HP Fic: If It Were Up to Me (I Would Leave It Up to You), Harry/Cedric, 1/1
Title: If It Were Up to Me (I Would Leave It Up to You)
Author: downjune
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Cedric/Harry
Rating: R
Summary: Despite the fact that he's newly employed at Hogwarts, Cedric receives an invitation from Harry to the Eighth Year Halloween bonfire. Against his better judgment, he attends. With Luna in charge of his costume, what could go wrong?
Word Count: 3700
Warnings/Content: none
Author's notes: My samhain_smut fic! Title from Elvis Perkins, clever devil. It's been so long since I've posted in this fandom! The fic is a kind of sequel to I'll Just Begin Again and is in the same universe as If the Walls Were too Thin .
Cedric had never been very good at Halloween. He didn't like fancy dress parties; he didn't like pranks; he didn't even care for sweets. Put together, he could have had as bad a reputation as Hermione Granger for a being a general wet blanket and ruiner-of-fun.
Luckily, Cedric was better at faking it than Hermione. Before the war and the end of everyone's childhood, Cedric dressed as his favorite Quidditch player, let his friends pull the pranks, and only participated enough to keep from becoming the victim of one. Basically, he smiled his way through the night. Cedric was very aware of what his smile could get him.
But he was Hogwarts staff now-if only part time. He was supposed to be in the clear. He was too old for Halloween, and until Harry and Luna showed up at his office door, he'd been very much looking forward to having the night off, reading a book and going to bed.
He blinked as Harry fumbled his way through an invitation to the bonfire down by the forest Halloween night. By the end of his stilted offer, they were both flustered and Luna, with her arm through Harry's, looked to be the only thing keeping him from bolting back down the corridor. When Cedric looked to his childhood friend and neighbor for an explanation, she shrugged and smiled.
"We'd really like it if you came, Cedric. Harry especially would, though he's too afraid to say that."
At her words, Harry's eyes went comically wide behind his glasses and he elbowed her sharply in the ribs. She let out a quiet 'oof' but didn't seem bothered.
"I-I'm flattered," Cedric started. "But you don't want me at your party. I'm older than everyone and I-I'm a teacher now. It'd be uncomfortable, wouldn't it?"
"No," Luna promptly answered. "And you're only teaching First and Second Years. You're not Harry's teacher, are you?"
Harry elbowed her again, and then cleared his throat, apparently ready to speak on his own behalf. "There won't be many of us-just those who came back for our last year, Luna, Ginny, and a few others. Everyone'd miss you if you didn't come."
Cedric shrugged, uncomfortable with the idea but loathe to disappoint Harry. Since the start of term, they'd hardly had any time together, not like it had been over the summer, working shoulder-to-shoulder along with everyone else to rebuild the school in time for the start of classes. Then, they'd spent all day in each other's company, exhausted, sunburnt, and stupidly happy to both be alive and all in one piece.
"All right," he finally said. "Maybe I'll come for a bit. The cold and damp doesn't do much for my leg, though. And I don't want to wear a costume."
"Sorry, but you have to," Luna piped up. "It's a Halloween bonfire. I can help you-I'm very good with costume ideas."
Next to her, Harry barked a laugh. "Luna, I don't think Cedric wants to dress as bird of paradise or a spotted owl. Brilliant as those costumes are."
Cedric nodded. "Yeah, no offense, of course."
Luna gave a delicate shrug. "None taken. And you couldn't be a bird of paradise or a spotted owl, because those are Neville's and my costumes. But I have lots of other ideas."
Grinning up at Cedric, Harry backed away, hands shoved into his pockets. "Well then, I'll leave you to it. I'll see you Friday, Diggory."
"Yeah..." Cedric trailed off, feeling a bit helpless. Luna didn't show any signs of leaving so, with a sigh, he invited her into his office.
"Don't worry," she said. "We can think of something that will make you look very handsome-or rakish, if you prefer. You'd be quite dashing as a vampire, I think."
~*~
In the end, he wasn't a vampire because vampires couldn't take their pale skin and fangs off and on like a costume, so Luna decided it would be in poor taste to pretend to be one just for a night. Instead, he went to the bonfire dressed as a 1950s greaser which, Luna assured him, was even sexier than a vampire.
The weather that night was cold and damp, just as Cedric knew it would be, so his leg ached even after the pain potion Pomfrey had given him. And even though it kind of ruined the look of his costume, he brought his cane because he didn't want his knee to buckle halfway down the hill. Tumbling into the bonfire was not the kind of entrance he wanted to make.
Thankfully, there were a few Hufflepuffs gathered around the fire so Cedric was able to gravitate to his old house and avoid awkward chitchat with people he didn't know very well. He grinned when Luna arrived with Neville, enormous orange beak protruding from her forehead. Neville, in his slightly more subdued owl costume appeared to be puzzling over how he would kiss her without injuring himself.
