AN: I would like to say that the last several chapters aren't presented in the context I originally intended. When I started the Christmas Break arc I wanted to actually end Book I at the end of the arc. I made the (in my newly informed opinion, wrong) decision NOT to do that and to hold to Rowling's 1Book=1School Year paradigm. Tina's hospital visits were originally meant as the first several chapters of a Book II, serving much the same roll as the first couple chapters in a Canon book taking place in the non magical world. I didn't alter the trajectory of those chapters even after I changed my plans concerning Book I/II because the content was still relevant.

Changing the Game

Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis felt extremely out of place, and it wasn't because they very rarely found themselves in any of the old, abandoned, classrooms in the unused wings of the castle. They, along with Ron Weasley, were the only Slytherins to have been invited to the Patil Twins' birthday party. There were Claws, Gryffs, and Puffs around, most of the first and second years from the former houses and at least six from the last.

"You don't have to hide in a corner you know." Hermione said as she joined them with three goblets of pumpkin juice floating behind her. Once a goblet had stopped in front of each of the girls and they had taken them in hand, she continued, "Padma and Parvati are glad you came, but you should mingle a little. No one's going to bite, I promise."

Tracey was still staring at the goblet in her hand, Hermione had levitated these over without even thinking about it, "I don't recall that I've ever had a chance to speak to Parvati."

"I don't think that's stopped her from calling someone her friend before." Hermione answered with a laugh, "Come introduce yourselves to the others, you don't get to fraternize with the other Houses as often as the rest of us."

The get together lasted for two hours, and the Slytherin girls were drug around intermittently by Hermione or Ron to meet various students from other Houses. It hadn't truly clicked with the pair until they were making the rounds just how many future movers-and-shakers were among the youngest two years at Hogwarts. A couple dozen heirs, as well as the children of businessmen, not to mention standout muggleborn like Hermione and Dudley (Merlin it was strange to refer to most of these people by their first names).

"Heir Potter, would we be able to speak for a moment while we are here?" Daphne asked politely after the other had finished speaking to a boy from Hufflepuff, "I know this is not the appropriate venue for politics, but my father wanted me to learn more about you; particularly your stance on certain policies…"

Harry made a disgusted face that he quickly covered up with his drink, "Uh, sure. There are some chairs set up over there, we could sit and talk I guess."

Dudley noticed Harry wandering to an unoccupied part of the room with the two Slytherin girls and made to offer moral support; only to be stopped by Ron, who shook his head and gave a thumbs up. Dudley nodded, but kept an eye on the corner of the room.

"So, Daphne, what do your parents want to know?" Harry asked once they had sat down.

Daphne visibly flinched, and Tracey chuckled nervously before answering, "Wow, okay. 'Gryffindors charge ahead' right?"

"Sorry," Harry replied, "is there some protocol or something I'm supposed to follow? Aunt Andi said she would work with me on etiquette and that kind of stuff this summer."

"Aunt Andi?" Tracey inquired.

"Andromeda Tonks, I would assume." Daphne found her voice again, "Please don't take this the wrong way, Heir Potter, but I hope you take her lessons to heart."

"Er, right sure." Harry filed that away under, 'okay, but that was rude,' and moved on, "So how can I help you?"

"Our parents wanted us to find out what your opinion was on certain topics." Daphne explained, "Both of our Houses have been Neutral for a long time, but my father has wanted to move to the more liberal side since the height of the last war. The only thing stopping him before was You-Know-Who, and then later there was the general distrust of anyone who hadn't been vocally against Him, but he doesn't think we can do it now and be taken seriously without a sponsor."

"So you want to know about me before you ask my family to sponsor you changing sides?"

"I wouldn't say 'changing sides,' but otherwise that sums it up." Tracey confirmed.

Harry went to bed that night with a headache. Getting to know more people in his year was great, but why were eleven and twelve year olds talking about trade relations with other countries and other bigwig politician stuff? The magical world was nuts.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Hey Dudley."

"Cedric?" Dudley exclaimed when he looked up from his essay to respond, "What happened?" The older boy had canary yellow hair and his skin and robes had been changed to the same eye-watering colour, "I get House Pride and everything, but most people would just use it as an accent."

"Ha-bloody-ha, I'm pretty sure the Weasley Twins did this, they've been harassing me for a couple weeks now. I was wondering if you could convince Harry to call them off."

