"PROFESSOR!!! COME QUICK!! HARRY'S HURT. HE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT THE LAKE!!! HURRY!!!" Hal exclaimed as soon as he had entered the room. He looked about for just a second. Dumbledore had been talking to Professor McGonagall, but they were just looking at him with a shocked expression on their faces. Hal turned quickly and ran out the door. Dumbledore and McGonagall quickly followed.

Meanwhile….

Harry had remarkably regained some of his strength and train of thought, the result of an adrenaline rush. Harry tried hard to think of any thing that he might have learned that would stop bleeding . He had an idea that might work. He hoped it did. He knew the spell started with the "ep" sound. 'Epso….epsa…epsi..Oh yeah!! Episkey!! That's it!!' Harry thought to himself. Now to see if his plan would work.

"Hal, I need you to try something." Harry thought to Hal.

"Ok, what?" Hal replied.

"If we can transfer thoughts and feelings, maybe we can do this. There is a spell called 'episkey'. It stops something from bleeding. Point the wand at your head and say the spell. Maybe it will stop my head from bleeding. I don't know if it will work but it won't hurt to try." Harry sighed. He was getting weaker by the second, the adrenaline leaving him. He hoped with all his being that this would work.

"Ok. I hope this works." Hal said to Harry, then he tried the spell, keeping focused on Harry and running at the same time. "Episkey!."

Harry had heard Hal say the spell and he put his hand to his head, ignoring the awful pain. 'No wound!! We did it!! Wow, that would come in handy later' Harry thought to himself. He was so happy the had a better chance of living that he forgot to tell Hal if the spell had worked or not.

"Earth to Harry?? Did it work?" Hal asked anxiously.

"Yeah, it did!!!" Harry exclaimed.

Hal jumped up and yelled shouts of joy, but he kept on running as fast as he was before. Harry was still hurt, but he was just in less jeopardy. They finally reached Harry, but they were too afraid to move him. They levitated him to the hospital wing carefully, making sure not to make his condition any worse. Madame Pomfry was appalled at Harry's injuries, which were a broken arm, 3 broken fingers, a broken arm, 4 broken ribs, a punctured appendix, and a major contusion. She got the all healed up very quickly, seeing as nobody wanted Hal to go to the feast alone, and Harry didn't want to miss out on seeing all his friends again. The boys stayed in the hospital for about an hour after all his wounds were healed, then Harry was free to go. But he would have to make a trip to the infirmary every 5 hours, seeing as the pain from a lot of his injuries still lingered. They walked up to the common room to finish getting ready then waited for 8:00 to roll around.

When 8:00 arrived, Harry and Hal started making their way down to the Great Hall. Harry had finished telling Hal all that he knew to try to reassure that everything was going to be ok. Hal had finally calmed down and was thinking in more of a positive direction. They made it down to the Great Hall entrance and looked for flaming red hair, the most obvious thing to look for. Curious eyes were already looking their way and they had only been in the room for a few minutes. Finally they saw Ron's head towering over the crowd. They pushed their way through the endless mob of students to greet him.

"Hey Ron, wait up!" Harry said. Ron turned his head and looked down, seeing as he was about 6 inches taller than the average height of the others, but he quickly spotted his best friend.

"Oh, Hello Harry, Hal. Good to see you again, mates. Hermione's already saved all of us some seats." Ron said with a wide smile on his face. He was obviously thinking about Hermione. He always got that look on his face when he thought about her.

They soon caught up to Ginny, Fred, and George and they all walked together to where Hermione was sitting. Harry and Hal sat on opposite sides of the table so people from both sides might only see one of them at a time. Conversation welled up, mostly about quidditch or asking Hal questions, Then, Dumbledore called for silence. Harry and Hal prayed that he wouldn't mention them in his welcoming speech.

"May I have your attention please? First off, I want to welcome all the new first years to Hogwarts, and to all the other students, Welcome back. Our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to announce that all the products that are distributed by Fred of George Weasley are strictly prohibited and there is a list on each Common Room bulletin board of all the other banned items. The Forbidden Forest and the Third floor corridor is off limits to all students. If there are any questions on any matter pertaining to these announcements or anything else, feel free to ask a professor or another student. Well, enough talk, tuck in!" Professor Dumbledore said as all the plates and utensils and food appeared on the table. Hal was astonished, he had never seen anything like it. They all enjoyed the feast, talking and eating the delicious food. Then someone came up in attempt to ruin all the fun.