Hermione and Ron came shortly thereafter, bickering as usual. Hermione looked fantastic in her suit of armor and Ron actually made a convincing damsel in distress. Cedric supposed that, since Hermione seemed to have gotten over her dislike of Halloween, he could make an effort as well.
When he caught sight of Harry, though, Cedric lost all interest in anyone else's costume or subject of conversation. He was coming down the hill talking animatedly with Dean Thomas and, done in white makeup, Harry's face had been turned into an anatomically correct skull. The hollows of his cheek bones and eyes, the sharp line of his jaw all done in glowing white paint made him at once striking and terrifying.
Then Harry spotted him and grinned, his mouth all teeth. Cedric waved and started toward him, picking his way around Eighth Years, the odd Seventh Year, and their various extra appendages or parts of wardrobe.
"Hello, Harry," he finally said, tucking his cane behind him and leaning on his good leg.
"Cedric-hi!" Harry replied. "You look-you look fantastic!"
Glancing down at his black leather jacket and his dark blue jeans - painstakingly transfigured from an old coat and pair of trousers - he smiled and flushed. "Thanks. Luna really does know her stuff, apparently."
"Yeah, she does," Harry agreed, still unabashedly looking him over.
Flushing, Cedric gestured at Harry's own costume. "Did you come up with this yourself? It's really something."
Harry looked down at his black jumper and trousers and Cedric noticed his hands were also covered in the eerily glowing paint, the bones drawn on in painstaking detail. "Not really, no," he answered. "Dean's practicing on anyone who'll let him. He's applying for theatre work in London."
"Brilliant. It's amazing. You look-really scary and really cool."
"Thanks," Harry laughed. "They're supposed to look like X-rays."
Cedric nodded and tried not to remember those very unpleasant trips to a Muggle hospital, agreeing to let them re-brake his leg in hopes of getting it to heal straighter, and staring at X-ray after X-ray, despairing of ever running another step in his life. Harry'd been there with Cedric's parents, shepherding them through the whole process. Hermione, too, because she was better at talking to doctors.
"Anyway," Harry continued, bringing Cedric back to the present, "I'm crap at costumes, just like you. Give me a name tag that says 'Hello, my name is Steve,' and I'm happy."
Chuckling, Cedric tried to run his fingers through his hair, got them stuck in the gel Luna had put in, and settled for smoothing it over with his palm. When he abruptly could think of nothing to say to the beautiful happy boy in front of him, Harry saved him by making a bit of his own awkward conversation.
"How are your classes going? Do you like teaching? I don't ever get to talk to you now term's started."
"Oh, it's brilliant," Cedric hastily answered. "Really great." He smiled. "And obviously terrifying. Twelve-year-olds are awful."
Harry laughed. "Yeah, I reckon. There wasn't much to like about being twelve. Or thirteen. Or anything less than eighteen, from what I can tell."
"Well, and you at least had Voldemort to worry about. All my students have are hormones and short attention spans."
"And they're probably completely mad for you," Harry said, flushing as soon as the words were out of his mouth. "I-I mean..." He ran a hand through his hair and caught Cedric's eye. "I would have been. If you were my teacher."
Impressed by Harry's candor, and not a little turned on by it, Cedric looked at his feet to hide his grin. "I'm flattered. And, yeah, a few of the girls look at me like they don't quite know what to do, but most of them are only worried about who'll go with them to Hogsmeade."
"None of the boys, then?"
Cedric stiffened and blinked at Harry, searching his face warily. They'd been circling around this for months-since the end of the war, since the long spring and summer spent rebuilding, since Ginny had gone back with Dean.
But for Cedric it'd been longer than months. It'd been since a muddy graveyard, curse fire, and hands fisted in shirts, refusing to be dragged apart even after the Portkey had taken them back to the start of the maze. It'd been since all those hospital visits after the tournament. It'd been since they formed Dumbledore's Army, since they started teaching defensive spells together. It'd been since Order meetings hunched over the table at Grimmauld Place.
The truth was, he'd been a goner since Harry was fourteen with stupid hair and a hero complex. He did not want to fuck around about this. He did not want to joke about this. He was almost 21 and he'd been in love long enough to feel both old and cynical and also completely out of his depth. Declarations of gay love were not something to be taken lightly.
"Er-no. No boys," he said finally. "I don't think most teenagers are prepared to-to make themselves vulnerable like that. I mean-would you have when you were that age? Would you have admitted anything like that?"
"God, no," Harry answered quickly, looking a little panicked. "I could barely speak in complete sentences. It would have a been a disaster. And I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable or unprofessional or anything. I'm sorry." He put his painted hands in his pockets. "I only wanted to make you laugh and pay you a complement. A poorly executed complement."
Huffing a laugh, Cedric relaxed a bit, feeling better about where this seemed to be headed.
"Well, despite the poorly executed complement, and that stumbling invite earlier in the week, I think you've gotten better at the complete sentences bit. You might be well on your way to smooth, Potter."
