Harry was glad he'd had his reserve Chaser train with the rest of the team. When the news of the first match of the season was posted in the Great Hall, there was still no word of any improvement from Katie Bell, much less when (or if) she would return to school. Perhaps, she might even need to do the year over again, if she started too late to catch up with her classes. The professors would be accommodating, probably, but Harry couldn't imagine catching up on work missed over a period of months. Better, then, to start afresh the following year, even if it meant not finishing school with her fellow classmates.

Harry tried not to think about what might have happened had he or Ron or Hermione had been given the cursed necklace. He still wondered how Katie had come across it, as did, he imagined, everyone else at school.

Mostly, he hoped that she would be all right, not just because she was a valuable player, but because very few people deserved to be cursed by a necklace that had-as he'd heard from his classmates-claimed numerous lives.

After learning about the official date of the match, he increased the length of their practices by an hour, and was pleased with how they were doing. Really, if they beat Slytherin, they would stand an excellent shot of winning the Cup again this year.

There had not been any further lessons from Dumbledore, who was absent from the Great Hall more often than he was present. Harry wondered if he'd even attend the match this coming Saturday, but what gave him more nerves (and excitement) was the knowledge that Sirius would watch him play.

Not that his anxiety could compare to Ron's. He'd done well enough at practice, but on the morning of the match, Ron was all nerves. Ginny and Hermione had tried to be sympathetic before they'd gone down to eat, as he'd told Harry, but they might have made him worse off than before. Harry had missed hearing whatever they had said, what with Sirius having arrived in the Gryffindor fireplace a half hour earlier, and after hugs, Sirius wanted another update about how practice had been going. Harry thought that if his godfather was this enthusiastic, how might his dad have been had he lived? Certainly, James Potter's wardrobe would have matched his best friend's on this day: Sirius's wardrobe colors giving no doubt as to the team he supported. All the same, Harry had to admit that his godfather looked very tasteful in his choice of clothes. Harry wondered, when he gave his godfather a hug, whether Luna's hat would be making an appearance on his Ravenclaw friend.

Sirius joined Harry at the Gryffindor table, and Snape's face took on a look of disgust when Sirius waved cheerfully to the staff. Whatever understanding the two of them had established during the summer, Snape still looked as though he would happily hex Sirius within an inch of his life if he could get away with it.

Well, a small voice told Harry, it's not as though Sirius hadn't done the same thing back in the day.

That, and they were up against Slytherin, who had never won a game since Harry had joined the team six years ago. That had to sting a bit.

Harry recalled that Wood had usually tried to get the team to eat breakfast together on the day of a match, but Ginny and Dean, who Harry thoughts she was still seeing, were eating separately, and Demelza was eating with her group of friends. Harry couldn't locate the others on his team, so he sat down with Ron and Hermione and Sirius. Ron looked rather pale, and kept pushing his toast around on his plate. Given his friend's usually hearty appetite, Harry knew that his nerves were getting to him.

"You'll do great, Ron!" Hermione enthused.

"Yeah," Ron answered, with a forced smile.

Sirius wanted to talk strategy with everyone present, but a look at Ron made this idea disappear. Sympathetically, Sirius simply placed a comforting hard on Ron's shoulder, instead. Ron gave Sirius another forced, but somehow sincere, smile.

All in all, between Ron's nerves and Sirius's appearance, breakfast was rather tense, and Harry was relieved when it was time to get changed for the game.

"See you soon!" he told Sirius, who gave him another long hug.

"I'll be proud of you no matter what, but do try to mop up the field with Slytherin, all right, pup?" Sirius answered, his hands on Harry's shoulders.

"That's the plan!" he assured Sirius, earning another hug.

"All right, off you go, then!" Sirius smiled. "Good luck!"

Ginny had entered the changing area before the others, and was full of good news.

"Conditions look ideal!" Ginny told them, happily. "And guess what? That Slytherin Chaser Vaisey-he took a Bludger in the head yesterday during their practice, and he's too sore to play! And even better than that-Malfoy's gone off sick too!"

"What?" asked Harry, staring at her. "He's ill? What's wrong with him?"

"No idea, but it's great for us," she answered, with a wide smile. "They're playing Harper instead; he's in my year and he's an idiot."

Harry wondered whether Malfoy was truly ill, or just faking it, but decided it didn't matter. He pulled on his scarlet robes before turning to Ron.

"Fishy, isn't it? Malfoy not playing?" Ron murmured, adjusting his own robes.

"Lucky, I call it." Harry noted that Ron looked a lot more like his usual self, now. "And Vaisey off too, he's their best scorer!"

Harry grinned, and within moments, they were walking onto the pitch to the familiar sound of roars and boos from the Slytherin supporters.

Not that it mattered, well, unless Ron let it get to his head. Harry knew that at least three quarters of the school supported Gryffindor this round.

It would become a bit more complicated once they progressed, but no one except the Slytherin house really wanted a win for Slytherin.

Harry noticed that the commentator was a very arrogant Hufflepuff, Zacharias Smith, who Harry very much disliked, and he resolved not to let it get in the way with him playing well.

His first comment was about how one of the Slytherin Chasers aimed the Quaffle at the Gryffindor goal posts, but Ron managed to block it.

