Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any elements belonging to the Harry Potter series. All Harry Potter related content is the sole property of J.K. Rowling. Any OCs and unfamiliar concepts are mine.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, to those of you who enjoyed the previous one and thank you for coming back to read. Please, if you find the time, review and tell me what you think. To those who have added this story to their favorites/alerts, thank you.

Chapter Ten: The Horror That is Quidditch

Harry had filled Ron and Hermione in on what Mira had told him. They had been surprised to hear that there could be someone else from Mira's world nearby, but they had been stunned at the idea of them helping Black. When Hermione had asked how Mira knew, Harry had had to tell her and Ron that Mira knew someone, a friend, with the ability to manipulate the earth. Unfortunately, this led to Hermione questioning Harry on why they had those abilities and what they were used for. Harry remembered Hermione asking Mira the same thing, and he had been the one to save her from having to answer. Now, however, Mira was not with them, and Harry didn't know what else to do. So he told his friends the truth.

They had, quite understandably, been skeptical at first, not willing to believe that a world with demons existed. They couldn't see Mira, the strange but generally nice girl, the girl who struggled with magic and didn't seem very strong at all, fighting dangerous monsters. It seemed ridiculous, but to Mira, the existence of Witches and Wizards had seemed ridiculous as well.

"But why didn't she tell us?" Hermione asked, once she had gotten over the initial shock.

"Well, I can't imagine it's a pleasant topic for her to discuss," Ron pointed out. "I mean, Harry said she kills demons. That's not something you chat about over a cup of tea, is it?"

Hermione sent him a withering look, but didn't say anything.

"Maybe she was worried about how people would react," Harry suggested. "She said not a lot of people had special abilities in her world. If it's that uncommon then I don't think she goes around telling people about it."

"So she could just be used to not telling others for fear of how they would react," Hermione commented with understanding.

"Do you think she's told Dumbledore and the other teachers?" asked Ron.

"She probably told Dumbledore, since he's helping her get back home," Harry said. "I don't think all the teachers know. She said only a few were told, probably McGonagall. I doubt they know everything, though or McGonagall wouldn't think she's not strong enough to help."

Ron and Hermione agreed on that.

But I don't understand," Hermione began after a while. "If it's her friend that's here, why is he helping Black?"

"Who knows," Harry answered honestly. "I asked her the same thing, but even she didn't know. I don't think she expected her friend to start working with Black."

Harry couldn't see anyone who Mira could consider a friend helping the convict, but then, they didn't really know Mira that well.

Harry couldn't really worry too much about what his strange guard had told him, not when Gryffindor's first Quidditch match was fast approaching. To their misfortune, Slytherin had managed to get out of playing in the terrible weather they had been experiencing. Their excuse was that Malfoy was still dealing with the trauma of Buckbeak's attack. Everyone knew that wasn't true, but there was nothing to be done. The Gryffindor team had been forced to try to adjust to the change of opponent as they would now be playing against Hufflepuff.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Harry had walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts one day to find Snape in place of Lupin. Not unexpectedly, class has ended with Ron getting a detention and Mira losing them twenty-five points. Personally, Harry thought it could have been a lot worse. Everyone in the class was in a foul mood for the remainder of the day.

The next morning did nothing to raise their spirits. It was gray and dreary, with howling winds and a torrential rain that would not stop. Frankly, Harry was not looking forward to going out in that weather to play Quidditch, but he had no choice. Mira had looked at him like he was crazy when he informed her that he would still be playing. For a moment, he thought she would try to argue, but she seemed to know he wouldn't change his mind and finally settled on simply claiming wizards were insane. Harry thought she might be right, especially when he walked out onto the pitch, staggering forward due to the strong winds. He hoped Mira wouldn't have a panic attack at the sight of her charge playing a dangerous game in such bad weather.

