November 19th, 1997 Somewhere in Pennsylvania

"Alright, Potter, time to meet the rest of the team."

Harry followed the middle aged, grey haired man into a small locker room, wondering if this Coach Chambers was what was common for most quidditch teams. He was a bit gruff, but that was a small thing really. At least he didn't seem to be nearly as maniacal about things as Wood had been a few years ago.

"Hey, Coach, is this the new guy?" a man with dark blonde hair and a bushy beard asked.

"Yep, this is Potter," Chambers replied. "You got it from here, Lennie?"

"Sure, pops, we can run things like usual," Lennie said.

"Good, I've got to finish setting things up for travel and everything." The coach turned and gave Harry a brief nod. "Listen to Lennie, and he won't steer you wrong."

Harry looked to the guy named Lennie and they shook hands. "I'm Harry Potter, and I guess I'm the new seeker."

"I'm Lennie Martin," he chuckled. "Well, you may just be a kid, but you're bound to be better than Penteghast was."

"A drunk hobo would have been better than that bitch," another guy piped up.

The lone woman on the team started to laugh. "It's better to be alone in this sausage fest than putting up with her."

"You're a bit late, kid," Lennie said.

"Sorry, I had to drop my wife off to see her friends before I came," Harry explained.

"Wife?" a black haired twenty something with a tan asked, shaking his head in disgust. "Jesus, kid, you're way too young to get married."

"Don't listen to Chaske," Lennie snorted out a laugh. "He's just sore that his last girlfriend cheated on him."

"Dumb bitch will regret it some day," Chaske replied.

Lennie patted Harry on the shoulder. "Get changed quick and meet us out on the field."

"Okay."

He found a locker with his uniform and hurried to swap his clothes. Now that he was thinking about it, Harry realized he was looking forward more to today than he'd thought. Staying in a busy metropolis like New York City, he really hadn't had much of a chance to fly in a few months.

A few minutes later, he soared outside on his Firebolt and flew up to Lennie, who appeared to be the captain of the team.

"Nice broom, kid," Lennie whistled. "We're gonna do a few flying drills once everyone is warmed up, and then we'll all break up into an offense versus defense scrum. There's a couple of practice snitches that I'll release when we do that. Sound good?"

"Sure," Harry shrugged.

"Alright, then let's fly!"

Meanwhile in England...

Pansy took the stairs down to the tea shop and smiled as she saw Ruby Brightwell behind the counter.

"Pansy, dear, how are you?"

"Not bad." Pansy sat down on a stool. "Can I get a cup? You aren't closing soon, are you?"

"Not for another couple of hours," Ruby answered. "I'm surprised to see you back here. Weren't you and Harry going on a year long honeymoon?"

She grinned as the older woman laughed. "We have been enjoying ourselves, but we've been having a lot of fun in New York for the last few months. And the Americans sent a bureaucrat to try to entice us to stay there. So, today Harry is flying with their quidditch team."

"I don't know much about sports across the pond, but don't they have more than one?" Ruby asked.

"I mean their national team," Pansy clarified as Ruby let out a small gasp of surprise.

"I knew Harry was good, but I didn't know he was that good."

"Well, I'm no expert, but they admitted that the team is not the best," Pansy shrugged. "Harry might not be on the level of the professionals in Europe, but they seemed to think he could be a big improvement for the US. And I know that they think it will be a publicity stunt that will help drum up more support. They play something called quodpot over there more than quidditch apparently."

"Oh," Ruby said as she poured some tea and passed it over.

"Harry didn't want me to be bored, and I know it's been a little while since either of us stopped by," Pansy said before taking a sip.

"It's quite alright, dearie," Ruby beamed. "I still remember what it was like to be off on the adventure of being young. Don't worry about your old neighbors."

"Speaking of neighbors, where is Mortie?"

"He went off to the bank earlier, and I told him he could stop by the pub before coming home," Ruby said. "He was good enough to open things this morning while I wanted to do a few things around the flat, so I decided he had earned a treat. Sometimes it can be a bit hard to live and work together, but we do things to try to keep some balance."

"Huh." Pansy thought about it for a moment. "Harry and I spend a lot of time together, but we don't really get on each other's nerves very often. Should I worry about that as we get older?"

"It can be good to have hobbies and interests that you might not share," Ruby suggested. "Everyone needs a little time on their own occasionally."

"That makes sense." She chewed over the thought and tapped her chin for a moment. "I guess that's why I spend time with friends when Harry's busy like today."

