#primary seekers

Cedric and Cho lay between bodies of fellow students, all much too young to have died, let alone in such a horrible way. And Harry finds them, their fingers still entwined, but lifelessly stiff. 

The nightmares are persistent, but his soft whimpers and movement does not go unnoticed.

A strong hand grips his shoulder, whispering soothing words, voice still thick with sleep, but comforting nevertheless. On his other side, a smaller body snuggles close, stroking his hair, almond eyes not even needing to open to find him in the sheets.

It’s then that memories comfort him. Cedric had lived that day, Pettigrew’s Killing Curse narrowly missing him, but the flash of green fooled them as the teenager played dead, fear coursing through him, and a surge of protectiveness over Harry, too.

The two had returned from the graveyard when Harry ran for the cup, grabbing Cedric too, refusing to leave his body there...only for a hand to grip him back, the two of them hugging and crying in the middle of the Quidditch field, back at Hogwarts, messengers of news no one wanted to hear.

Dumbledore’s Army brought Harry and Cho close. Her and Cedric were still dating at the time, although he’d graduated, but there was still a deep connection form between the three of them.

In her dreams, Cho sees the Battle.

She sees faces frozen, faces she’s passed in the hallways for years, suddenly gone. She remembers spells flying, the shouting, the blood. She remembers dust and dirt caked on her skin, tears tracked through the grime.

She remembers searching for Cedric when the dust had settled, calling his name in the swarms of students, fearing the worst. She had already almost lost him once. 

Except in her dreams, she enters the Hall, expecting to see him getting a small wound patched, and instead finding him lying beside his fellow fallen students. All of the bodies are fresh, except Cedric has already begun to decay, his eyes sunken in and his bones poking through in places.

She mutters his name in her sleep, and feels the stirring beside her, but it’s not enough to wake her. Cedric’s body opens its eyes, and reaches for her hand. She jolts up, screaming his name once more.

The lights are flicked on, and Cedric’s arms wrap around her shoulders. Harry sits beside them both, green eyes soft and sleepy, and she motions for him to join the hug, because while she’d dreamt about Cedric that night, it had been him last week.

They switch positions in the bed, putting her between her two boys, who always give her space when she needs it, and always give her love when she needs that more.

It was Cho who kissed Harry first in the Room of Requirement, and when he pulled back, telling her they couldn’t do that to Cedric, she’d chuckled, and replied: “He encouraged me to give it a shot, actually.”

It hadn’t gone anywhere at the time. It was complicated enough for her and Cedric to be together, let alone adding a third person into the mix, especially on the brink of a war.

When Cedric has nightmares, he’s in the graveyard. He lies there, still, and listens to Harry’s screams, listens to him be cut, be taunted, be on the brink of his own death. He just listens, he doesn’t do anything. And when Harry dies there, terrified and utterly alone, Cedric stays still, and doesn’t do a thing to save the younger boy he’s grown so attached to.

He takes the Cup when he finds the chance, and he leaves Harry’s body there, because if he goes for it, he’ll most likely be killed. He returns to Hogwarts, a Triwizard champion, but also the reason that The Boy Who Lived is dead, and Voldemort is back.

If he had just gone for his wand, if he had just been brave enough to help—

His eyes flutter open as he feels Harry snuggle closer in his arms, feels the tickle of messy hair beneath his chin, the warmth of his chest pressed to his. Harry is right in his arms, and Cho is lying just a few inches away, too, and her face is illuminated by the moonlight through the window.

After the Battle, the three of them were reunited. Helping to rebuild Hogwarts, making sure all the dead were remembered, being active in the Ministry.

While Harry finished his seventh year, Cho went into Quidditch training for the Tutshell Tornados, and Cedric delved into the world of broom-making, and the three of them felt a shift in their relationship. They were treading the path of more than friends, evident in the way glances lingered on lips and fingers brushing made cheeks red.

“Ticklish!”

Cedric’s head peeked into the room. “Harry’s what?”

“Our lovely partner here is ticklish, Ced.”

Harry was bright red by that point, and he was already beginning to grin in anticipation. “Fine, yes, I am, there. Now you don’t have to test it.”

“Oh, no, we absolutely still need to test it, don’t you think, Cho?”

“I totally agree.”

He could have made a break for it, but both his partners were equally as fast, and both stronger too, and he knew he would only prolong the whole thing if he tried. He had learned all of that the hard way, growing up alongside the Weasley family.

And so, he merely started to giggle hysterically as Cedric appeared on his other side, and both the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff began to tickle him.

Cho’s fingers prodded at his ribs, the spot she’d originally touched to make him squirm, and Cedric simultaneously latched onto his hip with one hand, thigh with the other, and squeezed.

Scared to push the limits too far, they only tortured their boyfriend for a bit before opting to cuddle him instead, although the information would definitely be used again soon.