Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Hello my dear readers. I have once again received amazing reviews and an astounding number of alerts and favorites. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are all wonderfully fantastical beings.

Now, I must apologize. It has taken me a ridiculously long time to finish chapter 3. Writer's Block, a new job, and family members going in and out of the hospital have been my delay. Mainly Writer's block, though. This chapter for some reason just wasn't flowing like the first two. Alas, it is what it is. But, hopefully what it is is good enough for you to enjoy. (oh dear, I'm not entirely sure that made sense.)

Welcome to chapter 3.

Chapter 3: Cornered

Harry drifted back to the common room, still half in a daze. He had slept peacefully for the last six hours. He couldn't remember the last time he'd rested so long without a nightmare. When he'd finally come to, he'd noticed Cedric sound asleep beside him and a warm fluffy blanket wrapped around himself. With an overwhelming feeling of contentment, Harry gently woke Cedric. It was dark and he could tell they'd missed dinner and possibly curfew. It was, unfortunately, time to return to the real world.

The moment he stepped foot into the Gryffindor common room, Harry was pulled from his tranquil state by an awful screeching noise. It was only when a mass of brown frizz nearly swallowed him that Harry comprehended the source of the sound.

"Harry! Where have you been? Do you realize just how much trouble you're in? What were you thinking ditching classes like that? How can you be so incredibly irresponsible? Do you even understand how important it is for you to learn-?"

"Hermione! Calm down. I had a headache."

"Don't you lie to me-"

"Harry, could you come here for a second? I need your help with something," Neville called from upstairs.

Harry sighed in relief. "Sorry, Hermione. Neville needs me." He rushed up the stairs to the fourth year boys dormitory and quickly closed the door behind him. Harry sagged against it and took a deep breath. He saw Neville sitting on his bed, reading a book on water plants, seemingly perfectly happy in his solitary moment. "Hey, Neville. What did you need me for?"

"Hm? Oh," Neville looked up and smiled shyly, "Actually, I didn't really need anything. You just seemed cornered."

Harry snorted and laid down at the foot of Neville's bed. "I was. Thanks, Neville."

"It wasn't a big deal. Just thought I'd give you an out is all." Neville went back to his book.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence.

Cedric collapsed into the armchair beside the fireplace. A silly grin stretched across his face. Spending time with Harry was unlike spending time with anyone else. He had this gravity about him that pulled you in and didn't let go, and, even though there was little about Harry that could be called joyful, Cedric found himself happier and more content in his presence than any others.

"I never thought I'd see the day Cedric Diggory skipped classes. But here we have it," Jason drawled as he plopped into the chair beside his friend. "I hope you had a good time because Snape is going to have your head."

"It was worth it."

"What was worth it?"

"I took a nap and heard a fantastic story."

Jason studied Cedric's face for a moment. He smirked. "You were with Potter again, weren't you."

"How'd you know?"

"You've got that look on your face again. That one that says 'I'm a total sap who's falling head over heels.' Merlin, Ced. You barely know the guy."

"I know. I know I don't really know him. But you've never met him. I mean the real Harry. The one behind the mask. He's not like anyone I've ever come across before. When it's just the two of us it feels like he's this completely different person. He's got this hold over me and he doesn't even know it. And he's smart. Smarter than anyone knows. And this smile. I've only seen it once, but, when he uses it, it's like the world stops turning for a minute."

"Fuck, Ced. You've only known him two days."

"I know."

Jason sighed. "Well, Mum says she knew my dad was it as soon as he said hello. She didn't even know his name. So, I guess two days isn't so fast in comparison."

"Thanks, Jason."

"Does he know?"

"That I have a huge crush on him?" Cedric snorted. "No, and I'm not going to tell him either. He's still learning to trust me as a friend. I'm not going to throw in a 'By the way, I know I only just started getting to know you and I called you a liar last week, but I'm falling madly in love with you.' No, I'll pass, thank you very much."

"Okay, so give it some time first. Meanwhile, start dropping hints. Who knows. Maybe he'll make a move on you."

"He doesn't even know I'm gay. Hell, I don't know if he's gay."

"That's what the hints are for. You can feel him out and figure out if you even have a chance."

"I guess so."

"I know so. Just be subtle."

"Subtle. I can do that."

"Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" Jason kicked Cedric under the table. "And Jason."

Harry looked startled for a moment. "Er. Sure. I guess. When's the next visit?"

"Two weeks."

"The weekend before the first task?"

"That would be the one."

"Alright then." Harry paused mid-mashed potato-bite. "Would you mind if I invited a friend of mind?"

"Granger?" Cedric was skeptical. The only time Harry ever spoke of Hermione Granger was when he was annoyed.

"NO." Harry winced. "I mean, no. It's not Hermione. It's Neville Longbottom. We've never been particularly close, but I think it's time to change that."

"Yeah. Yes. I mean yes. That'd be fine. Great even." Jason kicked Cedric under the table again. Cedric cleared his throat and went back to his supper, doing his best to ignore the odd look Harry was giving him.

Jason rolled his eyes at his friend. Yeah. That was subtle.

Harry pulled his cloak tighter around himself. The crisp air was seeping through to his bones, but he couldn't bring himself to go back inside. He had the grounds to himself for once, and he wanted to take advantage of the peace the night's sky offered him. Sitting against the ancient tree and staring at the thousands of stars stretched out above him reminded Harry of how truly insignificant he was, and he relished in the knowledge.

