To Bedlam and Partway Back
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters
Chapter Nine
Cedric caught up with Harry and the others on the second staircase, where Hermione had cornered him, and Herbie was gently prying the well-meaning, if rather violently affectionate girl off him, even resorting to bribing her with his piping-hot cinnamon rolls.
"Here, let Cedric take care of him," he murmured, and Hermione reluctantly stepped back to let the blond through. He immediately pulled Harry into his arms and tucked them into an alcove just past the stair.
"What did McGonagall say?" Herbie asked Hermione, to help take her mind off things.
The girl smiled tearfully at him, clutching a sticky pastry in her two hands. "She said that she knew it wasn't my fault, and that her door would always be open to me, and Harry."
"She's right," Herbie said as they followed Cedric and Harry at a more sedate pace to give their two friends some privacy. "It's not your fault Dumbledore decided to milk his wand in public-"
"Herbie!" Hermione shrieked, her cheeks a smarting pink.
"Now that Madam Bones knows, Dumbledore isn't going to be able to separate us again, will he?" Harry asked despondently, his forehead pressed into Cedric's chest and his tiny fingers digging into the blond's arms.
Cedric shushed him, running his hands up the boy's back in what he hoped were comforting gestures. "No, he won't be able to do anything ever again. You're safe now, Harry, we're safe." In reality he wasn't quite as sure as he sounded, but he'd something upsetting to the boy in his arms over his dead body.
Harry let out a wet whuff that might've been laughter. "You're lying," he told Cedric bluntly. "But thank you for trying, anyway."
"Is it safe to come over now?" Herbie called from the stairs.
Cedric rolled his eyes at his friend, but he'd made Harry laugh, after all.
"By that laugh I'll take it as a yes," Herbie said, before striding over with Hermione. He tapped Harry on his blotchy nose. "So how's the Quidditch prodigy doing?"
Harry chuckled, and batted Herbie's prodding hands away. "I overreacted," he admitted bashfully.
Hermione's face darkened. "I think you had every right to act the way you did," she declared fiercely. "Dumbledore doesn't have the right to interfere in the students' personal lives like this! It isn't even as if he's your guardian; that's Cedric now. And just thinking about the past couple of years- he's always hovering around you, you know? Waiting for you to do something, always carefully monitoring you."
Herbie scrunched up his face. "I'm getting very '1984' vibes here," he sang, and Hermione looked at him weirdly.
"How do you know about that book?" she asked, astonished.
Herbie snorted. "Because that is so the issue-at-hand here." At Hermione's blush he answered anyway. "Muggle literature is so much more fascinating than magical. It's like just because they don't have magic they've got to make up for it in so many other ways."
Harry smiled, finally relaxing into Cedric's embrace. "That's true, isn't it?" Then a thought occurred to him.
"So if Cedric's my guardian now, does that mean that I won't have to go back to the Dursleys?" There was almost painful hope shining in his eyes.
Hermione fidgeted nervously. "I don't know that," she confessed. "I should know it."
"You don't have to know everything," Herbie told her patiently.
Harry laughed again. "Good luck telling her that; I've only been saying that since First-Year."
"I can check," Cedric said decisively. "My father works in the Ministry of Magic-"
He cut himself off abruptly. Harry looked up with large, innocent eyes. "What about that?"
Herbie'd already realised. "I was wondering how long it'd take for that to sink in," he said, sounding resigned.
Cedric looked at him mournfully. "Herbie, I didn't mean to-"
The chestnut-haired boy cut him off with a brusque shake of his head. "I don't want to talk about it."
Cedric sighed. "Well, I'm still sorry." Seeing as how Harry was still looking at him, he said, "My father- he's a good man, but he's not the most open-minded person in office. He's also a rather big supporter of Dumbledore. When word gets out that we directly went against the headmaster- I'm not sure what he'd do. I don't even know if he'll respect our Pledgeship bond." He said nothing about the exchange between him and Herbie.
Harry suddenly looked fearful. "They wouldn't do anything to you, would they?"
"No," Cedric said immediately. "He- my father- he wouldn't. The Diggory line is too important to him; it's the one thing he prizes above all else." He winked at Harry. "He'll be expecting an heir, of course."
