Dumbledore's Army
Falling
"Impedimentia!"
Zacharias Smith, who had been previously running strait for Harry suddenly slowed down, moving at less than half the speed he had been.
The spell wore off, the sudden difference in speed tripping Zacharias up.
After regaining his footing he commented "It's like moving through water."
"Depending on the strength and skill of the caster, Impedimentia will have different effects. A strong enough spell can completely stop a person, while weaker ones can slow people down momentarily." Harry explained.
"Impedimentia is very useful in that it will make it much harder for your opponents to block or cast spells for some time. It will also aid you in escaping from faster enemies."
"It can be blocked by a shield charm, but as we covered last class, as spells become more advanced, protego will become less effective, requiring more strength and skill to deflect the spell."
Harry then instructed people to break off into pairs. In the past two classes, he had been able to develop a system. People who got the spell with ease (most likely Hermione, as well as some of the older students) would help Harry with instructing students who were having trouble with the spells.
Cedric Diggory in particular easily learned the spells that Harry had showed them. He would then help Cho, which Harry was determined not to show jealousy at.
Yet, later in the class, when Cedric decided to correct Cho's posture from behind, Harry couldn't help but scowl at the display.
He almost didn't catch Hermione's panicked yell from behind him, almost.
As it was, Harry whirled around to see Hermione fending off flying bat bogeys. Ginny stood in front of her frantically apologizing.
"Finite" Harry said, the bat bogeys dissolved in mid- air.
"What the bloody hell was that!" Ron yelled.
Ginny stared at her brother in shock.
"You could have hurt her!".
"Stop being so overprotective, Ron" Hermione said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm really, really, really, sorry, Hermione" Ginny apologized again "I don't know what came over me."
"Oh, I do." Hermione answered cryptically.
Ginny blushed a brilliant red.
Harry and Ron wore clueless expressions on their faces.
"What's this about?" Ron asked.
"Nothing!" Ginny snapped.
"Yeah, I definitely believe that." Ron stated sarcastically.
Ginny rolled her eyes but couldn't think of a good comeback. Instead she threatened Ron with a bat boogey hex, which appeared to shut him up.
Harry pondered Ginny. He could never have imagined even a few weeks ago how incredibly fierce her spirit was. Her personality (and temper) was a fiery as her hair. He could only guess at what Hermione had done to provoke Ginny, and was surprised that such a bright witch would even dare to do so.
His mind wandered back to the class a week ago when for a moment. He had no idea what had provoked him to do… exactly the same thing that Cedric was doing to Cho…
But he couldn't like Ginny, he liked Cho!
Harry glanced at Cho again. She was beautiful in every aspect of the word, she was confident, talented, she played seeker for quidditch… of course he liked her!
Didn't he?
"My dear, I fear that you are in terrible peril!"
Predictably, the person who said this was Professor Trelawney.
Trelawney's habit of constantly predicting Harry's death made Divination rival Potions for Harry's spot of worst class, even beating out History of Magic.
Ron and Hermione both agreed with Harry's sentiment, if for completely different reasons. Ron hated the oppressive scented perfume that constantly hung in the air, while Hermione despised the complete lack of anything informative or rational in the class.
For Ron that was a silver lining, it made it laughably easy just to glide through homework by making predictions up, in fact, as long as Ron and Harry made sure to predict their own suffering and death multiple times, they got better grades than Hermione who actually tried.
Harry found absolutely no joy in predicting his death, or having someone predict it for him. This was probably because it was possible that he would die very soon. He had narrowly avoided death multiple times in the past two years, and this year looked to be shaping up just as danger filled as the last two.
What if Trelawney was right? What if the Grim really was an omen? Was he fated to die? Having the darkest wizard in the world out for his blood did not bode well for him.
"Do not laugh at this danger, for it will befall him as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow!" Trelawney cried, probably in response to a snicker that came from Ron. This provoked a scoff from Hermione.
