Just so you all know, this chapter is based a few weeks after Harry is made
captain.
Chapter five
Daphne sat up straight in bed.
"Damn!" She cursed, ripping aside the hangings of her four-poster bed and jumping out of it. Leonora, (surprise surprise) was already awake and sitting on her bed, reading quietly.
"Good morning Daphne." She said, calmly turning a page of Hogwarts: A History. Hermione had recommended she read it and it was actually very interesting.
"Why didn't you wake me up Lori?" Demanded Daphne, pulling on her robes. She always called Leonora Lori now; Dobby had given her the idea.
Leonora closed her book, got up from the bed and stretched. "I was just about to, actually."
"But I'm already late!" Exclaimed Daphne, grabbing her wand from her bedside cabinet.
"What time is it?" Said a sleepy voice from the other side of the room.
Daphne and Leonora looked up at the person who had spoken. It was Abigail Ellis; she was sitting up in bed and her hair was a total mess.
(A/N- I'm gonna call Leonora Lori from now on, I can't be bothered.)
Lori looked at her watch. "Half past seven."
Abigail's eyes widened. "What?" She exclaimed loudly. "Daphne, Leonora, do you know what Saturday means?"
"Huh?" Said another sleepy voice. This time it was Kymberly Ellis, Abigail's (non-identical) twin sister.
"Sorry you two, really, but we have to go somewhere." Said Daphne, quickly using a tidying charm on her hair. She and Hermione had found it in a book about a week before, and it was as valuable as a gold- mine for their bushy-Granger-hair.
"Well do it quietly." Said Abigail irritably.
"Yeah, sorry Abby, Kym." Said Daphne as she hurried out of the door, Lori at her heels.
"Daphne, I don't know why you're rushing, I heard Harry say last night that he wasn't going to start practise until quarter to, not quarter past. " Panted Lori; Daphne was descending very fast.
Daphne stopped and looked at Lori. "Really?" She said incredulously.
"Yep. And I don't know why you want to go anyway, I've explained Quidditch to you and you've read Quidditch through the Ages." Continued Lori. They started walking again, this time a lot slower.
"Well, I want to see how it's played." Replied Daphne, pulling open the common- room door. They went inside to find Harry and Hermione, Harry writing on a huge piece of cardboard, Hermione reading a book for a change.
Hermione looked up when they came in. "Oh, hi you two. Well. I wasn't actually expecting you to get up this early Daph." She said with a smirk.
Daphne smiled sweetly. "Well, I really have to find out what this Quidditch stuff is all about. I have to see it. It's the same with football; I love playing it and going to matches, but I can't watch it on T.V." She shrugged and sat down on a sofa next to Lori.
Harry looked up from his cardboard. "Daphne- Quidditch is a lot different from football. You can't compare it."
"Why not?" Said Daphne, sitting back and folding her arms.
"Because, you just can't."
"Oh- well I see now." Daphne said sarcastically. "Of course you can compare them! It's a team sport, it's very popular and it brings people together. And from what I've heard, it causes fights as well. Just like football."
"You sound like Dean Thomas." Said a voice from across the room. It was Ron, just emerging from the dormitories. He yawned loudly and flopped down on a spare sofa. He stretched out and closed his eyes.
"Wow. Ron Weasley up early on a Saturday when he doesn't have to be. Someone hand me my heart attack pills!" Said Hermione sarcastically.
"Yeah and hand me my wand." Said Ron. "Oh, look, I already have it."
He pointed it at Hermione. "Reparo." He said. Hermione's hair suddenly jumped up all over the place; Ron had removed the tidying charm.
"You sod!" Cried Hermione. She redid the spell and shot Ron an icy glare.
"Ooh, if looks could kill…" Grinned Lori, remembering what Professor Lupin had said a few weeks before.
"Anyways," Said Ron. "I have to support Harry on his first training session. What are friends for?"
"Er, for being quiet when you're trying to work out new strategies?" Muttered Harry.
Ron sat up and grinned. "I'll tell you what mate, I'll go and get Gred and Feorge to make up for my horrible behaviour."
