Chapter 18
Spotted
The next week was uneventful, if a week at Hogwarts could ever be called such. Harry's extra lesson with Professor McGonagall went well and she was suitably impressed with his progress. Instead of making the minor additions to his form which he had expected, she made him repeatedly practice the shift to his lion form and he was soon taking less and less time to achieve the full transformation. While he revelled in his new form, the aching he felt from the changes made him yearn for long baths, and maybe a massage, not that he knew what a massage felt like, but he spent several hours rubbing sore muscles, and he could never reach his back. In his Charms classes Harry had ended up partnered by Professor Flitwick; his shield charm was so well practised that it took some obscure and powerful charms to affect Harry even slightly and most of them he managed to simply ignore. It was, however, the power of his own Charms that had lead to the student/teacher pairing, as the Professor feared for the safety of the other students. Harry had no idea what was going on, but he seemed to be over-charging even the simplest of spells. In a demonstration Harry had been told to jinx Ron after he had produced his shielding charm, which the tiny Professor had said was a strong projection. Harry had cast a jelly legs jinx so powerful that Ron's shield did nothing, and Ron had done somersaults and run into walls for two whole minutes before the counter jinx could be used, and had promptly refused to work with Harry in Charms again.
DADA and Potions continued in their usual vein and the weekend was fast approaching, and with it the first Quidditch match, but around the school Harry felt something was wrong. Students started to leave the library when he entered and he always had a three-foot circle of space round him even in busy corridors. He had asked his friends about it but they said they had no idea what he was talking about. Harry, however, was uncomfortably reminded of the times in the second and the fourth years when he was a social outcast. The DA Society was mostly running itself; Harry often spent the time reading ahead in his courses, occasionally walking around the groups, offering a few words of advice, but on the whole they needed little supervision; the original members were mostly acting as teachers, occasionally getting together to learn something new. This was the only time Harry was really asked to participate and he did so eagerly.
Quidditch practices had been stepped up by Ron and the team was, Harry thought, gelling quite well. Claire and Tony, the fourth and seventh years who had been chosen to be Chasers with Harry, had improved a great deal and Ron had the trio running professional drills and formations. The biggest problem they had was the shear speed of Harry on his Firebolt, he was constantly having to check himself to avoid over-running the ball or out pacing his team mates but the hours of practice had sorted out these little problems. Both pairs of Beaters improved; the benefit of having opposition to practice with and learn from was very telling, well, that and the competition for the same positions motivated them greatly. Ron had adopted Harry's tactic of asking the Beaters to just concentrate on the opposition Chasers, as Seekers were so much harder to hit as they tended to be further away and constantly moving. Harry had also instructed the Chasers to never stop moving, which made them much harder targets for the opposing beaters. Ginny was a great Seeker: her slim frame made her quick, she was agile in the air and was fiercely determined and very competitive and Harry had to mentally tell himself off every time he saw her diving and he stopped just to watch her. He knew from experience to never stop playing, as a goal can change a game as quickly as a Snitch catch.
During the summer and over the first three weeks of school Harry had thought very little about Cho Chang, but with the Quidditch match on his doorstep he was thinking more about Ravenclaw and wondered if she had managed to convince the captain to let her carry on playing after an appalling season last year. He had seen her a few times, always with her friends either at the Ravenclaw table or on her way to class. She had been one of three people not to return to DA, the others been Michael Corner, Cho's boyfriend and Marietta Edgecombe, her best friend. Hermione had told him they had all returned their charmed galleons. When he had seen her he still thought she was very pretty, possibly even more so than the previous year, having developing into a mature young women, but the knot in his stomach and the nervous feeling had left him; it was funny how getting to know someone could do that. The idea of going out with the best looking girl who would have him, while still partly true, as he knew who he really wanted and she was very pretty, seemed stupid. The reason for his attraction to Ginny went way beyond her appearance, she was intelligent, funny, strong minded, and loyal and being spirited was quite appealing too.
