A/N Hey! So I'm getting better with my updating, hmm? This chapter's a bit shorter and sorry, but no voldie (he was a bit moody because he didn't get to kill anyone in the last chapter) This chapter is important as it gives Harry a bit more room to breath within Hogwarts. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed with their opinions on Cedric and Draco, it's pretty obvious to see which one won the competition between them. Well, enjoy, reviews are always welcome.

Disclaimer For the last time, no! I do not own Harry Potter! Geez, I haven't even tried to steal it yet... oh, er... scratch that last.

*Warnings* For those hardcore angst/doom and gloom fans, this does contain a bit of fluff... that is all.

~Parseltongue~

'Mind speak'

11. Confrontation

Madame Puddifoots. Harry fidgeted uneasily in his seat, it wasn't exactly his idea of a drink, but then again, Cedric really wasn't anything like him. They had been sat in the stuffy room with too many pheromones floating about the place that Harry nearly felt overwhelmed for the past half an hour. His half empty cup of whatever it was that Cedric had ordered for him, it tasted vaguely of chocolate but with far too much sugar, was sat innocently on the table in front of him, the heating charms on the cup keeping it a pleasant temperature.

"...I'm not sure if I want to follow my dad into the ministry. I know it's the easiest thing for me to do, but I can't help feel that it's cheating, you know?" Cedric's open smile still managed to catch Harry by surprise. It was approaching the end of the year, Harry had been named sole Tri-Wizard champion, mostly due to Cedric's insistence that he was. The wizarding world's reaction to that had been spectacular, suddenly he was back in everybody's minds as the saviour of the wizarding world, grades and persona be damned.

The students had all been given a day off in celebration, and many of them (third year and above) had taken the opportunity to travel into Hogsmeade one last time before the summer holidays started. As Cedric was now only a year away officially finished his schooling, he was thinking about possible jobs and future careers. In a teashop. Why hadn't the hufflepuff taken him to Rosmerta's for a butterbeer?

"Ministry jobs are fairly boring, why not do something where you get to see the world?" Harry replied, trying his best not to convey his boredom. Cedric seemed pretty conflicted about his choices, this was the third time in that half an hour that he had bought it up.

Cedric looked him in the eye, "because I don't know if I can just pack up my bags and leave everything just like that."

Harry could hear Rasp chuckling, as snakes do, under his robe and cursed the snake inwardly for his obvious amusement at his predicament.

"Oh bloody hell! Look who it is! Boy Wonder and Cedric Diggory, did you two get close after the tournament, or was it during? We were all wondering what exactly you did to Diggory to knock him out like that, most girls would kill for that kind of talent!" Ron's voice was mocking and he finished off his speech by making crude hand gestures and sniggering.

He received a sharp clap over the head by a furious Hermione Granger for his troubles, "Ronald Bilius Weasley!"

Ron turned around and attempted to wrap his arm around Hermione's waist, when that failed, he raised his hands in a placating matter, "What? The whole school's been wondering about it, including you. We have a right to know what happened."

That was another headache altogether. Harry had kept good his word to not tell anybody about Voldemort's return. He still didn't completely understand why he hadn't cracked and told Dumbledore the complete truth after Cedric had been seen to by the medics. He hadn't talked to Rasp about it either, not sure whether or not he could trust his familiar of four years anymore. He had a suspicion though, one that he wasn't entirely comfortable with, but he had admitted to himself that he had felt a certain kind of kinship with the Dark Lord. The feeling was stronger than it was with Sirius and different to the bond he had formed with both Draco and Luna. It's just that he was so different from what he had expected him to be, there was intelligence in those red eyes; intelligence, determination and a slightly twisted sense of humour. Harry had spent hours pretending to be asleep whilst really considering those eyes in his mindscape.

"We know that they must have faced something horrible for Cedric to have been incapacitated and you're being a pig about it! If they don't want to talk about it then that's their business, not ours. We know that they won, that should be enough for you!" Hermione raged, pulling Ron by the sleeve out of the tea house, "I honestly can't believe your attitude, and now regret my decision to go out with you!"

Silence fell with their exit, the room suddenly felt as cold and unwelcoming as it had felt stuffy not a few minutes ago. Perfect. Harry made a show of shrinking into his chair as dozens of pairs of eyes homed in on him and waited expectantly.

"Can we ple-" he started feebly, his eyes nervously looking around him. But Cedric was already standing.

