Chapter 46

The notice, detailing the planned process for selecting the school Quidditch team, went up on the house notice boards during the first week of October. Madam Hooch, who had been called in to oversee the try-outs had decided that, for the sake of fairness and inter-house co-operation, each house team was to select a house captain.

These captains, whilst not guaranteed a place in the team themselves, were to form a panel, along with Madam Hooch, who would make the decision on who would be in the school's team. As Oliver Wood had left the previous year, the Gryffindor team had no current captain to nominate and as such the entire Gryffindor Team voted for Harry, except for Harry himself, who'd voted for Angelina.

For the other teams, Cedric, Roger Davis, and a Slytherin sixth year Harry only knew as Montague, were chosen.

The actual try-outs for the team were held on the second Saturday of October. The stands around the Quidditch pitch had already filled up by the time people wanting to try-out paraded down onto the pitch. The captains took their seats on a bench to the side of the pitch, and Madam Hooch stepped out onto the pitch.

"A panel of captains, representing each house, has been chosen by their respective teams." She called to the prospective team members, indicating in the direction of the captains. "Each player may try-out for one position only, and when your turn to try-out is over, you must vacate the pitch. When the try-outs are over, the captains will retire to the Quidditch office to make their decision on who will be on the school team."

Harry glanced up at the stands, noticing for the first time that there were more students standing on the pitch, clutching a broom than there were sitting in the stands.

"Bloody hell, this is going to take all day." Harry groaned eyeing the crowded pitch and wondering why so many people had bothered to turn up, the four house teams already had the best players in the school on them, so anyone not already on a team would have to have rather a lot of confidence in themselves to even try-out.

Cedric nodded, already looking tired at the thought of the task ahead of them. "Yeah, this is ridiculous. We could have at least done House try-outs first. The chasers alone are going to take until lunch." With an amused smile, he patted Harry on the shoulder. "Go on then, get on with it."

Harry narrowed his eyes at Cedric before standing on the bench they were sitting on and facing the students on the pitch. Since both Davis and Montague were trying-out for Chaser, Harry and Cedric were left alone to select three players for the school team. Unfortunately for him, Harry had been chosen to lead the first try-out.

"Right you lot. We're holding Chaser try-outs first, so anyone who's not trying-out for Chaser; get off the pitch." He roared, pointing over to the stands to indicate where they should go. Almost half of the students left the pitch, leaving around fifty still staring up at him, clutching their brooms. "The rest of you, I want you to split up into five groups of around ten."

When they had split into groups, Harry handed out the five Quaffles Madame Hooch had given him and ordered the prospective Chasers to hover several feet above the ground, in circles made up of their group. Once in the air, Harry had the players pass the ball around their circles, with the first twenty to drop their Quaffles automatically off the team.

When this was done Harry had the remaining thirty players fly laps before they began trying to score goals whilst Cedric guarded the three hoops.

As Cedric had predicted, by the time Harry called an end to the Chaser try-outs, it was already lunch and they'd been out on the pitch for almost four hours.

"Merlin, that was ridiculous." Harry grumbled, at least a dozen of the people to try out had been so bad on their brooms that Harry had actually worried for their safety.

"At least that's the worst one over." Cedric said brightly, as they set off towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"Yeah," Harry grumbled. "I can't believe you, Davis, and Montague got out of it."

"Stop moaning, at least you're up next. My try-out's last, it'll be so dark I won't be able to see the Quaffles. At least the decision shouldn't be too hard for us. Davis and Montague were the favourites anyway but I wasn't expecting Weasley, why didn't you tell me she was such a good flier?"

"I didn't know." Harry told him honestly, Ginny hadn't even told Harry that she planned to try-out for the team, never mind that she was so good on a broom. "She never told me. Ah, there she is!" Harry pointed in the direction of the Gryffindor changing rooms, where Ginny had just appeared outside the door.

Harry and Cedric paused, waiting for her to catch up.

"Why didn't you tell me you could fly?" Harry asked, accusingly as she approached.