Harry wasn't paying attention. The perfume in the room assured that more than any amount of droning from Professor Binns ever could. Add that to the fact that he would never learn anything in that class…
More often than not, he sunk into dreams of black dogs, flying hippogryphs, and red hair…
"Harry! It's time to go! Unless you want to enjoy the smell some more" Ron said, rapping a hand on the desk. Harry jumped up from his slumber, knocking over an unused piece of parchment, quill, and ink. Hermione was, quite oddly, nowhere to be found.
Sometimes Harry regretted signing up for Divination.
Their next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, one of the few classes that Harry actually looked forward to.
"Today, we will be discussing Werewolves." Snape's voice echoed sinisterly throughout the room. Harry's heart plummeted as he realized that Snape would be teaching.
"Professor?" Hermione asked tentatively "We aren't supposed to be covering Werewolves for several months now…"
"For once in your life, you should keep silent, Granger" Snape sneered "Do not question my teaching methods"
A clearly suspicious look crossed Hermione's face.
Harry had no idea what Hermione was thinking, but she seemed to be in a hurry to test her theory, because she was anxious to get back to Gryffindor tower and nearly dragged the two of them behind her.
"Blimey, what is it Hermione?" Ron asked.
"Nothing" Hermione huffed.
Harry and Ron shared a disbelieving look; Hermione seemed to be telling them less and less lately. She had yet to explain how she took Ancient Runes and Divination simultaneously.
Hermione hurried up to the girl's dormitory leaving confused Ron and an unhappy Harry behind.
"Do you think Ginny knows?" Harry pondered.
"Maybe" Ron thought "Girls share stuff like that, don't they?"
"Okay, what do I supposedly know?" Ginny, who had just walked down the stairs from the girl's dormitory, asked.
"Whatever Hermione's up to" Ron said bluntly.
Ginny laughed. "I wish, I wanted help with Charms homework and she just shoved me out. She was getting astronomy charts out for some reason."
"So what, she needed to do astronomy homework?" Ron asked.
"I don't know" Harry sighed "Maybe".
Rain bombarded Harry's face with almost painful force. Hermione had cast a spell on his glasses to repel the rain, yet visibility was still terrible at best. Huge gusts of wind periodically swept players along its whims, making hard for even Harry to control his Nimbus 2000.
Lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the entire stadium in radiance for a split second. Harry's eyes widened and a feeling of dread shot through him as he spotted the figure of a huge black dog.
The Grim.
As quickly as he had spotted it, it was gone. As hard as he looked, Harry could not find the dog.
Harry hung idly in the air for a few seconds. He was chilled to the bone, not just from what he had just seen, there was something else…
Then he saw it, the snitch!
With a burst of speed, Harry raced toward the snitch. In the corner of his vision, Harry recognized Cedric speeding toward the snitch as well. Wildly he imagined catching the snitch, having Cho run into his arms instead of Cedric's.
Both of them veered upward as the golden speck shot upwards. Harry tried to ignore the growing chill that was enveloping him, but it only grew.
It's him!
The vision of Cho was sucked out of him and was replaced by the desperate yells of his father. Harry's stomach dropped as he realized what was happening. A black shape floated closer to him. Harry felt the water on his broom freeze.
Lily, take Harry and run!
Stand aside foolish girl.
Harry slowed down as he began to black out.
Please, take me instead!
Avada Kedavra!
He vaguely realized that he was falling.
Harry!
Harry couldn't tell if the voice was coming from the horrors of his past, or from the present.
"Harry!"
Harry woke up in a bed. He blearily opened his eyes and recognized where he was. Even with his blurred vision, he had been in the hospital wing enough times to know what the ceiling looked like.
Everything came back to him, the game, the grim, the dementors...he groaned.
"He's awake!" Someone exclaimed.
Harry's hand instinctively found the bedside table in search of his glasses.
