Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't even own Dudley.
The next week, Harry did something he'd never thought he'd do. He was heading to see Professor Snape. Voluntarily. When Snape heard a knock on the door, he called out, "Enter,"
Harry didn't know for sure what he was doing. But he was on good terms with Snape now, and he was curious. "What were my parents like?" he blurted.
Snape considered Harry for a moment, trying to decide how to answer. "Are you sure," he asked hesitantly, "that you want me to answer? After all, your father and I were not on the best of terms."
Harry thought a moment, and slowly nodded. Snape sighed, and then began, "I really didn't know your mother that well. But your father… You've probably heard about all the heroic aspects of your father. Head Boy, Quidditch captain, Voldemort Fighter. I didn't see him from the same viewpoint. He was arrogant, he broke every rule there was, and didn't think through the consequences of his actions."
Snape then noticed Harry's face, and continued, "Potter, there are two sides to almost everything. Your father was a hero in his own way. But he had flaws as well, just like anyone else."
Harry asked, "Why did you two hate each other so much?"
Snape thought a minute, and said, "It started out so small. He'd play a prank on me; I'd try to turn him into a flobberworm. I think what really set it off was our 4th year. James was having trouble in potions, where I was the top of the class. James didn't like admitting there was someone better than him. If he didn't have Lily, I doubt he would've passed potions at all. But he made quidditch captain, where I was cut for the 3rd year in a row."
Harry thought over Snape's words. His father was horrible at potions? And Snape tried out for quidditch? They were jealous of each other. It seemed so stupid that they hated each other all those years for something as small as that.
"But why did you become a death eater?" Harry asked.
Snape's expression turned slightly nasty, which reminded Harry of his first four years. "Well, if we're done talking about your father…" Harry got the message, and slowly left Snape's office.
Ron and Hermione were sitting down in the commons when Harry got back from meeting with Snape. "Where were you Harry?" asked Ron, "We have Defense Against the Dark Arts in 10 minutes!"
"I was talking with Snape," Harry answered. He was confused about Ron's attitude; it appeared as if he were eager to go to class.
Hermione apparently noticed this as well, and said, "Ron, why are you so excited to go to class?" Ron, however, wouldn't answer, as he grabbed both Hermione's and Harry's hand and tore out the commons.
As the three of them reached the door to Fleur's class, Hermione stopped Ron. "Ron," Hermione said, "you forgot to put your bubblehead on." This only seemed to make Ron happier, and he entered the class. Hermione and Harry followed quizzically.
"Ok, if you remember, we spent a large amount of time at the start of year covering air-borne charms. Now, we're going to cover sound based dark arts as well. Can anyone give me an example?"
Hermione and Ron both raised their hands, and Fleur decided to pick Ron. "A Banshee Wail" Ron answered.
"Excellent! 5 points to Gryffindor," Fleur responded. "The Banshee wail is one of the best examples of a sound based dark arts. Now, can anyone tell me how to defeat the banshee's wail?"
Nobody, including Hermione, knew the answer. Seamus Finnegan slowly raised his hand and guessed, "Cast a deafness spell on yourself?"
"Good try," said Fleur, "But sound does more than go through your ear. For example…" Fleur raised her wand, and immediately a deep bass thrumming pulsed through the room. The desks started to vibrate lightly, and everyone was put slightly on edge. "What happened?" Fleur asked.
"The sound made the wood vibrate," Ron responded.
"That's right. You see, sound doesn't go just into your ears. It covers your entire body. In fact, a Banshee's wail doesn't affect the ears at all, but it makes a person's bones vibrate. While this doesn't directly hurt the victim, it frightens and distracts a person a great deal. So how do you combat this?"
The class thought a minute, before Harry slowly said, "Well, sound travels through air, right?" After Fleur nodded, and he continued, "So if we still the air like Hermione did to counteract the Veela charm, it should block the wail as well."
"Close," Fleur responded. "We need to cast a stronger version of the spell. One that will block sounds as well."
"Mutus," Ron answered, and Harry shivered.
Fleur continued the lecture about various sound charms, and Harry couldn't help admire that Fleur seemed to be doing almost as good of job as Lupin did two years ago. If she kept this up, she'd be the first Defense Against the Dark Arts teach he had that lasted more than a year.
Harry looked over at Hermione and Ron, and noticed that Hermione didn't seem to be paying attention to the lecture. Instead, she was looking at Ron with a puzzled look on her face. Harry thought about it, and realized what Hermione found so interesting. Ron didn't cast any sort of Anti-Veela charm on himself. He didn't drink a potion either. But he was carrying on as if Professor Fleur was an ordinary person.
Hermione and Harry's unspoken question was addressed by Fleur at the end of class. "Ron Weasley, what spell are you using to block the Veela Charm?"
"I'm not using a spell," Ron replied, grinning.
"Well, what potion did you take?" Fleur asked back.
"I didn't take a potion either," Ron said, grinning even broader. Fleur looked at him, her face a question, and Ron said, "I looked up the exact chemical composition of the Veela Charm. I then determined which counter agents would block it. Finally, I found a way to keep the counter agent I chose inside my blood indefinitely."
