average human’s Reviews > Polyjuice > Status Update

Here’s your ticket to the match. I’ll come get you the day before so we can meet everyone else there and have a wicked camp out.
Hi Hermione!
Theo says hi. Which is stupid because we just saw you yesterday. And also because I’m copying this to send to Neville and Luna.
Hi Neville and Luna!
Hes such a prat. See you soon.
-Harry
and Theo!

***

“Here it is!”

Harry and his rather large group (maybe his invites had gotten a bit out of hand) stopped in front of a really large plot of grass and Harry beamed at how close to the pitch it was.

Fudge was a good bloke.

A terrible Minister, but a good bloke overall.

“How do we set these up mate?”

“With magic stupid,” Susan laughed at Ron’s quizzical expression as he stared at the tents Harry brought.

“Not with magic,” Amelia sighed. “You heard them say we can’t use magic because the groundskeepers are Muggles.”

Harry would have ignored Amelia and just done it anyway, but he was trying to prove a point in front of the witch.

And that point was: no ma’am I did not kill Theodore Nott Senior.

“Muggle way it is,” Harry said cheerfully. “Fred, George, come help me.”

“Yes sir,” Fred saluted him with the goofy smile that never fails to make Harry smile at least a little.

“Here-“ Harry tossed one tent to Snape and then the other to Black and Lupin. “That ones for you guys and Amy, so you don’t have to share with all of us.”

“Abso-freaking-lutely not,” Amelia said in a sarcastic sing-songy voice. “We are not leaving-“ she did a quick head count “-eleven kids unsupervised in a tent alone.”

“Twelve,” Neville corrected her quietly. “Draco’s meeting us here this evening.”

“I’ll stay with them,” Ron’s brother Charlie offered. “Whole reason I’m here, eh?”

Harry did not want Charlie to ‘supervise’ because Harry did not like Charlie.

Charlie was huge. He wasn’t tall, but what he lacked in height he made up with muscles. He’d acted perfectly polite when he volunteered to come with Ron, Fred, and George when their mum was worrying about letting them come to the game a day early and staying with Harry instead of their dad, but he also looked like he could kill Harry in one bone crushing squeeze.

With his short red hair, and thick arms, he looked a lot like a muggle Harry saw once who kicked a homeless man until he’d died while Harry watched from behind a dumpster, silently praying that the man wouldn’t see him and kill Harry next.

Susan laughed when she teased Ron that his brother Charlie was ‘fanciable’, but Harry didn’t think so.

Harry definitely preferred Fred. Fred had muscles, he was really fit, but they were thin muscles that didn’t make Harry worry that he would snap and start beating the hell out of Harry if the idea struck him.

Harry backed up beside Theo as Amelia accepted Charlie as ‘reasonable adult supervision’.

“You good?” Theo whispered directly in Harry’s ear.

“Yeah.” Harry gave Theo a look of frank admiration at the way he’d seemed to become intuitively linked to Harry over the summer.

Harry used to wish he had brothers. Then he spent a long time burying that wish because what was the point in wanting something you could never have? But Theo declared himself to be Harry’s brother this summer now that he was an orphan like Harry was, and Harry liked it.

They’d done a lot together so far this summer and, despite Theo’s obsession with reading, and studying in general, Theo was turning out to be a good person to live with. He was quiet, but thoughtful. He didn’t pry in to Harry’s business, but had his back every time Harry needed it.

Plus he lied straight to the Aurors faces when they interrogated them at the beginning of summer.

So Harry didn’t mind living with Theo. And if Theo wanted to consider them brothers? That was fine by him.

Even if Theo living with him meant that Hermione was spending a lot of secret nights when her parents thought she was having a sleepover with Susan.

Harry figured that listening to Hermione and Theo chat about books and muggle poetry in the late hours of the night was absolutely worth it when Snape saw Hermione the next morning. He couldn’t decide which was the funnier reaction- Snape threatening to curse Fred while Mavis served pancakes or Snape turning pale and dragging Theo in to his office for ‘a talk’ when he saw Hermione in Theo’s pajamas the first night she stayed.

Probably the Hermione reaction. Harry had gotten his own ‘talk’ when Snape realized Fred was staying over quite a bit.

~~~

“Harry we need to talk.”

“You said it’s my house,” Harry had immediately pointed out. “No taking it back now because I had a friend over.”

“I am not rescinding your home, brat,” Snape sighed. “We need to talk about... safe sex.”

“Er,” Harry jumped to his feet and looked around Snape’s office quickly. “No thanks.”

“I am afraid that I must insist,” Snape said. “Unless you would rather I write to Molly Weasley and allow her to do it instead?”

“Oh.” Harry quit his search for the best way to make it to the door before Snape could stop him. “You didn’t do that already?”

“I have not.”

“You did before though?” Harry was hesitant to bring up the fight they had over the party Harry went to last school term but Fred had told him his mother sent him a howler because Snape told her they had been ‘involved’.

Harry was absolutely not going to tell Snape that most nights when Fred stayed over they just put up a muffling charm and talked side by side in Harry’s bed. They snogged quite a bit sometimes too, but Harry also learned more about Fred. How he wanted to own his own joke shop when he graduated. How it felt to never really be recognized as his own person. What it was like growing up with so many siblings. How he hated to see people unhappy. And how he always made a joke when he didn’t know what to say in a situation.

“Before I was acting in my capacity as a Professor at Hogwarts. I am obligated to inform parents of any sexual activities I discover their students are engaged in during the school year,” Snape explained.

“And now?” Harry raised a curious brow at the man.

“And now I am a guardian fulfilling the traumatic role of speaking with you about safety during sexual encounters. Which is of particular importance to you because any disease you may contract cannot be easily treated with potions. Now,” Snape clasped his hands in his lap and gave Harry a serious look, “let’s begin with safety during oral sex, shall we?”

And that is how Theo found Harry, an entire hour and half later, curled in to a ball on his bed with words like ‘condoms’ and ‘orgasms’ and ‘genital warts’ floating around his head.

“I know,” Theo said, sitting beside him quietly. “It was horrible, wasn’t it?”

~~~

“C’mon Potter, come help me show these slags how to build a tent, huh?”

Harry shook his head and cleared his mind of Snape’s horrible talk over the summer and smirked at Johnny who had a cigarette dangling in his lips and a rubber mallet in his hands.

“Have you ever built a tent in your life?” he asked curiously.

“Course,” Johnny snorted. “I used to camp out in the backyard every summer, right Hannah?”

“He did,” Hannah Abbott confirmed from her spot on the ground beside Susan and Hermione. “It drove our mum barmy.”

“Alright then.” Harry started handing pieces of their tent to Fred, George, Johnny, and Luna. “Let’s do ours before Black and Snape can figure out theirs, yeah?”

“The race is on Pup,” Black called from his spot cheerfully as him and Lupin tried to figure out their tent.

Snape just scoffed but Harry saw him side-eye Black and start moving a little quicker. Not that it really mattered, because Johnny already had their tent nearly finished.

Johnny was turning out to be a good person to invite.

Theo had been surprised when Harry mailed his last two tickets to Johnny and Hannah, but Susan said her and Hannah were friends, and Fred and Johnny were friends- and Harry already invited everyone he was friends with.

Plus Harry liked Johnny. They’d wrote each other occasionally during the summer and Johnny said he thought Harry was good at Quidditch. Johnny also said he played chaser in his third year, Harry’s first, but quit when he realized how much time it took up. The more they talked, the more Harry thought the older boy was quite a bit like Harry himself was.

Well, if Harry was a heavy smoker with dreams of ‘roughing it across the world’.

But still. Johnny didn’t trust people and he knew what it was like to be alone in the world. Johnny said the only thing stopping him from leaving England the moment he graduated was his parents. He assumed they were dead, but once he was able to use magic unrestricted he’d be able to know for sure. Which Harry understood. Even if Harry’s parents had turned out to be heroes, Harry had still spent ten years thinking they’d left him behind and had looked for them when he was living in the streets.

Harry hadn’t been able to put his finger on it the night they were at the party together, but he could tell that Johnny was somehow different from their peers in the same way that Harry was. He talked, laughed, and cracked jokes with everyone- but he also watched them carefully and didn’t seem to be particularly close to any one person.

And so Harry had decided to strike up conversation with him when he got out of St Mungo’s. Which was already proving to be fruitful.

“Done,” Johnny drawled with a smug look towards Snape and Black. Snape was nearly done with his, which wasn’t surprising since Snape was a half-blood. But Amelia, Black, and Lupin were struggling with theirs still.

Which was pretty par for the course when purebloods were stuck without magic.

Though, Harry actually had no idea what kind of parents Lupin had. Black, Pettigrew, and Harry’s dad were all purebloods though, so he’d always assumed Lupin was as well.

Not that it really mattered to him.

“Can we go inside?” Hermione asked eagerly. “It doesn’t look like it can fit us all!”

