Chapter 5

Friday afternoon meant Double Transfiguration with Ravenclaw. Harry glanced at his schedule to make sure, then turned his attention back to his food. Hermione, on his right, was reading the Daily Prophet. Ron on his left was trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle that depicted the bassist of the Weird Sisters. The pieces glowed gold when they were put in the right place. Ron put the last piece in its rightful position, and the Weird sister started to play a famous bass riff, winking at Ron from the picture. He sighed dreamily.

"She's so hot," he said gazing down at the picture. Harry leaned over to see, and he had to agree, she was kind of cute.

"Where'd you get that anyway?" Harry asked Ron.

"Fred and George made it. They sent it over yesterday. I wonder how they knew I liked her. I mean, I don't think I ever told them, did I?" He furrowed his brow, trying to remember.

"They didn't know. It's enchanted to turn into a picture of whoever you fancy at the moment," Hermione said.

"How'd you know that?" Ron asked incredulously.

"'Cause when I picked it up last night, it turned into… s-someone else," Hermione stammered.

"Who's the lucky guy, Hermione?" Harry said, grinning. "Come on, you can tell us."

"Yeah, it wouldn't happen to be Vicky, would it?" Ron said smirking.

"Yeah, that's right. It was him," Hermione said quickly. But Harry couldn't help thinking that she wasn't telling them the truth. A pink tinge had appeared on her cheeks and she promptly hid her face behind the newspaper again.

"What about you, Harry? You want to have a go?" Ron said, brandishing the puzzle in front of him. The Weird Sister lost her balance and fell towards the side of the picture. She got up gingerly, brushing dust off her dragon hide pants and glaring at Harry, as if it were his fault.

He took the puzzle from Ron. The pieces began to glow before him, rearranging themselves in a whirl of gold. When they had settled, he gave a gasp of surprise. There, with the familiar sneer pasted on his face, was Malfoy.

Ron was looking indignantly from the picture to Harry then back to the picture. "Harry! You never told me you were gay!" Suddenly every face within hearing distance turned towards him. Ron looked properly ashamed.

"Harry is not gay," Hermione said calmly. "I'm guessing Fred and George enchanted the puzzle, not thinking of what would appear if the person holding it had no love interest. Obviously, Harry doesn't have a crush on anyone at the moment, so the puzzle showed someone he felt something strongly towards."

When everyone continued to look dumbfounded, Harry gave a feeble smile. "It's a love-hate relationship."

Luckily for him, everyone laughed and turned back to whatever they were doing. Ron was looking sheepishly at him.

"Sorry about that, Harry. So you still want to do the puzzle? Just tap your wand on it once and the pieces will mix themselves up."

Harry shook his head. "I don't think I'm in the mood for playing with any piece of Malfoy, but thanks anyway." Beside him, Hermione burst into a fit of giggles. Ron took the puzzle back, and Malfoy turned back into the Weird Sister.

Harry thought he heard Ron mutter, "He is definitely gay."

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Transfiguration passed by without much cause for excitement, except for when Neville accidentally turned his lizard into a small ferocious crocodile, which bit off the wing of Parvati's butterfly plait before Mcgonagall could vanish it. As Harry, Hermione and Ron left the room, they could still hear Parvati demanding that Neville replace her clip. He and Ron parted ways with Hermione; they went on to the Quidditch field while Hermione went up to the Gryffindor Tower.

"So we need two Beaters and one Chaser," Harry thought aloud.

"I wonder who'll turn up. I hope we'll find decent people," Ron said.

They reached the pitch. Alicia and Katie were already in the air, doing warm-ups. The chest lay open on the ground, with all four balls securely strapped in. A handful of students stood in a group, each clutching their brooms nervously. Harry signaled for Alicia and Katie to join them on the ground. Katie handed him a piece of parchment.

"This is a list of the people who are here to try out," she explained. "I thought it would be best if we go through them alphabetically, to be fair."

Harry squinted down at the list.

Name Year Position Score

Abercrombie, Euan 2nd Beater /5

Creevey, Colin 5th Beater /5

Creevey, Dennis 3rd Chaser /3 /3

Mcdonald, Natalie 3rd Chaser /3 /3

Thomas, Dean 6th Beater /5

Weasley, Ginny 5th Chaser /3 /3

"Well okay then. Here's how we'll do it." Harry cleared his throat nervously. "If you want the position of Beater, you're going to play, pretending that Alicia and Katie are on the opposing team, and Ron is on your team. We'll try out one Beater at a time. You'll have five chances to beat the Bludger towards Alicia or Katie. You'll be judged according to how difficult our two Chasers find it to avoid your Bludgers. Understood?"

They nodded silently.

"And if you're trying out for the Chaser position, Katie and Alicia will be on your team and Ron on the other. There will be two sides to your try-out. First, Alicia and Katie will pass the Quaffle among themselves and you. They will pass the ball to you three times, but they will attempt to catch you by surprise, so be alert. The second part will be only you against Ron, our Keeper. You will be given three chances to shoot the Quaffle through the hoop. So that's about it. Any questions? Okay then, let's start. Abercrombie, Euan, Beater position."

