Most of the members of the Court were sitting in the last compartment of the last wagon of the train, the one they claimed as their own long ago. A lethargic atmosphere dominated the place, only the few who were not as affected by the lack of sleep were holding hushed conversations.

Harry observed his book for another moment before he decided to give up, he tried to read the same page for a while now but his brain was not cooperating. Carefully, he placed the book in his backpack and closed his eyes.

For the first time in a while, he noticed how tired he was. His brain felt like cotton, unwilling to cooperate with him. His eyes watered constantly and only eye drops kept them functioning on a decent level. If that was not enough, his body felt like a soggy noodle. It was strange to feel weak, in every sense of the word. Even his magic, which was always a constant companion and loyal supporter, was not enough to keep the exhaustion at bay. Maybe it really is time to take a break, he thought, only a tad reluctant.

Almost everything was moving smoothly, his hard work was slowly but surely paying off. There was not any major move he could pull until the book was released for the public in a few days and, even then, he would have to wait until they were back to school. Almost everything related to Hogwarts was put on hold until he received the reports from the examiners and rune specialists, which would be delivered tomorrow morning.

Besides, Marcus was having a tough time dealing with the Ministry’s archives. The place was in such a state of disarray that, not even with the help of a hundred elves, the man was able to find the blueprints of the department of Mysteries and other important buildings Harry wanted to take a look at. Also, the second task would take place after the holidays and the elves were already working on the suits.

If anything, the ridiculous competition was useful for Harry to test the limits of their protective gear and find ways to improve them, so at least not all of his time was wasted. Thinking about it, he totally forgot about the golden sphere he won during the first task, placing it in one of his many drawers or maybe he lost it somewhere. According to Marcus, it held clues for the next event, but hearing said clues from the creator himself was far more productive. He would not waste those precious free moments on the Tournament when he barely had time to sleep.

All in all, Harry just had to wait for his plans to begin working so he was free for these couple of weeks... Well, he would visit the emperor and he had a trip planned with his sister, but nothing else.

Harry sighed heavily, scratching the purring cat on his lap behind the ears. It is time, he decided. For months, no, that was not right. For years, he avoided this subject, but it was time to talk about it with Sirius. Hwasa was right, it was time to grow up and that would be impossible if he ignored the neon pink elephant in the room. As reluctant as he was to have this conversation with his godfather, at least he knew it was necessary.

The man matured far more than expected after he began dating Amelia Bones. The woman was wise beyond her years, but overall, she was observant and had a kind heart. She was the only one to notice the severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder Sirius had been dealing with. Basically, she forced him to be treated by a mind-healer and also a squib psychiatrist. The therapies were doing wonders for Sirius and, sometimes, Harry felt really guilty for how harsh he was with him. That is how he learnt mental illnesses were the most sadistic silent killers. He would never notice there was something wrong with his godfather until it was too late.

The cat began licking his hand and Harry sighed. It would be good to give his new friend a name, but he was still not sure on whether he should do it. It was scary to name someone and love them, only to lose them afterwwards. The cat began purring louder and Harry allowed the sound to lull him into relaxation, falling deeply asleep in a matter of seconds.

Harry heard someone whispering his name. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not match any face to the familiar voice. It was frustrating, he decided, knowing something and yet being unable to use that knowledge because his brain refused to cooperate.

“Harry...”

He heard the voice again. It was so familiar he could swear that he heard it before, but he had no idea of where or who it belonged to. His brain suddenly conjured a face. It was blurry, so much that the features were rendered unrecognizable sans for one: a warm pair of emerald eyes. They reminded him so much of his own yet they were so different. While his eyes tended to express nothing at all, to the point he sometimes compared himself to a lifeless porcelain doll, these eyes were warm. He could almost feel the affection oozing out of that person through those eyes.

Harry woke up with a sharp intake of breath and looked around. Luna was beside him, a hand still placed on his forearm.

“Harry, we are going to arrive at the station soon,” she whispered, smiling at him. He only nodded in response and tried to calm down the rapid thump of his heart.

He petted the still sleeping cat absentmindedly. The person in his dream also had long, red hair. It was not the ginger tone of the Weasley twins, it was actually red. A really strange shade, if you asked him. Deep mahogany that clashed intensely with the vivid green of the eyes. Curious, it was the first time Harry ever dreamt about any of his parents.

Until the moment, he avoided looking at the pictures that his mother had left behind. It was already painful enough to dream about the life he lost, he did not need to feed his brain with more information to make his fantasies much more vivid and a hundred times more painful. Maybe one day he would be ready to look at the pictures with fondness instead of mournful wistfulness, but that day was not close so he decided to ignore the dream for the foreseeable future.

