A/N: Sorry this one took so long to write, but I've got time on my hands now! I have a plan, and I won't be able to spend all my time palying games on my computer next year, as I won't have it with me, so that gives me plenty of time to write more of this. I'll try not to take too long over the next chapter! This chapter is where we start to leave canon, with all events currently happening but in different orders to the original books. (Disclaimer in Chapter 1).

Chapter 17 - The Trials of Hogwarts

The next few weeks passed quickly for the two teens and before long, it was the week of the first Hogsmeade weekend. As neither Harry or Ginny had permission to visit the nearby wizarding village, they had put together the start of some plans to spend the day together. That all changed however, when Oliver Wood entered the Gryffindor common room that Thursday evening.

"Team!" He called out, and not just the Quidditch team but every member of the house currently in the common room turned to look at him. "Professor McGonagall just told me - the order of Quidditch matches this year has been rearranged. Due to Ravenclaw only having one returning member for their team, they've requested for their game against Hufflepuff to be postponed next week. The staff have decided that instead, we will be playing our match against Slytherin for the first game of the year."

The sudden uproar in the common room could have been heard from the top floor of dormitories, seven floors up. Many were demanding how this was fair, as Gryffindor had been practicing thinking that their first match wasn't until December. Now it had been pulled forward to the middle of October.

"QUIET!" Wood bellowed. Once everyone had settled down again, he continued. "Due to this, I feel we need more time practicing if we want any chance to win the cup this year. I know practice is normally cancelled for Hogsmeade weekends, but this Saturday I'm reinstating it. And instead of the normal two hours from 9am, we'll practice for four, then you are welcome to spend the rest of the day in Hogsmeade. So team, be ready in the changing rooms at 9am on Saturday." With that, he made his way through the common room and up the stairs to the boy's dormitories.

Most of the team's responses to this were along the lines of "He can't do that, can he?" Some, like Ron, had wanted the full day for their first visit to Hogsmeade. Others had made plans for the day. Fred and George walked over to where Harry and Ginny were sitting on one of the sofas, and sat on another one, across from the pair.

"What do you..." Fred started.

"...think of this?" George finished.

Harry and Ginny glanced at each other, before Harry responded. "It doesn't bother us too much." He admitted. "Neither of us can go to Hogsmeade, so we had planned a few things to do around Hogwarts. All of them can be moved to the afternoon though. I guess it was a good thing we hadn't finished making our plans yet." He added, with Ginny nodding in agreement, before she continued.

"One of the things we were thinking of doing was going for a fly together, so really, we'll still be doing that, but just with an obsessed Quidditch Captain breathing down our necks." The four all laughed.

"I was hoping to get a date, myself. Ah well, guess she'll go to Hogsmeade with someone else now." Fred said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, same for me." George agreed.

"Ooh!" Ginny grinned. "Who are the unlucky girls to be set in the sights of Fred and George Weasley, Resident Twin Pranksters?"

"That's none of your business, little sis." The twins replied simultaneously.

"Oh come on." Harry pushed. "Just tell us."

"Fine. Angelina Johnson." Fred said.

"Alicia Spinnet." George added.

Harry and Ginny fell about laughing. Fred and George just stared at them, looking quite put out that the younger teens appeared to find this humorous.

Eventually, Harry recovered enough to speak. "Had either of you asked them to go yet?" He enquired.

"No." Both twins responded.

"We were..."

"...going to..."

"...ask later..."

"...today."

Ginny spoke up now. "I suggest you get on with it and ask them. Besides, they're in the same position as you." When they looked at her inquisitively, she elaborated. "It's what we found so funny. You realise they're both on the Quidditch team as well don't you?"

The twins turned toward each other. "Gred?" George asked solemnly.

"Yes Forge." Fred replied.

"We appear to have forgotten a fundamental part of our chosen girls' lifestyles."

"Indeed. However it is proving to be rather fortunate that our sister here is remembering."