His glasses were obligingly placed over his eyes by an unknown hand. As Harry's vision cleared, he recognized his visitors.
Hermione had been the one who had put his glasses on for him. The entire Gryffindor Quidditch team (except for Oliver Wood) was also gathered around his bed, along with Ginny and Ron, who had a bundle of something in his arms.
"Are you okay, Harry?" Alicia Spinnett asked.
Harry smiled weakly at their concern.
"I dunno, how'd you reckon you'd be if you had just fallen a couple hundred meters?" Either Fred or George asked.
"I bet I'd feel chipper!" The other twin answered.
"It's not funny!" Ginny scolded "He could have been killed."
"What happened?" Harry asked.
"Well, you fell…" Hermione answered. "There were those dementors on the pitch and Dumbledore was furious; he shot this silvery stuff at them."
"It was the same stuff that Professor Lupin shot at the dementor on the train," Ginny commented thoughtfully.
"No, I mean the match," Harry corrected.
Silence followed.
Harry's eyes darted from face to face. "You mean we lost?" Harry asked desperately.
"Well, yeah," George answered. "Wood's in the showers, probably trying to drown himself."
His joke fell flat as the fact that they had lost sunk in for Harry.
"Cedric Diggory caught the Snitch just moments after you fell," Katie Bell explained tentatively. "He wanted to call the match off, have a rematch or something, but Hooch wouldn't allow it."
Harry groaned. They had lost and it was his entire fault!
"It's not your fault!" Ginny rebuked, as if reading his mind.
"It is," Harry insisted. "If I didn't go and faint every time those things get near me…"
"But you don't have any choice in the matter!" Ginny argued. "So stop beating yourself up about this."
"Speaking of beating…" Ron began.
"Ron!" Hermione scolded.
"What!" Ron exclaimed, his ears turning red.
"Don't be so insensitive," She snapped.
"Guys, what happened?" Harry interrupted.
His two best friends looked at him unsurely; Harry felt a sense of dread come over him, what else could have gone wrong?
"Well, it's your broom," Ron started.
"It was blown away when you fell," Hermione said.
"And it flew…" Ron paused.
"…Straight into the Whomping Willow," Hermione finished.
Harry groaned again; he felt Ginny put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
Ron passed the bundle in his arms to Harry. Inside there was what amounted to a pile of splinters and wood chips. He knew immediately that it was a lost cause.
Harry just frowned and laid his head back against his pillow.
He vaguely heard Madam Pomfrey shooing his visitors off as the world fell away from him.
Harry frowned as he looked idly down at his breakfast.
He didn't feel like looking up, he didn't think he could bear seeing everyone staring at them. While no one was staring at Harry, he assumed that they were.
"Harry…" An exasperated voice sounded.
Harry looked up to see the youngest Weasley eyeing him critically.
"What?" he asked.
"If you don't start eating, I'll tell my mum," she threatened. "And I really don't think you want her fussing over you any more than usual all summer."
Harry threw an annoyed look at her. "I'm just not hungry."
Ron scoffed.
"Not everyone has your appetite, Ron," Harry responded. "And just because I have a lot on my mind lately, doesn't mean I'm going to starve."
It was his first breakfast since being released from the Hospital Wing, and he had only stayed there for a day. He couldn't keep the events of the quidditch match out of his head, the Grim, the Dementors, losing his broom and the match, having to hear his parents die again…
He must have gotten a shade paler at that thought, because Hermione voiced her concern just as Ginny's expression became more worried.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Hermione asked.
Harry exhaled. Ginny and Hermione shared a look while Ron rolled his eyes.
"What did you expect? He's been attacked by Basilisks, three headed dogs, giant spiders," he shuddered. "And You-Know-Who himself loads of times, everything else is bound to be great compared to that!" Ron said.
Nobody commented on that, not because they had nothing to say, but because Luna Lovegood had decided to sit next to them.
