Halloween and Quidditch

October 26, 1991 Potter Manor

Rose sighed, she was bored. Now that Harry, Artemis, and Apollo had left, there was no one to play with. Her father tried to play with her now that Ivy was gone, but he wasn't the type to play with his younger non-famous daughter. So, James did other things, she didn't know what. Sometimes he went out for an hour or two, leaving Rose by herself. Remus sometimes played with her but many times he was tired from either work or the full moon. So, to pass the time, Rose read. She read books, magical and muggle, maps, her brother's letters, basically anything she could get her hands on, even if it was above her skill level. Not for the first time, Rose wished that Harry had stayed, or at least left one snake behind, even if she couldn't understand them.

But right now, Rose was angry with her brother, he hadn't sent her a letter in almost two weeks! He had promised to send a letter every couple of days! His last letter was a little shorter than his usual and included how excited the Slytherin Quidditch Captain was for their first match and a quick hello from Harry's new friend Tracey. Harry had told her about how he had meet Tracey the first morning after being Sorted. Rose liked Tracey, she sounded fun, but she didn't like Tracey's friend Daphne. According to Harry's letters, she was cold, mean, and something about her just made Rose's blood boil. Maybe Harry had gotten tired of writing to his little sister all the time.

At the moment, Rose was looking out her bedroom window, leaning on her right arm. She was thinking on how to write to Harry. Ivy hadn't sent anything to James for a while as well so she couldn't send Hedwig. Suddenly, a hint of white caught her eye. Turning, she saw that it was an owl headed her way. Once it got closer, Rose saw that it was Hedwig carrying a letter. Sitting up, Rose was confused when Hedwig flew through her open window. The owl landed on her bed and looked up at her. Rose just glared at the letter; she didn't want something from Ivy. Then her eyes widened when she looked closer at her name on the letter; it was Harry's writing. Wondering why Harry was sending a letter with Hedwig, Rose tore off the parchment.

Dear Rose,

Sorry for not sending you anything for a while, I'm sure you must be very angry with me. I wanted to wait to send this until I knew that Hedwig was better. Surprised little sister, Hedwig's mine now!

Rose was shocked, how in the world did Harry manage to get Hedwig off of Ivy?

When Hedwig delivered Ivy's new broomstick, she attacked her and injured her wing. Thanks to help from Artemis and Apollo, I managed to heal her, quiet well according to the groundskeeper and animal expert Hagrid. Unfortunately for Ivy, she attacked Hedwig in the middle of the Great Hall and everyone saw. She lost fifty points and was given detention and I got Hedwig.

Rose smiled and scratched behind Hedwig's head. The owl cooed and leaned into her hand; she always liked Rose.

That's not the only surprising thing that has happened in the past couple of weeks. Out of nowhere, Daphne started being nice to me and now we're friends.

Rose nearly dropped the letter, that girl was now friends with her brother?

I know you're a little surprised by it, but she's really all right once you get to know her. She's become my partner in Potions and she's almost as good as me! She's still cold and doesn't talk very much sometimes, but she's still a good friend. The weirdest thing however is that Apollo simply loves her; he curls up in her lap whenever he can.

Rose allowed herself a small smirk at the thought of snobbish Daphne Greengrass being the pillow to an immature Apollo.

Quidditch season is coming up and our first match is next week against Gryffindor. I hope you can come and watch, and then you can meet Tracey and Daphne in person. Tracey says she already can't wait to meet you. I'll send you another letter in a couple of days. Have fun!

Love, Harry

Rose put down the letter and sat on her bed next to Hedwig. Still petting the owl, Rose thought about how she would persuade her father to take her to the match. Maybe if she asked her father if she could 'see her sister play', that might work. She really wanted to meet Tracey too; Daphne, not so much. Even if she was now Harry's friend, that didn't mean she had to like her.

Halloween breakfast was amazing for Harry. The smell of pumpkins filled the Great Hall and was included as a part of many of the breakfast recipes including pumpkin bread, toast, juice, cereal, and pancakes, of which Harry was eating at the moment. He had never heard of pumpkin pancakes, much less tried them, but ignored Daphne's advice and piled a small stack onto his plate and actually enjoyed them. Daphne, who hated pumpkin pancakes, wrinkled her nose in disgust and turned back to her own chocolate-chip pancakes. Both had arrived to breakfast early and were currently waiting for Tracey to join them. Just as Harry was finishing, Tracey finally showed up and sat across from the two with an excited expression on her face.

"You'll never guess what I just heard Ivy and Ron Weasley talking about."

"What?" asked Daphne, completely uninterested.

"You have to guess."

"You just said that we'd never be able to, so tell us." Daphne was starting to sound annoyed. Harry turned back to Tracey and motioned to her to continue. Pouting that she had been unable to get her friends to play her game, she waiting a few more seconds before answering.

