Chapter 4

()()()

Harry woke up and stared at the curtains above his bed. Another early morning. He took his wand out from under his pillow and checked the time; 5:30, like usual. And it was a weekend as well, so he truly had no reason to be up this early.

It was getting a little bit easier to suppress the depression, or at least the urge to just come right back to bed after his classes and stay there in a comatose state, so maybe one of these mornings he'd be able to wake up and realize that he'd had a nice dream, maybe he'd even wake to find that he only had ten minutes to get to class.

Sleeping in would be nice.

He closed his eyes again and tried to will his body back to sleep, then he remembered, today was Quidditch try-outs.

Every other aspect of his life he was still adjusting to, trying to acclimate to having no weight on his shoulders yet still feeling the strain from it having been there, but once he was back on his broom and in the sky he somehow knew that everything would feel right again.

Part of him was a little nervous though, he hadn't had to try-out last time, he had simply been given the position by Professor McGonagall. It wasn't like he could convince Malfoy to snag Neville's Rememberall again and do an impressive dive and catch for it; neither Malfoy nor Neville attended Hogwarts anymore and that situation as a whole would have been a nightmare to orchestrate. He was going to need his natural talent to get him through and prove to little Ginny Weasley that he was the man for her.

For her team that is.

And she wasn't 'little' Ginny Weasley anymore, was she?

Ginny was a bit of an enigma to him. When he left she was this quiet girl that was just sort of there sometimes. Maybe she had really proven herself when she joined the Quidditch team, or maybe she had come out of her shell after she no longer had that embarrassing crush on him that she did. Whatever it was, she now had the presence of a leader that didn't tolerate anyone messing people around.

She'd gotten pretty too. And she had a lovely, engaging smile.

Harry shook that thought right back out of his head. He wanted to focus on getting his friendship with Ron back on track before he gave him the key to remembering their history together; starting to think about his sister like that certainly wasn't going to make Ron befriend him properly again. Harry was already a little concerned it might look like he was trying to make a move on Hermione with how often he wound up sitting near her at meals or in the library.

It was so hard to see both of his best friends and know that they did not remember their shared history. He kept expecting Hermione to tell him off for not getting his homework done the moment it was assigned, or for Ron to roll his eyes at him over something she said then ask if he wanted to play chess. Last time he'd befriended Hermione there had been a Troll involved, surely he didn't need to save her life again to earn her friendship this time around.

It wasn't happening fast, but he felt like he was making a little progress. They were at the point of sitting beside him at meals now, not the other way around. Them choosing to be near him over all the other options was a good sign.

He had to keep reminding himself to put on a pleasant face. The corners of his lips just automatically turned into a frown if he was thinking, or basically doing anything besides making the effort to look approachable.

He'd brought it up with Sirius last night over the mirrors. The concept of making friends had never come easy to Harry. Dudley had stunted him that section of kindergarten education and kept his peers away from him as they aged. Ron befriending him the first day on the Hogwarts Express and the subsequent saving of Hermione from the Troll was his experience in making friends. Now he had to find some way to insert himself more into their lives that was unassuming.

Dean and he had started hanging out during their free time and that felt pretty natural. Dean knew how to make friends easily, he seemed to have friends in every single house. Harry was a little jealous of him for his ability to do that.

Today though, today was about Quidditch.

This he could do.

As soon as 6:30 rolled around he got dressed quickly, grabbed his Firebolt and slipped down to the kitchens for breakfast before most others had bothered wiping the sleep out of their eyes.

Once he was at the pitch he breathed in deep and savored the moment; the smell of the grass, the feel of the wind brushing against his cheek, the snug feel of his old Puddlemere fan jersey on him and his broom in his hand.

Yes, this he could do.

Hopping on his broom he shot into the air and did several laps to get used to the feeling of it again. It was heaven.

He looped around the entire pitch, inside and out. He tried out all the tricks that he had learned in his first three years at the school and attempted a few that he'd read about since. Before he knew it the sun was high and he had an audience.

Ginny and a guy with a Beaters bat were carrying in the chest with the Quidditch balls in it. She waved him down and he shot towards the grass, coming to a dead stop and dismounting as quick, yet steadily, as he felt confident doing.

From the expressions on Ginny's and the Beater's face he pulled it off pretty spectacularly.

"Is that a Firebolt?" the guy asked.

Harry was really kicking himself now over not learning more people's names. He should have paid more attention. He now knew the names of all the fellow Gryffindor's in his new year and nearly all in his classes from the other Houses, but hadn't bothered much with the rest of the student body. Knowing the Quidditch team might have been a good call.

