Vestiges of Normalcy

Chapter 13

"Potter..."

"Potter..."

"Potter..."

Harry shifted in the darkness that enveloped him. Someone seemed to be calling his name.

"Potter, wake up."

The voice became louder, whoever it belonged to shaking his shoulder. Harry grimaced, sleep completely lost. Darkness was replaced with blurred light, as the fourth-year student opened his eyes into the new day. He was wrapped loosely in Viktor's embrace, the older seeker still asleep.

Someone is crouching over the edge of the tub, who exactly Harry wasn't sure thanks to his bad eyesight. Harry reached for his glasses and put them on.

"Oh...Diggory, it's you. What's up?"

"I...n-need to bathe..."

Now that he could see clearly, Harry wondered why the Hufflepuff champion was blushing hard and his words awkward and unsure. Then he noticed the older student's eyes flitting down on his neck and collarbone.

Ah...now he understood what's got Cedric's knickers in a twist.

"If it makes you feel any better, I still have my virginity," Harry deadpanned, "Viktor and I just got a bit carried away with marking each other."

Cedric seemed to calm down slightly, but his blush did not fade.

Harry sighed, "Well, I guess I better wake Viktor up. I hope you don't mind sharing the tub, Diggory, but I think the both of us need another bath."

Viktor was woken up immediately after, and like Harry before, was initially dull to the world before a soft kiss from his smaller boyfriend kick-started the neurons in his brain. Sparing but a glance at Cedric, who had taken a place across from them in the tub, Viktor devoted his attention to getting himself and Harry ready for the day.

The air was both domestic and awkward. Awkward for Cedric, since he felt distinctly intrusive in the domestic aura that seemed to radiate from Viktor and Harry, indulging in the small pleasures of fingers rubbing shampoo into each other's scalps and lathering soap on each other's backs.

It was only when the three seekers went their separate ways did the air return to normal, not that Viktor or Harry noticed in the first place.

Their friends were already in the Room of Requirement, just tucking into breakfast when the couple finally showed up, hand-in-hand.

"Oh! There you two are," Klaus spoke up, "You guys veren't on the ship vhen ve voke up, vhere vere you?"

"Fell asleep in the bath," Harry replied, sitting down with Viktor on a loveseat the room conjured for them.

"Bath?" Uliana raised an eyebrow, mid-chew on toast.

"Hogvarts' Prefects' Bath," Viktor replied.

"That explains a lot," Luna remarked, sipping her tea, "The fluttering rosehummers are wafting around you two quite a bit."

"And from the looks of things," Fred had a cheeky grin, elbowing his twin, "You two did more than just take a bath."

"What do you mean?" Anastazja asked.

"They certainly left their mark on each other, dear brother of mine," George giggled.

Viktor's friends turned to the two seekers, scrutinising them for a moment. Nicolae was the first to discover what the twins were talking about. A blush spread across his cheeks.