"Are you going to stay long?" Ruby asked.

"I'm going over to see Vanessa and play with little Gracie in half an hour or so," Pansy grinned. "She's such a little cutie. And I'm going to take the opportunity to learn a bit more about little kids for when it's my turn. I never had any younger siblings or cousins or anything that I got to spend any time around when I was younger."

"Thinking ahead is smart," Ruby nodded. "I've had way too many friends who were terribly short sighted and it bit them in the bum in so many different ways. I had a best friend back in the sixties and she jumped on every single trend for years- including all the trendy drugs, and you can probably guess how that ended up."

"Not well, I take it?" Pansy smirked.

"In and out of treatment so many times I lost count," the older woman sighed. "I gave her a job years back, on one of the many occasions when she was supposedly going to put her life together, and she ended up stealing from the register, so we had to throw her out. Well, Mortie did anyway, bless him, because I couldn't handle it at the time. The betrayal, you know? I'd stood by her through so many of her messes. A few years later, I was standing over her grave.

"Now, I'm not some saint who never had too much to drink or smoked a bit back in the day," Ruby shook her head sadly. "But I never liked needles, and I like them even less after I saw what became of her."

"Needles..." Pansy frowned for a second.

"I suppose they don't do shots in the magical world," Ruby said.

"Not really," she shrugged in response. "At least, I can't remember of anything like that."

Ruby snorted. "Lucky you."

Harry and Pansy met back up later that evening for dinner.

"How was your baby time?" he asked from the bathroom, just after getting out of the shower.

"Adorable as always," she giggled. "I've gone from 'Ansy' to 'Aunt Ansy' so I consider that a win."

"I should probably visit them more too," Harry said as he came out with a towel still around his shoulders. "Do you know if they're busy this weekend?"

"Why? We're going to be busy going down to Peru."

"Yeah, and I don't want you to get bored at the game, so I was thinking that we could invite them to come along," he suggested. "It would only take me a minute to pick them up, you know?"

"I guess I'll talk to Vanessa tomorrow and ask," Pansy replied. "It could be fun to have someone to talk to, and it would give them a chance to see a bit more of the magical world."

"Exactly," Harry agreed.

"There could be one little problem though," she added with a frown. "They are muggles, remember?"

"So?"

"So, there may very well be restrictions about taking them to a magical sporting event," Pansy said.

"Hmm, well, I'll check things out and see if it will be a problem," he answered. "If you're just going to be sitting in the stands for a bit, I don't see why it would really matter. And Dobby could always come along to make sure there aren't any problems."

Unfortunately, Pansy ran into a little problem the next day when she contacted her friend.

"It might not be a good idea," Vanessa said.

"Why not?" Pansy frowned.

"Grace is young enough that we can't really explain to her how she'd have to keep all the magical stuff secret," her friend answered sadly. "She's talking more and more these days, and what am I supposed to do if she starts telling her gran all about the flying people on brooms? I could try to explain it away as her being imaginative, but I think it would be better to just not have the situation come up yet. If she were a few years older, maybe it could work, but..."

Pansy sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Part of the idea was just so I could have friends to spend time with while Harry's out there flying like a maniac."

Vanessa snickered. "I'd love to go if the circumstances were a bit different. I'm not huge into sports, but seeing a game where people fly would be enough to get me interested."

"Maybe there will be other wives and girlfriends that I could socialize with," Pansy suggested with a brief shrug. "Or maybe a husband or boyfriend, I suppose- Harry did mention that there was a woman on the team."

"Really?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes, the sport is generally coed," Pansy replied. "It's probably a bit more heavily male overall, but Harry had a few teammates who were girls back at Hogwarts."

"Ooh, were you ever jealous?" Vanessa teased.

"Why would I ever need to worry?" she smirked in response. "Harry has always been quite devoted. Although, I do have to admit that a couple of them might have been interested at one point or another. But frankly, that was true of a lot of girls that we went to school with."

"I guess he was famous and all that," Vanessa said. "Is the Quidditch World Cup every four years? That's how it is for football."

"Yes."

"Maybe four years from now then. Gracie could understand things by then."

Pansy shrugged.

"I hope you have fun anyway," Vanessa said.

"As long as the match doesn't last for five hours or something ridiculous," she answered. "I'll tell you about it next week sometime."

November 21st, 1997 In the Mountains of Peru

"Ooh, that landing was a bit rough," Harry said as he rolled over after the portkey sent them into the southern hemisphere.