"Yes - I'll ask Alicia later. She's less likely to be asked by anyone else now that she has to stay here half the day."

"I concur, dear brother."

As quickly as it was assumed, the serious air was lost, and the joking twins were back. "Enough about that." George declared, before both twins leaned closer and started whispering. "We need to start planning our first prank guys." Fred continued.

"Yeah, we're over a month in to the school year - pranks should have been flying by now." George continued.

Harry thought about this. Sure, they hadn't pulled any pranks that year yet as they had planned to, but then they hadn't really had a deserving target. Finally, he reached a decision. "I guess we'll meet up outside the rooms the Sunday after our Quidditch match. There's no point making any plans before then - Wood will probably ruin them by scheduling another extra practice."

"Agreed."

"We'll be there."

After a little more joking around the twins left again, presumably in pursuit of their chosen dates, leaving Harry and Ginny to their homework.

Before long it was Saturday morning, and the Quidditch team had al reluctantly congregated in the changing rooms.

"All right then." started Wood, as he entered from the Captain's Office. "We're going to start with a pickup game, starters against reserves. We won't play with Seekers, so Harry, I want you to just fly around the pitch and practice avoiding the Bludgers from both teams. After that we'll work on improving a few of the position specific moves we've been practicing for the last few weeks."

Four gruelling hours later, the team rushed back into the changing rooms to get a quick shower in before heading down to enjoy what time they had left in Hogsmeade. Despite being long and arduous, practice had gone well, and they felt prepared for the match next week, given they had one final practice that Wednesday evening.

Harry and Ginny watched as the rest of the team disappeared through the front gates in the carriages, past the line of watching dementors, before turning and heading into the castle. They had organised with the house elves in the kitchens to get a picnic lunch, which they could take to eat out by the lake.

With the basket in hand, Harry took Ginny's hand with his free one, and they made their way to the little copse of trees which was quickly becoming 'theirs'. They sat down, Harry leaning against the tree with his legs splayed, and Ginny between them, her back against his chest. Harry wrapped his arms around her waist while she pulled the food basket towards herself, and started removing food.

They spent an enjoyable hour feeding each other tidbits from the basket, not even coming close to polishing off the masses of food that the house elves had kindly prepared for them. The time in between mouthfuls was spent getting to know each other even better than they already had over the summer.

Once finished, they returned the basket to the kitchens, then headed back onto the grounds to go and visit Hagrid at his hut. Harry had received a letter from him earlier in the week asking if they would join him that afternoon, as he knew neither of them could go into Hogsmeade.

As they were passing the Quidditch Pitch again, Harry noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Pulling to a stop, Ginny was confused when his hand in hers stopped moving beside her. "What is it Harry?" She asked.

"I thought I saw something moving, over in the trees on the edge of the Forbidden Forest." Harry replied. Squinting, he could just about make out a black shape moving into the shadows of the forest. But Harry hadn't had his eyesight checked for several years, and his glasses weren't as strong as they should have been. Ginny was able to see the shape much clearer.

"It looks like a giant black dog!" She gasped. Then she continued cautiously. "Harry, I don't think we imagined seeing a dog that night on Magnolia Crescent - you know, when we caught the Knight Bus?"

"So, we've seen two big black dogs - what's so special about that?" Harry asked, confused.

"Harry," Ginny explained patiently. "There's something in Wizarding superstition called the Grim. It's supposed to be this large black dog that if you see, you are destined to die in the next 24 hours. It's meant to be a bad omen."

"Don't you believe it then?" Harry questioned.

"No, of course not!" She scoffed. "I mean, we've both seen it twice now, and neither of us are dead yet. Ron swears by it though - apparently our Uncle Bilius saw one the day he died."

"Well, it sounds a little paranoid to me. Whatever it is, I don't think that dog is the Grim, although I don't know of anything that lives in the Forbidden Forest and looks like a large black dog. Anyway, we should be getting down to Hagrid's now."

