Chapter 8: Qudditch and The Dangerious Omen

The next morning as usual, Hedwig came flying into the open windowsill. She slowly hovered over Harry's bed until she decided she wanted company and woke him up from his peaceful slumber. When he woke up the only think he saw was a blur, he quickly put his glasses on and proceeded to play with Hedwing.

"Hedwig no matter where I go, I am never tired of seeing you" Harry said with delightment.

He proceeded to kiss Hedwig on her head and put her back into her cage with the door open for later flying around Hogwarts. By the time this action was complete Ron was already up and getting ready for school without a sound.

"Oh gosh Harry, you and Hedwig can never be apart for long. That is a good thing, I wish Pig was like that." Ron said.

"Your right Ron and I hope Hedwig and me always stay that way." Harry replied within a rub on Hedwig's neck.

As the two boys got dressed and ran down stairs into the common room, they saw Hermione waiting for them as usual. With a friendly greeting, hug, and a kiss to Ron, they group went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. When everyone was seated within the Great Hall, Dumbledore stood up and started to speak.

"Students as you know, it is nearly the middle of November and we haven't started talking about O.W.L's or our beloved game of Qudditch. It has been decided that Qudditch will start at the end of November. I have only one last thing to say to our captains. Practice your minds, bodies, and souls. Remember Qudditch isn't all about movement." Dumbledore announced as he was sitting down.

At the sound of Qudditch, Harry's eyes became so bright that they would light the night's sky. One of his main loves was Qudditch. He was great at the sport and loved the game itself. He was waiting to see what skills Ron had and waited to be like Oliver Wood and drag the team out at midnight to practice. Everything in the sport were like diamonds to him.

"Oh man Harry, we have Qudditch practices...This will be great...this year we will win the cup once again and it will be even better for me because I made the team." Ron said to the gazing Harry.

"Oh man Ron, people can tell that we are best friends. You can read my mind as well as protect me." Harry said as Ron and Harry made a corny "high five".

"You guys are so corny and stupid. I don't even know why I am here." Hermione said shaking her head.

"You are here because we love each other, and Harry is out best friend in the world." Ron said blinking his eyes girlishly.

"Yes I am, don't be mean to your "best friend". Harry said while copying Ron.

At the point Ron "finally" said that he loved her, she turned as red as a rose and hug and kissed Ron continuously. At this site everyone in the Great Hall looked over until Ron should his Green. Dumbledore started to walk over and Hermione "happy as ever" went to meet him.

"Prof I wish to talk to Prof Mcgonagall for one moment please?" Asked Hermione.

"Why yes you can Hermione, I understand "girl talk" go ahead." Dumbledore said in an understanding voice.

As Hermione ended the conversation, she continued to walk towards Prof McGonagall, as she avoided Prof Snape's on looking stares.

"Prof McGonagall, I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world right now. I feel that way at least. I was wondering what do I do from this point in my relationship with Ron?" Asked Hermione.

"Hermione you are a very smart girl, you will know what to do by his actions. Always remember do ask him about any problems that you have, don't be afraid to ask him anything...That is if you trust him that much" Prof McGonagall said while winking.

"You know Prof, your right I should be honest with Ron if this is ever going to work. Thank you for that well needed information. You're a lifesaver to me." Said Hermione while backing up into the exit.

As she proceeded to skip along happily back to the table everyone continually looked at her until Ron started staring back at them for the signal to stop. When she finally arrived at her table, everyone questioned her until her faithful boyfriend Ron gave them the "death stare".

As the morning came and gone everyone went along in the normal manner until Harry just started whispering during Transfiguration about how he would love a nice game of Qudditch right about now. Suddenly while him and Ron were laughing and whispering during Prof McGonnagal's important class, she caught them and easily attracted attention to them.

"Well Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley I see that you have more important discussions then rather listening to my lesson?" Asked a rather angry Prof McGonnagal.

"We are sorry Ms McGonnagal we will pay attention." They said in unison.

Prof Mcgonnagal wasn't happy at all, at this moment she calmed down but still wanted to make examples out of both of them. As they saw, she wasn't in a good mood this day.

"Well, both you and Mr. Potter will see me after class so we can talk about this little interruption." Bellowed Prof McGonnagal.

They listened and proceeded to pay attention during the rest of the class. Also having some laughs when Neville tried to transfigure himself into a mouse but made a mistake and changed his ears into tails. Everyone laughed at this act; even McGonnagal grinned at this event. Neville however looked broken hearted because he knew he was mostly squib. "Squibs are magically born but can't perform it themselves". Neville got depressed but on the other have, became even more determined to perform this spell correctly.

