- - -

"I don't think I've ever seen McGonagall so mad." Ginny exclaimed as all four of the Weasleys returned to Gryffindor tower. It had been a good hour of lecturing from Professor McGonagall, but none of them felt particularly bad about it.

"Mum's going to send a Howler" Fred said. "Or four." George quipped.

"Still worth it." Ron exclaimed. "It's nice to take his pompous arse down a notch."

"Really?" Hermione was sitting in one of the armchairs. "What were you thinking? You could have been expelled!"

"Oh, come on, Hermione!" Ron said "You'd think that of all people, you'd at least be appreciative. "

"I do appreciate the concern." Hermione conceded, barely. "I just wish that you would have a bit more tact. I bet that all of you got in big trouble."

"Detention for the rest of the term." Ginny said, shooing her brothers away. "Don't worry about it, Hermione. Potter deserved it. And there's only a few weeks left. Fred and George already had detention for most of the term, anyways."

"Fine." Hermione finally gave up on trying to scold her friend. "I've got to study for Defense Against the Dark Arts, anyways." Ginny gave a halfhearted smile and ascended the stairs to the girls dormitories. After all their years of knowing each other, Ginny knew when to give Hermione space.

While it may have looked like she was studying, Hermione was actually sulking. She hadn't yet given herself the time to get over Harry, no, Potter's cruel words. How could he be so cruel? He went so far as to apologize for Greengrass, and he seemed pretty friendly this year. Maybe it was all a prank. Harry, Draco, and all the other Slytherin boys made fun of her as first years. Back then, she had "Buck Teeth" and "Hair like a Broomstick". She had slowly grown out of that, of course, but their cruelty took much longer to fade from memory.

That was probably it. Another one of Potter and Malfoy's cruel jokes. Maybe if she just ignored them, they'd think it wasn't funny and leave her alone. Especially after Ginny and her brothers gave Harry a hard time for what he said. She could only hope.

- - -

"Mister Potter!" Harry turned to see Professor Lupin standing at the front of the classroom. "A word, please?"

As all the other students packed their belongings and headed out of the classroom, Harry followed Professor Lupin up the stairs to his office.

"I heard about the altercation with the Weasleys." He started "You must have done something seriously bad to get them riled up. They've got detention until the end of term. Well, Fred and George were already doing detentions for most of that, but you get the point."

"I didn't do anything." Harry replied "Maybe they're just mad about Quidditch?"

"Perhaps, Harry." The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor sighed "I really didn't want to do this, but James floo-called me as soon as he got the news. He wants me to work with you on your dueling skills."

"Why?" Harry asked, slightly resentful that his father felt the need to step in. "Its not like I'll get good enough to take on four wizards when I'm in a corner."

"But you could, Harry." Remus explained "Shielding Charms could help you block most of the jinxes they throw around in the hallways. Learning how to dodge properly, practicing your disarming."

"You want me to join the dueling club?" Harry asked bewildered. Students weren't allowed to join until in their NEWT levels.

"No, of course not." Professor Lupin replied "Dumbledore hates favoritism like that. Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that he lets professor Slughorn do what he does. I'm talking about private lessons during one of your free periods. What do you have open?"

"Um…" Harry rummaged through his bag for a battered copy of his schedule. "Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Friday afternoons."

"Excellent!" Lupin said, not taking his eyes off of the paper "I think Tuesdays will do quite nicely. We'll start with shielding charms. Let me get you a text on them." And the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor disappeared into his office.

Harry let his eyes wander across the classroom, eventually coming in contact with a Lunar calendar. "Full moon soon?" Harry called. In the early years of Professor Lupin coming to Hogwarts, Sirius and James came monthly to help keep others safe. However, Professor Slughorn was quickly advised of the situation, and eventually got the potion supplied regularly.

Lupin sighed, handing him a textbook. "Unfortunately, yes. Thankfully, Slughorn's expertise will make for a quiet Sunday evening. I want you to read up on chapter seven for next Tuesday. And remember to get those twelve inches done on werewolves - I expect top marks from you."