"Weasley saves it, well, he's bound to get lucky sometimes, I suppose," Smith half grumbled.

"That's right, Smith, he is," Harry muttered to himself, grinning.

He kept an eye out for the Snitch as he kept his ears open to how the rest of the game was going. Within a half an hour, Gryffindor was leading at 60 points to 0. Ron had made some excellent saves, and Ginny had scored four of the six goals for Gryffindor. She was certainly doing well as Chaser, even better than she had done the previous year as Seeker.

The trouble came when they were up by a hundred points. Perhaps Harry had become full of himself, but when Smith mentioned that Harper had seen the Snitch, he didn't let himself believe it, at first. It was only quick thinking on Harry's end, blurting out, "Oi, Harper! How much did Malfoy pay you to come on instead of him?" that Harper's focus diminished, and it was Harry who caught the Snitch instead.

He couldn't think too much about how his carelessness had nearly lost him the match, and quite possibly the entire tournament. Ginny had sped past the rest of the team and collided with the commentator's podium. She excused herself in front of an irate McGonagall by saying, "Forgot to break, Professor, sorry!"

Everyone hugged, including Harry and Ginny, and Harry clapped Ron on the back. Then, Sirius was there, grinning ear to ear, and clapping him on the shoulder.

"Well done, Harry! Quick thinking there, too!" he said, proudly.

"Thanks, Sirius!" Harry grinned.

"I expect there will be a party in the common room?" Sirius asked, with a hint of question in his voice.

"Probably." Harry gave him a sly smile. "I expect you want to join us?"

"I suppose I could be persuaded," Sirius said, with a wink. "I'll wait here until you're all changed, then join you on the walk back to the castle?"

"Sure, see you in a bit!"

After another hug, Harry headed to the changing rooms, where the mood was positively jubilant.

Everyone was discussing how well they had done, and how it must have been the first time in history that Slytherin hadn't scored once.

"Good job, everyone!" Harry said, raising his voice over the commotion in order to be heard. "Really well done. Let's not forget that we still have two games ahead of us, and we will continue to practice every week." This got a couple of lighthearted groans. "But, in the meantime, let's enjoy ourselves! You've all earned it."

When he returned to walk with Sirius, his godfather showed him what he'd brought over to celebrate. Really, it looked as though all of Honeydukes and Mrs. Weasley's kitchen had been ransacked. Sirius grinned as Harry approached, then put a hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't overdo it, did I?" he asked, peering at the bags of food that followed them as they walked.

Harry shook his head as he took in the scene of at least ten bags of treats following them. "With this many people?" He chuckled. "No, this is brilliant. Say, were you making this stuff all morning?"

"This morning and last evening," Sirius added, proudly. "Well, not the stuff from Honeydukes, of course, but the cookies and cakes and stuff. I wanted there to be a real celebration when you lot won."

"What would you have done with them if we'd lost?" Harry wondered.

"I didn't let myself even consider the possibility," Sirius retorted, mock scandalized. "Not with you as captain and Seeker."

"I nearly did lose, though," he admitted, lowering his voice a bit. "If Harper hadn't looked away..."

"Dumb luck on his part, seeing it before you, and good thinking on your part to distract him," Sirius answered, and, perhaps seeing Harry's doubtful look, he immediately pulling him into a long, reassuring hug. Never mind that his fellow students were around the castle and could be watching. Harry didn't care, and let himself relax into it, almost missing Sirius's next words of advice. "Best not to dwell on what could have happened, pup. Enjoy the fact that you won-that you all won."

He wondered, once more, if this was how Sirius had been when his dad had played. Once of these days, when they were back home, he'd ask to see a memory of one of James's Quidditch games.

Now, Harry simply nodded, deciding to try to follow his godfather's advice. That, and keep a closer eye on the Snitch in the future. They could still lose against Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, after all...but he didn't have time to dwell on that, either.

"Ready to join the celebrations?" Sirius asked, after Harry let go.

"I suppose I could be persuaded," Harry repeated Sirius's words from before, grinning at him.

Chuckling, Sirius tousled his hair, and standing close together, they covered the distance to the castle.

The entire team seemed to be celebrities, and the festivities went on for most of the afternoon. Harry saw most of his team as the hours passed, except for Ron.

When he excused himself to grab a sweater from his dormitory, he opened the door to find Ron and Hermione sitting close together.

No, not just sitting together.

Kissing.

Author's note:

I did warn you that there would be canon ships, didn't I?

Now, before anyone complains that I skipped too far ahead and should have covered Ron/Lavender (ARE there any R/L fans? Seems like that ship's up there with Harry/Cho...no one I know has actually rooted for it since the fifth book came out...), I felt that there were specific events in HBP that led to this ship happening. Namely, Ron's insecurity with playing Keeper, Dean and Ginny being together, and Hermione believing (as did Ron) that Harry spiked Ron's pumpkin juice with Liquid Luck. Most of these events got eliminated in my rewrite, so I do believe that Ron and Hermione would have happened sooner as a result.

As for getting Harry and Ginny together faster? Honestly, at this point, I don't know. That being said, when they do get together, whether it's in Harry's sixth year or afterwards, it not my primary focus for the fic. Again, see the title.

All constructive feedback is more than welcome!