"It is," Harry said and held it out. "Did you want to take it for a spin?"

"Really?" The guy then dropped his side of the chest due to his excitement over the offer. "Oh! Sorry!" he said hastily to Ginny.

"Yeah, go on, I can help her carry the chest," Harry offered, handing him the broom.

"Jimmy," Ginny started, but Jimmy had already shot off like a bullet into the air with a whoop of glee. "Urgh, he promised to help me."

"Well, now I can help you," Harry said again.

She gave him a hard stare for a moment before relenting. "I suppose it's the least you can do."

That wasn't exactly the response he thought he'd receive, but he could work with it. "You can have a try on it too if you'd like," he told her.

She gave him a funny look before quirking an eyebrow at him, the starting of a smirk coming to her face. "Did you just offer me a go on your broomstick?" she asked in a low and flirty voice.

The handle from the chest slipped through his hand a bit, but he managed to catch it before it fell. A swallow was all he managed in response as they continued to carry it to where she seemed to be leading him.

The moment passed for her quickly and she was back to being herself. "Don't think your assistance or your broom that does your work for you is going to get you on the team," Ginny told him. "I saw you were fast, but you could easily be stupid and blind."

"I'll just have to prove myself to you then, won't I?" he told her confidently. He knew he would be the best one out there, he'd been the youngest player in a century after all. There wasn't much he let himself be cocky about, but this, this he would be the best at.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him then and tilted her head before directing him to set down the chest. "You know what? You just gave me an idea." With that, she turned and started walking in the direction of the storage lock up on the other side of the pitch. "Are you coming?" she called back.

He followed after her and quickly caught up. "What was the idea?" he asked.

"That any idiot can look impressive on a Firebolt, but I want the best players, not just the best brooms."

There was a sinking feeling growing in his stomach now. His brain was rejecting the idea before it could fully materialize because it was such an awful idea.

School brooms.

They were all laid out before them once she had the storage shed doors opened, leaning against the wall with dust, dirt and cobwebs over them; twenty crummy school brooms that were used to teach the first years.

And they were all the shittiest brooms he'd ever laid eyes on.

"I, er, I suppose if you are looking for the best players," he offered, attempting to keep the disgust off his face.

"So glad I have your approval," she smirked and shoved one at him so it hit him gently in the chest.

He helped her carry the brooms back to where they had left the chest and watched the other hopefuls walk onto the field. He wanted to offer each and every one of them an apology. Maybe if he hadn't… wait a moment, he hadn't done anything! He offered her a try of his broom. She was the one that turned that around to be something salacious.

"You should stand over there," Ginny inclined her head to the rest of the group, she still looked so proud of herself for coming up with this group torture idea.

"Right, yeah," he grumbled and started heading towards Ron. "Weren't you on the team before you took time off?" Ron had mentioned he'd been made Keeper for two years on the House team.

"She's still making me try-out though," Ron muttered mutinously.

Jimmy came back down to the ground then with his hair stuck at all odd angles. "She rides amazingly," he exclaimed with big eyes. Then he noticed all the school brooms. "Er, what's going on?"

"She wants us all to try out using those," Harry told them darkly.

"What?!" the two boys exclaimed.

"Is she mental? Some of those can barely get off the ground! We've got a Shooting Star at home that rides better than the one I had to use during my first year flying lesson," Ron complained.

"I've the feeling it's my fault," Harry frowned. "Having a Firebolt and whatnot, don't think she's too keen on me." He found it strange to hear those words coming from his mouth. Before he'd left, Ginny Weasley had hero worshipped him to the point of awkwardness, now she could barely look at him without smirking or narrowing her eyes like she was assessing him for signs of weakness.

"Oh, don't read into that," Jimmy told him quickly. "It's been a hard time of it here and she doesn't trust anyone she doesn't know."

"Did something happen to her?" Ron quickly asked him in a low and panicked voice.

Jimmy let out a snort of laughter before he remembered himself and who he was talking to. "No, mate. Nothing much happened to her directly; girls a force to be reckoned with."

Ron relaxed back into his stance, but Harry was confused by that expression. She was a 'force to be reckoned with'? Maybe she had a wicked defensive spell? He didn't remember her being anything but meek.

Meek wasn't how he would describe her now at all, but they had all just been through a war and Ron didn't seem to find her alarmingly changed so Harry had assumed she'd simply grown into herself.