“Hey, are you okay?” Neville whispered on his ear.

Harry turned his head to face his friend and nodded, deciding to open his eyes at last. Neville was sporting a slight frown, concern was written all over his face. He patted the boy’s knee in an effort to ease his worry.

“I’m fine. But I have a really important question that needs to be answered, why is Fleur allowed to continue sleeping?”

“Because she growls at anyone who tries to wake her,” Neville answered merrily, smiling with fondness at the girl sleeping on his shoulder. “... Harry, I don’t think you realize this, but your magic can become a bit oppressive sometimes. I don’t know how to explain this. It kind of feels like something is pressing your chest and stealing your air, sort of. You kind of lost control while you were sleeping and Luna decided to wake you before the others noticed.”

“I’m sorry,” he muttered with a sigh. He would look into this subject as soon as possible.

It was counterintuitive to lose control in such a way, especially when he affected his friends. Harry looked to the side in order to apologize to Luna, but she was far too lost in the book he clearly remembered putting inside his backpack. Harry decided to just give up on the subject, he was not in the mood to banter.

“Don’t worry about it. So, any plans for the Holidays?”

“Not really. I will travel with my sister after Yule and pay a short visit to the emperor in a few days. I also asked Leah to be with you for the holidays, so you can visit your parents every time you want.”

“Thank you, I mean it,” Neville told him and Harry smiled in response. “You know that you can come with me if you want to, right?”

Harry did his best to hide his surprise, but judging by Neville's amused expression, he was not doing a good job. “I would like that. It will be good to meet my godmother at last... Did you read the papers Justin gave you?”

“Well, I tried,” Neville muttered with a grimace. “To be honest, I understood almost nothing. Justin explained to me the basics and gave me all these muggle books to read. I could never imagine they have so much knowledge of the human body. It would be far more interesting if all the words didn’t give me a major headache.”

“That, my dear friend, is the beauty of science,” Harry joked, amused at his friend’s plight, but sobering immediately. “The doctors are running more tests on your parents.”

“I know. Justin told me all those tests had normal results so my parents should be fine, but they aren’t. His mum is doing her best to find the reason why they are acting that way. I would have questioned her methods before because I already know that the Cruciatus is the reason why my parents are in that state, but that information was useless for the healers,” Neville mumbled, almost mashing his words together in an unintelligible way.

“Calm down, the doctors will find a way of making sure your parents recover. Also, I am going to ask the emperor for one of his most trusted healers to work with Justin’s mother. We will find a way, I promise.”

Harry knew how dangerous it was to promise something that was out of his hands. However, he also knew that Neville desperately needed his parents and he would make sure he got them. At least in that way one of them could enjoy the life they were supposed to have. He was rewarded with a smile, one of the brightest he had ever seen his friend wearing.

“I want to visit my parents tomorrow.”

“I have to go to the bank in the morning, but I will try to be there in the evening. You should tell Justin though; he might have some free time to join us.”

“I’ll call him later,” Neville said, looking at the boy in question with a playful smile.

Justin was totally absorbed in a thick tome, taking messy notes on a notebook that had seen better days. Considering the notebook was not even a month old, Harry wondered how much time his friend dedicated to his newfound passion.

“It will be better,” Harry agreed at last. “Be sure to visit the castle every couple of days.”

“Of course, I still have to practice and Fleur sort of threatened me to visit her every day. She is really excited.”

“She is not the only one,” Harry groaned, “Rome began crying when I told him more people would be coming to the castle. I have never seen him so happy.”

“It’s a shame that I won’t spend the Holidays with you, the castle will be full of life these days. But I really want to go to the Titicaca Lake. Daddy thinks we’ll find grindillops in there. It is the perfect time to make good memories,” Luna commented, smiling at the duo before going back to the book.

Seeing Harry’s pained expression, Neville pated his shoulder but offered no comment. Everyone knew the last Potter was not a fan of socialization, coming off as aloof in the best of the cases and awkward in the worst.

“Fred, George, do you want me to send one of my elves to bring you to the castle? Ella will be pretty busy,” Harry offered to the twins, reprimanding himself for not thinking about it earlier.

“Uhm, sure,” a sleepy George agreed.

“I honestly don’t know how the Holidays will go. Our dear mother was not that bad during the summer, but now that perfect Percy has a job in the Ministry she will probably try to nag us to death,” Fred commented in a nonchalant tone, as if speaking of the weather.

“What about Bill?”