“If not then you’re sleeping outside,” Ron joked.

“Ooh, I’ll sleep outside with you Hermione,” Luna offered. “I bet we could see the stars so clearly out here.”

“Lue, we see the stars every astronomy class,” Susan laughed. “Why would you want to see them again?”

Luna just shrugged, but Harry saw a wistful look in her eyes. Luna was pretty in to nature, and she was a damned genius when it came to plants and animals. But Harry hadn’t known that she liked the stars, he made a mental reminder to find her a good telescope for her birthday this winter.

“You coming the light of my life?” Fred laughed as he slung his arm over Harry’s shoulder. Harry rolled his eyes at the nickname. Fred had spent all summer trying to find a nickname for him ever since they heard Lupin and Black calling each other by soppy nicknames.

“Coming, Freckled Arsehole,” Harry said sweetly, slipping in to Parsletongue for the last bit.

“That was an insult, right?” George asked.

“Course.”

The three of them laughed as they followed the rest of the group in the tent and Harry’s jaw dropped when he saw the inside of the tent.

“Holy. Fuck.”

The tent was deceptively small and simple on the outside, but, just like the shopkeeper had promised, it was huge on the inside. It looked as if they had stepped in to a posh home. There was a sitting room with a mismatch of brightly colored sofa’s paired against darkly painted walls. There was a huge kitchen directly behind it, complete with muggle cooking appliances that the shopkeeper also swore would work despite their magic.

On either side of the sitting room were matching doors. The right led to the smaller bedroom, that was still huge, that had six beds in it and an attached washroom.

“Girls room,” Susan said quickly as she, Hannah, Hermione, and Luna tossed their bags on a bed.

The other room, the ‘boys room’, outrageously had ten beds and two attached washrooms.

“This means nobody needs to share a bed,” Ron said with a Molly-like look at Harry and Fred. Both of whom scoffed.

“Aww, Ronnikins, are you jealous?” George cooed. “I won’t cuddle you, cooties you see? But maybe Neville here would.”

Neville laughed and punched Ron on the arm lightly.

“Not a chance mate, you snore.”

“But Nev, I thought you liked to listen to me snore,” Ron fake pouted while batting his eyelashes at Neville.

Once they’d all finished exploring the ‘tent’, because really it was a bloody house, they went back out and saw that Snape smugly had finished his tent, but Amelia, Lupin, and Black still hadn’t gotten theirs yet.

“I offered to help but they just snarled at me,” Charlie said from a newly formed circle of chairs around a large fire. “Who wants to go get water for tea?”

Harry blinked at him and quickly ducked back in the tent.

“Mavis!!”

Pop!

“Master is being a very bad Master leaving poor Mavis behind while Mavis is not wanting-“

“Okay, okay,” Harry held his hands up and rolled his eyes at Mavis’ rant. Mavis had bloody attachment issues. “You’re here now.”

“Yes Mavis is and Mavis will be staying,” Mavis glared at Harry and shook a long finger in his direction.

“If I apologize will you make tea?” Harry asked him.

Mavis swiped his long hands down the front of his robe and looked as offended as ever.

“Mavis will be making tea and will do it for Master’s apology,” he said sniffily. “How many cups of tea is Master needing?”

Harry poked his head out of the tent and did a quick count.

“Fuck, is sixteen too many?”

He really had gotten a little carried away with his invites.



By late afternoon Harry’s whole group, including Draco who finally arrived, were sitting around the fire finishing off the dinner that Mavis made.

“I need a house elf,” Ron groaned, setting down his second plate of scotch pie.

“No you do not,” Hermione snapped. “And Harry shouldn’t be bossing Mavis around either. Poor guy deserves to be free.”

“Try telling Mavis that,” Harry grumbled. “I kept trying to free him but then he just cries and tells me he’ll try harder.”

Harry looked over at Susan and saw that she was whispering away with Hannah and giggling like mad.

Which he absolutely was not bitter about.

Even if he was the one who invited Hannah, he didn’t know it meant she’d spend the day giggling away with Susan.

“She’s just being friendly, you know you’re her best friend,” Luna said softly from her spot beside Harry.

“Dunno what you mean,” Harry said airily. Luna looked at him and they both know he was lying.

Snape stood up and stretched out before he gave Harry what he thought was a rather unfair look.

“I am going to bed, I hope that you all can behave yourselves tonight?” he said severely.

“Wouldn’t dream of doing anything else,” Fred smiled up at Snape. Which Harry thought was awfully brave considering Snape always looked like he was one word away from cursing Fred.

“Get some sleep, I’ll watch them,” Black said.

Snape looked like he didn’t think Black counted as supervision, but he nodded stiffly and went inside his tent anyway.

“So, what’s the plan?” Black grinned. “We’ve probably got at least ten more minutes before Remus and Amy get back.”

Lupin and Amelia had found some old classmates they were having a chat with a couple campsites over. Black stayed with Harry’s group because they were ‘boring as could be’.

“No plan,” Susan smiled sweetly. “We’re just going to go to bed.”

Charlie scoffed in to his drink. Apparently Susan’s innocent voice was easier to see through than it used to be.

“Well, I’m certainly tired, think I might head to bed,” Johnny said, grinning towards Harry. “See you all in the morning.”

It took until Johnny was inside the tent, and Fred had elbowed Harry lightly, for him to get the game.

“Oh, er, me too,” he said, hastily getting to his feet. “Anyone else?” He glanced around at his friends and tried to subtly make them understand.

“Absolutely-“

“Exhausted,” Fred and George said.

“Go,” Black waved his hand with a grin. “I’ll keep Charlie out here for a bit.”

“An hour,” Charlie said, trying (and failing) to sound stern. Black winked at Harry, which Harry figured was a signal that they had longer than an hour.

Harry gave Black a half-hearted salute and quickly made for the tent, his friends all following behind.

“Be right back,” Fred murmured, running to their room.

“So what’s the real plan?” Neville asked. “I doubt we’re all going to sleep.”

“We aren’t,” Harry grinned. “You guys ever heard of ‘never have I ever’?”

They hadn’t. But when Fred got back with the bottles they’d talked a bloke in Knockturn Alley in to buying for them, Harry had explained the rules he’d learned from some older boys in London when he was younger, and everyone except Neville and Hannah, both of whom said they didn’t want to drink, were ready to play.

And when Charlie Weasley entered the tent two hours later, Harry, who apparently had done quite a bit in his life, was passed out on the sofa.



The next morning Harry sat outside with everyone and glared around darkly as his friends drank down the headache relieving potions that happened to appear in their sitting room before anyone woke up.

“You’d feel better if you took one,” Ron said, noticing Harry’s glare.

“You know he’s allergic,” Draco scowled. “If you try and kill Harry off then Susan’s going to kill you and we’ll never get to see Ireland squash Bulgaria.”

“There are more important reasons to not kill Harry off than a quidditch match,” Hermione said.

“I dunno,” Neville said thoughtfully. “We could actually have a peaceful year Mione.”

“No we wouldn’t,” Theo scoffed. “With the Weasley’s and Susan? I’ll take my chances with Harry, thanks.”

Harry would have rolled his eyes, except he was pretty hungover and didn’t feel like it just then. Instead he amused himself by watching Snape have a miserable breakfast with Amelia, Charlie, Lupin, and Black off a little ways from their group. Black was talking away with Amelia, apparently they had been friends back when he was in training to be a Hit Wizard. Lupin and Charlie looked like they were deep in conversation as well, thought Harry couldn’t imagine what they would be talking about. And Snape looked like he’d rather be anywhere else in the moment.

“Help me,” Snape mouthed towards Harry when he caught him staring. Harry smirked and shook his head lightly. Snape had been ‘encouraging Harry to spend time with his godfather’ all summer, now Snape could do it.

Black wasn’t a bad bloke, and Harry rather liked going over to his house sometimes. But Black had ‘an episode’, as Lupin called it, for about a week where he refused to come out of his room or talk to anyone at all and Harry hated it.

He’d begrudgingly had tea with Lupin when he went over there and found out Black was barricaded in his room. Lupin talked a bit about how Black had ‘episodes of depression’. Which sounded like what Harry had before. And he’d thought Black had seemed ridiculous, ignoring everyone and laying in his bed for a whole fuckin’ week, and that made Harry feel uncomfortable, wondering if Snape had thought Harry was ridiculous when he’d done the same thing the summer after his second year.

So he didn’t go back over again until Lupin wrote to him and said Black was out of his room.

“What time does the match start?” Susan asked abruptly, pulling Harry’s attention from watching the adults interact.

“Three,” Ron said, checking his watch. “So we’ve still got a while.”

Some of Harry’s friends split off at that. Ron went with Charlie to go see their family that had set up camp somewhere nearby. And Hermione and Theo disappeared off in the woods to ‘walk around a bit’.

“Think I’ll go for a walk too,” Johnny got up and stretched before looking down at Susan. “Wanna come?”

