The thought grew stronger, as the weeks passed, and Harry's energy continued unabated: that Ron, no matter how much he relished having it off with Harry, was having serious difficulty keeping up with Harry's drive.

More and more often, as his arm grew tired from pumping or his jaw stiffened or his skin chafed, Ron began to fantasise about what a relief it might be to have some help in dealing with Harry.

He began to watch Cedric at meals again, began to relearn the easy tilt and shake of Cedric's head when he laughed at a joke made by one of his friends, or the momentary furrow that would flash across his brow when he was having a serious conversation or answering a sincere question. The only difference, this time, was that Cedric was noticing Ron right back. He would catch his eye, startling Ron out of his anonymous reverie, give a slight nod toward Harry's oblivious head, and drop a wink.

So. The offer stood, then, clearly. Or perhaps, as Ron had always feared, Cedric still had designs on taking Harry away from Ron. The more Ron thought about this possibility, the more the Second Task faded in his memory, until he began to worry, again, that Harry would prefer Cedric and would leave Ron the moment he got wind of Cedric's attraction to him.

Which explained why Ron panicked the day he learned that Harry had to meet Cedric out on the grounds at nine o' clock in the evening. Alright, technically, Harry and the other three Champions had been summoned to meet Ludo Bagman, but Ron was keenly aware of how easy it would be for Cedric to get him alone on the walk back to the castle, to lure him into a shadowy thicket, to take advantage of Harry's youth and trusting nature and the romantic light of the stars, to slide Harry's robes off his shoulders in the warm spring air, laying him down on the grass and breathing encouraging words into his ear as Harry showed him what he and Ron had learned together over the last several months.

"You're being ridiculous," Hermione told him as Ron paced back and forth in the Entrance Hall, occasionally stopping to peer out into the darkness for a sign of the returning Champions. "Harry is going to find out what the Third Task is, and he will come right back."

"Hermione, don't be stupid. You don't know Cedric like I do -"

"But I do know Harry," she interrupted, blocking his path by standing with her fists planted firmly on her hips, so Ron had to stop or swerve around her. He halted, staring her down, his own folded arms challenging her to continue. Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Harry loves you, Ron. He won't care how handsome or popular Cedric is. He'd rather be with you."

Ron let out an impatient blast of breath and pivoted quickly on his heel to pace around her. When he reached the farthest point of his trajectory, he turned and faced her again. "You really know how to make a bloke feel better, you know that Hermione?"

She threw up her hands in an exasperated sort of shrug. "I don't know what you want me to say, except ... Cedric's behind you."

"What?"

Hermione gestured with her eyebrows, past Ron's head and out into the darkness. Ron followed her gaze to see Fleur approaching, head high as she mostly ignored the animated and very one-sided conversation Ludo Bagman was holding in her general direction. Behind them, Cedric sauntered casually, looking vaguely amused but mostly unconcerned. They reached the point where the path toward the Beauxbatons carriage diverged, and Ron was breathlessly relieved to see Fleur and Bagman head off in that direction. He was sure he would never get over the humiliation of having asked her to the Yule Ball, no matter how many more times he had to see her in his life.

"I'll leave you to it, shall I?" breathed Hermione in his ear, reminding Ron where he was and why he was waiting there, pacing in the Entrance Hall while the last few straggling students bustled by on their way to the library, to their common rooms, perhaps to clandestine meetings in darkened corners of the less frequented corridors.

Ron turned to find Hermione's face much closer to his than he could ever remember it being. His heart sped up several notches, but he didn't have the spare brain power to work out the reasons for that, at the moment. Hermione's expression was rueful and a bit dull, and as Ron looked at it, he realised that Harry wasn't the only one who wasn't returning promptly from the Champions' gathering.

Harry and Cedric, that was something Ron had predicted. He wouldn't be happy if it happened (without him), but he wouldn't be surprised. But Harry and Krum?

Ron opened his mouth to say something, preferably something sage that would set both their minds completely at ease, but no syllables emerged. Hermione shook her head and gave him a resigned shrug, then turned and began to climb the staircases that lead in the general direction of Gryffindor Tower.

"Waiting up for me?" asked Cedric before Ron could face the doors again. "Or is it Harry you want?" Ron blinked, as always a bit at loss for words when confronted with the reality of Cedric's presence in the same space as his own awkward body. When he got close enough that Ron could smell the scent of evening air and damp grass clinging to Cedric's robes, Cedric leaned in and said, "Or perhaps both?"

Ron coughed, fully recognising the self-implication of the noise, and stumbled back a step.

"You've been watching me again," teased Cedric, the lightness of his voice and sparkle in his eyes belying the predatory tone of his words. "I know because I've been watching you. Both of you."

The syllables that fell out of Ron's mouth only rearranged themselves into language as he heard them hang in the air, and then he was horrified that they had been allowed to exist in any auditory reality: "How would that work, exactly, if we ... you know ..."

Cedric grinned, ear to ear. "Quite nicely, I like to think." He tangled his fist in the loose material at the front of Ron's robes, dragging him around the corner to where he couldn't watch the door for Harry and Krum anymore. "Of course," Cedric added, breathing hotly against Ron's flushing face, "Harry will have to come back from whatever he's busy at with Krum." With a wink, Cedric leaned Ron's body into the nearest wall, resting his weight all along him so that Ron could feel all his angles and contours and heat. Millimeters from Ron's ear, Cedric whispered, "But if he doesn't, I'm sure you and I can keep ourselves busy."

The edge of Cedric's lip was brushing against Ron's burning earlobe when the sound of running footsteps made them both freeze. Ron glanced toward the stairs and, to his horror, spotted Harry disappearing into the upper floors. He clearly hadn't seen them, but it had been far too close a thing for Ron's comfort. He shoved Cedric back, almost knocking him from his feet.

"Look, you can't - you can't do that, alright? I'm with Harry, and I can't ... I can't ..." Ron stammered helplessly, habit forcing him to seek Cedric's approval and understanding, even as his behaviour appalled and slightly frightened Ron.

Cedric smiled, a bit graciously, a bit sadly. "Alright, I get it," he said, taking several steps backwards in quick succession. "I just ... look, the offer is still open, if you want. But," and he glanced meaningfully in the direction whence Harry had vanished, "you should get going now."

Ron nodded, hanging on to the eye contact for a few too many seconds for it to be anything but longing, before he turned and ran for Gryffindor Tower, hoping against hope that Harry wouldn't have noticed his absence yet.