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We Were Here by babtheboardwaygoldfish
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Harry sat up against the wall outside of the Great Hall. Some Weird Sisters song was playing and the party was still going strong, but Harry wanted no part in it. Ron and Hermione were fighting again, his date had ditched him (though he didn't put it against Parvati, he was a terrible date), and no matter what he did, there seemed to be people watching him, anticipating what he might do next. It was exhausting.
Harry was just about to head in for the night, thinking maybe Ron's complaining might be better than the stupid loud bass beating a migraine steadily into his temple when a figure emerged from the Great Hall, laughing as they waved someone goodbye.
Sitting up straighter, Harry watched as Cedric Diggory stepped out of the light of the Great Hall and matched his gaze.
"Hiya, Harry," he said, making his way down the hall towards the other boy. Before Harry could think of a response, Cedric had dropped down next to him, sighing as he sat back against the wall.
It was strange seeing him like this, Harry thought himself. Sitting as close as he was, Harry could see the bags under his eyes, the way he slumped against the wall. He never thought about it before, but sitting next to him, Harry couldn't help but notice how exhausted Cedric looked.
"Harry?"
"What?" Snapping out of his own head, Harry realized Cedric was looking right at him.
"I said, do you want to get out of here?" he asked, pulling himself off the ground in the process.
"What about Cho?" Harry asked, getting up as well but still leaning close to the wall, suddenly wary of the invitation. Cedric was nice, but he was also a competitor. Why would he want to hang out with a fourth year when he had a date and plenty of friends to hang out with instead?
Sensing his apprehension, Cedric backed off, stuffing his hands in his dress robes. "She wanted to hang out with some of her friends and I already told her I was done for the night. You don't have to come if you don't want to, you just seem a bit," he trailed off at this, looking awkward as he searched for the right thing to say "I just figured you'd be back in your room if there wasn't something keeping you away."
Harry considered what he said for a moment, thinking through the worst that could happen before nodding and pushing off the wall.
Cedric smiled, then turned on his heel, only taking a few steps before looking back to make sure Harry was following. He was.
The two of them made their way past the entrance to the Great Hall and down to the end of the corridor before Cedric led them down a staircase to the left. Harry didn't recognize the path they were taking, but Cedric seemed confident and he couldn't find it in him to ask where they were going.
Eventually they stopped. About a quarter of the way down the stairwell Cedric slowed down in front of one of the tapestries and pulled out his wand. Harry watched as he pulled back the cloth and taped on the stones behind, laughing in surprise as the stones shifted and pulled away, leaving a small archway open.
"I love magic."
Cedric smirked as that, gesturing for him to go through before following suit, pulling the tapestry over the archway as he walked in. They now stood in a dark hallway, the only light seeming to come from an opening at the other end.
"Come on, we're almost there." Cedric said as he began walking down the passageway, Harry following close behind him.
Cold air began to rifle underneath Harry's dress robes as they continued walking, the hall getting brighter as they turned another corner, now facing an exit. Snow crunched underneath their feet as they walked out of the passage and entered into a closed off courtyard.
With a smile, Cedric watched as Harry took it all in. The courtyard itself wasn't all that much, just a few benches surrounding a large oak tree in the middle. Lack of care was evident in the scraggly leftovers of weeds from summer and the dead vines that had taken root in the walls, but the snow glittered as hundreds of pixies bobbed around the branches, warm light surrounding their slow movement.
"What is this place?" Harry asked, finally peeling his eyes away from the tree and back to Cedric.
"Just an old court yard that got infested with pixies after Lockhart." Cedric told him, moving closer to the tree "Professor Lupin showed it to me. We did some lessons out here."
"Won't they attack us?" Harry asked, eyeing the pixies and recalling his last interaction with them.
"Nah, Lupin figured that one out." He said, reaching into the pockets of his dress robes and pulling out a biscuit. Breaking it in half, Cedric held the broken biscuit and Harry watched as the pixies dove for it, grabbing over the crumbs. "Hungry little fellas. Come on, they won't bother you."
Together, the two of them made their way to the center of the courtyard, pixies watching them as they approached the old oak, but making no move to attack. Cedric climbed up the base of the tree with practiced ease, like he'd done it a million times before. Harry supposed maybe he had.
From the base the oak seemed ever so much taller, and Harry blushed in embarrassment when he couldn't reach the second branch in order to pull himself up, but Cedric just laughed and grabbed his arm to pull him up.