"Be sure to take a minute to get used to things," Lennie suggested. "The altitude can really mess with you if you're not used to it."

"It's times like this that I wish I hadn't married you," his wife Kate added with a groan as she cradled her stomach. "Help me up, dammit Lennie."

"Yes, dear," he said as he pulled her to her feet.

Harry found he had no problems at the moment and stood on his own. But he knew it was definitely a good thing that Pansy hadn't come along on the portkey because she would have grumbled a lot more than that. "Is that why we came a couple of days early? To get used to being so high up?"

"Yeah," Lennie answered as he double checked the luggage he and his wife had brought along. "Places like this tend to give the home team a big advantage. Most people don't play or train a mile and a half above sea level. Peru will have a big enough advantage Sunday; just imagine how bad it would be if we were all nauseous and having trouble breathing."

"Right," Harry said as he looked around at the rest of the team and the few guests as they were standing in some sort of hotel lobby.

Coach Chambers staggered over to the desk and started sorting out the rooms.

"Where's the wife, Potter?" Lennie asked.

"I'll go get her later."

"You got another portkey?"

Harry shook his head. "I'll just apparate."

Lennie and Kate both stared at him.

"It will be a smoother ride for her that way, and she was still packing our things when I left," Harry added with a slight shrug.

"Damn," Lennie muttered.

"I'll say," Kate agreed.

"Martin, room 216," the coach said as he passed them a hotel key. "Potter, you're 217."

"Thanks."

Harry took the stairs up a floor, found his room, and went inside. It wasn't exactly luxurious, but it was decent enough for a couple of days. He took a moment to really look at the room and ready himself before apparating back to New York.

Upon arriving, he saw Pansy reading a book with one foot bouncing as she waited.

"That took a bit longer than I expected," she said.

Harry inhaled and could feel his lungs appreciating the air more than they had back in Peru. "One of the guys and his wife were running late. But, I've been up to our room, so I'm ready to pop us back there if you're good to go."

Pansy pointed down to a trunk and stood up. "Everything's packed."

"Okay." He shrunk and pocketed the trunk before holding out his left arm. "The air will probably feel a bit odd because it's up in the mountains. We can rest for a bit when we get there."

"Dobby is coming too," the elf stated as he appeared standing next to him. "Dobby does not trust others to take proper care of his family."

Pansy giggled while Harry nodded. "Of course. Where would we be without you?"

"And you can watch the match with me, if you like," she added.

Dobby smiled and then grabbed onto Harry's leg.

"Alright, Potter family away!"

Pansy was still laughing at his declaration when they appeared in Peru a moment later. "I think you're getting all worked up from this whole quidditch thing."

"Maybe a little bit," he admitted with a teasing look on his face. "It can be pretty fun, darting through the air on my broom. You've never really wanted to go flying with me very much, so maybe you just don't get why I've missed it."

Pansy snorted. "I've seen the way you fly, and that is not my idea of a good time."

"Luna enjoyed it when I zipped her away from Hogwarts."

"She also thought it was fun for her little rabbit Patronus to go flying on the back of your dragon," she replied. "Meanwhile, my fox was much more content to cuddle up. If I'm feeling like thrill seeking, it will be for a very different type of physical rush."

Harry grinned as Pansy winked at him. "I like the way you think."

Unfortunately, a knock at the door kept them from having any of that sort of fun for the moment. "Potter! Team meeting in ten minutes."

"Right, coach," he called back.

Pansy smirked. "Duty calls."

"You want to come with?" Harry asked. "You could meet the team and everyone that came along."

"Wives and husbands?" she wondered.

"Just wives," he answered as he out their luggage out of the way and let Dobby get to 'fixing' their room. "Sinclair is single, and a couple of the guys are too."

"If we must," Pansy teased. "But I do believe we'll be busy later tonight."

"This is another country that we haven't yet shagged in," Harry agreed with a laugh. They stepped out into the hallway and noticed the Martins next door coming out at the same time. "Oh, hi. Let me introduce you. Pansy, this is Lennie and Kate Martin. He's the captain."

"That's just because he's the old man on the team." His wife Kate grinned as she stepped over and gave Pansy a brief hug. "It will be nice to have someone new around for the game. Especially if they have one of those terrible marathons that lasts forever."

"That's really up to Potter," Lennie said. "The rest of us can't end the game, you know."

"I've never been in a game that lasted too long, I suppose," Harry said as he thought about it for a moment. "None of them were nearly as long as some of the practices that Wood and Angelina ran us through over the years."

