PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Sixty-Two

As Milo enjoyed himself around the party, it was Harry who pulled him off to the side at one point to speak with him. "Listen," Harry began in a shy voice, "I didn't get a chance to get you anything for your birthday this year, so I-"

"Harry, this is what I wanted for my birthday," Milo interjected. "I wanted you here to celebrate my birthday with me. I wanted us to have a good time. I wasn't expecting a full kidnapping but I probably should have when it comes to Heidi. I hope none of you were hurt in the transition."

"No, just mostly startled, " Harry chuckled, "they knew exactly where to find us as we came out of the library."

"You'll learn that Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders, Harry," Milo grinned before Heidi called out a celebratory cheer. 

"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said as he turned to face Milo, " but really, I wanted you to have something because I think it should belong to you. Our father's invisibility cloak should belong to you, not me. After all, you're the oldest and that's probably how it would have worked out if he was still around, it would have been passed down to you."

For several seconds, Milo's heart fluttered at the idea of getting the Invisibility cloak that he honestly hated Dumbledore for withholding it from him. The man didn't have a say over which of the sons received the cloak unless it was James who had made a special request, but that seemed highly unlikely. However, as much as Milo wanted to take the cloak into his possession, he began to shake his head.

"No, Harry, the cloak is yours," Milo said quietly, "it was passed down to you for a reason, even if that reason isn't clear to us. You've made good use out of it, haven't you? You keep it."

Harry seemed puzzled by the rejection of his gift offer, wondering who in their right mind would turn down the opportunity of owning an invisibility cloak? He was quiet for a few moments, trying to figure out what to say as Milo waved at a couple of his housemates.

"Well, if you ever need to borrow it," Harry whispered to him, " you can let me know and it's yours, I promise."

His brother turned to him with a bright smile. "Thanks, Harry and for future reference, you don't ever have to get me anything for my birthday or any of the holidays. As long as you give me some of your time, trust me when I say, that's more than enough. Don't worry about gifts, just go and enjoy the party."

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Tiptoeing through the crowd of the party, Milo had planned his escape back to the dorms despite being the birthday boy. Sometimes the noise level of parties just became a bit too overwhelming for the boy and he needed a moment to gather himself and relax from all the commotion that had flocked his way. Making his way back to the dorms, his main priority was to check on Paden, he was sure the poor bowtruckle was irritated by all the commotion taking place in the common room. 

"Paden?" Milo called out to his little friend. "Are you alright in here?"

Immediately, Paden crawled out from beneath the covers on the boy's bed, chirping out several times to alert Milo where he was. Milo walked over and sat down gently, offering his hand to Paden but the bowtruckle didn't hesitate to launch himself at the boy's chest, clutching onto the front of his shirt.

"We're not really made for the party atmosphere, are we?" Milo asked with a small chuckle. "Well, it's alright, everyone else is having a good enough time that I highly doubt that they've noticed I'm gone. And that's more than fine with me because last I saw, everyone was taking bets to see how many chocolate frogs Ron could fit into his mouth. The image as you can imagine was quite disturbing and he was already at six."

"Seventeen."

The voice caused Milo to jump as he didn't hear anyone approaching the dorm but perhaps Cedric had adopted the art of tiptoeing away as he stood in the doorway.  He had a smile on his face as he leaned against the frame before walking in and taking a seat beside Milo. Paden crawled across their shoulders before leaping off and moving around the room.

"Seventeen?" Milo repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, Ron was able to fit seventeen chocolate frogs in his mouth before he started choking. Ended up spitting them out right on Hermione's shoes."

"That's disgusting," Milo scrunched up his face, "I'm definitely glad that I wasn't around to witness that."

"Is that why you left your own party?"

Milo gave a nod of his head. "That and because well, it's too loud sometimes. I was just coming up here to check on Paden and seeing how he was doing. He doesn't handle all the chaos very well."

"Yeah, maybe we invited too many people," Cedric admitted, "but I was-"

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant, Cedric. The party is perfectly fine, really. In fact, it's one of the best birthday parties I've ever attended and the fact that I can say it was mine makes it even better. You actually managed to get Gryffindors into the Hufflepuff dorms, and my brother is here. Trust me, it's perfect. Plus, I don't plan on spending the rest of my time up here, I was just taking a breather."

"Alright, so I did good, right?" Was the next question to leave Cedric's mouth as he still seemed pretty nervous. "I just felt bad that I wasn't able to get you a gift and I couldn't think of anything to make. I'll be honest, I'm not the most creative and-"

"Shut up, Cedric," Milo laughed before leaning in and kissing Cedric's cheek, which earned him the beginning of a flustered look on the boy's face. He was red in the face for a few seconds, which only made Milo's amusement grow even more. 

"Do you really want to play this game right now, Milo?" Cedric asked. "Because I think we both know who's going to win."

"So do you want to just accept the loss now or later?" Milo responded cheekily with a grin.

Milo knew the consequences of his actions and words because he secretly enjoyed challenging Cedric, knowing that he was more than likely going to lose the flustered game. But it was his birthday and he wanted to enjoy himself, so he figured why not? He knew Cedric's competitive nature all too well, and it always led Cedric to accept the challenge right away. Almost instantly, he went to grab for Milo, but the boy scrambled off his own bed, only to fall over the side onto the floor. But he wasn't going to get away that easily, especially as Cedric moved equally as fast to go after him. 

As Milo attempted to push himself up to his feet and run, he was too slow in comparison to Cedric's speed as the other boy caught him by the foot and dragged him down. 

"Alright, Milo, you know how this works," Cedric said once he had the boy pinned. "All you have to do is accept the loss and I let you go, but if you choose not to. You know what follows, right?"

"You accept the loss like a good boy?"

Milo's response had done the trick of catching Cedric off guard, possibly because he wasn't expecting him to refer to him as a "good boy." The mischievous laughter that followed caused Cedric to shake his head and narrow his eyes down at him. 

"Don't think because it's your birthday that you're going to be allowed to get away with this."

Not giving him a chance to respond, Cedric unleashed a series of tickles on the boy causing Milo to cry out with laughter. He struggled and squirmed beneath him but Cedric wasn't going to let him escape. 

"Oh no, you don't, not this time-"

Fighting through the struggle of the tickles, Milo had managed to grab the front of Cedric's jumper dragging him down into a kiss and the tickles came to an abrupt end, much to his relief. The battle ended with the agreed ceasefire as Cedric's hands trailed up Milo's sides and held his face gently as the kiss continued. 

The problem with the end of the battle result came when the two boys were too preoccupied with each other to notice the person walking into the dorm. Paden's alerting chirps were ignored as he tried to warn the boys that Harry had come into the room. He was trying to find Milo to inform his brother that he, Ron, and Hermione were getting ready to head to dinner, but he just wanted to let him know that they were leaving. However, Harry was about to be the one informed as he came upon the scene of his brother and Cedric.