James Potter’s Daughter

“I slept with my teacher.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“You win,” Harry said faintly, her eyes automatically ticking down to Elise’s stomach. It was still flat, but her boobs were huge. When Elise had sent a letter to Harry the last week of school, asking if she could come spend the summer again, Harry figured Elise had done something she urgently needed to share, she hadn’t expected it to be a baby.

Remus went and picked Elise up the day after they all returned home for the summer and she had just arrived that morning with a suitcase and apparently a baby.

“You just had to be more dramatic, didn’t you?” Harry said, privately thanking Remus for forcing her to take contraceptive potions. It wasn’t as if Harry needed them, but if Tonks had been a man - if Cedric was still alive - Harry would rather not be in Elise’s position.

“Oh, I dunno…” Elise stretched out on Harry’s bed and arched her back, popping it loudly. “I think shagging your teacher is rather dramatic.”

Harry reached over and put her hand on Elise’s stomach. It was flat, but hard, and it made Harry grimace.

“Well you shagged someone too clearly,” Harry said, truly horrified. “Was it Jacob Brown? That boy from Eton?”

“You’re going to be very mad and I’d like to start off with informing you that my mother said I either abort the baby or move out,” Elise said. She rolled on her side and Harry could see that she was truly stressed; there were new lines around her pretty blue eyes and her lips were chapped.

Elise always chewed her lips when she was stressed, she’d done it clear back when she couldn’t remember how to spell ‘carrot’ on the day they had their spelling test in primary.

Harry grabbed Elise’s hand and knew that even if she was genuinely horrified by the thought of Elise - giggly, silly, optimistic, snarky, sixteen year old Elise - raising a baby, she wouldn’t despise her.

“I’ll talk to Remus about you staying here as long as you need,” Harry said. “He already said you could stay this summer and go to the States with us, he won’t throw you out because you’re- you’re…”

“Knocked up?” Elise snorted wryly when Harry trailed off. She took a deep breath then and then gave Harry her most sweet smile. “Are you prepared to not be furious and not throw a poor, pregnant, teen mom on the streets?”

“Alright then,” Harry said, feeling rather nervous. Thankfully both Sirius and Remus were incredibly gay so it wasn’t as if Elise had—

“It was your friend, Andy.”

“Andy?” Harry struggled for a moment to even place the name as she only knew one Andy and…

“Cedric’s best friend Andy?” Harry asked, yanking her hand away from Elise. “YOU SHAGGED ANDY AND YOU ARE HAVING HIS BABY?!”

Harry scrambled off the bed and pulled at her hair. Elise was her best friend, her very best friend. The one that was so close to her that Harry could consider her more of a sister than friend.

Which meant that even if Harry was horrified and terrified of babies that she would still support Elise. If Elise wanted to keep it, then Harry would knit baby hats and demand to be godmum. If Elise wanted to terminate it, then Harry would go with her and hold her hand. And if Elise wanted to give the baby up for adoption, Harry would still be there.

But Harry never wanted to see Andy again and now it seemed inevitable.

“We talked when we met here last summer and he mentioned his university and I- I just thought he was cute and I looked him up,” Elise cried, sitting up and wringing her hands while she stared imploringly at Harry. “We went out a couple times and he’s so sweet, Harry. One thing led to another and…”

Elise’s hands folded over her abdomen and Harry saw how her face shifted to something soft and sad when she looked back up at Harry.

“I didn’t m think he loved me, but I thought he would eventually,” Elise said tearfully, knocking the anger right out of Harry. “I told him I was pregnant and he stopped answering my calls.”

“Oh, Andy, you unforgivable idiot,” Harry breathed. She looked at Elise and wondered if Elise felt like her life was ruined like how Tonks’ was.

Harry used Tonks to hide from her grief and her pain and was literally face to face with the result of what it was like to be the one being used.

“Wait!” Harry scrunched her nose up as she recalled something Cedric once told her. “Are you quite sure that it’s Andy’s baby?”

Elise’s face colored and she narrowed her eyes. “I’m not some slag shagging any bloke who comes around, you twit. I loved him.”

“I’m not calling you a slag, you ditz,” Harry said with a roll of her eyes. She perched on the edge of her bed and twisted her lips to the side thoughtfully. “I don’t mean to be rude, but… but how was Andy able to- er… get you pregnant?”

“The usual way, I suppose,” Elise said, losing her scowl in favor of grinning at Harry. “Poor Harry, is this why you’re bisexual? Are penises too complex for you?”

“Andy was born Amanda,” Harry said baldly. “I’m sure he’s got a working penis, but… um… I didn’t know he could… you know.”

“What?” Elise furrowed her brows at Harry in bemusement before she laughed. “You’re wrong, Harry. Andy has a perfectly normal cock with normal cock functions.”

Oh.

Harry was an idiot.

“Do not move,” Harry said, finally seeing a silver lining to the horrific situation. “I will be right back!”

Harry practically sprinted from her room and all but tripped down the staircase to get to the kitchen.

“Dad! If someone transitions magically from female to male, can they um… get someone pregnant?”

“Sonofabitch,” Sirius swore and dropped the ceramic bowl in his hands. He turned and gaped at Harry while Remus sat at the table and looked much more calm.

Of course, Harry felt as if Remus was the only one of the two who hadn’t treated Harry any differently since she returned home. It was horribly tense with Sirius and Harry hated it. But she had much more pressing issues than having a godfather who hated her.

“May I know the context of this question before I answer?” Remus asked Harry.

“It’s a hypothetical,” Harry lied, brimming with excitement. “Is it possible?”

“If they follow a strict potions regimen, yes,” Remus said with a short nod. “If you want to transition we support you and—”

“I am going to get the phrase ‘I am a girl’ tattooed on my forehead,” Harry said, rolling her eyes. “New question, if a muggle has a magical baby, when are they allowed to know about magic?”

Remus’ clever eyes sharpened then and he fixed Harry with a hard stare. “Harry, what is going on?”

“Elise is pregnant with Andy’s baby and her mum is kicking her out so she needs a place to stay and also now I can tell her!” Harry beamed. “Right? Right?”

“No,” Sirius said. He sat down at the table beside Harry and shook his head, not looking nearly as surprised as Remus was by Elise’s terrifying baby-bomb.

“Why?” Harry asked, her excitement deflating quickly when Remus didn’t disagree with him. “Andy’s a wizard and that means—”

“That there’s a fifty percent chance that a wizard of pure blood has a magical child with a muggle,” Sirius cut in.

“But Andy’s a muggleborn, isn’t he?” Remus asked Harry. “I’m sorry, dear, but it’s a one-in-four chance that Elise’s child is a witch or wizard.”

“Elise’s child is a what?”

Harry spun around to see Elise step in the kitchen behind her with wide eyes and her hands wrapped around her stomach.

Sirius swore again while Remus groaned and Harry beamed.

“You can’t Obliviate a pregnant woman!” she cheered. “It’s dangerous to the infant’s development.”

“Oh, so you did learn something this year?” Remus sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

The best part was that Remus couldn’t really be angry with her since he was the one who spilled the magic beans!

“You lied to me, you absolute cow,” Elise said that night when they were snacking on the worst kind of junk food and watching a film on the telly Remus put in Harry’s room.

Harry curled her nose at the golden prince on the telly, the prince that she just knew was going to get a happy ending. “About?”

“‘Legacies only’?” Elise quoted drily.

Harry threw a handful of popcorn at Elise and laughed. “What was I meant to say, you slag? ‘Oh I’m a witch, but now I’m going to prison’?”

Elise rolled around on Harry’s bed until she was on her stomach with her head at the foot of the bed so she could see the telly better.

“You hate rules,” Elise said, which was rather true. “When were you going to tell me my baby might be a witch?”

“Is it a girl?” Harry asked, perking up eagerly.

“No idea,” Elise said with a shrug of her shoulders. “It’s much too early to have the test done.”

“It’s going to rip your body in half,” Harry said cheerfully. “And you’re going to get so fat.”

“I know,” Elise wailed. “And hormonal, so terribly hormonal.”

“Poor Sirius,” Harry quipped happily. “He never should have said you could stay.”

“Am I not going to be a terrible inconvenience?” Elise asked, rolling to give Harry a very uncharacteristically vulnerable look. Her eyes were wet and her lower lip trembled some. “I don’t have any money and nobody’s going to hire a pregnant teenager.”

“Don’t worry about money,” Harry said carelessly. She snatched Elsie’s hand and gave her a ‘everything’s going to be okay or else’ smile. “I’m a trust fund brat, Sirius is loaded, and Dad has a terribly soft spot for sad stories. So you’ll stay here and let that baby rip you in half and when I open my shop next summer, you two can move in with me and we’ll be the brilliant parents raising a baby above a sweets shop.”

“You’re mad,” Elise sniffled. She swiped beneath her eyes and smiled at Harry. “You crazy witch.”

“Better than being a crazy bitch,” Harry chirped brightly. “Now let’s watch something else, I’m not in the mood for ‘happy ever after’ and golden princes.”

Elise grabbed another film from her suitcase - apparently her clothes, makeup, and film collection took priority when fleeing her mum’s house - and the two of them cuddled and watched zombies destroy the world.

“Two friends, Harry Leo.”

“Daaaad,” Harry whined. “How am I meant to only choose two friends? I’m terribly popular, you know.”

“And you promised she could bring three before,” Sirius said, winking at Harry and making her think maybe he didn’t hate her quite so much.

“That was before my parasite and I moved in,” Elise said, plopping down across from Harry to join them for dinner.

It was Sirius’ night to cook, which meant they were having takeout from the Chinese restaurant in town. Harry slid Elise the crab rangoons, knowing they were her favorite, and rolled her eyes when Elise pushed them away with a queasy look.

“No godchild of mine is going to push away crab rangoon,” Harry said. “Tell little Harriette that she better get over her nonsense right now.”

“I’d never name my child something so incomprehensibly daft,” Elise laughed. “If it’s a girl I’m naming her Strawberry, and if it’s a boy I’m naming him Michael with a ‘k’.”

Harry, Remus, and Sirius all stared at her in absolute shock and disdain.

“Oh, come off it,” Elise snapped. She took turns pointing at them. “You are Remus Lupin, which roughly means Wolfy McWolfison. You are Sirius Black, and - oh how shocking! - you turn in to a black dog. And you,” Harry raised a brow, daring her to mock her name, “your name is so masculine that you’re known as a boy and your middle name is Leo which is sooo terribly original for a Leo.”

“That was my idea,” Sirius said with a wide smile. “James wanted it to be Rose, after Lily’s mum, but I waited until Lily was hopped up on pain killers to convince him to change it.”

“Harry’s a lovely name for my goddaughter and I simply cannot force my friends to fight amongst themselves for a chance to go with us,” Harry said, returning the conversation to the original topic. She scooped out the rice from the box Remus was hoarding on her plate and passed the container to Elise.

“You should bring Draco and Theo, they were rather fit,” Elise grinned across the table at Harry.

Harry pointed her fork at Elise and nodded. “Eye candy, I like it. In that case, we should bring Draco and Blaise. Wait until you see Blaise, his chest is carved of marble.”

“So no Blaise,” Sirius said hastily. “And I don’t think there’s a demon in any circle of hell that could convince Narcissa to send Draco on a trip to the States so her gay, black-sheep, of a cousin can marry a man. Especially not since Andromeda—”

“It’s less the man than the beast part that Narcissa dislikes,” Remus interrupted with a sharp look to Sirius.

Harry lost her enthusiasm for her favorite meal rather quickly at Sirius’ reminder that his cousin was no longer attending his wedding due to Harry.

“I’m sorry,” Harry whispered quietly to her plate. She didn’t even have the courage to look at Sirius. She had done what a war couldn’t even do and tore apart Sirius from his favorite cousin.

“You’re the child, it’s fine,” Sirius said, sounding as if it weren’t really fine at all. “Excuse me.”

Harry looked tearfully up at Remus after Sirius left the entire house, slamming the front door behind him.

“I should stay home,” she said remorsefully. “I don’t want to ruin your big day anymore than I already have.”

Remus clicked his tongue and reached over to put his hand on Harry’s. “He’s not angry with you,” he said, probably lying. “And I won’t have my daughter miss my wedding. Why don’t you write to Draco, see if he can come, and then invite Pansy and Fred?”

“Fred’s working on his shop,” Harry said quietly. She felt so terribly guilty; she’d ruined Sirius’ wedding and there Remus was, letting Harry bring along her friends.

“Katie then,” Remus said with a kind smile that Harry didn’t deserve. “The more occupied you girls are the more of a honeymoon I can have.”

“Ugh!” Harry pulled her hand from beneath Remus’ and swatted playfully at him. “That’s vile, Dad. I don’t need that image.”

