Well, I'm back, and here's the new chapter. Thank you all to those who reviewed. You may notice a couple of changes if you go back to the 1st chapter. First, Astronomy is added to the class schedule. Secondly, Dumbledore mentions open tryouts for Quidditch, allowing first years.
Dougal: I fixed Astronomy as you can see. As for Quidditch, they have Sundays off. That's when they would be playing it.
Chris Redfield - General Chaos: I'm keeping Hermione in with the Gryffindors. Before you get upset, let me give you my reasons.
1: I don't like house switching. In my opinion, it should not be done.
2: It gives Harry a vital link to Ron and Neville, characters that can really save my a** when I'm trying to make my work better because J.K. Rowling wrote seven books full of ways on how they act.
Rockgod - I was going to do Hufflepuff, but I didn't like the list of 1st years there would be with Harry. I'm a big fan of Susan Bones, but beyond that, the roster isn't that interesting. Cedric is too old for good interaction IMHO. However, if I ever finish this, I would be more than glad to do the 'Puffs. In fact, I put a challenge up here for someone to show four simultaneous Harrys - one from each house - and how they reacted to different situations. Unfortunately, no one picked it up.
Jedipilot24: Yeah, I may do that as a separate fic at some point. I skipped the Dursley part b/c quite frankly, it's boring. It's necessary, but I couldn't think of much that would be different, barring a couple instances and wasn't really worth my time.
Hope you enjoy it, and please review.
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Classes got tougher as time went on. Herbology was okay, but very challenging. It didn't help that they had it with the Hufflepuffs, who were just naturally gifted at the subject seeing that their head of house taught it. History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts, on the other hand, were quite the let-down. Coming into it, Harry thought that History of Magic would at least be interesting, but one day with Professor Binns dispelled any illusion of it. Defense Against the Dark Arts similarly failed due to Quirrel. He seemed to have done interesting things, like the story behind his turban, but no one believed him considering how jumpy he was. And the garlic? Just over the top.
Astronomy was pretty hard, though that was probably just the fact that it was set late at night. Professor Sinistra took her subject seriously, and more than a few points had been deducted from the houses for sleeping during the class.
However, the worst of them all, was Snape's potions class. The first day, they got off to a horrible start. Snape got mad at him for taking notes, then fired off a bunch of questions at him. And even though Harry had managed to answer all of them (sometimes, reading books before the class begins is dead useful), it just seemed to infuriate Snape even more. It wasn't as if he could do anything to punish Harry for being correct, but it didn't stop the teacher for deducting points every time that his potions were anything short of excellent.
"Potter!" Snape yelled from across the room. Startled, Harry, almost dropped the Pine Nettles he was holding over the potion. "Did I not instruct you to put the Newt's Eye in the potion after the Nettles? Ten points from Ravenclaw!"
The Ravenclaws had to suppress their groans. Snape had no love for houses other than Slytherin. But his treatment of Harry was border lining on Gryffindor status. All they could do is hope for the class to end as quickly as possible, then rush out the door before Harry could give Snape an excuse to take more points.
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"So, have you guys figured out what position you want to go for?"
Ah, yes, it was time for Quidditch. Ron had become more and more agitated as the days wore on, getting closer to the deadline for tryouts. Though, that just meant some healthy sports conversation between them.
"I'm trying for Chaser." Michael said. "I'm too big for seeker, too small for beater. I guess I'm just lucky that there's a spot open this year."
"Yeah, Chaser's nice." Ron replied. "I prefer to play keeper, but the only open Gryffindor spot is Seeker, so that's what I'm going to have to try out for. What about you, Harry? You seem small enough to be seeker."
"Dunno. We've already got a seeker. I guess I could try for backup."
It was at this point that Hermione expertly decided to interrupt the trio. "I cant believe you boys! All you talk about is sports, and we've got an essay due tomorrow in charms!"
"And you immediately assume that I haven't done it?" Ron asked.
"Well, did you?" She asked, visibly frustrated.
"No" Ron replied. "I'll make something up tonight before bed."
"Ugh! Well, if you were expecting me to write it for you, you're wrong! I'm going to go do it in the library now." And with that, the bushy-haired witch stalked off. Harry sympathized with her - last-minute essays were quite unsatisfactory.
"Girls!" Ron exclaimed. "Mental!"
"You know, she has a point." Harry admonished Ron. "Flitwick will probably just give you a P on the essay if you don't put some work into it."
"It's not that important." Ron waved Harry off. "Besides, there's better things to do, like Wizard's Chess."
