Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't even own Dudley.
Harry just got back from the first quidditch practice of the season and was dead tired. Angelina, the captain this year, had insisted on performing all new drills she made up. Unfortunately, she came up with a horrid drill she named 'The Dive'. Harry wanted to rename it 'The Swan Dive'. The move consisted of flying at high altitude, diving at the ground with only one arm on the broom, then pulling up with the same one hand. Theoretically, it was supposed to help him catch the snitch during dives. In reality, Harry's wrists felt like they were ready to burst. He resolved to see Madame Pomfrey in the morning if his wrists were still throbbing.
Massaging his wrists, he inwardly remarked that the team should be renamed after the Weasleys. Since Oliver Wood and Katie Bell left, the spots had been filled by the remaining Weasleys at Hogwarts. Ron took Katie's spot as chaser, which didn't surprise Harry that much. Ron loved quidditch. But Ginny became the new keeper. Harry assumed since he didn't see her play at the Burrow, that she didn't like the game. After congratulating her about her new position, Ginny told him that she loved quidditch, but it was kind of a guy thing at the Burrow.
Suddenly, Fred and George shouted out to the commons room "Guess what? We just got a detention today! First one this year!" For some reason, they seemed to take pride in managing to get a detention before anyone else in Gryffindor. However, instead of the usual cheers, silence greeted them. Angelina yawned pointedly. "What's with you? We make a great journey into the forbidden forest, get a detention, and no one congratulates us?"
Ron decided to set them straight. "Oh, come on. The forbidden forest? Big deal. Harry threw a biscuit at Snape last week! He got the first detention!"
"Oh, yeah," muttered Fred. The two definitely looked downcast, and Harry decided to try to cheer them up. "The forbidden forest?" Harry asked, "Why did you go there?"
Apparently, Harry said the right thing. Fred and George launched into a narrative tale of their exploits. "Well, we were at Hagrid's house. And he kept on going on about the centaurs," George started.
"We met the centaurs our first year, they didn't seem half bad. Came right out and talked with us," mentioned Fred.
"Of course, all they talked about were the stars and the future," George pointed out.
"Anyway, we decided to pay them another visit," Fred said. However, at this point, neither Fred nor George seemed to know how to continue.
"Well, what happened?" asked Ron somewhat impatiently.
"We couldn't find one of them. But it was strange, we heard hooves, but they always seemed to be avoiding us," answered George.
"It felt like there were several of them just keeping their eyes on us. It was actually pretty eerie," shuddered Fred.
"So, anyway, we decided to give up and go back to the castle. And just as we're leaving the forest, Filch catches us," George finished.
Ron yawned loudly, then went up to his dorm. Fred and George looked angry and started whispering among themselves. Harry was amused. He knew there were only two things the twins could be planning. Either they were planning on getting even with Ron, or they were planning some spectacular stunt to impress the rest of the Gryffindors. But he thought, That's the second time I've heard something odd about the centaurs. I wonder what they've seen.
If Harry thought the first week of homework was bad, it was nothing compared to what the teachers were now handing out. Harry complained about it to Professor McGonagall, who pointed out that they were taking their O.W.L.s later in the year, and they needed to get ready for them. Amazingly, the only class he didn't get any homework in was Potions, but it was still the worst class. Snape seemed to get nastier each day, and Malfoy seemed more than content to follow Snape's footsteps.
Harry sighed. He had potions in an hour, and sat up in bed. He was still sore from the quidditch practice last night. In addition to 'The Dive', Angelina made a new drill called the 'Flying Eagle'. Harry eventually settled on calling it the 'Puking Buzzard'. The 'Puking Buzzard' was nothing more than diving and climbing. Over and over and over again. Not only did it make Harry slightly nauseous, it hurt his wrists more than 'The Swan Dive'. Personally, he just thought Angelina was worried about the game tomorrow, and was taking it out on everyone else.
Well, he thought, I should probably get ready now. If I'm late, Snape will probably take 3,000 points from Gryffindor. Harry got up reluctantly, showered, brushed his teeth, and got his supplies ready. He still had 15 minutes to get there. He started his grim march to the potions dungeon. Alicia, however, stopped him from behind.
"Harry, I've got something to ask of you - will you be one of my guardians for the first task?" Alicia asked hopefully.
"Er, guardians?" Harry said confused.
"Oh, the first task is to try to get past the other champions' guardians and retrieve a flag. If you accept, you'll have to try to prevent the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton champions from reaching theirs," Alicia explained.
"Oh, ok, sure. Who are the other guardians you've picked?"
