Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I just write for fun!

Two weeks on and the new stadium was complete, and the Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang teams were all in the air, practicing passes, dodging bludgers and in the case of Harry, Cedric, Fleur and Viktor, playing 'Catch-a-Snitch' in a warded off zone with about 50 snitches. The aim was to be the one to have caught the most by the time they were all caught.

What they all didn't realise is that other professional teams had heard about what was going on, and although too late to offer to play their own games, had sent representatives to the school, representatives that were now sat talking in the bleachers with Hermione.

As the practice session wound down Harry aimed his broom towards where she was sat and flew in gently to dismount next to her, wrapping his arm about her waist as she introduced him to the representatives from the Appleby Arrows and Puddlemere United.

Smiling he thanked them for their interest when there was a sudden scream, looking out he saw one of the Beauxbatons students had fallen over the railings and was hanging on the edge trying not to fall.
Harry quickly leapt onto his broom and aimed it just below her, putting it at full speed as he saw Cedric and Viktor diving for her.
The three got there just as she lost grip, both Cedric and Victor performed a half Sloth-Grip roll so they were inverted, catching an arm each, giving Harry time to get his broom under her and safely rise so that she was sat side-saddle in front of him.
As soon as it was safe to let her arms go the other seekers did before they carefully made their way to the ground.

Knowing that the bleachers should have anti-fall wards on it, Harry was furious, and from what he could see of Draco as he flew to where the runes were he was pretty sure the sentiment was the same.
"EVERYONE OUT OF THE BLEACHERS IN AN ORDERLY FASHION!" Cedric's voice called out as they all left slowly, Draco returning after checking all the rune-points before he spoke with contained fury.
"They used sandstone, cheap at that, the last rainfall washed half the runes away."

Harry nodded.
"Go to Professor Babbling, tell her the problem and ask if she'd be willing to oversee the replacements, I'll go with Hermione to the Headmaster and explain, it was a company the Goblins run that did this stadium, recommended them, I daresay when they hear about this…"
Draco nodded as Hermione came up next to him.
"Harry?" Hermione asked.
Quickly he explained what they'd discovered causing her to shake her head, say what you want about the Goblins, avaricious, gold hungry and bloodthirsty they may be, but their dealings were also Honest and Fair. To them profit without honour was no profit at all – there had been multiple times recorded when they had made gold, found it was done wrongly, and rather than have that profit tainted, sent the money to St Mungo's to be used to help people.

Going back into the castle they headed over to the Ravenclaw table where Rebecca and Ginny were sat, Rebecca was telling Ginny how she'd love to be able to play Quidditch one day.
" – you've got the build for a seeker or a keeper, 'Becca, what you need to think about though is how you feel on a broom, do you like going fast and quick multiple changes in direction like Harry has too, or ar you more of a 'reactionist' you like to fly, only need to make one or two turns due to the environment about you?"

Rebecca nibbled at her lip as she shrugged.
"I … I don't know."
"Tell you what, I've never played on the teams, but I play a fair bit at home, how about one of the days I take you to the new pitch and you can see which one you like?"
The look of hope in the shorter girl was unmistakable.
"R – really?" Ginny nodded.
Rebecca suddenly leapt at Ginny whispering her thanks multiple times.

Ginny simply held her gently as she smiled lightly, looking across to Harry Ginny spoke.
"Mind helping out when I do?" Harry shook his head wrapping his arm about Hermione's waist and pulling her closer as he answered.
"No worries, just give me enough warning yeah?"

For the rest of the day they simply got on with their lessons.

-0-

Three days on Hermione was making her way to DADA when something told her to duck, doing so a spell whizzed over her head, rolling and twisting she came up facing back down the corridor her ears twitching for any trace of sound and muzzle scrunching, smelling for scent as she tried to spot just who had sent that spell at her.

Hearing the tiniest scuff of feet on the floor her gaze homed in on the cupboard down the corridor as she spoke.
"Whoever you are, step out." She ordered.
"Bloody creature." A voice snapped as a boy in the green livery of the Slytherins came into view.
"Flint." Hermione said flatly.
"How did you avoid that?" The student opposite her snarled.

"Training Flint, now you have two options, leave me be, or I report this." Flint snorted as he spoke.
"And who in the ministry would believe a half-breed creature bitch like you."
"That would be me, and my friends' families for starters." Harry's voice came to her ears from behind, before he and Daphne stepped forward, hands linked, they had been off getting some alone time with Hermione's blessing earlier while Hermione had been doing some research.