Puzzled by what they had seen, the two teens continued hand in hand down to the small Groundskeeper's Hut on the edge of the Forest. In a fenced off enclosure outside, they could just about see the Flobberworms they had spent the last month taking care of, ever since the incident between Buckbeak and Malfoy.

Looking after Flobberworms didn't seem like a set of lessons Hagrid would have intentionally planned, as they were not at all dangerous. However, when they had first started it had been a task of working out what they liked to eat. As far as anyone could tell, they preferred biting fingers than the lettuce and grubs Hagrid had provided. But this gave everyone a good chance to just chat, as the Flobberworms seemed to do best when left to their own devices. And it had worked. The creatures that had started off just a few inches long, were now coming onto a foot, in only a month.

Continuing past, Harry reached out with his free hand to knock on the door to the hut. They heard barking break out inside the hut, and a shout of "Down Fang! Ye' mangy dog, back!" Before the door opened, revealing Hagrid.

When he saw the identity of his visitors, he broke out into a large grin. Ginny however, saw through the facade the friendly half-giant was putting up.

"Hagrid, what's wrong?" She asked, concern evident on her face.

Immediately, Hagrid dropped his smile and ushered the pair into his hut. "Si' down, make yerselves comf'table." He said, gesturing to the sofa while moving over to the kitchen. Pulling a box down from the shelf, he continued. "I got some rock-cakes here fer yer two - they're a coupla days old, but they should be fine." He said, seating himself heavily in the armchair across from them.

Both Harry and Ginny took a rock-cake from the box in front of them, not wanting to hurt Hagrid's feelings when he was obviously already quite upset, and Harry repeated Ginny's question, "Hagrid, what's the matter? Why are you so upset?"

"It's Beaky - after yer firs' lesson, the Board o' Governors were tol' 'bout what happened o' course. But now the Ministry blokes have heard 'bout it, they wan' ter hold a trial for 'im. An' yer know ol' Lucius Malfoy is backin' them up with stacks o' gold." Tears started leaking from his eyes.

"Oh, Hagrid!" Ginny said sympathetically. Truthfully, they'd seen Buckbeak fenced in and chained by the neck in a small enclosure near the hut, but hadn't really given any thought as to what was to happen to the hippogriff.

Harry however, could feel anger starting to grow inside him. "Malfoy is always willing to throw his money around to get his way, and everyone in the Ministry just turns a blind eye to it, so long as their pocket is that little bit fuller." He said, annoyed.

"Don't worry Hagrid - we're witnesses, and the rest of the class. We all heard your warning that You should never insult a hippogriff, and saw Malfoy do just that anyway - we won't let them do anything to Buckbeak." Ginny reassured him.

"Thanks you two, bu' I don' think it'll work. The Governor's said I shoulda started with somethin' a little smaller, like Flobberworms - that's why yer doin' those now - bu' I wanted somethin' interestin' fer yer firs' lesson." He said gloomily, not noticing that both Harry and Ginny had surreptitiously chucked their rock-cakes on the floor at Fang's feet.

"Try not to worry about it too much." Harry said, trying to calm his large friend down. "If you tell us when the trial is, we'll do everything we can to help you." Ginny nodded in agreement.

"Thanks guys." Hagrid hiccupped, wiping his eyes dry on a dirty handkerchief he produced from a questionably full pocket. The pair stayed a little longer, talking about other topics, before heading back up to the castle.

On their way back across the grounds, they heard a heated argument taking place where the first carriages were arriving back to the castle from Hogsmeade. Drawing closer, they saw Ron and Hermione were having one of their regular shouting matches. Thinking nothing of it, Harry and Ginny continued on, but as they got closer they could make out some of the words being exchanged.

"Urgh, Ronald, why do you have such a problem with them?" Hermione half-asked, half-shouted, pulling her hands through her hair.

"She's my sister!" Ron replied.

His interest piqued, Harry noticed that from their current position behind a large oak tree, he and Ginny could not be seen by the arguing couple just a few feet away. Drawing to a halt against the tree, he whispered to Ginny "I want to see what he says, it might help us understand what he's thinking."

