(no subject)
Title: The Ghost of Yesterday
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Cedric/Harry
Rating: G
Word count: 2,878
Warnings: This was written way before Deathly Hallows, and contains no spoilers.
This was written for a request that
chaeldub had posted in the amazing multifandom slash exchange community
slashfest.
Summary/Request: Deep in the Ministry, Harry finds that the Veil blows both ways. But after asking for his hearts desire, it is Cedric Diggory who walks back into his life.
***
Harry’s heart was pounding as he walked down the hallways of the Ministry of Magic. He hadn’t been there in years, and nothing around him seemed familiar. When he snapped out of his thoughts, he found himself walking down a long corridor. Everything around him was made out of stone, and there were no doors, paintings, or signs on the walls. Looking ahead, he realized that there was no end to the corridor, either.
The little hunched bespectacled man stopped abruptly and turned to face Harry.
“Yes, yes, this is it, Mr. Potter, yes. It’s right over here. Just wait a second.” The man took out his wand and started tracing a complicated design on the left wall. Harry watched him with surprise. “Ever since… er… five years ago and… er… You-Know-Who’s intrusion-“
“Voldemort,” Harry snapped and sighed. If he faced Voldemort for anything three years ago, it was for people to not be afraid to say Voldemort’s name again. The nervous little man was annoying him quite a lot, and he wished they would reach their destination soon.
“Of course, Mr. Potter!” the man replied hurriedly. “V-v-voldem-m-mort. Ever since his intrusion - you would know all about it, of course, Mr. Potter - the ministry took all possible precautions against it happening again, and now the Department of Mysteries is virtually impossible to break into without authorization.”
Finally, whatever the man was drawing was done. It was an extremely complicated design, and, though Harry wondered what it was supposed to represent, he didn’t care enough to ask. The sign glowed green for a few seconds, and then, with a ‘pop’, a painfully familiar black door was revealed on the opposite wall. The little man looked satisfied.
“Here you go, Mr. Potter,” the man announced cheerfully and nodded at the door. “I am not authorized to go through that door, so… er… this is where I leave you.”
“You don’t know what the whole fuss is regarding, do you?” Harry asked. He was surprised that the person who was trusted with being able to enter the Department of Mysteries was actually forbidden to do so. “I am not quite certain why I have been summoned here.”
The man smiled mysteriously and shook his head.
“There are people in there, Mr. Potter, who could… er… explain everything to you better than I can, I am sure.” He pointed at the door, and Harry realized that it was fading. “Please go on in, sir. You have only a limited amount of time left, and I will not be able to re-activate the door for you.” He smiled and bowed very low, as Harry put his hand on the handle and opened the door. “Good luck, Mr. Potter.”
***
“Harry, please, you have to say something. You’re scaring me!”
Hermione shook him by the sleeve roughly and frowned. Harry had stood in front of her and five others, who were all clad in black cloaks, black hoods covering their faces. Hermione was the only one with her hood down, and she was the only one who has been talking for the last hour. The other five stood motionless, not making a sound, almost as if wishing to create an illusion that they were not even there.
Harry had listened to Hermione attentively, without interrupting, as she went on and on with excitement shining in her eyes, but as he was not reacting, her excitement had started to wane. By the time she was finished, she looked angry and disappointed. To tell the truth, it wasn’t that Harry wasn’t excited. The moment she had revealed the big twist of their discovery, his heart plummeted, and he found taking breaths more and more difficult. He just couldn’t believe it. It sounded too… bizarre. Too good to be true.
Looking up into Hermione’s disappointed face, he made the utmost effort of snapping back to reality.
“Hermione… Are you sure?” he asked weakly, glancing nervously at the hooded figures standing around them. “Are you all sure this is possible?”
Hermione shook her head sadly. “We’re almost sure, Harry, but that’s better than nothing! As I told you, we had fohund the documents, and they plainly state that every five hundred years, this arch grants one wish to one person to bring one person from the other side.” She turned to look at the crumbling arch standing unsupported on the dais. “Most of the documents were ruined by the moisture that somehow got into the safe, so we weren’t able to decipher the papers that talked about what the other side is or how it all works, but it’s… it’s something, isn’t it?”
“How do you know this is true?” Harry shook his head. “It… It just doesn’t seem plausible to me, Hermione. I cannot accept that. And even if it was true, why me?” Harry addressed the immovable hooded figures. “Why me? Isn’t this supposed to be a matter of highest secrecy?”
