Twenty-One:
Despite having not slept a wink the previous night, Cedric was full of energy the morning after the opening feast. His excitement for the tournament honestly gave him more energy than he knew what to do with.
"You're in high spirits." commented Jona groggily. "You're an eyesore, y'know. You were up the whole night and have the audacity to be this energetic? Creep."
Cedric grinned smugly back at his scowling friend and shrugged. "I'm just excited about this turn of events."
"You'll be entering then?" questioned one of his Chasers, Cadawaller, who was sitting across from him.
"Hufflepuff's Golden Boy?" guffawed Cesaria from further down the table. "I imagine he's the only one in our house with any chance of winning the thing."
Cedric blinked. "Golden Boy?" He turned to Jona, who'd taken to gazing listlessly into his oatmeal. He nudged him. "Are people calling me that?"
"What're'ya talkin' about, Ced'? I call you that all the time."
"Yes, but you're an ass. Are other people actually calling me the Hufflepuff Golden Boy?"
Before Jona could respond Cadawaller spoke again. "Well, yeah, Cedric. You're top of your year, you're wealthy, you're a Quidditch Captain, a Prefect and to top it all off you look like you stepped right out of a Witch Weekly magazine!" He pointed at something over Cedric's shoulder. "I mean look at Chang! She can hardly take her eyes off you!"
He turned around to find that Cho Chang was indeed staring at him. When she caught his glance she blushed brightly, but bravely continued to watch him, smiling tentatively.
"When she's not making eyes at Potter you mean." said a girl to Jona's left, rolling her eyes.
"Potter?" Cedric felt his body involuntarily jolt to attention at the name. "She's got a thing for Potter, has she?"
The girl nodded, her curly, auburn ringlets bouncing. She was clearly very excited to share her little tidbit of gossip. "She has. Always talks to him after Quidditch matches and waves at him in the hallway."
"Why do you care, Cedric?" Jona spoke up, his tiredness from before having apparently abated as he fixed Cedric with a steady gaze. "Jealous?"
Cedric scoffed. "Over Chang? Don't be ridiculous."
Jona only hummed in reply before slumping and turning back to his oatmeal.
The conversation around them turned to other topics and Cedric let himself look back at Chang, who, sure enough, was staring longlily at Harry. Concerningly, Harry was looking back, his eyes doe-like and his cheeks a lovely, soft, pink.
Well, that wouldn't do at all.
A gossipy toad like Chang would hardly be good enough for someone like Harry. Cedric honestly wasn't sure what anyone saw in the girl. She was ugly for one, too tall and skinny and her hair was always shiny, no doubt greasy and unpleasant to touch. Not to mention she always stank of cheap perfume.
But more importantly, she was far too cruel for an individual as pure as Harry. He could recall the many mean-spirited things she said about Cedric before he had decided to apply himself. She always flounced around with a clique of adoring and equally-vapid sycophants. The thought of Harry being inducted into such a group was deeply unsettling to Cedric. They would only use him.
He wouldn't have it. He'd rather Chang dead than anywhere near Harry.
Cedric supposed this was just one more thing he'd have to worry about this year.
After breakfast Cedric had a free period before Defense, so he parted ways with Jona who was heading to Divination (thank Merlin he'd finally dropped that useless class) and made his way back to the Library.
When he arrived, he was unsurprised to see that it was far more crowded than usual. Many students were crowded around the historical and international sections.
He scanned the room, searching for Madam Pince in order to return his books. He had briefly considered holding onto them in order to limit the amount of information the other students would have on the tournament, but decided the advantage would not be worth his library privileges possibly being revoked.
While he did not find Pince, he did see some other familiar faces.
"Fred, George." he greeted as he approached the two boys who were huddled together at a table towards the back corner of the library, seemingly arguing over something in the book that was open before them.
They both looked up at his greeting, their eyes immediately narrowing at the sight of him. Despite their glares, he sat down in the seat across from them and smiled politely.
"Studying already?" he asked. "You've not even had your first class yet."
"We take our education very seriously." said the one on the left.
