Sorry about the long wait everyone! I've been slacking off a bit, but guess what! Happy molecule and I managed to finish out LOTR A Series of Random Events! The eleven stories are all on either of our accounts.
*I don't own the characters. I own the depressing story I put them in.*
This chapter is dedicated to Henry Blake Mortensen – hopefully he's not fat anymore. I mean, you'd think being the son of a movie star and a singer would make him at least the teeniest bit image-conscious, but obviously this wasn't part of his lifestyle when he was about seven or eight.
Let's just pretend that Harry never got a Quidditch ban, shall we…
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Chapter eight: Angelina
Angelina was seriously considering withdrawing her decision to make Harry Quidditch Captain the next year. Even though the season was over, and Gryffindor had won (of course), but Harry had been acting rather strangely lately, dreamy, even vague, and she sure didn't want someone vague as the Captain.
She walked past a fourth-year Hufflepuff girl and turned a corner into a new corridor, just in time to see Argus Filch, caretaker, who was clearly extremely angry, corner a first-year boy and start to yell.
"You did it, didn't you! I know you did!" he was yelling very hard, and Angelina felt very sorry for the little boy. First-years generally have a lot of trouble even without a crazy caretaker rounding on them.
"Come on, own up!" Filch shouted, spit flying everywhere from his mouth. The boy was shaking his head furiously, but Filch just kept yelling. "Oh, you're going to be so sorry! You are – "
"Silencio!" Angelina didn't get to find out what exactly the boy was because at that moment, Professor McGonagall had walked in, and put a Silencing Charm on Filch. The caretaker continued to 'yell' silently, but then after a while he realised he wasn't making any sound and he turned to face McGonagall.
"Argus Filch!" Professor McGonagall shrieked. Many people jumped. "I will not tolerate that behaviour from you. Now go back to your office at once and I shall talk to you later."
Filch glared at the first-year one last time and sulked off in the direction of his office. McGonagall took the still-shocked little boy's arm.
"Come on, Zellows, maybe we should visit Madam Pomfrey." Then she looked around at the crowd that had gathered in the corridor. "And all of you, disperse!"
Slowly, people began walking away. Angelina turned to leave as well but Professor McGonagall called her back.
"Miss Johnson," she said, "About the captaincy of our team. If Potter still doesn't… recover…?" she left the question hanging in the air.
Angelina nodded. "It's alright, Professor, I'm going now to talk to him about it."
Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly. "That's what I like to hear." And she walked away dragging little Zellows along with her.
***
It was a while later when, Angelina, unsuccessful with her task of locating Harry, decided to head back to the Gryffindor Common Room.
She was becoming increasingly worried, as now she was SERIOUSLY considering taking away Harry's right to the leadership role. He was easily the best and most experienced player on the team, and he would feel insulted if someone younger than him was captain.
Well, she tried to reassure herself, it wasn't as if he knew that she had chosen him for Captain. It was still not too late to change her mind. The problem was, should she?
Of course, the best thing would be to take Harry aside and talk to him about everything, but the boy was nowhere to be found. Probably chasing Cho again, Angelina thought grumpily, stomach growling from lack of breakfast, I'd bet she wouldn't go anywhere easily accessible.
And it was just like magic (A/N: how ironic) because then, the crowd of people walking ahead of her all jumped towards either side of the corridor and Angelina hastily followed suit, narrowly missing being run over by a storming Professor Snape, leading Draco Malfoy and Cho Chang past her and down a staircase, no doubt heading towards his dungeon office. Right after the three of them came a train of students from all houses, from the Creevey brothers to Millicent Bulstrode, trying to find out what was going on by following Snape and his two charges.
Immediately after they were past, the students around Angelina all began muttering. She shook her head, resigned. She never cared about gossip and things like that, but the rest of Hogwarts was a different matter altogether. She continued to hurry towards Gryffindor tower, and reaching the portrait hole, out of breath, she slid into the Common Room and was confronted with a curious sight.
Harry Potter was sitting in an armchair, looking extremely annoyed. Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley were standing on the other side of the room, saying disjointed sentences so they sounded something like:
"But we – "
"Because you never – "
"We only just – "
Apparently, they had not noticed Angelina, so she just let the ranting die down before she approached Harry. Coming up behind his chair, she asked tentatively, "Harry?"
Harry jumped, then scowled. "What now? Crabbe and Goyle as well?"
Extremely confused, Angelina tried to think of whether the Gryffindor team captaincy involved Crabbe and Goyle, but found a negative answer. "No, Harry, I just wanted to – "
"Look Harry, if you just let us explain – " started Ron.
"NO!!!" Harry yelled so loudly that second-year boy, who was coming down the marble staircase, tripped on the last step and went sprawling.
"Er, come on, Ron, Ginny, "said Hermione anxiously and the three of them went out of the portrait hole.
"Harry…" Angelina tried again. He was being so immature, and this was important!
Harry glared at her. "What?"
"Harry, it's about the Quidditch team…" she trailed off, hoping that he would guess her meaning without her needing to say it.
Harry frowned. "What about the Quidditch team?"
Angelina sighed. "Well, it's just that, with the way you've been lately, I thought that you might not be a good choice for Quidditch Captain…"
Harry blinked as if hadn't though about possibility of ever being Quidditch Captain. Which, Angelina told herself, he probably hadn't.
"So you're telling me that I might not be good enough to be captain?" Harry asked.
Angelina had not been expecting such a harsh response that she was taken aback. She tried to give the most diplomatic answer she could.
"Well, that's the general idea but – "
"And why not?"
"Well…" Angelina tried to sound sympathetic. "Because you've been so… 'out of it' lately, and you haven't concentrated on anything you do… I mean, I know about that Cho girl, she – "
But apparently, this was the wrong thing to say. Harry blew up.
"Why is it always about her?" Harry yelled, standing up. "I don't want to talk about her, ok?" And with that, he stormed up the marble staircase to the dormitories.
Angelina watched him go up, then flung herself into Harry's vacated armchair. "Well, that went well." She muttered to herself. She stared up at the notice board in the Common Room and watched the flashing poster about the end of year ball, not really thinking about anything. Aside from being worried about her team, she was also very confused. Why was Harry so bad-tempered all of a sudden, and what was with the outburst about Crabbe and Goyle?
She curled up in the armchair, felling quite tired also. Just then the portrait hole banged open and in came quite a few Gryffindor students, whom Angelina recognised had been in train of people following Snape, Malfoy and Cho.
"Wow!" exclaimed Colin Creevey, "I've never seen Snape like that before!"
"Why WAS he like that?" asked Seamus Finnigan.
"You don't know?" replied Lavender Brown in a hushed tone."
Seamus shook his head. "I just went along to hear Snape blow up."
"Ok," said Parvati Patil, "We'll tell you…"
Angelina watched as they settled down in the Common Room and told their stories.
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wow! That was actually quite exhilarating. That's how I felt after my maths exam. Anyway, that's another chapter down. And I hope you all like it!!! I'm sorry for the long wait, but I swear, I haven't forgotten about this.
Thanks to reviewers: edgy wedgy, Phionexfan, dan-chan, evil purple cliffie bunny, sarah, Banana_Split, Demon of fear (did it really brighten your day? :p), Lil Miss Barton. I love you all. Truly I do.