And when Elise looked a bit too thoughtful across from Harry, she kicked her in the ankle hard.

A week later, Harry was standing in the front yard of her home around a portkey with everyone aside from Sirius and Elise. They’d flown out the day before, since Remus didn’t want Elise portkeying, but Draco and Pansy both came.

Katie had a great-aunt in Scotland pass away and her family went there to stay for a week, Angelina was already hard at practice with the Harpies, Alicia’s parents wouldn’t let her leave the country without them, and Lee and Ginny were in Diagon Alley with the twins, working to get the shop ready to open.

Fred pushed off the grand opening date by a day so Harry could be there and he promised he’d save plenty of work for her when she returned.

“I’m surprised your mum let you come,” Harry said to Draco while Remus went to fetch the portkey.

“That’s because you’re a Gryffindor, love,” Pansy smiled sweetly. “Had Narcissa been aware of who Draco was going on holiday with, she would have said no.”

“You snuck out?” Harry asked Draco, rather impressed.

Draco scoffed and then shared a smirk with Pansy. “I did no such thing, I asked my mother if I could stay with Pansy for a week.”

“And since I’m going with youuuu…”

Harry laughed, delighted by the masterful loophole they found.

“Brilliant,” Harry praised Draco. She lowered her voice when Remus came from the house with an innocent red book in one hand and his suitcase in the other. “Perhaps don’t tell my dad, he’s very big on honesty with parents.”

“I’m sneaking off with the Boy-Who-Lived, my mother’s blood-traitor cousin, a werewolf, and a muggle to go to Las Vegas and witness two men get married, do I seem likely to be honest with any parents?” Draco muttered from the corner of his mouth.

Harry had never considered how much of his life Draco had to keep secret from his parents. They’d been rivals for years, and Draco had always been pleasant to Remus in class. He’d even came over to their home last summer to visit Harry to see how she was feeling.

“I adore you,” Harry told Draco genuinely. She linked her arm in his and grinned. “You’re soo brave, perhaps you were wrongly sorted.”

“Don’t insult me, Potter,” Draco sniffed.

Harry laughed and they all four grabbed the portkey on Remus’ command and were jerked hard clear across the ocean to Las Vegas.

“No gambling.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“No leaving the strip.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Stay together.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“No drugs.”

“Rem! They’re teenagers!” Sirius laughed, bouncing on his feet as he eagerly drank in the sights and sounds of the Las Vegas strip that their hotel was on. Everyone was dressed to match the horrifying weather and Harry had a little bag across her shoulder with her wand, her American muggle money, and the ID’s that Remus got for them all upon their arrival.

There had been a bit of fuss about Harry Potter being there, but Harry handled it rather gracefully. She signed a few papers, took a few photographs, and rolled her eyes when Draco called her big-headed.

Pansy and Elise both had matching bags, though Elise had bottled water in hers instead of her wand.

“And drugs are illegal and dangerous,” Remus told Sirius sternly. “Don’t encourage them, Sirius.”

“I certainly won’t be doing drugs,” Elise said, putting a hand on her still-flat stomach that was exposed by her red crop top. “Strawberry won’t go to Oxford if I do.”

Since Harry already filled Pansy and Draco in on Elise’s pregnancy and knowledge of magic, she assumed their surprised looks were for the completely daft name Elise kept calling Harry’s goddaughter.

“If it helps, I won’t be going to Oxford either,” Harry told Remus with a passive smile. “So it should be fine if I do drugs.”

Remus’ lips twitched a little, but he remained firm on his stance.

“No drugs,” he repeated. “Be back here by eight so we can get dinner.”

“Ten,” Elise countered with quickly.

“Nine,” Remus said, outright smiling then. “Go on, don’t be stupid.”

“He didn’t say we couldn’t drink,” Pansy said with an impish little smirk the instant they were out of Remus’ earshot and on the sidewalk joining the boisterous crowds.

“He probably thinks you guys can’t buy alcohol since you’re not of age,” Elise pointed out.

“Poor, sweet, Remus,” Harry sighed. She patted her bag and shared smiles with Draco and Pansy. “It’s as if he forgot my father left me more than just a fortune and a famous name.”

“Fine, be drunk when we get back, I’ll tell Remus ‘I tried to stop them, sir, but they had magic!’” Elise said while she made her eyes wide and put a hand over her chest.

“I think I may like you after all,” Pansy said approvingly. “You’re an idiot muggle who slept with a boy who isn’t even that cute and plan on naming your little ‘happy accident’ Strawberry, but you seem fun.”

Harry was pleased to see two of her best friends getting along so well. Draco seemed rather overwhelmed, but he quickly mellowed out while they explored as much as they could in the time they had.

The colorful and frozen drinks that Harry snagged and paid for beneath her cloak didn’t hurt in adding a sparkle to his eyes either.

Their second morning there, Harry and her friends dressed in their posh muggle clothes while Remus and Sirius wore dashing tuxedos and called a cab to take them to the cute white church.

“Is this normal for muggles?” Draco whispered to Harry when they entered the church and saw the neon lights and the Elvis-impersonator that planned to officiate the wedding.

“Oh, yes,” Harry lied enthusiastically. She stood beside Draco in the rows facing the alter where Remus and Sirius stood hand-clasped. “I’ve always dreamt of such a wedding since I was a little girl.”

“Draco’s father would die,” Pansy breathed, an excited lilt to her tone. She looked beautiful in her red dress to match her lipstick. Almost as beautiful as Elise in her blue dress or Harry in her green one.

And Draco looked more fit than was fair in his grey suit that Elise kept checking out slyly.

“All the more reason to do it,” Draco drawled in a sarcastic whisper.

“You can marry me in Vegas in a couple of years,” Elise winked at Draco, her voice dripping with innuendo.

Harry blushed a little when Elise did a coy shimmy and Draco barely looked at her before he glanced at Harry and then determinedly looked to the wedding they were all there to witness.

Even pregnant, Elise was such a flirt.

After the wedding, Sirius told them not to bother them and they left the teens to their own devices after they all shared congratulations.

“You know they’re shagging like rabbits,” Elise said after they all changed to more casual clothes to explore in.

“New rule, nobody’s allowed to talk about them shagging,” Harry said brightly. She looked all around them at the lights and the sounds and the laughs. “Can we just- just have fun? We can go buy silly trinkets and eat all these odd foods and get absolutely pissed?”

“Cheers,” Pansy said. She was eyeing a clothing store with gorgeous models displaying sequined skirts and she quickly pulled Harry and Elise inside of it to force them all to try on clothes.

Poor Draco was a good sport as he sat on the little white sofa and let the girls use him as an audience of one for the truly outrageous outfits within the store.

“You look like a street walker,” Draco snorted when Harry strut across the little walkway in a sequined black dress that was just long enough for it to not qualify as swimwear. Harry inspected herself in the mirror and rather liked the way the black sequins set off her pale skin and green eyes.

“Am I a pretty street walker?” Harry teased him, shimmering her hips from side to side.

Draco turned a truly adorable shade of pink and rolled his eyes.

“Yes, Potter, you’re a very pretty street walker,” he drawled. “I’m sure you would make a fortune in Knockturn Alley.”

“What a compliment,” Pansy quipped, stepping out in a scandalous skirt and crop top outfit. Harry whistled appreciatively and Pansy winked before inspecting herself in the mirror beside Harry.

“We’re buying these,” Pansy declared. “Elise! Come show us what you have!”

Harry clapped politely when Elise swept from her stall dramatically in the baby blue match to Pansy’s red ensemble.

“You’re quite pretty for a muggle,” Pansy said sweetly.

“Until she gets fat,” Harry said brightly. She laughed when Elise pouted. “You should have kept your legs closed if you didn’t want to get fat,” she teased her.

“Says the girl who shagged a teacher,” Elise scoffed. She raised a brow when Draco and Pansy seemed surprised by their banter. “What? I didn’t do it.”

“Anyone want to go explore now?” Harry asked, changing the subject swiftly with a smile. “We haven’t even tried to gamble yet and it looks terribly fun.”

“Remus said not to gamble,” Draco said.

“And I’ve always been so fond of rules,” Harry laughed. “Come on, let’s go see what those spinning wheels are all about!”

Harry found gambling to be positively brilliant.

They stuffed paper money in the machines and then pulled bright levers and hoped they won more money than they lost.

Pansy was terrible at it, Elise wouldn’t even play, but Harry and Draco were brilliant at it.

“It’s Potter luck!” Harry shrieked. She grabbed Draco and they hugged while they jumped up and down, laughing and watching as the numbers continued to grow and their payout increased.

“FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!” Draco screamed. He was laughing and his eyes were sparkling and Harry was drunk on both the cocktails they’d stolen and the thrill of winning.

Harry did something very brave and very stupid then. Draco’s arms were already around her and they were already laughing and giggling and…

And Harry kissed him.

Harry kissed Draco on the lips and he gasped and parted his lips then curled his hand around Harry’s neck and pulled her in for a deeper kiss.

They broke apart when they both needed air and Harry looked in Draco’s eyes and saw a vulnerable bit of happiness in them that made her lips curl up in a smile.

Then Pansy whistled, Elise fake-swooned, and the moment was ruined.

The rest of their trip was excellent.

Harry, Elise, Draco, and Pansy spent their winnings on the most absurd trinkets. They visited every store in the strip and found one that sold candy bars where they could print their faces on the wrappers!

“Harry, you have to put these in your shop,” Draco snickered when he held up the chocolate bar with his own arrogant smirk on it. “Not for the peasants to put their faces on it, but just the ones with my face.”

“Nobody will buy them with your ugly mug,” Harry grinned. She held up the one with her face on it, smiling and cheerful. “Now this one…”

“Oh, yeah,” Pansy grinned. “I’d buy that one.”

Harry flipped her hair over her shoulder and stuck her nose in the air. “You had your chance, Pans. Unfortunately, you’re not a lesbian.”

“And Draco is,” Elise said cheerfully. She had a candy bar with the little black and white ‘sonogram’ photo of Harry’s goddaughter printed on it. “Here, Harry, it’s coco-bean candy with baby bean on it.”

“Aww!” Harry beamed at the candy bar and swore to keep it forever. She also had the four of them take a group picture to put on a candy bar that she planned on keeping forever as well.

Draco bought Harry a cheesy and ridiculous necklace that was half of a puzzle piece with the queen from a deck of cards stamped on it.

“It matches mine,” he said, pulling a silver necklace from beneath his shirt, the other half of the puzzle piece with the king logo on it.

The two of them were outside the hotel, both enjoying the sunset from the little veranda, and Harry gave Draco an unsure look through her lashes.

“I know we kissed, but…”

“But you don’t feel comfortable being in a relationship?” Draco asked, somehow guessing what Harry couldn’t put in words.

Harry nodded slowly, not wanting to ruin the something they had together.

Draco grabbed Harry’s hand and put the necklace in her palm and curled her fingers around it before letting it drop back to her side.

“Then you’ll be my queen rival until you are ready,” Draco said simply. “Although, we live in a patriarchy, so the king is obviously superior.”

Harry laughed, the weight off her chest, and shoved Draco playfully.

“I plan on changing that,” she said.

Draco smiled at her softly, his face washed in the pinks and oranges from the setting sun.

“I believe you will.”

Harry went ahead and added the puzzle piece charm to the necklace from Cedric she wore, letting the ring and the charm rest side by side.

When they all returned from the States, Harry was bursting with excitement to take Elise to Diagon Alley on the grand opening of the twins’ shop.

The shop was packed and everywhere Harry looked, there were smiles and laughter and—

“PYGMY PUFFS!” Harry yanked on Elise hard and pushed her way through the crowd to get to the cages of fuzzy brightly colored little puff balls of cuteness.

“Ooh, I want one,” Harry said wistfully. She reached in for a fluffy pink one and held it up so she could nuzzle her nose to it. “You’re so precious, baby, I love you.”

“Then she’s all yours.”

Harry spun around with the puff in her hands and grinned up at Fred, who stood proudly in his purple shop robes and had a dazzling smile on his face.

“You stupid genius!” Harry squealed, hugging Fred tightly without hurting the puff in her hand. “Ugh! This is brilliant! How am I meant to top this when I open my shop?”

Fred glanced significantly at Elise standing just behind Harry and grinned crookedly.

“Harry, my favorite rebel in the world, how many laws are you breaking right now?”

“If it’s not seven then I’m not happy,” Harry laughed. She looped her arm in Elise’s and pulled her by her side. “Elise went and got herself knocked up by a wizard and then Remus accidentally told her about magic and now she’s my international pen pal from the States if anyone asks.”

Fred’s jaw dropped for an instant before his loud laughter filled the shop, louder than all the customers.

“You mad witch,” he said fondly. He slid his arm around Harry’s shoulders and smiled down at her. “Come on, I’ll give you a tour and you can get some purple robes to wear when you work.”

