Quidditch. It was something that was particularly close to many witches and wizards' hearts, and Harry Potter was no different. He was bloody good at it, too! So, having tickets to the Quidditch World Cup was an honour and likely something he would take to his grave with him.

Harry and the Weasley family trekked to the top of the stadium, which was a great view to see the players, but he didn't expect to hear many of the announcements. Apparently, he was mistaken!

"Welcome, everyone! To the Quidditch World Cup!" The voice was so loud, it made Harry's heart leap about a mile.

Sharply, he looked down at to where the sound was coming from. "Wow," he turned to Ron briefly, "that's got to be one hell of a microphone." This stadium was massive!

"Chances are, Harry, he's using the Sonorus charm." Mr. Weasley interrupted, then blinked at the two boys who looked as puzzled as ever. "A wonderful charm which amplifies your voice. C'mon boys, use your common sense!" Aha!

Harry beamed, then continued to listen to the announcement. Seconds later, the teams entered the pitch, which caused an eruption of cheers.

Double potions. GROOOAN. However, Harry decided to arrive five minutes early for today's lesson. You must be thinking, 'why?!', well, it is a simple case of the race to the back of the classroom. Everyone who wasn't a Slytherin itched for a seat at the back. For reasons that were quite obvious, don't you think?

Professor Snape.
.... Arghh...

Unfortunately, the whole back row was taken. Looks like everyone came early today. So, Harry took a desk in front of Seamus Finnigan. Sigh.

About 10 minutes into the boring lesson, Harry felt a sudden twitch. At first, he thought it was just his imagination. Or maybe it was a nervous twitch from being in potions... But seconds passed, and the twitch in his ears grew stronger. What the...!

Hearing laughter from behind, the boy turned sharply and saw Seamus hiding his wand under his text book, but still managing to point it at Harry. He frowned and held his twitching ears tightly, forgetting that Snape was practically breathing down his neck and noticed straight away.

"ENOUGH. No spells in my lesson. 10 points from Gryffindor."

Harry wanted to say 'HA HA', but then he remembered that he is also in Gryffindor. Ouch.

The Gryffindor common room often radiated vibes of cool, calm and collected behaviour, but other times, it was just a pad for immaturity. Boys will be boys, obviously. It was always thought that the girls were the only ones with brains in this blooming place.

Harry Potter's best friend, Ron, wasn't exactly immune to hyper-activeness after too many sweets. And tonight was no exception. He had had about 100 every flavour beans, and was now throwing his beloved rat, Scabbers about the common room and in innocent peoples' faces.

"Harry, think fast!" Before the boy could even fixate his eyes upon the ever-closing rat claws, the vision suspended in midair before it touched his face.

The two Gryffindor boys turned, aghast, only to find Hermione pointing her wand at Scabbers. She rolled her eyes and stormed up to the dormitories, and Harry never did find out what spell she used. It was pretty cool.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY RAT...?!"
...

Harry escaped quickly upstairs from a frantic Ron, who was watching Scabbers slowly fall to the floor.

It was his third year at Hogwarts now, and he had practically got the layout of Diagon Alley figured completely out. He entered Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, just before he was going to meet Ron and Hermione. The shop was deserted, apart from an old, bearded man staring lazily into space at the counter.

Harry picked up a standard packet of stink pellets, then approached him, but was still completely unnoticed by the man. What was he supposed to do now...?

Ahem, "Excuse me...?" The young boy said, breaking the silence immediately.

"AH!" The old shopkeeper pointed his wand directly at Harry's mouth, and without him even saying an incantation, the boy's tongue catapulted to the roof of his mouth, stopping him from being able to speak.

"Mmmmm! Mmm, hmm!" The stink pellets fell to the floor, and the smell rose, filling the entire shop with a revolting stench.

"Merlin's trousers, boy! Don't sneak up on a man like that!" The shopkeeper reversed the spell quickly, and escorted Harry out of the shop to allow the stink to pass. Yeah, there was a situation you could get nowhere else but the wizarding world....

