The Boy In My Dreams -HEDRIC (1)

4.(HC) moments out of time

Questions, doubts and unspoken information floated between them. Harry couldn't ignore it in the silence they were surrounded by. He was not fond of it, but he certainly preferred to get to know Cedric for himself. Not the image others drew, but his own.

Cedric sat down on the floor under the window, inviting him with the movement to do the same, and asked "Are you nervous about tomorrow?"

Harry leaned forward, embarrassed.

"I wasn't. Now I am."

"Is it because we play against each other?"

There was not an ounce of judgment in his words.

"I've never played against someone I knew," he tried to explain despite the fact that it didn't sound right. Harry knew it was because he liked him. He had never played against someone he somehow got along the way he did with Cedric. Harry knew some of the names of the other team's players (clearly not all) and could recognize some of them. "With whom I had ever spoken to. Except for Malfoy, but we don't get along. Winning was personal."

Cedric listened carefully, even nodding as if he could make sense of it.

"I haven't been on the team very long. I only played against Malfoy once and he tried to throw me off my broom," he recounted, stretching out his legs. "He didn't accomplish it but he was close. I don't understand how he can get away with cheating."

Though he looked outraged, Harry smiled at him.

None of them was a fan of Draco. They had that in common.

"That's his strategy. Try to throw people off their brooms, something he has never been able to do."

Cedric's laugh was soft.

"Malfoy hasn't beaten you once. He must be so upset about it."

The fact that he knew that, as if he was keeping track of his victories, cheered Harry up. How many times had he seen him play? Cedric himself confirmed that he supported Gryffindor when the opponent was Slytherin. That meant that he had backed Harry, which shouldn't matter to him the way it did. He tried not to pay attention to who was advocating for him. The numbers, the signs and the comments changed every time, with the weather or the circumstances. Instead, he tried to focus on his friends who always had his back no matter what.

How many times had Harry seen Cedric play and not noticed?

He thought back to the match Cedric had mentioned.

"You won," Harry told him suddenly. Flashes of the Hufflepuff results came to his mind. A few months ago, he and his friends had been pleased because that meant Draco would be quiet for weeks. "That match against him. I remember it."

He had supported Cedric without knowing him.

"It was the first one I won. And you're right when you say that Malfoy makes it personal. I've never wanted to win as much as that day. I thought it would be unfair if he won by cheating."

Nothing seemed fairer to Harry than Hufflepuff's victory at the hands of Cedric, and it got him thinking about the next match. In a brief silence, Harry realised that he was enjoying talking to Cedric and just being there, with the sun against the back of his hair. He watched their shadows on the wall and wondered what would happen the next day.

"Who's going to win tomorrow?"

It was one of those questions that did not seek an answer and came out of his mouth without restraint.

"Is winning important to you?"

Of all Cedric could have said, that baffled him.

"Who doesn't want to win?" he answered without hesitation. "The team relies on their players to do their best. Students bet. I do like winning, but what I like most about Quidditch is not the victories. It's fun, and I'm good at it. I'm good at something for once."