Down on the ground, Mira was, in fact, slightly panicking. She had never seen an actual game of Quidditch, just the practices, and that was enough to show just how dangerous the game really was. Hermione, who was with her along with Ron, thought it was a good thing Gryffindor was playing Hufflepuff in place of Slytherin. Those matches could grow to be pretty brutal.

"How long it last?" Mira asked Hermione, while holding her cloak tightly around her.

"Until the snitch is caught," Hermione answered.

Mira frowned, seemingly displeased to hear that.

"But it so hard to see. The snitch so small and fast."

Hermione thought that was a good point. She couldn't remember there ever being a match in such bad weather. If the seekers couldn't see the snitch due to the darkening skies and thick rain, the game could take a while. Still, she had faith in Harry. He was, after all, the youngest seeker in a century.

"Don't worry, Harry's very good. I'm sure he'll catch the snitch soon to get out of this horrid weather," she told Mira with a smile.

Mira didn't seem convinced, and not long after, Hermione was starting to worry. It was clear that the players were having trouble holding onto their brooms due to the harsh rain. The strong winds also made it difficult to keep on course and the sky was growing darker by the minute.

"Hermione," Mira called over the roaring of the rain. "Harry wears glasses, so it be hard to see in rain, right?"

Hermione blinked and then slapped her forehead lightly.

"Of course, no wonder he can't find the snitch. The rain must be making it impossible to see past an inch," she realized.

Fortunately, Wood called a time out not long after, and Hermione jumped at the chance to help her friend. Ron and Mira watched as she hurried over to the Gryffindor team. A moment later, she was back, a large grin on her face.

"What did you do?" Ron asked.

"I cast Impervious, a water repelling charm, on Harry's glasses," she explained. "It should make it a lot easier for him to see now. Hopefully, he'll catch the snitch soon."

"Hermione, that's brilliant!" Ron grinned.

The young witch beamed at the praise, her cheeks coloring slightly.

The game resumed soon after, and there was a definite improvement in Harry's flying. For one thing, he no longer kept giving Mira near heart attacks by narrowly missing bludgers. He seemed a lot ore focused as well, now that he could see. But then, for some strange reason, Harry stopped.

For a moment, Ron, Hermione and Mira had thought that their friend had seen the snitch. A second later though, the crowd called their attention to where Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff seeker, was shooting through the field and towards a tiny speck of gold that was barely visible in the rain. Apparently, Harry had finally noticed this too and, not long after, he was off, pushing his broom to go as fast as it could in an attempt to beat Cedric.

However, before he could get too far, a sense of dread seemed to hit a large part of the crowd, the air growing colder that before. Mira was confused for a moment, until Hermione pointed to the cause of the sudden change in atmosphere.

Gathering in the Quidditch pitch were about a hundred dementors, their black cloaks waving slightly in an eerie fashion. Their hooded faces were pointing up, all of them focused on the players above, and Harry wasn't faring so well with the sudden attention.

The crowd watched in horror as his broomstick slowed slightly, moving off course, its rider going limp and then falling. Harry plummeted to the ground fifty feet below, looking deathly pale even from afar. Thankfully, Dumbledore was already in action, even before Mira could act. His spell slowed Harry and he landed with a lot less force, though still rather badly. It was a very good thing that it had rained so much, for the ground had softened , lessening the impact. Everyone watched as, furious, Dumbledore drove the dementors out of the field before turning his attention back to Harry. The young wizard was taken away in a conjured stretcher.

"Come on," Hermione said, pulling her other two friends along.

They weren't allowed in the hospital wing until Harry had been treated and lay resting on a bed. Even though Madam Pomfrey had said he would be fine after some rest they couldn't help but worry. As he lay on the clean, warm bed, Harry seemed very pale and tired. It was strange to see him like that after all he had been through. Not long after, the Gryffindor Quidditch team showed up, all covered in mud and looking very worried. Even though they were just as soaked as Ron Hermione and Mira, they seemed more concerned with their seeker's health.

"How's Harry?" and anxious looking Alicia Spinnet asked.