"Hello Potter, sitting with the mublood and the blood traitors again I see." sneered Draco Malfoy from across the table. He thought he was talking to Harry, but it was really Hal. He looked at Harry and realized that this was the Malfoy person Harry had told him about. Hal thought up a comeback quickly and used the accent.

"Why don't you join us? All that grease in you hair must have polluted your blood sometime or another, so that makes you just as pathetic and filthy as us doesn't it?" Hal said coolly.

"You've got a lot of nerve, Potter!" Malfoy jeered back, getting a little hot under the collar.

"How great of you to notice. I always knew you looked up to me." Hal said, twirling his knife between his fingers. It took all Harry had to keep from laughing.

Malfoy glared at Hal then at all the others and it looked like he was just going to walk off, but he didn't. Harry glanced back at Malfoy and saw his hand reach for his wand. Just as Malfoy pulled out his wand, Harry turned around and glared back at Draco. He kept his voice down and stayed seated because he didn't want to draw any more attention.

"Can't someone joke around without you pulling your wand on them?" Harry whispered in the harshest voice he had. Malfoy jumped back and nearly ran into a first year. He had the most astonished look on his face, nearly speechless. He just stood there, taking in that one of his worst nightmares had come true.

"Bloody hell, there's two of them." Malfoy sighed, that was all he could get out. He quickly straightened up and walked swiftly out of the Great Hall. Everyone who heard the spat rolled with laughter the second Malfoy was out of earshot.

"Wow, I've never seen Malfoy so shocked! Well, except when Hermione punched his light's out that time." Ron said, looking at Hermione, smiling.

"Oh hush, Ronald." Hermione said, blushing violently.

Everyone had pretty much finished eating and the hum of conversation was at an all time high. Students were walking around to other tables, greeting everyone. Fred and George were talking about how their new products were coming along and Ron and Hal were pretty much oblivious to anything else but what the twins were talking about. Harry acted like he heard what they were saying, but he was really trying to get a better look at someone at another table. It was the girl from the lake. If it was the person he thought it was, they had definitely changed. He shifted a little and confirmed his thoughts. It was her. Wow, she looked different. Just as he was nearly entranced, he heard Dumbledore asking for silence.

"In light of the new term, I have decided to start the year off a little differently. For the next three days, we are going to be having a little quidditch tournament. Many of the past and present quidditch captains have commented on the difficulties of choosing a team after just one tryout. The tournament is give to the quidditch captains and co-captains a better look at the players before having to make their final decisions. All those who want to participate, Practice will be held in the morning, and tryouts will be held tomorrow evening. The results of the tryouts will be posted late that same night and teams will be able to practice the next day. The tournament will be the following day. These aren't actual tryouts, so don't be discouraged it you don't make the tournament team. Regular season tryouts will be held some time in the next two weeks. That's all, and you are dismissed." Dumbledore said.

People said their goodnights to their friends in other houses and making their way to the big double doors. It was hard to keeps the whole Weasley, Harry and Hermione group together with masses of students rushing around, but somehow they all managed. Harry and Hal now felt all the staring eyes burning holes into them from all directions. Now that everyone could see both of their faces together, everyone was looking. Even though they couldn't hear them over the loud roar of conversation of the crowd, they knew what the on lookers were talking about. For some odd reason, Harry looked more disturbed by the staring than Hal did, not that it really bothered Harry, but Hal seemed positively optimistic. He must have come to the terms with the fact that the starring was going to happen and he needed to make the best of it. He just kept facing straight forward and listening to Ron talking about quidditch. He acted like he was completely oblivious to all the curious eyes peering towards him. Harry decided to take on that attitude and he started talking to Hermione about her rest of the summer, seeing as he had to go home for a few weeks then she came back the night she met Hal. The whispering finally started to get on Harry's nerves and he started to walk a little faster. Hal did as well and soon everyone caught the drift.

It was getting old, hearing all the "Whoa look at Potter's clone!" and "Did you see them?" They finally reached the common room, but that wasn't even an escape from all the talking. They did hear a little bit of good feedback from some of the girls though. "There's two of them now? Gosh, that's good!" and "I wonder what the new one's name is," Hal heard a few girls whisper when they passed where he was sitting in the common room.

"It's Hal." said Hal, coolly, looking up at them from his chair. One of the girls turned around and smiled.

