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Cedric Diggory and Terence Higgs were Harry's polar opposites, so Harry couldn't really understand why they were trying so hard to befriend him. Harry hated his popularity, mainly because it was all tied to his title as the Boy-Who-Lived, but also because it afforded him absolutely no privacy. He struggled with it on a daily basis. Diggory and Higgs, who were popular enough at Hogwarts and well-liked, seemed to have no trouble with it. If anything, they embraced it.They were social butterflies on such a level that it made Harry want to vomit. Seriously? Who needs to be stuck with a bunch of people the whole damn day?
Harry loved his friends. He did! He loved Ron and Hermione just as much as he did the twins and the rest of his yearmates, but that didn't mean he wanted to spend the whole day with any or all of them. Harry liked his peace. He enjoyed the quiet. Even without the Dursleys tarnishing his reputation since early childhood, or Dudley bullying the other kids away, Harry had always been a loner. He preferred to be alone, away from the heckling children.
“Harry!”
The Gryffindor's left eye twitched, and he heaved a sigh. It was Higgs. He didn't have the heart to tell him to get lost. The Slytherin always looked so damn happy to see him. For once, Terence wasn't accompanied by Diggory. Good, Harry thought. It's not that he didn't like Diggory, but he got the feeling that the other didn't think much of him (1). It made him wonder if Diggory was the jealous and possessive type of boyfriend. How no one realised that those two were boning was a mystery, but Harry wasn't blind. If they weren't boning, they were at the very least secretly dating.
“Higgs,” he greeted him.
Terence pouted.
“I know you remember me telling you to call me Terence.”
Harry nodded.
“I don't want to encourage you.”
The reply was curt, and Harry wanted to bash his head against a wall. His loner nature was not the only reason he didn't have many good friends apart from his fellow Gryffindors (who were used to it); his standoffish behaviour was also part of it. He didn't know how to interact with others and was naturally wary and paranoid. His celebrity status only made things worse because he was well aware that there were people - kids or others - who wanted to befriend him just because of that.
Despite what he might tell you, Harry was happy that Higgs and Diggory were talking to him. He liked them, even though he hated the way they tried to make him speak more. Talking was exhausting.
His cold behaviour didn't seem to deter the Higgs heir, though. Harry should have known; nothing that deterred Terence until now. He doubted it would start with that.
“Come on, Cedric's waiting for you.”
“Your boyfriend is always waiting for you,” Harry replied, snark in his voice.
He wasn't being mean. He was trying to use humour, but he'd always been more of a dark humour kind of guy, so he wasn't sure he had succeeded.
Thankfully, Terence only looked taken aback for a few seconds before huffing a laugh.
“Should have known you were the observant kind of guy. How did you know?”
Harry snorted as he followed Terence in the hallway.
“The real question is: how did no one seem to have gotten on with the program? It's pretty obvious the two of you are dating.”
At this, Terence giggled.
“Yeah. I mean, we're not even hiding! Sure, we don't kiss and grope or any of that,” Terence, ignoring Harry's scrunched up nose, “but we're not hiding either.”
Harry nodded but didn't add anything. He could have told Terence that he was surprised too, but that the rest of the school probably thought they were 'just really good friends'. Harry would bet that half of them were hoping they were just friends and were in denial. Both Diggory and Higgs were good-looking. They were kind (for the most part), smart, and funny. Bref, they were Boyfriends Material. You know what they say: Denial is not just a river. If the rest of the school wanted to play ostrich and put their head in the sand, then be their guests. Harry didn't care.
Terence stopped walking suddenly and pointed a finger towards the school yard.
“Here.”
Diggory was sitting on a bench with a few other Puffs surrounding him. They were laughing at something, but Harry could only swallow. Okay, he thought, heart beating strong in his chest. I can do it.
“I can't do it,” he mumbled, ignoring Terence's questioning noise beside him. “I gotta go.”
And with that, he turned around and left, ignoring Terence's alarmed shouts.
They found him almost an hour later, curled up on the floor, back against the wall next to a painting of three Leprechauns grinning at the audience. He was breathing deeply, head buried between his legs, heartbeat more steady than it had been when he had first stumbled into the empty corridor. He was on the seventh floor, in a path rarely used by students. It wasn't forbidden by any means; there just wasn't any class in this wing of the castle.
Terence noticed Harry first. When he took a step forward and made to call his name, Cedric stopped him.
“Wha-”
“Look at him.”
Yeah, okay. Terence should have been sorted into Gryffindor for just barging into a situation without taking the time to take everything in. Harry was obviously not fine, and he hadn't even noticed him. Harry always noticed people coming in! Terence had seen the way he stiffened whenever he felt something, and that's how he always knew if they were being spied on or something (there was a mean little journalist at Hogwarts that worked on the Hogwarts Gazette, so the students had grown a bit paranoid lately). But Harry hadn't noticed them.
Harry... Harry... Terence looked at him sadly. Harry looked really out of it. The Slytherin deflated and gave his boyfriend a helpless look.
“Careful. He might not have heard us walk in.”
They approached slowly. Cedric didn't know if they should make some noise to alert the younger boy of their presence, or if they should stay quiet, so as not to startle him. They didn't get to choose because Cedric saw Harry stiffen in his corner. He didn't look up to greet them.
The Hufflepuff hesitated. Should they stay here or should they go? Usually, Cedric would have just stirred Terence away, knowing that their younger friend needed some quiet time, but right now, it didn't seem to be working. He knew Harry didn't like being crowded or forced to talk (it took time, but he eventually understood that trying to force him to socialise wasn't going to work well for them), but right now, it seems that staying in his corner wasn't helping either. How long had he been attempting to soothe his nerves? Had he been in that state for the past hour? Did he have a panic attack and deal with it alone?
