Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

The Easter holidays had finally rolled around, after a particularly long and gruelling term. The change to the curriculum had seemed to encourage the teachers that the students were prepared for an increased workload. It wasn't even that they were just setting more essays, but that three foot essays were exchanged for five foot long ones about Goblin Rebellions, cheering charms or a particularly difficult potions essay on shrinking solutions.

But it did come, just as Harry was near the point of wanting to breakdown and curl up into blankets with a hot chocolate - just in time. The school year was hard enough on it's own, it was harder when you added the stress of Sirius Black.

Since that fateful February night Harry had been in a constant state of nerves and paranoia. A creaky floorboard in the night - Sirius Black. A shadow walking near the Forbidden Forest - Black. Even a bloody black dog had given Harry the creeps. Harry didn't even dislike dogs, in fact, he'd even call himself a dog person, primarily because of the snippets of memories he had from visiting a lady in the neighbourhood whenever the Dursley's wanted to go somewhere fancy, or it was Dudley's birthday.

Fizz... Figg. Mrs Figg. That was her name. Hours upon hours were spent at her house with her hundred cats going through photo albums of the same cats that were nipping at Harry's toes, or kneading on his thigh. That had been enough to make him a dog person by default.

But this particular dog... It was huge. What was even weirder was that Harry was pretty sure he had seen it walking around next to a ginger cat - as though a cat and dog getting along didn't go against the very rules of nature.

Ever since the mass-murderer had appeared at Hogwarts Harry had stopped his visits to Hogsmeade, luckily there had only been one between February and the Easter holidays, and he'd easily been able to feign an illness, to avoid explaining to Terry his real reasons were his fear that Black would want to kill him - that would be a long, and hard story to explain.

Whispers still circulated the castle walls, but no one could figure out why. Why Black had even come to Hogwarts. What his agenda was in the first place. Why he had been anywhere near the castle instead of staying in a small, rural, muggle area where he'd be less likely to be identified - or where, if he was identified, he'd be able to easily conquer his opponent with the advantage of magic.

The news outlets suggested that he was insane, that he didn't fully understand that Harry Potter was dead and was still after him to try and finish his master's job. Others speculated that he was out to kill Dumbledore himself, indicating that, as the old man was the one person Voldemort feared, Black was trying to destroy him as some form of retribution for his part in the resistance against Voldemort.

Harry knew better - or perhaps it was just his paranoia kicking in. He had this indescribable feeling that somehow Black had figured out who he was, and that he was coming to kill him, to complete the set, avenge his master.

So he'd stopped visiting Hogsmeade. It was likely a useless endeavour, Black clearly knew how to get past the wards, past the patrolling teachers, and more importantly, past the dementors. Those beasts who had already endangered Harry's life hadn't even stopped the criminal they were there to protect the students from in the first place.

The one reason Harry was alive was because Black seemed to believe he was a Gryffindor. Harry was terrified of how Black had found out he was alive. Whether it was insanity or ingenuity though... That was the question.

Whether Black was mad, and in that state he ignored the declarations from the ministry and from the prophet... or whether he knew Harry was actually alive. The theory of Black's insanity was less scary than if he truly knew... because if he did truly know that Harry was alive, then that meant there was a way for anyone to find out, for anyone to know. It meant his identity could be revealed at any second...

"Exams are ages away." Anthony moaned. "Why on Merlin's beard are they setting so much homework?" He asked, returning to the table with a tower of books in his arms.

"I don't know." Terry shook his head from within his Transfiguration textbook.

"They should either be giving us time for revision, or just letting us relax. We're third years... It can't be this important." Anthony continued, angrily tossing his quill to the side.

Harry grinned. It was at moments like this that he was pleased he'd only chosen two additional subjects. Well, in theory, he had three, but Madam Hooch didn't exactly set essays on flying techniques - though she had tried to trick Harry and Malfoy into think they'd have to do an exam. Only to laugh it off a few seconds later, much to their combined relief.

"Hey." Blaise sat down at the desk, with a weary look in his eyes. It was only ten o'clock in the morning yet he looked as though he needed a good nights sleep. Tracey and Daphne who had accompanied him didn't look that much better.