“They’re not going to answer you, Harry,” Hermione snapped at him and pulled him by the hand to the middle of the Death Room. “They’re Unspeakables. They are called that because they are not spoken of, and they do not speak. Not with just anybody, anyway,” she whispered.
“So are you,” Harry replied with a small smile.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I am allowed to talk to you.” She suppressed a smile and went back to being her serious self. “It has to be true. Nothing that is bollocks is archived in the Department of Mysteries, and especially not in this room. The way it was hidden, it must have been important.” She noticed Harry’s still doubtful expression and grabbed his hands. “Harry! As Unspeakables, we have to test every new discovery we make. But if this test proves true, it will be the biggest gift to him or her that will be making the wish. Nobody argued with me when I said that there is no one out there who deserves this more than you. Look at it this way. If this succeeds, this will be a small thank you from all of us for what you have done for the world, and if it doesn’t, you won’t be losing anything, just aiding the Ministry in a little harmless experiment.”
Harry sighed. It would be harmless if by accepting her request he wouldn’t be admitting that he had a hidden burning hope, against all common sense, that this would actually work. He didn’t know if he could handle the disappointment that would surely come when he made a wish to an arch, and nothing happened.
“Harry, please!” Hermione begged. “I know it’s going to hurt if this doesn’t work, but what if it does? There are so many people that have died - so many innocents! One life may not seem like a lot, but it’s a life you’re giving someone a chance to live.”
Harry came up to the dais unsurely. Suppose he did try. Who would he ask for back? Of all the people he had lost throughout his life - his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore, Ron, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and so many more, who was the most important one? Who deserved to live more than anyone else? How could he play god and make that kind of decision?
“Harry, hurry! You only have a couple of minutes left! Ask for someone back!” Hermione called to him.
The desperateness of her vhoice gave him the last push he needed. He walked quickly right up to the black veil, and shouted, “Give me back the most innocent one, whose death was my fault. Give me back the person that shoul have lived! The person whose life was cut short unreasonably and unfairly.”
He took a deep breath. He felt colder than he even did, and the Death Chamber was so quiet he felt like he was the only one in it. He had taken the easy route. He couldn’t choose, but he could still ask. He decided to let the veil decide the important question - who died most uselessly? Who was the most innocent one of all, and whose death was Harry directly responsible for?
He stared at the veil, unblinking and with baited breath. Would it work? If it did, who would emerge from behind it? He had descended the stairs and walked back to stand beside He rmione, who gripped his hand. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, before suddenly the veil raised, as if disturbed by a most violent wind, and a person was literally spit out from behind it, flying down the stairs and landing in a heap on the floor just meters from where Harry was standing.
Harry froze. He was unable to move. The figure stood up on shaking legs, and Harry found, to his horror, that he didn’t recognize the person at all! It was a young man, about his age, with blonde hair, and dressed in what looked like a torn, dirty yellow piece of cloth. He was scratched and bleeding from many places on his body, and he was covered from head to toe in dirt.
Hermione was the first one to snap out of her reverie and run towards the person, who seemed to not understand at all what was going on, and crumbled to the ground as soon as she got her hands around him. The cloaked figures had walked up to the two and surrounded them without a word. One made a small hand gesture towards Hermione.
“I think…” She laid the young man down on the ground and turned his head up so she could see his face. She cleared the lydirt ansd blood from his face as much as she could, and then suddenly gasped, bringing her hand up to her mouth. Harry was still frozen in place. The shock had rendered him complete useles.
“Harry!” Hermione looked up at him, and suddenly burst out into tears. “Harry! My God, Harry, this is Cedric Diggory!”
***
He screamed and cried and tossed and could not sleep without what seemed like the most horrible nightmares. It has been a week, and he had barely started speaking, though it was evident that all his memories and mental functions were quite intact. When Hermione told Harry that Cedric needed to be hidden from the public for a little while longer, while they researched the Death Chamber, and taken care of by someone he knew, Harry immediately insisted that Cedric be taken to his house, which was isolated in a secret location not far from Hogwarts.
He was surprised that Cedric was released that easily, but Hermione later told him that the Unspeakables did not really care for Cedric. He wasn’t the primary research subject. As soon as it was deteirmined that even thou gh Cedric had peroperly aged in the last six years of his “death”, his last memories were still those of the Triwizard Tournament and the green light of the Killng Curse, he was proclaimedto be usless to the investigation.
