Harry Potter and the Princesses for Magic
Disclaimer: Sorry that I forgot to put the disclaimer in the other chapter! I'm sorry, but I don't own Luigi, because Nintendo owns him. It did kind of put some of my own touches to make him 'Professor Luigi', but he still belongs to Nintendo. OH, and so does Mario. I also don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.
Author's Note: Hey readers! Whoever's reading this, I'm glad you are. And please review! OK... let's recap. Voldemort's dead, there are two super-powerful Princesses at school... and the new DADA teacher's Professor Luigi! Anyway, in this chapter, Quidditch practices start... and Harry had a duel with Glory!!! Oh, and I am so sorry if you feel that Harry is annoying of how much of a wuss he is. This story might not seem parallel to the 5th book because I started writing the story before I read the 5th book, so I didn't really know that Harry would male mood-swings so often. Instead, I tried to put teenage mood-swings by making him depressed, just a bit wussy, and very deep-in-thought. Give me a break! I've never been 16. Oh, and if you think that the Princesses are annoying, I apologize for that too. When I was starting the story, I wasn't very developed in the art of writing as much as I am now, so basically I created Mary Sues without even knowing it! Anyway, hope you like the story, and PLEASE REVIEW!
Chapter 7
The First Quidditch Practice of the Year
Harry was very excited about the last class of the day. It would be his first Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the NEWT year, which Hagrid, the loveable half-man half-giant, taught. Hagrid's classes weren't the best classes they had, but Harry and his friends tried to be nice and attentive in his class. They would be having their Care of Magical Creatures class with the Ravenclaws, so Harry knew they would see Princess Glory once again.
Since Hagrid's classes were usually outside the castle in the grounds, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors all strolled outside in the fresh autumn-afternoon atmosphere to Hagrid's hut. While walking down the fresh-green hill in the school grounds with his friends, Harry looked back at the castle. He was amazed to see two new tall towers attached to the sides of Hogwarts. One tower was right next to the Gryffindor corridors, so why hadn't Harry seen it before?
"Joy," asked Harry with a strong feeling that Princess Joy would be the wrong person to ask, "do you by any chance know why those towers are there?"
"Why, I thought you knew!" said Princess Joy as she tightened her high pony tail. "The one near the Gryffindor tower are my rooms!"
"Your rooms?"
"Yes, my sister and I have our own towers for our comfort. Nono Albus wanted us to be as comfortable as possible, him being our great-great-great-grandpa and all. He has a tendency to spoil us a lot of the time, like most grandparents do (of course, Harry couldn't relate to this). They also thought it would be necessary for us to have very big and luxurious rooms because of our ranks. I think I already told you a bit about our own rooms. I thought it would be a bit too much, but they insisted! By any chance, do you know where my sister is? All the Ravenclaws are here, even her friends. But I don't see her anywhere."
"Maybe she's coming after," guessed Harry.
"'ello, Yer Royal 'ighness!" said a large, gruff voice from behind them.
"Hi, Hagrid!"
It was Hagrid, their giant friend, behind them, who also had a big smile spread across his hairy, bushy (and might I add, big) face.
"I haven't seen ya since you were a wee toddler!" said Hagrid excitedly. "I'm glad you're here."
"Me too! I'm totally thrilled be in your class!"
She ran up to him and hugged him, which made Hagrid blush.
"Eh, remembe' when I gave yer sister and you those piggy-backs?"
"Oh yes, how can I forget! Those were so fun! Can you give me one now?"
"No, I have ta start tha class. Maybe some othr' time."
"Maybe."
Hagrid, who looked like he was glowing with happiness, turned around to the students.
"Good aftr'noon class," said Hagrid. "Hope yer excited fer t-day's lesson, and der school year. Dis year we'll be learnin' about rare species and all. T-day we'd be learnin' about black unicorns. Now, I know ya've learned about whi' unicorns a few years ago, but black unicorns are very different. In de forest, there are the black unicorns you will be takin' care of fer this month, but Princess Glory is around th' corner with the her royal black unicorns. Come on out, Princess!"
Princess Glory came out with two gigantic black unicorns with long black feathery wings settled on their back, with a saddle, reins and a crest on their chest with a regal hippigryph in armour standing up like a human with Glory's magnificent sword, two black unicorns, a giant flame, golden vine border and a tiara as well.
"'ello, Princess!"
"Good afternoon, Hagrid!" greeted Glory with a small grin. "Long time no see!"
"Yeah, I've missed ye and yer sister so much!"
"Yes, and we have missed you too!"
"Let's get on with tha lesson. As ye' can see, black unicorns are a bit bigger than the white unicorns. They're also very rare. There are only 50 black unicorns in ea' country. It's very sad. They also have wings, but some don't have 'em. Whi' unicorns can 'ave wings too, ye know. They have great healing pow'rs, a touch of their horn can cure ya very quickly. But unlike the whi' unicorns, their blood can't cure ya or make ya live longr. Once you've taken in tha blood of a black unicorn, ya fall dead. The blood of a black unicorn is poisonous to everyone, 'xcept them. They're very smart. There's also one thing that makes them a bit more likeable than whi' unicorns. Does anybody know what?"
Princess Glory, Princess Joy and Hermione raised up their hand like lightning.
"Uhmm.... How 'bout... Princess Joy!"
"Usually, white unicorns prefer women touching them. Black unicorns like to have both girls and boys pet them. They like to be petted a lot more than white unicorns do. That's why they're a lot more likeable than white unicorns."
"Very good! So if black unicorns are mo' likeable, why are whi' unicorns so popular?"
Another shot of hands came up. Again, they were the hands of Princess Joy, Princess Glory and Hermione.
"Uhmm.... Princess Glory."
"White unicorns are more popular because of their elegance is more extravagant than most black unicorns. Their silky white skin is so beautiful, their popularity overcomes the black ones. Also, more people have seen white unicorns than black unicorns because black unicorns are so rare. Another major reason is of the white unicorn's blood. Many people have heard that this type of unicorn's blood can save you even if you're an inch from death. For a black unicorn to touch you, you would have to do something very special, which I will let Hagrid teach."
"Excellent! Extremely excellent! Who can tell may why Muggles know whi' unicorns so much?"
The same three hands shot up.
"Uhmmm.....How 'bout Hermione this time!"
"White unicorns are very popular with Muggles because of the Muggle-born wizards whose families know about the magical world their children come from. Also, sometimes white unicorns can get lost or they run away from poachers who bring them or chase them into the Muggle world where some Muggles spot them."
"Wonderful! Just te let ya know, we're goin' ta be learnin' about what they eat this week. They're omnivores, which means that they eat meat n' plants. They usually eat wil' berries and fruits, wil' potatoes, other wil' vegetables and small animals such as mice and otha small creatures, although they only eat meat twice a week. They also eat a rare flow'r called Aprivites which is why there are so few black unicorns. Most black unicorns live where the Aprivites grow. If possible, they eat olives, if there ar' any around. If they do fin' any olives, they eat a lot!
"For t'day's assignment, get into groups. I will give each group a black unicorn. Whoever's in Princess Glory or Princess Joy's group, will get one of the royal black unicorns. Read the chart in tha first section of yer first chapter in The Advanced Magical Creature Owner's Manual for NEWT Students of the daily diet of a black unicorn."
Hagrid went into the forest where he pulled out some other black unicorns.
"These creature ar' worth a fortune!" said Hagrid, bringing them to the class. "It wa' very hard for Hogwats to get these beauties. Thei' Royal Highnesses helped a lot with getting these. Class, say thank ya to them!"
"Thank you!" the class shouted to them. Most of the class thanked the Princesses with enthusiasm after taking a glimpse of the wonderful, noble, black unicorns.
Everyone was given a unicorn. Harry and his friends were fortunate to have gotten one of the royal black unicorns. Hagrid passed around a box with a variety of food for the black unicorns to eat. It was up to the students to pick out the right types of foods and amounts for their unicorns. Harry was looking through his book to find the chart while Ron was looking at the foods and Hermione and Princess Joy were petting the wonderful beast.
"It says here that their daily diet consists of half a pound of berries, a quarter of a pound of peach, a couple of apples and 2 wild potatoes, and 2 pounds of olives is optional," read Harry.
"Wow, that's a lot for an animal!" said Ron surprisingly. "2 pounds of wild potatoes and olives? That's a lot. You're a very hungry fellow, aren't you?"
"First of all, Ron," stated Hermione, "it's not a fellow, it's a unicorn. Second of all, it has a name. If you look around its neck it has a collar which says 'Moscow'. And third of all, I wouldn't talk because you eat about the same amount in sweets!"
"Shut up, Mione!"
"Besides," included Princess Joy, "I don't think it's that much, considering the size of this creature. My sister eats more!"
"Speaking of your sister, why was it only her who brought in the black unicorns?"
"She's the one that usually uses black unicorns. I barely use them. If you look on the crest, it has black unicorns and a hippigryph. This is my sister's coat of arms. I have a coat of arms with a hippogryph and white unicorns, with vines, gems, tiara and a wave of water. I didn't want my coat of arms to have armour on it."
"Why is it named 'Moscow'?" asked Ron.
"Oh, that's because she likes Russia a lot. We have a castle up there, and it's one of my sister's favourite places to go on vacation. Her other black unicorn is 'Anastasia', and don't forget that her hippigryph is named 'Tsarina'. Weird, isn't it?"
"Just a little," replied Harry.
"Anyway," continued Hermione, "we have to give him the list of food you said, Harry."
"It needs half a pound of berries, a quarter of a pound of peach, a couple of apples and 2 wild potatoes, and 2 pounds of olives is optional. It also needs 1 Aprivite and 2 mice or rabbits a week. I think we should start feeding him the Aprivite and scurry creatures today. Give Moscow 1 Aprivite in the box. Where's the meat?"
"It's this stuff," answered Princess Joy as she picked up a slice of smoked meat. "It's not how they usually eat their meat, but this is healthier for them. It has all these spices and vitamins and was smoked with extra virgin olive oil and red wine. It's also supposed to have more flavour."
"No matter what you do to it, it still looks repulsive!" remarked Ron with a disgusted look.
They fed Moscow its food one item by one. The Aprivite was a big, grey flower with purple spots on it, and had a strange type of black pollen in the middle. At the end of the class, everyone brought back their unicorns and boxes and gave them to Hagrid. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Princess Joy helped Hagrid to put everything away. Princess Glory couldn't stay because she had a meeting with Professor Dumbledore to discuss her latest discoveries and inventions, and then she had a meeting with Professor Snape about her improvement with her latest werewolf potion. Afterwards, she was going to add an extra page to her essay for Royal Lessons.