"Thanks, Professor!" Harry replied, jogging out of class to try to catch up with his classmates.

As Harry jogged down the hall towards Transfiguration, he passed up Granger. He wasn't really sure what to do about that. She had been avoiding him for the past couple weeks. Even now she refused to meet his gaze. Maybe she knew that he knew about the Halloween Ball. Harry shook his head. Such conundrums were just a headache.

- - -

The nerve of that boy! Hermione huffed angrily just at the thought of him. He had the utter gall to give her a smile after all the things he said to her. Even after Ginny had, quite against Hermione's intentions, convinced half of the Weasley to beat up on him.

But worst of all, she had potions with Harry next. It wasn't bad enough that he made fun of her, but now they had to spend two whole hours watching Slughorn shower Potter with admiration, while she struggled to eke out an "O" in the class with actual effort. Sure, she understood the theory pretty well, and the exercise thereof, but something was lost in translation this year for Hermione. As the year progressed, and they attempted to complete O.W.L. level potions, she found herself pushed to the limit each and every session with Slughorn.

As usual, Potter was at the front of the class, partnered with Malfoy, and flanked by Nott, Zabini, Crabbe, and Goyle. Hermione chose to sit with Parvati a row behind Harry and his Slytherin delinquents. While Parvati wasn't the perfect potions partner, she was proficient enough to work with whenever a potion required two people to make.

"Good afternoon, everyone!" Slughorn exclaimed. "Today, we will be making the Draught of Contentment. Does anyone - yes, Mr. Potter?"

Hermione had tried to answer this one, but Potter had beaten her to it. He was the only person in the class who knew more about potions than her - excluding the Professor, of course. The Draught of Contentment was -

"The Draught of Contentment is a potion designed to temporarily eliminate any sensations of need." Harry explained, cutting off Hermione's thoughts "It's particularly popular with witches on a diet. It's even more popular with the O.W.L. certification board because it has a number of complicated instructions."

"Excellent!" Slughorn practically gushed. Hermione just made a face. Teacher's Pet. "Ten points to Slytherin! Now, a description of the potion is on page one hundred and sixty nine of your textbooks, and the instructions are on the board. Begin!"

Hermione rapidly opened her book to the appropriate page and began to read furiously. According to the textbook, the disparate elements of rich clay, spring water, Merlin's Bean, and half a dozen other ingredients had to be mixed precisely in the correct order over the course of an hour and a half to meet expectations.

As she began to copy down the instructions from the front of the room, she couldn't help but notice Harry lazily get up and bather supplies for the potion without even bothering to take his textbook out of his bag. It took a worried glance from Parvati to notice that she was grinding her teeth. Hermione immediately stopped - her parents would kill her if she ever picked up that habit. But that didn't stop Hermione for being angry with the arrogance of the boy sitting in front of him. So, she decided to beat him at his own game.

Hermione stood up, and walked as quickly as she could without attracting attention into the potions supply closet. Harry was almost done procuring his own.

"Trying to race me Hermione?" Harry smirked. She just ignored him. His banter wasn't worth it now. She stretched up onto her tip-toes, looking at the higher shelves. Alluvial Clay… Evergrass… Ferrous Powder… Merlin Beans… with all the initial ingredients to the potion, Hermione quickly exited and got to work. Upon her return, Parvati had already gotten the water up to boiling.

Immediately, Hermione put in the alluvial clay, and stirred counterclockwise thirteen times. "What's the next step?" She asked Parvati.

"Here, I'll get it." The girl replied, putting the diced Evergrass into the pot. Immediately, the potion began to glow green.

"Excellent!" Hermione heard Slughorn exclaim from nearby. Beaming, she turned towards the source of the noise. It was about time that she got some recognition for her work.

But, alas, it wasn't to be. Slughorn was not, in fact, congratulating her, but Potter, who was quite clearly a few steps ahead of her.

"What did you add?" The potions master inquired. "The hue is almost textbook perfect, and you didn't request anything from the advanced cabinet - you need some Erumpet horn powder for that step."