After a long day at work, Harry decided to take out his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, and his wife, Ginny, to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink. Ron appeared to have had the most busy day of them all, and was chucking back a fair few drinks to keep himself awake.

"Come on, mate. Let me take you home." Harry tugged on his best friend's arm, but the ginger-haired man pulled it back rather quickly.

"Just cos you beat Voldemort, Harry, and just cos you produced your patronus before eVERyone else, doesn't mean you are stronger than me, Harry Potter." He yapped, "I can take myself, and my wife home without your help."

Before Harry had the chance to respond to his friend's ridiculous comment, Ron had pulled out his wand and was attempting his own patronus. He could do it, yes, but not in this state. "Expectuh Patrnousum." A mere spark of silver erupted from his wand, and a 'coughing' noise followed. Harry, Ginny and Hermione suppressed a laugh, but Ron was too tired to hear. His head flopped onto the table, where he fell asleep.

"Too many Firewhiskeys. Sorry, Harry." Hermione explained.

Harry sat lazily in Potions class, listening to Professor Snape droning on about a boring potion they would be brewing today. Momentarily distracted by someone whispering behind him, the Gryffindor turned to see Draco Malfoy eyeing him but talking to a first year, too.

Hmm, that was peculiar.
...

Suddenly, the first year started to shriek and as every turned to stare, his face produced huge, disgusting boils. It was enough to make a person physically sick. But what caused it...?

"Who has been performing spells in my classroom?" Hissed Snape, looking from the first year, to Draco. With a small nudge from Malfoy, the first year cleared his throat.

"H-Harry Potter did it to me." Harry's eyes stared daggers at the child as he outright blamed him for something that he would never do. Surely Snape would need more evidence than this than to punish him...

"Potter. 10 points from Gryffindor."
o____O

"But, I didn't -"

"Silence!" And when Snape said 'silence', you would be stupid to say anything more. Harry turned and shot Malfoy a death dare, casually. Merlin's Beard, Harry could never win in this class, could he?

Diagon Alley was the place to get ice cream! It had every flavour imaginable at the ice cream shop, and Harry made frequent visits there whenever he could. Today, after waiting ages to actually get an ice cream, he had a simple chocolate frog flavour.

NOMM NOM.

Too bad that there was an absolute MOB of people at Diagon Alley today. Harry had to keep shielding his tasty treat so that people couldn't knock it out of his hand. However, once he had moved it to the left, someone came out of nowhere on the right. And smack, bam... his ice cream had fallen to the floor and was now covered in dirt.

"Agh." Desperate, he picked it up and pointed his wand at it. Ehh.. this was definitely worth a shot.

"Tergeo."
....

DANG. It simply just evaporated. Looks like this particular cleaning charm was not invented to siphon dirt off ice creams. Funny that. Harry frowned to himself, and turned on his heel to go back into the ice cream shop. He'd definitely have to quiz Hermione about what to do if this happened again.

After getting himself into quite a state of panic, Harry decided that the best way to calm his nerves were to sit quietly in front of the fireplace with a notepad and pen, and to reminisce all his good times with Ginny Weasley. Their wedding was just over a week away, and he had about a sentence of his vows covered.

A creak of the door caused his heart to leap, and he quickly sat on top of his notepad as his fiance entered the living room.

"Hey - what are you doing on the floor?" Ginny asked immediately.

"Oh, uh... I was just cold..." His eyes averted to the fireplace, then he adjusted his seating position to make sure that the notepad was successfully hidden. It was no use. Ginny was very smart. Moments later, she came at him and pulled the notepad from under him.

"Aw, babe. You still haven't done your vows?" She giggled, as Harry's cheeks flushed.

"I'm just struggling to put it all on paper, you know?"