Ginny considered this for a moment, and eventually nodded. "I don't really care - he's dug his own grave with his actions - but it could be helpful to know in the future." She agreed.

Meanwhile, the argument was continuing. "I don't see why that makes any difference! So she's your sister - why does that mean Harry isn't allowed to spend any time with her?" Hermione exclaimed.

"I've explained this before! Everything was fine last year, then at the end of the year she started vying for attention from Harry, and suddenly he didn't have time for me anymore. And now she's trying to turn him against me, when really she's just my baby sister!"

Ginny silently fumed at that last part, and made to withdraw her wand to give Ron a good Bat-Bogey Hex. But Harry quickly stopped her, with a hand laid on her wand arm. "I know you're mad, but let's not give away our position. I want to hear some more, and I'm sure you'll have plenty of chances to take it out on him in the future."

"If I didn't agree with you, you'd be in so much trouble now, Mr Potter." She growled warningly, flicking her wand threateningly at him.

"Understood." Harry said quickly, holding his hands up in front of him, surrendering. When Ginny lowered her wand again, they turned back to listen to the continuing heated argument.

"So your reaction is just because Harry wants to spend time with someone else as well then?" Hermione asked.

"She's my sister, Hermione! Suddenly Harry is only interested in her and he has no time for me! And they're dating now - she's way too young to have a boyfriend!"

"I'm sure Harry would be perfectly happy to spend time with you still if you didn't get angry with him just for spending some of his time with Ginny. You can't monopolise his time anymore Ronald - we're growing up and its Harry's choice who he spends all his time with - if you keep acting like this then of course he's not going to choose to spend it with you."

"I see how it is then - you're taking his side!" Ron accused her.

"In a way, yes." She admitted. "But it's not done a lot of good. I've chosen to continue spending time with you, no matter how much I agree with them, so now they're ignoring me as well!"

"Fine, if you're on their side then run off back to them and explain - but don't bother trying to argue your point with me again - I know I'm the only one seeing the light." Ron shouted angrily, before storming into the castle. After a few seconds, with tears in her eyes, Hermione span around and ran inside as well.

"Well that was enlightening." Harry commented idly. Ginny however was letting her anger show.

"How dare he accuse me of stealing you, as if you had no choice in the matter. Some friend he is, not thinking you can make decisions for yourself!" She exclaimed. "Oh, he is so in for a hexing next time I see him!"

"I don't think I'll ever understand what goes through Ron's head. But look at it this way - I think Hermione's coming round, so we might have another friend on our side before long." Harry said, taking Ginny's hand and leading her into theGreat Hall for dinner, ignoring Ron glaring at them from the other end of the Gryffindor table.

After filling himself to the brim at dinner, Ron stormed up to his bed in the dormitory. Something had been up with Hermione all term. Sure, she'd been on his back about his problem with Harry dating Ginny since they first found out, that day after Care of Magical Creatures, but their arguments had been, well, more intense so far that year than previously. She seemed even more short tempered than before.

Ron couldn't see why she didn't understand what he was telling her. Couldn't she see it was wrong for guys to date their best friend's little sister? And besides, Ginny was way to young to be thinking about boys like that anyway. She was just a baby still, really.

But Hermione didn't seem to understand. She thought that it was great that they had gotten together, and seemed to love the sickeningly cute gestures they gave each other, which invariably made Ron gag.

He knew it would be a bit lonely without even Hermione to talk to, now he had told her to run off back to his friend and sister, but that didn't matter. He could get to know Dean and Seamus better. They wouldn't question his opinions about Harry ad Ginny, or argue with him about them all the time. Yes, his life would be much more relaxed hanging out with his fellow dorm mates.

Despite hearing the argument between Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny didn't make any move to speak to the older girl, wanting her to come to them first, although they had seen she'd been spending a lot more time alone in the library. Still, as the week rolled on, no further progress had been made towards repairing Harry's friendship with the bushy-haired girl.