"Come on, let's go," Cedric said, hand outstretched and another disarming smile on his face. Harry reckoned that if he was as feeble minded as his persona then he would have been smitten with this boy, so that's how he acted. He eyed the hand as if it were a lifeline but still reached for it slowly and smiled softly up at Cedric when his hand was ensconced by his. His eyes widened in surprise as Cedric pulled him into his body with his arm and held him close. Harry quickly stopped himself from actually casting the curse at the forefront of his mind.

"Ignore them, they're not there, all you need to do is look at me and everything will be fine," Cedric's voice whispered reassuringly in Harry's ear and Harry couldn't help the shiver that swept through him as Cedric's breath tickled his neck.

Surprisingly, Harry followed the other boy's order, not taking his eyes off Cedric's back as he was swiftly but gently led out of the shop. They had turned the corner leading to the Three Broomsticks when Cedric stopped and turned back to look at Harry, the street was a less known one and was consequentially empty.

"Thank you, for that," said Harry, waving his free hand back the way they had come, giving Cedric another small smile, he could feel the other boy's hand tighten slightly around his.

"I want to make him hurt for saying that to you," he said in a low voice, "there was no need for it. Granger had it right, he was being a pig."

Harry stood there silently, unsure of what Cedric really wanted to gain by saying that and a bit taken aback that he had; Cedric epitomised everything good and light. Cedric seemed to take Harry's silence at horror at his words, for he dropped Harry's hand and ran both of his over his face and through his hair.

"That makes me sound like a horrible person doesn't it?" he smiled weakly at Harry, "I know I shouldn't; causing another living thing pain is never the right thing to do, but I see the hurt in your eyes and I can't help but want to return it tenfold to whoever placed it there."

"Cedric-" Harry stopped for effect and placed his arm gently on Cedric's bicep to return the boy's attention to him from the ground, "I'm happy that you care that much about me." What the hell was he saying?

"God, I want to kiss you right now." Cedric blushed as he realised that he had voiced his thought aloud. Harry nearly groaned in frustration, Cedric had done nothing to him, absolutely nothing, and here he was, leading him on and setting him up for a fall; because a relationship between them could, and would, never work. He had to stop this before it went too far; revenge against Peter Pettigrew was one thing, as was plotting to kill Dumbledore, but Cedric had been nothing but kind towards him and Harry wasn't enough of a sociopath to want to hurt him for no reason.

He could almost see the Hufflepuff building up enough courage to close the distance between them, "Cedric-"

He was cut off by a loud bang and a flash of blinding light, he heard Cedric yelp and jump backwards.

"Harry! You should really watch out more often, there were a bakers' dozen phyls' right by your head!"

"Luna?" he said before mumbling a couple of spells to negate the ringing in his ears and the temporary blindness from his eyes.

"Who else would have known what they were and how to get rid of them?" Luna replied in her customary sing song voice.

"What's a phyls?" Cedric asked, one hand rubbing his right ear and blinding rapidly, "and a baker's dozen?"

Luna regarded Cedric with a dreamy look, "a small invisible creature made up of air, father explained to me once about how dangerous they are in small groups, which is what a baker's dozen is."

"A baker's dozen is a muggle phrase for thirteen," Harry explained sheepishly, "though I have never heard of a phyls before." He had, in fact, heard of a phyls before, or rather a sylph, as everybody else would have called them. They were little mythological air sprites that were said to guard a woman's vanity.

"Oh, and it's Luna Lovegood right?" at Luna's nod Cedric extended his hand in her direction, "Cedric Diggory."

Luna smiled again, but didn't take Cedric's hand, "I know Cedric, you should really tell Harry to watch out for phyls' more often, they really are quite dangerous."

A glint of amusement appeared in Cedric's eyes as he listened to Luna, despite having his hand rejected, "What do they do exactly?"

"Hmm? Oh, they can cause semi-permanent blindness if they are left long enough."

Harry clenched his jaw as he interpreted Luna's message. Cedric wasn't distracting him or taking up too much of his time, why shouldn't he allow himself this one outlet where he didn't have to worry about plans and scheming and revenge? Cedric lifted his spirits, he felt lighter around the hufflepuff, he gave him an escape if everything somehow went to shit. Not that it would. Harry would never let that happen.

Luna turned her attention back to Harry, "Professor Flitwick asked me to find you, he says that Headmaster Dumbledore was inviting you to his office for tea and a chat before everyone leaves," Luna gave Harry a meaningful look and he knew he had to leave. He looked towards Cedric and smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, I have to go. This has been fun though, well, apart from Ron. We'll talk later, right?" Harry asked, throwing in a hopeful expression for good measure.