"You could always make an unbreakable vow. That would be quite romantic." And creepy. Harry rolled his eyes and snatched the notepad back. Back to business.

Harry's vision was blurred, and his hearing was fuzzy. He hadn't a clue where he was, and his only knowledge was that it was dark, cold, and full of evil.

"Mobilicorpus." He heard the incantation from the distance, despite it being said right in front of him.

"Mobilicorpus.." There it was again, only it was clearer this time. Harry looked closer, and his eyes fixated on two bodies that had been lifted into the air. The realization hit him like a bus, and he gasped loudly, but could not hear himself screaming.

"Ron! Hermione!" Their bodies moved away from him, pale and lifeless, then Harry saw someone else. The subject of his nightmares on every night. Lord Voldemort. He smirked, then turned away, taking his two best friends with him.

Harry was left, shouting after them but no one heard.

Sweaty and breathless, he jolted up from his bed and panted as he looked around to see Ron and Hermione lying next to him on their sheets and blankets. His head smacked the pillow, he then turned to his side and watched the locket lying next to him. Harry hoped that one day, these painful dreams would stop haunting him.

"I'm just saying, Harry, don't you think Cho Chang is way out of your league?" Ron was pondering, lying on his bed as he looked to the ceiling. Harry just sighed and suppressed banging his head against the wall.

Another Ron Weasley pep-talk... If you could actually call it that.

"'Cause she is, like, so popular and so pretty. And I know you're 'the famous Harry Potter', and all that... but, I dunno." The ginger boy turned to look at his best friend but he was no longer sitting there on his own bed.

"Harry?"

"Waddiwasi."

"What did you just say?" Ron raised a brow when he saw his friend standing at the foot of his bed. Before he could answer Ron's question, about one hundred shoes scattered from all over the dormitory launced into the air and thwacked him on the head.

"OUCH, HARRY, WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Please shut up about Cho Chang, and let me go to bed." Harry took off his glasses and placed them on his bed side table, then lounged onto the bed. Ronald was staring, bewildered, at his friend's actions.

"Merlin. No need for violence..."

Stopping dead in his tracks, Harry looked around and dived behind a large rock that had fallen from the castle. The events going on throughout the room was exhausting and extraordinary. He watched spells fly in every direction. Almost like a firework display.

It wasn't until he saw an innocent first year backed into a corner, that he decided to move from where he hid.

Lunging forwards, with his wand thrust from his pocket, Harry shouted, "Stupefy!" And sent the spell shooting at the death eater. Taken by surprise, the death eater catapulted into the wall, then disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

"Y-You're Harry Potter. Thank you." The first year girl said, shaking in her shoes. Her nose was bleeding, and her eye looked rather swollen. With all the bodies lying around anyway, Harry could not bare to see such a young, innocent person die in front of him. It was not safe for anyone.

"Go to your dormitory. Hide yourself." Harry spoke quickly, then rushed away to continue with his endeavors as the walls of Hogwarts fell around him.

Potions class, ugghhhh. The only thing that kept everyone awake during this lesson was due to the Quidditch match happening straight afterwards, it kept everyone on their toes. Harry was twiddling his wand through his fingers at the back of the class, until he heard a faint mutter saying, "Potter."

The boy turned, only to see Malfoy smirking as he did. He gently moved his wand in the air, careful not to catch Snape's eye, and words appeared from nowhere.

'Tell Weasley to watch his back'

The words soon evaporated. Harry only guessed it was the Flagrate spell, he recognized it from the Chamber of Secrets when Tom Riddle used it. He frowned, then glanced over to his best friend. It was his first Quidditch match on the team, and now Harry was beginning to worry about it.

A much needed pep talk was needed before the event, but for now, he thought he would toss him a note in paper. Quickly scribbling it, he subtly threw it;

'Ron, watch out for the Slytherins later.'

He watched the ginger boy sigh in terror, then turned his attention back to Snape, who seemed to be oblivious to all the note passing.