"Very seriously indeed." agreed the other, nodding exaggeratedly. "It's quite offensive that you would suggest otherwise, Diggory."
"And what class does-" Cedric cocked his head as he inspected the spine of the book. "Derrick Chadley's Exploration of Theoretical Age Regression relate to?"
"Charms."
"We're advanced studies, you see."
"Yes, don't tell the masses, though."
"They'd be terribly jealous."
Cedric hummed disbelievingly, before reaching into his bag and pulling out the books he had been planning to return. "That's really too bad. I had thought you may have been researching how to get past the ageline. I was going to let you borrow these in case you ever managed to figure it out. Books about the tournament are high in demand right now."
They seemed unable to decide if they wanted to be suspicious or hopeful.
"What do you want, Diggory?"
Cedric frowned, feigning confusion as he gazed back at the twin who'd directed the barbed question at him. "Want?"
"You may be the biggest goody two-shoes to grace Hogwarts halls-"
"No wait, that's Percy."
"Right you are, brother o'mine. Second greatest, then. Or well, then there's Hermione so- Whatever. -but, there's no way you're doing this out of the good of your heart."
"Er..." he scratched the back of his head. "I honestly just didn't feel like dealing with Pince this early in the morning. With all the people in here today she's sure to be in a prickly mood. I thought I could just give these to you guys and transfer the borrowing jinx over to you and then not have to worry about how I was going to return them anymore."
They still seemed suspicious but reached out in (eerie) unison and slowly pulled the books towards them.
"Thank... you..." said the one on the right awkwardly, clearly not sure what to make of Cedric's friendliness.
Cedric smiled sunnily back. "My pleasure!" He paused, pretending to contemplate something, before speaking again, more shyly this time.
"But actually, I was wondering... er, why is it that you guys seem to y'know... hate me?"
They winced at this, glancing nervously at one another before looking back at him with forced smiles.
"We don't hate you, Ceddy."
The other nodded decisively. "It would be very apparent if that were the case."
"Yes, you'd be pranked daily!"
"We just er-
"Well, we..."
"Seems silly a bit now..."
"Doesn't it? He's clearly a nice lad..."
Growing impatient, Cedric spoke up in a neutral tone. "What is it?"
The one on the right sighed, but eventually fessed up. "We were just holding a grudge about that match in third year."
"In our defense, Harry could've been really hurt and he lost his Nimbus."
"Yeah, he really treasured that broomstick. Took proper care of it n' everything."
They shrugged apologetically. "The whole school had been buzzing about your win. We'd thought you'd been going round 'n bragging about it."
Cedric shook his head rapidly in denial. "Not at all! Bragging was the last thing I wanted to do. As far as I'm concerned I didn't win that match. I tried to convince Hooch to let us have a rematch, but she wasn't having it. I'm just glad that you lot still won the cup in the long run. It would have felt unfair otherwise, Ha- Potter is clearly the superior seeker."
"We see that now. I'm sorry for just assuming you were a huge cheat."
"Yeah, me too."
Cedric smiled and stood, pushing his chair back under the table. "Well, you have my forgiveness. I'm glad we cleared this up."
"Us too. Bye, Cedric."
As Cedric exited the library, he sighed, feeling a weight lifted from his shoulders. While Fred and George were in the same year as him, they were still too young to enter the tournament. The act of leaving those books with them meant not only that he didn't have to deal with Pince, but he also didn't have to worry about other potential champions getting ahold of the information he'd gleaned from those books (Merlin knows those two didn't give a damn about returning those books in a timely manner). Not to mention the added benefit of winning over people who were close to Harry.
His first lesson of the day ended up being DADA, which was coincidentally a double class with Gryffindor. He smiled politely at Fred and George as they queued up to enter the room and was pleased to see them grin back.
Truthfully, he'd been dreading this class all summer. They had far too much good fortune with Lupin last year, surely the universe had to balance itself out or something. Mad-Eye was bound to be terrible.
When he voiced his concerns to Jona he was met with skepticism.
"I dunno, Ced. He's a decorated Auror and all. Surely he'll know what he's talking about."
