Chapter 7: Quidditch Revelation
The next day turned out to be better than the previous. Transfiguration turned out to be difficult, but it was better than Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. They were to change books into animals. Of course for the first lesson they started off small. They were trying to turn the books into a mice. Hermione's mouse had the ribbon bookmark from her book as its tail; she was highly disappointed.
After Transfiguration, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to Charms. Professor Flitwick introduced a new charm that he hinted would be on the final. It was a Spinning Charm. It was yet another dueling spell that caused the opponent to spin around in circles. Flitwick also showed them the how to use the Levitation Charm with the Spinning Charm together, which he demonstrated using Harry. Needless to say the entire class was dizzy and wobbled out of the classroom at the end of class.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to spend lunch out on the grounds. They all went and sat by the lake. Hermione had brought some sandwiches from the Great Hall and Ron had grabbed a few goblets of pumpkin juice.
Hermione busied her self in her Ancient Runes book while Ron practiced turning one of his books into a mouse and then back into a book. Harry just sat and watched the giant squid swim across the lake. It was only moments later when Joey Erkling walked up.
"Hi, guys," he said as he sat down beside them.
"Hello, Joey," Hermione said as she looked up from her book.
"Hi, I'm–," Harry began, but Joey interrupted.
"You must be Harry Potter, and you must be Ron Weasley; Hermione has told me all about the both of you," Joey said smiling. "Although I hate to tell you, but I didn't know anything about you, Harry, until Hermione told me."
"You are the first," Harry laughed.
"Oh, practicing for Transfiguration?" Joey asked Ron, but did not wait for a reply. "Isn't it boring. I wish that class was more advanced. It was at my old school."
"Then you do something better," Ron snarled under his breath.
Joey threw his book a few feet away from him and pulled out his wand.
"Are you going to bring it back to you?" Ron laughed. "That is pretty basic."
"I know," Joey said with a sarcastic smile. "I learned the Summoning Charm in my first year. I was going to show you a bit of the Transfiguration I learned in America." He raised his wand and pointed it at the book. "Felinysta Ramoria."
The book transfigured into a child white Siberian tiger. Ron's mouth dropped open from shock, Hermione felt quite impressed, and Harry just thought it was cool. Joey waved his wand and the book reappeared.
"You know," he said as he summoned his book back to him, "many people cannot perform that spell because they mispronounce it. Because they see the y in felinysta, they automatically assume it takes the long e sound when in fact, it takes the short i sound."
"Show off," Ron mouthed as he stood up. "I need to run upstairs and get my things ready for my next class.
"But our next class is Astronomy and we don't have that until night," Hermione said.
"Well I need clean my telescope," Ron said hotly. "Coming, Harry?"
Harry nodded and followed Ron back up to the castle. Harry could not believe the way Ron was acting. He had acted this way when Viktor Krum and Hermione began to get close. He would not openly admit it, but Harry thought that Ron liked Hermione.
"Can you believe the nerve of that guy?" Ron was saying as he and Harry made their way to the Gryffindor common room.
"Is Weasley jealous?" a voice said from the staircase above. It was Malfoy.
"Go suck a toad, Malfoy," Harry yelled as he and Ron walked right past Malfoy. It took Harry a while to figure out that Malfoy was, for the first time ever, alone. This puzzled Harry greatly. He had never known Malfoy to walk around without Crabbe and Goyle.
No one was looking forward to the next Herbology lesson. As they entered Greenhouse Five they noticed small pots with their names on them.
"Welcome back sixth years," Professor Sprout greeted them as she entered the greenhouse from a back door. "Now if you will please stand in front of your pot I will explain everything."
The students all moved silently to their pots and waited for instructions.
"Now I have given each of you directions and references for books on how to care for your plant," Sprout explained. "I hope you will all have fun growing your very own plant.
"Now some of you will need to take special precaution with your plants. Mr. Thomas, Mr. Potter, and Miss Granger are three examples. Devil's Snare, Mandrake, and Venomous Tentacula are hard plants to raise. I suggest you all, you three especially, keep your plants under control at all times. I have made some suggestions also, as you can all see. Now put everything away for now.
"Today we will be examining Viper Lilies. Mr. Longbottom, I do hope you kept your toad in your dormitory because these plants are carnivorous and enjoy eating toads."
The rest of the seemed to zoom by. It was at dinner that night when Hermione brought up the subject of the D.A.
"We need to have our first meeting of the year," she had told Harry, and he agreed.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione went around searching for the other members of the D.A. and told them they would have their first meeting that night at nine o'clock.
When they, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, arrived at the Room of Requirement, they noticed that everything was exactly as it was the last time they were there. Slowly, the others arrived until all the original members of the D.A. were there. Even a few new members showed up: Joey Erkling, who was a Ravenclaw, a third year Hufflepuff, and a second year Gryffindor.
"Welcome to Dumbledore's Army," Harry said as the others sat down on cushions Hermione had placed in a circle on the floor. "This year we are a little more wiser about our skills. Some things we might go over will be a review, and some will be new. I think that we should expand our knowledge, however. This year we will have different teachers teaching different skills. Defending against the Dark Arts means more than knowing what we learned last year.
"Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms will be taught, in addition with our regular lesson of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I feel that Hermione should teach Charms since she masters them quicker than anyone else I know. I know he is a new student, but his knowledge in Transfiguration is vast, compared to most of us. I believe we should allow Joey Erkling to teach Transfiguration." Joey looked stunned.
"You want me to teach?" he stammered. "I can't. I'm really not that good. I don't think it is fair to those who were here last year."
"Any objections to him teaching?" Hermione asked. Harry saw Ron looking furiously at Joey, but he, Ron, said nothing. "Okay. It is settled then. Joey, you will teach Transfiguration. Any objections to me teaching Charms?" There were none. "Okay. Then I will teach Charms. Harry already teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now who can teach Potions?"
