Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter 9: Chaser Tryouts and the First Quidditch Match.
Harry didn't pay attention in any of his lessons, not even Defence Against the Dark Arts. He greeted Moody but after that he didn't bother listening, he had too much on his mind. Chaser tryouts were at four this afternoon and Harry was worrying about them.
At three thirty Harry put his stuff in his dorm and got changed into his quidditch gear, grabbed his broom and hurried down to the quidditch pitch. After doing a few warm up laps around the pitch he noticed people were starting to arrive. He did a few more laps before flying down. Thanks to the DA meetings he was used to talking and giving orders to large crowds. He quickly counted them, twelve, which was perfect.
"Right," said Harry, who was still sitting on his broom, "what we will do is three of you will go and do a pass and shoot game. Three will do a bludger dodging practice with Jack Sloper and Andrew Kirke; they will only use one bludger though. The rest of you will do passing practice. You three," He pointed to three third years, two boys and a girl who he was sure were called Robert Flaxwell, Samuel Garson and Jennifer Brockan, "go with Ron and do some passing and shooting." They nodded and walked off. For the first time he noticed Ginny in the crowd.
"You three," indicating Ginny and two other people he didn't know, "Go and do bludger dodging, the rest of you go and do some passing." Everyone went and did what they were told to. Deciding to go and watch the bludger practice, as he hadn't seen the beaters play yet, he took off and went to watch them.
After ten minutes he could watch no more, the beaters were appalling. They missed the bludger more often than they hit and Jack Sloper swung his bat and accidentally let go of it, it missed Kirke's head by inches. Both would need a lot of extra training.
The Chasers were all right though; he had decided to narrow the group down to six possible people then from that choose the three chasers, Ginny Weasley was doing very well, she was running rings around the beaters, but then again, Harry reasoned, that wasn't particularly difficult. Nevertheless he kept her in mind as one of the possible six. The other two had not done very well, both had been hit by the bludger.
Harry flew over to where the chasers were shooting at Ron, he was astonished at how well Ron was doing, he had obviously been practising over the summer before Harry had come to stay. Flaxwell was doing quite well, he was forcing some good saves out of Ron. Jennifer Brockan was doing ok as well but not nearly as well as Flaxwell. Garson was not doing well at all, he kept fumbling and dropping the ball. However he would definitely keep Flaxwell in mind.
He flew over to where the remainder of the people were practising passing, some of the were quite good, but some kept fumbling the quaffle and dropping it. Deciding that it was time for them to change around, Harry called a halt, the people that had been passing and shooting or dodging the bludger went and did the passing and the other group split up and took their places. Harry went and watched the passing first, again Ginny excelled, the quaffle seemed to go to her hands. Harry noticed that Flaxwell was doing extremely well as well.
After five more minutes Harry noticed that a severe competition was developing between Ginny and Flaxwell, they were chucking the ball as hard as the could at each other and were trying to make the other mishandle the ball and drop it by giving really difficult passes. After a couple more minutes Harry grew very angry.
"WEASLEY, FLAXWELL!" Both looked up shocked. Harry beckoned them to him. They flew to him, their faces guilty.
"You both came here to be chasers didn't you?" he asked them still angry. They both nodded, "not to give each other concussion."
"Then I will not have you trying to knock each other out by chucking the quaffle as hard as you can at each other. Either you get a grip or you'll have to go. Got that?" They both nodded apologetically and flew off to continue practising.
"Temper, Potter, you seem to be losing it too easily these days." Harry turned his broom round and saw Cho and Hermione grinning up at him.
"She's right you know, Harry," said Hermione to him. Harry smiled.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked.
"Just thought we would come and watch." Said Hermione. Harry turned round to see how everyone was doing. To his surprise everyone was watching them.
"C'mon, keep practising!" Said Harry, Cho laughed.
"What's so funny?" demanded Harry playfully.
"Nothing." She said. Harry kissed her and flew up to where three people were doing the passing and shooting.
Half an hour later Harry was ready to narrow it down to six people. Calling them all to him, he took a list of six names out of his pocket.
"First of all, you have all done very well, I am greatly impressed by the standard of talent here, so well done to all of you, but could these six people come back tomorrow as well as the rest of the Gryffindor team. Daniel Carton, Ben Sohill, Robert Flaxwell, Susie Radthorpe, Kevin Gaston and Ginny Weasley. Thank you and well done to everyone." Everybody walked off looking either disappointed or very happy. Ginny and Ron hung behind waiting for Harry. Harry, Ron and Ginny walked over to where Cho and Hermione waited. They all walked towards the castle.
"I didn't think you were going to pick me." said Ginny.
"You're too good not to be picked, but you have to learn not to compete like that with other team-mates. Things like that could cost us games." Ginny nodded.
"Calm down," laughed Cho, "stop being so serious!"
"When's our first match?" asked Ron.
"A week, it's against Slytherin."
"Excellent, that should be good." Said Ron pleased. They walked into the Great Hall and Cho went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Harry sat down and started to eat slowly.
"Harry!" said Hermione breaking into his thoughts.
"Yeah, what?" returning to reality with a jolt of surprise.
"When's the next DA meeting?" Asked Hermione.
"Oh yeah, sorry." Said Harry. He took his coin out of his pocket and changed the numbers. Hermione took her coin out of her pocket and checked the numbers.
"But that's a week and a half away!"
"Yeah, but I want to get loads of quidditch practice in."