The morning of the matched passed by in a blur. The rest of the team showed their nerves in various ways: Ron was manic and reminded Harry of Oliver Wood, although, Harry thought, maybe that was the curse of the Quidditch captaincy; after all, he remembered Angelina was pretty similar last year. Andrew and Jack sat in a corner of the changing rooms talking in whispers to each other; Harry, who was an old dog at Quidditch, was chatting to Claire and Tony, running over plays and generally trying to keep them occupied. Ginny was silently pacing the length of the changing rooms, her look said, in no uncertain terms, 'talk to me and die.' Harry, though, was feeling brave and a few minutes before he knew they would have to leave, he separated from his fellow Chasers and went to give her a few words of encouragement.
He decided to try and lighten her mood first, and, standing in front of her line, waited till she approached and said "You know, you've worn the varnish off the floor."
It took the red-head a few seconds to realise someone had the audacity to talk to her and another few to realise who it was and she forced a little smile "How come you're so calm?"
"Don't let Ron hear me say this, but it's a game Ginny. We play it because we love it. If we don't win, it won't be because we didn't try, and, knowing this team, if we do lose we will win the next game by enough points to still be in the running" he said, smiling at her as her face lightened slightly.
"What if I'm not good enough?"
"You were good enough last year and you've only got better. If it's worth anything, I think you're the best Seeker at the school. You just go out and enjoy playing; I know I'm going to."
"Right everyone, let's go, you know what you have to do. Just get out there and play like we have in practice and we'll have this one" said Ron loudly and turned, leading them from the changing rooms onto the field amongst thunderous applause and a fair amount of booing from the Slytherins.
It was a perfect morning for Quidditch; the weather was fine but the clouds hung low in the sky, diffusing the sun which otherwise would have been bright and hampered players vision; there was no wind and the ground was firm but not hard. Hagrid had excelled himself again, as it was covered with a thick carpet of what looked like a bluey grass, beautifully cropped to the perfect length. It was hard to believe that just over a year ago it had been covered with high hedges as part of the maze in the final task. The Ravenclaw team stood waiting for Gryffindors to walk to the centre of the field; and Madame Hooch then blew her whistle and asked the captains to come forward.
Michael Corner, who was apparently the Ravenclaw Captain, stepped forward and stood opposite Ron, who was a good foot taller than him, forcing Michael to bend his neck up to make eye contact. Harry scanned the other Ravenclaw players and saw the small figure of Cho, who stood towards the back. Apparently, Harry thought, her boyfriend being Captain had ensured her survival in the team, but maybe she was the best they had. Harry turned and looked at Ginny, giving her a reassuring smile, but, he realized, he really didn't have to. She had clearly noticed Cho hiding at the back and felt confident she could get the better of her again; indeed, Ginny had the steely determined look that had obviously been developed with years growing up with six older brothers.
Madame Hooch released the balls from their box and after a few seconds blew her whistle to signify the start of the first match of the season. Gryffindor had practised their starts and Harry had the Quaffle almost immediately, throwing a short reverse pass to Claire who flew quickly from the left diagonally across the pitch. Tony, who started on the right, flew left diagonally and as they crossed in the middle took the red ball from the girl; he flew another five yards before hefting a long pass up the middle of the field. The Ravenclaw Chasers had tried to follow their opposite numbers but had almost collided in the middle of the pitch and then, as they stopped, had been attacked by two Bludgers sent by Andrew and Jack in the well-rehearsed play. The move worked without the Bludger attack, in case the boys couldn't reach the balls in time, but if they could the effects were devastating; the Chasers, who were not only stationary from their near collision but right next to each other, were easy targets, and the heavy balls forced them to dive back to the ground, completely out of the game for the time being. Harry, after taking the Quaffle initially, had looped over behind his team mates and then flattened on his broom, flying straight at Michael and just to the right of him. Seeing his team mates dive to the ground far behind the play, Michael was left three against one and when the long pass flew over his head and he saw Harry flying towards him, he knew who the recipient of the pass was and turned side on to try and block Harry's route.