“Sure,” Susan leapt to her feet with a bright smile.

“Ooh I’ll come too,” Hannah offered quickly with a nervous grin aimed towards Harry and Fred.

Johnny scowled at his sister as they walked off, which Harry thought was odd.

“Hannah’s afraid of you,” Luna said, distracting Harry completely from Johnny’s odd reaction.

“What? Why?”

Fred, George, Draco, and Neville all laughed at that until Harry hissed at them. He hated being laughed at.

“Because you’re very scary,” Luna said with her simple honesty that Harry liked. “She still thinks you petrified her friend Justin.”

“Oh yeah.” Harry had actually forgotten about that.

“You’re very terrifying Master Snake,” Fred said. “I bet Hannah wouldn’t have even came if it weren’t for Susan and Johnny.”

“Are you scared of me then?” Harry grinned.

“Terrified,” Fred said solemnly.

The six of them spent a couple hours playing cards until people kept showing up and interrupting their game.

First it was Minister Fudge. Who Harry had to be extra nice to considering he had gotten him the campsite and tickets to the top box. He figured him playing up his hero status for Fudge’s guests he kept bringing over was more than enough repayment to the man.

Not ten minutes after Fudge disappeared for the third time, a man wearing long Quidditch robes in thick horizontal stripes of bright yellow and black with enormous picture of a wasp splashed across his chest came walking up to their campsite.

“Ah, Madame Bones! How are you?” he smiled over at Amelia but his eyes kept flicking back to Harry.

Which was bloody creepy.

“Ludo,” Amelia said politely, her and Snape getting to their feet and walking over to stand beside the group of teens sprawled across the ground. “I’m excited for the match, I’m sure you are as well?”

“Of course,” ‘Ludo’ bounced on his feet. “And ah-“ Harry stifled a groan as the man pretended to just now notice him. “This must be Harry Potter then?” his round blue eyes flicked up to Harry’s forehead, which was always hilarious to Harry when people did that because that tiny little scar from Timmy wasn’t even visible through his bangs.

“It is, as I am sure you are well aware,” Snape said coolly, moving slightly to stand beside Harry.

“Ludo Bagman,” the man said, offering Harry his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Harry Potter, and I’m sure,” Harry said, adopting Snape’s cool tone while ignoring Bagman’s hand.

Harry played politics with Fudge’s guests because he didn’t want to owe him for the campsite and tickets, he wouldn’t do it for whoever this man was.

“Bagman’s the one who got Dad tickets,” Fred murmured quickly and quietly. “Head of Department of Magical Games and Sports.”

“Fancy a flutter on the match, Amelia?” Bagman said eagerly turning away from Harry and Snape. Snape nodded down towards Harry before drifting back beside Amelia. “I’ve already got Roddy Pontner betting me Bulgaria will score first — I offered him nice odds, considering Ireland’s front three are the strongest I’ve seen in years — and little Agatha Timms has put up half shares in her eel farm on a week-long match.”

“I don’t gamble,” Amelia huffed.

“I do,” Black said brightly, him and Lupin walking over to join the group. “What’re the odds on Ireland winning?”

“You’re not betting our money on Ireland,” Harry scoffed. “Krums on Bulgaria, ain’t he? The man’s brilliant on a broom.”

“Pup you can’t cheer for Bulgaria, we live in Great Britain,” Black said slowly, as if Harry would be convinced by some ‘country pride’ or other nonsense.

“Well Krum offered to give me private lessons before, didn’t he? So I’m cheering for Bulgaria,”
Harry said stubbornly.

“When did Viktor Krum offer you private lessons?” Fred sounded a bit choked up.

“When Karkaroff tried to get me to switch to Durmstrang back in my second year,” Harry shrugged. “Almost did it too, but then I got that book of seeker moves and I figured I’d just teach myself.”

“I don’t care if Krum plays seeker on a broom that moves faster than the snitch itself, I’m not putting money against Ireland,” Black said.

“Fine, but if you lose then you owe me,” Harry warned him.

Black rolled his eyes but he grinned too so Harry figured he wasn’t really annoyed.

“Is he gonna lose?” Harry whispered to Luna.

“I am not asking the nargles to help you gamble,” Luna said in a Hermione-ish voice that caught Harry by surprise.

“Why?” he asked. She’d done it before when they played poker.

“They aren’t answering, I think they’re mad about the alcohol last night.” Luna smiled at Harry in the way that he knew meant she was taking the Mickey out of him.

“You could just say you didn’t wanna tell me,” he grinned once he realized she was teasing.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Luna asked innocently. “Now it’ll be a surprise.”

Personally speaking, Harry was not a fan of surprises. But this was his first ever professional quidditch match, so he’d let himself be surprised by the outcome.

Fred and George were whispering too before Fred pulled Harry over.

“Are you gonna be mad at me if I bet on Ireland?” he asked with a teasing grin.

“It’s your money,” Harry shrugged. “Black’s wasting my money too though, isn’t he? Krum’s going to win. ‘M telling you, he’s just as good as I am.”

Fred and George both chuckled and Fred wrapped his arm around Harry and kissed the top of his head affectionately.

“Your humility is one of your many charming traits my Sugar Quill.”

“Get off,” Harry laughed. ”Cockroach Cluster,” he hissed.

“Handsome redhead? Oh that’s sweet,” Fred laughed. “Alright hold on, Oi! Bagman! What are the odds on each team right now?”

Bagman, who had been finishing a deal with Black, looked up happily at the sound of someone else wanting to place a bet.

“Looks like it’s up to 15:17 in Ireland’s favor. I can offer you good odds on them winning by a margin of over 200,” Bagman said, checking a little notepad he had in his pocket.

“I’m telling you guys, Krum’s got it in the bag,” Harry said, to the exasperation of every one else.

“I hear you Harry-Poo,” Fred grinned as he and George quickly pooled and counted out their money. “We’ll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts, that Ireland wins — but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch,” he winked at Harry. “Oh and we’ll throw in a fake wand.”

Bagman’s face face shone with excitement as he took the wand and coins from Fred, and when the wand gave a loud squawk and turned into a rubber chicken, Bagman roared with laughter.

“Excellent! I haven’t seen one that convincing in years! I’d pay five Galleons for that!”

“It’s worth at least seven,” Draco scoffed.

“Cheers Malfoy,” George smiled at Draco, a bit surprised at his endorsement.

“Alright then, seven galleons,” Bagman said. “Doesn’t matter either way because it’ll never happen boys. I’ll give you excellent odds. Let’s say 30 to 1 then?”

Fred’s eyes lit up as he accepted the betting slip from Bagman and pocketed it.

“Isn’t that all your money for your joke shop?” Harry asked quietly.

“Yeah but if we win it’s nearly 1,400 galleons,” Fred whispered. “Never pass up those kind of odds.”

Bagman had already turned back to Black and Amelia.

“Couldn’t do me a brew, I suppose? I’m keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number’s making difficulties, and I can’t understand a word he’s saying. Barty’ll be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages.”

Harry sighed and began picking up their abandoned poker game with Neville. With the increase of traffic stopping by to chat with them it seemed like they wouldn’t be finishing the game off today.

“Remind me to never attend another public event with you,” Snape sighed when they were finished cleaning up and he settled beside Harry in a chair.

“Tell me about it,” Harry grumbled.

Bagman, and another man who apparated directly in to their campsite, both kept glancing at Harry as they chatted with Amelia about some missing Ministry worker. Harry’s constant glare kept them from approaching him, but the looks were getting annoying.

Thankfully, Harry’s friends were starting to trickle back in as it got closer to time for the match to start.

“We saw Finnigan,” Susan scowled when she returned with Johnny and Hannah. “He’s covered in green from head to toe.”

“Just another reason to support Bulgaria,” Harry said smugly. Draco was the only one who seemed to agree with him though, everyone else acted like Harry was crazy for not cheering for Ireland.

By the time there was less than an hour until the match started, even Amelia had given up on snapping at people for their blatant displays of Magic.

“This is a muggle area,” she muttered.

“So was the carnival,” Harry grinned.

Amelia made a shushing motion at him and Harry figured that if she was still making jokes then she must not really think he’d had anything to do with Theo’s dads death.

She was wrong, but it meant Harry could breathe a little easier around her.

Salesmen with carts were beginning to pop up every few feet as their large group made their way to the stands.

“A green scarf to go with your eyes?” One of them said with a leering smile to Hermione.

“Green also goes with the killing curse,” Theo told him darkly. “Get lost.”

Harry bought a pair of omnioculars for himself, Luna, and Fred. He’d offered a pair to George too, since they had just bet all their money, but George turned him down. Harry figured he probably didn’t want to owe Harry so he told him that it was Black’s money they were wasting.

“Ta then,” George grinned, accepting the omnioculars Harry tossed him.

Susan, Draco, Ron, and Neville seemed to have a blast jumping from cart to cart and buying little souvenirs.