"A bit of molten gold, sir." Harry replied. "It's connection to energy satisfies the Erumpet horn's qualities, while the other properties of gold enhances the potion's functionality overall."

"My dear boy, have you ever considered writing your own potions book?" Slughorn asked in wonderment. "In fact, you could probably even take over my position in a few years, if you keep the work up! Twenty points to Slytherin!"

Hermione slumped back down into her chair. She did everything she could to stop herself from crying. There was no way she was going to break down now. It was bad enough when she started and she was made fun of for her braces. No, she wouldn't give them more ammunition to humiliate her. But she couldn't help but feel so upset. In fact, she felt utterly defeated. No matter how hard she tried, Potter just lived to defeat her nowadays.

"Hermione, can you go get the Erumpet Horn powder? We're almost ready." Parvati asked while mixing the potion.

Hermione mechanically stood up from her seat. Unfortunately, this inevitably led to her knocking over the cauldron into her lap. She screamed quite shrilly as the unpleasantly hot liquid seeped through her robes.

Immediately, Harry noticed this. Turning around from the potion which he and Draco had been stirring, and pulled out his wand, and uttered "Combisicco!". The potion reversed the process of seeping through her clothes, and formed a large ball at the tip of his wand. Righting the cauldron, Harry returned it its contents.

"You okay, love?" He grinned, offering Hermione a hand up. Filled with righteous anger at his chauvinistic behavior, Hermione slapped the hand away. She glared up at him with all the fury she could muster. How dare he!

"I'm not your love!" Hermione snapped. Harry jumped back a step in surprise. Almost immediately, she felt the anger replaced with shame and embarrassment. Grabbing her bags as quickly as possible, she barely muttered "Sorry professor, I'm not feeling well." before storming out of the dungeons, slamming the door behind her.

- - -

"Catch you guys later." Harry called out to Draco and the gang as they separated after Potions. Harry had his defense session with Professor Lupin; Draco and company were going to go hang in the common room. As much as he wanted to just blow off the practice and join them, he knew that Professor Lupin would never let that happen.

As he meandered through the hallways, his thoughts couldn't help but to turn to Granger's outburst in the previous class. Maybe it was just midterm stress - she seemed to get wound up every term, pushing herself to get the highest scores in the class. Or maybe it was just her time of the month, Harry surmised. However, neither possibility sat right with Harry. She wouldn't have reacted that strongly for any of the reasons he could think of. Hermione Granger was legitimately mad at him.

Harry's postulations on why a certain brunette was so angry with him caused him to bowl into a couple of scared looking first years. He muttered an apology and continued on as they stared fearfully at him. Normally, he would have thrown a Boo! in for good measure - first years were easy to mess with. But this wasn't the time to engage in such trivial pursuits - more important things were at stake here.

Could it be something he said? No, he'd been pretty polite to her recently, and even when he was a bit rude to her, she took it very well. He could have sworn that she liked him.

Then it dawned on him. Those Weasels must have found out about her thing for him and convinced her that Slytherin and Gryffindor couldn't mix. He had to admit, it was somewhat true - his father and Malfoy's were basically bitter rivals in the ministry. The Weasels were known for their Slytherin hate. And rather than settle it peacefully, those stupid Gryffindorks resorted to violence. They'd already put him in the Hospital Wing a couple times this year. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. And the more it made him want to get revenge on them. As Harry walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, he had already devised numerous nasty plans to get back at Gryffindor.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter." Professor Lupin interrupted Harry from his mad scheming. He was looking somewhat ragged, only a few days after the full moon. "I trust you completed the required reading for the session?"

"Yep." Harry surveyed the newly refurbished Defense room. Gone were the desks and chairs typically there for classes. Instead, there was an open space, an enchanted defense mannequin, and a table with various strange objects Harry didn't recognize.

"Then let's begin." Lupin replied "Stand over in the other corner. We'll start with the weaker jinxes, and work it up until we see where you can't defend yourself anymore, okay?"

