Work Text:
“Potter! Excuse me,” Cedric Diggory said, darting around one of the other mourners at Dumbledore’s funeral. “Potter! I need to speak to you.”
Harry paused, motioning Hermione and Ron forward when they started to stay with him. “Diggory. What can I do for you?”
Cedric stepped closer. “Look, I know that you and your friends must have to deal with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I want to know how I can help.”
“How do you know we plan to do anything?” Harry demanded.
Cedric laughed. “You three have been planning to disrupt the Dark Lord’s plans since my third year, Potter, including the DA. The chances that you wouldn’t be trying to plan something now, when the Headmaster was murdered by Snape in the middle of the school are impossibly small.”
“Alright, let’s say we are planning something. Why would you want to help us, instead of asking Professor McGonagall or your father what you could do to help?” Harry asked.
“Professor McGonagall neither needs nor wants the help of a nineteen year old unless she has to take it, Potter, and we both know she doesn’t have to take my help,” Cedric said. “And my father…do you know how my parents survived the first War?”
Harry shook his head.
Cedric smiled bitterly. “My father kept his head down. Not that he has anything against Muggleborns, according to him, but he saw no reason to oppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in any meaningful manner. I don’t want to do that.”
“So you came to me,” Harry said. “You still haven’t told me why you’d pick me.”
“Everyone knows you were Dumbledore’s chosen student, and that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is focused on you,” Cedric answered. “Wherever you are is where the fight against him is likely to be. More than that, you’ve been fighting against him since your first year. It’s unlikely you would choose to back down now.”
“You did believe me at the end of the Triwizard Tournament,” Harry finally said, rubbing his finger over the empty bottle of Felix Felicis in his pocket.
“I was in that maze with you, and if you had not tripped and fell against it first, we both would have ended up in that graveyard. I don’t think I would have been the one to make it back alive if that had happened.” Cedric shrugged. “There was no reason to not believe you.”
“Fudge certainly thought there was.” Harry looked at Cedric and laughed. “Are you still grateful that I tripped and fell against the Cup?”
“You probably saved my life with your one moment of being a klutz, Potter, you should be glad that I’m grateful for it and not teasing you about only being graceful in the air.” He grinned, and Harry grinned back, thinking it was no wonder what Cho had seen in Cedric.
“I’m grateful for you not making me more of a laughing stock than I was already, in that case,” Harry said.
“So, what do you say, Potter? Will I be permitted to join your group and help you fight him?” Cedric asked.
Harry would never know what possessed him in that moment. Stepping forward, he raised his head to meet Cedric’s eyes. “When you and Cho broke up last year, she just laughed and told everyone that you had a crush on someone else who tripped into your life. Nobody alive besides you knows that I tripped into the Cup. What did she mean when she said that?”
Cedric blushed, and then shook his head. “Does it matter?”
The corner of Harry’s mouth lifted. “Obviously it does, or I wouldn’t be asking you.”
“Fine.” Cedric took a deep breath and looked down at the ground. “I couldn’t stop thinking of how brave you must have been, to face He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named after being kidnapped from a tournament you didn’t want to take part in. But more than that, you weren’t just a hero. You were the kid who came and told me about the dragons because you thought it should be fair. Nobody could have blamed you for becoming bigheaded after rescuing us all so many times, but you didn’t. You’re still just Harry.”
“You were always interested in fairness yourself,” Harry pointed out. “You did try to have that match overturned when the Dementors invaded the field.”
“That match should never have been counted,” Cedric grumbled, causing Harry to laugh. Cedric looked up and grinned. “The question still remains, Potter, do I get to help or not?”
Harry grinned back. “You can help us, on one condition.”
“What condition is that?” Cedric raised an eyebrow.
“You tell me if you still have a crush on me,” Harry said.
Cedric paused, before straightening and taking a breath. “I do.”
“Then you can come, so long as you call me Harry and don’t assume that fighting Death Eaters is how all our dates will go,” Harry answered.
“You want to date me?” Cedric asked.
Harry nodded. “That is what most people mean when they say you shouldn’t assume that’s how all our dates will go.”
Cedric shook his head and laughed again. “Of course all our dates won’t go like that. If that started to become a habit, I’d take over planning them, if you didn’t get frustrated and defeat Voldemort quicker just so we could go on them without being bothered.”
Harry could see his friends standing on the hill, motioning for him to come join them. “I have to go. I don’t know what our exact plans are yet, but I’ll tell Ron to expect you to visit the Burrow. Hermione will be there too, I’m sure, and she’ll draft you into helping figure out what we’re doing.”
Cedric nodded, new relationship momentarily pushed aside in light of their task. “I’m sure she’ll have far more planned out than I could ever think of, but I’ll help her however I can. When do you think we’ll need to be ready?”
“Things always seem to happen on my birthday,” Harry said. “Be ready, and if it doesn’t happen that day, I’m sure it will happen soon afterwards.”
“I’ll be ready,” Cedric said.
Harry grabbed his hand. “I’ll see you later this summer.”
Cedric leaned down to press a quick kiss against Harry’s lips. “You will.”
Harry was glad that none of the other mourners were close enough to see. “You need to be careful. If Voldemort knows we’re dating…”
Cedric nodded. “I know. I’ll see you at the Burrow.”
Harry nodded back, before taking off up the hill towards Hermione and Ron. Cedric stood there for a moment, before leaving to apparate away.
There was no time to waste. He needed to look up as much as possible so he could help his boyfriend defeat the dark lord, as quickly as possible.
Neither of them would spend the rest of their lives hiding in the shadows, if he had anything to do with it.