Mako's Message: Hey people. Sorry it was so long since the last update. I didn't forget about this. Just having a hard time writing this story for some reason. This IS the longest chapter I've written in years though, so that's something.
I think I'll dedicate this chapter to chelseyb1010 since she was the biggest help in getting this written. she may also get the next one. When you get to the end you'll see why.
Anyway, enough of me, enjoy the story!
Oh, and sign the petition at
change dot org slash petitions slash fanfiction-net-stop-the-destruction-of-fanfiction-net
please.
Between Quidditch practices(which even had Alicia, Katie, and Angelina confidently strutting around the castle) and the homework increasing now that the teachers felt the students had a firm grasp on the basics, his quest to find Tonks, whoever she was, ground to a halt.
Not that he'd really been getting anywhere in the first place. For a school that honestly wasn't that big, it had proven frustratingly difficult to find her. He looked around anytime he heard her name mentioned, but was never able to spot her. The few times he'd actually asked the older Hufflepuff girls about her they'd just giggle and suggest he go talk to girls his own age. A couple of times though, there'd been a girl in the group who'd just grin when he asked for Tonks and say that she hadn't seen her, which the other girls always seemed to find hilarious. Something about that seemed suspicious to him, but he was probably just being paranoid.
For some reason the closer they got to Halloween the twitchier he got. By the time Halloween finally arrived he was jumping at the slightest sounds, checking closets, tapestries, and even chairs to make sure there was nothing waiting to jump out at him. When Ron asked him what was the matter at breakfast, Harry, whose eyes kept darting around the room muttered something that sounded like "Constant vigilance."
Despite all of that Harry still couldn't understand why everyone was having such a hard time with the levitation spell. They'd been practicing the swish-and-flick wand motion and the spell itself wasn't exactly difficult, "Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa". Yet very few people were getting so much as a quiver out of their feathers, though Harry did find Ron's increasingly ridiculous attempts(he was currently waving his arms, including the one not holding his wand, around like a windmill) to levitate the feather he shared with Hermione entertaining. Finally he stopped Seamus from prodding their feather with his wand("You're going to set it on fire if you keep that up."), and with a swish and flick of his wand said "Wingardium leviosa," and levitated his feather off the desk. He noticed that Hermione was looking pleased with herself and Ron was looking extremely annoyed as she levitated their feather into the air as well.
As Professor Flitwick congratulated them on being the first to manage it, an idea popped into Harry's head.
Taking careful aim, Harry flicked his wand and sent his feather shooting across the room like an arrow and straight for Hermione's. She gasped at their feathers nearly collided, and Harry turned his feather around and sent it back at hers. She quickly moved her feather out of the way as Harry's zoomed past. Before he could make another pass at it, Flitwick interrupted, "That's enough of that Mr. Potter. Any more fooling around and I'll be deducting points."
"Sorry, Professor," Harry said while looking at his shoes, then he looked up to smile at Hermione only to find her glaring back at him.
As class ended and they all filed out into the hall, Ron came up behind Harry and clapped him on the back, "Way to show her up Harry. That bossy know-it-all needed to be taken down a peg. Honestly, it's no surprise that no one can stand her."
And at that moment Hermione shoved past Harry, nearly knocking him into Ron as she hurried past them.
"Ron!" Harry snapped and glared at his friend.
"What?" He said, sounding more ashamed than he was trying to, "She must have noticed by now she doesn't have any friends."
Harry continued to glare at Ron, "I'm her friend."
Harry tried to catch up to her and apologize, but Hermione was long gone. He kicked Ron in the shin when he caught up to him.
"What was that for!" he cried, hopping on one foot and rubbing his leg.
"Hermione you git! She's probably going to spend the rest of the day crying in the bathroom because of you."
He muttered something that sounded like, "She wouldn't miss classes" as they walked off to their next lesson, but Harry was right about one thing at least. Hermione wasn't to be found for the rest of the afternoon.
