Harry was now 20 months old and his favorite activity was to running through the winding halls of Hogwarts. He would often sneak up behind the 4th year Slytherins, or if they were running late the group of 6th year Hufflepuffs, as they walked to the Great Hall for lunch. Always he showed fearsome claws and roared as harshly as he could muster, but the students would only giggle.

After lunch he went with Minerva to class. He sat quietly playing with his rocky, warm Mercury ball and his cool, ticklely Neptune ball while Minerva explained to her 2nd years then laws of transfiguration. Being mischevious, while Minerva explained technique to one particularly curious Gryffindor, Harry rolled Neptune out the door and then followed behind it.

He jogged quickly down the hallway and shuffled carefully down a stairwell clutching his ball. He went around another corner and then farther down the following hallway. He chatted with the suit of armor and explained about his ball. He was even gracious enough to let the armor feel the tickling sensation of the clouds moving on the planet.

Finished interacting with the armor he walked farther down the hallway, bouncing Neptune along the way. He happened upon a small alcove and he jogged up to it, peering slyly around the corner.

There he saw two older kids. The looked like they were hugging, though the one boy's hand kept rubbing up and down the others back. It was kinda how Aunt Min rubbed his back before he went to sleep at night. Harry watched for quite a bit while the boys hugged, touched mouths, and made weird noises. But soon he got bored and he decided they should get to see his Neptune too.

"Hi! Hi!" He shouted at them. He shuffled forward and ran into one of the boy's legs with his ball.

"Hi!" He said again.

The boys broke apart, blushing hard. They panted as they looked down at the baby. Harry smiled and lifted the ball towards the boys.

"Look'it! I's Ne'un!" He exclaimed pushing the ball towards one of the boy's hands.

One boy smiled at him, the one with red, curly hair, and mussed his hair. "What's this? Is it Neptune?" He asked patiently.

"Ya! Issa 'lanet!" Harry explained.

The other, blonde-haired, boy sighed deeply and laid his head on the others chest. "Why don't you send the brat away?" He grumbled. The ginger cut his eyes at the other boy, obviously disagreeing with the suggestion.

Harry moved closer and stood on his tippy toes next to the boys as he tried to hand the ball to them. The ginger moved his arm from around the blonde and reached out a hand for the ball. The ginger-boy laughed.

"Well that tickles doesn't it!"

Harry nodded along and pulled himself up on the bench next to the boys. He patted the ball and smiled up at them.

The blonde sighed heavily and got up from the the red head's lap. He straightened his robes and scowled at the other boy. "When you finish playing around with that child I'll be in the library."

As he walked away the ginger shouted after him, "I'll see you at supper!" Looking down at the toddler who was insistently trying to pull the ball away from him he laughed to himself about the situation. He smiled down at Harry.

"Have you ever played catch before Harry?"

Minerva found them much later pushing Neptune back and forth on the floor. The ginger, a 7th year Ravenclaw, lost 10 points for skipping class but an open invitation to babysit Harry whenever he liked.

a/n:

The red headed Ravenclaw's name is Michael and his blonde haired boyfriend it Stephen. They've been in a relationship since their 5th year. Micheal had multiple cousins and a little sister so he is used to childrenmake while Stephen is unnerved by children as all the ones he's interacted with have a strong dislike for him. Stephen and Michael plan to get bonded next fall.

Minerva wasn't too worried when Harry dissapeared. As Harry gets older she is coming to realize that the babe has a strong sense of adventure and she knows that Hogwarts will look out for its littlest resident.