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Serpentină	By : Iced_Sygar Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Tom Views: 20913 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: We do not OWN Harry Potter, characters, and so on. We make no profit off of it. The only thing we own is our writing and new plot changes to the story.

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~Favor~

A/N: Short Chapter is short. But if I included the next bit then it’d be too long and too full of information. But, at least we get to introduce someone new~ It has been fast forwarded in the series from the summer before Harry’s fourth year to after the beginning of the tournament, after the first test with the dragons and this is the bit with Cedric, the egg, and etc. I played Cedric. Also, this takes place in the fourth book, the Goblet Of Fire © J.K. Rowling.

Harry yawned as he dosed in the afternoon sun on the school grounds.

He still hadn’t gotten used to Ron not being with him. They had still not made up from the fight over whether he had or had not put his name into the goblet of fire, and Hermione was getting mad at both of them for fighting hence his being alone. Honestly, the only person he had been in contact with was Cedric who seemed to have taken pity on his role as the "not popular" champion of Hogwarts.

Actually he liked Cedric pretty well, but he had been a bit cautious about him after getting to learn how perfect he was... It made him feel a bit awkward around him.

Cedric indeed had shown pity on the boy whom the school made out to be an enemy. He hadn't really ever gotten to know him, aside from Quidditch matches, and he knew that Potter was definitely good at that. It also seemed like he was always great at finding himself at the wrong place in the wrong time. So he tried to get some people to lighten up. After all, he was a student of Hogwarts and Hogwarts needed to support him. The cup had chosen him and it was final.

The Hufflepuff didn't really believe that Harry had put his own name in the tournament, or at least, he wanted to believe that and he merely stuck to that assumption. He had started to notice the other boy more and more before he started to question himself about exactly why his eyes followed Harry or why he wanted so much for the others to quit their harassment. Either way he tried to befriend the other student and get closer to him regardless, figuring that they could be good friends since they seemed to share a lot of interests.

When the first round of the championship came up he wasn't expecting Harry to actually let him know about the dragons. It wasn't a lot of information but it did help him to get an idea... Especially since all the others seemed to know about it too. That leg up helped him immensely and just solidified his liking of the Gryffindor. Perhaps in more ways than one.

After they had retrieved their eggs to find out the clues, Cedric had spent quite a while trying to figure out how to examine it. He had gotten tired one night, carrying that egg with him everywhere in hopes that something would come to him, and as he went into the prefect baths it accidentally got knocked into the tub on his way out. It hit a wall or floor in the tub, split open, and when the Hufflepuff went to retrieve it... Lo and behold, the clue he needed.

The tall boy spent quite a bit of time looking for Potter after that. He owed it to the other boy to repay him that favor he gave to him for the dragons and he would not stop until he was able to. When he finally found the boy-who-lived he tried to get him secluded off and was glad he didn't have to work too hard, seeing as how he was dozing off on the school grounds. He snuck up and moved to sit down with him carefully before continuing on.

"Hey, Potter?" He asked, moving a hand to the other student's shoulder to get him to wake. "I believe I owe you a favor."

Harry jerked awake, face red. He had been having a day dream he would rather not discuss. "Ah--! Oh... It’s you, Cedric..." He sighed, lying back against the tree.

At first he had thought the touch was someone else, but that person never called him ‘Potter’. Apparently he had been more into the memory of a dream than he thought, and Cedric had taken this time to sit beside him.

"A favor? Look, I keep telling you, you don’t owe me anything, Cedric." He said stubbornly, still annoyed at being jilted. He had not had any dreams like that since leaving Privet drive and they had been rare then. Actually, Harry never meant to keep drifting back to these moments; he had been rather averse to them since the dream of the old man and the snake. That had happened in the same house, the same room as the 'better' dreams and it had seemed so real. "So just forget it..."

Cedric stared to the other boy's face and how he blushed so quickly and acted surprised. He just mainly thought that it was because he woke him up so suddenly, though he tried to ease him awake... But could it have been something else? Perhaps a day dream? Either way, Cedric didn't push on and shoved that idea into the back of his mind to not surface again until later.

"No matter how many times you say that, I feel like I do owe you one. Look," The Hufflepuff started, moving a bit closer to the boy and quieting down a little. It was mainly just them though, but he wanted to be sure that people wouldn't eavesdrop if they happened to be walking outside around their area or something.