Ginny blushed, her ears turning pink in the same way Ron's did when he was embarrassed. "I thought you'd make me practise with you or something. If I'm good enough for the team I want it to be because I'm good at flying, not because one of the captains has been flying with me for the past few weeks."

"Well you don't need to worry about that." Harry told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and beaming at her. "You were amazing."

"You really were." Cedric told her, leaning past Harry to smile at her.

"Now I just need to get on the team too and we'll have the exercise part of our training covered." Harry told her gleefully.

"Oh like you'll have trouble getting on the team." Ginny said rolling her eyes and seeming to ignore Harry's suggestion that she'd made the team. "Malfoy's not bad and Chang's decent enough but they're not in your league."

Harry felt the wind leave his sails, suddenly aware of the fact that people expected him to make the team. The four captains had been chosen by their house teams and, as such, most of the school just assumed that they would make the team. For them, trying out was more of a formality than anything else and Harry worried that he might not actually be as good as they were making out.

He'd been flying a few times that month but he hadn't played an actual game of Quidditch in at least seven or eight months.

"Yeah, maybe."

As it turned out, once he was back on his broom, Harry wasn't sure why he'd been so worried. He managed to out-fly all of the other Seekers when they were flying laps; and catch the snitch in the fastest time he'd ever managed. Unsurprisingly, when he sat back down at the captain's table, Harry was told by Montague that he'd made the team.

The next position to be filled was Beater. This was a relatively simple decision to make too. Lucas Bagman, from the Hufflepuff team was easily the best Beater in the school, but even he conceded that the Weasleys twins, whilst individually were not as good as him, worked better together as a team than any two other Beaters could ever hope to.

Wood, who was apparently the best Keeper the school had seen in years, had left the previous year, along with the Ravenclaw Keeper and the other Hufflepuff Keeper; the Slytherin Keeper, Bletchley, was an idiot who had only been put on the team because, even stationary, he could block two of the three hoops at the end of the Quidditch pitch without having to put in any effort. Cedric was the favourite to win the position of Keeper; therefore, it came as no surprise to anyone, when Cedric was awarded the position of Keeper on the Hogwarts Quidditch team.

It was dark by the time the final tryout was over. Fortunately, the Captains had already decided who would be on the team as they were helping clear the pitch and so were able to hand over the parchment, detailing the players and their positions, to Professor Dumbledore as they headed back up to the castle for their evening meal.

Dumbledore's announcement, of who would be on the school team, was met with uproar, mostly from the Slytherins who were outraged by the number of Gryffindors on the team, and a number of people who believed that they should have made the team instead. Several people in Gryffindor were annoyed that Ginny had been chosen for the team over people who'd been playing for the Gryffindor team for years; however, when Ron pointed out to them that Ginny had flown better than anyone else trying out their protests slowly died out.

OOOOO

Harry spent almost every minute he wasn't in lessons or flying, practicing his duelling and meditating to find his Animagus animal. This meant he missed a lot of what was going on with his friends. Madam Pomfrey had allowed Ron to spend his Sundays in the hospital wing shadowing her, in order for him to get experience in the infirmary and a feel for what it would be like to be a Healer. Hermione had begun studying to do Muggle GCSEs which Harry thought would be an impossible task since she'd have four whole years of Muggle schooling to catch up on. Harry didn't think he'd missed too much of what Neville, Seamus and Dean were up to.

Simba had apparently taken to sleeping across the whole of Seamus's pillow, which, for such a tiny kitten, was quite a feat; Harry dreaded to think what she'd be like when she was fully grown, apparently cats like her could grow to be almost a meter long. Despite her propensity for sleeping in the most annoying places and the fact that she'd attempted to use Harry's broomstick as a scratch post, she had taken to Seamus and did seem to be helping him with his nightmares.

Cedric, who had been voted team captain, had begun extending practices in anticipation of the arrival of the other schools the next week and so Harry and Ginny were finding less and less time to practice their duelling along with doing everything else they needed to do.