"SHUT IT," Ginny yelled and the twenty or so people assembled fell quiet. "Great. Now that I have your attention we can get started. I'll thank you all for bringing your brooms, but in order to level the playing field we are going to be doing our try-outs on the school brooms today." She allowed a moment for the groans and muttered protests to be voiced before carrying on. "My objective is to find the best players and I can't do that if your broom is doing all the work for you. You can all leave your brooms where they are and grab one of these," she indicated to the pile of sticks at her feet.

Harry knew he was covering up his disgust as well as everyone else around him; distain in the eyes and a slight curling of the top lip. He managed to grab one that severely needed its twigs trimmed, but the shaft of it seemed in decent repair.

"Beater hopefuls, you can go over there with Jimmy. Keepers over there," she pointed behind her. "Chasers, you can stay where you are and Seekers over there," she pointed over to the opposite side of her from the chest.

"Later," Harry said to Ron as they headed in different directions. There were two others trying out for the place of Seeker. One of them looked so incredibly small, a boy that couldn't possibly be anything higher than a second year, he was quivering a bit. The other was a girl who might be in her fifth year that looked like she would be sturdy on a broom.

Be friendly, he reminded himself. Give them a smile, not a creepy one. Whatever you do, force your expression to be pleasant.

"Heyya," Harry greeted them. "I'm Harry," he held his hand out. He was determined now to be more sociable. Sirius had told him about all the friends he'd had in school, all the admirers too, and of course he had launched into many a story of a darkened castle corridor with a lady friend, but he'd expressed the importance and how good it felt to know so many people well enough to have their names down and a story of the person at least.

"Brennan," the boy said quietly.

"Ashley," the girl nodded. Neither of them looked able to carry on a conversation from their nerves getting the better of them.

"Too bad about the brooms, eh?" Harry pressed.

"I had to use the school broom anyway," Brennan told him sadly. "I'm from a Muggle family, but my brother took me to a Quidditch game a few years ago. He was in Ravenclaw."

"He's done with school now?" Harry asked.

From the expression on the boys face his brother was not done with just school now, he'd likely never had the chance to finish. "Oh," Harry backpedaled. "Oh, I'm so sorry. That was a stupid thing to ask."

"You didn't know," Brennan looked down at the grass.

"Good job, Harry," Ashley glibly commented.

He wanted to snap at her that there was no way he could have known, then start listing off all the people that had died because of Voldemort in his own life; starting with his parents.

That was not a good way to make friends though, and he didn't want everyone around him to be as grumpy and damaged as he was.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself for another attempt at an olive branch. "Brennan, I'm sorry. All I can really offer by way of apology is a try on my Firebolt when the day's over."

Brennan's eyes shot up to meet his. "Really?!"

"Sure," Harry shrugged. "Even if you beat me out for the position, you can still give it a go."

"What about if I beat you out for the position?" Ashley asked with a shrewd expression.

"You can have a go after Brennan regardless as well," he grinned at her.

"Alright," Ashley said, relaxing her stance a bit. "You seem okay."

"My goal in life," Harry stated with a nod. The two of them snickered and he felt like he'd landed himself in the safe zone with them.

The three of them started comparing Professors and Harry watched as Jimmy got the hopeful Beaters up into the air. Ginny had set the Chaser hopeful's doing laps around the pitch, slow going laps but at the top speeds of the brooms no doubt. Their Captain herself had the Keeper hopefuls floating up in front of the goal posts, there were three of them so each was guarding one post while she charged at them with the Quaffle.

She was born to be on a broom, he saw instantly. Ginny was a brilliant Chaser. Her broom wasn't that great, but she was still a blur of movement.

It was a while before the time came to test out their Seeking skills. The three of them had sat back on the grass and started rating each of those trying out, cheering for the Chaser that they found had the right stuff when they got a goal or executed a move perfectly. It was all pretty funny though because the brooms were so shit, so it was all in slow motion. It all reminded him of watching the game with his omnioculars at the World Cup.

Finally, it was time to test out the Seekers. For this, everyone else had come down to the ground, each of them essentially throwing their brooms into a pile with indignation and a scoff.

"Right then, on to the show," Ginny announced. "We won't be testing you out with the actual Snitch." She pulled out a bag full of golf balls. "Chaser's, line up."

For the next twenty minutes each of the Seekers were each sent to a different end of the pitch and tasked with catching as many golf balls that had been thrown by the other player hopefuls as possible.

Ginny had made the rounds and observed each of them in turn.