He closed his eyes after looking at the spell, then recited the spell over and over again. Suddenly he disappeared from sight. Everyone thought that he had gone somewhere else, but when they got up from their seats and went over, they found that he was a mouse on the floor jumping up and down in celebration. Everyone congratulated Neville on changing into an animal. There was only the problem of changing back to his normal self.

He leap up to the table looking for the spell to reverse this. Once he found it, he came down and threw his body on his wand and thought to himself. Just as he did, a spark came out of his wand and lit his body up while he started to morph back into himself.

"Well-done Neville, 40 points to Gryffindor for you experience". Said an excited Prof McGonnagal.

There would be another laugh when Neville turned around to back to his seat and found a rather large mouse-tail sticking out of his pants. To stop the laughter McGonnagal hummed a few phrases and made the tail disappear. Once the class was ended everyone climbed up from their confrontable chairs and marched on to the door.

"Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley aren't you forgetting something?" Asked Prof McGonnagal in a motherly tone.

"Both of you need to be taught a lesson about paying attention. You will sit here and practice your transfiguring magic and I will get you something to eat." Prof McGonnagal said while performing a magical summoning command.

Harry and Ron indeed paid for their mistake in class by trying to transfigure a cup into a mouse. To say the least it didn't turn out very pretty at all. The cup had a tail and it kept shaking around yelling, but as time when on Harry and Ron got the spell underhand as they did Prof Mcgonnagal was standing at the door way clapping very quietly.

"Well it seems that you have finally learned your lesson. I suppose in the future you will pay attention, now wont you boys?" boomed Prof McGonagall
Not expecting an answer.

As the pair of troublemakers made their way down the hall, Harry made an unprepairable comment.

"You know Ron; you have been studying very hard this whole year. What in the world has gotten into you?

Ron didn't want to tell Harry the reason that we was really studying up on spells from all of the pervious years, but by the look placed on Harry's face, he wanted to know the correct and honest answer and he wanted it right at this moment.

"I will tell you want you want to know. I have been doing all of this massive studying because of the simple fact of trouble." Ron replied.

This answer confused Harry for a minute, just by passing the oblivious about him and the event he has been in for 5 years. He kept thinking until he finally found an answer for the word "trouble" Ron used.

"Well you know that you don't have to study to help protect me, even though your my protector you don't have to do anything special...I mean really you don't, remember as long as Dumbledore is here Voldermort isn't going to step foot inside these walls." Harry said simply, but remember the name he just said, he stepped back a bit.

"As you can see, I am already studying and I did not shake at the call of Voldermort's name. I am studying to better my grades also, I think we can retake the OWLS if we had a bad grade. I have talked to Dumbledore about this and he has agreed with me. We will be ready to face Voldermort, should anything happen this year." Ron said with a tone of leadership in his voice.

Harry and Ron had now realized that they have been growing up without noticing. They may have been growing up but they hadn't forgotten to play some tricks during their years at hogwarts. Their continuous trouble making and dangerous events have made them very popular among the whole school. They were living day by day until this year...This year has been a peaceful one.... So far, but who knows...

"Harry I think that we have practiced enough for one day, what do ya think?" Ron shouted with food peaces flying about.

"I think that you're right, this training is killing me. What do you think Hermione?" Said an experated Harry.

"I think that we need to study and practice more and more everyday. You know that was my answer so I don't know why you asked me." Replied a rather "muffed" Hermione.

"Calm down Hermione! We will practice some more if you would like, please don't go psycho on us. We are too tired to fight back at all" said Ron, who was now trying to over shout Hermione.

They all gathered up their things and proceeded to walk towards DADA. When they arrived at the doorway, they found themselves covering their ears at the sound of baby mandrakes. When Prof. Remus found the three late arrivals at the door, he instantly threw them 3 pairs of ear covers so that they wouldn't pass out from the noise. He begged them to close the door so that he could cover up the mandrakes and begin to talk about them.

He covered up the baby with some dirt to muffle the sound of the yowl. He started to talk about the different sides of mandrakes and those special powers that they hold within their destructive voices.

"Now class after we have all experienced how powerful a "baby" mandrake can be. These creations can be used for good or evil, even though they don't have a prefence of their own. They simple fact that a pure and well-built mandrake can split a man's skull is good enough for the dark arts users to jump upon this chance." Prof Remus exclaimed.