"Royal lessons?" asked Hermione.
"They're lessons given to Joy and I so we'll be prepared to be Monarchs," said Princess Glory. "Our lessons are in the summer, but we're given assignments, readings and such during the other months."
Once they were about to leave, Princess Joy turned around to ask Hagrid a question.
"Hagrid, I was thinking about those piggy-backs you used to give me. I know it might sound silly but... Can you give me a piggy-back to the castle?"
"Well sure!" replied Hagrid. "I would be glad te give ye one!"
Hagrid lifted her up and put her on his massive shoulders, and off they walked. Once Harry thought about it, it seemed very odd to him that a great and powerful witch would want a piggy-back from a loveable, half-man half-giant like Hagrid. Hagrid and Princess Joy told Harry and his friends about fun times they had together and Harry, Hagrid, Ron and Hermoine told Princess Joy about fun time they had. Once they got to the castle, Hagrid lifted Princess Joy off his shoulders and laid her down on the ground. They all said goodbye to Hagrid as they slowly walked into the corridors of Hogwarts.
*********
It was early in the evening of the same day. Harry had just finished his homework and was just thinking of polishing his Stella-Velocita 29, when Professor McGonagoll entered the common room. Harry looked up from his parchment to see his teacher who had just entered the room and was carrying a large parcel behind her back. He sensed that Professor McGonagall would need to say something important.
"Harry, I need to speak to you," she said in her serious voice.
Harry felt a lump in his throat.
Am I in trouble? thought Harry. But I didn't do anything wrong, did I? Harry walked over to Professor McGonagall.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall?"
"Harry, I wanted to tell you something very important. Whenever a Quidditch captain graduates from Hogwarts, they usually get to pick the new captain of their Quidditch team. Harry, the end of the year when Angelina Johnson left, she told me that she wanted you to be the Gryffindor Quidditch captain."
Harry was in shock. A mixture of excitement, nervousness and joy swelled in him. He was speechless.
"Harry, I know it's a tough job, and an enormous responsibility, but Johnson, and even Wood, were certain you could do it. So, will you accept the offer?"
"I....I....Uh....Yes...."
"Great! Harry, because Fred and George Weasley are gone, you have to find two new Beaters. We also need 3 new Chasers since Ms. Johnson, Ms. Bell and Ms. Spinnet have graduated Hogwarts. I expect you to have the first practice soon. The first Quidditch game of the season is in less than 2 1/2 months and Gryffindor will be against Slytherin. I sure do not want to be around Professor Snape if Slytherin wins."
"Professor McGonagall, when I was banned from Quidditch, didn't they have replacements for Fred, George and I?"
"Oh, yes of course," said Professor McGonagoll. "Don't worry about that, they were only temporary players. We all knew you would be back in the game as soon as that Umbridge was stopped. I do recommend though that you suggest putting them on your team."
"I'll do that," said Harry.
"Oh my, before I forget I wanted to give you back something," said Professor McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall pulled out the parcel she was hiding behind her back and handed it carefully to Harry. Harry held it in both his hands and examined it. It was in the shape of a broom, and on the parcel was a note that read: Firebolt, Owner: Harry Potter.
"It's your Firebolt," said McGonagall, looking a bit sad as she looked at the broom. "Your godfather gave it to you, didn't he?"
Harry, who was trying to hold back tears as his hands glided on the parcel, looked up at McGonagall.
"You know about Sirius, and what happened to him?"
"Yes I do," responded McGonagall sadly. "Dumbledore explained everything to me at the end of last year. I'm so sorry, Harry."
"Yeah, I'm sorry too."
"Maybe a ride on it will make you feel better," said Professor McGonagall. "I'll give you a note to let you fly out in the grounds if you want."
"No, that won't be necessary," said Harry. "I don't think I could bear flying on it. I have a new broom that I think I'll fly. Flying the Firebolt.... it'll just hurt too much."
"I see. Well, I have to leave now," said Professor McGonagall. "Goodbye, Mr. Potter."
She left the common room as Ron, Hermione and Princess Joy just came in from looking at a few of the many books that Princess Joy were mentioned in. They all had a puzzled look on her face when they passed by Professor McGonagall.
"Harry, why was Professor McGonagoll here?" asked Hermoine.
"She...er.... She told me that I would be the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain," said Harry with a fake grin, trying to hide his depression.
"Harry, that's great!!!!" shouted Ron with excitement. "I mean, Harry, my own friend, a captain. Charlie was captain too, but my best friend, captain of the Quidditch team for Gryffindor!"
"I'm with Ron," agreed Hermione. "It's unbelievable. We knew you would end up captain but now that it's happened, we're so blown away!"
"I'm so happy for you!" congratulated Princess Joy. "I've never seen you play but believe me, I've read a bit of Hogwarts, a History Volume 2 and it says how great you are."
"Thanks," sighed Harry. "Thanks a bunch."
"Harry, you don't look too happy," said Hermione, sounding concerned.
"Yeah Harry, you should be thrilled!" said Ron.
"What's the matter, Harry?" asked Joy, sitting down next to Harry. "You can tell us."
"It's nothing, really."
"Come on, you can tell us!" said Ron.
Harry lifted up the parcel he was holding to Ron.
"What's this?" asked Ron, examining it.
"It's the Firebolt," said Harry.
"Great, you got your broom back! Hey Harry, remember when McGonagall took it away because they thought Sirius- Oh yeah," said Ron, as his voice suddenly dimmed a bit after realizing what was wrong. "It's Sirius, isn't it?"
Harry took a deep breath of depression and let out a long sigh.
"Yeah it is."
"Who's Sirius?" asked Joy curiously.
"It's a long story," said Hermione.
"Come on, you can tell me!"
Harry looked around to see if anyone was in the room, if it was safe to tell Joy. As he looked around, he found that only Neville and Ginny were in the room, and they were there that night. It was safe to tell her.
"The Sirius we're talking about is....is.." said Harry, trailing off. "The Sirius we're talking about is Sirius Black."
"Oh my goodness!" gasped Joy, putting her hands to her mouth. "You mean, that criminal who's responsible for Voldemort killing your parents?"
"No, he isn't," said Harry. "He was innocent, he was never with Voldemort. It was Peter Pettigrew who was the one who betrayed them. He framed Sirius by faking his own death and turning into a rat!"
"Which was my pet rat and I slept with might I add!" added Ron.
"That too. Anyway, Peter went back to serve Voldemort until the war. They killed him during then, but I never learnt how. All I heard was that he was dead."
"You mean you're saying that all this time, he was innocent?" questioned Joy. All of them nodded. "Wow, I never knew that. Poor Sirius! Locked up in Azkaban for 13 years! He escaped though, didn't he? So where is he now?"
"I...uh..... the truth is, there isn't any exact answer to that," sighed Harry, thinking of how mysterious that veil was. He himself had no idea how Sirius really died.
"What do you mean? Don't you know?" asked Joy.
"Yes and no," said Hermione. "It's really complicated."
"What's complicated?"
"The way he...." Harry trailed off. He couldn't bear to think of his poor godfather dead. "The way he.... the way he died."
"Oh my goodness, he died!" gasped Joy. "But- but how? Were you there when he died?"
"I was, and so was Neville Longbottom over there," said Harry, pointing at Neville who was having a hard time with his Potion's homework. "Ron, Hermione, Ginny and a Ravenclaw named Luna Lovegood came too, but they weren't where we were."
"What do you mean, 'where you were'? Where were you anyway?"
"Did you hear about the night when Voldemort entered our Ministry of Magic?" asked Harry.
"Yes, of course! Papa was so frightened when he heard about that, thinking he would come after the other Ministries next."
"Well, it was that night that we tried to enter the Ministry of Magic. It's a long story, we'll tell you some other time. Anyway, I thought Sirius was being tortured by Voldemort, so we tried to save him. It was all a trap and some Aurors had to come and get us, and Sirius was among them. He tried to fight the Death Eaters, but alas, he died....."
"He died?" gasped Joy sadly.
"Yeah... he did. Everything must sound so confusing, but eventually we'll tell you what happened."
"Sure, it all sounds so confusing. How did you get to know Sirius so well anyway?"
"Sirius.... Sirius was my godfather...." sighed Harry.
"Oh dear, you poor thing!" said Joy as she gave him a hug. "I never knew!"
"It's okay, Joy. Don't work yourself up over it. Wait a minute!" said Harry, as he suddenly thought up something quite curious. "How could Voldemort be planning a war if he was trying to get the weapon at the Ministry?"
"You mean that Prophecy?" asked Joy. "I heard about that from Papa. They think that he was planning both at the same time. They think that his whole plan might have been to get the Prophecy, and then to have the war."
"You mean, all that time he was planning two whole entire different schemes and messing my mind?"
"What?"
"Oh, another long story. We'll tell you some other time."
"Well, just look on the bright side: if he's dead, he's gone to a better place. Besides, you shouldn't be so sad! You're Quidditch captain!"
"Yeah, cheer up, mate!" said Ron.
"Thanks a bunch you guys," said Harry, who was starting to cheer up. "But I've got to find two new Beaters and three Chasers for the team. I'm thinking of making next Friday the first Quidditch practice."
"I could be a Beater!" volunteered Princess Joy. "I was a Beater in my old school. I'm actually wonderful at it. I've been wanting to be a Hogwarts Quidditch player since I heard that I was coming here. I was thinking of being a Seeker at first, but I'm great at Beater as well. I think I told you about it on the train.
"My sister used to be a great Beater as well. For some strange reason, she attracts Bludgers. It used to be good because once they went near her she slammed them to the wall. But when she was about 9 years old, she started losing interest in Quidditch, and when she lost interest in Quidditch she lost interest in playing Quidditch, and when she lost interest in playing Quidditch she started to become bad at it, and once she became bad at it she wasn't so great at hitting Bludgers. When that happened, she started getting hit in the head, a lot! Now she has this fear of balls and whenever she goes to a Quidditch game, she gets hit in the head by Bludgers."
"Yikes!" said Ron. "No wonder she hates Quidditch so much!"
"I'd like to see you play Beater, but I've got to find another Beater," said Harry. "Who else do you know in Gryffindor that can play Beater?"