Harry had managed to catch all but one of the golf balls and that was owing to the broom being just a bit too slow and jerking to the side when he was about to catch it.

He, Ashley and Brennan reassembled together on the ground with the rest of the hopefuls and waited for Ginny to announce who would be getting the slots.

"We're going to have one or two second-strings this year, people that can be trained to take over in case of injury or to get you in shape for next year when a few of us will no longer be here."

Harry perked up at that, it meant that Ginny Weasley was not the only one in her final year of school that would be on the team. He looked over to Ron to share an excited look, but Ron wasn't looking at him, his excited gaze was solely on his sister.

It caused another twinge in his stomach.

"Chasers," Ginny announced. "Myself, Demelza Robbins and Chastity Hansen." She paused to allow for some excited squeals. "Second string Chasers are Ben Bridges and Madeline Kidd. Beaters are Jimmy Peakes and Richard McLaggan, second string is Marcus Atherton." Another moment passed as she let the three of them celebrate a bit. "Keeper, Ron Weasley, second string is Kirk Duncan."

Harry clapped for Ron getting his position, then he remembered himself again and dialed back the enthusiasm.

"Seeker," she gave a small brace of her stance, "is Harry Potter. Second string is Brennan Jamison."

It might have been that he was over-confident but he knew he'd get it. Having it official was still causing the biggest grin to come to his face though.

"If any of you have a problem with my decision you can take it up with McGonagall. I would recommend you practice your speech on a brick wall first and picture that unimpressed expression she'll have on her face once you're out of breath. Now then, all you who didn't make the team this year, keep practicing on your own time and try again next year, but you can clear off the field right now though. Only those names I just called out need to stick around."

Ashley was about to clear off the field, but Harry tapped her shoulder. "Hey, come find me later, I did promise you could give the Firebolt a go."

She gave him a tight, sad smile. "Thanks, Harry."

Brennan was almost vibrating with excitement beside Harry. "I did it! Almost."

"Hey mate, you will be a shoe in for first string next year!" Harry assured him. "We can train each other." He almost said something about how he had a track record of getting injured at least one game of the year, but how would he be able to explain that one?

"Right, you lot," Ginny got their undivided attention again. "Some of you have been on the team before so this will be familiar to you. Practices are Wednesday evening starting at six and Saturday morning starting at eight, every Saturday but game day. I don't care how much homework you've left piling up, you miss a practice for anything but a hospital wing stay, and you will be replaced. That includes detentions."

Shit, she was serious.

"You all proved yourself on the shitty school brooms, so I expect great things from you. Don't disappoint me. See you all Wednesday at six. Dismissed."

"Whoa, she is definitely in charge," Brennan said under his breath.

"It has been a few hard years here. I don't think they were even able to play last year," Harry told him. He hadn't heard anything about the school championship last year, just the year previous to that when Ron was on the team.

"You weren't here either?"

Brennan wouldn't have been able to attend Hogwarts last year because he was Muggleborn, but he must have gotten enough education to get him through to second year while he was in hiding.

"No, I wasn't here either."

"Are you a Muggleborn too?"

"My mother was, but I…" What was he going to say? That he hadn't been to Hogwarts at all? And because why? It was Ministry mandated that he attend last year. "How about that Firebolt ride?" he asked as a distraction.

Brennan snatched it out of his hands as quickly as he could manage. "Thanks!" he said loudly and was in the air before Harry could blink.

"Letting the kid fly that?" Ron asked.

"You can have a go on it after if you'd like," Harry said teasingly, knowing that Ron wouldn't remember the other times he'd flown that particular Firebolt.

Ron looked excited and hopeful at the offer but then his expression darkened a bit. "I can't," he said sadly. "I've promised Hermione I'd meet her in the library and get started on my essays. Apparently as her boyfriend I have the ability to make her look bad if I come across as unprepared."

Harry couldn't help the bubble of laughter that came out of him then. "I'm sure she means well."

Ron gave him a wry grin. "Not always sure about that, mate."

Harry tried not to stare at Ron's retreating form longingly as he left the pitch because that would be too weird. Instead, he focused on what Brennan was doing on the Firebolt. The sharp turns that he was making and spirals he was attempting did look super impressive.

The kid was going to need to use the school brooms when he practiced and all of them were in pretty bad repair. He wondered if he should talk to Madame Hooch about getting a group together to give them a once over, followed by a twice and third over. During any games Harry might be incapacitated for, fingers crossed, he'd let Brennan use the Firebolt though.

