Chapter 10

The Hogsmeade trip lasted for three days. On the last day, the three friends paid Sirius a visit. The following Tuesday, Hagrid had commenced the Crup assignment. Harry had finally started to talk to Lothlorien regularly and they became friends.

Their Crup, which they had named Sam, was very social for one of his kind. The two enjoyed spending time with him. Harry would walk him and play with him during the day, and Lothlorien took the more difficult job of caring for him at night.

She would give him his evening scrub-down, as Crups tend to attract filth, attend to him every time he wailed during the night, and wake up early to prepare his breakfast.

Ron, on the other hand, received Lavender Brown as a partner and their crup seemed to have homicidal tendencies. Lavender wasn't as merciful as Lothlorien, and she made Ron take "Bitey," as they called her, during the nights.

She whole-heartedly refused any compromises. Bitey wouldn't wake Ron up in the middle of the night - what she would do was much worse. She would silently make her own meals out of the boys' trunks, much to Ron's distress.

Seamus agreed to let Bitey mark his trunk as her territory, because when Ron tried to get her away from it, she nearly ripped his arms off. All the while everybody was training frantically for the start of the Quidditch season, which was drawing ever nearer.

The first game was scheduled to be Gryffindor versus Slytherin, and Harry was proving himself to be a very able, and very tough, captain. Lothlorien and Professor Snape's review book was coming along smoothly as well.

Professor Snape was overjoyed because he hoped to gain serious recognition his book's completion. He hid his joy well, though. During potions classes he was stricter than ever - he didn't want his students to think anything could possibly make him go soft.

* * *

At 3 A.M. on the morning of the day of the Quidditch match, Harry woke up. Everyone else in Gryffindor tower was still asleep so Harry crept out silently. He walked out of the castle onto the mist covered school grounds.

It was cold and dark outside. Harry entered his team's locker room, opened his locker, took out his scarlet Quidditch robes and carefully pressed them till they were smooth as honey.

Then, at the enchanted blackboard that was used for game plans, Harry watched as the plan he and his team had discussed at their last practice was reenacted by a floating piece of chalk.

"Don't fall for feints!" Harry repeated to himself. He drank three cans of Red Broom Energy Drink, ran five laps around the large school grounds, did one hundred military style push - ups, and ran another five laps around the grounds. It was about thirty degrees outside but Harry was sweating.

He then charmed a pair of Bludgers so that they would seek him out mercilessly while he searched for the snitch, speeding around on his Firebolt 2002. He was pumped.

He then polished his broom. After that he went into the castle to take a bath and have a quick breakfast. It was finally 7 A.M. Harry retreated into the shadows near the entrance of the Great Hall and waited for his team. Were they going to wake up at 7 A.M sharp, like he ordered?

Katie Bell was the first to head downstairs at 7:05, quickly followed by Seamus and Ginny. Tank came at down at 7:23 with Kendo and Ron came down at 7:45. Harry watched his team for a while.

They were all chattering and they didn't look serious enough to him. He was already fully prepared - he was wearing his robes, his special contact lenses and he had his broom in his left hand. He silently walked to the head of the Gryffindor table, without anybody noticing, just as he intended.

"So..." he said in a Snape-ish manner. The team fell silent and immediately jumped to their feet.

"Good morning, Sir!" They said in unison.

"So..."Harry repeated. "Kendo feels he can perform well without eating breakfast, he does..."Harry said, standing behind the fifth year chaser.

"No, sir...uh..."

"I don't want to hear it! Sit yourself down and eat that breakfast quick! You have fifteen minutes before warm up! Infact, since you took twenty three minutes for yourself earlier, why don't you finish that plate in five? Katie, Ginny, Seamus...Thank you for coming down on time. You would have done well to be just a minute sooner but I'll let it slip just this once.

Fletcher! 7:23? I don't think you were polishing your broom during that time. Go outside and do a couple of laps around the grounds. I'll be watching." Tank Fletcher nodded respectfully to his captain and huffed himself out the castle.

"And Ron....I can't believe you're capable of such things! Totally disregarding the importance of a game versus Slytherin and...I'm at a loss for words. At ease, team." Harry sighed and walked off.

The team sat down and rushedly finished their breakfast. Quidditch was very, very important to Harry Potter.

* * *

"Ladies and Gentewmen, good afternoon and welcome to the first Quidditch game of the school year!" the American exchange student, Coye Holloway, and new commentator, announced.

"We'd like to thank fifth - year Ravenclaw, Sonny Abbati, for confessing that he was the student responsible for sabotaging Slytherin's brooms during the previous Quidditch season. Sonny, we appreciate the sacrifice you made for us."

The whole crowd cheered - the Slytherins were happy to know that Sonny was being punished for his little trick.