It was vital, howe ver, to make sure that Cedric was kept away from the media, and that no one would know about what took place for the time being. Harry’s house was the perfect place. Only very few people had access to his house, so the ministry was sure that Cedric would be safe there. Seeing as his whole family perished in the war, he didn’t have anywhere more appropriate to go.
For the first half of the week, Cedric spent all his time in bed. He didn’t ask about what happened, about anyone or anything, but just begged Harry in a hoarse whisper to please let him rest and not ask any questions. Often, when Harry was sure Cedric was sleeping, he came into the room and stared into the unfamiliar face. There were still a lot of the boy he used to know those years ago, but Cedric was no longer a boy. The innocence that Cedric used to have about him was gone. He was a man now.
Harry remembered with painful fondness the year when Cedric and he actually knew each other. He remembered how much he used to despise Cedric for being proclaimed the “true Hogwarts champion”, and for going out with Cho Chang. He also remembered, of course, how noble Cedric was and how they helped each other out in passing the Triwizard Tournament tasks.
Sometimes, Harry wondered whether he was disappointed that it was Cedric - someone whom Harry didn’t even think of when he was wishing on the Veil - and not somebody else who had walked back into his life, but he now understood that the Veil gave him exactly what he asked for. His parents had chosen to give their lives up for him, and everyone else he had lost during the war was fighting it alongside him completely aware of the possible consequences. Cedric alone had no idea until the last moment that his life would or could be taken away from him during his days of glory. He was killed as a “spare”. As someone who wasn’t supposed to be there, but accidentally ended up being there anyway.
Harry was thankful to see Cedric alive. It made his heart a little lighter, and his consciousness a little clearer. Hermione was right. One life the loss of which he was no longer responsible for did make a big difference.
***
It was a thunderstorm and the middle of the night when Harry was scared out of a deep sleep by someone shaking his shoulder. He had lived alone long enough to not be used to waking up to a face, so the moment he awoke he immidiately grabbed for his wand.
“Cedric, what is it?”
“I’m… I’m sorry.” In the darkness, Harry could still see that Cedric looked confused and almost scared. He wondered whether the Killing Curse and the cemetery of six years ago somehow associated with thunder in his mind. “Harry… I just can’t do it. I don’t know how to do it!” Cedric was getting almost hysterical. “I heard you talking to Hermione today… I heard you say my family is dead. I heard you say Cho is dead. I heard you say…”
Harry jumped out of bed just fast enough to catch Cedric into his arms. He was sobbing uncontrollably, and Harry could feel all the pain, sorrow, and disappointment flowing out of him. Harry didn’t have to think very long. He said the most natural thing that came to mind.
“Come here,” he told Cedric quietly, forcing him into his bed, lying down beside him and covering the both of them with blankets.
He didn’t think about what he was doing or why. It seemed like a natural thing to do. When Cedric's hands came around his waist, and he buried his tear-stained face in Harry’s chest, Harry kissed the broken man on the top of the head and held on tightly. He knew that he never felt what he was feeling now before, but he also knew that at the moment, at least, his own feelings were irrelevant. It was about Cedric.
“I don’t know where to go or what to do,” Cedric whispered into Harry’s chest. “It’s like living your life, and then, in one blink, all of a sudden having everyone you cherished gone, and the world that you were used to broken and destroyed. “
Harry knew exactly what Cedric was talking about. It wasn’t as literal for him, but he felt like his world had changed in a blink as well. It seemed that in an instant his parents, his godfather, his mentor, his best friend, his girlfriend, and so many others, whom he cherished, were gone. As time passed, it became more and more difficult for Harry to believe that they ever even existed in the first place. The blessed times that he spent with them seemed too far away.
“You can stay with me, Cedric,” Harry replied quietly and, without thinking, his lips found Cedric’s and pressed against them. It wasn’t a passionate or a lustful moment, but a moment of extreme sadness, need, and understanding. Harry didn’t think for a moment that he was kissing a bloke, or that the bloke was Cedric. There was no other way. There was nothing more natural than that.
Cedric seemed surprised at first, but then his lips slowly and gently started to respond. Harry could taste his tears, and soon they were both crying, their mouths still pressed together, their hands holding each other tightly, as if each other was the last straw of hope for the both of them.
***
That night was not something Harry ever forgot. It was a night when the two of them helped each other let go of many things, people, and memories.
When Harry woke up in the morning and found that Cedric had left, he smiled sadly to himself and went back to his usual life. He understood. There were many things that Cedric needed to sort out on his own. He knew that if, or when Cedric found his will and strength, he would come back.
Until then, Harry was prepared to wait.