“Actually…” Harry stared up at Fred with a nervous smile. “Do you have enough sales for two part-timers? Elise is an impoverished teen mum,” Elise elbowed Harry hard and Harry had to gasp for breath for a moment.

“But she needs a job,” Harry finished. “She can stay on when Ginny and I go back to school and she’s lovely, really, if you ignore her entire personality.”

Fred looked at Elise’s pouting blue eyes over Harry’s shoulder and he rolled his own eyes.

“Fine, but now you have to pay for your puff.”

Harry spent the rest of her summer having a brilliant time.

She worked two days a week in the shop with Elise, introducing her to all of her friends and enemies from Hogwarts. The twins had moved in a flat above the shop so they had dinner with them on days they worked and Harry loved seeing how easily they all got along.

It was easy enough to explain Elise to everyone outside of Harry’s closest friends- she merely said that Elise was the squib girl she knocked up before she had the sex change everyone thought she underwent.

Poor Professor McGonagall went pale when Harry said that it was her child in Elise’s stomach, but Harry found it was a great laugh.

The shop was a wonderful distraction too. There were always potions to brew (Fred said he only trusted Harry to help, as she had received an O in the subject on her OWLS), customers to help, and new ideas to discuss together. Harry couldn’t wait until she bought the shop across the street and opened Cedric’s Sweets.

When Harry’s birthday rolled around, she received two absolutely brilliant gifts and one terrible one.

Elise was grinning like an idiot at Harry’s birthday celebration when she gave her a thin package wrapped up in sparkling pink paper.

“Don’t curse me after you open it,” Elise warned her. She put a hand on her stomach, protecting the baby bean from Harry, and made a face. “It’s not my fault, anyway.”

Harry tilted her head to the side as she slowly unwrapped Elise’s gift in front of all her friends in the backyard of Lupin Cottage.

“Oh.” Harry smiled at the framed magical sonogram image (Pansy had stolen the machine from her mother who was a healer at a private clinic so that Elise didn’t have ‘those horrible muggle images’). There, in black and white but clear as could be, was Harry’s little…

“It’s a boy?!” Harry gasped, spotting the proof in the picture. “Oh, Harriette, how could you do this to me?”

Elise laughed at Harry’s theatrics. “Turn the frame over, Drama Queen.”

Harry flipped over the frame and saw a handwritten note on the back in black marker:

Aunt Harry,
You’ve always been my mum’s best friend. Will you be my godmum?
Love,
Mikael

“You mean it?” Harry asked Elise, tears pooling in her eyes. The two of them had joked about Harry being godmother, but Harry didn’t know if Elise would truly choose her.

Elise reached over and grabbed Harry’s hands in hers and squeezed them while her own eyes teared up.

“Who else?” she asked. “He’ll need a terribly famous aunt, or mother, depending on who you’re speaking to, with a bad temper and fierce reputation to help him become the best little wizard in the world.”

“Oh!” Harry jumped up from where she sat on the bench and wrapped Elise in a hug, the two of them snotting all over each other. “Please don’t name him Michael with a ‘k’,” Harry said when she pulled away and tried to stop her happy tears. “It’s a terrible name.”

“Speaking of names…” Remus slid Harry an envelope and stood back with his arm around Sirius’ waist while they both smiled at her. “Happy birthday, dear.”

Harry grinned and wiped off her face before she opened his envelope only to begin crying again.

“I thought you hated me!” Harry cried, jumping up to throw herself at Remus and Sirius while waving the adoption paperwork in one hand. “I- I thought you hated me forever!” she sobbed.

“Harry, why would I—”

“Not you!” Harry said, interrupting Remus. “I- I thought you hated me,” Harry told Sirius, staring tearfully at her godfather.

Sirius smiled sadly while he swiped a tear off Harry’s cheek with his thumb.

“I could never hate you,” he said quietly, keeping his voice low so Harry’s friends didn’t overhear. “I just… had some personal issues to work out.”

Harry looked at Remus for an interpretation and Remus sighed while looking sadly at Sirius.

“If you were the victim at fifteen then Sirius was the victim at fifteen,” Remus said very quietly, answering Harry’s question and leaving her with a dozen more. “But that’s discussions best left for therapy, now, do you accept or not?”

“Yes!” Harry said. She flung her arms around both of their necks and squeezed tightly. “I love you.”

“And we love you,” Remus said with his own shaky voice. “Now you’re officially my daughter.”

“Our daughter,” Sirius corrected his husband gruffly.

Harry thought that nothing could dim her happiness on the day she turned sixteen and gained a godson and two parents, but Fred managed it anyway.

“Happy birthday.”

Harry had been sitting on the porch long after the party ended and Elise fell asleep, just basking in the warmth of the summer night and the joy she felt. Fred had appeared out of nowhere, always showing off his apparation skills, and smiled as he strode across the lawn to sit on the porch swing by Harry.

“Thanks,” Harry said with a genuine smile. She leaned in Fred’s side after he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “How was the shop today?”

“Quiet without you,” Fred laughed. “How’s Pinkie?”

“Probably cuddling Elise, the bloody traitor,” Harry said. “Guess what?”

“Hm?”

“Remus and Sirius want to adopt me,” Harry told him quietly. “After the paperwork goes through, I’ll be Harry Potter-Lupin.”

And after Michael with a k was born, Harry and Elise decided that he would be Michael with a k Hughes-Potter so that he would never struggle to find a place in the wizarding world. As Harry was terribly famous, any child of ‘hers’ would be just as famous and accepted.

Even if he wasn’t a wizard, which Harry quite hoped he would be.

Fred tilted his head down to rest it on top of Harry’s. “That’s a mouthful,” he said teasingly before adding, “I’m glad.”

Harry was too. It all felt like much more than she deserved. Harry thought some days she didn’t even deserve to smile - not since Cedric couldn’t and Harry had ruined Tonks’ life, but… but Cedric was gone and Harry hadn’t forced Tonks to do anything… that was what Remus said and Snape told her during their counseling sessions last semester and- and maybe they were right.

“I got you something.”

Harry blinked up at Fred, still unused to the contacts that Ginny got her for her birthday, and smiled a little shyly.

“You didn’t need to,” she told him. “I would have accepted a bonus on my next paycheck.”

Fred laughed and pushed Harry over just enough for him to take a package from his pocket and give it to her before pulling her back to his side.

“Just open it, Potter-Lupin,” he teased.

Harry slowly unwrapped the glittering purple paper to find a rectangle shaped box that made her stomach clench with nerves.

“It’s… it’s lovely,” Harry breathed when she opened the box and saw a beautiful heart shaped locket laying on a golden chain.

“Open it,” Fred said, his voice quiet.

Harry reached out with trembling fingers and fumbled with the locket for a moment before she undid the clasp and images began to play as if on a tiny screen right in front of them.

There was Harry, sitting in front of the Mirror of Erised with her knees drawn up to her chest… Fred walked up to see what she was doing and then stopped when he looked in the mirror…

Where Harry had seen her parents, Fred saw himself and Harry, just as they were. Except Harry wasn’t curled up on the floor and crying and instead they were laughing and smiling and looking so happy together…

There were more images, memories, Harry supposed, of the two of them. Harry flying and Fred watching with a smile. Fred talking exuberantly about pranks and Harry listening with a grin. Long evenings spent brewing together… laughter shared over meals… Harry wearing Fred’s Weasley jumper when it was cold outside and hers didn’t fit right anymore…

“I- I don’t know what to say,” Harry whispered when the memories finally flickered away and she could close the locket. Harry looked up at Fred and saw his blue eyes looking solemn before he slid off the swing and grasped both of Harry’s hands in his from where he kneeled.

“Harry, I know I’m an idiot and I know that you’ve had quite possibly the hardest go at it when it comes to love, but I love you,” he said brazenly. “I reckon I loved you clear back when we first became friends and I didn’t know it until that mirror showed me.

“I’m not asking for anything crazy, I’m just asking that when you’re ready to give love another chance, will you let me be the one that you try with?”

Harry looked at Fred’s earnest blue eyes and his genuine smile and felt her heart clench so painfully.

Fred was… Fred was Harry’s best friend, aside from Elise. And they had so many ups and downs and…

It was difficult to untangle her feelings about Fred, with as much history as they shared. But Fred seemed to want an answer so Harry tried to give him one.

“What if I’m never ready?” Harry asked him softly. “You shouldn’t wait for me, Fred. You’re brilliant and handsome and the funniest bloke I’ve ever met. You shouldn’t wait for me to stop being a train wreck.”

“You’re worth it,” Fred said with his usual stubbornness. “Just think about it, please?”

“Alright,” Harry said hesitantly. “I will.”

Fred beamed and kissed Harry’s cheek chastely.

“I love you, Harrikins,” he said before he left.

Harry loved Fred as well, but she didn’t know if it was in the way he wanted.

When summer came to a close, Harry had one final surprise for Elise.

“Keep them closed,” Harry laughed as she led Elise from the twins’ shop out in the middle of the streets of Diagon Alley. Harry stood behind Elise and had her eyes covered with her hands while Ginny and the twins followed them outside. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Elise huffed impatiently.

Harry moved her hands off Elise’s eyes. “Tada!”

Elise stared at the building Harry had her facing before turning and lifting a mocking brow at Harry.

“What am I looking at?”

Harry turned her back to the plain brick building and made a grand gesture with her hands.

“This is officially the future sight for Cedric’s Sweets and- and it has a lovely three bedroom flat up top,” she said, brimming with excitement. “That’s just enough bedrooms for you, me, and Harrison.”

Elise squealed and turned to Harry with a mirror of Harry’s own happiness all over her face.

“You bought it?!” she exclaimed. “How?!”

“Sirius co-signed!” Harry laughed. “I paid for it but they wouldn’t sell to a sixteen year old, no matter how famous I am, apparently, so it’s in my dad’s name until next summer!”

And by next summer, Harry would be ready to open the shop. She would work on it all summer and get it up and running and then Elise could run it while Harry had her last year at Hogwarts.

“You’re such a twat!” Elise smacked Harry’s arm and ran toward the building to explore. “You know my hormones are messed up and now I am going to sob!”

“You really did it,” Ginny said with a laugh when Harry let them all inside the empty shop. “How’d you convince Remus to let you buy a building?”

“I paid for it and I showed him my business plan,” Harry said smugly. She looked around the blank walls and felt it all just shimmering with potential to be something great, amazing even.

“Harrison will be here in February and Sirius said he’d help us get the flat set up before I come back in June,” Harry told Elise, wanting her to know how much she had thought it all out. “I know it’ll be stuffy in our room at the cottage until then with a baby, but—”

“Shut your stupid mouth,” Elise said. She spun around from where she’d been looking at the staircase that led up to the flat and she opened her arms to pull Harry in a bone-crushing hug. “You’re the greatest friend I’ve ever had,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

Harry tickled Elise right on her ribs where she was most ticklish and grinned impishly at her.

“So you’ll name him Harrison?”

“Hell no,” Elise laughed.

People could call Harry immature, silly, and whatever other variety of names they wanted, but Harry had her entire future planned out and it primarily involved her best friend not being left alone as a single mum.

“I’m proud of you, dear.”

Harry beamed at Remus and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

“I love you, Dad.” Harry always felt a touch teary at the platform when it came to leaving Remus. “I wish you were coming back.”

Remus smiled at Harry and cupped her cheek. “And yet we both know I can’t leave Sirius and Elise home alone. Who knows if we would have a house to return to for the holiday?”

“Very true.”

Harry heard someone call her name and looked over her shoulder, spotting Katie and Alicia waving at her.

“I have to go,” Harry said, giving Remus one more hug. “I love you, don’t let them drive you mad, that’s my job!”

“And you do it so well!” Remus called to her back as Harry pushed her trolly and Hedwig toward the girls.

“Harry!” Alicia was quick to hug Harry and give her a bright smile.

“Oh Captain, our captain!” Katie grinned. “It’s so queer to be the last three standing from the original team…”

“Speak for yourself,” Harry scoffed. “It’ll just be me next year and I can’t wait.”

Harry would be the first Hogwarts student in over a century to have played quidditch for their house for all seven years. Harry was hoping she’d get a plaque or something in the Trophy Room for it… perhaps she just needed to drop a few hints to McGonagall…

The three girls chatted while they carried their luggage on the train and Harry only left them behind when she spotted Pansy and Blaise down the corridor.

“Pans! I’ve missing you!” Harry cried dramatically as she threw herself in Pansy’s arms.

“Don’t lie,” Pansy snorted even as she hugged Harry back enthusiastically. “You’ve replaced me with Elise.”

“How dare you?!” Harry cried indignantly. “I’ll have you know that I’ve never dated Elise!”