Before long, the day of the Quidditch match had arrived. As it was short notice, only the starting team would be playing, rather than swapping any player out for one of the reserves. However, Wood still instructed the entire reserve team to get into their uniform before the game, just in case anybody needed swapping out due to injuries. Wood had just finished his encouragement, and they were waiting in the tunnel for Lee Jordan, the commentator, to announce their team. The reserves would exit behind them and sit on a bench at the side of the pitch, conjured up with a roof for if it rained.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first Quidditch match of the year, Slytherin vs Gryffindor!" They heard Lee's voice shout from outside. "First, your Slytherin team. The Chasers; Cassius Warrington, Graham Montague, and Captain Marcus Flint. The Beaters; Peregrine Derrick and Lucian Bole. Playing Keeper is Miles Bletchley, and your Seeker is Draco Malfoy. Wow - Flint seems to be going for size rather than skill this year!"

"Jordan!" Professor McGonagall admonished from beside him.

"Sorry Professor!" Lee said, mot sounding sorry at all. "And now for your Gryffindor Team!" He shouted, garnering applause from three quarters of the crowd, as nobody was supporting the Slytherins except their own house. "The Chasers; Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell!" As he said each name, the respective player mounted their broom and flew out onto the pitch. "The Beaters; Fred and George Weasley! Playing Keeper is Captain Oliver Wood, and your Seeker is Harry Potter!"

"To give some background to this match," Lee explained while Madam Hooch prepared and called the captains down to shake hands. "Slytherin were supposed to be playing Hufflepuff today with a substitute Seeker. However, due to the Hufflepuff Team being almost entirely new this year and needing time to play, a last minute replacement came in the form of the Gryffindor-Slytherin match! Strangely, Malfoy's arm seems to be much better today than was initially anticipated - I wonder why?" Lee asked the rhetorical question sarcastically.

"Jordan, the game please." Professor McGonagall asked warningly.

"Of course Professor." Lee acquiesced. "The Captains are shaking hands, and, OW, that looked like it hurt, it seemed as if Slytherin Captain Flint was trying to break Gryffindor Captain Wood's hand. It seems unlikely that we'll be seeing a clean game of sportsman-like behaviour from the Slytherins today then!" The Slytherins jeered, while the rest of the crowd booed.

"JORDAN!" Professor McGonagall shouted.

"Sorry Professor! Just stating the facts! The Snitch has been released, and there goes the Quaffle, so play has now begun."

Harry hovered above the pitch, his eyes scanning for any sign of the Snitch. He saw Angelina grab the Quaffle and zoom to the opposing end, passing it to Alicia at the last moment, who put it neatly through the right hoop, while Bletchley flew to block the left, expecting Angelina to throw it.

"And Alicia Spinnet scores as Keeper Bletchley flies in the wrong direction!" Lee shouted. "Ten points for Gryffindor." As rude as the statement was, Lee had hit the nail on the head. Flint had filled his team with the largest players he could find, and not just in height. While a large build can be useful in Quidditch, it was more of a hinderance here as it took Miles so long to turn and fly back towards the Quaffle, that play had already resumed, and the Chasers were already flying around in the centre of the pitch.

With a little more scanning of the pitch, Harry flew quickly to a different location, where he could see problematic areas at different angles. He knew in particular that the Golden Snitch was very difficult to see against the red and gold backdrop of the Gryffindor stand. Unfortunately, this put him very close to Malfoy, who immediately took the opportunity to try and show him up.

"Hey, Potter." He snarled. "There's no way you're going to beat me today."

"Just like every match then, Malfoy?" Harry commented idly. Malfoy fumed.

"Just you wait, Potter." He spat. "You'll get yours soon enough!"

"Oh, will I?" Harry replied. "Anyway, how's your arm, Malfoy. Imagine my concern to hear you may not be able to play today. And then suddenly, the moment the match changed teams, you were all healthy again."

