A/N- Here is the start of a new story. I am still working on the heir of Black Series and the Chronicle of Lord Black. This is a small attempt at something different and more mundane that I have attempted. Hope you all will love it.

Sincerely

Lord of Mystics

Somewhere in the Scottish highlands, away from the prying eyes of the non-magical folks (muggles) is a very old castle. Nestled between mountains, this castle is between nowhere and the only population is a quaint little village near the castle which is known as Hogsmead and has the distinction of being the only all-magical settlement in Wizarding Britain. Yes, you did read it. Magic is actually real and witches and wizards do exist. Yes, they can do almost impossible type things with it but they are so low in numbers that they have to hide from us.

This castle is known as the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is home to thousands of wizards who study in the school and receive magical education there. And what a splendid castle it is.

It is a wonderful seven storied structure having been made with stones which had been quarried and carried from afar for building something that would last for ages. The walls of the castle were enchanted and built with magic imbued in the foundation. The sprawling structure also boasts of greenhouses on one side of the castle and a magnificent lake on the other which is infested by water creatures like the Grindylows, the Kappa, the redcaps, merpeople etc. Surrounding the castle and the grounds on one side is the forbidden forest which is a forest so vast, so large and so dense that no one in living memory can claim to have seen it all or having deciphered all of its secrets. The forest is inhabited by all sorts of beasts like the chimera, centaurs, unicorns, porlock, Augrey, trolls, werewolves, hippogriffs, even a demiguise or two. The castle also boasts of dungeons which are so many that most have not been opened for years and are only full of junk or may be some items which are of antique value. The students, and there are hundreds of them, live in the castle throughout the year from September to June and go to home at year end in July. The students are sorted in either of four houses according to dominant traits of their personality by a crooked magical hat which has been enchanted with powers of the founders of the school.

Legends have it that this castle was founded about 1000 years ago during the medieval era in the 10th Century when the persecution of the magical community started. With the muggles capturing and killing magicals by burning them on stakes, beheading them or mauling them or forcing them to fight beasts, the magical community went into hiding. Since they could not practice magic openly due to the fear of being captured or killed, four witches and wizards, who were most brilliant wizards of their age, pooled their resources in together and with a lot of help as in finances etc. from the Crown (The crown knew and approved or segregating the two communities to avoid clashes among them) and a lot of rich houses in the magical community, they founded the castle. The castle which started as a place to teach little wizards and witches to teach magic once became a bastion of magical learning in the world.

The first among the four wizards was Godric Gryffindor of Godric's Hollow who was a fair man and believed that any child who displayed magical abilities before their 11th birthday should be able to attend Hogwarts. He valued courage and bravery and was the original owner of the crooked, ancient sorting hat which he and other founders enchanted to sort people in their houses on the basis of the traits of their personality. He was also best friends with another Hogwarts founder known as Salazar Slytherin until Salazar decided to leave Hogwarts for reasons that are still not known. His another fond possession is the sword of Gryffindor which had been crafted by the Goblins for him with the indestructible Goblin silver and the sword is said to present itself to the true Gryffindor in his most dire moment of need.

The second among founders was Rowena Ravenclaw from Glens of Scotland who valued high intelligence in her students and made her best efforts to make Hogwarts the best wizarding school on Earth. She had a diadem which was infused with her powers and was said to grant wisdom to the wearer however it seems to have been lost to sands of time.

The third founder of Hogwarts was Helga Hufflepuff who was a kind and loyal woman from Wales and best friend with Rowena Ravenclaw. She believed that any child with magical ability should be given a chance to study at Hogwarts and selected those students who showed the qualities that she herself possessed. It is also believed she was one who brought House Elves to Hogwarts as a means to give them a place of employment. She was said to possess a cup which was said to contain some of her powers stored in it by means of an enchantment however the claims were never verified because the whereabouts of the cup remain unknown.

