Coupla things:

It's been a long time. I realize this. Sorry. The reason why will become clear in a moment.

I bit off way more than I could chew with this. My original plan when I conceived this was to do one story covering each year between the end of Deathly Hallows and the epilogue, as if they were just books in the series continued on. I was also going to write and publish them one at a time, chronologically. Insane, I know. I was young, naive, and overly ambitious. I very quickly became overwhelmed and couldn't press forward.

I've spent a long time rethinking and reevaluating how I want to go about this. I have a lot of stuff planned extending into the adulthood of Harry's children, but I'm going to narrow my focus on smaller, more contained stories instead of trying to cover everything that everybody does year after year, which would be tedious and frankly unnecessary.

This story is still going to cover most of a year, just like the books, since it has been planned that way. But I've abandoned the idea of publishing chronologically and may start posting other things featuring other characters that appear at varying points along the timeline. This is done for my own sanity, so that I don't get entirely bogged down with the looming concept of an unconquerable mountain of material yet to be written.

Finally, I've gone back over the first five chapters and revised them a little here and there. Nothing major, just a few stylistic tweaks that irked me, not least of which Harry no longer refers to Ron as "mate" every other sentence.

Longest opening notes ever now complete!

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Chapter 6

Thunder Down Under

Hermione's father stood in the doorway blinking at them for a few moments, then finally appeared to have processed what she said and invited them in.

'Wife's in the kitchen,' he said, leading them into a sitting room with a sofa and a few chairs and bidding them to sit. 'You said you needed to speak to her, too?'

'Yes, please,' said Hermione, doing an admirable job, Harry thought, of keeping her composure.

'Right, hang on a sec,' her father said. He crossed to another doorway. 'Mon!' he called. 'Come on in here and bring some tea! There's some folks from the Home Office that need to talk to us!'

They could hear his wife calling something back to him, but couldn't hear what she said. He came back to sit in a chair from which he could see all of them: Hermione in a chair next to the sofa containing Harry, Ron, and Ginny.

'What's this about?' Mr Granger/Mr Wilkins asked.

'Nothing serious, Mr Wilkins, please don't be concerned,' said Hermione. 'But we should wait for your wife before going into too much detail.'

'Hard to believe it's nothing serious when I'm being visited by officials from London,' Mr Granger said. 'I didn't even know the government allowed foreign agencies to operate autonomously here.'

'Don't worry, it's just her,' said Ginny in a remarkable imitation of their cab driver's accent, jabbing her thumb at Hermione. 'Lived here ten years and still sounds obnoxiously English; it's embarrassing.'

'Oh,' said Mr Granger, looking relieved. 'I see. Forgive me.'

'Not at all, Mr Wilkins,' said Hermione, after shooting Ginny a quick look of gratitude. 'It often works in my favor. Keeps people off balance, you know. I'm sorry to have worried you.'

'No worries,' he said, relaxing into his chair. 'Monica'll be out in a minute. She was already making tea when you came.'

A few awkward minutes went by, and then they heard Mrs Granger coming into the sitting room. They turned to greet her, and froze. Hermione's words of greeting were cut off halfway out of her mouth. Mrs Granger/Mrs Wilkins entered the room with a tea tray and a welcoming expression on her face.

She was very obviously pregnant.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

They were all thrown for a loop. Hermione was still recovering by the time her mother sat down and began serving everyone tea.

'I didn't realize the two of you were...expecting,' she managed upon taking her teacup.

'It's been a long time coming,' her mother said, sitting back with her own cup of tea.

'For a long while we've felt like there's been something missing in our lives,' said Mr Granger. 'We're getting on in years too, so we reasoned if we were going to have any children, we didn't have much longer to wait.'

Mrs Granger beamed, resting her hand on her rounded stomach.

Hermione gaped, seemingly incapable of speech. Harry was beginning to think one of them would have to speak for her before things got too strained when she finally managed to shake herself out of it.