“He and Ginny are the reason why we are going back. I think Charlie is coming too, but I’m not sure. Don’t worry, it’s not that bad.”

“Did she review your grades?” asked Daphne, narrowing her eyes when Fred’s shoulders sagged.

“Not really,” George admitted, now fully awake. “Mum was too busy worrying over Ron and Percy. To be fair, she did not even check Ginny’s grades.”

“That woman-”

“That woman is our mother,” George interrupted Daphne’s tirade with a heavy sigh. “I won’t pretend to understand her or that we are okay with it, but she’s our mother. We can deal with it until it’s time to leave the Burrow.”

“I’m sorry,” Daphne muttered after a brief moment of silence.

“Did you know that we are beginning out apprenticeships on Monday?” Adrian asked to no one in particular in an effort to break the tense atmosphere that had been created.

“We only heard you whine about it for the last month,” Terrence retorted playfully.

“Well, he is training under Moody while we only have to be in the hospital a few hours a week,” George commented.

“Exactly, we are the ones who got the raw end of the deal! We have to deal with whining brats and annoying old blighters while he learns cool spells from one of the best Aurors in history,” Terrence complained, glaring at a smiling Adrian.

“And don’t forget that I get to enjoy tea with Edgar in the evenings,” Adrian gloated, smiling impishly at his friends.

“See? It really is not fair, Edgar makes the best scones in the country!” Terrence whined, giving an accusing glare at his friend.

“Who’s Edgar?” mumbled a half-asleep Fleur, looking around with almost closed eyes. At last, her eyes focused on the small group near her. The only ones who were awake for that matter.

“Moody’s husband,” Fred explained to the girl.

“And who’s Moody?”

“Do you remember the scarred Auror that gave a few announcements before the ball?” Neville asked to the girl sitting beside him, receiving a nod in return. “That’s him.”

“So Auror Moody is married,” Harry muttered, earning many curious glances.

“You didn’t know? It’s kind of common knowledge,” Adrian asked, genuinely curious.

“Why should I? His marital status doesn’t affect his job so I never really cared,” was Harry’s lackadaisical answer.

“The thing, Harry, is that it did affect his job,” Fred explained, his brow furrowed and a slight scowl appeared on his usually cheerful visage. “The reason why he was never ascended to Head of the DMLE or any other position was because of his husband.”

“All I know is thieir marriage was a big scandal. The scandal of the decade, if I'm not wrong,” Daphne provided, looking thoughtful. “Even my parents used to whisper about his marriage although it happened before any of us were born. The only reason why he was not kicked out as an Auror is because he is one of the best and that he had many friends who vouched for him.”

“So muggles and magical are not that different,” Harry said, a sardonic smile on his lips.

“What do you mean?” A somewhat wary yet curious Neville asked.

“For some reason, muggles and magicals share the same prejudices. I really don’t understand. If you don’t like something, then you don’t do it and allow others to live in peace. As long as you are not hurting others and being a productive member of society, why should others mess in your life? It is ridiculous to try to preach your opinion as if it was a universal truth.”

“It is, but isn’t that what makes us humans?” Luna asked, smiling dreamily and going back to the book.

What was left of the train ride was spend in silence, with a few whispered conversations here and there. Everyone was far too lost in their own thoughts to worry about waking up the sleeping members so when the elves popped in the compartment to pick up their respective masters, it was a chaotic affair of hurried goodbyes and last-minute conversations.

At last, Harry Potter and his friends arrived at his house. From the living room, one could smell the food being served in the dining room. As always, Elizabeth hugged her brother to almost the point of suffocation as Eleadora watched.

“You all look tired so I’m guessing that you enjoyed the ball,” aunt Eleadora commented while hugging every single one of the newcomers. “Blaise, I was not expecting to see you so soon!”

“I’m only staying for a few hours; my grandparents are waiting for me.”

“A shame, you have to visit more often, young man. And I guess that you are Fleur, it’s a pleasure to meet you at last, dear.”

“I have heard many good things about you, madam,” Fleur answered politely, though she was smiling warmly at the woman.

“Just Eleadora will do, or aunt Eleadora if you want to. Now kids, time for dinner, we can talk over there. Sirius will be joining us later on so we must take advantage of these moments of peace.”

“We’ll join you later,” Harry told the group, pushing Elizabeth towards the others and signalling Blaise to follow him.

No one questioned the pair as they left the room, but many curious glances followed their wake.

Harry walked towards his room and Blaise followed without a word. After a silent trip, they arrived at last. Harry threw himself to the bed to his bed after kicking his shoes off and lay down with a tired sigh, patting the empty space beside him.

