Chapter 6: The New Quidditch Captain

The next morning the boys avoided the girls at breakfast by sitting with Fred, George and Lee Jordan. The girls seemed a little confused by this at first, but sat down comfortably with Lavender and Parvati.

That afternoon in the common room, Harry and Ron were playing wizard's chess when the small, brown haired, gray eyed, boy that was Joey Marshall came up to them.

"Um…Harry…" He looked nervous.

"Yeah?" Harry asked, annoyed. He wasn't talking to Lauren, and he shouldn't talk to her brother either.

"Can I…can I…can I borrow your invisibility cloak?" He spoke the last words very fast.

Harry looked at Ron, then back at Joey. "How did you know I had an invisibility cloak?"

It looked as if Joey had not anticipated this question. "Lauren told me," he said quickly. This could be true, Hermione had brought up the cloak in front of Lauren once.

"You can't borrow it," Harry snapped. Joey frowned and walked slowly away from the table.

"Wonder what that was all about," said Ron, taking Harry's queen.

Days later, Hermione left Lauren with Lavender and Parvati, and walked over to where the boys were sitting at dinner. "Hi!" she said, but the boys didn't answer. They kept on talking about Quidditch with the twins.

"Why are you guys avoiding us?" Hermione asked. She looked hurt.

Harry didn't like to exclude Hermione just because of her new friend. "Let's tell her, Ron," he said.

"Okay," agreed Ron. "Meet us in the common room at one o'clock in the morning. Don't bring Lauren."

Hermione nodded and went back to the girls.

"McGonagall says that we have the field tomorrow morning," George said.

"But who's going to be the new captain?" asked Fred.

"How about Angelina?" said Harry. "She's the oldest."

"No way!" said Angelina, coming over. "I don't want to be the Quidditch captain!"

"Not me," said George and Fred at the same time.

"I don't want to have that much work," said Katie Bell, who came over with Alicia.

"I hate work!" said Alicia.

Everyone on the team looked at Harry.

"I guess," Harry said slowly. The crowd of Gryiffindors cheered.

"That means you'll have to pick a new team member, Harry," said Fred.

"I do?" said Harry. He groaned. Ron was sitting next to him looking hopeful. "Alright, Ron, I guess you can try," said Harry. He looked down the table. "Anyone else?"

No one said anything for a moment, but then Lauren said, "Sure, I will."

"Another plot?" Ron whispered to Harry.

"Everyone meet me on the Quidditch field tomorrow morning. Which ever one is best will be the new Keeper."

That morning at one o'clock, Hermione, Harry, and Ron made their way down to the deserted common room. "What do you want?" Hermione asked.

"The reason we've been avoiding you is Lauren," Harry said shortly.

"What? Why?"

"Hermione, that girl obviously has some Dark stuff in her. She's trying to do something to Harry. I just know it," Ron stated.

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh, come on! She knows too much. It's like she's been here for years, but she has only been here for two weeks. She pretends to be from a Muggle family, but she knows a whole lot of magic. You can't tell me there's not something screwy there!"

Hermione didn't say anything for a while. "I don't know why you two are being so paranoid. I think we can trust Lauren. I mean, honestly, you don't think You-Know-Who's going to dress up as a teenage girl, do you?"

Ron and Harry shook their heads. "I guess not," Ron said.

"Besides," Hermione said, "I think Oak Hill is a wizard school-" She stopped abruptly.

Someone was coming down the stairs. It was Lauren.

"Oh, there you are Hermione. I woke up and you were gone." Lauren sat down with them. They suddenly heard something creak.

"What was that?" Ron gasped.

"I don't know," said Lauren.

"The cloak!" Harry said. "Joey wanted my cloak!"

"Joey wanted your cloak? What for?" Lauren asked.

"He didn't say. Just said he wanted to borrow it."

"Have you seen it since he asked?" Lauren asked urgently.

"No, haven't needed it all year."

"Go check and see if it's still there! Hurry!"

Harry rushed up to the common room. He dug in his trunk but the cloak was not there. Harry rushed back to the common room. "It's gone!" he gasped.

"Let's see if Joey is in his room," said Ron. He tiptoed into the room that said First Years. Harry followed. Joey was not in his bed.

"He's not there," Ron reported.

"We have to find him! I don't want him to get in trouble!" Lauren climbed out of the portrait hole.

"We're the ones who are going to get in trouble!" Ron said, following the others out.

The four of them wandered down the halls in search of Joey. When they got to the marble staircase, they split up. Harry went down, Lauren and Hermione went left, and Ron went right.