"Well, I think I'm going to go to the library and find Hermione. I need some help on the essay." Harry left Michael and Ron to mess around.
On the way to the library, Harry stopped by the Ravenclaw Tower, answering a question about the Lunar Cycle, to pick up his parchment and quill. From there, he ascended the stairs to the fourth floor where the Library was located. Inside, he found Hermione alone at one of the tables. She barely bothered to look up as he plopped himself down at the table across from her.
"Decided to take care of the essay too, Harry?" She asked, wiping her eyes. Evidently, she must have been quite upset about Ron's comment earlier.
"Look, I'm sorry about Ron." Harry said. "He can be a git sometimes - but most of the time he's a good guy."
"What makes you think I'm upset?" She asked, looking up at him. Even though she smiled, the evidence of her tears was quite plain.
"Oh, nothing." He knew when to tiptoe around a subject. "How far have you gotten?"
"Not much. I was going over the chapter Preface for the distinctive characteristics separating spells from enchantments."
"Oh, yeah, that's…"
And they continued to work on the essay until 8:00, when the library was closed for the knight. Harry walked back to Ravenclaw Tower smiling; it was nice to have a friend who cared about schoolwork. With her brains, he was quite surprised that she didn't get put into Ravenclaw instead.
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The next day, first year Ravenclaws and Griffindors shuffled into the charms classroom. Michael and Ron sat together, while Harry chose to sit next to Hermione. Both Ron and Michael were slack jawed at Harry's choice in table mates. Harry just shrugged, and they let it drop.
"Essays on the desks, please!" Flitwick chirped from his tower of books. "Open your books to Chapter Six and read while I grade the essays."
Everyone opened their books to the proper page. Chapter Six: Charms and Lasting Effects. As soon as Flitwick's attention was on the essays, Ron and Michael began to chat quietly amongst themselves. Tryouts were this Sunday, and they could hardly wait. Harry and Hermione on the other hand, began to take notes down on the chapter. Maybe it was the fact that they both were raised for muggles, maybe it was just their curiosity, but the two of them seemed to share an insatiable hunger for knowledge of all things magical.
This chapter, long and technical as it was, was fascinating to the two. Outlining the factors that defined the lasting time of a spell, it showed Abraxas Malfoy's equation for potency. It was incredibly complicated from what the book said, but Harry came up with this in his notes:
Spell Time = (Level of Focus + Time Spent Focusing)/ Difficulty of Spell
It was at this point precisely that Flitwick had the misfortune of getting to Ron's paper. "Mr. Weasley!" The red-headed lollygagger jumped in his seat. "'Enchantments last for bloody forever'? Ten points from Gryffindor for inappropriate language in homework! And you should you wish to pass this class, I would advise you to spend more time on assignments."
The entire class broke into giggles at this and Ron, the target of the derision, slumped into his chair, the tops of his ears turning as red as his hair. Hermione smirked at this, still upset about last night. Harry held in his laughter as best he could, feeling like his ribs were going to crack.
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"Hey, Harry! Wait up!" Ron was panting heavily after springing to catch up with Harry and Hermione. "Are you guys working on the History of Magic essay after Transfiguration? I've written everything I could think of on the goblin rebellions, and I still have 2 inches to go."
Harry shrugged, and looked over at Hermione. She was the one who was upset with Ron in the first place, so he decided to but out of this decision. Luckily for Ron, she smiled and nodded. "We were planning on going to the library after dinner. We can go over the essay then."
Hermione excused herself, having to make a trip to the restrooms, leaving Harry and Ron to go down to lunch.
"So, how are Seeker tryouts looking?" Harry asked Ron.
"There's not really anyone interested in the spot. The older students are looking at the Chaser spot more than Seeker. Add in that most of the first years in Gryffindor don't even know which end of the broom you use to fly, and I'm kinda a shoe-in. How about you?"
"Not good. Davies is keeping Cho, but he's agreed to keep me on the reserve team. Apparently seekers have a nasty tendency to get injured."
"Yeah, but the girls dig guys with scars."
Both of them had a good laugh at that before separating to eat at their own tables.
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The week went by quickly. Monday to Tuesday, Tuesday to Wednesday, Wednesday to Thursday. Before they knew it, it was Sunday. And Sunday meant Gryffindor team tryouts.
The majority of the students on the Quidditch pitch were Griffindors, but Harry and Michael came out to cheer on Ron. Hermione joined them with a little cajoling.