Harry laughed. "That would definitely make up for it. At least the chasers can drag themselves out of bed." He said as Angelina, Alicia and Katie entered the common room.
Ron got up and disappeared through the door to the boy's dormitories.
A few minutes later Fred and George appeared, looking irritated at being dragged out of bed. "Geez Harry, you're gonna be worse than Oliver, aren't you?" Complained Fred, flopping down into an armchair.
"Yeah," Added George. "And Oliver didn't have any evil henchmen." He said darkly as Ron reappeared with an evil grin on his face.
Harry, chuckling to himself, went back to his strategies. A few minutes later, with a last flourish of his giant magic marker, (slightly different from the muggle version), he placed the large boards under his arms and stood up. "Right, let's go." He said, trying to seem confident. In truth, he was actually quite scared about his first training session; he didn't have a clue what he was doing.
But the rest of the team and his friends were very supportive, and he knew they would give him all the help he needed. He was very lucky to have them.
Twenty minutes later, after listening to Harry hurriedly talk through his new strategies, the Gryffindor quidditch team were in the air. They all agreed that Harry was definitely better at team talks, he didn't drone on for an hour. They zoomed around the field, racing each other and, in the case of Fred and George, dive- bombing each other. When Harry felt that they had warmed up enough, he called them all to the centre of the pitch. They hovered for a couple of minutes, listening to Harry's instructions, and then sped off in separate directions as Harry released the four balls. Instantly, one of the bludgers tried to de-broom him, but Fred was too quick for it. He hit it in a direction that none of the team were flying, and shot Harry a grin before racing off after it.
Harry flew high above the practise, watching the team while searching for the snitch. He caught it twice in five minutes. He watched as George hit a bludger away from Angelina and then had to circle around her to hit it away from Katie.
Katie didn't even seem to notice a bludger was near her. She was having a serious discussion with Alicia, and Angelina, who was holding the quaffle, was hanging still in mid-air, listening and sometimes adding something. Harry frowned and dived down to them.
"What's wrong?" He asked, hovering in front of them. Angelina, Alicia and Katie flew closer so he could hear them. "We can't practise without a keeper. The keeper is practically a fourth chaser." Explained Angelina, tossing the quaffle to Katie.
"She's right. How are we supposed to practise shooting?" Said Katie, tossing the red ball to Alicia.
"There's no point in us being here." Said Alicia, tossing the quaffle to Harry, who caught it, looking worried and a little annoyed. "Well, um…" He began.
"What's going on?" Asked George, swooping down towards them. Harry looked up. "They say they need a keeper to practise with." He said, tossing the quaffle back to Angelina. "George, I don't suppose you…"
"Not a chance Harry." George said quickly, carelessly batting a bludger away from him as if he was swotting a fly. "Me and Fred are useless at any kind of quaffle duty. Didn't you notice that last summer when we were playing quidditch?"
Fred now joined in the conversation. "What about Ron?" He said simply. Harry looked up at him. "What about Ron?" He shot back, a little confused.
George rolled his eyes. "Do we have to spell it out for you? Ask. Ron. To. Fill. In. As. Keeper. Geez!" Harry looked at George, then back to Fred. "Do you think he will?"
"Don't know until you ask. Go on!" Said Fred. Harry squared his shoulders and dived down to where Ron was sitting talking to Hermione. They hadn't seemed to notice practise had stopped. Ron looked up when he heard Harry land. He and Hermione looked surprised to see him.
"What's wrong?" Asked Ron automatically. Harry looked uncomfortable. "Um, could you, well, you see, we don't have a keeper and…"
"And what?" Said Ron, looking confused. Harry took a deep breath. "Would you fill in for us?"
Ron went pale. "No way!" He said without hesitating. Harry looked very put down. But he didn't give up. "Please Ron. We can't practise without a keeper, and try-outs aren't until Monday. Please?" Ron rolled his eyes. "I'm no good at goal-keeping." He said, looking shifty.
"I don't care. Please do me this one favour. Please." Said Harry. He looked pretty desperate. Ron still looked doubtful though. Hermione nudged him in the ribs. "Go on Ron." She said. "After all, you did get up early to especially support Harry. So go and support him." She placed her hand on Ron's back and pushed him out of his chair.
