Harry still didn't like crowds. It was something he'd decided he didn't ever want to get used to.

He'd been fiddling with a combination of spells over winter break that would allow him to move through a hallway indoors at any time of day and still completely avoid the crowds. He was pleased with how things had been going so far. Right now, for example, classes had just ended and the corridors were full of people headed to lunch, but he was still able to walk at his ease without being jostled or even glanced at by nearly anyone.

"Oh, hello. How did you get up there?"

Harry looked down and saw a girl with long, straggly blonde hair, tilting her head back to watch him as he strolled along on the ceiling.

"It's a combination of a feather light spell and a few fixing charms on my boots," Harry revealed. He didn't mind so much if she knew his trick, as long as it didn't become a popular mode of transportation. The whole point was that he was the only one up here. "I find that your average human rarely looks up."

"Oh, but that's wonderful!" she declared. Her head was still tipped up to speak to him as they walked down the hall, matching each other step for step. The group she had been walking with had long since pulled ahead, and Harry watched with fascination as other students rerouted around the girl. No one even bothered to look up and see who she was talking to, unless you counted rolling their eyes as they avoided her.

"You're coming up on a low archway here," she pointed out.

Harry frowned and used the fixing charms on his hands to climb down the wall until he could pass through. The blonde girl waited patiently in the arch until they could go through it together, and lifted her fingers to try and touch the ends of his hair as he passed.

"You're the elf that lives in the forests," the girl mused once Harry was back on the ceiling. "My father told me about you, once. He was ever so excited when we learned you had come to visit Hogwarts."

"I'm glad to hear it," Harry said, pleased. Very few people got his species right the first time. "Have I met your father, then?"

"Oh yes, several years ago in the Forest of Dean."

"He must have been that wizard that gave me my amulet book," Harry said after a pause for reflection. He hadn't met many adults in his life before he came up to Scotland. "Bloody useful thing."

"He'll be glad to hear it," the girl said. "I'm sure he'd want you to know our Dirigible Plums are doing splendidly." She reminded him of a centaur, with her absent-minded tone and her head tipped back to look at what was above her, rather than what was in front of her. Granted, that was how she'd noticed him.

"I remember liking those plums," Harry said nostalgically. "I haven't had one in a long while."

"I could bring you some, if you'd like," she offered. "I have a jar full in my trunk."

Harry took a detour around a large chandelier and considered her offer. "What would you like in return? I expect I have a pair of trainers about your size, assuming you're interested."

He only offered because the girl was wearing socks without shoes. He could understand bare feet, and he could understand shoes or boots, but he suspected that most people, wizards or no, didn't usually wander around drafty corridors between lessons in their stocking feet on purpose.

"Oh!" she said, looking down at her feet. "Oh no, I have trainers," she said. "They'll turn up eventually."

"Right," Harry allowed. "Something else, then?"

"I don't really need anything," the girl told him. "You can just have them, if you like."

Harry squinted at her for long enough that he nearly tripped over a light fixture.

"Just... take them?" he clarified. "You don't want anything?"

The girl nodded up at him. "If your customs demand it, I suppose in return I'd like a conversation."

Harry felt himself relax, back on familiar ground. "Yes, alright. On any particular topic? Any specific time?"

"Just a good conversation," she said. "Next time we happen to cross paths."

"Right, and I'll get the plums from you at the same time," Harry agreed, satisfied. "A good conversation it is."

They walked together for another short stretch of hallway, until Harry found himself faced with reaching the next floor from his position on the ceiling.

"It was lovely to meet you," the girl said, and stepped onto a staircase heading downward. Harry waved goodbye as he contemplated his route. Certainly, climbing the wall would do it, but walking up the wrong side of a staircase appealed to him somehow, impractical though it appeared.

As he went, he heard familiar hushed voices on the other side of the stairs. It was the red twins, and they were up to something. Harry could tell because they were alone, and most of the student body had taken to travelling in packs this year, frightened of whatever was attacking people.

