"Alright form up! Form up!" Marcus Flint shouted into the cold morning air.
Harry relaxed in the familiar warmth of his magic and gripped his broom loosely. He took a deep breath, reveling in the moment, he looked out at the Quidditch pitch which was shadowed by the misty clouds.
"Chasers here! Beaters there! And Keepers here!" Flint shouted out each position, marking it with a swing of his burly arms. Harry stood near the back of the line for the chasers. He spotted Malfoy who had a nasty smile on his face.
"Alright! Chasers! Give me seven laps around the pitch!" Flint yelled. In a flurry of motion the prospective Chasers leapt up onto their brooms and into the sky. Harry leapt up as well and once he was flying he couldn't help but forget about Malfoy and focus on the feeling of the wind whipping by. He leaned forward on the straightaway with the others, pulling the broom and slowing down with each curve around the pitch. By the fifth lap the group of chasers had been separated, the slower ones were more obvious and the distance between them only grew.
Harry touched down first, pleased with his performance he bounced on his toes, ready for the next trial. If Flint had something to say about the youngest person being the first, he didn't comment. Instead he pointed at the slowest ones, "You, you, you, and you. You're out."
Harry looked at the remaining perspective chasers. Including him there were only four more.
"Alright Beaters! Take a bat! Give me your best swing!" Flint reached down to the box he had with him and released what it contained; which turned out to be a bunch of Bludgers that immediately went after the people holding bats. For nearly ten minutes Flint had the prospective Beaters hitting Bludgers away as they tried their very best to ram into them.
Harry watched, trying not to get bored or ask Flint why he was waiting so long. Then he saw one of them place their left hand on their right shoulder, as if they were in pain. Then he understood. Of course! He was testing their stamina! That was also why he had the Chasers run so many laps, to not only see which ones were fast but which ones could stay the fastest. Harry observed more intently, trying to predict which ones were better than the others.
"Alright stop! Gather the Bludgers!" Flint shouted. Once the Bludgers had been gathered he pointed the finger of doom. "You, you, you, you, and you. Get out!"
"Keepers up to your posts!" he roared. The third line finally moved, each flying up to their own set of three goalposts. "Chasers form a line!" Harry moved quickly, getting in line with the other four prospective Chasers.
"Go!" Flint urged, pushing the Chaser in the front of the line. With no explanation, Harry wondered what they were supposed to do until Flint tossed up a Quaffle. The Chaser caught the Quaffle and flew over to one of the Keepers and attempted to score five times. Flint was writing on a parchment and muttered to himself, "Keeper one… three scores." The Chaser, who must have been a returning Chaser because he needed no further explanation to move on to the next Keeper who tried to keep out the Quaffle. So it went on until the candidate had tried to score five times through the guard of each Keeper.
"Alright next!" With a jolt, Harry realized it was his turn. He flew up and caught the Quaffle, almost fumbling it. He tucked it into this stomach and looked up to the first Keeper. Misdirection, it was easy he'd done it plenty of times and he'd watched Quidditch matches before. He flew towards one of the goal posts and reared his arm back. He threw the Quaffle to his left, instead through the middle hoop which the Keeper had left unattended, to guard the hoop he was flying towards.
The Quaffle stopped before it hit the floor and then flew back up where Harry caught it and flew around for his second goal. Feeling more confident he flew faster, initiating a steep climb he suddenly dived, throwing the Quaffle as hard as he could straight forward this time. The Keeper floundered again and Harry grinned, this wasn't so hard.
When the Quidditch trials had ended Harry felt confident he had a spot on the team. So when his name wasn't included on the list of names Flint yelled out he was shocked. Even more shocked he heard Draco Malfoy was the team Seeker. Then Flint crowed, "Thanks to Malfoy our team has the best brooms on the line!" Then it all made sense. The rest of the Slytherins cheered at the sight of the new brooms, the noise drowning his racing blood. He grit his teeth and drew in a shuddering breath. He took a few more quiet breaths, bringing his blood down from a boil to a simmer.
With great effort he pulled a cordial smile and said, "Congratulations Malfoy. I hope it was worth it." He would make sure it wasn't.
Harry stalked away from the Slytherin common room after changing back into his school robes and walked to Hagrid's hut in a bad mood.
He knocked on the door and Hagrid opened it at once. "Harry! Bin wonderin when you'd come ter see me - what's wrong?" he asked, seeing the scowl fixed on Harry's face.
"Nothing just thinking," Harry quickly wiped his expression clean and asked, "How's Alex?"
"She's been doin' well she has." Hagrid nodded proudly. "Grew a lot over the summer."
Harry wondered just how much she had grown. Last time he saw her she was about the size of a small horse or a pony.
"Well let's see her then. Is she still at the same spot in the mountains?" Harry asked, standing up and casting fire-proof charms on his robes as he spoke.
"Good idea. She'll be excited ter see yeh I think she missed yeh a lot over the summer. Oh! Come an' see what I've been growin' before we go." Hagrid said excitedly, grabbing his pink umbrella and stashing it into his coat, where it disappeared into its depths.
