The happening with the ghosts was the main topic for the entire next week, students exchanging whom they had met and how they had been able to talk to someone long deceased. Also, a theme was, how Harry, Sam and Loki had defended them. Most believed that this was precisely what a hero like Harry would do cementing his status at the Golden Boy.
Soon however the topic changed when the last Quidditch match of the year approached, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. After the first two Gryffindor matches in which Harry in the first one snatched the Snitch right from under the nose of the Slytherin Seeker. During the second one, he set a new record for the quickest Quidditch match in Hogwarts' history. They all wanted to see what stunt the boy would pull now. What happened though stunned them speechless.
It was a lovely Saturday, the sun was shining brightly, and it was quite warm with 25°C for the end of May. Before the game, Wood asked Harry what he had planned for that game, but Harry only shrugged and told the team captain that he would have to see what would come up.
As soon as they left through their gate and into the pitch, Harry flew up quite a bit, hovering over the pitch's centre over everyone else. When the game began he pulled his broom parallel to the ground with a smirk. Once he was sure that his broom wouldn't do anything unexpected, he let himself fall back so that he came to lie on the length of the handle, his head resting on the bristles. He quickly added a few padding charms to the broom so that it wouldn't be too uncomfortable before he placed his right foot on the end of the handle and put his other leg on his knee.
Contently hovering in the air that way he let his eyes fall shut, relaxing and enjoying the sun when he remembered something. Tapping into his magic, he projected it outwardly for a few feet. He gave it the purpose of repelling Bludgers that might come his way. They would fly in a curve around him before looking for a better target.
Harry was utterly relaxed and nearly falling asleep when he suddenly felt a fluttering against his right cheek that startled him when about ten minutes later. Luckily, he could catch himself quickly enough so that he didn't fall off the broom. Opening his eyes, he could see the Snitch hovering a few inches away from him in a way that he thought that it looked at him expectantly. The Snitch even flew away a few feet before returning to him and again hovering in front of him.
"What?" Harry asked incredulously. "You want me to catch you or what?"
The Snitch bobbed as if nodding and Harry raised an eyebrow, wondering whether something was wrong with the little golden ball.
"But I don't want to. Let the others chase some stupid balls in this lovely weather, but I want to enjoy the sun," he huffed before he leaned back again.
What the Snitch did next left Harry openly gaping at it. The Snitch flew down to Harry's chest where it came to rest and lazily stretched its wings before it neatly folded it against its body.
"Having enough from being chased around?" Harry asked with a chuckle.
In return, the Snitch hummed content that it could just lie there and not have to escape some idiot that tried to catch it.
They both spent quite some time when eventually the Hufflepuff seeker wanted to check on Harry. He saw the Snitch lying there while Harry was sleeping, not even noticing the small ball. The other seeker saw that as an excellent opportunity and slowly reached out for the Snitch, not wanting to alert either Harry or the ball to what he wanted to do. However, he didn't anticipate that the ball came to life when his fingers were just mere inches away from it and suddenly sped off. Cursing under his breath, the boy sped after it in the direction he saw it flying off.
Once the other seeker was far away enough though the small ball, hidden beneath Harry to escape the other seeker, came out of its hiding place. Hovering over Harry's chest, it looked into the direction of the one who just wanted to catch it. Harry looked at it with open curiosity. It seemed that had the little ball a tongue, it would have stuck it out after the Hufflepuff seeker in malicious glee before retaking its place on Harry's chest.
It was about two and half an hour later that Harry woke up suddenly feeling a bit cold. Opening his eyes, he saw that a relatively large cloud had pushed itself in front of the sun. It didn't look like it would vanish any time soon again. With a sigh, he picked up the Snitch that was still lying on his chest so that it wouldn't fall when he sat up.
Once he was fully awake, he looked down to see how the rest of the game was going, realising that he must have slept for quite some time. Gryffindor was falling behind a bit with 320 to the 380 points that Hufflepuff had scored. He stretched a bit, popping his joints and stifling a yawn.
"Want to end the game?" he asked the Snitch that was now laying in his open palm.
When the little ball buzzed positively, Harry smiled and angled his broom so that he flew down to where Madame Hooch was supervising the game. Once he reached her, he let the golden ball fall into her hand.
"Here, it seems the game is over," he just told her.
Madame Hooch stared at him as if he lost it. It took her a few moments to remember what the delivery meant. She blew her whistle announcing that Gryffindor won the match with 480 to 400.
