Welcome to the Rest of your Life

The Lucky Find {year 1}

"You could have woken me up." grumbled Ron the next morning at breakfast. It was the last day before the new term began, and a few students had already made their way back from Holiday. Once again, despite the adventurous night Harry and I had, I didn't get a wink of sleep afterwards. Judging by the dark circles under Harry's eyes, he didn't, either.

"You can come tonight, I'm going back." Harry told him quietly. "I want to show you the mirror."

"I'd like to see your mom and dad." Ron said eagerly.

I just pushed around my eggs on my plate. "Not to rain on your parade, Harry." I interrupted gently. "But I had been there with you, and I couldn't see your parents."

Ron frowned. "What'd you see, Leo?"

"Myself as a Chaser on the Quidditch team."

Fred and George, who sat beside me, seemed to perk up at that. "You want to play as Chaser?" they asked in unison.

"Hey, bug off!" I laughed, pointing my fork at them. "Don't eavesdrop."

"We only heard that last part, we swear!" Fred said defensively.

"We didn't know you played Quidditch." George added.

Across from me, Neville nodded for me. "She's pretty good; she's learned a lot from our cousins. They all graduated before us, but each of them had a spot of their teams."

"Wonderful!" Fred laughed with a clap of his hands. "Maybe you can try out next year as a backup."

Before I could reply, though, someone laughed bitterly behind me. "You want to be a Chaser, eh, Longbottom?"

Neville shrunk in his seat, staring behind me. I just rolled my eyes and turned to Malfoy. "Are you obsessed with us?"

He narrowed his eyes. "No! Just happened to be passing through when I overheard you. You may have not been born a Longbottom, but you were raised one. The moment you'd sit on the broom, you'd probably fall off!"

I arched an eyebrow, not at all in the mood or headspace to deal with him. "Your talk about flying, Malfoy, is just that. Talk. You'd probably start flying and score the wrong goal as a Chaser. Also, if I can recall what you had said a few months ago ... what was it? Ah, yes." I mocked his drawling voice as I added. "This is how I've held it for years!"

Everyone started laughing. Malfoy, with a glare in my direction, left.

"Nice one." Fred and George complimented with a tip of their heads.

I shrugged. "Don't mess with a Longbottom. Blood or not."

Neville gave a raise of his cup to that, making me laugh.

----------

A couple of weeks later, as the new term began and classes were back on track, I saw between Hermione and Ron in the common room as they played chess. Hermione seemed to only lose at one thing, and that was this. Then, Harry appeared and sat across from me, looking as unhappy as ever.

"Don't talk to me for a moment." said Ron. "I need to concentrate – well, what's the matter with you? You look terrible."

"Snape's refereeing the next Quidditch match." Harry whispered to us. "I heard it from Wood during practice."

My jaw dropped. "You're kidding!"

"Don't play." Hermione said to him immediately.

"Say you're ill." Ron added.

"Pretend to break your leg."

"Really break your leg."

"Ron!" I laughed, swatting his arm.