AN: I do not own Harry Potter.
The Trouble With Arbitrary Decisions
Harry Potter was stunned. Cedric Diggory, a boy he was starting to look up to, was neutral. It wasn't just because of his house, no, he was just completely neutral. He was sure that Cedric hadn't told him everything, but yet what he had told him hurt.
It stung, like a slap to the face.
He had avoided the external reason for the sting, and managed to avoid Cedric beyond the bare minimum for two days before he was confronted by the one he was trying to avoid. The resultant argument was inconclusive, and was only broken up by the reminder of chores. He never managed to avoid Cedric for a full day after that.
A week of tension later saw him researching as a result of a dare to prove his side. Cedric joined him sometimes in the library, and helped him find his way around. That took another two weeks with simmering tension that exploded less violently when it did.
He was sure that Mr. and Mrs. Diggory was thankful that they didn't have to do much to set the room or Cedric to rights after he got angry usually.
The end of the next two weeks had him staring at his findings in frustration as they didn't point to his side of things without some major editing. The one bright side was that Malfoy wasn't completely in the right of things either, as far as he knew.
It hurt his pride to accept he was wrong.
He was sitting on the floor by the table in the library, chin on his knee, when Cedric walked in. He saw the older boy sit next to him on the floor.
After silence for about a minute, Cedric said, "I suppose you found your answer."
"I did."
"And?"
"You're going to make me say it, aren't you? Yeah, you were right. What's worse is that Dumbledore and Malfoy both could look this up and find it for themselves if they wanted to."
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm trying to fit this into my idea of the world. At first it was all one thing, then I go the school and learn some happiness and just be allowed to be friends with someone. No, I also have to be famous and everyone I meet about my age is looking at me in awe or angry for succeeding at something I have no wish to be famous for. No, I have someone trying to kill me, but guess what, your mother provided protection. Now, now..."
Harry huffed.
"It was already getting difficult, and now I have to learn that it isn't as simple as I thought. Maybe my dad wasn't a goody two shoes as everyone keeps telling me, but did have a side where he could also be a bully. Maybe Ron has too simple a world view to go on its own without making mistakes... We were eleven, you know, eleven and strangers. I took all the problems I had at school to be how it should be as I didn't think they were strange except for second year when they were talking of evacuating the school."
Cedric watched the boy as he talked.
"I'm sorry for taking my dissappointment out on you."
"I appreciate it."
