"Cheer for me!"
Chapter Nine-The Nationals?
Gillian's shoulder had healed a month later. I was myself. Harry's Firebolt managed to be caught by Lisa before it took off. I explained to Harry that I now had a fear…a slight fear the next morning at breakfast.
"I'm going to take you for a ride," Harry explained calmly. "I won't let you go…trust me."
That after noon, Harry borrowed one of the school's Cleansweep's and it hovered next to him. He was already mounted on his Firebolt, hovering several inches off the ground.
"Hop on," he said, gesturing to the Cleansweep.
I fiercely shook my head.
"Hermione. You were tired. It wasn't anyone's fault,"
I narrowed my eyes.
"You saying it was mine?"
"No. You were just tired. That's all," Harry replied, still calmly. "Just hop on. I'm right here."
Taking a deep breath, I mounted the broom and gripped it tightly. The broom rose a bit higher as Harry's.
"I put a Tethering Charm on the Firebolt and the Cleansweep. You won't go anywhere until you've got your confidence back," said Harry.
I was still extremely shaky on it and I was gripping it so tightly, that my knuckles were white.
"Will you relax?" Harry said smiling.
I tried to relax. I started to a little bit. The afternoon breeze blew in my face, pushing my hair back off my face. Finally, after a couple of minutes, I began relaxing completely.
"See? It's not so bad," Harry said, grinning.
"Yeah," I said smiling.
We circled the grounds for a bit before we landed back down on the grass.
"I wonder what's for lunch?" I mused.
"Well, let's go see!" Harry said laughing.
We headed back into the castle. We found the Gryffindors huddled around Amanda talking quickly and in a hushed voice.
As Harry and I approached, Amanda looked up.
"Hermione! Thank God! Come sit! We've got some news!"
Harry and I sat down across from her.
"What's up?" I asked, looking from her, to Ginny, to Emily.
"They're may not be a National competition this year!" Emily said.
"WHAT?" I exploded, making Lisa and Laura jump.
"Yes. Professor Dumbledore just told us before," said Amanda seriously.
"Why? What's going on?" I asked, alarmed.
"I dunno. He just told us not too long ago. Something about not having enough room this year," Lisa replied.
"Wow," I breathed.
Just then, Professor Dumbledore stood up. The Hall quieted down.
"First. We must congratulate Gryffindor for winning the Regional Preliminaries!"
At that, the Hall erupted into cheers. Some of which were subdued from the Slytherin table. Professor Dumbledore waved his hand and the flags changed to the Scarlet and Gold colors of Gryffindor.
Once the cheering had stopped, he continued:
"Secondly, I have some rather grave news. The National Competition, which was to be held in Ireland this year, was canceled,"
Murmurs went around as well as whispers.
"What are we going to do?" wailed Lisa loudly.
Professor Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled behind his half moon spectacles as he looked in our direction.
"Well, I have put word in to hold the Nationals here, at Hogwarts,"
The effect of those words was like Christmas had come early. Excited whispers and talking went around the Hall like wildfire. Ginny's eyes widened; Lisa and Laura were opened mouthed; Gillian had literally fallen backwards off her seat; Mary and Emily were staring blankly at Dumbledore; Ron scrambled to help Gillian up. Harry and I looked at each other.
"Of course, we won't know anything until next month in December, which, is Christmas. Now, there is a theme for this year. Squads will have to perform a routine to Christmas music. It can be modern or oldies," said Professor Dumbledore.
"Terrific! I know a great song for that!" Mary cried, happily. "It's by Britney Spears and it's called My Only Wish This Year,"
"Oh yeah! I've heard of that one!" Laura cried. "And I've got some great moves for it!"
"For now, we don't really know anything yet. But I promise you, I will keep you all in formed. Now, let us eat!"
The food appeared on the plates and usual talk resumed.
"Where is it usually held in Ireland?" Lisa asked, helping herself to some eggs and toast.
"Dublin. In a huge gym," said Amanda. "The gym could hold about two thousand witches and wizards easily."
"Wow," Ginny breathed.
Neville had gotten up and sat down beside Amanda. They began talking. Ron and Gillian buried themselves in conversation next.
Ginny, Mary, Lisa and Laura were looking from Neville and Amanda, to Ron and Gillian, then to Harry and I.
"Go ahead. Talk. We're just disappear before your eyes. It's fine," said Emily sulkily.
Harry and I looked at each other, then broke out into identical grins.
"We need boyfriends. We're pathetic," Lisa muttered.