Harry went into stealth mode, climbing up the wall to the ceiling without their noticing and trailing them down the corridor. He followed them like this sometimes, as it allowed him to discover even more passages that these two hadn't seen fit to reveal to him.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides to them not telling him about the passage themselves ended up being that sometimes, the way in was less than obvious. It really looked like they had just disappeared in the middle of the hall. Harry couldn't figure out what they'd done.

Harry dropped down from the ceiling and landed on the floor where they had vanished, crouching and staring around. He breathed in, trying to use all his senses to spot the passage. Some were magical, but some were just well camouflaged or honestly weren't there except on Tuesdays, or needed to be tripped in a specific way, like pressing a bit of stone or getting a statue angry. Tasting the air for unexpected magic didn't always work, nor did Dobby's method.

While he crawled around on the floor inspecting every flagstone, the portrait of an older couple nearby watched with open curiosity. Harry had met these two before, and eventually decided he'd cheat.

"How do you open the passage?" he asked the woman. She smiled.

"You've nearly got it, young man."

"A little to the le-" The woman nudged her husband and fussed over her head scarf.

"Dear, he'll be happier to have figured it out for himself."

This may have been true, but Harry shifted a little to the left anyway and found what he'd been looking for. The flagstone depressed only when pushed with deliberation right on a chipped portion, and a small slide appeared in front of Harry.

"Impressive," said the old woman. Harry grinned at her.

"See you later!" He took a tighter grip on his bag and pushed off into the tunnel. The slide spiraled downward at an alarming rate, and Harry laid full out, careful not to knock his head on anything.

The slide spit him out in a windowless hallway in an area Harry didn't recognise. He couldn't get his bearings without the sun, so he was utterly lost and suddenly feeling just a little claustrophobic. He held a flame in his hand to assist the sparse torches on the walls, and set off to explore.

The red twins had long since gone, and it was no use trying to pick up their trail again. Instead, Harry tried to figure out what part of the castle he was in. Wandering around aimlessly until he found a landmark usually did it, so he set out to do just that.

He was just pausing to admire an entirely unfamiliar statue of a dragon when he heard it.

"Hungry,"a voice whispered, somewhere to his right. Harry frowned. "So hungry, for so long..."

"Hello?" he asked. The snake shifted uneasily at Harry's collarbone, and a suspicion dawned in Harry's mind. "Are you the new snake?"

"I am not new," the voice said scathingly. "I have been here for ages. And I am quite hungry. Where are you, little one?"

Harry listened closely and heard a large scraping in the wall to his right. He felt his jaw go slack. That sounded like quite a large snake. Well aware of what happened when you were the smaller one, Harry started wondering in earnest where exactly the slide had spit him out, and how best to get away.

"I'm not anywhere in particular," he said in a breezy voice. "You know, if you're hungry, the castle really isn't the place for finding food."

"Explain yourself," the snake said. Harry's snake was taut with tension, and tasted more terrified than he had been even with the python.

"I mean, the humans in the castle frown upon hunting indoors," Harry said reasonably. "They make a big fuss about it, you know. And I imagine they aren't nearly as accepting of other humans being eaten as snakes are. Anyway, there's a lot more game in the forest."

"The forest?"

"Yeah, rabbits and birds and all sorts," Harry said. "And it's much nicer out there, too. You must be cramped in the walls. How often do you get to feel the sun on your scales inside?"

"Sun?"

"Exactly," Harry said with satisfaction. "You need to get out of this dreary old castle. Where are you right now, anyway?"

"In the pipes," the snake said. It sounded interested despite itself.

"See, that's not pleasant at all," Harry told it. "We'll have you out on a nice boulder in the sunshine by tomorrow morning. Spring is nearly here; it's beautiful out. You'll see."

After finding his way out of the windowless maze that turned out to be on the first floor, Harry made good on his promise to the large snake and found a sewage drain that led to a part of lake that was very near the forest.

Having climbed cautiously inside and wandered around for awhile, senses on high alert for any sign that the larger snake was waiting around a corner to snap him up, he was as sure as he'd ever be that the pipe would be accessible. After a brief dip in the lake to clean off the worst of the mess, Harry stole back into the castle and headed for the first floor again.

