A/N: A couple warnings: Yes, the main pairing in this fic is slash. Yes, this does feature a mentally unstable, somewhat OOC Cedric Diggory. Yes, the pairing will be one-sided for the majority of this fic. No, I will not consider changing any of the previously stated.
THERE WILL BE SOME SEXUAL CONTENT, to what degree I'm not yet certain, but there will at least be male masturbation, of that I'm sure. If this offends you or makes you uncomfortable this may not be the fic for you, however if anyone would like me to mark when sexual scenes begin and end let me know.
Also, this story is NOT betaed so please bear with me, if you'd like to point out spelling grammatical errors, though, that'd actually be very helpful and welcome.

Right then, on with the show.

One:

The chorus of voices that was almost deafening moments ago was now muffled under the thick, aged fabric covering Cedric's ears. He closed his eyes, waiting passively for whatever judgement he would be sentence. It didn't matter what house he ended up in, his parents had said, they'd be proud of him no matter what. So see? It didn't matter at all.

"What a boring little thing you are." the voice was deep and wise, but dispassionate. "You have the potential to be something of worth, but no one to give you the incentive to try."

The little boy frowned at this. Potential? His parents had always said that he was the best thing that ever happened to this world.

"Ha! They were lying, boy. HUFFLEPUFF!"

The train gave an especially strong lurch and Cedric's head smacked against the wall he'd been leaning against, rousing him from his sleep and pulling a chuckle from the boy who was sitting across from him. With a groan, he sat up glaring at his best (and only) friend Jonathan (Jona) Davies.

"That's what you get," snickered the shorter boy. "Falling asleep while I was telling you about my summer. Y'know if I bore you that much you ought to just tell me, I could spend my time doing more productive things."

Still rubbing the side of his head, Cedric replied. "It's not that, I just stayed up late finishing homework."

Jona sighed, face reproachful. "I'm not the best student either Ced, but you can't complain about your shit grades when you procrastinate so much. You're lucky your parents are so lenient. If I had as many Acceptables as you my mother would tear me a new one, not to mention what Roger would do being a Raven and all."

"Yeah yeah," sighed the brunette lofilty, rolling his eyes. "It's not like it really matters, my Dad has a position waiting for me at the DRCMC as soon as I graduate, all I have to do is get an Exceeds Expectations in Care on my NEWTS and I'll be fine."

Jonathan sighed and crossed his arms, but didn't comment, instead returning to recounting his family trip to Bermuda. Cedric only half listened to his friend as he described the beautiful pink beaches and warm, clear water. He feared that if he listened any closer, he may feel a spike of jealousy. The last time he'd gone anywhere with his parents had been for a Ministry Gala, however his father had been rather reluctant to show off his boring unimpressive son to his coworkers.

He shoved down his negative thoughts and turned his grey eyes to stare dispassionately out the window, watching the darkening scenery fly by.

Some while later Jonathan stopped his incessant prattle and they both basked in silence, Cedric lost in his own thoughts and Jona lost in a book. When the elderly woman came by with her trolley of sweets, conversation bubbles back up.

"You read the Daily, yeah? This is gonna be Harry Potter's first year." commented Jona around a cauldron cake.

Cedric had heard his mother mention it over breakfast at one point or another, but had honestly forgotten all about it. "Yeah? That'll be interesting, I s'pose. What house d'you think he'll end up in?"

The black-haired boy hummed thoughtfully, stretching his legs across the seat rather disgracefully. "Dunno. You know, Skeeter wrote something about him maybe going to Beauxbatons, so maybe he won't be in any house!"

Cedric outright laughed at this, spilling Every-Flavoured beans all over the floor of the carriage. The day Skeeter wrote anything completely truthful would be the day the whole world went up in flames. "Skeeter also wrote that Fudge and Bagman were having a sordid affair, so I wouldn't put much stock into her."

"You have a point there." Nodded the shorter boy as he unwrapped his fourth cauldron cake in a row. "Probably Gryffindor, right? He's like the poster boy for golden Gryffindor heroes or whatever."

"I guess," frowned Cedric watching his friend with a mixture of disgust and awe and he scarfed down his fifth cauldron cake. "It'd be nice if he were in Hufflepuff though."

Jona guffawed, nearly choking. "As if when's the last time anyone remotely cool was in Hufflepuff?!"

Well, he couldn't argue with that.

-0v0-

It was the loudest the Great Hall had ever been, which was saying something since the Weasley twins had once spiked the whole Slytherin table with voice heightening draught in second year. Yet somehow it was even louder than that and all because of one little first year who just so happened to be the savior of the Wizarding World.

Cedric and Jona sat side by side towards the end of the Hufflepuff table, observing the crowd of tiny students shuffling their way into the Hall. All around them, they could hear people heatedly jabbering about Harry Potter, craning their necks to get a look at him. Cedric found it a bit distasteful to be honest, but couldn't say that he wasn't curious about the boy as well. He like every other Pure or Half Blood in the hall had been spoon-fed stories of the valiant and brave savior (well, excluding the darker families, whose stories were probably not so praiseful) and even though he was at an age where he should realize that those stories probably weren't entirely accurate, Cedric still couldn't help but lean forward a bit when McGonagall called out 'Potter Harry' in her usual, strict tone.

After fully taking in Potter's visage Cedric sent a glance in Jona's direction, the other boy looking back at him, no doubt with the same thought in mind.

'That's Harry Potter?'

