"Little Grown-Up"

The match against Hufflepuff had almost no suspense.

Gryffindor let in a few goals at the start.

But after seeing McLaren's gloating, greasy expression on the bench, Ron became like an iron wall in front of the goalposts. From then until Harry caught the Golden Snitch and the referee declared the match over, he did not let in another goal.

This left McLaren somewhat disappointed and annoyed.

Still, McLaren forced himself to grit his teeth and go congratulate Ron—

Just as the other players did.

Almost every Gryffindor student was delighted. Almost everyone—

Except Ron.

Harry saw Ron nervously pull Lavender Brown into an empty corner. Harry swore that when Ron first spoke to Lavender Brown, her face had been filled with that expression known as bashfulness, happiness, and anticipation.

But after Harry heard several exceptionally loud, shrill bursts of arguing, Lavender Brown ran out of the corner with an expression of shock, anger, and utter heartbreak.

"Youth is wonderful," a voice suddenly said beside Harry's ear. "Being able to feel the sting of love."

"Oh! Tierra!" Harry jumped. Only after seeing that Tierra had somehow appeared beside him did he gradually calm down. "When did you get here? You scared me."

"Just arrived." Tierra smiled. "Congratulations, Harry. You're one step closer to winning this year's House Cup."

"Ah, th-thanks." Harry replied, pleased but inexplicably confused.

"What is it?" Tierra asked curiously.

"Oh, no, it's nothing. It just feels a little strange. You were so busy recently that you didn't even have time to speak to me privately, but now you suddenly showed up here to congratulate me on winning a Quidditch match." Harry said awkwardly.

"No matter how busy I am, I can always spare time to congratulate you, can't I?" Tierra asked gently. "Besides, I'm nearly done with