Harry just nodded and jogged leisurely towards the other end of the room. "Ready!"

"Excellent. Rictusempra!" The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor cracked his wand like a whip. A flash of light sped at Harry.

"Protego!" Harry bellowed, making a parrying motion with his wand. The light hit what appeared to be an invisible wall and shattered upon contact.

"Good!" Lupin exclaimed. "You have the proper motion with your wand, and clear intent. If you can, don't call the spell out so loudly, unless you're trying to rupture the opponent's eardrums. Yelling takes a bit longer than talking, and that split second can be the difference between blocking and getting hit by a curse. Langlock!"

"Protego!" Harry countered, his voice slightly less overpowering.

"Did you block it, Harry?" Lupin asked. Langlock wasn't a spell whose effects were visible.

"Yea…" Harry replied, though the words had some difficulty coming out. "I fink I jus defflekted it tho…"

"Fair enough. That's still a good start." Lupin quickly applied the counter-jinx to Harry. "You've got it down almost textbook perfect, but like Sirius always says 'smarts doesn't mean squat if you don't have the reflexes to use it'. You need to be quicker on your feet. Anticipate an attack and repel it before they even know what's happening. That way, you have a window of opportunity to retaliate. Lets continue for today trying to improve your reflexes. Langlock!"

- - -

Hermione buried her face into the pillows of her four poster bed. Why? Why did she have to act out? Now everybody would make fun of her. She went from Bucky to Crazy in five seconds flat. Try as she might, Hermione couldn't stop the tears of frustration from leaking out.

"Hey, Hermione." She heard Parvati's voice from beyond the confined of her bed. "Are you okay?"

"Dunno." Was the muffled reply that came through the pillows.

"Just to let you know, us Gryffindors understand." Parvati continued, trying to cajole her friend. "Potter's a jerk. If he's going to treat you the way he does, the least he could do is leave you alone."

"I just don't get it." Hermione sighed, finally extricating her face from the pillows. "Why would he be so nice to me one minute, then a jerk the next? It makes no sense! Why doesn't he just pick one or the other and stick with it?"

"Well," Parvati sat down at the edge of Hermione's bed "My aunt always used to tell me whenever boys would pick on me that it meant that they liked me. Though, knowing Slytherins, its just as likely that he's doing it just to be a prat."

"Sometimes, I really hate teenage drama." Hermione replied. "I just can't wait to graduate and be surrounded by mature adults."

"Like that's ever going to happen." Ginny interjected, entering the fourth years dormitories. "Have you seen my father? He's ancient, and still he babbles on about muggle stuff like the fellytone."

"You mean telephone." Hermione corrected her friend

"Heard about your potions class… bummer." Ginny said, flopping down on the bed next to Hermione. "Is Slughorn going to discipline you?"

"I sincerely doubt it." Hermione replied. "I'm his favorite student besides… besides…" And once again, she buried her face into the pillow.

"Don't worry about Potter, Hermione." Ginny softly cajoled her friend "If you ignore him, he'll leave you alone soon enough. And if he bothers you, I'll take care of him personally."

- - -

"So…" Draco repeated dubiously. "You think that Gryffindor brainwashed Granger into hating you?"

"Well, not brainwashed…" Harry replied, realizing how stupid it sounded. "More like… convinced her that I'm a jerk."

"Well, you are a jerk." Theo chimed in. "I still haven't forgiven you for the incident at Quidditch Tryouts. Those girls were pretty hot."

"Yeah, for first years!" Draco countered. Everyone sniggered at the reply, Theo's face flushing red.

"Shut up! You don't know them."

"Whatever." Harry cut off Theo's rant. "What's more important is taking care of the situation now. First, we need to get back at the Weasels. Not just for just being themselves, but because I'm pretty sure they had something to do with Hermione being mad at me. Then, we need to figure out how to undo whatever they did to her."

"First part of that is easy." Theo replied. "We just need to up the prank war. Problem solved. I'm not sure what to do about saving your little princess from their clutches."