Harry tried to walk as silently as possible. He looked around with his lighted wand. "Joey!" he called softly. "Joey, come out from under the cloak!" But no one ever answered him.

In an hour, the Ron and Harry met where they had separated. "Did you find anything?" Ron asked.

"Not a thing," Harry answered. Suddenly, they heard footsteps again and saw Lauren and Hermione running up the stairs.

"Follow us!" Hermione shouted. "We heard his footsteps up the stairs!" Harry and Ron ran along behind the girls.

They chased the invisible being for over and hour, stopping every now and then to make sure they could still hear his footsteps.

"What is he doing out at this time of night?" Lauren asked.

No one answered. She didn't expect them to.

Finally, they stopped at the entrance to Gryiffindor Tower. They had lost the sound. They climbed inside the portrait hole and went to bed.

The next morning, Hermione put a powerful spell on Harry's trunk, where the invisibility cloak had been carefully put back. "Let's see him try to get through that!" she said, placing her wand back into her pocket.

Harry was about to dawdle down to breakfast when he remembered something. "Quidditch!" he exclaimed. "We're supposed to be at practice!" The four of them rushed down to the Quidditch field, where it had been completely restored from its hedge maze last year.

Hermione sat in the stands, but Ron and Lauren followed Harry into the locker rooms. The other team members were already there.

"Nice of you to show up, Harry," Fred said, smiling. George yawned.

"Sorry," said Harry. "There were a few problems last night." He looked over at Ron and Lauren.

"Well," Harry continued, "I'm not really good at giving speeches…'

"Wood wasn't either," corrected George. The rest of the team laughed.

"I really don't know why you guys all picked me to be captain. I don't really know what to do."

"Oh, come on, Harry! You're great at Quidditch!" said Angelina.

"Well, I know one thing," said Harry. "The first thing we have to do is pick a new Keeper. Now, let's all go out onto the field. You guys can try to shoot goals on our new players. Let's see how much we remember from two years ago."

The team crowded out onto the field. They all flew into the air on their broomsticks. Harry loved the sensation. He hadn't flow since last year. It felt great to be back on a broom. Harry flew a few laps around the field, and everyone followed along. Then Harry flew down to the ground to release the balls.

He threw the red Quaffle to a low-soaring Katie, who caught it and flew into the air again, passing it to Alicia on the way. Then Harry took out the two Bludgers. They immediately flew off into the sky, and Fred and George, the Beaters, streaked after them. Then, Harry left the ground and pushed off back into the sky. He left the tiny golden Snitch in the box for later.

Harry flew up beside the three large hoops at the end of the field. "Alright!" he called, and everyone soared over to him. "I want you to take shots at these guys." He pointed to Ron, who was riding a school broom. "Where's Lauren?"

She was on the ground, looking skeptically at her broomstick. "What's up?" asked Harry, flying down to her.

"Oh, nothing. I've never ridden a broom before."

"It's easy," said Harry, getting off his broom. "You mount it like this." He demonstrated. Lauren did it, too. "Now kick off!" Harry ordered. They both kicked and flew into the air.

Harry flew back up to the other members of the team while Lauren took a few laps. "Ron, you can go first. Lauren can get used to her broom. Everyone else, I want you to play just as it was a Slytherin Keeper. Don't go easy on him. Then I can't see how good he is. Go!" he shouted, and the team flew into action.

The Chasers flew around the field, passing the ball to each other, trying to make a goal on Ron. Harry hovered above the goal, to watch Ron. Lauren circled around the field.

A Blugder streaked past Ron's ear, narrowly missing him. "Hey!" he shouted at Fred, who zoomed past his brother and beat the Bludger back towards the Quaffle-holder.

"He said play like it was Slytherin!" he called, whizzing back towards the Bludger.

Ron blocked most of the shots made on him by Alicia, Katie, and Angelina. Harry blew the whistle. "Okay!" he said. "Now Lauren, why don't you try."

Lauren knew she didn't have a chance. She had no experience on a broom, or playing Quidditch. It was a lot harder then it seemed. She missed most of the shots.

"Sorry, Lauren," Harry said, once they were down on the ground again.

"I didn't have much of a chance anyway," said Lauren, smiling. Ron was happy. He was now on the Quidditch team.

Hermione joined them on the way back to the Great Hall. "The next thing I'm going to do is change the practice times," said Harry, yawning. The others laughed.

