Chapter 14: Mostly Just Finals
Harry sprinted to the locker room and quickly tried to get his robes on. He was late for the match, and Wood looked about ready to murder him outside. He took this game a little too seriously. Well, Gryffindor was playing Slytherin so was understandable. Luckly news hadn't spread about Harry's recent offer, otherwise, Wood would have... wait let the train of thought stop there.
Walking out of the locker room, Harry found Fred and George waiting for him. Fred had a piece of parchment in his hand. Harry instantly recognize it, but didn't say anything.
"Hey Gred, Forge. We got to get out there before Wood murders us!"
"Wait up there Harrikins! We just wanted to thank you for giving us a bit of fun there towards the end of the year. Though you were nothing compared to us, your the first one in a long time to even bother coming at us."
"Wow there, don't count Ron and I out yet. We only called a peace treaty, thats a draw."
"Call it what you will Harrikins! Anyways, for your valient efforts, Fred and I have elected that you should recieve... This!" said the twins as Fred thrusts out his piece of parchment.
Harry raised his eyebrow in fake suspicion, "A piece of parchement?"
Fred and George laughed and explained to Harry the wonders of the Marauder's map. The single piece of parchment that saved his skin many times over the years. Harry thanked them and put it away before heading out onto the pitch.
Gryffindor looked slightly outclassed. Every person on the opposing team was outfitted with the Nimbus 2001, giving every chaser a clear advantage in terms of top speed. However, Gryffindor had better chasers hands down, so it didn't matter what broom they used, as they made any broom ride like a Firebolt. Okay, almost like a firebolt, but you get the gist of it.
Harry turn towards Malfoy. He was looking at Harry smugly, believing he was going to win because of his shiney new broom. Harry sighed, there were reasons why professionals did not buy that Nimbus model when it came out. It had a bit too much drag, though it still was faster. This was dangerous on the pitch, but Malfoy didn't need to know that. Suddenly, an idea flashed across his mind. Harry grin as Harry call out to Malfoy.
"Hey, Malfoy!" Harry yelled across the pitch. The blond haired boy turned to face me.
"What do you want Potter!"
"I finally got a print of those pictures from Collin, I was wondering if I could get your address so I could send your dad some. I'm sure he'd love to see them!"
Malfoy turned red, at first from embarrassment, and them from anger. He knew Harry was referencing his performance over dinner a while ago. Harry find himself playing that song over again in his head. Never gets old. Never gets old. Though now Malfoy was ticked, not that that was a bad thing.
Soon, the Quaffle is in the air and the game is go. Harry flew up and looked around for the snitch. The match was probably going to be child's play, unless Malfoy got really lucky. Theres not much one can do then, besides shout "SQUIRREL!" and hope they look in the direction your pointing.
Harry waited there, for a while, just lazily moving to and fro on the field. Harry kept Malfoy in the corner of his eye, but Harry doubted he could actually spot the snitch before him. The problem was if Harry saw it near him and the two both made a break for it cause he sees Harry going. Meh, like that will happen.
Harry go a bit lower, and look towards the ground. Unknown to many, it is sometimes easier to spot the snitch by looking for its shadow, and also the light that reflects off the snitch and onto the ground. And sure enough, Harry found it.
Near Malfoy.
Instincts too over as Harry darted for the snitch. Though debatable, Harry saw this as a mistake in hindsight, as Malfoy saw him go for something so he shot off in the same direction and saw the snitch.
Harry had a good headstart and was ahead of Draco, but the boy's broom worked its magic and within seconds Draco was barely infront of him, on the home stretch for the snitch. Harry made a quick decision and purposefully went directly behind Draco, into his slipstream as the blonde boy tried to hit his top speed. Just as he was about to grab the snitch, it made a sharp turn. Draco, due to his speed, had to make the turn wide. Harry cut out of the slipstream and turned sharp, accelerating out of it as Harry bulleted towards the snitch, which Harry grabbed out of midair.
The crowd went silent for a couple seconds before erupting in a cheer. Harry held the snitch high as Harry descended to the ground. Another game well played and another win.
Gryffindor, of course, held their heads high for the coming week. Unfortunately, with the conclusion of the Quidditch cup, finals were just around the corner, and no matter how much he had improved his grades over the course of the year, Herminone still pulled him and Ron by the ear to study. Harry almost felt sorry for her as she didn't seem to realize that grades don't matter at all until OWL and NEWT exams. Oh well.
Thus, Harry found himself in a library, going over the same material for what seemed to be the billionth time. Ron looked in a stupor from what seemed to be information overload, and Hermione was busily scribbling something, like she had been for the past hour. Finally Harry had enough.
SLAM!
Harry slammed his hand down on the table and dragged a half conscious Ron and a kicking Hermione out of the library. It was for their own good.
As soon as the exited, Herminone looked at him crossly, and gave him the look that read, "Explain yourself!"
Ron looked like he had regained full awarness now that he was out of the library. He dropped to his knees, "Thank god! We're finally out of there!"
Harry sweatdropped and then explained, "Its high time for a break, we've been in there FOREVER! We need to do something else or Ron's brain will turn to slush!"