Harry's whole face lit up. "Yeah?" he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Thanks, Diggory."
Cedric nodded his acknowledgment and cast his eyes around the small gathering. He spotted a bottle of Fire Whiskey being passed around, an open case of Butter Beer, and a cauldron of sweets set a safe distance back from the fire.
"Can I, um, can I get you a drink, then?" Harry eventually asked, taking a step closer so that their shoulders brushed.
Smiling, Cedric leaned into him. "Speaking of smooth." He frowned as Ginny took a good swig from the bottle. "And I'll just pretend I don't see that Fire Whiskey," he added.
Shrugging, Harry gave him a rueful grin. "They just know you're one of us, is all."
"Or they don't really consider me a teacher."
Bending down to grab two bottles of Butter Beer, Harry handed one to Cedric. "Bollocks," he said. "Everyone knows you're developing one of the most useful and most difficult classes ever taught at Hogwarts. It drives Hermione mad that she's rubbish at it. You've got her respect. And everyone else's, trust me."
Cedric took a swallow of his drink. "Thanks," he said, looking down.
"And, um, I'm always impressed at what you can do. I think it's amazing."
"Now you're just trying to make me feel better."
Harry grinned. "Of course, I am. What kind of friend would I be if I weren't?" Fidgeting with the bottle, Harry said, "Would you, um, would you do some for me now. Something just for me?"
Cedric returned Harry's smile, admired how wild and strange it was with the glowing painted bones. "All right," he said, feeling a little breathless. "I can-"
He put his hand out, feeling for Harry's magic, for the magic that inhabited the air and the ground and the fibers of his clothes. Then he rested his hand on Harry's chest. He felt the soft wool of Harry's jumper and his thumping heart underneath. "I can't-" he started, already coaxing the wool into something else. "I can't do what Dean does, but I-" He exhaled as the material began to settle into its new shape. When he took his hand away, he breathed a laugh, and so did Harry when he looked down and saw the shape of a heart, as white as the bones painted onto his skin.
"It's not anatomically correct, obviously," Cedric hedged. "I'm not that good."
Harry rubbed his fingers over the new fabric. "But you changed the wool to cotton-that's really good! And you gave me a heart," he added, looking up with another toothy grin. "That's, um, that's really romantic."
Cedric glanced around, giddy and uneasy all at the same time. "Is it?"
"I'm quite sure it is," Harry said, certain.
And then Harry tried to kiss him-grabbed his arm, leaned up, closed his eyes, the whole bit.
Cedric started so badly his knee almost buckled. He stumbled back but managed to stay upright with Harry's hand gripping his elbow.
"Fuck," Harry swore, "I'm sorry." Once Cedric had his balance, Harry backed off a step. "God, I'm so sorry-I thought. I thought you wanted-"
Putting out a hand to quiet him, Cedric kept his voice low, instinctively scanning the small crowd to see if anyone had noticed. "No, it's okay. You just startled me, and I-" He finally looked Harry in the eye, found him flushed around the edges of the makeup, and maybe a little heartbroken. "I do want to, Harry," he said quietly. "Just not here, not where people can-"
"Not where people can see? These are our friends, Cedric. They won't mind; they know I'm-"
"No, you don't know that," Cedric interrupted. "This isn't-" Cedric looked around again. There were definitely people watching, now. "No one does this here. We would be the only ones."
"What?" Harry blinked at him. "Have you been counting or something? Looking for gay kids at Hogwarts?"
"Yes." Cedric desperately wanted that whiskey now. It didn't seem to matter that Harry was finally ready to snog him senseless-the idea of anyone seeing it happen was actually much more terrifying than Cedric had thought it would be.
"There are others," Harry said, stepping squarely in front of him and redirecting his attention. "I promise."
Cedric exhaled through his nose. "Look, you may not know this about me, Potter, but I like being liked. It's important that people like me."
"I had noticed," Harry said with a wry smile.
"Well, and so, getting people to like you generally requires doing what they expect you to do. I'm not-good at surprising people, Harry. I don't like doing it."
Nodding, Harry glanced around at the small gathering. "But-you do like me, don't you? I'm not imagining that part?"
Cedric shook his head. "Definitely not imagining it."
"Right, then." Putting down his drink, Harry reached into his back pocket and pulled out the shimmering length of his invisibility cloak. Then, with an expert flick of his wrist, he draped it over the both of them. The firelight instantly dimmed, though Harry's face still glowed.
Shuffling closer, Cedric ducked down so his feet didn't show. Harry held the cloak closed over their heads and put his other hand on Cedric's side, just up under his jacket. "How's this?" he asked. "Better?"
"A bit, yeah," Cedric answered, looking up at the strange filmy material. "Are you not afraid, then? Of what people will think? You're a student, Harry, and I'm a... bloody hell, I'm a teacher. What if someone found out-I could be sacked."
