Harry stood in the Quidditch field, the team surrounding him. The afternoon sun grazed down, offering no warmth. Another strong gust of wind blew, blowing a Hufflepuff scarf into the forest as students pointed and laughed. Several pupils loitered at the field benches. Hermione sat reading, gazing at the field every so often. Luna crouched beside Hermione, reading a magazine. Harry couldn’t tell which one it was from the distance.

“We have another game coming up next weekend, with Slytherin,” Harry announced. A plethora of groans and complains followed.

“You all know it. This’ll be one of our hardest games. I don’t want you falling unconscious in 5 seconds after the whistle blows.” Some people laughed as others pointed fingers.

“Come on,” Ron shouted before the team huddled into a circle, Harry looped his arms around Ron and a Katie Bell as others did the same.

“Gryffindor!”

“Lions roar!”

Their chant echoed the stadium.

“Let’s start with some basic laps. And I don’t want you cutting shortcuts, Coote.” Ron warned, his broom shooting up into the sky with him as Harry followed.

Harry trained with the team until the mock matches. These were some of the basic mock game rules everyone agreed to. Harry shouldn’t join either team. Ron and Ginny shouldn’t be on the same team… Anything that adds fairness to the game.

Harry lowered himself onto the benches after Dennis Creevey ensured he could use more commentary experience for the upcoming game. Oddly, Luna moved away from Hermione to join Pansy. The two of them chatting quite happily.

“Hey Hermione. Can I ask you ‘bout one thing?” Harry flinched slightly as Dennis’s voice boomed through his mic. Signaling the game to start.

“Sure. Go ahead.”

“What do you know about being marked?”

“You mean the Ministry’s punishment?” Harry nodded. Everything suddenly made sense.

“Well, being marked, or referred in official documenting as receiving Symbol of Poison, is imprinted permanently onto one’s dominant arm. It does not entail any direct punishments, but it will serve as a warning to other people. Likely putting its owner in a state of social isolation. The Ministry rarely mark someone nowadays.” Harry nodded, the words floating out of his brain as fast as Hermione said them. The girl really memorized the whole law book.

“Will a Death Eater be marked?”

“Most of the times, yes. Although they were already in Azkaban, thus the marks weren’t put into their uses,” Hermione elaborated.

“What about a Death Eater’s child?”

“Depends on the child. Are they, for example, associated and familiarized with the Dark Arts?”

“Yes.” Harry replied gravely.

“Have they had direct ties with the Dark Lord, no parents serving as medium?”

Harry thought over the answer before asking, “If his parents pressure him into having direct ties, does that count?”

“It’s still a yes.” Harry’s heart dropped.

“So, they are likely to be marked?”

Hermione remained silent.

“Isn’t there some way to do something?”

“Only if the person has shown concrete evidence of change,” Hermione explained, “Who are you asking for anyway?”

“Just a friend,” Harry bluffed. After Hermione’s stern look, he opted for the truth, “Alright, it’s Draco. I knew it from him yesterday.”

“Did he tell you?” Hermione asked, sounding surprised.

“I might’ve overheard, a little,” Harry gestured vaguely. Hermione took a moment registering the response before she doubled over in laughed.

“I don’t even know why it’s so funny,” Hermione mused, still giggling between words as Harry felt his face growing warm out of embarrassment.

“Seriously, I imagine you’d want the whole truth,” Hermione started. Harry gave a tiny nod before she continued, “The Ministry will be conducting in-school investigations on students like Draco. It directly affects their family and themselves.”

“How’d you know?”

“Pansy told me this morning. McGonagall confirmed something along those lines when I asked,” Hermione shrugged.

“Pansy, seriously?” Harry known Hermione as someone who held grudges, over important things. Her connection with Pansy just felt wrong in some way.

Hermione sighed as if she was talking to a kindergarten child, “Pansy is becoming a better person. She seriously is. I can vouch for that. In fact, we’re spending the next Hogsmeade trip together, on a double date.” Hermione emphasized with importance.

Harry almost laughed at the idea, “Does Ron know?”

“Ron is … yet to be informed, I might need to smooth him into this one,” Hermione looked towards her boyfriend, who was on his broom, imitating lion roars as he blocked off another goal.

“He looks silly like that, doesn’t he?” Hermione giggled, her grin displaying she wasn’t put off by the “silliness” in the slightest.

Harry gazed at the scores. The mock game was nearing an end. He still had one more lingering question.

“So, who was Pansy gonna bring, Draco?” It’d be awkward after all this time, fussing around his tiny, minuscule, not important attraction for Draco only to discover his girlfriend.

Hermione scoffed at the idea. Harry let out a breath he didn’t knew he held.

“Her boyfriend is Theo.” Hermione’s attention steered towards Harry.

“When did that happen?” Harry mumbled, his mind already drifting back to the Quidditch match. Katie took the Quaffle, barely dodging a practice Bludger before passing to Ginny. The practice Bludgers were soft and squishy. Hermione had enchanted them with the same spells as the real ones. Though these won’t break someone’s bone, which would have been disastrous.

“Weeks ago. They hadn’t been vocal about their relationship. So not many people know.”

Harry hummed, edging towards his seat as Ginny took the Quaffle, dodging several players before aiming the hoops.

“And Weasley scored another! The girl is on fire. Ron Weasley better step up in the game. Wait, game’s over?” Dennis asked with genuine surprise, his mic deafening at least half of the field.

“Nice one!” Harry cheered as the mock game ended. Ron visibly grumbled, his voice drowned out by the other team.

Harry flew to the middle of the field, giving feedback to his friends before he dismissed the team.

“Hey man,” Ron grumbled, swinging an arm over Harry. Ron’s present mood reminded Harry of Mad Eye, he wasn’t sure Ron would appreciate the comparison.

