Hi everybody. A new chapter for this story. As I get many PMs concerning Granny Morgaine, the story isn't given up. I am working on the whole period up until Harry travels back for his fourth year at Hogwarts. I just want to have the whole part ready to have everything work together and not have inconsistencies. If everything goes well, I can continued the story for Christmas.
Now I hope you like the new chapter. Happy reading.
Training Results
It was the day of the first Quidditch match against Slytherin. Older Harry stood in front of his team, knowing that he needed to motivate them to be brilliant out there. Malfoy, predictably, had got his father to donate the Nimbus 2001s again to become seeker of the team. As Slytherin didn't hold full try-outs under the watch of a teacher, the captain was the one to decide who would become a player on the team. Older Harry knew that they had a more than decent chance to beat the Slytherin team this time around. Even with a fast broom, the Slytherins hadn't trained as extensive as the Gryffindors did.
Physical condition and ingrained training patters made up for a lot. Oliver had done his best last time, but he was an eager amateur and never got any professional training himself before he left school. He didn't have the experience to work with his team on a level that could make up for the quality of the other team's brooms. Ginny meanwhile had played professionally and had been one of the best chasers in Europe during her time with the Holyhead Harpies for several years running. She had created the training regimes for the team, which Harry had then taken over and passed on to the team. He was the better one among them in looking out for the small details and had some management experience for a Quidditch team from his time as captain.
Together they were far ahead of anybody currently at the school. They hoped to set an example to the other houses to improve their performances with better training structures as well.
"Alright, everybody, look alive, you are going out to show the rest of the student body that good brooms aren't all that is needed to win a Quidditch match. Sure, they help, but they don't make up for a lack of strategy, training and coordination. We have good weather and we have analysed the players that are on the Slytherin team. Going by what we found out about the way Captain Flint acts, they don't have any reserve players ready. You will play hard, but you will play fair. Twins, I count on you to show the other team that you have to be able to control the bludgers in any situation to actually benefit from beaters on the team," He addressed Fred and George.
"You can bet on that, coach," The chorused.
"Erika and Kirk, you are on observation duty of the other team to identify their strengths and weaknesses and will help me making sure that nothing strange is going on. We don't want anything like the cursed broom incident again," They both nodded, knowing what he was speaking about.
"Oliver, you know that in the past Slytherin has always aimed to take the keeper out of the game early on, so be prepared for that. We practiced all kinds of scenarios often enough. And Ashlyn, if they do manage, I want you on your broom as soon as Madam Hooch blows her whistle. I will call for substitution immediately after a move is over then or we get the quaffle back. It will at most cost us one goal to take. And Ginny and Madam Pomfrey left me with enough potions to get anybody with light injuries back into flying condition."
"Definitely," Oliver voiced, and Ashlyn nodded.
"Chasers, be ready to switch around at any time. We are going in with the known starting team, but they won't expect us to constantly use other strategies. And we can switch any player in once a move is done or we are in quaffle possession. Meaning, if a goal is scored and we notice that they get too much of a handle of our strategy, we will use the chance to confuse them."
"They won't know what hit them!" Patrick stated and the other five cheered.
"Harry, you have worked on some great new moves. See when you can put them into practice. Don't get caught up in the moves of the chasers, but if you can, you are free to disrupt the Slytherin formations. Nobody says you can only dive when you actually see the snitch after all," Older Harry deadpanned, and Harry grinned with fake innocence while the others chuckled.
He had been enjoying himself very much while practicing dives and often claimed he needed to practice when he just loved the thrill of it. In the end, Older Harry had resigned to teaching his younger self the Wronski Feint, as there really wasn't a reason to not do so when he had perfect control over his broom while doing so. And well, if Malfoy ended with his nose in the ground, perhaps it would teach him a lesson, even if it was doubtful. The detentions didn't really help that much so far. But then again, last time around he had stayed a major bastard, the only thing he couldn't do was actually using the killing curse. And he had only realised that tiles could be turned when his family felt the ire of Voldemort. Others didn't concern him.
"Alright, they have the currently best brooms, but you have trained much harder than them and are the better team. We have a great strategy that can be adapted from one moment to the other. Not to mention that our cheerleaders will heat up the audience to support us properly. The brooms they have won't help them if they can't keep the quaffle in their team. And it doesn't have to be the chasers that steal it. Beaters are also good at that, next to keepers," Older Harry reminded them, "Now, circle and Go Gryffindor!"