Ron frowned. "Oh alright." He said irritably. "But you owe me big time." He added to Harry who grinned widely. "Thanks mate." He said, jumping back on his broom as Ron wandered off to the broom-shed to get his.
Ten minutes later, Ron was hovering in front of the goal posts, yawning and looking incredibly uncomfortable. Angelina hovered in front of him, practising penalty shots. "Thanks for doing this Ron. We really appreciate it." She said, catching the quaffle as Katie through it to her. Ron rolled his eyes. "Just be gentle, OK?" He said with another yawn.
Angelina nodded. She lined up the quaffle and threw it. It was a soft shot for Angelina, who was quite a fierce chaser. However, it was still a really good shot to the left-hand post. Or, it would have been if Ron hadn't reached out his hand at the last moment and batted it away. He did this without even having to move his broom over to the left by more than a foot. Angelina looked surprised. "Um, good save." She said as she caught the slowly falling quaffle.
Katie flew forward. She threw the quaffle a lot harder than Angelina, and Ron saved it again. The same happened with Alicia's shot, and another one of Angelina's. The chasers were exchanging looks with each other that clearly said 'he's a good keeper.'
Harry hadn't noticed. After he had solved the keeper problem, he went back to looking for the snitch. After a few minutes of searching and not paying attention to anything else, he saw it hovering five foot off the ground directly in front of Hermione. He dived and caught it deftly. Hermione didn't even glance at him.
He looked up to see what was so interesting. Katie was just getting ready to take her second shot. As she threw the quaffle toward the right- hand goal post, a bludger came out of nowhere heading straight for Ron. He dodged it by swerving sideways, spinning as he did so. The quaffle rebounded off of the broom tail and was knocked off course.
Katie, Angelina and Alicia broke into a small round of applause. Fred and George were flying around after the bludgers, grins on their faces. Ron looked very embarrassed. He tossed the quaffle to Alicia and looked down.
Harry was staring at him from his place on the ground. "Wow, he's good!" He said to Hermione. She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Oh great." She said. "I'm going to be the only one not on the team now, aren't I?" Then she laughed.
Harry smiled and kicked off again. He flew over to Ron, who was saving another attempt on goal by Alicia. "Hey Ron." He called out as he got closer. Ron looked up. "You're really good." He said, causing Ron's ears to go red.
"Er, thanks." He said looking down again.
"Why didn't you put your name down for try-outs?" He asked curiously. Ron looked even more embarrassed as he shrugged. "I didn't even think about it."
Harry looked surprised, and so did the three chasers. "You should." Said Katie fervently.
"Yeah, you haven't missed a single one." Said Angelina.
Harry flew closer to Ron. "I'm putting your name down, OK?" He said. Ron looked up at him in a panic. "But…" Harry held up his hand and cut him off. "It was a rhetorical question. " He said, as Ron's ears became even redder.
Down in the stands, Daphne and Lori climbed down from their top row seats, and sat down next to Hermione.
"Ron's good, isn't he?" Lori said. Hermione looked at her.
"Yeah. I've never really seen him play before." She answered. "We need a good keeper. Do you know that the Slytherin team all have Nimbus two thousand and ones?"
Lori looked down at the floor, embarrassed. Hermione slapped her hand to her head, giving herself a mental kick in the head. It had been Lori's dad who had bought the brooms. "I'm sorry Lori." She said quickly.
Lori looked up and smiled sadly. "It's alright. I thought it was a bit out of order when father bought those. It was a waste of money. But Draco always gets whatever he wants…" Lori seemed to think she had said too much, and looked down at the floor again.
"Do you like quidditch, Lori?" Hermione asked, trying to change the subject. Lori smiled gratefully at her. "Yeah, I really like quidditch. I love flying as well, but I don't get much of a chance to practise." She answered. Hermione shrugged and looked up at Harry, who had just gone into a spectacular, almost vertical dive to catch the snitch.
A few minutes later, she turned back to Lori with a frown. "Why didn't you go to the World cup? I saw your family there." She asked curiously
Lori squirmed uncomfortably in her seat and looked embarrassed again. "I, I didn't want to go." She said quickly, speaking to her shoes. Hermione looked away. She could tell that Lori was lying, but decided not to push the obviously very delicate subject.