Right now, however, he really needed to use the loo.

Leaving Brennan to do more flips and turns in the air while he howled with glee, Harry headed over to the nearest changeroom.

He was about to go through to the loo but stopped when he heard a girl talking through the crack in the changeroom door. "Wait a minute," from the small opening he saw it was Demelza Robbins, one of the Chaser's. "Why did you put Potter on the team if you don't trust him?"

"Because he's a wicked good Seeker," Ginny's voice replied honestly.

Harry's brow furrowed. Ginny didn't trust him? She didn't even know him! She hadn't given him a chance.

"I also think McLaggan is a prick, but he's a really good Beater. It wasn't like I put Ron on the team again because of nepotism, I want to have the best team. What kind of Captain would I be if I let my own feelings about the players stop me from assembling the best?"

"Come off it, Ginny. You must think Potter's good looking at least," Demelza prodded.

That comment had Harry's eyebrows going up. Did that mean that Demelza fancied him?

"Of course I do, I'm not blind. Why do you think I don't trust him? I haven't got the best track record, have I? It's always someone who causes trouble or gets me into trouble because we argue all the time, and that boy has trouble written all over that ridiculously nice frame of his."

The tone that Ginny was sharing this information sounded like it was a bad thing that Harry had worked to get and maintain what Sirius had deemed his 'lady killer' biceps. Fortunately there hadn't been much else to do in between their long stints of waiting for leads to follow up on, so the maintaining part wasn't difficult. It had also made him feel like he was at least attempting to keep the demons at bay, like it was them he was punching, not the punching bag.

Due to the fact that there hadn't been a lady present around him while he'd toned himself up, he hadn't gotten a big head about it. And since he and Sirius had been keeping busy and been living more freely this past summer it meant that he'd been spending less time exercising, so his form had started to look more lean than muscly.

Demelza pitched into a giggling fit and started teasing Ginny about it a bit. That was when Harry slowly backed away from the changeroom. He could only imagine that his Captain was about two seconds away from storming out of the changeroom.

It was amazing to him that Demelza felt comfortable with Ginny enough to tease her about this. Girl talk did not look like it was something on her radar; Ginny was rather… intimidating.

Which was saying something considering what he'd been up against for the past three years.

But she claimed she didn't trust him because she didn't know him. Now it was also because she thought he looked... appealing?

That was interesting information.

He quite liked knowing she was still somewhat interested in him. This time it wasn't for his name either.

Then he remembered that Dean was still looking to get back together with her and he frowned. Dean had been becoming a good friend to him lately, so being pleased about this he could just push to the very back of his mind.

Teen drama, that's what it was.

It had been one of the things he'd wanted to experience coming back to school, he just didn't expect any of it to involve him.

()()()

With Quidditch sorted, classes sorted and Ron and Hermione right on the precipice of automatically assuming he would be joining them whenever they went to the library to study, that meant that Harry could now turn his attention to the gentle Giant that was Hagrid.

It hadn't been very surprising to him when he'd found out that Hagrid was half-Giant when he was in his Fourth Year. It had been a bit of a surprise to find out that the man had a half-brother that was full Giant though, one which Hagrid had decided to keep in the Forbidden Forest the school year after Harry went into hiding.

It had been a coin toss as to whether the Giants were going to side with Voldemort or not because it all depended on who was in charge of their clan at that moment, and that changed frequently. The Giants were not known to be the brightest of beings, more to act on instinct and violence, thus they killed each other for power regularly. In the end, the majority fell to Voldemort's side, but a few had joined Hagrid and his brother in the forest. Mostly their job in the final battle had been squishing Acromantulas, which had been helpful since the colony of them then had no longer been indebted to Hagrid like they had been when Harry first met them.

Harry had been to his first Care of Magical Creatures class now and introduced himself to Hagrid.

The man was the same cheerful bear of a man as he had always been, and he'd become a much better teacher as well. Fang the boarhound had passed away but Hagrid had a new dog now, one that drooled much less. It was some kind of overgrown shepherd and his paws were still adorably too large for it. Boris was the dogs name and he followed Hagrid around just as closely as Fang had.

It was mid-day on a Sunday when he decided to go down to Hagrid's hut and try to forge a friendship close to the one they used to share. He'd decided to ask if he needed any help with the vegetable garden, as all the squash were coming in and it was an opportunity to be outside.