"Apparently those two ran into a large three-headed dog somewhere around the school. They were talking about how it was standing on a trapdoor and what could possibly be hidden underneath. Do you think that dog could be in the forbidden corridor that Professor Dumbledore warned us to stay away from?"

Wide-eyed, Daphne asked, "Who in their right mind would look at the dog's feet when it has three large heads?"

Harry scoffed. "Ivy and Ron have half a brain combined and even together they wouldn't have looked down for a second. Someone else, someone with good observation skills, would have had to have been with them."

Daphne snorted with laughter. The three spent the rest of breakfast talking about the three-headed dog and whatever it was guarding. The girls kept giving off wild speculations and laughing about it. Harry meanwhile, was curious. While Tracey and Daphne were in class, Harry went to the creature section of the library to research three-headed dogs. The library's vast collection worked against him this time. There were almost a hundred books about magical creatures but only one held the information Harry was looking for.

The Cerberus, as it was called, were used as guard dogs for centuries. Very rare to get a hold of and breed, and extremely dangerous, they were most famous in Greece where some of their most famous wizards used them to protect their treasures. The most surprising thing about them however, was that they are just for show. The Cerberus relied on its fearsome appearance to dissuade thieves and only attacked those that tried to get past them. The fact that only one wizard ever survived an attack by a Cerberus worked in their favor. The note said that he only survived after the dog finally succumbed to the sleeping potion it was slipped.

Harry continued to study the Cerberus until History class. Once there, he cramped his right hand in trying to keep up with Professor Binns' voice. He glared at Daphne after class as she waved it away and told him to stop being a baby; it was for her he wrote out the detailed notes she wanted. Both she and Tracey were unable to stay awake for longer than a minute in that class. Daphne was especially vulnerable; the longest amount of time Harry recorded before he heard snores was twenty-two seconds. When classes were finished for the day, the trio went to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast. Since Tracey became his friend, Harry had slowly been allowed food from the rest of the table and the blockade stopped when Daphne joined. Harry was just starting to enjoy himself when Professor Quirrell burst through the Hall doors.

"T-troll, in the dungeons!" Quirrell's face pale and he lack the stutter that Harry was used to. He ran up to Professor Dumbledore's chair and said before he fainted, "Thought you ought to know."

The Hall was in pandemonium; everyone, from first to seventh year, was screaming and trying to force their way towards the doors. It took a couple of seconds and a few cracks from Dumbledore's wand. The students stopped and stared at their headmaster for help.

"Prefects, please lead your houses back to your dormitories, teachers, follow me to the dungeons."

The calmness in which Dumbledore spoke hide the fact that he too was scared, scared for his students. Even the best of wizards sometimes had trouble in dealing with trolls. Their anger, stupidity, and unpredictability made them real threats. In their panic, the students might hurt themselves or others, so he spoke like he had everything under control. He also spoke in a way that made sure his orders would be followed, it wouldn't do to have one of his students go and try and face the troll themselves, especially Ivy Potter.

Harry felt like Daphne was going to tear off his left arm. As Gemma Farley led them through the corridors of Hogwarts, Daphne hung on his arm with a terrified look on her face. Harry didn't blame her, he had done reading on trolls and he didn't want to run into one anywhere, anytime. Tracey followed just behind them and kept looked over her shoulder even though they were in the middle of the group. There was a bang when Farley opened a door in front of them and Daphne screamed. Harry was in pain, his arm had nearly been ripped off and his ear was ringing. Daphne's scream caused a few others to scream and Farley had to restore order.

After everyone had calmed down again, and Daphne's face was bright red from embarrassment, Harry realized where they were. With the troll in the dungeons, the Prefects obviously couldn't lead them back to their common room so they had instead taken them to the library. Most of the other students claimed the many tables and became to talk among themselves about the troll while a few others grabbed some books and starting reading. With all of his homework caught up and bored with nothing to do, Harry went in search of a book to read, leaving Tracey and Daphne behind. Going deeper into the library than he usually did, Harry searched for something he hadn't read yet.

He finally found something new in a small section of the library. A maroon colored book labeled All About Alchemy. Only hearing a little about alchemy, Harry decided to take a look. The book captivated him from the start; a science of combining potion-making and powerful transformation magics, alchemy was an almost forgotten branch of magic. Two of the most powerful alchemists remaining were the headmaster Dumbledore himself and his partner and teacher Nicholas Flamel. Flamel was long regarded to be the best alchemists ever, having created the Philosopher's Stone, a powerful magical object that satisfied two of the three main goals of alchemy; the transmutation of common metals into gold and the creation of a remedy that prolonged life. He had read half way through the book when Tracey found him.