Cedric perked up with Harry's words, Harry almost found it cute at how easy it was for him to manipulate the sixth year, "Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, I hope we can do this again, but properly. I'll see you soon."

Harry was about to walk away when he felt Cedric's hand on his again, bringing him in for another hug before kissing him chastely on the back of his hand. Luna's face turned serious from behind Cedric's shoulder and Harry narrowed his eyes slightly in warning. He affected a slightly embarrassed expression for Cedric, took his hand back and waved awkwardly to both of them, setting off back to Hogwarts.

x ~ x ~ x

Harry was sick of sugar, he had had far too much of it today. But he forced himself to eat a globule of the foul stuff as he sat in the headmaster's office. Fawkes was perched on Dumbledore's chair, Harry opposite it as he waited for the old man to return from wherever it was he had disappeared to.

The phoenix regarded him as it had done for the past four years: intensely. Harry returned the favour, occluding his mind heavily whilst he was doing it though. They glared holes through each other until Dumbledore returned to the room, when Harry turned away and settled his gaze on the papers that littered the headmaster's desk.

"My boy, it has been a while hasn't it?"

"A few weeks, we talked after the third task," Harry replied evenly.

The headmaster smiled and his eyes twinkled over the tops of his half moon glasses, "well done on your achievements, my boy. Your parents would have been incredibly proud of their son, as am I."

Harry nodded meekly, "thank you, I just wish I could have known them."

"You will soon be fifteen," Dumbledore stated. Harry didn't speak, he was wishing he was somewhere else, perhaps he'd still be in Hogsmeade with Cedric. He wondered what would have happened if Luna hadn't interrupted them, would Harry have gone through with his idea to turn Cedric down, or would he have just let Cedric kiss him? Thinking of Cedric and his smile put Harry in a better mood to deal with Dumbledore.

"Your father once left something very valuable in my possession," the headmaster said seriously, "I believe that now is the right time to gift it to you in return."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise, a reaction that he didn't bother concealing, unlike the fury that bubbled up after a moment. How dare the old man keep something that belonged to him? The headmaster had worded his statement very carefully, Harry was certain that his father hadn't intentionally left whatever it was with the headmaster for so long. From all that he had learnt about Gryffindors through his encounters with them, and his father from Sirius, James would have wanted his personal possessions to pass to Harry.

"What is it?" he asked excitedly.

Dumbledore chuckled from his seat and let the moment drag out for a bit. Harry supposed that he was trying to make Harry feel ingratiated to him, again. The man never seemed to learn. As soon as the pause had become even a little bit socially unacceptable Harry took the chance and crossed his eyebrows in confusion and started to lean back into his seat.

"It's a cloak, my boy. I have kept it safe for a very long time," Dumbledore recovered the situation just in time and Harry inwardly pouted at the save. Such an action was pathetic in Harry's mind, so he made sure to affect a pout as his persona considered Dumbledore's words.

"A cloak?" he asked petulantly, "I've got cloaks of my own, what's so special about this one?"

Dumbledore produced and slid a brown paper parcel over his desk, "It is an invisibility cloak Harry, they are very rare and valuable. The magic placed upon them is very powerful and therefore has the potential to be incredibly dangerous, hence my reluctance to give it to you at an earlier time. I believe you are mature and wise enough to possess it now though," Dumbledore's tone was more grandfatherly than usual, softer too, as if he was secretly giving Harry a sweet despite his parent's insistence that he shouldn't eat before dinner.

Harry was instantly suspicious. The man wanted something from him and had been lulling him into a false sense of security over the past few months. The meeting after the third task had been filled with mundane questions. He had, of course, asked what exactly had happened to Cedric. 'I don't know' and 'I can't remember' had become his mottos for that meeting. Luckily, Cedric didn't seem to remember anything after touching the cup in the maze, Harry supposed that his magical shove had something to do with that. He had slipped into the Hufflepuff's mind a bit later on and was reassured when he found a blank spot in his memories.

"Thank you professor."

"Just out of curiosity, my boy, but has your scar been itching or hurting any more than usual lately?" Dumbledore asked as nonchalantly as possible.

Oh, so Dumbledore suspected Lord Voldemort's return. It made sense, Harry supposed, he knew that Snape had been a death eater and was now loyal to a fault to Dumbledore and he vaguely remembered coming across Igor Karkaroff's, the headmaster of Durmstrang, name in paperwork detailing Death Eater trials. This was tricky though, how much did the professor actually know? He didn't want to give too much away, but too little and the little game between them was up.

Throughout his though process he had affected a thinking face, one he had seen students use many a time when practising a particularly tricky wand movement, "I can't remember anything. Why, should it be?"