Hermione looked confused, and Herbie just cackled. Harry turned brick-red, but he said, "I thought we'd already talked about that." To his credit, his voice was barely even wavering.
Cedric's face sobered. "I know, and I understand your concern. But, perhaps, maybe you'd reconsider when things settle down a bit?"
If anything, Harry just turned even redder. Cedric took pity on him and changed the subject. "My mother wouldn't let him do too much, anyways," he said. "She's the one that actually runs things in the house, but you mustn't tell my father that, or he'd just collapse from shock."
Harry giggled reluctantly, still slightly uneasy from their previous talk.
"Don't worry too much," Cedric said, reaching up to ruffle Harry's wild locks. "It won't be too bad."
"Won't be too bad?" Herbie echoed bitingly the very next day. He, along with half the Great Hall, was staring at the owl slowly flapping its way over the tables bearing a smoking red envelope.
Harry stared at it with horrified eyes. He still remembered Ron's spectacle from a year before.
Cedric tried to smile. "It's just a Howler?" He didn't mention how it was nearly twice the size of a regular Howler and looked ripe to burst. Then he started at the feel of someone's hand on his shoulder, and saw Herbie stiffen beside him. Across from him, Harry and Hermione were shooting startled looks behind him.
"Allow me," someone said, and a wand was drawn and pointed directly at the Howler. That seemed to anger it even more, and it unfurled in a flash, inhaled a deep breath of smoke, and was about to purse its paper-lips and begin its diatribe, when-
The voice said, "Finite Incantatem!"
All of them gaped. That was the last charm they'd expected to work. But, surprisingly, the levitating envelope immediately dropped onto the table, lifeless. Cedric finally turned around, relief mixing with dread in his stomach.
"You'll be able to read the contents privately now, instead of having it yelled out in front of everyone," a boy in Gryffindor robes was saying, using the excuse of putting his wand away to not meet his eyes. But he had to look up eventually, and Cedric stared at pale blue eyes that were the exact shape and shade of the boy sitting beside him.
Bernard Fleet swallowed heavily before explaining. "You don't see my Howlers because I usually make it a point to be somewhere else during breakfast, but I'm glad I was here today."
"And how many Howlers is that?" Hermione asked, careful to keep her voice purely academic.
Bernard shrugged disconsolately. "I get an average of four a week. Some weeks I'll get up to one a day."
"Well," Cedric cut in before Hermione could ask anymore questions, "thanks a lot for this."
Bernard managed a smile. "No problem." The pale blue eyes looked desperately to the side, but the ones that looked back at him were blank and passionless. Bernard sighed and walked away.
"That was your brother?" Hermione asked after he'd gone.
"My twin brother," Herbie corrected stiffly, startling her. Herbie had never been this shirty with her before.
"Let's just see what this says, alright?" Harry said, picking up the envelope before Cedric could stop him. "Cedric, what the-"
The blond snatched it away. Harry'd gone rather pale as his eyes roved down the parchment.
'Cedric,' it read,
'What the hell do you think you're doing, playing the boy like that? You think it's funny eh, pushing people's lives about like that, interfering where no one asked you to poke your damn nose in? What the hell were you thinking- probably weren't even thinking, were you? Did you ever think about the boy when you dragged him into this? He's got a nice, loving family, and then it's all ripped away from him when you step in and try to be a hero. Did you ever think about the headmaster, eh? He's a good man, he's all worried about the boy, isolated from his friends in Gryffindor- isolated by you, bloody hell! I thought I'd raised you right, Cedric. Apparently not. Don't bother coming home till you've sorted out this damn mess.'
He passed the letter to Herbie when he was done. "Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be," he tried.
Harry shot him a furious look. "I didn't forget, you know," he hissed. Cedric looked startled at his sudden aggression. "I didn't forget that this bond was unbreakable. That means-"
"It means nothing," Cedric said firmly. "He can say what he likes, it's nothing more than words. So we'll find somewhere else to stay during the summer, it's no big deal."
"No big deal?" Harry parroted numbly. "He's your father, Cedric!"