"Expecto Patronum." Harry whispered before sending a message for the Headmaster to meet them.
"Running to the half-breed Headmaster now Potter?" Flint sneered.
"Flint, you have got to be one of the most stupid people I've met." Harry said with a sigh.
"Think man, if I and my friends not only got through the first two tasks with full marks, and I've defeated the Dark Lord multiple times, what on earth makes you think it's a good idea to make me your enemy?"

"You did that the day you took the bitch from me." He snapped, his wand pointing to Daphne.
Just as he finished the Headmaster walked rapidly about the corner wand in hand.
"What is going on here?!" Flitwick demanded.
"Nothing sir, just a disagreement." Flint said quickly, putting his wand away.
Hermione however related the entire tale, verbatim.
"Accio wand." Flitwick said suddenly aiming at Flint, his wand flying towards the professor.
As soon as he caught it the Headmaster cast the charm for the last spell cast. When the wispy smoke above spelled out 'Crucio' Flitwick paled in anger before petrifying and binding Flint.
"I'll take him from here, you three head to class.

They nodded, turning to head to the DADA class as Hermione looked to Daphne who had moved between her and Harry, taking her pawlike hand in her own.
"So how was your alone time?" Hermione asked with a smile.

-0-

Earlier that day Harry and Daphne had gone for a walk about the Black Lake, gently holding hands.

"I'm surprised you know," Daphne said quietly as she looked out over the water.
"Oh?" Harry asked.
"That you're going along with this so well, trying to fit me into yours and Hermione's relationship."
Gently he guided her to a secluded spot behind a boulder and helped her to sit on the ground before joining her as he spoke.
"Daphne, I won't admit it's been, and is still somewhat difficult, but we have four things going in our favour." He said quietly meeting her blue eyes with his emerald, gently taking her hand.
"One, and the most important thing, I love Hermione and want her to be happy, and she wants this to work. Two, you care about us both, me and Hermione which makes it easier, you've said yourself before, if it looked like you joining us was going to hurt either one of us you'd back away, regardless of your own feelings right?" Daphne slowly nodded.

"Three, and I'm sorry to be so crass about this, you're both bisexual, and attracted to each other as well as myself in a physical sense right?" Daphne blushed as she nodded, speaking as well.
"To be honest I think Hermione's even more beautiful now than when she hid her cat side, when I first saw her like that…" Harry smiled gently as he spoke.
"It's more than that though isn't it, you're not just attracted to that part, but since she's allowed it out and gained her self-confidence through it, there's almost an inner light that shines through and pulls you towards her." Daphne nodded.

"And finally four," Gently he tilted her head towards him again, cupping her cheek.
"I'm finding the more time I spend with you, either with or separately from Hermione, I'm falling for you too."
"Harry…" Daphne sighed as she leaned into him, their lips meeting, gentle shy kisses becoming bolder, when Harry gently ran his tongue along her lower lip, Daphne quickly let her lips part, allowing him entrance.
By the time they had finished and come up for air, both their hair and clothes were slightly mussed.
Gently he kissed her forehead as she snuggled into his side while he wrapped his arm about her.

"I'm surprised Mr Potter." Daphne said with a teasing smile.
"I never thought you could be this eloquent."
Harry chuckled a little as they stayed there trading stories from their pasts, briefly touching on the Dursley's and Daphne's home lives.

When Harry's wand started to Vibrate he sighed.
"Come on Daph, I set a warning charm, it's only 30 minutes to DADA."
She nodded as they stood, helping him to straighten his tie as he helped her to right her hairband that had dislodged some. It didn't take them long to come upon the confrontation between Flint and Hermione, helping her to deal with him.

Sat in DADA they watched as moody started stomping around the room as he took a swig from his flask as Daphne heard a hiss from Hermione.
"Moody, Polyjuice." The feline whispered.
Frowning Daphne nodded as she wrote on her scrap parchment a quick note out waiting until the professor was looking the opposite side of the room and his false eye was facing back she quickly flicked a spell at it causing it to fold like an airplane, and sent it out the window, where it would fly up to Flitwick's office, unfolding on his desk for him to find later.

They spent the rest of the lesson watching him warily, but he did nothing else suspicious – at least more suspicious than the normal moody would be.

It was as they were heading out the room that Colin Creevy ran up to them.
"Harry, Mr Bagmans asked could all the champions meet him at the normal quidditch pitch please?" Harry quickly nodded and turned to the girls as he spoke.
"Why don't you two spend some time together, I'll meet you at dinner in a bit?" Hermione quickly nodded as Daphne gave a small smile.