The Gryffindor common room were bored. It was raining outside, classes were out for the day, and everyone was banished to the common rooms to study. Hermione, and various other students, were locked up in their dorms, doing exactly as they were told. But for mischievous double act, Harry and Ron, falling asleep on the sofa was the best they could do.

Harry had his wand in his hand, and attempted to practice a few spells they had been learning lately.

"SpeRevelio." He murmured, lazily. He expected no secrets behind these walls. He was wrong. There was a thud from one of the portraits as it hoisted upwards, revealing an old and battered Golden Snitch. It whirled around Harry's head then fluttered up to the ceiling, just flying around.

"Cool!" Ron exclaimed, then performed the same spell to repeat the awesomeness, but nothing happened for him...

Looks like that was about the only hidden secret to find in the Gryffindor common room. It was great, though! It appeared to be an old Snitch from years ago, hidden behind the portrait of a Quidditch player.

"Um... Just so you know, Harry. If you ever... hurt my sister, I will - er - hunt you down." Harry couldn't help but stifle a laugh as Ron tried the whole 'big-bro' talk. He simply nodded and patted his best friend on the back.

"I hear you, mate. But don't worry, I really like Ginny. I think we could -"

"Just, stoppppp. That's my sister, dude!" Ron made a disgusted face, but tried to be as understanding as possible to Harry. He was his best friend after all, and weren't they supposed to talk about their feelings and stuff together? Maybe that was just girls.

Harry chuckled, then thought of Ginny. They had been dating quite a few months now, and were pretty much spending all of their time together. It was getting serious, everyone had seemed to notice.

"Although, I reckon Ginny would be the one to hunt you down if you ever hurt her. You know what she's like." Ron grinned and Harry grimaced. Flashbacks went to when the gang were in the Department of Mysteries and the ginger girl threw a 'Reducto' spell that tore the whole room apart. Yes, she was a definite fiery witch...

Another day at Hogwarts, another day of Malfoy being a complete jerk! He was being very original today, by making fun of Harry's glasses. It didn't bother him much because he had grown up with the taunts. It wasn't until he moved on to insulting Hermione that things got tense.

"Do you like Potter's glasses, Mudblood? They must be right up your street. Abnormal street, that is." He and his Slytherin gang roared with laughter and Ron lunged forwards at them with his wand, until Harry and Hermione stopped him.

"Ronald! What are you actually going to do about it?!" Hermione snapped, still holding on to his arm, proving to be a lot stronger than he was.

"I dunno! Umm.. Horn Tongue him?" That was a hex that Fred and George had taught him and Harry in the common room recently. It was easy enough to produce, and quite funny if you hate the opponent.

Harry agreed with Hermione. "Don't be so stupid! You'll get detention. With Snape, probably." That was enough to sway him to back down. The trio sighed but decided to ignore the Snakes and stalked off to the common room.

Harry was very tired today, for some reason. He traisped the corridors until he reached the second floor. It was kind of late, about 7.30pm. And he saw two familiar people just lying on the floor. He raised his eyebrow then approached them slowly, only to discover that they were both covered in blood!

And...

It was Fred and George!

"Oh, god! Fred! George!" He shook them both but they were still. Right the blood. Harry pulled out his wand to clean them up before anything. "Scourgify." The blood mopped up quickly for Harry to examine them. But... there appeared to be no wounds.

Silence followed... until... "GOTCHA, HARRY!" They both shot up at the same time and scared Harry half to death. The boy scowled and stood up.

"That was NOT funny, guys!"

"It kind of was, and thanks for cleaning us up!" Said Fred. The pair chuckled one more time then wandered off. Probably to prank someone else. Harry adjusted his posture and still felt a little bit shaky. Those bloody twins... He'd HAVE to get them back.

The skull burned into the clouds, sending waves of terror through every being at Hogwarts. Harry's eyed briefly travelled upwards, tinging the memory of when he first saw it at the Quidditch match. When Barty Crouch Jr. used his wand to conjure the mark.