"He's not just called Mad-Eye 'cause of his eye, y'know. He really is mad from what I've heard. Besides, didn't you see him at the feast? He didn't touch his food before he casted a bunch of inspection spells on it. He even drank from his own flask! The man's a nutte-"
Before he could continue his tirade the classroom door slammed open, startling everyone in the room.
'Guess Snape's not the only one who likes to make an entrance.' he thought with a roll of his eyes.
Admittedly, Moody had a rather strong start, considering he began with a short speech about the insufficient education they had been receiving up until Lupin's brief tenure. His disdain for their school books was promising as well. Cedric agreed wholeheartedly that Defense was an art best learned practically.
However things started to go awry when he began his demonstration.
Cedric had never seen any of The Unforgivables casted in person. From what he gleaned from the little literature available in Hogwarts about them, they were actually rather complicated spells to master despite their frequent use during the war. Cedric found it rather unsettling that Moody was able to cast them with such ease, especially considering how rarely Aurors actually use lethal force.
But, he supposed that it was to be expected of a man who'd served the Auror Department during You-Know-Who's peak.
Even still it was unsettling. He just hoped that Moody would have the sense not to show this to any of the younger years. Harry shouldn't have to see the curse that took his parents from him.
Cedric became especially displeased when Moody started calling up volunteers.
"He can't be serious." hissed Jona into his ear, clearly equally horrified by Moody's teaching methods. "Who would volunteer for that!?"
"Gryffindors." replied Cedric with a roll of his eyes and he watched the red-clad students queue up to be Imperio'd, Fred and George bouncing excitedly at the front of the line.
In the end, everyone had to participate and Cedric felt a keen pang of deja vu as he moved as far back in the line as possible. Hopefully this demonstration would not be as uncomfortable as the boggart had been. Though, he doubted it sincerely as he watched Kenneth Towler got down on his hands and knees and begin to bark like a dog.
When his time finally came he fixed Moody with a glare and was surprised to see the man cock his head in a considerate manner, staring unwaveringly back with his unnerving mismatched eyes. He braced himself as Moody raised his wand.
"Imperio."
Immediately, he felt his body go slack as the most acute feeling of contentment washed over him. The many noises of the classroom faded into a distant buzz. He felt as if he were floating, and actually squeezed his eyes closed, preparing for his head to hit the ceiling, but when he looked down at his feet, he realized they were still firmly planted on the floor.
A voice cut through the thick fog that had settled over his mind.
"Do a handstand."
He considered it, looking down at his hands, but was uncertain. He very much wanted to do what the voice said, but he'd never done a handstand before, what if he embarrassed himself? Did he even know how?
Another voice entered his mind. This one was quite different from the last. It was softer, more inquiring, and far more recognizable. Harry.
"Cedric, do a handstand."
Without a thought in his mind, he felt his balance rearranging, the world turning upside down. How odd, he did not get to see it like this very often. It was very pleasant. Or maybe that pleasantness was from the fog in his head?
Suddenly, awareness returned and he was staring at the upside-down faces of his peers. He felt himself falling sideways, losing balance. He left out an "Oof!" as he hit the floor. Laying there for one disoriented moment before he stood up.
Moody, clapped a hand on his shoulder, gazing down at him with that unwavering stare. "A valiant effort Mr. Diggory." he said placatingly.
Something about his face was smug and Cedric very much wanted to punch him. Instead, he moved to the back of the line and prayed for this dreadful class to end.
Despite the rough start the rest of his classes that day went fairly well. The additional study he'd done for Arithmancy over the summer really paid off. He also overheard much gossip over who was considering entering the Triwizard Tournament. Unsurprisingly practically every Gryffindor under the sun was entering, including some who weren't even old enough to participate.
From what he read about the Goblet of Fire it had its own set of qualifications that a student would have to meet in order to be selected for the tournament. By the sounds of it these qualifications would change with each tournament, so that the champions would be better-suited for each task. Each task adhered to an overall theme, the first was courage, the second intelligence and the last magical ability, however aside from those themes the tasks varied greatly with each tournament.