Harry saw him do this; it was a dirty play and not without a degree of danger, for if Harry flew into him at this speed the results would not be pretty; but few could match the instinctive way Harry flew and years of dodging Bludgers as a Seeker meant he was too good to allow the collision. It was the malicious look of his opposite number which made Harry change his mind slightly though and, opposed to the safer option of simply swerving off and letting the Quaffle fall, Harry wrapped his ankles round the handle of the broom and gripping with his hands, rolled sideways on his broom. The weight of Harry inverted on his broom pulled the nose of the broom down and he flew straight under the Ravenclaw Captain; flipping over again, he caught the lobbed Quaffle one handed and with a jink on the edge of the scoring area sending the Keeper diving to the left, deposited the seamless ball easily through the right hoop. Looping round to the cheers of the Gryffindor supporters, Harry shouted appreciation to his team mates on their play, who beamed back, then quickly repositioned themselves now totally in the mood to try out every little trick they had practised over the past weeks.
The match was completely one-sided. Harry, Claire and Tony were flying rings round the Ravenclaw Chasers. The speed of their flying, accuracy of their passing and the simple enjoyment of playing made the game little contest and the Ravenclaw Chasers were further demoralised as Michael was shouting criticism at them, whereas even if a Gryffindor move fell apart, the only shouts from the team was that of encouragement or calls it was just unlucky. After about thirty minutes the score was 110-0. Michael had prevented several goals with a multitude of fouls, trying unsuccessfully to bate Harry, who instead was smiling at him as he handed the Quaffle to Claire the penalty taker. While she didn't have Harry's broom skills or Tony's range of passes, she was a deadly shot and penalties were always turned into another 10 points, as she seemed to always place the red ball an inch past the Keeper's desperate lunges and an inch inside the ring.
The Snitch had emerged only once in this time and Ginny had dived for it, only to be cut off by Cho with her usual blocking tactic. Cho, however, was used to playing against Harry, who was always a gentleman. Ginny, on the other hand, had no qualms about turning hard and ploughing into her opponent shoulder to shoulder. The slight Ravenclaw came off much worse from the encounter and Ginny flew off in search of the Snitch while Cho was left rubbing her right shoulder, finding it considerable more difficult to mark the fiery red head when she was bruised and battered. This, in turn, raised the ire of Michael, who promptly complained of intentional roughing to Madame Hooch, who was having none of it, saying it was closer to a Gryffindor penalty for intentional blocking. After a further ten minutes and more free scoring from the Gryffindor Chasers, who were taking the score out of reach of their opponents at 170-0, Ginny and Cho dived to together at a speck of gold flying near the Ravenclaw goals. Ginny was winning the race anyway but when Cho tried to nudge Ginny from her line and Ginny nudged her off considerable harder, the Ravenclaw Seeker flew heavily off line. Michael had dived at the two Chasers and Harry had instinctively followed, staying just high and right of his opposite number wondering what he was doing. Ginny easily held the line on the Snitch and, removing her left hand from her broom, plucked the glittering golden ball from the sky holding it aloft. Michael, however, continued his path straight towards her and Harry realised in horror he was going to try and knock her off her broom, a tactic that was both illegal and un-sportsmanlike. The cheering crowd celebrating a massive victory went silent seeing the Ravenclaw's intention and now only ten yards away and a stationary target, Ginny looked up towards him a look of extreme surprise. Harry however had no intention of letting this happen and flattened on his broom, diving on the tail of Michael's broom. Five yards away from Ginny, Michael was shocked as his broom turned sharply under him, as Harry had ploughed through the tail of Michael's broom at an angle, turning Ginny's assailant 180 degrees and twisting him at a funny angle and altering his trajectory sufficiently to send him spiralling past Ginny and backwards towards the ground.
Michael gained control of the broom and landed, closely followed by Harry, who was raging but remembered the incident last year and who had no intention getting banned a second year. The Ravenclaw boy had no such worries and shouted at Harry, calling him a 'b*st*rd' and another couple of profanities, then telling Harry he wasn't good just lucky and lunging at him. Harry side-stepped and dodged repeatedly as the boy repeatedly went for him, but Harry was determined to not land a blow and invite another ban. A crowd of students and teachers was rapidly advancing towards them, but it was Ginny who arrived first, landing behind Harry and screaming at the Ravenclaw, "What the hell are you playing at Michael?"