"What about Ginny?" suggested Princess Joy. "Ron told me that she played the Seeker for a while and you won the game. I think she could play Beater."
"Ron, what do you think?"
"I don't know, but I think she could have a go at it. I could ask Fred and George for their book of The Beater's Bible to give to Ginny."
"You don't have to ask them, you can read my copy," volunteered Princess Joy.
"Thanks."
"Great!" said Harry. "Of course, we'll have to ask Ginny first. I think next week I'll have the first practice for Gryffindor. Can you ask Professor Dumbledore if I could sign out the grounds for next Tuesday too?"
"Sure!"
"I guess all I have to do now is find 3 Chasers. Do you know any good Chasers in Gryffindor?"
"No, I'm afraid not," said Hermione.
"Beats me!" responded Ron.
"I haven't met anyone so far that I know who's a great Chaser," answered Princess Joy.
"Oh, all right. I'm going to send a letter to Remus to tell him I made Quidditch captain. He'll be thrilled! All the younger students are in bed now anyway."
"Who's Remus?" asked Princess Joy.
"Oh, he was one of my father's best friends. I visited him for a while in the summer. I think I should go upstairs now. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, bye!"
Harry hurried upstairs to his dorm. As soon as he entered the room, he pulled out a quill, parchment and ink and starting writing his letter to Remus:
Dear Remus,
Guess what? I'm the Quidditch captain! I'm so excited. Our first game is in 2 and a half months and I have to find 2 new Beaters and 3 Chasers to replace Fred and George Weasley, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell. I think I've got two new replacements: Princess Joy says she's great at being Beater and Ginny might be able to do Chaser. She filled in for me temporarily for Seeker last season, so she might be a good Chaser this season. Now I have to find three Chasers. Of course, we'll have to wait until the try-outs to see who's good enough to be on the team. Even though, I think I've got a handle on it. I'll try my best. Hopefully, I can live up to Oliver and Angelina.
Harry
********
Harry ate his breakfast slowly as he thought about what Professor McGonagall said the night before. The fact that he was the new Quidditch captain for Gryffindor still shocked him. It was hard to think though, that he had his Firebolt again, the one that was totally stripped down because his godfather Sirius, oh poor dear Sirius, had sent it to him.
Hermione, Ron and Princess Joy came down to breakfast as well. This time, Princess Joy had put her hair up with butterfly clips. Harry said hello to them as he picked at his bacon.
"Hello, Harry!" greeted Princess Joy. "What's the matter?"
"I was just thinking of what Professor McGonagall said. I'm a bit nervous to make the new Quidditch team. Who am I going to replace as Chasers?"
"I don't know," responded Ron.
Harry let out a long, deep sigh. Just then, Dean Thomas came down and sat right next to Harry.
"Hey, Harry. Is it true you're going to be the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain?"
"Yes, it is. It's just that I'm really anxious to find new Chasers for the team. Do you know any good Chasers in Gryffindor?"
"Of course!"
"Really? Who?"
"Me!"
Harry stood in shock.
"You're a Chaser?"
"Of course!" answered Dean, pouring himself some pumpkin juice. "Since I found out about Quidditch, I asked to get signed up in a mini, local Quidditch team during the summer. I'm one of the Chasers."
"Really?" asked Harry. "How do you feel about being one of the Quidditch Chasers for Gryffindor?"
"I...Er....A...Of course!!!" stuttered Dean Thomas. "I would love to!"
"Great, try-outs are going to be on Tuesday. I think I'm going to check out your Chaser skills and see how you play with the rest of the team. Got it?"
"Great! I'll be there!"
Harry felt a burst of joy. He just might be able to pull together a great Gryffindor Quidditch team. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and he looked around. It was Cho Chang.
"Hello, Harry!" said Cho Chang with a shy smile.
"H-h-hi...." stuttered Harry.
"I found out you're going to be the new Gryffindor captain for Quidditch. Congratulations!"
"Thank you!"
"Your welcome. Oh dear, I guess I'd better go. I can't wait to see Gryffindor play."
"Cho?" Harry asked shyly, thinking this might be a chance to re-start things with Cho. "By the way, what are you doing today?"
"Going to the dueling match. Don't you have that duel with Princess Glory?"
"You know?"
"Of course! Everyone knows, and everyone's going to be there. Everyone in Ravenclaw is going to be rooting for Princess Glory, but I'll be cheering you on."
"Thanks.."
"I wish you a lot of good luck. I've seen Princess Glory duel, she's extremely rough!"
"Oh no...."
"I guess I'll see you there!"
"Yeah, I guess so.."
Cho Chang skipped back to the Ravenclaw table, while Harry was feeling knots in his stomach from being extremely nervous.
Would I be able to win this, or even survive? he thought to himself. He would just have to wait and see.
**********
Harry, who was a bit nervous for his dueling match, ate his lunch forcefully, got ready, grabbed his wand and hurried outside into the school grounds. He was going to meet Princess Glory in the field where they usually played Quidditch. Harry was told that they would play the professional way: both of them would start off with 100 points. Points would be taken off depending on what spell they were under, a spell that backfired or a spell cast that the opponent had missed. If someone had lost all their 100 points, the opponent would win.
Harry was also told that there would be a crowd of people watching, but no one told him how many. To his amazement, the Quidditch stands were completely filled with every single person at Hogwarts. Through the beehive of crowds in the stands, he spotted Hermione, Princess Joy and Ron who told him they'd be there, Lee Jordan who was the announcer (though he graduated from Hogwarts, he volunteered to do the announcements for Quidditch while working at a sports radio station), and Madame Hooche, who volunteered to referee and supervise the duel. Also supervising the match were: Professor Dumbledore (who wanted to see his extremely great-granddaughter and one of his favourite students duel), Professor Snape (who was obviously cheering for Princess Glory and adored to see Harry be crushed), Hagrid (who wanted to see both his student friends), and all the other teachers. Harry also spotted Colin Creevey (who wanted to get a gigantic amount of pictures of the event), Princess Glory's friends: Ruth Simmore, Vicky Phlumer, Tiffany Sealious and Lucy Landerville, Dean Thomas, Ginny Weasley, Seamus Finnigan who was surprisingly cheering for Princess Glory (it was because of his crush on her) and Draco Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle (Harry suspected they had the same intentions as Snape).
Harry saw three rows of gigantic, long stands around the gigantic Quidditch area. One of the gigantic rows covering all the side area on the right were the seats for the ones who were cheering Harry on. On the left, there were the seats for the ones who were cheering Princess Glory on. The smaller one which was between the other seats were the seats for the staff and the speaker Lee Jordan. There was a big score board right over the teachers, which had two lit green bars, one under Harry's name and under Glory's name. Harry had practiced the whole night before, and he was ready.
"Ready, Harry?" asked Princess Glory in a proud yet kind way.
"Absolutely!"
Madame Hooche walked between them both. She signaled them both to salute. Princess Glory's salute seemed very serious. Harry tried to make his as respectable and as honourable as possible, considering he was battling with wizard royalty. He was also a bit worried if he might injure the Princess badly which would be disrespectful. Then he thought again, and figured that it would most likely be him who would be injured badly.
She blew her whistle and the duel began. The day before, Harry was told he would go first.
"Expelliarmus!" shouted Harry as he waved his wand. A flash of scarlet light shot out in Princess Glory's direction. Princess Glory stepped aside as it passed her and flew passed everyone into the grounds.
"Harry Potter has done the 'expelliarmus' spell and Princess Glory has dodged it," announced Lee Jordan.
"-3 points for Harry Potter!" shouted Madame Hooche. The bar of light under Harry's name went down the slightest bit.
"Is that the best you can do?" snickered Princess Glory. "Shotizarma!" she shouted as a powerful hyper beam of orange light shot him with a powerful push. Harry flew up into the air and smashed into the ground. His shoulder hurt very much after 'landing'.
"Princess Glory has done the 'shotizarma' spell which has made Harry Potter shoot up in the air and crash to the ground," announced Lee Jordan.
"-20 points for Harry Potter," said Madame Hooche. 20% more of the light had vanished from Harry's bar. Harry suddenly remembered the dueling spell that Malfoy put on him when snakes came out of his wand.
"Serpensortia!" he shouted as a cobra spat out of his wand.
"Harry has got up and done the snake spell, and-"
Princess Glory yelped as the cobra bit her on the thumb.
"Wow! Princess Glory has been bitten just a small bit!"
"-10 points for Princess Glory!"
Harry could tell that she didn't like snakes very much. Princess Glory hissed viciously, which seemed to make the cobra slither away. Harry was in shock and so was everyone else.
"You're a Parselmouth?" asked Harry still in shock.
"Of course!" said Princess Glory. "I'm familiar with a couple of other animal languages. It's actually a surprising gift I have - Sinkoritum!"
Princess Glory quickly said a spell to Harry with a whip of her wand. Harry looked around to see the effect of the charm. Nothing was happening.
"Princess Glory has released the sinking spell on Harry Potter and it seems that he is slowly seeping in the ground," said Lee Jordan.
Harry was confused of what Lee said, but then realized what was happening and suddenly looked down. He was sinking in the ground!
"Amazing!" said Lee Jordan.
"-10 points for Harry!"
Harry tried to get up, but couldn't. He tried remembering a spell to do.
"Electrius!" he shouted as a lightning bolt shot out of his wand. Princess Gory ducked the bolt. She started shaking her head and tsking, as if disappointed.
"Princess Glory has dodged the lightning bolt. Harry Potter is in hot water now!"
"-2 points for Harry Potter!"
"Iceatius!" she said as she waved her wand. For this spell, streaks of cold water had hit him. He looked at his legs (his feet were under the ground) and watched as ice was slowly forming on him and it was coming up as well.
"A wonderful ice spell! I guess I was wrong, he's in cold water now!"
"-15 points from Harry!"
Harry was extremely cold. An idea appeared in his head. He knew what to do.
"Firiniosum!"
Fire flamed out of his wand which melted the ice on his legs. Princess Glory blew on the fire to put it out and it turned into smoke. Harry knew this duel wasn't going anywhere.
"Harry has done a flame spell which melted the ice but unfortunately, Princess Glory has put out the flames. Poor Harry."
"-4 points from Harry."
Princess Glory let out a chuckle as she got her wand ready.
"Arriosis!" she yelled as arrows spat our from her wand. Harry dodged the very fast arrows, which ripped past him quickly and hit the score board behind him.