"And now without further a due, I present to yall, house cup champions for four consecutive years.....THE GRYFFINDORS!!!" Coye had requested that he be allowed to play backround music during instances such as introduction, intermission and scoring, like it was in baseball.

"Number twenty - one, Genji Kendo, Chaser!" Kendo ran onto the field as the non- Slytherins cheered.

"Introducing number fifty - eight, Seamus Finnigan, Chaser!" Seamus ran out beaming and stood next to Kendo.

"Seven year veteran, and now Assistant Captain, number two, Katieeee Bell!" Coye shouted. Whoever didn't know she was a Chaser was either a moron or a first year.

"Introducing Gryffindor's two new Beaters...number twenty - one, Ron Weasley and number twenty - eight, Ginny Weasley!" The two Weasleys joined the line of Gryffindors to a loud round of applause.

Ron waved at Hermione, who was sitting in the stands wrapped in a blanket, and she winked back at him. "Lucky my cheeks are already red from this blasted cold!" Ron thought.

"Introducing number fourteen, Thaddeus "Tank" Fletcher, Keeper!" Tank "ran" to the line but he still took a good minute to get there.

"Annnnnd, ladies and gentewmen, please give a warm round of applause to Gryffindor's new captain, six year veteran, number sixtyyy - siiix, Harrrrryyy Potter, Seeker!" Coye announced, heartily.

The crowd clapped and hooted as Harry took his place in front of his team to the loud rap song that Coye chose as Gryffindor's theme.

"I give you the 2002 - 2003 Gryffindors!.....And now, ladies and gentewmen, welcome theee Slytherins! Number five, Francine Wellington, Chaser!"

"Ah, she's not so great." Harry thought, as he remembered some of Francine's previous performances.

"Introducing number seven, a first year, Cornflowerrr Jones!" Cornflower ran onto the field to a good bit of applause.

"And another first year, introducing number twelve, Angelica Morgendorfer, Chaser!" Harry frowned.

"Hmph. They've chosen their team quite well..." he thought.

"And give these five year veterans a hand, ladies and gentewmen, numbers forty - three and forty - five, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, the Beaters!" Coye announced.

All the students who played for their house team in the crowd booed. They had all been whacked a good few times by a flaming bludger, courtesy of either of the two Slytherin Beaters.

"Give a hand to five year vet, now assistant captain, number sixty - eight, Maaaalfoy, Seeker!" All the Gryffindors who knew Malfoy personally booed.

"And ladies and gentewmen...amazing...nine year veteran, number seventy - two, Marcus Flint, Captain and Keeper! Give a hand to the 2002 - 2003 Slytherin Quidditch team!"

When the cheers died down, Madam Hooch told the captains to shake hands. Flint thought he would be cute and squeeze Harry's hand till it hurt but Harry's grip was firmer.

Harry wasn't paying attention to Flint...he was glaring at Malfoy and imagining he was crushing his...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, mount your brooms!" madam Hooch called. At the sound of the whistle the two teams shot up into the air.

"And the quaffle is out there..." Harry watched as Slytherin's new chasers whizzed around. He had to admit to himself that they were skilled flyers.

The Grffindors were so well prepared and the Slytherins were so talented that the game seemed deadlocked to the crowd.

The Chasers chased eachother and the quaffle while the beaters beamed bludgers around for about forty five minutes before the first goal was scored by Slytherin. Malfoy burst out laughing.

"You must be some captain, Potter. Your team can't even handle little Cornflower and Angelica! And this is their first game!"

"I said it before and I'll say it again, Malfoy. At least I don't have to pay to be on my team." Harry said. Malfoy gave a sarcastic smile and flew off to the opposite side of the field.

"And Gyrffindor is in possession...it's number two, Bell going for the goal....Ooh! Saved by Flint!" Coye said as the Gyffindors booed.

"Slytherin in possession. Score by Jones!" The Slytherins stood and cheered for their new chasers. Tank Fletcher was clutching his chest - he was out of breath from trying to block Slytherin from scoring.

"Damn it, Harry, they're just too quick!" Katie Bell complained as she swooped by Harry who could see no sign of the snitch.

Even though Slytherin was twenty points in the lead the Gryffindors had not lost one bit of their spirit. They all felt that it was still anyone's game - Harry never missed the snitch unless he was being threatened by death - a reasonable excuse, which had happened twice. Goal after goal, after goal, the Gryffindors remained upbeat.

"Number twenty - one in possession...he's in there...SCORE BY GENJI KENDO!!! Slytherin in the lead, eighty to ten. Maybe Gyffindor can make a recovery!" Coye announced.

"You guys can still do it! I'll sit here until tomorrow if that's how long it takes you to come into the lead!" Dean Thomas shouted.

