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Cedric was grateful that Hanahaki disease was no longer fatal, at least to wizards. Magic had come a long way to fixing the deadliness of the disease, making it so petals grew in the airways and were immediately expelled out of the body, rather than the lungs, as it had been in medieval times.
After all, why should a person be punished because their love wasn’t returned. Or why should someone feel guilt for not loving one who was afflicted? So over the years it went from a debilitating illness to something school children could tease each other over. Something that you dealt with until you fell out of love, or they fell in love with you.
Cedric got his first case of Hanahaki disease his first year, a small thing that lasted for only a month. Charlie Weasley was unfairly cute, and was so kind when he learned that he was the reason for the petal’s that Cedric was coughing up. Eventually, young puppy love turned to respect, and the petals vanished.
The second time Cedric caught Hanahaki was his sixth year, after the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. It had been a long time since he had last coughed up petals, so he didn’t notice the tickle in his throat until entirely too late.
The crowd was going wild, and Cedric could see why. He had a perfect view of Harry’s turn from his spot in the medical tent, his burns covered in a thick paste. Harry’s flying was phenomenal, and even though he was so much younger than the other competitors, he had more than proved he had the skill to compete alongside them.
When Harry walked into the tent with Ron and Hermione flanking either side, Cedric couldn’t help but cough up lovely green petals the color of Harry’s eyes.
“Oh my-Cedric?” Harry asked in a panic, watching the petals float to the ground. “What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing,” Cedric said after a moment, bewildered at the sudden appearance of flowers. That had been entirely unexpected.
“Oh, I’ve read about this before!” Hermione said, excitement clear in her eyes. “This was caused by Hanahaki disease, correct?”
“Ah,” Cedric glanced at Ron and Harry, who looked just as interested. “It is, yes.”
“What is Hanahaki Disease?” Harry asked, eyes roving between Hermione, the petals, and Cedric. “I’ve never heard of it before.”
“You haven't?” Cedric was surprised. “I had my first case of it in my first year.”
“You suffered from unrequited love so young?” Hermione was shocked. “How did you cure it?”
“Unrequited love?” Harry frowned.
“Yeah, you cough up flower petals if you suffer from unrequited love,” Cedric explained. “Usually it’s only a few petals if it's something as small as a crush, but I’ve seen people cough up whole flowers before.”
“That sounds terrible ,” Ron replied. “Who is your unrequited love?”
“Well, in my first year it was Charlie,” Cedric said.
“ Charlie ?” Ron asked, wrinkling his nose. “My brother Charlie?”
“The very same,” Cedric said, amused at Ron’s reaction.
“Wait,” Harry said, looking confused. “You liked a boy?”
“Of course,” Cedric said.
“You can do that?” Harry all but whispered.
“Of course you can like boys,” Ron snorted. “Or girls. Or any gender, really.”
“That sort of thing is still illegal in the muggle world,” Hermione explained to Ron and Cedric, who let out various sounds of outrage.
“How can love be illegal?” Cedric demanded.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” Ron cried.
“Yes, it’s very dumb,” Hermione agreed. “Now, back to my question. How did you manage to cure the disease?”
“Er…sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Harry looked embarrassed.
“You didn’t upset us,” Cedric insisted, trying to hold back another round of petals. “We’re just frustrated that muggles are so backwards on some things.”
“Right?” Ron chimed in, looking frustrated. “I mean, it’s just ridiculous.”
“Very ridiculous,” Hermione said impatiently. “Cedric. How did you cure Hanahaki disease?”
“Oh!” Cedric turned to Hermione. “I just…fell out of love. Or crush, I suppose.”
“That’s it?” Hermione asked. “Is there a way to hurry that along?”
“Is there someone you’re asking for in particular?” Cedric asked with a frown.
“Oh, no one.” Hermione brushed him off blithely. “Just curious, is all.”
Of course, when Cedric saw Krum coughing flower petals in the library, with a concerned looking Hermione a week later, he wasn’t all that surprised.
The petals didn’t get better right away, much to Cedric’s disappointment. But how could they when Harry would look at him like that , and smile that adorably crooked smile? Cedric was spitting up flowers for two hours after suggesting Harry take a bath with his egg after the Yule Ball.
Of course, Harry went and made it worse by taking Cedric's suggestion that night, entering the prefect's bathroom with a cheeky little “You didn’t think I’d let you spend Christmas alone, did you?
Flowers floated around the bath while Cedric helped Harry figure out the clue, but they went completely ignored.
Not only did the disease get worse, but people had started taking bets on who his unrequited love could be.
“It’s not Cho.”
“She’s with Marietta!”
“What about Fleur?”
“Nah, I don’t think so.”
“It could be Krum.”
“But he’s spitting up flowers too!”
And on and on it went. Thankfully, no one seemed to guess Harry himself, which was just fine with Cedric. The poor Gryffindor was already under enough pressure, he didn’t want to add onto it with a silly unrequited crush.
And then, just like they came, the petals stopped. During the third task, Cedric and Harry were sent to a graveyard in North England somewhere, and the pair had to fight their way out, battling death eaters, and even Voldemort himself.
Cedric had been hit with some kind of curse that had been aimed at Harry, and he had been laid up in the hospital wing for a week when he realized it had been a while since he had coughed up flower petals.
It was odd, as his feelings for Harry hadn’t changed. He wondered if Harry reciprocated his feelings, but Harry seemed to be avoiding him more often than not, so that couldn’t be the case. So it must have been that curse that had affected his case of Hanahaki.
The day before the end of the year had Cedric holed up in the library, doing research on the very curse that had hit him. He was so engrossed in his reading material, he didn’t even notice that someone was watching him.
“Cedric,” a soft voice startled him from his thoughts.
“Oh!” Cedric glanced up, surprised to see Harry watching him. “Harry, how are you doing?”
“You haven’t been coughing up flowers recently,” Harry said, ignoring Cedric’s question. “Have you fallen out of love with them?”
Cedric laughed softly, shaking his head. “No, I haven’t. But I think it might have something to do with the curse that hit me in the graveyard.”
“You don’t think they could have fallen in love with you?” Harry wondered, sitting across from Cedric at the table.
“I mean, it seems a bit unlikely,” Cedric closed his book on curses so he could focus on Harry. “What brings all this up?”
“Well, I’ve just started to fancy someone,” Harry replied. “But I haven’t coughed up a single flower petal.”
“Hey, that means that they like you back!” Cedric replied, shoving aside hurt feelings to cheer Harry on. “Have you asked them out yet?”
“I haven’t had the chance, I’ve sort of been avoiding him while I tried to figure out my feelings,” Harry admitted, looking shy. “Cedric, your flowers stopped when I realized I liked you.”
“You…” Cedric’s mind went completely blank. “But…”
“Um, I know this is sudden,” Harry said, taking advantage of a shocked Cedric. “But would you like to go on a date with me? I know the school year is almost over, and we still barely know each other, but-”
“I would love to,” Cedric interrupted, a smile on his face. “We can skip the end of the year feast, if you’d like.”
“I would like that.” Harry grinned. “Very much.”