the loo?" he asked.
"This way," Cedric opened the curtains. "And keep quiet."
The crept into the bathroom, and Cedric whispered another "muffliato."
"I don't think the sound of someone pissing will make anyone suspicious," Harry said.
"Yeah, yeah, get dressed," Cedric said, pacing around.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"It was a bit daft, doing that," Cedric said. Harry, deciding to leave any kind of washing until he got back to Gryffindor, paused in pulling on his robe.
"I liked it," Harry said.
"I know," Cedric stopped pacing. "Just, it would be so easy to have been caught."
"But we weren't," Harry said. He went over to Cedric, too sleepy to feel anything but affection.
Cedric hugged him, and Harry kissed the side of his neck, just above his shoulder, where his nose has been all night.
"When'll I see you?"
"Later today?"
Harry nodded, "after supper."
"You'd better run," Cedric said.
"I'm going. You stay up here."
"Yes," Cedric said.
Harry caught one last glimpse of him, standing on the buttermilk yellow tiles, his face nervous, before he padded down the stairs.
Someone was asleep near the stove, snoring faintly. Other than that, all was quiet. Harry let himself out.
(iii)
Harry was shaken awake for a second time that morning. He blinked dreamily, hoping it was Cedric and knowing it wasn't.
"Where were you?" Ron said.
Harry shrugged.
"With Cedric?" Ron said. "You should have said something. Hermione was worried."
"Sorry," Harry said, struggling up.
"Let's go down and get breakfast, and show her you're alive."
"Great," Harry said. He'd had a shower before he went back to bed again, and his hair stuck up even more oddly than usual.
Ron laughed. "What have you been doing?"
"I washed my hair," Harry said, trying to sound dignified. It didn't really come off.
"I don't think I want to know about you and pretty boy," Ron said.
"You probably don't," Harry agreed, and they went downstairs.
Hermione met them in the common room with a stack of toast.
"I wanted kippers," Ron said.
"I wouldn't go down to the great hall just now," Hermione said, edgily, looking at Harry.
"You shouldn't stay out all night like that, Harry, you could get in real trouble," Hermione said, but before he could respond, she continued "oh, Harry, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't say that."
"Why not?" Ron said sounding startled.
"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry," Hermione was saying, thrusting the toast at Ron. "That awful Rite Skeeter…"
"What? What happened?" Harry said.
Hermione, her face pale, handed him a newspaper.
A/n: Many thanks for reviews and support, greatly appreciated. Next chapter up soon!
Many thanks, also, to my betas Jérémie and Simnovorii. Any mistakes still present in this chapter are entirely my own fault for not listenign to them.