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"Harry, you okay?" Bright grey eyes twinkling down at him, sitting on a fairly handsome face, framed by soft locks of dark brown.
Harry blinked, suddenly aware that the man had grabbed his arm, stopping him from landing face-first on the atrium floor. It had been a long day at the DMLE and Harry had almost crashed after tripping over his robes due to the lack of sleep.
That voice. That voice and those eyes.
"Cedric?" Harry spluttered, disbelievingly as the older man nodded and then chuckled, pulling him into a bone-breaking hug. A strong scent of bergamot filled his nostrils as his face planted into the front of Cedric's rich plum robes.
The scent took him back, way back. To the Tri-Wizard Tournament. When Harry had held Cedric's still body to his chest, crying.
"Harry... Take my body back to my father."
Cedric had stood among James and Lily; the dead. And somehow here he was, alive.
With all that followed, Harry barely had time to wrap around the fact that Amos Diggory had claimed that he felt a weak pulse and had dragged the cold body of Cedric away. There were other more pressing matters to deal with at the time, of course.
Like the rebirth of Voldemort to start with.
Fifteen years later, Harry now met the boy - the man - he had once considered a friend. Cedric was older now, of course, but that boyish grin had Harry feeling a sort of flutter that had long since disappeared when he broke up with Theodore Nott a year ago.
"Cedric," Harry repeated, grinning now, and he pulled the chuckling man into another hug.
"It's been too long, old friend," Warm hands grasped Harry's shoulders as he took him in. "Unfortunately, you are brimming with as much anxiety as I can remember. Come. You need something warm to drink and I won't take no for an answer."
"I have work -" Harry began, but was too distracted by Cedric's quiet chuckle to continue and the taller man led him away to the exit of the DMLE.
"I think the aurors can spare the Hero of the Wizarding World for an hour. I would like to thank you. A coffee fails short of showing my appreciation, but it's a start, don't you think?" Bright grey eyes found his green ones again and Harry couldn't think of an answer, save a nod, trying to ignore the twisting of his guts so agonizingly slow; in anticipation, excitement, and a hint of dread. It confused him. Why was he so giddy and scared at the same time?
Why ever did he feel this way?
"There's a mate."
Soon, Harry found himself sitting at a café in muggle London, a steaming cup of cappuccino before him, watching the friend he had once considered dead, sipping his iced coffee and looking at the people walk past through the glass window by their side, clearly lost in thought.
Harry took the moment to observe him, noting that the sunken cheekbones boasting a stubble of a brown a shade lighter than his hair, of the man sitting in front of him did nothing to deter from his boyish charm. Instead, they, along with his calloused long fingers and deeper yet quiet voice made Harry momentarily forget that he had lost all integrity when he declared his friend as dead - nay, murdered - murdered by Lord Voldemort, himself.
"Kill the spare."
"Harry?"
Long fingers snapped in front of the scarred hero's eyes, light catching on the large indigo rock on a copper ring on his left hand, and Harry started, coming back to the present.
"Huh?"
Cedric's gentle smile lit up his handsome face, eyes twinkling, lifting his coffee to his lips and sipping it.
"Lost in the past, are you?"
Harry nodded and then decided it was time to say something. "Yeah, I haven't seen you around for ages. Not since..."
"The tournament." Cedric finished with a weary sigh, setting his coffee back down. Those long-lashed grey eyes dipped down to his hands and then back up to meet Harry's gaze, beholding a look of vulnerability, darkened with a haunting of sorts that made it hard to breathe.
For Harry, at least.
Cedric leaned back against his seat and locked his fingers together, rolling the pad of one over the ring, where Harry's eyes dipped to again. The stone. It was peculiar yet familiar, but Harry didn't know why. Perhaps he had learned about it once from Hermione. She would know of course.
"I've been keeping away. Home mostly. I never truly recovered from what happened and my father," He inhaled sharply, playing with his ring. "My father was losing his mind. They did everything to keep me alive and, miraculously, they succeeded."
Except it was the killing curse, Harry wanted to say. Nobody survives the killing curse. Well, except Harry Potter of course, but that's hardly the point.
"Isn't that some miracle?" Harry managed a smile, his mind a buzz with a multitude of thoughts that did nothing to quell his racing heart, thumping hard in his chest.
Cedric, however, was amused. "That's what my mother said. She called me a miracle."