“So are you going to tell me what is bothering you?”

“A lot, really,” Blaise muttered, collapsing on the bed and burying his face on a pillow. “You know Andrea was my date for the night. To be honest, I didn’t invite her because I liked her or anything. She was just available... I was not expecting to get along with her so well.”

“Are you feeling guilty?”

“A little,” Blaise acknowledged after a moment. “But that is not what is bothering me right now... Last night we left the ball after she noticed that I was slightly tipsy. She escorted me to the common room because, according to her, I was not even able to walk a straight line,” he narrated, a slight smile adorning his face. “I didn’t complain, you know, because I really like her. She somehow ended up in my room and we talked all night long.”

“Is that all? You look far too miserable for only talking,” Harry commented offhandedly.

“You are not good at being supportive, you know?”

“At least I’m honest,” Harry retorted, but waited for his friend to tell him what was really bothering him.

“We only talked and that is the problem. I’m not kidding when I say that I like her, I really do. I never got along with anyone so well this fast,” Blaise grumbled, looking at the ceiling with intensity. “I asked her out. We agreed to exchange letters during the holidays and try dating when I come back from Italy.”

“So you are feeling guilty because you also like Luna or is it something else?”

“...Because of Luna, and maybe a little because the guys will try to tease her,” Blaise admitted after a minute of silence. “I don’t want to ever make her feel as a consolation prize or a convenient second option.”

“You really like her, right?”

“I do.”

“Then she is not your second option,” Harry said, smiling at the confused boy. “You had many opportunities to ask Luna out, but you decided not to. You already decided friendship is the only thing you want from her. However, you really like that other girl-”

“Andrea.”

“That other girl,” Harry repeated, smirking at an annoyed Blaise. “You asked her out and I’m sure that you will give your best efforts for any kind of relationship that the two of you decide to have. In the end, you chose her over Luna.”

“But I also like Luna, a lot.”

“I know, but you decided she would only be your friend. Can I ask you something? It’s merely out of curiosity, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“Go ahead,” Blaise nodded.

“What would you do if Luna asks you out?”

“That will never happen-”

“But what if it did, what would you do then?”

Blaise remained silent after that, he licked his lips before opening his mouth a couple of times, as if wanting to answer but he remained silent. Harry decided to not pressure his friend and was about to suggest for them to go and join the others for dinner until the silence was broken.

“I would reject her,” Blaise whispered, looking resolute. “It would be hard, but I would reject her. I love her as a friend, I hope that we always remain as close as we are, a romantic relationship would definitely complicate everything and I am not willing to risk it. Being totally honest, I don’t think anyone in the Court is willing to risk it...”

“Who knows? Everything can change.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?” Harry asked back, tilting his head in confusion.

“What is going on with Hwasa? The two of you are always together.”

“That is not true,” he denied swiftly, swatting away the accusatory finger pointing his way. “There really is nothing going on.”

“Sometimes you are really observant, others, you are as dense as a concrete block,” Blaise stated, massaging his temples. “I don’t know how to explain it, but when the two of you are together, you ignore the whole world. It is rather uncomfortable to be with you.”

“I guess that it has something to do with the fact that we rarely speak English when we are together,” Harry commented, smirking at his friend’s obvious exasperation. “I like her, but not in the way you think,” he admitted, “We get along surprisingly well and we have known each other for years... Maybe in a distant future we could even try something else, but I really don’t see that happening, we are like water and oil. Besides, I have better things to do with my time and a relationship is something I really don’t want to even consider until I am older. Much older.”

“If you say so,” Blaise muttered, his chagrined expression was replaced by a mischievous one. “But even if you don’t like her that way, you can’t deny the princess is damn fine.”

“Keep saying those things and I am accusing you with that other girl.”

“For Morgana, shut up!” Blaise exclaimed, his skin tone concealing his burning face.

After an epic pillow battle, the duo lay panting on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Let’s go to have dinner already, I’m hungry,” Blaise declared between ragged breaths.

“What hour do you have to arrive at your grandparents’ house again?”

“Bloody Merlin’s beard! My nonnina will kill me,” Blaise groaned, covering his face with a pillow after taking a look at the clock on the wall.

“She won’t have to bother if you continue trying to auto-asphyxiate,” Harry muttered, taking away the pillow Blaise was using for this purpose. “Go to my studio and use your portkey there, I will just tell the others you had to leave.”

“Thanks! I’ll call you soon!”

Harry enjoyed lying down for a few moments before going downstairs, only his hunger motivating him to socialize.