Harry just wanted to leave her to get back to the changing room when the Snitch again came to life and quickly trailed after him. Not knowing what that was supposed to be, he first looked questioningly at the Snitch and then to Madame Hooch. Still, the woman seemed equally confused, she had never seen a Snitch behaving that way.
"Mr Potter, what did you do with the Snitch?" she asked him sternly.
He put his hands up, showing that he had no idea. "I swear that I didn't do anything, the thing behaved strangely for the entire time."
Hooch flew over to him and wanted to grab the Snitch to store it with the other balls but the thing shifter behind Harry, looking around his shoulders tentatively.
"This is bizarre behaviour," she said.
"It seems to me that he doesn't want to leave my side," Harry mused, and the golden ball nodded so rapidly that had it been a human it certainly would have gotten whiplashed. "I can't keep you," he added.
If asked, Harry would have vehemently denied that a small golden ball could look pleadingly or sad. But this Snitch just proved him wrong. The little thing seemed too sad that Harry couldn't leave it behind.
"Madame Hooch, would it be possible that I keep it?" he asked the women. "I will buy you a new one if necessary," Harry added when it became apparent that Hooch wanted to deny him his request.
Hooch looked at Harry and the Snitch, which stayed close to the boy the entire time. In the end, she nodded with a sigh.
"Very well," she said while shaking her head.
You could tell that the Snitch was exceedingly happy with how it fluttered around Harry who couldn't help himself and started to snicker.
"Well then, I need a shower," he told the thing descending towards the changing rooms.
When he arrived there, he was instantly greeted by Wood who wanted to light into Harry for how he handled the game when he became aware of the Snitch that now buzzed between them agitatedly.
"What's with that Snitch?" he asked Harry warily looking between the both of them.
"I don't know, it doesn't want to leave my side anymore," Harry shrugged and walked over to where the showers were leaving behind a confused Wood.
Harry quickly took a shower and soon emerged again, fully clothed in some casual clothes. Accompanied by the twins, he made his way outside and over to where Sam, Loki, Neville and Hermione were waiting, closely followed by his new little friend. The friends were excitedly chattering about the game and how again Harry was so lazy as to sleep all through it. When they became aware that Harry was coming, they greeted him with recollections about stunts and manoeuvres the player had flown. Sam especially was smitten with the sport played on brooms.
It was Fred who finally addressed Harry about the Snitch following him.
"Say, why is the Snitch following you?"
Harry looked a bit sheepish. "I have no idea, he stayed with me the entire game and didn't want to leave me afterwards," he told the redhead.
"Strange," George muttered. "I never heard about them doing that."
Loki now his attention drawn to it, looked at it, his head slightly cocked to the side. "It isn't all that strange," he finally said. "Snitches and Bludgers are sentient to some degree. Snitches more so than Bludgers, because otherwise, they wouldn't be able to predict a seeker's move and act accordingly to make it harder to catch them. Think about it like the sorting hat being able to determine where to sort a student," he explained. "However, only you Harry would be able to draw a Snitch in with your magic."
"What's that supposed to mean, and is it dangerous?" Harry was now weary, which seemed to affect the Snitch because it let his head hang a bit.
"Oh no, it isn't dangerous. My point is that you have a natural aura that calms creatures and humans alike and draws them in. It's nothing to worry about, people and creatures are more likely to be friendly towards you and trust you not to harm them. Remember the unicorn you healed? Normally that unicorn would have bolted as soon as you healed it. Still, your aura exudes calmness and a feeling of safety as well as general friendliness." Here Loki shrugged helplessly. "I don't know how better to explain it, but it is also the reason that that Snitch has seemingly taken a liking to you. It is rare but not unheard of a semi-sentient object bonding to a wizard; they are designed to imitate life after all. See it as an unusual familiar."
Harry and the Snitch looked at each other when the Snitch briefly bumped against Harry's cheek before fluttering around him and his friends who promptly started to snicker over his behaviour.
Agreeing that it was time to get back, they set into motion and together walked back to their common room. When they reached it and entered through the portrait hole, a massive party greeted them. Whole Gryffindor was celebrating today's victory and the fact that they won the Quidditch Cup, therefore ending the winning streak of Slytherin.
The celebrations went on until far after midnight and only ended because at some point McGonagall showed up and told them that it was time for bed.
The end of term exams came and went by without a hitch. Each of the friends was quite sure that they passed them quite well. All too soon, the grand last feast of this school year came with a victory of Ravenclaw. They were closely followed by Gryffindor and Slytherin in third place, which irked said house something rotten. Even in the last spot, Hufflepuff celebrated it as another year of success, friendship and having fun, mostly because of Loki but also in general.