Harry winked very obviously over Pansy’s head at Blaise who grinned in approval.

“Slag,” Pansy said fondly. “Come on, let’s get to our compartment and hear about your many plans for chaos this year.”

“I have so many,” Harry gushed. “This summer has truly put in perspective for me what’s important, you know?”

“If you say family I will gag,” Pansy warned Harry.

“Family?” Harry laughed brightly and shook her head. “I mean, yes, I suppose, but I was going to say mischief, Pans. I have to take the legacy of the Marauders and make them seem like silly boys.”

Harry had been so concerned with her love life that she forgot her first true love- pranks.

“And I think I figured out how,” Harry said with an impish smile that, for some reason, made Blaise shudder.

It was a good plan, though Harry could only take half-credit for it. Fred had been instrumental in creating the necessary charms and Elise and Ginny had helped Harry with the song she needed.

Harry was still the one taking quite a risk in making the exchange though.

And it was so very much worth it.

Harry had pulled her cloak on, climbed on her broom before the train even fully stopped, and had Pansy open the door so Harry could shoot out of the train once it was stopped. Harry flew directly across the Black Lake and out as much speed in her flight as she could.

Once she made it to the castle grounds, Harry placed her broom beside the entrance - trusting Draco to do his part to grab it when he arrived - and then she snuck in through a side door. Harry moved quickly and quietly until she reached the chambers behind the Great Hall. There, just as Harry knew it would be, sat the Sorting Hat.

It was just sitting there, unguarded. Anyone could take it hostage.

“Hello,” Harry whispered. She reached out and took the hat, leaving the joke one in its spot. “I will return you, eventually,” she promised.

The temporary kidnapping of the Sorting Hat finished, Harry hastily made her way back out the side entrance and rejoined her classmates.

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

“Better be… HUFFLEPUFF!”

“Oh, it’s absolutely… HUFFLEPUFF!”

“I’ve never seen such a… HUFFLEPUFF!”

Harry kept her composure quite well during the sorting of twenty-three new students. Ginny, poor dear, had to duck her head to keep her red face and giggles hidden from the table of very bemused looking professors.

Draco caught Harry’s eye at the fourteenth Hufflepuff student and raised a brow.

Harry winked.

She did tell them that she planned something outlandish for the sorting. What was more outlandish than sending all the first years to Hufflepuff?

Headmaster Dumbledore interrupted the sorting after the nineteenth student was sent to Hufflepuff. His long white beard was twitching and Harry would later swear there were tears of laughter making his blue eyes sparkle.

“As much as it warms my heart to see Hufflepuff gain such wonderful young students…”

Ginny would later swear that Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall all looked directly at Harry.

“I would like the Sorting Hat to be returned.”

Harry let out a very shocked gasp of surprise when the hat was summoned straight from Hermione Granger’s bag.

It wasn’t personal, Harry just felt like blaming Hermione.

“I didn’t take it!” Hermione cried tearfully as Dumbledore caught the hat and McGonagall took it from him.

“Accidents do happen, dear,” Dumbledore said sagely. He sat back down in his seat and nodded to McGonagall. “Professor, if we could restart the sorting.”

Even Harry knew that McGonagall’s furious, thin-lipped, fuming look was aimed at her then. But, as a very wise godfather/adoptive-stepfather once told Harry…

It would be a real bitch to prove.

Harry flounced up the stairs to her dorm and waggled her fingers at the other girls as she grabbed the handle of her trunk.

“I’d love to stay, but I don’t like any of you,” Harry said in an imperious way that Draco would have envied. “Taaaaa!”

Harry debated on the staircase- up to sleep with Alicia and Katie in the seventh year dorm or down to sleep with Ginny in the fifth year dorm…

Or… Harry could go get Ginny, drag her to the seventh year dorm, and then they could all stay up late and do pedicures while they discuss the new lineup for their team.

That was precisely the way to go.

Harry accepted her schedule and a lecture from McGonagall the next morning about ‘stealing ancient artifacts’ and ‘sleeping in appropriate places’. Harry was sure she had plenty of good points, but Harry was busy being delighted and shocked by her schedule in equal measures.

“I have SO MANY free hours!” Harry squealed. She had defense, transfiguration, charms, and potions. Four classes. That left her with loads of free time.

The surprise came when Harry looked at the professors listed with each class.

“Who the hell is Slughorn?” Harry demanded, seeing his name beside the potions slot. Harry had to look up at the table to assure herself that Snape was still there. He said they would continue their sessions from last year and Harry would be disappointed if he quit just to get out of the obligation.

Ginny put her hand on top of Harry’s head and turned her from Snape to a large man with a walrus beard, hideous purple robes, and a jolly look on his face.

“How did you miss him?” Ginny asked, exasperated. “Dumbledore introduced him last night.”

“Harry was busy making eyes at Draaaaaco,” Katie sang under her breath, earning a kick from Harry beneath the table.

“Draco happens to be trying to outdo me this year,” Harry informed them waspishly. She looked across the hall until she found Draco. He was snickering to something Theo was telling him and then - like he sensed Harry looking at him - he looked back at her.

Harry wiggled her eyebrows.

Draco smirked.

Harry flipped her hair back.

Draco rolled his eyes.

Harry grinned.

Draco was the best rival in the world, truly. Harry was blessed to have him around to constantly compete with.

“Harry? Harry?”

“Hm?” Harry looked away from Draco to the girls and ignored the ‘knowing’ looks the girls exchanged.

“I saaaaaaid, that Snape is teaching defense this year,” Ginny drawled. “Maybe he’s hoping the curse strikes him down.”

“The curse of every defense teacher turns out to be a pervert? Except Lupin, of course,” Alicia added hastily.

“I was hoping it would be Dumbledore,” Harry sighed. She sent a forlorn look at their Headmaster. “He just seems like perhaps he knows some brilliant spells.”

And as Harry had quite the busy year planned - too much to do to make any mistakes in her personal life - learning magic from Dumbledore would have been brilliant.

Except Slughorn was an absolute delight.

Their NEWTS potion class was rather small, only eight of them in total, and Harry partnered up with Pansy and left Draco to pout at a table by Theo.

“We aren’t partners?” Draco hissed over his shoulder to Harry.

Harry was busy craning her neck to check out what the potions bubbling up front were and she hardly spared Draco a scoff.

“It’s hard to compete if we’re working together,” Harry whispered back, still looking at the three cauldrons. “You and me, darling. All year long.”

“What an innuendo,” Theo grinned.

Everyone could joke all they wanted, but Harry and Draco had taken their rivalry up a notch.

Every grade, every quidditch match, every prank, every point earned and detention gained was being logged in a notebook. Remus had given Harry the idea, mentioning something he and Harry’s mother did once in a fierce contest, and then he helped Harry build the two journals.

They were incredibly complicated with the log of points and demerits, but there was also a fun place to leave messages to each other. Harry left Draco one that morning, pointing out that the journal magic logged her prank from the night before as two blue points.

Draco back drew a middle finger with a good likeness to Pansy’s sharp manicured fingers.

“You two are ridiculous,” Pansy murmured.

They were, but Harry didn’t mind.

Professor Slughorn wound up being grand fun. He called them all to the front and opened his arms wide to show off the three cauldrons.

One was a small golden cauldron, bubbling in a cheerful way with a golden potion that smelled like clover. On the right of it was a large black cauldron with thick grey liquid in it, only occasionally letting out belching bubbles. It was the cauldron on the left that Harry was most interested in.

It was a clear and calm potion but with a very strong smell. Harry thought it smelled like how the wind did in the winter, cinnamon, and the fudge macaroons that Elise adored.

It gave it a very Christmas-y smell.

“Now, who can tell me what these are?” Professor Slughorn asked the eight of them.

“Polyjuice, sir!” Hermione Granger said, gesturing to the grey potion.

Harry recognized it as well, she had assisted Snape in brewing it during her sessions last year.

“And this one?”

Professor Slughorn pointed at Draco that time who sighed rather dramatically.

“Amortentia, sir,” Draco said. “It’s a love potion.”

Harry blinked. She didn’t know that.

“And what does it smell like? Yes, Mister Macmillan?”

“It smells like what attracts us the most,” Ernie, a pompous boy, said with pink cheeks.

“Correct!” Slughorn cried. He grinned at them all. “Anyone want to volunteer what they smell?”

Harry was the only one to raise her hand and she put on a wonderful show.

“I smell…” Harry took a deep breath and knew that all eyes were on her. “I smell rust? No… Blood. I smell blood and death and… oh, peppermint.”

It was hysterical how all the students took a step away from Harry in a simultaneous movement. Draco, Pansy, and Theo didn’t move, but the other four looked terrified. Draco looked at Harry and raised a brow, Harry only grinned.

Harry would admit what she truly smelled in hell, thank you very much.

And when Slughorn laughed and gave Harry ten points for ‘being just like her mother’, Harry decided that he may be her favorite professor that year. Slughorn lost some points when he awarded Draco the winner of the brewing contest he had- not only giving Draco points in their rival-journals but also giving him a vial of liquid luck.

Though Slughorn earned back some of Harry’s favor when she realized he left his classroom unlocked and she could take quite a bit of that love potion. Not as much favor as he gained by inviting Harry to join his secret club though, that sounded very fun.

Professor Snape was a wonder in his defense classes as well. Harry didn’t even know that Snape liked teaching things outside of potions!

The sixth years had been separated again, but Harry was happy to have the Gryffindor class held with the Slytherins. It was fun to watch Pansy Make moon eyes at Professor Snape, even if it made Harry the tiniest bit uncomfortable.

“Pans, darling, you have to stop eye-shagging Snape,” Harry told her after their first defense lesson. They had their hands linked and swinging in-between them while they walked through the corridors and the other students whispered about them.

“He’s just… ugh,” Pansy groaned and threw her head back dramatically. “His voice is like velvet. I bet he’s excellent at dirty talk.”

“Miss Parkinson, you have been insufferable in class, bend over my knee,” Blaise said in a poor imitation of Snape’s voice.

“Ten points to Slytherin for a talented mouth,” Theo drawled.

“Shut up,” Draco told them, shoulder-checking Theo and tripping Blaise. Draco glanced at where Harry was guiltily thinking of when she had fancied the defense teacher the year before with her head down and her lip between her teeth.

“We’ll see what happens after graduation,” Pansy said, smoothing the tense moment over. “Harry, I heard that Sapphire Herron is going to try out for your team.”

Quidditch was the biggest point value in Harry and Draco’s contest that year. Not only were they rival-seekers, but also rival-captains.

Harry had no intention of losing a single point to Draco.

Quidditch tryouts were much easier that year than the year before. It might have been Harry’s dramatic shouts at everyone that if they weren’t serious that she would kill them, or it was her excellent captain skills.

Either or.

The only open position they had was for keeper, as Ginny seamlessly moved to take Angelina’s spot and the Creevey brothers had been training all last year for Fred and George’s.

There weren’t many good candidates, only three real contenders…

Sapphire Herron, a third year girl with a fun streak of purple in her dark brown hair, was a natural flier, but a touch too small to block the goals completely effectively.

Ron Weasley, Ginny’s brother in Harry’s year, got better as tryouts went on, but Harry didn’t like the way he seemed nervous enough to wet himself.

Cormac McLaggen, a seventh year boy with more brawn that brain, blocked the goals effortlessly, but he wasn’t very coordinated on the training exercise Harry set.

And Cormac tried to flirt with Harry for a spot, which was vile.

“Go with Ron,” Ginny murmured to Harry while they watched the three keepers battling in the sky. “I can whip his arse in shape.”

“If Ron’s got stage fright for tryouts, how bad will it be when the stands are full?” Katie said wisely.

“Cormac is a troll, but he’s talented,” Alicia added.

Harry nodded in agreement with all three of them and then told Sapphire Herron that she had the spot.

It wasn’t personal to not choose Ron or Cormac, not entirely anyway, Harry just liked the idea of having an all girl team. She would just make the Creevey brothers lengthen their hair and wear makeup for games. Something they both laughed about and promised to do.

Colin seemed nervous about it though, so instead of walking with her friends, Harry took Colin for a walk.

“If it makes you uncomfortable, I suppose you don’t have to,” Harry told him, rather kindly. Harry was fond of the Creevey brothers, they were sweet boys who worked hard to be excellent beaters. Harry wanted to prove a point about feminism in their matches, but not at the risk of hurting Colin.

“It’s not that…” Colin mumbled. He looked down at the ground and kicked the dirt. “I want to do it.”

“Wonderful!”

“Too much.”

Harry blinked.

“Pardon?”

Colin took a deep breath and his young face was very red when he looked up at Harry with watering blue eyes.

“I’m- I’m a girl,” he whispered.

“Oh.” Harry looked at Colin and it clicked in her mind that it was a ‘Regulus Black situation’. “Okay,” Harry said easily. “Do you prefer female pronouns?”