"You're turning out like Angelina!" said Ron. Harry shrugged non-commitedly and returned to his thoughts. He was trying to decide who would be chasers, and then he had to get the whole team ready before the match against Slytherin.
Ron tried to get his attention a couple times but soon gave up. They finished eating and returned to Gryffindor tower.
"I'm off to bed, I'm pretty tired." Said Harry. He climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitories. He crawled into bed. Five minutes later he heard Ron come up as well.
"Have you been practising over the summer?" Harry asked him. Ron nodded.
"Yeah, I figured I needed to get a lot better before I came back to school."
"You have got better, wish our beaters had as well, they're rubbish. By the way did you notice anyone who should be on the team?" Ron thought for a moment before replying.
"Flaxwell should, he did well and I'm not saying this because she's my sister but Ginny did well as well."
"I know, I saw her." Said Harry as he turned over to go to sleep.
Harry woke up the next morning feeling refreshed so he got dressed and went down to breakfast.
Hermione was sitting at the table eating so Harry went to join her. He sat down opposite her. She didn't notice Harry, she was reading something under the table. Harry waited for her to notice him.
"Hermione?" said Harry after a couple of minutes. Hermione jumped and looked around worriedly. When she saw it was Harry she relaxed.
"Sorry, Harry"
"What's that you're reading anyway?"
"A letter from Viktor."
"Why are you hiding it?" asked Harry bemused. Hermione looked around and lowered her voice.
"Because I don't want Ron to see it."
"Why not?" asked Harry.
"You know how he reacts."
"You know what I think," said Harry casually, reaching over to the plate of sausages, "I think Ron's jealous."
"What?" shrieked Hermione loudly, dropping the knife and fork she had just picked up. Harry looked round and saw people looking at them. He waited for them to turn away before replying.
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed it. Ron's jealous." Said Harry, Hermione lowered her voice.
"You think he loves me?" asked Hermione, Harry thought before replying.
"I think," Harry said carefully, "He cares more deeply about you then he lets on."
"You really think so?" asked Hermione disbelievingly.
"Come on, Hermione! Face the facts, whenever you send or receive a letter from Krum then he gets worked up, it's so obvious!" said Harry exasperated. Hermione opened her mouth to reply but then shut it as she saw Ron enter the Great Hall. She gave Harry a look that clearly said don't mention anything to Ron.
Ron sat down next to Hermione and took a piece of toast,
"Morning" said Hermione.
"Morning, Hermione" said Ron.
"Chaser tryouts at four today." Said Harry to Ron. Harry finished his breakfast and checked his timetable. Fortunately he didn't have potions today, he grinned relieved. His last lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Feeling slightly more relaxed then he did yesterday he decided to find out why Moody was teaching at Hogwarts
In the library Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe and Theodore Nott were sitting at a table tucked in a corner where they couldn't be seen or overheard easily. They were talking heatedly.
"I hate that git, Potter!" spat Malfoy.
"Yeah, something has to be done about him." Said Nott. Footsteps grew louder as somebody approached them, Malfoy turned round.
"What do you want?" He sneered.
"The same thing that you want" Roger Davies sneered back.
"And what's that?"
"Potter out of the way."
"Why?" demanded Malfoy. Davies stared at him deciding whether or not to tell him.
"Chang." He said finally. Malfoy burst out laughing. Davies' wand rose, so did Nott's, Crabbe's and Goyle's. Malfoy waved their wands down.
"Calm down, boys, I like him," he turned to Davies, "I think you've made some new friends" Davies grinned maliciously and sat down.
"What do you think we should do about Potter?" Malfoy asked him. Davies leaned back in his chair, the manic grin never leaving his face.
"We should wait. Right now Potter goes everywhere surrounded by his little friends. That won't last for ever and when it stops that's when we strike." Malfoy looked at him for a minute.
"It might be useful having a Ravenclaw to work with." Davies' grin grew wider.
"And how do you propose to get Chang." Malfoy asked. Davies' grin vanished.
"I'll find a way." He said guardedly, it was Malfoy's turn to grin.
The first few lessons passed quickly for Harry and before he knew it, Harry was heading towards Defence Against the Dark Arts. He entered the classroom and walked up to Moody's desk. Moody grinned at him.
"I wondered when you were going to come and talk to me, Potter." He growled.
"Why didn't you tell us you were going to be teaching here?" Harry asked.
"Dumbledore didn't want anyone to know," He lowered his voice and leaned closer, "He also wants some more of the Order at Hogwarts." Harry nodded and returned to his seat between Ron and Hermione. When everyone was sat down and silent Moody stood up.
"In my opinion," Moody growled looking down at them all, his magical eye scanning them all, "theory and writing isn't going to help you in the real world, and helping to prepare you for the real world is exactly what I am here to do." He went and stood behind his desk.
"Most of the stuff I do with you will be practical and if you have any sort of problem with the spells that I teach you then I suggest you come to me," his magical eye scanned them again for a second, "or go to Harry Potter."
"What's Moody playing at?" Harry asked Hermione in a whisper.
"He knows exactly what he's doing, he knows you're good at curses, hexes spells like that. Remember he knows about the DA." Harry nodded but he still wasn't too happy.
"Right, the first spell I want to teach you is a binding spell, it's very basic but it will delay your average Death Eater for about ten seconds. The incantation is 'Delegaste'; at most the spell will last for about fifteen seconds. Potter could you come up here." Harry stood up and walked to the front of the class. Harry faced Moody and waited.