Only this time was different.

This time, it actually meant something. He was dead. Albus Dumbledore, the man that he had looked to as a father for years.

The boy tore himself away from the sight as he rushed to the place where he fell.

"Harry?" Hermione said, frozen in her spot within the crowd of people over Dumbledore. The boy sheepishly stepped forward and knelt by his side, ignoring the lingering skull above their heads.

He wondered if Voldemort had cast it when he killed his parents.

Was that selfish of him? To think of them now, when it was Dumbledore who had gone?

Feeling the eyes of everyone pulsing to his back, Harry felt a sting of a tear burn his cheek, as he lay his hand upon Albus' chest.

This was set to be a nice and peaceful evening. Just the two of them, as all the kids were out. Harry had cooked his wife a pleasant dinner and now they were both just relaxing on the sofa, snuggling together.

"Lumos." Harry whispered, and set his lit wand on the table. The rest of the lights were off, leaving a charming glow in the room.

"Do you ever put that wand down?" Ginny commented, with a faint chuckle. Harry shrugged and put his feet up onto the coffee table. Ah, this really was the life. Harry really had no struggles in his life anymore. He had a beautiful wife, wonderful children and the same best of friends he always had.

Beaming, the man opened his mouth to speak, but...

"NOX!"

The light went out and the couple were now sitting in a pitch black room. They heard steps running up the stairs, along with lots of giggling.

"JAMES POTTER!" They both yelled, and rose to storm up those stairs.

"He's turning into a show off, just like his father." Ginny murmured. Harry sighed. Actually, he assumed his son was more like HARRY'S dad. They certainly named him accurately, that's for sure.

It was one of those days again. One of those days where Harry Potter would spend his time deep inside the dungeons, in Severus Snape's office, oh the delights. Ron and Hermione didn't accompany him on his long stroll beneath the castle, as they had to help Neville after he got pushed in a bramble bush by some passing Slytherins.

Speaking of passing Slytherins, Harry was faced with the worst of all on his travels.

"Ah, Potter! Off to one of your dinner dates with Snape?" Harry's eyes narrowed, as he studied Malfoy's face. He couldn't possibly know, could he? About his secret occlumency lessons with Snape. About how he was connected to Lord Voldemort's mind.

No. There was no way of it. "Marcus told me he saw you down here last week, too. You must of pee'd Snape off pretty badly to get so many detentions." Draco sneered, but Harry let out a sigh of relief.

That was a good thing, to play on that idea. He continued to walk, wishing that it WAS a detention he was headed to. Nope, he had to endure Legilimens.

Now, now... Harry was brilliant at many things, but gift-hunting wasn't his forte. Which was a real shame when his wife was very difficult to please. He had been all over the shopping malls with his best friend, Ron. He had searched every type of girly online shop. But he was still giftless.

His eyes flitted open, two weeks before Christmas day and the space next to him in the bed was already empty.

DAMN! He had overslept. Harry bolted upwards, noticing an open catalogue on the end of the bed. He raised his eyebrow but shrugged it off and hopped out of bed.

But, apparently... he was wrong to just ignore it, because one second later, the page of the catalogue ripped from the book and landed straight on his face. "What the -"

There was a flicker of red hair that rushed passed the bedroom door and he sighed as he looked at the page, finally. Diamond earrings. Right, that meant that the gold ones he was GOING to go for was a no-go. Ginny's present was sorted. Now he just needed to help Ron out......

.......
Which he really needed to ask Hermione about.

Anyone who was friends with these three Gryffindors would know that for the most part, Hermione and Ron argued like an old married couple. It was mostly funny to Harry, but sometimes they got so worked up about it. It was always best to just leave them to it, Harry had discovered over the years. Today, though - WANDS were out.

It was a matter that could not be ignored.