Fleur looked at Ron and said, "10 points to Gryffindor. As Ron has demonstrated, there are certain ways to perminantly combat airborne charms. In fact, many Aurors do exactly what he did, as an extra defense in their job. I will discuss this in more detail next week. Class dismissed." On the way back to the commons, Hermione and Ron were gazing at each other rather openly. Harry shook his head, and tried to think about Ginny.
Angelina looked around the Great Hall, and was worried about the game. Sure, Gryffindor was up by a large margin of 220 points, but 150 points would come just from catching the snitch. It didn't take too much imagination to see Slytherin winning if it were a long game and Harry didn't catch the snitch. Calm down, Angelina. We're going to do just fine she thought.
She made her way to the Quidditch pitch, where she had seen Harry go off to several minutes earlier. She gazed up at the sky. It was a beautiful spring afternoon, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. She sighed, as she realized that they only had a few weeks of school left. And I have to worry about my N.E.W.T.s...
Angelina walked over to Harry, who was standing by the side of the Quidditch field. She didn't know what to think of him at the moment. He did completely mediocre against Ravenclaw. But he played the most brilliant game she had ever seen against Hufflepuff.
His face wasn't helping out either. His eyes were completely indecipherable. His mouth was in a small quirky grin. "Looking for something?" he asked suddenly. Angelina didn't know what to say. She had the suspicion that he was holding back laughter.
Before Angelina could find her voice, Ginny arrived and leaned up against Harry. Harry said to Angelina, "What, you didn't see a glint in my eye?" Angelina backed away slowly, wondering what was going on with Harry.
"What was that all about?" Ginny asked, as Angelina walked away.
"Angelina tries to determine the outcome of the game based on the look in my eyes," Harry laughed.
"Really," Ginny said playfully, "So is it going to be a good game?"
"Oh, yeah," Harry smiled back.
Slytherin's game plan became clear shortly after the game began. Since they required a win by 230 points, they had to be up by 80 before they could even try to catch the snitch. Slytherin clearly felt their chasers weren't up to the task, and were playing for injuries.
While Harry detested the strategy, he had to at least admire the methodical way the Slytherin beaters were approaching the task. Harry hadn't seen either hit a bludger yet, but every time they passed by a Gryffindor chaser, they hit them hard on the wrist. Harry felt safe, though, as Malfoy's replacement was marking him as closely as possible. Surely they wouldn't want to accidentally hit their teammate.
Although Gryffindor was pulling ahead quickly due to penalty shots, it became clear that the Gryffindor fliers were losing their edge. Several times Ron had to break off an attack because his sore wrists wouldn't let him turn sharply enough.
Sore wrists… Harry's mind churned. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "Puking Buzzard!" and dove at the ground. He'd show the Slytherins sore wrists!
"Look at Potter dive!" screamed Lee Jordan over the megaphone. The Slytherin seeker clearly thought Harry had seen the snitch, and dove alongside. Harry was briefly tempted to try the Wronski Feint, but decided to stick to his plan. Well before the ground, Harry pulled back up and climbed. His shadow followed, and Harry dove quickly again.
"And Potter's at it again!" yelled Lee. But the crowd quickly grew confused, as both seekers looked more like rolling waves than anything else.
The Slytherin seeker was determined not to let Harry fly away, and duplicated his every move a split second later. Harry grew amused, as they had lapped the field about 7 times and the Slytherin seeker was still beside him, dive after dive. But he was gradually taking more and more time each successive move. Harry thought this was due to sore wrists, until the other seeker decided to land. The Slytherin hunched over the ground, and proceeded to empty his stomach of the morning's breakfast. The crowd let out a collective, "Ewwww..."
The Slytherin captain landed as well, and started yelling at the sick teammate. But instead of getting back on the broom, the seeker ran back to the castle, looking extremely green. Glaring at Harry, the Slytherin captain called Madame Hooch and forfeited the match.
"Gryffindor wins the quidditch cup!" yelled Lee to the crowd. For a few seconds, the crowd was torn between disappointment and laughter at how the game finally ended. Then, the Gryffindors stormed the field, while the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students cheered. Most of the Slytherins were scowling, but several were howling with laughter at what happened. Harry felt a little sorry for the new seeker – he was going to have to put up with a lot from his classmates for the last several weeks…
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WOW! Thanks everyone for reviewing the last two chapters!
Next chapter: Party with Hagrid, 3rd
task, Neville gets a woman?
By the way, I'm 22 years old, Ariel – if you want, you can check out my bio to
see more info about me.
I know I've done this about every chapter, but thanks again to Atheis and Aeris. You two are awesome!
Oh, a bit of news. I am already working out the plot lines for a sequel, titled "Harry Potter and the Possession of Voldemort" However, I am running into a problem with the rating. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon need to get in a heated argument with each other, saying a few sentences which might be PG (so I can't list them here.) If someone is willing to help me out, e-mail me at kevinericweber@yahoo.com
Ideally, I'd like the next story to be G as well, so anybody reading this story can read the next one. It seems stupid to have to push the rating up to PG for two sentences in the first chapter…
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