"Delegaste" yelled Moody, but Harry was too quick for him. His shield charm was up milliseconds after Moody sent the curse at him. The reflected curse narrowly missed Moody who ducked just in time.
"Very good Potter," said Moody approvingly, "your turn." Harry thought before sending the spell at Moody, if he sent the spell on it's own then Moody would just deflect it, but if he sent a decoy spell then Moody would deflect that, his shield charm would fade and the binding spell would hit him. Harry pointed his wand at Moody.
"Impedimenta," He yelled, he sidestepped quickly so the spell wouldn't hit him when it was deflected, "Delegaste." He yelled, a second after he sent the impediment jinx at Moody. As he predicted, Moody deflected the first spell but could do nothing to block the second spell.
Moody struggled against the invisible bonds that bound him for a few seconds before getting free.
"THAT WAS RUDDY BRILLIANT, POTTER!" Moody roared, a second later he continued, "That was brilliant! He anticipated my next move and got round it, you have the makings of a very good Auror, Potter." For the rest of the lesson they divided into pairs, Harry, however, was taught advance techniques of duelling by Moody who felt that Harry did not need to practice the binding spell.
At five to four Harry arrived at the quidditch pitch. Five minutes later everyone else had arrived.
"Right, basically what I want to do is the same as yesterday, half of you will do a pass and shoot against Ron, half of you will do passing. Could Ben, Robert and Daniel do the pass and shoot and could the other three do the passing. They all flew off and begun. Harry decided to go and watch the passing. He noticed right from the start that Susie and Ginny linked up very well. They didn't exclude Kevin but they seemed to know exactly where the other person was, this provided some excellent passing. After fifteen minutes he went and watched the shooting, Flaxwell was doing very well, he was using the other two to create good goal scoring opportunities for himself and them. After another fifteen minutes he swapped the groups around. Again Ginny and Susie linked up well. Half an hour later Harry had seen enough and had decided. He called everyone to him.
"Well done to everyone but unfortunately I had to choose three of you. The three new Gryffindor chasers are Susie Radthorpe, Ginny Weasley and Robert Flaxwell. Well done to those and commiserations to the other three. Could the Gryffindor team stay for training, our first match is against Slytherin and it's in five days time."
On the day before the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match, Malfoy was standing in the Great Hall waiting for Nott. He heard someone approaching; he turned round and saw Roger Davies running towards him. He grinned at Malfoy.
"I know how to get Potter out of the way!"
"How?" asked Malfoy curiously.
"In the quidditch match tomorrow make sure he gets hit on the head, then use a memory charm on him." Davies grinned evilly at him.
"That's good, that's very good!" said Malfoy looking gleeful.
The day of the quidditch match was bright with no wind. Harry got up and went down to breakfast. At quarter to eleven the whole of the Gryffindor team proceeded to the changing rooms. When they were all changed they mounted their brooms and flew out onto the quidditch pitch.
"WEASLEY, SLOPER, KIRKE, WEASLEY, FLAXWELL, RADTHORPE AND POTTER!" greeted them amidst cheers from three quarters of the school.
"Captains shake hands." Potter and Malfoy grudgingly shook hands. Then flew back to join their teams. The whistle blew and Madam Hooch threw the quaffle up in the air. Harry saw Ginny grab the quaffle and then he blocked out the rest of the game. He flew high above the match and searched for the snitch. After a while he noticed that Malfoy was tailing him,
"If that's how you want to play it, Malfoy." Hovering for a few more seconds Harry went into a steep dive, to Harry's satisfaction Malfoy immediately dove with him. Harry timed the dive perfectly, two feet from the ground he yanked his broom handle up and spiralled back into the air.
"AND LOOK AT THAT, HARRY POTTER PULLS OFF A WRONSKI FEINT!"
"You'll pay for that, Potter!" said Malfoy as he remounted his broom, his nose bleeding freely. Harry saw that Malfoy had not given up and was still following him. Faking a look of intense concentration Harry started zigzagging down the pitch as if he was following the snitch, he slowed his broom down just enough for Malfoy to catch up with him. When Harry felt that Malfoy was close enough Harry pushed his broom handle down, but kept on pushing so he did an under loop the loop which brought him behind Malfoy. He barrel rolled to right himself and flew up high above the pitch. He continued to search for the snitch from high above the pitch; he let his concentration lapse a tiny bit so he could hear what the score was. After a few minutes of listening he gathered that the score was ninety-sixty to Gryffindor. Resuming full concentration he scanned the pitch for the snitch, as he did so he saw Cho in the stands. He lost all concentration as he stared at her.
Suddenly he felt two bludgers, one after the other, hit him in the stomach, it knocked all the air out of him. He struggled to stay on his broom as he tried to regain his breath. After a minute he could breathe again.
To his horror he saw the snitch, and Malfoy was about two feet away from it, an intensely satisfied grin on his face. There was no way that Harry could catch him up on his broom. Harry watched paralysed with terror, Malfoy had beaten him to the snitch. A new emotion flooded him, he stood up shakily on his broom, he knew what he was going to do. Crouching down again he grabbed the tail of his broom and the handle. He urged the broom forward in a dive and when he felt he had gathered enough speed he jumped off, pulling the handle up slightly as he did so. He heard the crowd gasp as the broom dived with a slight curve to it. Harry was a hundred feet above Malfoy but was in front of him.