"Well, see your around, Hal." the girl said smoothly, and turned back to catch up with her friends. Ron was a little stunned at how easy Hal made talking to those girls look. Hal turned his face back to Ron and just smiled. He had to admit that he was a little surprised himself, he never really got the chance to talk to anyone his age when he was at his uncle's house. Harry knew now that Hal wasn't going to have any trouble adjusting to the new atmosphere.

Hermione was acting a little strange though. For some reason, she looked to be reading a ginormous textbook, but the book didn't look as if she had turned any pages since she had gotten to the common room. Harry noticed and walked over to where she was sitting and sat down in the chair beside her. Hermione didn't even seem to notice that he was there. Harry strained his neck to see what she was actually reading. It looked like to be some kind of magazine, like the ones he and Ron had bought in the quidditch shop, but she couldn't be reading a quidditch magazine. She never had seemed to be interested in quidditch, but Hermione was kind of unpredictable.

"Whatcha reading?" Harry asked. Hermione looked up quickly, and shut the book, but you could see the crease in the pages where something else was stuffed inside.

"Oh, just Hogwarts, a History again. Every time I read it, I always find something I've overlooked." Hermione said quickly and stuffed the book into her school bag. "How's Hal doing?" Hermione added, obviously trying to change the subject.

"He seems pretty good. He surprised me on how calm he was when we were walking back from the feast. He's pretty cool, even though we are total opposites. He's so laid back and calm about everything. I'm not anything like that." Harry said, laughing a little. Hermione smiled, then sighed. She seemed like she was depressed. Harry was getting a little worried." How are you? You seem a little troubled about something."

"Oh, I'm ok. I just have a lot on my mind, like usual. I'm totally ok. Hey, I knew that Angelina got captain of the quidditch team, but I didn't know that she picked you as co-captain." Hermione said, smiling, again trying to veer off the subject.

"Oh yeah. I just found that out today. I was pretty excited about the tournament. Something to look forward to. Tryouts should be a lot easier since we know ahead of time what the talent is. If Hal doesn't try out, our team is going to be missing out a lot, but I'm pretty sure he'll be trying out." Harry said, glancing at Hal, but looked back at Hermione.

"Well, that sounds great! I hate to just leave you here, but I'm really exhausted. I'll see you in the morning at the pitch. I'll be watching." Hermione said, still the look of uneasiness dwelling in her eyes. Harry tried to put it out of his mind. He walked over to where Ron, Fred, George, and Hal were sitting. They seemed to be having a good time, maybe they would help him stop worrying about Hermione.

They were of talking about quidditch, of course, and Hal was asking about some of the girls that had talked to him that night. Harry started to forget the worry and started thinking about the one he saw earlier before Dumbledore's speech. Hal was asking the others what the other girls in the room name's were. Harry couldn't help but laugh at the way Hal was acting.

"What's so funny, over there?" George asked.

"Oh, nothing. It's just I thought it was pretty funny that Hal's already checked out every girl in the room." Harry said, smiling.

"Oh, come on Harry. You're not much better. I saw how you were checking out Cho Chang tonight at the feast." Fred said with that usual smirk.

"Oh, well I didn't think anybody noticed." Harry said, going along with what Fred said. He was actually looking past Cho, but he let them think what they wanted to think.

Harry got up early the next morning, anxious about the quidditch tryouts. Even though this tournament was just for fun, it still made him a little nervous. The only thing that made him nervous right now was the thoughts of the girl he saw last night. Every time he thought about her, his heart leaped. He tried his best not to, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. He thought he was acting ridiculous, why was he acting like this about a girl he had only seldom talked to?

Harry went down to the common room and sat in front of the fire for a bit. It was kind of chilly in the room, but it looked to be perfect quidditch weather outside. There were lots of people hurrying about the common room, chatting about the tournament. By what Harry could hear, there were going to be quite a few people trying out. Ginny, Ron, Fred and George were already suited up and they were about to head down to the pitch when they heard someone calling for Ginny.

