4. Snitches and snakes.

The next afternoon Harry could finally leave the thoughts of the war and the preparations behind him. After lunch, he went to the Quidditch pitch for the tryouts, they needed a new Captain and a new Keeper, and several students had signed up. Ron was interested in the position, too, and Harry hoped his friend would make it. He was a good player, and in Harry's opinion it was just bad luck there were so many good players only two years ahead of them. If more positions on the team had been open, Ron would likely have been on it already. Still he would have to be impartial, the entire house depended on them and there might be good candidates among the second- and third-years who had come to the tryouts.

Ginny had come, too, although she'd made clear she didn't want to be Keeper. She hoped for a position as Chaser next year, when all three of the current Chasers and both Beaters would be gone, even if it meant she'd have only three years left to play. Since they'd have to replace five of their players next year, they'd pick at least one Chaser and at least one Beater who would be doing some training with them this year. Those backup players wouldn't get any school credit for the time spent in practice, as long as they weren't on the actual team yet, but even so quite a lot of students had shown up to try out.

They started out with a meeting of the old team, while all those who came to test flew around the pitch, warming up. Many of the students hadn't been able to fly all summer.

Finding a place well away from the other houses –try-outs were for all teams, staging brief games between the houses as well as the usual reflex exercises using Ping-Pong balls- they sat down in the grass.

"I think Harry should be our new Captain," Fred suggested.

"He is our best player," George added.

Harry blushed. "Thank you, but I still don't know as much of the game as all of you," he protested. "Besides, I don't want to risk being distracted and missing the Snitch. I think one of you would be better, or Angelina."

Angelina held up her hands. "Oh, no, I'm no good at that. I agree Fred or George would be better."

The other two Chasers nodded assent.

For once, Fred and George didn't know what to say. Harry was glad, at least they did not protest.

"How do we choose between you two?" Katie asked.

"Do we have to?" Harry wondered. "You're always together anyhow, can't we have both of you as Captain?"

Katie looked thoughtful. "Hm, usually I'd say two Captains is asking for problems, however, in this case, I don't think there'll be any disagreements. We'll have to ask Madam Hooch if it's allowed."

"What do you think, Alicia?" Angelina asked the last member of their team, who hadn't spoken yet.

"I think it's a great idea," Alicia said. "I agree with Harry's arguments, and I think Fred and George would do a good job."

"Are we all in agreement?" Angelina asked. "Anyone who agrees, say 'aye'."

"Aye," Harry replied.

"Aye," Katie and Alicia agreed.

"Well, who are we to disagree with the majority?" Fred and George quipped. They were grinning broadly. In fact, Harry thought they looked pretty smug. Well, they had a right to, they were good at the game.

They got up and approached Madam Hooch.

"…so we wanted to ask if that's legal," Angelina explained. Fred and George had insisted she were the one to ask, feeling a little awkward bringing it up themselves.

Madam Hooch smiled. "There can be only one Captain active in each game, calling for time-outs and such, but there is no reason you couldn't share the job in training, determining strategy, and everything else. I checked, and the school rules do not prohibit that, and you can either alternate or pick one of you to be Captain during the matches themselves."

"Great, thank you!" George replied, echoed by his twin and the rest of the team.

"You knew we'd ask?" Katie asked, expressing her surprise Madam Hooch had looked it up.

"No, not for sure. It was a toss-up between them and Harry," their coach explained.

"It'd be hard to be both Seeker and Captain," Harry replied.

Madam Hooch nodded, looking satisfied. "Very sensible."

She glanced in the direction of the grandstands, where the Slytherin team had gathered. She didn't say anything, but they all knew immediately what she meant.

"I bet he'll be Captain," Fred said.

Harry shrugged. "Hope so, would be a good thing for us."

They grinned. Then George poked Fred. "Come on, let's see if any of these kids can actually fly."

And they could. George and Fred sent Angelina, Alicia and Katie at them with the Quaffle, had them throw a Quaffle around among themselves, and finally there were a few short practice games, where the various houses made a team only from the new students and no Snitch was used, since the 'games' would last only fifteen minutes each. Harry circled above them all, observing.

To Harry's delight, Ron stopped more balls than anyone, and no one would accuse his brothers or Harry of being partial when he would be elected Keeper.