Turning Harry made his way out the castle and down to the pitch where the others were already waiting.
"Eef 'ou keep going zis zlow I'm zure to beat 'ou." Fleur said with a grin getting a couple of laughs before they turned to face bagman.
"You asked us to come here?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I'm here to give you some information on the Third task." Flicking his wand the view of the pitch shimmered as Harry recognised an illusion dropping, when it did he felt his mouth drop open in shock, before Cedric spoke.
"What the bloody hell?!"

Across the entire pitch there were shrubs growing."
"Don't worry – they'll be gone as soon as the third task finishes, can anyone tell me what this is?" He asked with a wave of his hand smiling excitedly like a two year old on a sugar high, before the crash hit as Krum grunted out a single word as he had a world class scowl on his face.
"Maze."

Bagman's face seemed to implode in disappointment at the lack of a reaction before he spoke.
"Yes well - the plan was to have you go in order of who had the most points, the rules are you have to enter the maze, find the centre and then get the Triwizard cup, now obviously there will be some challenges in the maze but with your teamwork," He said the last word sarcastically as if it were making a mockery of the tournament, "I doubt they'll be too much trouble."

With that he gave a jaunty wave.
"I called it 'im before - Imbécilé!" Harry could only nod before he smirked.
"Well you know how he didn't like how we've already flipped the tournament on it's head, what's say one last hurrah and get the last task done in less than 5 minutes?"
The other three looked at him curiously.
"The rules are we have to 'enter the maze' did he say 'navigate?' nope - four great fliers here."
Viktor just burst out laughing as Harry finished, Fleur was giggling her head off while Cedric simply smirked.

"you know Harry - if I didn't know any better I'd think you're as tired of this face as I am." Harry simply shrugged and grinned as the four went up to the castle and into the great hall.
When they did they saw the group of their friends minus Hermione and Daphne at the end of the Hufflepuff table.
"Huh, I wonder where they've got too?" Harry muttered before taking a seat, remembering when he and Hermione had their own time they could be a while.

-0-

As Harry left to head to the Quidditch pitch Hermione gently took Daphne's hand and led her up to the Room of Requirements.
Smiling she asked Daphne to keep her eyes closed, getting an elegant arched eyebrow in curiosity before Daphne closed her eyes.
She heard Hermione pacing before feeling Hermione's pawlike hand take hers, gently leading her.

"Keep them closed a minute." Hermione said quietly.
Daphne heard the distinctive *POP* of House Elves three times, she assumed, and it would prove rightly so, that Hermione had summoned a Potter elf, asked it to get something for her, and then it had left.
"Keep them closed." Hermione said with a whisper against her ear causing Daphne to shiver a little, before she felt herself guided again.
"Okay you can open them." Hermione's slightly muffled voice spoke.
Opening her eyes, Daphne raised her eyebrows in confusion, Hermione had her on her own inside one of the changing cubicles they were normally given when using the room to swim.

She looked to the bench and saw Hewrmione had left her a range of different outfits, letting her decide what she wanted to wear.
Smirking as she noticed even the bikinis were of the conservative variety, she erected a small one way privacy barrier, she could hear noise coming in, but no sound would escape - except that of a call for an elf, and only the elf would hear.
"Any free elf!" (POP* She smiled when she saw it was Winky, kneeling down she told Winky what she was after, and a moment later she had it.

It didn't take her long to change into the outfit before she dropped the silencing bubble, a quick flick of her wand had her hair pulled back neatly into her little hairband, leaving just a few blonde bangs peeking over her brow.
"Do I need to close my eyes again?" She called out, slipping her wand into her ever present holster.
"No,!" Hermione asked, Daphne could hear the nervousness in her voice.
Daphne grinned as she opened the door to a little corridor, Hermione stood by another door, a Hermione whose eyes had widened and mouth dropped a little even as she gave a little squeak.

Daphne had gotten Winky to bring her a barely there micro bikini set.
Going over she spoke.
"You alright there Hermione?" She asked, a little nervous as this was the furthest she'd pushed either of them, she couldn't help but smile at the little 'mew' of appreciation Hermione gave before the half cat girl took her hand and led her out the door.

"Wow." Daphne muttered looking about, instead of the swimming room she had been expecting, they were at a tropical beach, on a little patio that had a small table with a couple of drinks of Butterbeer, with a small double seat swinging bench under the shade of a palm tree.

"For a first date you certainly impress Miss Black." Daphne said, trying to gather her wits even as Hermione led her to the couch. The two just sat there, Hermione leaning back as Daphne gently rested an arm across the back of the couch.
"I wanted something I thought you'd enjoy." Hermione said quietly. Daphne's smile was obviously all the answer Hermione needed.
They sat there just traking little funny stories for a while, and Hermione seemed to slowly relax, even with the 'display' Daphne had put on.

