"Ready to lose, Potter?"

Harry felt a surge of pure joy at the words, and glanced over at the man riding a broomstick near him. He never thought he'd play Quidditch again, and yet here he was, in a game with Draco as the other Seeker, their old rivalry still as strong as ever.

But there were differences from the last time he'd been on the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch. The stands were only half completed, and yet full of students cheering and supporting their houses. All the players, including Draco and himself, were a lot older, and still showing effects from the all too recent battle. And many of the players were playing for different houses.

It was all part of Headmistress McGonagall's plan to get Hogwarts and its students back into good shape, in every way. Starting in the summer, many students and alumni had volunteered to help with the cleanup and repair of the ancient buildings. Harry, Ron and Hermione had been among them, coming in August after all the trials were done.

By the time the school term started, the school was looking good in the main common areas. Professor McGonagall had welcomed all the students back, and promised many changes.

Eighth year students were given their own tower and common room to stay in together, and their own Quidditch league. Since there were so few Slytherins available, McGonagall had mandated that the three teams must contain players from all the houses. So, the Gryffindor team had Ginny, Ron and Dean, but also Blaise Zambini as a Chaser, and Susan Bones and Terry Boot as Beaters.

Draco was wearing the black and yellow uniform of the Hufflepuffs, and so were Seamus Finnegan and Mandy Brocklehurst. He glared at Harry and then looped around the field, a fast streak of yellow that reminded him of a wasp.

Jarring himself out of his musings, Harry circled the field in the opposite direction, scanning for that tiny glint of gold. There was something so freeing about letting the world fall away and only focusing on what was happening on the pitch. Feeling the wind rushing through his hair, enjoying the speed of his broom and the lush greenery of the Scottish Highlands. They were all sense memories of the best times of his school years, and Harry had happily dived right back into the busy schedule of practices and games.

Many of the returning eighth years were new to playing at this level, with the more experienced players often in the Chaser positions. It meant both teams were scoring often, and Harry tried to pay attention to the score as he flew. It wouldn't help to catch the snitch if Hufflepuff had enough points to still win.

Harry saw the snitch and raced towards it, with Draco only a second behind him. His heart was pounding and he could barely catch his breath as they swerved to follow the speedy ball, zipping every direction to shake them off its tail. He nudged against Draco, their padded uniforms protecting them from the rough contact of the game. But when the snitch took a hard left, Draco shoved hard against Harry before following it, making him almost fall off his broom.

It took a second or two to regain his balance, but by then Draco was far away, and Harry could swear he heard him chuckling as he raced to catch up. Luckily the snitch swooped down low, and Harry was able to drop into a steep dive to intersect it. He had always been the better, faster flyer, and he was soon reaching for the ball.

Draco almost crashed into Harry as he pulled out of his own dive, pushing against his left side as they raced close to the ground, both reaching out for the snitch. It moved upwards and Harry followed faster, finally grabbing the ball.

Unfortunately, they hadn't been watching their surroundings close enough, the wall of the spectator stands suddenly far too near for the speed they were going. They both veered the same direction, hitting each other and unbalancing, crashing down on to the grass six feet below.

Groaning, Harry untangled his sore limbs from Draco, relieved he was a bit banged up but no bones seemed broken.

Draco rolled over, his face and hair streaked with mud and his eyes furious. "You crashed us on purpose!" He lurched to his feet, showing he wasn't badly injured either, and grabbed his broom.

Ignoring him, Harry staggered to his feet and slowly opened his hand. Through everything, he had held tight to the struggling ball, and he held it high now, elation running through him.

The crowd was cheering madly, and his team landed, running over to hug him and share in their victory. Even Susan, Terry and Blaise were smiling widely.

Draco shook his head at Blaise, glaring at him and mumbling "Blood Traitor," under his breath as he stalked off the field. It reminded Harry a little of Kreacher's old resentful mutterings.

"That was fantastic!" Ron yelled over the roar of the crowd, looking around the packed stands with a glow of happy satisfaction.

Slinging his arm over his best friend's shoulders, they walked off the pitch together, back to the boys' changing rooms.

...

It was strange celebrating in the Eighth Year common room afterwards, since people from all three teams were there. Harry was rehashing the game with the rest of his team, with returning Gryffindors like Hermione and Parvati who had watched from the stands. Everyone was in high spirits from winning the first game of the season, drinking butterbeer and some smuggled-in fire whiskey.

Seamus gave Harry a friendly smile from across the room, but continued to sit with the Hufflepuff team. Even though they had lost, they seemed in good spirits. The scores had been pretty close and Draco had come very close to grabbing the snitch. They had a good chance at winning future games.

Draco wasn't sitting with them, though. He was with his old friends Pansy Parkinson and Gregory Goyle, talking quietly together. The only other returning Eighth Year Slytherin was Millicent Bestrode, and she had already gone up to the dorm rooms. She was still a bit irked Goyle had been chosen for the Ravenclaw Beater over her.

Neville Longbottom wasn't sitting in Harry's group either, but with his Ravenclaw team. Luna Lovegood was practically in his lap, enthusiastically sharing strategies with Michael Corner for when they took on Hufflepuff in the next match.

Out of all the Eighth Years, Harry thought Neville had changed the most. He was one of the tallest boys now, and his face had slimmed down. But the biggest change was his demeanor. He looked comfortable in his own skin, sitting with his shoulders back and confidently meeting anyone's gaze.

In the aftermath of the war, he had gotten almost as much attention as Harry, who was more than happy to share the spotlight. It was refreshing seeing the shy boy in the role of a hero, his grandmother watching proudly when people recognized him.

Luna had reached over and taken his hand, making Neville lose his train of thought to look down at their linked hands in wonder. They shared a warm gaze before going back to their group's discussion.

Harry's eyes fell next to Hermione and Ron, holding hands like Luna and Neville, and looking quite comfortable together. It had been an adjustment being around them, now very much a couple.

"I can't get over what a difference the broomsticks make," Ginny commented.

Blaise gave her a slow smile. "You like the Firebolts?"

She grinned back. "Who wouldn't? I had a second hand Cleansweep before."

The wizarding community had been horrified that the final battle against Voldemort had been at Hogwarts, and that so many students had been in danger. As a result, there had been huge campaigns to fix the school and support the returning students to get over this. One of the most popular with the students was that professional Quidditch teams had donated many old Firebolt brooms to the school. Most of the players were borrowing one instead of using their own older models.

As the Gryffindor team babbled on about how much they loved the brooms, Harry looked between Ginny and Blaise speculatively, wondering if there could be a spark of interest between the Chasers since they had been training so closely together this last month.

The feeling between Harry and Ginny had faded back to just being friends now. Events of the last year had made them grow apart, and it had been a mutual decision to officially break up early in the summer. They had talked a lot about the past, and she had been active resisting against the tyranny of the Carrows with the other remaining DA members last year.

He excused himself not much later, feeling a little sore and tired from the game. After taking a long hot shower, he crawled into bed and pulled the curtains closed around it. It was a bit of an adjustment sleeping in a large room with all the other Eighth Year boys, another way McGonagall was encouraging inter-house unity.

...

-A/N: Just some fluffy fun, exploring ideas around what eighth year at Hogwarts would be like. I have drafted all the chapters, so I'll be posting regularly. The fic is around 25K words long and likely 9 chapters.
-Thanks for giving this a try. I'm a little intimidated writing a story that takes place in Hogwarts, as there are so many characters. Hope I don't screw anything up too much (if I do, gentle correction is appreciated).