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With the plans to spend Halloween together with his little brother and the idea that he could potentially help Sirius clear his name so he could live a free life, not to mention having Cedric back, Milo figured everything was finally coming together. He had close to everything he ever really wanted and everything seemed to be going so smoothly. As he settled down at the Hufflepuff table, he joined in on the conversation that his friends were having about the upcoming quidditch season. Apparently, Oliver Wood had learned about the Hufflepuff team starting their practices for the season a lot earlier than the other ones and now the Gryffindor captain was booking the pitch any chance he could get to make sure the Gryffindors caught up. Of course, the Hufflepuffs couldn't deny that they had made their opponent quite paranoid.
Once their stomachs were full, they all were feeling quite tired, especially Milo. The events of the day had left him exhausted and he was sure that his mind was going to drift off into an intense dream state once he closed his eyes. He walked much slower than his friends back to the Hufflepuff Common Room, but halfway there, Cedric stopped in front of him. Milo nearly collided into the boy's back and was about to ask what was wrong, until he realised that Cedric was offering him a lift back to the common room. Under normal circumstances, Milo would have politely declined and claimed that he could make it back, but he could barely keep his eyes open just standing still in the centre of the corridor.
He allowed himself to take Cedric up on the offer before climbing onto the taller boy's back and holding on. Heidi and Max stood on either side of the two, both of them wearing grins as they exchanged glances behind their backs. Milo settled his chin on Cedric's shoulder and before they could even reach the corner to turn down, he was sound asleep.
"Really doesn't take much to put Milo on his arse, does it?" Heidi chuckled as the other three walked on.
"He's had a long day, Heidi," Cedric told her, "I think we can all say that we've had a long day. I'm pretty tired myself."
He was truly mentally exhausted from the events of the day, especially considering he didn't get the greatest start with having to deal with a howler from his father, condemning him for his "sinful" acts. But so many good things had happened and it was enough to cancel out all the bad, at least for the day. Cedric was sure it wasn't the last he would hear from his parents. He was certain that once his father calmed down a bit that he would be in contact, trying to get Cedric to take back his choices and change his lifestyle altogether. For now, Amos was just upset and he was going to take it out on Cedric anyway he knew how.
But Cedric just wanted to hear from his mother because while he thought his mother had been hinting all summer that she was aware of something going on, she never mentioned her views on it. She never flat out said anything against it, not like his father did. It gave Cedric a little bit of hope that he could still reach out to his mother or that she would eventually reach out to him. He didn't want it to end on such a horrible and final note of his father expressing how disappointed he was in him and that no son of his would ever be involved in such a thing. Which clearly meant that Cedric was no longer viewed as his son at the moment.
He didn't understand it though, he didn't understand what was so wrong about it. Initially, he had grown up like his father, seeing the common couple pairings of man and woman, so when he first started having the feelings towards Milo, he only assumed it had to be wrong because it went against the norm. However, when he learned that there were others when he saw how people were hiding even though they weren't hurting anyone, Cedric had to why did people find it wrong?
His parents never once had a problem with Milo, in fact, back when there was nothing between the two boys, they adored him. So why was it such an issue, nothing else had really changed about Milo and if anything wasn't it a good thing that someone cared about their son as more than a friend? Milo wasn't a bad influence on him either, his mother had said that it was always "such a blessing" that Cedric had such a good friend. She complimented Milo on his manners and the way the boy focused on his studies, always willing to learn something new. So, where had it suddenly all gone wrong?
Throughout his childhood, Cedric remembered his parents claiming that they just wanted what was best for him and they wanted him to be happy in life, but it seemed like they didn't truly mean it because if they did, they would have been happy when they received Cedric's letter. They would have been happy to know that the boy that Cedric felt the most comfortable with sharing the same feelings for him and that made him the happiest. They didn't seem to get that at all, his father just assumed that he was "tainted."
With his thoughts swimming, Cedric didn't want to think about his parents anymore, at least, not for the rest of the night. He wanted to relax and get some sleep. He truly hadn't gotten a proper night's rest since everything had gone to shit with Milo before. He would spend nights tossing and turning, waking up in the middle of the night and just feel groggy and miserable throughout the day. That night he was hoping to get a good night's rest as it looked as though it was going to be an early night.
Arriving back to the common room, Cedric wished the girls a good night before venturing to the boy's dorm. He dropped Milo off in his own bed, telling Paden to watch over him before he left to his dorm room. His roommates were still out, a couple of them in the common room and some lingering around after dinner. It was still early, too early for most of his dorm mates to be going to bed. But Cedric decided to just change right into his pyjamas, use the toilet and then crawl into bed.
He did follow those steps, all except the last one because as he returned to the room to crawl into his bed, it seemed someone had already beat him to it. A sound of a shrill chirp graced his ears as he saw Paden sitting on one of the posts of his bed, looking directly at him. Curled up at the end of his bed, Milo had tucked himself into a little ball and returned back to sleep. Cedric snorted quietly to himself with a shake of his head.