As they spoke, Hermione seemed to move closer, until Daphne gently wrapped her arms about her, Hermione turning her face up to Daphne.
"Daphne… why?" She waved to the outfit that was far more revealing than her own two piece.
"Simple." Daphne smiled leaning down to give her a quick kiss.
"I know you're not ready to go more than kissing and hugs at the moment with me, but think, now you've got a sneak preview of what's to come, I know you're still a virgin, but imagine the fun you'll have with Harry when you describe this to him.
Hermione shook her head, with her own grin.
"Or I could save it for when you surprise him like you did me?" Daphne, the 'Ice-Queen' did something that would have made many people who hadn't gotten to know her blink in surprise as she giggled, before leaning in to give Hermione what was meant to be a small kiss, though Hermione had other ideas, pressing a bit more firmly, they shared their most passionate kiss to date, only stopping to break for much needed air.
"Come on, I need to cool off." Hermione muttered, her iris's wide and dilated, before she gave Daphne another quick kiss and shot out to the sea.

The rest of the hour they simply enjoyed their time alone together, before having the room conjure a couple of showers and getting dressed before heading back to Gryffindor tower, Hermione leaning a bit more into Daphne's side than normal, while Daphne had her hand about her waist as they went into the great hall, seeing the meal had already started, they made their way over to Harry at the end of the Hufflepuff table, sitting Hermione between them, getting a small smile from him as he turned back to the conversation he'd been having on school work.

-0-

Sirius walked into Amelia's office after getting a memo on his desk asking him to join her.
Initially she had simply reactivated him so he was covered for anything he needed to do to protect himself and family, but he had convinced her to reactivate him full time.

He'd been a bit surprised she'd asked to meet him here considering she was interim minister. He was a bit surprised to see the figure with her wearing the grey cloak of an Unspeakable.
"Ah Sirius," Amelia said, "This is Unspeakable Shade, he was observing Dumbledore's trial a while ago. He's been rather busy along with a few of his team, you know those 'things' Riddle left?"
Sirius grimaced, he did not want to be reminded of that.

"Well, after you did that ritual to free Harry of the… taint, they took it, and somehow used it to track down all but one of his pieces. Something to do with the Arithmancy and spellwork only homes in on inanimate objects." Sirius nodded in understanding when the Unspeakable spoke, his/her voice unidentifiable.

The one thing we did do was run a separate calculation, with how many times Riddle did it, he physically cannot make any more."
Sirius breathed a sigh of relief before he spoke.
"Thank goodness - do we even have an idea of what the last could be?"
Here Amelia looked pained as she spoke.
"Not yet, but we will by the end of the day - Dumbledore will tell us - we're going to Azkaban and dosing him with Veritaserum until he has told us all the living items he suspects, that's why I asked for you even if Dumbledore knows, it's still going to take time to find it, we wanted to ask if you had any ideas?"
Siirius frowned thinking back on the few conversations he'd had with Harry.
"I'm sorry Madam Bones, but I can't think of any." The unspeakable seemed to nod even though he had addressed Amelia, when he seemed to vanish.
"Bloody spooky gits." Sirius muttered, getting a look from Amelia.
"Now Amy, don't look at me like that, you thought the same when you were a beat auror."
Amelia sighed, frowning at his familiar tone before nodding.

"Well Sirius, there is another reason I asked for you to come to this office - I've been going through the list of all the master senior aurors we have, and which ones I trust." Sirius sat up at this, the way she spoke told him this could be important.
"And to be honest, there's only one person I can trust to run this office and who will make sure no other people are put in Azkaban without trial - the Wizenmegot votes tomorrow for a new Minister, but to my surprise not one dark family has put a name forward - yet, if it's the same tomorrow then I'll be minister - and if that happens, I want you to take the job of Head of the DMLE."
Sirius blinked at this before shaking his head as if he didn't quite hear her properly.
"Are you sure Amy - I do have a reputation after all.
Amelia nodded as she spoke.
"Yes - as a jokester, prankster and all around menace." She said getting a nod from him, he obviously thought this had changed her mind until she continued. "When you're not in uniform." She said bluntly.

He gave her a sheepish nod, he didn't think she'd noticed how serious he was on the job, now and even before Azkaban.

"Well - if you get voted Minister tomorrow - I'll take the job." Sirius said, his thoughts already going through some ideas, including a review of all prisoners in Azkaban, he wanted to be sure he was the only person who'd been illegally incarcerated.