"Hello?" he hissed, wondering if the snake had grown bored and slithered off. "Are you still there?"

It was quite late by now, and the corridors were deserted. Harry had never been inside the castle at this time of night. It was eerie.

"I am here." The hiss came above, and Harry tilted his head to look at the ceiling.

"Great," he said. "Come with me."

He started walking, keeping up a running commentary so that the snake could follow him from within the walls.

"Sorry I took so long," Harry said. He wondered if the snake had an easy way of moving between floors. The pipes must go vertically in some places. "So, what brings you to Hogwarts?"

"As I said, I have always been here," the snake hissed. "I have been dormant for many years."

"Wow," Harry said. "Most snakes I know only sleep through winter."

"My master calls me forth," the snake told him. "He tells me when I may hunt."

Harry's forehead furrowed. "That sounds awful," he said sympathetically. "You'll love the forest. No one has a master there. You can hunt whenever you want."

The snake let out a pleased hiss. "I have been so hungry," he confided. "I have not eaten a proper meal since I was last called awake."

"We'll fix that," Harry assured him, leading them down a long corridor. "Get you a nice big deer."

As Harry and the snake travelled down the corridor, Harry spotted a large pile of something at the end of the hall near the trophy cases.

"Hang on a second," he said. "There's something on the ground out here."

It was an older boy in red and gold, and he was frozen stiff. Harry frowned and knelt over the body, trying to figure out what could have caused it.

"It is difficult," the snake said from the other side of the ceiling. "Once they have turned to stone, they do not digest well."

Harry nodded slowly as several pieces of information clicked together in his mind.

"You must be the one everyone's been scared of," Harry said, standing up and dusting off his hands. "Let's get you out of here. They won't be pleased if they realize you've been the one attacking students."

Unsuccessfully, too, Harry thought. Poor thing was a terrible hunter, no wonder he was so hungry. The wizards would kill him if they found out.

Harry took the snake as close to the sewage drain as he could manage while remaining inside the castle. "Now," he said as they lingered together at the end of a corridor. "You'll want to continue heading south, and stay on this level. If you reach a three way fork in the pipes, you've gone too far. I left most of a chicken by the drain, so keep your tongue out for that."

The snake hissed a confirmation, and Harry nodded back, even though he knew the snake wouldn't pick up on it.

"You'll want to make sure to get as far into the forest as possible," Harry continued. "Wizards are often unreasonable when they're afraid, I've found, and they're afraid of you. More importantly, all the best game is in the parts of the forest that the wizards don't go to."

"Thank you, small one," the snake said. "You have been a great help. If we ever meet again, I will devour you quickly."

"Thanks," Harry said with a smile. "That's really kind of you."

Harry could hear the snake's scales shifting as it slithered away in the direction Harry had indicated. He hoped the snake found his way to the forest. Harry might have been wary of crossing paths with him again, but given the choice of a meeting with that snake in the closed confines of the castle or the open forest, Harry knew which one he'd choose.

He'd just have to be more careful from now on, and figure out what kind of snakes could accidentally turn prey into stone while hunting, just in case they met again.

Tea during lunch with Hagrid in the half-giant's pumpkin patch had become a weekly thing, and Harry had just finished telling a funny story about a dwarf he'd met in Dorset when a thought occurred to him.

"Oh, I let a big snake into the forest," Harry said, taking a sip out of his giant tea mug. "I don't know how big, but bigger than you, at least. You should keep an eye out and make sure he's settling in well. Be careful, too, he's a sloppy hunter. I've already told the centaurs."

Hagrid's eyes went wide. "Where would yeh get a snake that size?"

Harry shrugged. "He was in the castle. Said he was hungry. I didn't want to get eaten, and I figured it'd be a big thing if he actually managed to catch himself a student or something. I didn't want the wizards trying to hurt him because he needed to eat, so I let him out."

"When was this?" Hagrid asked.

"Yesterday," Harry said. "Last night, actually."

They finished up their tea with little incident, and it wasn't until Harry and Hagrid were walking back to the castle (Hagrid insisted; something about it not being safe these days) that they realized something was wrong.