'Right,' she said. 'Er, congratulations!'

'This doesn't affect what you were going to talk to us about, does it?' Mr Granger asked, evidently suspicious of Hermione's reaction.

'What? Oh, no! No, not at all. Please forgive me for getting distracted.' She brought her hands together and tapped her right fingers on her left knuckles, signaling the rest of them. This would be the tricky part. While she distracted her parents with made-up bureaucratic talk, Ron and Ginny would need to dose their own tea with a sleeping draught, and then Harry would need to surreptitiously perform a switching spell on the Weasleys' tea and the Wilkins'. He was nervous about it; Ginny was slightly better than him at this kind of magic, but she was much better than him at sleight of hand, so the actual switching fell to him.

Once it was done, he lightly cleared his throat and took a sip of his own tea. Hermione would now create a pause in the conversation.

Fortunately, both Grangers accepted the cue and took a drink of tea at roughly the same time, so that it wouldn't look to one of them as if the other had been drugged. They both drifted off to sleep less than a minute later as Hermione droned on. As soon as her mother's head drooped onto her father's shoulder, Hermione unraveled.

'Oh my god, oh my god, oh Merlin, what do I do? What do I do? They're pregnant! They're having a baby! How could I not have thought of this? What have I done to them? This changes everything!' She was clawing at her face and hyperventilating; Ron stood and wrapped his arms around her, trying to calm her down.

'It'll be all right, Hermione,' he said.

'Will it?' she shrieked, causing all three of the rest of them to jump.

'It's not as if...well, did your parents not want any more children?' Ron stammered.

'It's not that!' yelled Hermione. Harry was grateful the sleeping draught she'd brewed was a strong one. 'How is it going to be for them when they wake up as themselves and my mother is inexplicably seven months pregnant?'

'You can tell how far along-'

'NOT THE POINT, RON!' she screamed.

'They won't remember anything?' Ginny asked.

'I hadn't planned on it, no,' snapped Hermione, forcing herself back under control.

'How were you going to explain to them that they were suddenly in Australia?' Harry asked.

'That would have been disorienting enough, don't you think?' she snapped again. 'It would have been difficult enough to explain. But this? And what about Wendell and Monica Wilkins?'

The other three looked at each other, confused.

'What about them?' Harry asked tentatively.

'Obviously they were looking forward to this! This was a huge step in their lives! How can I just rip it away from them?'

'Um, Hermione,' said Ron, very carefully. 'Wendell and Monica Wilkins aren't real.'

'They have names! They have a home! They obviously have hopes and wants and dreams! They've lived here for a year, Ron, and if I hadn't come for them they would have lived here the rest of their lives. How is that not real?'

Harry opened his mouth to make the obvious point, but Ginny put her hand on his leg to stop him and pointed to herself. He understood. She was much more suited to being the bad guy in this conversation.

'Hermione,' she said gently. 'This is all stuff you should have considered before now. Not necessarily the baby part specifically, but...well, if you never intended for them to build a life here, how was that a good backup plan? Were they just supposed to stay in limbo forever, waiting for you to come back?'

Hermione sniffled as Ron rubbed her back soothingly. 'I hadn't...I mean, I never thought,' she said, trying to collect her words. 'I knew that they'd be safe if I didn't come, but...I never thought about what else that might mean. I didn't...'

'You didn't want to,' said Harry. 'I get it. Of course you wanted to believe you'd come back for them, and everything would be like it was. It still can be. You'll just have a little brother or sister.'

'This won't be their baby, though! It's Monica and Wendell's baby!' she wailed.

'I still don't understand the difference,' said Ron, 'or why it's so important, but there might be something you can do if it really bothers you that much.'

'What?' she asked, looking up at him desperately, grasping for any kind of solution.

'Well, your original plan was to just lift the enchantment you put on them that made them think they were the Wilkinses, right? And then Wendell and Monica just disappear as if they never existed. But is there a way you could do that without taking their memories? I mean, it's not a proper memory charm in the first place, right? Could you have them remember who they are but still not forget the last year?'

