Time Is Life

Yule

After calming down from the previous event, which the eight of them swore to never mention, directly at all, again. Harry sits close to Cedric, closer than normal. Cedric doesn't mind and enjoys the close proximity. He's still miffed about the fact he hurt his mate and lover.

"Here, this is yours. I hope you'll like it." Harry passes Cedric a small present. Gingerly the brunette picks it up and carefully opens it.

"Wow..." Cedric stares at the notebook in his hands. It's stunning. "I don't know what to say, thank you!" He hugs Harry and they stay like that for longer than necessary.

"I have a matching one, whatever you write in here will appear in mine, this way we can even communicate while not being around each other. Also, the pages refill so it won't ever run out of space to write." Harry looks smug and Cedric knows that his friend cast all those spells himself.

"I have something similar, Rafaël and Victoire helped a bit and Theo was there when I chose this." With that said Cedric hands a small packet over to Harry, the dark-haired boy opens the wrapping paper and takes in a breath. "This is absolutely beautiful. And it matches the golden egg to a T. Where'd you buy this?"

Cedric smirks and places a finger above his lips. "That's a secret."

Harry rolls his eyes and takes the necklace out.

"You can open the egg and place anything inside, Victoire charmed it into a tiny pocket dimension. And we can talk telepathically while wearing them." Cedric holds up his own necklace and Harry pounces on him with a bone-crushing hug.

"That's amazing! You're amazing!"

Theo clears his throat. "We're still here, lovebirds."

Harry rolls his eyes, much to Cedric's amusement, and sticks out his tongue.

...

They spend the afternoon on the grounds, the snow is untouched except for the deep channels made by the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students on their way up to the castle. Theo chooses to watch Harry, Cedric, the Espoir and the Weasleys' snowball fight rather than join in.

At five o'clock Harry says he is going back upstairs to get ready for the ball, he winks at Cedric and Theo soon follows after.

"Do you think Harry really needs three hours to get ready?" Cedric throws the question in the air. The younger twins smirk at each other. "'e should take that long, yes. 'e asked for a special order from our family, the compulsion repelling charms take about an hour to adapt to the individual's magic. Speaking of." Rafaël turns to Fred and George with a mischievous grin. "You should get ready too."

The ginger-haired twins pale and run into the castle. Cedric chuckles at their expense.

Now that he thinks about the ginger-haired twins, he notices that those two have in fact opened up to him and don't send those matching glares anymore. And during Herbology always hang close around him, although he has been subjected to their pranks too. He smiles.

He finally feels accepted for who he is and not for who he claims to be, he wants to be of use, of help to people. So he's eternally grateful for having such amazing friends. He turns around to the Espoirs with a grin. "I think I'll be going inside as well."

They nod and wave at him, then they walk away, who knows where they're going now. Cedric sighs, now alone or so he thinks.

"Uhm...I know you and Harry are together and all...but..."

Startled Cedric looks at Longbottom, the blond shifting nervously on his feet, gaze glued to the ground.

He finally looks up a burning determination flickering in those green doe eyes. "Are you serious about him? Mate or not. I worry about him, he's my best friend."