"Aragog!" Hagrid bellowed. He rushed toward edge of the forest, where a myriad of enormous spiders had burst from the foliage and were trampling around the grounds in what looked like panic.

"What is wrong with them?" the snake asked from Harry's wrist. Harry shook his head and together they watched, baffled, as several of the acromantula discovered the Quidditch goal posts and engaged in furious battle with them.

Some of the professors had heard the commotion and raced out on the grounds, trying to round up the enormous spiders. Students were watching from the windows, and when a few of the acromantula decided to try to scale the castle walls, the screaming started.

Hagrid was waving his arms at the acromantula, yelling and trying to calm them down. It wasn't really working.

"Hey!" Harry yelled as a spider scurried past, headed for the Quidditch pitch. "What is your problem?"

The spider didn't even pause, and her pincers clacked furiously enough to drown out whatever she yelled. It was probably for the best that she hadn't bothered to pay him much attention, Harry realized. A few of them were really doing a number on the Whomping Willow, and that tree could have taken Harry down easily on a bad day.

Harry felt himself suddenly upended, dangling high above the chaos. He got a firm grip on his bag and looked around.

Sure enough, Snape was nearby, corralling a bevy of terrified spiders into a section of grass, where they crawled over and around each other and even attempted to climb the invisible walls of his magical barrier.

The incensed glare Snape directed at him kept Harry from attempting to interrogate any more spiders.

"That was your fault and you will explain why and how immediately," Snape barked later, back in the headmaster's office. All the acromantula had been rounded up and Hagrid had set to soothing their agitation while the other professors rounded up students and did the same. Snape had waved his wand and taken Harry, still dangling upside down, straight to the headmaster's office.

Harry crossed his arms and slumped down in the puffy chair the headmaster conjured up. It was too soft, though Harry kept his peace. He understood that now was perhaps a time of compromise.

"How is it my fault that the spiders went crazy?" Harry demanded. He wasn't willing to compromise on everything, after all. "I haven't even spoken to an acromantula in weeks, and if the centaurs were plotting something, I certainly wasn't let in on it."

If it had been the centaurs, he and Firenze would be having words. Harry would have appreciated at least a heads-up.

"Hagrid has said the acromantula mentioned a basilisk," the headmaster said, gravely. "Would you have any knowledge of that, Harry?"

"A basilisk? Really?" Harry leaned back and whistled. "I would never have guessed! We thought he was a big python or some magical species of anaconda or something. Now I'm really glad he didn't come looking for us!

"A basilisk!" Harry told the snake, who hissed a faint, horrified sound and curled around Harry's palm more tightly. "It'll be okay, we'll be careful," he said reassuringly, smoothing a hand along the snake's scales.

"Where did you encounter a basilisk?" Snape asked, passing a hand over his eyes. "Of all things, a basilisk, Mr. Potter?"

"Well, he was in the pipes, wasn't he?" Harry explained. "I heard him talking to himself, so I said hello, and then I felt bad for him, so I let him out. I thought I was doing everyone a favour! Now he won't be going after students any more, right? Weren't you all worried about that?"

Snape looked faintly ill.

"We must alert the Ministry," the headmaster said, standing and sweeping over to the fire. "I am certain Higgs and Diggory will have a recommendation. Mr. Potter, I would suggest that you avoid the forest until such a time as it may be rendered relatively safe again."

"Don't go looking for him just to kill him," Harry said, annoyed. "He only wanted to kill some of you because he was hungry. I bet you won't even eat his remains, will you?"

The headmaster appeared to be amused at this comment. "We will not be eating the basilisk, Mr. Potter, no. With luck, he will be removed to a sanctuary in a more suitable area. Scotland is hardly welcoming to a snake of his size and temperament."

Harry crossed his arms and listened in while the headmaster discussed the situation with the head in the fireplace.

"Alive, if possible," the headmaster said, and nodded calmly through the shouting that came of that request.

"Surely the Romanians would be interested."

The man in the fireplace had several choice words to say about the Romanians as well, and the headmaster beamed at them all. Harry noticed wizards didn't get told off for their language.