He heard someone behind him, and closed his eyes. He knew those steps. They were calm, assured, poised, and he had no clue as to why they were so easy to recognize. "Harry? What are you doing out here?" Cedric Diggory settled next to Harry, cloak drawn tightly over yellow and gray flannel pajamas.

"Couldn't sleep. You?"

"Same. I keep thinking about next Saturday. I can't believe how quickly time has passed since our names were drawn. We don't even know what we're up against."

"Dragons."

"What?"

"We have to get passed dragons."

Cedric was silent for a while, simply watching Harry watch the sky. He had yet to look away, and the way the moon's light lit up the color of Harry's eyes was nothing less than mesmerizing.

But that was not what was pressing at that particular moment. What was pressing was finding out that in a weeks time he would be facing off with a dragon, and Harry, small fragile Harry, was… "How can you possibly be so nonchalant about something like that? Do you have any idea how disastrously dangerous dragons are? They could kill us, flay us, skewer us with a talon, crush us with a foot, paw, claw thing-"

"Cedric."

"What?"

"Freaking out won't help."

"How do you even know about it? We aren't supposed to, you know."

"Hagrid showed me. I saw Madam Maxine and Karkaroff as well. The other two will know by now."

"Is-is that why you couldn't sleep? Because of the dragons?"

"No. Bad dream."

Cedric chewed on his lower lip. He'd already known Harry didn't get enough sleep. The shadows under his eyes were enough to attest to that. But perhaps if he…"Did you maybe want to talk about it?"

Harry finally tore his eyes from the stars and seemed to be searching his new friend. Cedric was a little unnerved by the inhumanly green eyes staring unflinchingly, unblinkingly, so intensely into his own. Harry opened his mouth, about to speak, then closed it, sighed, and looked away. "No, Cedric. I don't think it's something I should speak of just yet."

Cedric let out a sigh of his own. He knew it was a bit much for him to expect Harry to trust him implicitly after having only known each other for a little over two weeks, but he couldn't help the feeling of disappointment that washed over him whenever Harry chose not to confide in him. "Alright, but if you ever do want to talk about it, I'll listen you know."

Harry gave him a half smile, "I know," and Cedric was satisfied. Silence reigned for a while, Harry lost in thoughts about his dream, Cedric silently panicking about the dangers of facing dragons.

"Are you really not worried? About the dragons, I mean," Cedric couldn't help asking nearly thirty minutes later.

Harry looked at him, half amused half serious. "No. Not really. I'm more worried about how to approach the situation. I don't want to give everything about myself away, but I can't think of a way to get passed the dragon that's within the realm of my public image's capabilities."

"Have you ever thought that it might be time to show everyone how amazing you truly are?" Cedric could hardly believe it when he saw a blush spread lightly across Harry's cheeks.

"No. If I did that, people would be more convinced than ever that I was the one to put my name in the goblet. It's not the time. Besides, I'm only fourteen. I was hoping to keep the cover of hopelessly average until my OWLs at the very least."

"I'm afraid that ship sailed your first year of life," Cedric laughed.

Harry scowled playfully at him. "I can pull it off most of the time."

"Sure, Harry." They grew serious again, thinking about Harry's predicament. A predicament that Cedric found almost laughable. Who would have ever thought he would be trying to help the youngest ever participant of the Triwizard Tournament try to dumb down his approach to the first task. It was utterly ridiculous. "Well, let's brainstorm. What is your 'public image' good at?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Not much really. He can fly, speak parsletongue, and he's damn lucky."

A wide smile spread across Cedric's face. "There you go then. I'm not nearly good enough, but you, public image or not, you can definitely out fly a dragon."

"Out fly a dragon?"

"Sure. Do you even realize how amazing you are on a broom? It's like you were born for the air. Besides, flying is something every Hogwarts student and professor knows you can do flawlessly. You wont be blowing your cover, you'll undoubtedly succeed, and it wont be something that helps convince people of your guilt. It's perfect."

"It does seem to work," Harry said reluctantly.

"Come on, Harry, stop looking for the flaw and accept that I came up with the perfect solution."

"Careful, Diggory, or your head will expand."

"Yes, well, it deflates again when I realize I personally have no clue how to get passed a dragon myself."

"You've studied animal transfiguration, right?"

"Yeah."

"I suggest turning several inanimate objects into rather large mobile animals."

"Distract it?"

"Yep. Make sure to do more than one though, otherwise it'll spot you when you move."

"I like it. Not too complicated and I don't have to learn anything new."

"Yes. That's what the best plans always look like."

"Careful, Potter, or your head will expand."

I'm trying to make sure every chapter has a moment of development in Harry and Cedric's relationship. I hate it when stories don't have it. How do you know if it's a successful relationship if you don't know what they talk about or connect over? The only story I've ever come across that manages to pull off the whole no conversation thing in a relationship was Down the Rabbit Hole by excentrykemuse. Good story by the way. You should check it out. It's a one shot Harry/Viktor pairing. I always come out of reading it feeling dazed. Not quite sure why, but it's wonderful.

Anyways, back on topic.

So, yeah. Sorry, again, it took me soooooo long to get this chapter out (anguish) but I'm still hoping for a continuation of the amazingly, wonderfully, awesome reviews I've been getting (sanguine)-(a word people should look up because the different definitions for it are crazy awesome and it's my new favorite word). Every time I read one (a review that is) I went back and wrote a little more of the chapter.

Right, so, I just realized that my Author's Notes could create a chapter in and of themselves, so, I'm just gonna say good bye and promise to try to be a good little writer and get chapter four out as soon as I can.

Tweena