“I’ve never told anyone else,” Colin said as he she began crying in earnest. “Everyone thought you were so brave when you transitioned and I want to be brave enough to be open too, but- but- my brother and my parents… and I don’t want everyone to hate me!”

Harry was bewildered when Colin threw herself at her and began hugging Harry and crying on her chest. Harry just patted her on the back and knew precisely where she needed to go.

“Do you like Professor Snape?” Harry asked kindly after Colin calmed down some.

“He’s scary,” Colin sniffled. “I heard he’s a pervert.”

“That’s tosh,” Harry assured her. “Come along, he’s wonderful really.”

Harry left Colin in the very capable hands of Professor Snape after she told him in a loud whisper that it was a Regulus Black situation. When Colin returned to the common room two hours later, Harry grinned and nodded when she shyly said that she did prefer female pronouns.

“Colin’ll be moving in my dorm then?” Ginny asked as she took her turn in gobstones.

“Well she can’t sleep with the boys,” Harry said primly. “Imagine what a scandal that would be.”

The two girls looked at each other and then collapsed into fits of giggles.

That weekend wasn’t only quidditch tryouts, but also Harry’s first taste of the secret club of Professor Slughorn’s. It wound up mostly being students that were either extremely intelligent - such as Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, and Harry herself - or well connected - such as Draco, Blaise, Cormac, and Harry - or famous - like Harry.

“That was fun,” Harry said cheering after the first meeting was held. Professor Slughorn served tiny sandwiches, tea, soo many desserts, and spent a lot of his time talking to Harry.

“You would think that,” Ginny sighed at Harry. “He’s obviously in love with you.”

“Or my mother,” Harry pointed out. “It’s a real Snape-like conundrum, isn’t it?”

“Does he hate you because you’re an arrogant, mental, toerag or favor you because you remind him of a dead woman?” Draco nodded seriously. “I can see the conundrum.”

“It’s not arrogance if everything I think about myself is true,” Harry pointed out. “Am I gorgeous? Yes. Am I brilliant and powerful? Yes. Famous? Yep. The best seeker in Hogwarts? Also yes. When it’s earned arrogance, then it’s simply called confidence.”

Harry’s friends laughed and she kept up her easy smile, though it was rather difficult to maintain.

Harry laid in Ginny’s bed a few nights later and found that Ginny truly was a wonderful listener.

“If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you,” Harry whispered. There was no need to whisper, Harry put up a silencing charm on the curtains so that Ginny’s dormmates - including Clara - couldn’t hear her, but it was easier to talk in whispers about things that were difficult.

“Sometimes I just feel so terrible lonely,” Harry admitted. “I know I’ve got friends, family, a rival, a team… everything I could ask for, but… it’s as if Cedric left a hole in my heart and I don’t know that I’ll ever fill it.

“I miss what we had,” Harry said tearfully. “I miss the feeling of being in love. I miss Cedric, more than anything, but I think a lot of it is that I miss what we had. And- and sometimes I just don’t think I’ll ever find it again.”

Ginny was quiet for a beat, waiting to see if Harry was done, and then she snuggled in Harry’s side sweetly.

“Harry, love, you always think relationships are an all or nothing thing,” she whispered to Harry. “Maybe it was with Cedric, but you haven’t really tried just dating since then. I know you’re in love with being in love, but why not just… date? See what’s out there?”

Harry sniffled and wiped her nose while she considered it.

“I think I’m just an all or nothing person,” Harry said. “I want to be the best at everything I do, I want my relationships to last forever… I don’t know if I could just date.”

“Let me set you up,” Ginny said, sounding excited then. “Three dates, three different people!”

Harry blamed her PMS for making her weepy and for making her agree to letting Ginny set her up on ‘casual dates’.

“Neville’s a nice boy.”

“But?”

“But is he too nice?” Harry said thoughtfully. “I need someone with some… hm… some pizzazz, you know?”

Snape gave Harry a rather deadpan look.

“I do not,” he said. “Elaborate.”

Harry had spent the first ten minutes of their first counseling session describing her dull date with Neville. It wasn’t that Neville was dull, it was just that they didn’t share any of each others interests.

Neville liked plants and tutoring, Harry liked quidditch and chaos.

“What happened to no dating this year?” Snape asked Harry with an arched brow after she said just that. “I was under the impression that you were going to focus on your studies.”

“Oh, sir, you’re under the wrong impression,” Harry tsk’d. “I’m focusing on fun, the last year before I have to straighten up and be a responsible godmum, you know? I’ll have my godson next year and the shop will be running so I expect I’ll be quite busy trying to run a business from here. This is the last year I have to do fun things.”

“Fun things being the theft of three liters of Amortentia from Horace?” Snape asked with a knowing light in his eyes.

Harry smiled brightly.

“No, sir. I have no idea what you mean.”

That was for a special Halloween prank.

Snape snorted and then eased the conversation toward Harry’s feelings about her adoption and the disconnect she had felt from Sirius.

The next date Ginny set Harry up on was surprising.

“Oh, hello,” Harry said to Ginny’s friend, Luna.

Luna was sitting on a blanket by the lake with the cutest picnic basket beside her. Harry sat down quickly, behind Luna so she could inspect the beautiful braids she had in her hair.

“These are lovely!” Harry cried, genuinely impressed. Luna didn’t seem to mind having Harry play with her hair and so Harry carefully traced the lines of the two braids so she could mimic it in her own hair.

“They’re Dutch braids,” Luna said. “My mother used to do them before she died. Would you like me to show you?”

“Yes, please,” Harry said eagerly. The two of them switched spots and Luna opened the basket to show all sorts of fruits, pastries, and drinks inside of it.

“This is nice,” Harry hummed a little while later. Luna was taking her time with Harry’s hair and Harry occasionally fed her a bite of whatever she requested.

With the sun setting over the lake, Luna’s clever fingers playing with Harry’s hair, Harry was rather content.

“It is nice,” Luna agreed. “I didn’t want to go on a date, but Ginny was very insistent.”

“You didn’t want to go on a date with me?” Harry asked, rather hurt by that. Harry wasn’t close with Luna, but they’d always been friendly enough.

It was probably the way that nobody wanted to date the Boy-Who-Lived-to-Become-a-Girl whose first love died and her last… object of affection… had been fired.

Draco and Fred did, but… but they were mental and probably confusing their feelings.

“With you? Very much,” Luna said without hesitation. “I thought Ginny would try and set me up with Clara again. Clara’s very nice, but a teensy bit boring. Plus, she wouldn’t ride a thestral with me,”

Harry perked up at that compliment and she turned her head to look at Luna over her shoulder.

“What is a thestral?”

Luna grinned in the mischievous kind of way that Harry herself often did.

“Do you want to find out?” Luna asked.

Harry couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do.

Thestrals wound up being invisible winged horses - according to Luna. Harry was just a touch skeptical while she watched Luna pet the air, until Luna climbed up on one and patted a space behind her for Harry.

“If you’re scared, we can go back to the picnic,” Luna said airily. “It’s probably odd to ride something you can’t see.”

It was odd, but Harry had never in her life turned down a challenge.

Harry climbed up and her body could feel something solid beneath her, as if the creature was wearing a cloak of invisibility.

“Hold on,” Luna said before she twisted her heels and they were flying.

“How’d it go with Luna?” Ginny asked when Harry returned to the common room late that night with her hair braided and a wide smile.

“It was brilliant!” Harry said, joining the other girls from the quidditch team on the sofa. Harry had to sort of lay on them, but that was their problem.

“Sooo?” Sapphire asked. “Are you going out with her again?”

“Hm? Oh, no,” Harry said. “Luna’s trying to lose her virginity to protect herself from nanderillos, I’d rather not be involved in that.”

“What are nanderillos?” Katie asked slowly.

“Ten eyed creatures that poison virgins,” Harry explained. “They mostly live in Argentina, but they could invade soon now that they’ve learned to swim.”

The other girls didn’t seem to believe Harry, but Luna had been right about the thestrals so Harry didn’t doubt her.

Harry’s last date was the day before her grand Halloween prank. Except Harry sort of thought the date itself must have been a prank.

“Blaise?” Harry grinned at her friend that was waiting for her in the entrance hall with a single white rose. “You don’t fancy me.”

“Sure I do,” Blaise disagreed as he tucked the rose in Harry’s hair, just behind her ear.

“What’s not to fancy?” Blaise asked as they easily linked arms to walk to Hogsmeade together. “You’re talented, famous, gorgeous. And Draco’s going to be so furious.”

Harry laughed as she realized why Blaise must have agreed to the date. Blaise tended to date people who were much… easier… than Harry.

“Why are you punishing Draco?” Harry asked him.

“He borrowed my trousers and ruined them,” Blaise said darkly.

“Which ones?”

“The ones that I wore to Slughorn’s meeting.”

“Oh no!” Harry groaned. “They made your arse look amazing!”

“I know,” Blaise agreed nonchalantly. “And now I have to order a replacement pair from Greece! So you can see why Draco must face the consequences.”

Harry really did. Jeans that fit a person as perfectly as those had fit Blaise were a rarity in the world. Draco was lucky Blaise didn’t kill him, honestly. Harry wasn’t quite sure that hanging off Blaise’s arm would punish Draco, but Blaise was certain it would.

It did.

It made Draco so upset that he wasn’t in any of their classes the next day and Pansy told Harry she was a moron.

Harry had to pull out the map after a rather depressing charms class to go find Draco. When Harry couldn’t find him on the map, she began to truly panic.

“Professor Slughorn?” Harry used his office since he was always fawning on her. Harry made big sad eyes at the man and hoped she looked pathetic. “I’m- I’m having a very difficult day,” she sniffled. “It’s, well, you know…”

“Oh, of course,” Slughorn said, instantly sympathetic. He stood up and waved a hand to the desk chair across from him. “I was just thinking of you this morning, dear. I can’t imagine… just a tragedy.”

“Mhmm,” Harry agreed. She stuck her lower lip out some for affect. “I just wish I could call my dad, he was so close with them…”

“Does Remus have a floo?” Slughorn asked with a kind smile. “It’s not strictly allowed, but certainly I think a floo call to your family can be allowed, considering.”

Harry waited until Slughorn gave her privacy to drop the tearful act and call Remus. Either Draco ran away or the map was broken.

“Harry?” Remus was the one to answer and he immediately looked too understanding. “Rough day, dear?”

“Yes,” Harry said curtly. “Draco is mad at me and he’s hiding and your map is broken.”

Remus sighed after Harry launched in a full explanation of what happened and where all she had looked. Even the other sixth year Slytherins didn’t know where Draco was.

“And if I don’t find him before dinner then he’s going to miss seeing the greatest prank ever pulled,” Harry whined.

“I thought the Hufflepuff Sorting was the greatest prank?” Remus asked with a smile.

“How did you hear about that?” Harry asked, delighted that her mischief had been relayed back to her parents.

“Minerva has tea with Sirius on occasion,” Remus said. “And you owe Draco an apology, Harry. It’s rude to hurt his feelings on purpose.”

“More rude than him destroying the jeans that make Blaise’s arse pop?”

“Yes,” Remus said firmly. “I’ll tell you where he might be if he’s in the castle, only if you swear to apologize to that poor boy.”

Harry swore and then Remus told her that the Room of Requirement wasn’t listed on the map.

“We had to remove it in our fifth year,” Remus explained. “When… ahem… two people are together, occasionally their dots overlap. We had an unfortunate few incidents of bursting in on each other for various reasons until we agreed the Room of Requirement would be removed and marked as a prank free zone.”

Harry licked her lips and tried to not smile.

“Dad… did your friends catch you with Sirius?” Harry asked.

“We actually made the rule after Sirius caught your father with his brother,” Remus said. Harry’s jaw dropped and Remus grinned wickedly. “Don’t forget to apologize. Love you.”

“What an absolute brat,” Harry breathed to herself after Remus disconnected.

There was no time to think about her father shagging Sirius’ brother though, Harry had a rival to find.

It was tricky getting in the Room of Requirement when Harry didn’t know what Draco asked it to be, but she got lucky on the eighth go.

“Go away,” Draco said as soon as Harry opened the door.

Harry ignored him and looked around the room with interest. It looked like a bedroom, a very boring bedroom with light green walls and silver furniture. The bed was made neatly with white linen, there was a bookcase beside it without a speck of dust, and a window with white curtains and a cushioned nook beneath it. That was where Draco was, glaring out the window that overlooked an empty field.

“Move your legs,” Harry complained when she tried to sit with Draco and his long legs were in the way.

Draco sighed loudly before curling his legs in to his chest so Harry could sit across from him with her legs curled up as well.

“Is this your bedroom?” Harry asked him.

Draco still glared out the window as he nodded. “It is.”

