All of Harry's classes had gotten a sudden increase of strenuous work since the school year had started. Snape, now the Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, gave all the students except the Slytherins a three parchment roll essay due the next week on curses. 

            "As if we didn't have enough homework already!!!" said Ron. "Stupid OWL tests… why can't we just skip them and just say we took it?"

            Harry had the same feelings as Ron as he sleepily looked out the window. The sunset had gone and the moon was slowly rising with a few wisps of clouds that were in the sky. Good… The first Quidditch game won't be as bad as last year's…

            Quidditch, the wizard game played on broomsticks, was by far the most interesting thing in the magical world to Harry. Harry played on the Gryffindor House team for 3 years until last year when he was entered into the Triwizard tournament by one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. There were four positions on the team; Chaser, Keeper, Beater, and Seeker. Harry was the seeker for the Gryffindor team and had a record of only losing one match that was lost because dementors had come to the field and made him pass out. A dull worry was growing in Harry's stomach since two years before, the House's best Keeper, Oliver Wood, had graduated from Hogwarts so the position of Keeper was open to the next person who could take the position.

            However, the captain of the Gryiffindor team was named at the beginning of the year. Angelina Johnson was now the captain of the team with the rest of its members in full support of her being chosen. But, she now had the difficult task of finding a new keeper for the team. The tryouts were going to be held the second week of the term, but they were postponed until after Halloween due to weather conditions. Now with the clear weather again, the keeper tryouts were to be held the next day, so Harry had to finish all of his homework on Friday night to be able to do the all day sessions on Saturday.

            Usually, Harry had Hermione to help him hack though all of his homework. But lately, Hermione was seen less and less in the Gryffindor common room. Not having time to ponder where she went all the time, Harry got back to work on his essay.

            The next morning when Harry walked into the Stadium with his Firebolt, all Harry could feel was extreme fatigue and a weight on his shoulders droning him to sleep. He had stayed up to nearly two AM working on his essay when he finally finished. And what made his stomach wrench was when he saw Michael and Cho walking through the Great Hall hand in hand. All Harry felt like doing was either running himself into a brick wall or just lay down and die on the Quidditch field. When Harry found that his appetite had suddenly evaporated, he headed down to the field to prep for the tryouts.

            When reaching the field, he saw that the rest of the team was spaced out on different parts of the stadium. Some of the team members were in the air, some were in the stands and some where sitting in chairs on the field. Behind him, Harry heard a clattering of feet as he saw the Keeper-candidates marching toward Angelina, who was now standing at the center of the field.

            "Hey Harry!" called George while he was shooting himself across the field as if a bullet being shot out of a gun, and the goal hoops were the barrels.

            "Com'n Harry!!! We'll race u!! Two Comet Two-Sixties should equal a Firebolt… I hope" said Fred.

            Harry jumped on the Firebolt and sped up to where the twins were hanging in the air. After a few races in which Harry easily outstripped the brooms, he looked down where Angelina was and saw that Professor McGonagall was now talking with the Keeper-candidates. He saw that now Angelina was waving down all the team mates to come down to the field so they could talk.

            Harry was the first to land and ran over to where Angelina was. The others had follow suit and crowded around Angelina so she could be heard.

            "Ok, these are the guys that are trying out for keeper. Alicia, Katie and I are going to take turns throwing the Quaffle at them with them at the posts. Fred and George; You two will fly around and hit the Buldgers at them to see how well they dodge when there is no reaction time. And Harry, you have to mimic diving straight at them as if the snitch were right next to them. That will also test their reaction time. Ok! I might not be as good as Wood but I'll do my best this year!" The Team broke and went into the air getting to their positions, waiting for the first contender to go against the team's volleys.

            The first few candidates didn't fair too well against the incoming Quaffles and nearly got killed by the Buldgers coming at them. Many had to go to the Hospital Wing. When the selection process started to seem very bleak to find a new Keeper, Eddy Cyclane had come up to try his luck.

            At first Alicia and Katie were giggling when throwing the Quaffles, but once it was evident that Eddy COULD play, the team started to get serious. He reacted before the other team mates got near him. It was as if he sensed where everything was coming at once. However, the thing that impressed all of them the most was when he dodged both Buldgers and Harry while stopping a Quaffle that nearly smashed his face in if it wasn't for his hand batting it away.

            After they finished testing Eddy, Alicia came down to all the candidates saying that the results would be posted in the common room tomorrow. Although it was obvious, that Eddy Cyclane would be the next Keeper for the Gryffindor Team.

The next morning, Harry walked into the Great Hall for breakfast with Ron and Hermione. Harry's eyes once again drifted toward Cho talking to Michael at the Ravenclaw table when Ron saw what he was looking at.

"They're hanging out together a lot, huh?" said Ron.

"Yeah…" said Harry.

"Don't worry about it!" said Hermione. "Besides, she's a year older than you right?"

Harry pondered about that thought. She WAS a year older but he still couldn't get over the heart-throbbing feeling when she was in his sight. He didn't think he'd ever find a solution to get over her.

As they sat down at the Gryffindor table, Harry noticed that the team was not present. But as Eddy walked into the Hall, the team was following him talking to him animatedly.

Harry's mind became set. Even if I like Cho, I can't let it interfere with my regular life. I have to be able to keep the Quidditch Cup with Gryffindor this year, because everyone is counting on me. That is what I must do.

With a silent nod, Harry knew what he had to do… until a brown owl with scorch marks on its body landed on the table. Filled with dread, Harry slowly opened the letter, and started reading.