The two couples rode a lift down to the lobby and went towards a meeting room off to one side. Harry assumed that Lennie knew where they were headed and once they were through the door, he saw most of the rest of the team. They were sitting around a couple of tables.

"Good," Coach Chambers nodded as they came in. "We're just waiting for Chasce and Sinclair now."

The other two chasers came in a couple of minutes later, both with drinks in their hands.

"Hitting the bar already?" Chambers barked out grumpily. "I don't know why I put up with you louses, sometimes."

"Because we're better than any other options," Chasce sneered back as he took a sip of vodka. "Let's get this over with so that I can enjoy my night."

"Practice is at ten in the morning," the coach said. "We'll leave from this room, so don't be late. We've got three hours at the stadium before the Peruvians take over for the afternoon."

"They could have let us sleep in," Sinclair complained.

"Hopefully none of you will be dumb enough to be out partying all night," Chambers answered with a glare. "The game on Sunday will start at three in the afternoon, but we'll be meeting for lunch here at the hotel at eleven thirty and then going to prepare at the stadium. Any questions?" At a look from a few shakes of the head, the coach clapped his hands. "Then get out of here, and I'll see you tomorrow."

As the group started to get up, Kate Martin leaned over to the Potters. "Pansy, a few of us will do a late brunch tomorrow while the team goes off to play. Want to join us?"

"Sure."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," she said before winking at them. "Have a good night, kids."

Harry was the last to get up, letting the crowd thin out. "She seems nice."

"I guess I'll find out tomorrow," Pansy replied as they slowly walked out into the lobby. "It might be fun to have some new people to gossip with, although I'm pretty sure they'll be most interested in finding out about us."

"You mean because we're new?" he asked.

"And you are you," she said with a roll of her eyes. "If the government was bending over backwards to try to get us to immigrate, I imagine you're pretty famous in America too."

"I was hoping to leave some of that behind," Harry sighed.

"Winters did say the magicals in the States were pretty spread out, so I guess we'll just have to rely on that fact to keep from feeling too crowded."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Don't worry, Harry," Pansy smiled as she wrapped an arm around his waist. "I'll put a good word in for you with the other ladies."

"Thanks, I think," he said with a snort of laughter.

November 22nd, 1997 Machu Picchu

Post practice and a nice refreshing shower, Harry had finally coaxed Pansy into joining him on his Firebolt when they went to see the famous Inca city high in the Andes. They were disillusioned so as to not disturb the muggle tourists below them as he took them on a bird's eye view of the site.

"Do you think muggles built all this by themselves?" Pansy wondered as they gazed upon the many stone buildings, with staircases and paths here and there leading to the different levels of terraces. "We're so high up, I'd think magic would have helped a lot. I can't imagine what it would have taken muggles to do all this hundreds of years ago."

"We may never know," Harry said as he looked over her, his chin resting on her right shoulder. "From what I found when I was looking this place up in the library, the Inca people didn't really have written records before the Spanish arrived, and the conquistadors did all they could to erase the natives' history and culture."

"Maybe native magicals were different," she suggested. "We could probably ask."

"Maybe," he muttered. "Then again, they may not like foreigners like us digging into their past. I can't say I'd blame them."

"True," she whispered as he slowly turned the broom and floated lower over one of the buildings that Harry pointed at.

"That is what they call the Temple of the Sun." He turned and looked towards the horizon. "I bet the sunsets and sunrises were pretty amazing to see up here."

"Rising over the mountaintops, you mean?"

"Uh huh."

"I can see that," she admitted. "I think I might prefer seeing the sun over the sea more though."

Harry chuckled. "Maybe we should go somewhere tropical when the weather gets bad. Sirius did say that I could use his family's old island."

"That would be nice," Pansy agreed as she leaned back into his embrace. "After the holidays though. January can be pretty dreary, so it would be a good time to get away."

"I'll talk to him about it later. I probably ought to mention it anyway, just in case he was thinking of taking Kathryn there at the same time."

She turned her head and kissed his cheek. "So, you wouldn't want to make it a double date?"

Harry smiled. "Then we couldn't have fun naked beach time."

"True," Pansy giggled.

"How was brunch today?"

"Lovely."

"That's all?" Harry asked.

She stuck her nose up into the air. "We ladies must have a few secrets."

Harry chuckled. "Okay."

"Are you hungry yet?" Pansy asked.

"Not starving," he shrugged. "Let's wait for a little while. I want to see the sun as it gets lower."

