Chapter 5: Occlumency and Quidditch

They woke up the next morning to get ready for breakfast. Harry was eating his bacon when Professor McGonagall approached him with her usual stern look. For a moment, Harry thought that he had done something wrong. But then he saw her break into a small smile.

"Mr Potter, you've been elected by the teams members as the Quidditch captain for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The tryouts for the vacant positions are going to be held late this afternoon. Please report to the Quidditch pitch at five this evening. I've already put up notices in the common room for to inform the Gryffindors about this tryout so you don't need to worry about that. But you'll have to conduct the tryouts yourself so get yourself prepared." She finished and walked off. Harry stared wide- eyed at Ron who was beaming.

"I knew you would make it Harry!" Ron congratulated.

"T..thanx..x" Harry stuttered a little, apparently still in shock. He looked at Ron in the eye and immediately knew what to do.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

First lesson for the day was Defence against the Darks Arts. Harry, Ron and Hermione sauntered into the classroom. There was no teacher, only students. They settled themselves down at the front, knowing very well that Tonks would not be unfair to them.

Soon, a teacher walked in. to their utmost horror, he was a man. Harry and Ron exchanged indignant whispers. Where was Tonks?

"I'm professor Grene, good morning class."

"Good morning professor Grene"

"Sit down, as you know, this is your NEWT."

Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged urgent whispers. "Where's Tonks?" finally they decided that she was on urgent missions for the order.

The professor now gave a lesson on theories of defence methods. He was going a bit into historical wars. Harry sighed, and started taking notes. The class ended as usual with heaps of homework.

After Defence Against the Dark Arts was double herbology. They made their way to outside the greenhouses and chatted while waiting for Professor Sprout.

"Greenhouse three today!" Professor Sprout shouted over the heads of several excited looking Ravenclaw six years. A rave of excitement arose from the students as they made their way there.

"Who knows what we'll be touching on today?" Professor Sprout asked. Hermione and Jacky both raised their hands at the same time.

"Ms. Granger?"

"It's the imium plant, Professor." Hermione answered promptly with confidence.

"Right! Ten points for Gryffindor! Now, Mr Potter, can you explain to me what are the basic characteristics of the imium plant?" Professor sprout asked again.

Harry stammered a bit but managed to give the class a rough idea of what the characteristics were with bits and pieces of hints from Hermione and the three girls. Ron had no idea himself either. The rest of the lesson was devoted to learning how to get the blood out of the imium plant without hurting its veins. At the end of it, Harry, Ron and Hermione came out of the greenhouse with swells and blood all over their body as the imium plant had leaves that were like the stings. Lishia, Angie and Jacky were the same.

The six of them headed off to the great hall for lunch. They met Ginny and Luna on the way. Luna has what looked like potato skin folded together for a hat. When Ron saw her, he snorted.

"Oh no! I forgot!" said Lishia as if a light bulb had just struck her, "I left my charms book inside!" with that, she doubled back.

The rest of them reached the great hall for their quick lunch. Everyone seemed very quiet, and Harry tried to make conversation.

"So, Luna, how was your trip to capture the crumpled horn snockark?"

Luna seemed to jerk out of a daze. Angie perked her ears up.

"you went to capture one?"

Hermione rolled her eyes." They do not exist"

"Oh yes they do. "Came Angie's determined voice.

Harry wondered. Luna was back to mashing her already mashed potato.

"And what evidence do you have?"

Angie looked furious. Luna was mildly amused. Ron was staring unblinkingly. None of them had ever seen Angie get angry.

Jacky, evidently trying to let everyone cool down, said in a quiet voice. "Her dad is one, as an animagus."

Hermione looked as if Krum had slapped her face.

Ginny had the same intentions as Jacky, apparently. " Ok. No more arguing. The subject is closed."

Everyone resumed their meal.

Five minutes later, Lishia came up, book in hand. When she spotted Harry, she ran up to him, smiling. When she got to his seat, she whispered in his ear. " You should eat less. Fats can remove fats, you know."

Without another word, she walked over to Ginny and started chatting animatedly with her as they enjoyed their meal. Harry stared at her.

They were soon done, and hurried off for the next lesson, which was charms.

"Today we'll be touching on one of the finest charms ever. The apparating charm!" Professor Flitwick said in his usual squeaky voice. The class which was quite dull suddenly sprang into life and everybody looked intently at Professor Flitwick, pressing on for more.

"But we'll only be doing the theory work today, so wands away please." Everybody in the room groaned. They had heard this sentence too often last year that the mention of no wands reminded them of Umbridge.