Dumbledore gave them a few parting words talking about second chances and making up for mistakes. To Loki, it seemed that the encounter with his sister's ghost had left a lasting impression.
The same evening Snape also asked Harry to meet with him in his rooms. He gave Harry not only an emergency portkey that would bring him to the man no matter where he was. But also a two-way book with the request to write at least once a week letting him know everything was alright. The care touched Harry, and he promised to let him know should anything be the matter.
That night left Harry happy but also a bit sad. Glad that he wasn't alone anymore and hadn't to go back to his relatives, but also a bit sad because he wouldn't be able to see his friends for quite some time. They arranged though they would meet during the holidays and go shopping for their things for the next school year.
The next day they all shared one compartment in the Hogwarts Express and joked and talked for the last time before they had to part for the holidays. They all had a lot of fun. Shortly before they arrived in London, Harry dug into his pouch. He drew out a stack of identically looking books he handed one to each of his friends.
"These books are charmed so that whatever you write in yours will also appear in all the others linked to it," he explained while handing them out. "That way we can stay in contact."
"So it's like an analogue chat room," Sam joked earning a snicker from Harry and Hermione as well as Neville. The latter had looked over Harry's shoulder one evening when Harry had surfed in the web on his laptop and when Harry had explained to him a few things. The twins though looked at him in confusion. "A chatroom is a Muggle invention where you via the computer talk to many different people all over the world no matter where they currently are," he explained them.
"We slowly understand just why our father is so enamoured with Muggles," Fred said.
"Yes, it is astonishing what they are capable of," George added.
"You have no idea," Harry laughed.
Not much later, the train pulled into the station, and they left the train. They all separated Neville and the twins walking over to their respective families. At the same time, Hermione left the platform through to the Muggle world to find her parents. Only Harry, Sam and Loki remained behind.
"So onto America," he chirped.
They had agreed that they would all go to America for three weeks. Not only so that Sam could meet up with his brother but also for a holiday. After that, Loki would take Harry to his parents for a weekend before they would together visit a few different countries.
Loki quickly grabbed onto Harry and Sam, and within the blink of an eye, they were gone and reappeared right in front of Bobby's house. Harry looked around fascinated by all the junk that was lying around, while Sam whined a bit.
"Do I have to stay a child?" he asked pityingly.
Loki laughed upon that but waved his hand over Sam who promptly changed back into his 24-year-old self. Sam sighed contently, flexing and moving a bit carefully to get used to the sudden lager body.
"Thanks!" he said to Loki while walking over to the door and knocking.
It took a few moments before Bobby appeared in the doorframe and looked at each of them critically. When he finished his scrutiny, he smiled broadly and pulled Sam into a hug.
"Good ta see ya, Sam. I hope ya stay at that school was uneventful," he said before locking gaze with Loki. "Leave all ya pranks out of my house, are we clear pagan?"
Loki looked at him for a moment longer before he did the mature thing and simply stuck his tongue out at the man. Bobby snorted and shook his head.
"Harry, nice to see ya again. I hope that idjit didn't make too much trouble," he finally turned towards Harry with another smile.
"Nah, he knows how to behave himself," Harry replied with a broad grin towards Loki that earned himself a light hit on the arm.
That was when the Snitch that up to then stayed in the pocket of Harry's shirt came out and buzzed around Loki's head for hitting Harry.
"I swear that thing gets more protective with each passing day," Loki muttered which ended up him being hit over the head by the Snitch with one of his wings.
Sam laughed upon the indignant face of the pagan that simply looked cute in his eleven-year-old body. That was when suddenly Harry's stomach started to rumble loudly, making Sam laugh even harder. Even Bobby chuckled.
"Come on in, I'll make you something to eat. In the meantime, you can tell me how school went and why a flying golden ball is following you around," Bobby told them gesturing them to enter.
They all followed Bobby inside and through to the kitchen, where Sam and Loki sat down at the table. At the same time, Harry went to help Bobby with their meal. For Bobby, it would be lunch while for the others it would be the dinner thanks to the time difference.
While they cooked the others filled the man in on what occurred during Hogwarts and what they experienced. They were finished cooking and halfway through their meal, telling Bobby, who listened with amusement, all about the last Quidditch match. Suddenly Alastair appeared in the kitchen right next to them, surprising the hell out of them.
"Alastair," Bobby said in a chiding tone. "Next time use the front door," he told the demon when he realised something. "Where is Dean?"
"That is why I came...I have no idea," the demon answered not even acknowledging the scolding. "He suddenly vanished. I cannot find him anywhere."