The fourth founder of the quartet was Salazar Slytherin who came from a pureblood (both magical parents) family in either Ireland or Britain. He was very ruthless and cunning wizard and believed that only those who were of pure blood descent should be given admittance in Hogwarts and the type of students sorted into his house reflected it likewise. He was said to be best friends with Godric until his belief created a rift so deep between them that he allegedly had to leave the school however he created his own Chamber of Secrets in the castle which no one could find and left a monster there who, in his belief, who help his heir purge the castle of those not worthy or magic or untainted blood. His family had the unique gift that they could speak to snakes and were called parselmouth. Years later, his last descendent Tom Marvolo Riddle better known as Voldemort opened the chamber and leashed the monster on the school which resulted in killing of a student named Warren Myrtle. Tom left the school having put the monster back to sleep after he was afraid that the Transfiguration Teacher Albus Dumbledore suspected him to the perpetrator of the whole scheme. Years later, Tom, although unknowingly, opened the chamber again and leashed the Basilisk (yes, it was the monster) on the school which was killed by a second year student named Harry Potter with the sword of Gryffindor.

One of the premier institutions of magic in the world, Hogwarts is run by a board of Governors who appoint the headmaster of the school. The current headmaster is an old wizard who goes by the name of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore who is also the Chief Warlock of the British Wizengamot (Legislative and Administrative body) and the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW). Albus Dumbledore is one of the most widely renowned wizards in the world because he had fought the longest magical duel in history which went on for about 3 hours and it was fought between him and a dark lord named Gellert Grindelwald who had once terrorised the whole world. The duel known as battle of Bavaria was fought about the same time when the muggle (non- magical people) second world war was coming to its conclusion.

When Dumbledore became the victor of Bavaria, the leadership of the wizarding world was apprehensive of him because he had unlimited power and adoration of thousands of wizards. There was nothing that he could not get if he wanted. To their relief, Albus chose a quieter life and returned to Hogwarts to teach transfiguration. To keep him content and to shunt him to a position where he would not harm anyone, they threw everything at him that could keep him happy and would not harm them. The British Ministry of Magic conferred an Order of Merlin, First Class on him which is the highest award that can be given to someone. The ICW made him the Supreme Mugwump and he took that mantle too without any complaints. Later, the British Wizengamot raised him to the post of the chief warlock of the British Wizengamot when the current minister felt threatened for his position due to Dumbledore's popularity and the clamouring of the wizarding world for him to become the Minister of Magic. Albus understood all this and lived his life very quietly. He loved what he was doing and every effort of his was to change the world and make it a better world for the muggle borns and to rid the world of all the bias that existed in Wizarding World. He was also called the champion of the non-magical folk, half bloods and muggle borns. He was in fact a proponent of equality and had a rather bothersome habit of seeing good in everyone one, even those who were inherently evil. His senses were generally correct but at times, he chose to take action later when acting at the moment would have been far more beneficial. That is all thought of hindsight though and hindsight is a wonderful thing.

He later rose to challenge when another dark lord, perhaps the most dangerous dark lord in history, arose in Wizarding Britain and started extinguishing families as a whole. This Dark Lord called himself Voldemort and touted himself as the champion of the purebloods and openly talked about furthering the cause of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts. Voldemort gained prominence and an army behind him made up of fanatics and blood supremacy proponents. Most of the major pureblood houses of Wizarding Britain supported him and hundreds of muggle-borns, half-bloods and purebloods were killed trying to resist him. Albus raised a secret force known as the Order of Phoenix which started resisting Voldemort and his forces. The members of his Order saved a lot of people from death even at the cost of their own lives. The war with Voldemort reigned for more than 10 years and by the year 1980, no one was certain of anything.

On one such evening, Albus went to the local inn in Hogsmead to interview a candidate who was applying for the post of Divination professor. Though it was against Albus's better judgment but he chose to humour the witch because she was descended from a very celebrated seer named Cassandra Trelawney and it was possible that she had inherited the gift of sight from her ancestor. Thirty minutes into the interview, Dumbledore had decided to leave when the applicant Sybill Trelawney fell into a trance and uttered a prophecy which was connected with Voldemort and a child to be born who had the power to vanquish him. This prophecy changed the course of war and altered the destinies of two children who were yet to be born.