Hermione had conjured some sort of rope, and had bound Ron's foot to the notice board of the common room. He wasn't even sure what they were arguing about, but as soon as Hermione stormed off, Harry stepped in to help his buddy.

"What was THAT about?" He needed to know first.

"Hermione's a bloody psycho, that's what." Harry rolled his eyes and waited for more depth, "All I did was... steal her Arithmancy notes..." He paused, "And sold them to first years in exchange for Bertie Bott beans..."

"Ron, you idiot!"

"I knooooooooow, just help me, Harry!" Sighing heavily, Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it to the ropes.

"Relashio!" Now THIS was what a good friend did, not selling each other's notes. Sheesh.

"I'm rubbish."

Harry suppressed a chuckle, and just patted his friend, Neville, on the shoulder. Since the forming of Dumbledore's Army, Harry was being asked by everyone for some individual lessons. It was Neville's turn today, and quite frankly, he did needed the extra help.

"You're not rubbish, mate. You just need practice." He tried to comfort him.

"I wasn't born yesterday, Harry! I still can't perform that spell that Hermione did on me in FIRST year." Harry pressed his eyebrows together, remembering that kinda awkward moment.

"Well, why don't we practice that one now, then?"

Neville nodded as Harry backed away to make more room. The boy lifted his wand and aimed for the dummy. "P-Petrificus Totalus!" His wand let out a small puff of smoke, but nothing happened. "It's not working! I think it's the dummies."

"Maybe if I.. practiced on you, Harry. It might make me feel better." Looking kinda concerned, Harry reluctantly agreed. More confidently this time, Neville bellowed, "Petrificus Totalus!" Straight at Harry with real FEELING.

Harry suddenly bolted into a straight stance, eyes frozen in the same position, and he fell backwards onto the ground.

"Haaaaaaa, revenge at last!" Neville chuckled, then panicked and rushed over to Harry.

"Daaaad.... Albus has tied up the cat again." James informed casually. Harry sighed heavily, and made his way to the living room. And as his eldest son had said, there was the household cat, trapped in a bunch of ragged ropes that he had obviously salvaged from the shed.

"Albus, we have talked about this. Stop trying to kill the cat!" Harry said, attempting to free the animal with his hands.

"Daddy, I want you to show the spell again!"

"OUCH!" The damn cat bit Harry with such force, his hand started to bleed. But nope, he wasn't going to use his wand. Because if he did, then Albus was just gonna keep doing this to see cool magic tricks.

"You gotsta use that spell, daddy." The six-year-old pleaded, pulling out Harry's wand from his pocket. This caused him to whirl around immediately.

"Albus Potter, you do not touch that. It's dangerous." The small boy nodded vigourously, and Harry sighed in defeat. Fine...... he'd do the bloody spell. "Relashio!" The ropes broke apart and the creature darted away like a bullet. Albus applauded for the wand work, and Harry just chuckled at his crazy son.

For married couple, Harry and Ginny, life was very busy indeed. What with their jobs, their kids, and trying to keep a substantial social life going. Tonight, they had been invited to a dinner party, held by Susan Bones and her husband. How lovely. The pair sat at a candlelit table, dressed in their finest attire.

"I really need the bathroom, Gin."

"Harry Potter, don't cross your legs so much! You're embarrassing me." Ginny tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, checking no one was watching them. Of course they were, everyone stared at Harry Potter.

"I can't see any toilets, though..." There was genuine panic in his voice. "Gin, I need to go, or I think I'll pee myself." Ginny looked horrified.

"Use your bloody wand, idiot." It took Harry a few seconds to grasp what she meant, but then a light bulb flickered in his brain. That compass spell, yes! He stood up quickly and found a quiet corridor to pull out his wand in.

"Point Me." He whispered.

Whirling around, his wand directed him to the complete opposite to where he was standing.

...

"Better?" She sulked as Harry rejoined the table.

"Much better. Thanks, babe."