"Fantastic!" shouted Lee Jordan.
"-4 points from Princess Glory!"
"Not bad, Harry," said Princess Glory in an impressed manner. "Not bad."
"You haven't seen anything yet!" said Harry. "Earthioquake-im!"
Everything was calm for a second, until the ground started shaking. Everyone was holding onto their seats. Harry was released from the ground from that quicksand spell and Princess Glory lost her balance and fell. Her head hit the ground and banged on her wand.
"Ow!"
"Impressive! Harry has done an earthquake spell and Princess Glory has fallen and hit her head on her wand. That must hurt! Let me add to you that her wand his pure silver and pure gold with many diamonds and gems on it. Her wand contains many powerful ingredients."
"-8 points for Her Royal Highness!"
Harry looked at Princess Glory. She was steaming angry. She picked herself up with her hand on her head. Her eyes narrowed.
"Think you're so great, eh? Bindinoasim!"
Purple beams shot out of her wand and wrapped around Harry. He was binded together. He immediately started to get tired, as if the beams wrapped around him were sucking his energy.
"Princess Glory has done a body binding spell which has binded Harry and is making him weaker at every moment."
"-13 points for Harry Potter!"
Why am I so tired? asked Harry. He was slowly weakening. With all his might, he held his wand, waved it as much as he could and said a spell on the top of his head.
"Explodorius!" he yelled with all his might. A gigantic explosion came out of his wand. Harry knew he would have hit Princess Glory. Once the smoke disappeared, he couldn't see her.
"Thought that would have done the trick, did you?"
He looked around. Princess Glory was behind him.
"Harry Potter has done an explosion spell. Princess Glory has dodged very quickly and hid behind Harry. Nice work, Your Royal Highness!"
"-10 points to Harry Potter!"
Princess Glory waved her wand.
"Rockius!"
Chunks of rock spat out of her wand. The rocks fell at his feet, and were forming onto his legs. He was slowly turning into rock! His legs felt extremely numb.
"Her Royal Highness has done a rock forming spell, turning Harry into rock."
"-25 points for Harry Potter!"
Harry tried to take his focus off his pain. He looked at Princess Glory and concentrated.
"Accio bolder!" he said. Princess Glory looked in confusion. Then she looked up as a rock was rocketing straight for her. Everyone gasped. The bolder was extremely close until she stuck out her hand. The bolder automatically paused in mid-air. There was a moment of silence until...
"Explodis!"
The bolder exploded all over Harry.
"Amazing!" shouted Lee Jordan.
"-15 points to Harry Potter! The game is over! Princess Glory wins!"
The staff and the ones who were rooting for Princess Glory cheered with enthusiasm while the others groaned. Harry felt awful. Even though he was released from the rocks and body binds, he was tired, he was aching and worst of all, he lost. Some older students laid him on a stretcher to be brought to the Hospital Wing while the Princess was waving at all the cheering people.
Harry was laid on a hospital bed while Madame Pomfrey quickly wiped his face with a warm towel, stuck a thermometer in his mouth and gave him some ice packs. Hermoine, Ron and Princess Joy rushed into the Infirmary to his bed side.
"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?" shouted Ron.
"He'll be fine," said Madame Pomfrey, "although he has had some rough damage to him. What exactly happened?"
"He was dueling with Princess Glory, " answered Hermione.
Madame Pomfrey's jaw dropped and her eyes widened.
"My goodness! Thank heavens you're still alive! Princess Glory could have knocked the stuffing out of you way more than she has done this time! Well, I guess I can leave you three with him for a while."
She left the room quickly and quietly. All of his friends' eyes were on him.
"I can't believe what happened," said Hermione in shock.
"I'm surprised too," said Princess Joy. "You did fantastic! A lot of world-class duelers have faced against her and have been in worse condition than you have!"
"Really?"
"Oh yes!"
Suddenly, Princess Glory burst into the room and ran to Harry's bedside.
"Harry, are you all right?" she said with worry in her voice.
"Not much..."
"Sorry, I tried to go as light on you as I could do. I'm terribly sorry you're hurt."
"It's okay, I guess..."
"Here, I wanted to give you this," she said as she pulled out a gigantic book called: Dueling: An Art of the Competitive, and handed it over to him. "I thought it might help you with your dueling. Even so, I think you did fabulous."
"Thank you."
"Where is Madame Pomfrey? I think I need to get some ice for my head and some medicine for my bite. I never knew it would hurt as much as this if my wand hit my head."
"Remember what Lee Jordan said?" exclaimed Hermione. "Your wand is made of pure gold, pure silver, diamonds, jewels and all those substances inside your wand."
"That's true."
Madame Pomfrey came into the room with a glass of medicine. She looked up at Princess Glory.
"Well hello, Princess Glory!" said Madame Pomfrey. "How are you? I guess you have noticed that Harry isn't so well. You gave him quite the knock out!"
"I did try to do my best at not trying to hurt him much. By the way, I need some anti-biotic for my snake bite and some ice for my head. I banged my wand on my head by accident."
"Oh dear... And that wand in particular as well! Well, of course. Here Harry, this is for you," she said as she handed him a glass of pinkish medicine (no, it wasn't Pepto Bismal!). "I'll go ahead and get those for you, Your Royal Highness."
"Thank you."
Madame Pomfrey ran out of the room. Princess Glory turned to Harry.
"So Harry, do you forgive me?"
"Sure," said Harry, who despite his horrible pain, wasn't going to hold a grudge against her.
"I'm glad to here that."
Madame Pomfrey hurried into the room with an ice pack and band-aid with anti-biotic cream on it.
"There's the ice pack you wanted," said Madame Pomfrey as she handed the ice pack to Princess Glory, "and this is for your snake bite."
"Thanks," said Princess Glory as Madame Pomfrey put the bandage on her thumb. "I better go. Ruth, Vicky, Tiffany and Lucy and I have scheduled to meet at my dorm. I'm going to show them some of my newest inventions."
"Oh....Thanks for the book!"
"Don't mention it. Bye!"
"Bye!"
As Princess Glory sped out of the Infirmary, Harry put the glass of medicine down on the table next to him, laid his head on his pillow and moaned with ache.
"Ow.... Well, if she can almost kill me, I guess she could have killed Voldemort!"
**********
By Monday, Harry had healed from his wounds and was up and running by the afternoon. Tuesday was the try-outs for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Harry posted up a notice in the Gryffindor common room about it in the hopes that some good Quidditch players would notice it. In fact, many students from the house attended. A lot of them stunk, and a lot of them were great. Harry thought that Princess Joy was the best Quidditch Beater he had ever seen. Harry hadn't seen Ginny play Seeker, but she was obviously a wonderful Beater as well.
She's obviously got her brothers' talent for Quidditch, thought Harry.
He was also impressed by Dean Thomas' athletic ability. Dean Thomas was amazing at handling the Quaffle. He found out that Seamus Finnigan was quite a good Chaser, so they were both made Chasers. A 3rd year girl named Danielle Ringum was chosen as the other Chasers as well.
By Thursday evening, Harry had finally made the decision of who were the new Quidditch team members on the Gryffindor team. He posted the list of students who made it. For Beaters, he chose Ginny and Princess Joy. For Chasers, he had picked Seamus Finnigan, Danielle Ringum and Dean Thomas.
The first Quidditch game was on Friday of that week, so Princess Joy signed out the pitch for the team. Everyone was to meet in the center-field with their Quidditch robes on, where they would discuss their plan and would practice. Everyone was ready and excited for the first Quidditch practice of the year. All of their members showed up on time.
Though everyone in the team was pretty excited to play on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Harry had something else on his mind. He was tearing his hair out the night before, thinking of a plan for the Quidditch team. He knew the Slytherins were extremely sly and would do anything to win. Harry had to make sure it would be a fair game which they would definitely win.
Harry met up with all the other Quidditch team members, looking very eager, in the center field on Friday.
"Okay teammates, I figured out a plan for this season," announced Harry to his team. "For our plan, each member will pick someone on the other team to block. Try and follow them as much as possible and try to block their way of the Quaffle. Chasers, stop following them as soon as you've got the Quaffle. Once they've got the Quaffle again, you go back to following them. Beaters, don't worry too much about this. Just try and get the Bludgers out of the field, so you won't have to jump at them once they get to the goals. The only time I would think it would be okay to hit a player on the other team is if that person would be cheating or doing something bad. Maybe you could do that when they have the Quaffle and we're losing big time. And no, Ron, we're not going to be hitting the Bludgers at Malfoy, though we'd very much like too. I was told from Professor McGonagall that you tried to do that last year."
"Oh.... But it'll be so fun!" groaned Ron. "Besides, he's likely to be cheating."
"Don't worry about him," responded Harry. "I'll go after him myself. He's the Seeker and I'm the Seeker, so I would be blocking him anyway. I'll try not to catch the Snitch too soon. I'll block the Snitch away from Malfoy as much as possible until we get 50 points. Will you all remember that?"
Everyone nodded.
"Great! Let's go play!"
Everyone cheered, got on their brooms and flew up into the air. Harry released the Snitch, Bludgers and Quaffle into the air. It would be Harry's first time on his new Stella Velocita 29. He was impressed of how smoothly it flew, and yet it flew very quickly. It was very easy to control as well. He looked over at Princess Joy's broom; it was a Stella Velocita 32! Harry asked her about the broom, and she said that she had just got it this year. She also mentioned that her sister had the Stella Velocita 31, although she barely used it. Harry flew to Ginny to see what kind of broom he had. To his amazement, it was a Nimbus 2001!
"Hey Ginny, how'd you get that Nimbus 2001?" asked Harry curiously. "It's surprising that you've got a better broom that Ron."
"Oh, a friend gave it to me," said Ginny.
"Which friend?"
"Princess Glory."
"You're friends with her?"
"Of course she is! She's practically my idol! She's so smart, and she helps me a lot with my homework. I met her one day at the library. She gave me great pointers for an essay I was doing, and she's been helping me ever since!"
"Is the broom yours for good?"
"Yep, she said I could keep it. She already got a new broom this year, and she had another good broom too, so she didn't need this one."
"Wow, she seems pretty nice."
"She sure is!"
The Gryffindors had a long practice which ended until 9:30 at night. Harry was exhausted and went upstairs. He had a confident feeling that they were going to do well this year.
Author's Note: PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE REVIEW!!!!