The fourteen built a circle with their hands in the middle and pushed the hands up and down three times before throwing them up and shouting 'Go Gryffindor!'
Then they walked out onto the pitch, where they split into the reserves and Older Harry on the bench and the rest to the middle of the field, where Madam Hooch was waiting, while the Slytherin team was walking up from the other side.
"Welcome everybody to the first match of the new Quidditch season at Hogwarts. I'm Lee Jordan, your announcer. This is the classic start, the battle between Gryffindor in red and Slytherin in green. Well-informed sources have confirmed that Professor Peverell has forced the Lions to exercise nearly every day, next to normal Quidditch practice. We will see if it makes a difference. A welcome new addition are the cheerleaders for the Gryffindor team, which have practiced to properly cheer their team on and have already given a show of their talent, as you have just seen. I never knew that those formations were possible. Well, those girls and guys rock. The Gryffindor starting team from this year is only changed in one position compared to last year's team, in the way that Patrick Jones has returned after one year of taking a break for his OWLs. He was chaser on the team the year before.
"The Slytherin team had three changes. Captain Marcus Flint has exchanged one chaser, the keeper and the seeker. Only the keeper position was opened by last year's keeper Bletchley graduating. We will see if his other changes pay off. New is the full reserve bench on the Gryffindor side, compared to the empty one on the Slytherin side. Now the teams have taken position in the middle of the field, with the captains being asked by Madam Hooch to shake hands. Oh, it seems Flint's usual way of handicapping his opposite captain didn't work as he's holding his hand in pain, which normally is the sight of the other captain. Well, perhaps he will now learn that a handshake isn't meant to crush a hand," Lee commented, which Professor McGonagall this time didn't correct.
"Madam Hooch has let the bludgers and the snitch loose and now all that remains to be seen is the toss of the quaffle. There it is and the teams have kicked off, with Jones securing the quaffle, ignoring the attempted elbow check from Flint. Well, Jones is sturdily built and can take some roughing up. Rumours have it that he trained a bit with his cousin, the famous Gwenog Jones, that captains the Holyhead Harpies. Pass to Johnson, who directly passes on to Bell. Bell basically dances around the attacking Slytherin chasers. Too bad that their brooms' speed doesn't help them with manoeuvring against a tricky opponent.
"And a perfect pass back to Johnson, who dives under Flint and, now I haven't seen that before, loops around him while he tries hitting her with the tail-end of his broom. The only effect it had was disorienting him. And it is punished directly by a bludger to his shoulder by one of the Weasley twins, while the other one hits the second bludger at keeper Pucey. He dodges, which gives Johnson a free path. It's in! Ten to zero for Gryffindor!" Lee shouted.
The Gryffindor cheerleaders performed a small victory dance to celebrate the goal. The girls were wearing tight red tops with long sleeves and skirts in gold that went down to their knees, with red leggings under them and high heeled boots, also in gold. The boys had the colour scheme reversed and they also wore red capes. The dance consisted of some acrobatics assisted by charms and waving of red and gold pompoms. Slytherin wasn't happy, but they went to counter.
"Slytherin in quaffle possession. Flint going over the right side, but no, blocked by Bell, he passes to Alston, but again blocked, this time Johnson. And Jones in perfect position to intercept the forced sloppy pass back to Flint. And the Gryffindor chasers directly switch to attack mode again. The Slytherin chasers following. They manage to get back into position. Seems like a good blockade against the Gryffindor attack, but what's that?"
The spectators looked at the events on the pitch, holding their breath.
"Right through the Slytherin chaser line go the two seekers, close together in a risky dive. Did they already manage to spot the snitch? It wouldn't be the first time that Potter has spotted a snitch in a few minutes. His catch in just five minutes from last year's match against Hufflepuff is still on all our minds," Lee commented, "No, it was all a feint! Malfoy is down. A perfectly executed Wronski feint from Potter, he seems to be going for another record, youngest seeker ever to use a Wronski Feint, and the chasers of the Gryffindor team used the distraction of the Slytherin team perfectly. Bell scored! Twenty – zero Gryffindor!"
The Gryffindors in the crowd cheered for the double success and the cheerleaders did a particularly long part, probably for the loss of Slytherin's seeker. Many boys wolf-whistled when the girls did handstands on the backs of some boys, their skirts falling upwards, exposing the clear form of their legs. One reason why they were wearing leggings in the first place.