"Hmm, interesting," said Dumbledore softy, Harry almost missed it, before his eyes flickered over to Fawkes thoughtfully.

Harry was uncertain how that response boded for him, so he settled for shuffling nervously in his seat in the long silence that ensued. Had the old man forgotten that he was there?

"Um, professor?" Harry asked timidly, when he still didn't get an answer he raised his voice a smidge, "Professor?"

Dumbledore's eyes snapped to him, "were you aware that somebody has been impersonating Professor Alastor Moody for most of the year, Harry?"

Harry widened his eyes a bit, "No professor, who is he really?" That question was certainly out of the blue, Harry hadn't ruled it out though, the man had been starting to act stranger and stranger. Was it a death eater?

"We don't know yet, we found his office abandoned apart from his trunk, which housed the real Professor Moody. The imposter seems to have fled early this morning."

Harry inwardly grinned, couldn't the old man see how he had set himself up, "Oh?" he said, not sounding surprised in the least.

"'Oh?'" the headmaster reiterated, a satisfied twinkle in his eye, "you don't seem very surprised by that, care to tell me why?"

Harry looked up innocently and felt slightly smug as he saw the confusion cloud Dumbledore's vision, "Well, the previous three defence teachers have all been dangerous, it only makes sense that this one was too. You know he performed the unforgivables in front of us?"

Dumbledore sighed and inclined his head, admitting defeat, so much for the most powerful man in wizarding Britain, outplayed by a fourteen year old boy.

"Can I go now professor? I promised to spent the day with Cedric," Harry asked with an uncertain lilt to his voice.

"Cedric?" asked Dumbledore, before a flicker of recognition flashed through his eyes, "ah yes, charming boy, charming father," Harry felt slightly insulted on Cedric's behalf, the headmaster had forgotten his own champion? He merely nodded and turned to leave the office.

"Harry?" Harry paused mid step and gritted his teeth in frustration. Every single time, the headmaster stopped him as he was just about to escape, "Yes sir?"

"Since when have you taken to carrying a snake about with you? You know that they are prohibited within Hogwarts grounds."

"No." Had he said that out loud? His body tensed and he felt like a rabbit in the headlights. He calmed himself and turned back around to look at Dumbledore again.

"No? No what? No, you haven't got a snake wrapped around your upper arm, or: no, you didn't know they were disallowed?" Dumbledore's eyes were hard, unforgiving. It seems that Harry had given himself away, he regretted the fact that keeping his side of his and Draco's bargain would be decidedly harder now, but he still felt a bit of pride that he had lasted nearly four years.

The game was up, continuing with his charade around the headmaster would be pointless and embarrassing, so he donned his blank mask and looked Dumbledore squarely in the eye, "No, you can't have him."

Dumbledore smiled triumphantly, "It's not a matter of possession Harry, it is simply against the school rules. I will simply take it off your hands and deposit it in the forest."

"You are not taking him," Harry said again, firmly, letting the small portion of his magic he had available to him create a threatening aura around him.

Dumbledore drew his wand, "I think you'll find that I am, Harry. Snakes are very dangerous creatures, especially in a school full of children."

"Curious that," Harry said menacingly, not moving a muscle, but he had his hand against his wand, ready to draw in an instant, "I thought exactly the same thing when I discovered that there was a Cerberus locked in a room on the third floor three years ago. Or that a werewolf was teaching defence the whole of last year. Difference is that my 'dangerous threat' has yet to attack anybody, you can't exactly say the same for Hagrid's pet dog and Lupin."

Dumbledore lowered his wand, "This is all a bit uncivil Harry. I daresay that I have enjoyed your company over the years. This snake of yours is obviously a bad influence, I'm assuming that you can speak to it, correct? How long and how well do you know it? Snakes tend to be very good liars to get something that they want, and almost all are loyal to Voldemort."

Harry clenched and unclenched a fist by his side, how dare he? Rasp shifted up out of his robe appearing coiled around his neck and bared his fangs at the headmaster.

~I could bite him for you,~ he hissed angrily.

Harry snorted with amusement, ~You would do the very thing that you chided Chiana for merely mentioning? Hypocrite.~

~Chiana was never in the same position as I, besides, the game has changed, the pieces have moved. He knows about you now, he knows about me. You could just say a snake randomly came in and killed him.~

Harry considered it, slightly bemused by the fact that he was the voice of reason in a conversation between him and Rasp, ~Tempting, but the portraits on the walls will know truth, as will the phoenix, and your story is implausible. It would cast suspicion straight onto me.~

Rasp hissed in frustration, ~Then find a way to kill him quickly.~

"Rasp is no agent of Voldemort," Harry began, hoping what he was saying was the genuine truth, "he has been a friend of mine for many years, my only friend for a few of them, he will not attack any student without given cause, and such attacks would never result in a fatality."