Daphne leaned forward. "You went to the quidditch World cup?" She asked Hermione. "What happened?" Hermione sat back in her seat.
"It was really fun." She said with a smile. "Well, most of it." She added, remembering the Dark Mark fiasco. "It was the final, Ireland versus Bulgaria. The Ireland chasers were superb, they scored, what was it? Um, I think it was about a hundred and seventy points. They worked so well together. Ireland definitely deserved to win."
"Did they?" Asked Daphne.
"Yeah." Said Hermione. "But Bulgaria were only tem points behind in the end."
"That's only because Viktor Krum got the snitch- they would only have had ten points if he didn't." Said Lori, who had obviously read about the final, even if she 'hadn't wanted' to see it. Hermione nodded. Daphne looked plain confused.
"Viktor Krum?" She asked incredulously. "He plays for- he caught the snitch in the World cup final?" Hermione nodded again and Daphne's eyes widened. "Well, he's slightly more interesting than I thought he was." She said under her breath. Unfortunately for Daphne, Hermione heard her.
"Daphne, you don't even know him! So just shut up!" Hermione cried. Daphne was shocked; Hermione had never told her to shut up before. Hermione sighed. "I'm not going to apologise for that Daphne, because I am getting very annoyed about people bad mouthing him." Hermione stood up as the Gryffindor team sailed softly onto the grass.
"At last! I'm starved, and breakfast's is almost over!" She yelled to them, walking onto the pitch. Ron looked at his watch. "She's right- let's go!" He banished his broom back to the shed and started to walk back up to the school. Hermione fell into step with him and Harry. "Well done Ron- you didn't tell us you were such a good keeper." She said.
"That's because I'm not." Ron replied, in a tone that clearly said: 'don't go on about it.' Hermione raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Ron started walking faster.
"Are you making him try-out?" Hermione asked Harry in an undertone. Harry grinned. "Of course I am. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"
OK OK, I know this is, like, the longest chapter in history- I'm sorry. Please r/r.
Chapter five
Daphne sat up straight in bed.
"Damn!" She cursed, ripping aside the hangings of her four-poster bed and jumping out of it. Leonora, (surprise surprise) was already awake and sitting on her bed, reading quietly.
"Good morning Daphne." She said, calmly turning a page of Hogwarts: A History. Hermione had recommended she read it and it was actually very interesting.
"Why didn't you wake me up Lori?" Demanded Daphne, pulling on her robes. She always called Leonora Lori now; Dobby had given her the idea.
Leonora closed her book, got up from the bed and stretched. "I was just about to, actually."
"But I'm already late!" Exclaimed Daphne, grabbing her wand from her bedside cabinet.
"What time is it?" Said a sleepy voice from the other side of the room.
Daphne and Leonora looked up at the person who had spoken. It was Abigail Ellis; she was sitting up in bed and her hair was a total mess.
(A/N- I'm gonna call Leonora Lori from now on, I can't be bothered.)
Lori looked at her watch. "Half past seven."
Abigail's eyes widened. "What?" She exclaimed loudly. "Daphne, Leonora, do you know what Saturday means?"
"Huh?" Said another sleepy voice. This time it was Kymberly Ellis, Abigail's (non-identical) twin sister.
"Sorry you two, really, but we have to go somewhere." Said Daphne, quickly using a tidying charm on her hair. She and Hermione had found it in a book about a week before, and it was as valuable as a gold- mine for their bushy-Granger-hair.
"Well do it quietly." Said Abigail irritably.
"Yeah, sorry Abby, Kym." Said Daphne as she hurried out of the door, Lori at her heels.
"Daphne, I don't know why you're rushing, I heard Harry say last night that he wasn't going to start practise until quarter to, not quarter past. " Panted Lori; Daphne was descending very fast.
Daphne stopped and looked at Lori. "Really?" She said incredulously.
"Yep. And I don't know why you want to go anyway, I've explained Quidditch to you and you've read Quidditch through the Ages." Continued Lori. They started walking again, this time a lot slower.