"She's not wrong," Harry answered absently wondering what kind of spell had awoken someone who had been clearly dead. There was more to this than what seemed, but the tinge of pink that lit up Cedric's cheeks distracted Harry and he couldn't help staring at the older man. Cedric's smile grew wider, more bashful, the longer he stared and Harry grinned to himself. He thought Cedric was beautiful.
"But I think you're the real miracle, Potter," Cedric said shyly. "You're proof that everything can work out if you only believe. And I..." He hesitated but smiled and went on. "I'm proud to say I've always believed in you. You know that, don’t you?"
Harry's heartbeat spiked, thudding in his ears like a roaring waterfall and his throat bobbed.
Why was it so hot in here? He was pretty sure it was still spring.
"That's nice." He choked out, a fierce flush burning up his face now, looking everywhere, but at Cedric.
Cedric didn't bat an eyelid, instead reached out gingerly and rested his hand on Harry's, doing nothing to calm Harry's racing heart.
"Potter," He said carefully. "I always promised myself I would find my way back to you. I'm sorry I took so long, but I'm stronger now and my father is too old to attend the Ministry meetings. Duty called me here, but I was only hoping to meet you."
Oh?
Well, this was unexpected, but Harry found that it wasn't unpleasant either and, despite the thumping in his chest, he relaxed enough to meet Cedric's gaze.
"You must feel so alone," He murmured, wondering what it would have felt like to be kept away from society due to what had happened to him. A pang of guilt added to the tornado of feelings that churned through the dark-haired hero.
After all, Harry was the one who declared that Cedric was dead, only to find the boy not only survived but had turned into the most attractive man Harry had ever met.
Cedric chuckled, withdrawing his hand from Harry's, picking up his coffee, and bringing it up to his lips, sipping it in deep thought while Harry just stared at him, unblinking. Mesmerized at the flush of Cedric's lips. He wondered if they were as soft as they looked.
Merlin save him.
What was he thinking??
"Loneliness is an unfortunate part of my life," Cedric mused before sliding his gaze back to Harry and smiling wide, "But it's always a joy to rekindle old relationships. I have no wish to meet anyone new anyway. I've already met the best people I could ever have the good fortune of meeting," He winked. "Especially you."
Harry's heart hammered in his chest, his palms were sweaty and he thought he was going to pass out.
Cedric reaching out once more to give his hand a gentle squeeze did nothing to help.
He couldn't take this anymore. He needed to clear things up.
"Cedric, I -"
"I'd like you to come over to my place," Cedric said quietly, his eyes flickering away and he swallowed hard before he flicked his tongue along his lips and looked up at Harry anxiously. “All these years and yet you’ve constantly been on my mind. You have no idea, Harry.”
And Harry forgot everything he’d be worrying about.
Instead, he wondered what those soft lips tasted like. And when Cedric smiled at him this time, he grinned back like an idiot. “Sounds like a plan.”
Butterflies erupt in leaps and bounds within his stomach, warmth spreading from therein through his body to the tips of his fingers and his toes.
Cedric's kind eyes crinkled. "I'll warn you though, all I have at home is cold pizza. Not quite a fitting lunch for the Wizarding World's finest Auror."
"Doesn't matter. I like cold pizza," Harry grinned wider.
Dropping a message to his partner back at the DMLE, (“Malfoy, I'm gonna take an extended lunch break. Tell the others not to contact me for the rest of the day.😏" "Potter, are you honestly trying to tell me that you're getting laid? 😑 I need to go oblivate myself. Ps- your pay check will be hearing about it") Harry followed Cedric into an alley out of muggle eyes and Cedric turned to Harry with an apologetic smile.
"I'd apparate us both home, but unfortunately since my... Well, incident, apparition has been quite a challenge."
"No! Of course! I don't suppose I've ever come to your house before. We could always use the Ministry's floo." Cedric nodded, his smile sliding slightly.
Harry didn't want Cedric to feel bad, much less about things so far out of his control. Once more, the dark-haired hero's heart lurched for the older man, wondering how it was to have spent so many years struggling with the magic that once came easily to him.
He wanted to make up for it. Make Cedric feel good. Seek forgiveness for naming his death back then. When they finally got to Cedric’s house he did just that even though he never saw it coming.
Halfway through the cold pizza and a warm conversation in the empty sitting room, Cedric’s lips hesitantly found Harry’s. Harry froze for a moment before he grabbed Cedric’s waist, kissing back with all the passion of the need bubbling inside him as he pushed him down onto the couch, till he broke away from the kiss to breathe. And Cedric, beautiful Cedric with his plump lips and flushed cheeks, bashfully looked up at him, panting.