The Ravenclaw boy, seeing his ex-girlfriend there and shouting at him, lunged at her, but Ginny didn't shy away and instead slapped him hard across the cheek. Stunned for an instant he gathered himself and blurted "You b*tch, dumping me so you can go out with all your Gryffindor Heroes, you shallow little ..." but his sentence was cut off as Harry had heard enough; he had simply stepped between Michael and Ginny and pushed Michael hard in the chest with the flat of his hand sending the boy backwards onto the floor as the teachers finally arrived.
Professor Flitwick bounced next to Michael speaking in a voice that showed both surprise and displeasure. "Mr Corner, what is the meaning of this? Why did you attack Mr Potter and Miss Weasley?"
Harry looked at Michael, whose eyes seem to glaze over and he had a look of surprise on his own face, "I did what?"
Harry and Ginny left the gathering crowd and started heading towards the changing rooms. It was Ginny who spoke first "Did you see the look in his eyes Harry? He looked mental, like he wanted to hurt me… oh and thanks for the save, Harry." she added belatedly.
"I don't know what happened" Harry replied, "He never seemed like that before, and he looked so confused afterwards."
Their conversation was interrupted as Professor McGonagall and a burley man Harry didn't recognise approached. "Could we have a word Mr Potter?" asked the stern teacher.
"Of course" replied Harry, then turned to Ginny, "Great catch Ginny, I'll see you later."
"Thanks Harry." And she kissed him gently on the cheek and walked off towards the changing rooms.
"Mr Potter, this is Angus Stalker" Professor McGonagall introduced the man who stuck a hand forward.
"Hello sir" said Harry, shaking the man's hand.
"Angus will do Mr Potter" said the man in a broad Scottish accent.
"Harry's fine with me too Angus." Harry retorted cheekily with a smile.
"I like him." the man said to the Professor, "He's got stones." Professor McGonagall smiled wryly, as the man turned back to Harry, "I don't know if you know, but I'm the coach for 'The Pride'."
"'The Pride of Portree'? The Quidditch team?"
"That's right Harry, and, well, we are one of the few sides with a reserve team and…Look, to cut a long story short, we want you to play for the reserve side."
"You're kidding? I'm still at school, how will I train?"
"Well, that's the good part, ya see we are a local team, and we don't have a reserve team pitch. As a matter of fact none of the reserve teams have one, so I was here talking to the Headmaster, and he said we could use the Hogwarts pitch. They're planning to play a game here every other Sunday and we can train here too. So if you want to, you can play. I mean there are certain sacrifices..." he looked at the Professor as did Harry.
"Mr Potter, you would have to give up the House Quidditch Team. I have spoken to the Headmaster, and he would support you if you choose to do so."
"Frankly, Harry, after watching you today, I don't think it's very fair to the other sides, but it's your decision. I'll give you some time to think about it."
"I don't have to, I would be a Chaser?"
"Yeah I watched you play Seeker a couple of times, and don't get me wrong, you're good, but you are much better suited as a Chaser, you got the build."
"Okay I'm in, when's the first practice?"
"Well, the season's about four weeks away so we start pre-season training in a couple of weeks, but I'd advise you to keep training with your team till then. I'll be in touch Harry, pleasure to have you on board; I'll send the paperwork through too."
"Paperwork?" asked Harry.
"Yeah we are a Professional Team Harry; you'd have to sign a contract."
"Oh right, sure, look forward to it." said Harry, feeling rather dumbfounded, did this mean he was a Professional Quidditch Player?
"See you later Harry." said the big man and left, still talking to Professor McGonagall.
"Yeah see you Angus." replied Harry automatically.
*****
I know you will hate me for dropping Harry out of the house team, but it really wouldn't be any competition with his new found talent, plus it gives me some new characters to work with. Thanks as always to Dice, who you can thank for the lack of gramatical mistakes. Til next time.