'It's possible,' said Hermione. 'But I don't know what that would do to them. Having two personalities, two identities in your head?'

'How different are Wendell and Monica from your parents, though?' Harry asked. 'I mean, aren't they basically just your parents who never had kids and always wanted to move to Australia? You didn't change much else about them, did you?'

'No,' said Hermione, looking for the first time as if she thought this might work. 'No, I didn't. They're essentially the same people, I suppose.'

'And honestly, I should think it would be more comforting for them to have that separate set of memories from the last year instead of merely a blank void,' said Ginny. 'Don't you think? I mean, even if they know what you did and why you did it, not remembering an entire year of their lives would have to be extremely unsettling, right?'

'I was going to put a memory charm on them,' Hermione said weakly.

'Fake memories, though,' said Ginny. 'Wouldn't the real ones be better? Even if they thought they were someone else?'

'I should never have done this!' Hermione cried, tearing up again. Ron pulled her closer and she clung onto him.

'It was the best thing you could have done,' he said. 'Even if you hadn't gone running off with Harry and me, you'd still have had to go into hiding anyway, being Muggle-born. And who knows what might have happened? We know what the Death Eaters are capable of. This may not be easy for you or your parents, but it's better than losing them. They could have been killed, or Merlin forbid, something like what happened to Neville's parents. You did the best you could in a terrible situation.'

'You're right,' she said, sniffling again. 'You're right. It's done, and I need to deal with the consequences. The best thing I can do now is to make things as easy as possible for them. Ginny, I think you're right. I think letting them keep their memories as Wendell and Monica is the best thing for them. They're probably going to need therapy, but at least they won't be...' she trailed off, but Harry knew he wasn't the only one thinking of poor Frank and Alice Longbottom, trapped forever in their own minds in the closed ward at St Mungo's.

Hermione stood and rolled up her sleeves, taking out her wand.

'Do you need a minute to work out what to do?' Ron asked.

'No,' she said, shaking her head. 'All I'm doing is lifting the enchantment I put them under, which is what I was going to do in the first place. I just won't need to put a memory charm on them afterwards. Then we just cross our fingers and hope they're okay, and that they won't hate me.'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

They took Hermione's parents into the master bedroom, then left while she waited in there for them to wake up. Harry cast a muffliato over the room to keep anything that was said between them private, and he, Ron, and Ginny waited out in the sitting room. They didn't know how long it would take, and at some point they must have nodded off, because Harry awoke sometime later to the sound of muffled voices coming from the bedroom.

Ginny, who was sleeping against him, noticed him stirring and woke up, then gently kicked Ron, who was passed out on the other end of the sofa.

'How long have they been awake?' Ginny asked as Ron stretched. They could hear raised voices, but thanks to Harry's charm, could not make out anything anyone was saying.

'No idea,' he said. 'I just woke up myself. I don't even know how long we were asleep.'

'It can't have been that long,' Ron said through a yawn. 'That sleeping draught wasn't meant to last more than half an hour.'

A few more minutes went by, and the muffled voices eventually quieted down. The door clicked open and Hermione emerged, red-faced and with tear streaks down her cheeks. She carefully closed the door again behind her.

'They're...understandably upset,' she announced quietly. 'I've explained to them what I did and why, and they understand my reasoning, but...'

'Let me guess,' said Harry. 'They're mostly upset that you did this without telling them beforehand.'

'Yes,' she confirmed. She shuffled her way back over to them and allowed Ron to engulf her in another hug. 'And I told them that if I had, they never would have gone along with it. They even agreed with that, but...well, logic and emotion rarely see eye to eye, my father says.'

'What did they say about...you know?' Ron asked, gently rubbing her back.