"Professor Vector is on the field looking after Malfoy, who is currently out of it. The match still continues. If he can't come back into the match, it will be a devastating loss for Slytherin. Slytherin in quaffle possession, they seem more determined than ever to score now. Flint breaks through the block of Bell and Johnson brutally. But he is stopped by Jones. Pass to Moon at the last second. Moon races towards the Gryffindor hoops, dodges Bell and still on course to Wood. He can't pass, Jones and Johnson are guarding Flint and Alston. He shoots, but Wood is there. No luck for Slytherin. And a whistle from Madam Hooch. Ah, Gryffindor is switching. Bell goes down and Spinnet comes in."
Many wondered why in the world Gryffindor was changing a player. Still Alicia got into the game and with her in the chaser line, their flying patters suddenly changed. The Slytherin team was caught on the wrong foot for a while and Gryffindor scored another goal. When the quaffle was back in Slytherin possession, George managed to nail Moon with a bludger, sending him spinning and he lost the quaffle, which Patrick caught, using the fact that they were close to the Slytherin goals to score again. Flint was furious.
He did a solo run towards the Gryffindor goal, but Wood knew his way of playing and blocked the hoop with the tail of his broom, sending the quaffle over Flint to Alicia, who directly turned back to attacking Slytherin's hoops. Flint took the bat of his beater, Rowle, and hit it towards Oliver, but Fred was there, waiting for that tactic, as it wasn't new at all, and hit the bludger directly back at Flint, hitting him perfectly on the nose. Flint fell from his broom, thankfully he wasn't too high up in the air and there were charms to make the ground soft when there was an impact on it. Still, it drove the air from his lungs, and he couldn't get up for a while. When Professor Vector came over, she had sent Malfoy to the hospital wing already, not being able to do anything but diagnosing him with concussion, she wasn't happy at all. She was no healer and Madam Pomfrey was at the hospital wing. She could only do diagnostic charms to see what was wrong. More than possibly giving out common potions was beyond her.
A few diagnostic charms and she also sent him to the hospital wing, the second concussion of the day, but this time there was an added broken nose. It certainly harmed the Slytherin team's play. With one chaser down, who was also the team's captain, and without a seeker, they could only try doing damage control. Like Older Harry had told the Gryffindor team, they played hard, but absolutely fair. No more Slytherin players were sent to the hospital wing, but they couldn't really find a way to stop the Gryffindors from scoring. Over the next twenty minutes Older Harry also sent Jake in to play for Angelina for a while, simply because he could, and Ginny got to relieve Alicia, as Patrick's built was too advantageous against the desperate attempts of the Slytherin chasers to break through by brute force to go down. Ginny managed to score one goal as well, which made her really happy.
Then Older Harry called a time-out when one of the bludgers started going crazy. He had expected it to happen way earlier, but seemingly Dobby hadn't been there from the beginning. Perhaps he couldn't get away from Malfoy Manor. To pass the time the Gryffindor cheerleaders came onto the field and did some formations. It certainly distracted the spectators enough for them to not become bored. But the time-out saw the spelled bludger be taken out of the game and a reserve to be put in before the game resumed. In the end, the result was vastly different to the one the last time around. Slytherin had only managed to score one goal by a surprise throw of Moon when Oliver had thrown the quaffle too short when he had to dodge a bludger. It was depressing for the Slytherin supporters, including Lucius Malfoy, who had come to see his son's first game, officially that was his reason, but who sat in his spot with a rather forced look on his face.
He had clearly expected something else from the match. Not having his son taken to the hospital wing for falling for one of Harry's feints, the first one at that, and the brooms he had bought not making any real difference, as the other team played in a manner that couldn't be predicted. Not to mention that the precision of the players wasn't what he expected in a school Quidditch match.
"And after the short interruption of a faulty bludger being taken out of the game by Madam Hooch, we are back. The current score is one hundred and seventy to ten in favour of Gryffindor. Even if Slytherin still had a seeker right now, they couldn't win this match anymore. And there is Harry Potter diving again. This time it seems he actually has seen the snitch. The Slytherins seem resigned. Even their beaters can't seem to find the motivation to try and hit a bludger at him. Perhaps they just want the match to end so that they can regroup for the next match. Though the Weasley twins are also perfectly positioned to interfere with them should they try. They have shown great awareness of the positions of both bludgers the whole match. And yes, Potter has it. The snitch is caught, and it ends this match at three hundred and twenty to ten in favour of Gryffindor. I don't think I have ever seen such a one-sided match. While Slytherin played on the better brooms, they didn't help them in any way today. The teams of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw will definitely have to watch out for this strong Gryffindor team this year. They seemed fiercely determined to win the cup this year, after the bad luck of missing their seeker in the last match last year."
