Harry shamelessly put on a cautious, ingratiating smile, agreeing to a whole host of unequal terms and promising Qiu and every girl on the Ravenclaw Team a dessert from Honeydukes.
From his humble demeanor, no one would have guessed that just half an hour earlier, he had caught the Golden Snitch less than five minutes into the match, been named the match's best player, and sent the Gryffindor girls into screaming cheers.
Yes, the first Quidditch match of the school year had just taken place: Gryffindor against Ravenclaw.
The two sides' Chasers were evenly matched, Ravenclaw had the better Beaters, and Gryffindor's Keeper won hands down. But the match had not let them truly settle who was better, because Harry had caught the Golden Snitch ahead of Qiu early on.
Before Harry and Qiu had started holding hands, Harry had deliberately taken his time looking for the Golden Snitch so he could watch Qiu a little longer, as long as she did not catch it first.
But things were different now. During the match, he had to stay miles away from Qiu, whereas afterward, they could snuggle up together. Did he even need to think about which to choose?
As for Qiu being annoyed for a little while after Ravenclaw lost, Harry said he was already very practiced at handling that.
What? Buying desserts to please the Ravenclaw girls while soothing Qiu-the entire Ravenclaw Team this year consisted of girls-would cost a lot of Galleons?
Harry maintained that any problem Galleons could solve was no problem at all.
Qiu was not really angry with Harry either. She was just a little unwilling to accept losing the match.
Admittedly, Qiu's flying skills could already be called outstanding at the student level. But Harry's skills were beginning to surpass that level.
Although