Harry could see the tenderness in those gray eyes. Love even. And his heart raced a mile a minute. He grinned, caressing Cedric's cheek.
How had he found his way here? Into love once more? It felt too good to be true. Especially after Theo left him for Charlie Weasley a year ago.
Theo had said Harry was cold, not affectionate enough and he had become too hard to love.
That Harry James Potter was a monster.
Yet, here was Cedric, already in love with him.
He slanted his lips against Cedric's, relishing in the softness of his lip and his tongue struck out, tracing his lower lip to seek entry. Cedric whimpered.
The two sprang apart at the sudden ring of a telephone, echoing through the cold, dark house.
“I need to get that,” Cedric half whispered, scrambling to his feet, too shy to speak aloud.
Harry laughed. “Well, don’t leave me waiting. Hurry back.” Cedric laughed as he walked off, glancing back to look at Harry before he disappeared round the corner.
Harry leaned back against the couch, feeling extremely pleased with himself, thinking of those rosy lips and how he would ruin them.
A while later, though, his dirty thoughts were interrupted by the slow drag of heavy footsteps. Harry frowned, getting up to inspect the sound and spotted Amos Diggory shuffle past in the hallway heading to the east of the Manor.
“Amos!” Harry cried out with a wave not five feet from the man, but Amos didn't turn, didn't flinch. His face, Harry noted, was pale. His eyes were glassy. Like he was fading away. Cedric did say his father was sick. This was terrible. Amos looked barely alive.
Why wasn't he at Mungo’s then? Why was he here?
“Amos?”
Harry looked back, Cedric was still talking over the phone in the other room out of sight and Harry couldn’t help himself. His Auror instincts perked up.
Something was not right.
Nimbly, he took off behind Amos, careful not to make any sudden moves that may send the old man into a panic. After all, he didn't quite know what was wrong with him.
Amos seemed to be trekking the corners of the Manor; slow, measured steps that went around the house, pausing to look out a window and then shuffling off on the same path again. The third time, Harry frowned out the window.
The old man was obviously in a trance. Deep, dark magic was about the house, seeped into his soul, but drew out the power. Harry could feel it. The escape of the life force of magic from Amos Diggory. Amos didn’t register Harry’s presence at all and the only personal act that he made of his own was a glance, not even a moment long, always in the same direction, always out the same window.
And Harry's eyes locked on the one thing that Amos kept turning to. And his jaw dropped.
A headstone.
A cold shudder went down his spine and he gritted his teeth as the picture fell into place and he hoped against hope that he was wrong. Shoving the window open, he jumped out, striding across the lawn to the headstone where his worst fears were confirmed.
“Here lies Cedric, beloved son.”
No. No. No. No. No
Harry dropped to his knees. His body shaking, but not because of the cold wind that breezed past, nipping his neck. He read it over and over again.
Here lies Cedric.
Here lies Cedric.
Here lies…
“Harry?”
That voice. Harry took a deliberate moment to calm himself, steel his nerves before he rose to his full height, and glared at Cedric if that really was him. The full weight of his fury bore down on the man he had been kissing not too long ago. Harry's mind raced as he tried to pierce it all together. The grave, the cold pizza, the cold coffee, the ring...
Cedric’s face paled. “I can explain.”
“Oh, you will,” The Auror pulled out his wand from the wand harness he wore and held it up, pointing the wand straight at Cedric’s head. “Out with it then. What are you? How are you wearing his skin? How are you using his voice?”
“Harry!” Cedric took a wary step back, his face morphing into a look of fear. “It’s still me. I’m still Cedric. They just made my grave because they expected me to die!”
Harry took a step forward, his lips pulled back in a snarl. “Then tell me why is your father here? Why is he so weak? Why is there no magic in this house but from you? And you cannot even use it! Tell me the truth, Cedric! Why were you looking for me?!”
His wand moved from Cedric’s face to his left hand where the ring sat.
“The stone,” Harry jutted his chin in its direction. “It’s Lapis Lazuli. The stone draws magic into the soul. Tell me I’m wrong. That you haven’t sucked your family dry of their magic?”
Cedric didn’t answer, his lower lip trembled. Harry continued, the rage he felt at being tricked and lied to and used continue to prick at his skin, multiplying at a steady pace.