Harry was freefalling at an extreme speed. He felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and excitement that had he had never felt on a broom. Harry felt fear as he realised that he was likely to miss his broom.
Malfoy was filled with exhilaration, it didn't matter that Crabbe and Goyle had missed Harry's head but they had winded him, which meant that he, Draco Malfoy, was going to catch the snitch. He was so filled with joy that he could taste it. The snitch was right in front of him, he reached out his hand and it brushed his fingertips, he was almost there.
Malfoy saw something scarlet shoot past him, a split second later the scarlet thing was gone. Malfoy cursed under his breath, that scarlet thing had distracted him and the snitch had vanished, never mind, he thought; at least Potter didn't have it.
Harry was exultant; he had pulled it off, not entirely. He searched for his broom and felt terrified when he couldn't see it; there was only about thirty feet to the ground.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something streak along, parallel to the ground about fifteen feet up. Ten feet from his broom he realised he had been extremely lucky, everything had been timed perfectly.
He hit his broom and struggled to stay balanced, the impact had knocked the broom handle down and it went into a steep dive, Harry was still struggling to regain balance. Seven feet to the ground, six, five, four. Three feet from the ground Harry regained enough balance to yank the broom handle sharply upwards. He soared to fifty feet above the ground, fear, relief and adrenaline making him light headed. He slowly put his arm into the air. The stand was silent, everything had stopped and everyone was looking at him.
"Harry Potter has, without doubt, pulled of the greatest quidditch manoeuvre ever." Said the commentator quietly, but everyone heard it. Three quarters of the stand suddenly erupted into cheers. They had all just witnessed the most daring manoeuvre ever.
Draco Malfoy was angrier than he ever had been in his life. He was so near to catching the snitch, so near to beating Potter, and Potter had pulled off something like that. Drawing his wand slowly, he pulled is wand slowly and pointed it at Potter who was motionless in the air. Pointing at him he muttered a curse. He watched, with immense satisfaction, Harry's surprise as the curse struck him.
Harry had his arm up in the air when he felt something hit him, the force of it knocked him off of his broom. He hurtled to the ground and heard a sickening thud as he hit it, then he blacked out.
Harry woke up in the hospital wing; the first thing that he noticed was a terrible pain all over, the second he noticed was a different feeling, it hurt, but not like pain, it was like emptiness. He couldn't move, He saw Ron, Hermione, Cho and Ginny sitting there looking at him worriedly. They saw that he was awake, Cho, Ginny and Hermione had all been crying, their eyes were red. Cho attempted to fling herself onto Harry, but Ron threw himself in front of her and stopped her.
"Thank God! You're awake!" said Cho.
"What happened?" asked Harry croakily.
"Malfoy cursed you after you caught the snitch." Explained Hermione.
"How the hell did you do that?" asked Ron, grinning at him, full of relief.
"Do what?" asked Harry stupidly.
"Do what?" mimicked Ron, "catch he snitch like that you idiot!"
"I dunno, I just did it, I guess."
"Well let me tell you, mate, you are even more of a hero than you already are, nobody has talked about anything else!" Harry tried to sit up but found that it hurt too much so he stayed as he was.
"How long have I been in here?" he asked them.
"Three days." Said Ginny.
"Three days!"
"Yes Harry, and I can tell you your friends have all been extremely worried, especially Miss Chang" came a familiar voice. Dumbledore walked through the door, his eyes twinkling. Harry and Cho blushed simultaneously. Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Dumbledore laughed. Harry held his arms out to Cho and she came to them relieved. As he held her, the feeling disappeared, it was like they were one. Dumbledore smiled sadly.
"You two are just like James and Lily." And with that he bowed to them and swept out of the hospital wing.
"YOU FOOLS! YOU IDIOTS," screamed Roger Davies, "I GIVE YOU COUPLE OF SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS AND YOU CAN'T EVEN FOLLOW THEM!" Malfoy, Davies, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle were out in the grounds. Crabbe and Goyle hung their heads, they knew they had done wrong, they had missed Harry's head which they had been meant to hit with the bludgers.
"AND YOU! YOU MESSED UP EVEN MORE!" Davies screamed at Malfoy, who didn't show any emotion on his face. "YOU WERE MEANT TO MEMORY CHARM POTTER, NOT KNOCK HIM OFF OF HIS BROOM" At this Malfoy lost his temper.
"I COULDN'T HAVE MEMORY CHARMED HIM, THESE TWO DIDN'T HIT HIM WITH THE BLUDGERS!"
"WELL, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE CURSED HIM AT ALL THEN!" Both Malfoy's and Davies' wands rose. Nott pushed their arms back down again.
"Calm down," he said, "There will be other opportunities to get him. And believe me, we'll get him."
A/N IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS NOTE! Right. First of all, my sincerest apologies for not updating, I've been on half term and couldn't get anything typed as I didn't have access to a computer to do it on.
Second and most importantly, some of you might have noticed problems, chapter names changed, chapters in the wrong places things like that. None of that was me. That is all sorted now, none of that will ever happen again. Also some of you will have noticed a really messed up chapter eight at one point. That was definitely NOT me. Someone was hacking into my account and uploading sick chapters that they had typed. None of that will ever happen again. I only managed to get onto the Internet once while I was on half term and I checked the chapter names but I didn't check the chapters and it was a friend who told me about it. I have got that sorted and it won't happen again. Thanks for your patience.
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing.
