Harry was home, well, what he considered to be home. The small brunette had just stepped off the Hogwarts Express and his heart felt as though it could just explode with happiness. The smell of the forest, the looming castle ahead, the Forbidden Forest's strange noises, they all made him feel welcomed and comforted, like a home should. His real home, number four Privet Drive, made him feel quite the opposite, like he was a prisoner and was quite the large burden upon the Dursley's. 'Thank God I'm out of that wretched place for the next few months.' He thought to himself as he adjusted his school robes before finally entering the Great Hall, a grin spreading across his delicate face. This was it, this was the place he had longed for the whole summer, the place he had been dying to get back to; a place where he went without judgment for the most part, the place where he could cast spells, the place where his friends were. Speaking of his friends, how could they abandon him on the train like that? He had just gone to the bathroom and when he returned they were already on their way up to the castle.
He looked down the Gryffindor table and spotted them, waving him over, and he hastily made his way to his seat next to Ron and directly across from Hermione. "Thanks for abandoning me you two, I never figured my two best friends would leave me on the train all alone." Ron rolled his eyes. "You were taking forever, Harry! What were we supposed to do? Miss the carriages?"
"She's right, Harry," Ron said, chuckling as he chewed his food.
"Like Ron so rudely said," the girl said, throwing the red head a dirty look as she wiped some food that had shot out from the male's open mouth off of her uniform, "you were taking forever. You must have had to walk here because we're sure we got the last carriage."
A light tint of redness came to Harry's cheeks, it was true, he had taken quite the long piss in the bathroom, but it was no excuse for them to abandon him. "Yeah, I walked, but it was nice! And my piss wasn't that long, honestly, it was three minutes max." Hermione and Ron were about to retort, but then Dumbledore began to speak and everyone in the Great Hall knew it was time to shut their traps.
Instead of staring at the great wizard in front of him though, his eyes wandered about the Great Hall, looking at all the people. He could tell all the first years were scared shitless, their cheeks still pudgy and they were practically shaking with excitement or nervousness. His eyes wandered to the Slytherin table, noticing Draco with a smug look on his face as he ignored Dumbledore's speech, trying hard to look rebellious. Next was the Ravenclaw table, all of them with their backs straight and staring at Dumbledore, all obviously listening intently; and then there was the Hufflepuff table, and Harry's green eyes stopped as his they fell upon a certain boy, the Hufflepuff seeker, Cedric Diggory. His heart, even though he was entirely sure it was impossible, felt like it had expanded even more, excitement and happiness filling it. His brow furrowed a bit, what the hell was that all about?<|im_end|>
Though part of him was listening to the Headmaster talk about the Tri Wizard Tournament, Cedric Diggory's attention was focused elsewhere. Having already read about the tournament in the Daily Prophet, Cedric knew about most of the details already and was mostly paying attention in order to hear how he might be able to be a part of the tournament. The rest of his attention was focused on someone it had often found itself in the previous two school years. Anybody who knew him well wouldn't have to ask what he was thinking about; they'd already know who was on his mind.
Harry Potter.
For quite some time, Cedric had known he was gay and though he'd had some discrete relationships amongst his fellow Hufflepuffs, only Harry Potter had ever inspired anything resembling what Cedric thought true love might feel like. The problem was that Harry himself had no idea how Cedric felt about him, and Cedric was quite frankly at a loss as to how to tell him. Many times he'd considered simply walking up to Harry and confessing his feelings but he thought that might be too forward, he certainly didn't want to scare Harry off.
Watching Harry discretely out of the corner of his eye, Cedric ran his fingers through his auburn hair as he wondered if Harry was dating Ron or Hermione. Not for the first time, he pondered the idea that Harry might already be an item with one of his best friends and pushed the thought from his head. That would only make him crazy.
"So how do I turn the Boy Who Loved into the Boy Who Loves Me?" Cedric thought to himself.<|im_end|>