During one of the practice games, Ginny scored twice and managed to take the Quaffle from the opposing team, the Ravenclaws, several times as well. Harry was impressed. Of course she had played a lot with her brothers, but they'd always treated her as their little sister and rarely as someone who was actually good at the game. But she really could play, and she didn't shy away from the other players, like she had done in summer three years ago, when she had joined Harry, Ron, Fred and George once in the Weasley paddock. There were also a couple third-years who did well, a boy called Ard Rainbow and a girl, Nina Pike.

Finally, everybody landed and the team gathered in a corner of the field. Fred and George would decide, of course, but they'd still want to hear the opinions of the rest of the team.

"We say Ron as Keeper, and have Ginny and Ard start training," Fred stated.

Harry nodded. "And Nina?"

"It'll take a lot of time to have two extra Chasers in practice," Katie remarked.

"Well, we will have to do without all of you next year," Harry pointed out. "Unless you plan to fail your N.E.W.T.s,"

"Not on your life," Katie said, jostling him.

"She is good, and with another person training there'll be less comments about favouritism," Alicia suggested, with a pointed look in the direction of the Slytherin team. Of course, there'd be many more comments from them than from the Gryffindors who weren't picked for the team. Everyone third year and up who'd seen them play knew they were a good team and would know they chose competent players.

"They'll probably accuse us anyhow, but who cares. They'll find out Ron and Ginny can really play when we beat them. But yes, the Pike girl is pretty good, we'll include her," George decided. "Come on, Fred, let's see Madam Hooch and post the names."

Not much later all the teams had selected their new team members, and Madam Hooch posted the lists of names on the side of the grandstands. Harry sauntered over to take a look at the other teams, and, of course, to congratulate his friends.

Not surprisingly, Draco was Captain of the Slytherin team. Good, Harry really hoped he'd be able to catch the Snitch while his rival was distracted watching the rest of the team. He spotted Ron and Ginny.

"Congrats, Ron, Ginny," he said, smiling.

"Thanks, Harry! You won't regret it," Ron promised.

"Yes, thank you. There'll be Weasleys on the team for a while yet," Ginny said, beaming.

"Of course, what do you expect when your brothers are Captain. Couldn't handle the responsibility, Potter?"

Well, that hadn't taken him long, Harry thought. It was an effort to restrain himself, but he would not take the bait and get into a fight with Draco. He had to work with him now they were both Prefects, even if the other boy wasn't in the 'study group', and he didn't want to make it any more difficult than it had to be.

"Of course, favouritism is completely foreign to you," Ron shot back, having no such reasons to hold back. "Has your father bought new brooms for the rest of the team yet? The others are three years old by now, isn't that beneath you Slytherins?"

"At least he can buy me a decent broom," Draco said. "What do you have, still got that old Shooting Star?"

"You saw me, or were you too busy picking the least hopeless players for your team?" Ron asked hotly. He and Ginny both had flown a Nimbus 2000, not the newest model, but still quite nice. He'd owled Harry at the start of the summer to give him the news. A rather more affluent colleague and friend of his father's had bought new Firebolt II's for the entire family, and had offered the Weasleys their Nimbusses for a very good price.

Draco looked a little annoyed. Perhaps he hadn't paid as much attention to the players from the other houses as he should have, or he'd assumed Ron had borrowed the broom for the try-outs and was disappointed it was his. He recovered quickly enough, though. "Only a Weasley would be happy with a four year old relic."

"I don't need it to buy my way onto the team," Ron sneered.

"No, you just have to be part of the family," Draco replied.

"Come on, Ron, let's go inside, I'm thirsty after all this flying," Harry suggested. He didn't want a fight out here, and looked pointedly at Draco's Prefect badge to, hopefully, stop their rival from pursuing them. It seemed to work as Draco gave them a final sneer and turned, then stalked off.

"Damn that git," Ron cursed. "I bet he does have a Firebolt II, he just doesn't fly on it yet."

"So? We still have a better team, we'll beat them," Harry said.

"We better," Ron growled. "Well, I could do with some cold pumpkin juice, too."

Harry nodded. "Want to come along?" he asked, noticing Ginny, who'd not got involved in their altercation but who was still standing nearby.

She almost started. It wasn't like he'd asked her something that strange, was it? Then she nodded and fell in beside them.