They were all laughing at Ron and Neville, who were wearing ridiculously huge dancing shamrock hats, when a deep booming gong echoed through the light patch of woods they were standing in.

“Match is starting soon,” Fred said, politely ignoring the fact that Harry had grabbed his new knife he got from the Malfoys and had it drawn the moment he heard the gong. “Ready Daaaarling?” he drawled out slowly with a huge smile.

Harry shrugged and moved his knife to the arm holster that Draco had given him for his wrist since ‘you don’t use your bloody wand anyway’.

“Let’s do it.”



Because Harry’s campsite was right beside the stadium, they hardly had to walk far before reaching the gigantic pitch.

“Phew,” Neville whistled, his eyes wide. “That’s huge!”

“It seats over a hundred thousand,” Black said excitedly. “It’s way bigger than the one we saw back in ‘79, isn’t it Moony?”

“Way bigger,” Lupin agreed with an equally excited look in his eyes.

“Wasn’t ‘79 the year that they had to bring in the reserve beater because the one on the Welsh team got killed?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah, Filkins I think his name was.”

Harry listened as Black and Amelia went back and forth on other matches they’ve seen with injuries and privately hoped someone got killed at this match. As long as it wasn’t Krum.

That would certainly be exciting for his first match.

Harry’s friends snickered as they approached the entrance to the stadium and Fudge stopped them.

“He’s with us,” he said loudly, Mister Malfoy standing at his side. “Come along Harry, and...” he glanced around at their group. “And Harry’s friends,” he said rather lamely. “We’re up top.”

“How long has he been waiting for Potter?” Snape murmured softly to Malfoy.

“Thirty eight minutes,” Malfoy smirked. “The Bulgarian Minister is already in the Top Box and Fudge swore he knew Harry Potter personally.”

“Lue, save me,” Harry moaned to Luna. He absolutely was not going to spend the entire match being shown off by Fudge. He’d bloody well paid the man back already by now.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan,” Luna smiled and grasped his hand tightly as they ascended a huge set of stairs up to the Top Box.

Their group kept climbing, until at last they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box, set at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly halfway between the golden goalposts. About thirty purple-and-gold chairs stood in two rows here. Some of the seats were already filled with Cissa, a few ministry people, a small little House-Elf, and Ron’s family, all of whom greeted their group cheerfully.

Harry resisted the urge to hiss at Ginny when she made what Ron called ‘moon eyes’ at him.

Fred apparently had no resistance to kissing Harry square on the lips right in front of her though.

Fred was a bit petty and vindictive, which was something else Harry liked quite a bit about him.

Harry then begrudgingly let Fudge pull him to the back row where a dark skinned man with twinkling green eyes sat. Fudge introduced Harry (‘Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived you know!’) and the other man started speaking rapidly in a language Harry couldn’t understand.

“Ooh, is that Glidenbash?” Luna asked brightly. “Here-“ and the Luna was babbling away in a nonsensical language that made the green eyed man laugh.

“Oh thank God for you Lue,” Harry sighed, following her to seats in the front row after Fudge quickly brought the Malfoy’s and Snape in to his conversation and Harry got a chance to escape.

“I’m the best,” Luna said with a sweet smile.

“Scoot down,” Susan shoved at Johnny and Hannah who were seated on her left to leave two spots closest to the exit for Harry and Luna.

“You ready pup?” Black called from the far end of the front row.

“Yeah,” Harry grinned and looked around quickly and saw everyone was settling in their seats. He checked and saw that he had the second closest seat to the exit, Luna having the closest so he could push her out if he needed to, but having his back to this many people was putting him on edge.

Any one of the people behind him could attack him.

Harry barely knew the older Weasley boys.

And Bagman was exactly two rows behind Harry, and Harry hadn’t liked his shifty eyes at all when they met.

He could get to the exit faster than anyone, aside from Luna and Theo who was directly beside Luna on the other side of the dividing walkway, but what good was that if someone cursed him from behind?

He couldn’t breathe.

He was going to suffocate before anyone even had a chance to kill him.

Harry hardly noticed that his breaths were coming out shorter and faster than normal until Luna slowly rubbed his arm.

“Breathe,” Luna murmured. “Breathe and hold on.”

Harry couldn’t move to keep a hold of her. If Luna left her spot, where she was safe, he couldn’t protect her. Susan grasped his left hand firmly and rubbed circles on the back of it while Luna got up and walked away, singing loudly and drawing all of the eyes in the Box towards her.

Smell the flowers, he thought, inhaling deeply and willing the white spots in his vision to go away.

He couldn’t fight if he couldn’t see.

Blow out the candles. Harry twitched in the middle of his exhale when Luna returned to her seat and grabbed his right hand.

“Look,” she whispered.

Harry turned his head towards her and she tilted her chin behind her slightly to...

Snape.

Snape who was now sitting directly behind Harry, in the row between him and Bagman, and had his wand out.

“If a single person so much as moves in your direction, I will levitate their body to the middle of the pitch and drop them,” Snape leaned forward and whispered directly in Harry’s ear.

Harry felt the tightness in his chest releasing its grip on him slightly when he remembered Snape’s words to Malfoy on his birthday.

‘I would die for Potter, and I will kill for him.’

If Snape said he would kill anyone who tried to curse Harry with his back turned, then he would.

Harry fully turned in his seat to stare at Snape’s calm dark eyes and tried to match his breathing to Snape’s slow and even ones.

“Better?” Susan said softly from Harry’s left side once he felt like he could breathe properly again and turned back to the pitch.

Harry nodded and glanced around, his face hot at the thought of anyone seeing him freak out over nothing.

Stupid, he scolded himself.

“Nobody noticed and you aren’t stupid,” Luna said quietly. “Knock it off.”

“You sound like Susan when you say that,” Harry pointed out with a weak attempt at a grin. He knew that Luna couldn’t actually read his mind, even if she was a Legilimens (which he was pretty sure she wasn’t), Harry was a damn good Occlumens thanks to Snape. Which meant that Luna was just proving once again how well she knew him.

“You mean she sounds brilliant and wonderful?” Susan asked with a sharp grin that meant there was really only one answer she wanted.

“Course,” Harry lied. He meant Luna sounded a bit threatening like Susan, but they were both brilliant and wonderful too he supposed.

Harry actually felt like a bit of a prat now. He’d been worried Susan would replace him with Hannah. Which was probably stupid to think. Susan had stuck by him for three years now. She’d seen him when he killed a troll. When he won his Quidditch matches. And was by his side when he was freaking out.

Hannah couldn’t take Susan from him if she hasn’t left him yet.

“I talk to my brother for five minutes and I’ve been replaced!” Fred cried with a theatric stagger once he walked up beside Luna and spotted Harry’s hands clasped in Luna and Susan’s. “How could you Dollface?”

“You’re embarrassing,” Harry sighed, even though he felt his face get hot once again at Fred’s ridiculous determination to find a ‘nickname’ for him.

“Suppose it’s me and you then,” Fred smiled cheekily at Snape and climbed around his legs to sit behind Susan.

“Please refrain from speaking to me Weasley,” Snape sighed in a put upon way.

“We were Harry’s friends first,” Susan turned her head to say to Fred.

“Aah, but I bet you don’t know what his toothpaste tastes like in the morning,” Fred said quietly.

“Cease speaking immediately,” Snape grit out. “Unless you would like your father to watch me break your fool neck.”

Fred winked at Harry but sat back as Bagman’s voice boomed through the entire stadium:

“Ladies and gentlemen... welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!”

Harry grit his teeth as the entire stadium burst in to applause, screaming and shouting erupting from every bloody person there. He felt a little less irritated when he glanced over and saw Theo looked as unsettled as he did.

“I’m never going to another match unless you’re the one playing,” he called across the dividing pathway to Harry once he caught his eyes.

“Same,” Harry agreed.

His resolve to never come to another match again was strengthened when a hundred women flooded the field and began dancing. Harry peered through his omnioculars when Bagman announced them as Bulgaria’s mascot.

Harry glanced around and saw that most of the guys in the Box, except for Black, Lupin, Malfoy, Fred, Theo, and Snape were all acting ridiculous watching and listening to the women dance. Cissa actually snagged the back of Ron’s robes and shoved him back down in his seat in front of her beside Draco when he made to stand up with a goofy smile on his face.

“Veela,” Snape explained from behind him.

Which explained why the guys were acting stupid, but not the way Bagman introduced them.

“They’re not fuckin’ mascots,” Harry craned his neck around Snape to glare at Bagman. “Jesus Christ. What is wrong with Wixen?!”

Harry’s indignation carried over when the Leprechauns dumping buckets of fake gold all over the stands, were introduced as the Ireland teams mascots as well.

“Maybe cheerleaders is a better term,” Hermione called from her spot beside Theo once she heard Harry’s complaints. “In the Muggle world mascots are usually animals, and cheerleaders are the ones who rally the crowd for their teams.”