Disclaimer: Sorry that I forgot to put the disclaimer in the other chapter! I'm sorry, but I don't own Luigi, because Nintendo owns him. It did kind of put some of my own touches to make him 'Professor Luigi', but he still belongs to Nintendo. OH, and so does Mario. I also don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.
Author's Note: Hey readers! Whoever's reading this, I'm glad you are. And please review! OK... let's recap. Voldemort's dead, there are two super-powerful Princesses at school... and the new DADA teacher's Professor Luigi! Anyway, in this chapter, Quidditch practices start... and Harry had a duel with Glory!!! Oh, and I am so sorry if you feel that Harry is annoying of how much of a wuss he is. This story might not seem parallel to the 5th book because I started writing the story before I read the 5th book, so I didn't really know that Harry would male mood-swings so often. Instead, I tried to put teenage mood-swings by making him depressed, just a bit wussy, and very deep-in-thought. Give me a break! I've never been 16. Oh, and if you think that the Princesses are annoying, I apologize for that too. When I was starting the story, I wasn't very developed in the art of writing as much as I am now, so basically I created Mary Sues without even knowing it! Anyway, hope you like the story, and PLEASE REVIEW!
Chapter 7
The First Quidditch Practice of the Year
Harry was very excited about the last class of the day. It would be his first Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the NEWT year, which Hagrid, the loveable half-man half-giant, taught. Hagrid's classes weren't the best classes they had, but Harry and his friends tried to be nice and attentive in his class. They would be having their Care of Magical Creatures class with the Ravenclaws, so Harry knew they would see Princess Glory once again.
Since Hagrid's classes were usually outside the castle in the grounds, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors all strolled outside in the fresh autumn-afternoon atmosphere to Hagrid's hut. While walking down the fresh-green hill in the school grounds with his friends, Harry looked back at the castle. He was amazed to see two new tall towers attached to the sides of Hogwarts. One tower was right next to the Gryffindor corridors, so why hadn't Harry seen it before?
"Joy," asked Harry with a strong feeling that Princess Joy would be the wrong person to ask, "do you by any chance know why those towers are there?"
"Why, I thought you knew!" said Princess Joy as she tightened her high pony tail. "The one near the Gryffindor tower are my rooms!"
"Your rooms?"
"Yes, my sister and I have our own towers for our comfort. Nono Albus wanted us to be as comfortable as possible, him being our great-great-great-grandpa and all. He has a tendency to spoil us a lot of the time, like most grandparents do (of course, Harry couldn't relate to this). They also thought it would be necessary for us to have very big and luxurious rooms because of our ranks. I think I already told you a bit about our own rooms. I thought it would be a bit too much, but they insisted! By any chance, do you know where my sister is? All the Ravenclaws are here, even her friends. But I don't see her anywhere."
"Maybe she's coming after," guessed Harry.
"'ello, Yer Royal 'ighness!" said a large, gruff voice from behind them.
"Hi, Hagrid!"
It was Hagrid, their giant friend, behind them, who also had a big smile spread across his hairy, bushy (and might I add, big) face.
"I haven't seen ya since you were a wee toddler!" said Hagrid excitedly. "I'm glad you're here."
"Me too! I'm totally thrilled be in your class!"
She ran up to him and hugged him, which made Hagrid blush.
"Eh, remembe' when I gave yer sister and you those piggy-backs?"
"Oh yes, how can I forget! Those were so fun! Can you give me one now?"
"No, I have ta start tha class. Maybe some othr' time."
"Maybe."
Hagrid, who looked like he was glowing with happiness, turned around to the students.
"Good aftr'noon class," said Hagrid. "Hope yer excited fer t-day's lesson, and der school year. Dis year we'll be learnin' about rare species and all. T-day we'd be learnin' about black unicorns. Now, I know ya've learned about whi' unicorns a few years ago, but black unicorns are very different. In de forest, there are the black unicorns you will be takin' care of fer this month, but Princess Glory is around th' corner with the her royal black unicorns. Come on out, Princess!"
Princess Glory came out with two gigantic black unicorns with long black feathery wings settled on their back, with a saddle, reins and a crest on their chest with a regal hippigryph in armour standing up like a human with Glory's magnificent sword, two black unicorns, a giant flame, golden vine border and a tiara as well.
"'ello, Princess!"
"Good afternoon, Hagrid!" greeted Glory with a small grin. "Long time no see!"
"Yeah, I've missed ye and yer sister so much!"
"Yes, and we have missed you too!"
"Let's get on with tha lesson. As ye' can see, black unicorns are a bit bigger than the white unicorns. They're also very rare. There are only 50 black unicorns in ea' country. It's very sad. They also have wings, but some don't have 'em. Whi' unicorns can 'ave wings too, ye know. They have great healing pow'rs, a touch of their horn can cure ya very quickly. But unlike the whi' unicorns, their blood can't cure ya or make ya live longr. Once you've taken in tha blood of a black unicorn, ya fall dead. The blood of a black unicorn is poisonous to everyone, 'xcept them. They're very smart. There's also one thing that makes them a bit more likeable than whi' unicorns. Does anybody know what?"
Princess Glory, Princess Joy and Hermione raised up their hand like lightning.
"Uhmm.... How 'bout... Princess Joy!"
"Usually, white unicorns prefer women touching them. Black unicorns like to have both girls and boys pet them. They like to be petted a lot more than white unicorns do. That's why they're a lot more likeable than white unicorns."
"Very good! So if black unicorns are mo' likeable, why are whi' unicorns so popular?"
Another shot of hands came up. Again, they were the hands of Princess Joy, Princess Glory and Hermione.
"Uhmm.... Princess Glory."
"White unicorns are more popular because of their elegance is more extravagant than most black unicorns. Their silky white skin is so beautiful, their popularity overcomes the black ones. Also, more people have seen white unicorns than black unicorns because black unicorns are so rare. Another major reason is of the white unicorn's blood. Many people have heard that this type of unicorn's blood can save you even if you're an inch from death. For a black unicorn to touch you, you would have to do something very special, which I will let Hagrid teach."
"Excellent! Extremely excellent! Who can tell may why Muggles know whi' unicorns so much?"
The same three hands shot up.
"Uhmmm.....How 'bout Hermione this time!"
"White unicorns are very popular with Muggles because of the Muggle-born wizards whose families know about the magical world their children come from. Also, sometimes white unicorns can get lost or they run away from poachers who bring them or chase them into the Muggle world where some Muggles spot them."
"Wonderful! Just te let ya know, we're goin' ta be learnin' about what they eat this week. They're omnivores, which means that they eat meat n' plants. They usually eat wil' berries and fruits, wil' potatoes, other wil' vegetables and small animals such as mice and otha small creatures, although they only eat meat twice a week. They also eat a rare flow'r called Aprivites which is why there are so few black unicorns. Most black unicorns live where the Aprivites grow. If possible, they eat olives, if there ar' any around. If they do fin' any olives, they eat a lot!
"For t'day's assignment, get into groups. I will give each group a black unicorn. Whoever's in Princess Glory or Princess Joy's group, will get one of the royal black unicorns. Read the chart in tha first section of yer first chapter in The Advanced Magical Creature Owner's Manual for NEWT Students of the daily diet of a black unicorn."
Hagrid went into the forest where he pulled out some other black unicorns.
"These creature ar' worth a fortune!" said Hagrid, bringing them to the class. "It wa' very hard for Hogwats to get these beauties. Thei' Royal Highnesses helped a lot with getting these. Class, say thank ya to them!"
"Thank you!" the class shouted to them. Most of the class thanked the Princesses with enthusiasm after taking a glimpse of the wonderful, noble, black unicorns.
Everyone was given a unicorn. Harry and his friends were fortunate to have gotten one of the royal black unicorns. Hagrid passed around a box with a variety of food for the black unicorns to eat. It was up to the students to pick out the right types of foods and amounts for their unicorns. Harry was looking through his book to find the chart while Ron was looking at the foods and Hermione and Princess Joy were petting the wonderful beast.
"It says here that their daily diet consists of half a pound of berries, a quarter of a pound of peach, a couple of apples and 2 wild potatoes, and 2 pounds of olives is optional," read Harry.
"Wow, that's a lot for an animal!" said Ron surprisingly. "2 pounds of wild potatoes and olives? That's a lot. You're a very hungry fellow, aren't you?"
"First of all, Ron," stated Hermione, "it's not a fellow, it's a unicorn. Second of all, it has a name. If you look around its neck it has a collar which says 'Moscow'. And third of all, I wouldn't talk because you eat about the same amount in sweets!"
"Shut up, Mione!"
"Besides," included Princess Joy, "I don't think it's that much, considering the size of this creature. My sister eats more!"
"Speaking of your sister, why was it only her who brought in the black unicorns?"
"She's the one that usually uses black unicorns. I barely use them. If you look on the crest, it has black unicorns and a hippigryph. This is my sister's coat of arms. I have a coat of arms with a hippogryph and white unicorns, with vines, gems, tiara and a wave of water. I didn't want my coat of arms to have armour on it."
"Why is it named 'Moscow'?" asked Ron.
"Oh, that's because she likes Russia a lot. We have a castle up there, and it's one of my sister's favourite places to go on vacation. Her other black unicorn is 'Anastasia', and don't forget that her hippigryph is named 'Tsarina'. Weird, isn't it?"
"Just a little," replied Harry.
"Anyway," continued Hermione, "we have to give him the list of food you said, Harry."
"It needs half a pound of berries, a quarter of a pound of peach, a couple of apples and 2 wild potatoes, and 2 pounds of olives is optional. It also needs 1 Aprivite and 2 mice or rabbits a week. I think we should start feeding him the Aprivite and scurry creatures today. Give Moscow 1 Aprivite in the box. Where's the meat?"
"It's this stuff," answered Princess Joy as she picked up a slice of smoked meat. "It's not how they usually eat their meat, but this is healthier for them. It has all these spices and vitamins and was smoked with extra virgin olive oil and red wine. It's also supposed to have more flavour."
"No matter what you do to it, it still looks repulsive!" remarked Ron with a disgusted look.
They fed Moscow its food one item by one. The Aprivite was a big, grey flower with purple spots on it, and had a strange type of black pollen in the middle. At the end of the class, everyone brought back their unicorns and boxes and gave them to Hagrid. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Princess Joy helped Hagrid to put everything away. Princess Glory couldn't stay because she had a meeting with Professor Dumbledore to discuss her latest discoveries and inventions, and then she had a meeting with Professor Snape about her improvement with her latest werewolf potion. Afterwards, she was going to add an extra page to her essay for Royal Lessons.