"Come on Harry, everyone's heading back to the dorm. They found the troll and the Feast will be finished there. What are you reading?"

Harry showed her the book before sadly putting it back on the shelf, he would come back after Potions tomorrow to finish reading it, and he would bring his notebooks. Daphne was waiting for them at the entrance to the library and Harry noticed that her face was still a little pale. The three friends then joined the rest of their house in walking back to the dungeons. Once there, they each grabbed a plate of food and went into Harry's dorm, a first for the girls. It was quieter than the common room and no one would bother them there except Apollo. Tracey, hyped up on sugar, also used this opportunity to continually scare Daphne, after which she would roll on the floor laughing while Daphne grabbed the bedposts in fright. Harry also found this funny, but the hilarity vanished after the sixth time and in the end, Daphne's shrieks were starting to get pretty loud. Both Harry and Daphne made an agreement that night, no more sugar for Tracey, ever!

The next morning Harry woke up shivering. After a quick hot shower, Harry started a small fire in the fireplace in his dorm. Happy for this perk, he then laid out a thick blanket in front of it for Apollo and Artemis to warm up on. When he left his dorm, he was met with another perk of his own dorm, the common room was freezing. On the way up to breakfast, Harry looked out a window and saw frost covering the ground. Daphne was already in the Great Hall, drinking a large cup of hot chocolate and wearing a think green jumper. She gave a grunt good morning and Harry guessed she was still upset about last night.

Daphne was in a foul mood the rest of the day, only it turned from Tracey to Harry later in the morning. During Potions, Harry refused to change the temperature of the flame under the cauldron they were working with, a change in flame could affect the whole potion. So instead, she joined Tracey, whose own cauldron was a lot warmer in the freezing dungeons. Harry smirked at the girls when Professor Snape marked their potion down because of the change in color while Harry's was marked perfect. Daphne was one of the first out of class when the bell rang for lunch and accidentally left her stuff behind, Tracey quickly following her. While he too wanted to leave the dungeons, Harry knew that Daphne would freak when she found out that she had left her bag behind. So, he stayed a couple more minutes to collect her things and was rewarded by seeing Snape, who hadn't seen Harry, check his right leg. It was bloody and covered in bandages that needed to be changed. Grunting, Snape recovered his leg and limped out of the classroom.

Harry had just finished climbing the steps out of the dungeons when he was nearly run over by Daphne. When she saw her bag in Harry's hands, Daphne grabbed it, hugged Harry tightly, and ran off. Harry meanwhile, was frozen from the hug Daphne had given him. The only ones that had ever hugged him that he remembered were his mother and Rose; Daphne, or anyone else for that matter, hugging him was completely new. He could fell the areas on his sides where Daphne touched him as well as his face burning. The feeling felt strange, he both wanted and didn't want it to happen again. All throughout lunch, Harry couldn't look at Daphne without feeling strange and being red in the face, but by dinner, the feeling had passed. The next day, it was back.

"Come on Harry, you have to eat if you want to keep your strength up to beat your sister today. Eggs, toast?"

This time, instead of setting next to him like usual, Daphne was seated across from him, pushing a plate towards him. He refused to look up. On Harry's right was Tracey, looking up every couple of seconds from her own eggs. Harry meanwhile, didn't feel like he could eat a single thing, he was too nervous. Looking across the Hall, he could see his sister was the same, just pushing around her eggs with her fork while Ron and Hermione, who somehow had become her friend offered her more food. After eating half her plate, Tracey sighed and turned towards Harry.

"Harry, just eat something! You're too skinny and the wind will blow you off your broom. And don't forget, Ivy has the new Nimbus; you're using a school broom, so you need every advantage you can get, including breakfast. Now eat something before I stuff it down your throat!"

Tracey finished by pointing her fork in his face. Shocked, Harry stared at the point in front of him before turning to Daphne for help. She just shrugged and said, "She'll do it too."

Suddenly, Harry was scared, very scared. Warily, Harry kept one eye on Tracey as he started to eat some eggs. It was only after he had swallowed his fifth mouth full that Tracey's glare turned back to her own food. Harry was glad she did, he didn't think he could eat much more. He then caught Flint's eye and he made a motion with his hand. In order to keep Harry a secret for as long as possible, the Quidditch Team would leave early and then Harry would leave five minutes later. The Gryffindors left not long after the Slytherins and with a goblet of juice to down his eggs, Harry also left with a soft good-luck from Tracey and Daphne.

When he walked into the locker room, most of the Team was already changed into their emerald robes while Flint watched them, leaning against the wall. With his nerves already high, Harry couldn't help but notice that the others were bigger than him in both size and muscle for the first time. When the last person was changed, everyone grabbed their broom and followed Flint to the doors that led to the pitch, Harry in the back. As they waited, Harry cursed Tracey for her threats as he felt like he was going to be sick. Then a crack of light appeared and the doors opened.