Milo truly was a little kitten, refusing to sleep in his own bed, only to venture into others to curl up at the end. The way Paden was chirping it made it sound like the bowtruckle was trying to tell Cedric that he had tried to reason with Milo to stay in his own bed but the boy wouldn't listen.
"It's alright, Paden," Cedric reassured the small creature, " he's fine where he is, let him rest. You go on and get yourself comfortable as well. I don't think he'll be leaving tonight."
Instead of finding another spot, Paden leapt over onto Cedric's pyjama shirt and tucked himself right into the boy's breast pocket, disappearing from sight, with the exception of his long limbs sticking out.
When Cedric climbed into his bed, he wouldn't exactly say that he was comfortable with the sleeping arrangement, considering he really didn't have anywhere to put his legs, but he wasn't about to move Milo either. But while he wasn't exactly comfortable, he was content, but Milo was close to him and everything seemed to be alright as he settled himself in and went to bed.
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Milo didn't wake up on his own the next morning, but he did wake up feeling well rested. The problem was, he didn't wake up in his own bed, although it didn't feel like a bad thing. What he was worried about was the fact that they hadn't announced anything to their peers or even their friends, Milo wasn't definitely helping to keep it a secret by waking up in Cedric's bed....again. But he assumed Cedric didn't have much of a problem with it or he would have woken Milo up and sent him off to his own bed. Yet as Milo stirred from his slumber that morning from someone shaking him, he noted Cedric sitting across from him on the bed wearing a nervous smile.
He was already dressed, the forever early riser that Milo was not. Milo glanced around to see that the other dormmates of Cedric's dorm had already left or were getting ready for the day.
"Wha-what's going o-on?" Milo asked rubbing at his eyes before Cedric handed him his glasses from the small table at his bedside. "What's wrong?"
He was waiting for Cedric to tell him that he had to stay in his own bed, Milo would have happily obliged but he honestly didn't remember crawling into Cedric's bed. Once his mind drifted off to sleep, Milo wasn't in very much control of his actions.
"I got a letter this morning," Cedric told him, looking down at the piece of folded paper that was resting in his lap.
"From your father?" Milo asked, suddenly feeling quite nervous himself. He had to admit, he was thankful that it was only a letter and not another howler.
"No, from my mother," Cedric said handing the letter over to Milo to skim read. "She says she's going to be in Hogsmeade on Halloween. Wanted me to come there and talk to her."
"What do you think she's going to say?" Milo questioned, not even bothering to look down at the letter. "Do you think she's going to react like your father?"
"I don't think so, at least, I hope not," Cedric replied, "I don't think she would come to Hogsmeade to make a scene. I think she's just coming to talk. She didn't say anything in the Howler, maybe she'll have something else to say, you know? But she's willing to talk, which is more than I can say for my father right now. He only wants to yell and have me take back what I told him. I think she'll be better to speak with."
"Well, that's-"
"Will you come with me?" Cedric cut him off without hesitation. "I'd really like for you to be there."
Milo stared at him for a moment, taken back by the request. "A-are you sure you want me to be there, Cedric? Wouldn't you want to talk to your mother on your own-"
"I thought about it," the boy admitted, " but she knows you, Milo. She knows what kind of person you are, maybe she needs a reminder, but I think with you being there, it'll help her see. It will help her see that I'm not making the wrong decisions. You don't have to go, I just thought it would...it would help and-"
"I'll go," Milo said, completely neglecting the fact that he had already made plans to spend the day with Harry. "We'll go together to talk to your mum."
He couldn't deny how happy it made him to see how happy Cedric became in a matter of seconds, knowing that he was going to have someone to support him during that time, and more importantly, that someone was Milo. Cedric was happy enough that he pulled Milo forward to kiss him, but Milo stopped him, placing his hand up to block him.
"What's wrong?" Cedric asked with a confused look. Milo turned a light shade of pink.
"I have morning breath, Cedric."
Cedric let out a laugh before pulling Milo into him once more and pushing the boy's hand down. Milo thought he was going to go for a second attempt at kissing him on the lips again, but Cedric had a different plan as he kissed the side of Milo's neck. It caused the boy's breath to hitch in his throat as he felt a tingling sensation wash over his entire body. However, Cedric seemed to enjoy the reaction as he continued to place kisses all over Milo's neck and jawline. Fearful that someone would walk in and see the scene, Milo glanced around, only to be directed back to look directly at Cedric.
"They've already gone to breakfast," Cedric informed him, "it's fine. Relax, Milo."
Meanwhile, Milo didn't understand how he was supposed to relax when his entire body was on fire just from Cedric's touch alone. As Cedric continued with his soft kisses against Milo's skin, he continued to mumble "relax" and eventually, Milo stopped worrying about someone coming in. He couldn't get any of his thoughts straight long enough to focus on anything else besides the feeling of Cedric's lips that he desperately wanted to kiss, but he didn't want to kill Cedric with his morning breath. Although at one point, Cedric honestly didn't seem to care as he kissed Milo on the mouth without any sort of hesitation. Milo's mind went completely blank and he didn't even know where he was for a moment.
Harry, who?