In the small vegetable patch behind Hagrid's house were a dozen of the largest pumpkins Harry had ever seen. Each was the size of a large boulder and if he didn't know better he would say they were fake.
"Gettin' on well, aren't they?" said Hagrid happily. "Fer the Halloween feast… should be big enough by then."
"How'd you get 'em that big?" said Harry.
Hagrid looked over his shoulder to check that they were alone. "Well, I've bin givin' them - you know - a bit o' help." He patted the part of his coat that held his umbrella and Harry understood.
Harry had reason to believe that this umbrella was concealing Hagrid's old school wand. Hagrid wasn't supposed to use magic. He had been expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, but Harry had never found out why — any mention of the matter and Hagrid would clear his throat loudly and become mysteriously deaf until the subject was changed.
"What'd you use?" Harry asked curiously.
"Well I've been using Alex's dung o' course, very rich fertilizer that is, and a few Engorgement Charms to help speed things up along the way." Hagrid nodded proudly.
"Engorgement Charms?" Harry frowned. "But I thought magic couldn't create food - only teleport it around like in the Great Hall." Using magic to create food had been one of the first things Harry had looked into when he came to Hogwarts. Even though he had more money than he knew what to do with, he felt guilty for using his parent's money - something he didn't earn, something his parents died to give to him.
"Well that's true but it's not really creatin' is it? Just makin' it bigger." Hagrid mused, rubbing his beard.
"Right, but… making it bigger is still creating." Harry said. "I mean, I'm still going to have more food at the end right?"
Hagrid shrugged, "Don' know what to tell yeh Harry this jus' works." Harry shrugged as well. As long as it worked. He had just found a way to essentially create food without breaking the rules of magic.
"Oh look! There she is!" Hagrid nudged Harry, almost pushing him off the mountain road. Harry gaped at Alex - Hagrid definitely wasn't lying when he said Alex had grown a lot over the summer. She was huge! She was almost as large as Hagrid's hut!
"Hey Alex," Harry said nervously, "Remember me?" Alex stared down her snout at him and Harry searched her reptilian eyes for a semblance of recognition - or failing that, mercy.
Alex let out a happy trill and Harry let go of the breath he was holding, "Hey girl, you grew a lot over the - woah!" Alex leapt forward and Harry had to step behind Hagrid.
Hagrid raised his arms to stop Alex. "Easy girl! Yer not as small as yeh used ter be!" Hagrid said.
Harry made his way around Hagrid and cautiously rubbed her snout. Alex made a low rumbling sound in her stomach and Harry moved to scratch her neck. Seeing her calm down he let out a breathless laugh.
"Can she fly yet?" he asked Hagrid.
"Not yet. Soon." Hagrid told him with a gleam in his eyes and Harry knew that he was just as excited as he was to see it happen. Harry absentmindedly moved his scratching around, focusing on the spots that Alex seemed to like the most. The Great Lake looked so much smaller from the mountains, like a hole on the green plains.
"We should be going back, I have classes." Harry stood up tiredly, the trek to the mountains was by no means an easy one and he was far too embarrassed to ask Hagrid to carry him although his legs felt like they were about to give out. "Speaking of classes, the new DADA professor is just as bad as the last one."
Hagrid snorted, "Yeh got that right, if one word of his tales are true I'll eat my kettle." Harry was surprised to see the mild mannered Hagrid speak ill of somebody, much less a Hogwarts teacher.
"Why was he hired?" Harry asked. "He's obviously a fake."
"He was the on'y man for the job." Hagrid shrugged helplessly. "Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed."
"You can do that? Jinx a job I mean." Harry asked.
"Yeh can jinx just about anythin' if you have the skill." Hagrid said.
"Really…" Harry murmured. "What about a - a robe?"
"I suppose you could." Hagrid said. Harry breathed a sigh of relief that Hagrid didn't look further into his stutter. He had narrowly avoided mentioning brooms, which would have been suspicious to hear about if an entire team of jinxed brooms turned up later.
October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup Potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Ginny Weasley, a first year who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by Percy. The steam pouring from under her vivid red hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire. Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of small huts with Harry and Hagrid's help.
Harry was frustrated. He had spent nearly two weeks learning about broom jinxes and curses and all sorts of things he could do to sabotage a broom only to realize that the Nimbus Two Thousand was largely immune to jinxes and curses except those of the very advanced and Dark variety, much less the Nimbus Two Thousand and One, which was so generously donated to the Slytherin team. It was a fact that Malfoy never passed up the chance to brag about and it infuriated Harry every time he saw him boast.
Harry tried not to think about Malfoy and just enjoy the Halloween Feast. The Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid's vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for five men to sit in, and Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for entertainment. As the feast ended Harry joined the other students on the trek out of the Great Hall. He tried to blend into the crowd, further away from Malfoy so as not to spoil his good mood.
The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted something. It was Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring. Something was shining on the wall ahead. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches.
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
Then someone shouted through the quiet. "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
It was Draco Malfoy. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat. Harry sighed, there went his good mood. The other students looked pale and frightened - Neville, in particular, looked rattled.