'What, the baby?' she asked, looking up at him. 'They hadn't exactly planned on having another child, but they're not upset about it, either. Mum says it'll be nice to have someone little to look after again. Dad says he's looking forward to watching Dr Who again. I'm happy for them; they've never said, but I think they're sad sometimes that I was away so much while growing up.'

'What's Dr Who?' Ron asked. Harry couldn't stop himself sniggering; that would be Ron's takeaway. Hermione evidently agreed; she chuckled as well and gently swatted his chest.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

There was a lot that needed to be done before they could return to England. The Wilkinses had a dental practice that needed to be closed down, which included helping all their patients find other dentists, as well as seeing to the last few appointments that couldn't be canceled or transferred. They also put their house up on the market, but they were able to do this through an agency that wouldn't require them to remain in the country until it was sold.

There were standard things like packing, and deciding what to bring back to England and what could be left behind. Hermione wanted to be with her parents through all of this, but it was dreadfully dull for the other three, even when they did have an understanding what was supposed to be happening. Fortunately, she and Harry had arranged for a distraction. Two days after restoring the Grangers' memories (the four teenagers were staying in the Wilkins home for the remainder of the trip), they sprang their surprise.

'It's going to be a lot more paperwork and packing and running around today,' said Hermione at breakfast. Harry struggled to keep a straight face. He was lucky she had their attention; Ron was oblivious, but Ginny likely would have seen right through him and known something was up.

'We know,' said Ron. 'Mostly the same until we're all ready to leave, right?'

'Yes, that's right,' said Hermione. 'But you three won't want to be around for all of that. A lot of it is Muggle bureaucracy anyway, and it must be terribly boring.'

'Well, we didn't exactly come here for a holiday,' said Ron kindly. 'We came to help.'

She smiled fondly at him. 'And I appreciate that more than you know,' she said. 'Still, you should have some fun, and this way my parents and I can have some time together, just the three of us.'

'What kind of fun?' Ron asked.

'Well, it hasn't been on a lot of people's minds, what with the war and all,' Hermione said, 'but you may remember that the World Cup is being held in Australia this year.'

Ron's face froze in shock at once, and Ginny lit up like a Christmas display.

'What?' Ron stammered. 'You...you can't be serious.'

'Harry and I have been in touch with Viktor,' she went on, unable to keep the smile off her own face now. 'He's playing in the cup, of course. He was able to arrange tickets for you all to see one of the semi-final matches, and it's today.'

'Today!' Ron exclaimed.

'It starts this afternoon,' said Harry. 'They're really nice tickets; we'll be in one of the top boxes just like last time.'

'That's so generous of him!' Ginny cried.

'Yeah, it is,' said Ron, some of his good cheer disappearing.

'Calm down, Ron,' said Harry, laughing. 'He just pulled the strings for us; I'm still the one who paid for them.' It was almost comical how quickly Ron relaxed once again.

'Who's playing in the match?' Ginny asked. 'I haven't been paying attention at all; I can't even remember who's supposed to be in the semi-finals.'

'I know Spain is,' said Ron, 'since they're the ones who beat England. It happened just before we left.'

'That's right; I remember that,' said Ginny. 'And Ireland beat France, didn't they?'

'That sounds right,' said Ron.

'Wales lost to Bulgaria,' Hermione added, shocking them all. 'What?' she asked as they all gawked at her. 'Viktor was playing in that match; of course he told me about it.'

'The tickets updated once the teams were set,' Harry told them. 'I checked them last night. We're going to watch Spain vs. America.'

'Ooh!' Ginny squealed excitedly. 'Gianni Fedele plays for America! He's one of the best chasers in the world!'

'Their seeker's not bad either,' said Harry, 'but she'll have her work cut out for her. Marrero is supposed to be on Krum's level.'

'I had hoped you three would wait until after you left before leaving me out of the conversation,' Hermione teased. They turned to look at her.

'Are you sure you don't want us to stay around?' Ron asked. Hermione didn't miss that he offered without hesitation or reluctance, if her expression were any indication.