“Exactly,” Harry nodded at her appreciatively. “They should be called cheerleaders.”

“We’ll write a formal request to Bagman’s department when we get back,” Susan said.

Harry, Susan, and Hermione’s annoyance at the way the cheerleaders were termed mascots disappeared when the teams were finally announced and entered the pitch.

“There’s Krum Harry!” Ron shouted excitedly when the Bulgarian teams did a lap around the field.

Harry knew he was a good Quidditch player, a fuckin’ great one really, but there was a reason these teams were in the final World Cup match.

They were brilliant.

Harry had never seen Quidditch played like this before. The Chasers on both teams seemed to know exactly where their teammates were and threw the Quaffle harder and further than Harry had ever seen anyone at Hogwarts do. And he grinned at Fred when only fifteen minutes in to the game one of the Bulgarian beaters hit a Bludger so hard at the Ireland seeker that Ireland called for a timeout to fix his broken arm.

“That’s the moment you became obsessed with me,” Fred sighed dramatically. “And now it’s happily ever after.”

“Think you became obsessed with me,” he pointed out. “Probably broke my arm just to get my attention.”

“Ooh, that’s an excellent cover story,” Fred said brightly. “Let’s use that!”

Harry laughed and turned his omnioculars back to the skies so he could try and watch the players once the match resumed.

He mostly alternated between watching the Ireland chasers, who he could begrudgingly admit were quite good, and Krum who he knew would catch the snitch before the Ireland seeker.

“THIRTY-ZERO IRELAND!” Bagman yelled when Ireland scored yet again. “And- oh! They’ve spotted it!”

One hundred thousand wixen gasped as the two Seekers plummeted through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from airplanes without parachutes. Harry followed their descent through his Omnioculars, squinting to see where the Snitch was —

“They’re going to crash!” Harry heard Lupin yelp.

“No they aren’t!” Black called, his voice as excited as Harry had ever heard it before.

Black was half right — at the very last second, Viktor Krum pulled out of the dive and spiraled off. The Ireland seeker, however, hit the ground with a dull thud that could be heard throughout the stadium. A huge groan rose from the Irish seats.

“That’s what you do, right?” Luna asked him as Mediwizards examined the Ireland seeker for the second time that match.

“Yup, learned it from that book, didnt I? It’s called a feint.”

Luna hummed thoughtfully and went back to...

“Lue are you just watching the clouds?” Harry asked amused.

“I am, they’re very pretty today,” Luna said airily.

Harry chuckled but didn’t say any more about it as the match resumed again, faster and fiercer than it had been before.

After only fifteen more minutes, Ireland had scored over ten more goals and they were ahead one hundred and thirty to ten.

Which was mad.

“Krum can’t win alone you prats,” Harry shouted towards the chasers who, sadly, weren’t able to hear him.

“You’re a fanatic,” Susan giggled. “Is it because he’s faaaaamous?”

“Nooo,” Harry said slowly. “It’s because he personally offered to practice with me, yeah? I told you that. Wrote me a letter and everything.”

“Fanatic,” Susan whispered one last time with a teasing sparkle in her real eyes.

Harry actually had no idea what was wrong with cheering for a bloke who was already so good at Quidditch that he was on the Bulgarian team while he was still a student. Anyone who offered something brilliant like private quidditch lessons for free was alright in Harry’s book.

“THERE THEY GO!” Neville yelled down between Hermione and Lupin. “LOOK!!”

Harry jumped to his feet to get a better view of the two seekers, neck in neck, speeding after the snitch in steep dives toward the ground.

“C’mon... c’mon... c’mon....”

“They’re going to crash!” shrieked Hermione.

“They’re not!” roared Ron.

“Lynch is!” yelled George.

And he was right — for the second time, the Ireland seeker hit the ground with tremendous force.

“The Snitch, where’s the Snitch?” bellowed Charlie, now standing up against the rail as well. Though plenty far enough away from Harry that he took minimal notice of the physically imposing man.

“He’s got it — Krum’s got it — it’s all over!” shouted Harry.

Krum, his red robes shining with blood from an earlier broken nose, was rising gently into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand.

The scoreboard was flashing BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170

“IRELAND WINS!” Bagman shouted, who like the fans in the stadium, seemed to be taken aback by the sudden end of the match. “KRUM GETS THE SNITCH — BUT IRELAND WINS — good lord, I don’t think any of us were expecting that!”

“YESSS!!!” Fred jumped to his feet and leapt over Harry’s empty seat to pull him in to a fierce hug by the railing. “YOU ARE A GENIUS HARRY POTTER!”

Harry laughed and let Fred jump up and down for a moment while the rest of the occupants in the Top Box cheered for Ireland’s win.

“And as the Irish team performs a lap of honor, flanked by their mascots, the Quidditch World Cup itself is brought into the Top Box!” roared Bagman.

Harry’s eyes were suddenly dazzled by a blinding white light, as the Top Box was magically illuminated so that everyone in the stands could see the inside. Squinting toward the entrance, he saw two panting wizards carrying a vast golden cup into the box, which they handed to Cornelius Fudge.

“Let’s have a really loud hand for the gallant losers — Bulgaria!” Bagman shouted.

And up the stairs into the box came the seven defeated Bulgarian players. The crowd below was applauding appreciatively; Harry could see thousands and thousands of Omniocular lenses flashing and winking in their direction.

One by one Bagman called out the names of the Bulgarian players, and Harry wasn’t surprised when Krum’s name got the loudest cheers. Before the Bulgarian team marched back out of the Top Box Harry whistled at Krum.

“You were fuckin’ fantastic!” he called. “Ending the match like that? Legend!”

Krum turned a bemused expression towards Harry as he stopped beside the exit.

“You look familiar,” he said in a distinctly rough and accented voice. “Do I know you?”

“Harry Potter,” Harry nodded at him. “You wrote me a letter once.”

“The Seeker?” Krum asked.

“Yup, Quidditch Team Captain too,” Harry said proudly. “Those feints were brill. Couldn’t win by yourself though, could you?”

“I could not,” Krum said slowly, giving Harry a peculiar look. “Ve should fly together this year.”

“‘Kay,” Harry agreed with a shrug. He wasn’t sure how he was going to find time to go flying with Krum in Bulgaria, but assumed they’d just figure it out later. “Good match mate.”

“Thank you,” Krum said with one last long look, his thick brows drawn down over his eyes.

“Harry... light of my life... my northern star... did you just set up a day to go flying with Viktor bloody Krum?” Fred asked in a choked voice.

“You just heard I did,” Harry said, not noticing the surprised silence of his entire group.

“Boy Who Lived strikes again,” Theo sighed.

“Nah, just Harry,” Susan laughed.

“They’ll be talking about this one for years,” Bagman said hoarsely after the Ireland team accepted the Cup and began doing victory laps to the cheering crowd. “A really unexpected twist... shame it couldn’t have lasted longer... Ah yes... yes, I owe you... how much?”

For Fred and George had just scrambled over the rows of seats and were standing in front of Bagman with broad grins on their faces, their hands outstretched.



It wasn’t until their group was nearly back to the campsite that Harry noticed Neville was patting his pockets down frantically.

“What’s up Nev?” he called over to him.

“My wand! I must have dropped it!” Neville moaned. “My Gran is going to kill me! It was my dads!”

“She is not going to kill you,” Harry snarled, furious at the very thought of Neville’s judgmental old grandma touching a single hair on his head. “We’ll replace it when we get home tomorrow, yeah? She won’t even notice before you leave for Hogwarts.”

“But it was my dads,” Neville said, his lower lip quivering just enough that Harry noticed it.

“That means the new one will work even better for you,” Ron’s brother Bill said kindly. He’d offered to walk with their group back to the campsite and apparently decided to eavesdrop on their conversation. “Wands are supposed to choose the Wizard after all. I bet that one didn’t work well for you at all, did it?”

“Not really,” Neville mumbled.

“See?” Fred jumped in optimistically. “That means you might be as strong as Harry here and not even know it because your wand wasn’t meant for you.”

Between Fred, Bill, and Harry, by the time they’d reached the tents Neville looked practically cheerful about his missing wand.

“Black, Lupin, Charles, William, would you care for a nightcap?” Snape asked tightly.

Harry snickered at the shocked faces the other four men made at Snape’s never before heard offer of socializing. Harry knew Snape was only asking so that he could keep a group of ‘wizards who will not be expelled or arrested for defending a group of children’ in case the Death Eaters did rally tonight. But the looks on the men’s faces were really just too rich.

“Uh, sure,” Lupin said, a curious look on his face.

“Excellent, we’ll give the children a moment to settle then use their sitting room shall we? It has the most room,” Snape said, lying through his teeth.

Snape talked a lot about hating kids for a bloke who was willing to suffer through spending time with guys he didn’t like just to defend a bunch of kids from danger.

Harry privately thought Snape was actually the bravest man he’s ever met.

“And the children will settle in their own beds,” Snape said severely.