"I know how to make sense of the second clue's hollering. If you can, bring your egg to the prefect baths... How about tonight, if that's good for you? You won't be able to get into the baths without being a prefect so I'll have to let you in. But I can explain more then."

When Cedric moved closer, the warning bells in his head went off for a moment until he again had to remind himself that it was not Tom. 'Those dreams are turning me into a pervert...' He thought, mentally shaking himself. Still, with Cedric this close it was hard to ignore how handsome he was—Not that he liked him that way. Harry was simply noting the fact that the older student looked much more the part of champion than himself. The offer about the egg caught his attention though; all his did was scream so any help was welcome. The bath part however, that was something different.

"Wh-Why does it have to be in the baths?" Harry asked incredulously turning to look at him. Nothing bad per say had ever occurred to him in the baths, but he had had a rather adult encounter there when he was younger. Which was why he always went alone now.

The older boy stared at Harry for a moment, wondering what he was thinking. And then he wondered if Harry was just a shy type who didn't like baths with others or... He was just a bit confused. He himself was a very open person and had no problem with it.

"It's necessary in order to understand the message from the egg. The Prefect baths are where I heard mine and... Are you just uncomfortable with it or something? I'm sorry if it bothers you, I'm just trying to help since you helped me. It's the only way I know how to decipher what it says though, honest."

"N-No it's fine. It's fine... I'll go..." He said, quickly rushing past the question. Yes he would be uncomfortable, but he wasn’t going to tell Cedric the reason why was that the younger version of his 'enemy' had taken advantage of him there. He took a few deep breaths; that would not happen anyways because Cedric wasn’t that kind of person. Nor was he inclined toward that... Field of sexual urges... He guessed. Harry however reminded himself that he had thought the same exact things about Tom back then. 'I need that clue though... And I shouldn’t just assume things like that.’

"Uh… What time? I mean what time do I need to be there...?" Harry asked trying to sound casual now.

Cedric smiled a bit to Harry once he seemed ok with it, just a bit oblivious about it all if the boy said he was ok with it. "Oh, yeah. Well, around 9 might be a good time. We'd have to do a bit of sneaking around but then there'd hardly be anyone in those baths by then. And, being a prefect, it'd be ok anyways if we were caught and I could tell them that I was trying to help guide you somewhere, going to get a book, or something. Anyways, that's ok with you?"

Harry wanted to say that making it to the prefects’ bath would be a cinch, with his invisibility cloak and Marauder’s map. However, he did not want Cedric to know he had these items as they were secret. 'I guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way.' He thought.

"Nine seems fine, but I think we should find a place between our two houses to meet up. It would be risky if we tried to meet at either one of the entrances first. It'll look odd even if you are a prefect." Harry said, used to sneaking around by now and he was resisting the urge to just offer to meet him there. But again, without revealing that he had a magic map he wasn’t supposed to know where the prefect bathrooms were. Silly hiding bathrooms.

Cedric nodded to the boy. "Alright, nine it is. And in between our two houses..." He thought for a few moments before he came to the conclusion. "Meet me on the fourth level of the stairs, right at the archway into that stretch of hallway with the windows overlooking the Northern side of the grounds with a view over the nearby forest between us and Hogsmeade in the background, ok? If you see he lake, the greenhouses, or Hagrid's Hut then you're on the wrong level. Also there is a statue of a bird holding rolled up parchment in its talons to the right- You can't miss it, it's at about your eye-level." He put, trying as best as he could to describe the area to meet up at.

It wasn't too far from the prefect bathrooms at all. He would usually walk down that stretch of hallway, enjoying the view on the left of Hogsmeade in the background and the rolling hills before eventually he took a right and through an archway. There was a small hall here, way smaller in comparison to the one you pass to get there, and a large double door that required prefect access only. Regular students probably thought it was some classroom they'd attend in their later years, perhaps a storage room, and many other guesses. It was just one of those things only prefects were supposed to know.

He was just visualizing all of it in his head before he realized he got carried away with his thoughts, getting a bit embarrassed when coming back to reality but trying to cover it up or play it off.

