Chapter 5: Qudditich and Other Things

Chapter 5: Qudditich and Other Things

As January approached, the moral at the school was defiantly at an all time low. People could be seen crying in the halls from the recent deaths at Hogsmeade, for one thing. But, even with the low moral, classes started again.

The Charms teacher, professor Flitwick, tried desperately to cheer everyone up. He began to teach them how to make desk fly across the room, which was needed for the O.W.L.s, according to him, anyway. For some odd reason, no one was that injured, but several people did end up in the hospital wing. After awhile, professor Flitwick began to get desperate and used Cheering Charms.

Professor McGonall tried also to raise moral. They began to turn hair-clips into butterflies, a skill that Hermione learned right away, to no one's surprise. It took awhile for the whole class to finally get it (Neville Longbottom kept making the clip dance around the room, and even fly a bit, until middle-January when he finally got it. Parvati Patil kept making a butterfly on top of the clip somehow, but was unable to make the clip turn part of the actual clip, until late-January, so she was actually the last one to finish.)

Herbology, meanwhile, was no fun, either. They had advanced to greenhouse 7, amazingly, and where currently starting on an extremely dangerous plant called The Jupiter-fly trap, the magical equivalent to the Venus-fly trap. The plant was so huge that it could probably bit their heads off, and both Parvati and Lavender nearly hyperventilated when the saw it, along with half of the Hufflepuffs.

The Astromery teacher, Professor Victor, was head of Ravenclaw house. She would be seen crying every lesson- they where even obvious tears in her eyes.

French lessons started, much to the delight of the boys of Hogwarts. Professor Delocour was there when the first lesson started. Hermione had not joined that class, but, still, the first lesson was actually interesting.

"Hello, class," Professor Delocour said in English has they entered the room, though with obvious accent.

"Hello," they all responded, and soon learned how to say "hello" in French, though Ron drooled though out the whole lesson.

Potions were an absolute horror. Professor Snape had begun to teach them Memory concoctions, which were so difficult even Hermione couldn't get them (much to Professor Snape's joy). Fortunately neither could Draco Malfoy (much to Professor's Snape gloominess.).

Defense against the Dark Arts was so bad it wasn't even funny. Professor Smith just took up all lessons talking about how wonderful he was, and Mary Sue only seemed to agree with him, which made the lessons more odd.

Divination and History of Magic where by far the most boring lessons. Professor Bins began to talk about Crop Circles-, which Professor Bins could make seem like the most boring thing in the entire world. Divination was very boring- apparently, Harry was the only Leo in his class, which made professor Treleway very happy- she could predict his death a thousand times without any denial or interruption.

At Care of Magical Creatures they had managed to move on to hippogrifs again- and this time even Malfoy couldn't have messed them up.

However, one thing in January managed to greatly boost everyone's moral- Qudditich season was back again.

Katie Bell was working like a maniac for the upcoming Qudditich match. Accordingly, if they won this Qudditich match, which was actually Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, they where in a very high lead for the cup. The match had been majority postponed to give time for the students to mourn. The decision was enormously influenced by Professor Victor. Soon, it was time for the match.

By late-January, the first Qudditich-match since December had began. The Qudditich seats were filled were specters. The game would soon begin, in about 5 minutes, and the two teams were preparing in their own locker rooms.

"O.K team, this is it," Katie Bell said, "We've played agasint Ravenclaw, but there wasn't nearly as big as a crowd." Katie looked outside, the Qudditich seats were all packed- all the houses had come so they could see who was moving up and who they were challenging next, as well as the other teams styles and techniques.

Just as Katie was about to continue her speech, the whistle blew and it was time for the game.

"From Gryffindor," cried out Lee Jordan, who was commenternring, "Bell, Johnson, Ferdinson, Weasly, Weasly, Weasly, and Potter!" The crowd called out in wild cheers, but the Slytherins made their boos heard.

"And for Slytherin, Montague, Nott, Warrington, Bole, Derrick, Zabani, and Malfoy!" Gryffindor booed at loud as they could, and Slytherin cheered insanely.

Harry flew above the game, Malfoy tailing right behind him. Lee Jordan began his usually commentary on the match, which echoed though out the Qudditich stadium.