Cedric suddenly understood why this was so important to Harry. Having never had a father of his own, he didn't understand the dynamics between them, couldn't see why Cedric was appearing to throw his family away so easily.
"It isn't, Harry," he said evenly. "No, Harry, please, listen to me." The boy crossed his arms resolutely. "Look, I know what it sounds like, but I know what it isn't. Dad- he's just pissed. He'll get over it in the weeks to come- Mother'll make him see reason. See, look, that's probably a letter from either one of them now."
He pointed overhead at an owl swooping towards them that all the others had missed. It had flown in later than the rest, and was only now making its way to the Hufflepuff table. The owl that had left the howler shuffled nervously around the salad bowl's rim. Strangely enough, it had yet to fly away.
Cedric extended his arm out to the petite tawny owl, and she chirruped at him in greeting as she landed gracefully. He fed her parts of his breakfast before taking the letter from her leg. She immediately hoped onto the salad bowl, nearly tipping it over and causing the first barn owl to squawk noisily. When he'd regained his balance, he tried to sidle over to the tawny owl's side, but she wasn't having any of that, and snapped viciously at his extended wing. Cedric smiled and thought about how similar the owls' behaviour was to his parents.
His father was just like the barn owl, haughty and aloof, but once his mother came into the picture, he'd crawl over on his hands and knees to beg forgiveness for whatever silly thing he'd done. He smiled as his mother's owl took an immediate liking to Harry.
Herbie was the only one to see him slip aside a portion of his mother's letter before opening the main parchment and reading it.
'Dear Eric,
'Well, I'm sure that by now your father's foolishness has reached you. I hope you managed to squirrel your Bonded away before he heard all that. I will never understand the need for such public disciplining. I'll be having a couple of words with your father about this silly ruckus he's kicking up as well. I don't think he quite understands that there is absolutely nothing that can be done about the Bond at this point. Sometimes I wonder if he's finally slipping into senility…
'Then again, I'm sure you know where I stand on this. I welcome the child to our family with open arms, of course. I think he'll make a lovely addition, if half the things the Daily Prophet has said about him are false. I'm sure you chose wisely. It's this kind of trust, I believe, that your father has yet to learn.
'I have all your Hogsmeade dates- since I signed the silly thing, Merlin forbid your father to ever stoop to do such a thing- so I would love to meet your Bonded for tea on the next date. You are welcome to join us, of course, but only if you have to. I won't occupy you for the entire period; I am sure you'll have better Bond-related things to be doing.
'Ta,
'Mother.'
Cedric wordlessly passed the letter to Harry. The boy took the letter with obvious trepidation and even paused in his petting of the tawny owl. Of course she immediately chirped at him and his hands guiltily started back into place. Cedric marvelled at how open Harry's facial expression were. Then when his face turned a bright pink, he knew he'd gotten to the end of it.
"Sh-she's very different from your father," Harry said faintly.
Cedric laughed. "Almost exact opposites, I think."
Hermione'd been reading the letter over Harry's shoulder. "Who's Eric?" she asked.
"That's me."
Harry looked startled by this pronouncement.
"Well, you see, my mother wanted to name me 'Eric', but for some reason my father was stuck on 'Cedric'. I think what he told my mum was, 'Well, you see 'Cedric's 'Eric' with a little extra'."
Hermione just rolled her eyes, while Harry laughed.
Later, when the younglings had all gone off to their respective classes, leaving the two Sixth-Years alone, Cedric pulled out the other letter his mother had hidden in her packet.
Herbie's eyes looked darker than usual. "This isn't going to be good news, is it." He was used to how Cedric's mum would smuggle letters or items to him that his father wouldn't approve of.
Cedric sighed and shook his head. He unfolded the letter and read it aloud.
"'Eric, I'm not even going to ask if you've removed this from my main letter. There are things in motion, Eric, that I think were not in your vision when you first made your move. I know that if that tripe your father sent about the good family and the headmaster's concern were true, you would never have considered this option.
"But be warned, Eric. He's been over here every other day since Tuesday, closeted in your father's study. I've heard snippets of conversation, and I don't like any of it. In time, I'm sure your father will pour everything out eventually in an effort to impress me, but I'm not sure that is time the two of you have.