"Oh, sorry about that, I was just thinking for a minute there. Anyways, yeah, meet me at that archway tonight around 9, alright? If you can't make it, tell one of the Gryffindor prefects to send word to me. You don't have to tell them anything specific, just say...'I can't finish the papers, could you tell Cedric for me?' so you can be general and not give it away plus I'll know what it means. Anyways, I'll see you later Harry." He put, smiling as he shook the boy's hand and moved to stand up, straighten up just slightly, and walk off.

"Nine, fourth floor, north side got it." Harry said, repeating the directions back to the older student. He was a bit miffed that Cedric seemed to think he needed VERY specific directions like some child—Just because he hadn’t gotten much bigger since puberty didn’t mean he still was one. And he had done a lot as a child too so—No. Stop ranting, its fine. He's just trying to be nice.

The same time Harry was ranting internally was the same time Cedric had been thinking about the way to the baths. Seeing him slightly flustered from letting his mind wander made Harry feel a little superior... And maybe a little pleased; it was nice. "Oh, it's fine--I'm sure I'll see you there Cedric." He said, releasing the prefect's hand. Harry watched him leave, not sure if he was looking forward to their next meeting or not.

The day went by slowly for Harry as he anxiously kept checking the clock through classes and breaks. Finally when 9 began to near, he told Hermione he was going to the baths—He couldn’t tell her he was getting help since he had already lied and said he knew what was in the egg. He followed Cedric’s directions quickly and quietly; this was far away from the Gryffindor baths and he did not want to explain to Filch why he was wandering about so late. When he arrived to the designated area Harry was pleased to see he was the first one there.

It was running a bit late by the time Cedric noticed he should be at the baths already, rushing to leave and making a few Hufflepuffs stare. He had been quite distracted all day with little things and there was definitely one thing on his mind. Well, it was the Harry Potter. The boy-who-lived. Even though most of the school disliked him, he was trying quite a bit to get people to appreciate him or to get him at least not so bullied. He kind of looked out for him now, right? Well, he was trying to, at least. He honestly didn't mean to make the younger boy annoyed by how he was trying to treat him nicely or anything, though Cedric was a bit oblivious to it if he did do it by accident. He just wanted to help.

However the thoughts of the baths didn't really help his thoughts and he was embarrassed to admit that the thought had turned south here and there. He tried to ignore them and continue on his day but it was a little more than just distracting. Nevertheless, time eventually flew by and before he knew it he was actually running a bit late. Grabbing a few things and his egg as well, he quickly left to head up to the prefect baths. Once there he had to catch his breath for a moment before allowing them both in with his badge and heading in to go change.

The room itself was quite large and filled with a huge bath with many faucets lining it that offered different little surprises in each. There were decorations all around the room and in general it was very nice and upscale. They offered showers to the side as well as little cabinets to store your items while you bathed. This specific prefect bath was for the male prefects only- The girl prefects were elsewhere.

The blonde wasted no time in going to change, undoing his tie and slipping off his cloak on the way to the cabinets. He took off his shoes and his clothes one by one, not really shy either, and stacked them neatly before he grabbed a towel and his golden egg. He needed a bath anyways; otherwise he wouldn't have even undressed. Heading to the tub, he began to turn on a few faucets to create different smells, bubbles, and colors that began to fill the tub. He picked a mixture of purple and white swirls today, bubbles that looked like clusters of bubbles flying into the air, and a nice vanilla fragrance as he climbed in, letting it fill up. Once it started reaching high enough he took off the towel, sat it aside, sat on one of the benches in the bath, and moved to grab the egg he had brought over, waiting on Harry to join him.

"I hope you don't mind vanilla too much or the other colors that I picked out for today's bath. But bring your egg over and I'll show you what I did."

By the time Harry had gotten inside, placed his items into one of the lockers and turned around—Cedric was already half dressed. He resisted the urge to yell at him, but this was a bath after all so he had no good reason to yell. 'Why does everyone else in the wizarding world seem to have no problem undressing, other than me...?' Harry thought wearily spotting a shower stall with the curtain to change in, taking one of the towels with him. It took some time to change in such a small space, and he was in a bad mood again because of their different body types. 'Well, I'm still growing I'm only 14—And seekers are supposed to be small.' He thought trying to comfort himself.