****************
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Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Cedric/Harry
Rating: G
Word count: 2,878
Warnings: This was written way before Deathly Hallows, and contains no spoilers.
This was written for a request that
chaeldub had posted in the amazing multifandom slash exchange community
slashfest.
Summary/Request: Deep in the Ministry, Harry finds that the Veil blows both ways. But after asking for his hearts desire, it is Cedric Diggory who walks back into his life.
***
Harry’s heart was pounding as he walked down the hallways of the Ministry of Magic. He hadn’t been there in years, and nothing around him seemed familiar. When he snapped out of his thoughts, he found himself walking down a long corridor. Everything around him was made out of stone, and there were no doors, paintings, or signs on the walls. Looking ahead, he realized that there was no end to the corridor, either.
The little hunched bespectacled man stopped abruptly and turned to face Harry.
“Yes, yes, this is it, Mr. Potter, yes. It’s right over here. Just wait a second.” The man took out his wand and started tracing a complicated design on the left wall. Harry watched him with surprise. “Ever since… er… five years ago and… er… You-Know-Who’s intrusion-“
“Voldemort,” Harry snapped and sighed. If he faced Voldemort for anything three years ago, it was for people to not be afraid to say Voldemort’s name again. The nervous little man was annoying him quite a lot, and he wished they would reach their destination soon.
“Of course, Mr. Potter!” the man replied hurriedly. “V-v-voldem-m-mort. Ever since his intrusion - you would know all about it, of course, Mr. Potter - the ministry took all possible precautions against it happening again, and now the Department of Mysteries is virtually impossible to break into without authorization.”
Finally, whatever the man was drawing was done. It was an extremely complicated design, and, though Harry wondered what it was supposed to represent, he didn’t care enough to ask. The sign glowed green for a few seconds, and then, with a ‘pop’, a painfully familiar black door was revealed on the opposite wall. The little man looked satisfied.
“Here you go, Mr. Potter,” the man announced cheerfully and nodded at the door. “I am not authorized to go through that door, so… er… this is where I leave you.”
“You don’t know what the whole fuss is regarding, do you?” Harry asked. He was surprised that the person who was trusted with being able to enter the Department of Mysteries was actually forbidden to do so. “I am not quite certain why I have been summoned here.”
The man smiled mysteriously and shook his head.
“There are people in there, Mr. Potter, who could… er… explain everything to you better than I can, I am sure.” He pointed at the door, and Harry realized that it was fading. “Please go on in, sir. You have only a limited amount of time left, and I will not be able to re-activate the door for you.” He smiled and bowed very low, as Harry put his hand on the handle and opened the door. “Good luck, Mr. Potter.”
***
“Harry, please, you have to say something. You’re scaring me!”
Hermione shook him by the sleeve roughly and frowned. Harry had stood in front of her and five others, who were all clad in black cloaks, black hoods covering their faces. Hermione was the only one with her hood down, and she was the only one who has been talking for the last hour. The other five stood motionless, not making a sound, almost as if wishing to create an illusion that they were not even there.
Harry had listened to Hermione attentively, without interrupting, as she went on and on with excitement shining in her eyes, but as he was not reacting, her excitement had started to wane. By the time she was finished, she looked angry and disappointed. To tell the truth, it wasn’t that Harry wasn’t excited. The moment she had revealed the big twist of their discovery, his heart plummeted, and he found taking breaths more and more difficult. He just couldn’t believe it. It sounded too… bizarre. Too good to be true.
Looking up into Hermione’s disappointed face, he made the utmost effort of snapping back to reality.
“Hermione… Are you sure?” he asked weakly, glancing nervously at the hooded figures standing around them. “Are you all sure this is possible?”
Hermione shook her head sadly. “We’re almost sure, Harry, but that’s better than nothing! As I told you, we had fohund the documents, and they plainly state that every five hundred years, this arch grants one wish to one person to bring one person from the other side.” She turned to look at the crumbling arch standing unsupported on the dais. “Most of the documents were ruined by the moisture that somehow got into the safe, so we weren’t able to decipher the papers that talked about what the other side is or how it all works, but it’s… it’s something, isn’t it?”
“How do you know this is true?” Harry shook his head. “It… It just doesn’t seem plausible to me, Hermione. I cannot accept that. And even if it was true, why me?” Harry addressed the immovable hooded figures. “Why me? Isn’t this supposed to be a matter of highest secrecy?”