In all truthfulness Cedric had already had a preconceived idea as to what Harry Potter would look like. Something along the lines of, tall, chiseled and muscular (which was rather illogical thinking about it now, he was only a first year, after all), but this kid was really quite the opposite. Cedric was vividly reminded of a mouse as he watched the tiny, messy haired boy skitter up to the Sorting Hat, large green eyes looking every which way. He almost laughed when the hat fell all the way to the boy's shoulders, obscuring his pale face from view.

His sorting was long, far longer than Cedric's, far longer than any sorting he'd ever seen, in fact. Cedric wondered if perhaps the longer it took, the more important that person was in the grand scheme of things, if so, he was rather proud of the full forty seconds he spent on the stool. The room had hushed from its deafening roar, everyone on the edge of their seats, waiting with bated breath for the verdict. After at least five minutes (Cedric was certain some sort of record had to have been broken) the hat declared 'GRYFFINDOR!' with a prideful yell and the room practically erupted.

He couldn't help but compare himself to the minuscule child who was now making his way towards the overjoyed table. When Cedric had been sorted, he'd gotten little more than a few polite claps. At the time he hadn't thought much of it, not really even caring what house he'd be sorted into in the first place, but now...

Well now he felt a bit disappointed in himself.

Jona's elbow to the ribs roused him from the downward spiral that was his thoughts. "Told you he'd end up in Gryffindor."

"Yeah," nodded Cedric, grey eyes glinting in the candle light as he stared at the Gryffindor table. Potter really was tiny, and so very timid, looking more like a Hufflepuff than anything else. He wondered how it was that someone so diminutive could still somehow end up in the house of heroes, while Cedric; a Pureblood and a Ministry boy still somehow ended up in the house for those who didn't fit anywhere else. "You sure told me."

Maybe he ought to observe a bit longer, there must be something he's missing.

-0v0-

"Did you hear about Potter?"

"I heard that he was -"

"No not that one-"

"Apparently-"

"Did anyone tell you that Potter-?"

"No way! Well did you hear that-"

It turned out that Cedric's resolution to keep and ear out for talk of Potter was unnecessary. He wouldn't be able to avoid all the whispered rumors even if he tried. Potter was the non-stop talk of the school, not that the boy had really done anything thus far to garner all of this attention (well, outside of vanquishing the Dark Lord), but people seemed to be more than willing to make up reasons to talk about the poor first-year. It was frankly a bit disgusting in Cedric's opinion, but at the same time, it did make him wonder if there was something more to Potter than what happened in his infancy.

Jonathan and Cedric had likened themselves to observers to all of the madness. Both of them were logical enough and magnanimous enough not to put much stock into the majority of the rumors floating about, but they still found quite a bit of amusement in some of them. The one about Potter being a proxy for the Minister of Magic was Cedric's personal favorite, however it was quickly replaced after overhearing Marietta Edgecombe at dinner after the first-year's flying lessons.

"Potter's been accepted onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team! Apparently they're making an exception despite his age. Makes sense, considering he's reserve for Puddlemere United."

Both Cedric and Jona outright laughed at that, nearly doubling over as they imagined, the tiny skittish Gryffindor trying to mount a broom without going into outright palpitations. However they were quickly proven wrong, when the next morning a suspiciously broom-shaped parcel landed in front of a baffled Potter at breakfast.

Jonathan found the whole ordeal rather hilarious, laughing to the point of hiccups at the look on the Slytherin Captain's face at the sight of the broom, but for Cedric it had the opposite effect. Something about the genuine, humble surprise on Potter's face was sobering. In that moment, as the Hufflepuff-Nobody stared from across the hall at the Gryffindor Golden-Boy he felt- well, he felt something. Potter seemed so genuinely surprised, as though he didn't expect for the entire world to be handed to him on a silver platter just because he happened to save it in infancy. As though he didn't expect to be appreciated simply for existing.

Modesty, Cedric might suppose.

Odd really, to be truthful, something like modesty or timidity was never something that Cedric imagined when he pictured the wizarding savior. The Boy-Who-Lived was supposed to be confident, self-assured nearly to the point of cockiness, but not quite, never quite that much. But, looking at Potter now, gazing at the sweet smile of genuine thankfulness...

It made him feel sub-par, truthfully. And interested. Deeply interested.

A/N: The idea for this story kind of came to me when I was thinking of a Cedric/Harry concept. I have an obsessive love for obsessive love so it all kind of bled into this. I'm aware that Cedric is very OOC and he will really only become more so, so if you aren't interested in a darkish, mentally unstable Cedric then this story wont be for you. If you want my honest opinion, I think people will find this story to be rather boring. It is going to be predominately from Cedric's perspective and I portray him as an introspective and uninteresting guy overall. Harry will not even really speak to Cedric until mid-Third-Year so, don't hold your breath on that. Also, the chapters will be getting a bit longer, so please don't be discouraged.

Lastly, here are the ages and blood statuses of the characters that will most likely feature the most in this story (excluding Roger Davies, I just put him in there for perspective on his brother).

Harry Potter- 11, Halfblood (1st year) July, 31st
Cedric Diggory- 14, Pureblood (3rd year) September, 20th
Jonathan Davies- 13, First Gen. Pureblood (3rd year) March 17th
Roger Davies- 13, First Gen. Pureblood (3rd year) December 2nd

I have the majority of this story planned out, but feedback is always welcome and taken into consideration.