The Quidditch season had finally begun, and chaos began. All the teams were being trained harder than before, Marcus had become ruthless up at obscenely early hours, out extremely late. Everywhere they looked people were talking about the upcoming match, the coming Saturday would be the first game; Slytherin vs Gryffindor. The tension had gone up between the two houses, Henry Potter and Ronald Weasley had started proclaiming loudly that Slytherin didn't stand a chance, or if they won it would be because they cheated. Harry was just grateful they had managed to keep his making the team a secret, it was things like this that made him happy to be a Slytherin. Everyone in Slytherin knew he had made the team, but only a few trusted outside of Slytherin knew, mostly Ravenclaws who were dating Slytherins as they were the only house who weren't scared to death of them. The training sessions had gotten so brutal to the team that Harry couldn't be luckier that his sister was Hermione, or that she was happy to help, he wouldn't of been able to finish all his homework without her help. She had also bought him Quidditch Through the Ages, through owl order catalogues as a congratulations present. Which turned out to be a very interesting read, he truly enjoyed reading it again and again with the Draco, Blaise and Theo.

Harry learned things that he hadn't known before, even things the boys on the quidditch team didn't know, they knew that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul but had no idea that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; he already knew that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, but hadn't known that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them, which scared him more than he would admit to anyone other than Hermione; and that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert, although that fact made him laugh despite his fear of playing a real game for the first time. He knew it would be way more different and brutal than the games he had played with his friends growing up, same balls and rules but smaller field and training Snitch and training Bludgers which were soft at his Mother's insistence.

Harry was excited to play a real game of quidditch finally, the only downside of it being Quidditch season was it had also moved into winter, a cold winter as well. Harry's quidditch gear had been modified by Severus at his Father's insistence. Because of the abuse at the hands of the Dursley's and the neglect at the orphanage, Harry had extremely sick, both of the twins had been sick but for some reason Harry had suffered more. His immune system was almost non existent, it had gotten so bad at one point that his Father had placed wards and charms around Riddle Manor so that the grounds never saw winter and it was constantly summer. Even now he needed to be warm, so his clothes were all thick and charmed to stay warm. The temperature had dropped quickly as they moved into November, it was worst cold Harry had ever experienced. His lips had taken on a permanent purplish blue hue. But he couldn't bring himself to care, for the first time in his life Harry was seeing mountains covered gray snow and ice, and a beautiful pale blue lake the edges of which were softly frozen. Every morning the ground was covered in frost, ice hanging from the bare trees. Bundled up in a long green muggle woolen male cardigan, with a expensive overcoat that was mink fur on the inside and silver scaled dragon hide leather on the outside. Black rabbit fur gloves, and enormous boots, the inside made of Hippogriff feathers, outside the same silver scaled dragon hide, and all charmed with heating charms, Harry was finally able to walk with his friends without his entire body turning blue and enjoy the castle covered in snow.

The day before Harry's first Quidditch match the eight of them were out in the freezing courtyard during break, Harry wearing more clothes than anyone, Hermione keeping an eye on her brother so she could move him inside before he got too blue. But she couldn't deny him this as he loved being outside, as added protection Hermione and Theo had conjured them up a bright blue fire that could be carried around in a jam jar, one for each of them. They were standing with their hands over them trying to keep warm, when James Potter crossed the yard arguing with an old worn man, he looked the same age as Potter but he seemed tired, worn down, sickly, and more than anything sad.

Harry noticed at once that he looked overly familiar but couldn't place him, unfortunately they had obviously cast a silencing spell because as they got closer it became clear they were yelling but no sound could be heard. Harry, Draco, Theo and Blaise moved closer together to block the fires from view; they knew it wasn't strictly against the rules but James Potter had been using any excuse to throw them into detention and take house points since they had arrived at Hogwarts all because they got sorted into Slytherin. Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Potter's eye. He made a beeline for them, his face screwed up in anger. It was apparent, that the other man had upset him and now they would take the brunt of his frustration. He hadn't seen the fire, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them off anyway and make them suffer.

"What's that you've got there, Riddle?" Potter snarled it was his new copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, shrugging Harry showed him.
"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," said Potter sounding gleeful at having found an excuse.

"Give it to me. Five points from Slytherin"

"James?" the second man sighed in clear disappointment, at what Harry wasn't sure as this man didn't know him, he was just a dirty snake, son of the evil Dark Lord to almost everyone, save a few.

"Shut it Remus" Potter snapped turning around and stalking back to the castle
"He's just made that rule up," Hermione muttered angrily as she glared at the retreating ex Gryffindors back.

"Wonder what's going on between those two" Draco questioned.
"Dunno, but I hope that Remus dude really ends up hurting him for us" said Harry bitterly with a sadistic gleam in his eyes.

"Whatever it is seeing him with his wand cursed that tight makes it worth it" Blaise laughed.

"Yeah except when he takes it out on us" Daphne complained.

"Do you guys know him or find him familiar?" Harry asked his head tilted to the left.

"Nope" Theo shook his head.

"Nothing I can recall" Pansy stated.

"Potter called him Remus right?" Hermione asked getting 7 heads nodding in return.

"Father spoke of him before, Remus Lupin, Gryffindor, Best friends with James Potter and Sirius Black. Also a known werewolf"

"How do you know that?" Harry asked.

"Peter Pettigrew told Father. In one of his lucid moments, I don't think he will ever be normal again after what the so called Light and good did to him." she said scathingly.

"They were all a few years older than Mother in school as well, famous pranksters, called themselves the marauders" she said rolling her eyes.

"He is the reason Potter, Black, and Pettigrew became illegal Animagi, to join him on the full moon" Hermione continued, with Harry listening on to every word.

"If they are best friends since their days in Hogwarts, why are they fighting so badly now?" Harry questioned.

"Who knows?" Hermione shrugged.

Harry watched as Lupin and Potter walked into the castle clearly still fighting, he hadn't admitted it in front of his friends, but he had vague memories of before the Dursley's. He remembered a man with kind amber eyes and a man with laughing grey eyes. He remembered how they would sneak up to the attic to feed him when his 'parents' forgot. His chest felt tight, he didn't like it, he couldn't understand why it still upset him or why he would miss them it's not like he truly remembers them properly. When his friends started to pack up to move to the common room, he was grateful for the distraction and followed happily joined in the conversation.

The Slytherin common room was the loudest it had been all year that evening, it was strange, the common room was never quiet or silent, and was usually full and busy but you hadn't needed to yell to be heard before. It seemed it wasn't just the quidditch team who was riled up and ready for the game. Harry and Draco were playing chess together, to keep his mind off the match. Hermione was reading whilst Luna alternated between painting her own nails and Hermione's toes. Blaise and Theo sat together next to a window checking over everyone's Charms homework for them. Harry had already proofed everyone's Defence, Draco had had checked Astronomy, and together they had read over the Potions essays. None of them actually copied work, their parents had always drilled them to not cheat, "how will you learn?" but by each reading through their best classes they never missed anything important or got it wrong. Talk of the quidditch game was heard in every corner of Slytherin, everyone was convinced they would win with Harry as Seeker.

"You ready for tomorrow?" Adrian asked sitting next to Harry.

"You going to get us that win?" Graham asked laughing sitting on Harry's other side, Harry just smiled nervously in response. He was truly excited for his first match, but the nerves were winning, he didn't want to let his team down.

"You will do fine, we've been training hard and I know you can do it" Marcus said as he sat down next to Draco looking at Harry. The confidence Marcus had in him, it was remarkable, he felt relieved and more confident. He would prove he deserved to be on the team.