"I don't understand why you're so angry about this," Ron said as he leapt out of the way of Harry's attempt to stomp on his foot after they'd walked into the Great Hall to find that Hermione was still in hiding.
"Because she's our friend!" Harry said, "At least she was trying to be, and you really hurt her feelings."
"She's got a funny way of showing it."
"Would you try to stop Draco from getting in trouble?"
"No."
"What about me?"
Ron just looked at him with a confused expression.
"Oh, never mind!" Harry said and stalked off to the table and sat down heavily.
He did have to admit that he wasn't sure why this was upsetting him so much, and decided to chalk it up to his fraying nerves. Now if only he knew why he felt like the sky was going to fall on him. It wasn't long before he got his answer.
As Harry sat, nervously bouncing his leg under the table and toying with his wand on top of it, he discovered he had no appetite what-so-ever. Neville tried talking him into eating something before Ron ate it all himself, and it was just as Harry smirked at the joke that Professor Quirell came sprinting into the hall and up to the staff table. Harry sat bolt upright as he reached the table and said, "Troll," before Quirell could even speak and bolted from the Hall.
A few people watched him run off, some even laughing about it, but he was quickly forgotten in the pandemonium that followed the announcement of a troll in the dungeons.
As the other students were being led back to their dormitories, Harry rushed to find Hermione. He wouldn't notice any of this until later, but Harry did not look anywhere for Hermione, he ran unerringly to the bathroom in which she sat crying. He threw the door open hard enough for it to bang off the wall and stepped inside, "Hermione!"
The sniffling coming from the stall at the end stopped, and after a second a slightly confused voice said, "Harry?"
Relieved, Harry let out an explosive breath, "Hermione, we've got to-"
"Harry, this is a GIRLS bathroom! Get out!"
He ran over and threw open the door to the stall she sat in. Ignoring her shriek of shock, outrage, and embaresment, he said, "We've got to go, there's a-" but as she reached for her arm she knocked his hand away.
"Honestly! Have you no manners at all? Bursting not only into a girls bathroom but just throwing open the door without even bothering to ask if I was" her tirade faltered for a moment before said, "using it." But she quickly regained her steam, "You're always flouting rules rules and showing off and I'm not having anything to do with you Harry Potter, so you can just turn right around and leave or I'll tell McGonagall about this."
Harry blinked. "Whatever," She obviously didn't understand the situation, "tell her whatever you want but let's GO!" And he reached out and grabbed a fistful of her robes and yanked her to her feet and started to pull her out of the stall.
This only served to outrage Hermione even more. "Let GO of me! I'm not going ANYWHERE with you!" she cried as she dug in her heals and grabbed for the door frame.
"Hermione! This is an emergency there's a-" again Hermione interrupted him, but this time it was by screaming in fear.
Harry whipped his head around to find a troll that was easily twelve feet tall, staring at them, it's eyes wide in surprise. Then it squinted at them, grunted, and raised it's club.
Harry shoved himself and Hermione apart just before the club came down, cratering the floor right where they had been standing. Hermione continued to scream, which kept the troll's attention on her. As he raised it's club again, realizing that Hermione was not going to move on her own, Harry dove in front of her, pointed his wand and shouted, "Wingardiumleviosa!"
The troll's great fist swung down. The club did not.
Hermione, who had been cringing in fear, peaked out from behind her arms in confusion, while the troll looked uncomprehendingly at it's clubless hand. After a moment, it looked up towards where it last knew it had had the club, and found it hovering over his shoulder. Harry, who's heart had finally calmed down to a level below "reflexive panic" and he was able think again, quickly moved the club away just as the troll made a grab for it.
Then, with a flick of his wrist, Harry sent the club rocketing across the bathroom, impacting the trolls head with a crack that echoed like thunder in the high ceilinged room and leaving it momentarily teetering on one leg before crashing to the floor, crushing two stalls in the process.