"Madam Pomfrey said he'll be fine, he just needs to rest a while," answered Hermione.

The team seemed a bit more at ease after hearing that, though they would only be relieved when Harry woke up. They didn't talk much after that, until Professor Flitwick showed up with a bag. They all winced when they heard it contained the splintered remains of Harry's beloved bloom. Apparently, it had had an unfortunate encounter with the Whomping Willow.

"Oh, Harry will be so upset," Hermione said worriedly.

"He'll be even more upset when he hears about the match," Ron added with a grimace.

It really was a shame that they would have nothing but bad news when Harry woke up. Mira, however, didn't care about broomsticks or lost matches. Sure, she felt bad, knowing how important those things were to Harry, but she was just a lot more relieved to know he was fine. It had been a very close call, after all. She didn't even want to think about what would have happened if Dumbledore hadn't been so quick to act.

Then, there was the guilt she felt for not having been able to help. Truthfully, she didn't know what she could have done. Dumbledore had told her to try to avoid using her own natural abilities after the incident with Malfoy and Buckbeak. While the headmaster was glad his student had not been injured, he did not want the rest of the school to suspect Mira of being anything else but a student. He had suggested she try to use magic the next time she ran into a similar problem. The issue with that was, she wasn't very proficient with magic yet. She just wasn't very reliable with a wand.

"Harry!" Fred exclaimed, and everyone looked down at the young wizard on the bed. "How're you feeling?"

Harry was finally awake, though he did seem rather dazed. Then again, Mira supposed she would feel the same if she had just fallen fifty feet through the air and onto the ground. He looked at them all for a moment, and then it looked like he was trying to make sense of the situation.

"What happened?" he asked, suddenly sitting up/

"You fell off," Fred said, and everyone began to explain to Harry all that had transpired.

Breaking the news of the team's loss was bad enough, but it was telling Harry what had happened to his Nimbus that proved to be the real challenge. It was clear that, once the shock had worn off, Harry was quite upset. With a grim expression, he looked into the bag containing the remains of his broom. It was not long after that Madam Pomfrey chased them out of the hospital wing.

Harry had been forced to spend the rest of the weekend in the hospital wing. Hagrid, Ginny Weasley and the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team(who had dragged a depressed looking Oliver Wood along) visited Harry during that time. He was very grateful to them, but he wished they didn't try to cheer him up. He was certain that nothing would make him feel better about the loss of his faithful broomstick.

Ron, Hermione and Mira ha remained by his side for most of the time. Harry's unusual guard had looked pretty bad. She seemed even more tired than the last time he had seem her and would constantly yawn. Neither Harry nor Hermione missed her constant sniffling either, and it had been around lunchtime on Sunday that they had finally grown tired of it all. Madam Pomfrey had been made aware of Mira's decline in health and a few potions had been practically forced down the girl's throat not long after. She was now sleeping in a bed next to Harry's, even though she had insisted she didn't need the rest. Harry had only snorted in amusement when she had fallen asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

Ron and Hermione had left for dinner and had not returned, something Harry suspected had to do with Madam Pomfrey. Most likely, the witch had told them he needed his rest. In a way, he was glad for the bit of time on his own. There were a lot of things he was preoccupied with at the moment. First, there was the Grim, which kept appearing before him. Harry had noticed that each time he saw the so-called omen of death, he came very close to proving the rumors true. Then, there were the dementors, which seemed to haunt him just as much as the Grim. Now, though, he knew who it was that he heard screaming and it was not something he was happy to find out.

If he didn't dislike the creatures before, now he had a good reason. It was not a pleasant thing to be forced to hear one's own mother begging for mercy every time a dementor was near. With this new knowledge, it was very difficult for Harry to rest. He tossed and turned, trying to dispel any thought of dementors and his mother's last moments from his mind.

"...Harry..." he heard someone call him.

"...-ke up..."

There was someone calling him, but he couldn't shake away the sleep he was in.

"Harry!"