After wrapping the towel around his waist, he stepped out to the bath as dignified as possible. The smell and water color caught him off guard, forcing him to stare blankly at it for a few moments. When Cedric spoke it snapped him out of it; there was nothing like this in the regular baths it made him view the other faucets with a greedy look.

"Oh--yeah right it's fine, I think..." Harry did his best not to look at Cedric in the bath as he plucked his egg from his other items and quickly removed the towel as he sat in the bath. It smelled very nice, and he kept getting distracted by the various swirls in the water.

"So... What now? How does any of this make the egg stop screaming?" Harry asked from more than an arm’s length from Cedric—Still not looking at him.

Cedric couldn't help but to stare to the other boy oddly. Was he in a bad mood or something? He didn't really want to push it or to bug him by asking but... Well, maybe solving the egg would help improve his mood. Being oblivious again, the blonde scooted a bit closer and held his egg under the water. He fiddled with it, making it open, and through the white and purple translucent swirls in the water, you could see the bright colors inside of the egg swirling around like as if it were colored winds trapped inside the parameters of the little metal egg even though it was now open. You couldn't hear any screaming through the water but, instead, something singing very softly.

"You can actually open these underwater. But it's not like you can just shove these in any old sink around the school—Most aren't big enough. Besides I thought you'd enjoy a bath in here anyways. But if you go underwater, you can actually hear that really soft singing much more clearly. It's giving clues to the next challenge." Of course, he didn't go underwater. He already knew what it said after having gone back and forth underwater many times the first time he discovered it to try and decipher it.

He twitched and resisted the urge to move farther away as the older boy came closer, why did this have to be in a bath? Harry watched as Cedric forced the egg under the colorful swirls, ready to cover his ears when he saw the latch undone. However rather than screaming hell fiends, Harry heard music coming from the golden object. He couldn’t make it out anything but a vague tune though. Cedric had guessed right that this would improve Harry's mood; it was a great weight off of his shoulders to finally know what the hell to do with the egg.

"This is brilliant Cedric, I never would have thought of shoving it under water." He said, beaming up at the prefect. He blushed a little when Cedric mentioned that he thought he'd enjoy being in here—Though he wasn’t sure why. 'I guess it's because it's nice to have someone actually care enough to wonder if I'd like something." He thought, shrugging it off.

"Alright, I'll see if I can hear anything--" Quickly Harry shoved his own egg under the water, opening it and following it with himself.

It took a few tries to get all of the words memorized but at least it was in English. He popped back up for the third and final time, wiping the water from his eyes and breathing great gulps of air. "Why can’t they just give us a straight answer for once?" Harry said, a little exasperated.

Glad to see that Harry's mood had been improved at learning about what Cedric had found out, the Hufflepuff smiled and let him try and listen to it. He himself had already listened plenty of times, memorizing it, and had no need to go underwater. He was glad that Potter was at least smiling though instead of being in that kind of groggy mood. Closing his egg and sitting it outside of the tub and on the tiled floor, he realized suddenly he was a bit too close and he moved away some, though not too far away.

When Harry was finally done listening for a few times, Cedric nodded to him. "Yeah, it's a bit hard to decipher, isn't it? It makes me wish I had the wits of Ravenclaw students-... I would ask Cho but I'm pretty sure that's cheating." He said, both thinking aloud and trying to joke a little though it was kind of weak. It was a bit awkward, now that he realized it, to try and make casual talk with someone he didn't talk very much with in a tub. It was kind of a shame him and Harry didn't hang out more.

"Uh... Look, Harry." He put, looking up to him. "I hope we can be friends. If you don't want to, then that's ok too. Hopefully this sets you on the right path though. I wouldn’t have figured it out for the life of me either had I not accidentally dropped it. Anyways, anytime you want to take a bath up here I can bring you up or give you permission to." He said, hoping to keep the other boy's good mood up, try and find something to chat about, and so on... Though he was running out of things and he moved to wash his hair to avoid the silence.

Harry had to think about the joke for a moment to see that Cedric was trying to be funny, which made him snigger because he failed at it so hard. "Well, maybe it is but I don’t remember any of the rules saying anything about it." He said, smiling again, and lightening up quite a bit. Now there positions had switched and Harry was the one who felt comfortable and Cedric uncomfortable. The request had caught him off guard though; he hadn’t really thought that the older student would want anything other than to make sure he wasn’t obligated to him anymore.