"Blaise." Terry greeted, barely looking up.

"Nice to see you too, Boot." Daphne snarked. "And you wonder why we prefer the others."

"We have names you know." Harry retorted with a grin, as Terry waved her off, his eyes still scanning the pages of his book intensely. He'd found himself oddly surprised to like Daphne as much as he did. He liked her sense of humour, and especially liked when she'd go on little rants about Malfoy.

"I know." She rolled her eyes. "I just don't want to waste time learning them." She tried to keep a straight face but on seeing Harry's laugh she cracked. "Not working, Reynolds?" She asked, seeing his empty desk in front of him.

"I've done all my work for the holidays."

"Shove off." Terry replied, stretching out a strong arm and pushing him off his chair without even raising his eyes. The others laughed as Harry sprawled about on the floor.

"You didn't have to take three subjects." Harry replied as he sat back on his seat, moving it to put a little more distance between himself and Terry this time.

"What self-respecting Ravenclaw only takes two subjects?" Terry finally turned his head with a teasing quirk of his eyebrow.

Harry laughed. "I'd say it's more Ravenclaw to choose to do two than die doing three. Besides, I choose the only respectable subjects offered here, trust me, if they'd offered something actually interesting like alchemy I'd have jumped at the chance to do it, but there's no way I'd drown in homework for the likes of muggle studies or divination."

"Nothing wrong with muggle studies," Terry grumbled under his breath and Daphne nodded. She was one of the rare Slytherins who was taking the course, her and Theodore Nott - probably Harry's least favourite third year. He was like Draco Malfoy but without any moral compass or regrets.

"There is, if you live with muggles and already know everything. Still can't believe Granger's taking it."

"I'm pretty sure Granger's taking everything," Daphne piped up.

"I think if Granger was taking everything she'd have literally been suffocated by all of the essays she'd have to be writing. It's surely impossible." Harry replied and Daphne shrugged.

"Care of Magical Creatures isn't that bad - I actually really like it." Anthony interjected.

"That professor of yours seems a bit mad though." Harry's mind cast back to that damned book. At least they knew how to control it now - stroke its spine... just your everyday magical, maniacal textbook.

"Yeah. Doesn't mean he's not a good teacher." Anthony replied, his voice muffled as he bit on the top of his quill.

"Fair enough." Harry replied honestly. He still didn't regret not doing the subject. He equally questioned how much magical application there was in the class - sure, there were magical creatures, but you didn't actually need to have any magical ability to handle them, just thick gloves and quick reflexes.

It brought him back to the curious firstie who had spent his first day pouring over potions textbooks to see if there was any actual magical application necessary. As he now knew, there wasn't - in fact one of the first things Snape had said in their lesson was 'there will be no foolish wand-waving in this classroom'. Muggle studies equally didn't need wands, nor did herbology. Harry was increasingly curious at how necessary magical ability was to survive in the wizarding world, he'd heard about how squibs got shunned by society, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why.

These thoughts tended to be reserved for the night-time, however, when his head was crashed on the pillow and his eyes were shut, but he couldn't get to sleep, because he'd hear that creaking floorboard and remember that Black was out there, looking for him - looking to kill him.

He equally didn't have the same energy he did as a first year. He didn't have either the time to be doing extra-curricular studies. Even though his workload was considerably lower than the other students, he still had a lot going on, primarily with Quidditch.

Grant Page wasn't nearly as manic a captain as Chester Davies - and Chester Davies still had nothing on Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor captain. But the entire team was extremely diligent in their training, they wanted, needed to win the cup this year.

That meant not only extreme weather training, long hours practicing drills and routines, but also finding an empty classroom and discussing tactics. Grant would normally let Roger take the lead on this - not only was Grant preoccupied with his NEWTS, Roger was always eager to take the lead, proud of his role as deputy captain. He wasn't yet as good a chaser as his older brother, but he was still an amazing tactician, and had read more quidditch books than Harry knew existed. He was the clear captain for when Grant left next year.

There were only two matches left for the season. Slytherin and Gryffindor which would be played the first weekend back. Then Ravenclaw vs Hufflepuff which would be played the following weekend.