"She's not my princess!" Harry flushed and threw the nearest textbook at him, Theo diving under the table to avoid the projectile.

"Jeez, calm down, mate." He called from his crouched position beneath the table. "You might have hurt someone."

"Honestly?" Draco drawled from his bed. "You're a wizard. Why didn't you just stop the book with magic."

This time it was Theo's turn to blush. He muttered something about Draco under his breath.

"You could just try talking to her." Draco continued, ignoring Theo's response. "The worst that can happen is that she doesn't want to talk to you."

"Fine." Harry conceded. "You guys start with some plans for new pranks, and I'll go talk to her. Don't proceed without me on anything, I want to be personally involved here…"

- - -

As soon as Hermione saw Potter enter the library, she knew that there was trouble. When she saw him make a beeline for her, she really wished that she hadn't come to the library alone. By the time he had finally made it to her, she had already finished packing her bag, got up, and stormed off past him.

"Granger!" He called after as loudly as he could without incurring the wrath of Madam Pince. But she ignored him and just kept on walking. "Hermione!"

The Slytherin walked as quickly as possible to catch up with her, which caused her to increase her own pace. This game continued until she was almost running out of the library.

Harry put on a short burst of speed - she couldn't keep up with the very athletic Quidditch Captain. "Hermione, we need to talk!"

"Get off me!" She swatted his arm away. It was bad enough the way he treated her, why did he feel the need to harass her?

"No." Harry replied, grabbing her by the shoulders, their faces only a few inches apart. "Not until you tell me why you're avoiding me. And what was that in potions yesterday? Is something wrong?"

Hermione blushed. No matter how much she hated him toying with her, she couldn't help but notice how close her lips were to his. It was just like the Halloween Ball. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for reconciliation.

"Get off her, Potter!" Hermione turned as much as she could in Harry's grip (or embrace as part of her mind thought of it). Behind them was Ginny, her wand out. "I don't care if they suspend me, its worth it to hex a creep like you."

"Back off, Weaslette." Harry growled. "I came here for a reason, and I won't let you interfere."

Hermione snapped out of the haze of romantic thoughts that had been floating around her head and slipped out of his arms. Again returned her fury at the boy. "Leave me alone Potter! It's the least you could do after everything you've done."

"What the bloody hell have I done?" Harry asked, his gorge rising. Draco was completely and utterly wrong when he said that it couldn't get worse than her just not talking to him. Wrong was an understatement.

"You know what you did, you snakey bastard!" Ginny snapped, interposing herself between Harry and Hermione. "Now, if you know what's good for you, you'll leave poor Hermione alone and torture someone else."

The commotion in the corridor grew, and a few Gryffindors moved up to flank Ginny, showing their support.

Harry immediately pulled out his wand. "No Idea what you're talking about. And I guess I'm a bit like my dad - we're far too reckless."

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Ginny said, and whipped her wand, trying to catch him off guard with her Bat Bogey Hex, but Harry was prepared.

"Protego!" He snapped, and the attack was deflected effortlessly. His Gryffindor opponent's eyes bugged - quite clearly, she wasn't expecting such an outcome. Smirking, Harry struck out with his wand. "Expelliarmus!"

Ginny's want flew into the air, and she slammed back at the force of the disarmament. Harry took a couple steps forward and picked her wand off the ground.

"You know, I should just do you a favor and snap this in two." He remarked idly, looking over the wand. "In the hands of an arrogant bitch like you, you'd just end up killing yourself."

"Enough!" Boomed an authoritative voice. Professor Lupin made his way through the crowd assembled. "Go back to your dormitories! I want everyone except for Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley gone in the next ten seconds!"

The corridor immediately emptied as if all its occupants had disapparated. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher took Ginny's wand out of his hands and returned it to the owner.

"Harry." Lupin's eyes were hard as he glared at the boy. "I'm very disappointed in you. Those lessons were for self defense not to start your own dueling club in the middle of the hallway."

