What a Handshake Can Do (Drarry)

Year 4: Part 1

  Fourth year came faster than Harry expected. It seemed he only had about a week of tormenting Dudely before his yearly letter from Hogwarts came. Shopping for books flew by, and before he knew it, the time came to ride the Hogwarts Express back to school. He had no idea what awaited him there. 

He pushed his way into the train, trying to ignore the gawking first years at seeing "Harry Potter", and began his search for a compartment. He immediately spotted Draco on the train, but the Malfoy blatantly ignored him. Harry didn't really know why that hurt him so much. Why a pit opened up in his stomach as Draco sashayed past him, without so much as a glance in his direction. 

Still, he plastered on his same-old Slytherin smirk, pretending not to notice that Ron and Hermione didn't greet him. Instead, they blew past Harry, rushing to say hello to Neville. 

Harry sighed, knowing that the abandonment of his Gryffindor friends was inevitable. But he hadn't expected it to come so soon. Ever since third year, when he'd discovered his affinity to the Dark Arts, like a fool he'd confided the fact to his "friends", ever since then, they'd avoided him. 

Sighing, Harry found an empty compartment, fiddling with the buttons of his black collared shirt as he took a seat. He settled down for a rather boring, uneventful ride to school when someone rushed into the car, slamming the door behind them. The golden-blonde (but not Draco-blonde) didn't notice Harry until he sat down, practically jumping to find the Harry Potter sitting there, arms folded over his chest, dark eyebrow raised at the intruder. 

"Jesus!" the boy exclaimed. "I thought the place was empty. Do ya mind if I stay here, I only just got away."

Harry nodded nonchalantly. "O'course. Get away from what? I'm Harry Potter by the way, although you probably know that already."

"Cedric Diggory. And from Cho Chang, can't get it through her head I'm into guys only and keeps trying to potion me."

Harry laughed. "Well you are a fine catch," he said, noting Cedric's handsome features. "That must be terrible."

Cedric leaned back in his seat, sighing heavily. "Trust me it is. And the potions wouldn't even work because I'm gay - There's no chemistry."

Harry nodded, thinking to himself, growing quiet. 

They sat in silence for a while before Cedric spoke up. "Hear what happened at the Quidditch World Cup a few nights back?"

Harry shook his head. 

Cedric sat up, eyes wide. "Damn, thought you of all people would know. Bunch o' Death Eater wannabies showed up and lit up the place. Barely made it out myself. They put up the Dark Mark over it and everything."

Harry let out a low whistle, wishing he could have seen it. He'd read up on Death Eaters and the Dark Mark, but all the books at Hogwarts were incredibly biased on the subject - Dumbledore had gotten his hands into everything, spewing his own view on the subject, filling everyone's head with propaganda. Surely Voldemort wasn't as bad as everyone believed, they didn't even speak his name, no one could inspire that much fear in someone. He found the Dark Arts incredibly fascinating.

He looked up at Cedric, putting on his usual smirk, gazing at him through his thick eyelashes. "Must've been terrifying."

He leaned toward Cedric as he responded, "Yeah well... It wasn't too bad."

His eyes lingered over Harry's rather tight muggle clothing. Harry grinned mischievously, "We should get dressed, we'll be arriving soon."

Cedric blinked, nodding as he accio-ed his trunk over. 

As they got dressed, both boys stole glances at each other. Harry noted he was a Hufflepuff; he could use a Hufflepuff in his back pocket. They were incredibly loyal, trustworthy blokes. He caught Cedric staring after him as they parted ways. Harry couldn't help but smile to himself, waving at him - he knew just what to do. 

-_-_-_-_-_-

Nothing came as a more pleasant surprise to Harry when both he and Cedric coincidentally ended up in the Tri-Wizard tournament together. 

Harry saw Draco practically pass out when he saw Harry's name fly out of the Cup. It wasn't the first time the blonde had been acting odd either. 

Draco looked pale, even more pale than usual. His mercury eyes were lifeless. Yet whenever Harry approached him, Draco pushed him away, telling him to "Sod off, insufferable git". 

Except, when he spoke, his voice sounded as dead as his eyes looked. There was no emotion. One time, Harry glimpsed him chugging down some strange potion.

But Harry soon became caught up with Cedric and preparing for the First Task to think about what Draco may or may not be doing. After some careful manipulating and smooth talking, he was able to get Hagrid to tell him what the first task was.

Dragons. 

"Cedric!" he called after the Hufflepuff, after discovering the task.

He turned around, "Hey Harry," he broke into a smile.

Harry placed a hand on his arm, catching his breath. "The first Task... It's...It's Dragons."

He smiled to himself as he watched Cedric's eyes grow wide. "Holy shit! Ahem, sorry."

Harry shrugged. "Ti'is fine. Just thought to give you a heads up."

"Gee thanks, you're a real one." Cedric grinned at him.

They were very close, and Harry could feel Cedric's arms on his lower back. 

That's when he suddenly realized what dragons were related to. He slipped out of Cedric's embrace. "Gotta go! Talk to you later!"

"Wait-"

But it was too late, Harry was already off, running to go to the library. He needed to know which species of dragon was closest to snakes.