Unfortunately, some of the prophecy was over-heard by a budding death eater (follower of Voldemort) who relayed it to his lord and based on what he had been told, Voldemort started to hunt down parents to be of such a child who would fit that description. He had conclusively determined that the prophecy referred to unborn child of one James Fleamont Potter and Lilly Potter nee Evans. The spy got cold feet when he heard that the Dark Lord wanted to hunt the only woman he had ever loved and begged him to spare the woman. The Dark Lord did not relent and the spy went to Albus Dumbledore with his tail tucked between his legs and begged him to save them.

The Potters went into hiding and chose the most extensive protection available to them. They chose to live in a little cottage in the village of Godric's hollow and they had put the cottage under a Fidelius Charm.

Albus had asked the Potters to let him become the secret keeper of the Fidelius but James Potter chose his best friend, Sirius Black to be the secret keeper. What Albus didn't know was that this mistake would eventually cost the Potters their lives.

The Potters' son, a little boy named Harry, was born on 31st July 1980 and they lived in hiding. James was in the Order and still fought for them but the solitary life had started to grate on his nerves. He would sometimes become reckless and go on scouting missions or rescue missions as were authorised by Dumbledore. On the fateful day of Halloween, 31.10.1981, Voldemort found their hiding place and killed the Potters. When he turned his wand on the little boy, he could not kill him but his power was broken, his body was destroyed and somehow his soul remained alive and fled the scene.

Sirius Black, the secret keeper of the Potters was sent to the Wizarding Prison Azkaban after he was caught having murdered a wizard named Peter Pettigrew, who used to be a friend of the Potters and Sirius, and 13 muggles on a busy London street.

Dumbledore, who learned about the unfortunate demise of Potters almost instantly, sent one of his men, a towering hulking figure of a man named Hagrid to rescue little Harry who brought the boy from the wreckage to his aunt's place in Little Hangleton on 4, Privet Drive. Dumbledore used the sacrifice of the mother to raise some protections around that place so that no one could harm him there until he called that place home.

Ten years later, Harry Potter came to Hogwarts as a student and not quite in the condition that Dumbledore expected but he was alive and that was all that Dumbledore could do about it. Going after the muggles when he needed them to provide a safe place for Harry was not something that he could afford. Blood was powerful than any enchantment that he could devise for the protection of the boy.

Harry Potter's two years at Hogwarts so far, had been eventful. In first year, he had fought Lord Voldemort and kept him at bay from getting his hands on the Sorcerer's stone. In the second year, he had battled a thousand years old Basilisk which had been awakened after a slumber of 50 years by the shade of a certain Tom Riddle using a girl through a diary.

This year, the dreaded criminal, the betrayer of the Potters, the scourge of the Wizarding World, the mass murderer Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban and there was no doubt that he would come after Harry Potter, to finish what his master could not. They had put safeguards around Harry, he was not allowed to leave the castle and in general he was very miserable also due to the presence of Dementors, the guards of Azkaban, who were posted to catch Sirius Black. They fed on people's emotions and their miseries. Harry, who had been through too much in his short life was always an easy prey for them. He had already fallen off his broom once when he was in their presence. He felt weak before them and had turned to his new Defense Professor to help teach him a very complicated charm known as the Patronus Charm which was the only thing that could repel a dementor.

1993, Hogwarts

Harry Potter was troubled. The latest attack of the mass murderer Sirius Black in the Gryffindor Tower was worrying. The fact that the famed mass murderer had gained access to the tower was amazing even though it was Neville's fault that he knew all the passwords which the chubby Gryffindor had written down on a slip of parchment in order to remember them because the temporary guardian of the tower Sir Cadogan, the mad knight, had the habit of changing them ever so often and all of his passwords were complicated.