'I'm sure,' she said, touching him on the arm. 'Thank you so much for offering, but I do think I need this time with my parents. You three go and have fun; there'll still be plenty of work to do when you get back.'

'Assuming somebody catches the snitch before tomorrow afternoon,' Ginny joked.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Unlike their last World Cup experience, all three of them could apparate, so there was no need to arrive absurdly early, or even register a campsite at all. They could simply show up half an hour before the match and stroll right to their seats.

The stadium had been constructed in a vast open stretch of the outback; never had Harry seen a place that could more aptly be described as "the middle of nowhere". He wondered if muggle-repelling charms would even be needed in such a location; the odds of anyone being out here for any reason seemed so small as to not even be worth considering.

'Hope you brought some warmer clothes than that,' said the young wizards checking their tickets upon eyeing their short sleeves. 'You never know how long a match will last, and it gets ruddy cold out here at night.'

'Cold?' asked Ron, astonished. 'We're in a desert in the middle of August!'

The man just laughed. 'First time in Australia?' he asked. 'August is winter down here. Try to think of it as southern February.'

'Oh right, I'd forgotten all about that!' said Ron, smacking himself in the forehead. For his part, Harry had, too. 'Well, if worse comes to worst, we can always use warming charms. Where are we headed?'

The man looked at their tickets. 'Nice seats,' he commented. 'You're just under the top box. Take the first set of stairs all the way up, and turn left just before the last stretch to the top.'

The three of them were panting by the time they reached their seats, but they were indeed good ones. Harry knew that at a football match, the seats closest to the pitch were highly coveted, but at a quidditch match they generally meant you'd be craning your neck up the entire time and still not be able to see much of anything.

'Wish we had those omniocular things like last time,' said Ron, looking out over the pitch. Harry grinned.

'You didn't honestly think Hermione and I planned this whole thing out and then forgot to pack them, did you?' he said, reaching into his pocket, which Hermione had magically expanded for him. He pulled out his own set of omnioculars, as well as Ron's, which had been clandestinely acquired the night before their departure from England. Ron looked ecstatic. Then he pulled out a third set.

'Hermione's said you can borrow these, Ginny,' he said, handing them to his girlfriend. 'We didn't know if I'd be able to find a vendor to get you your own pair.'

Ginny's face lit up as much as her brother's.

'Ooh, thanks Harry!' she said, giving him a hug before gratefully accepting the magical binoculars. 'I've always wanted to try these.'

'The play by play feature is the best,' said Ron, already looking through his own, observing the grounds crew making the final preparations for the match. 'Lets you see all about the different maneuvers the players are doing. Should come in real handy for the coming Hogwarts season, I reckon.'

'I'll be able to watch Giani Fedele in slow motion with play by play,' said Ginny, almost beside herself with glee.

'Should I be worried?' Harry joked. She swatted him on the arm.

'Idiot,' she said. 'Think of what I can learn from watching him. It's like you getting to watch Krum. We'll be able to dominate the other houses this year.'

'Were you not already confident in our chances?'

'Anything that can give us an edge,' said Ginny with a shrug.

A shift in the general din of the stadium indicated that things were about to get underway. Sure enough, moments later they heard a great booming voice reverberating throughout the colossal stadium. It had the most Australian sounding accent Harry had ever heard, including in comedy sketches on television.

'Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome one and all to this semi-final match of the four hundred and twenty-third Quidditch World Cup!' There was a raucous cheer; Harry felt himself get caught up in it. This was exactly the sort of fun he'd been missing out on for too long. 'Please allow me to introduce the Spanish Team Mascots!'

'I didn't realize they brought mascots for matches other than the final,' said Harry.

'It changes,' said Ron. 'At one point it was only the final match. For a while it was every match; that sounds like a bit much. I think it's only semis and the finals right now.'

'Shut up, I want to see what they brought!' said Ginny.

