Change

Disclaimer: Yep… Yep… I don’t own anything here, except for the plot.

Hikari Reika: Hey thanks for the reviews ^^;; I’ve decided to continue this. I expect that this will be pretty short, spanning over just a few chapters. Let’s see how far I can take this, shall we? ;) and this chapter’s a bit boring, yes I know. I still need to figure out what I need to do between these two characters. ^^;;

Change – Chapter 2

Harry got up in bed with a serious headache with a neck-ache to match.

“Oww…” Harry groaned, sitting himself up in bed with one head massaging his forehead.

What happened…? Harry thought.

He blinked his eyes hard, hoping that the pain would go away. Looking out the window, he could see the sun barely reaching the sky. The heavens were painted in a crimson-blue colour, the trees outside his window swaying gently in the wind. The scent of morning dew filled his nostrils, a welcoming change as he had been waking up very late for the past few days.

He rolled one hand on the back of his neck trying to massage the pain away.

Then memories of last night flashed like lightning in his mind.

That was what made Harry awake for good.

A little panicked, he tried to recall what else happened after that night.

I fell asleep in the bath, didn’t I? Then what…? he thought.

He remembered. Slowly, but surely, he remembered. He fell asleep in the bath, and awoke at the shrill shriek of Myrtle afterwards. He got up, heavily sleepy and confused and bolted out of the door without a shirt on. He got back in the bathroom again and retrieved whatever articles of clothes he had left on the floor and slammed the door behind him. He pulled the invisibility cloak tightly around him, making sure that not an inch of his body was to be seen.

As a result, he accidentally dropped his egg onto the floor. Before he could bend down and reach for it, the egg snapped open and the screech filled the hallways with a deafening tone. Harry sat down, his hands over his ears, hoping that the cloak was still hiding him from anyone that would be in the hall.

Suddenly he heard footsteps emerging from the end of the hallway, even though the screams of the eggs were making his ears deaf.

“PEEVES!” Mr. Filch’s voice roared over the deafening sounds. He saw shadows emerge out of the corner of his eye and true enough, it was him. He held a lamp in one hand and the other was pressing against his ear.

Harry froze up, still in the sitting position.

Mr. Filch bent down and closed the egg. Harry could hear ringing sounds in his ear. He squirmed in pain, trying hard not to let out a muffled groan.

“Wait a minute… This is a Triwizard clue.” Mr. Filch said to himself. “PEEVES! You’ve been stealing!”

Harry held his breath as he watched Mr. Filch looking around furiously, cursing under his breath. He was headed dead straight towards Harry, and Harry just froze up on the floor.

“Filch? What’s going on?”

It was Mad-Eye Moody. He was walking, limping normally on one leg. He stared at Filch, while his other eye was prodding its vision towards Harry.

“Peeves stole this from one of the Triwizard champions.” Mr. Filch said, cursing again under his breath.

What happened next was a blur for Harry, as he was too sleepy. But he tried his best to sit still and not make any noise.

“Give me that egg,” Harry heard Moody say. Then he heard the two fight over it for a while and then things were a blur again.

When he awoke from his light sleep, he saw that Mr. Filch and Moody were gone. He also noticed something else was inside his cloak. He looked down to see the egg resting between his knees.

So Moody’s left eye can see through my cloak… It’s a good thing he didn’t rat out on me. Harry thought.

He ran towards the dorm, spoke the password and flung himself behind the portrait and towards his bed. He blacked out a few nanoseconds after he hit the pillow, not bothering to take off his invisibility cloak.

I’ll never do that again, Harry thought. Never again…

He ran the tips of his fingers on his lips. Yes, it still hurt. Harry could still feel the pain where Cedric had bitten him. Then he ran his fingers down his neck. He could feel a bump – a love bite that Cedric had given him.

It hurt, Harry admitted; even worse still when he realized that he did not sleep in the right sleeping position the night before. Every time he ran his fingers across it, he could feel the pain throbbing beneath his skin.

Ah, but it was somewhat bittersweet. Harry ran his fingers again and again over them, knowing that Cedric’s lips had been there the night before. He shivered at the thought, closing his eyes to recall every single moment.