It was then that Ron came running in, followed closely by Percy and Professor McGonagall.
They stopped and stared. "Bloody hell!" Ron gasped.
"Weasley! Language!"
"Sorry Professor."
McGonagall stepped forward, "Would either of you like to explain what happened here, as well as why neither of you went to your dormitories as instructed?"
"Hermione didn't know about troll," Harry answered quickly, "She wasn't at the feast, so when I heard about the troll I knew I had to go tell her."
"And why did you have to do this personally, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked, "Why couldn't you have told a prefect that Miss Granger was missing? Or one of your Professors? Like Mr. Weasley did?"
"I...uh..." Harry had no answer to that. As soon as he knew about the troll he'd acted without thought. "I don't know, Professor," he said, staring at the floor, "I just knew Hermione was in trouble and I had to save her."
"Honestly. Of all the reckless, dangerous things to-"
"Please Professor," Hermione interrupted, "There wouldn't have been any time. Harry just barely got here in time. If he'd waited to tell a teacher..." Hermione bit her lip as she looked down at the hole in the floor.
McGonagall pressed her lips tightly together, "Be that as it may, you both could have been killed. Honestly, two first years against a fully grown mountain troll? I don't know how you managed it."
"Harry used a levitation spell to hit it with it's own club," Hermione said, with a quick glance at Harry and a faint blush on her cheeks.
"Indeed?" McGonagall's eyebrows raised a bit. "Creative. However, for the reckless endangerment of yourself and Miss Granger I deduct twenty points. I will grant you five points for creative use of a levitation charm though, and another five for the concern and bravery you showed in regards to Miss Grangers safety." Then she turned to Ron, "And for alerting a prefect and myself to the situation, Mr. Weasely, I award you fifteen points."
Ron looked awkwardly around the room, looking like he wasn't sure if he should be happy or embarrassed. It seemed he made up his mind after Percy smiled and patted him on the shoulder and his face flushed a bright red.
"Now, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall addressed Percy, "Please take them back to your common room."
"Of course Professor."
As Percy led them through the halls, back to Gryffindor tower, he commended Ron, "It was very good of you to come to me of course. If Harry had told me that Hermione was missing in the first place instead of running off, Professor McGonagall and I could have gotten there before there was any danger and we could have avoided loosing any points at all."
Ron meanwhile, look too embarrassed to speak, and Harry didn't blame him. He was quite sure that Fred and George would never let him hear the end of how he'd run to a Prefect for help, let alone that he'd gone to Percy of all people.
Hermione, on the other hand, was confusing to Harry. She was acting...shy. Normally the girl would never hesitate to tell them what she thought about anything, but not she was almost refusing to even look at Harry, and when he did manage to catch her eye she blushed and quickly turned away.
.oOo.
Harry felt more at home at Hogwarts than ever over the next few weeks. Ron and Hermione were with him almost all the time, and Ron was making an effort to be nicer to Hermione. Though whether it was out of guilt for making her run off on Halloween, or because of Harry's anger at him hurting her feelings Harry didn't know.
Hermione, for her part, was being far less bossy and had relaxed a bit in regards to rule breaking. She now spent her time trying to make sure that they didn't get caught, rather than trying to stop them. She also helped them with their homework, though she refused to let Ron copy her work.
Neville also started spending more time with them, after seeing how Hermione's help had improved Harry and Ron's marks. He liked hanging out with just Ron and Hermione best, Harry didn't mind. Neville could use all the help he could get, after all, and if he was honest he kind of liked the extra company. Just not all the time.
Neville's occasional pressence in their group did make him feel like there was something missing. How this turned into him asking if Ron had been writing to his sister he wasn't sure.
Quidditch season was also approaching, and his friends presence at the practices kept his spirits up, despite the rapidly dropping temperatures. They were the only ones allowed anywhere near their practice sessions though, as they wanted to make sure that the other teams were completely unprepared for Harry. In fact, the only reason Ron and Hermione were allowed at the pitch at all was Hermione's talent for creating bottled fire which was much appreciated by the rest of the team.