Pansy inhaled and sighed. "I might need a bubblehead charm if we're going to be here for awhile. This thin air is bothering me to some extent."

Harry pulled out his wand and covered them both. "I know what you mean. That's one thing I'm not looking forward to for the game. We had to take a break at practice to catch our breaths. I can see what Lennie meant when he said the Peruvians would have a big advantage."

"You'll just have to try to catch the snitch as fast as you can," she said.

"I guess if I win, then you and I will have to keep up the tradition of celebrating properly." Harry's hands slid under the edge of her shirt and softly caressed her stomach. "That's some pretty good motivation, I think."

"And don't you forget it, Mr. Potter," Pansy teased.

"Of course not, Mrs. Potter."

November 23rd, 1997

"Pansy, come join us," Kate Martin waved her over. "You're the last one to arrive."

There were two other women sitting with her in the visitors' box. Alice Gorman and Stephanie Keys were the wives of the beaters and were the best of friends. The fact that their husbands played on the same professional team probably helped along that relationship. Pansy would guess that both of them were in their mid to late twenties.

At thirty one, Kate was the oldest and the only one who had children, a son who was three years old and a daughter who had just had her first birthday the month before (who were staying with grandparents, to her great relief.) In that way, she was slightly reminiscent of Vanessa, being at a similar point in life, although the muggle lawyer also clearly had a number of differences compared to the witch Pansy had just met.

"I didn't want to get here too early," she said as she sat down. Thankfully, there was a comfort charm waiting for her. "I really can't imagine what all they're doing for three hours before the match begins."

"There is some stretching and whatnot as well as strategy talk," Kate admitted with a shrug. "But Lennie tells me a lot of it is just trying to relax and get any nerves settled."

"Hm," Pansy murmured. "It still seems like a bit much to me."

"How was your trip yesterday?"

"Almost as wonderful as the night was afterwards," she teased.

Kate laughed in response. "You did say you're still on your honeymoon. Enjoy it while it lasts."

"Alright, Potter! The last bit's on you," the coach raised his voice once the clock was nearing three. "If you see the snitch, go for it. Don't mess around based on the score or any of that crap. The longer the match lasts, the more gassed we'll be, and that will only help the Peruvians. Got it?"

"Sure," he nodded.

"Right, then I guess we'll see if you're as good as your reputation suggests."

Harry shrugged and grabbed his broom as the team all headed for the exit and towards the field.

Lennie patted him on the arm as they awaited the announcer's call. "Try not to let the crowd get to you either."

Harry chuckled. "Luckily, I don't speak Spanish yet, so I wouldn't even know what their taunts might mean."

"Just keep that optimism going then."

The crowd booed when the American team flew out over the pitch before roaring a moment later for the Peruvians. Pansy leaned over towards Kate to speak over the noise. "Is it always this packed?"

"I think there's probably four thousand people in attendance today." She looked around for a moment and then nodded. "That's about fifty percent more than the last time we came down here six years ago. A small part of that is probably because Peru has a stronger team, but some of it's bound to be because of your hubby."

Pansy sighed. "I guess he really is world famous. We had hoped that a lot of that nonsense with the Dark Lord was a much bigger deal back home in Britain than everywhere else."

"I'm sure it's worse there, but the photo of Harry getting hit with the Killing Curse and then standing right back up- well, that went international." Kate looked away for a moment before continuing while obviously trying to remain nonchalant about it. "I'm surprised you haven't had more press trying to get interviews with Harry."

"Maybe we should give one with Luna," she mused.

"Who's Luna?"

Pansy smiled. "Our best friend. Her dad publishes something called the Quibbler. There's a lot of talk of forgotten magical creatures and conspiracy theories in it."

"A tabloid?" Kate asked.

"I guess," she replied. "Xeno is a bit out there, and Luna can be too. But I'm sure Harry would much rather do an interview with her instead of most reporters."

"Is she still back in England?"

"Yes, she's got another year and a half at Hogwarts," Pansy explained and started to smile. "Harry and I left school early. He wanted to get away from things, and both of us wanted to see more of the world."

"Lucky you," Kate teased.

"I know," she smirked.

"Well, are you now thinking of settling down somewhere?"

"We've been staying in New York for the moment, and I enjoy the city enough that I think we might buy a house near by," Pansy answered. "Maybe not in the city itself, though."

