Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Harry Potter; it all belongs to the wonderful J. K. Rowling.


Chapter 7: Fights and spying

"Dumbledore will be announcing the new students this morning." Ron said as he and Harry sat at the Gryffindor table. All through breakfast Ron kept looking up at the ceiling for the Owl post.

"Ron she won't have written yet, she only got there last night." Harry explained.

"I know but you never know." Ron said optimistically.

"Morning." Ginny said as she sat next to Ron.

"Morning." Both Harry and Ron replied.

"That Sawyer's a right one. I had to help Dennis show him around last night, we didn't get back to the common room till after midnight. He wanted a good look round everywhere, nosy if you ask me." Ginny told them.

"Yeah I bet he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he was comparing everything to his wonderful castle back at home." Ron replied.

"Actually he wasn't. I had to feel sorry for Dennis though; Sawyer kept forgetting his name and acted as though he weren't there. Even tried shake him off on the staircase at one point…git." Ginny said through narrowed eyes. Harry suddenly felt elated; Ginny thought Sawyer was a git just like he did.

"Can I have your attention please; I wish to introduce the new students." Dumbledore said as he stood before them all. "Firstly I would like to say to the Exchange students congratulations, and we hope you enjoy your time here with us over the next couple of weeks. If you have any problems do not hesitate to ask your head of house. Firstly for Slytherin we have a Mr. Sebastian Gluveur who is his 4th year." The boy who Dumbledore had just introduced stood to the applause. He had short black hair and dark narrow eyes. His lips were thin and the smirk he was wearing reminded Harry of Snape.

"For Ravenclaw we have a Miss. Camille Bouvier and she is now in her 6th year." A tall, slim girl stood with long blond hair very similar to Fleurs. Her eyes were light grey and in the shape of half moons. Her smile was broad and she had the whitest teeth Harry had ever seen before in his life.

"For Hufflepuff we have a Miss. Sabine Pelletier who is currently in her 2nd year." A small girl stood with black shoulder length hair and brown eyes. Her smile formed the shape of a heart giving her the look of innocence.

"And or Gryffindor we have a Mr. Sawyer Beart who is in his 6th year." Sawyer stood and bowed to the applause he was receiving.

"Now that we have all you all introduced I would just like to say to my students please look after our French friends and do not let me down. Before I let you all get along to your lessons I have one more announcement to make, this Saturday evening we are going to be playing host to our 4 French students. We are going to be having a Masque ball." The Great Hall broke out in to conversation immediately. The girls were all chatting excitedly whilst the boys all looked as though Snape had announced he was going to be teaching every lesson from now on. Dumbledore cleared his throat and everyone quieted down instantly.

"Your parents were notified about the event last week and all of your dress robes will be arriving either tomorrow or Wednesday. The ball is for every age and we expect everyone to have a partner for the night. For any of you unaware of what a masque ball is let me explain. You are expected to dress up for the occasion and wear a mask for the whole night. It's all part of the fun of hiding your identity. We shall sit down and eat first before the entertainment starts. If you have any further queries please see your head of house. Thank you." Dumbledore sat back down.

"Great I finally have some decent dress robes to wear and I have no one to go with." Ron huffed.

"Ron you still have to come even though Hermione isn't here." Ginny said.

"No I don't, I'm not going Gin." Ron said as if that was the end of the conversation. Ginny stood and rolled her eyes.

"Right I have to get to Herbology, see you later." And with that she disappeared.


Harry and Ron arrived outside the Defense against the Dark Art's classroom 10 minutes later and joined the line of people.

"Oh look here's Weasley; we were just talking about you." Malfoy said.

"Don't rise." Harry whispered to Ron.

"So Weasel who are you going to go to the ball with now that your little mudblood girlfriend is in France." Malfoy asked as his cronies all laughed.

"Don't." Harry warned Ron who had just made to get his wand.

"And I imagine your best friend Potter here will be taking your little Weasel of a sister." Malfoy smirked whilst looking at Harry. The whole class was now paying attention to what Malfoy was saying.

"Why do you look so confused Weasley, surely you haven't noticed the way they are around one another. I even heard they were holding hands last night when you weren't around." Malfoy jeered.

"That's a lie Malfoy." Harry shouted panicking.

"Is it Potter, well my sources say…"

"Well your sources are wrong." Harry told him.

"So getting back to you being a Billy no mates Weasley…" But Malfoy never finished his sentence; Ron had just launched himself at him.