"Royal lessons?" asked Hermione.
"They're lessons given to Joy and I so we'll be prepared to be Monarchs," said Princess Glory. "Our lessons are in the summer, but we're given assignments, readings and such during the other months."
Once they were about to leave, Princess Joy turned around to ask Hagrid a question.
"Hagrid, I was thinking about those piggy-backs you used to give me. I know it might sound silly but... Can you give me a piggy-back to the castle?"
"Well sure!" replied Hagrid. "I would be glad te give ye one!"
Hagrid lifted her up and put her on his massive shoulders, and off they walked. Once Harry thought about it, it seemed very odd to him that a great and powerful witch would want a piggy-back from a loveable, half-man half-giant like Hagrid. Hagrid and Princess Joy told Harry and his friends about fun times they had together and Harry, Hagrid, Ron and Hermoine told Princess Joy about fun time they had. Once they got to the castle, Hagrid lifted Princess Joy off his shoulders and laid her down on the ground. They all said goodbye to Hagrid as they slowly walked into the corridors of Hogwarts.
*********
It was early in the evening of the same day. Harry had just finished his homework and was just thinking of polishing his Stella-Velocita 29, when Professor McGonagoll entered the common room. Harry looked up from his parchment to see his teacher who had just entered the room and was carrying a large parcel behind her back. He sensed that Professor McGonagall would need to say something important.
"Harry, I need to speak to you," she said in her serious voice.
Harry felt a lump in his throat.
Am I in trouble? thought Harry. But I didn't do anything wrong, did I? Harry walked over to Professor McGonagall.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall?"
"Harry, I wanted to tell you something very important. Whenever a Quidditch captain graduates from Hogwarts, they usually get to pick the new captain of their Quidditch team. Harry, the end of the year when Angelina Johnson left, she told me that she wanted you to be the Gryffindor Quidditch captain."
Harry was in shock. A mixture of excitement, nervousness and joy swelled in him. He was speechless.
"Harry, I know it's a tough job, and an enormous responsibility, but Johnson, and even Wood, were certain you could do it. So, will you accept the offer?"
"I....I....Uh....Yes...."
"Great! Harry, because Fred and George Weasley are gone, you have to find two new Beaters. We also need 3 new Chasers since Ms. Johnson, Ms. Bell and Ms. Spinnet have graduated Hogwarts. I expect you to have the first practice soon. The first Quidditch game of the season is in less than 2 1/2 months and Gryffindor will be against Slytherin. I sure do not want to be around Professor Snape if Slytherin wins."
"Professor McGonagall, when I was banned from Quidditch, didn't they have replacements for Fred, George and I?"
"Oh, yes of course," said Professor McGonagoll. "Don't worry about that, they were only temporary players. We all knew you would be back in the game as soon as that Umbridge was stopped. I do recommend though that you suggest putting them on your team."
"I'll do that," said Harry.
"Oh my, before I forget I wanted to give you back something," said Professor McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall pulled out the parcel she was hiding behind her back and handed it carefully to Harry. Harry held it in both his hands and examined it. It was in the shape of a broom, and on the parcel was a note that read: Firebolt, Owner: Harry Potter.
"It's your Firebolt," said McGonagall, looking a bit sad as she looked at the broom. "Your godfather gave it to you, didn't he?"
Harry, who was trying to hold back tears as his hands glided on the parcel, looked up at McGonagall.
"You know about Sirius, and what happened to him?"
"Yes I do," responded McGonagall sadly. "Dumbledore explained everything to me at the end of last year. I'm so sorry, Harry."
"Yeah, I'm sorry too."
"Maybe a ride on it will make you feel better," said Professor McGonagall. "I'll give you a note to let you fly out in the grounds if you want."
"No, that won't be necessary," said Harry. "I don't think I could bear flying on it. I have a new broom that I think I'll fly. Flying the Firebolt.... it'll just hurt too much."
"I see. Well, I have to leave now," said Professor McGonagall. "Goodbye, Mr. Potter."
She left the common room as Ron, Hermione and Princess Joy just came in from looking at a few of the many books that Princess Joy were mentioned in. They all had a puzzled look on her face when they passed by Professor McGonagall.
"Harry, why was Professor McGonagoll here?" asked Hermoine.
"She...er.... She told me that I would be the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain," said Harry with a fake grin, trying to hide his depression.
"Harry, that's great!!!!" shouted Ron with excitement. "I mean, Harry, my own friend, a captain. Charlie was captain too, but my best friend, captain of the Quidditch team for Gryffindor!"
"I'm with Ron," agreed Hermione. "It's unbelievable. We knew you would end up captain but now that it's happened, we're so blown away!"
"I'm so happy for you!" congratulated Princess Joy. "I've never seen you play but believe me, I've read a bit of Hogwarts, a History Volume 2 and it says how great you are."
"Thanks," sighed Harry. "Thanks a bunch."
"Harry, you don't look too happy," said Hermione, sounding concerned.
"Yeah Harry, you should be thrilled!" said Ron.
"What's the matter, Harry?" asked Joy, sitting down next to Harry. "You can tell us."
"It's nothing, really."
"Come on, you can tell us!" said Ron.
Harry lifted up the parcel he was holding to Ron.
"What's this?" asked Ron, examining it.
"It's the Firebolt," said Harry.
"Great, you got your broom back! Hey Harry, remember when McGonagall took it away because they thought Sirius- Oh yeah," said Ron, as his voice suddenly dimmed a bit after realizing what was wrong. "It's Sirius, isn't it?"
Harry took a deep breath of depression and let out a long sigh.
"Yeah it is."
"Who's Sirius?" asked Joy curiously.
"It's a long story," said Hermione.
"Come on, you can tell me!"
Harry looked around to see if anyone was in the room, if it was safe to tell Joy. As he looked around, he found that only Neville and Ginny were in the room, and they were there that night. It was safe to tell her.
"The Sirius we're talking about is....is.." said Harry, trailing off. "The Sirius we're talking about is Sirius Black."
"Oh my goodness!" gasped Joy, putting her hands to her mouth. "You mean, that criminal who's responsible for Voldemort killing your parents?"
"No, he isn't," said Harry. "He was innocent, he was never with Voldemort. It was Peter Pettigrew who was the one who betrayed them. He framed Sirius by faking his own death and turning into a rat!"
"Which was my pet rat and I slept with might I add!" added Ron.
"That too. Anyway, Peter went back to serve Voldemort until the war. They killed him during then, but I never learnt how. All I heard was that he was dead."
"You mean you're saying that all this time, he was innocent?" questioned Joy. All of them nodded. "Wow, I never knew that. Poor Sirius! Locked up in Azkaban for 13 years! He escaped though, didn't he? So where is he now?"
"I...uh..... the truth is, there isn't any exact answer to that," sighed Harry, thinking of how mysterious that veil was. He himself had no idea how Sirius really died.
"What do you mean? Don't you know?" asked Joy.
"Yes and no," said Hermione. "It's really complicated."
"What's complicated?"
"The way he...." Harry trailed off. He couldn't bear to think of his poor godfather dead. "The way he.... the way he died."
"Oh my goodness, he died!" gasped Joy. "But- but how? Were you there when he died?"
"I was, and so was Neville Longbottom over there," said Harry, pointing at Neville who was having a hard time with his Potion's homework. "Ron, Hermione, Ginny and a Ravenclaw named Luna Lovegood came too, but they weren't where we were."
"What do you mean, 'where you were'? Where were you anyway?"
"Did you hear about the night when Voldemort entered our Ministry of Magic?" asked Harry.
"Yes, of course! Papa was so frightened when he heard about that, thinking he would come after the other Ministries next."
"Well, it was that night that we tried to enter the Ministry of Magic. It's a long story, we'll tell you some other time. Anyway, I thought Sirius was being tortured by Voldemort, so we tried to save him. It was all a trap and some Aurors had to come and get us, and Sirius was among them. He tried to fight the Death Eaters, but alas, he died....."
"He died?" gasped Joy sadly.
"Yeah... he did. Everything must sound so confusing, but eventually we'll tell you what happened."
"Sure, it all sounds so confusing. How did you get to know Sirius so well anyway?"
"Sirius.... Sirius was my godfather...." sighed Harry.
"Oh dear, you poor thing!" said Joy as she gave him a hug. "I never knew!"
"It's okay, Joy. Don't work yourself up over it. Wait a minute!" said Harry, as he suddenly thought up something quite curious. "How could Voldemort be planning a war if he was trying to get the weapon at the Ministry?"
"You mean that Prophecy?" asked Joy. "I heard about that from Papa. They think that he was planning both at the same time. They think that his whole plan might have been to get the Prophecy, and then to have the war."
"You mean, all that time he was planning two whole entire different schemes and messing my mind?"
"What?"
"Oh, another long story. We'll tell you some other time."
"Well, just look on the bright side: if he's dead, he's gone to a better place. Besides, you shouldn't be so sad! You're Quidditch captain!"
"Yeah, cheer up, mate!" said Ron.
"Thanks a bunch you guys," said Harry, who was starting to cheer up. "But I've got to find two new Beaters and three Chasers for the team. I'm thinking of making next Friday the first Quidditch practice."
"I could be a Beater!" volunteered Princess Joy. "I was a Beater in my old school. I'm actually wonderful at it. I've been wanting to be a Hogwarts Quidditch player since I heard that I was coming here. I was thinking of being a Seeker at first, but I'm great at Beater as well. I think I told you about it on the train.
"My sister used to be a great Beater as well. For some strange reason, she attracts Bludgers. It used to be good because once they went near her she slammed them to the wall. But when she was about 9 years old, she started losing interest in Quidditch, and when she lost interest in Quidditch she lost interest in playing Quidditch, and when she lost interest in playing Quidditch she started to become bad at it, and once she became bad at it she wasn't so great at hitting Bludgers. When that happened, she started getting hit in the head, a lot! Now she has this fear of balls and whenever she goes to a Quidditch game, she gets hit in the head by Bludgers."
"Yikes!" said Ron. "No wonder she hates Quidditch so much!"
"I'd like to see you play Beater, but I've got to find another Beater," said Harry. "Who else do you know in Gryffindor that can play Beater?"