Dudley frowned, Harry and Cedric had been tense since Valentine's day. Neither had said more than a couple words to the other, and Dudley wasn't sure what to think. He knew that Cedric was a great guy, but Ron was convinced that he knew about his father's stuff ahead of time. Something about not acting right when he got back from Christmas…

"Right, shouldn't have asked." Cedric backpedalled when he saw the calculating look on Dudley's face.

"Did you know about what your dad was doing?" Dudley returned, screw Ron and Harry, We're Hufflepuffs! I'll just ask him!

"Uh." Cedric hummed instead of answering, and Dudley's temper flared.

"Wait, so when you asked how Sirius was doing before you were just spying for your dad? And what about Tina, were you actually worried about my friend or were you just looking for dirt?"

"No! I told my dad what you said about Sirius getting better because I thought he'd stop, not… this. Yeah I knew he was planning to call for Lord Black to be evaluated, but the man just got out of Azkaban! He should have to get checked out, but he deserves the time to get better too!"

The pair hadn't kept their voices down, and most of the common room was glancing at them while trying not to make it obvious that they could all hear the argument, Cedric didn't realize this because his back was to the room, but Dudley did.

"If you were just doing it because you thought it was right you should have told us." Dudley answered with a lowered voice, "I don't think you meant anything bad, so I won't tell Harry that you knew about it before. But Ron thinks you do, and I'm not going to lie to Harry if he asks me straight. If it's alright, I need to finish this essay so I can go to the Quidditch game tomorrow."

"Don't take this the wrong way… but who are you cheering for?"

"Hey, I'm still a Hufflepuff." Dudley recoiled in mock offense, "Harry can win all his other games, but feel free to beat him this time! We're never winning the House Cup without that with Slytherin so far ahead."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I don't know Harry."

"I think this is a bad idea." The Twins said as they thought about Harry's new plan for the game against Hufflepuff.

"It's just one last thing," Harry insisted, "how often do you get to bring a prank into a Quidditch game and not take a penalty for it?"

"One last thing?"

"Dudley made me promise to ask you guys to stop bothering Cedric since he's sure that he doesn't like what his dad is doing." Harry shrugged, "The deadline is next month, so I guess it is time to lay off."

"So one more prank before we call it quits? I get it."

"Do you think we can do it? It's a little more disruptive than me just grabbing the Quaffle."

The Twins shared a mischievous look before they answered, "If you think you're really fast enough, we've got you."

Harry sighed in relief. He couldn't tell these two the other reason he wanted to do this. The redheads hadn't taken kindly to Harry saying he wanted to prank Quidditch itself into changing at the end of the last game. But now was a chance to show why parts of the game were dumb and needed to be improved. Starting with two of Harry's least favorite parts of the sport, the part that caused the most injuries, and the ability to buy success that kept most with muggle parents from even being able to think about Quidditch. A good Quidditch broom cost two-thousand pounds on the low end, and that was just too much for a school sport.

Up in the stands, Hermione was sitting with Petunia, Remus, and Sirius above the student seating. The first year had just finished explaining to the adults about the quarrel between Harry and Cedric Diggory. Sirius didn't really think that any of the pranks involved were over-the-top in any way, just harmless fun, but Petunia didn't agree. Especially not when Hermione told her how Harry had been helping the Weasley Twins brew prank potions when he didn't have homework. Remus was mad at Harry until Hermione stated that he still did all his schoolwork, then the werewolf thought it was funny. Somehow that made him wrong to both of the other adults.

The game began the same as Harry's first, with the captains shaking hands on the pitch before mounting their brooms and taking their positions. When the Quaffle was released, Harry dove into the Chaser formation like he did before, and Gryffindor quickly scored the first goal. The Hufflepuff team had apparently spent some time preparing for Harry's involvement, because they quickly tightened up their formation and kept the Beaters near their Chasers to stop the Twins from getting free shots.

This was when Cedric showed that he was a skilled flyer in his own right. The Twins decided that the best use for one of the Bludgers would be to keep Cedric perpetually occupied while the superior Gryffindor offense began racking up points. Despite not getting a moment to rest or cease his evasive flying, Cedric was able to maintain a relative course and continue his hunt for the Snitch.

