Title: Strings of Fate
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Being raised only by his Aunt, Harry comes to Hogwarts not only knowing about the Wizarding World, but with a kind of training no one at the school is expecting.
A/N: It has been pointed out the similarity in the name between Luna's mother and a sports personality in the last chapter. This was completely unintentional and I did not even realise until it was pointed out.
Harry was livid as he sat in the first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson of the year. He felt the entire intelligence of the class was being insulted and all his well trained political instincts were rebelling. For Harry, influence and politics were a subtle and exacting art where the most deft ploys were the ones no one ever even realised had happened.
The… thing standing at the head of the class was everything Harry despised. Flamboyant, self-centred and vain. Yes, it was fair to say that Harry considered Professor Gilderoy Lockhart as much his grand nemesis as Lord Voldemort. Voldemort just wanted to kill him; Lockhart was trampling on everything that Harry held dear. Most of the girls in the class also seemed to look at the professor like he was their favourite food that they had not had in weeks.
The first task that the Professor had issued was a questionnaire on… himself. It smacked of arrogance to Harry that every question was about the Professor. Even the ones that referred to the defence relevant sections of his books, the questions were about the Professors clothes or hair styling products. Harry took a perverse pleasure in answering every question on the questionnaire with 'I am a fish' and signing it A.J.R.
Harry smirked slightly a he looked around the room. Susan was sitting next to him, frowning at the questionnaire. Hermione and Su Li were sitting at the desk next to Harry and Susan, with Hermione chewing on her quill in a way that indicated that she was conflicted as to the reliability of the information in front of her. Padma and Hannah were sitting at the desk in front of Harry's and he could see Hannah unconsciously performing one of her nervous habits.
The Professor collected all of the Questionnaires and quickly looked through them, frowning when he reached Harry's responses. The rest of the lesson was Lockhart talking more about himself before he released them.
"Oh my god, what an idiot." Harry said as the group walked away from the classroom.
Su had joined Hermione, Padma and the three Hufflepuffs as they headed for what had become one of Harry's favourite classes.
"I wonder what made him frown like that when he was checking the quizzes." Hannah said.
"Oh that was mine." Harry said. "He will be wondering why one of his students was denying their humanity."
"What did you do this time?" Susan said with a roll of her eyes.
"I am a fish." Harry said as he held his arm out like a salute, rotating his hand in a circle at the wrist a couple of times before hitting himself in the forehead with the back of his hand.
Hermione cracked up laughing as the rest of the group looked at her in confusion.
"It's from a Muggle TV Show called Red Dwarf." Hermione explained.
"It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere" Harry began to sing, and was joined quickly by Hermione. "I'm all alone, more or less. Let me fly, far away from here."
Harry and Hermione continued to sing as they made their way through the corridors with the rest of the group listened in rapt attention. They finished the song as they walked into the next their next class.
"If Potter and Granger are finished, let's get started." Professor Snape said.
Harry stood out in the middle of the Quidditch Pitch with about ten other 'hopefuls' who were trying out for the three vacant spots on the Hufflepuff team. The Seeker position, a chaser spot and a beater spot. Harry glanced around to see Susan and Hannah watching, along with a smattering of other Hufflepuff students, from the stands.
The Captain of the team was one of the incumbent Chasers, who was now in his final year.
"Alright, listen up." the Captain said. "I want everyone trying out for Seeker to go to my left, that's your right. Beaters off to my right. Chasers stay where you are."
Two of the hopefuls went off to the position for Seeker, one of whom Harry recognised as Cedric Diggory, while three moved over to the Beater position. That left Harry with two Third Years, a Fourth Year Wizard and a Fifth Year Witch competing for the Chaser position. The Captain assigned the two prospective Beaters to the incumbent Beater to go off and do drills at deflecting and aiming Bludgers, while the two Seekers candidates were sent off with the other Chaser to try and catch golf balls that she threw in random directions.
The first round of tryouts for the Chasers was simple. They had to take turns throwing a Quaffle at the Goal Posts while the Keeper defended them. The Captain was looking for consistency, so it did not matter that the Fifth Year was the only one to actually score during this round, though one of the Third Years was eliminated as he was too erratic with his shots.
By the time the first round for the Chasers was over, the new Seeker had been decided and Cedric Diggory had gotten the spot in a close contest. The second round for the Chasers was passing exercises with the two incumbent Chasers. Naturally, given his years playing Rugby Union, Harry was quite adept at this once he taught himself that in Quidditch you can pass the ball forward. The Fourth Year and the other Third Year were eliminated after this round leaving just Harry and the Fifth Year Witch in the running.
The final task was what the Captain called 'The Crucible'. It was a simple run where the prospective Chaser would have to get past all four of the existing Quidditch Team members, all of whom would be working together to block them, while holding on to a Quaffle and trying to avoid a Bludger. The Fifth Year went first and, after being blocked by one of the Chasers and almost getting knocked off her broom by the Bludger. Everyone was quite impressed with her performance, until they saw Harry's run. It was not coincidence that Harry and Dudley's team had won the premiership two years running. Dudley was in his year's A team at his Prep School and he was not as talented as Harry was. To Harry the crucible run was almost too easy. With lightning fast reflexes, a natural ability on a broom and the honed skill of predicting the opponent's moves, none of the existing team members were able to lay a finger on him, and he evaded the Bludger with effortless grace.
"I have never seen anything like that. How did you do it?" The Captain asked.
"Several years of playing open-side Flanker." Harry said. "My coach used to play for England and said I was one of the best Flankers he had seen."
"Well, Potter, you have the spot." The Captain said. "Stevens, I am offering you a reserve Chaser spot."
The Fifth Year Witch nodded, looking slightly dejected but not overly surprised.
"Buck up, Stevens." The female Chaser said. "I have been having a number injury issues lately, so having a reserve is a good idea."
Susan and Hannah made their way down from the stands as the others who had been trying out left the field. Susan rushed in and gave Harry a hug that almost rivalled one of Hermione's, before stepping back with a ruffle of his hair while she pushed Hannah in for a brief hug, which naturally caused her to blush as Harry absently tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Elated from the flying, Harry wrapped an arm each around the shoulders of Susan and Hannah as they started back towards the castle with a girl on each side of him.
"I heard Potter did not even want to try out originally." The Keeper said as the team watched Harry and his friends depart. "But Bones threatened him into it."
"Bit odd, considering." The female Chaser said.
"Considering what?" the Beater asked.
"That it was Potter who gave the new brooms." The female Chaser replied, before seeing the confused looks on her teammate's faces. "Come on, who else would do it?"
That question was met with contemplative silence.
TBC…