"Well, I want to see how it's played." Replied Daphne, pulling open the common- room door. They went inside to find Harry and Hermione, Harry writing on a huge piece of cardboard, Hermione reading a book for a change.
Hermione looked up when they came in. "Oh, hi you two. Well. I wasn't actually expecting you to get up this early Daph." She said with a smirk.
Daphne smiled sweetly. "Well, I really have to find out what this Quidditch stuff is all about. I have to see it. It's the same with football; I love playing it and going to matches, but I can't watch it on T.V." She shrugged and sat down on a sofa next to Lori.
Harry looked up from his cardboard. "Daphne- Quidditch is a lot different from football. You can't compare it."
"Why not?" Said Daphne, sitting back and folding her arms.
"Because, you just can't."
"Oh- well I see now." Daphne said sarcastically. "Of course you can compare them! It's a team sport, it's very popular and it brings people together. And from what I've heard, it causes fights as well. Just like football."
"You sound like Dean Thomas." Said a voice from across the room. It was Ron, just emerging from the dormitories. He yawned loudly and flopped down on a spare sofa. He stretched out and closed his eyes.
"Wow. Ron Weasley up early on a Saturday when he doesn't have to be. Someone hand me my heart attack pills!" Said Hermione sarcastically.
"Yeah and hand me my wand." Said Ron. "Oh, look, I already have it."
He pointed it at Hermione. "Reparo." He said. Hermione's hair suddenly jumped up all over the place; Ron had removed the tidying charm.
"You sod!" Cried Hermione. She redid the spell and shot Ron an icy glare.
"Ooh, if looks could kill…" Grinned Lori, remembering what Professor Lupin had said a few weeks before.
"Anyways," Said Ron. "I have to support Harry on his first training session. What are friends for?"
"Er, for being quiet when you're trying to work out new strategies?" Muttered Harry.
Ron sat up and grinned. "I'll tell you what mate, I'll go and get Gred and Feorge to make up for my horrible behaviour."
Harry laughed. "That would definitely make up for it. At least the chasers can drag themselves out of bed." He said as Angelina, Alicia and Katie entered the common room.
Ron got up and disappeared through the door to the boy's dormitories.
A few minutes later Fred and George appeared, looking irritated at being dragged out of bed. "Geez Harry, you're gonna be worse than Oliver, aren't you?" Complained Fred, flopping down into an armchair.
"Yeah," Added George. "And Oliver didn't have any evil henchmen." He said darkly as Ron reappeared with an evil grin on his face.
Harry, chuckling to himself, went back to his strategies. A few minutes later, with a last flourish of his giant magic marker, (slightly different from the muggle version), he placed the large boards under his arms and stood up. "Right, let's go." He said, trying to seem confident. In truth, he was actually quite scared about his first training session; he didn't have a clue what he was doing.
But the rest of the team and his friends were very supportive, and he knew they would give him all the help he needed. He was very lucky to have them.
Twenty minutes later, after listening to Harry hurriedly talk through his new strategies, the Gryffindor quidditch team were in the air. They all agreed that Harry was definitely better at team talks, he didn't drone on for an hour. They zoomed around the field, racing each other and, in the case of Fred and George, dive- bombing each other. When Harry felt that they had warmed up enough, he called them all to the centre of the pitch. They hovered for a couple of minutes, listening to Harry's instructions, and then sped off in separate directions as Harry released the four balls. Instantly, one of the bludgers tried to de-broom him, but Fred was too quick for it. He hit it in a direction that none of the team were flying, and shot Harry a grin before racing off after it.
Harry flew high above the practise, watching the team while searching for the snitch. He caught it twice in five minutes. He watched as George hit a bludger away from Angelina and then had to circle around her to hit it away from Katie.
Katie didn't even seem to notice a bludger was near her. She was having a serious discussion with Alicia, and Angelina, who was holding the quaffle, was hanging still in mid-air, listening and sometimes adding something. Harry frowned and dived down to them.
"What's wrong?" He asked, hovering in front of them. Angelina, Alicia and Katie flew closer so he could hear them. "We can't practise without a keeper. The keeper is practically a fourth chaser." Explained Angelina, tossing the quaffle to Katie.