What looked like a massive cloud of glitter was billowing out over the pitch. It was sparkling gold, pink, silver, white, and electric blue. It began to take various shapes, like a carnation, a bull, a weird dragon-like thing that looked more like a snake with bat wings, and an eagle in flight. Looking through his omnioculars, he saw hundreds of tiny winged women – no more than half a foot tall – flying around and using tiny sticks (wands?) to make flashes of different colored light. They looked very much like fairies, only he could tell they were something different. They all wore their hair in long braids adorned with multicolored ribbons and a flowered crown, and each and every one of them had a bright blue cape.

The little fairy women dispersed over the stands, and cries of surprise rang out from the crowd. Harry soon discovered why: little candies were falling from above. The Spanish mascots were giving out sweets.

'A sight more generous than the leprechauns, anyway,' said Ron, popping one of the pill-sized sweets into his mouth. Harry tried one too. They weren't bad.

'What are they?' he asked.

'No idea,' said Ginny, trying a sweet herself. 'They must be unique to Spain, or else especially common there. We can ask Hermione or Hagrid later.'

'I've got a picture,' said Ron, indicating his omnioculars.

The mysterious fairy-like creatures were dispersing.

'I wonder what the Americans will bring?' mused Ginny.

A crack of thunder rang out. Harry looked up; there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

'It's not going to rain, is it?' Ron asked, looking up as well.

'And now,' bellowed the announcer, 'Please welcome the American National Team Mascots!'

Another crash of thunder boomed, followed by two more in quick succession. Lighting streaked across the cloudless sky, arcing in frightening burst that gouged rough tears through their vision.

From somewhere outside the stadium, four massive golden birds rose, one in each cardinal direction. Lighting continued to swirl around each of them, and above them clouds began to form.

Thunder crashed again as two of the birds dove toward the center of the pitch and then swooped back up the other side. The other two repeated the maneuver; each time they dove they were accompanied by a strike of lightning and a peal of thunder.

'Thunderbirds!' cried Ginny ecstatically. 'I never thought I'd ever see one! They're beautiful!'

Indeed they were. Harry watched them through his omnioculars as they circled, dove, and performed highly choreographed maneuvers all as the clouds grew thicker and the thunder grew louder. Their sleek golden feathers looked at once impossibly soft yet tough, and possessed a metallic luster not unlike actual gold. They flew gracefully and majestically as he'd only ever seen a phoenix do before. He found himself heartily disappointed when the four magnificent birds finally retreated to wherever it was they'd come from.

'The Americans don't usually make it this far,' said Ron as the sky began to clear again. 'I suppose they wanted to pull out all the stops. That was bloody brilliant.'

'Hermione'll be sorry she missed it,' said Harry.

'Probably,' agreed Ron, 'but that would have been the only part of the whole match she'd have been interested in. You know her; unless she has some sort of personal stake, she doesn't care much for quidditch.'

'What exactly does count as a "personal stake" for Hermione?' Ginny asked.

'A home team or someone she knows on one of the teams playing,' said Ron. 'She wouldn't have a favorite team in the league, say, unless one of us was playing on it. But she'll root for the national teams, and Gryffindor of course.'

'Makes sense,' said Ginny. 'I expect it's that way for a lot of people.'

'And now, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the Spanish National Quidditch team! I give you – Garcia!'

A witch in almost garishly yellow and red robes shot out onto the pitch.

'Íñiguez!' A second witch flew out. 'Cartaya! Ojeda! Montoya! Felino! Aaaand Marrero!'

Tumultuous applause greeted Marrero, widely considered among the top five seekers in the entire world. He, along with most of the Spanish team, were all veterans of the previous world cup and were favored to win the match.

'And now, please welcome the American National Team! Presenting – Muntz! Laycock! Fedele!' There was another huge outburst of applause, such that the announcer actually had to briefly pause before continuing, 'Lopez! Jankowski! Sterzinger! Aaaaand Singleton!'