“They’re not going to answer you, Harry,” Hermione snapped at him and pulled him by the hand to the middle of the Death Room. “They’re Unspeakables. They are called that because they are not spoken of, and they do not speak. Not with just anybody, anyway,” she whispered.
“So are you,” Harry replied with a small smile.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I am allowed to talk to you.” She suppressed a smile and went back to being her serious self. “It has to be true. Nothing that is bollocks is archived in the Department of Mysteries, and especially not in this room. The way it was hidden, it must have been important.” She noticed Harry’s still doubtful expression and grabbed his hands. “Harry! As Unspeakables, we have to test every new discovery we make. But if this test proves true, it will be the biggest gift to him or her that will be making the wish. Nobody argued with me when I said that there is no one out there who deserves this more than you. Look at it this way. If this succeeds, this will be a small thank you from all of us for what you have done for the world, and if it doesn’t, you won’t be losing anything, just aiding the Ministry in a little harmless experiment.”
Harry sighed. It would be harmless if by accepting her request he wouldn’t be admitting that he had a hidden burning hope, against all common sense, that this would actually work. He didn’t know if he could handle the disappointment that would surely come when he made a wish to an arch, and nothing happened.
“Harry, please!” Hermione begged. “I know it’s going to hurt if this doesn’t work, but what if it does? There are so many people that have died - so many innocents! One life may not seem like a lot, but it’s a life you’re giving someone a chance to live.”
Harry came up to the dais unsurely. Suppose he did try. Who would he ask for back? Of all the people he had lost throughout his life - his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore, Ron, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and so many more, who was the most important one? Who deserved to live more than anyone else? How could he play god and make that kind of decision?
“Harry, hurry! You only have a couple of minutes left! Ask for someone back!” Hermione called to him.
The desperateness of her vhoice gave him the last push he needed. He walked quickly right up to the black veil, and shouted, “Give me back the most innocent one, whose death was my fault. Give me back the person that shoul have lived! The person whose life was cut short unreasonably and unfairly.”
He took a deep breath. He felt colder than he even did, and the Death Chamber was so quiet he felt like he was the only one in it. He had taken the easy route. He couldn’t choose, but he could still ask. He decided to let the veil decide the important question - who died most uselessly? Who was the most innocent one of all, and whose death was Harry directly responsible for?
He stared at the veil, unblinking and with baited breath. Would it work? If it did, who would emerge from behind it? He had descended the stairs and walked back to stand beside He rmione, who gripped his hand. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, before suddenly the veil raised, as if disturbed by a most violent wind, and a person was literally spit out from behind it, flying down the stairs and landing in a heap on the floor just meters from where Harry was standing.
Harry froze. He was unable to move. The figure stood up on shaking legs, and Harry found, to his horror, that he didn’t recognize the person at all! It was a young man, about his age, with blonde hair, and dressed in what looked like a torn, dirty yellow piece of cloth. He was scratched and bleeding from many places on his body, and he was covered from head to toe in dirt.
Hermione was the first one to snap out of her reverie and run towards the person, who seemed to not understand at all what was going on, and crumbled to the ground as soon as she got her hands around him. The cloaked figures had walked up to the two and surrounded them without a word. One made a small hand gesture towards Hermione.
“I think…” She laid the young man down on the ground and turned his head up so she could see his face. She cleared the lydirt ansd blood from his face as much as she could, and then suddenly gasped, bringing her hand up to her mouth. Harry was still frozen in place. The shock had rendered him complete useles.
“Harry!” Hermione looked up at him, and suddenly burst out into tears. “Harry! My God, Harry, this is Cedric Diggory!”
***
He screamed and cried and tossed and could not sleep without what seemed like the most horrible nightmares. It has been a week, and he had barely started speaking, though it was evident that all his memories and mental functions were quite intact. When Hermione told Harry that Cedric needed to be hidden from the public for a little while longer, while they researched the Death Chamber, and taken care of by someone he knew, Harry immediately insisted that Cedric be taken to his house, which was isolated in a secret location not far from Hogwarts.
He was surprised that Cedric was released that easily, but Hermione later told him that the Unspeakables did not really care for Cedric. He wasn’t the primary research subject. As soon as it was deteirmined that even thou gh Cedric had peroperly aged in the last six years of his “death”, his last memories were still those of the Triwizard Tournament and the green light of the Killng Curse, he was proclaimedto be usless to the investigation.
It was vital, howe ver, to make sure that Cedric was kept away from the media, and that no one would know about what took place for the time being. Harry’s house was the perfect place. Only very few people had access to his house, so the ministry was sure that Cedric would be safe there. Seeing as his whole family perished in the war, he didn’t have anywhere more appropriate to go.