"Don't worry. We won't ignore you," I said, in a somewhat loud voice.
Gillian and Ron didn't look up. Neither did Amanda and Neville.
I raised an eyebrow.
"Anyway, what's your favorite music?" I asked Emily.
"Oh! Bryan Adams definitely,"
"Me too," I added. "And I like Play."
"Ooh yeah! Their song, Us Against the World is awesome!" Laura agreed excitedly.
"I know you don't want a boys opinion…" said Harry slowly.
"Go ahead!" Emily coaxed eagerly.
"I like the Sex Pistols,"
At that, Emily blushed furiously and started sliding down in her seat until she was almost submerged under the table. The only thing visible was the top of her dark brown hair. I heard giggles coming from somewhere beneath the table. That started Lisa, Ginny and Laura. I was grinning and shaking my head. But I soon joined them in giggling. Harry just had this blank look on his face like "Why are they laughing?"
I heard Emily mumble something that set Lisa, Ginny and Laura off even more. Apparently, they heard her clear as a bell.
"What was that?" I asked, grinning as I peered under the table at her.
"I said (cough) that Harry could check out my Pistols any day,"
Well, I nearly fell over myself. We were all giggling uncontrollably. Harry was still baffled as to why four girls were giggling. It was just the blank look on his face that set us off more.
Finally, Gillian, Ron, Amanda and Neville looked up.
"Why are you four giggling?" Amanda asked, breaking into a grin.
Ginny leaned close to her and told her what Emily had said. She giggled, then relayed it to Gillian, Ron, and Neville. Gillian went off. Ron and Neville looked at each other.
"Girls," Ron said shaking his head.
Knowing Gillian, she would add something to it. Sure enough, she did.
"Emily! Just imagine he found yours! Tell him what to do!" Gillian called.
Emily was blushing so scarlet that she looked like she had stepped into a hot shower. She managed to pull herself back up onto the seat, but then slid back off in a fit of giggles. By now, we were laughing so hard we were crying. The other tables were shaking their heads and chuckling. Some were just looking at us like we were nuts.
Even I had to bury my face into my arms as I laughed. Emily let out a snort as she laughed. That set us off more. The whole of Gryffindor table was either getting up leaving with grins, or just getting up annoyed. At this point, even Neville and Ron were giggling. Only Harry remained in the dark still.
"Can I ask a stupid question…what are you all laughing at?" he asked, slowly.
Gillian chose that moment to let out a loud raspberry. Gillian fell off her chair again. Then, Lisa did. I finally managed to calm down long enough to tell Harry what happened.
He blushed furiously.
"You're definitely well loved," I said, snorting with laughter.
Harry broke out into a mischievous smile.
"Trust me…if I wasn't so in love with Hermione, I'd go for it, Emily,"
Emily had to bury her face into her arms to hide the furious blushing.
"Whooo! Why not a threesome?" Gillian called.
Well, now it was my turn to blush furiously. Harry was also. He and I looked at each other and then blushing moved our eyes away from each other's.
"Alright…enough girls. We're starting to get out of hand here," Amanda giggled.
We all managed to calm down, occasionally letting out snorts and giggles sporadically as we headed to Potions class.
Gillian and I shared a cauldron. Ron and Harry had the one beside us, and the rest of the squad and the rest of Gryffindor were behind us. The Slytherins were right next to us on the other side of the dungeon. When Professor Snape deducted five points from Gryffindor because Neville accidentally over did his Wallex Potion, Gillian broke out into a low song, but it was enough for me, Ron and Harry to hear it.
"Professor Snape likes to wear woman's panties…not tight.
Leopard skin or zebra print.
He also wears woman's bras…double D or triple C. Whatever's comfortable for him.
He stuffs them to make them fit."
She was singing the lyrics to Shakira's Wherever, Whenever tune. I smothered a snort and I heard Ron and Harry giggling behind us.
Professor Snape paused by our table. Gillian looked up at him with innocent eyes.
"Yes Professor?" she asked, casually.
Professor Snape narrowed his eyes.
"Were you just talking?"
"Why no sir. I was concentrating on my potion," Gillian said, nonchalantly.
Professor Snape's eyes moved onto me.
I quickly kept a straight face.
"Miss Granger? Did you hear anyone talking?"
"No sir," I said, with a straight face.