Harry blinked at him as though he were speaking German. "You're not even three years older than I am."
"So? I can't be with a student!"
Harry snorted a laugh. "Oh, come on, I'm barely a student. I'm a fake student. I only came back to be with my friends-to stay close to you. I'll sit my N.E.W.T.s next week and be finished if that'll make you feel better."
"You can't do that! You'll never pass if you take them now."
Harry rolled his eyes so hard, his whole head moved. "Oh my god, you're as bad as Hermione." His fingers clenched on Cedric's waist, almost ticklish. He fixed Cedric with a look that made his insides spin and crash around like wind-up toys. "Cedric. I don't care about the sodding N.E.W.T.s, and I don't care that you teach wandless magic to eleven-year-olds. And I don't think McGonagall will mind at all if we have loads of sex in the privacy of your room. But we can ask, if you like." He lifted his eyebrows. "Or we could get out of here, yeah? I'll take you-we can go anywhere you want."
Cedric's mouth hung open a little and he couldn't seem to recollect any other place on the planet outside the small space they occupied. Harry was grinning at him, hopeful and clearly besotted. Finally, Cedric sucked in a quick breath. "All right. We can go to my room. If you want."
Not bothering to answer, Harry gave him a gentle shove back towards the school. When they'd got beyond the reach of the firelight, Harry let the cloak fall away from them. Resolve strengthening with every step they took, Cedric grabbed his hand and pulled him along even faster.
~*~
As firsts went, Cedric and Harry blew through them all in about twenty minutes, barely pausing for breath. First kiss, first grope, first dry hump, first blowjob-never let it be said that a Hufflepuff didn't follow through on their commitments.
No sooner had the door closed behind them than Cedric grabbed Harry and hustled him to the bed, pushed him down onto it, and looked for skin as quick as he could. This was no easy task given that once they'd started kissing, neither had the inclination to stop, even for clothes.
When Cedric had the warm skin of Harry's stomach under his palm, shuddering with his breath and damp with sweat, he lost his head a bit, rolling them on the bed just so that he could feel Harry on top of him, their bellies pressed flush together. He grabbed Harry's arse through his trousers and arched up into him, the friction sparking through his nervous system like a lit fuse. Harry grunted, breathed into his mouth, and let his hips stutter against Cedric's. Eyes closed tight, he palmed the back of Cedric's skull and pressed their foreheads together.
"Oh, fuck, I can't-" He stiffened above Cedric and kissed him hard on the mouth, breath huffing in and out through his nose. Cedric stilled, wanting to feel Harry come, but there were too many layers between them, so when Harry finally slumped against him, Cedric rolled him onto his back and peeled off his trousers and pants. He pulled out Harry's softening cock and wiped his fingers through the mess of spunk stuck to his skin. Harry watched him do it with heavy-lidded eyes, hissing when Cedric stroked him a few times, just to know what it felt like.
Harry's fingers curled weakly against Cedric's fly, but he grinned when Cedric knelt up and wriggled out of his jeans. Pushing himself up to a seated position, Harry greedily eyed Cedric's cock and leaned forward to take it into his mouth, licking and sucking with obscene enthusiasm. Cedric put his hands on Harry's shoulders and just tried to hang on.
~*~
Sometimes Cedric felt much older than 20-the old leg injury, the war, his job. They all contributed to an early adult perspective on the world.
Sometimes Cedric forgot that he was still basically a teenager, and that Harry was, too.
That night, Cedric vowed to take full advantage of his and Harry's impressive recovery time for as long as it lasted. They'd managed to rescue the future of the Wizarding world from the jaws of a completely psychotic megalomaniac-that future was going to be filled with sex if Cedric had anything to say about it. Sex and nakedness and Harry's breath on the back of his neck and the taste of salt on skin.
Lying together on Cedric's thoroughly soiled bed, jaw aching pleasantly, Cedric traced the arc of Harry's cheekbone and realized that the makeup hadn't smudged even a little. Cedric's hair was a total disaster, but the skull remained intact, ghostly white over his skin.
"Does this actually come off? It's still perfect. I don't think any even got on me."
Making a contented humming noise, Harry wiped his hand down over his face. "I forgot it was there. Dean said he'd have to take the makeup off for me-it's charmed to resist pretty much everything. I'll have to tell him it's a success."
Thumbing at Harry's chin, Cedric suddenly wanted very much to see Harry's face without the makeup. "I could take it off for you."
Blinking his eyes open, Harry smiled up at him. "Yeah? Without taking off a layer of skin, I hope."
"What do you think I am-some kind of amateur?" he asked, scooting closer and pressing his palm along the side of Harry's face. All it took was a bit of persuasion, and Cedric felt the magic give, the makeup coming away in his hand. Running his fingers gently over Harry's nose and chin and eyelids, Cedric looked down at their bodies, saw Harry getting hard again, and grinned, ducking his head to kiss the line of his now-clean jaw.