On their way back from that afternoon's practice, which had dragged on for several hours longer then they had expected, Harry and Ginny decided that they would wait until after that evening's meal before going out onto the grounds to practice their duelling, Ginny had a Transfiguration essay due the next day, and Harry hoped to spend some more time meditating on his Animagus animal form.

"So how does this whole Animagus thing work?" Ginny asked as soon as they were out of earshot of the rest of the team. "I mean, I get how it works but what about for you? Your bond, I mean?"

Harry shrugged. "It's safe, being an Animagus won't change the bond at all. If you think of people as bowls of soup-"

"Bowls of soup?" Ginny asked sceptically, tucking the hand not holding her broom into her pocket.

"Yeah think of the bowls as our bodies and the soup as souls. The soup is the important bit, the bowl just holds it. Mine and Hermione's are connected by a tube between the two, so the soup's all mixed. So like, if you poisoned one bowl the other would become poisoned and if you drank all the soup from one you'd end up drinking all of both." Harry tried to explain, thinking back to everything Dudley had explained about how his and Hermione's auras looked.

"So that would be like getting the kiss?" Ginny asked. "If you were to be kissed by a Dementor Hermione would lose her soul too?"

"I think so. That's why we both have to go back when we use a Time-Turner, it'd be like taking away the tube connecting the bowls but leaving the holes in the side. We don't actually know what that would do but I don't think it would be good. But with being an Animagus it's different; just imagine transfiguring the bowl into a cup but leaving the soup and tube, nothing but the outside has changed... in theory." Harry said, lowering his voice, Dumbledore had assured him and his uncles that Harry becoming an Animagus wouldn't damage the bond, but there was always the worry there that it could.

"Well let's hope that you becoming an Animagus doesn't do any damage to you." Ginny said brightly, swapping her broom to her other shoulder and breathing into her other hand in an attempt to warm it up, the weather had gotten quite cold over the past few weeks which meant that their training sessions for both Quidditch and duelling were becoming more and more arduous.

"If I ever find my animal." He said, speeding up, the school doors were in sight and he wanted to get out of the cold as soon as possible, Cedric didn't let them bring anything but their brooms, wands and Quidditch kit out onto the pitch so now that they weren't flying they were beginning to feel the cold.

"You've spent what, six hours on it this week alone and more last week, so that's," She paused to work it out in her head. "Almost fifty hours meditating since we came back to school, you'll find it soon and then you can go back to pining over Seamus."

"The meditation is the easy bit, it doesn't even make up one percent of the overall transformation, there's a lot to do yet and I don't even have my animal yet. And why don't you go back to pining over Neville and stop obsessing over who I like, or for that matter Bill and Tonks. I sat right next to you when you were talking me up to Seamus the other day, he thinks you fancy me now... so does your brother." Harry said, he was still too pleased that Ginny didn't hate him for being gay to be too annoyed at her desire to play matchmaker.

"But you're so sweet together, like an old married couple with your bickering and the way you're both always looking out for each other." Ginny said, not at all disheartened by Harry's attempt to shut her up. "You'd make the cutest couple ever."

"You are talking about me and Seamus aren't you, not someone else? Just because I like him it doesn't mean I'd ever think we could make a good couple, even if he was gay, which he isn't. We're both angry, secretive, and argumentative; we both want to know everything about the other but aren't willing to tell our own secrets, we barely work as friends." Harry stated flatly.

"And yet you're still obsessed with him." Ginny said smugly as they paused to pull open the school doors. As it was Sunday and late afternoon, all of the students who weren't in the school Quidditch team would be in their own common rooms or the library getting homework assignments finished for the next week and so Harry and Ginny didn't need to worry about ending their conversation until they reached the common room.

"There's just something about him, y'know?" Harry said, running a hand through his hair as they ascended the stairs. "After everything that's happened to him, and what he's seen in the diary he's still... magnetic, maybe he's just a good actor, but when he's around other people he's so positive and confident, you'd never believe how much he's suffered."