After five minutes, and two goals for Gryffindor, Harry noted that Cedric was closer to the Chaser formations, and rather more low to the ground, than previously and signalled the Twins to begin their gambit. Harry flew out wide, and the nearer Twin set up a Bludger for his brother to launch at Harry perpendicular to his flightpath. Harry kept going, and the Bludger locked on to his magical signature when he became the closest person to it. There was an audible gasp that rippled through the crowd when a Weasley fired a Bludger at his own Seeker, a gasp that turned into a tenuous cheer when Harry's plan became apparent.

Lee Jordan had been about to yell at the Weasleys through his position as announcer, but found himself cackling into his own Sonorous charm as Professor Mcgonagall tried to get him to back away from the spell's area while simultaneously checking to see if Madam Hooch would call this as a foul. She had never heard of someone trying this before, and didn't even know if it was a legal play.

Bludgers were enchanted to chase after players, using the magical signature of the rider/broomstick combo to determine targets without the risk of the ball accidentally going after the spectators. They had another specific enchantment that allowed them to move, and therefore had a maximum speed. A speed that the Nimbus Two-Thousand was capable of exceeding; and if it could be exceeded then it could be matched.

The Bludger had to bend in flight, bleeding off all the extra speed it acquired from being struck by a Beater bat and attempted to run down the only player nearby under its own power alone. The result was that Harry had adjusted his speed to match the Bludger, guiding it like a horse-and-(dangerous)carriage right into the Hufflepuff Chaser formation. The Chasers were used to Harry diving on them like that by this point to try and steal; and the one with the Quaffle avoided him only for the group to be scattered completely by the Bludger chasing behind when he tried to return to formation, costing the 'Puffs possession of the Quaffle in the process when he fumbled a hasty pass.

Cedric hadn't seen what Harry was doing, he thought he saw a glint of gold near the ground earlier and had drifted beneath the area of play, only to see that is was just a shine off of some jewelry a student was wearing as they made their way up to their part of the stands, late for the game. Because of this, when Cedric looked up and saw his entire offensive line break apart when Harry flew through them, he was confused. His confusion turned to surprise, shock, then a slight twinge of fear, as he realised what was happening.

Harry barrelled straight down, careful to control his speed so that he wouldn't lose his tagalong. Keeping the iron ball attached to him as he flew through the opposing Chasers was the hardest part, but he had managed it by slowing until the Bludger was only about a dozen feet behind him. It swerved at the Chasers it passed, but the iron ball was moving down too quickly to lock onto them. Because the Bludger was so close behind Harry, Cedric barely had time to react; in fact later he would admit that only Harry's manic grin let him know something was up.

Cedric and Harry both rolled to avoid each other mid-pass, but Cedric was then forced to pull his broom hard away to try and avoid the Bludger. He had no such luck, and the iron ball struck the bottom of Cedric's broom at a glancing blow, throwing him off fifteen feet above the ground. He wasn't moving very fast, and the fall wasn't too great, but Cedric was confident that he had broken, or at least sprained, his wrist in the fall. Despite his injury, the reason Cedric groaned when he stood up wasn't his wrist, it was his broom which didn't have the momentum to move anywhere, and was hovering in the air a little ways from where he'd fallen off. In situations like this, since wands were not allowed and he didn't know how to summon it wandlessly, someone from his team had to bring his broom down to him; and that loss of a player cost Hufflepuff yet another goal.

"Oh my!" Petunia covered her gaping mouth with her hand as she watched the young man playing against Harry stand up cradling his wrist as one of his Beaters brought him is broom, "I never thought Harry would do something so dangerous, especially not to someone else!"

"Are you kidding?" Sirius asked as his grin spread from ear to ear, and he let out a laugh that reminded everyone present of a dog barking, "That was brilliant!"

"I don't like the idea that Harry is taking revenge on that young man for his father." Petunia glared at the man.

"I'm sure that is not the only reason." Remus added to dispel the tension, "Harry doesn't really like Quidditch. The minutiae at least." He amended hastily at Sirius' hurt look, "He loves the idea of a ball-sport on brooms, he just doesn't like some of the rules of Quidditch. Honestly? Having spent a little time in the Muggle world, I can understand why. Compared to Muggle games, Quidditch is much more likely to be unbalanced or one-sided."