"But why can't we do the practical today?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Ron! Will you ever bother to read Hogwarts: A history? It's stated there clearly that it is impossible to apparate and disapparate inside Hogwarts! I believe I've told you that more than once!" Hermione lectured reproachfully.

"Twice!" Harry chipped in.

"Fine, fine, whatever you say Hermione!" Ron stared at her with a funny look and the three girls sensed something.

"Lishia, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Angie asked playfully.

"Yup! I think someboday's falling into the love lake!" Lishia said in a teasing tone

"Oooo.." Jacky rolled her eyes dreamily.

Harry took the hint and continued in the teasing. "Ronnikins, I see that you've grown up. Ah! It should be time for you to have a girlfriend I suppose. I wonder if Ms. Granger here would like to have you as a boyfriend?" Harry said in a deep voice.

Hermione turned bright pink at once and stared down at her feet. By the colour of Ron's face, the four of them knew that they had guessed it right. Ron was in a brilliant shade of scarlet. If possible, even redder than his hair.

"Stop it! You're making me blush!" Ron protested.

"We know" The four of them answered at the same time and laughed.

"Mr Weasley, are you all right?" Professor Flitwick asked concernedly.

"Yes I am, Professor." Ron answered, highly embarrassed as the rest of the class we looking at him now.

"No, Professor, he's not. He's sick." Harry said and winked at Ron.

"What is he suffering from, Mr Potter?" Professor Flitwick asked again.

"Oh he is love sick!" Jacky piped in.

"Jolly good!" Professor Flitwick looked a little surprised but smiled and clapped his hands together. Clearly, Professor Flitwick was in a lovely mood that day.

"Who?" he asked again, highly amused.

By that time, everybody was staring at the only other person who was blushing other than Ron.

"Ah! I see! Good luck to you then, Mr Weasley!" And with that, the class resumed. For the rest of the lesson, Ron was doing a good job at getting himself preoccupied, and Hermione was doing an equally well job at avoiding Ron's eyes.

The bell rang to signal the end of classes for that day. Harry suggested that they hurry off for the Quidditch pitch for the tryouts later and dragged Ron, who was still staring at Hermione with a puzzled look, away. The three girls looked at Hermione and grinned to each other.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Harry and Ron walked into the quidditch pitch dressed in scarlet robes and clutching their broomsticks. There were about fifty Gryffindors there, all with their brooms, waiting anxiously for the tryouts to commence. Harry cleared his throat and began,

"Welcome to the tryouts for the Gryffindor quidditch team. This year, we're got five vacant spaces, three chasers and two beaters. For the chasers, you'll be given twenty throws. The top three who manages to get the most number of quaffles past Ron will be selected. For the beaters. Dobby had kindly bewitched two bludgers to target you," Dobby the house elf suddenly appeared beside Harry and beamed at the Gryffindors, then disappeared as suddenly as it came.

"As I was saying, the bludgers will be targeting you so your aim is to whack the bludgers as many times as possible without being hit. All clear? Ok, let's begin. Chasers on my left and beaters on my right. Chasers will go first." Harry instructed as Ron kicked off from the ground and began circling the hoops.

First up was Jessie Magliouth. She managed to get only one quaffle in. But that was mainly because she hit Ron's head with her elbow. The next few did not do any better. About half of them were done when it was Ginny's turn.

Ginny mounted her broom and kicked off from the ground. Ron gripped his broom tight and looked really serious.

The first quaffle went in then the second then the third. At the end of the game, nineteen went in. The only one that didn't make it in was because Ron did the starfish and stick by holding the broom horizontally with one hand and one foot curled around the handle, keeping his limbs outstretched. Ginny found it so highly amusing that she burst out laughing and dropped the quaffle.

Nobody did very well after Ginny. The most number of quaffles that managed to get in was six by Dennis Creevy. It was Angie's turn at last. Ron obviously knew that he was facing a strong opponent. Angie leaped onto her firebolt in one swift move and started throwing the quaffles. In less than the minute, all twenty went in. One of them nearly unseated Ron from his broom as it came wheezing past him. Angie touched the ground and smiled at Ron, who came down too, panting hard.

"Gee, that was good!" Ron commented, still breathing heavily.

"So we're done with the chasers. Now, let's move on to the beaters. You'll be given only one minute. On my count of three. One, two three!" Harry marked the starting of the beater tryouts.

The first few managed to get about two hits before being knocked down by the bludgers. The next few weren't any better. Some of them had bleeding noses and fractured bones. Harry was about to give up hope of ever finding new beaters as good as Fred and George when Jacky got the beater's bat from Luis Affry and waited for the signal to start.