Fireboy.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter 9: Chaser Tryouts and the First Quidditch Match.
Harry didn't pay attention in any of his lessons, not even Defence Against the Dark Arts. He greeted Moody but after that he didn't bother listening, he had too much on his mind. Chaser tryouts were at four this afternoon and Harry was worrying about them.
At three thirty Harry put his stuff in his dorm and got changed into his quidditch gear, grabbed his broom and hurried down to the quidditch pitch. After doing a few warm up laps around the pitch he noticed people were starting to arrive. He did a few more laps before flying down. Thanks to the DA meetings he was used to talking and giving orders to large crowds. He quickly counted them, twelve, which was perfect.
"Right," said Harry, who was still sitting on his broom, "what we will do is three of you will go and do a pass and shoot game. Three will do a bludger dodging practice with Jack Sloper and Andrew Kirke; they will only use one bludger though. The rest of you will do passing practice. You three," He pointed to three third years, two boys and a girl who he was sure were called Robert Flaxwell, Samuel Garson and Jennifer Brockan, "go with Ron and do some passing and shooting." They nodded and walked off. For the first time he noticed Ginny in the crowd.
"You three," indicating Ginny and two other people he didn't know, "Go and do bludger dodging, the rest of you go and do some passing." Everyone went and did what they were told to. Deciding to go and watch the bludger practice, as he hadn't seen the beaters play yet, he took off and went to watch them.
After ten minutes he could watch no more, the beaters were appalling. They missed the bludger more often than they hit and Jack Sloper swung his bat and accidentally let go of it, it missed Kirke's head by inches. Both would need a lot of extra training.
The Chasers were all right though; he had decided to narrow the group down to six possible people then from that choose the three chasers, Ginny Weasley was doing very well, she was running rings around the beaters, but then again, Harry reasoned, that wasn't particularly difficult. Nevertheless he kept her in mind as one of the possible six. The other two had not done very well, both had been hit by the bludger.
Harry flew over to where the chasers were shooting at Ron, he was astonished at how well Ron was doing, he had obviously been practising over the summer before Harry had come to stay. Flaxwell was doing quite well, he was forcing some good saves out of Ron. Jennifer Brockan was doing ok as well but not nearly as well as Flaxwell. Garson was not doing well at all, he kept fumbling and dropping the ball. However he would definitely keep Flaxwell in mind.
He flew over to where the remainder of the people were practising passing, some of the were quite good, but some kept fumbling the quaffle and dropping it. Deciding that it was time for them to change around, Harry called a halt, the people that had been passing and shooting or dodging the bludger went and did the passing and the other group split up and took their places. Harry went and watched the passing first, again Ginny excelled, the quaffle seemed to go to her hands. Harry noticed that Flaxwell was doing extremely well as well.
After five more minutes Harry noticed that a severe competition was developing between Ginny and Flaxwell, they were chucking the ball as hard as the could at each other and were trying to make the other mishandle the ball and drop it by giving really difficult passes. After a couple more minutes Harry grew very angry.
"WEASLEY, FLAXWELL!" Both looked up shocked. Harry beckoned them to him. They flew to him, their faces guilty.
"You both came here to be chasers didn't you?" he asked them still angry. They both nodded, "not to give each other concussion."
"Then I will not have you trying to knock each other out by chucking the quaffle as hard as you can at each other. Either you get a grip or you'll have to go. Got that?" They both nodded apologetically and flew off to continue practising.
"Temper, Potter, you seem to be losing it too easily these days." Harry turned his broom round and saw Cho and Hermione grinning up at him.
"She's right you know, Harry," said Hermione to him. Harry smiled.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked.
"Just thought we would come and watch." Said Hermione. Harry turned round to see how everyone was doing. To his surprise everyone was watching them.
"C'mon, keep practising!" Said Harry, Cho laughed.
"What's so funny?" demanded Harry playfully.
"Nothing." She said. Harry kissed her and flew up to where three people were doing the passing and shooting.
Half an hour later Harry was ready to narrow it down to six people. Calling them all to him, he took a list of six names out of his pocket.
"First of all, you have all done very well, I am greatly impressed by the standard of talent here, so well done to all of you, but could these six people come back tomorrow as well as the rest of the Gryffindor team. Daniel Carton, Ben Sohill, Robert Flaxwell, Susie Radthorpe, Kevin Gaston and Ginny Weasley. Thank you and well done to everyone." Everybody walked off looking either disappointed or very happy. Ginny and Ron hung behind waiting for Harry. Harry, Ron and Ginny walked over to where Cho and Hermione waited. They all walked towards the castle.
"I didn't think you were going to pick me." said Ginny.
"You're too good not to be picked, but you have to learn not to compete like that with other team-mates. Things like that could cost us games." Ginny nodded.
"Calm down," laughed Cho, "stop being so serious!"
"When's our first match?" asked Ron.
"A week, it's against Slytherin."
"Excellent, that should be good." Said Ron pleased. They walked into the Great Hall and Cho went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Harry sat down and started to eat slowly.
"Harry!" said Hermione breaking into his thoughts.
"Yeah, what?" returning to reality with a jolt of surprise.
"When's the next DA meeting?" Asked Hermione.
"Oh yeah, sorry." Said Harry. He took his coin out of his pocket and changed the numbers. Hermione took her coin out of her pocket and checked the numbers.
"But that's a week and a half away!"
"Yeah, but I want to get loads of quidditch practice in."