"She's right. How are we supposed to practise shooting?" Said Katie, tossing the red ball to Alicia.
"There's no point in us being here." Said Alicia, tossing the quaffle to Harry, who caught it, looking worried and a little annoyed. "Well, um…" He began.
"What's going on?" Asked George, swooping down towards them. Harry looked up. "They say they need a keeper to practise with." He said, tossing the quaffle back to Angelina. "George, I don't suppose you…"
"Not a chance Harry." George said quickly, carelessly batting a bludger away from him as if he was swotting a fly. "Me and Fred are useless at any kind of quaffle duty. Didn't you notice that last summer when we were playing quidditch?"
Fred now joined in the conversation. "What about Ron?" He said simply. Harry looked up at him. "What about Ron?" He shot back, a little confused.
George rolled his eyes. "Do we have to spell it out for you? Ask. Ron. To. Fill. In. As. Keeper. Geez!" Harry looked at George, then back to Fred. "Do you think he will?"
"Don't know until you ask. Go on!" Said Fred. Harry squared his shoulders and dived down to where Ron was sitting talking to Hermione. They hadn't seemed to notice practise had stopped. Ron looked up when he heard Harry land. He and Hermione looked surprised to see him.
"What's wrong?" Asked Ron automatically. Harry looked uncomfortable. "Um, could you, well, you see, we don't have a keeper and…"
"And what?" Said Ron, looking confused. Harry took a deep breath. "Would you fill in for us?"
Ron went pale. "No way!" He said without hesitating. Harry looked very put down. But he didn't give up. "Please Ron. We can't practise without a keeper, and try-outs aren't until Monday. Please?" Ron rolled his eyes. "I'm no good at goal-keeping." He said, looking shifty.
"I don't care. Please do me this one favour. Please." Said Harry. He looked pretty desperate. Ron still looked doubtful though. Hermione nudged him in the ribs. "Go on Ron." She said. "After all, you did get up early to especially support Harry. So go and support him." She placed her hand on Ron's back and pushed him out of his chair.
Ron frowned. "Oh alright." He said irritably. "But you owe me big time." He added to Harry who grinned widely. "Thanks mate." He said, jumping back on his broom as Ron wandered off to the broom-shed to get his.
Ten minutes later, Ron was hovering in front of the goal posts, yawning and looking incredibly uncomfortable. Angelina hovered in front of him, practising penalty shots. "Thanks for doing this Ron. We really appreciate it." She said, catching the quaffle as Katie through it to her. Ron rolled his eyes. "Just be gentle, OK?" He said with another yawn.
Angelina nodded. She lined up the quaffle and threw it. It was a soft shot for Angelina, who was quite a fierce chaser. However, it was still a really good shot to the left-hand post. Or, it would have been if Ron hadn't reached out his hand at the last moment and batted it away. He did this without even having to move his broom over to the left by more than a foot. Angelina looked surprised. "Um, good save." She said as she caught the slowly falling quaffle.
Katie flew forward. She threw the quaffle a lot harder than Angelina, and Ron saved it again. The same happened with Alicia's shot, and another one of Angelina's. The chasers were exchanging looks with each other that clearly said 'he's a good keeper.'
Harry hadn't noticed. After he had solved the keeper problem, he went back to looking for the snitch. After a few minutes of searching and not paying attention to anything else, he saw it hovering five foot off the ground directly in front of Hermione. He dived and caught it deftly. Hermione didn't even glance at him.
He looked up to see what was so interesting. Katie was just getting ready to take her second shot. As she threw the quaffle toward the right- hand goal post, a bludger came out of nowhere heading straight for Ron. He dodged it by swerving sideways, spinning as he did so. The quaffle rebounded off of the broom tail and was knocked off course.
Katie, Angelina and Alicia broke into a small round of applause. Fred and George were flying around after the bludgers, grins on their faces. Ron looked very embarrassed. He tossed the quaffle to Alicia and looked down.
Harry was staring at him from his place on the ground. "Wow, he's good!" He said to Hermione. She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Oh great." She said. "I'm going to be the only one not on the team now, aren't I?" Then she laughed.