"Harry and I have gone over a lot of Quidditch rules." Hermione said as she kept her eyes on her friend, who was repeating his pass through the 'Puff Chaser line with the Bludger even closer this time, "But if I had known this was what he was going to do with it, I wouldn't have helped him." She added indignantly.

"Yes, he's asked me a couple times about things Seekers are and aren't allowed to do." Remus confirmed, "I think he's trying to find loopholes in the rules to get the game updated. I didn't know this until I was looking up answers for Harry, but did you know that the game hasn't had any real rules changes in Quidditch since the early seventeen-hundreds?"

"That was in Quidditch through the Ages!" Hermione answered excitedly, "I hadn't even thought about that, but Harry's right. A lot has changed in nearly three-hundred years especially changes in brooms! How can the game still have all the exact same rules?"

"At least Seekers don't hunt and kill a live bird every game anymore." Sirius answered with a shrug, "Now that was messed up, it got replaced with the Golden Snitch when the bird became endangered."

While Petunia and Hermione were wearing out their indignation at the barbaric origin of the game, Harry was wearing out his enjoyment of leading cannonballs into the other team. Deciding to try one last thing before he went back to just helping his team score and hunting the Snitch, Harry slowed down to let the iron ball get even closer. Once it was only a few feet away he began leading it at it's full speed towards the Chaser group. The maneuver was very difficult to perform with the wiggle room he had. The Bludger only moved a little slower than the Nimbus' top maneuverable speed, and he felt his broom get bumped from behind at least once. This time, instead of simply letting it trail him through, Harry rapidly pulled up about twenty feet from the formation and accelerated at a ninety degree angle with a speed that lost the Bludger in moments. His Nimbus may only move a little bit faster, but its acceleration was far superior.

The result was Harry's Bludger launching at the other team like a curveball and scattering them yet again. Normally the team was listening for the sound of iron-on-iron to know when to beware of Bludgers coming at them, but Harry's method left the entire Hufflepuff team having to keep an eye on an extra element lest they find themselves needing to barrel-roll away from a silent clobbering.

After pulling out of his climb, Harry signalled to the Twins to stop sending him Bludgers and then went out to see if the Snitch was ready to make an appearance. He chuckled to himself when he realized that Cedric was still trying to stay on the other side of the pitch from him.

"Did you know that Professor Snape tried to get permission to referee this game?" Hermione asked the others after Harry stopped his ridiculously dangerous stunts. Seriously, Aunt Petunia needs to ground him for that!

"Why?" Remus returned, clamping a hand over Sirius' mouth to keep him from saying anything derogatory about the Potions Master.

"The Headmaster said that he thought it would be a good idea to add security for Harry, but Harry insisted that the Headmaster being here would be enough."

"Well." Remus mused merrily, "I can only imagine how ridiculous this game would have been with Severus on a broom as well. Madame Hooch looks ready to strangle Harry."

"If he gets those boys to pass him a Bludger again," Petunia muttered as her knuckles slowly turned white from her death grip on the arms of her seat, "I just might strangle him. If every game is going to be life-or-death then he won't be allowed to play anymore."

The game lasted another half-hour, during which time Harry didn't try his Bludger-leading trick again, before the Snitch made an appearance. Cedric was the first to see it, but Harry was closer. The older boy tried to goad Harry into chasing him away from the ball, but Harry saw it at the last minute and flipped his broom upside down to turn 180 degrees and give chase. Cedric put up a good fight, the Snitch juked towards him to try and escape Harry's grasp, but with a hurt wrist he wasn't able to maneuver his broom well enough to catch up.

When Harry landed, holding up the Snitch to show his team, he was suprised to get a slap across the face from Katie Bell, "If you ever do something that stupid again without warning us all first I'll… Urgh!"

The girl turned and stomped a few feet away, Alicia and Angelina glared at him, but otherwise didn't let their displeasure be known. Harry was stunned, and glanced over to Oliver. The captain was clearly about to congratulate Harry and tell him what an amazing idea his gambit was… until that. It didn't take too long for Alicia and Angelina to turn their ire at the Twins, who wisely began promising anything the girls wanted to stay on their good sides.

"Harry Potter! You get over here young man!" The colour drained from Harry's face as he turned to see Aunt Petunia standing a ways away with her arms crossed and a sour look on her face. Hermione was standing right beside her trying to imitate her stance and expression.