"You're turning out like Angelina!" said Ron. Harry shrugged non-commitedly and returned to his thoughts. He was trying to decide who would be chasers, and then he had to get the whole team ready before the match against Slytherin.
Ron tried to get his attention a couple times but soon gave up. They finished eating and returned to Gryffindor tower.
"I'm off to bed, I'm pretty tired." Said Harry. He climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitories. He crawled into bed. Five minutes later he heard Ron come up as well.
"Have you been practising over the summer?" Harry asked him. Ron nodded.
"Yeah, I figured I needed to get a lot better before I came back to school."
"You have got better, wish our beaters had as well, they're rubbish. By the way did you notice anyone who should be on the team?" Ron thought for a moment before replying.
"Flaxwell should, he did well and I'm not saying this because she's my sister but Ginny did well as well."
"I know, I saw her." Said Harry as he turned over to go to sleep.
Harry woke up the next morning feeling refreshed so he got dressed and went down to breakfast.
Hermione was sitting at the table eating so Harry went to join her. He sat down opposite her. She didn't notice Harry, she was reading something under the table. Harry waited for her to notice him.
"Hermione?" said Harry after a couple of minutes. Hermione jumped and looked around worriedly. When she saw it was Harry she relaxed.
"Sorry, Harry"
"What's that you're reading anyway?"
"A letter from Viktor."
"Why are you hiding it?" asked Harry bemused. Hermione looked around and lowered her voice.
"Because I don't want Ron to see it."
"Why not?" asked Harry.
"You know how he reacts."
"You know what I think," said Harry casually, reaching over to the plate of sausages, "I think Ron's jealous."
"What?" shrieked Hermione loudly, dropping the knife and fork she had just picked up. Harry looked round and saw people looking at them. He waited for them to turn away before replying.
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed it. Ron's jealous." Said Harry, Hermione lowered her voice.
"You think he loves me?" asked Hermione, Harry thought before replying.
"I think," Harry said carefully, "He cares more deeply about you then he lets on."
"You really think so?" asked Hermione disbelievingly.
"Come on, Hermione! Face the facts, whenever you send or receive a letter from Krum then he gets worked up, it's so obvious!" said Harry exasperated. Hermione opened her mouth to reply but then shut it as she saw Ron enter the Great Hall. She gave Harry a look that clearly said don't mention anything to Ron.
Ron sat down next to Hermione and took a piece of toast,
"Morning" said Hermione.
"Morning, Hermione" said Ron.
"Chaser tryouts at four today." Said Harry to Ron. Harry finished his breakfast and checked his timetable. Fortunately he didn't have potions today, he grinned relieved. His last lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Feeling slightly more relaxed then he did yesterday he decided to find out why Moody was teaching at Hogwarts
In the library Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe and Theodore Nott were sitting at a table tucked in a corner where they couldn't be seen or overheard easily. They were talking heatedly.
"I hate that git, Potter!" spat Malfoy.
"Yeah, something has to be done about him." Said Nott. Footsteps grew louder as somebody approached them, Malfoy turned round.
"What do you want?" He sneered.
"The same thing that you want" Roger Davies sneered back.
"And what's that?"
"Potter out of the way."
"Why?" demanded Malfoy. Davies stared at him deciding whether or not to tell him.
"Chang." He said finally. Malfoy burst out laughing. Davies' wand rose, so did Nott's, Crabbe's and Goyle's. Malfoy waved their wands down.
"Calm down, boys, I like him," he turned to Davies, "I think you've made some new friends" Davies grinned maliciously and sat down.
"What do you think we should do about Potter?" Malfoy asked him. Davies leaned back in his chair, the manic grin never leaving his face.
"We should wait. Right now Potter goes everywhere surrounded by his little friends. That won't last for ever and when it stops that's when we strike." Malfoy looked at him for a minute.
"It might be useful having a Ravenclaw to work with." Davies' grin grew wider.
"And how do you propose to get Chang." Malfoy asked. Davies' grin vanished.
"I'll find a way." He said guardedly, it was Malfoy's turn to grin.
The first few lessons passed quickly for Harry and before he knew it, Harry was heading towards Defence Against the Dark Arts. He entered the classroom and walked up to Moody's desk. Moody grinned at him.
"I wondered when you were going to come and talk to me, Potter." He growled.
"Why didn't you tell us you were going to be teaching here?" Harry asked.
"Dumbledore didn't want anyone to know," He lowered his voice and leaned closer, "He also wants some more of the Order at Hogwarts." Harry nodded and returned to his seat between Ron and Hermione. When everyone was sat down and silent Moody stood up.
"In my opinion," Moody growled looking down at them all, his magical eye scanning them all, "theory and writing isn't going to help you in the real world, and helping to prepare you for the real world is exactly what I am here to do." He went and stood behind his desk.
"Most of the stuff I do with you will be practical and if you have any sort of problem with the spells that I teach you then I suggest you come to me," his magical eye scanned them again for a second, "or go to Harry Potter."
"What's Moody playing at?" Harry asked Hermione in a whisper.
"He knows exactly what he's doing, he knows you're good at curses, hexes spells like that. Remember he knows about the DA." Harry nodded but he still wasn't too happy.
"Right, the first spell I want to teach you is a binding spell, it's very basic but it will delay your average Death Eater for about ten seconds. The incantation is 'Delegaste'; at most the spell will last for about fifteen seconds. Potter could you come up here." Harry stood up and walked to the front of the class. Harry faced Moody and waited.