After seeing Harry fly though, Ron and Hermione didn't think it'd be possible for them to be prepared for Harry even if they watched every practice and took notes.
.oOo.
The first match of the season didn't go as smoothly as everyone expected however.
The Gryffindor Chasers easily outmatched the Slytherin's in skill, but the Slytherin team's tendency to play light and fast with the rules left them trailing. Snitch was also being highly evasive, neither Seeker catching a glimpse of it for several minutes. When it did finally make an appearance, it was almost too easy. Harry's broom was much faster than his opponents, which forced Flint to try and block him. But Harry was a far better flier than Flint gave him credit for and he simply corkscrewed around him and snatched the snitch.
Harry drifted slowly over to Flint, who seemed to be trying to burst a blood vessel in his head, holding the snitch between his forfinger and thumb and said, "Ya know, you should put Malfoy on your team. Then these matches might actually be interesting," Then he grinned and flew down to where his team was already celebrating.
And that was when his broom suddenly, and without reason, accelerated and dipped sharply, ploughing into the dirt and sending Harry tumbling head over heals across the pitch.
.oOo.
When Harry's eyes opened again, it was dark his whole body ached, and he was in the hospital wing. He sat up and looked around for a moment then flopped back onto the bed and tried to sleep again.
I didn't even make it until the end of the year.
.oOo.
The next morning he woke up feeling much better and he suspected that whatever Madame Pomfrey had given him had finished doing whatever it was it was supposed to do.
Madame Pomfrey noticed he was up almost instantly, and came over to check on him, lighting the tip of her wand and having him follow the light with his eyes, "That was quite a nasty spill you took Mr. Potter. That's exactly the sort of thing we try to prevent by not allowing first years their own brooms, you know."
"It wasn't my fault." he murmered, his throat very dry.
"I'm sure it wasn't."
"So you didn't taunt Flint after catching the snitch, causing him to hex you?"
"I..." what? "Flint did it?"
"Well, if he didn't he was going to. He had his wand drawn. The Heads of Houses are still investigating."
"How long was I out?"
"Oh, only a few hours. The match was yesterday."
Harry grunted, "Good. I was afraid I'd been out for days."
"I assure you it would take something far more severe than crashing a broomstick to put you out of commission for days under my watch Potter. You should be fine now, and you may go down to breakfast if you wish."
As Harry got to his feet he asked, "Is my broom okay?"
Madame Pomfrey turned and said, "I assure you I don't know. You'll have to take that up with Professors McGonagall and Flitwick."
On his way down to great hall, he ran into Ron and Hermione. "Oy. Great to see you're up and about mate," Ron said, clapping him on the shoulder.
"We were bringing you breakfast," Hermione said, holding up a plate of toast.
Harry smiled gratefully, "Thanks. You two are the greatest. Do you mind if we eat in the common room? I'd rather not see anyone."
"You know nobody thinks you did that on your own, right?" Hermione asked.
"Still."
The common room was empty, and Harry was able to eat in peace. More or less.
"Harry!" cried one of the twins as he came back through the portrait hole.
"Glad to see you up and about mate," the other said.
"I'd steer clear of wood though."
"He'll be so happy to see you alive he just might hug you hard enough to put you back in the hospital."
"Do you know what happened to my broom?"
The twins shook their heads, "Sorry. Nobody's sure who hexed-"
"-or jinxed-"
"-you. McGonnagal and Flitwick are still examining your broom."
"Snape and Dubledore questioned the Slytherin team."
Harry caught the quick glance Ron and Hermione shot each other, and he had a feeling he knew what they were thinking. "But my broom is in one piece, right?"
"Oh. Yeah," The twins waved it off, "It's fine. Assuming it wasn't cursed, you should have it back soon. And even if it was I'm sure Mcgonagall wouldn't have any trouble getting you another after how easily you caught the snitch."