~~ Jonny
Spotted
The next week was uneventful, if a week at Hogwarts could ever be called such. Harry's extra lesson with Professor McGonagall went well and she was suitably impressed with his progress. Instead of making the minor additions to his form which he had expected, she made him repeatedly practice the shift to his lion form and he was soon taking less and less time to achieve the full transformation. While he revelled in his new form, the aching he felt from the changes made him yearn for long baths, and maybe a massage, not that he knew what a massage felt like, but he spent several hours rubbing sore muscles, and he could never reach his back. In his Charms classes Harry had ended up partnered by Professor Flitwick; his shield charm was so well practised that it took some obscure and powerful charms to affect Harry even slightly and most of them he managed to simply ignore. It was, however, the power of his own Charms that had lead to the student/teacher pairing, as the Professor feared for the safety of the other students. Harry had no idea what was going on, but he seemed to be over-charging even the simplest of spells. In a demonstration Harry had been told to jinx Ron after he had produced his shielding charm, which the tiny Professor had said was a strong projection. Harry had cast a jelly legs jinx so powerful that Ron's shield did nothing, and Ron had done somersaults and run into walls for two whole minutes before the counter jinx could be used, and had promptly refused to work with Harry in Charms again.
DADA and Potions continued in their usual vein and the weekend was fast approaching, and with it the first Quidditch match, but around the school Harry felt something was wrong. Students started to leave the library when he entered and he always had a three-foot circle of space round him even in busy corridors. He had asked his friends about it but they said they had no idea what he was talking about. Harry, however, was uncomfortably reminded of the times in the second and the fourth years when he was a social outcast. The DA Society was mostly running itself; Harry often spent the time reading ahead in his courses, occasionally walking around the groups, offering a few words of advice, but on the whole they needed little supervision; the original members were mostly acting as teachers, occasionally getting together to learn something new. This was the only time Harry was really asked to participate and he did so eagerly.
Quidditch practices had been stepped up by Ron and the team was, Harry thought, gelling quite well. Claire and Tony, the fourth and seventh years who had been chosen to be Chasers with Harry, had improved a great deal and Ron had the trio running professional drills and formations. The biggest problem they had was the shear speed of Harry on his Firebolt, he was constantly having to check himself to avoid over-running the ball or out pacing his team mates but the hours of practice had sorted out these little problems. Both pairs of Beaters improved; the benefit of having opposition to practice with and learn from was very telling, well, that and the competition for the same positions motivated them greatly. Ron had adopted Harry's tactic of asking the Beaters to just concentrate on the opposition Chasers, as Seekers were so much harder to hit as they tended to be further away and constantly moving. Harry had also instructed the Chasers to never stop moving, which made them much harder targets for the opposing beaters. Ginny was a great Seeker: her slim frame made her quick, she was agile in the air and was fiercely determined and very competitive and Harry had to mentally tell himself off every time he saw her diving and he stopped just to watch her. He knew from experience to never stop playing, as a goal can change a game as quickly as a Snitch catch.
During the summer and over the first three weeks of school Harry had thought very little about Cho Chang, but with the Quidditch match on his doorstep he was thinking more about Ravenclaw and wondered if she had managed to convince the captain to let her carry on playing after an appalling season last year. He had seen her a few times, always with her friends either at the Ravenclaw table or on her way to class. She had been one of three people not to return to DA, the others been Michael Corner, Cho's boyfriend and Marietta Edgecombe, her best friend. Hermione had told him they had all returned their charmed galleons. When he had seen her he still thought she was very pretty, possibly even more so than the previous year, having developing into a mature young women, but the knot in his stomach and the nervous feeling had left him; it was funny how getting to know someone could do that. The idea of going out with the best looking girl who would have him, while still partly true, as he knew who he really wanted and she was very pretty, seemed stupid. The reason for his attraction to Ginny went way beyond her appearance, she was intelligent, funny, strong minded, and loyal and being spirited was quite appealing too.