"I've heard you've been relying on the Hogwarts Charter to distance yourselves from the headmaster. Good; go to Sprout, and stay within the badgers. They're the only ones that know what true loyalty is like. Don't ever let him out of your sight, Eric, and don't forget about the old families either. At the moment he isn't safe, not for a second, but alliances can be curried if you play the right cards.
"Say your end of the Bond's been fluctuating. Either pull him into your classes or sit in with his. The traditional Bond allows for two confidants: choose them wisely. I'm sure I know the identity about one of them already, but the second one bears some consideration.
"If all goes well, I'll see you two in a fortnight. You know how to get things to me. Don't come home if he asks.
"With all my love.'"
"That wasn't good news at all," Herbie summed up darkly.
Cedric let a half-smile cross his lips. "Well, at least we'll have the confidants taken care of." Then he glared at an innocent flagstone.
"What is it?" Herbie asked.
"They could have been confidants instead," Cedric said bitterly. "Instead of Pledging twice, one of them could've been their confidants. That way at least one of them would still be alive."
"It doesn't help to think about things that way," Herbie said tiredly, knowing that they were once again talking about Harry's parents. "What could've been never will be."
"True," Cedric agreed. "But it doesn't make me hate them any less."
They walked up the hall together, instinctively knowing they were en route to McGonagall's Transfiguration class. Herbie sighed. "This means double the work for us, you know."
Cedric shrugged. "Think of it as early revision for O.W.L.s. Besides, Herbie, it's not like you do any of the work anyways." Then he hesitated, wondering just how about to broach this subject.
"Go ahead, I know you want to ask," Herbie muttered.
"Bernard really helped today," he said in a small voice.
"Helped you," Herbie spat. "Had nothing to do with me."
"He wouldn't even have bothered if it hadn't been for you," Cedric insisted.
"So?" Herbie asked brusquely. "That still doesn't change the fact that it had nothing at all to do with me."
"You've got to forgive him someday," he whispered.
Herbie looked at him coldly. "We're badgers remember? We never, ever, let go."
Cedric grabbed his arm. "But we also remember family."
"I don't have any at this school."
"Herbie-"
"Gentlemen!" Both of them stopped when they realised they'd been arguing in McGonagall's corridor for the past five minutes. "May I ask what the two of you are doing out of class?" she asked, a scandalised look on her face.
"Eh-" Cedric was a little startled by the sudden confrontation, but recovered quickly. "I'm sorry Professor, I was looking for Harry. You see, my side of the Bon has been fluctuating-"
She nodded immediately. "Say no more, Mr. Diggory." Then she turned her sharp green eyes to Herbie. "And you, Mr. Fleet? I sincerely doubt Mr. Diggory requires a chaperone."
Herbie smiled thinly. "I'm here as his confidant, Professor. The other confidant is Hermione Granger."
McGonagall glanced sharply into the room, and then nodded. "Very well. But if you cause any ruckus at all-"
Herbie held up his hands in defeat. "I'll crawl out the classroom on bended knee myself, Professor."
Some of the younger ones laughed at that.
Harry smiled at Cedric, although he seemed more concerned with Herbie.
"Are you alright?" he asked once the older boy was seated, blocking him in on either side as Cedric took the bench to his right.
"I'll be fine," Herbie said dismissively, pulling out his Charms text from his bag.
"But you aren't now," Harry said. Then he quickly squeezed Herbie's hand. "We'll still be here though." He turned back to McGonagall, resolutely ignoring Herbie's gape, even as his pinking ears revealed quite obviously that he was very aware of the attention.
The class passed uneventfully, although Cedric learnt that Harry was rather decent at Transfiguration, having easily turned his log into a silver bejewelled goblet. Hermione's theory was much better, as expected, but her own goblet lacked the same creativity.
Once they were out in the corridor, Hermione jumped on them. "The Bond's fluctuating, you said? That's odd- the Bond usually cements itself into very clear roles of dominant and submissive almost immediately, unless your magic is unable to settle-"
"Woah, just hold it," Cedric exclaimed, wide-eyed. "It was just an excuse I used to trigger the confidant clause."
