Time Is Life

woods

Harry laughs and beams up at Cedric."I don't mind, I rather enjoy listening to you. Kinda a pity that we haven't spoken so often to one another, we might oughta change that." Harry stretches his arm out and smiles at Cedric. "I'm Harry Potter but Harry is perfectly fine with me."

"You mean to say you don't mind my ramblings? Wow, that's a first, dad always tells me to stop as it's unbecoming of an heir to a pureblood family. Also, I'm Cedric Diggory but Cedric is fine with me."

They wind up shaking hands, they turn a corner and end up at a vast clearing. A tall lanky boy is sitting on a fallen tree trunk reading a book. Harry rolls his eyes, of course, Theo would be reading.

Cedric looks closer at the lanky teenager, trying to place a name to the face, it takes him a few seconds to realize that this boy is in fact the heir to the Nott family

"Now tell me, why am I not surprised that Theo is reading while waiting?"

The brunette looks up from his book with a lopsided smirk, he stands up and slanders over to them. Cedric is slightly taken aback at the familiarity between these two, for one he might not have expected Harry to associate with Slytherins, given the bad blood from the previous years.

Theo envelopes Harry in a tight hug while indiscreetly smirking at Cedric with a look that clearly says as much as: "I know how much you wish to be me right now." And Cedric doesn't know why it's affecting him so. There is this unexplainable urge to take Harry away from Nott and into his arms instead. The urge to keep Harry just to himself, but he doesn't like this possessive side of himself. In fact, he hates it, Harry isn't his and never will be. Cedric knows that he will never be good enough for the-boy-who-lived. And that is fine too, if they only share a friendship, then Cedric will just have to accept that.

The Hufflepuff shifts uncomfortably on his feet, looking anywhere but Nott.

"The same way that I'm not surprised you've brought Diggory with you."

Harry laughs softly, looking at Cedric then back at Nott."Touché, Theo. Touché. What do you reckon we do before the finals later?"

Cedric warily eyes heir Nott, still not used to the familiarity between the two younger wizards or about those nasty, smug smirks the Slytherin keeps sending him. There is just something inside of him jumping with intense fury, an inexplicable feeling of bile rising up his throat and burning everything in its way. Cold burning rage.

He shakes his head slightly willing those emotions away.

"Hey Cedric, come over and let me introduce you to Theo." Harry smiles at him and waves him over.

Cedric calms himself and inhales deeply, quickly walking over to the younger teenagers. Nott smirks up at him before his face goes unnervingly blank and expressionless. This is the thing he admires about Slytherins and purebloods. All he ever is to his father is a major disappointment and no matter what he does nothing ever changes that. Not the fact he is top of the year, not the fact that he is a prefect, not the fact that he is the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, all because he is a bloody Hufflepuff.

His father, a proud Gryffindor, expected his son to be a Gryffindor as well if not a Ravenclaw. According to Amos, there is absolutely nothing remarkable about Hufflepuff, the house with all the misfits.

"Theodore Nott. A pleasure to meet you, Diggory."

Cedric curtly nods suppressing a wince at the strength of Nott's grip. "Cedric Diggory, likewise." There is an awkward tension between them and Cedric shuffles closer to Harry.

He eyes Nott through calculating eyes taking note of his every move.

"Will you tell him? Or are you going to be a stubborn idiot, to ruin everything later on?"