It was official. Halloween was the greatest holiday in the history of holidays.
Author: downjune
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Cedric/Harry
Rating: R
Summary: Despite the fact that he's newly employed at Hogwarts, Cedric receives an invitation from Harry to the Eighth Year Halloween bonfire. Against his better judgment, he attends. With Luna in charge of his costume, what could go wrong?
Word Count: 3700
Warnings/Content: none
Author's notes: My samhain_smut fic! Title from Elvis Perkins, clever devil. It's been so long since I've posted in this fandom! The fic is a kind of sequel to I'll Just Begin Again and is in the same universe as If the Walls Were too Thin .
Cedric had never been very good at Halloween. He didn't like fancy dress parties; he didn't like pranks; he didn't even care for sweets. Put together, he could have had as bad a reputation as Hermione Granger for a being a general wet blanket and ruiner-of-fun.
Luckily, Cedric was better at faking it than Hermione. Before the war and the end of everyone's childhood, Cedric dressed as his favorite Quidditch player, let his friends pull the pranks, and only participated enough to keep from becoming the victim of one. Basically, he smiled his way through the night. Cedric was very aware of what his smile could get him.
But he was Hogwarts staff now-if only part time. He was supposed to be in the clear. He was too old for Halloween, and until Harry and Luna showed up at his office door, he'd been very much looking forward to having the night off, reading a book and going to bed.
He blinked as Harry fumbled his way through an invitation to the bonfire down by the forest Halloween night. By the end of his stilted offer, they were both flustered and Luna, with her arm through Harry's, looked to be the only thing keeping him from bolting back down the corridor. When Cedric looked to his childhood friend and neighbor for an explanation, she shrugged and smiled.
"We'd really like it if you came, Cedric. Harry especially would, though he's too afraid to say that."
At her words, Harry's eyes went comically wide behind his glasses and he elbowed her sharply in the ribs. She let out a quiet 'oof' but didn't seem bothered.
"I-I'm flattered," Cedric started. "But you don't want me at your party. I'm older than everyone and I-I'm a teacher now. It'd be uncomfortable, wouldn't it?"
"No," Luna promptly answered. "And you're only teaching First and Second Years. You're not Harry's teacher, are you?"
Harry elbowed her again, and then cleared his throat, apparently ready to speak on his own behalf. "There won't be many of us-just those who came back for our last year, Luna, Ginny, and a few others. Everyone'd miss you if you didn't come."
Cedric shrugged, uncomfortable with the idea but loathe to disappoint Harry. Since the start of term, they'd hardly had any time together, not like it had been over the summer, working shoulder-to-shoulder along with everyone else to rebuild the school in time for the start of classes. Then, they'd spent all day in each other's company, exhausted, sunburnt, and stupidly happy to both be alive and all in one piece.
"All right," he finally said. "Maybe I'll come for a bit. The cold and damp doesn't do much for my leg, though. And I don't want to wear a costume."
"Sorry, but you have to," Luna piped up. "It's a Halloween bonfire. I can help you-I'm very good with costume ideas."
Next to her, Harry barked a laugh. "Luna, I don't think Cedric wants to dress as bird of paradise or a spotted owl. Brilliant as those costumes are."
Cedric nodded. "Yeah, no offense, of course."
Luna gave a delicate shrug. "None taken. And you couldn't be a bird of paradise or a spotted owl, because those are Neville's and my costumes. But I have lots of other ideas."
Grinning up at Cedric, Harry backed away, hands shoved into his pockets. "Well then, I'll leave you to it. I'll see you Friday, Diggory."
"Yeah..." Cedric trailed off, feeling a bit helpless. Luna didn't show any signs of leaving so, with a sigh, he invited her into his office.
"Don't worry," she said. "We can think of something that will make you look very handsome-or rakish, if you prefer. You'd be quite dashing as a vampire, I think."
~*~
In the end, he wasn't a vampire because vampires couldn't take their pale skin and fangs off and on like a costume, so Luna decided it would be in poor taste to pretend to be one just for a night. Instead, he went to the bonfire dressed as a 1950s greaser which, Luna assured him, was even sexier than a vampire.
The weather that night was cold and damp, just as Cedric knew it would be, so his leg ached even after the pain potion Pomfrey had given him. And even though it kind of ruined the look of his costume, he brought his cane because he didn't want his knee to buckle halfway down the hill. Tumbling into the bonfire was not the kind of entrance he wanted to make.
Thankfully, there were a few Hufflepuffs gathered around the fire so Cedric was able to gravitate to his old house and avoid awkward chitchat with people he didn't know very well. He grinned when Luna arrived with Neville, enormous orange beak protruding from her forehead. Neville, in his slightly more subdued owl costume appeared to be puzzling over how he would kiss her without injuring himself.