"I'm sorry, professor." Harry replied "She attacked me, though!"

"Is this true, Miss Weasley?" Lupin turned around to face the girl.

"He was harassing Hermione, professor!" The Professor turned back to Harry.

"Not true! I just wanted to talk to her. Then Ginny came and threatened me."

Lupin sighed. "Well, I can't punish you any more than you are now, Miss Weasley. Since you only used defensive spells, Mister Potter, I can only give you one day's detention for dueling in the hallways. You will serve it with me tonight after dinner. You both are dismissed."

- - -

"Professor?" Harry called into the classroom as he knocked on the office door.

"Come in, Harry." Lupin sighed, getting up from his desk. "This isn't actually a real detention, but I want to talk to you about the maturity behind using a wand."

"Maturity?" Harry asked, confused.

"There's a right and a wrong time to use a wand." The professor explained. "I'm telling you this because you're on a dangerous path. You've proven yourself as an accomplished duelist today. But it's only a stone's throw from there to torturing other students with your own jinxes and hexes."

"I'm not ever going to do that." Harry brushed off the concern. "I know right from wrong."

"I'm sure you do, Harry." Lupin replied. "But that's just how your father used to think. He was a brilliant student, and downright brutal in a duel - I'm quite sure that's why he's the Head Auror now. But he became arrogant because of his talents. Did he ever tell you about Severus Snape?"

"No…"

"Severus Snape was a Slytherin student in the same year as us. We, and by we, I mean your father, Sirius, Peter and I, picked on him. He was generally unpleasant. Sirius and your father called him a 'Greasy Git'. His hair was particularly greasy, you see. But your father would constantly hex and jinx him. Because he was picked on so much by us, he made friends with the wrong crowd."

"Wrong crowd?" Harry asked.

"Death Eaters. Well, students who were going to grow up with Death Eaters. The nasty Slytherin kids. They all graduated and became Death Eaters. When your mother and father had you, they went into hiding to protect you. Snape didn't forget how your father had treated him in Hogwarts, and he tracked your parents down. As far as I know, he's the first person in history to have broken a Fidelus charm. Voldemort attacked the house, and your father fought him the first time, when you were two."

"What happened to Snape?" Harry asked, wondering why his parents never told him about this man.

"Well, as much as he hated your father, he was obsessed with your mother. They had been childhood friends. As soon as he realized what he had done, he turned himself in. Dumbledore wanted to use him as a spy against Voldemort, but James wouldn't have it. He's spent the last fourteen years in Azkaban. I doubt he'll be getting out any time soon."

"Sir, why are you telling me this?" Harry still didn't really understand what Lupin was poking at.

"What I'm saying is that you should be less hard on the Gryffindor students." Lupin explained "If you keep fighting with them, then you'll never get along, and they may try to do something like that to you someday. Just because they're in a different house doesn't mean you can't make peace."

"Can I go now, sir?" Harry looked up at the clock. Two whole hours had passed as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had given him the lecture.

"Yes, you may go." Lupin sighed. "Good night, Harry. Please don't get into any more fights this term."

- - -

"We heard about you and the Weaslette, congrats!" Theo slapped Harry on the back jovially.

"Yeah. Congrats on demolishing an underclassman and getting detention for it." Draco sarcastically drawled.

"By the way, we've got some pretty nasty plans set up for those Gryffindorks."

"No." Harry said, Lupin's lesson finally sinking in. "No more pranks. We need to give them a rest until the end of term."

"Why?" Blaise was frustrated. They had spent quite a large amount of time with these plans.

"I don't want to escalate right before the last Quidditch match of the term." Harry replied, happy with the reason. "We can get them next term, don't worry."

"I'm assuming talking to Granger didn't get you anywhere." Draco asked casually.

"Nope. Well, I know she's mad at me for something." Harry frowned "Bloody women, I'll never understand them."

"Why are you putting so much effort into chasing Granger?" Blaise asked. "There's probably a couple dozen girls dying to go out with you here."

