"MATE! You gonna throw that or just look at it?!" Ron shouted.

Harry blinked at the practice quaffle in his hands and hefted it. He chucked it as hard as he could at the third ring, his broom wobbling from the sloppy throw. When he righted himself, Ron had already caught the quaffle, quite easily, and circled around in the air to where Harry was hovering.

"Sorry. I told you to ask Ginny," Harry said with a shrug.

Ron tossed the quaffle from hand to hand, "She's busy. Besides, it's good to practice catching wild throws too."

"Glad I could help," Harry said sarcastically.

Ron grinned, "I think I've almost convinced McGonagall that me and you ought to be able to try out for the team since we weren't even here seventh year. Unfairly excluded, saving the world, that sort of thing."

"I think I'll stick with seekers games," Harry said and winced as he remembered.

"With who?" Ron asked, "I haven't seen you fly with anyone since we got back to school."

Harry sighed, craning his head back to look at the sky, "I had a few games with Draco."

Ron's eyebrows shot up, "What? When?"

"At night, the first month after school started," Harry said, "We were getting on, you know? The first night he apologised, and I apologised. We studied together a few times and once in the middle of the night we both woke up from nightmares, and we just talked until the sun came up."

"And played seekers games," Ron helpfully supplied.

Harry nodded, "Yeah... and then it stopped and I don't know why," he shrugged helplessly, "I thought we were becoming friends and then he just stopped. He's polite and careful, but that's all."

Ron tucked the quaffle under his arm, "Why didn't you say anything before?"

"It felt fragile, like anything might break it," Harry said.

"That explains why you've been obsessed with him again," Ron said.

"Oh, erm, no. The obsession was something a bit different," Harry said nervously.

"Yeah?"

Harry gripped his boom, staring stubbornly out at the horizon, "I might, sort of... fancy him...a lot."

"Oh-" The quaffle tumbled out of Ron's grasp, and he grabbed after it, "-shit-" his broom wobbling wildly as the ball dropped out of reach, "-Merlin-damn-" He sat back up, steadying his broom stiffly, his face going red, "-stupid quaffle."

"It's not that bad is it?" Harry joked weakly.

Ron looked at him, contriving to look genuinely perplexed, "What? I'd never be bothered by that sort of thing, not at all. It's perfectly fine, and Malfoy's perfectly fine, and so are you."

Harry laughed, "You sure?"

"Of course," Ron said. His brow furrowed as he thought about it, "I mean, if I'm honest it's better than when you dated Ginny."

"What?" Harry laughed.

"It was weird, and if it fell apart I knew two of my most important people would end up hurt at the same time, and there was nothing I could do about it."

Harry winced, but what little guilt still lingered quickly faded, he and Ginny had both decided it was for the best to call it quits.

Ron said, "Now, if someone hurts one of you I can get properly angry at them for it. And ferret-face? I don't have to hold back at all for him."

"He's not bad," Harry protested.

Ron shook his head, "He's better than he was, and it seems like he's trying but I'll still deck him if he hurts you."

"I don't think- I don't think he thinks about me that way," Harry said.

Ron snorted, "Yeah right." He leaned forward on his broom, sending it down into a sweeping dive and snatching the quaffle off the grass.

Harry barely managed to catch the quaffle as Ron lobbed it to him on his way back to the goal rings.

"Alright, again!" Ron shouted.

Harry sighed and hefted the quaffle in one hand.