"It recovered quicker than Madam Pomfrey would have hoped. Its lucky really - an attack from that beast could have rendered it useless forever."

"Oh come off it Malfoy. You know that's not right. It would have just killed you instead. Besides, didn't you listen to Hagrid - he told you not to insult them." Harry knew that Malfoy had heard Hagrid's warning, and that he deliberately insulted Buckbeak to make Hagrid look bad, but he was playing a part, and enjoying it immensely now that he understood Malfoy's games.

"That bumbling oaf? He didn't know what he was doing. Really, a dangerous creature that could kill someone, in our first lesson? That's the height of stupidity."

Malfoy's response made Harry angry, but before he could respond, he felt the anger diminish - not completely, but enough to keep him under control. "Anyway, goodbye Malfoy, I've got a Snitch to find!" He said, trying to inject some false cheer into his voice, before flying off.

Down on the reserve bench, Ginny suddenly felt an inexplicable amount of anger. Not knowing where it was coming from, the emotion quickly gave way to confusion, but for a moment her eyes had flashed, and her teammates on the reserve team had looked at her, concerned. She waved them off.

"It's nothing, I just felt really angry for a moment for some reason." She told them, turning her attention back to the sky, watching the entire game, but focusing mainly on Harry.

The game had continued and the score was 70-10 in favour of Gryffindor before anything else of interest happened. Scanning the pitch, Harry suddenly spotted a Bludger heading straight for him, whacked by a grinning Bole, who could be seen hovering behind it. Harry made to fly out the way of it's path, but Fred popped up from below and swung his bat at the ball, firing it back towards Bole, who was hit in the stomach as he didn't comprehend that it was coming back at him until too late. Winded, he flew down to near the bottom of the playing area to catch his breath.

"Hiya Harry!" Fred said from his position beside him.

George flew in from the other side swerving at the last second to come in line. "Can't have you getting hurt now, can we?"

"Ginny would kill us!" They shared a laugh at Harry's bemused expression.

"Thanks guys!" He said as they flew off to rejoin the fray below.

The score was now 90-30 in their favour. Derrick and Bole, who had returned to play, were concentrating all of their attacks on Wood, which was making it difficult for him to save anything when he was concentrating on avoiding falling off of his broom. However, the Gryffindor Chasers were performing admirably, never losing possession once they got hold of the ball.

They were about an hour in when Harry spotted the Snitch, hovering in mid-air. He quickly glanced at Malfoy. While closer, the Slytherin Seeker was currently looking in the opposite direction. Harry slowly drifted towards the Snitch, not wanting to give away it's position before absolutely necessary.

When he could almost reach it, the Snitch suddenly shot upwards, and Harry leant on his broom handle, flying up after it. He was now closer than Malfoy, so wasn't concerned when Lee announced "It looks like Potter has seen the Snitch!" He just about heard Malfoy swear as he spun on the spot, and, noticing Harry, angled his broom to meet up with him at the Snitch.

On the ground, Ginny watched, along with the rest of the school, as Harry and Malfoy both chased the Snitch into the cloud layer covering the sky as far as they could see.

Suddenly, she shivered slightly, and was confused. While slightly chilly, she was warm in the several layers of Quidditch uniform she wore.

Higher and higher the Snitch flew, with Harry pushing his Nimbus 2000 to its limits trying to catch up. Malfoy was ever so slightly gaining on him from behind, helped only by the slightly higher top speed of the Nimbus 2001.

He started feeling colder as he gained slightly on the Snitch. The winged ball was charmed to not leave the pitch or go too high, although Harry felt that point had already been and gone. Nonetheless, it was starting to slow down now, evidently nearing its boundary.

Then Harry realised why he could feel a rising sense of dread. The cold air, now to the point where he was openly shivering and could see his breath, reminded him horribly of their encounter on the Hogwarts Express. As he came to this realisation, he distantly heard a woman say "No! Not Harry! Please!" With dread, he realised what was happening - the dementors had come to the game.