The only good that had come out of the sordid episode was that Ronald Weasley, his best friend, had got some fame of his own. The red head was enjoying and lapping up all the attention that he could get from others. What was amusing was that his variation of the story changed every time that someone asked him about what had happened at that night when Sirius Black barged into the dormitory of third year. Another good that it had done was that his two best friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley were talking to each other again. About time too. Their bickering had started to grate on his nerves lately and he was dangerously close to snapping up on them to start behaving. It was pretty childish for them to fight over something as trivial as a cat and a rat.

Hermione had bought a cat at the wizarding district, Diagon Alley over the summer as a pet named Crookshanks. The cat was part kneazle and had it in him for Ronald's pet rat named Scabbers. Scabbers was a garden rat who had been the Weasley family for almost 12 years now, a long life for such a creature but no one ever thought about it. Recently, Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers and that had started the war between Harry's best friends.

Without their fighting among themselves, Harry had a lot to think about on his own. He was worst impacted by Dementors and the new defense Professor, Remus John Lupin was teaching him a charm that he could use to fend off the Dementors. The charm was very advanced and was not meant for a thirteen year but the alternative was unthinkable. If Harry couldn't master the charm, he would not be able to play Quidditch for his house team and that was an offense in itself. Also, he had to learn that to protect himself. Also there was the upcoming match against the Slytherins and the Ravenclaws and the appeal of the hippogriff named Buckbeak. Buckbeak was a proud yet gentle creature who had been insulted by Draco Malfoy, Harry's arch enemy in the Slytherin House. Malfoy leaned on his father, Lucius Malfoy who used some of his contacts and had the beast tried before the Committee for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and was set to be executed after an appeal was heard by the Committee.

The letter

"There is nothing in the books which can lean in Hagrid's favour", said Hermione Granger, blowing air through her nose in frustration. They had been combing the library for hours looking into books to find if there was something in law that could help Hagrid but they had failed to find anything that would matter. For Harry, it was personal. Malfoy never liked the teacher and had even insulted him out of his hearing and Harry was incensed. Add to that, Malfoy's attempts to get the hippogriff executed had him up in arms and he was very desperately looking for a way to save the hippogriff from execution.

"But Hermione, we can't let them kill Buckbeak", Harry protested, "You know that he is very gentle beast. And getting it killed would kill Hagrid. You know how sensitive he is towards his creatures."

"Looks like Hagrid is on his own this time mate", said Ron "I mean we have got nothing in the books so far and we have looked into almost every book."

Harry stood from his seat, "I will go have a look again, Hermione. May be there are some books that we have not yet found." It was a small attempt at humour though because it was certain that Hermione Granger had already went through all the books and he would find nothing new.

As he walked towards the shelves, a slytherin girl who he was sure was in his year and was loitering near the shelves listening to them, said in an undertone, "If you want to save the hippogriff then use your brains, Potter. You are the boy-who-lived. If you write to the minister asking him to spare the creature, there is no way that anyone can kill it."

"I don't like to use my fame", Harry said curtly but the girl had already turned her back on him and was walking towards another girl who was seating a table with a Ravenclaw.

He had to wonder why the girl had given him that idea. Like his best friend Ronald he had a bias against those who were silver and green and he never viewed them with favour. It was a mutual feeling however for the Slytherins were known to hate and ridicule him on principle, at times being egged on by their head of House Professor Snape.

Professor Snape was a hook-nosed, lean man who taught Potions at Hogwarts though everyone knew he wanted to teach Defense against the Dark Arts. He was generally an unpleasant man but he seemed to have it extra for Harry and anyone Harry concerted with. He would dock points off Harry for silliest things like dropping a potion ingredient or making a passable potion.

After looking for a good bit and not finding anything, he returned to his friends, "There are no more books in the library on the subject, I am afraid", he said resignedly to his friends. They knew it was futile anyway.

Inwardly, he was thinking about what the girl had said to him. Yes, the Minister of Magic viewed Harry with favour and had even let go of his stance of doing magic out of Hogwarts when he had inflated his Aunt Marge. The minister regarded him as if Harry were his favourite nephew so may be what the girl said was true. There was no harm in trying, though.

