"C'mon, workaholics," Oliver chastised, leaning against the wall of the spare classroom we'd camped out in all Friday evening as it crept ever closer to curfew. "Just let it go for the weekend. Hogsmeade! While it's still reasonably warm outside! You need t'get some good sleep and then come back to it fresh next week." The late-September field trip weekend had actually fallen on what looked to be a pair of sunny days.

"Look at who's all relaxed now that he's finally got a seeker," Penny snarked.

"Percy! That's a house secret!" Oliver objected.

"Please," my other roommate disagreed. "She figured it out herself, and you just confirmed it."

"How's your mom taking it?" I asked.

Percy explained, "From her letters, she exists in a frantic superposition between sheer ecstasy that her daughter is the youngest seeker in a century and utter anxiety about the dangers of racing around on brooms with live bludgers."

"So about what you expected?" I grinned.

"Indeed."

Penny thought about it and grinned, "I don't suppose there are three more Weasleys that can play chaser about to enter school, are there? Once Oliver graduates there's already going to be more Weasleys than non-Weasleys on the Gryffindor team."

"Fortunately, no," Percy smiled. "Not even close cousins. Can you imagine how loud things would be at home with three more kids running around?"

"How's Katie taking the switch?" I asked Oliver.

"She's thrilled she isna the seeker anymore, but worried she won't do well as chaser and she'll get cut entirely," he frowned. "They didna tell me how much of team captain'd be managin' the insecurities of teen girls."

Penny snorted, choosing to be amused rather than offended, and ventured, "Could be worse. You could be a prefect. I'll trade you my two dozen for your four." I started to ask and she immediately answered, "Luna's doing fine, Harry. In fact, she and Lindquist hit it off this week bothering the ghosts. They're trying to get more people to go to Nearly-Headless Nick's deathday party next month."

"Good," I nodded, then answering Oliver's earlier complaint, "I think we're so close, though. Won't help to take the weekend if we aren't sure what's going wrong with the spell."

"Fine," the obsessive keeper allowed, hardly hypocritical enough to object strenuously about others working too hard on something. He pushed back off the wall and moved to look at our diagrams. "Explain it t'me again, and maybe one of you lot of big brains will notice somethin'."

Percy and I nodded to Penny to take the lead, so she explained, "The arithmancy all checks out. We got Professor Vector to confirm. We're calling it the 'libertas' charm since it ought to free people from mental influence and maybe even counter the imperius. Incantation worked out to Libero. That also fits the necessary arithmancy. Could be an issue with the wand movements because those are more subject to intuition than anything…" she trailed off, thinking.

I shook my head, "But I made a ritual diagram that should fit the matrix exactly, and that didn't seem to work either."

"What if we need to think happy thoughts?" Penny said, popping from her short thought process.

"Soul magic, of course!" Percy agreed. "Libero!" he tried, making the wand gesture. I wasn't going to be able to contribute much practically until I had a focus. Turned out the reason my mother's necklace worked with the patronus was that the interface factors were similar to light spells. We'd had to use a different interface for the libertas. "That felt different," Percy frowned, "but still failed. I used the same memory I use for the patronus."

Possibly owing to the growth of their relationship over the summer, Percy and Penny had both finally managed fully corporeal patronus spells in the last month. To my great amusement, Percy's was a big-nosed bird that he insisted was an augurey but which reminded me a lot of the officious parrot in the Kimba cartoon. Penny's was an eagle, but, in the monochrome silver of the charm, we weren't sure exactly what kind.

"What if t'isn't happy thoughts?" Oliver asked. "I've always heard you can only cast the killin' curse at someone you hate, yeah? But fiendfyre doesn't require hate?"

"Fear, I think," I admitted, nodding. "Maybe panic. I only tried it the one time, when Voldemort was trying to possess me, but I don't think hate was at the top of my list."

Penny sank down in her chair in frustration. "This could take forever."

"Why? How many positive emotions could there be?" Oliver asked.

"But you probably have to feel it deeply, like with the patronus," she explained. "It'll be hard to tell if we've picked the wrong emotion or we just don't have a strong enough trigger for it."

Oliver clapped his hands together with a grin, "Still, though, progress and we're not going t'figure it out tonight, yeah? Bedtime! Hogsmeade bright and early!" With grumbling agreement, we packed up and made our way back to the Gryffindor dorms. As Oliver, Percy, and I were climbing the last set of stairs to the dorm, Oliver spoke up again and suggested, "Alright, gentlemen, tomorrow: picnic lunch with our witches."

"I don't have a–" I began.

"Harry," Oliver interrupted, stepping off onto the landing before the staircase moved. "With all respect, get your head out of your arse." Seeing he had my attention, he continued, "We're not sayin' you haveta ask the girl t'marry you. But Percy and I like her," Percy nodded. "Penny and Lexi like her. You like her. Stop feelin' sorry for yourself and invite the poor girl t'Hogsmeade."

"Fine," I grumbled, probably because I was a petulant teenager really set on making myself miserable about my presumed-dead ex-girlfriend, Elaine. I guessed I could admit that, if any of my friends were in a similar situation, I'd be giving them the same advice Oliver was giving me.

As we entered the common room, not unlike a man heading to the gallows, I dragged my feet and finally did some thinking about my issues. Mathilda was pretty, we got along, we had shared interests, and we'd managed to work together well in a crisis. But she wasn't Elaine. And there was a part of my brain that was still holding out hope that Elaine somehow got out of the house, would someday find me, and would have a good explanation and apology. There was another part that believed I'd killed Elaine, and thus did not deserve to ever be in a relationship again.