Currently Ravenclaw had won their two matches - including a thrilling win over Slytherin which Harry tried very hard to not boast about too much in his flying lessons with Malfoy. The match had happened two weeks before the Easter holidays, and the Slytherin chasers - a combined trio of Marcus Flint, Graham Montague (Cameron's brother) and Cassius Warrington - had begun to take the lead.

Then Harry had seen the snitch, as the Slytherins led by forty points. Realising that Malfoy wasn't far enough away, and he'd be able to catch up easily on his superior broom, Harry had to feint going one way, before sharply turning towards the snitch, successfully tricking Malfoy and winning the match for the 'Claws.

(Cameron had been very happy about that one - apparently he'd bet his brother five galleons on a Ravenclaw win.)

Slytherin had won their other match against Hufflepuff, Malfoy using the pace of his broom to outmatch Cedric Diggory (who was, to be honest, a better seeker than the blonde), whilst Hufflepuff had beaten Gryffindor, meaning the two teams were on equal footing.

Only Gryffindor was no longer in the race, having not won a single match this season yet.

Ravenclaw were currently in the lead, but if Slytherin beat Gryffindor (which due to the red and golds lack of seeker they probably would) then Slytherin and Ravenclaw would be equal, and the 'Claws would be forced into a dog fight with the Hufflepuffs, who were just as eager to break their losing streak. It had been six years since Ravenclaw had last won the cup, but for the 'Puffs it had been almost double that. They were equally hungry for the success, which meant their match would be particularly hard.

Harry was almost pissed at how nice the weather was today. He'd been forced to play in ridiculous conditions when he'd played the Slytherins - both times around - yet now it was a clear sunny day. It meant spotting the snitch was child's play. Which was perhaps why Harry had already caught sight of the little golden ball twice - not that either Malfoy or Iain Claverdon had seen it yet. Gryffindor hadn't had a good seeker since Charlie Weasley had left, and their new seeker definitely fit that theme, at one point the snitch had been ten metres directly in front of him, but he'd spent too much time making sure he didn't fall off his broom that he didn't even notice.

Harry vented as much to Terry who just laughed nervously - all of the 'Claws were anxious for a Gryffindor win. All of the 'Claws also knew that was about as likely as as a Welsh Green dragon wearing a tutu.

"Wood to Angelina, shit! - sorry Prof - Lucian Bole, big lad there, hits a Quaffle making Angelina drop it, straight to Flint who's racing towards goal, feints left, Wood blocks, distributes it to Alicia who throws a long one towards Angelina - nice skills there Ang, looking good - OOF! C'mon ref that can't be legal!" The move by Flint, who was clearly angry at being blocked by Wood slammed into the Gryffindor chaser. It was in fact a foul, one which Angelina converted to score Gryffindors first points of the game. "FORTY-TEN TO SLYTHERIN! Comeback time lads." Lee continued.

His commentary was always amusing - especially the back and forth with McGonagall - though it was substantially less fun when you were actually playing against the Gryffindors. Lee liked to add some context such as: "Harry Reynolds, Ravenclaw seeker, also the guy the entire wizarding world thought opened the Chamber of Secrets for a week. Sorry about that." or "Reynolds towards the snitch - good thing he was quicker when Ginny was in the chamber, otherwise things would have gone very wrong."

"Damn!" Lee exclaimed as Warrington worked the Quaffle past Wood, with a quick feint towards Flint who was by the left post, before neatly slotting it into the right, much to Wood's anger. The keeper, despite having conceded five, was actually the Gryffindor's best player - without him the Gryffindor team would have probably conceded a hundred points by now. The team as a whole were actually pretty good. The three Chasers combined well together, Alicia, Angelina, and Katie (who, whilst the weak link, was still a skilful individual, and good at defence), whilst the Weasley duo as Beaters were terrifying, and then there's Wood who's rumoured to be scouted by Puddlemere reserves. It was just the seeker letting them - and by default, Ravenclaw - down.

"There." Harry muttered to Terry, pointing towards a small glimmer of gold glistening above the field.

"Huh. Nice." Terry praised as he used his binoculars, a Christmas present Harry had bought him - he was really interested in muggle innovations - to zoom in on the ball.

