What's at Heart

Quidditch

Harry landed in a ludicrous crouch, tense and quivering on the spot, hands grasped around nothing as he expected to feel a mad broom bucking and throwing him around.

Instead, they were in a barebones office. One desk. One chair. Nothing else.

"Where are we now?" Neville groaned, hardly looking like he wanted to peel himself off the floor.

"We're in Quirrell's old office," Hermione promptly answered, turning slowly on the spot in surprise. "I came in here all the time to ask him questions, though he rarely let me in and preferred to speak to me in the hall. When I did get a look inside, it was always so..." she trailed off uncomfortably and brushed her hand against the wall where the dusty imprint of a bookshelf was still imposed, as well as a few carved feathers the only remnant of what might once have been there. The rest was clearly blasted away.

"As if we didn't already know this one was a nutter," Ron groaned as he rubbed his head where it had smacked into the corner of the desk. "Did You-Know-Who take away his favorite comic on top of his hair?"

"What are you lot on about?" Tonks asked from her uncomfortable spot sprawled sideways in the chair.

Sirius had landed smack against the window, without a second look out at the Quidditch pitch beyond. A door banged open and Malfoy came rushing out with a disgusted look on his face that only grew when he laid eyes upon the rest of them again as Lupin came out rubbing his leg from where it had smacked on the bedpost in there, but a relieved smile on his face for the oddly lingering smell of garlic in here, which was ten times better than that troll stench.

Harry decided there was nothing for it and explained for everyone who didn't know what was going to happen this chapter. Sirius looked appalled that had happened during his first game and trailed off into mutters about hunting down and murdering this bloke, while Harry pressed his lips together and felt a tightening in his gut as he vaguely remembered Sirius wouldn't have to do that. Would his godfather ever look at him again when he found out he was a murderer?

Ron and Hermione's bickering argument about looking through a teacher's desk to find the book was pretty ignorable to Harry as he ruminated on this, but Tonks' summoning the book did draw him back to focusing on one problem at a time, for now.

Sadly none of them could get too invested in the upcoming Quidditch talk now that they all knew the sabotage was coming, but Sirius still tried his hardest to invest some enthusiasm into his voice, "well at least you had fun for the most part, and I'm sure I don't need to over state how good it is to have Hermione as a friend." He finished with a cheerful wink at her. He well remembered it as her time-turner that had saved his life. If his godson had to live through a troll for that to happen, well, he hadn't been holding a grudge before anyways, but this was all the better reason to let it go.

Hermione beamed at the praise and gave Harry a knowing smile for the compliments of being in his life making at least his homework go easier.

Sirius was none to happy about the crap Snape pulled confiscating Harry's book, it was so hilariously backwards from vague memories he had of his teenage years where Snape could barely be seen at the lake or down a corridor without a text pressed against his nose, his laugh came out hysterical.

Despite everyone now knowing the outcome, tensions were boiling uncomfortably high as the game started, and Harry's broom took its first buck.

Draco interrupted this unease with such a loud, rude snort of disbelief Harry would have already guessed he practiced it without having spent years of his life hearing it.

"Shove off Malfoy, this doesn't concern you!"

"I'm trapped in here same as you Weasley, it ruddy well does," he snapped right back.

"At least they're actually talking now?" Tonks muttered in concern if she should step in when wands were inevitably drawn.

"I'd rather they just keep ignoring each other," Hermione disagreed.

"I can't believe you children really only looked at Professor Snape, of course you thought it was him doing this," Malfoy kept sneering like his face was permanently stuck like that. "Counter charms are preformed the same way with eye contact, would you have thought it was Dumbledore or McGonagall if you'd only looked at them?"

Ron called him a few colorful swears while Harry belligerently reminded, "you were the same age as us, stop acting above it all!"

Tonks had continued reading in the vein hope a new location would stop them killing each other and almost read right over the revelation of Harry's first win nearly swallowing his snitch.

"Did I forget to mention that?" Harry shrugged at his godfathers awed face.

Lupin came over and gave him a fond clap on the shoulder. "Your dad would be having a whole barn if he heard this-"

Sirius came over and swopped him into another hug, as consuming and warm as the last one. "I'm so dang proud of you pup!"

Tonks warned the chapter was almost done and his godfather hadn't stopped smiling. Harry was grinning right back, finally looking forward to whatever came next.

Not going to lie, I'm not really sure when the next chapter is going to come up, mostly because of Tonks. She's the only one I'm not sure of on what to see in the mirror, but I promise I'll have it up by Christmas at the very latest, hopefully sooner.