“It’s very boring,” Harry said. “I don’t think it suits you.”

“Piss off,” Draco muttered. He propped his chin on his knees and Harry’s chest ached at his glower.

Harry spent a lot of time making faces at Draco across the hall. Years, in fact. Harry knew when Draco was angry and when he was hurting and Harry had clearly hurt him rather badly.

“I don’t fancy Blaise,” Harry told him quietly. “You ruined his jeans and he wanted to irritate you.”

“It’s not about Zabini,” Draco sneered. “I heard girl Weasley, you know. If you didn’t return my feelings, I would have preferred you simply said so.”

“What did you hear Ginny say?” Harry asked, mystified.

“That you wanted to date and didn’t know who to ask,” Draco said, still not looking at Harry. “You- you told me you weren’t ready for a relationship.”

“I’m not,” Harry said honestly. “Snape says I’m too immature for a committed relationship.”

“Then why did you go out with Longbottom and Lovegood and Blaise?!” Draco demanded. He turned his glare on Harry then and she hated the raw look of pain in Draco’s usually soft eyes.

“For fun,” Harry said. “I just… Ginny said I should try dating for fun, Dray. That’s all they were. And, for the record, Neville isn’t very fun.”

When that didn’t get so much as a lip twitch from Draco, Harry pulled her necklace out from beneath her shirt to show him.

There was the ring from Cedric and the queen charm from Draco.

“I was just trying to have fun, not hurt you,” Harry said softly. “I’m sorry.”

Draco stared at the necklace before flicking his eyes up to meet Harry’s.

“What did you really smell? That first lesson in potions?” Draco asked.

Harry was so caught by surprise that she answered without thinking about it. Draco was her rival, yes, but she could trust him with that information.

“Cinnamon, chocolate macaroons, and cold wind,” Harry said.

Draco crinkled his nose for a moment.

“Cold wind?”

“You know…” Harry tried to explain the oddly specific scent. “Like when there’s snow on the ground and you’re flying? The wind smells crisp and icy.”

Draco still seemed clueless so Harry just shook her head.

“Nevermind,” she said. “Listen, I feel truly terrible that I’ve hurt your feelings, but there’s an excellent prank happening right now that should get me at least ten points and we are missing it, Dray. Can you be mad at me later? Maybe after I beat you in the first match this season?”

Draco considered it and then rolled his eyes before standing up and offering Harry his hand.

“You wish, Potter,” he said. “Come on, let’s go see your boring prank.”

“It’s not boring, it’s brilliant,” Harry sniffed as she stood up.

The two of them were halfway to the feast when Harry glanced at Draco a bit shyly.

“Dray? What do you smell?”

“You,” Draco said simply without any embarrassment. “You’ve managed to irritate me in every conceivable way.”

Harry didn’t know how to respond to that, she was just glad that Draco tacked on a barb at the end so Harry knew they were still… rivals.

And then Harry didn’t have to respond at all because suddenly she was being snatched by Professor McGonagall and dragged to the Headmaster’s office.

“YOU SPIKED NEARLY THREE HUNDRED STUDENTS WITH A LOVE POTION!” McGonagall yelled. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

Harry sat very quietly between Sirius and Remus - who were also being very quiet - and gave McGonagall her most politely puzzled expression.

“Ma’am, I wasn’t even at the feast,” Harry said. “I don’t know who did it, but I hope you catch them. Poor Professor Dumbledore,” Harry gave the Headmaster a solemn look. “I bet you were terribly shocked.”

Harry certainly would be shocked if all the students suddenly began professing their love to her. Harry briefly considered keying the potion to Professor Snape, but Dumbledore could take a joke much better.

“It was certainly an experience I won’t forget,” Dumbledore said gravely with a twinkle in his eyes. “You’re sure you don’t any student who had the means to rob Horace and has a history of befriending the house-elves?”

“Did you ask Hermione?” Harry suggested. “I’ve always been suspicious of what she does on her prefect rounds.”

Sirius coughed, hiding a laugh, and Remus kicked Harry’s leg warningly.

“Once they speak with the elves, you’ll have every one of those fifty detentions that Minerva threatened,” Sirius said when the meeting ended and Harry only narrowly avoided punishment.

If McGonagall thought that calling Harry’s parents would help her cause, she had been quite wrong. Remus was the one to very professionally say that it would be wrong to punish Harry unless they could prove it.

Which they couldn’t.

“The house-elves love me,” Harry said breezily while she walked Sirius and Remus to the front doors. “I’m like their Goddess, they worship me. It’s a bit embarrassing, to be honest.”

Sirius threw his head back and laughed loudly while Remus settled for what was probably meant to be a disapproving look.

It wasn’t very effective when Harry saw how badly he wanted laugh.

“Elise said send her love,” Remus said when they made it to the doors and began hugging goodbye.

“She also said to tell you to, and I quote, keep your legs closed because pregnancy is miserable,” Sirius added. “Sweet girl, really.”

“Tell her that’s what she gets,” Harry said as she hugged them both. “I love you.”

“We love you, little troublemaker,” Sirius chuckled.

Remus stalled for a moment and raised his eyebrows at Harry.

“Draco?” he asked quietly.

“Must be losing his mind right now,” Harry grinned. “I’m winning by so many points.”

Not only did Draco write a very vulgar string of curses in their notebooks, but he wasn’t the only one losing his mind.

Harry was attacked by Ginny, Katie, Alicia, and Clara when she returned to the dorm.

“I SANG A BLOODY SONNET TO DUMBLEDORE!” Ginny howled while she smacked Harry repeatedly with a pillow.

“I CRIED OVER HIS EYES!” Clara laughed.

“I WANTED TO CUT OFF A LOCK OF HIS BEARD!” Alicia hissed.

Harry only laughed while her friends smacked her with pillows.

“I would have paid anything to see it,” Harry sighed once the other girls were panting and the rest of Gryffindor seemed torn between glaring at Harry or giggling over the prank.

“How much trouble are you in?” Katie asked.

“If it’s ever proven - and I will take it to the Wizengamot if I must - then I have to serve fifty detentions,” Harry told them. “Oh, and McGonagall took one hundred points because I’m out of uniform.”

Nobody in Gryffindor was laughing then, they took house points very seriously. But nobody could stay mad at Harry for too long - except Hermione because she had no sense of humor - when Harry knew she could get the points back before Christmas break just from Slughorn.

Not to mention the points she would earn when they won their first match.

Gryffindor gave Harry and her team a standing ovation on the morning of their first match.

It was a big day for more than just the match. As Harry was making Dennis dress up, it was also the first day that Clara lengthened her blonde hair out and wore makeup.

They all assured Clara that she looked lovely and Harry put everyone’s hair in the cute Dutch braids that Luna taught her. It was a pity that Dennis wasn’t interested in being a trans woman as Harry thought he would make an adorable one.

“Gryffin-Girls,” Ron snorted when the team sat down to eat breakfast together. “It makes me glad I didn’t make the team.”

“Us too,” Ginny quipped. “Imagine having to see your ugly mug in makeup.”

Harry was pleased that all the banter was kept light-hearted and that Clara seemed so easily accepted that her nerves were soothed quickly.

Truly, Clara was able to run because Harry walked and apparently Regulus Black and Andy crawled before her. Harry thought it was special to know that perhaps she had a hand in making it easier for students to all be themselves.

For a prank, it was sickeningly sweet.

“This is the most important match we will ever have,” Harry told her team before they went on the field. “If we lose to Slytherin then I am going to lose so many points to Draco.”

“And we’re all here to aid you in besting Draco,” Katie nodded. “Got it.”

“You’re here to win,” Harry told them all as serious as she had ever been, “or else.”

Ron’s joke that morning became the chant that the team walked on the field to.

“GRYFFIN-GIRLS! GRYFFIN-GIRLS! GRYFFIN-GIRLS!”

It was empowering and Clara especially smiled so widely.

“Captains! Shake hands!”

Harry stepped up to Draco and couldn’t help but smirk.

“Slyther-boys just doesn’t have quite a ring to do it,” Harry murmured to him, commenting on his entirely male team.

“Slyther-wins does,” Draco said with his own smirk.

It was very exciting, facing off in that match.

“If you lose, you have to prank McGonagall,” Harry whispered to Draco while they shook hands for entirely too long.

“And when you lose, you have to kiss me,” Draco said. He winked when Harry dropped his hand. “Pucker up, Potter.”

“Brat!” Harry hissed, shocked at his audacity even though she knew she must have been blushing.

Draco knew that Harry couldn’t back down from a bet, it was a cowardly and boring thing to do.

Harry just couldn’t lose.

It was a long and close game, made all the much longer by the fact that Harry and Draco continued to get distracted by arguing in the air.

“Training for the ballet, Potter?”

“You wish I’d wear a tutu for you, Malfoy.”

“Did you hope if your chasers wore mascara that we’d all pretend to not notice their abysmal skills?”

“How’d you choose your team, anyway? Just whoever could stand to look at you long enough for a match?”

Harry was sweating and swearing when Slytherin had a twenty-point lead and Draco was closing in on the snitch in front of her.

“Hey, Malfoy!” Harry screamed at him desperately, trying first thing she could to distract him. “Have you ever wondered what I look like naked?”

Draco whipped his head around so quickly it was like magic and Harry shot past him to grab the little golden ball of victory.

“You are a despicable human being!” Draco shouted while Harry held the snitch high and Gryffindor’s win was announced.

Harry was riding the high of winning and she laughed when she looked over at Draco’s stunned face and pink cheeks.

“Shut up,” Harry told him. She didn’t think about it, and maybe she should have, but Harry was filled with the adrenaline of a fun game.

The stands went wild when the Gryffindor captain grabbed the Slytherin captain by his collar and pulled him in to kiss him in the air, in front of the entire school.

“Thank God!” Katie was weeping when Harry and Draco made it to the ground, both read in the face with stupid smiles. Katie hugged them both and wailed, “Now the contest can end!”

Harry looked over at Draco and they shared the same thought with just their eyes.

“It’s actually just gotten much worse,” Harry said. She patted Katie on the back kindly. “Good game though, let’s have a team night to celebrate.”

The kiss was all that anyone except for Harry and Draco discussed for the rest of the term.

People congratulated Harry and warned Draco in almost equal measures on their new ‘relationship’.

“We aren’t together,” Draco told a Hufflepuff girl that had just called them a cute couple in the library. Draco didn’t even look up from the book he was reading while he spoke. “Potter disgusts me.”

“And Draco is a pompous prick,” Harry added airily.

The Hufflepuff girl walked away looking rather confused.

“You’re going to marry me one day,” Draco said calmly.

Harry snorted from where her head was on his lap.

“You wish, Malfoy.”

“Six points says I can make you blush before you do me,” Draco said, still sounding entirely uninterested while he read.

Harry was twenty-nine points ahead in their contest and she was confident.

“Deal,” she said. Harry was still trying to think of something to say to make Draco blush when he won while flipping the page of his book.

“I can see your bra through your top,” Draco said. “It’s cute.”

Harry hated Draco.

“Oh, my God. You love him!” Elise squealed a few weeks later when Harry finally got to go home for the holiday.

It was a delicate dance though; Harry wanted to spend Christmas with her family, but she also wanted to attend Professor Slughorn’s Christmas party. Harry was taking Theo, Draco was taking Sapphire, Ginny was taking Clara, Blaise was taking Luna, and Pansy had flirted her way into being Cormac McLaggen’s date. The girls had gotten cute dresses, the boys had dress robes, Pansy had liquor.

It would be great fun once they ditched Cormac McLaggen.

The plan was to spike the punch with Veritaserum and watch the chaos unfold. Well, Harry’s plan anyway. And Harry simply could not miss that party.

Remus compromised and said they would all pretend that Christmas Eve was actually Christmas Day so that Harry could be with them from the nineteenth to the twenty-fourth and then go back from the twenty-fifth until when the new term started on the third.

Harry spent all of the first day home filling Elise in on absolutely everything while she rubbed her belly. Elise was getting huge. Harry’s godson was clearly a very strong and healthy little boy.

“I do not love him,” Harry said, rolling her eyes for emphasis. “I love tormenting him.”

Elise was flipping through the journals, reading their notes to each other and the comments for the points magically awarded for every bet they had.

“‘Ten points to Harry for turning Draco on during class’,” Elise read. She raised an eyebrow at Harry. “What’d you do?”

“Flashed him in the potions cupboard,” Harry said shamelessly. “It was for ten points, Elise.”

“Uh huh…” Elise continued reading. “‘Dear Potter, you kiss like a slug.’”

“He thought he was funny until I accidentally turned his shoes to slugs in transfiguration,” Harry said. She cooed at Elise’s belly. “Mummy Harry is very funny, isn’t she, Harrison?”