"Malfoy's racing off, has he spotted the snitch? Shit." Lee continued. "COME ON CLAVERDON! There's no way he can catch up to Malfoy now, the Nimbus 2001 is far too fast." The entire stadium winced as a crackling sound filled the audience, Lee have thrown his microphone equipment on to the floor in disgust as Gryffindor lost their third match of the season.

"Slytherin win. Two hundred-Twenty." McGonagall commentated, picking up the mic. She sounded equally upset as Lee, though was slightly less expressive.

"Well... That could have gone better." Harry commented as they stood up.

"Yes, they only got an extra hundred and eighty points to their goal difference." Michael replied, irritated. "We only beat Gryffindor by a hundred and sixty. Harry caught the snitch too soon."

"Wow. Sorry for doing my job and catching the snitch." Harry exchanged an exasperated look with Terry. Michael had a tendency to be overly competitive, which would be fine, if he wasn't such a terrible loser.

"One day you'll learn that sometimes it's better to not catch the snitch and let the point tally rise up. Especially when you're playing against someone like Gryffindor."

"Gryffindor's good except their seeker. We wouldn't necessarily outstrip them of points. Besides, Claverdon had seen the snitch as well, would you have preferred it if I'd let him catch it and lost the game?"

"We can still win." Michael ignored him. "You beat that Diggory to the snitch next Saturday and we've got the cup. Can you imagine that Harry? The cup in your hands after you catch the snitch to win the game, ending our losing streak."

"No." Harry snarked and Michael rolled his eyes.

"It'll be what it is." Anthony stepped forwards. "Don't put too much pressure on Harry, Mike. Besides, it's probably going to come down to luck more than anything else. It often does."

"Excuse me?" Both Harry and Michael stopped dead on the staircase down from the stands, turning around affronted.

"You've seen what it's like when a team has a shit seeker." Harry continued. "It comes down to skill."

Anthony laughed. "Yes. I know. What I'm saying is that you and Diggory are pretty even - you're better, I'll give you that - but it's close. Which means..." Anthony surveyed their faces to see whether he'd was in imminent danger. "Whoever is closest to the snitch when it's spotted will likely win."

"Unless I spot it way before Diggory." Harry said, squinting as they exited the staircase and the sun shined in his eyes. The match had finished early enough that the sun still stood tall and proud above the castle.

"Sure. But Diggory isn't as shit as Claverdon. I wouldn't expect him to fall for your tricks like he did, and I don't think he's as gullible as Malfoy. He's seen your antics, analysed them. I don't think a feint would work. It'll probably be a race." Harry blinked in surprise, unaware that Anthony would have ever put this much thought into Quidditch. "Remember, Hufflepuff want to win this as much as we do."

"They can't win now, not after that display by Slytherin. Their goal difference -" Harry started to explain, only to be cut off suddenly.

"Don't count us out so soon, Reynolds." A voice shouted as a group of 'Puffs walked past.

"Come on, Diggory, you don't seriously think you're going to beat us by more than two hundred points?" Harry replied.

The boy stopped, his eyes twinkling as his friends waited back. "Sure I do. I also think that I'm going to beat you to the snitch and return the glory to the Hufflepuff house." He smirked.

"Look, you're good. I'll give you that." Harry said. "But, our team in general is better. Our chasers outstrip yours, Page and Fleet are too similar for there to be a difference, and I'd wager that Jason and Duncan would smash your guys around. Besides, we both remember what happened last year." Harry taunted with a playful smile, referencing his win over the now Hufflepuff captain.

"I wouldn't be so sure. We've improved a lot over the season - you saw how we demolished Gryffindor-"

"Everyone demolishes Gryffindor." Harry interrupted with a grin. A Gryffindor passing by shot him a glare.

"True." Diggory cocked his head to the side. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see... When you're watching us lift the cup from the crowd, just remember this." Diggory winked and turned around, heading back to the castle with the other Hufflepuff fifth years.

"Well, now I'm even more motivated to win." Harry muttered to his friends.

"We will." Terry replied confidently as they started to move in the direction of the castle.