The morning of the matched passed by in a blur. The rest of the team showed their nerves in various ways: Ron was manic and reminded Harry of Oliver Wood, although, Harry thought, maybe that was the curse of the Quidditch captaincy; after all, he remembered Angelina was pretty similar last year. Andrew and Jack sat in a corner of the changing rooms talking in whispers to each other; Harry, who was an old dog at Quidditch, was chatting to Claire and Tony, running over plays and generally trying to keep them occupied. Ginny was silently pacing the length of the changing rooms, her look said, in no uncertain terms, 'talk to me and die.' Harry, though, was feeling brave and a few minutes before he knew they would have to leave, he separated from his fellow Chasers and went to give her a few words of encouragement.
He decided to try and lighten her mood first, and, standing in front of her line, waited till she approached and said "You know, you've worn the varnish off the floor."
It took the red-head a few seconds to realise someone had the audacity to talk to her and another few to realise who it was and she forced a little smile "How come you're so calm?"
"Don't let Ron hear me say this, but it's a game Ginny. We play it because we love it. If we don't win, it won't be because we didn't try, and, knowing this team, if we do lose we will win the next game by enough points to still be in the running" he said, smiling at her as her face lightened slightly.
"What if I'm not good enough?"
"You were good enough last year and you've only got better. If it's worth anything, I think you're the best Seeker at the school. You just go out and enjoy playing; I know I'm going to."
"Right everyone, let's go, you know what you have to do. Just get out there and play like we have in practice and we'll have this one" said Ron loudly and turned, leading them from the changing rooms onto the field amongst thunderous applause and a fair amount of booing from the Slytherins.
It was a perfect morning for Quidditch; the weather was fine but the clouds hung low in the sky, diffusing the sun which otherwise would have been bright and hampered players vision; there was no wind and the ground was firm but not hard. Hagrid had excelled himself again, as it was covered with a thick carpet of what looked like a bluey grass, beautifully cropped to the perfect length. It was hard to believe that just over a year ago it had been covered with high hedges as part of the maze in the final task. The Ravenclaw team stood waiting for Gryffindors to walk to the centre of the field; and Madame Hooch then blew her whistle and asked the captains to come forward.
Michael Corner, who was apparently the Ravenclaw Captain, stepped forward and stood opposite Ron, who was a good foot taller than him, forcing Michael to bend his neck up to make eye contact. Harry scanned the other Ravenclaw players and saw the small figure of Cho, who stood towards the back. Apparently, Harry thought, her boyfriend being Captain had ensured her survival in the team, but maybe she was the best they had. Harry turned and looked at Ginny, giving her a reassuring smile, but, he realized, he really didn't have to. She had clearly noticed Cho hiding at the back and felt confident she could get the better of her again; indeed, Ginny had the steely determined look that had obviously been developed with years growing up with six older brothers.
Madame Hooch released the balls from their box and after a few seconds blew her whistle to signify the start of the first match of the season. Gryffindor had practised their starts and Harry had the Quaffle almost immediately, throwing a short reverse pass to Claire who flew quickly from the left diagonally across the pitch. Tony, who started on the right, flew left diagonally and as they crossed in the middle took the red ball from the girl; he flew another five yards before hefting a long pass up the middle of the field. The Ravenclaw Chasers had tried to follow their opposite numbers but had almost collided in the middle of the pitch and then, as they stopped, had been attacked by two Bludgers sent by Andrew and Jack in the well-rehearsed play. The move worked without the Bludger attack, in case the boys couldn't reach the balls in time, but if they could the effects were devastating; the Chasers, who were not only stationary from their near collision but right next to each other, were easy targets, and the heavy balls forced them to dive back to the ground, completely out of the game for the time being. Harry, after taking the Quaffle initially, had looped over behind his team mates and then flattened on his broom, flying straight at Michael and just to the right of him. Seeing his team mates dive to the ground far behind the play, Michael was left three against one and when the long pass flew over his head and he saw Harry flying towards him, he knew who the recipient of the pass was and turned side on to try and block Harry's route.