The Gryffindor stands were full of cheering and jumping students that celebrated the great victory of their team. The cheerleaders set some fireworks loose after their final dance, which formed the words 'Go Gryffindor' in red letters at the sky. It was strengthened by the thrown pompoms that combined into a roaring lionhead. A victory against Slytherin, especially such a clear one, was a big reason to celebrate.
Ginny stood in front of the second year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. She was so glad that Dumbledore had finally listened to her husband's warnings about putting Gryffindor and Slytherin together in a class where too much could go wrong. Therefore, this year any Potions classes didn't have Gryffindors and Slytherins together, except in the NEWT years. But the sixth and seventh years could be expected to behave in a classroom, especially in a dangerous subject like hers.
"Alright, I did announce this at the beginning of the year. It is time for your first research project and I'm going to give you some guidelines how I want this done, as you didn't do something like this before. I know that the lessons for writing such a paper already took place, right after the flying competency tests were over with, but I want to refresh your memories. This kind of assignment will come up a few more times in the future. We think it is a good way to give you the chance to greatly influence your grade for the year in a way that doesn't depend on your form on just one day. At the end of this class, you will come to the front and get your assignment. You will draw the name of the potion you are to research from a box to make it fair for everybody. All the potions in there are second year level, but not part of the common curriculum. Otherwise it would have been too easy," Ginny grinned at some of the annoyed faces.
This would be fun and a good exercise for the studentds in how to work on material on their own or in small teams.
"Now please pass these papers to everybody, I have sketched a basic outlook of how I want the end result to look like. The first page is simple. The name of the potion as your project, the period you got to do your research and of course your name, birthday and house. Nothing bad so far," Ginny joked, making some relax, "The next part will be the introduction, meaning some basic facts about the potion, like its effects, some history, the inventor of the potion and if you need to look out for certain things before you take it. This isn't as important for your kinds of potions, but in higher years this will be different. Therefore, it will be required of you to at least mention it. The next part is the list of ingredients. Here you are asked to list the basic effect of each ingredient and its effect on the potion. Like one ingredient thickens the potion, or another neutralises acids. This kind of thing. You can cross-reference with other books, like 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' for example."
Most of the students were taking notes on what she told them. This would make getting a good grade a lot easier for them than if they simply tried on their own. Ginny noticed that Hermione had a determined and fierce look on her face. It was clear that she would do everything to ace this assignment. Honestly, she needed to relax. This wasn't any kind of battle. It was important, yes, but not at the level she took it.
"Next is the brewing process, where you have to write down when to add what ingredient and what to look out for. In case of boil cure potion, it would be the part about taking the cauldron from the heat before adding the porcupine quills," Ginny pointed out, as they had experienced that example, "The next part is especially important, so please listen and write down what you need to know. After all, so far this wasn't exceedingly difficult, just a more extensive essay for homework actually. I want that you write an analysis why the potion you will be researching has to be brewed in a certain type of cauldron, why the ingredients have to be prepared in the way described in the recipe and which ingredients mustn't be contaminated in any way, because they would otherwise make your attempt at brewing the potion fail. You will get one and a half months for this research paper, and then you will brew the potion during the double period that you have to hand in the papers. Meaning, the second week of December. I will have the papers and potions graded before you go into the Christmas holidays."
Some mumbled about their work and Ginny let them for a while.
"Okay, next part, there is a maximum length for the papers, which is six rolls of parchment. Even the most studious of you will manage to write it down with that limit. I also want you to write normal sized, meaning not itsy, bitsy, tiny letters, but standard size. Really large writing will also not help you. There isn't a minimal length, but I would be honestly surprised if you managed to get everything needed down in under two rolls of parchment. That is if you want to have a passing grade. Time management for this is up to you, but you will need time to properly research your potions. And your friends can only help you so much, as they won't have the same potion you do. This will force you to work independently and teach you how to find necessary information for any kind of topic. I also know that other teachers are interested in how much success this method has. My husband and I are the ones piloting this project, therefore, if everything goes well, you might find that in the future you get this kind of project work in other subjects as well."
