Disclaimer- Please see chapter one.

Chapter Seven-   The Perilous Game

            It was a beautiful Sunday morning.  Snow was falling lightly down on Hogwarts, covering the castle in a sparkling white blanket.   Outside one could hear the clear sound of laughter from the students playing in the snow.  

Almost everyone was enjoying the beautiful weather.

Almost.

One girl was the complete opposite of happy.   Hermione Granger sat on her bed, her face in her hands, as her two roommates giggled and gossiped about the ball and who was going with whom.

"It's true, I swear!"   Lavender told the group.

"But how," Parvati asked, "She's too tall for him!"

Lavender shrugged and began brushing her hair.   "That's just what I heard from a girl in Hufflepuff."

Parvati sighed and began fiddling with her lip-gloss.   "Well I heard from Cate that Melissa was going with that really handsome guy in Ravenclaw!"

Lavender spun around quickly.   "No way!   Are you serious, what about her boyfriend?"

Parvati said eagerly, "Apparently, they had a huge fight because she didn't sit next to him in Transfiguration,"

"Uh-huh."

"So he asked her if there was someone else."

"And…what did she say?"

"She denied it, but he didn't believe her; so they broke up."

Hermione groaned, listening to these two made her feel as if her IQ was dropping.

"Wow," Lavender commented, "I didn't see that coming!"

"And now he boyfriend is going out with that girl from Hufflepuff!"

"The short one?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you serious!   But they don't even match together?"

"Well, she said that…"

Hermione couldn't take the "girl talk" anymore.   At the beginning of the year, her mother had suggested that she should get to know her roommates better, seeing as how she did share a room with them.   Hermione had decided that today she would stay a little late and try to be a part of their so-called, "girl talk."   However, in Hermione's opinion, listening to those two was like listening to a dating channel or a gossip hotline.   She just couldn't understand how two people can remember every person that everyone was going out with, yet could not even remember one spell for Charms class.   She shook her head as she made her way down to the common room in search of Harry and Ron.   Today was the first quidditch game of the season, and everyone was excited.   The game, however, wasn't until later in the day, therefore giving time for the three to do a little Christmas shopping in Hogsmede.   She spotted them playing chess by the fire, and quickly hurried over to them.

Harry was deep in thought.   He was determined to win this game.   He blocked out every sound as he made his next move.   He stared at the board.   He was one move away from winning, the closest he had ever gotten.   He chanced a glance at Ron, who's face was set in concentration.   Harry smiled softly.   If Ron didn't notice, then Harry would win!   He would actually win!  

However, his visions of victory were short-lived, as Ron made the final move and won.  

Harry sighed and sat back.   "I was SO close!" he whined.   Ron opened his mouth to reply but at that moment, Hermione sat down looking rather annoyed.

"Umm," Ron tried, "Everything alright?"

She huffed and turned to him saying, "Do you know where I have been the past half hour?"

"Umm, your room?"

"Yeah, spending time with brain-dead and clueless!"   She said, angrily.

Ron glanced at Harry, who shrugged.   They sat in silence for a while before Harry said, "Do you mean Lavender and Parvati?"

That did it.   Hermione began ranting about how immature people can be, how little they care about the things that really matter, and how badly they will do in class if they don't shape up.   "I mean, we have O.W.L.S coming up.   The last thing they should do is trade study time for gossip time!!   Am I right, Harry?!"  

Harry looked taken aback and immediately nodded.  

"I honestly believe," Hermione continued, "that if they didn't have someone to gossip about, THEY WOULD DIE!!"   She took a few deep breaths to calm down, and smiled weakly.   "Sorry about that.   I guess they just finally got to me."

"Don't worry about it," Ron said, though he did look slightly afraid of her at the moment.

A few minutes later they were walking across the grounds to the village.   After buying their gifts, they decided to get out of the freezing snow and take refuge in the Three Broomsticks.        

After settling down with mugs of steaming hot butterbeer, the three began to drink in silence.   Harry always liked to just sit back and listen to all the people going about their business.  

He smiled as he heard the waitress ask for various orders.   She always tried to please everyone and make a person smile.   He unmistakably heard Lavender and Parvati argue about the ever-important issue of lipstick color.   Lavender's shrill voice carried across the noise of the crowded restaurant, "This is a major crisis!   I mean, red is the color of romance, but pink says 'I'm cute.'"   "Don't forget that sparkly makes you shine," Parvati added.

Harry shook his head and muttered, "Girls."

One conversation grabbed his attention immediately.   He turned quickly to Ron and Hermione and saw that they to were listening intently.   Harry turned his attention back and listened.   Dumbledor was sitting nearby with a small group of teachers.   He spoke in a low voice, saying, "So the rumor is true.   The ministry caught a rather unloyal deatheater and, by means which will not be discussed here, they managed to extract some information from him." 

 "Albus," one of the teachers whispered, "what did they get?"  

Dumbledor's face turned stern as he said, "The dark lord is preparing an attack on the castle.   He would not say when, but we can only assume that it will be soon."

 "What are we going to do," small little Flitwick asked. 

 "I suppose we could cut off all extra-curricular activities so the students will always be within the safety of the castle." McGonnagle supplied.  

"But the children have been through so much, they need to be outside; to just be children and live."  Madame Hooch argued. 

 "We could add extra security to the corridors, and have each teacher accompany the students to their classes."   Lupin said.  

Dumbledor nodded and rubbed his head, saying, "Yes, that seems to be the best idea at the moment.   Similarly, I agree with Madame Hooch in saying that the quidditch games will continue.   However, security will remain tight, every teacher is to stay focused and keep alert for danger."   There were murmurs of agreement from the other professors, and soon they all departed.