Eyeing the rest of us, he continued to pace around the dungeon. We both broke into snorts of laughter. He whirled around. We stopped and pretended to add some of the Ryet skin to the potion. He went over to the Slytherin side. A Ryet was a small creature that lived in a swamp. It had small horns above each eye and it was poisonous. It was a deep blue color and ran on four legs. A thin horse like tail was behind it. The Wallex Potion was used to help stop pain when someone broke an arm or leg. Kinda like morphine.
Gillian and I glanced at each other, then winked.
We went back to our potion.
After Potions, Professor Dumbledore called for a special assembly. The rest of the classes were canceled for today.
We all entered the Great Hall and sat down at Gryffindor table. Once the students had quieted down, Professor Dumbledore stood up. The Hall watched him intently and curiously.
"I have some wonderful news! The Nationals will be held here! I just received word,"
The Hall buzzed excitedly.
"Around the 12th of December, the top squads who won each division at the Regionals will be spending the weekend here. As you may remember, there were three main divisions…Youth Magic Division, Intermediate Magic Division, and Advanced Magic Division. Also, the Gryffindors had competed in the Advanced Division because of the Maret Routine, other wise they would have been placed in Intermediate. The Youth Division pertains to ages 5-7. The Intermediate is 7-10. And the Advanced is 10-15.
I hope you all decide to show the young ladies some hospitality when they arrive,"
We all talked.
"Wow. That is awesome!" gushed Laura
"Yeah! It was cute to see the little girls cheerleading, remember?" asked Emily smiling.
"Yeup, it was," I admitted.
"It's going to be so cool to see the other squads and what they have to offer," Amanda said eagerly.
"We've got to come up with one last routine!" wailed Ginny. "This is nuts!"
"DMY," said Laura grinning.
"DMY?" Emily asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Don't Mess Yourself,"
Gillian burst out laughing.
"I love that! Where'd you get it from?"
"The Simpson's TV show," Laura grinned.
Gillian giggled.
"Oh right! I love them!"
I shook my head and chuckled.
"I know a nice, easy, simple routine to the song I mentioned earlier," Laura replied.
"Oh that's right! The Britney Spears' song," Lisa replied nodding.
"Right. I can show you some movements now, the rest later on," Laura said.
She made fists, then moved her right fist over her left, then underneath it. Then, she dipped her left shoulder and moved right.
"Cool! You've got to show us the rest tonight!" cried Mary excitedly.
"I will," Laura promised grinning.
After that we went back to our common room for a bit before we headed to the classroom which Professor McGonagall had let us use the entire time.
"Okay. Here we go," said Laura as she turned on the little boombox.
She began showing us the moves. First she sidestepped. Then twirled around slowly, all the while moving her hips. Then, she cartwheeled to the side, quickly changing to a one-hand cartwheel. She continued the moves.
"I don't think I can do a one hand cartwheel," I said, slowly.
"Sure you can! Try it!" Laura said encouragingly.
Sighing, I leaned down, extending one hand and tried to do the cartwheel.
In mid air, I heard a tearing sound. I quickly got to my feet and my hands immediately flew to my bottom.
"What was that noise?" Gillian asked, grinning.
"I think something just ripped," I said, slowly.
"Like…drawers?" Amanda asked, also grinning.
"Maybe," I mused.
There was silence before they all erupted into laughter. Harry too. I soon joined in.
Amanda, still giggling, bent over to tie her shoelace. Deciding to get back at her, I made a raspberry sound. She stood up abruptly, looking embarrassed.
"Excuse me," she said, blushing.
"That was Hermione that did it!" Harry said, laughing.
"Ooh!" Amanda said as she playfully came over to me and we all began having a tickling fight.
Once that was done with and we all swore no more pranks until after we won the Nationals, we practiced the routine that Laura had come up with. It was fairly easy. She called it the Nanedem Routine. Everyone managed to pick it up fairly easily. The next morning at breakfast, Gillian called over to Malfoy, "DMY Malfina!"
We roared with laughter.
Gillian said she had to get one more joke in before we began practicing every other day. It was already November 26th. The 12th was not too far away.
We were also really excited to see the other squads and to see their routines. We probably could get ideas, but not copying the routine exactly.
Ron and Gillian had decided to go steady. Harry and I were totally serious about each other. Amanda and Neville were also serious. Ginny confessed to us a few days later that she and Dean had been going out. When and how we had no idea. Ron was not too happy. Emily found someone from Ravenclaw named Eric Falter. She was happy. Poor Lisa, Mary and Laura were left. They assured us that they were happy and knew they'd find someone eventually.
We were just too excited about the Nationals to worry about Malfina.