The same but different

Chapter 16 Closer

After any large gathering of teenagers there's bound to be a flood of gossip, and the Yule Ball was no exception. Harry and Cedric could barely make it through breakfast the day after the ball, they were getting so many questions and looks and whispers. It bemused Harry - all the crying people, the screaming fits, the cheating partners and date-swapping and Snape catching two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw together in a broom cupboard, and his comparatively chaste evening with Cedric was still the hot gossip?

"I mean, I know we look good together," Harry remarked as the pair of them walked out of the great hall after lunch, wanting to spend a little time together before afternoon classes. "But really, you'd think they'd never seen two boys kiss before." He was fairly certain a third year girl had actually fainted when he'd pecked Cedric on the lips when they separated for classes that morning.

"They'll get over it," Cedric agreed, slinging his arm over Harry's shoulders. "When they realise we're not all that interesting. For heaven's sake, Jacob Keane is likely to be in the hospital wing for a week after his girlfriend cursed him. Well, ex-girlfriend now, I suppose. People are bound to leech off that one for ages." The Slytherin fifth year had stupidly tried to sneak away into the rosebushes with a girl who wasn't his date. His girlfriend - a Ravenclaw seventh year - had needed to be dragged away by Snape before she could render him little more than a stain on the floor.

"Hopefully they'll at least realise this means I really don't want to compete with you for the title of Hogwarts champion," Harry said, sighing. They walked past a group of younger girls, who broke into hushed giggles at the sight of them.

"I do wonder what to tell my friends, though," Cedric mused. "When they ask how we got together and everything. Can't exactly explain that we were married in a former life."

"Just tell them I've fancied the pants off of you since last year and we got talking at the Cup, then stayed friends when school started back up and it ended up becoming more. It's not entirely untrue," Harry pointed out, leaning up to kiss Cedric's cheek with a grin. "I have been drooling over you in your quidditch robes for a while now."

"Mm, shame there's no games this year for you to see them again. It'll have to wait until next year," Cedric teased. Harry's grin turned wicked.

"Oh, I'm sure I can persuade you to put them on before then," he murmured, winking. A surprised laugh burst from Cedric's lips, even as his cheeks flushed pink.

"I don't doubt it," he agreed ruefully. He tugged him into a proper kiss, breaking away when a couple of girls nearby screeched and giggled at the movement. A disgruntled frown crossed his face. "Maybe being out isn't great, if it's going to be like this the whole time."

"They'll get over it," Harry insisted, echoing Cedric's earlier words. "And if they're still doing it by New Year's I'll start hexing them." That was said loud enough for the girls to hear, and they turned bright red. Cedric snickered.

"Always so quick to get your wand out in my honour." He seemed to realise the double-entendre in his sentence as soon as it left his mouth, his eyes narrowing as Harry's face lit up in a smirk. "Don't," he warned. Harry cackled. The Hufflepuff shook his head in a despairing manner. "You're fourteen, remember?"

"Age of consent didn't exist when we first got together," was Harry's impish reply. Cedric groaned.

"You'll be the death of me, Harry James Potter," he muttered under his breath. Harry's grin didn't falter for a second.

.-.-.

True to his word, Harry began hexing anyone who gave him and Cedric more than a sideways glance after January 1st. Discreetly, of course, so he couldn't get detention during the holidays, but it was enough that people reluctantly moved on. Rita Skeeter's Witch Weekly article about them - all hearsay and speculation, as the updated Hogwarts wards hadn't let her into the castle - had been predictably overdramatic, and Cedric took great pleasure in setting it on fire in the great hall over breakfast the morning it came out.