Some groaned hearing that, but most simply accepted it. It wasn't that bad after all. And they had been promised that during the project they wouldn't get other written homework for Potions and Defence. That made it manageable. Ginny went around to answer questions of her students and with five minutes to spare before the bell rang, she told them to pack up their things and get their potions' names. They wouldn't get more than that, otherwise it would be too easy after all.
Harry looked at his slip of parchment. He had to find out what exactly 'Clearsight Solution' was. The name didn't really tell him if it was something to clean windows or some healing potion. Well, he had one month to find out. The other two weeks were planned to write down the paper. He knew that Hermione was really eager for the project, as she didn't like that she couldn't write her overly long essays in Potions and Defence anymore. The threat of not getting graded, if it was over the allowed length, had been made true, when her second Defence essay had come back with a result of seventy-one per cent, a record low for Hermione.
The reason? She had written thirty centimetres instead of the allowed twenty. The last ten had been ignored in the grading. There had even been a thick red line drawn between the part that was grades and the one that wasn't. She had tried protesting, saying that it was a good essay, but Professor Peverell had bluntly told her that he had told them all in his very first lesson with him that he didn't grade anything that was clearly over the set length. A sentence ending, okay, no problem, sometimes one couldn't keep it that precise. But ten centimetres in tiny writing was clearly a sign that the assignment wasn't understood.
Hermione had ranted about it, especially as the experience had been repeated in Potions, but in the end caved in, under protest, and kept to the allowed length, and got her normal grades back. Harry thought it was a good thing that she learned to keep to the important parts that were asked for homework and didn't tell everything she knew about a topic. Few people appreciated that. And homework was meant to make sure they understood the general parts of the material, not that they had learned it by heart. He was sure that the research paper was much more to her liking. He looked over his general schedule for the coming weeks. The next match would be after the Christmas holidays, and their team had been told that Professor Peverell would come up with some new way of training for the winter months, when they simply couldn't train properly outside.
It wouldn't take that long anymore until the first snow fell. He was looking forward to it, it always looked beautiful when everything was covered with a thick, white layer. Well, back to his plans. He had to do the papers for Defence and Potions now. His Defence topic was the kitsune. They had all got a dangerous creature to research and then write their papers about it. They would also have to demonstrate to the class which spell or spells would be needed to get rid of them or pacify them to keep them from attacking. Harry knew that kitsunes were Japanese fox demons, coincidentally from Japanese comics called mangas, which were gaining popularity in the muggle world. As Professor Peverell didn't want them to work on creatures that would normally come up in their curriculum, after all, they would all need to know about those and therefore they weren't that suited for research papers, he had become creative and had chosen foreign creatures of a lower level.
It would certainly make research a challenge. Ron was very annoyed that he had something called a Baba Jaga. He had no idea where to start searching for information. Ginny told him that their year had to look up a spell each, hers was the sand flea hex. It was certainly different to the previous year, but he truly liked the two new teachers.
His head of house had also informed him about some things concerning his future guardian. Harry had been shocked to find out what had happened to his godfather, being innocently sent to Azkaban was too horrible to imagine, but he had also been hopeful that he would finally have a true family. He had written to Sirius, who was currently still confined to St. Mungo's, but he was hopeful that he could at least go for a visit over the Christmas break, if Sirius couldn't leave the hospital by then. The first few visits would all be in company of Mr Professor Peverell, as nobody could be fully sure if there hadn't been mental problems left and this was just a standard security precaution.
They would get more meetings whenever there was an opportunity, like on the weekends. They had to get to know each other first after all. It would be strange to suddenly be expected to live with a man he didn't know at all and who only remembered him from when he had been a baby. The part Harry was happiest about was that Sirius had promised to tell him lots of stories about his parents and even show him some memories. That would be the best thing ever. While he loved his photo album, having somebody that had known them, had grown up with them, would be so much better. And from his letters, Sirius really wanted to take him in. That was a new feeling for Harry, one he would need to get used to first.
He noticed that he had reached the library, where he had been going to at the time, as he wanted to get started, and he didn't want Hermione to butt into his project, he wanted to do this all on his own, and therefore needed to find out more about the Potion and the creature. Well, first thing would be the potion, a general register of healing potions was in the Potions section he knew, and that would be a good start.
Harry looked at the sleeping form of Ginny. They had enjoyed a passionate evening, falling asleep after the second round of lovemaking. He was content to just watch her sleep. The way her red hair fanned out behind her, how her nose twitched when a hair fell onto it when she moved, and of course the rising and sinking of her chest. He would freely admit he had a certain fixation on that body part. She was so beautiful and at times her needed to remind himself that yes, she was finally, irrevocably, really his. His wife. So far, the changes they had made to things here at Hogwarts were going really well. There were some less positive points as well, but that was to be expected. People wouldn't simply do what they told them just because they told them.