A few times Harry had gone for a run outside in the mornings before breakfast as soon as the portrait hole had been unlocked and had seen the state of the garden. Usually, it was just Hagrid or students in detention that would be tending to the vegetables, but there hadn't been any detentions handed out thus far this year that Harry had heard of.

Students and teachers alike had been on their best behavior.

Snape was no longer with them, that might have assisted with the less detentions. He seemed to have truly hated children. In the end Harry had learned that Snape was simply 'maintaining' his position in the school for lack of better opportunity, and to play his part in the new war, even before they knew when it was going to be. It explained so much when Harry learned the truth, yet he still held a strong hate for the man; one that Sirius helped reinforce no doubt with his own dislike of Snivellus.

If Snape were still a professor, then Harry was sure that detentions would have been handed out regardless of everyone's mental state.

Filch was gone too and the new Caretaker was a quiet older man that didn't seem to hate the students as much as his predecessor.

Hagrid was tending to his vegetable patch when Harry came upon him. Boris bounded over to Harry first, giving a single bark of happiness and barreling straight for his legs to knock him over, then licking his face.

Different dog, but essentially the same reaction.

It made Harry laugh.

"Down boy!" Hagrid called over to his pup.

"Don't worry about it," Harry chuckled and got to his feet, giving Boris a scratch on the head between his ears. "I like dogs." He hadn't liked dogs much before his fourth year ended, but when Sirius was feeling whimsical, or having one of his mood swings that took him from deep depression to deliriously happy, he would turn into Snuffles and do that 'play-bow' thing that dogs do, then Harry would chase him all over the house.

So, now he liked dogs.

"Ah, young mister Potter. What brings you over here today?" Hagrid greeted him jovially.

"I didn't really have anything to do today and wanted to get out and enjoy some sunshine," Harry shrugged. "Saw you working over here and thought I'd offer to lend a hand. If that's not too odd."

"Ah, do you enjoy working in the garden?" Hagrid grinned through his beard. "No doubt Professor Sprout wouldn't mind help either."

"No offense to Professor Sprout, but I'm more interested in helping with plants that aren't trying to injure me in some way."

Hagrid let out a bark of a laugh at that.

"It's a bit of a workout as well," Harry told him and bent down to pick a spaghetti squash that was perfectly ripe and put it in the enormous basket that was half filled with others.

"Didn't I hear you were new onto the Quidditch team? Is that not exercise enough for you?" Hagrid asked him.

"It is a bit of work, yeah. But the past few years I've been burning off more energy in the day than I've found my classwork to allow."

Hagrid peered at him, leaning on his shovel and Harry kept his eyes downcast. He wasn't so worried about putting on a show for Hagrid, he knew the man was very empathetic and Harry wanted to portray that the war would be a touchy subject that they could move right past.

He'd given it a lot of thought and unfortunately, Hagrid wasn't someone that Harry thought revealing the key to his history would be a good idea. The man had let many a guarded secret slip through his lips unintentionally. Harry just wanted him to be a part of his life again, he wanted to be invited down to the hut for rock cakes and tea again.

"Well, I reckon I could do with the extra assistance," Hagrid said finally and got back to work.

As they moved about the garden Harry asked him about how he became the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, questions about the forest in general, anything that would get Hagrid to carry on with him as comfortably as he had once upon a time.

It felt good to be working with his hands and not need to be looking at the person he was having a conversation with.

The afternoon sun started sinking low enough to cast long shadows over the garden by the time they had sorted through all the vegetables and hauled the baskets up to the school, to an entrance Harry had known nothing about before now. It was a spot at the side of the castle that allowed for the produce to be taken directly into the kitchen without having to go through the halls and down stairs to get to it.

He was sure that it wasn't on the Marauders map!

Hagrid didn't seem to think anything of it showing this secret to a 'new student' that he had only just met.

Their conversation turned to dragons and Hagrid got very excited talking about them. He invited Harry into his hut and started fixing the two of them dinner without asking whether Harry wanted any, and Harry certainly wasn't going to turn it down.

Hagrid mentioned Norbert, his version of how Norbert wound up going to the Dragon Reserve with Charlie Weasley wasn't what had really happened though. It was interesting to Harry to hear how people's minds had filled in the gaps with something else where he had been involved.

With dinner finished they went back outside and Hagrid started up a small fire for them to sit around. "You're of age, aren't you?" he said in a disconcerted question as he handed Harry a glass of Firewhiskey.

"I'm of age as well," called a voice from not far off.

Harry turned in his chair and saw Ginny was coming down the hill towards them.