"What about Ginny?" suggested Princess Joy. "Ron told me that she played the Seeker for a while and you won the game. I think she could play Beater."
"Ron, what do you think?"
"I don't know, but I think she could have a go at it. I could ask Fred and George for their book of The Beater's Bible to give to Ginny."
"You don't have to ask them, you can read my copy," volunteered Princess Joy.
"Thanks."
"Great!" said Harry. "Of course, we'll have to ask Ginny first. I think next week I'll have the first practice for Gryffindor. Can you ask Professor Dumbledore if I could sign out the grounds for next Tuesday too?"
"Sure!"
"I guess all I have to do now is find 3 Chasers. Do you know any good Chasers in Gryffindor?"
"No, I'm afraid not," said Hermione.
"Beats me!" responded Ron.
"I haven't met anyone so far that I know who's a great Chaser," answered Princess Joy.
"Oh, all right. I'm going to send a letter to Remus to tell him I made Quidditch captain. He'll be thrilled! All the younger students are in bed now anyway."
"Who's Remus?" asked Princess Joy.
"Oh, he was one of my father's best friends. I visited him for a while in the summer. I think I should go upstairs now. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, bye!"
Harry hurried upstairs to his dorm. As soon as he entered the room, he pulled out a quill, parchment and ink and starting writing his letter to Remus:
Dear Remus,
Guess what? I'm the Quidditch captain! I'm so excited. Our first game is in 2 and a half months and I have to find 2 new Beaters and 3 Chasers to replace Fred and George Weasley, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell. I think I've got two new replacements: Princess Joy says she's great at being Beater and Ginny might be able to do Chaser. She filled in for me temporarily for Seeker last season, so she might be a good Chaser this season. Now I have to find three Chasers. Of course, we'll have to wait until the try-outs to see who's good enough to be on the team. Even though, I think I've got a handle on it. I'll try my best. Hopefully, I can live up to Oliver and Angelina.
Harry
********
Harry ate his breakfast slowly as he thought about what Professor McGonagall said the night before. The fact that he was the new Quidditch captain for Gryffindor still shocked him. It was hard to think though, that he had his Firebolt again, the one that was totally stripped down because his godfather Sirius, oh poor dear Sirius, had sent it to him.
Hermione, Ron and Princess Joy came down to breakfast as well. This time, Princess Joy had put her hair up with butterfly clips. Harry said hello to them as he picked at his bacon.
"Hello, Harry!" greeted Princess Joy. "What's the matter?"
"I was just thinking of what Professor McGonagall said. I'm a bit nervous to make the new Quidditch team. Who am I going to replace as Chasers?"
"I don't know," responded Ron.
Harry let out a long, deep sigh. Just then, Dean Thomas came down and sat right next to Harry.
"Hey, Harry. Is it true you're going to be the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain?"
"Yes, it is. It's just that I'm really anxious to find new Chasers for the team. Do you know any good Chasers in Gryffindor?"
"Of course!"
"Really? Who?"
"Me!"
Harry stood in shock.
"You're a Chaser?"
"Of course!" answered Dean, pouring himself some pumpkin juice. "Since I found out about Quidditch, I asked to get signed up in a mini, local Quidditch team during the summer. I'm one of the Chasers."
"Really?" asked Harry. "How do you feel about being one of the Quidditch Chasers for Gryffindor?"
"I...Er....A...Of course!!!" stuttered Dean Thomas. "I would love to!"
"Great, try-outs are going to be on Tuesday. I think I'm going to check out your Chaser skills and see how you play with the rest of the team. Got it?"
"Great! I'll be there!"
Harry felt a burst of joy. He just might be able to pull together a great Gryffindor Quidditch team. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and he looked around. It was Cho Chang.
"Hello, Harry!" said Cho Chang with a shy smile.
"H-h-hi...." stuttered Harry.
"I found out you're going to be the new Gryffindor captain for Quidditch. Congratulations!"
"Thank you!"
"Your welcome. Oh dear, I guess I'd better go. I can't wait to see Gryffindor play."
"Cho?" Harry asked shyly, thinking this might be a chance to re-start things with Cho. "By the way, what are you doing today?"
"Going to the dueling match. Don't you have that duel with Princess Glory?"
"You know?"
"Of course! Everyone knows, and everyone's going to be there. Everyone in Ravenclaw is going to be rooting for Princess Glory, but I'll be cheering you on."
"Thanks.."
"I wish you a lot of good luck. I've seen Princess Glory duel, she's extremely rough!"
"Oh no...."
"I guess I'll see you there!"
"Yeah, I guess so.."
Cho Chang skipped back to the Ravenclaw table, while Harry was feeling knots in his stomach from being extremely nervous.
Would I be able to win this, or even survive? he thought to himself. He would just have to wait and see.
**********
Harry, who was a bit nervous for his dueling match, ate his lunch forcefully, got ready, grabbed his wand and hurried outside into the school grounds. He was going to meet Princess Glory in the field where they usually played Quidditch. Harry was told that they would play the professional way: both of them would start off with 100 points. Points would be taken off depending on what spell they were under, a spell that backfired or a spell cast that the opponent had missed. If someone had lost all their 100 points, the opponent would win.
Harry was also told that there would be a crowd of people watching, but no one told him how many. To his amazement, the Quidditch stands were completely filled with every single person at Hogwarts. Through the beehive of crowds in the stands, he spotted Hermione, Princess Joy and Ron who told him they'd be there, Lee Jordan who was the announcer (though he graduated from Hogwarts, he volunteered to do the announcements for Quidditch while working at a sports radio station), and Madame Hooche, who volunteered to referee and supervise the duel. Also supervising the match were: Professor Dumbledore (who wanted to see his extremely great-granddaughter and one of his favourite students duel), Professor Snape (who was obviously cheering for Princess Glory and adored to see Harry be crushed), Hagrid (who wanted to see both his student friends), and all the other teachers. Harry also spotted Colin Creevey (who wanted to get a gigantic amount of pictures of the event), Princess Glory's friends: Ruth Simmore, Vicky Phlumer, Tiffany Sealious and Lucy Landerville, Dean Thomas, Ginny Weasley, Seamus Finnigan who was surprisingly cheering for Princess Glory (it was because of his crush on her) and Draco Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle (Harry suspected they had the same intentions as Snape).
Harry saw three rows of gigantic, long stands around the gigantic Quidditch area. One of the gigantic rows covering all the side area on the right were the seats for the ones who were cheering Harry on. On the left, there were the seats for the ones who were cheering Princess Glory on. The smaller one which was between the other seats were the seats for the staff and the speaker Lee Jordan. There was a big score board right over the teachers, which had two lit green bars, one under Harry's name and under Glory's name. Harry had practiced the whole night before, and he was ready.
"Ready, Harry?" asked Princess Glory in a proud yet kind way.
"Absolutely!"
Madame Hooche walked between them both. She signaled them both to salute. Princess Glory's salute seemed very serious. Harry tried to make his as respectable and as honourable as possible, considering he was battling with wizard royalty. He was also a bit worried if he might injure the Princess badly which would be disrespectful. Then he thought again, and figured that it would most likely be him who would be injured badly.
She blew her whistle and the duel began. The day before, Harry was told he would go first.
"Expelliarmus!" shouted Harry as he waved his wand. A flash of scarlet light shot out in Princess Glory's direction. Princess Glory stepped aside as it passed her and flew passed everyone into the grounds.
"Harry Potter has done the 'expelliarmus' spell and Princess Glory has dodged it," announced Lee Jordan.
"-3 points for Harry Potter!" shouted Madame Hooche. The bar of light under Harry's name went down the slightest bit.
"Is that the best you can do?" snickered Princess Glory. "Shotizarma!" she shouted as a powerful hyper beam of orange light shot him with a powerful push. Harry flew up into the air and smashed into the ground. His shoulder hurt very much after 'landing'.
"Princess Glory has done the 'shotizarma' spell which has made Harry Potter shoot up in the air and crash to the ground," announced Lee Jordan.
"-20 points for Harry Potter," said Madame Hooche. 20% more of the light had vanished from Harry's bar. Harry suddenly remembered the dueling spell that Malfoy put on him when snakes came out of his wand.
"Serpensortia!" he shouted as a cobra spat out of his wand.
"Harry has got up and done the snake spell, and-"
Princess Glory yelped as the cobra bit her on the thumb.
"Wow! Princess Glory has been bitten just a small bit!"
"-10 points for Princess Glory!"
Harry could tell that she didn't like snakes very much. Princess Glory hissed viciously, which seemed to make the cobra slither away. Harry was in shock and so was everyone else.
"You're a Parselmouth?" asked Harry still in shock.
"Of course!" said Princess Glory. "I'm familiar with a couple of other animal languages. It's actually a surprising gift I have - Sinkoritum!"
Princess Glory quickly said a spell to Harry with a whip of her wand. Harry looked around to see the effect of the charm. Nothing was happening.
"Princess Glory has released the sinking spell on Harry Potter and it seems that he is slowly seeping in the ground," said Lee Jordan.
Harry was confused of what Lee said, but then realized what was happening and suddenly looked down. He was sinking in the ground!
"Amazing!" said Lee Jordan.
"-10 points for Harry!"
Harry tried to get up, but couldn't. He tried remembering a spell to do.
"Electrius!" he shouted as a lightning bolt shot out of his wand. Princess Gory ducked the bolt. She started shaking her head and tsking, as if disappointed.
"Princess Glory has dodged the lightning bolt. Harry Potter is in hot water now!"
"-2 points for Harry Potter!"
"Iceatius!" she said as she waved her wand. For this spell, streaks of cold water had hit him. He looked at his legs (his feet were under the ground) and watched as ice was slowly forming on him and it was coming up as well.
"A wonderful ice spell! I guess I was wrong, he's in cold water now!"
"-15 points from Harry!"
Harry was extremely cold. An idea appeared in his head. He knew what to do.
"Firiniosum!"
Fire flamed out of his wand which melted the ice on his legs. Princess Glory blew on the fire to put it out and it turned into smoke. Harry knew this duel wasn't going anywhere.
"Harry has done a flame spell which melted the ice but unfortunately, Princess Glory has put out the flames. Poor Harry."
"-4 points from Harry."
Princess Glory let out a chuckle as she got her wand ready.
"Arriosis!" she yelled as arrows spat our from her wand. Harry dodged the very fast arrows, which ripped past him quickly and hit the score board behind him.