He turned around, and shouted at his opponent. "Turn around Malfoy! Go back down!"

"Please be alive, Ginny, please don't be dead!"

Malfoy looked at him like he was crazy, then replied "Not a chance Potter - I'm not just going to hand you this victory. If you're too scared to fly any higher then leave it to the better Seeker to win the game." Even as he said this, he started shivering uncontrollably.

"Step aside, foolish girl!"

"No! Not Harry! Please no, take me, kill me instead!"

At that moment, several cloaked dementors flew out of the clouds surrounding the pair. Malfoy, with his teeth chattering, took one look at the closest before turning and fleeing back down.

"Tom - you've got to help me. There's a basilisk, and Ginny won't wake up..."

Harry urged his broom towards the ground, but was quickly overrun by his emotions. The broom slipped from his grasp, and he fell unconscious on the way to the ground.

The Snitch, in a desperate bid to escape the foul, soul-sucking creatures above, starting flying back down to the pitch, in a weaving motion. Part way there, it flew underneath the hand of unconscious Harry, whose fingers closed onto it from the impact it made against his palm.

Back on the ground, everyone had started shivering uncontrollably. More of the spectators were coming to the same conclusion - the dementors had left their posts at the boundary of the grounds. Madam Hooch had called all the players still at a reasonable height down to the ground, not wanting anyone to fall off their brooms, but no-one knew where either Seeker was, since they flew through the cloud cover several minutes ago.

"Please be alive, Ginny, please don't be dead!" Ginny heard Harry's voice pleading. Startled, she looked around her, shivering all the while, but couldn't see him anywhere.

Suddenly, the crowd gasped as they saw a broom descending rapidly from the cloud layer. As it drew closer to the ground, they could see the rider wore green and silver robes - Slytherin colours.

"Dementors! There's dementors up there!" Malfoy shouted, landing on the ground, where he promptly fainted from shock. Madam Hooch and Professor Snape converged on him, while Madam Pomfrey paused to pick up her bag of medical supplies before joining them.

"Where's Harry?" Ginny heard whispered behind her multiple times from the Gryffindor stands. But she ignored them, much too preoccupied with the new voices she was hearing - unknown ones now.

"Step aside, foolish girl!"

"No! Not Harry! Please no, take me, kill me instead!"

Her head battered by many emotions at once, she barely noticed the Harry that only she could hear, say "Tom - you've got to help me. There's a basilisk, and Ginny won't wake up..." before she abruptly tipped forward off the bench as she fell unconscious, the rest of the Gryffindor Reserves surrounding her, and shouting for Madam Pomfrey.

Having finished checking over Malfoy, the Matron hurried over to find an unconscious Ginny surrounded by her teammates. Puzzled as to what could have caused it, she started by casting a simple "Rennervate". The young girl coughed once, but otherwise remained motionless. Undeterred, Madam Pomfrey cast the spell again, while ushering the other students away to give her some space.

This time, Ginny sat up, coughed again, then looked up at the matron. "What happe-" she started to ask, before she saw a fast-moving flash of red and gold high in the air behind the matron. "HARRY!" She screamed, before passing out again.

Concerned, Madam Pomfrey wondered what had frightened the girl so much to cause her to faint again. She turned to the pitch behind her, only to see a bundle of red and gold robes plummeting to the ground with no broom.

Luckily, the Headmaster had already heard Ginny's shout - as had the rest of the students and Professors. Seeing what could only be Harry falling uncontrollably, he stood and chanted, "ARRESTO MOMENTUM", pointing his wand at the falling teenager.

The spell did not stop Harry from falling completely, but did slow him down sufficiently for Professor McGonagall to conjure a large crash mat for him to land on, breaking his fall. Once he had landed, she shrunk the mat until he was near the ground, then vanished it, allowing Madam Pomfrey to get near him and check him over. He was still injured from the fall, but not nearly as badly as if he had just hit the ground at his original speed.