That night, when everyone was asleep, Harry started to write a letter:

"Dear Minister,

I am writing to you hoping that you are fine. I wish to make a request to you to spare a hippogriff that has been set for presenting before the Committee to decide if he is dangerous..."

"What are you doing this late at night, Harry", someone asked and Harry jumped out of skin.

It was however only Neville Longbottom, who looked kind of edgy but that was always the story with Neville.

"What are you doing this late, Neville?" Harry asked him.

"I saw your bed empty when I returned and thought you were breaking curfew again so I was coming to find you. What are you doing?" Neville asked him again.

"It is nothing Neville. I am writing a letter to Fudge to spare the hippogriff which had attacked Malfoy. I thought that may be Fudge would spare him", Harry confided in his friend.

Neville nodded, "Good idea, Harry. If you want, I can help you in writing that letter."

Harry showed the letter to him and Neville shook his head, "Harry, if you write this way, it will not get you anywhere."

"What do you mean?"

"Harry, you father was a pureblood and your family like mine, is an old one. It is expected of you that behave like the elite members of the society."

"You mean like Malfoy?" Harry asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the thought.

"No", said Neville, "Malfoy may pretend but he is not elite. The Longbottoms, the Blacks, the Potters, the Macmillans, the Bones, the Greengrass etc are considered to be elite."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"It is a long tale and will take time", explained Neville, "Let's be done with that letter and get to sleep because tomorrow we have Transfiguration the first thing in morning."

With Neville prompting and correcting him when needed, Harry finally hammered out a letter which was much better than the last one.

"Dear Mr. Fudge,

I hope this letter finds you in the bloom of health and having a pleasant time considering the onerous burden of expectations that you carry. I admire you grit and determination in taking our society to a better tomorrow and for working to improve our society.

It has come to my notice that the Committee for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has decided to execute a hippogriff pending appeal and it grieves me to learn so because the beast in question is a very gentle creature and is one that I have become very fond of in a very short time. I also think it is opportune to bring it to your notice that no proper procedure was followed in the investigation and no witnesses were questioned before the Committee decided to execute it and such a blatant violation of laws makes me feel sad for our society and I pin my hopes on you to correct this wrong.

I know you for a person who loves justice and I believe that you will not let this injustice stand and get the hippogriff executed of which I have become rather fond of. It truly is a beast worthy of adoration and to imagine that it would deliberately harm anyone until it has been insulted is wrong in my opinion.

Hoping to hear from you soon and wishing good health to you again.

Harry Potter

Heir of House Potter"

"Heir of House Potter?" Harry asked Neville, "What does that mean?"

"There is a lot that you need to know, Harry", said Neville, "However it will take time and we have classes tomorrow. Send the letter to Fudge tomorrow and I will bet all the galleons in my vault that the appeal will not take place at all."

Next morning, Harry went up to the owlery early in the morning. The owlery was on the top floor of the castle and contained hundreds of owls. There was a wide variety of owls including Snow Owls, Eagle Owls, Tawny owls, Screech Owls, Bald Owls, Barn Owls and little scoop owls which owls which would fit in your palm. All the owls of the students were to be kept in the owlery and there were also many owls which belonged to the school. The school owls could be used by students who didn't have any owls and could use them to send letters home.

Harry's owl was named Hedwig, a beautiful snowy owl which had beautiful eyes and loved being adored by her stupid two legged pet who kept throwing himself into harm's way. She was perched on the highest shelf of the owlery, hiding her head in her chest and sleeping.

"Hedwig", Harry called her, "Hedwig, wake up".

The owl opened an eye, saw her master and pretended to sleep. He had ignored her for a month and he deserved to be punished.

Harry tried every way to wake up the owl, coax it to open its eyes but everything was futile. Finally he said in frustration, "If you are not feeling up to it, Hedwig then I will get one of the school owls to take this letter."

Having heard it, the snowy owl swooped down, swatting him on the back of the head and grinning to himself; Harry tied the letter to her feet and watched her take off.

