Oh look, it's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's Quidditch! (And other things)

More other things than Quidditch, but hey, a title's a title! Enjoy.

The next weeks, nothing exciting happened, though Charms stayed explosive. One Saturday morning Harry was woke up by Fred.
"Come Harry, we have to select a new Keeper and a captain!"

"Wstfgl?" Said Harry, not fully awake.

"Quidditch, Harry. We need a new Keeper and a captain!" Fred said, more urgent.

"Alrigh, I'll be righ down." Harry mumbled.

He spent the morning with the Weasleys (George was still a bit paranoid), Katie, Angelina and Alicia to select a new Keeper.
With them were the two witches, Professors Ogg and Weatherwax, since they were the only teachers who had experience with
brooms. "I'm surprised Ridcully allowed us to play." Harry said to George.

"Not that surprising, he's a bit of a sport freak, so when we explained it to him, he was all for it." George explained.

"We?"

"Yeah, the captains from the other teams and me, Fred and Angelina."

The Keepertest was simple. Angelina, Alicia and Katie would try to score, and the one who stopped most Quaffles, became the
new Keeper. The team and the professors chose Terry Pratting, a tall fourth year boy, with short brown hair and grey eyes.
He was very happy when he heard the good news. Deciding for the new captain was easy, though Fred and George voted for each
other, it was logical Angelina would be captain, since she was the oldest. Most of the training was devoted to training
Terry, since their first match against Slytherin would be in a month.

October was a calm month, Halloween and the first trip to Hogsmeade being the most exciting. Modo had done his best with the
pumpkins, and though they weren't as big Hagrid's, they were quite the sight. Modo looked rather proud of them during
herbology and devoted a lesson to making plants grow with compost and care in stead of magic. The Halloween feast was great
as usual, but Harry was still worried about Sirius. He hadn't heard anything from him, but as Hermione put it: No news was
goods news.

The next week the first Quidditch match was held, Slytherin against Griffyndor, and the team
believed they had done what they could. Terry was the most nervous off all and when they entered the stadium, he was looking
a bit pale. All the teachers had shown up, which was strange since none of them knew what Quidditch was, except for Ridcully,
who had a vague idea, Weatherwax who had a general idea and Ogg who had studied all sorts of rulebooks, since she'd be the
referee. The Slytherin team had made some changes as well, there were a couple of new Beaters and a new captain. Malfoy
however, was still the Seeker. After the captain handshake, Ogg blew her whistle and they all flew up. As the game progressed,
it became clear that Terry was talented, and although he couldn't stop all the Quaffles, Gryffindor stayed in the lead.
Harry looked down from his high position. Malfoy was keeping an eye on him from below, as usual. The game had been going
for about half an hour, and Harry hoped they would release the Snitch soon, since it was starting to rain. He looked down
again. Malfoy was gone, and when Harry looked further, he saw Malfoy was heading straight for the familiar looking gold ball.
He sped off, avoided a Bludger, and arrived in time to push Malfoy away from the Snitch. When he wanted to grab it, it was
gone already. Malfoy shot him a nasty look and flew off. He heard Lee's comment: 60-60. He'd better hurry up.

After about five minutes, he saw the Snitch near a pole, and flew towards it. Malfoy right behind him as usual, but since
Harry's trusty Firebolt was too fast for Malfoy's broom, Malfoy decided to give the broom a push. Harry almost fell, but was
able to give Malfoy a push, so neither of them would have the Snitch. Professor Ogg blew the whistle, and both teams got a
chance to score, since she called pushing the other was unfair. Slythering missed, and Gryffindor scored: 70-60.

Soon the Snitch re-appeared on the playing field. Both Harry and Malfoy were on the other side, and they raced each other
towards it. Harry's Firebolt ws quicker and he grabbed a couple of seconds before Malofy reacher it, and Gryffindor had won
their first match, 220-60.

That night in the common they celebrated with the food Fred had taken from the House-Elves. It turned out that George wasn't
that eager to walk around the castle, with the Librarian and the Luggage around. Ron and Hermione drew Harry to a quiet
corner, excited about something.

"A letter from Sirius!" Ron hissed.

Harry grabbed the parchment. "Dear Harry. I have some news, though it's not too good. We have evidence that Voldemort is on
his way to Hogwarts. He found out Dumbledore isn't there and probably tries to attack it. Dumbledore has sent an owl to your
new Headmaster, but I wanted you to hear it from me. Best of luck, Sirius." He looked at Hermione and Ron. "He's on his way..."