There was a pause here. The fact was, none of them, not even Hermione, was that great at Potions. As they pondered which one would teach Potions, the door opened.
Harry, along with the rest of the D.A., gasped as they saw who stood in the doorway. It was Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"Potions is a cinch to me, why don't I teach it?" Malfoy said with a sneer.
"I hate to admit it, Harry," Hermione whispered to Harry, "but he is really good at Potions. Snape doesn't just compliment him only for show, he really is good."
"Okay, Malfoy," Harry said. "Any objections?" There were none, at least there were none that were spoken.
Hermione placed three more pillows on the ground for Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Then she pulled out a piece of parchment, a quill, and an ink bottle.
"Ron, would you mind taking notes on the meetings?" Hermione asked. "All you have to do is write down what we do at the meetings."
"What?" Ron protested. "You want me to be a secretary? No, I refuse."
"Be rude then," Hermione snapped in a furious fit. "Ginny, will you do it?"
Ginny agreed and began to write hastily on the piece of parchment. She wrote down what Harry had suggested and who would teach the different lessons.
"Now I also feel that we need a schedule that will work around everyone," Harry said suggested. "Because I understand with homework and Quidditch prac–" Harry paused. He had just realized what he should have realized long ago. Gryffindor had a total of two members on their team.
"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked in a worried voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said as he snapped back into reality. "Well that's enough for tonight. We can meet here next Monday, same time, and we will start with our Transfiguration lesson."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the last to leave. Harry had then mentioned to Ron about losing five members of the Quidditch team.
"Well of course you'll be made captain," Ron told Harry as the three made their way to the common room. "You've been on the team the longest."
"True, but you know more about Quidditch than me," Harry said. "We could always be joint-captains. You know, both of us be the captain."
"Well you will need to have tryouts, and soon," Hermione suggested as they entered the common room.
"We can post it on the notice board tonight and have the tryouts this Friday," Harry said as he sat in a chair by the fire and pulled out a piece of parchment.
He and Ron began to design a flyer. Harry had enchanted it to glow every few seconds. "This way it will attract peoples' attention."
With everything out of the way, the three of them sat by the fire for a while longer before they each went to their dormitories for bed.
The next morning at breakfast, a screech owl delivered a letter for Harry. He recognized the handwriting at once as Professor McGonagall's. He opened the envelope and read the letter.
Mr. Potter,
As you know, a new Quidditch Captain is needed for the Gryffindor team. As it happens to be your sixth consecutive year as the Gryffindor Seeker, the duty of Captain shall be placed in your hands. I suggest tryouts immediately. Good luck with the team!
Minerva McGonagall
Harry could not believe that he had been made Quidditch Captain. Not only did he have to take care of a Venomous Tentacula, teach the D.A., and do all his school work, but now he had to organize Quidditch practices.
"This is too much," he sighed as he told Ron about him being captain.
"That's great, Harry," Ron cheered. "Harry you are the best bet. Oh, and I've been practicing all summer."
That Friday evening, Harry and Ron were the first to arrive at the Quidditch stadium. Harry and Ron decided to take a few laps around the stadium. Harry's Firebolt had not yet lost its touch. It moved as if it knew what Harry was thinking. Ron was happy to be back on his broom as well. Ron circled the goal post as Harry circled the stands. Soon after, a group of people entered the field.
Ginny, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Dean, Seamus Finnigan, Neville, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil showed up for practice. Seamus, Dean, and Lavender wanted to tryout for the position of Beater, and Colin, Dennis, Neville, Ginny, and Parvati wanted to tryout for the position of Chaser.
"We'll start with the Beaters," Harry suggested. Seamus, Dean, and Lavender were using school brooms for the tryouts.
Lavender was exceptionally good. Not once did a bludger get past her. Harry actually thought the bludgers were fleeing from her because she had to chase after them. Seamus was not bad either. He got hit in the leg, but it did not brake, it just began to turn an ugly shade green from where it bruised. Dean was the worst. Instead of trying to hit the bludger, he would fly away. Harry thought if Hogwarts had a soccer team, then he would definitely pick Dean, but not for Quidditch.
When the bludgers had been put away, it was time to begin the Chaser tryouts. Harry thought this would really be a tough decision. He would have to pick the best three out of five. He really felt bad for already not picking Dean.
The Creevey brothers were the worst of them all. They always dropped the quaffle and missed the goal every time. Neville was actually quite good, but Harry knew how rough Chasers could be and he thought that Neville might need work with his confidence. Parvati and Ginny were the best. They flew like they had flown for years and never missed a catch or a goal.
Harry had a pretty good idea who he would choose for the team and decided to announce it before they all made their way back up to the common room.
"You were all great," Harry began trying to keep things hopeful. "Now if you make the team you will need to get a broom. I will have to devise a schedule for our practices. Now to announce who will be on our team.
"Lavender, you were an excellent Beater. Congratulations, you made the team. Seamus and Dean, you two were great, but I have to decide and I hate to do it because you are both my friends. I have to choose Seamus, I'm sorry, Dean."
"It's okay, Harry," Dean said smiling. "I only came down here because I didn't fee like doing my homework. Besides, who else will make all the banners for Gryffindor."
"The chasers were even harder to decide," Harry continued, "but I feel that with a little practice, Dennis and Colin could become better. I think you both need to stick with it and tryout again next year." Colin and Dennis still smiled there large smiles; they were just happy that they did not fall off their brooms. "So I'll let you all know when we will have our first practice."
They all departed for the common room. Maybe it will not be so hard after all. Harry thought to himself as he glanced a last look at the Quidditch Stadium before he entered the castle.