The response

The response to his letter to Fudge never came. However, two days after Harry had written the letter, Professor McGonagall found the trio on the Gryffindor table during breakfast on a Sunday, "Potter, Weasley, Granger, the headmaster want to see you all three in his office after breakfast. The password is 'cockroach clusters'".

After she was gone, Ron asked, "What do you think Dumbledore want from us?"

Harry shrugged, "We will know when we get there, won't we?"

"There can be a lot of reasons for this. We can be in trouble or may be the ministry found something about Sirius Black", said Hermione.

After they had finished their lunch, they walked to the Headmaster's office which was situated on the second floor where Harry had been to previously.

The headmaster's office, in Harry's opinion, was truly a wonderful place. It was a circular chamber which contained shelves which were sagging with heavy tomes which contained spells, arcane rituals and many tiny instruments which no one except the Headmaster could understand. There was a spindly legged table near the window which overlooked the grounds and the table was littered with a lot of whirring and puffing instruments. Near the table of the headmaster, which was huge, was a perch on which sat a bird with gold and orange plumes. It was the most beautiful bird in the world and like everything magical, it was magical. The bird was named Fawkes the phoenix and it was truly a phoenix. During its time with Dumbledore, it had been through many a burning days and its trill could sooth frayed nerves and relieve ache. The office could be reached through an ascending stair case which was hidden behind a wall guarded by a gargoyle. To gain entrance, one had to speak the password to the gargoyle.

When they reached the place where his office was supposed to be, Harry spoke to the gargoyle in the corridor, "Cockroach Clusters."

The wall behind the gargoyle parted and they entered in it to climb the ascending staircase. When they reached the headmaster's office, the door was opened before they could knock.

"Harry", beamed the Minister of Magic as an uncle would when he sees his favourite nephew.

Harry awkwardly smiled, "How are you, Minister?"

The minister shook his hand and dragged him into the office, "Harry, meet Amos Diggory, the head of the department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

The man Fudge had called Amos Diggory was a man in his late 40s, wore glasses and had an expression as if he was not very happy with Harry though Harry had no idea what he had done to offend this man. In his memory, they had never met before.

"Harry", said Dumbledore, "The minister and Mr. Diggory are here to take your and your friend's statements about what happened in the Care of Magical Creatures Class when Mr. Malfoy was attacked by a hippogriff named Buckbeak."

"Young Harry", said the minister, "I was moved when I learned of the wrongdoing that was being committed and I asked Amos to look into it. Tell us what had happened that day."

"Umm... Hagrid was teaching us about Hippogriff. He taught us that we should bow to the beast before we approach it and that not doing so is an insult and is offending it. Malfoy generally does not pay attention in class and he tried to insult the hippogriff and the hippogriff just punished him. Malfoy wasn't even injured that much but he is just faking it", Harry retold whatever he remembered of that day.

"His father in his complaint to the committee has said that his son received some very extensive injuries to his arm and that he had to wear bandages for a month", said Amos "Was he faking it?"

"You will find Amos that children often exaggerate things, especially situations like these where they can be benefitted from it", said Dumbledore, "Young Mr. Malfoy also used his alleged injuries to skip out of homework and milked it for what it was worth including postponing a quidditch match during which Hufflepuff beat Gryffindor which I am sure young Cedric has told you about."

The name flashed an image in Harry's mind. Cedric Diggory was a sixth year student and was a popular student in the school. In the previous term, Harry's team had lost of Cedric's in Quidditch when he had fallen off his broom in the influence of Dementors. Cedric had offered to replay the match but Oliver Wood had refused. Apparently, Cedric was Amos's son.

"I understand what you are saying, Albus. I think the statement of these three and a statement of Poppy Pomfrey would be sufficient to dismiss the complaint filed by Lucius Malfoy", said Amos, "Minister, let's close this matter here. The hippogriff will be pardoned because we know Mr. Malfoy acted against the instructions given by the teacher. As much as we would hold the hippogriff liable, Mr. Malfoy is responsible for his injuries for he provoked it into attacking him."