For the first half of the week, Cedric spent all his time in bed. He didn’t ask about what happened, about anyone or anything, but just begged Harry in a hoarse whisper to please let him rest and not ask any questions. Often, when Harry was sure Cedric was sleeping, he came into the room and stared into the unfamiliar face. There were still a lot of the boy he used to know those years ago, but Cedric was no longer a boy. The innocence that Cedric used to have about him was gone. He was a man now.
Harry remembered with painful fondness the year when Cedric and he actually knew each other. He remembered how much he used to despise Cedric for being proclaimed the “true Hogwarts champion”, and for going out with Cho Chang. He also remembered, of course, how noble Cedric was and how they helped each other out in passing the Triwizard Tournament tasks.
Sometimes, Harry wondered whether he was disappointed that it was Cedric - someone whom Harry didn’t even think of when he was wishing on the Veil - and not somebody else who had walked back into his life, but he now understood that the Veil gave him exactly what he asked for. His parents had chosen to give their lives up for him, and everyone else he had lost during the war was fighting it alongside him completely aware of the possible consequences. Cedric alone had no idea until the last moment that his life would or could be taken away from him during his days of glory. He was killed as a “spare”. As someone who wasn’t supposed to be there, but accidentally ended up being there anyway.
Harry was thankful to see Cedric alive. It made his heart a little lighter, and his consciousness a little clearer. Hermione was right. One life the loss of which he was no longer responsible for did make a big difference.
***
It was a thunderstorm and the middle of the night when Harry was scared out of a deep sleep by someone shaking his shoulder. He had lived alone long enough to not be used to waking up to a face, so the moment he awoke he immidiately grabbed for his wand.
“Cedric, what is it?”
“I’m… I’m sorry.” In the darkness, Harry could still see that Cedric looked confused and almost scared. He wondered whether the Killing Curse and the cemetery of six years ago somehow associated with thunder in his mind. “Harry… I just can’t do it. I don’t know how to do it!” Cedric was getting almost hysterical. “I heard you talking to Hermione today… I heard you say my family is dead. I heard you say Cho is dead. I heard you say…”
Harry jumped out of bed just fast enough to catch Cedric into his arms. He was sobbing uncontrollably, and Harry could feel all the pain, sorrow, and disappointment flowing out of him. Harry didn’t have to think very long. He said the most natural thing that came to mind.
“Come here,” he told Cedric quietly, forcing him into his bed, lying down beside him and covering the both of them with blankets.
He didn’t think about what he was doing or why. It seemed like a natural thing to do. When Cedric's hands came around his waist, and he buried his tear-stained face in Harry’s chest, Harry kissed the broken man on the top of the head and held on tightly. He knew that he never felt what he was feeling now before, but he also knew that at the moment, at least, his own feelings were irrelevant. It was about Cedric.
“I don’t know where to go or what to do,” Cedric whispered into Harry’s chest. “It’s like living your life, and then, in one blink, all of a sudden having everyone you cherished gone, and the world that you were used to broken and destroyed. “
Harry knew exactly what Cedric was talking about. It wasn’t as literal for him, but he felt like his world had changed in a blink as well. It seemed that in an instant his parents, his godfather, his mentor, his best friend, his girlfriend, and so many others, whom he cherished, were gone. As time passed, it became more and more difficult for Harry to believe that they ever even existed in the first place. The blessed times that he spent with them seemed too far away.
“You can stay with me, Cedric,” Harry replied quietly and, without thinking, his lips found Cedric’s and pressed against them. It wasn’t a passionate or a lustful moment, but a moment of extreme sadness, need, and understanding. Harry didn’t think for a moment that he was kissing a bloke, or that the bloke was Cedric. There was no other way. There was nothing more natural than that.
Cedric seemed surprised at first, but then his lips slowly and gently started to respond. Harry could taste his tears, and soon they were both crying, their mouths still pressed together, their hands holding each other tightly, as if each other was the last straw of hope for the both of them.
***
That night was not something Harry ever forgot. It was a night when the two of them helped each other let go of many things, people, and memories.
When Harry woke up in the morning and found that Cedric had left, he smiled sadly to himself and went back to his usual life. He understood. There were many things that Cedric needed to sort out on his own. He knew that if, or when Cedric found his will and strength, he would come back.
Until then, Harry was prepared to wait.
****************
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I now take requests! (in many fandoms)