Harry originally planned to defend himself; but behind his Aunt he saw Cedric being led off the Pitch by Madam Pomphrey. It was at that moment that he realized he had hurt Cedric more than he intended. When the third year was unseated in the first pass, Harry had panicked for a moment; particularly when he heard the loud thump of the Bludger digging into the ground moments later. But after seeing his opponent get back on his broom, Harry assumed he had come out of it no worse for wear.

"Aunt Petunia, Hermione, I'm so sorry I worried you." Harry said contritely, "I just-"

"Remus explained how you think you can get the school to look at the rules of Quidditch by doing things like that," Petunia's voice started hard, but calmed as she took a deep breath and enveloped her nephew in a hug, "but please be more careful Harry. And let us know in the future if you are going to do something I need to ground you for!"

Hermione wasn't so easy to calm, "How could you do something that reckless Harry! I was so worried!" She was so angry she was practically vibrating, "And to think, I even helped you!"

"I'm sorry Hermione. I just thought if I showed that the Bludgers were too easy to mess with like that then they'd do something to make them safer."

"Crap." Remus muttered as he noticed that they were missing someone.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Whoah, sorry!" Harry called as he swerved out of the way of the person leaving the Hospital Wing, only to realize it was exactly who he was looking for, "Cedric? Are you okay?"

"Why do you care? You're the one who broke my wrist." Cedric muttered angrily as he made to walk away rubbing his still-sore wrist.

"I do, I'm sorry! I didn't want you to get hurt, I... I just wanted to freak you out a little, I swear." Harry waited a moment until Cedric turned around, "I told the Twins I just wanted to do one more thing to mess with you and then we were done. I'm so sorry this happened, I wasn't thinking straight and shouldn't have tried to kill two birds with one stone." He paused for a second, realizing the rather on-the-nose nature of that metaphor, "Uh, non magical saying. I shouldn't have tried to do two things in one like that is what it means."

Cedric was waging an internal battle. A very large part of him wanted to simply turn and walk away. He had endured the pranks and nonsense for a month now because he felt guilty, but attacking him crossed a line. But still, two things?

"So you had another motive besides killing me?" Cedric asked, "Either with the Bludger, or by just scaring me to death?"

"Uh." Harry mumbled, "I wanted to do the thing with the Bludger anyways. I think if I show how unfair some parts of Quidditch are, people will start looking at updating it a little. I mean really, I love my Nimbus. But I shouldn't be able to have a broom like that when some people are on older ones that can't compete. I know it isn't just my Nimbus, because I flew on Dudley's broom some too, but I didn't like how, after the first game, I felt like I had somehow bought the win. Even with someone cursing my broom, I knew that it was better than the one the Slytherin Seeker was on, it bothered me."

Cedric wasn't sure how to answer that, his own broom was rather good. It was no Nimbus, and wouldn't go outrunning a Bludger, but it was top-of-the-line when he got it.

"Then I sorta asked around and found out that there's pretty much no muggleborn players in the school." Harry continued explaining, "Angelina is, but she said she's only able to play because Alicia and Oliver pitched in to get her a broom. Most muggleborn are interested right up until they ask how much a broom costs, then they just drop it."

"Why though?"

"Some things in the magical world are really expensive for seemingly no reason. Decent broomsticks cost as much as cheap cars. Non magicals just don't buy those kinds of things for kids, only families like Malfoy's or Nott's do."

"So… what? You want Quidditch to regulate brooms or something?"

"I think that would be a start." Harry answered confidently, "I also wish the Bludgers would just be changed entirely. I don't think the high risk of serious injury is required for fun." He looked down at Cedric's wrist, "Um, how did your wrist get better so fast? When Neville broke his at the start of the Fall term, he was in the Wing all afternoon."

"Madam Pomphrey said it wasn't too bad." Cedric answered truthfully, "She just cast a reknitting charm on it and I was good to go after a few minutes. It's still sore though. I guess Longbottom's break was worse than mine."

Just inside the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomphrey was eavesdropping on the pair in case she needed to break up an argument. But by the end, she was content that there would be no more metaphorical fires today. She couldn't help but agree with Harry Potter's assessment of Bludgers in Quidditch though, and said a silent prayer that the boy would succeed (hopefully without any more incidents like todays, however).