Hermione and Ron came shortly thereafter, bickering as usual. Hermione looked fantastic in her suit of armor and Ron actually made a convincing damsel in distress. Cedric supposed that, since Hermione seemed to have gotten over her dislike of Halloween, he could make an effort as well.
When he caught sight of Harry, though, Cedric lost all interest in anyone else's costume or subject of conversation. He was coming down the hill talking animatedly with Dean Thomas and, done in white makeup, Harry's face had been turned into an anatomically correct skull. The hollows of his cheek bones and eyes, the sharp line of his jaw all done in glowing white paint made him at once striking and terrifying.
Then Harry spotted him and grinned, his mouth all teeth. Cedric waved and started toward him, picking his way around Eighth Years, the odd Seventh Year, and their various extra appendages or parts of wardrobe.
"Hello, Harry," he finally said, tucking his cane behind him and leaning on his good leg.
"Cedric-hi!" Harry replied. "You look-you look fantastic!"
Glancing down at his black leather jacket and his dark blue jeans - painstakingly transfigured from an old coat and pair of trousers - he smiled and flushed. "Thanks. Luna really does know her stuff, apparently."
"Yeah, she does," Harry agreed, still unabashedly looking him over.
Flushing, Cedric gestured at Harry's own costume. "Did you come up with this yourself? It's really something."
Harry looked down at his black jumper and trousers and Cedric noticed his hands were also covered in the eerily glowing paint, the bones drawn on in painstaking detail. "Not really, no," he answered. "Dean's practicing on anyone who'll let him. He's applying for theatre work in London."
"Brilliant. It's amazing. You look-really scary and really cool."
"Thanks," Harry laughed. "They're supposed to look like X-rays."
Cedric nodded and tried not to remember those very unpleasant trips to a Muggle hospital, agreeing to let them re-brake his leg in hopes of getting it to heal straighter, and staring at X-ray after X-ray, despairing of ever running another step in his life. Harry'd been there with Cedric's parents, shepherding them through the whole process. Hermione, too, because she was better at talking to doctors.
"Anyway," Harry continued, bringing Cedric back to the present, "I'm crap at costumes, just like you. Give me a name tag that says 'Hello, my name is Steve,' and I'm happy."
Chuckling, Cedric tried to run his fingers through his hair, got them stuck in the gel Luna had put in, and settled for smoothing it over with his palm. When he abruptly could think of nothing to say to the beautiful happy boy in front of him, Harry saved him by making a bit of his own awkward conversation.
"How are your classes going? Do you like teaching? I don't ever get to talk to you now term's started."
"Oh, it's brilliant," Cedric hastily answered. "Really great." He smiled. "And obviously terrifying. Twelve-year-olds are awful."
Harry laughed. "Yeah, I reckon. There wasn't much to like about being twelve. Or thirteen. Or anything less than eighteen, from what I can tell."
"Well, and you at least had Voldemort to worry about. All my students have are hormones and short attention spans."
"And they're probably completely mad for you," Harry said, flushing as soon as the words were out of his mouth. "I-I mean..." He ran a hand through his hair and caught Cedric's eye. "I would have been. If you were my teacher."
Impressed by Harry's candor, and not a little turned on by it, Cedric looked at his feet to hide his grin. "I'm flattered. And, yeah, a few of the girls look at me like they don't quite know what to do, but most of them are only worried about who'll go with them to Hogsmeade."
"None of the boys, then?"
Cedric stiffened and blinked at Harry, searching his face warily. They'd been circling around this for months-since the end of the war, since the long spring and summer spent rebuilding, since Ginny had gone back with Dean.
But for Cedric it'd been longer than months. It'd been since a muddy graveyard, curse fire, and hands fisted in shirts, refusing to be dragged apart even after the Portkey had taken them back to the start of the maze. It'd been since all those hospital visits after the tournament. It'd been since they formed Dumbledore's Army, since they started teaching defensive spells together. It'd been since Order meetings hunched over the table at Grimmauld Place.
The truth was, he'd been a goner since Harry was fourteen with stupid hair and a hero complex. He did not want to fuck around about this. He did not want to joke about this. He was almost 21 and he'd been in love long enough to feel both old and cynical and also completely out of his depth. Declarations of gay love were not something to be taken lightly.
"Er-no. No boys," he said finally. "I don't think most teenagers are prepared to-to make themselves vulnerable like that. I mean-would you have when you were that age? Would you have admitted anything like that?"
"God, no," Harry answered quickly, looking a little panicked. "I could barely speak in complete sentences. It would have a been a disaster. And I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable or unprofessional or anything. I'm sorry." He put his painted hands in his pockets. "I only wanted to make you laugh and pay you a complement. A poorly executed complement."
Huffing a laugh, Cedric relaxed a bit, feeling better about where this seemed to be headed.
"Well, despite the poorly executed complement, and that stumbling invite earlier in the week, I think you've gotten better at the complete sentences bit. You might be well on your way to smooth, Potter."