"WEASLEY. MALFOY. STOP RIGHT NOW." Snape bellowed. "Get inside the rest of you." The class disappeared into the classroom leaving Ron and Draco outside with Snape.

"I don't want to know what happened. Detention tonight, the both of you. 7pm sharp in my office." Snape snarled before ushering them inside and beginning the lesson.


"Now the three things you must remember when using this charm is concentration, determination and…Mr. Weasley will you please pay attention and stop distracting Mr. Potter." Professor Flitwick said as Harry and Ron stopped laughing at the drawing Ron had just done of Malfoy being hit repeatedly with a Bludger.

"Sorry." Ron mumbled.

"Right as I was saying before Mr. Weasley ever so rudely interrupted the three things you must remember are concentration, determin…" Flitwick broke off again, but this time it wasn't Ron who had stopped him it was Ginny walking into the room.

"Yes Miss. Weasley?" He asked looking slightly annoyed.

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but Professor McGonagall would like to see Ron and Harry straight away." She told him.

"Straight away? Cant it wait?"

"No sir sorry." Ginny replied.

"Very well, very well. Off you go then Potter, Weasley. See me later on to collect your homework." Flitwick said before Harry and Ron stood to follow Ginny out of the room. Once outside Ginny explained her reason for interruption.

"McGonagall wants to see all the team; she says it's something to do with the match this Saturday."

"Do you know what?" Harry asked as his hand accidentally brushed Ginny's. He quickly looked at her and was certain he could make out the slightest tinge of red on her cheeks.

"No she wouldn't say, said we all had to be together." Ginny told them as the reached McGonagall's office. She knocked once and then entered on hearing McGonagall say 'Enter'.

"Ah Potter, Weasley take a seat. You too Miss. Weasley." They did as she said and sat with the rest of the team.

"Now I am sorry to take you out if our classes but something has come up concerning this Saturdays match. As you are fully aware Hufflepuff will be needing a seeker/captain to stand in for Ernie Macmillan. Freddie Foster was of course standing in for Ernie however, somebody else has been picked and a little controversially too. Mr. Sawyer Beart will be standing in and playing for Hufflepuff." She explained.

"What. He can't, he was placed in Gryffindor not Hufflepuff." Harry demanded.

"Well yes as you all know the rules state you can only play for your house no other however, it had been changed and against Professor Dumbledore's wishes. He is at the moment furious at this decision; it was made completely out of his hands. Mr. Beart's father is very high up within the French Ministry of Magic; apparently Sawyer was outraged upon discovering he would not be able to play Quidditch whilst over here. He then discovered a spot had become free and demanded his father go straight to our Ministry of Magic and have him play; regardless of what house it is." McGonagall told them all.

"So why is this a problem for us?" Ron asked confused.

"Because Mr. Weasley the French play very dirty when it comes to Quidditch. We have no idea if the training and strategies for Hufflepuff will change. We have been preparing for an easy match against Hufflepuff when in reality Mr. Beart could change the way they play all together."

"But surely the rest of the team will object to him playing and acting as captain?" Demelza asked.

"Well as I have just said this has gone over Professor Dumbledore's head. They will no doubt have reservations about Mr. Beart playing with them, but there is nothing they can say or do to change it. Now the reason you have all been called here us because…"

"You want us to spy on their training and change our tactics." Harry finished for her.

"Yes exactly Potter. They are training tonight, Wednesday and Friday, you need to watch them very carefully. I am granting you permission to train every night this week. Their training is 6-8 on the nights I have just told you, so you will have to train after them. On the other nights of course train as long as you like. Potter I am leaving it up to you to select the training times and who is going to watch Hufflepuff's training. And remember I am counting on you to keep that cup in my office for another year." McGonagall said as she looked at every member of the team individually.

"Okay your free to go, you better head straight down to the Great Hall as it nearly lunch. Good luck for the match." The team stood and piled out of her office, they headed down for lunch whilst Harry decided who was going to watch the training tonight.

"Well you can't help watch tonight as you now have detention." Harry said to Ron. "I think we should just watch the training tonight and have a think of how were going to change ours. If Sawyer is thinking of changing the way Hufflepuff play, we may have to plan first, at least that way we can get in some daylight training tomorrow night."

"Well Ritchie and I could watch tonight?" Jimmy offered.

"Well seen as there will only be six of us we may as well split into pairs and watch from different areas of the pitch. We can't be seen thought, if Sawyer knows we've been watching he's likely to change it all last minute so we don't have a clue." Harry told them as they entered the Great Hall. "We'll have dinner later then go down to the pitch in pairs to avoid suspicion, if the whole teams seen moving down there together we'll be spotted." After planning who was in what pair and where they would be watching from, they grabbed some lunch before heading off to their next lesson.