"You've suffered too." Ginny pointed out and Harry heard a hard edge to her voice, as though she was also trying to hint at the fact she'd been through just as much as Seamus. "He might smile and whatever, but at least you're trying to fight back, he's not."

"But it's not about that, I never said he's perfect. He's annoyingly tidy, sometimes he gets a look in his eyes that I find kind of disturbing, his priorities are all wrong and I honestly think he's actually losing it... have you noticed that he counts his steps every time he walks somewhere, he doesn't stop unless his last step was on an even number?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "No one's noticed that."

"You must have, half the time he whispers the numbers to himself." Harry said. "But then again he is kind of perfect, in his own way. Have you ever heard him play his fiddle? Merlin, I reckon anyone would fall for him after that. And you've got to admit he's attractive, and kind, and loyal-"

Ginny leant over the banister, pretending to vomit over the rail. "Bloody hell, if I ever get as soppy as you, do me a favour and just Avada Kedavra me, and I thought I was exaggerating when I said you're obsessed."

"I knew growing up in a house with all boys has made you less girly." Harry said, rolling his eyes at her theatrics.

"Yeah and it's probably for the better. I really would love to see the two of you together, mainly because you seem to have the worst luck in the world. I mean you're parents were killed, you've got a potentially fatal and totally invasive soul bond, there's a mass murdering psychopath out after you, and you're a Muggle-raised, gay, half-blood in a world where only straight purebloods are accepted... you're well and truly fucked."

"Uh, thanks." Harry said, a bit too shocked by Ginny's language to articulate any kind of real response.

"It just seems like life isn't fair for you and now you've gone and fallen for Seamus. I'd love, for once, for you to get what you want and I really think you'd be quite sweet together, just spare me the disgustingly saccharine details of your obsession."

Harry laughed. "I don't know whether to be flattered or annoyed."

"Be flattered, I'd prefer it if you didn't take out your annoyance at me tonight whilst we're duelling... I've still got a bruise from that practice the other week after you'd walked in on Seamus and Huffman snogging."

"So what were you so annoyed about on Friday when you bust my lip with that, well I think it was supposed to be a disarming charm?" Harry asked running his tongue over his bottom lip where she'd hit him, as they reached the portrait hole.

"Nothing, I just needed something to practice that healing charm on." Ginny said with a shrug, before giving the Fat Lady the password and clambering through the portrait hole.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "We'll practice disarming tonight since you still haven't got it properly right."

"As I said, I wanted to perfect my healing charms first." Ginny said haughtily as they were greeted by several people all wanting to know how the practice had gone.

"Yeah, well, I'll see you at dinner." Harry said, still being bombarded with questions about the practice as he crossed the common room to the staircase leading up to his dormitory.

Once he'd explained that, at the moment, the team seemed to be working together quite well, Harry managed to escape the common room to the empty dormitory.

Humming a tune he'd heard on the radio to himself, Harry scooped Simba off his trunk, plonking her outside the dormitory door and locking it, she had a nasty habit of jumping on him as soon as he felt he was getting anywhere with his meditation. He locked his broom in the wardrobe, the only place the cat couldn't get to it, dumped his dirty Quidditch clothes in a heap at the side of his bed and pulled on a pair of his brother's old jeans and an oversized t-shirt; Sirius had suggested he try and get as comfortable as possible before meditating.

Harry dropped onto his bed, closing his eyes and resting his arms by his side as he crossed his legs. He'd tried Occlumency a couple of times but it hadn't ended well for him, it was all to do with clearing your mind and emptying yourself of emotions. Animagus meditation was similar, you did have to sort of clear your mind, but rather than getting rid of or controlling your emotions you were supposed to follow them, focusing in on your emotions and magical energy to find the animal at the root of it all. Harry was terrible at suppressing his emotions, but thankfully he was quite good at focusing in on them, maybe that was to do with how self-pitying he could be, he did kind of enjoy dwelling on how he was feeling.

He'd gotten quite used to this kind of mediation and so found it fairly easy to focus in on how he was feeling, letting his magic guide him.

At first he thought he'd fallen asleep, he'd done it a few times when first learning to meditate and that day's practice had been rather tiring.

