PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Nine

Milo's stomach flopped and he felt as though he was going to be sick as Harry continued. "You've been in contact with your godparents and you couldn't even tell me that you met up with our godmother. I had to find out from...."

He turned and looked over his shoulder, Elspeth looked like a scolded child as she glanced down to avoid eye contact. Milo didn't blame her though, it had been upon his request that Harry didn't learn of their interactions, mainly because Milo knew that his brother was going to be extremely bitter about it. Milo didn't carry the fame that his brother did, but he definitely lived a happier life. He had been given to a loving guardian, able to interact with his godparents, not to mention he had remained in the world of magic, while Harry had been deprived of all of those things.

"None of you really care, do you?" Harry asked them. "You can't care about me if you were willing to keep all of this from me. I don't even know what more you're hiding, I'm sure I haven't been told everything. But here you are always talking about staying honest with one another...you're nothing but a liar! A-a-a hypocrite! Do you have nothing to say?"

Truly in that moment, Milo really didn't have anything to say because Harry was right and he knew that. He did lie to Harry, or at least, he certainly hadn't been completely honest with him and he had yet to disclose the entire truth. With Harry not mentioning anything about Sirius, Milo had to assume that Elspeth probably didn't tell him anything either.He figured that Harry was just upset from the idea that Elspeth hadn't been there for him when she could have been. Surely, she could have acted as a guardian rather than him going to the Dursleys and living in misery. 

He was already plenty upset and he didn't even know the full story of what had happened all those years ago that caused them to lose their parents. 

"Harry, it's not your brother's fault-"

"I'm not talking to you!" Harry spat in the woman's direction as Elspeth tried to calm him down. Rather than arguing with him, she fell silent and shook her head. 

"Don't talk to her like that!" Milo raised his voice over his brother's. "At least have some respect for the woman that has been taking care of you and allowing you inside her home. She didn't have to do that. She may be your godmother but she's not obligated to do anything especially if you choose to treat her like that. There are circumstances around the situation that have caused it to be complicated, Harry. I would never keep things from you in order to hurt you, it would never be my intention to hurt you. But flooding you with information, I didn't see that as the best option. I gradually learned things over the course of time and I was going to gradually allow you to learn about them-"

"Oh yeah, when?" Harry asked. Paden frightened by all the yelling and arguing and buried himself in the sleeve of Cedric's shirt as Cedric was only left to watch the scene unfold. 

"When the time was right!" Milo exclaimed. "You would have know about Elspeth a lot sooner if you and your friends weren't foolish and stayed behind during last Christmas! I tried to tell you-"

"Why didn't you tell me before that? Why didn't you just tell me-"

"It was supposed to be a surprise-"

"I DON'T NEED ANY SURPRISES!"

The argument was bound to take an ugly turn if it hadn't already and Elspeth didn't want to watch the brothers fight any longer as she moved Harry away from the doorway. However, he pulled away from her roughly and made his way down the stairs, leaving Milo standing in the doorway with a frown. 

The woman watched the direction that Harry wandered off in before reaching across and placing her hand on Milo's shoulders to make him look at her.

"Milo, this isn't your fault, believe me. You two have just suffered for the mistakes made by the adults. Harry doesn't understand that yet but he will. I'm going to make the accommodations for him to stay in the Leaky Cauldron until school starts. Don't worry, I'll be around to make sure and keep on eye on him. He won't even know I'm around, he'll be safe. You, on the other hand, don't beat yourself up about this, sweetheart. You've been...the best brother that anyone could ever ask for. Harry may not realise it yet but that's because he doesn't understand everything."

Milo didn't respond as he felt her touch under his chin gently. "Chin up, Milo. It's just a rough patch. He'll come around again."

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"You're always keeping secrets to protect people," Cedric said once Elspeth left to tend to Harry, leaving Milo to return and plop down to the floor. Milo glanced up at him, wondering where the conversation was going to go with the topic as Cedric wore his own frown. "You keep secrets from Harry to make sure he's fine and you've been keeping a secret for my sake. Yet, you're the one who gets hurt in the long run trying to protect everyone else."

"What are you talking about?"

"You tried to protect Harry and it only ended up with him upset with you, you kept the secret about us, even though you didn't want to keep it a secret in the first place. How is that fair to you at all?"

"I'm willing to do it-"

"Just because you're willing doesn't mean you should have to put up with it, Milo. It brings about so much stress on you and that's not fair at all."

"Life isn't fair in many cases, you just have to learn how to deal with it and make things work with what you're given," Milo argued, really hoping that he was mistaken in the direction the conversation was taking. He really hoped that Cedric's own guilt was not eating away at the boy enough that he was thinking about ending it once more. Milo couldn't deal with the going back and forth, it far too much of a toll on his emotions.

"I don't know, Milo. What if I never tell my parents, what if I never tell my dad about us...are you willing to just leave in secrecy about it? Are we supposed to just pretend that we're friends so you can keep my secret because I'm that big of a coward? I care what others think of me and I can't put that aside for you, even though I really like you. So how is that fair because you're willing to do so much for me but I can't do the same for you?"

Milo was shaking out of anger that everything was unfolding the way it was in such a short span of time, he was picking at the skin on the top of his hand, pinching it with his nails, even though Paden had emerged and tried to get the boy to stop. 

"Well, don't keep beating around the bush, Cedric. What are you trying to say? Now that the summer is coming to an end that you don't want to do this anymore? You don't want to start the term off with carrying a secret? Is that it? Because if it is, just say it! And if it truly is the case, then please just...just go...I...have enough to deal with then playing this back and forth nonsense with you. I respect the fact that you don't want to inform your parents and I won't tell everyone but I'm not going to keep putting myself through all of this because you can't figure it out. You tell me no, one day and then kiss me the next. That's the part that's not fair, not keeping it all a secret."

Milo walked towards his room, Paden chirping in attempts to calm him down, but Milo was beyond the point of calm. His voice did soften though as he stood in the doorway of his room, his back kept towards Cedric.

"I do like you, Cedric, as more than a friend and you know that. But if you don't want me to keep it as a secret that's fine. But I'm not going to sit there and pretend that there's nothing. I'm not just going to sit there and pretend to be your friend when we both want to be more. So if this is it, then it really is. At most, we're just going to be quidditch and house mates from this point on. If anyone wants to question what happened to our friendship then just direct them to me, I'll tell them exactly what they need to hear. That it's none of their damn business!"

The door slammed, leaving Cedric in the living room, only hearing the faint chirping of Paden from the other side of the door. The boy waited for a moment before picking himself up and walking out of the McGonagall household, in hopes that he could catch up with Elspeth and see if she would take him home.