The Americans looped around their end of the pitch before taking positions. Harry hadn't been able to follow quidditch much over the last year, but he always paid special attention to seekers and he did remember Singleton. Last he was able to pay attention, she'd ranked in the top twenty worldwide for seekers, which was impressive in itself. In any other match, he'd have given her the edge to catch. Unfortunately for the Americans, aside from her and Fedele, only Muntz was a veteran of the national team from the previous World Cup.

'Should be a great match,' said Ron as the referee came out. 'Hope it's a long one.'

'I'm not used to not knowing which side to root for,' Ginny said. 'What do you do when you don't really care who wins?'

'What about at school when it's the other houses playing each other?' Harry asked.

'Easy,' she said. 'Ravenclaw over Hufflepuff because it's Luna's house, and either of them over Slytherin.'

'Sure,' teased Harry. '"Luna's house". That's always been the reason, has it?'

'Oh, are we allowed to tease each other about exes now?' Ginny asked. 'I didn't know, but that's good information to have.'

'I think I've made a terrible mistake,' Harry said to Ron, who laughed and told him to shut up; the game was starting.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

It turned out to be an incredibly exciting match. The American chasers were outflying the Spanish, but not by much. They couldn't quite manage to get themselves out ahead by enough to compensate for a Spanish snitch catch, despite Ariel Singleton valiantly holding off Inigo Marrero from catching it three separate times. She couldn't quite manage it the fourth time, however, and Spain ended up winning the match by a score of five hundred and ten to four hundred and eighty.

'They were so close!' Ron lamented as the three of them trekked back down the many stairs toward the exit where they could apparate away. 'Thirty more points and they could have forced a shootout! Between Fedele and Muntz they could have taken it.'

'Are you disappointed because you were rooting for the Americans or because you just like upset victories?' Harry asked.

'The second one, I think,' said Ron. 'I'm not really sure, to be honest.'

'Two hundred and seventy points!' Ginny was exclaiming. Twenty-seven goals! That's more than half their total score by himself!'

'Well, not by himself,' said Harry. 'There were a lot of assists from the other two in there.'

'True, but he still had to make the shots, and Felino is a really fast keeper. She's not easy to get past.'

'They did have some really good maneuvers,' said Ron. 'They fly together really well. Are you going to try to incorporate some of their moves this year, Ginny?'

'Depends on who our chasers are,' she said. 'I'm not sure many people could pull a lot of those off.'

'Demelza's a fair flyer,' said Harry. 'And you two have flown together a lot. If she's on the team again I think she might be up to it.'

They were nearing the exit at the bottom of the stairs and it looked like there was a great mass of people outside.

'Probably queuing for portkeys,' said Ron. 'Just our luck. Why couldn't there be a separate exit for apparition?'

But when they reached ground level, it became clear that the huge mob wasn't trying to get out of the stadium, but rather fighting to get in.

'It is!' a voice shouted. 'It's Harry Potter! He is here!'

Harry, Ron, and Ginny all swore at once. It was perhaps lucky that they all used different curse words so that no one could really make out what they'd said.

'Mr Potter! Mr Potter! Can I get your autograph?'

'What are you doing in Australia?'

'Can we get a photograph?'

'Harry, I love you!'

There were a seemingly endless number of them, all shouting things. Most were just the ordinary fawning fans, but there were a few people who sounded angry. Angry that he had the nerve to be on holiday, angry that he wasn't talking to the press, angry that he'd disappeared for a year, one person even accused him of being a fraud, though was unspecific as to how.

'Didn't we leave all this rubbish behind?' Ron growled as the three of them tried to force their way through the throng to get to a place they could apparate away from.

'Harry Potter! Face me!' It was the only warning he got. 'Stupefy!'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Thus ends my longest-spanning WIP (to date). I hope at least some of you enjoyed it. Nothing else really to say that I didn't say at the beginning.

Thank you very much to those who leave a review.