He was still a bastard though. Even if he was brave.

Harry blinked innocently at Snape before pulling Fred in to their room and immediately laying by his side.

Snape could piss off. Fred was almost as good as Luna at helping Harry sleep more than a few hours at a time.

Even if he snored quite a bit more than Luna did.



The two of them laid in Fred’s bed and talked for a while. Fred whispered about his plans for the joke shop he thought he’d have a real chance at opening now that they’d earned all that money from Bagman. And Harry hesitantly admitted he thought he might want to play professional quidditch for a couple of years after Hogwarts.

“Can’t run for Minister until at least 2012, can I?” he said softly, worried Fred would mock him for his goals. “‘M not old enough until 2010, and then 2012 is an election year. So maybe... maybe I could fly professionally for a few years first.”

“If Viktor Krum could be drafted while he’s still a student, then you can too Darlin’,” Fred said seriously. “You’re a brilliant flier.”

Harry slowly shifted his head over to Fred’s shoulder and let himself doze as he thought about that.

At some point his thoughts must have turned in to a dream because he was flying around a pitch, waving madly at the stands that were filled with his whole group from today while they smiled up at him.

“And I give you.... POTTER!”



“POTTER!”

Harry sat upright and jerked his knife out from beneath Fred’s pillow.

“Do not stab me you insolent brat,” Snape said quickly and quietly. “Get your friends and have Mavis take you all to our home, go now.”

“Why?” Fred groaned from beside him.

Snape gave Harry a meaningful look and Harry immediately knew why.

“It is starting,” Snape said. “Go.”

Snape dashed out of the room, his wand brandished in front of him and Harry knew one thing with absolute certainty:

He wasn’t going home.

He was going to stay here and try and kill some Death Eaters.

Chapter End Notes

Up Next: I’ve actually got a surprise for you guys next chapter that I hope you’ll like (and no I’m not bringing my friend to your house so I can kill their parents, I’m not Harry).

14%

“It’s easy,” Harry told everyone while Fred handed out tall glasses of firewhisky. “We take turns saying something we’ve never done. If you’ve done the thing the person says then you take a drink. Yeah?”

Most of the group nodded, and Fred grinned when he saw the girlfriend of Harry’s newly christened brother grimace at the smell of her drink.

“Tastes better than it smells,” he lied to her with a wink. Theo scowled at him, probably for the wink, but if the bloke hadn’t realized by now that Fred was absolutely not interested in birds then there wasn’t much he could do to convince him otherwise.

Once he was done handing out cups, Fred saw that Harry was sitting between Johnny Abbott and his blonde fairy like friend that he calls Lue. Fred debated briefly whether to sit beside Lue or Johnny to get to Harry.

On the one hand, Harry and Lue spent a lot of time laying on one another and Ron told him that Lue frequently slept in Harry’s dorm bed, which Fred didn’t really like. But she was one of Harry’s best friends and he wasn’t going to be a jealous prat.

Johnny on the other hand, he actually didn’t really want near Harry at all. Fred and Johnny were friends by the pure happy circumstances that they spent a lot of time in detention together. But Johnny ran with a rougher crowd at Hogwarts. And even if he didn’t, there was something a bit off about the Hufflepuff boy that Fred couldn’t pinpoint, but felt a lot like danger. Which he liked feeling from Harry, not from the Hufflepuff boy with the cold eyes.

So Johnny it was.

“Scoot over,” Fred said, easily sliding between Johnny and Harry and throwing his arm over Harry’s shoulder.

Slowly though, because sometimes he did it too quickly and Harry would flinch which made Fred feel both sad and a little murderous at the possible reasoning behind the flinch.

“Who goes first?” Malfoy asked.

“I’ll go,” Lue offered. “I’ve never drank alcohol before.”

“You’re supposed to say ‘never have I ever drank alcohol,’” Susan laughed.

“Oh, okay. Never have I ever drank alcohol before,” Lue said.

Harry, Fred, George, Johnny, Susan, Malfoy, and surprisingly Hermione all took a drink.

“It was wine in France,” Hermione said when Theo gave her a surprised look.

“We’ve failed as brothers Fred,” George groaned. “How has Ronnie never drank before?”

“Because you guys never invite me to anything fun,” Ron grumbled.

“That’s because we don’t like you,” Fred grinned.

“Quit,” Harry said, giving him a ‘I will curse you if you keep insulting my friend’ kind of look.

Fred actually sometimes picked on Ron on purpose just to get that look from Harry. He thought it was sweet how Harry always seemed ready to rip someone apart for picking on his friends.

Not that he doubted Harry could rip him apart, because Harry bloody well could, but just that it was cute when he was being protective of them. It was like Harry was the big brother of the group.

“My turn,” Susan cut in brightly beside Lue. “Never have I ever...” she eyed Johnny with what Fred thought was more than just a bit of interest. “Smoked pot before.”

Johnny winked at Susan as he took a deep drink. As did Harry, Fred, and George.

George, who was sitting beside Susan, looked around thoughtfully.

“Never have I ever... Snogged a bloke in public.” George grinned at Fred, clearly trying to find something Fred has done that George hasn’t.

Harry, Fred, and Hermione all drank, which was expected.

What wasn’t expected, judging from Harry’s surprised expression, was when Susan did.

“Who’d you snog then?” Ron asked her.

“Draco,” she said easily. “Right in the middle of Puddifoots, didn’t I?”

“I thought it wasn’t a real date?” Harry asked her, everyone ignoring Malfoy’s blush.

“We thought we’d kiss to see if we liked it,” she said.

“Did you?” Hermione asked her.

“No,” Draco said quickly. “It was weird. Like kissing my sister if I had one.”

Susan shuddered dramatically. Fred winced in sympathy, that sounded disgusting.

Almost as disgusting as the sappy looks his own sister gave Harry every time he came over. There was a reason that Fred spent most of his time at Harry’s. Besides the fact that Snape seemed to be pretty relaxed about what Harry did, there was the added bonus of not thinking about jinxing Ginny every time she looked at Harry.

Plus, ever since Charlie came home, Harry had been weird when he was at Fred’s house. Nervous and a bit twitchier than usual. Fred had hoped that Charlie coming along with them today would ease Harry’s worries since Charlie was about as threatening as a kneazle kitten, but after seeing Harry edge warily around him when they ate dinner earlier, he thinks maybe he should have asked Bill to come instead.

“Your turn Ronnikins,” George ruffled their brothers hair.

Ron shoved George off him, clearly unappreciative of his brotherly love, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Never have I ever stayed up all night reading.”

“Ron’s never stayed up for over an hour reading,” Fred whispered to Harry, who rolled his eyes before he surprisingly took a drink.

Fred wasn’t surprised Harry read, Harry was a bloody genius. But he expected swots like Hermione and Theo to stay up all night studying, not Harry.

“Law books?” Susan asked Harry.

“Transfiguration,” he shrugged. “I was trying to turn in to an owl, wasn’t I?”

Nobody, except for Johnny who gave Harry a weird look, seemed surprised by Harry’s confession. Harry was a bit barmy and said odd stuff that he usually refused to explain. It was one of the many reasons that Fred was absolutely crazy about him.

Sometimes, late at night, Harry quietly explain some stuff to Fred, like about how Lupin had embarrassed him in front of his classmates when Harry’s boggart was exposed (Harry didn’t tell him what his boggart was, but Fred had heard from Finnigan that it was Snape, which made no sense to Fred since Harry seemed to like Snape quite a bit) but Harry said he quickly tried to embarrass Lupin back by telling everyone he was a werewolf. Fred always listened quietly and let Harry slowly put his head on his chest after he shared little things like that.

Despite the cocky and confident mask that Fred saw right through, Harry always seemed ready for someone to start laughing at him, or even to hurt him, when he talked about himself. Fred could sympathize with thinking people would make fun of you for no good reason, it was one of the many reasons why he liked to make people laugh with his jokes and pranks- nobody was laughing at the poor kid from the big family that nobody could remember his name because they were laughing with him instead.

Fred didn’t understand why Harry always thought anyone touching him was about to cause him pain, but he was starting to put together some pieces that made a portrait he didn’t quite like.

But when Harry trusted Fred not to laugh at him, and shared his touch and his thoughts? It made Fred feel on top of the world, like he was flying.

“Your turn Draco,” Lue said, shifting around so she could lay her head on Harry’s shoulder, which displaced Fred’s arm and pulled his attention back to the game.

Fred resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at Lue and settled for wrapping his arm around Harry’s waist instead of his shoulder. He’d nudged Harry as he did it, giving him a silent look for ‘is this okay?’ Harry turned and looked at his raised brow and nodded slightly. Which eased the jealousy that Fred had been feeling towards Lue just then.

Harry might let her use him as a pillow, but he let Fred touch him too. And that meant something, Fred was sure of it.

“Never have I ever crashed my broom before,” Malloy bragged, taking his turn.

