The early morning sun crept through the thick crimson curtains shedding light on Harry's immobile body. In a very sleepy manner, Harry turned away from the intruding light and attempted to fall back asleep. What did he have to wake up to anyway? He practically lost all his friends and on top of that he had to bear Quidditch practice with both Ginny and Ron later on that night! Harry sighed and rolled onto his other side. "What time is it anyway?" Harry asked aloud.
"Talking to yourself now are you?" Ron sneered as he walked past Harry's four-poster. He had his towel wrapped carefully around his slim waist, obviously on his way to take a quick shower. Harry rolled his eyes as he called out, "I get it! You hate me. But you still have to come to practice tonight." Ron threw him a dirty look before turning away. Harry could have sworn he heard Ron mumble "git" as he walked out of the dormitory.
Maybe with a bit more effort, Harry thought to himself, I could fall back asleep and never wake up.
Another typical day at Hogwarts, another night of dreams. Which was part of the reason why Harry's thoughts centered around Draco Malfoy. "Who is he to invade my sleep?" Harry cursed internally.
Cloudy eyes combined with dancing flames that eventually grew to consume himself. He'd suddenly find himself alone in a meadow, verdant hills, refulgent in the light of the sunset. He'd look to his side and see Malfoy standing beside him, where a second ago, no one stood. He'd look down and see his hand within the grasp of Malfoy's warm one, and he'd look up to see a sky sprinkled with billions of stars.
These dreams were lasting longer and longer and Harry couldn't understand why.
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"Alright guys, today we're going to go over some new plays I drew up."
Harry handed out a piece of worn parchment to each team member. Curiosity, obvious on the faces of everyone that stared down at the parchment before them.
"What exactly is this?" asked Ginny as she indifferently brushed a stray hair behind her ear. Harry directed his some-what irritated gaze to the red head. He let out a sigh and began to go over the details of the new Quidditch play.
"Basically it's a new approach to defense that not only protects the Keeper, but leaves the Chasers, from the other team of course, unprotected," Harry concluded with a blatant self-satisfaction. A couple of team members applauded enthusiastically or clapped Harry roughly on the back. With the first game of the season fast approaching, the Gryffindor team clung to the hope of Harry delivering them yet another House Cup.
After a few minutes of excited chatter, Harry blew his whistle and had the team perform several drills before tackling the new play.
"Ron, watch out!" Harry yelled. He barely saw the quaffle as it flew through the air towards Ron's unguarded abdomen. It was moving at an impossible speed, like a bullet aimed for a kill.
Ron tried to respond as quickly as he could, but it was inevitable and before he could move out of the way, he was falling. Harry quickly recited a spell to cushion the fall.
In the meantime, Ginny sat frozen on her broomstick, a slightly troubled look on her face. The team surrounded Ron trying to bring him back into consciousness and as soon as he came around, Ginny let out a soft chuckle.