Then he stopped himself.

What the hell am I doing? Am I… Losing it?

Harry whirled around to see that Ron is still sleeping. Harry sighed in relief and eyed everyone else.

Everyone’s asleep. Harry thought to himself.

Harry looked over his side of the bed to see the Invisibility Cloak and the golden egg on the floor.

Must’ve fallen off when I was asleep.

He sighed, looking outside the window. Then he heard a groan coming from Ron’s bed. Harry turned around to see Ron sitting on the bed, his head hanging from his shoulders. He shook his head, trying hard to fight off the sleepiness.

“Morning, Ron.” Harry said in a low voice so that the others wouldn’t wake up.

Ron looked up towards Harry. He blinked for a while and said, “Mor--- ahhhh--- ning…” he put up a hand up to his mouth to muffle his yawn.

He exhaled as he closed his mouth and looked at Harry with squinted eyes.

“You’re up early.”

“Yeah…” Harry said.

Silence. Harry heard Ron getting up from the bed and lazily getting a few articles of clothes from his trunk and a bag of toiletries. “I’ll be in the bathroom if you need me.”

Harry winced at the sentence, thinking about the night before.

Ron didn’t take notice and closed the bathroom door silently behind him after exhaling a loud, long yawn.

What now… Harry thought deeply. I’m sure one kiss doesn’t mean I’m… (gulp) gay…

Harry shook his head thoroughly. No. I’m not gay. I’ll prove it.

Somehow.

---

That morning in the hall when everyone was having breakfast, Hermione sensed that there was something wrong with Harry. She was sitting between Harry and Ron, and Ron took no notice of Harry’s behaviour. Ron was happily eating his pancakes, while Harry was poking lazily at his scrambled eggs.

Hermione stopped eating for a while, one hand still holding onto a fork with some bacon on it to study Harry’s facial features. He’s definitely worried about something, Hermione thought. She even heard Harry speaking in a small voice, hearing him curse, and then she heard Harry saying Cedric’s name.

Maybe he’s feeling the pressure of the tournament, Hermione thought. And he already thinks that Cedric is in his way.

But she paused for a moment. Harry’s not like that. He’s not the type that will curse someone under his breath. She thinks that there is something else bothering him. She tried to eavesdrop on his little conversation with himself when Ron piped up, “So have you figured out what your clue is?”

Harry looked up from his plate. “Huh?”

Hermione sighed. Harry really wasn’t himself that day. “The clue, Harry. Have you figured it out?”

Harry took a few moments to analyze the sentence. “Oh. Yeah. I mean… No. Not really.”

“What do you mean by that?” Hermione asked. Ron leaned over Hermione, trying to listen what Harry has to say.

“There are mere people in the Black Lake, right?” Harry started, and the two nodded enthusiastically.

“Well that’s the thing. The clue said something about something will be taken from me, and I have to retrieve it before one hour is up.”

“That sounds… Reasonably easy.” Hermione said, stopping herself for a moment.

“No way. The Black Lake is huge! And I’ve heard that there are all sorts of monsters down there. Grindylows. And stuff.” Ron said.

“That’s not the only problem. You need to be underwater for almost an hour.” Hermione said. “Any idea how to handle that?”

Harry looked deflated. “I thought I was going to ask you that question.”

Hermione stared at Harry for a while. Before Harry knew it, Hermione was already dragging him and Ron towards the library.

“Harry.” A soft voice loomed behind them. Harry turned around to see that it was Cho Chang. “Harry… Have you seen Cedric?”

“Err… Cedric?” Harry said. “Err… No… I haven’t seen him.”

“Oh.” Cho said in disappointment. “Thanks anyway, Harry.”

“Sorry.” Harry said.

“It’s alright. Oh. And good luck for the tournament.” Cho said, smiling at Harry.

Odd, Harry thought. His heart didn’t beat as much when he saw Cho. He didn’t even flinch nervously when he spoke to her. To him, she was like… Just another girl.

“Thanks. And, ah, Cho?” Harry called out to her as she walked away. She looked over her shoulder.

“Erm… If you see Cedric, tell him good luck as well. And… Thanks.” Harry said.