Cedric felt his heart break a little. He knew their little friend was rather introverted, but no one (in his opinion) should have to deal with that stuff alone.
“Hey, mate,” he said when he saw the boy lift his head a little to observe them with wariness.
He didn't reply. No surprise, there.
“Can we sit here?” he asked, pointing at the floor in front of the boy.
Again, the Gryffindor didn't reply, but he also didn't indicate that he didn't want them here. Cedric took that as an encouraging non-response. He exchanged a look with Terence, and both of them quietly walked to sit close to the prostrate boy.
“You okay?” Terence asked softly after a minute of silence.
Harry shrugged, but lifted his head a bit more. He was staring at his crossed arms over his legs.
“I didn't want to see them,” he mumbled.
Terence frowned.
“See who?”
The answer didn't come immediately. It looked like the younger boy didn't want to say anything in front of Cedric. Then again, he probably knew that Terence didn't like keeping secrets from the Hufflepuff, or maybe he didn't want to put Terence in a delicate situation, because he eventually answered:
“Cedric's friends.”
The aforementioned boy blinked.
“My frien – Do you mean the students I was sitting with in a courtyard?”
Harry didn't nod, but he didn't need to.
“They're not really my friends. I mean, we get along, but we kinda have to since we're in the same House. Not my friends, though. I'm closer to Helen and Sam from Ravenclaw, and Terence, obviously. I'd consider the Weasley twins to be closer to me than I am friendly with my yearsmates from Hufflepuff. And the twins don't like me.”
He heard a snort. It was no secret that Fred and George were protective of Harry and didn't like the way Cedric seemed to circle around the younger boy. Somehow, Terence didn't gather the same wariness and paranoia, which was completely unfair, if you asked Cedric. He didn't care about Houses’ rivalries, but how come a Slytherin didn't register as dangerous on the twins' radar, when they kept looking at a Hufflepuff like he was about to murder their puppy?
He frowned.
“Did they do something to you?”
Harry shook his head, but Cedric knew he was lying.
“Harry... Did something happen involving them?”
This time, there was no shake of the head, but no verbal answer was given either. Cedric knew he was right.
“Twas nothing big,” he heard the boy mumble.
“They hurt you,” Cedric told him, wincing.
He knew insisting might make Harry shut down. It had happened before.
The boy shook his head, and Terence took over.
“Maybe not physically, but they hurt you.”
This time, Harry, once again, didn't answer.
“When was that, Harry?”
“... Last year.”
Last year? Cedric frowned and exchanged a look with Terence.
“When everyone thought I was the heir of Slytherin,” Harry continued with a mumble.
Ah, the Hufflepuff thought with a wince. Yeah, that would certainly... That was enlightening. He remembered how tense the common room was last year, divided between the few who thought Harry Potter was innocent and the others (much more numerous) who were sure he was the culprit. The Puffs had been up in arms when one of their own was attacked.
Needless to say, those who had been very vocal about Harry's involvement had suddenly been wallflowers when it came out that he was innocent and that he and his friend, Ron, had saved the day. By 'wallflowers' he meant to say that they didn't say much afterwards.
“They bothered you last year?” Cedric asked gently, extending a hand to put it on Harry's shoulder.
The boy tensed, and Cedric froze, his hand hovering over Harry's shoulder before retracting it with a quiet apology. Harry had always shown some level of discomfort around Cedric ever since he and Terence started hanging around with him. He wondered if it was something he did, or if, subconsciously, Harry tensed whenever he was around Hufflepuff students now.
Cedric saw his walls go up in an instant, and he cursed himself for pushing too much, too fast.
“Okay, okay,” Terence intervened, sensing the Gryffindor's agitation. “You know... I think someone could do with a hot chocolate,” he said with a meaningful look aimed at both other boys.
Cedric arched a brow, amused, while Harry looked more confused.
“Hot chocolate?” he repeated softly.
“Ever had hot chocolate, Harry?” Terence asked him.
He was disappointed but unsurprised when Harry shook his head. Look, Terence didn't know much about Harry's homelife, but he knew it wasn't good. Harry's avoidance and the Weasley twins' angry looks whenever the subject came up were enough to draw some conclusions.
“Well, I'm about to rock your world,” he said with a cheeky grin.
Harry blinked, and Terence deflated again.
“I forgot you don't watch TV.”
“I'd be more surprised you do,” the raven-haired boy whispered, “if I hadn't met your dads.”
Yes, Cedric mused fondly. Charles and Gabriel Higgs weren't your typical pureblood wizards. They were both descended from mildly conservative Houses, and yet, they were both surprisingly accepting of Muggles and Muggle cultures. Cedric had been at the Higgs home a couple of times, and there was Muggle stuff in every room. Including a radio (well, radio had been imported a while ago in the Wizarding World, that one was not as surprising) and a TV! Cedric wouldn't lie; he had no idea what a TV was when he first stumbled on it, and he jumped about a foot in the air when Terence first turned it on.
Terence offered his hand to Harry.
“Come on. I've got a new recipe of Hot Chocolate, a special Christmas one, and I want you to be the first one to try it.”
Cedric counted it as a win when Harry hesitantly took the offered hand and let Terence help him up.
There would be time later to get answers from Harry – hopefully, really, because Cedric was a prefect and he couldn't let actions such as bullying go unpunished. It would only make the culprits think they could get away with anything, and that would only encourage them to continue down this path. Pushing wouldn't do anything but make Harry's walls go up, though, so he let Terence take over as he fussed over the younger boy.
Merlin, he loved this guy.