Harry smiled and kicked off again. He flew over to Ron, who was saving another attempt on goal by Alicia. "Hey Ron." He called out as he got closer. Ron looked up. "You're really good." He said, causing Ron's ears to go red.
"Er, thanks." He said looking down again.
"Why didn't you put your name down for try-outs?" He asked curiously. Ron looked even more embarrassed as he shrugged. "I didn't even think about it."
Harry looked surprised, and so did the three chasers. "You should." Said Katie fervently.
"Yeah, you haven't missed a single one." Said Angelina.
Harry flew closer to Ron. "I'm putting your name down, OK?" He said. Ron looked up at him in a panic. "But…" Harry held up his hand and cut him off. "It was a rhetorical question. " He said, as Ron's ears became even redder.
Down in the stands, Daphne and Lori climbed down from their top row seats, and sat down next to Hermione.
"Ron's good, isn't he?" Lori said. Hermione looked at her.
"Yeah. I've never really seen him play before." She answered. "We need a good keeper. Do you know that the Slytherin team all have Nimbus two thousand and ones?"
Lori looked down at the floor, embarrassed. Hermione slapped her hand to her head, giving herself a mental kick in the head. It had been Lori's dad who had bought the brooms. "I'm sorry Lori." She said quickly.
Lori looked up and smiled sadly. "It's alright. I thought it was a bit out of order when father bought those. It was a waste of money. But Draco always gets whatever he wants…" Lori seemed to think she had said too much, and looked down at the floor again.
"Do you like quidditch, Lori?" Hermione asked, trying to change the subject. Lori smiled gratefully at her. "Yeah, I really like quidditch. I love flying as well, but I don't get much of a chance to practise." She answered. Hermione shrugged and looked up at Harry, who had just gone into a spectacular, almost vertical dive to catch the snitch.
A few minutes later, she turned back to Lori with a frown. "Why didn't you go to the World cup? I saw your family there." She asked curiously
Lori squirmed uncomfortably in her seat and looked embarrassed again. "I, I didn't want to go." She said quickly, speaking to her shoes. Hermione looked away. She could tell that Lori was lying, but decided not to push the obviously very delicate subject.
Daphne leaned forward. "You went to the quidditch World cup?" She asked Hermione. "What happened?" Hermione sat back in her seat.
"It was really fun." She said with a smile. "Well, most of it." She added, remembering the Dark Mark fiasco. "It was the final, Ireland versus Bulgaria. The Ireland chasers were superb, they scored, what was it? Um, I think it was about a hundred and seventy points. They worked so well together. Ireland definitely deserved to win."
"Did they?" Asked Daphne.
"Yeah." Said Hermione. "But Bulgaria were only tem points behind in the end."
"That's only because Viktor Krum got the snitch- they would only have had ten points if he didn't." Said Lori, who had obviously read about the final, even if she 'hadn't wanted' to see it. Hermione nodded. Daphne looked plain confused.
"Viktor Krum?" She asked incredulously. "He plays for- he caught the snitch in the World cup final?" Hermione nodded again and Daphne's eyes widened. "Well, he's slightly more interesting than I thought he was." She said under her breath. Unfortunately for Daphne, Hermione heard her.
"Daphne, you don't even know him! So just shut up!" Hermione cried. Daphne was shocked; Hermione had never told her to shut up before. Hermione sighed. "I'm not going to apologise for that Daphne, because I am getting very annoyed about people bad mouthing him." Hermione stood up as the Gryffindor team sailed softly onto the grass.
"At last! I'm starved, and breakfast's is almost over!" She yelled to them, walking onto the pitch. Ron looked at his watch. "She's right- let's go!" He banished his broom back to the shed and started to walk back up to the school. Hermione fell into step with him and Harry. "Well done Ron- you didn't tell us you were such a good keeper." She said.
"That's because I'm not." Ron replied, in a tone that clearly said: 'don't go on about it.' Hermione raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Ron started walking faster.
"Are you making him try-out?" Hermione asked Harry in an undertone. Harry grinned. "Of course I am. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"
OK OK, I know this is, like, the longest chapter in history- I'm sorry. Please r/r.