"Hello, Harry, it is nice to see you out of the hospital," she said in her usual far off tone.
"Hi, Luna," Harry responded simply.
"Madam Pomfrey didn't even try to get rid of your Wrackspurt infection, did she?" Luna asked.
"I'm afraid she didn't," Harry answered with as much seriousness as he could muster.
"It's a pity, and I had told her just the day before about a potion to ward them off, it involves the feather of a hippogriff, two cups of newt eyes, and the horn of a crumpled-horn snorkstack."
Harry had to admit that while he had found Luna rather annoying when they had first met, he was beginning to like her quite a bit. She was the only one who treated him the same after the match.
Harry left breakfast for the common room feeling much happier than he had when he had started.
"Hey Harry!" Harry heard his name being shouted from behind him. He groaned internally as he recognized, he sincerely hoped Cedric Diggory wasn't the bragging type.
He wasn't.
In fact, he looked apologetic "About the match—"
"Look, its fine," Harry cut in hastily. "You won, I lost; the only thing I really hurt was my ego"
Cedric disagreed. "It wasn't fair though, you would have caught the snitch if it weren't for the dementors."
"Yeah," Harry echoed unenthusiastically.
"I tried to get a do-over but…" Cedric grinned suddenly. "I have an idea."
"What?" Harry asked, intrigued.
"We could have a rematch!"
"It wouldn't count," Harry said.
"So?"
Harry found himself liking the idea more and more as their conversation progressed.
"Do you think your team would be up to it?" Harry asked.
"I've already asked them about it; our captain thinks it would be good practice."
Harry nodded. "I have a feeling Gryffindor will be more than happy to have a rematch."
As Cedric and Harry went their separate ways, Harry found that he could no longer detest the Hufflepuff for being involved with Cho, Harry couldn't find it in himself to hold a grudge against someone for flirting with a girl he liked.
"Harry!"
What was it with people running up behind him and calling his name?
This time it was Ginny.
"What is it, Ginny?" Harry asked.
"I've got an awesome idea!" Harry might have been annoyed, but the enthusiasm that was clear in Ginny's voice made it impossible. In fact, in spite of all his determination to remain in a sour mood all day, Harry found himself greeting Ginny cheerfully.
"Oh, well remember when the dementor was in the compartment and Proffesor Lupin shot silver stuff at it?" Ginny said.
"No. I was passed out, remember?" Harry responded.
Ginny blushed in embarrassment at forgetting that key detail.
"No, it's okay; what's your idea?" Harry assured, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"You could get Professor Lupin to teach you how to repel the dementors," Ginny suggested, looking up at him eagerly. It was clear that she was hoping he'd like her suggestion.
In fact, Harry did like it, a lot. In fact, he immediately turned and started half walking, half running in the direction of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
He looked over his shoulder at Ginny. "Thanks!" he called out, giving her a genuine smile. She smiled back, blushing again, but for a completely different reason.
Assured that he had properly thanked Ginny, Harry set off towards Defense Against the Dark Arts; hopefully he wouldn't be interrupting a class.
A/N: So yeah it's definitely been way too long between updates. To make up for it, I'm giving you guys an extra-long chapter. Honestly, I had to cover a lot of stuff that happened in the book, but it needs to be done, I hope I was able to put a new spin on it. It also felt a little jumpy, did you guys think that?
Benperez31: You're pretty much right about Harry and Ginny, and as for the name, they may change it when Umbridge comes around or they might not, I haven't decided yet.
Jokegirl: Thank you, and yes, you are now one of the select few in the 'review response' club. Lol.
Katsumara: I've had that happen to me before loads of times, I'm glad you rediscovered this too.
smartygal93: Ah, thanks. I'll correct those soon.
Teufel1987: Thanks for catching that, I'll go correct it ASAP.
Trilonias: Oh, I'll go look at that, thanks.
Wizmage: I'm not giving spoilers, sorry!