While there was very little gossip about what the tasks would specifically be, Cedric at the very least was certain at least one of them would involve a creature with a threat rating XXXX or higher considering his father's heavy involvement with the tournament proceedings. This of course put Cedric in a rather good position, Care had always been one of his best classes.
Still, despite his fairly good odds, there were a few people he was concerned about. Alicia Spinnett was one of them, being a Gryffindor, she certainly had the courage. And while Cedric was not certain about her marks she was a pretty adept spell caster, especially at defensive spells.
"Thinking about the other potential champs?" questioned Jona, drawing Cedric from his thoughts.
They were currently standing in the Entrance Hall with a crowd of other people, waiting to be admitted into the Great Hall for dinner.
"That obvious?" Cedric replied.
"M'yeah. You've got a pensive look about you." Jona grinned wickedly. "Or maybe that's just constipation."
Cedric scoffed, turning back to scan the crowd scanning each person shrewdly.
Jona nudged him. "I think you're a shoe-in, personally."
Another scoff from Cedric as he shook his head, not drawing his eyes from his inspection. "You're biased. There are many people in our year, and more importantly in our upper year that are just as if not more skilled at magic than me."
"Well, it's not just about magical ability." countered Jona. "There are plenty of magically powerful witches and wizards who are utterly useless. You've gotta have smarts too and a drive. And I gotta say Ced' I dunno anyone who is as driven as you when it comes to getting the things you want."
Something about his tone seemed off to Cedric and he found himself drawing his eyes away from the masses as he inspected the oddly contemplative expression on his friend's face.
"What's that supposed to-"
Before he could finish his sentence he was interrupted by the sound of Harry's ever-discernible voice and looked over to see the boy and his sidekick standing just across from Malfoy Jr.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy." intoned Harry coldly.
The git said something else, and Cedric found himself pushing through the sea of people, doing his best to reach them before the situation could inevitably escalate.
Unfortunately, he was stuck behind a gaggle of seemingly immovable girls when Malfoy drew his wand.
There was a BANG and several people screamed as a spell just barely grazed Harry's cheek, leaving an angry, red burn in its wake.
Cedric had just managed to break through the girls in front of him when a second, loud BANG went off and a roar echoed through the Entrance Hall.
"Oh no you don't, laddie!"
Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.
There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. Cedric saw his chance and darted forward, making a beeline for Harry.
"Are you alright?" he inquired as soon as he reached the boy, ignoring the many stares crawling up his back. "May I heal that burn, for you?"
Harry blinked up at him, seemingly startled by Cedric's appearance. He would have found the expression extremely endearing if it weren't for Malfoy's awful mark on Harry's cheek.
"Cedric?" He could've howled with elation at getting to hear his name of Harry's lips yet again.
Instead he settled for smiling patiently down at the boy. "Yes, that's me."
Harry grinned shyly. "Sorry, er- yes please. Thank you for the offer."
Cedric lifted his non-dominant hand, feeling a dizzying surge of delight as his fingertips made contact with the soft, smooth skin on Harry's uninjured cheek. He'd genuinely dreamed of this moment. Surely his whole life had led up to this, he could not imagine ever feeling more wonderful than he currently felt.
He gently turned the boy's head and aimed his wand at the burn, hissing, "Reparifors."
The burn immediately disappeared and Cedric was careful not to let his hands linger, stepping back in order to quell the urge to pull Harry even closer.
He heard a bit of movement beside him just before he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. Moody had stepped forward, inspecting Harry with his human eye. Surprisingly, his artificial eye was affixed to Cedric.
"You alright, son?" he inquired, his voice low and gravelly, leaning forward to inspect Cedric's healing work.
Cedric decided that he perhaps did not dislike Moody as much as he initially thought. Anyone who was willing to put Malfoy in his place was alright in Cedric's books.
Before he could hear the rest of his conversation, the doors to the Great Hall opened and he was dragged away by Jona.
"Let me guess." said the shorter boy as they settled into their seats, fixing Cedric with an impassive look. "Moody isn't so bad afterall?"
Cedric didn't deign to respond.
A/N: As you can see. There's some slight deviations from canon, there will only be more moving forward.