The majority of the students who had come down to the pitch to try out for the one chaser spot. Typically it went to the reserve members, namely Alicia Spinnet, but there were a few hopefuls for the spot who had been out of commission at last year's tryouts. Which went on for quite a while, including some nasty collisions due to 'Gryffindor bravery'. Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey knew that something like this was going to happen and was on hand to take them to the hospital wing.
"Honestly," Hermione exclaimed after one particularly bad crash had Madam Pomfrey rushing him up to the castle. "This sport is so barbaric. I don't get what you boys see in it."
"But Hermione!" Ron said "It's tradition for the sport to be nasty!"
"Yeah." Michael added "The Wasps are best known for when a beater hit the opponent's seeker with a beehive. The seeker got stung so bad he got to retire. And it's not just wizards who are into it. Witches are quite nasty at the game themselves."
As if to punctuate Michael's statement, Alicia Spinnet took the open chaser spot. In the end, she was the only one not dumb enough to hurt herself. Even the ones who were still on the pitch for Wood's decision weren't completely unscathed. One boy, a fourth year, had to have his head bandaged after his ear tore a little bit, but he still stayed for the spot.
"All right." Wood said, turning to the bleachers. "Last, but not least, we've got seeker tryouts. Thankfully, this should be a bit less bloody. Can the seekers come down, please?"
A couple of third years stood up and made their way down to the pitch. Ron got up, and as he started down, the others cheered him on.
"You can do it Ron!" Harry called out.
"Yeah!" Michael yelled. "Get the spot, so I can beat your sorry arse all over the pitch in the game!"
"Michael!" Hermione admonished. "Language!"
"Sorry, Hermione." Michael mumbled.
Wood waited for all three of the young Quidditch players to make it down, then gesturing to the trunk behind him, he pulled a small golden ball out of it.
"The rules are simple." He explained "Whoever catches the snitch wins. And… go!"
With that, tiny wings unfurled from the ball, twitching with life as the snitch took to the air. All three of the seeker hopefuls kicked off the ground hard in pursuit of it.
Ron was clearly dragging behind the other two on his Shooting Star. But by how the third years were acting, it was almost better that he wasn't up with them. Ahead, on their faster Cleansweep Sevens, they were gunning for the snitch, slamming into each other with increasing frequency. Harry was amused at the length Griffindors would seem to go for Quidditch. "No pain, no gain" seemed to be their mantra.
Speed wasn't everything, though. While the two third years were competing for position, they managed not to notice the fact that the Snitch had changed course. Lazily floating up, over their heads, it looped back towards the far goalposts. Which gave Ron the unique position of being in the lead.
The other seekers quickly picked up on the lack of a snitch, and were hard on Ron's tail. As the goalposts loomed up large in front of them, they were neck and neck with Ron. Hovering in the middle hoop, the snitch was seemingly waiting to be caught.
This seemed suspicious to Ron. The snitch was supposed to play hard to get, not wait to get caught. So, at the last second, he dropped below the other two, and reached out his arm to grab the pole, using his momentum to make a complete 180 degree turn. Which paid off when the third years tried to go through the hoop, resulting in a nasty crash. Quidditch hoops weren't meant for two people to fly through them at the same time.
All the while, Wood, Harry, Hermione, and Michael stood watching all of this, amazed at Ron's prowess as a seeker.
It was around this time that Ron noticed the snitch; hovering above Wood's head. Before the snitch could change positions, Ron pushed his Shooting Star for all it's worth. At first, the Quidditch captain didn't understand what was happening. But before he could dive out of the way, Ron plowed into him, both tumbling far across the ground. Eventually, both came to a stop, Ron's right hand opening up to reveal the snitch, carefully cradled within.
"Well," Oliver panted "I think we've got a new seeker. Welcome to the team, Ron!"
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A.N.: Okay, this took me a little less time than I expected, and is a bit shorter than I wanted it to be. I just have to stop whenever my brain tells me 'enough is enough'! It just seemed right to break there. Hopefully, next chapter will be longer.
I'm going to try to post every Monday like Clockwork. If that fails, every other Monday. But, most importantly, I would like someone to beta. I'm planning to finish by Thursday each week for the 1 - week schedule, and Sunday for the 2 - week schedule. Then, it would be shipped off to the beta. I'm looking for substantive and stylistic help (though not plot help - I've got my grand design written down). If you're interested, e-mail me at . If you do send me an e-mail, please make the subject "Beta", otherwise, I might delete it without looking. Many thanks, please review?