"Delegaste" yelled Moody, but Harry was too quick for him. His shield charm was up milliseconds after Moody sent the curse at him. The reflected curse narrowly missed Moody who ducked just in time.
"Very good Potter," said Moody approvingly, "your turn." Harry thought before sending the spell at Moody, if he sent the spell on it's own then Moody would just deflect it, but if he sent a decoy spell then Moody would deflect that, his shield charm would fade and the binding spell would hit him. Harry pointed his wand at Moody.
"Impedimenta," He yelled, he sidestepped quickly so the spell wouldn't hit him when it was deflected, "Delegaste." He yelled, a second after he sent the impediment jinx at Moody. As he predicted, Moody deflected the first spell but could do nothing to block the second spell.
Moody struggled against the invisible bonds that bound him for a few seconds before getting free.
"THAT WAS RUDDY BRILLIANT, POTTER!" Moody roared, a second later he continued, "That was brilliant! He anticipated my next move and got round it, you have the makings of a very good Auror, Potter." For the rest of the lesson they divided into pairs, Harry, however, was taught advance techniques of duelling by Moody who felt that Harry did not need to practice the binding spell.
At five to four Harry arrived at the quidditch pitch. Five minutes later everyone else had arrived.
"Right, basically what I want to do is the same as yesterday, half of you will do a pass and shoot against Ron, half of you will do passing. Could Ben, Robert and Daniel do the pass and shoot and could the other three do the passing. They all flew off and begun. Harry decided to go and watch the passing. He noticed right from the start that Susie and Ginny linked up very well. They didn't exclude Kevin but they seemed to know exactly where the other person was, this provided some excellent passing. After fifteen minutes he went and watched the shooting, Flaxwell was doing very well, he was using the other two to create good goal scoring opportunities for himself and them. After another fifteen minutes he swapped the groups around. Again Ginny and Susie linked up well. Half an hour later Harry had seen enough and had decided. He called everyone to him.
"Well done to everyone but unfortunately I had to choose three of you. The three new Gryffindor chasers are Susie Radthorpe, Ginny Weasley and Robert Flaxwell. Well done to those and commiserations to the other three. Could the Gryffindor team stay for training, our first match is against Slytherin and it's in five days time."
On the day before the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match, Malfoy was standing in the Great Hall waiting for Nott. He heard someone approaching; he turned round and saw Roger Davies running towards him. He grinned at Malfoy.
"I know how to get Potter out of the way!"
"How?" asked Malfoy curiously.
"In the quidditch match tomorrow make sure he gets hit on the head, then use a memory charm on him." Davies grinned evilly at him.
"That's good, that's very good!" said Malfoy looking gleeful.
The day of the quidditch match was bright with no wind. Harry got up and went down to breakfast. At quarter to eleven the whole of the Gryffindor team proceeded to the changing rooms. When they were all changed they mounted their brooms and flew out onto the quidditch pitch.
"WEASLEY, SLOPER, KIRKE, WEASLEY, FLAXWELL, RADTHORPE AND POTTER!" greeted them amidst cheers from three quarters of the school.
"Captains shake hands." Potter and Malfoy grudgingly shook hands. Then flew back to join their teams. The whistle blew and Madam Hooch threw the quaffle up in the air. Harry saw Ginny grab the quaffle and then he blocked out the rest of the game. He flew high above the match and searched for the snitch. After a while he noticed that Malfoy was tailing him,
"If that's how you want to play it, Malfoy." Hovering for a few more seconds Harry went into a steep dive, to Harry's satisfaction Malfoy immediately dove with him. Harry timed the dive perfectly, two feet from the ground he yanked his broom handle up and spiralled back into the air.
"AND LOOK AT THAT, HARRY POTTER PULLS OFF A WRONSKI FEINT!"
"You'll pay for that, Potter!" said Malfoy as he remounted his broom, his nose bleeding freely. Harry saw that Malfoy had not given up and was still following him. Faking a look of intense concentration Harry started zigzagging down the pitch as if he was following the snitch, he slowed his broom down just enough for Malfoy to catch up with him. When Harry felt that Malfoy was close enough Harry pushed his broom handle down, but kept on pushing so he did an under loop the loop which brought him behind Malfoy. He barrel rolled to right himself and flew up high above the pitch. He continued to search for the snitch from high above the pitch; he let his concentration lapse a tiny bit so he could hear what the score was. After a few minutes of listening he gathered that the score was ninety-sixty to Gryffindor. Resuming full concentration he scanned the pitch for the snitch, as he did so he saw Cho in the stands. He lost all concentration as he stared at her.
Suddenly he felt two bludgers, one after the other, hit him in the stomach, it knocked all the air out of him. He struggled to stay on his broom as he tried to regain his breath. After a minute he could breathe again.
To his horror he saw the snitch, and Malfoy was about two feet away from it, an intensely satisfied grin on his face. There was no way that Harry could catch him up on his broom. Harry watched paralysed with terror, Malfoy had beaten him to the snitch. A new emotion flooded him, he stood up shakily on his broom, he knew what he was going to do. Crouching down again he grabbed the tail of his broom and the handle. He urged the broom forward in a dive and when he felt he had gathered enough speed he jumped off, pulling the handle up slightly as he did so. He heard the crowd gasp as the broom dived with a slight curve to it. Harry was a hundred feet above Malfoy but was in front of him.