"I can't believe Ron got a detention. What did he do any way?" Ginny asked Harry as they sat under the invisibility cloak in the Quidditch pitch stands.

"Malfoy was baiting him and Ron took it. Mainly about Hermione not being here for the ball." Harry explained.

"Well Hermione won't be happy, the first day she's not here and he's already landed himself in a detention." She laughed.

"Shhhh Gin, we don't want Hufflepuff knowing were here." Harry said.

"Harry there still getting changed, look there's Ritchie and Jimmy moving into the bush to hide." They both watched the two boys hide; every so often a quick flash of a pair of omnoculars would appear.

"Demelza and Cormac have just climbed into the tree and now they look like a pair pf branches." Harry laughed. They only had to wait another couple of minutes before Hufflepuff walked out onto the pitch.

"Attention please team. I would like to zay' firstly thank you for allowing me to play on your team." None of the Hufflepuff's looked very happy at Sawyer's statement. "I ask you not to be afraid to tell me if I am being too bozzy or strict, now lets get in the air and zee' how good you are, I mean how good we all are together." Sawyer quickly corrected himself to the disapproving looks of his team. They shot into the air and began passing the Quaffle to one another to warm up.

"They don't look to happy do they." Ginny whispered. "I'll bet anything they'll try and do there hardest to make sure he gets hit by a stray Bludger." Once they finally began training it soon became apparent Sawyer was very similar to Cormac. He believed he was the only one on the team who could play properly and frequently stopped the training to show them how to play their positions the "proper way".

"What time is it Harry? It's getting cold out here." Ginny moaned.

"Nearly half seven. Come here." Harry said as he lifted his arm so she could lean against him for some warmth. He suddenly felt very hot however, with his arm around Ginny. 'Thankfully' he thought, 'no one can see us.'

"Harry, I'm sorry about being dragged away last night." Ginny said quietly as she turned to look at him.

"It's okay; I'll let you off this once." He teased. Ginny raised her eyebrows and smirked.

"Will you now. And what if it happens again, what will happen to me?" She questioned.

"It won't happen again so you'll never find out." He replied grinning. Ginny was remarkably close to him; his eyes couldn't seem to look anywhere but her lips.

"Kiss me Harry." She breathed; her eyes already half closed. He didn't need telling twice, their lips met in a soft, gentle kiss. Immediately Harry's hands were in her hair, Ginny's arms around his neck. The kiss stayed slow and longing but nothing however, could of prepared Harry for what was about to happen next.

WHAM. A Bludger collided with the back of Harry's head. None of the Hufflepuff team had noticed as they were all too busy watching Sawyer showing a chaser how to score a goal.

"Harry…Harry are you okay?" Ginny whispered frantically, he looked at her dazed before grinning stupidly.

"Ginny…wow what was that?" He asked touching the back of his head, when he pulled his hand back round there was blood on it.

"You were hit by a Bludger, your lucky you didn't get knocked out. Come on were going to have to go and see Madam Pomfrey." She said, she managed to walk him with out being seen out of the pitch. Harry was swaying everywhere once they were walking back up to the castle.

"Put your arm around me, I don't think we'll be seen now." And she removed the invisibility cloak.

"Why are there so many stars around my head?" He asked confused. Ginny didn't reply but instead struggled to get him up the Entrance steps. They moved through the castle thankfully unseen by anyone. Once on the Hospital wings corridor they walked into the last person Ginny wanted to see.

"Potter, Weasley. Caught red handed." Malfoy jeered.

"Malfoy out of the way." Ginny snapped.

"What's up with him?" Malfoy asked upon spotting Harry staggering around.

"He fell and bumped his head."

"Really, well it looks like he's been hit with a Bludger to me. But how can that be when Hufflepuff are training tonight?" Realization hit Malfoy quick.

"Oh I see, spying was you." He said whilst grinning madly.

"Malfoy if you don't move within the next 3 seconds I'm going to hex you so bad you'll be in the hospital wing till Christmas." Ginny threatened.

"What's going on out here?" Madam Pomfrey appeared. "What's happened to him?" She asked looking at Harry.

"I'll tell you inside." Ginny said as she threw a dirty look at Malfoy then moved Harry into the hospital wing.


Sorry it's taken so long but here's the next chapter. Hope you like? Thank you for all your lovely reviews, keep them coming xxxx