"Ah, Ginny!" Hagrid grinned. "Wouldn't matter to me if you weren't, you've earned your right to have a tipple or two," he said and got up to clap her on the shoulder, making her knees buckle and nearly had her stumble to the ground, as he made his way into the house to get her a glass for herself.

"Potter," she nodded at him and took up on the seat beside him at the fire.

"Ginny," he said back, pointedly using her first name.

"What brings you out here?" she asked.

"I was bored inside. Saw Hagrid working in the garden this afternoon and we've been working and chatting all day. What about you?"

"Hagrid is my friend as well as my professor. Haven't had a chance to catch up with him so far this year."

She wasn't meeting his eye, she was just looking into the fire. It made him reflect on the way she used to be unable to meet his eye, which reminded him that only yesterday she had admitted, though not to him, that she thought he had a 'ridiculously nice frame'.

He bit down at the corners of his mouth to try and stop from smiling about that.

It was flattering and he quite liked being thought of that way. He was glad she had come out here as well. Hopefully if the two of them had a drink with Hagrid she would see that he wasn't anyone to be wary of. She didn't trust him yet, fair enough, their world had just been righted after all and he was currently an unknown to her. If they got to talking maybe she'd come around like Ron and Hermione had.

"Here you are," Hagrid said as he handed her a glass.

She grinned over how much he'd actually given her. It had to be five ounces of Firewhiskey at least. She'd be stumbling back to Gryffindor after that much.

"How is everyone adjusting to being back then Ginny?" Hagrid asked her. "I heard there weren't many that went to see the new counsellor yet."

"It was nice of them to offer, but with the way things went I don't believe that there will be many students that are interested in talking to someone the professors picked out." She took a sip of her drink and rested back in the chair.

"You should have seen our Ginny last year," Hagrid told Harry. "If it wasn't for her, well, me and Grawp would have been much worse off 'n we were."

"Hagrid," Ginny had a pleading and warning tone to her. One that Hagrid simply didn't pick up on.

"Grawp is me brother. The one I mentioned. Well, we were living in the forest last year. In hiding, see? I couldn't take him anywhere, and I couldn't leave him either. Well, Ginny here found out where we were in one of her detentions at the start of the year. Started bringing us some food and drink and the like whenever she could."

Harry looked to her and could tell that there was a blush on her face, even in the light of the fire. She was looking at Hagrid with an endearing look and it struck a chord with Harry. Hagrid had been the first person to tell him about his family and the one to introduce him to the Wizarding world. If he could have done it himself, he would have looked after Hagrid. Knowing that Ginny had taken on that task made him feel indebted to her.

He'd known about Hagrid being in hiding, but because Hagrid knew the Forbidden Forest so well he hadn't thought about it being potentially threatening for him, or that he might have trouble finding sustenance.

"It was lucky I got that detention from Snape in the first week," Ginny told him. "You probably would have done fine, but you were desperate for information."

"Couldn't very well go into the village for it, could I? I'm ruddy well known around there and I tend to stand out," he chuckled.

"How did you get information?" Harry asked her. "I assume you're talking about information about the resistance." He had to remind himself halfway through his last sentence not to say anything about the Order of the Phoenix. He knew that information had been heavily guarded from the Order to anyone outside of it. Even though Ginny's whole family was in the Order save for her, she wouldn't have been relayed anything.

"I had a source in town," Ginny told him, skirting a proper answer.

"Very reliable he was though. Reckon everyone forgets who he is. Everyone on'y remembers his brother and doesn't draw the line connecting the two of 'em. Even the other day I went in there and there was all sorts of dodgy folks makin' plans. Course, nothin' of the sort as you saw before. Just black market dealin's."

Ah, Harry knew exactly who they were talking about now. Aberforth Dumbledore had been very helpful, if somewhat reluctant about it. He'd been able to sneak students out, and Order members in, through a passageway at his pub. He wasn't officially a member of the Order, so apparently he didn't feel the need to keep information from the Hogwarts students side of the resistance.

"He is a grumpy old bastard," Ginny chuckled. "You have to love him." She shook her head and took another drink.

There wasn't much more said between the three of them. They just sat in companionable silence and watched the flames. Boris took a turn resting his head on each of their knees and got head scratches as they drank down from their glasses and night properly moved in.

"We should head back," Ginny said with an ounce left in her drink. "It's getting late and I'm on shift tonight."

"You a Prefect?" Hagrid asked in confusion. His eyes were hazy from drink.

