The Boy I Love -HEDRIC (2)

39.(HC) I don't have a swimsuit

Harry and Ron took the job of intercepting each one.

Some, however, required an elaborate strategy as they had orders to only be accepted by the recipient. In that case, Ron would place his hand over Hermione's, and it didn't matter that she was more bandage than exposed skin, they would both blush until Ron grabbed it after a second. When it came to Howlers, they would take turns sitting on top of them or Ron and the twins would start yelling along until the sounds of insults were muffled.

In one of his brief encounters with Cedric, he suggested spelling a box to enclose the Howlers. He even helped Harry create it, and then made the device burn whatever paper was put in there, too. 

"This beautiful little box would be perfect for teachers to store exams in," Ron was talking over lunch after the long, horrible hours in Potions. “Thus they would not get to mark them and they would lose the grades.”

"They'd make us repeat the exams," Hermione commented, struggling to handle the fork with her injured hand, but smiling.

“I don't think I can be subjected to this torture twice.” 

XIV

Harry was sick of explaining to everyone that Hermione was not his girlfriend. 

He had been wrong in thinking that no one would believe it, something that he would not mention to his boyfriend because Cedric had indeed warned him that there were some who considered it possible. And he suspected that he had been kind in not saying that it was everyone . The supposed Harry-Hermione-Krum love triangle hadn't gotten any less interesting since those involved continued to talk to each other, and it seemed that people wanted to find out what had happened.

How could Hermione have them both wrapped around her finger ?

She found it funny that they tried to cast her as a femme fatale.

Hermione was taking the matter with a calm that Harry could only attribute to the certainty she had that Rita Skeeter would pay for it. There were very few things Harry would put his trust in, and Hermione was one of them. 

CEDRIC

XVII

Ever since he had noticed the unsettling resemblance of that certain Harry's eyes to his dreams, he almost believed he was inside them. When he asked Harry if he had been watching him, he didn't deny it. 

Cedric had never felt more observed than in those dreams. 

However, he remembered hearing footsteps on a few occasions.

Turning around and having no one there, like that one time in the beginning of fifth year.

The classroom was empty and silent. 

“Are you here? Is there someone…?”

He probably shouldn't go back to the old habit of talking to himself. 

No one answered, so Cedric assumed he had privacy.

He felt a bit persecuted since a very particular public had seen him with his boyfriend and was still embarrassed by it. If he thought about it, he couldn't quite place the reaction of the older, time-traveling version of Harry. Perhaps surprised covered it, but he didn't know whether to define it in a good or a bad way, and Cedric wondered if for him it would have been like seeing himself doing something unimaginable. 

"I haven't received your letter yet," Cedric continued murmuring, to keep up with the habit, as he waited for Harry, his boyfriend, to arrive. “I debate between two reasons that explain it. The first is that perhaps you are aware that exams are this week and you would not want to hurt your own academic performance. A kind gesture. Or the second option is that you have decided that you do not need anyone's help and do not want to get you involved. I hope that is not the case. I'm sure you would like to help yourself too…”