24 hours later he was moving into his new office.

-0-

Harry was flying around the new, fixed Quidditch pitch.
When Gringotts had heard what happened, they didn't bother subcontracting to another builder, they sent out their own teams and soon had the school pitch enchanted properly.
He looked to the ground and smiled, quite a few people had turned up for the tryouts, and with the two professional teams wanting to give an exhibition match as well, Harry couldn't be happier, okay he was the instigator, but it had taken the teamwork of the group they'd put together and the professionals to get it ready.

Harry had put Fred and George on Beater selections, He and Krum were on Seeker duty, and with both Fleur and Cedric captains of their own teams normally, had been put in charge of Chasers and Keepers, they wanted to hopefully field 2 teams so so that they'd have the Hogwarts match later in this week and then the Exhibition game next. His only warning had been don't discriminate against houses or schools, they wanted to truly mix things up.
He still smirked at remembering when Bagman had been sent with his tail between his legs - he'd 'offered' his professional experience to them, when Krum had stepped forwards, and as nice as you please.

"I am de Professional advisor to de school teams."

Hermione who had been near at the time had an attack of the giggles, while the others all found some way to express their amusement. Across all the schools now, and slowly leaking out to the public due to the shameful way the tournament had been organised, Bagman had become considered quite the lame duck.

Coming in to land in front of the Seeker hopefuls, he spotted Ginny with little Rebecca in the stands, pointing out and explaining what various players were doing, while on her other side was Luna, Harry knew this was because when the tryouts were to start Ginny would be jumping in, but none of their group would let Rebecca have to be alone now. Just because Flitwick had expelled her tormentors, it didn't mean that Rebecca yet felt safe, and though she may be a fourth year, her mental age was certainly that of a firstie. Unfortunately the damage done to her body as well as mind had truly stunted her growth.

"Okay Chazerz pleasze!" Fleurs voice called out just as he came into land, blinking in surprise when he spotted Daphne going to the Chaser tryout.
Shrugging he heard Krum call for the seekers and immediately moved to pay attention.
The morning was going quite well for a while until there was the shout of "MISSED BLUDGER!"
Harry looked up to see the bludger heading right for him, bracing himself ready, much like Oliver did that day he first explained to Harry about quidditch, Harry caught the bludger, but instead of trying to hold on to it, he pushed with as much strength as he could sending the bludger rocketing back to the sky before glaring at one of the twins.
"keep those bludgers in your patch of the sky!" He shouted, getting a salute.

Turning back he could see that Krum had spotted he'd got it well in hand, and had split the hopefuls into four groups based on their body type.
Harry was going to be taking the leaner ones like him, while Krum was going to take those with his more stocky build to whittle them down first.

It took most of the morning but eventually they narrowed it down to six players, two stocky and four slim build.

They sent them all up this time, and let loose a good 20 training snitches, the aim simple, who would catch the most - the challenge was that Katie was going to be weaving in and out while a bludger was batted back and forth - this was to test who could keep their eye on target, while dodging.
It was for this last part of the tryout that they had elves on standby, any serious injury and they would be popped straight to the infirmary.

by the time they were done, Harry confessed to himself at least that he was quite worn out, but hung around as he sa Ginny, who had made one of the starting line-ups, gently fly near Rebecca and take her onto her broom, and started gently flying around the pitch, holding the broom lightly ready to take control back immediately, but Harry saw that for most of the flight, Ginny was simply balancing the broom while Rebecca actually steered.
He watched with a smile on his face - he'd said earlier that he thought there was definitely a more mother/daughter thing going on there.
He watched as Ginny slowly went through every basic with the girl before taking over, as she was facing him he could clearly see Ginny say "hold tight" Before the broom leapt forwards, he could hear Rebecca's squeal of delight even where he was.

"I can't believe the change in her." Hermione's voice came to him, looking to the side he gently wrapped his arm about her.
"She just needed someone to care to bring out her happiness." He answered quietly, "Remind you of anyone?" He continued looking at her now, trying to show in his gaze his love for her, getting a gentle smile back as she leaned up to kiss him, a kiss he gladly returned.
When she turned tugging on his hand she grinned naughtlly over her shoulder.
"Lets go to the room and I'll remind you how much I care," she said, glancing at his groin.

"Who am I to argue with that, My Lady" He answered with a grin following her.

A/N: So this updatte has been a long time coming - I'm sorry it has taken this long and the quality isn't as good as previous chapters, but my health has really been playing me up these past few years, either way I hope you like it!