A/N: Cheers to me! I won the last round of MC Monday at Hogwarts (brought me 100 house points for Slytherin)…and promptly entered for the new one so expect that I continue to post every Monday.

Uhm…yeah nothing more to say…

3.203 words

Chapter 28: End of the First Year

What happened with the ghosts was the main topic for the entirety of the next week, students exchanging whom they had met and how they had been able to talk to someone long deceased. Another popular topic was how Harry, Sam, and Loki had defended them. Most were of the opinion that this was exactly that what a hero like Harry would and should do, cementing his status as the Golden Boy.

Soon however the topic changed when the last Quidditch match of the year began to approach, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. After the first two Gryffindor matches in which Harry had snatched the Snitch right out from under the nose of the Slytherin seeker in the first one and the second one where he actually set a new record for the quickest Quidditch match in Hogwarts' history, they all wanted to see what stunt the boy would pull now. What actually happened though stunned them speechless.

It was a nice Saturday for the end of May, the sun was shining brightly and it was quite warm with the temperature being 25°C. Before the game, Wood asked Harry what he had planned for that game but Harry only shrugged and told the team captain that he would have to see what would come up.

As soon as they left through their gate and flew onto the pitch, Harry flew up quite a bit, hovering over the centre of the pitch over everyone else. When the game began he pulled his broom parallel to the ground with a smirk. Once he was sure that his broom wouldn't do anything unexpected, he let himself fall back so that he came to lie on the length of the handle, his head resting on the bristles. He quickly added a few padding charms to the broom so that it wouldn't be too uncomfortable before he placed his right foot on the end of the handle and put his other leg on his knee.

Contently hovering in the air that way he let his eyes fall shut, relaxing and enjoying the sun when he remembered something. Tapping into his magic he projected it outwardly for a few feet and gave it the purpose to repel Bludgers that might come his way. They would fly in a curve around him before looking for a better target.

Harry was completely relaxed and actually nearly falling asleep when about ten minutes later he suddenly felt a fluttering against his right cheek that startled him, luckily he could catch himself quickly enough so that he didn't fall off the broom. Opening his eyes he could see the Snitch hovering a few inches away from him looking at him in a way that he thought was expectantly. The Snitch even flew away a few feet before returning to him again and hovering in front of him.

"What?" Harry asked incredulously. "You want me to catch you or what?"

The Snitch bobbed as if nodding and Harry raised an eyebrow, wondering whether something was wrong with the little golden ball, up to now it had never acted this way.

"But I don't want to, Let the others chase some stupid balls in this lovely weather, I want to enjoy the sun," he huffed before he leaned back once again.

What the Snitch did next left Harry openly gaping at it. The Snitch flew down to Harry's chest where it came to rest and lazily stretched its wings before it neatly folded them against its body.

"Had enough of being chased around?" Harry asked with a chuckle.

The Snitch in return hummed lowly, obviously content that it could just lie there and not have to escape some idiot that was trying to catch it.

They both spent quite some time that way when eventually the Hufflepuff seeker came to check on Harry and saw the Snitch lying there while Harry was obviously sleeping, not even having noticed the small ball. The other seeker saw this as a good opportunity and slowly reached out for the Snitch, not wanting to alert either Harry or the ball as to what he wanted to do. However, what he didn't anticipate was that the ball came to life when his fingers were just mere inches away from it and suddenly sped off. Cursing under his breath the boy sped after it in the direction he had seen it flying off.

Once the other seeker was far enough away the small ball, which had hid beneath Harry to escape the other seeker, came out of its hiding place and hovered over Harry's chest, it looked off into the direction of the one who just wanted to catch it had sped off in and then back to Harry who looked at it with open curiosity. It seemed that if the little ball had a tongue it would have stuck it out after the Hufflepuff seeker in malicious glee before retaking its place on Harry's chest.

It was about two and a half hours later that Harry woke up because he was suddenly feeling a bit cold. Opening his eyes he saw that a quite large cloud had pushed itself in front of the sun and it didn't look like it would vanish again any time soon. With a sigh he picked up the Snitch that was still lying on his chest so that it wouldn't fall down when he sat up.

Once he was fully awake, he looked down to see how the rest of the game was going, realizing that he must have slept for quite some time. Gryffindor was actually falling behind a bit with 320 to the 380 points that Hufflepuff had scored. He stretched a bit, popping his joints and stifling a yawn.

"Want to end the game?" he asked the Snitch that was now laying in his open palm.

When the little ball buzzed positively, Harry smiled and angled his broom so that he flew down to where Madame Hooch was supervising the game. Once he reached her, he let the golden ball fall into her hand.

"Here, it seems the game is over," he just told her.

Madame Hooch though stared at him as if he had lost it. It actually took her a few moments to remember what the delivery meant before she blew her whistle announcing that Gryffindor had won the match, the final score was 480 to 400.