When Harry and Ron got back into their dormitory after their homework was done that night, Harry's trunk was opened, and its contents were spread across the room.

"I reckon it wasn't Ginny searching for her diary," Ron said, eyeing the mess.

Harry frowned, then ran back to the common room to tell Hermione and Lauren.

"Maybe he hasn't left yet," said Lauren hopefully. They looked around the common room, but did not see Joey.

"Why don't we go look in his dormitory?" asked Hermione. Harry offered to do this. He crept up the stairs. When he got to the door, he saw it open. Joey was coming out in the invisibility cloak! Joey must have seen Harry, because he started running down the stairs. Harry could hear him. When he ran past the others in the common room, they followed.

Finally, Joey looked over his shoulder. He was somewhere on the first floor. He couldn't see anyone else, so he began to walk toward his destination. Since no one was trailing him, he could walk loudly as he pleased, and he did.

Harry, Lauren, Ron, and Hermione rounded the corner Joey had just taken. They kept fair distance from him so he wouldn't know they were there. But they could still hear him.

They heard footsteps down the stone stairs that led to the dungeons. "Where is he going?" asked Hermione.

"Do you think he wants to see Professor Snape or something?" Ron added sarcastically.

They kept following him. He was walking along a dimly lit corridor. Harry recognized it, but didn't think he had ever been there before. Suddenly he remembered.

"Think Joey is still friends with that Slytherin boy?" he asked. "Because this is the way to their common room. Remember, Ron?"

"So that's why this place looked familiar!" Ron whispered. In the hall ahead, they saw a stone moving aside for Joey as he crawled into the Slytherin common room.

"Uh, oh!" said Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lauren at the same time. They rushed to the door. Thinking quickly, Hermione pulled out her wand and put it in between the door and the wall. The door closed on the wand, and it stayed slightly ajar. It was opened enough for the four Gryffindors to see inside.

Through the crack in the door, they saw Joey taking off his invisibility cloak. The common room looked the same as the one in Gryffindor Tower, but it was colder and darker down in the dungeons. The fire was almost out, and it was hard to see.

The common room was deserted except for Joey's friend, Scott Malfoy. Scott and Joey sat down at one of the tables and were playing together.

"What are they doing?" asked Ron, outraged that any Gryffindor would even talk to a Slytherin.

"Looks like they've been meeting in secret for a while," said Lauren.

Neither of the first years seemed to notice there were five people watching them. They played all night, laughing quietly, and talking to each other. Harry had fallen asleep.

It looked like Joey was about to, too, and he put on the invisibility cloak again and walked toward the door. Hermione said, "Hey! He's leaving! We'd better run!" She tried to pull her wand from the door, but the stone was heavy and it wouldn't budge.

"Hurry, Hermione!" said Ron, excitedly, peeking through the door. Hermione pulled her wand from the door, but it was too late.

"Lauren? Hermione? Harry? Ron? What are you guys doing here?" came a voice. Suddenly, the face of Joey Marshall appeared in the door.

"What are we doing here? What are you doing here?" shouted Ron. The noise attracted Scott, who came over.

"I think we're in trouble," said Joey, looking at Scott.

"Come on, Joey. Let's go before anything else happens," encouraged Lauren. Someone else was awake and was coming to the door. It was Draco Malfoy.

"Scott, why are you hanging out with him?" Malfoy asked.

"He's my friend!" Scott argued.

"Not anymore," said Malfoy. "Never talk to him again!"

Scott looked down at the ground, a frown on his face.

"You can't tell him what he can and can't do, Malfoy!" yelled Harry.

"Neither can you!" Malfoy retorted.

No one could think of anything to say to this. Meanwhile, Joey was putting on the invisibility cloak and trying to get away.

"Oh, no you don't!" said Malfoy. "Stupefy!"

"Joey!" Lauren cried, as Joey was frozen on the spot.

"You want to fight? You'll have to fight all of us," growled Ron.

"What's going on here?" It was Professor Snape. "Out for another midnight stroll, are we, Potter?"

No one said anything. They knew they couldn't think of an excuse to be in the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

"Potter's little friend was trying to attack my cousin," said Malfoy. "There he is in the invisibility cloak. He was trying to get away, so I stupefied him. Then they all ganged up on me."

"Cousin?" whispered Harry.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor. There shall be no more sneaking out at night. Potter, you have been warned every year. Next time it happens, don't doubt that you will be expelled." Snape walked back down the corridor.

Hermione quickly did the counter curse on Joey, then the five of them walked back up to the common room, and to bed.