“You don’t even deny it, you coward.” Harry sneered, the tip of his wand moving to prod Cedric’s chest. “Very well, answer this. What happens when I take the ring off you?”
Cedric gritted his teeth, and a flash of hurt passed over his face before he looked away.
“If you take my ring off,” His voice ashamed, softer than it was before. “I will no longer look like this. Not this form, but you have to believe me. It’s still me. I’m still Cedric” His eyes rose to meet Harry’s, pleading.
Harry leaned close and sneered, his breath hot against Cedric’s face. “And what creature are you, Cedric?”
Cedric flinched at the cold bite of Harry’s words. Silver lined those stormy gray eyes.
“A shade.”
Harry clicked his tongue and moved back with a short laugh. “Of course I was right. I hoped I wasn’t but here we are.”
He looked over his shoulder, disgusted at Cedric who was more shattered with even word that left his mouth, seeming to condemn him to the pits of hell.
“It’s still me, Harry. I’m still Cedric. Please,” His voice cracked under the strain of emotion, and a lone tear trickled down his face. “I love you.” He stuttered out, more tears running down his face now.
It did nothing to phase the scarred hero. He'd seen first hand the atrocities of the world.
“How?” Harry growled, his eyes narrowing. “How did you become a shade?”
“A potion of Unicorn blood and dragon heart,” Cedric choked on his words, his hands trembling. “I swear, it was not my choice, Harry. Please...”
Harry’s lips thinned as it sank in. Unicorn blood meant a half-cursed life. Dragon heart got the body working, but for how long? It had already been years since Cedric had been turned into a shade. How much longer till the creature decided he needed fresh body replacement parts? What then?
“So you were dead.” He said shortly.
“Harry, please!”
“Answer me!”
“I can't stop it!” Cedric was crying now. “I don't want to hurt anyone. I just… I wanted to find you. Please… I love you. I don't know why they turned me into this. But ever since I got back all I wanted to do is find you. I'm draining my parents of their life and magic, but I don't want to! Please believe me!”
But Harry didn't seem to care. “So you wanted to find me, huh? So you can kill me, huh? Is that it?” Harry's voice rose sharply and a ripple of wordless magic erupted out his wand, tying and binding Cedric up. "Revenge for letting you die at the end of the tournament?!"
“No!” Cedric screamed, thrashing against the ropes that tightened with every movement. Harry grabbed his face, nails digging into his cheeks and yanked the man down onto his knees. Cold and wicked was the ice chipped jade of his eyes.
“You see, Cedric,” He purred almost menacingly. “There's only one way to get rid of a Shade.”
Cedric sniffled, looking up at Harry pitifully.
Harry smiled back, void of amusement. “You do understand that I have to get rid of you, don't you?”
His fingers tightened, digging into Cedric's cheeks before he let go of his former friend, who squeaked, unsteadily falling backwards on his knees. Harry turned to the grave and flicked his wand in a circular wave.
“Harry, I love you,” Cedric begged. “Don't punish me for that which is not my fault.”
Earth raised up from the spot landing on a head before the newly dug out grave and Harry turned his unfeeling eyes to Cedric.
“Creatures like you,” Harry's voice was quiet now, laced with venom. “You'll be the death of everyone. Especially who you love.”
With another wave of his wand, the screaming Cedric, fighting his ever tightening bonds was dragged across the mud, falling into the pit.
“HARRY, PLEASE! Don't leave me! Don't leave me!”
“Goodbye, Cedric.”
And the grave began to fill up, drowning out the screams, till an eerie silence fell over the garden. An hour under the soil and the Shade would cease to exist.
Harry loosed a breath he didn't know he was holding, extracting a cigarette from a pack in his pocket. With a heavy sigh and the snap of his fingers, he lit the cigarette up, pulling a drag on it and blowing out the smoke, feeling the throb of his headache slowly recede.
Maybe Theo was right. Maybe he was a monster. After all, who else in their right mind could bury someone alive right after they've kissed them?
The Auror glanced once more at the grave and then turned around, walking off the property before he disapparated into the evening.
No one had known that Harry James Potter had been there that day, and no one would. The world was a little safer, with the Shade gone, and everything was back to the way it should be.
After all, who could ever love a monster?
In the house, Amos Diggory staggered, finally free of the drain that the Shade had on him.
“Cedric?” He stumbled, his mind reeling. “Where's my Cedric?” His eyes blurred before they refocused once more, the only man was weak and spent of all his energy. But still he called out.
“Where's my son?”