Malfoy would need more correction to really come around, but at least he was somewhat smarting up about not bullying the others, as he wouldn't get away with it. He didn't think it was wrong to do so, just that it wasn't worth it if he always got nasty detentions for it. Well, time would tell. Sirius was on the way to recovery and would soon be introduced to younger Harry. He truly hoped that his younger self could build the kind of relationship with Sirius that he had always wished for, but never got the time to develop.
In hindsight, Harry and Ginny had realised that it was mainly Molly Weasley's work that Harry didn't have a closer relationship with Sirius. While Sirius had been on the run and could only send a letter every few weeks, simply because of the distance, she couldn't have interfered with his contact with Harry, but once he was stuck at Grimmauld Place, she had not only made sure that only the simplest of letters were sent to Harry, she had also denigrated basically everything Sirius did, not making it a secret that she didn't approve of him at all, his stay at Azkaban being the only thing she cared about, not that he was actually innocent.
Or that he genuinely loved Harry and didn't see him as James. Hell, Sirius had lived of rats to be close to Harry. Had done the impossible and broken out of Azkaban because he knew Harry was in danger. That was definitely not something one could brush aside, but she did and turned many against Sirius with her snide comments about him being irresponsible. And that while she was living for free in Sirius' house. No, this time around that wouldn't happen. Molly wasn't in any way close to his younger self yet, he just saw he as his best friend's mother, who had been nice enough to allow him to stay while they hadn't worked out a better solution for him after he was taken away from his relatives.
She couldn't pretend to be like a mother for him, as Harry knew that his younger self was slightly wary of how she behaved with her children. It helped that during the summer, he had worked with his younger self to bring up his sense of self-worth and putting things into a perspective that younger Harry could understand. From his observations, younger Harry continued being friends with Ginny, but the friendship with Ron was deteriorating more and more, mostly because Ron's jealousy was coming out in force. A good deal was over the fact that Ginny had made it onto the Quidditch reserve team, and he didn't. Especially as she got to play during the first match against Slytherin and had had success in her position. But honestly, Ron wasn't particularly good. Oliver and Ashlyn were clearly the two best ones during the try-outs and the decision wasn't even based on future knowledge. All the others that had been at the try-outs would confirm that Ginny was fifth best among the chaser candidates and therefore got the reserve spot rightfully.
Thankfully, the twins stayed neutral so far. They just accepted that their little sister got the Quidditch talent that ran in the Weasley family and were proud to boast with that. Especially as now she was the youngest player in a century, being born in August, compared to Harry's July. And she had played in the match and even got a goal.
He had been questioned a lot about his decision to train his team the way he did and actively switching the chasers around, but he had pointed out that there were no rules against it, and his team hadn't fouled any of the Slytherin players even once. The hardest moves were actually Patrick blocking the Slytherin chasers physically when they tried to get to the goals. And those were nothing compared to what Slytherin was known for. And, which he had also pointed out, Flint was responsible for cheating and trying to hit the keeper while he was a chaser himself, and Fred foreseeing the move, as he had used it before, and returning the favour. It was unfortunate that both Malfoy and Flint had ended in the hospital wing with concussions, but well, Quidditch was a hard game. And falling for feints was part of being seeker, and all seekers should know it. He claimed that Malfoy would certainly learn from it for the future.
The other heads of house had taken his suggestion to train their teams as well into recommendation. Harry knew that they didn't have the experience to actually train them like he and Ginny had done, but well, he wouldn't complain if they got some help on that from outside the school, or simply asked Rolanda. She was the Flying teacher after all and could tell them some strategies that could work out and Harry had never kept his instructions about general fitness for his team a secret. He wouldn't be too surprised to find both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff adopting it, it remained to be seen how intense they did.
His ponderings were interrupted by Ginny stirring next to him.
"Huh? Harry?" She mumbled.
"Hey, go back to sleep, love," He told her softly.
"What time?" She wanted to know with closed eyes.
"About four in the morning," He answered.
"Too early, go back to sleep yourself, want to cuddle," She demanded.
Harry chuckled and decided that cuddling with his wife was a much better occupation during the night than thinking too much about other things.
Until next time.