"Fantastic!" shouted Lee Jordan.
"-4 points from Princess Glory!"
"Not bad, Harry," said Princess Glory in an impressed manner. "Not bad."
"You haven't seen anything yet!" said Harry. "Earthioquake-im!"
Everything was calm for a second, until the ground started shaking. Everyone was holding onto their seats. Harry was released from the ground from that quicksand spell and Princess Glory lost her balance and fell. Her head hit the ground and banged on her wand.
"Ow!"
"Impressive! Harry has done an earthquake spell and Princess Glory has fallen and hit her head on her wand. That must hurt! Let me add to you that her wand his pure silver and pure gold with many diamonds and gems on it. Her wand contains many powerful ingredients."
"-8 points for Her Royal Highness!"
Harry looked at Princess Glory. She was steaming angry. She picked herself up with her hand on her head. Her eyes narrowed.
"Think you're so great, eh? Bindinoasim!"
Purple beams shot out of her wand and wrapped around Harry. He was binded together. He immediately started to get tired, as if the beams wrapped around him were sucking his energy.
"Princess Glory has done a body binding spell which has binded Harry and is making him weaker at every moment."
"-13 points for Harry Potter!"
Why am I so tired? asked Harry. He was slowly weakening. With all his might, he held his wand, waved it as much as he could and said a spell on the top of his head.
"Explodorius!" he yelled with all his might. A gigantic explosion came out of his wand. Harry knew he would have hit Princess Glory. Once the smoke disappeared, he couldn't see her.
"Thought that would have done the trick, did you?"
He looked around. Princess Glory was behind him.
"Harry Potter has done an explosion spell. Princess Glory has dodged very quickly and hid behind Harry. Nice work, Your Royal Highness!"
"-10 points to Harry Potter!"
Princess Glory waved her wand.
"Rockius!"
Chunks of rock spat out of her wand. The rocks fell at his feet, and were forming onto his legs. He was slowly turning into rock! His legs felt extremely numb.
"Her Royal Highness has done a rock forming spell, turning Harry into rock."
"-25 points for Harry Potter!"
Harry tried to take his focus off his pain. He looked at Princess Glory and concentrated.
"Accio bolder!" he said. Princess Glory looked in confusion. Then she looked up as a rock was rocketing straight for her. Everyone gasped. The bolder was extremely close until she stuck out her hand. The bolder automatically paused in mid-air. There was a moment of silence until...
"Explodis!"
The bolder exploded all over Harry.
"Amazing!" shouted Lee Jordan.
"-15 points to Harry Potter! The game is over! Princess Glory wins!"
The staff and the ones who were rooting for Princess Glory cheered with enthusiasm while the others groaned. Harry felt awful. Even though he was released from the rocks and body binds, he was tired, he was aching and worst of all, he lost. Some older students laid him on a stretcher to be brought to the Hospital Wing while the Princess was waving at all the cheering people.
Harry was laid on a hospital bed while Madame Pomfrey quickly wiped his face with a warm towel, stuck a thermometer in his mouth and gave him some ice packs. Hermoine, Ron and Princess Joy rushed into the Infirmary to his bed side.
"Harry! Harry! Are you all right?" shouted Ron.
"He'll be fine," said Madame Pomfrey, "although he has had some rough damage to him. What exactly happened?"
"He was dueling with Princess Glory, " answered Hermione.
Madame Pomfrey's jaw dropped and her eyes widened.
"My goodness! Thank heavens you're still alive! Princess Glory could have knocked the stuffing out of you way more than she has done this time! Well, I guess I can leave you three with him for a while."
She left the room quickly and quietly. All of his friends' eyes were on him.
"I can't believe what happened," said Hermione in shock.
"I'm surprised too," said Princess Joy. "You did fantastic! A lot of world-class duelers have faced against her and have been in worse condition than you have!"
"Really?"
"Oh yes!"
Suddenly, Princess Glory burst into the room and ran to Harry's bedside.
"Harry, are you all right?" she said with worry in her voice.
"Not much..."
"Sorry, I tried to go as light on you as I could do. I'm terribly sorry you're hurt."
"It's okay, I guess..."
"Here, I wanted to give you this," she said as she pulled out a gigantic book called: Dueling: An Art of the Competitive, and handed it over to him. "I thought it might help you with your dueling. Even so, I think you did fabulous."
"Thank you."
"Where is Madame Pomfrey? I think I need to get some ice for my head and some medicine for my bite. I never knew it would hurt as much as this if my wand hit my head."
"Remember what Lee Jordan said?" exclaimed Hermione. "Your wand is made of pure gold, pure silver, diamonds, jewels and all those substances inside your wand."
"That's true."
Madame Pomfrey came into the room with a glass of medicine. She looked up at Princess Glory.
"Well hello, Princess Glory!" said Madame Pomfrey. "How are you? I guess you have noticed that Harry isn't so well. You gave him quite the knock out!"
"I did try to do my best at not trying to hurt him much. By the way, I need some anti-biotic for my snake bite and some ice for my head. I banged my wand on my head by accident."
"Oh dear... And that wand in particular as well! Well, of course. Here Harry, this is for you," she said as she handed him a glass of pinkish medicine (no, it wasn't Pepto Bismal!). "I'll go ahead and get those for you, Your Royal Highness."
"Thank you."
Madame Pomfrey ran out of the room. Princess Glory turned to Harry.
"So Harry, do you forgive me?"
"Sure," said Harry, who despite his horrible pain, wasn't going to hold a grudge against her.
"I'm glad to here that."
Madame Pomfrey hurried into the room with an ice pack and band-aid with anti-biotic cream on it.
"There's the ice pack you wanted," said Madame Pomfrey as she handed the ice pack to Princess Glory, "and this is for your snake bite."
"Thanks," said Princess Glory as Madame Pomfrey put the bandage on her thumb. "I better go. Ruth, Vicky, Tiffany and Lucy and I have scheduled to meet at my dorm. I'm going to show them some of my newest inventions."
"Oh....Thanks for the book!"
"Don't mention it. Bye!"
"Bye!"
As Princess Glory sped out of the Infirmary, Harry put the glass of medicine down on the table next to him, laid his head on his pillow and moaned with ache.
"Ow.... Well, if she can almost kill me, I guess she could have killed Voldemort!"
**********
By Monday, Harry had healed from his wounds and was up and running by the afternoon. Tuesday was the try-outs for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Harry posted up a notice in the Gryffindor common room about it in the hopes that some good Quidditch players would notice it. In fact, many students from the house attended. A lot of them stunk, and a lot of them were great. Harry thought that Princess Joy was the best Quidditch Beater he had ever seen. Harry hadn't seen Ginny play Seeker, but she was obviously a wonderful Beater as well.
She's obviously got her brothers' talent for Quidditch, thought Harry.
He was also impressed by Dean Thomas' athletic ability. Dean Thomas was amazing at handling the Quaffle. He found out that Seamus Finnigan was quite a good Chaser, so they were both made Chasers. A 3rd year girl named Danielle Ringum was chosen as the other Chasers as well.
By Thursday evening, Harry had finally made the decision of who were the new Quidditch team members on the Gryffindor team. He posted the list of students who made it. For Beaters, he chose Ginny and Princess Joy. For Chasers, he had picked Seamus Finnigan, Danielle Ringum and Dean Thomas.
The first Quidditch game was on Friday of that week, so Princess Joy signed out the pitch for the team. Everyone was to meet in the center-field with their Quidditch robes on, where they would discuss their plan and would practice. Everyone was ready and excited for the first Quidditch practice of the year. All of their members showed up on time.
Though everyone in the team was pretty excited to play on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Harry had something else on his mind. He was tearing his hair out the night before, thinking of a plan for the Quidditch team. He knew the Slytherins were extremely sly and would do anything to win. Harry had to make sure it would be a fair game which they would definitely win.
Harry met up with all the other Quidditch team members, looking very eager, in the center field on Friday.
"Okay teammates, I figured out a plan for this season," announced Harry to his team. "For our plan, each member will pick someone on the other team to block. Try and follow them as much as possible and try to block their way of the Quaffle. Chasers, stop following them as soon as you've got the Quaffle. Once they've got the Quaffle again, you go back to following them. Beaters, don't worry too much about this. Just try and get the Bludgers out of the field, so you won't have to jump at them once they get to the goals. The only time I would think it would be okay to hit a player on the other team is if that person would be cheating or doing something bad. Maybe you could do that when they have the Quaffle and we're losing big time. And no, Ron, we're not going to be hitting the Bludgers at Malfoy, though we'd very much like too. I was told from Professor McGonagall that you tried to do that last year."
"Oh.... But it'll be so fun!" groaned Ron. "Besides, he's likely to be cheating."
"Don't worry about him," responded Harry. "I'll go after him myself. He's the Seeker and I'm the Seeker, so I would be blocking him anyway. I'll try not to catch the Snitch too soon. I'll block the Snitch away from Malfoy as much as possible until we get 50 points. Will you all remember that?"
Everyone nodded.
"Great! Let's go play!"
Everyone cheered, got on their brooms and flew up into the air. Harry released the Snitch, Bludgers and Quaffle into the air. It would be Harry's first time on his new Stella Velocita 29. He was impressed of how smoothly it flew, and yet it flew very quickly. It was very easy to control as well. He looked over at Princess Joy's broom; it was a Stella Velocita 32! Harry asked her about the broom, and she said that she had just got it this year. She also mentioned that her sister had the Stella Velocita 31, although she barely used it. Harry flew to Ginny to see what kind of broom he had. To his amazement, it was a Nimbus 2001!
"Hey Ginny, how'd you get that Nimbus 2001?" asked Harry curiously. "It's surprising that you've got a better broom that Ron."
"Oh, a friend gave it to me," said Ginny.
"Which friend?"
"Princess Glory."
"You're friends with her?"
"Of course she is! She's practically my idol! She's so smart, and she helps me a lot with my homework. I met her one day at the library. She gave me great pointers for an essay I was doing, and she's been helping me ever since!"
"Is the broom yours for good?"
"Yep, she said I could keep it. She already got a new broom this year, and she had another good broom too, so she didn't need this one."
"Wow, she seems pretty nice."
"She sure is!"
The Gryffindors had a long practice which ended until 9:30 at night. Harry was exhausted and went upstairs. He had a confident feeling that they were going to do well this year.
Author's Note: PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE REVIEW!!!!