He found himself outside, in some ways the landscape reminded him of where he'd gone when Voldemort had killed him, there was a kind of mist hanging in the air as though waiting for Harry to appear so it could finally form into something.

Through the mist, which was slowly forming into what looked like a patch of grass by the lake on the school grounds, Harry saw a shadowy Simba attempting to chase her own tail. Harry laughed and walked closer, she didn't usually like to go too far away from the Gryffindor Common room unless Harry, Hermione or one of Harry's dorm mates were around.

As he approached the mist seemed to form into something more solid and the cat came into greater focus. The first thing he noticed was that the cat was black rather than ginger, like Simba. Harry blinked and rubbed his eyes under his glasses, wondering how he'd missed that.

The cat seemed to hear his approach, it turned to face him and Harry caught a flash of his own eyes staring back at him before there was a crash from inside the bedroom and Harry was snapped back into the real world.

Harry wheeled around to face the door, finding Seamus standing, beaming at him from the doorway.

"Harry, I just-" He broke off, taking in the look of astonishment on Harry's face. "Are you all right?"

"Uh, yeah." Harry cleared his throat and pushed himself off his bed. "I think I might've just found my Animagus form." He said slowly, a smile slowly creeping onto his face as he thought back to his vision.

Seamus's smile froze and a look of annoyed resignation crossed his face. "Shit, I mean brilliant, well done, really brilliant. What is it then?" He said, his voice sounding a little bit too strained for Harry to believe he was being sincere.

"A cat." He said triumphantly. "A black cat, Hermione's going to think this is brilliant... this is brilliant, I'm a cat. I can climb, and go to Egypt and be a god, and go to America and make everyone think they're getting a load of bad luck."

"I think you're getting a bit carried away, mate, I'm not sure they've worshiped cats in Egypt for over a thousand years, wasn't the cat god a girl anyway? She was called Basket or something." Seamus said rubbing his jaw and not looking nearly as impressed as Harry thought he should.

"Yeah, but it's the first breakthrough I've had." Harry said, trying not to let Seamus's lack of enthusiasm curb his. He guessed this was probably due to the fact that Seamus had never really wanted him to become an Animagus in the first place, still he'd kind of expected Seamus to be a little more pleased for him than this.

"No, it's really brilliant, mate... a cat, just like Simba." He said, his voice becoming higher as he spoke. "A cat, Merlin. Just make sure you check with Sirius, and that Tonks woman, and maybe Dumbledore, before moving onto the next stage, yeah?"

"You could be a bit happier about it." Harry said, sitting back down on his bed and frowning at Seamus in disappointment.

Seamus rubbed his knuckle against his jaw and nodded. "You're right. Sorry, I really am pleased for you; I mean this is massive, brilliant really; I really am happy about it... a bit worried, but happy. I've just got other things on my mind at the moment, sorry. Just don't try to transform too soon, I'd hate for you to get stuck in animal form or anything like that. I bet my Animagus form would be a donkey or something and I really wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life like that just to keep you company."

Harry felt his face crease into what was probably an embarrassingly soppy smile. "You'd do that for me?"

Seamus smiled fondly at him before tilting his head and smirking at him. "Well, only if I had to, I mean I'm too handsome to spend the rest of my life as an animal."

Harry flushed, that made up for Seamus's lack of enthusiasm about him finding his inner animal. "Yeah, I mean, uh, what were you going to tell me?" Harry asked, remembering that Seamus had been about to say something when he had burst into the room.

"What? Oh, oh yeah, no it doesn't matter. It's nothing really." Seamus said shaking his head and turning back to the door to scoop up the cat. "You'll probably want to go tell Hermione... I'll see you at dinner."

Seamus left the dormitory, leaving Harry sat on his bed completely confused by the conversation he'd just had.

"Right, see you later, then." Harry said to the empty room, standing up and dumping the contents of his trunk onto the floor in search of the mirror Sirius had given him, he had just about enough time before dinner to call home and let them know about his success with his meditation.