"The Mandrake's power does not stop right there. It's "juices" can counter they petrify spell. It is even argued over that they power of a full-grown male mandrake can reflect powerful spells back at it's caster." Remus explained to the wondering faces around the room.
As he kept explaining and continuing his lesson, they time started to just fly by. Harry loved this because of the simple fact he had time for lunch and to practice Qudditch. Qudditch was one of the loves of Harry's life, the game had simple rules but was very hard to focus on with all over playing flying by you with amazing speed. It was almost the start of the Qudditch season and thankfully the first team Harry had to face was the Slytherins. He wanted some more revenge on Malfoy for always talking about him and his friends behind or in front of them.

As he was walking towards the Great Hall, he spotted Professor Dumbledore smiling and gesturing to come forth towards him. Harry walked him to the teacher's table as Dumbledore proceeded to speak.

"Qudditch matches will be held today and all the classes will be canceled for the rest of the day. I just wanted to let you know first since I know you will be a great captain." Dumbledore whispered with a wink.

As Harry found out this information his mind sparked up a great idea of new plays that would be just great for the team. They first person he would talk to about Qudditch would be Ron, Ron loved Qudditch as much as Harry and he knew that Ron would understand his plays and would add anything that was needed into them. He causally walked back to his team table and started talking right away.

"I just heard from Dumbledore that classes will be cancelled and that Qudditch will be starting today! That isn't all, we are the first time to play and it is against the Slytherins. We will kill them so fast with Ron as our keeper. They have no chance of winning." Announced Harry making Ron blush.

This was heard by the Slytherins, which make rage erupt within them, and they started blasting curses upon the Gryffindors. This started up a casting war between the to houses. Harry and Ron thought that they should stop this but by the look upon Dumbledore's face they now "knew" they should. They once again jumped between the two tables and reflected the spells back at their casters. Once the battle was over and the counter spells where unleashed, Ron and Harry went back to talking about the Qudditch matches...

In the Afternoon...

At the Qudditch pitch the whole school was in an uproar about the first game of the season. The two best teams in the school facing off first. This indeed was going to be a great game.

"Captains shake hands like gentlemen." Madame Hooch commanded.

Harry and Malfoy shook hands "as hard as they could". They finally let go and went to their respective sides. As the game started off everyone was now looking down at their head announcer. His name is Lee Jordan "Fred and George's best friend". He sat down will about a million eyes upon him wait for his voice to be boomed upon the crown of people.

"Well-come to this first game of Qudditch ladies and gentlemen! Our first match of the season will consist of the Gryffindor's verses the Slytherins"

Boo's and yells explored from either side of the extremely large outdoor area. The game how now begun. The Gryffindor's took and commanding leader in the beginning of the match. The Slytherins used their dirty tricks to gain a foul and 30 points. Within 30 minutes of the game the score now stated

Gryffindor - 120
Slytherins - 90

Harry and Malfoy were not speeding around nor catching any snitches, but they were fighting each other within mid air!

"I am shamed of both of the teams! You should all be ashamed of yourselves! This is only the first game...All of you stop acting like children and play a FAIR GAME" Bellowed Hooch

Everyone gave a saddened nod and continued to play the game fairly. In the hour mark the Gryffindor's were up my 70 points and they were jumping ahead very quickly. Harry and Malfoy seemed to lower their fighting to a minimum and started looking for the snitch. Harry sighted the snitch first and took off on his classic firebolt as fast as he could. Malfoy wasn't too far behind and was determined to keep up to Harry as best he could.

Not long did it take Harry to get his fingers near the snitch, did Malfoy knock him away. This completion kept going on for 10 more minutes until Harry let go of his broom "A daring act" and flipped over to finally get the snitch, leaving Malfoy angry and ready to attack.

After Harry was attached back upon his broom he quickly came down to greet and hug his teammates and all of the gryffindor's. When everyone was talking...The sky suddenly darkened only around the Qudditch area

Harry knew something was up and before he could say anything, Hermione and Ron were at his side with their powers at the ready...They were ready for battle and they were not going to die without taking someone with them.... A darkly figure appeared.

This figure was not like anything Harry had ever seen, this person "maybe a person" was glowing a sickly green and had a rather unpleasant smile upon him. His only words were, "They final day will at last be at hand for the Prophet, We will see who holds the might for victory...."