"Thank you for your understanding and cooperation, Amos," he said cheerfully. "I hope to be welcoming a contingent from your Department by dinner. I understand roast duck is on the menu."

"Harry, you have to stop doing things like that," Draco said the next day in class. Harry bristled.

"Stop doing what? Saving all your sorry arses from danger you're too unobservant to notice?"

"Too unobserv- ! You- ! No!" Draco exclaimed, gesturing a bit wildly. "No. I meant stop causing terrifying public spectacles." He shook his head at Harry and waved his wand methodically over his rabbits, speaking the incantation to turn them into slippers.

Harry had tried incantations back in first year, but found them to be confusing and difficult to pronounce. Wand movements were similarly useless. Usually he just thought about what he wanted, and used his magic to will it into being. If he was feeling dramatic, he might snap his fingers or lift an eyebrow.

With Transfigurations in particular, it was a lot easier for Harry to figure out a spell if he knew the theory behind the change. So while Draco waved his wand and said words at his rabbits, Harry thought about turning them inanimate, the way they had with the beetles, and gutting them to make room for a foot.

He also thought about terrifying public spectacles. His rabbits ended up looking rather gruesome, as a result.

"So you would have me keep quiet about potential danger so that I don't scare the wizards?" Harry asked, curious. "I mean, I guess that's fine, as long as I'm allowed to protect myself?"

"No, of course not!" Draco's slippers looked slightly less like botched taxidermy than Harry's did. Harry prodded at them thoughtfully and gave his another go. "All I'm saying is that if you can avoid causing acromantula attacks in the future, that'd be really lovely."

"It wasn't my fault," Harry maintained. "All the stories I've heard about basilisks and acromantula are more obscene than educational, I think. How was I to know?"

When class ended, the two of them left on their own. Despite Draco's objections to his method, the crowds in the castle were on their way to being more relaxed. Certainly, news had spread that Harry had gotten rid of the monster that had been attacking people. The acromantula had been pinned on him as well.

It was great for business. Harry was running a hot trade in amulets, rare ingredients, and contraband. He was barely able to keep up with demand these days.

"Oh," Harry remembered. "Tell Vince and Greg I need that carton of firewhiskey moved to the cupboard in the west wing of the third floor by tomorrow night. They'll know which one you mean."

Draco huffed. "You really have stolen them from me, haven't you?"

"Of course not," Harry said reassuringly. "They're under orders to give you a percentage of whatever they happen to skim off the top. And they're your minions whenever they aren't running an errand for me."

It was lunchtime, so Draco went to eat while Harry headed back to the forest. He and one of the young centaurs, Ruta, were going to spend Harry's break at a stream near the centaurs' territory.

"What are you doing tonight?" Harry asked, gliding through the branches of an fruit tree. He plucked a few of the larger specimen and tossed one down to Ruta.

"We're going to learn how to burn sage properly," Ruta said, catching her apple and smiling at Harry. "And so tell the future."

"What's in my future?" Harry asked, swinging down from the tree with the rest of his cache tucked safely away in his bag. "Do you think we'll convince Magorian to let me join archery practice soon?"

Ruta laughed and tossed the half eaten apple at Harry. "You're lucky Magorian lets you even visit centaur territory while you're still going to the wizard school."

Harry wrinkled his nose. "He does hate them," he agreed. "It's really inconvenient."

"The only reason he tolerates you is because you sent that snake into the other side of the forest, instead of aiming it right at us."

"I would never!" Harry said, making a face. "I know better than all that. You lot would have killed the snake, and then killed me. It would've been a bloodbath."

Ruta paused at the edge of the stream and kicked a splash of water at Harry. "Many lives would have been lost," she agreed. "I thank you for avoiding it."

Harry shrugged, dropped his bag at the edge of the water, and drew a line in the dirt. The snake slithered out to watch as Harry and Ruta dammed up a section of the stream until a pool formed that was large enough to delay the tiny fish and frogs that had previously been travelling down it until they spilled over and continued on their way. Harry was hoping to pull a crayfish, but it was enough to just keep an eye out and hope for a decent catch, whatever came along.