She nodded and waved goodbye before disappearing amidst the students in the already crowded hallway.

It was then he caught himself. Oh no! Harry reeled in horror. I told her to say thanks to him! He’ll probably think I wanted to thank him about…About…

Harry’s trail of thought was caught short when he heard Hermione cried shrilly, “Let’s go!” and pulled Harry by the arm and led him towards the library.

It gets worse… Harry thought, his heart sinking even lower.


By lunchtime, there were approximately 37 books on their table. Hermione and Ron was searching feverishly, flipping the pages frequently.

Harry was too distracted. Why hadn’t I started on it sooner? And even if I do find a spell, how in the world am I supposed to master it overnight?

Hermione looked up from her page to see that Harry was in a bit of pain. Whether it was physical pain or mental pain (or both), she did not know.

“Harry, go get something to eat. We can take over for a while.” Hermione said in a small voice. Harry looked up, snapping himself from his thoughts.

“We?” Ron repeated, looking flabbergasted. His stomach was growling louder than Harry’s, and for a longer time, too. Then suddenly Ron winced as Hermione pinched him in the stomach under the table, while Hermione smiled at Harry.

“I’m not hungry…” Harry lied. Searching for a spell to breathe underwater was tiring, and it made Harry very hungry. But seeing his two friends suffering from under the pile of books just kills him. (Well, except for Hermione, who seems to be enjoying herself.)

“Just go. You’ll need your strength for tomorrow.” Hermione said sternly, her fingers encircling Ron’s stomach in case he made any similar remarks again.

After a long silence, Harry asked, “You guys will be okay?”

“Yeah.” Ron winced, feeling Hermione pinch him again. “You go ahead. We’ll eat later then.”

After Harry left the table, he could hear Ron complaining in the background, “Hermione, what was that for?”

Harry strolled down the full hallway, hearing people curse behind his back. Sometimes he could hear people chant, “Potter stinks” and laugh heartily with a round of high-fives.

It was starting to annoy him greatly, but with his hands in his pockets, he walked faster, trying to shut out the taunts that filled his ears.

Everything was going wrong for him. You-Know-Who is after him, his parents are dead. People accusing him of putting his name in the Goblet of Fire when he didn’t, people wearing ‘Potter Stinks’ badges and taunting him everywhere he went. That one night with Cedric made him sexually confused and he still hasn’t come up with a plan to tackle the next task. And it dawned on him; the next task was going to be tomorrow.

He felt like he could cry any minute. He bit his lower lip hard, trying to shut out his emotions. Just one day, he thought. God, let me get past this one day.

Then he accidentally bumped into someone.

“Ow… Harry.”

Harry froze up. He cocked his head up, his heart beating fast.

“H… Hello Cedric.” Harry stammered. “Sorry, I didn’t see you.”

Cedric gave him a warm smile. “It’s alright, Harry.”

Harry nodded, he didn’t know why. He had run out of words to say. Cedric was still smiling at him.

“How are you, Harry?” Cedric asked.

“I’m… Fine… Thanks…” Harry said simply, trying hard not to blush.

Trying hard not to picture him naked.

Harry’s mind snapped immediately at the thought. Harry, get a grip on yourself!

“Um… Found out how to tackle the next task?” Cedric said, smiling uneasily at Harry.

“Er… No, actually…” Harry said; trying to shut out thoughts of the night before that was steadily flooding into his mind. His heart raced furiously. “Ah! Cedric, Cho was looking for you this morning.”

“Oh? Ah yes, I’ve met up with her just now.” Cedric said, resuming to his happy self.

“Oh.” Harry said, unable to say anything else.

“Listen, catch up with you later, alright?” Cedric said, flashing Harry a grin as he walked past Harry “Good luck!”

“S… Same to you.” Harry stammered. Then he saw Cedric wink at him and turned and disappeared amidst the crowd.

Harry stopped dead for a moment.

Then he turned his heels and walked fast-paced towards the cafeteria. His heart raced.

Cheeky bastard, Harry thought. Then, without even realizing it, Harry chuckled at that remark.

Well that proves it, his mind spoke. You’re obviously gay, Harry. Gay!

For the first time that day, his lips curled into a smile.