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Chapter Three

It turned out that both young men could deal with their own fire breathing scary nesting friends. Harry's flying was top notch and he managed to get the egg with out to much of an issue, and with a clever piece of transfiguration Cedric managed to do the same, though he did end up a little closer to the side of well done when the Swedish Short Snout saw him get close to her nest, he did manage to get the golden egg quickly.

A couple of weeks after that hair-raising event came the announcement for the next part of the Triwizard Tournament. Something neither man was very happy to learn about for a couple of reasons.

"Professor I really can't dance," Harry said simply. His transfiguration professor and head of house just looked down on him sadly.

"It's a tradition Mr. Potter, all of the champions must be the first to start off the night." She responded simply.

"Well I didn't enter, so I'm not technically required to take part." Harry attempted but Professor McGonagall gave him her patented no nonsense expression and Harry simply huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Harry, you can come with me." Cedric said wrapping his arms around his sulking boyfriend.

"Mr. Diggory, that can't happen either." She said with great care and by the expression on her face, she didn't care for it any more than they did.

"Why?" Cedric asked calmly, trying not to jump to conclusions.

"Per Mr. Crouch, the Yule Ball is for traditional couples only." She said regretfully.

"You have got to be kidding me." Cedric grumbled, "this is insane."

"I am not happy about it either, Professor Dumbledore and I have both tried everything to change Crouch's mind, but he refuses."

"So, let me get this straight, you are going to all but force me to where dress robes and dance, and I can't even spend time with my boyfriend?" Harry asks coolly.

"I'm afraid so Mr. Potter."

Harry didn't bother to say another word. He simply turned around and walked away, rage evident in his tight composure.

Harry was so angry with these rules that part of him just wanted to barricade himself in his dorm for the entirety of the night. He knew that Cedric could get a date without any problem, as most of the women in the school admired his looks and academic prowess as trophies, the fun part would be separating those who think he was going to date them after the ball that Harry would get a kick out of. Almost no one knew of Cedric's sexual preferences Harry and a close friend of Cedric's being the only two that Harry knew of for sure. Cedric's friend, a young Ravenclaw who lived near him had known only because on one of her many visits to the Diggory homestead she discovered the Hufflepuff caught in the middle of a lip lock with a then third year classmate, at the time Cedric was only thirteen and his friend few years younger but she had kept quiet and was very surely on Cedric's side.

A couple days later, Harry went up to one of his most trusted friends and asked if she would go with him to the ball on Christmas Night. He said very specifically that they were going strictly as friends and if there was anyone she saw in a somewhat romantic light and they asked that she should take them up on whatever that offer was. Barring that happening, Harry was ok with going to the ball now. He may not be able to take his boyfriend as his date but he could sure take one of their best friends and then the three of them and whoever Cedric managed to pull in as his date would hang out rather than become wall ornaments the rest of the night.

Surprising to Harry, young ladies were asking him out left and right, but Harry turned all of them down as he knew most if not all of them wanted him to be a partner for more than just a night and he didn't want to lead them on. The fact that Pansy Parkinson was one of them had him itching to bath as the girl was just a little bit on the disturbed side. He was surprised that the Slytherin girl wasn't already going with Malfoy for the night.

Unfortunately dates for the Yule Ball weren't the only problems flowing through the school. The other schools had started to harass Harry, as the Slytherins had been when the tournament had started up. Harry endured random questions and a few accusations as the other school's occupants came up to him repetitively. None of the young adults could believe that the British ministry would allow an underage student to take part in these dangerous tasks, the dragon having been only one of three and if that was the first what was to be next. Harry was bright and capable of doing amazing things, but he was only a fourth year and the fact that he used simply flying on a broomstick to achieve his victory over the Hungarian Horntail was proof of that.

As Christmas, and thus the Yule Ball came closer Ron, Harry's first friend at Hogwarts, kept begging Harry to help him with his own date situation. Harry's two oldest friends via school, Hermione and Ron were mostly uninformed as to Harry's relationship. At best, the two believed that Harry and Cedric were friends, though neither were happy with that either, because as time moved forward, Harry spent more time with Cedric than he did with the two other members of the Golden Trio.

The problem with helping Ron find a date, was that the red head was unaware that Harry already had one and kept saying things like, "come on mate, you can have any witch you want," and followed by "and her equally lovely best friend can go with me." Because of these lines, Harry had quite often followed Hermione's que and hid in the library and studied up on various things either class or tournament related, and if he happened to have a moment he would snog his exquisite boyfriend behind the stacks if no one else was around.

Harry did manage to scare up a date for Ron, Padma Patil was very salty when she ended up being tricked into going with Seamus as a date rather than Harry himself who Ron had led her to believe would be, because he believed so himself, that was until Harry informed both that he already had asked someone and she had taken him up on the offer. Now the word around the common room was that Harry was dating someone, which he was, and that they were going to find out who it was at the ball, which they weren't.

The night before the ball, Harry told his date that he would meet her in front of the Great Hall and likely he and Cedric would be standing side by side. Cedric was a long-term friend of his date, and in fact Cedric had introduced she and Harry not long after they became a couple. On this night, his date informed him on who exactly Cedric was bringing to the ball, and what Cedric's date was under the impression of even though Cedric was just as clear with her as Harry had been with his own.

"What exactly has she been saying," Harry asked, his lips tight together to stop him from yelling.

"Maybe I shouldn't tell you that?" Harry's friend said quietly, hoping that Harry didn't press the issue. She knew what would happen if Harry became angry, and it looked at this point that he was already over half way there. Never a good sign when he is standing up perfectly straight.

"I swear to the heavens," Harry began and his friend put up her hand in a calming gesture.

"Ok I'll tell you," she said soothingly. "The best way to put it, is that she has been floating around the dormitory telling all and sundry that she is going as Cedric's date and that they are going to dance all night and maybe do something more in one of the more private alcoves." She finished delicately.

Harry's eye twitched and his nose flared as his magic bundled around him like a warm winter cloak. "If she tries," Harry seethed, "there won't be enough of her left to even dignify a burial." With that last part said, Harry took a deep soothing breath, smiled, and kissed his friend on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow night."