"Nott has the quaffle, going fast, Weasly hits Nott with the bludger. Yes, Nott has dropped the quaffle! Johnson has the Quaffle, zooming toward the Slytherin goal- she scores, she scores! Gryffindor 10-0!"
Cheers from the Gryffindor side immediately engulfed all the boos from the Slytherin side. Soon enough, the game was tied as Montague scored. Nott then tried to get an early Slytherin lead, but Ron blocked the goal; the game was still tied.

"Ha! Gryffindor and Slytherin still tied; Ferdinson gets the quaffle! Yes, she puts it past the Slytherin goal!"

Much cheers engulfed the crowd again. Harry glanced across the stadium. He saw something gold- yes, it was defiantly the snitch! Harry flew down towards, happy once more that dives where his specialty. He immediately closed around his hand around the small flying ball; cheers erupted though out the stadium.

"GRYFFINDOR WINS 170-10! TAKE THAT SLYTHERIN!" Lee shouted excitedly into the crowd. Harry flew down to the ground, and the team went to the locker rooms, happy though winded.

~*~*~*~

"I can't believe that teacher!" Hermione exclaimed as they exited the Defense against the Dark classroom a few days later. "How do they ever except us to pass the O.W.L.s with these teachers teaching us!"

"Hermione, calm down," Ron said, happy to the except that French was the next class- though quite a bit after lunch.

"Oh, shush, Ron- and, by the way, do any of you remember the Mist`arob`e stone that was stolen the begging of the year?"

"Yeah, I remember- why?"

"Because, Ron, I found a book in the library that contains a bit about the stone."

"Figures you'd spend all your free time in the library."

"Well, Ron, maybe you should too! The O.W.L.s are this year, and-"

"All right, Hermione, tell me what you found," Harry said, interrupting their fight before it began.

"Well, it says- wait, give me a minute," Hermione said, turning to fish the book out of her backpack.

After a few minutes, Hermione exclaimed, "Ah, here it is!"

Hermione began turning the pages of the book muttering "page 299" all the way.

"Let's she 297- ah, 299!"

"Great Hermione, now read it out loud, would you?" Ron voiced.

"Of course," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"The Mist`arob`e stone is one of the rarest stones in existence. In fact, the only other stone rarer then it is the E`ver`lin`k stone, a turquoise stone that weighs nearly a metric ton. The stone can be used for only one purpose- to restore the power of the-"

"Well?" Ron said, curious.

"It doesn't say," Hermione said quietly, biting her underlip, "that part of the page was torn out."

"Come on," said Ron, sighing a bit, "let's go to lunch."

Hermione muttered to herself incoherently as they made their way to lunch.

~*~*~*~

Harry woke up late the following day. It was Sunday, so it didn't matter much to him if he came late to breakfast. He found his way to the Great Hall. The hall was unusually packed- but, then again, most people woke up late on Sundays, anyway. However, Hermione immediately found him, her face pale.

"You might want to read this," she said very quietly.

Harry picked up the article, reading it quietly to himself:

Sirus Black Caught- Trial will be held

The Ministry has finally released their capture of Sirus Black. Though he was caught in late June of last year, the Ministry has kept the public uniformed of their capture until this year, due to questionable evidence of his innocence.

"Their mad, keeping him here," says ministry employee, Lucius Malfoy.

Sirus Black has pleaded innocent to ministry of the crimes he was accused of. He claims an old friend of his, Peter Pettigrew, did the unspeakable, not himself. After such a long time, The Ministry has made the decision to hold a trial. A jury of nine will decide his fate. Anyone may come and testify. The trial is set for February 15th of this year.

More updates may be published.

-Lucy Riggs, Daily Prophet reporter.

Harry could feel the world spin around him. The possibility of Sirus's innocence was enough to throw the light at the end of the tunnel upon his world- but what evidence would prove Sirus's guilt? There was only one thing Harry could think of- Peter Pettigrew.

~*~*~*~

"We need the Ever'lin'k stone!"

"We shall find it my lord, we shall."

"Well, work harder on it!"

"The S`hang`la stone has been found… shall we got that?"

"Yes, fine."

"Anything else my lord?"

"Yes. There's a spy over there, by the left corner, hidden in a invisibility cloak."

"Yes?"

"Kill him."

A/N: Um… okay, I've been diagnosed with ADHD, was in a psychiatric hospital for a little over a week do to suicidal thoughts and actions… don't ask. Basically, it's rather hard for me to sit down and type a chapter… but I will continue!

Review please? No flames!

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K Rowling except for what I own.