Marcus Flint took off first, followed by the other Chasers. The Beaters then took to the sky and with a final nod towards Harry, the Keeper Bletchley flew out into the stadium. Taking a final gulp of air, Harry mounted his broom and followed his six teammates into the bright light, the cheers of the crowd making some of his nervousness go away. As they flew out, the commentator Lee Jordan, the Weasley twins' best friend, announced their position and last name.

"And Seeker, …Potter?"

As the Slytherins cheered louder, the Gryffindors stopped booing and the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws whispered to each other in confusion. Harry joined his teammates in flying a lap around the stadium. When they passed the Slytherin section, Harry could see Tracey and Daphne cheering in the front row. Rose was waving a black flag with Potter in purple from where she was seated next to their father in the Gryffindor section. He had to admire her cleverness, no one would know exactly who she was cheering for. The team finished their lap and converged over the middle of the field, across from the Gryffindors. A quick scan of faces showed that six out of seven where surprised to see him their while the seventh showed complete anger, the same look his father had on.

The referee Madam Hooch tossed the Quaffle into the air and Gryffindor gained immediate possession. Harry took to the higher air to get out of the way and to keep an eye on things. He frowned as he questioned how Gryffindor could've lost the past couple of years from the way they played. The Chasers worked together better than any group he had seen; the Beaters seemed to read each other's minds, but as they were twins, that seemed highly possible. Gryffindor's Keeper was highly confident in himself and almost never missed. Everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to do and did it, except Ivy. She followed Harry around on her own broom, glaring at him and ignoring the game entirely.

Harry quickly realized that Slytherin had a problem, the Chasers would bring the score up high and with Ivy watching him, Harry couldn't get the Snitch in time to allow Slytherin to win. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see one of the twins hit a Bludger his way. Waiting until the last second, he rolled on his broom and the Bludger roared over him and towards Ivy. The Bludger distracted her long enough for Harry to see the Snitch and race after it. He heard Ivy behind him, quickly catching up, and then came a crash and a loud groan. Looking back, Harry saw that Flint had blocked Ivy, delaying her. Harry looked forward again just in time to see another Bludger headed his way, curtsy of the second Weasley twin.

Harry dived and the Bludger grazed the top of his hair. It also cost him sight of the Snitch, but Ivy didn't know that. As soon as he righted himself, Harry tore off again, this time headed straight for Angelina Johnson, who had the Quaffle. She screamed and dropped the Quaffle which was quickly taken up by Pucey. Harry continued on, weaving a bit so as to make the chase look convincing, all the while looking around for the Snitch. At last he stopped it, and ironies of ironies, it was in front of his father and Rose. Smirking, Harry allowed Ivy to pull ahead, and quickly changed directions.

It was just like the race at the beginning of the year. Ivy was traveling too fast and wasn't paying attention so it took her a while to realize that she wasn't chasing the Snitch at all. It also took her time to change directions as she didn't slow down at all. All of this, along with his head start, allowed Harry to grab the Snitch, right in front of his father. A great roar came up from the emerald supporters as Slytherin won one hundred and seventy to seventy. The other six Slytherins surrounded him and clapped, Flint even gave him a pat on the back.

After he had changed out of his Quidditch robes, Harry met Tracey and Daphne outside the locker rooms. He had just opened his mouth to talk to them when they heard a shout. The next thing Harry knew, he was on the ground as a red-haired missile tackled him to the ground with a bone-breaking hug.

"Rose…can't…breath."

Rose just giggled and tightened her hug so much, Harry thought she might break his ribs.

"So you're Rose, Harry's told us so much about you!"

Tracey was so excited to meet Harry's little sister and completely bombarded her with questions, ideas, and every other thing. Daphne had no interest in meeting Rose as she said 'all little sisters are annoying'. Harry had a feeling that she felt this way because of her own sister Astoria, who she never talked about. Rose didn't seem to mind however, in fact, she seemed to not want to meet Daphne as much as Daphne wanted to meet Rose.

After the girls left, Rose and Harry stayed to talk to one another. Letters were nice, but it was better to talk face-to-face. Rose enjoyed the game, but James didn't. He and Ivy had tried to go to Dumbledore to try and remove Harry from the team but according to Dumbledore, there were no rules, regulations, or anything about Squibs on Quidditch teams, there wasn't even a law that prevented them from being on one. James was really unhappy and Harry knew that he wouldn't be welcome at home for a long time. He also told Rose about Tracey and Daphne, more importantly, how he felt about them. Sooner then he would have liked his father came to collect Rose as they were about to leave. Giving her another hug and a kiss on the forehead, Harry watched as they headed for the gates.

Edited: 10/16/2014

Changes: Grammatical errors