“Mummy Harry is an idiot in love, isn’t she Mikael?” Elise said in the same cooing voice. “And now she’s going to break Fred’s heart.”

“What?” Harry looked up sharply at Elise. “What’s that mean?”

“George said that Fred’s in love with you,” Elise said while she kept reading Harry and Draco’s notes. “He thinks you two will be together when we move to Diagon this summer. Oh, and I’ve been seeing someone.”

“You’re pregnant!” Harry said, distracted from thinking of Fred by Elise’s news.

“Some people like that,” Elise said with a smirk. “It’s called a kink, Harry, grow up.”

“Who is it?” Harry asked, even more curious when Elise blushed. “Oh my god, it’s not Andy, is it?”

“No, screw him,” Elise snorted. She stared very fixedly at Harry’s notebook. “It’s… um… well, it’s George.”

“Clearly I’m behind on gossip,” Harry said with a slow smile. “Spill, you slag.”

Elise launched in her own story about spending days in the shop with George, laughing at his jokes, telling him about the muggle world. Elise had even been to the Burrow for dinner quite a few times and was apparently adored by Molly and Arthur both.

“George asked me to be his girlfriend,” Elise said, a bit bashfully. “I told him to ask me again after the baby’s born.”

“He better not get any ideas about whose name is going on the birth certificate,” Harry said with her hand possessively on Elise’s stomach. “It’s our baby, not his.”

“It’s mine, you twat,” Elise laughed. She caved when Harry gave her a pathetically sad look. “And yours, a bit.”

“My godson,” Harry whispered to her stomach. “Harrison Potter.”

“Mikael Hughes-Potter,” Elise corrected her.

“We’ll see.”

Christmas Eve was magical.

Sirius woke the girls up by singing carols, Remus made a huge breakfast for them all to share, and Harry finally placed the cinnamon smell from her Amortentia.

“It’s you!” Harry laughed as she grabbed Remus in a fierce hug. “It’s because I love you so much!”

Remus didn’t know what Harry meant, but Harry knew what Remus meant and that was all that mattered.

Harry and her family sat in the living room, eating all day long, while they unwrapped the numerous gifts from each other. Harry got so many clothes, shoes, and sets of makeup. Elise got just as many clothes, though she also got practical gifts to they could use in their flat when they moved that summer. Poor Elise cried when she realized that none of her gifts were for the baby, as they might share a body, but they were two different people. Remus was thrilled with the baking set Harry got him and Sirius apparently had desperately wanted the white-washed jeans that Elise found him.

Harrison was the most spoiled though, as Harry bought a truly massive amount of clothes for him and Remus and Sirius bought him a crib, a dresser, a toy box, and toys to fill the toy box with.

All of them, including baby Harrison, had received new sweaters from Ginny’s mum and Elise told Harry that she had sent gifts to Molly and Arthur from the both of them.

Harry was curled up on the sofa, squished between her parents, while they watched a cheesy holiday movie and had hot chocolate that evening. It was such a perfect day, it made Harry teary at how happy she was.

“I love you all,” Harry said, looking from Remus to Sirius and to where Elise already had her eyes closed in the recliner.

“We love you,” Sirius said. He looked around their living room that was still messy from paper and decorated heavily. “I never thought I’d have this, you know.”

“Me either,” Remus said softly.

“Ditto,” Harry agreed.

“You all have the most tragic backstories,” Elise murmured, her eyes still closed. “I’m buying you all therapy next Christmas.”

The very next morning, Harry was at the entrance for the Slytherin dorm with her broom in hand, waiting for her holiday tradition with Draco.

“Merry Christmas!” Harry said when a sleepy and tousled looking Draco finally let her in. Draco was adorable when he was sleepy, he was like a grumpy cat with blonde hair that fell in his face and hid his angry eyes.

“Let’s fly!”

“It is six am,” Draco complained in a whiny voice. “We don’t fly until after lunch.”

“The party is tonight and I need time to get ready,” Harry said. “Come on, we fly every Christmas. I didn’t wear your present to not fly.”

Draco had sent Harry a beautiful cashmere scarf and hat set in a soft pink color that Harry loved. Harry sent him two packages- one that blew up and sprayed glitter in his face and one that had a set of golden dragon shaped cufflinks in it.

“Fiiiiiine,” Draco drawled. “Give me… five minutes.”

It took Draco twenty minutes because he was truly a diva.

“This is it!” Harry yelled while they had their annual seekers match. The ground was covered in snow and the wind blew Harry’s hair around beneath the cap she wore, creating a cape like effect with the scarf adding some color.

It was the cold and icy smell that Harry loved.

Harry looked for Draco to tell him again that it was the smell when she saw that he wasn’t even flying, he was just hovering near the ground, watching her fly.

“Draco?” Harry flew down to him and floated their brooms side-by-side. “Are you okay?”

“I…” Draco shook his head and Harry smiled at the snowflakes that fell in his hair, causing it to glisten, while the cold chill on his cheeks brought out the sparkle in his eyes.

Harry took another deep breath and—

Oh.

It wasn’t that Harry loved flying in the cold, spring was much superior flying weather, it was who Harry flew with in the winter.

Every year Harry and Draco flew together on Christmas. Every year the cold wind filled Harry’s lungs while she watched Draco let go in the air, laugh without hesitation, smile freely, and just shine.

“Son of a bitch,” Harry swore under her breath, still eye-locked with Draco. “Elise was right.”

“Was she?” Draco asked as he flew closer to Harry, brushing their legs together. “About what?”

They were so close that Harry could see the shape of the snowflakes in Draco’s hair and he could see the surprise in her eyes.

“Elise said I love you,” Harry whispered, somewhat choked up.

Draco leaned over and his warm breath warmed Harry’s cold skin.

“Did she?” Draco whispered back. “And was she right?”

Harry gasped when Draco’s nose rubbed hers and his lips sent electric shocks to Harry’s from how close they were.

“She was,” Harry said, realizing it was entirely true.

Harry loved Draco’s arrogance and his sense of humor. Harry loved competing with Draco and Harry loved talking with Draco.

Harry Potter loved Draco Malfoy.

“Kiss me then,” Draco challenged her.

Harry never turned down a challenge.

“Draco! You rat bastard!”

Harry ducked her head under the blanket in Draco’s bed and tried very hard to not giggle when his dormmates returned from Slughorn’s party.

“What?” Draco asked, shirtless and looking rumpled enough that Harry hoped Theo and Blaise thought he had been napping.

“You ditched us!” Theo snapped. “What? Harry didn’t come back and so you decided to pout?”

“Yes,” Draco said slowly. “Potter… hurt my feelings… and I couldn’t party…”

“If you would just shag her you’d get over it,” Blaise scoffed. Harry heard bedsprings and assumed Blaise had just thrown himself in bed.

Harry bit Draco’s hip, warning him that if he ‘got over it’ that she would be very unhappy.

“Ow!” Draco yelped, kneeing Harry in the side.

“Bony git,” Harry whispered.

The other boys were dead silent and Harry figured the jig was up.

“Hi,” Harry poked her head out from beneath the blanket and grinned at where Theo and Blaise gawked open-mouthed at her.

“I’m naked and Draco’s very jealous, so if you wouldn’t mind…” Harry flicked her fingers toward the door, “Just pissing off, that would be grand.”

“I owe Pansy so much money,” Theo breathed with wide eyes.

“And Alicia Spinnet owes me a date!” Blaise crowed. He jumped off his bed and winked at Harry. “We can give you another hour if you want, as a Christmas gift.”

“No need,” Harry said brightly. “Draco only lasted eight minutes, we’re good.”

“Says the girl who came twice,” Draco said smugly as he actually shoved Harry from his bed.

The joke was on him, Harry took his blanket with her and exposed Draco to both his friends.

“You came first though so I get twenty points,” Harry said while Blaise and Theo left, mumbling about ‘one more year’.

“If I can get you off again then I should get thirty,” Draco said.

Harry considered it and nodded.

“Fine, but if I get you off first then I get the thirty.”

Harry thought they tied, but the journals logged the points under Draco’s name and Harry pouted about it clear to the New Year.

“Draco and I are having a lot of sex.”

Professor Snape choked and Harry waited patiently for him to get his act together. It was only halfway through January and all of Hogwarts seemed to know that Draco was Harry’s and Harry was his.

They still fought, viciously, and neither was safe from pranks. Harry had bewitched all of Draco’s robes to be pink, earning him a detention from an unamused McGonagall. Draco then convinced Harry’s elves to feed her a sleeping potion for breakfast, which made Harry miss class and earn her own detention with McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall assigned them to clean the trophy room together though and they made a contest out of who could clean the most trophies and awards.

And then they shagged. Because they did that a lot. Harry quite liked it.

“Your- your father has you on potions?” Snape eventually choked out.

“Yes,” Harry said, rather amused by the entire situation.

“You’re both consenting?” Snape asked.

“Eagerly, yes.”

“Then let’s discuss anything else,” Snape said, practically begging.

“Did you know that my other father, James, shagged Sirius’ brother?” Harry asked curiously.

Harry was thrilled to write to Remus the next morning and inform him that Professor Snape said that Harry didn’t need bi-weekly counseling anymore.

The closer it got to February, the more anxious Harry became.

Harry watched for owls through breakfast, she sat on the edge of her seat during classes, and she used Professor Slughorn’s floo every evening to check in at home.

“Harry, I solemnly swear that when it’s time, Remus will take Elise to the hospital and I will come get you,” Sirius said when Harry called for the fifth day in a row. “We won’t forget you.”

“Does Elise have her bags packed?” Harry asked anxiously. “I have to be there, Sirius. If I don’t sign the birth certificate then Harrison might be ostracized and I just can’t handle that!”

“He won’t be,” Sirius soothed Harry. “Everyone in Diagon recognizes Elise, the Daily Prophet reported about the baby being yours, nobody’s going to kick them out, Harry.”

“Her mum already did!” Harry fretted. “Elise’s mum hates her, the Dursleys hated me, and I have to be there, Sirius!”

“Have your own bag ready,” Sirius said. “My goddaughter slash stepdaughter will not miss the birth of her godson slash adopted son.”

“You’re the best stepdad ever,” Harry said. “A terrible godfather though, honestly, twelve years and not a single birthday card?”

“Goodbye, Harry,” Sirius sang. “I can’t wait for you to call me again tomorrow.”

Harry didn’t have to call Sirius the next day. Harry had been in the middle of charms with the other NEWT students when Sirius burst through the door.

“It’s baby time!” Sirius shrieked to Harry. Sirius looked half-terrified, half-exhilarated. “Hurry!”

Harry jumped from her seat and Draco immediately promised to collect her things so Harry could run after Sirius immediately.

“Did you tell McGonagall I’m leaving?” Harry asked as they ran together through the shook.

“She’ll figure it out,” Sirius said. He pulled impatiently on Harry’s hand. “Hurry! You don’t want to miss it, it’s magic. I saw you being born, you know.”

Sirius was a dirty, no good, horrible, disgusting liar and Harry hoped he burned in hell for his heinous lie.

It was traumatic, seeing the baby be born. Even with magical assistance, Harry actually threw up when she saw the way Elise’s body ripped to give way for the baby.

Elise screamed, Harry screamed, the healers ignored them and delivered Harry’s godson at two thirty-two pm, February seventh, at a perfect six points one ounce, and nineteen point five inches tall.

“He’s gorgeous,” Harry said, staring down at the tiny and fragile life she held that day.

Mikael Harrison Hughes-Potter was beautiful. He had the tiniest little fingers, a lovely rosebud mouth, and dark hair that dusted the top of his head. Harry loved him so much, she sobbed when she signed her own name as ‘father’ on his birth certificate.

Elise looked tired but happy laying in her hospital bed beside Harry.

“He’s perfect,” Elise said. She tilted her head over to touch Harry’s with it. “Thank you.”

Harry turned her face away from Mikael long enough to press a fond kiss to Elise’s head.

“Thank you,” she said. “He’s truly the best gift in the world.”

Leaving Elise and Mikael the next day to return to school was nothing short of genuine torture.

Harry felt as if her heart was breaking to leave her best friend and her godson behind. Remus and Sirius swore to take hundreds of photos every day - honestly, they were as enchanted by the baby as Harry was - and send her daily owls with updates, but it wasn’t the same.

“How many more days until Easter break?” Harry asked her friends at breakfast on her first day back.

“Thirty-nine,” Ginny said sympathetically. She served Harry some pity-eggs and then patted her on the head. “Think about quidditch.”

“Or classes,” Alicia said.

“Or your boyfriend,” Katie said.

“I heard… ‘Harry, focus on mischief for the next thirty nine days’,” Harry said with a sigh. She nodded at the girls. “You’re right, thank you.”

“That is not what we said,” Katie mumbled with a roll of her eyes.