He felt someone shake him slightly, and, finally, he awoke. Harry sat up groggily, and felt around for his glasses. They were handed to him a moment later, but the dark room still made it hard to see until his eyes adjusted. He could still make out the shape of someone standing next to his bed.

"You okay?"

Harry knew that voice, it was hard to mistake the accent.

"Mira?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered in a quiet voice. Harry supposed she didn't want Madam Pomfrey to show up. "You okay?" she asked once more.

"Yeah," Harry said. "What happened?"

"You had bad dream, so I wake you," she explained.

"Oh - er, thanks," Harry muttered awkwardly. He had never liked to have others knowing about his nightmares.

"What are you doing here?"

"I fall asleep and stayed here, just woke up," Mira said with a sigh, not sounding very happy at all.

"Well, you did kind of need the sleep," Harry pointed out.

He thought he heard an indignant huff.

"I fine, potion make me sleep," Mira defended.

Harry was now able to see more clearly, and watched as she grabbed her scarf and wand.

"Where are you going?"

Mira stopped and looked over at him.

"I go for walk. Too much time in bed and I still guard. Maybe patrol castle for a bit," she said thoughtfully.

"Isn't it late for that? You should really go back to bed, we have classes tomorrow," Harry told her.

However, Mira only waved her hand dismissively.

"It okay, I feel fine, but I go back to dorm later for some sleep," she said, adding the last part to appease Harry.

"Fine, just don't get caught by Filch," Harry muttered, lying back on the bed. "He'd love to hang you by your ankles for being up so late."

Mira just grinned, having heard the stories about old Filch. While she found him rather unpleasant, she thought it was amusing, the way he wouldn't give up on his attempts to bring back the old punishments.

"I keep that in mind," she said. "Try to sleep well."

Harry heard her take a few steps and then the room was quiet for a moment. It was only the faint sound of the door shutting softly that told him she was gone. Now alone, Harry returned to a fitful sleep.

It wasn't very late at all when Mira left the hospital wing, at least not to her. Curfew had begin not long before and she had always thought it started awfully early. To be honest, she was very happy to have some time to herself. As nice as the other students were, it all got a bit overwhelming after a while. Mira was fascinated by magic, even though she wasn't very good at it. The classes were interesting for the most part, and the people were very welcoming, but even with all this, there were many things bothering her at the moment.

First, there was the whole business with Black. If Mira were to be honest with herself, she would admit that she hadn't been too concerned with the escaped prisoner at first, not when Hogwarts was said to be all but impenetrable. That, of course, had changed after Halloween. A lot of things had changed after that night.

There was now, for one, the possibility of her not being alone after all. After months thinking that she was on her own, that none of her friends were there to help her, that maybe she wouldn't see them any time soon or at all, she now knew that was wrong. Someone from her world had crossed over and, if that someone was the person she had in mind, then maybe she wasn't so alone. If her partner was really in the Wizarding world, then she was sure they would be able to find a way back home.]

Of course, first she had to figure out why he was helping Black, if he was. As much as she thought about it, she still couldn't figure it out. Why would her partner help a murderer? Even if he didn't know who Black was, he was never one to trust others with ease. He was smart and a good judge of character, fluent in English and clever enough to know when he was being lied to. She couldn't imagine what would make him trust an escaped convict, because she knew Black didn't really look the part of an innocent man. She had seen the photos of him, after all. Mira would have to think of that later. At the moment, she would focus on keeping Harry alive.

If only she could get him to stay on the ground.

There you have it, the latest chapter. I had it ready, all I needed was to type it up, but I had a sudden bout of the flu and than kind of kept me away. Anyway, please review if you have the chance, I'd really love that. To those who have added me to their lists, thank you very much.

Next chapter, we'll see what Dumbledore's come up with, because he's supposed to be helping Mira get back home. I have about half of the chapter written up, maybe more, I just need to type it. Hopefully, that will be interesting and things are going to change up soon. Until next time!