“Git,” Harry growled, taking another drink.

“You guys are gonna kill poor Harry over there,” George laughed after taking his own drink.

“‘M fine,” Harry waved his hand and leaned further in to Fred’s side. Fred looked down at Harry’s messy black hair and squeezed his waist tightly for a brief moment and smiled like a lunatic when Harry hesitantly put his own arm around Fred and squeezed back for a split second.

“Your turn love,” Theo said to Hermione, which set off a lot of catcalls and jokes.

Fred personally couldn’t see the draw for Theo or Hermione. Theo had a bit of fire, him and Fred had gotten in to a couple friendly arguments over the summer so far. And Hermione was a bit of a rebel, and brave too to face Snape in Theo’s pajamas and chat about potions over breakfast, but overall they were both boring. Safe. Predictable.

Nothing at all like Harry.

“Never have I ever slept outside before tonight,” Hermione said.

Johnny, Ron (who Fred and George had once locked outside all night once for a prank), Lue, and Harry all took a drink.

“Posh prats,” Harry laughed, already sounding pretty tipsy. “Tents shouldn’t even count.”

Which was as interesting a statement as it was disturbing. Fred added it to his mental list of ‘Stuff to Ask Harry About When He’s in a Chatty Mood’.

So far there were over a dozen questions on this list. Including why he doesn’t drink potions (Fred did not accept his story of being allergic because that was bullocks), why slept with a knife under his pillow, and why his back had felt like it had been torn to pieces the night Fred felt it back in February. Harry had been slow to letting Fred touch his bare torso ever since then, and it brought back up those slightly murderous feelings Fred sometimes had when Harry flinched at contact.

“C’mon little Theo, it’s your turn,” George grinned at Theo. “Let’s hear what you haven’t done before.”

“Never have I ever been in a muggle fight before,” Theo said after thinking for a long minute.

“What’s the difference between a wizard fight and muggle?” Malfoy asked.

“Muggle means you didn’t rely on your wand,” Johnny laughed as he took a drink.

“Cheers then,” Harry took a drink and let out a loud laugh. “Fuck. I think ‘m already drunk.”

“Why would you fight someone without magic?” Theo asked Harry with an exasperated look. “You don’t even need to use your wand.”

“Used to fight all the time before I came to Hogwarts,” Harry said, pride dripping from every word. “Look-“ Harry rolled up his pant leg and Fred barely held back a hiss at a long scar on the back of his lower leg. “Muggle got me right in the leg with a knife, didn’t he?”

“Did you kill him?” Susan asked, her eyes hard as she looked at Harry’s scar.

“Nope, but I got his knife,” Harry laughed again. Which was a mad reaction because Fred, for once, did not feel like laughing.

“Before Hogwarts? So you weren’t even eleven yet?” Malfoy asked, his grey eyes were wide. “Merlin Harry. Why would someone stab a kid in the leg?”

“Johnny’s turn,” Harry said quickly, changing the topic as Fred expected him to. Harry didn’t usually talk about his life before Hogwarts. He’d probably only shared that horrifying fact because of the alcohol.

“Scars are sexy,” Fred murmured in his ear, thinking Harry’s pink cheeks might be embarrassment from the pitying looks he was getting from part of the group now.

Harry smiled up at him and, even if it was a rather lazy smile, it still made Fred’s stomach feel fluttery. Which was a lame thing to think, even if it was true.

“I’ve done a lot of things,” Johnny laughed. “I dunno what to say.”

“Bet I’ve done more,” Harry bragged. “C’mon, try me.”

Johnny stared at Harry hard, with a grin on his face that Fred would almost call mischievous if it wasn’t for the cold look in his eyes.

“Never have I ever... been in love.”

Harry slowly sat his glass down and gave Fred a guilty look. Fred just grinned down at him and nodded to his own undrank from glass. He knew Harry didn’t love him, not right now anyway. And Fred was crazy about him, but he didn’t know if it was love just yet.

“Suppose Angie will be mad if I drink before I tell her?” George asked while everyone else teased Hermione and Theo who took drinks with pink cheeks.

“I think being in love sounds awfully romantic,” Lue said dreamily from her spot on Harry’s shoulder.

“I think it sounds terrible,” Susan laughed, sounding a little drunk herself. “I mean, sex sounds like a good time, but love? Ugh. Too mushy.”

Johnny perked up beside Fred, who quickly elbowed him.

“She’s fourteen mate,” he whispered harshly.

“Same age as Harry,” Johnny pointed out quietly.

Which was fair enough. But Johnny was starting his last year at Hogwarts and Fred was entering his sixth. Plus, Harry hardly seemed like he was two years younger than Fred. Sometimes Fred thought Harry acted more mature than most of the seventh years.

“Your funeral,” Fred murmured.

“Your turn,” Johnny winked with a light laugh.

Fred looked around and locked eyes with George, who nodded just slightly towards Ron, who looked entirely too sober for Fred’s taste.

“Never have I ever... wet the bed.”

Everyone roared with laughter as Ron turned bright red and scowled at Fred before taking a drink.

“I was SIX!”

“Leave Ron alone,” Harry said. “Cheers Ron.”

Harry lifted his own glass and took a drink, which was the opposite of what Fred wanted. Harry already seemed pretty unsteady. Theo also took a small drink, which was interesting for the stoic Slytherin boy.

“My turn then?” Harry asked, sitting up slightly.

“Is there anything you haven’t done?” Hermione asked.

“Probably not,” Malfoy snorted.

After nearly five minutes of Harry thinking, and people tossing out ideas he kept shooting down, they found out one of the few things Harry had never done before in his life was kiss a girl.

“Fred was my first kiss, wasn’t he?” Harry shrugged.

Fred absolutely did not puff his chest out proudly at this previously unknown fact about Harry.

Except he did.

Because sweet Merlin. He was Harry’s first kiss? It was brilliant.

“How do you even know you like blokes then if you’d never kissed a girl?” Ron asked.

“I don’t ‘like blokes’,” Harry scowled, which was more cute than threatening in his tipsy state. “I like Fred.”

Fred thought his face might actually break with how hard he was smiling.

‘I like Fred’.

“And Fred’s not a bloke?” George asked with a huge grin.

“Piss off,” Johnny said, lighting a cigarette. “Harry doesn’t have to explain his sexuality to you lot.”

“Ta,” Harry said, now eyeing Johnny’s cigarette.

“Nope,” Fred shifted Harry over a bit so he couldn’t see it anymore. “Snape’s already gonna murder me in the morning when you smell like booze, let’s not add cigarette smoke, yeah?”

“Fine.” Harry crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “Lue, you still playing?

“Oh yes,” Lue said eagerly. “I quite like this game. It’s interesting hearing everyone’s secrets.”

“That’s why you’re my favorite,” Harry laughed, missing the jealous looks Fred and Susan both aimed at Lue.

“Last round then?” Theo asked, Hermione now nestled on to his lap.

Fred and George shared a smirk at why Theo would suddenly be in a rush to end the game.

“Alright,” Fred agreed. He didn’t care about Theo’s sex life, but he very much didn’t wanna kill off Harry Potter with alcohol poisoning.

Or, maybe worse than killing Harry, would be telling Severus Snape about it.

Fred was a brave guy, in his own humble opinion, and the sorting hat put him in Gryffindor for a reason. But any idiot could see that even if Snape might be lax about Harry’s rules, he was a maniac about his safety.

So yeah, last round.

“Never have I ever lost a bet,” Lue giggled, starting them off again.

Nearly everyone except Lue and Johnny took a drink.

“Ron’s a gambler,” Harry said to Fred, clearly in what he thought was a whisper but was loud enough the whole group heard it. Fred hid his grin to hear Harry’s London accent shining through now that he was relatively pissed. “But he usually wins bets, don’t he?” Harry went on with a fond smile. “He’s a fuckin’ genius.”

Ron’s ears turned red at Harry’s compliment and he’d looked rather pleased with himself. Which, as his older brothers, Fred and George couldn’t stand for.

“Aww, Ronnieeee, are you a genius? Maybe gonna follow dear old Percy’s scholastic footsteps?” George teased him.

“You’ll make us so proud,” Fred added, wiping away a fake tear. “Mum will be pleased to hear how smart you are.”

“Knock it off,” Susan scowled. “It’s my turn now anyway.”

Fred wanted to bash his head off the floor at the look in her eyes when she turned her head straight towards Johnny and tossed her hair behind her shoulder in a flirtatious way.

“Never have I ever given a guy a blow job.”

Well, Fred tried. He really had. But Johnny sat upright at that and Fred knew it was over with.

“Her aunt will kill you,” he murmured with one last effort.

“Might be worth it,” Johnny said.

Fred scowled and took a drink of his nearly depleted glass. As did Hermione (to many loud laughs).

... and so did Harry.