"I dunno." Harry replied thoughtfully. After a few moments of deep thought, he replied "Maybe its because I actually really like her. Turpin was cute, but I only liked her because I could have smart conversations with her. I picked Greengrass because she's a knockout, but that ended in a nightmare. Hermione just seems like the perfect girl. She isn't mean, she's as smart if not smarter than I am, and she's pretty cute - especially after the teeth were fixed."

"But the hair!" Theo cried dramatically "It looks like a wooly knorkuk up and died on her head!"

"It's not that bad." Harry chided him. He had to admit, the hair was pretty terrifying in first year. But each year, the hair became less of a tangled mess. It was even somewhat aesthetically pleasing now. And he couldn't help but remember how beautiful it looked at the ball.

"Well, Blaise, Draco, we'd better make it an early night. Training tomorrow, then the last match is this weekend. I want us rested and ready to crush Hufflepuff."

- - -

It was the last game of the season. Both teams had risen into the air, trying their best to ignore the torrent of rain pouring from the sky.

"The last game of the season…" Jordan remarked uninterestedly from his position as the announcer. "Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff."

"Bloody Horrible weather…" he tried to mutter under his breath, but the microphone picked up the words and carried the sound across the pitch. The entire crowd cracked up as McGonagall glared disapprovingly at the announcer.

As soon as the game started, Harry ignored his team to focus on finding the snitch. Multiple practice sessions after the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff game made sure that he wouldn't have to worry about the quaffle game. The only way that the losers in yellow could win this is if pretty boy Diggory stole the snitch from out of his nose.

Scanning the field, Harry adjusted the goggles on his face, swearing under his tongue. Just his luck, rainy conditions on the last match of the season.. But it didn't matter. He was still better than the Hufflepuff seeker.

But then, there was a flash of gold out of the corner of his eye. The snitch. Harry raced down the pitch to catch up with it.

"And Potter's seen something." Jordan stated, rather bored. "Maybe this will be a short game?" He asked rather hopefully.

Cedric had caught on to Harry's attempt to catch the snitch, and sped off following the Slytherin seeker. The Hufflepuff team captain wasn't more than a few broom lengths behind him now. However, it was too late. Harry was in control now.

Harry swept past the Slytherin goalpoasts, trapping the speeding fleck of gold within his hand. The Slytherin section of the pitch exploded into raucous applause, the other sections looking a bit disappointed with the outcome. But Harry didn't care. This was perfect. Slytherin would have to lose all their games next season to come in anything other than first place for the Quidditch cup. Not that he expected to lose a game anyways.

The entire Slytherin team entered formation, and made the customary victory lap around the Quidditch pitch, Harry holding the snitch aloft for all to see.

"The Snitch is caught!" Jordan exclaimed excitedly for the first time in the relatively short game "Twenty minutes in and we have a winner! Now we can go inside!"

This elicited a hearty laugh and some cheers from the stands.

McGonagall nudged him sternly "The score!" She hissed insistently.

"Oh, one hundred and seventy to thirty, Slytherin's favor!" Jordan said before hurrying off the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the students towards the castle.

A handful of diehard Slytherin fans rushed the field to greet the victorious team despite the weather.

As Harry hit the pitch, he pocketed the snitch. Hooch wouldn't notice, and it wasn't like there was a shortage of snitches. It was a pretty cool souvenir of a perfect half season. Harry turned to see his parents coming towards him.

"Bloody brilliant, Harry!" His father exclaimed, clapping him on the back. "Twenty minutes! I'd recon that's the fastest game I've seen at Hogwarts. You're almost as good as I was when I was your age!"

"As good?" Harry replied teasingly "Don't you mean twice as good?"

"I'm just glad you didn't end the game in the hospital wing." Lily said calmly "There's something about you Potter men and Madame Pomfrey gets you in there every other day or so."

"Speaking of that, we heard about your fight with the Weasleys." James continued. "Lupin teaching you some new tricks?"

"I had a talk with Mrs. Weasley." Harry's mom said "She said they were going to be punished severely for that."