Harry's mind tried to place together this new information.   Suddenly he remembered the dream he had earlier in the year.   After assuring his friends that he'd be right back, Harry walked over to Dumbledor.

"Professor, I have something that I need to tell you."

"Yes Mr. Potter."   Dumbledor said.

"Umm.   Earlier this year I had a dream about Voldemort.   When I woke up my scar was burning.   I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier, but I just didn't remember until now."

Professor Dumbledor stared at Harry for a moment before saying, "Well Mr. Potter, I appreciate you telling me, but I assure you that there are security precautions in place."

"Thank you professor," Harry replied.   Dumbledor nodded and stood to leave.

He turned back to his friends, both of whom were staring at him, mouths open.   After a few minutes of silence, Hermione said, "Hey, you two better hurry, the game will start soon!"   She looked frightened, though she was struggling to hide it.

 "Come on Ron, let's go!"   Harry said quickly.   "See you at the game, Hermione!" Ron called.

 "Bye, and good-luck!" 

 "And please be careful," she whispered.

They hurried and dropped their gifts off in the dormitory and grabbed their brooms before they made their way to the quidditch field.   After a pep talk from Katie the team headed out to the field.   Ron took at shaky breath to calm his nerves and tried to keep his focus.

 "Hey Ron." Harry said.   "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah."   He replied in a completely unconvincing tone.   "I'll be fine."

Harry smiled.   "You can do it, just believe in yourself."

As soon as his feet left the ground he felt his fears begin to leave him.   It was just as Harry had told him.   Flying really did help a person relax.   However, now was not the right time to relax.   He focused his attention on the game, and was ready to play.

Katie took the quaffle and dogged between two Slytherin chasers.   The beaters, angry that she got through, aimed a bludger at her.   She quickly threw the quaffle to Angelina just before it hit the end of her broom, spinning her around.   Angelina flew fast and scored the first point for Gryffindor.   The crowd cheered, or in the case of Slytherin, booed.   After a few intense minutes of game play, the score was 50-10.   The Slytherin team began to get desperate.   They played dirty, hitting anything and everything in reach with the bludgers and clubs.   For his part, Ron was doing extremely well, diving this way and that defending the goal.   Both teams played fiercely for the win.   Alicia got hold of the quaffle, she passed it to Angelina who managed to get it to Katie, who dodged, dived and finally scored another goal.   They stadium erupted in cheers.  

Harry was flying high above the crowd in search of the snitch, the sound of the game blaring in his ears.  

Suddenly, he got a horrible feeling inside, and his scar began to burn.   The world seemed to go silent and the game seemed to move in slow motion.   All Harry could hear was the sound of his short breathing and his heart beating against his chest.   His mind screamed for him to move, to tell Dumbledore, to do something.

Suddenly the red light of a curse flew from the forest and into the stadium.   It hit a small first year girl in the crowd and she fell to the ground.

It was as if someone turned the volume up in Harry's head, as the whole stadium suddenly burst into screams and utter chaos.  

More and more curses flew through the air as about forty deatheaters ran onto the field.   The teachers ran to try and stop them, as prefects tried to lead the terrified students into the school.   Some of the students that were stunned or hit by various other curses were picked up by anyone close to them and carried, pulled, or dragged to safety.  

Harry tried to get to level ground as fast as he could because many of the deatheaters were aiming their curses at the flying targets.

Once he managed to land among the running figures, he had to dodge curses and spells to get inside.   As he ran, he looked around desperately for any sign of Ron or Hermione.   He had seen Ron land, but had lost him in the crowd.

 Suddenly, he fell to the ground as the boy in front of him was hit by a curse.   Harry couldn't bear to leave him there, so he tried to drag him into the castle.   He moved slowly along, the situation becoming increasingly more dangerous with each passing second.   Suddenly, however, his load lightened as a strong seventh year grabbed the boy's feet and helped Harry run with him inside.   Harry had never seen this person before in his life, yet he was very grateful for his help.

Once Harry made it inside, he put the unconscious boy down on the floor and nodded in thanks to the boy for his help, before running off to look for his friends.

He decided that they probably headed up to the common room, as many students were doing.   He ran as fast as he could, hearing the screams and yells of the battle outside.   He looked out of window as he climbed the stairs.   The sight of the battle made him want to vomit.   There were students as well as teachers and deatheaters lying motionless in the snow.   Others were making there way into the castle.   The teachers were trying to hold back the deatheaters with a variety of curses.   It was utter chaos, the snow in some places was turning red with blood.  

Then Harry heard the one curse he never dreaded to hear.

 "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

He forced himself to keep running up the stairs, and tried to tell himself that his friends were not out there, but safe and sound.

He burst into the common room, scaring the many that were there.   All of them were visibly shaken; some were in tears.   Harry searched for his friends, he was just about to give up hope and turn around when he heard his name called.

"Harry!   Oh Harry thank goodness you're alright!"   Hermione ran over to him in tears.   "I thought that something terrible had happened to you when you I saw you fall down, then they wouldn't let me come out to find you..and..and"   She was shaking and crying at the same time.

"Hermione, I'm so glad that you're OK."   Harry said.  

He looked around at all of the students and realized something that made his stomach turn.

He turned to Hermione and said quickly, "Hermione, where's Ron?"

Well, there you have it!!   I hoped that everyone enjoyed this chapter!!

Special thanks to my one and only reviewer.

Kevin-   Thank you for your advice.   I agree that the end of the last chapter was a little too fluffy.   I'm grateful that I'm lucky enough to get advice from a great author such as you.   I hope that you enjoyed this chapter.   I'm glad that you like this story so far!  

Please Please Please review!   I really want to know what people think!!!