"If you're going to buy a house, you'll want to think about a few things," Kate suggested. "With magic, we have capabilities that normal people don't, but it's still nice to find a nice neighborhood, especially if you have kids. Good schools, too. Lennie and I stayed in an apartment after we first got together for almost three years. We were saving up, and I spent a lot of time house hunting. I was so thankful that I'd already found a place when I first discovered I was pregnant- we'd only moved into our house a couple of months before hand."

"That is lucky timing," Pansy agreed. "I suppose I'll have to start thinking about that sort of thing one of these days. We'll probably wait until next year at least though, since Harry won't be eighteen until next summer. Apparently, that's when he'll be considered an adult in the muggle world. The diplomat they sent to talk to us also said it will be easier for us to get married again in a courthouse at the time- which is really funny since we did something similar back home, but we had a wedding months later in France, and that's the one place where we didn't get a marriage certificate."

"Why France?" Kate asked.

"I had extended family there, and my aunt Evangeline pushed for it," Pansy replied. "We had friends there too, and they helped coordinate things, as well as having our reception in their home. Come to think of it, I should check in with the Delacours one of these days."

The Peruvians had already taken a fifty point lead by the time Harry first spotted the snitch. America's chasers were pretty decent- Lennie had the best arm and had scored three goals, but his maneuverability wasn't the best. Jessie Sinclair was his opposite, her slighter frame helping to augment her quickness, while the grump Chasce was in between the other two on both aspects.

The beaters were trying to hold their own as well, but the keeper was not having a good day.

Harry exhaled as a bludger shot just over his head and he twisted back to his right, looking for where the snitch had disappeared after his brief distraction. The crowd let out a roar a moment later, and he saw the home team's chasers once again flash down the pitch and score another goal.

"Come on, where did it go?" he muttered to himself as he scanned the area he'd last seen it.

"Ooh, that's going to sting later," Kate hissed as her husband lost the quaffle due to a hit from a bludger. "I hope it didn't get his ribs. Even with healing spells, those are a pain afterwards."

"I remember Harry having something similar once back at Hogwarts," Pansy said. "I had to sleep on the opposite side of the bed that night."

"You had coed rooms?" Kate turned to her in shock.

Pansy snickered in response. "Thanks to Harry's status, we were able to get private quarters, and while I was supposed to sleep in the second bedroom, I never did."

"Wow," her new friend replied. "That's not what I expected... when did you start sleeping together?"

"The first time was actually in the summer before our third year," Pansy smiled at the memory. "It was his thirteenth birthday. We had house elves helping us to sneak around."

"That's a bit early," Kate said.

"Well, I mean that was the first time we actually slept in the same bed," she clarified. "We didn't have sex for awhile after that, but I guess that we were on the young side when we got around to it."

The crowd roared again as Peru had increased their lead.

"We'd need your man to pull off a miracle, if we're going to have a chance to win," Kate sighed as she looked over to the scoreboard.

Harry threaded between two Peruvian players as he'd finally spotted the snitch. Hopefully he wouldn't let it get away again. He hadn't checked the scored in a couple of minutes, but he knew the lead was almost out of reach. However, the coach's words had stuck in his head, and he could even feel his own body starting to feel the stress of the thin air.

The opposing team's seeker must have spotted it too, because he was flying on an intercept path from off to his left and a bit higher. At this rate, they'd likely bounce off each other a bit as they jockeyed for position to try to make the catch.

Taking a second to prepare for a collision, Harry urged his broom on and twisted his left side. The Peruvian seeker pulled even with a slight bump, but nothing too strong as they were both still zooming directly along on the path of the snitch.

They brushed against each other twice as they closed the distance towards the tiny golden ball. Harry was gaining slightly- the Firebolt was still top of the line for International play- and a last second adjustment allowed him to surge ahead by several feet.

He heard a distant cheer before finally his right hand grasped the snitch, ending the match.

"He got it!" Pansy stood up and yelled as Harry had finished things. Kate hugged her a second later.

"That was some really nice flying," she said before sighing. "Just a little late though."

"Huh?"

Kate pointed towards the scoreboard. Peru had still won, 240-220.

Pansy frowned. "That's the first time he's lost. I don't know how we're going to celebrate tonight."

"We would have gotten blown out if not for Harry," Kate patted her in sympathy. "The last time we played Peru, we lost by almost four hundred. This is a big step up from that."

Pansy thought about it and chuckled. "You've got a point. Besides, it's not like Harry and I weren't going to shag ourselves silly regardless of the outcome."

Kate shook her head and laughed. "I wish I still had that energy. We'll give them a few minutes, but then we should get ready to go check on our guys."