But maybe it was time to stop letting those anxieties drive my life.

I spotted Mathilda across the common room playing chess with Ron. She was losing, but the two were having an animated discussion about something else. Ron was explaining, "...if Gudgeon can improve a little, I think they can go to 8th or even 7th this season."

Mathilda shook her head, moving a pawn, and opined, "He's just too new as seeker! Chaser game, that's where they should focus! He needs a few more years. Anyway, you can't forget the fundamentals! Too many teams think they're going to win on the snitch."

Ron nodded, moving a knight into position and declaring, "I'd be good with that, too. I'm just really thinking that this is the year for another Cannonball Run, you know? Check, by the way."

"You know that name was based on a muggle movie?" she asked. "I wonder if the team even knows that's why they call their winning streaks that." She agonized over the board for a moment before taking Ron's knight with her bishop.

"Really? Harry, do you know about that?" Ron asked, noticing that I'd moved over to watch them play and eavesdrop. He moved his queen into position and noted, "Check and mate."

"Yeah, came out about a decade ago, I think," I told him. "We could probably find it on video and watch it at Remus' over the break. Supposed to be good. Burt Reynolds is in it. No quidditch, though, obviously, just cars. But similarly fast paced."

"Harry, are you inviting us to come visit over Yule?" Mathilda asked me, quirking an eyebrow.

I shrugged, "If Remus is okay with it and the schedule works, sure." She brightened, as Ron started putting away the chess pieces. Not one to miss the natural segue, I plucked up my courage and said, "But, sooner invitation: Do you want to join me for a picnic tomorrow? Will be us, Oliver and Alexis, and Penny and Percy."

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Ron start to talk, probably to explain he couldn't go to Hogsmeade yet, but then he realized I was only talking to Mathilda and closed his mouth. She gave a cute little twitch as if she was trying to play it cool, then lost the war with her facial muscles and grinned broadly, "Love to!"

"Cool. I guess we're heading into town after breakfast," I nodded, running out of suave. "See you in the morning!"

"Goodnight!" she said, as I beat a hasty retreat up to my room.

The next morning, as we were finishing up breakfast, I asked, "So… is a picnic outside of Hogsmeade safe?"

"Uncle Abraham's team is doing a sweep this morning," Mathilda nodded, and it looked like several of the others were also reassured by the news. "But they haven't had any trouble there since the wargs."

"I never did hear the full story about those," Alexis said. The dark-haired prefect had an almost entirely English accent, though I'd eventually found out she'd been born in France. She was a half-blood, and her family had immigrated back to England when she was little, after the war.

The fight with Greyback and the wargs, thus, became the topic of conversation for the ride down to the town. I tried not to be self-conscious about how cute everyone found it that Mathilda and I effortlessly traded off the storytelling.

Wandering around town shopping was very coupley, and I tried not to freak when Mathilda grabbed my hand to walk together several times. The picnic was nice. Oliver had arranged for a basket of food from the kitchens, Percy handled the blankets for seating on a hill outside of town, and I brought some Cokes and other snacks from my muggle stash which seemed appreciated. The conversation was light, we were all having a good time, and if everyone gradually shifted into three piles of one girl reclining on one boy, it was only natural. It was, in fact, kind of nice.

Through some unspoken signal, Oliver gathered back up the food baskets, Percy picked up the blankets, I vanished the trash, and we were all moving on slightly different paths, on separate romantic strolls. Even with the nice day for northern Scotland, it had gotten a little chilly and at some point I'd wound up with an arm around Mathilda as we walked.

"You know it's not actually haunted?" I noted, absently, as we came within sight of the Shrieking Shack on the outskirts of town. "That's just a rumor to keep people away from it. The twins say there's a secret passage from school into the shack, if you can get past the willow." Remus had given me more of his school backstory over the summer, and explained that was where he'd transform every month before Professor Belby invented the wolfsbane potion he used now. It had come up when he explained why I wasn't supposed to go near the baby willow tree he'd planted in his backyard.

"That's neat!" she agreed. "I wonder what it's like inside? Surprised more people don't use it as a makeout space." That last was a very pointed segue.

I took a breath and began, "You know I like you, right? But I still don't know if…" I trailed off.

"Are you just going with the flow, here?" she asked. "Is this all chivalry?"

"No," I assured her. "I enjoy this. But I can't make promises about anything more."

"Because you're not over your ex," she nodded. "I get it. I'm not looking for a commitment, Harry. It's okay if you don't even want to be my boyfriend. I have career plans! I'm not trying to tie you down. Merlin, I may better deal you as soon as I'm out of Hogwarts."

I snorted. "You should. You could do way better." I said the last joking, but asked, "So you don't mind if I'm emotionally unavailable?"

"I mean, I'd prefer if you weren't. But I can't say you haven't warned me for seven months." She stopped walking and turned me to look down at her. "Harry. I like you. I don't love you. You like me. You don't love me. But there's nobody I like more."

"Same," I admitted.

Humor vied with vulnerability in her eyes. "Then stop overthinking things and let's snog?"

"Yes, ma'am," I told her.

So we did. I didn't totally buy that she wasn't invested. I still kind of felt like I was using her. But it had been over a year since I'd had that kind of contact, and it felt long overdue. It felt so good to just be wrapped up in another, compatible person.

Of course, with my luck, it was only about a minute into making out when the yelling and spellfire started.