Crossing the Quidditch pitch, they passed a group of Hufflepuffs. Several players of the Hufflepuff team were congratulating Megan Jones, the new Captain, but it was clear the group was more subdued than the other teams were. Of course, Cedric had been their Captain, before… Harry slowed down, unable to tear his eyes from the group, and sighed.

Ron and Ginny were a few steps ahead before they noticed he'd fallen behind. They turned around and stopped. He stopped as well, in a reflex, still a few steps back and still looking at the Hufflepuff team.

"Hey, Harry, what's… oh," Ron followed his gaze.

Ginny had noticed, too. She walked back a few steps and reached out with one hand, touching his arm. "It was not your fault. It was You-Know-Who, I'm sure that if you could have done anything you would have stopped him."

She sounded very sure of herself. Harry blinked. Was this shy little Ginny? She really had grown up a lot during summer. He smiled at her.

"Thank you."

He resumed walking and they went inside the castle.

On Sunday, Harry, Hermione and Ron started on the Parselmouth Project, as Hermione called it. The Headmaster had found a painting of a snake, fortunately not the Slytherin snake, as Harry wasn't sure it would agree to help, painting or no. This one was a pretty, medium-sized green and black snake in a grassy landscape. Professor McGonagall had taken them to a small room guarded by a centaur painting, and given them the password so they had a quiet place to work.

Harry spoke to the snake first. He still hadn't talked to snakes that often, and he wasn't sure what to say, but a simple 'hi' seemed a good start.

"Well, hello, no one has ever spoken to me before," the snake replied.

"Most of them can't," Harry said in Parseltongue. "But my friends want to learn, if that's possible."

"And?" the snake prompted.

"I need your help for that. I can only speak your language if I can see you."

"Weird," the snake hissed, with a small bob of its head that would probably have been a shrug if it'd had shoulders.

"I don't know why either, but that's the way it is. Just one thing –they have to learn because, 'cause there's a bad snake that's out to kill us. So they have to learn how to tell a snake to get lost. No offence, of course."

The snake tilted its head, quizzically. "A snake that would kill one who speaks our language? That's extremely rare. If you'd teach them to say hello you'd do better."

"Not with this snake," Harry said.

"Harry, what are you saying?" Hermione interrupted. "This is gonna be hopeless, it all sounds the same to me."

"No it doesn't," Ron put in. "There at the end was definitely more of a sj sound instead of a sh."

Harry looked at his friend, trying to determine if he was serious, but Ron hadn't sounded like he was being sarcastic.

"Well, suit yourself, if you're sure," the snake said. "I'll help you. I won't take offence at anything you say while you're teaching them."

"Thank you," Harry replied.

"There, that was a much softer sw," Ron said. Hermione gave him a puzzled look.

"It'll help us," Harry told hem. "I'll yell 'back off' at it next, see if you can copy it."

His friends nodded.

"Back off!" Harry called. "Sj'sshsss'j."

Despite their agreement, the snake looked a little taken aback. "Sorry," Harry hissed.

"Shjishsshj?" Ron tried.

Harry shook his head.

"Sounds like gibberish," the snake said.

"Try again," Ron prompted.

"Sj'sshsss'j."

"Shjishsssj?" Ron hissed.

Hermione shook her head in frustration.

"It's hard to hear, but I think you're getting closer," Harry said.

This time, he asked the snake to say the words. It hissed angrily, and made Hermione jump, but Ron was so intent on listening that he didn't even flinch.

"Sjisshsssj," Ron said.

Harry frowned. He hadn't quite understood, but he knew it was close.

"Sounds like you're speaking with your mouth full," the snake commented, and Harry translated.

"Ron looked at him in wide-eyed surprise. "You mean I'm actually getting it?"

"I think so," Harry replied.

Ron grinned, excited.

"Try again, Ron," Harry prompted.

Hermione gave a sigh of frustration. Harry knew she hated failing at anything, but he was also happy for Ron. It wasn't often he was the first to catch on to something they were learning together.

"Perhaps when Ron has it he can help you better than I can," he told her. "He can hear the actual sounds, I just hear the words in English."

Hermione nodded, and waited while Ron practiced a few more times, then decided to call it a day as they had other homework to do as well. Ron managed well enough that Harry heard his last attempts in English, but Hermione did not get that far. Only when Ron spelled it out for her did she come a little closer.

They returned to the snake's room the next day, and the day after that, until Hermione also managed to copy the hissing sounds.