Harry was just about to leave her to get back to the changing room when the Snitch again came to life and quickly trailed after him. Not knowing what that was supposed to mean he first looked questioningly at the Snitch and then to Madame Hooch, but the woman looked equally confused, she had never seen a Snitch behaving that way before.

"Mr. Potter, what did you do to the Snitch?" she asked him sternly.

He put his hands up showing that he had no idea. "I swear that I didn't do anything, the thing behaved strangely for the entire game actually."

Hooch flew over to him and was just about to grab the Snitch in order to store it with the other balls when it shifted behind Harry, looking around his shoulders tentatively.

"This is really strange behaviour," she said with a perplexed frown.

"It seems to me that it doesn't want to leave my side," Harry mused and the golden ball nodded so rapidly that had it been a human it certainly would have gotten whiplash. "I can't keep you," he told the little ball.

If asked, Harry would have vehemently denied that it was possible that a small golden ball could be able to look pleadingly or sad but this Snitch just proved him wrong. The little thing looked so sad that Harry just couldn't leave it behind.

"Madame Hooch, would it be possible for me to keep it?" he asked the woman. "I'll also buy you a new one if necessary," Harry added when it became apparent that Hooch wanted to deny him his request.

Hooch looked at Harry and then at the Snitch (which had stayed close to the boy the entire time) for a long moment but in the ended nodded with a sigh.

"Very well," she said while shaking her head.

You could tell that the Snitch was exceedingly happy with how it fluttered around Harry who couldn't help himself and started to snicker.

"Well then, I need a shower," he told the thing before descending towards the changing rooms.

When he arrived there he was instantly greeted by Wood who wanted to light into Harry for how he had handled the game when he became aware of the Snitch that now buzzed between them agitatedly.

"What's with the Snitch?" he asked Harry warily, looking between the both of them.

"I don't know, it doesn't want to leave my side anymore," Harry shrugged and walked over to where the showers were, leaving behind a confused Wood.

Harry quickly took a shower and soon emerged again fully clothed in some casual clothes. Accompanied by the twins, he made his way outside and over to where Sam, Loki, Neville and Hermione were waiting, closely followed by his new little friend. The friends were excitedly chattering about the game and how once again Harry was so lazy as to sleep through practically all of it. When they became aware that Harry was coming they greeted him with recollections about stunts and manoeuvres that each player who had flown today performed. Sam especially was absolutely smitten with the sport played on brooms.

It was Fred who finally addressed Harry about the Snitch following him.

"Say, why is the Snitch following you?"

Harry looked a bit sheepish. "Actually I have no idea, it stayed with me the entire game and didn't want to leave me afterwards," he told the redhead.

"Strange," George muttered. "I never heard about them doing that."

Loki now his attention drawn to it, looked at it, his head slightly cocked to the side.

"It isn't all that strange," he finally said. "Snitches and Bludgers are sentient to some degree, Snitches more so than Bludgers, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to predict a seeker's move and act accordingly to make it harder to catch them. Think about it like the sorting hat being able to determine where to sort a student," he explained. "However, only you Harry would be able to draw a Snitch in with your magic."

"What's that supposed to mean and is it dangerous?" Harry was now wary which seemed to affect the Snitch because it now drooped a bit sadly.

"Oh no, it isn't dangerous. My point is that you have a natural aura that calms creatures and humans alike and draws them in to you, it's nothing to worry about. People and creatures just are more likely to be friendly towards you and trust you not to harm them. Remember the unicorn you healed? Normally that unicorn would have bolted as soon as it was healed but your aura exudes calmness and a feeling of safety as well as general friendliness." Here Loki shrugged helplessly. "I don't know how explain it better than that but it's also the reason why that Snitch has seemingly taken a liking to you. It is rare but not unheard of that a semi-sentient object bonds to a wizard, they are designed to imitate life after all. Look at it as an unusual familiar."

Harry and the Snitch looked at each other, then the Snitch briefly bumped against Harry's cheek before fluttering around him and his friends who promptly started to snicker over its behaviour.

Agreeing that it was time to get back they set off and walked back to their common room together. When they reached it and entered through the portrait hole, they were greeted by a massive party. The whole of Gryffindor was celebrating not only today's victory but also the fact that they had won the Quidditch Cup, therefore ending Slytherin's winning streak.

The celebrations went on until far after midnight and only ended because at some point McGonagall had showed up and told them that it was time for bed.

The end of term exams came and went without a hitch and each of the friends was quite sure that they had passed them with excellent marks. All too soon the last great feast of the school year arrived, and with it came Ravenclaw's victory in the race for the House Cup, Ravenclaw was closely followed by Gryffindor in second and Slytherin in third place, which irked said house something rotten. Hufflepuff though, even in the last place, celebrated it as another year of success, friendship and having fun, mostly because of Loki but also in general.