"Oh." Hermione looked slightly disappointed that she wouldn't be able to investigate this magical oddity, but perked up almost immediately. "Then why did you suddenly decide to make Herbie and me confidants?" she asked. "Not that I'm not honoured at all, but I wouldn't think they'd be necessary except-" her eyes went wide in realisation.
Harry looked between them, obviously confused. "What is it? What's happened?"
Hermione's eyes grew distant. "Harry, do you remember what I said about the Pledgeship Bond having been invented by Merlin to combat the treachery in Arthur's court? Well, after the wars were over, there were all these leftover Bonded knights. They were extremely experienced fighters, but they had to be watched, because it was thought that the death of one would lead to the death of the other. It wasn't until 1412 that they found out the remaining Bonded could continue to live, if their will was strong enough, for vengeance at least." She took a deep breath, and then continued with her lecture.
"But those Bonded knights were valued for their battle prowess, and so to keep them in good health and to watch their backs, the English King at the time, Henry IV Bolingbroke, first of the line of Lancaster, established the role of confidants for the Bonded pairs, who would act not only as their literal confidants, but also their caretakers. It was the last worthwhile thing he did as King before his son, Henry V, took the throne. Shakespeare wrote a play about him, you know," she mused. Then she shook her head and snapped back to attention.
"Henry IV ruled that as the Bonded knights were the most highly valued in the kingdom, they needed protectors from sickness, the world, even each other. It was thus that the role of confidant came into being."
Herbie was looking at her in astonishment. "We should go and exorcise Binns or something," he said, "and have them offer you the job instead!"
The girl blushed charmingly. That hardly sidetracked her, though.
"Well, Cedric?" she asked. "What was the trigger? Was it your mother's letter?"
Cedric sighed. The girl meant well, and was terribly intelligent, but she had to learn to censure herself, if only for others' comfort. Harry looked alarmed.
"Cedric, what is it?" The boy's face was white.
The blond quickly took his hand and whisked him off. "Cedric!" rang Hermione's unheeded cry behind them.
"You don't have to know everything," Herbie hissed at her.
Her bottom lip stuck out, and tears began to well up, but she resolutely stood her ground. "Harry's my best friend. If I can help-"
Herbie sighed and abruptly all the tension drained from his body. He raised a hand to ruffle the back of his curls.
"You can't be there all the time, you know," he told her. "He's got to stand on his feet on his own."
"I can help," she insisted stubbornly.
"When Cedric's fucking him will you stand over the bed and watch too?" he demanded bluntly. That shut her up with a cheep. Obviously she hadn't thought of the progression of their relationship to that extent.
"Look," Herbie said, "they know you mean well. I know you mean well. You just need to stop proving it all the time."
Hermione bowed her head, but didn't reply. When she went down to the Great Hall, she was surprised that Herbie was following.
Some of it must have shown on her face, because he said, "Once word gets out that you're a confidant, the shit's really going to hit the fan. You'll be targeted just as much as they are. It isn't safe to go anywhere alone, not if they keep up what they've been doing so well," he added bitterly.
They continued down the stairs, the silence between them broken only by Herbie's monotone. "If either Cedric or I aren't with you at all times, have one of the older badgers go with you. You can trust them."
In the corridor before they reached the Great Hall, Hermione stopped. She was still staring at the tips of her shoes. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm know I'm a bossy Muggle-born know-it-all, but I can't bear to lose Harry. He's always been there for me- he deserves nothing ekse."
A wry smile crossed Herbie's lips. "I understand how you feel, but you have to understand that you just can't be there all the time. Like I said, when Cedric takes him, will you be there as well?" This time she blushed to the tips of her ears, but she managed a trembling smile.
"That's my girl," he said approvingly. "Now come on, I'm starved."
Cedric – sketchily 'love' from the Celtic element car.
Eric – from the Old Norse eiríkr, from the elements ei 'ever' and rikir 'ruler'.
Well, there you have it. The first appearance of Herbie's twin Gryffindor brother in Seventh-Year, Bernard Fleet. I'll have another chapter out on Thursday before I run out on the lot of you, irresponsible prat that I am (o: Cheers.