Harry saw him do this; it was a dirty play and not without a degree of danger, for if Harry flew into him at this speed the results would not be pretty; but few could match the instinctive way Harry flew and years of dodging Bludgers as a Seeker meant he was too good to allow the collision. It was the malicious look of his opposite number which made Harry change his mind slightly though and, opposed to the safer option of simply swerving off and letting the Quaffle fall, Harry wrapped his ankles round the handle of the broom and gripping with his hands, rolled sideways on his broom. The weight of Harry inverted on his broom pulled the nose of the broom down and he flew straight under the Ravenclaw Captain; flipping over again, he caught the lobbed Quaffle one handed and with a jink on the edge of the scoring area sending the Keeper diving to the left, deposited the seamless ball easily through the right hoop. Looping round to the cheers of the Gryffindor supporters, Harry shouted appreciation to his team mates on their play, who beamed back, then quickly repositioned themselves now totally in the mood to try out every little trick they had practised over the past weeks.
The match was completely one-sided. Harry, Claire and Tony were flying rings round the Ravenclaw Chasers. The speed of their flying, accuracy of their passing and the simple enjoyment of playing made the game little contest and the Ravenclaw Chasers were further demoralised as Michael was shouting criticism at them, whereas even if a Gryffindor move fell apart, the only shouts from the team was that of encouragement or calls it was just unlucky. After about thirty minutes the score was 110-0. Michael had prevented several goals with a multitude of fouls, trying unsuccessfully to bate Harry, who instead was smiling at him as he handed the Quaffle to Claire the penalty taker. While she didn't have Harry's broom skills or Tony's range of passes, she was a deadly shot and penalties were always turned into another 10 points, as she seemed to always place the red ball an inch past the Keeper's desperate lunges and an inch inside the ring.
The Snitch had emerged only once in this time and Ginny had dived for it, only to be cut off by Cho with her usual blocking tactic. Cho, however, was used to playing against Harry, who was always a gentleman. Ginny, on the other hand, had no qualms about turning hard and ploughing into her opponent shoulder to shoulder. The slight Ravenclaw came off much worse from the encounter and Ginny flew off in search of the Snitch while Cho was left rubbing her right shoulder, finding it considerable more difficult to mark the fiery red head when she was bruised and battered. This, in turn, raised the ire of Michael, who promptly complained of intentional roughing to Madame Hooch, who was having none of it, saying it was closer to a Gryffindor penalty for intentional blocking. After a further ten minutes and more free scoring from the Gryffindor Chasers, who were taking the score out of reach of their opponents at 170-0, Ginny and Cho dived to together at a speck of gold flying near the Ravenclaw goals. Ginny was winning the race anyway but when Cho tried to nudge Ginny from her line and Ginny nudged her off considerable harder, the Ravenclaw Seeker flew heavily off line. Michael had dived at the two Chasers and Harry had instinctively followed, staying just high and right of his opposite number wondering what he was doing. Ginny easily held the line on the Snitch and, removing her left hand from her broom, plucked the glittering golden ball from the sky holding it aloft. Michael, however, continued his path straight towards her and Harry realised in horror he was going to try and knock her off her broom, a tactic that was both illegal and un-sportsmanlike. The cheering crowd celebrating a massive victory went silent seeing the Ravenclaw's intention and now only ten yards away and a stationary target, Ginny looked up towards him a look of extreme surprise. Harry however had no intention of letting this happen and flattened on his broom, diving on the tail of Michael's broom. Five yards away from Ginny, Michael was shocked as his broom turned sharply under him, as Harry had ploughed through the tail of Michael's broom at an angle, turning Ginny's assailant 180 degrees and twisting him at a funny angle and altering his trajectory sufficiently to send him spiralling past Ginny and backwards towards the ground.
Michael gained control of the broom and landed, closely followed by Harry, who was raging but remembered the incident last year and who had no intention getting banned a second year. The Ravenclaw boy had no such worries and shouted at Harry, calling him a 'b*st*rd' and another couple of profanities, then telling Harry he wasn't good just lucky and lunging at him. Harry side-stepped and dodged repeatedly as the boy repeatedly went for him, but Harry was determined to not land a blow and invite another ban. A crowd of students and teachers was rapidly advancing towards them, but it was Ginny who arrived first, landing behind Harry and screaming at the Ravenclaw, "What the hell are you playing at Michael?"
