Harry sat outside, reading a textbook by the black lake. It was peaceful and quiet.

Or it would have been, if Oliver Wood wasn't running as quickly as he could in a direct line towards Harry. Concealing a sigh, Harry closed his book.

Redfaced, Oliver stopped about five feet from Harry, bending over and huffing. Harry appreciated this, as it meant he wouldn't have to deal with Oliver's sweat on his robes.

"What's news?" Harry asked.

After about half a minute of panting, Oliver said, "Snape's going to referee our next match."

Harry blinked. Just what was the cotton-pickin' urgency to run out and tell him that? "So?"

"So, mate, he hates you. I wanted to warn you to be careful." Oliver said sternly.

"I'm always careful. 'Snot my fault someone decided to curse my broom." Harry said, eliding over the idea that Snape, a teacher of longstanding, would probably not try to hurt a student. And definitely not in front of a thousand witnesses.

"Yeah, I heard that someone was Snape!" Oliver said, his face darkening.

"Even the Headmaster doesn't know," Harry said simply. "But I'll be super extra specially careful, I promise."

Harry put off telling his friend (and Ron) until about a week before the match, because he figured that they'd go ballistic, and see something there that was entirely an illusion.

They did, of course.

"Mate! He's gonna kill you for real this time!" Ron gibbered, and Harry politely refrained from pointing out that all deaths were "for Real".

"I can't distract him if he's up in the air." Hermione moaned.

"Maybe I can get the twins to do it," Harry chirped up helpfully.

Ron perked up, "Hey, that's a thought!"

"A bad thought," Harry said almost at the same time as Hermione did. They stopped and looked at each other.

"Then why would you mention it if you thought it was bad?" Hermione asked querulously.

"Stress relief," Harry said, lacing his hands behind his head. "Someone's out to kill me, you know?"

The next morning, Harry made a discrete visit to the twins demense. "I need you two to figure out what the least amount of damage you can do to someone to get them to the hospital wing."

Both redheads blinked at him, "You aren't plannning... on skiving are you?"

"Nope, it's for a prank," Harry said with a grin bordering on manic and genuine. It's to help someone else skive, to be honest. But all will be revealed in good time.

[A/n: Reviews mean more story. Sorry this one got left to languish so long.]