“Nice game, you guys were close,” Harry offered.

“Yeah, I was going easy on them,” Ron stated with bravado, causing snickers from Harry and Katie.

“That was real cool. You saved at least five goals,” Dennis wandered up to them, “I’m so glad there’s no other Weasley on the Slytherin team. It would be so confusing if I said ‘Weasley ducks, passes to Weasley. Oh no - Bludger hits Wesley hard from Weasley. Weasley drops the Quaffle’.”

Dennis imitated the whole speech with his commentary voice, which according to Harry, wasn’t that different from his animated, normal voice.

“Colin would have loved it!” Dennis smiled faintly. Katie looped her arms around Dennis’s shoulder in comfort. She glanced back to Harry and Ron before taking Dennis towards the lower benches.

A hint of sadness hung in the air. Harry knew a few of Colin’s photos were hung in McGonagall’s Transfiguration classroom. He missed Colin every now and then. The sudden quietness of the Gryffindor common room, one without a Colin’s camera snapping constantly, felt … weird.

Dennis had tried to fill in the void, the best he could. Harry saw more in common between the brothers than he would like. The cadence in their voices, their same enthusiasm. He sometimes thought he’d seen Colin, only to find Dennis.

Harry glanced back at Dennis. He crouched on the field, Katie beside him, patting him gently. Other students moved past them. Moments like these weren’t uncommon nowadays. After the war, an unshared promise was passed through the school that everyone would support each other.

“It’s weird now, isn’t it?” Ron looked back to Dennis, “how life just goes on. Old habits die hard though,” Harry stared at Ron in surprise. His friend usually didn’t share these thoughts.

“Yeah, it just feels unfair to Dennis though,” Harry said with a hushed tone, “I don’t think Collin would like it if we stopped laughing for his sake.”

Ron chuckled softly, his eyes still trained Dennis and Katie.

Harry gently pushed Ron towards the changing rooms. Sweat still clung his uniform onto his skin. His muscles ached pleasantly. As he and Ron came out, Hermione waited at the door.

“Ronald!” Hermione called, her voice lacking the usual Hermione-cadence.

“Pray to Merlin she’s not angry,” Ron whispered to Harry, glancing at his friend helplessly, while stepping towards Hermione reluctantly.

“Should I -,” Harry made a gesture to the castle grounds. Ron stared back at Harry. Harry believed Ron’s expression was something along the lines of, “Please don’t leave me with this.”

“Whatever suits you,” Hermione shrugged.

Without second thoughts, Harry gave the pair some privacy. There were two possibilities. First, Hermione would ask Ron about the date. The scare was just a little mind-trick. Second, Hermione became mad during the few minutes Harry left. Either way, leaving was a better option.

Harry steered left down the paved road. He turned around to see a black, human ball curled up at the corner of the Quidditch stadium. Her head poking in on Hermione and Ron.

“Hello,” Harry approached Pansy from behind, “Not very polite to eavesdrop my friends.” Harry said with a stern manner, even though Hermione vowed Pansy changed. Harry wanted to test that theory himself.

Pansy jumped up, like a startled animal. After she saw Harry though, she relaxed visibly, her strained expression turning genuine.

“Same could be said with you Potter,” Pansy grinned. Harry stared at her with puzzlement. Wait, the library incident last night.

“Just how much does Draco share?”

“Not enough to know what you want with our dear ferret,” Pansy faked weeping.

Harry gaped at the nickname as Pansy sighed drastically. The only thing missing from her was opera music, the kind that sang about star-crossed lovers.

“Is he alright with you calling him that?”

“No. But I can anyway. It’s my privileges as his sister with no blood ties,” Pansy beamed. Harry concluded that the girl just broke at least three of his previously held stereotypes.

“A Slytherin not caring about blood,” Harry probed gently, “Seems like a first.”

“Well, it’s Theo who helped with it. He really changed how I viewed the world. Hermione too, just don’t tell that to her,” Pansy’s lips tugged upwards as she turned to Harry.

“I know our pasts weren’t the friendliest,” Pansy winced as Harry thought about the moment when she yelled at the others to “get him” just before the Hogwarts battle.

Her smile returned as she continued, “I can’t undo them, but I control the now. Hermione probably said I’ve changed - and I have. But I won’t like you to take her word for it. You’ve got plenty of time to judge me.”

Pansy giggled before returning to eavesdropping.

“How did you and Hermione, you know…” Harry left the question mark.

Pansy turned back, “It started off with a group project for Charms, then one research session, Hermione stayed to research more about Elves. What can I say? It’s not a topic you’d meet any day. And we started hanging out after that.” Harry vaguely remembered the Charms project, which was sometime around mid-September, Hermione had complained about it often. Her complaints lessened though, so Harry figured at the time that Hermione had hexed Pansy to scare her or done something similar.

Pansy turned back to eavesdropping. She reminded Harry of Luna, only if Luna was less obsessed with unseeable creatures. Harry joined Pansy seconds later.

Ron’s voice echoed from the field, “I dunno ‘Mione. Are you sure?”

“Of course. I can vouch for them. Please, Ronald,” Hermione cooed, her gaze flickering to Pansy and Harry’s hiding spot momentarily.

Harry stilled. Pansy whispered to him, “Don’t worry, Hermione knew we’re listening! It’s not eavesdropping!”

“They’d been bullies. I think we should take that into consideration,”

“Just… Give me some time to think it through. I’ll give an answer before the weekend,” Ron promised, cupping Hermione’s face.

Harry turned away. Pansy still stared intently like she did a few moments ago. Harry tried to drag her away before Pansy swatted his arms away, “It’s just two people kissing, stop making a fuss over it Potter.”