Ruta and Harry splashed around in a desultory sort of mood, chatting about nothing and occasionally divvying up their spoils. When the shadows crossed his dirt line, the two said their goodbyes and Harry set off for the castle in a cheerful mood, flash frying a couple fish in his palm and feeding one to the snake.

Harry passed an adult wizard where the trees started to thin out. The man was clutching one arm and had a telltale gash along that side of his face. It was this and the reflective glasses that made Harry realise that this must be one of the wizards searching for the basilisk.

"You'll want to be careful to the west," Harry called. The wizard, who was using a path about thirty feet to the left of Harry's, jerked badly and whipped his wand out. Harry dropped into a crouch and continued. "The tentacula there have a longer reach than you'd expect from their size. And the nifflers only look like nifflers. They're actually kelpie."

The wizard peered at him suspiciously. He seemed to recognise Harry, but hadn't lowered his wand yet. Harry stood and tilted his head, content to allow the man time to speak, but once Harry was on his feet, the wizard lowered his wand and hurried off without a word. Harry thought about calling out a bit of advice about the snares as well, but he'd be telling a wizard, and a rude one at that. He'd said enough.

Later that week, Harry was minding his own business in a tree near the Whomping Willow, chatting with the snake about an infestation of flesh eating slugs in Hagrid's cabbage patch. The snake wanted to be assigned to eat them, but Harry wasn't so sure. He'd never met a flesh eating slug before, but from what Hagrid said, they sounded large and fierce.

"I am large and fierce as well," the snake pointed out. Harry snorted.

"You are no longer than my arm," he said, dangling the snake in the air to compare. "And no thicker than my wrist."

"You are also large and fierce," the snake muttered, embarrassed. Harry grinned. He'd gotten taller in the past few years, true. But he was still only half an inch taller than Draco, if not quite so skinny.

"Thank you," Harry said. "But-"

"There you are, Potter!"

Harry frowned and looked down at the ground. A tall boy was standing at the foot of the tree, wearing long green robes and padding. Harry recognised him vaguely as one of the sixth years who recently pooled their funds to afford his carton of firewhiskey.

"What do you want?" he asked, laying down along the branch to see the boy better. His arms and legs dangled and the snake wound through them, hissing about rude humans and manners and how he was large and fierce enough to teach this boy a lesson. Harry smirked and tried not to let it show.

"We want you to try out for the Quidditch team," the tall boy said, crossing his arms. "Flint saw you flying the other day and he thinks you're Slytherin enough to join us."

This was a strange development. "Why?"

The tall boy blinked. "Because... we want to win, and you're good."

A slow smile started on Harry's face. "Quidditch is that game you all play, with the brooms and the balls and the goalposts, right?"

"Right." The tall boy nodded. "We'll have a tryout for you on Tuesday-"

"Oh." Harry yawned and sat up again. He wasn't that interested. "No thanks, then."

"What? Wait, why not?"

"It sounds boring."

The tall boy sputtered and glared. "But... look, come down here and I'll tell you all about it. It's not boring."

"Which one are you, anyway?" Harry asked. He watched the boy crane his neck to try and see more than the bottom of Harry's feet, but he didn't feel like helping. The more he thought about it, the more it sounded like just another obligation to the wizards. He wasn't really interested at all.

"I'm Graham Montague," the tall boy said.

"Yes, but which one are you?" Harry repeated, rolling his eyes. Wizards and their names.

"I'm a Chaser?"

"So you're not the captain or anything," Harry helped impatiently. The tall boy shook his head.

"Er, no?"

"Then what are you doing asking me?"

The tall boy looked offended. "How d'you mean?"

"Is it your job or something? Recruiting?"

The tall boy flushed. "I, er. I drew the short quill."

"I'm not interested," Harry told him. "Thanks though."

The Quidditch people didn't take 'no' for an answer, which was something Harry discovered the very next day.