The Ravenclaw boy, seeing his ex-girlfriend there and shouting at him, lunged at her, but Ginny didn't shy away and instead slapped him hard across the cheek. Stunned for an instant he gathered himself and blurted "You b*tch, dumping me so you can go out with all your Gryffindor Heroes, you shallow little ..." but his sentence was cut off as Harry had heard enough; he had simply stepped between Michael and Ginny and pushed Michael hard in the chest with the flat of his hand sending the boy backwards onto the floor as the teachers finally arrived.
Professor Flitwick bounced next to Michael speaking in a voice that showed both surprise and displeasure. "Mr Corner, what is the meaning of this? Why did you attack Mr Potter and Miss Weasley?"
Harry looked at Michael, whose eyes seem to glaze over and he had a look of surprise on his own face, "I did what?"
Harry and Ginny left the gathering crowd and started heading towards the changing rooms. It was Ginny who spoke first "Did you see the look in his eyes Harry? He looked mental, like he wanted to hurt me… oh and thanks for the save, Harry." she added belatedly.
"I don't know what happened" Harry replied, "He never seemed like that before, and he looked so confused afterwards."
Their conversation was interrupted as Professor McGonagall and a burley man Harry didn't recognise approached. "Could we have a word Mr Potter?" asked the stern teacher.
"Of course" replied Harry, then turned to Ginny, "Great catch Ginny, I'll see you later."
"Thanks Harry." And she kissed him gently on the cheek and walked off towards the changing rooms.
"Mr Potter, this is Angus Stalker" Professor McGonagall introduced the man who stuck a hand forward.
"Hello sir" said Harry, shaking the man's hand.
"Angus will do Mr Potter" said the man in a broad Scottish accent.
"Harry's fine with me too Angus." Harry retorted cheekily with a smile.
"I like him." the man said to the Professor, "He's got stones." Professor McGonagall smiled wryly, as the man turned back to Harry, "I don't know if you know, but I'm the coach for 'The Pride'."
"'The Pride of Portree'? The Quidditch team?"
"That's right Harry, and, well, we are one of the few sides with a reserve team and…Look, to cut a long story short, we want you to play for the reserve side."
"You're kidding? I'm still at school, how will I train?"
"Well, that's the good part, ya see we are a local team, and we don't have a reserve team pitch. As a matter of fact none of the reserve teams have one, so I was here talking to the Headmaster, and he said we could use the Hogwarts pitch. They're planning to play a game here every other Sunday and we can train here too. So if you want to, you can play. I mean there are certain sacrifices..." he looked at the Professor as did Harry.
"Mr Potter, you would have to give up the House Quidditch Team. I have spoken to the Headmaster, and he would support you if you choose to do so."
"Frankly, Harry, after watching you today, I don't think it's very fair to the other sides, but it's your decision. I'll give you some time to think about it."
"I don't have to, I would be a Chaser?"
"Yeah I watched you play Seeker a couple of times, and don't get me wrong, you're good, but you are much better suited as a Chaser, you got the build."
"Okay I'm in, when's the first practice?"
"Well, the season's about four weeks away so we start pre-season training in a couple of weeks, but I'd advise you to keep training with your team till then. I'll be in touch Harry, pleasure to have you on board; I'll send the paperwork through too."
"Paperwork?" asked Harry.
"Yeah we are a Professional Team Harry; you'd have to sign a contract."
"Oh right, sure, look forward to it." said Harry, feeling rather dumbfounded, did this mean he was a Professional Quidditch Player?
"See you later Harry." said the big man and left, still talking to Professor McGonagall.
"Yeah see you Angus." replied Harry automatically.
*****
I know you will hate me for dropping Harry out of the house team, but it really wouldn't be any competition with his new found talent, plus it gives me some new characters to work with. Thanks as always to Dice, who you can thank for the lack of gramatical mistakes. Til next time.
~~ Jonny