"Well, I've asked Fred and George, who both accepted. Angelina said no, but that's because she doesn't think she'd do well in a duel with one of the other champions. She suggested Hermione instead, and Hermione said yes. I was also thinking about asking Lee Jordan," Alicia listed off.
"Well, I don't mean to insult Lee, but you might think of asking Ron instead. This sounds a little like chess, and I've never seen Ron lose at that," Harry pointed out. Alicia seemed to be thinking about this, as Harry hurried off to potions.
Unfortunately, talking with Alicia meant Harry arrived in potions three minutes late. Oh boy, Harry thought, What am I going to get this time? Professor Snape sneered at Harry and told him to find his seat.
Harry froze. He wasn't given a detention. No points were taken from Gryffindor. He wasn't even insulted. Snape looked up, and saw Harry was still standing in the isle.
"Mr. Potter," he spoke, "I believe I told you to find your seat!" Harry was stunned. Finally, Snape hissed, "Oh, very well. 5 points from Gryffindor." Harry was still confused, but managed to find his seat. When had Snape ever acted so generously to him? And he only took 5 points!
Harry couldn't remark favorably on his luck for long, seeing as how Malfoy was determined to pick up Snape's slack. 47 Potty jeers and 13 no-family wisecracks later, Harry emerged from the Potions dungeon angrily.
As Harry made his way back to the commons, he was stopped by Dumbledore. "Harry, can you come with me? I need to talk with you," Dumbledore spoke. Harry nodded, and then followed the headmaster through the corridors until they came to the stone gargoyle guarding his office. "Canary Creams," Dumbledore spoke, and the gargoyle stepped out of the way.
"Harry," Dumbledore started, as both sat in his office, "Have you been receiving any dreams from your scar lately?" Harry simply shook his head no. "Do you remember my theory as to why you get your dreams?"
Harry quickly replied, "I get the dreams whenever Voldemort is near, or feeling extremely angry."
"That brings me to my point. As amazing as it sounds, Voldemort has been having a few dreams of you," Dumbledore announced.
Harry was shocked, and said, "But, how? He's not near, is he?"
"No." Dumbledore simply said.
"Then, he's been seeing me when I'm extremely angry?" asked Harry.
"That's right, which is a cause for concern. You of all people know how angry Voldemort can be. It disturbs me that you can feel anger that deeply as well." Dumbledore spoke quietly. Harry's minded raced. He had felt anger as deep as Voldemort? Dumbledore continued, "I know that one of the times you were in Potions class. What happened?"
Harry thought deeply. How did he explain Snape and Malfoy to Dumbledore, without sounding childish? "Professor Snape accused me of killing Cedric."
"A bit tactless. What did you do?" Dumbledore asked.
"Nothing. I didn't do anything." Harry finished.
"Ah. Then you threw the biscuit at him for what reason?" Dumbledore asked. Harry couldn't help but grin. I guess I did sort of get him back for that, Harry thought.
"Harry," Dumbledore said, "That is the best weapon against anger – humor. Sometimes anger is a good thing, but most of the time you'd be well off to stay away from it. Tom Riddle's fall into Voldemort started with anger at his muddled heritage. If you're not careful, anger could lead you down the same path."
Harry walked back to the commons, thinking about what Dumbledore had said. The link goes both ways? That means if I'm not careful, Voldemort could hear what's going on at Hogwarts? And anger leads to the dark side? Harry resolved not to let Snape and Malfoy get to him again, as he walked to the Faerie compound to pay his faerie a visit.
As soon as he walked in, his faerie spotted him and zoomed over. Harry noticed that the little guy had a piece of wood under his legs. He was pretending to ride a broomstick! Harry laughed, and handed the faerie several photographs Colin had took at last practice. The faerie struggled a little with the weight of them, but was giggling all the same. When the faerie saw the one of Harry doing the 'Puking Buzzard', he laughed gleefully.
"Anyway," Harry said, "the first quidditch match of the year is tomorrow. I thought you might like to watch." At this, the faerie looked somewhat confused. Harry realized as much as they had talked about flying, he had never explained what quidditch was. Harry launched into an explanation of the rules, and how to play the game. Harry smiled – the little guy was hanging on his every word. Soon some of the other faeries came to look at Harry's photos, and his faerie was excitedly showing them off. Harry wandered around, and noticed that Ron's faerie's bed was now on the opposite side of the room, completely away from the Slytherin section. Also, the faerie was sitting in his bed, off by himself, doing nothing. Harry frowned; he'd have to talk to Ron about his faerie being down. As he left the compound, he smiled again. His faerie was doing the 'Puking Buzzard' on his fake broomstick.
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Well? Reviews? Please?!?
A quick taste of what's coming up – Quidditch, Trelawney, and Irish Drinking Songs… Oh yeah…