"Three, two, one, start!" Harry shouted. And off she went, hitting the bludgers with full strength as they came pelting towards her. Soon, they were moving at such high speed that Harry found it quite impossible for him to count how many time she hit the bludgers. All he saw was some black and red stuff flying at full speed in the air.

"Fifty-nine, one minute! Time's up!" harry announced. Jacky dismounted from her broom and beamed at Harry. The rest of the people were awestruck, except for Lishia, Harry and Ron as they had seen her play before.

"A very good targeting charm indeed!" Jacky remarked and handed the bat over to Lishia.

"Pretty good huh? But you shouldn't have missed the twenty-seventh one. It isn't a fast bludger you know?" Lishia commented and went onto the pitch.

Her turn started and ended in the twinkling of and eye. It was quite impossible to tell whether she or Jacky was better as the two of them were too fast for Harry to count. But clearly, they were the best among the rest.

"Ok, So now, I'd like to announce the names of those who made it into the Gryffindor quidditch team. For the beaters, we have... Jacky Yan and Lishia Yeo! And for the chasers, we've got Ginny Weasley, Angie Yang and Dennis Creevy! You may go back to your common room now. The first quidditch practice will be on this Friday at five O' clock. Those interested can come down here to watch." Harry finished his speech and turned to walk with Ron back to the castle. When they were half way through the pitch, Harry saw the Ravenclaw quidditch team emerging from the changing rooms. Cho was right in front. Harry looked at Cho and their eyes met for a second. Harry's stomach did a horrible flip and he knew what it meant..

Dinner!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Harry had a quick dinner before Hurrying off to the dungeons for Occlumency with Snape. He reached Snape's office five minutes earlier than he was expected to and knocked on the door.

"Come in." A cold voice called.

Harry opened the door and stepped into the icy cold office. He couldn't help recalling the nasty incident he had there a year ago. Snape's snarling voice suddenly broke his chain of thoughts.

"Potter, when did I tell you to arrive here?" Snape asked

"Eight o' clock" Harry answered promptly.

"Sharp" came the cold voice. " 10 points from griffindor for not paying attention."

Harry glared at Snape.

"What time is it now then, potter?"

Harry replied through gritted teeth." Seven fifty five."

"Yes, indeed. Another five points from griffindor. "

Harry felt like hitting Snape as though he were Lishia or Jacky and Snape was the bludger.

"I said eight o' clock sharp, and may I ask why you are five minutes early? I said sharp, not early. That'll be ten points from Gryffindor I suppose. Next time if I say sharp, and you come in early or late, it'll be twenty points. Clear, Potter?" Snape demanded.

"Yes" Harry answered, his voice shaking in anger. Snape stared at Harry with his usual dirty look and continued

"Let me see how much you've learnt in the previous year." Before Harry even managed to get his wand out, Snape shouted, "Legilimens!"

Harry soon found himself going through all the sad memories of the past again. Aunt Marge, Dudley's birthday parties, Uncle Vernon's and Aunt Petunia's nasty treatments. And lastly, Sirius. Yes, Sirius. From the first encounter to the last, his last. The pictures stopped, as suddenly as they began. Harry opened his eyes. He was kneeling down on the floor, his hand covering his face. Tears mingled with sweat trickled down his face. He looked up. Snape's ashen face made him seem paler than usual. His eyes were wide in shock.

"Was that how.how he died?" Snape asked in a weird tone. Harry was dumbfounded. He hadn't expected this question and didn't know how to answer. He simply could not accept, or rather, did not want to accept the fact that Sirius is dead.

"He'll always be alive in my heart!" Harry reminded himself for the thirty- seventh time this year. He looked up and saw Snape's eyes cutting into his. Harry nodded. It was a curt nod, but enough to make Snape drop onto his chair like a puppet which just had its strings cut. Harry surveyed Snape's expression carefully. Was it anguish or emptiness? Or was it happiness or cunningness? Harry couldn't tell. Snape's face was inscrutable.

"You can leave now. And thirty points if you bother to shut the door after you leave." Snape said in a monotone. Harry took to his heels immediately before Snape could change his mind. It had been a traumatic night for Harry.

He walked briskly towards the common room, past the fat lady and vaguely replied his fellow Griffindors' greetings, and went up to bed.

He reached his dormitory and fell asleep, almost immediately.

A/N: Not much to say this time. School's really busy. Too much work to do. No time to write. Sorry. But Chap 6's already ready. still writing 7. Thanks for all the reviews! Keep them coming!!!