"I will see you again young Harry", said Fudge, standing from his chair, "Albus, I will be taking your leave now. There are a lot of requests to entertain and a lot of things to arrange for the coming year."

Albus genially showed the minister to the floo as Amos went to the infirmary after having recorded Hermione and Ron's statement which were the same as Harry had recounted.

"Well done, Harry", said the head master, "That was a masterstroke, writing a letter to the minister hinting that you wanted the hippogriff to be spared. Fudge loves his position and likes to be seen supporting people who matter in our little society. If the boy who lived wants a hippogriff's life to be spared, he is not going to refuse."

"I don't like my fame", said Harry, "if I had any other way, I would not have written to him."

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling a little, "Harry, having influence is not a bad thing. Only you must know when to use this influence and how to use it. Use it sparingly and it will be very useful to you."

Albus Dumbledore was a very powerful wizard and as such, his powers sometimes manifested into such gesture like the twinkling of his eyes. He knew it and he often used to it his own ends.

One up on the ferret

When Harry went to Creatures class that morning, he found Malfoy lurking at the end of the class while Hagrid showed them Salamander. The fire breathing lizards always liked to remain near the fire and lazed around.

Not wanting to waste the moment to gloat, Harry said in Malfoyesque drawl, "Guess who got his nose bloodied today, Crabbe?"

Crabbe was a hulking brute of a boy but had no brains. He could not decide what to respond before Malfoy sneered, "What do you mean Potter?"

Harry answered the sneer with one his own, "Papa Malfoy got his nose bloodied today. The hippogriff will live Malfoy. It isn't going to die."

"You are a liar, Potter", Draco almost shouted, "My father will..."

Ron interrupted him, "What he will do about it, Malfoy? He will hear and what? Fight with the minister of magic?"

Draco could only sneer as Hagrid called them to pay attention to the class.

The match

Ravenclaw had flattened Hufflepuff in its match which had taken place when the inter house tournament resumed. This had kept Gryffindor in the running of the cup though they needed to score big wins in the next two matches to have a decent shot at the cup.

They had the best team in the school and the youngest seeker who was also the best. He owned the best broom that was out there. A Firebolt which was the newest sensation in the market and not everyone could afford it. Rumours were that Ireland had ordered brooms for their entire national broom. Harry used to own Nimbus 2000 before the Hufflepuff match but had to change it.

When Harry had fallen off his broom during the match, his broom had flown to the Whomping Willow which was a tree which would beat anyone to death who came within its range. The tree had smashed his broom to bits. On Christmas, Harry had been sent the Firebolt as a gift. It was the best broom in the world but Hermione had it confiscated by Professor McGonagall for inspection when they could not find who had sent it. That had deepened their quarrel with her. Things had worsened when Hermione's cat had eaten Ron's rat and things remained that way until Hagrid told them that he had lost the case. Hermione had vigorously helped him prepare his defense despite taking so many classes at once that it was not physically possible for her. They had two classes at 9:00 a.m. and she had never missed any yet. They had tried to find how she managed it but had come up short. At times, they had found her passed out due to exhaustion and told her to ease her burden but it never happened. Their relationship had mended but things had not been well until Ron was attacked by Sirius Black. Since then, they had restored their friendship.

"Potter, are you ready for the match?", asked Oliver Woods, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Yes Oliver and I know we have to defeat Ravenclaw by a big margin to remain the run for the cup", Harry answered him warily.

Harry loved Quidditch but Woods was a maniac when it came to that game. He had never won the Inter-house tournament before and this year, he was determined to win it at any cost because it was his last year in the school.

"And have you done something about the dementor problem?" asked Woods.

"Yes", Harry answered him remembering his last session where he had studied the Patronus charm, "But I don't think that they will come into the grounds now that Headmaster had forbidden them from entering the grounds."

Oliver stood and shouted to his team in the Common Room, "Now everybody, get to bed early and rise up quickly. We have an important match tomorrow."

With that the quidditch team stood and retired to bed early. Harry however kept dreaming of the match the next day and of things that could happen, the dementors being one of those chances.