"You worried about the next task?" Harry asked as he settled into the joint of two thick branches. Across from him, Cedric laughed softly, his dancing as he watched the pixies above them.
"Have you figured out the egg yet?" He asked.
Harry hmphed. "Nope. No clue what the screaming could be, Seamus said something about a banshee but that doesn't sound right."
Cedric hummed to himself, smiling as he met Harry's eyes. "Banshee," he laughed, "never would have guessed that one, but 'luck of the Irish I suppose."
"What do you suppose it is then?"
Smirking, Cedric leaned in from his spot. "It's mermaids, Haz."
It took a moment but it clicked. "You put it underwater?" he asked, wondering how in the world anyone would think of giving a screaming egg a soak.
"Yep." he replied, popping the "p". Recognizing that Harry was not pleased with that answer, he went on. "Well, I mean I didn't do it on purpose. I was stressed out about it, so I figured I needed to relax and I took a bath in the prefects bathroom."
"You brought the egg with you for a bath?" Harry giggled.
"In my defence I was tired and stressed," Cedric said, crossing his arms over his chest, embarrassed, "any who, I was in the bath, egg was sitting on the side of the tub, then Myrtle came up through the pipes and just about made a ghost of me. I guess I knocked it into the water, but it sings."
Harry couldn't help but burst out laughing, picturing Cedric listening to a singing egg in the bath with Moaning Myrtle.
"Hey, I'm helping you, you can't laugh at me!" Cedric said incredulously, though he let out a small laugh of his own.
Finally calming down, Harry settled back into his spot in the tree. "What is it singing?" he asked, remembering the last part of Cedric's story.
He shook his head. "Something about finding something precious to you. I figure either way, we're going for a swim."
Harry shuddered as he thought of the things lurking in the lake.
"Never mind that, I brought you here to get away from all that, so no more talk of tournaments." Cedric said resolutely, leaving forward to rest his elbows on his knees and peer at Harry. "You were close with Lupin too, weren't you?"
Harry perked up at the mention of his old teacher/maybe somewhat guardian, "Yeah, he helped me learn some extra stuff for his class."
"Did the same for me." Cedric said fondly. "Really quite awful that he left, best teacher I ever had. I couldn't care less that he's got lycanthropy."
"Really?" Harry asked. He'd met very few people who didn't seem totally put off by the idea of werewolves.
"Really." Cedric shook his head, looking more present then he did the moment before. "Like I said, he showed me this place, and he was a good teacher. Did you know he used to hang out in this courtyard with his friends back when he was in school here?"
Harry shook his head, thinking too fast to say anything.
"C'mere and look at this," Cedric said, hopping down to the ground.
Harry scrambled after him, meeting the ground in a less graceful way, thankful that Cedric had already moved to the other side of the tree. Moving to stand next to Cedric, Harry couldn't help but let out a small "wow."
On the side of the tree not facing the entrance, the bark was covered with engravings. Initials, small messages, and crude words littered the wood, some carved with a knife, others seeming to be burned into the tree using a wand.
Cedric squatted down and gestured for Harry to do the same, as his eyes flitting across the carvings at the base of the tree. "Ah, here look," Cedric said, pointing to a carving near the bottom, several initials branded into the tree "this one is the one Lupin said he and his friends did, see next to the S.B there's an R.L."
Sure enough, the initials were there, surrounded by J.P, L.E, M.M, and P.P. Harry traced his fingers across the names, wondering what it was like when they all signed their names that day, hoping that they were happy, with their friends.
"We were here."
"What's that?" Cedric asks, his eyes drifting over the other carvings.
"Above the initials, they signed 'we were here'."
Moving quickly, Harry dug his wand out of his dress robes and looked for a bit of bark that had yet to be branded. Finding a spot underneath "Peace over Hate" and R+S, Harry took out his wand and thought for a moment before beginning to brand into the tree.
Cedric looked over his shoulder, smiling as he watched him write. The pixies had settled into the trees and it had begun to snow, though it didn't touch them underneath the boughs of the tree.
Written in neat print, 'Hogwarts Champions '94: HP+CD' was now burned into the bark of the old oak.
Harry turned to Cedric, looking satisfied. "So, they know that we were here," he explained.
Cedric grinned, shaking his head as he pulled Harry into a side hug by the shoulder, before beginning to lead them back to the Great Hall.
"Thank you." Harry said quietly as he reached the stairs up to the Gryffindor common room.
"Happy Christmas, Haz."