"I know, but look at the date." Hermione pointed on the parchment.

"30th of October. That's only three days ago!" Harry said.

Ron looked scared. "He can already be in the country, you know, or even on the grounds."

"I'm sure Ridcully and the others'll do their best." Hermione said, confidently.

"Come on! You-Know-Who isn't afraid of anyone, except for Dumbledore! I doubt he's afraid of Ridcully." Ron said. "He just
wants to shoot defenseless animals."

"Dumbledore would never have appointed him to replace him, if he weren't good enough." Hermione argued.

"Maybe he was desperate, like when he appointed Lockhart as a teacher." Ron was getting angry as well.

"Calm down." Harry interfered. "I agree with Hermione, Ridcully must be pretty good. And there's other wizards and witches."
He smiled. "If things get really bad, we can always send Modo's compost heaps to do the dirty work."

Ron grinned as well. "That would be really dirty work. Those things really do stink, I don't know why he keeps so close to
the greenhouses."

Hermione however, took the idea a bit too serious. "Harry, you can't make life-less objects come to live! Everybody knows
that."

"I was kidding, you know that. Come, let's get something to eat." With that, the conversation was over, but the news didn't
leave Harry's thoughts. He was far more worried than he had shown, and was listening more carefully to the sounds outside,
when he was in bed.

One day in November, during a two-hour Potions lesson Harry was called to see Ridcully. The Senior Wrangler wasn't too happy,
but he let Harry go. The Senior Wrangler was still as strict as Snape, but didn't favour the Slytherins as much anymore, so
that made it more bearable. When he arrived at Ridcully's office, the gargoyle swung open and Harry climbed the stairs.
Ridcully was sitting in a comfy chair, having a smoke. "Ah, Harry lad. You're probably wondering why I called you, right?"
Ridcully didn't wat for Harry to answer, but went on. "I got an owl from your own Headmaster, saying that Wolderfort"

"Voldemort, sir."

"Voldermort, yes, is coming to Hogwarts. In a owl before I read that you also received one. Dumbledore told me to warn you,
since Woldermort's sure to arrive this month."

"Why are you telling me this, sir?" Harry asked.

"To give you a warning. Dumbledore told me about what happened before, and why Wolderfort wants you dead. He thought you
deserved to be warned, so you could be as careful as possible. I'll tell the other students tomorrow during breakfast."

"But, but, sir, everyone'll panick when you tell them. We all fear Voldemort more than anything else." Harry said.

"And that's why you should all be warned. No use keeping secrets like this, it's better to make some preparations, in case
he comes early. After all, surprise is the best strategy."

"What kind of preparations?"

Ridcully smiled. "If I'd tell you, it wouldn't be fun anymore, would it? Now it's probably best for you if you return to
your class. The Senior Wrangler hates it when you stay away too long."

When he returned in class, he told Ron and Hermione everything,w hile they were making a potion. "Fun? He's treating it like
a game." Hermione said, dissaproving.

"D'you think he really knows what You-Know-Who can do?" Ron asked.

"He didn't seem to worried about it." Harry said.

Next morning at breakfast Ridcully made his announcement, and most students panicked, except some Slytherins, who seemed
rather happy. "There's no need to panick! We have everything under control!" Ridcully shouted, but it didn't help.

Modo came in and ran to the teachers table. "Ridcully sir, there's some people approaching. They're all wearing black and
masks, except for the leader."

All the students panicked even more. "Everybody go to their common rooms! Now!" Professor Weatherwax ordered, and everyone
obeyed. Ron, Hermione and Harry rushed to an empty classroom, where they could see the main entrance and the field. There
were about 25, 30 people there, all of them dressed in black. Harry's scar began to hurt, and that was all the evidence he
need to know it was Voldemort. Some more students came in to see what was happening. Harry however, ran out to go there
himself. Ron and Hermione ran after him.

He came to a stop right behind Stibbons and the Senior Wrangler, who were surprised to see them. Ridcully wasn't. "Ah, I was
expecting something like this, come here lad." He said to Harry. "You two as well." He added, to Hermione and Ron, and they
joined Harry in front of the group wizards and witches. The door opened, and the Death Eaters were all standing there,
masked and wearing black. In front of them there master, Lord Voldemort.

A/N: I'm also working on some other Harry Potter story, and I was wondering: Can I make Ron the Keeper? What do you think?