Harry's whole face lit up. "Yeah?" he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Thanks, Diggory."
Cedric nodded his acknowledgment and cast his eyes around the small gathering. He spotted a bottle of Fire Whiskey being passed around, an open case of Butter Beer, and a cauldron of sweets set a safe distance back from the fire.
"Can I, um, can I get you a drink, then?" Harry eventually asked, taking a step closer so that their shoulders brushed.
Smiling, Cedric leaned into him. "Speaking of smooth." He frowned as Ginny took a good swig from the bottle. "And I'll just pretend I don't see that Fire Whiskey," he added.
Shrugging, Harry gave him a rueful grin. "They just know you're one of us, is all."
"Or they don't really consider me a teacher."
Bending down to grab two bottles of Butter Beer, Harry handed one to Cedric. "Bollocks," he said. "Everyone knows you're developing one of the most useful and most difficult classes ever taught at Hogwarts. It drives Hermione mad that she's rubbish at it. You've got her respect. And everyone else's, trust me."
Cedric took a swallow of his drink. "Thanks," he said, looking down.
"And, um, I'm always impressed at what you can do. I think it's amazing."
"Now you're just trying to make me feel better."
Harry grinned. "Of course, I am. What kind of friend would I be if I weren't?" Fidgeting with the bottle, Harry said, "Would you, um, would you do some for me now. Something just for me?"
Cedric returned Harry's smile, admired how wild and strange it was with the glowing painted bones. "All right," he said, feeling a little breathless. "I can-"
He put his hand out, feeling for Harry's magic, for the magic that inhabited the air and the ground and the fibers of his clothes. Then he rested his hand on Harry's chest. He felt the soft wool of Harry's jumper and his thumping heart underneath. "I can't-" he started, already coaxing the wool into something else. "I can't do what Dean does, but I-" He exhaled as the material began to settle into its new shape. When he took his hand away, he breathed a laugh, and so did Harry when he looked down and saw the shape of a heart, as white as the bones painted onto his skin.
"It's not anatomically correct, obviously," Cedric hedged. "I'm not that good."
Harry rubbed his fingers over the new fabric. "But you changed the wool to cotton-that's really good! And you gave me a heart," he added, looking up with another toothy grin. "That's, um, that's really romantic."
Cedric glanced around, giddy and uneasy all at the same time. "Is it?"
"I'm quite sure it is," Harry said, certain.
And then Harry tried to kiss him-grabbed his arm, leaned up, closed his eyes, the whole bit.
Cedric started so badly his knee almost buckled. He stumbled back but managed to stay upright with Harry's hand gripping his elbow.
"Fuck," Harry swore, "I'm sorry." Once Cedric had his balance, Harry backed off a step. "God, I'm so sorry-I thought. I thought you wanted-"
Putting out a hand to quiet him, Cedric kept his voice low, instinctively scanning the small crowd to see if anyone had noticed. "No, it's okay. You just startled me, and I-" He finally looked Harry in the eye, found him flushed around the edges of the makeup, and maybe a little heartbroken. "I do want to, Harry," he said quietly. "Just not here, not where people can-"
"Not where people can see? These are our friends, Cedric. They won't mind; they know I'm-"
"No, you don't know that," Cedric interrupted. "This isn't-" Cedric looked around again. There were definitely people watching, now. "No one does this here. We would be the only ones."
"What?" Harry blinked at him. "Have you been counting or something? Looking for gay kids at Hogwarts?"
"Yes." Cedric desperately wanted that whiskey now. It didn't seem to matter that Harry was finally ready to snog him senseless-the idea of anyone seeing it happen was actually much more terrifying than Cedric had thought it would be.
"There are others," Harry said, stepping squarely in front of him and redirecting his attention. "I promise."
Cedric exhaled through his nose. "Look, you may not know this about me, Potter, but I like being liked. It's important that people like me."
"I had noticed," Harry said with a wry smile.
"Well, and so, getting people to like you generally requires doing what they expect you to do. I'm not-good at surprising people, Harry. I don't like doing it."
Nodding, Harry glanced around at the small gathering. "But-you do like me, don't you? I'm not imagining that part?"
Cedric shook his head. "Definitely not imagining it."
"Right, then." Putting down his drink, Harry reached into his back pocket and pulled out the shimmering length of his invisibility cloak. Then, with an expert flick of his wrist, he draped it over the both of them. The firelight instantly dimmed, though Harry's face still glowed.
Shuffling closer, Cedric ducked down so his feet didn't show. Harry held the cloak closed over their heads and put his other hand on Cedric's side, just up under his jacket. "How's this?" he asked. "Better?"
"A bit, yeah," Cedric answered, looking up at the strange filmy material. "Are you not afraid, then? Of what people will think? You're a student, Harry, and I'm a... bloody hell, I'm a teacher. What if someone found out-I could be sacked."
Harry blinked at him as though he were speaking German. "You're not even three years older than I am."