"You see I think the snitch is just so stupid...a skilled team, like ours, can play hard until the cows come home but still have to suffer defeat to a bunch of losers, like the Gryffindors, because one loon catches the stupid snitch. I think they should either get rid of it, or cut down the amount of points it's worth, because it just ruins the game.

Think of it, a bunch of no skill losers, with absolutely no skill can win the cup just because they catch the snitch. They can do nothing during the entire game but still win. It makes Quidditch look stupid, don't you think, Professor?" Sean Durbeyfield complained to Professor Snape.

"Uh-huh." Snape replied quietly. He was staring at Lothlorien - she was wearing green robes and waving the Slytherin banner.

She had promised Malfoy that she would cheer for him during his first game. He said it would give him good luck during the entire season.

"SCORE BY NUMBER TWO! KATIE BELL!" Coye announced.

The Gryffindors in the crowd stood and waved their banners frantically.

"I KNEW YOU WOULD DO THIS! I SAID SO! Didn't I say so?" Colin Creevey said to his brother, as he waved his Gryffindor banner in a seventh year Slytherin's face.

"SCORE BY NUMBER FIFTY - EIGHT!"

"SCORE BY BELL!"


"SCORE!!!"

The Gryffindors has indeed made a recovery. The score was ninety to fifty, Slytherin was still winning. Professor McGonagall had her fingers crossed and Harry was proud of his team for not losing luster in the first hour when Slytherin was scoring consecutively.

He was searching right and left for the snitch but it was no where in sight and the game was going on its fourth hour.

"I'm starting to get tired." Ron muttered to himself. Kendo had the quaffle and was approaching Slytherin's posts when he was swept off his broom by a bludger. The crowd started to get ornery.

"That should have been a penalty!" Dean shouted.

"But isn't the whole purpose of a beater to knock opposing players off their brooms?" Hermione asked.

"So what? It's not supposed to happen to a Gryffindor!" Dean barked.

"Heh, I knew Weasley was good for nothing! He was nowhere near Crabbe when he launched that bludger! And his stupid sister..." Malfoy stopped talking.

He saw a smile spread slowly across Harry's face, which only meant one thing - he had spotted the snitch. Malfoy looked past Harry and he saw it too. By then the whole crowd knew they had seen the snitch and they were on the edges of their seats.

The two teams froze as they watched their seekers dive after the snitch. Harry was so happy...nothing, not even Slytherin's new super - chasers could stop Gryffindor from winning. But then...

"Get it, Draco!" Harry heard a sweet and familiar voice shout. He looked for it's source and then he froze dead in the air. He saw Lothlorien wearing the Slytherin colors and waving the Slytherin banner.

The object of his affection was cheering on his arch nemesis. It was too much for him. Harry didn't notice how low the temperature was during the entire game but now he felt unbearably cold.

He stared blankly at Lothlorien as she cheered. Malfoy had caught the snitch, Slytherin had won...but all that was going through Harry's brain was the sight of Lothlorien.

The Gryffindors forlornly flew to the ground and dragged themselves to their locker room, and Harry was still frozen in the spot where he had halted. Malfoy now came into sight...Lothlorien was jumping up and down and Harry watched as her lips moved...she was congratulating Malfoy as he ran to her...he picked her up and continued running toward the castle...the last glimpse Harry caught of the two was Lothlorien kissing Malfoy on the cheek.

The Quidditch field and the stands were now empty, Harry was the only person out there. All of a sudden his face became very red and he had on an expression that could curdle milk, as if his brain just registered everything that had happened.

He zoomed down to the Gryffindor locker room and slammed a locker door that was in his way so hard that it broke. ( You must remember the three cans of Red Broom energy drink.)

His team stopped what they were doing - he had startled them. Harry glowered at them for a minute. His eyes were burning with hatred for Malfoy. His half worried, half scared team watched as he picked up a bludger that was on the ground and beamed it through a window, almost ripping Kendo's head off his shoulders.

He then went buck-wild on the locker that was nearest to him. He kicked it until its door fell off and then he used the door to break the remaining locker room windows. He had finally quelled his anger enough so that he could speak audibly to his team.

"Fletcher. During a game, each Gryffindor is supposed to be worrying about doing his or her job the right damn way, not about whether or not they've lost their keeper to a heart attack. Drop and give me fifty!" Harry ordered. He then turned and punched another locker door.

"Hermione is going to work out a diet for you. I want to see you getting at least an hour of exercise every damn day. Bell, Kendo, Finnigan." Harry said turning to the three.

"Put these on and do five laps around the school grounds." And he threw them each a backpack that was filled with twenty pounds of rocks. "Weasleys. Press. Don't stop 'till you feel your arms burning off." Harry said, tossing them weights.

"This is just the beginning, mind you. Next week those weights'll be twenty pounds each, Fletcher'll do two hours of exercise and the chasers'll be running ten laps."

With that and a final punch at a locker door, Harry left.

* * *