Which was odd, because he’d never done that to Fred. He’d offered once, but he’d looked bloody terrified so Fred told him no. Then Harry acted like he owed it to him, which was disturbing, and Fred patiently explained that what he did was his own choice, and that Harry should only do things that he wanted to.

But that was one of the first nights Fred stayed at Harry’s house. Ever since then he’d cut back on anything further than heavy snogging and letting Harry touch him wherever he asked.

He thought about adding the blow job thing to his list of things to ask eventually, but tossed it out. Harry was hot and cold when it came to anything more than snogging, Fred wouldn’t make it worse by interrogating him about old experiences. Harry would tell him when he was ready.

“Whose turn is it?” Harry slurred, making Fred grimace. He didn’t really think this game would lead to Harry getting this drunk.

Fred Weasley was a dead man if Snape found out.

“The Weasley Twin you aren’t laying on,” Malfoy said.

Fred looked towards George and flicked his eyes down towards Harry and then shook his head slightly.

George scrunched his nose for a split second, their signal when they understand each other.

“Hmmm,” he said thoughtfully. “Never have I ever... had a crush on a teacher.”

Fred was relieved when Harry laughed at Ron, Hermione, Susan, and Lue when they all took drinks and left his own on the floor.

“Who’d’ya have a crush on?” Harry asked Lue.

“Professor Snape,” Lue said without even the slightest amount of embarrassment. “He’s rather charming isn’t he?”

The rest of the group, except for a now deeply blushing Hermione and a smirking Susan, laughed at that.

“Not you too,” Ron groaned at Susan and Hermione. “Snape is not charming!”

“He- he kind of is,” Hermione said with a guilty look at Theo, who Fred was impressed to see just looked amused. “He’s got the whole tall, dark, and mysterious vibe going on.”

“Plus he’s a bit dangerous isn’t he?” Susan said. “Ex Death Eater spy and all.”

“What about you Ronald?” Johnny asked with a lazy grin. “Are you pining after Snape too?”

“Gross,” Ron shivered, but suddenly looked sheepish. “Had a crush on Professor Sinistra though. She’s gorgeous.”

Johnny, George, and Draco all murmured their agreements before Draco poked Ron and told him to take his turn.

“Alright, alright, let me think.”

“That’s a new one,” Fred whispered to Harry.

“Quit pickin’ on Ron,” Harry murmured. “Or we’ll fight.”

“I don’t think you’re in any shape to win a fight Potter,” Johnny laughed. “You’re drunk as hell.”

“I’d still win,” Harry said confidently. Johnny probably would have argued the point except Harry rolled his right wrist and had Johnny’s wand flying right to his hand. “See?”

Which was bloody hot.

Fred quickly took a sip of his drink to make up for the fact he hadn’t before when Johnny said he’d never been in love.

Fred might be in love with the mad bloke laying on his shoulder.

“Never have I ever stolen anything,” Ron said with a pointed look at George.

“Liaaaar,” Harry laughed after tossing Johnny’s wand back to him. “Stole that rock with me in first year, didn’t ya?”

“What rock?” Johnny asked.

“Magic rock,” Harry said with an uneven grin. “Top secret though.”

“Yeah but you actually stole the rock,” Malfoy said. “We told you to put it back.”

“Well then cheers,” Harry tapped his glass against Fred’s before the two of them, Johnny, George, and Susan all drank.

“You’ve never stolen anything?” George asked Malfoy disbelievingly.

“I’m the only child to wealthy parents, I’ve never had a reason to,” Malfoy shrugged.

Well, Fred supposed you can’t fault a bloke for playing the cards he’s dealt.

Malfoy nudged Ron lightly with his elbow and suddenly looked downright evil.

“Never have I ever had a crush on anyone in this room,” he said.

Draco and George were the only two who didn’t drink at that.

Fred looked around and tried to fit together the pieces based on the blushes and nervous looks going around.

Hermione and Theo used to have a crush on each other, easy enough.

Johnny and Susan seemed to be making flirty eyes at each other now, which Fred wouldn’t classify as a ‘crush’ but whatever worked he supposed.

Harry hopefully only ever had a crush on Fred.

Which left Lue and Ron.

“Ronnie I’ve told you a million times, your crush on me is bloody weird,” George sighed with an exaggerated grimace of disgust.

“I have never had a crush on you!” Ron sputtered. “Merlin George. Gross.”

Malfoy mumbled something in Ron’s ear that Fred was too far away to hear. But George must have heard enough because he quickly flicked his eyes to Hermione before looking back at Fred and waggling his brows.

Which was absolutely hilarious because Theodore Nott might be a boring little bookworm, but Fred would put big money on him destroying Ron if he even looked in Hermione’s direction.

“Well we all know who Luna had a crush on,” Susan laughed.

“Who?” Harry asked curiously.

“You,” Lue said easily. “When we first met I thought you were my hero. You kept showing up and helping me when the other students weren’t being so nice.”

“When did I do that?” Harry scrunched his face up in a way that would have been much more adorable if Fred wasn’t fighting against another surge of jealousy at the moment.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Lue wasn’t a pretty girl laying on his boyfriends shoulder and using words like ‘my hero’.

Don’t be a jealous prat, he repeated over and over while Lue recounted stories of Harry showing up and blasting students in to walls that were bullying her.

“Of course now you’re with Fred and I think we’re better off as friends,” Lue said kindly as she patted Harry’s knee.

Jealousy absolutely had nothing to do with why Fred bent over and kissed the top of Harry’s head.

Nothing at all.

“Never have I ever cheated on a test,” Hermione said abruptly, apparently trying to speed up the end of the game.

Fred, Harry, George, Johnny, Susan, and Draco all took quick drinks.

“The room spinnin’ or is that just me?” Harry slurred.

Merlin.

“That’s enough of that,” Fred said, sliding Harry’s cup off to the side. “Maybe you should take drinks of water instead?”

“Nope,” Harry reached out and stubbornly pulled the cup back towards himself. “It’s almost over, yeah?”

Yes. Thankfully.

Fred tried to give Theo a significant look, hoping he’d know that Harry absolutely did not need to drink more. Which, he must have understood to some extent.

“Never have I ever gotten a tattoo.”

Fred sighed with relief when Harry didn’t drink. Of course Johnny did, which Susan certainly didn’t fail to notice.

“Never have I ever been told I’m bad at sex,” Johnny said with an overtly obvious grin in Susan’s direction.

George took a drink, which made Fred laugh remembering how he told him the first time he had sex with Misty Tomlin in their third year she’d told him he sucked afterwards.

“Fred you prat,” Ron scowled.

Fred, who had been busy laughing at George, looked over at his other brother, “What?” He followed Ron’s gaze and glanced down just in time to see Harry set his glass down after apparently having taken a drink.

What the bloody hell.

Fred was Harry’s first kiss. But Harry had already had sex?

Harry had already given someone else a blow job?

Didn’t it usually go kissing, oral, then sex? Or had Fred lost the plot somewhere?

Ron clearly thought Fred had been the one to say it, so it must have either been a one night thing or someone Ron didn’t know.

... Or ... or something before Harry started at Hogwarts?

He shut that horrifying thought down when Harry suddenly looked horribly uncomfortable and shifted slightly away from Fred with a guilty look in his eyes.

Guilty and... scared maybe?

“I’m knackered,” Fred lied with a soft smile for Harry. He didn’t care if Harry slept with a million blokes before him, he was with Fred now, wasn’t he?

And if something happened before Hogwarts then Fred would just track down whatever person thought they could sleep with an eleven year old and kill them.

“Let’s call it a night, yeah?” he suggested before kissing Harry firmly on the top of his head.

You’ll tell me when you’re ready, he thought fiercely.

“You still have to take your turn!” Ron protested. “C’mon, last one.”

“Yeah, don’t be a quitter Weasley,” Malfoy drawled.

“Fine,” Fred said shortly.

If he hadn’t been annoyed with his brother and worried about Harry he never would have said the words that came out of his mouth next.

In his absolute defense, he hadn’t been thinking. He was just spouting out the first most outrageous thing he could think of that would shut Ron and Malfoy up and end the game before Harry actually passed out on the bloody floor.

It also probably slipped out since Fred was plotting out how some prank items could be used as torture devices as well.

“Never have I ever killed anyone.”

And nobody even flinched when Harry Potter raised his glass in a mock toast, his eyes hazy, and took a drink.

“Awesome,” Johnny breathed.

It wasn’t awesome.

Harry had told Fred, a whole group of people actually, how he’d killed Quirrell his first year. Fred didn’t think it really counted, since Harry hadn’t meant to, but apparently Harry counted it.

It wasn’t awesome, but Fred could absolutely admit that it was bloody hot.

Fred had always been attracted to a bit of danger. A quiet life was never in the cards for him. And Harry was dangerous. Dangerous and brilliant and so layered and complex that Fred thought he could spend the rest of his life trying to unravel the mystery that made up the messy haired, green eyed, mad bloke who chose that exact minute to actually pass out on Fred’s shoulder.