"So? I can't be with a student!"
Harry snorted a laugh. "Oh, come on, I'm barely a student. I'm a fake student. I only came back to be with my friends-to stay close to you. I'll sit my N.E.W.T.s next week and be finished if that'll make you feel better."
"You can't do that! You'll never pass if you take them now."
Harry rolled his eyes so hard, his whole head moved. "Oh my god, you're as bad as Hermione." His fingers clenched on Cedric's waist, almost ticklish. He fixed Cedric with a look that made his insides spin and crash around like wind-up toys. "Cedric. I don't care about the sodding N.E.W.T.s, and I don't care that you teach wandless magic to eleven-year-olds. And I don't think McGonagall will mind at all if we have loads of sex in the privacy of your room. But we can ask, if you like." He lifted his eyebrows. "Or we could get out of here, yeah? I'll take you-we can go anywhere you want."
Cedric's mouth hung open a little and he couldn't seem to recollect any other place on the planet outside the small space they occupied. Harry was grinning at him, hopeful and clearly besotted. Finally, Cedric sucked in a quick breath. "All right. We can go to my room. If you want."
Not bothering to answer, Harry gave him a gentle shove back towards the school. When they'd got beyond the reach of the firelight, Harry let the cloak fall away from them. Resolve strengthening with every step they took, Cedric grabbed his hand and pulled him along even faster.
~*~
As firsts went, Cedric and Harry blew through them all in about twenty minutes, barely pausing for breath. First kiss, first grope, first dry hump, first blowjob-never let it be said that a Hufflepuff didn't follow through on their commitments.
No sooner had the door closed behind them than Cedric grabbed Harry and hustled him to the bed, pushed him down onto it, and looked for skin as quick as he could. This was no easy task given that once they'd started kissing, neither had the inclination to stop, even for clothes.
When Cedric had the warm skin of Harry's stomach under his palm, shuddering with his breath and damp with sweat, he lost his head a bit, rolling them on the bed just so that he could feel Harry on top of him, their bellies pressed flush together. He grabbed Harry's arse through his trousers and arched up into him, the friction sparking through his nervous system like a lit fuse. Harry grunted, breathed into his mouth, and let his hips stutter against Cedric's. Eyes closed tight, he palmed the back of Cedric's skull and pressed their foreheads together.
"Oh, fuck, I can't-" He stiffened above Cedric and kissed him hard on the mouth, breath huffing in and out through his nose. Cedric stilled, wanting to feel Harry come, but there were too many layers between them, so when Harry finally slumped against him, Cedric rolled him onto his back and peeled off his trousers and pants. He pulled out Harry's softening cock and wiped his fingers through the mess of spunk stuck to his skin. Harry watched him do it with heavy-lidded eyes, hissing when Cedric stroked him a few times, just to know what it felt like.
Harry's fingers curled weakly against Cedric's fly, but he grinned when Cedric knelt up and wriggled out of his jeans. Pushing himself up to a seated position, Harry greedily eyed Cedric's cock and leaned forward to take it into his mouth, licking and sucking with obscene enthusiasm. Cedric put his hands on Harry's shoulders and just tried to hang on.
~*~
Sometimes Cedric felt much older than 20-the old leg injury, the war, his job. They all contributed to an early adult perspective on the world.
Sometimes Cedric forgot that he was still basically a teenager, and that Harry was, too.
That night, Cedric vowed to take full advantage of his and Harry's impressive recovery time for as long as it lasted. They'd managed to rescue the future of the Wizarding world from the jaws of a completely psychotic megalomaniac-that future was going to be filled with sex if Cedric had anything to say about it. Sex and nakedness and Harry's breath on the back of his neck and the taste of salt on skin.
Lying together on Cedric's thoroughly soiled bed, jaw aching pleasantly, Cedric traced the arc of Harry's cheekbone and realized that the makeup hadn't smudged even a little. Cedric's hair was a total disaster, but the skull remained intact, ghostly white over his skin.
"Does this actually come off? It's still perfect. I don't think any even got on me."
Making a contented humming noise, Harry wiped his hand down over his face. "I forgot it was there. Dean said he'd have to take the makeup off for me-it's charmed to resist pretty much everything. I'll have to tell him it's a success."
Thumbing at Harry's chin, Cedric suddenly wanted very much to see Harry's face without the makeup. "I could take it off for you."
Blinking his eyes open, Harry smiled up at him. "Yeah? Without taking off a layer of skin, I hope."
"What do you think I am-some kind of amateur?" he asked, scooting closer and pressing his palm along the side of Harry's face. All it took was a bit of persuasion, and Cedric felt the magic give, the makeup coming away in his hand. Running his fingers gently over Harry's nose and chin and eyelids, Cedric looked down at their bodies, saw Harry getting hard again, and grinned, ducking his head to kiss the line of his now-clean jaw.
It was official. Halloween was the greatest holiday in the history of holidays.