Harry grinned, "Well, the broom did most of the work. If it ever comes down to a race I'll win without a problem." Then he shrugged, "At least until the 2001's come out."
The Weasley's laughed. "A Nimbus 2001? Be serious. When they come out with another nimbus they wouldn't call it the '2001'.
"Yeah, it'd be the '3000' or something like that."
"And the Nimbus 2000 just came out. They wont have a better broom ready for years.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Harry muttered into his toast.
After the twins had left and it was just the three of them again, "Okay, so, what was that glance about earlier?"
His two friends looked at each other for a moment before Ron said, "We think it was Snape."
Harry could immediately see why they'd think that, but he was still sure that, "It wasn't him."
The two of them stared at Harry in shock, "What?"
Harry shrugged, "He may be a greasy git but he's still a teacher. He's not going to try and kill me."
There was a moment of silence during which Harry got the impression that neither of his friends had considered that what had happened to him might have been attempted murder.
Then Hermione continued on, "But Harry, I saw him. Snape was staring at you and muttering something under his breath just before you lost control of your broom. I'm sure he did it!"
Harry shook his head, "I believe you saw him do that Hermione, but if he was cursing me I'm sure it was the muggle kind. I mean, why would he even want to hurt me badly enough that he'd try something like that in front of everyone? Because I beat his team? Surely he couldn't be that petty."
Ron's expression seemed to say that he did think Snape could be that petty.
.oOo.
Harry managed to get through the rest of the day by simply ignoring the alternating cheers for his quick catch of the snitch and the taunting for his last second crash(most of which came the Slytherins).
After his last class he sought out Professor McGonagall to ask about his broom.
"It hasn't been tampered with, as far as we can tell Mr. Potter," she said "It'll be fine for you to ride during your next practice."
"Uh," Harry said, "I was actually hoping I could have it now."
McGonagall looked at him sharply, "Whatever for? Surely you don't want to ride it now. You only got out of the hospital wing this morning."
But that was exactly what he wanted, "Well, you said it was fine, so I don't think we need to worry about it crashing itself, and I'd like to know if the broom was damaged in the crash, since if it was I'll need to get used to a different broom as soon as possible."
McGonagall did not look pleased, but his logic and her own desire to win the Quidditch cup won out in the end and she returned his broom.
He immediately left the castle for the pitch, without speaking to anyone. He hadn't mentioned it to McGonagall, but even though he felt fine now, he wanted to make sure he could still fly without freezing up, or fear of getting too close to the ground.
And it turned out he couldn't.
Until that day he'd been able to skim the ground low enough to feel his toes brush the grass, but now every time he tried to dive he kept pulling up and leveling out at about ten feet off the ground. That just wouldn't do.
So he kept trying. He'd fly as high as he could, and he'd dive as fast and as hard as he could, doing his best to force himself not to pull up. He knew he could do this. He HAD done this. He just needed to beat his own subconcious.
He finally decided to call it quits for the day after he'd managed to drop his minimum flight height to a mere five feet. Still not good enough, but an improvement.
He did a few lazy laps around the pitch to relax before going in, and that was when he noticed the girl sitting in the stands watching him. He didn't know when she'd arrived and despite her looking to be about his own age he didn't recognize her.
He landed at the bottom of the stands, intending to talk to her, and it seemed she had the same thought as she was already heading down the steps towards him.
"That was some pretty impressive flying," she said, as soon as they were close enough to hear each other clearly. "Ya know, aside from the whole not-being-able-to-get-near-the-ground pa-AAAHH!" she cried as she tripped on her robes, and fell forward, crashing into Harry and knocking them both down the steps and fortunately landing on the soft grass pitch. The landing was probably softer for the girl though, as she landed firmly on top of Harry.
His face was smashed by her chest, but still he managed to say, "Hello, Tonks."