Ron vigorously nodded, not caring that he was being used as an excuse.
Herminoe sighed before finally giving in, "Fine, what do you want to do?"
Harry shrugged and that made Herminoe pause and give him a strange look.
"What! Things usually happen to me, so I don't have to look for stuff to do!" was Harry's response.
As if on cue, Neville came sprinting down the coridor, crashing into me, sending them both onto the floor. Harry looked over to Hermione, "See what I mean?"
Harry got himself off of the floor and helped Neville up while he as at it.
"So whats up Neville?"
"Erm, nothing much. Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."
"No problem. Where were you headed to in such a rush?" Harry replied.
Neville sent a furtive glace in the direction he had been going. "Well, I was working on something the herbology professor had given me, since I have a bit of a green thumb, but it was acting up lately, so I've been making sure to check on it during the day."
"Cool... Mind if we come with you?" Harry asked, hoping to get away from his current state. Hermione sighed and went along with it, and Ron... well was being Ron.
"What is it?" asked Ron, not too tactfully, while they were walking out to the greenhouse.
"Well, I was cross breeding these two plants. One was like a venus flytrap, and the other was, something else I don't know what. But I've been getting very intresting results!"
"And Sprouts just lets you conduct these expirements alone?" asked Herminoe.
"She said I had a knack for herbology and it would be a shame to waste a curious mind. Ah, here we are!" said Neville as he opened the door.
Knowing his luck, Harry was expecting the worst. And his intuition didn't fail him. As soon as the door opened, Harry saw a blur heading towards him, and Harry ducked, though Ron wasn't so lucky. Neville closed the door quickly, obviously just as confused as we were. The crew turned to Ron, and found that he was covered in some kind of sticky jelly. Hermione had a look of concern on her face for him.
"Ahh, gross. What the hell was that!"
Look of concern gone.
As Ron got up, he made another strange off hand comment, "Actually this stuff smells sweet. Kinda like the inside of jelly beans. This is weird."
Harry looked back at the green house door, and motioned for Neville to open it and the four dashed in quickly, another wad of jelly hitting where they were seconds ago. From behind the table we hid, Harry could see Neville's creation. It reminded him of a video game, with a certain plumber. It looked like a vicious version of a venus fly trap. A pot fell on the other side of the room and the demented flower made a strange noise.
Dooooowap!
And then spit out a wad of jelly gunk directly at the fallen object at high velocity. Harry chuckled for a second. Harry had no idea why but the current situation was hilarious in retrospect. Harry turned to Neville.
"Did you see that one coming?"
"Honestly, no. Though now I'm terrified out of my wits. Can we go get the professor now?"
"No! We're already in here, besides, its not that dangerous." replied Ron.
"...its a carnivorous plant Ronald. OFCOURSE its dangerous!" said Hermione.
Harry rolled his eyes. Well, no year was complete without some action. Harry readied his wand, and before anyone could stop me, Harry dived out from behind the table and launched a cutter curse before rolling behind the adjacent table. The head of the plant was lopped off and was sent onto the ground, oozing green fluid.
"Nice one!" shouted out Ron.
Then the plant grew two more 'heads', and it seemed that the plant was almost part hydra or something.
"Not so nice one.." said Ron, ducking behind cover.
"Careful! Its fragile!" shouted out Neville.
Harry sent him a cross look. Hermione seemed to have regained her calmness and turned to Neville.
"What exactly did you use to make that!"
"Uhm, I don't remember exactly. But it was a hybrid plant that I already found in professor Sprouts lab that was lying dormant and almost dead, and some other root that was called Demon's Snare or something..."
"You MEAN DEVIL"S SNARE!" yelled Ron, recalling an intresting moment.
"Ah yeah, thats it!"
Hermione stood up from behind her cover and yelled out Incindio! Making the plant burst into flames. The cinders spread a little after buring it down to its roots and Harry had to do a quick water spell to make sure it didn't burn down the GREEN house. Seriously.
"Genius, light a fire a green house!" Harry said sarcastically.
"Well you had my back didn't you?" Hermione said haughtily joking.
Ron sighed and said, "You're all bonkers, absolutely bonkers!"
"Well you're the one that wanted a break! In fact I recall you-" and Hermione trailed on as Harry gently tuned his two friends out. Neville looked fine and was warming up to their group. No pun intended there.
The coming week passed by quickly and before Harry knew it, finals were here. And there Harry sat for his finals block, wondering how much effort to put into the test, or to just Pac-man the bubble sheet and call it a day. Or better yet, packman the free response. None the less, Harry ended up shooting for the middle of the E range, as too high or too low would arouse suspicion. But this year didn't actually matter at all. And his OWL year would would get O's in everything he needed and T's everything else. Okay maybe not T's but still maybe an A or something.
Finals went by without a hitch, and so did the closing ceremony. And soon enough, Harry was heading onto the train to departure back to London, hoping to meet Sirius there. Harry had a Quidditch tournament to look forward to, and not to mention a summer with the man Harry missed ever so dearly. Too bad he's always Sirius.