A/N: Here's another chapter. Enjoy:))

Chapter 125: Tryouts and observations

Next morning, my brother came down pretty late, apparently trying his best to contain his amusement, followed by a disgruntled looking Ron.

"What happened? I mean, I know it's morning Ron, but it's almost eleven, you slept a lot."

"What happened? I'll tell you what happened. I woke up in the middle of the night, suspended from my legs, dangling in mid air above my bed; that's what."

"How?"

"Ask your little brother here. I fail to see what's so funny here Harry!" he snapped at his now full on laughing friend.

"Come on, Ron. I didn't know what that spell would do. It was an accident."

"What spell?"

"A non verbal one from the potions book. Mione said that it's safe."

"That doesn't mean that you should practice them in the middle of the night on your roommates."

Fifteen minutes later, after we managed to calm Ron down and convince Harry not to do that ever again, we headed for the Quidditch pitch for the Gryffindor tryouts. Having been on the team for six years didn't spare my brother from having to compete for his position, even if he was the only one. Angelina wanted to make sure that her team was made out of the best players in Gryffindor and seemed to be determined to follow in Oliver's footsteps with the training sessions this year.

Hermione and I joined Neville and Luna on the bleachers while Ginny, Ron and Harry stood next to the others that wanted to get on the team.

"Alright everyone. It's Sunday and I know you all want to spend it with your friends regardless of how much you might love flying. So we'll make this quick. You'll fly ten laps around the pitch just so I can observe your method. Then seeing as we are just about the right amount of people, we'll play a match to see you in action. Got it?"

Everyone nodded and, at the captain's sign, they rose. I could notice the girl crossing off a couple of kids as soon as the first lap was done, and even though I wasn't nearly as good as my brother at flying, it wasn't hard to guess why. A little third year girl almost slammed headfirst in the teacher's tower next to the Ravenclaw section because she took the turn too late and another boy, a sixth year this time, lost control of his broom the moment he no longer had the ground under his feet.

Harry did a marvellous job, his only opponent being, in the end, Ginny, who was a great player herself and made the team, but as a substitute Seeker.

Ron however, seemed even more nervous after seeing the other guy who wanted to get the Keeper spot: Cormac McLaggen was a sixth year and full to the brink of himself; he indeed was well built and not so bad looking, but I knew for a fact that his grades weren't so good and his personality was terrible.

Hermione seemed to notice her friend's uneasiness and, seemingly in a moment of impulse, shot a Confundus charm at McLaggen, who had only managed to catch the Quaffle two times so far. In the end, our redheaded friend deviated the ball six times compared to the other's three and was accepted on the team.

"My, Hermione is Fred rubbing off on you?"

"Seriously guys, I'm not that much of a goody two shoes. I'm the one who set professor Snape's robes on fire during first year in case you forgot."

"Though I don't believe you'd want him to find out."

"Don't you dare."

"I won't. Now, let's get the others and grab lunch. I'm starving. Remind me why we didn't have breakfast today?"

"The boys woke up late and they had tryouts."

"Right. Let's go."

We ended up spending the rest of the day walking around, visiting Hagrid (who tried to feed us rock cakes), and then sitting next to the lake, for Hermione to look over Harry's potions book. While she was reading the Draught of Living Death page, one that seemed to be among the most modified, I glanced at the book open in her lap and noticed something.

"Wait a minute. This writing looks really familiar. May I?"

"Sure." she handed it to me. I flipped between the pages, some handwritten words tugging at my memories but I just couldn't remember. That is, until I saw a name.

"Lily..." My face fell and I realised in that moment whose writing it was.

"What? Selene, are you okay?"

"I know whose book this is. It's Sev's. This is definitely his."

"That's Snape's? I've been following his instructions all along?"

"Wow mate, that's the first time you actually listened to the bat and something good came out of it."

"Well, the good news is, Mione, you didn't have anything to worry about, at least not regarding the safety of the potions."

"That is true Selene, yes, but we should give it back to its rightful owner."

"No way. Now I know that the instructions are right. I mean, everyone has instructions, that's how a book is supposed to work. And it's a book for fifth years. Why would he want it back?" The three of them looked at me, equally quizzical looks on their faces.

"What? "

"Well, what do you say we should do? You're really close to him."

"Well, as Harry said, he wouldn't need it anymore, as he already knows how to make those potions and probably all the adjustments he made to them. And if he let it at Hogwarts, I don't think there is anything actually dangerous in there. So I think you should keep it."

Hermione ended up agreeing to my suggestion a couple of days later, even if it wasn't like her to 'lie' to teachers.

In the meantime, Harry managed to get out of another one of Slughorn's parties. How Dumbledore managed to make their meetings overlap the parties or, more important, why, was completely beyond me.