"Ginny, would you come up here for a moment, please?" a voice called from the girls dormitories. By Ron's delightful expression on his face, everyone knew it was Hermione's voice. Ginny grinned widely as if she already knew why she was going up there. She looked at Hal and smirked. He smiled back at her. He must have been in on what ever was going on as well. Harry was curious about what was going on, but his thoughts went quickly back to the subject that had been on his mind for the last 8 hours or so. He finally put those thoughts in the back of his mind when he grabbed his quidditch stuff and he started walking to the pitch. Soon, he and Hal were greeted by some of their other friends and then by a new view of the pitch. The field had been magically enlarged to where each house had their own full sized pitch. There were loads of people waiting for the tryouts to start. Harry met up with Angelina and surveyed the crowd. Since the Captain and Co-Captain were automatically on the team, the normal faces they had seen over the years trying out for seeker were either not there or going to try out for something else. Harry didn't know how he and Angelina were going to choose 5 people out of this crowd. This was going to be difficult.

They decided to start with the beaters since it was probably going to be very easy to choose. Most of the people that were attempting to tryout were just there to pass the time, so Fred and George would most likely be getting their positions back.

The keeper tryouts were a little more difficult. This was the only tryout that everyone knew the results of before they posted them on the bulletin board, but they were the most tiring, throwing all those passes. There were about 12 people going out for the position and about 4 were really good. Harry had almost thrown his arm out when by the time they had narrowed it down to 2 people who were tied with the same amount of saves: Hal and Dean Thomas. Hal was completely calm, just like he was the night before. Dean was a totally different story. He all the sudden acted as if his next move would be his last. He was so nervous that it took him a good minute to fly into position for the tie breaker tryout. Dean managed to block Harry's first pass, which is always the easiest. He also got the next 2, but when it came to the last 2, he totally spazed out. He even went in the wrong direction on the last pass. Harry knew that Hal was going to be able to handle this, he had already proved that when Harry first met him. And Sure enough, Hal blocked every pass. Hal tried to hide his excitement, but he smiled throughout the rest of the tryout.

Chasers were next. Harry divided all 18 tryoutees into groups of 3 by numbering everyone either a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or a 6. He made everyone turn around and put their hoods on so he wouldn't know who they were, that way he wouldn't be accused of any way of rigging the tryouts.

After everyone had been separated into groups, the tryouts began. They took two groups at a time, and each one played both offense and defense. They were all decent but there were only about 3 that really stood out to Angelina and Harry: Ron, Ginny, and someone who they could not recognize because whoever it was made sure their hood didn't come off while they were flying. Angelina called the 3 finalists over to her and told the others that they weren't going to be selected. They all were pretty disappointed, but knew that the 3 did really beat them out. They really did perform great. Harry wondered who the hooded person was, but the person made sure that he didn't did their face.

Harry decided to have an individual tryout for the chasers. Fred, George and Hal volunteered to be obstacles for the 3 finalists. Ron was up first. Harry had Fred be Ron's obstacle because he thought that Fred would really challenge him because they picked on him so much. Ron did really good, just like he had done earlier. Ginny put a little extra flair in her tryouts by making unnecessary but awesome dives for the quaffle a few times. Harry was right to make Hal her obstacle because they seemed to have something going on earlier in the common room. He figured if she stayed focused on quidditch instead of Hal during the tryout, then she would do very well. She seemed happy with her tryout and with her obstacle. Then, it was the mystery person's turn. Harry passed the quaffle into play and George was sure he was going to get the quaffle first, but out of nowhere, the mystery person zoomed right past George in a blur, taking the quaffle with them . Whoever it was passed it back to Harry, and Harry tossed it again, totally out of reach for them to reach. George was determined to get the quaffle now as it plummeted to the ground, but again he was surprised to see the mystery person make one of the most amazing dives Harry had ever seen at Hogwarts. It was almost at professional level. Ginny and Hal were grinning widely as they watched in awe. Harry noticed them watching. They knew who that person was. He made sure Angelina was paying attention to the tryout going on before he walked over to where Hal and Ginny were sitting.

"Who is that? That person is amazing. I know you two know who it is." Harry asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Oh, you will find out soon enough." Ginny replied. "Look, here they come now."

Harry turned to find a pretty irritated George, Angelina, Ron and the hooded person walking over to where they were standing. When they approached, Harry shook every tryoutee's hand and congratulated them for making it this far. But curiosity had finally gotten to Harry, He just had to ask. He directed his focus on the mystery person and finally asked.

"Might I ask you who you are?" Harry said.

The person sighed, knowing that there was no way out of this now. She finally removed the hood.

"I don't think I have to introduce myself." Hermione said, shaking her hair back into place.