"Yeah." Harry grinned, replying to his father's comment. As grueling as the practices were, he was really beginning to enjoy them. Perhaps he would become an Auror like his father. "I don't think I'm quite ready for a four on one fight yet, though." Nothing could ruin today.

Harry's father looked over at Lucius, who was complementing Draco on the game. "Look, Harry, you're going to hear stuff in the paper about Draco's dad very soon."

"What do you mean?" Harry frowned. The fact that his father wasn't scowling at the thought of Draco's father disconcerted him.

"He's done…" James started, but after a moment, decided against explaining it to Harry. "It doesn't matter what he's done, just that he's going to be in a spot of trouble. The minister is very displeased with him. Just wanted to give you a heads up." With that, James and Lily made their farewells, and left.

"Bloody arse." Harry muttered under his breath angrily. They never explained anything to him. But he let his anger give way to happiness. This was quite possibly the best day he could possibly have. The only thing that could make it better at this point was to figure out why Hermione was so angry with him.

- - -

A.N.: Whoo! Another chapter! I hope I didn't make you guys wait too long for this one! I made it extra long for you. By the way, 11k hits! Whoo! I feel uber cool now.

I was actually surprised with your generally positive comments on how I ended the chapter - I was quite worried that the sudden revelation was a bit cheesy. But you guys sure proved me wrong, so I can't complain.

Looking back on previous chapters, I noticed the massive typo in chapter 4 (half of it being underlined). Please tell me if stuff like that happens, because I don't re-read my chapters once they've been posted! I stumbled upon this one quite by accident!

And remember, please click the review button below and let me know what you think about the fic. It really encourages me to write more.

Desiraes0220: Yes, here's your virtual cookie (*) The asterisk is a virtual chocolate chip J

Witchysha: Thanks for the congrats, I also got my top pick in dormitories. College is going to be great! Hopefully I'll still have time to write this when I'm off at college (crosses fingers)

Melferd: Yeah, the best fics are like that, I and I want this to be good quality.

Alorkin: Once again, you have presented me with a massive review. I'll try to go through piece by piece:

The Twins are complicated characters. They hate Slytherin, but they might be able to get along with Harry in the future *hint*

I like Filch. He's a generally unpleasant character, but he still highlights Dumbledore's kindness. He's not completely useless, because students can fear him, while most wouldn't be afraid of a house elf. I'm pretty sure there was a train, they mention somewhere in the books that there is a Hogsmeade train stop for the express. It makes sense, and it's the best explanation I could come up with.

I like how you went through all your thoughts on the very brief Harry/Daphne portion. Your thoughts as it goes through helps me understand how I wrote it, and highlights the parts of further encounters that I need to focus on.

I'm starting to get the vibe you're not a fan of Filch's role in the books J. Don't worry, he's not a major character, more like a minor facet of my work. And he fulfils a double role as Janitor and Security Guard. Not a Security Guard in the way he protects the students from outside threats, but rather that he makes sure that the students toe the line. I don't know about outside of where I'm from, but that's quite common in the High Schools in my area.

As for the seeker being the most important, I'd have to disagree with you. While they determine whether you win or lose the individual game, I believe that Quidditch in competitive circles is more about scores over a season. While wins are huge over losses, the chasers and keepers are the biggest factors in keeping your ranking high. I'd probably rather have a good seeker than a good chaser, but three good chasers and a good keeper are more integral to a successful season IMO.

Thanks about the vote of confidence in my Draco representation. I tried to keep his essence while making him likeable.

You caught a typo with "her friends" in that line. It should have been "his friends". That's a pretty confusing typo, thanks for catching it.

Your comment about him not using a blasting spell - Harry doesn't know that kind of stuff. Blasting spells are quite probably dark, and if not, stupidly hard to do. If you look at the books, students never use blasting spells. They use jinxes or hexes, which are 'minor spells that are inconvenient and/or uncomfortable for the target'. He knew he was going to lose as soon as he saw them, but he didn't want to give up without trying.