"Lord Voldemort has returned," the headmaster changed the subject suddenly, throwing Harry off balance for a nanosecond, but there was a definite ring of truth to Dumbledore's statement. Dumbledore believed it to be true then, that is where he had finally caught Harry.

"Yes, he has," Harry said, without missing a beat.

"You saw it?" Dumbledore stated, asking for more information. Harry saw no point in hiding the truth, it wouldn't benefit him in any way and Dumbledore would gain nothing from it.

"The third task, the cup portkeyed us to him."

There was silence for a moment as Dumbledore assimilated this information into his massive store of knowledge, "Why is Cedric Diggory still alive?"

Harry eyed the headmaster warily, but his face betrayed nothing, "Because I saved him."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "How?"

"Does it matter? He is alive and well, do you prefer him dead?"

"Of course not," the headmaster said seriously, "but the Dark Lord is not a person to bargain with Harry, you might regret it later."

Bargain? So Dumbledore thought that Harry had made some sort of deal with Voldemort in exchange for his and Cedric's life, it was a more likely sounding theory than the actual truth. Harry might yet be able to salvage this situation with Dumbledore.

Harry made himself tear up, "It's not as if I had a choice!" he yelled, which seemed to stop Dumbledore in his tracks.

"Harry –"

"You weren't there!" he screamed, letting tears fall from his face, "You weren't there to help us. We'd just faced a giant bloody spider that wanted to eat us alive and we finally thought that we'd won, that we were safe!"

"It was you who killed the acromantula?" Dumbledore asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yes! I didn't mean to, but, I just said the first spell I could think of," he said miserably, "I didn't want anymore death, I didn't want Cedric to die, I didn't want to die so I just agreed to – " Harry made a choking sound, as if a spell or oath had suddenly taken his ability to speak.

"Harry, listen to me," Dumbledore had moved closer to him and had bent down so he was eye level with him, "What exactly did he make you do, or promise to do?"

Harry avoided Dumbledore's eyes and made to speak before choking back another sob, he felt Dumbledore place a comforting hand on his shoulder, the one Rasp wasn't perched on, and Harry felt that warm sensation that accompanied victory rise up from his belly.

"I – I can't speak about it. It hurts to even think about speaking about it."

"Harry, look into my eyes," Dumbledore said calmly. Damn, Harry didn't have enough time to fabricate any memories, he couldn't – oh yes he could.

"I can't!" Harry sobbed as he squeezed his eyes shut, "He said that I couldn't take Verita-, veritasi – something else either."

Harry took a big heaving breath as Dumbledore gently squeezed his shoulder, "It's okay, my boy, just don't think that you have to face him alone. You should have talked to me about this earlier," he admonished gently.

"Sorry," Harry mumbled, taking shorter breaths as if he was trying to control his emotions.

Dumbledore sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Why does Cedric not remember any of this?"

"He obliviated him, I don't know why," Harry replied quickly.

"Is there a deadline for this task he has set you?"

Harry lowered his head, "I can't tell you."

"Not to worry my boy, you have left me with a lot of thinking to do. I know it is heads of houses that usually deal with this kind of thing, but as the situation is quite, ah, delicate, my door is always open should you wish to talk."

Harry nodded curtly and used his sleeve to wipe away his tears and turned to leave, recognising the dismissal for what it was.

"Oh, and Harry?" Harry nearly growled this time.

"Yes professor?" he asked politely nonetheless.

"Although I would prefer it if your snake was in the forbidden forest, if I do not see it again, I shall just put it's existence up to my rather overactive imagination."

Harry gave the man a genuine smile, not because he was grateful to the old man for overlooking a slight rule breaking, but because he had finally, finally, won their little dance.

A/N So, from all the reviews I've read, it seems that Cedric came out on top. I hope you enjoyed their little scene together and thank you to Luna for unwittingly stopping Harry from calling it off with Cedric. I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but it has added a bit of a twist with regards to Dumbledore hasn't it? *evil laugh* Maybe we'll start to see a little more of his true personality coming through around other people? who knows... (apart from me, obviously) Erm, so, thoughts?

FYI Harry has not broken up with Cedric or made a deal with Voldemort that we don't know about.

Thanks you for all your support,

apisci