Dumbledore gave them a few parting words talking about second chances and making up for mistakes. To Loki it seemed that the encounter with the ghost of his sister had left a lasting impression.

The same evening Snape also asked Harry to meet with him in his rooms for one last conversation before the summer holidays. He gave Harry not only an emergency portkey that would bring him to the man no matter where he was, but also a two way book with the request to write at least once a week to let him know that everything was alright. Harry was touched by the care and promised to let him know should anything be wrong.

That night left Harry happy but also a bit sad, happy that he wasn't alone anymore and didn't have to go back to his relatives, but also a bit sad because he wouldn't be able to see his friends for quite some time. They arranged that they would all meet up at some point during the holidays and also would go shopping for their things for the next school year together though.

The next day they all shared a compartment in the Hogwarts Express and joked and talked for one last time before they had to part for the holidays. They all had a lot of fun and shortly before the arrived in London, Harry dug into his pouch and drew out a stack of identical looking books, from which he handed one to each of his friends.

"These books are charmed so that whatever you write in yours will also appear in all the others linked to it," he explained while handing them out. "That way we can stay in contact."

"So it's like an analogue chat room," Sam joked earning a snicker from Harry and Hermione as well as Neville whom had looked over Harry's shoulder one evening when Harry had surfed in the web on his laptop and when Harry had explained a few things to him. The twins though looked at him in confusion. "A chat room is a muggle invention where you talk to many different people all over the world no matter where they currently are via a computer," he explained to them.

"We're slowly understanding just why our father is so enamoured with muggles," Fred said.

"Yes it is astonishing what they are capable of," George added.

"You have no idea," Harry laughed.

Not much later the train pulled into the station and they left the train. With a last farewell they all separated with Neville and the twins walking over to their respective families while Hermione left the platform through the entrance to go to the muggle world in order to find her own parents. Only Harry, Sam and Loki remained behind.

"So onto America," he said cheerfully.

They had agreed previously that they would all go to America for three weeks not only so that Sam could meet up with his brother but also for a holiday. After that Loki would take Harry to his parents for a weekend before they would visit a few different countries together.

Loki quickly grabbed onto Harry and Sam and within the blink of an eye they were gone and had reappeared right in front of Bobby's house. Harry looked around fascinated by all the junk that was lying around, while Sam whined bit.

"Do I have to stay a child?" he asked pityingly.

Loki laughed upon hearing that but waved his hand over Sam who promptly changed back into his 24 year old self. Sam sighed contently, flexing and moving carefully a bit to get used to the suddenly lager body again after having been a child for so long.

"Thanks!" he said to Loki while walking over to the door and knocking.

It took a few moments before Bobby appeared in the doorframe and looked at each of them critically. When he finished his scrutiny he smiled broadly and pulled Sam into a hug.

"Good to see ya, Sam. I hope yer stay at that school was uneventful," he said before locking gaze with Loki. "Leave all the pranks out of my house, are we clear pagan?"

Loki looked at him for a moment longer before he did the mature thing and simply stuck his tongue out at the man. Bobby snorted and shook his head.

"Harry, nice to see ya again. I hope that the idjit didn't make too much trouble," he finally turned towards Harry with another smile.

"Nah, he knows how to behave himself," Harry replied with a broad grin towards Loki that earned him a light hit on the arm.

That was when the Snitch that had up to then stayed in the pocket of Harry's shirt came out and buzzed around Loki's head for hitting Harry.

"I swear that thing gets more protective with each passing day," Loki muttered which ended up him being hit over the head by the Snitch with one of his wings.

Sam laughed upon seeing the indignant face of the pagan that simply looked cute on his eleven year old body. That was when Harry's stomach suddenly started to rumble loudly making Sam laugh even harder, and even Bobby chuckled lowly.

"Come on in, I'll make you something to eat and in the meantime you can tell me how school went and why a flying golden ball is following you around," Bobby told them while gesturing for them to enter.

They all followed Bobby inside and through to the kitchen, where Sam and Loki sat down at the table while Harry went to help Bobby with their meal, for Bobby it would be lunch while for the others it would be the dinner thanks to the time difference. While they cooked the others filled the man in on what had occurred during their time at Hogwarts and what they had experienced. They were finished cooking and halfway through their meal telling Bobby who listened with amusement, all about the last Quidditch match, when suddenly Alastair appeared in the kitchen right next to them surprising the hell out of them.

"Alastair," Bobby said in a chiding tone. "Next time use the front door," he told the demon when he realized something.

"Where's Dean?"

"That is why I came…I have no idea," the demon answered not even acknowledging the scolding. "He suddenly vanished and I can't find him anywhere."

A/N: Ah yes, I remember what I forgot to mention. If there are any pranks you want to see, let me know I can always use inspiration. 'til next chapter!