"No, I'm not," Ginny told him without offering anything more. Then she tipped the rest of her glass into Hagrid's own and took Harry's from him, doing the same.

Harry didn't mind. His head was feeling nice and light now.

The first time he had this much to drink it had been with Sirius when they had just gotten back from a horrifying scene; the Death Eaters had been ordered by Voldemort to go out and cause some havoc, and they did.

Harry had been filled in on what had happened with the previous war; how there had been Muggle baiting and torture, killings and rape and the like. He hadn't been mentally prepared enough though. After the Malfoy Manor job they had taken to casing a few of the other Death Eater residences and found out where three Death Eaters were planning on raising hell that particular night.

It was just a simple looking home in normal suburb. The Dark Mark hadn't been cast over the house yet because the Death Eaters had still been playing inside. It wouldn't have mattered if he did have a play by play of what the Death Eaters had gotten up to in the previous war; nothing could have prepared him for seeing what he had.

They had put the family under the Imperius Curse. They were making them… do things to each other. The father had a knife, one child had a length of rope. The mother and another child were on the floor and the three dressing in black with their fucking masks on were simply standing back and watching the show.

Sirius went over the deep end seeing that and Harry followed him right over.

Taking the Death Eaters by surprise had given the two of them the advantage they needed. Harry used his reliable disarming spell and Sirius had used a bludgeoning spell that nearly killed the Death Eaters.

It didn't though.

The killing part for Harry hadn't happened until he was seventeen, technically.

This had been before everyone knew that Voldemort was back.

By the time Sirius and he had the Death Eaters tied up, the Ministry officials had been minutes from showing up. The area they were in did not have a font of witches and wizards around it. The amount of magic used there had tipped the Ministry off to arrive. Sirius and he had snuck out the back and watched from the backyard through the window as the Ministry officials took in the Death Eaters, healed the Muggles and modified their memories.

"It's going to get worse," Sirius had promised him then.

Then they went back home and Sirius got him good and drunk until he passed out.

But that was then, and this was now.

Right now, Ginny was standing expectantly in front of him waiting to escort him back to the Common Room.

"G'night!" Hagrid called out loudly.

"You made friends with Hagrid then?" Ginny stated.

"Yeah. He's very… friendly," he said lamely as they climbed the little hill back to the castle.

It was before the entrance to the school that she reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Why are you here?" Ginny asked, she seemed to be focusing heavily on not swaying as she stood still facing him, a blazing look in her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. He thought he had struck up a rather smooth friendship with Hagrid that allowed him enough right to hang around with the two of them around the fire and have a drink. He hadn't realized exactly how much of that drink Ginny had been enjoying until right now though. She was clearly intoxicated.

"Why did you bother coming to Hogwarts this year? You clearly don't need it. You're exceeding all of us in the classes. Save for Hermione, but no one beats Hermione."

"Why did Hermione come back then," he countered. "She could have gone to the Ministry and sat her NEWTS."

Ginny's scoff cut him off. "You think Miss Prefect would be okay with that? She could have written the textbooks and still felt like she was unprepared. And before you ask, Ron only came here so that he could shirk any responsibilities and have more opportunities to shag his girlfriend."

"Maybe that's why I came here too," Harry said stupidly.

"What?" Ginny gave him a dumbfounded look.

"Well, not the, I mean the shirking responsibility part," he clarified. Although, finding a girlfriend to shag he wouldn't mind. "I know that you don't know me, but I'm only just meeting you too." He was fairly honest about that considering she was nothing like the Ginny Weasley he had left behind, even though he didn't really know that Ginny Weasley at all either. "I may be prepared to take my NEWTS already, but the 'school' aspect of Hogwarts isn't what I'm here for. All I want to do is play Quidditch, make a few friends and put off having to grow up for a year. Because I've had a shit go of it for the last few years too."

He was yelling at her by the time he'd finished.

He hadn't meant to start yelling, it just happened naturally.

She wasn't looking angry or suspiciously at him anymore, she looking happy to have been on the receiving end of his outburst.

"What?" he didn't understand her expression.

"Nothing," she shrugged, still with a small smile on her face. "It's just nice to finally meet you. The real you, not that eager to fit in twat that you've been making yourself behave like."

He blinked at her. "You could tell?"

"Yes. I've made a point to notice a fair few things about you, Mister Potter." There she went, sounding flirty again.

Before he could do no more than stammer at her she had turned and headed into the school.

He just did not understand girls.

It had felt really good to shout at her though. A bit cathartic maybe.

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