"Potter, as captain, I'm prepared to offer you a guaranteed spot on the Slytherin Quidditch team," an older boy said to him after breakfast. Draco was standing on his other side, gaping. "We'll even get you your own broom."

"I already have a broom," Harry said with a shrug. "Draco gave it to me."

Draco leaned away from the expression on the older boy's face, and glared at Harry. "I'm sure their broom is much nicer, Harry," he suggested pointedly.

"Doesn't need to be nice. It just needs to work. And it does."

He stepped onto a moving staircase just as it was leaving. Draco, who was used to Harry, managed to follow, but the older boy was left scowling after them.

"Potter, come join the Slytherin Quidditch team." This demand came from another brawny older boy, this time carrying a bat. "We all saw that Woollongong Shimmy you pulled off the other day over the lake. You're bloody good."

Harry actually stopped walking and craned his neck to stare down at the other boy where he stood, looking up at Harry and ignoring the crowd knocking his shoulders as they pushed past. "The what I did the other day? Were those words? Go away."

The boy grinned and hefted his bat. "Come on, give us a try."

Harry just shook his head and kept walking.

"Potter! Hey, Potter!"

Harry, who was already incredibly irritated with the Quidditch people, seriously considered giving this one fire-boils. He'd been trailing the Granger girl, trying to figure out a way to get her to agree to let him come to S.P.E.W. meetings. She'd been very stubborn so far, but Harry was only alive because he was more stubborn than everything that had tried to kill him over the years.

He would defeat the Granger girl like he had defeated a gang of bowtruckles he'd once stumbled upon: by hacking at their claws and throwing woodlice in their faces. Flitwick had explained to him about human metaphors, and he was doing very well with the whole concept. Snakes had them, too, so it wasn't very difficult.

Right now, though, the Quidditch people had ruined his chances of learning the location of her meetings. When this prat called his name, the Granger girl's eyes widened and she stared around the corridor until she spotted him, standing half behind a suit of armour and glaring irritably at the new arrival.

"What do you want?" he demanded of the boy. "I am busy with my friend, here."

"I'm not your friend!" the Granger girl protested. "You're barmy and you're stalking me! Leave me alone!"

"I'm not stalking anyone!" Harry lied. He was actually stalking several people this week, including the red twins and a sixth year girl who owed him five galleons and her Potion O.W.L. revision notes. Potions notes in particular were in high demand by fifth years around exam time, which was only a couple months away. "I'm only trying to help you, I don't see why you can't understand that."

"You are the exact opposite of help," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "Did you know that all the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs think I've started a Harry Potter fan club? It's awful!"

"Have you got any new members?" Harry asked with interest. She scowled at him.

"Four," she said. "But that's not the point!"

"That's great! It won't just be you, me and Dobby at the meetings anymore!" Harry beamed. "Now if you'll only tell me where you've moved them to, I can give a speech on what it's like to be a free elf, and all your new members will-"

"Augh, no!" The Granger girl stomped her foot and stormed off down the corridor, seething.

Harry turned and glared at the boy, whose eyebrows were practically at his hairline. "Look what you've done now."

"Me?"

"Yes. She was perfectly happy before you showed up."

The burly boy blinked down at Harry. "As far as I can tell, mate, she didn't know you were there before I showed up."

Harry huffed. "And? Your point?"

"Whatever." The burly boy shook his head and got down to business. "Flint wants you on the team. And we're prepared to make a deal."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

A list materialised in the burly boy's hands, and he started reading.

"If you come and tryout, we'll stop harassing you for one." The burly boy grinned at Harry, who did not smile back. "If you join, you'll get a new broom."

"Heard that one already," Harry said. The burly boy nodded and continued reading.

"And finally, if you join, we won't bring up your refusal to Professor Snape." He looked up as though this was a trump card. Harry stared at him. That grin was definitely more of a smirk. The bastard.

"Fine," he said. "I'll think about it. But you have to stop harassing me now."

The burly boy rolled up his parchment and nodded to Harry as though they'd done a good bit of business. Harry didn't feel that it was out of line to attach a mild but powerful engorgement charm to his nose and ears. They were already big. It might take awhile for anyone to even notice.