Ron nearly fainted and the twins were even shocked. No one would have ever thought that Hermione would ever have that much skill and precision in quidditch, or any other sport for that matter. Harry was absolutely stunned, but this put him in the worst position ever. He and Angelina were going to have to cut someone, and everyone trying out was one of his best friends.

"Hermione, how did you get so good?" Angelina asked.

"Well, I've practiced every summer since I've been coming here. I finally got up the nerve to tryout this year, so I did. I've kind of surprised myself." Hermione replied.

"Well, the results will be posted on the Bulletin board at 8:00 tonight. Me and Angelina have a meeting with Professor McGonagall to review the tryouts with her in 10 minutes. Good luck to all of you." Harry said quickly. He just wanted to get out of there and up to McGonagall's office as fast as possible.

It seemed like it took ages for the tryout results to appear on the bulletin board. Angelina had to push her way through a large crowd just to get to the bulletin board. Harry really didn't want to be around when everyone found out who got what, there was probably going to be a lot of shouting from some particular someone, so he decided that he would take a walk out side. Maybe it would give them time to cool off.

Angelina decided she would announce the results herself since Harry left. She knew why he didn't want to be there, but it wasn't his ultimate decision who would be on the team. It as hers and McGonagall's decision. She would have some explaining to do on Harry's behalf.

"The results will be read in tryout order, except for seeker, which is Harry Potter. The two beaters are Fred and George Weasley, big shocker there as well. The keeper taking for the exhibition match is Hal Potter. Congratulations to you, and the three chasers are myself, Ginny Weasley, and…."

Almost the whole room took a deep breath as Angelina read the next name of the list.

"…….Hermione Granger. If I called your name, make sure you are at our section of the quidditch pitch at 9:00 sharp tomorrow morning. Thank you"

Everyone went up to congratulate all the members of the quidditch team, especially Hermione. Everyone was surprised at her skill and were very happy for her. The only person who seemed not to be happy about anything: Ron. His face had turned the color of his hair, and he ran up to his dormitory before he took out his anger on someone. He only had one person to take out all the blame on. 'That's why he left before the results were read. He didn't want to face me himself.' Ron thought angrily. He knew where Harry was, outside at the lake. When Ron reached the dormitory, he headed straight for the window. Sure enough, there Harry was, lying under their usual tree, staring blankly ahead. Ron wrenched open the window and yelled loud enough where Harry could hear him, "Why couldn't you have been man enough of to tell me I wasn't good enough to make that stupid team yourself?" Ron shouted.

Harry looked up, but he didn't look surprised.

"Because I didn't feel like loosing my eardrums today, but If you'll was a second, I'll be right up there." Harry replied in a loud, yet calm tone. Harry wished he had thought about his "get-out-while-you-can" plan a little better. He knew this would make Ron even more mad…..

Ron fumed his rage a little while he waited on Harry to get back. He really wasn't mad about not making the team, but Harry running off and hiding like that just made it worse. He broke a few of the breakables in the room, but he made sure he repairo-ed them all back. He even punched the wall, but forgot that there were 2 by 4's behind the thin layer of sheet rock. He felt one of his knuckles crack, and he shouted in pain. He wished he hadn't because he heard a single pair of footsteps hurrying up the stairs. He knew it wasn't Harry, he wouldn't be running. It had to be Hermione. Ron tried to hide the pain, behind a really fake smile as she ran in.

"Ron, I heard you shout from downstairs, in fact everyone did. Are you alright?" Hermione asked, and she sat down beside him on his bed.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to wor-rr-ry about." Ron said as a sharp pain shot through his hand. He had it hidden in his jacket pocket, but as a series of pain shot through it, he couldn't hide it anymore. He jumped up and held onto his hand as if he had broken every bone in it. Hermione had no idea what was going on until she get a glance at his hand.

"Ron! What did you do? Your whole hand had turned blue!! We have to get you to the hospital wing before it gets any worse." Hermione demanded as she grabbed his hand to drag him. She accidentally grabbed the wrong hand, and Ron jerked it back and made sure she grabbed the right hand next time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ron." Hermione said, trying not to laugh at Ron's horrified expression.

They headed down to the hospital wing as quickly as they could, and they passed Harry on the way.

"Hey, what happened?" Harry questioned, obviously confused.

"Oh, just come on." Ron said in a strained tone, but he did laugh at how stupid he had been. Why did he have to get so mad………