That may not have been what they said, but it was what Harry heard.

Except Draco had a much more interesting way to spend the next month.

“Thank you… this is so sweet?” Harry said, looking down at the leaf Draco pressed in Harry’s hand during defense.

Draco rolled his eyes and tilted his head so he could whisper to Harry without Snape hearing.

“Fifty points says I can become an animagus before you, Potter.”

The game was on then.

Almost all of Hogwarts was surprised when Harry became one of the quietest students who also spent the most time in the library.

Professor McGonagall was pleased, thinking that Harry was becoming more studious thanks to the birth of Elise’s baby.

Professor Snape was suspicious, constantly popping out of places to try and catch Harry doing something terrible.

Professor Slughorn laughed merrily about it, telling anyone who would listen that young love had tamed Harry just as it did James.

Harry smiled politely and kept her mouth shut when people would ask her about it.

It was difficult to talk and keep the mandrake leaf beneath her tongue.

The entire animagus process was difficult, truthfully. Harry was excellent at Transfiguration - that O didn’t lie - but there were many ways that the first transformation could go wrong. There was a lot of innate power that had to be used; it was essentially wandless, silent, magic.

Harry and Draco became a two man studying team as they memorized the process, brewed the potion, and studied every single way that it could possibly go wrong.

Their friends were bewildered, but brushed it off as Harry and Draco being weird.

On day thirty, Harry was soo happy to get the soggy leaf out of her mouth and place it in her goblet of the potion they’d think at the next lightning storm. They used an empty classroom in the dungeons to brew in and Harry locked both of their finished potions in a cabinet to save until it was time.

“Disgusting,” Harry said after casting multiple hygiene spells on her mouth.

“And here I was hoping you’d stay quiet,” Draco quipped.

Harry checked the time, they had an hour until breakfast began and Harry’s daily owl with photos of Mikael arrived.

“If you want me to be quiet, make me,” Harry taunted Draco with a coy grin.

“Come meet my parents during Easter Break,” Draco said casually once they were presentable and headed to breakfast.

Harry looked at Draco and raised a brow.

“Your father with the death eater mark, your mother who finds transgender people to be abominations? Those parents?” Harry checked.

“Yes,” Draco said. He smirked at Harry. “I’d like to introduce them to my girlfriend.”

“I can be myself?”

“Absolutely. As much as yourself as possible.”

“Deal.”

On the first day of the break, Harry took Draco home with her to meet her godson.

“He’s so little,” Draco said, looking rather anxious and attractive as he held Mikael.

“He’s huge now,” Harry complained petulantly. “I told him to not grow while I was gone.”

Mikael was also adorable. He had Elise’s pretty blue eyes (Remus said they might change colors later, but Harry hoped they wouldn’t) and dark brown hair that covered his little soft head. He made noise too, sweet little coos that made Harry’s heart melt when she heard them.

“Does he keep you up all night?” Harry asked Elise.

“How could he?” Elise looked pointedly at Harry’s suddenly very sheepish looking parents. “Dumb and Dumber take the night shift every time I fall asleep.”

“You work days,” Sirius shrugged. “I’m an insomniac anyway.”

“And I’ve got werewolf hearing,” Remus added. “If I hear him before you then there’s no harm in Uncle Remus making a bottle.”

Mikael has everyone wrapped around his little chubby pinky and he didn’t even know it.

Draco stayed the night at Harry’s house (on the couch because Remus was suddenly a prude) so they could go to his parents house the next day.

Sirius offered to get a bottle of wine for Harry to take to ‘make a good impression’ and Draco refused.

“Good impressions aren’t necessary,” Draco said perfectly reasonably. “I’d prefer Harry be just as she is.”

Sirius looked as if he thought that was sweet, Remus saw through the niceties immediately.

“Harry’s a punishment?” Remus guessed shrewdly.

“I am.” Harry grinned at him. “Isn’t that fun?”

Harry wore her most muggle clothing the next day, a pair of low-rise jeans, rainbow sneakers that she got for Christmas, and one of Sirius’ old band shirts that Harry cut into a crop top. She also left her hair down, stole Elise’s hoop earrings, and had on much too thick eyeliner.

Elise said she looked like a whore, Draco said she looked perfect.

“I need to borrow our son for a few hours,” Harry told Elise once she was ready. Harry gently lifted Mikael from the crib and talked to him while she changed his diaper and wrapped him up snuggly.

“Mummy Harry needs to show off her perfect boy to Uncle Draco’s parents, doesn’t she? Yes she does. Does little Mikael want to help Mummy Harry? Yes you do.”

“What happens when they tell Draco he has to break up with you?” Elise asked Harry as she got comfortable in the bed and probably planned to sleep while Harry had Mikael.

“Draco better tell them to piss off or Mummy Harry is going to kill all of them, isn’t she?” Harry held Mikael up and grinned at him. “Yes she will.”

As much fun as Harry thought lunch with the Malfoy’s would be, it wound up being three times as fun.

Harry made a personal bet with herself that she could break their social politeness within an hour, but it only took thirty minutes.

Between discussing Harry’s plans to be a trophy wife to Draco, Harry mentioning that Mikael’s other mum was a squib as often as she could, and Harry’s debate with Draco on if they would live in Knockturn Alley or muggle London, Lucius lost his temper quickly.

Draco and his father were yelling at each other in the office—

“YOU WILL NOT EMBARRASS OUR FAMILY!”

“I AM SEVENTEEN! I WILL DO AS I PLEASE!”

“HE IS A COLLAGE OF THE WORST SORT OF WIZARDS!”

“HER PRONOUNS ARE SHE AND HER!”

“GET RID OF HER!”

—while Harry fed Mikael a bottle and let Narcissa silently study her across the table.

“It must be difficult, being a parent so young,” Narcissa said in a slow and even tone.

“It is,” Harry agreed. “Remus, my werewolf father, you know, anyway, he warned me to use condoms before the healers tucked my penis in to make a vagina, but they’re just so gross.”

Narcissa twisted her lips to the side and looked at Harry curiously.

“Was that before or after you seduced Andromeda’s daughter and had her fired?” Narcissa asked coolly.

Harry felt her stomach twist with the familiar guilt but remained as nonchalant as she could.

“Before,” she said.

“I see.” Narcissa folded her hands on the table in front of herself and Harry rather liked her manicure.

“How much?”

“Pardon?”

“How much would it cost for you to break up with my son?” Narcissa asked. “Surely you could use the money for your own son.”

Harry left Malfoy Manor shortly after, leaving Draco to fight with his parents, with ten thousand galleons in a bag. Truthfully, it was as if Narcissa had the gold already prepared.

It was… peculiarly painful, in a way, to be so disliked by the Malfoy’s when the pureblooded Diggory’s had loved Harry enough that they still stayed in contact with her. Ruth had even sent Mikael a knitted blanket in beautiful Hufflepuff colors, foreshadowing his magic, Harry hoped.

Draco arrived at Harry’s shop that night with a backpack and an unhappy scowl.

“I’ve been told that either I find a nice pureblood witch to begin courting or I’m being disinherited,” Draco said flatly.

Harry hummed while she continued to change the colors on the walls, debating on which colors would look best. She liked the purple, but she rather wanted it to be yellow for Cedric.

“Let me know what you decide,” Harry said airily. She flicked her wand at the wall and nodded to herself, yellow with purple polka dots was just the ticket.

“Do you love me?”

Harry looked at Draco then and softened at his miserable look.

“I do,” Harry said. “I’d prefer you chose me, but your mother did pay me handsomely to break up with you. I signed an agreement and everything.”

Before Draco could get too upset, Harry walked across the empty shop to wrap her arms around his waist and smile up at him.

“Dray, I’m breaking up with you,” Harry said simply. Before Draco could push her away, Harry’s smile grew and her eyes sparkled with the joy of an excellent prank.

“And now I’m asking you to be my boyfriend again,” Harry said. She laughed when it finally dawned on Draco what she had done.

It wasn’t Harry’s fault that wording on the agreement had left a loophole big enough for Harry to slip through.

“You’re not impoverished, by the way,” Harry told Draco after she kissed him. “Your mother gave me ten thousand galleons. I opened a vault for you at Gringotts.”

“You’re mad,” Draco breathed, looking just as impressed as he should be. “I’m homeless, Potter.”

“And I have a wonderful flat upstairs,” Harry pointed out. “You’ll have to pay rent, I think admitting that I’m the brains and beauty in this partnership plus a measly five hundred galleons a month should cover it.”

Draco dropped his bag to the floor and then bent down enough to scoop Harry up so she laid over his shoulder and squealed.

“I’m the beauty,” Draco said as he headed toward the stairs that went to the flat. “You are the - what was it my father called you? Ah, yes - the trollop of a magical embarrassment that I lower myself to spend time with.”

“You know I love when you talk dirty,” Harry laughed.

The return to Hogwarts wasn’t as hard that time.

Harry had the end of the quidditch season to look forward to and she was ecstatic when it would once again be Gryffindor and Slytherin in the finals.

The rivalry between the two houses had never been as thick and obvious as it was the week leading up to the match. Harry and Draco took great pleasure in pranking the hell out of each other during meals, confusing everyone on what their relationship was.

“He’s my rival,” Harry said when Lavender Brown asked why Harry sent Draco a sample of the sweets she was spending all her free time preparing and one of them made his hair fall out. The entire hall had burst in laughter and Harry raised her drink when Draco sent her a furious look.

“I thought you two were dating?” Parvati asked.

“I don’t see why we can’t date and be rivals,” Harry said, a bit haughtily. “It’s very fun, I think everyone should date their rival.”

At a minimum, Harry had finally realized that Ginny was right- dating was quite fun, even if Harry was right too and knew that she didn’t do anything halfway.

“So you don’t love him?” Hermione Granger asked Harry hesitantly.

Terrific.

Harry had the upcoming quidditch finals, less than a month to get her samples for the shop ready, and she had to find time to prank Hermione again.

It was a busy month.

On the day of the quidditch finals, Harry gave her team an inspiring pep talk and then stepped out of the field and just took it all in.

Harry was toying with the idea of not returning to Hogwarts for her final year. Elise could manage the shop if they hired two people to help her, but Harry felt as if she had no reason to waste a year at school when she could be with her family.

Harry could sit for her NEWTS, maybe even apply for the easy O in muggle studies to please Remus, through the ministry. She could live in the flat above the shop, watch Mikael grow, be a real godmum to him, and be happy. Much happier than she was in a dorm she never slept in, surrounded by people that were her friends, but not family.

Remus would be disappointed, but Harry knew he’d understand. Pansy and Ginny would be hurt, but Ginny could take over as captain and Pansy could visit as much as she wanted.

When Harry stepped up to Draco, it was as if he could read her thoughts in her eyes.

“Last match, Potter?” Draco murmured as they shook hands.

“I think so,” Harry said. She winked at him, “Thirty points to the winner?”

They were nearly tied with Harry only ahead by four points from locking Hermione in the library overnight with a sticking charm.

“Be ready to lose,” Draco said cockily.

Harry Leo Potter-Lupin never prepared for failure.

“You let him win,” Ginny accused Harry after the match.

“Ginny,” Harry looked at Ginny and raised a brow, “are you accusing me of waiting until Gryffindor had a hundred and forty point lead to find the snitch, get Draco to race me to it, let him grab it so that he would win the quidditch cup but we’d still win the house cup which gets me twenty-five points so I only have one point to win in the next three days to beat Draco but he won’t care because he has the quidditch cup?”

Ginny squinted at Harry, “Yes.”

“You’re right,” Harry said. She looked across the hall where Draco had the golden cup in front of him she looked as if he was glowing with happiness.

“He gave up his family for me, Gin,” Harry said quietly. “I can give up a game.”

Especially because Draco won one battle, but Harry still won the war with her final prank, courtesy of Professor Slughorn and his unlocked office.

It was somehow easier to collect three hundred hairs from Professor McGonagall than it had been to rebrew the Polyjuice potion down to something more subtle that couldn’t be tasted in the pumpkin juice and tea that was served at the leaving feast. Harry had politely peppered Snape for help, but when he refused, Professor Slughorn wasn’t hard to persuade.

“How’d you do it?” Alicia asked Harry, both of them looking like Professor McGonagall, though much less angry than the witch herself at the head table.

“I’ve been summoning one hair from her every other day for the last three years,” Harry told them all.

“You’ve been planning this for three years?!” Katie asked.

Harry laughed gaily, an odd sound for Professor McGonagall to make.

“Of course not. I have Dumbledore’s, Snape’s, and Hermione Granger’s too, just in case.”

Even with the points that Harry lost that meal for being out of uniform again, Gryffindor still won the House Cup.

And Harry’s personal goal of outdoing every prankster before her and raising the bar for the ones that followed felt quite completed.