"I'm glad you apologized to Cedric, but that was really gnarly Harry." Dudley confronted his cousin near the Defense classroom, only a few dozen steps from where he had parted ways with Cedric after giving his apology, "I know you saw Cedric being taken to the Hospital Wing on the pitch though, I would have thought you'd have been here earlier."

"Yeah, I would have been." Harry agreed as he tried to ignore the sounds his wand was now making, "I wish I could have been there when his wrist was healed, apparently there's a spell that fixes broken bones if they aren't too bad, but Uncle Moony and I had to calm down Sirius."

"What happened?" Dudley inquired, he'd said 'hi' and 'bye' to his mum and headed to meet Cedric at the Hospital wing right after the game ended. To be honest, he was quite perturbed when Harry didn't get there before he left.

Harry shuddered, "Urgh, sometimes I wish we could go get that Philosopher's Stone and use it to heal Sirius. He got into a really loud argument with Snape after the game and looked like he was gonna lose it."

"He'll get better Harry, you'll see." Dudley put a hand on his cousin's shoulder in support noting for the first time that Harry was tense, "Just you wait, he'll end up better off than he ever could have been from the Stone just fixing everything with a snap."

Harry frowned, but nodded. Dudley was right, Sirius didn't need a Grand Panacea to get better, just time and support.

From inside the Defense classroom, Quirrell grumbled to himself. He had been sure that Potter would have been the key to overcoming the Stone's last defense, Dumbledore was too smart for his own good sometimes; but with the declaration that he would use the thing to heal his godfather if given the chance, the professor was back to square one.

As they walked away, Harry glanced around and drew his wand once he was sure they were alone, looking at it with a frown.

"What is it?" Dudley asked without breaking stride, only glancing around more furtively.

"It was practically hissing at me just then, I'm surprised you didn't hear it" Harry answered with a confused expression, that got stronger after another moment, "I didn't see anyone around but it just stopped."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Sirius stop!" Remus called as he ran to break up the argument between his friend and Severus Snape, Harry chasing right beside him. Neither had seen how the altercation had started, being too focused on Aunt Petunia scolding Harry, but they both saw Sirius begin yelling at the professor and make to grab at him.

"You didn't hear what he said Moony!"

"It doesn't matter what he said, you need to stay with us!"

"Keep your mutt under control, Lupin." Snape said with his characteristic dour expression, "I have better things to do than deal with an insane dog that has slipped its muzzle."

The only thing that stopped Sirius from lunging at Snape after that was Harry's arms wrapped around him. The boy could feel his godfather's anger boiling under him as Sirius fought to keep himself from shaking.

Remus glared at Snape but didn't respond, instead turning his back on the professor and helping Harry to hold Sirius, "It's okay Padfoot, just ignore him. I'll deal with him, you and Harry go rejoin Petunia."

With some effort, the pair were able to convince Sirius to back off, and Harry took him back to where the others were. He wasn't sure this was the best opportunity, what with Sirius being so stressed and frustrated at the moment, but perhaps it was time for the Weasley Twins to meet the other remaining Marauder? Sirius remembered his school days fairly well, so the Twins wouldn't want for stories to hear.

Once the pair were on their way, Remus turned back to Snape, "What was that? He's been doing well the last couple of weeks."

"Hrmph, I simply expressed that he was looking well for one who had been in among the dementors for so long." Snape responded smoothly, "He overreacted."

The werewolf sighed, "I'm sorry. I'll need to let his healer know."

That response surprised the Potions Master, he was sure that Lupin would assume he had antagonized Black into aggression and defended his friend. Was Black really that off, that Lupin would just accept what Snape said about him?

"I… may have referred to the late Potter as well when I spoke to him." Snape confessed after a moment, "I perhaps… underestimated… the fragility of his mental state."

It took every bit of his control not to shout at the man anew, but Remus simply nodded, Petunia wouldn't appreciate him making waves with one of Harry and Dudley's teachers, especially not one with such a hot-and-cold relationship with both boys, "Thank you for letting me know. I'm sorry if he caused you any distress."

As Lupin walked away to rejoin the others in his group, Snape was left to wonder what just happened. He had provoked Sirius into making a scene, potentially even damaging his chances come Easter, but it was Severus who left the confrontation feeling down. As he made his solitary way to the castle, the Potions Master was forced to ponder; what was the point in holding a grudge if the other side ignored it?