Alicia, Katie and Ron took their positions while Harry sat down on the front bench, scrutinizing Euan even as he mounted his broom and kicked off the ground. Harry released the Bludger a few seconds after. It hurtled through the air, heading toward Ron. Euan tore after it, but Ron dodged it before Euan reached him. Alicia took advantage and scored a goal. Euan hit the Bludger towards her, catching her by surprise. It hit her broom tail, and she lost her balance, dropping the Quaffle. Katie caught it smoothly from under her, easily dodging the 2nd Bludger Euan beat towards her. She put it through easily. He panicked, and was not able to aim properly during his 3rd and 4th tries. His 5th attempt shot straight between the two Chasers as they were passing the Quaffle, forcing them to separate, and leaving the Quaffle to fall to the ground. Harry gave him two out of five.

Colin Creevey was no better. Try as he might to beat the Bludger, his tiny body was no match for the weight of the heavy black ball. When he did manage to hit it properly, it went straight towards Ron, who was supposed to be on his team. He was able to beat one towards Katie, but she flew out of its path easily. Harry sighed as he gave Colin one out of five for effort.

Dennis Creevey might have played well, if he weren't so excited about the whole thing. During the first round, he kept flashing thumbs up signs at Colin and mouthing words that Colin couldn't even decipher, causing him to miss all three passes. During the 2nd round, he was able shoot the Quaffle past Ron on his first try, but he was so surprised that it went in that he gave a little yelp of glee, and fell off his broom. He stood up at once and limped towards them, mouthing, "I fell off my broom!" He was ecstatic.

Natalie Mcdonald was able to catch all three passes during the first round. In the 2nd round, she tried faking to the right and throwing towards the left hoop at the last minute, but Ron was expecting it, and saved it easily. Her second went straight towards the left hoop again, but Ron blocked that too. Infuriated, she threw it hard towards the center hoop. It hit Ron on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to bang his head unceremoniously on the center hoop. Harry laughed uncontrollably at this, but stopped as soon as he saw the mutinous look on Ron's face. She's got great aim, I'll give her that. Plus she's got style, he thought, as he wrote down her score—3/3 and 1/3.

Dean Thomas was pretty good. His first try was aimed to hurtle straight across both Chasers' paths, effectively forcing them to change direction. He beat his second towards Katie while she held the Quaffle. It hit her wrist, and she howled with pain as the Quaffle fell into Alicia's outstretched arms. But already, Dean had chased after the Bludger and quickly beat it towards Alicia. She dropped the Quaffle in surprise. Katie caught it once more, and dodged Dean's 4th try. She scored. Katie passed it quickly towards Alicia. Alicia was hurtling towards the goal posts. Dean gave an almighty swing, and the Bludger caught up with her, slamming into her back, knocking the Quaffle out of her hands. Harry grinned as he gave Dean a four out of five.

Finally, they were down to the last student. Harry smirked as he saw Ron glaring down at Dean, who squeezed Ginny's hand reassuringly as she prepared to kick off from the ground. She perfected the first round easily, her face determined and her body alert. Harry saw that she hesitated during the 2nd round. Ron was staring at her coolly, as if challenging her to beat him. She threw the Quaffle towards the center hoop and Ron blocked it. She caught it deftly, her brown eyes narrowed at her brother. She faked to the left, then changed direction to shoot through the right hoop. Ron followed her swiftly. Then she grinned and shot it towards the center. It passed neatly through. Then she caught it in a flash, and threw it quickly towards the left hoop. It went straight through. She did it so fast that had Harry blinked, he would have missed her third shot. There was no denying it. Ginny Weasley was a superb Chaser. He gave her three out of three and two out of three, thinking that she would have probably gotten full marks if Ron weren't the one she was playing against.

Harry called all of them over. "That was great, you guys. I have the results here. Our two new beaters are Euan and Dean. Our new Chaser is Ginny. Thanks for coming, all of you. See you around!" Harry and Ron stayed behind to keep the Quaffle and the Bludger that they used.

"Hey Ron, you never told me Ginny's such a good Chaser!" Harry said, smiling. To his surprise, Ron scowled at his shoes.

"She got Charlie's skill," he muttered.

Harry didn't know what to say to that, so he kept silent. He knew what Ron must have been feeling up there, facing Ginny. Right there and then, he really felt sorry for Ron. It must have been hard living up to his five older brothers, but to have to live up to his younger sister… would be unbearable. He wanted to say something to Ron so he could realize how great he was and how great Harry thought he was. Harry made to touch his shoulder.

"Look Ron—"

"You don't know what it feels like, okay?! Just leave me alone. I'm not in the mood." Ron said hotly.

Harry made his way to the Tower on his own, with a sinking feeling that he had heard those words just five days ago, from the person he least expected.