Still, it made him feel much better to know that Cedric was okay with being friends with him. Honestly without Ron around he felt very alone—Not that he was going to tell Ron that. It was Ron's fault after all.

"Sure, that's fine with me as long as you’re okay with having your reputation tarnished by hanging out with the ‘fake’ champion and all." Harry was kidding but he was still quite a bit sore about that too.

"Won’t you get into trouble for bringing me up here? I'm not supposed to be here—Not that I mind. I mean, do you have to deduct points from yourself now?" He asked, slightly joking.

Cedric smiled back to Harry at his responses, glad that he was at least a bit more comfortable and no longer seemingly in a bad mood. "Oh, you can forget about that. They're just all being stupid and I hope they realize what they're doing before it comes back to kick them in the mouth. I hope you don't take it too harshly; the comments and all. I've been trying to get it to die down but those Slytherins are pretty persistent on making your life a hell, I guess. I just figured that, seeing as how being a Champion alone is difficult, it must be really hard with how some people are treating you now. But I don't care and I'd like to be your friend regardless. Also, nah." He laughed, easing up a bit and becoming more comfortable again.

"As long as you got my word vouching for you, you're fine. The other prefects don't really care aside from probably the Slytherin ones. It's all good though. But, yeah, anytime you want to come for another bath I'll just give you permissions. These baths are pretty neat, I like them. It took me quite a while to experiment with all the different scents and all. By the way, some of the combinations of scents can be really god awful, just letting you know." He put, amused at remembering a few of those bad times. Yeah, chocolate and him turning on the weird egg faucet didn't really turn out good. Which, after that incident, he had spent the time since wondering why there was even an egg scented faucet.

"It's fine; this isn’t the first time everyone's decided to dislike me. There was the whole Heir of Slytherin thing two years ago." He said, smiling wryly. That had been a... Difficult year in many ways.

"But thank you, it's nice to hear that." Harry ran some water through his hair, smelling the vanilla thick in the air. The idea of a Slytherin prefect made something ding in the back of Harry's mind. Tom had been a prefect, so he would have used these baths also—No ignore that. 'I'm not going to get depressed when I'm finally having some fun this year.' He thought, pushing the thought away.

"I do want to try these faucets; I’ve never seen anything like them before." He said glancing, again at the row of faucets. "Though, we don’t have to just visit each other in the baths you know. I mean, there are other places where we’re less... Naked." Harry laughed, embarrassed. "Like Hogsmeade or something..."

The Hufflepuff couldn't help but laugh more at this, shaking a hand to him. "Oh, I meant that you could come up here by yourself too, if you wanted, I'd just give permissions and make it to where the door allows specifically you. But yeah, we could go to Hogsmeade sometime if you feel up to it; sounds awesome." He put, smiling and glad. He then went to finish his bath, trying to joke around or get more comfortable with the other boy. Any awkward thoughts he had about the Gryffindor were forced into the back of his mind. After all, he did have a girlfriend.

After that bath, things had been going well for Harry.

When he had gotten back from the bath Ron had apologized for his behavior and the taunts had become less frequent and vicious. He wondered if this was because of Cedric, or because maybe people noticed that being almost eaten by a dragon was not fun. At all. Ever. Either way, things were better and Harry could finally enjoy his school year. Cedric had made good on his agreement of friendship, and the two quickly got past the general awkwardness of their first real ‘get together’. Becoming friends with Cedric, however, brought problems as well for Harry.

The more time he spent with Cedric the more the thought that, somehow, he was betraying Tom filled his head.

'I'm not betraying anyone, Cedric is my friend and that's it. And why do I worry what you think—You haven’t even tried to talk to me in two years now. Not that I want you to, since you'll probably just try to kill me again.' … Said the bitter part of his heart, sullen and distrustful when he thought of Tom.

'I do love you though, so it isn’t betraying at all. I’m just lonely, and Cedric is very nice to me. He reminds me a little of you, when you feel like being kind to me." … The love sick part said, still like his 12 year old self.

Harry was very confused as to what he was feeling for Cedric—Or Tom for that matter.

A/N: We wanted to play on the whole ‘bath scene’ more and to have Cedric more involved rather than just dropping the hint and letting Harry carry on his way. Tom and Cedric really are like opposites, aren’t they?
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