Harry was freefalling at an extreme speed. He felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and excitement that had he had never felt on a broom. Harry felt fear as he realised that he was likely to miss his broom.
Malfoy was filled with exhilaration, it didn't matter that Crabbe and Goyle had missed Harry's head but they had winded him, which meant that he, Draco Malfoy, was going to catch the snitch. He was so filled with joy that he could taste it. The snitch was right in front of him, he reached out his hand and it brushed his fingertips, he was almost there.
Malfoy saw something scarlet shoot past him, a split second later the scarlet thing was gone. Malfoy cursed under his breath, that scarlet thing had distracted him and the snitch had vanished, never mind, he thought; at least Potter didn't have it.
Harry was exultant; he had pulled it off, not entirely. He searched for his broom and felt terrified when he couldn't see it; there was only about thirty feet to the ground.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something streak along, parallel to the ground about fifteen feet up. Ten feet from his broom he realised he had been extremely lucky, everything had been timed perfectly.
He hit his broom and struggled to stay balanced, the impact had knocked the broom handle down and it went into a steep dive, Harry was still struggling to regain balance. Seven feet to the ground, six, five, four. Three feet from the ground Harry regained enough balance to yank the broom handle sharply upwards. He soared to fifty feet above the ground, fear, relief and adrenaline making him light headed. He slowly put his arm into the air. The stand was silent, everything had stopped and everyone was looking at him.
"Harry Potter has, without doubt, pulled of the greatest quidditch manoeuvre ever." Said the commentator quietly, but everyone heard it. Three quarters of the stand suddenly erupted into cheers. They had all just witnessed the most daring manoeuvre ever.
Draco Malfoy was angrier than he ever had been in his life. He was so near to catching the snitch, so near to beating Potter, and Potter had pulled off something like that. Drawing his wand slowly, he pulled is wand slowly and pointed it at Potter who was motionless in the air. Pointing at him he muttered a curse. He watched, with immense satisfaction, Harry's surprise as the curse struck him.
Harry had his arm up in the air when he felt something hit him, the force of it knocked him off of his broom. He hurtled to the ground and heard a sickening thud as he hit it, then he blacked out.
Harry woke up in the hospital wing; the first thing that he noticed was a terrible pain all over, the second he noticed was a different feeling, it hurt, but not like pain, it was like emptiness. He couldn't move, He saw Ron, Hermione, Cho and Ginny sitting there looking at him worriedly. They saw that he was awake, Cho, Ginny and Hermione had all been crying, their eyes were red. Cho attempted to fling herself onto Harry, but Ron threw himself in front of her and stopped her.
"Thank God! You're awake!" said Cho.
"What happened?" asked Harry croakily.
"Malfoy cursed you after you caught the snitch." Explained Hermione.
"How the hell did you do that?" asked Ron, grinning at him, full of relief.
"Do what?" asked Harry stupidly.
"Do what?" mimicked Ron, "catch he snitch like that you idiot!"
"I dunno, I just did it, I guess."
"Well let me tell you, mate, you are even more of a hero than you already are, nobody has talked about anything else!" Harry tried to sit up but found that it hurt too much so he stayed as he was.
"How long have I been in here?" he asked them.
"Three days." Said Ginny.
"Three days!"
"Yes Harry, and I can tell you your friends have all been extremely worried, especially Miss Chang" came a familiar voice. Dumbledore walked through the door, his eyes twinkling. Harry and Cho blushed simultaneously. Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Dumbledore laughed. Harry held his arms out to Cho and she came to them relieved. As he held her, the feeling disappeared, it was like they were one. Dumbledore smiled sadly.
"You two are just like James and Lily." And with that he bowed to them and swept out of the hospital wing.
"YOU FOOLS! YOU IDIOTS," screamed Roger Davies, "I GIVE YOU COUPLE OF SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS AND YOU CAN'T EVEN FOLLOW THEM!" Malfoy, Davies, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle were out in the grounds. Crabbe and Goyle hung their heads, they knew they had done wrong, they had missed Harry's head which they had been meant to hit with the bludgers.
"AND YOU! YOU MESSED UP EVEN MORE!" Davies screamed at Malfoy, who didn't show any emotion on his face. "YOU WERE MEANT TO MEMORY CHARM POTTER, NOT KNOCK HIM OFF OF HIS BROOM" At this Malfoy lost his temper.
"I COULDN'T HAVE MEMORY CHARMED HIM, THESE TWO DIDN'T HIT HIM WITH THE BLUDGERS!"
"WELL, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE CURSED HIM AT ALL THEN!" Both Malfoy's and Davies' wands rose. Nott pushed their arms back down again.
"Calm down," he said, "There will be other opportunities to get him. And believe me, we'll get him."
A/N IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS NOTE! Right. First of all, my sincerest apologies for not updating, I've been on half term and couldn't get anything typed as I didn't have access to a computer to do it on.
Second and most importantly, some of you might have noticed problems, chapter names changed, chapters in the wrong places things like that. None of that was me. That is all sorted now, none of that will ever happen again. Also some of you will have noticed a really messed up chapter eight at one point. That was definitely NOT me. Someone was hacking into my account and uploading sick chapters that they had typed. None of that will ever happen again. I only managed to get onto the Internet once while I was on half term and I checked the chapter names but I didn't check the chapters and it was a friend who told me about it. I have got that sorted and it won't happen again. Thanks for your patience.
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing.
Fireboy.