A/N: Thanks Imalil2sarcastic 4 reviewing.

Imalil2sarcastic: I totally agree! I only noticed that when I'd finished the book... I've thought about changing it but its kinda too late now... Sorry about that!

CHAPTER 31

Now Ron and Harry had the quidditch match to worry about. They spend another hour out on the pitch one sunny Friday evening five days before the match to find that Dennis couldn't play because he's broken his wrist and managed to vanish the bones and then half the muscle and had to have them grown back. Harry had had a similar accident in his second year.

"Why did the bones vanish?" Katie asked him annoyed. "Now what are we supposed to do?!"

"It's not my fault!" Dennis said angrily. "I was practising a summoning charm and the desk flew into me. Then I tried mending my wrist by myself because I though that Madam Pompfrey wouldn't be able to mend it in time for the match. Then it went all floppy so I tried again, then it went all stiff and the bones and muscles are being grown back. It's going to take about three weeks."

"What are we supposed to do!" Katie roared when Dennis returned to the castle. "Who can we use!"

"Me!" Came a happy voice from nowhere. Gretchen had joined the fray. "I'll be your temporary beater!"

"You're not in Gryffindor. I'll get Ivan Edgerly to do it." Katie decided.

"I am in Gryffindor! I'd be much better than Ivan Edgerly I promise!" Gretchen insisted. Ron snorted. Gretchen probably was no more the part of beater than she looked with her two plaits, butterfly clips and glasses.

"Alright." Katie grumbled looking at her watch. "Go on then, fly round the pitch."

"Will do!" Gretchen said triumphantly. "Actually, I haven't a boom."

Katie checked her watch again and handed Gretchen hers.

Gretchen kicked off from the ground and flew, plaits flying out as she did so. "Is this ok? I can do better!" She shouted down. Katie was frowning up at her. She called her down and handed her a club.

"OK." Katie said, as though she didn't quite trust Gretchen. "We'll try you." The game began. Gretchen wasn't bad, but she had the whole team in stitches, as every time the bludger came up her end she's shout "Hi ya!" And whack it down the other end. They landed and Gretchen began pestering Katie. "I'd like more protection if you please." She gushed. "Or I won't play."

"Fine by me." Snapped Ron, eyeing Gretchen with dislike.

"Go and ask McGonnagal." Katie said. "And be here tomorrow." Gretchen waved and skipped off up to the castle. Katie shook her head in disbelief and she too entered the castle.

"Gretchen? On the quidditch team? Well, good for her." Hermione said when they told her the news.

"Only temporarily." Ron reminded her. "I'll ask Ginny if she has any more of those orange things they gave Dennis the menace."

Harry fell asleep that night and as his eyes closed, he saw a room, the same, dark room with a fire in the corner. Peter Petigrew was standing with his back to the fire and the arm chair in which Voldermort was sitting in, had it's back to Harry. "Have I waited long enough my Lord? Can I see them now? Will you bring them back to life?" Petigrew stammered.

"No." Voldermort hissed.

"If... if I destroy Harry Potter can I?" Petigrew stammered again.

"I do not want Harry Potter dead!" Voldermort laughed. "I want him on my side. Ah, here he is now." Voldermort turned in his chair. Harry stared at him; the same unblinking red eyes stared back. "Why hello, Harry Potter." He hissed. "Will you join us? What good is anything to you?"

Harry shook his head. "I'd never join you." He said, still staring at Voldermort.

"It's not as though you have a choice..." Voldermort breathed icily.

"Harry? What's going on!" Gave four voices. Harry opened his eyes. Dean, Seamus, Neville and Ron were all leaning over him.

"Nothing." Harry lied. He didn't want to tell them what he had just witnessed. What did 'Bring them back to life' mean? Surely it didn't mean that Voldermort could raise the dead?

"You were talking to someone!" Ron said. "You said, I'll never join you. What were you on about? Join who?"

"I don't remember." Harry lied again and lay back in his bed. The others did the same and Harry had a dreamless sleep until he was awoken in the morning by Ron.

"I think we get our exam results back today!" Hermione said excitedly as they headed to their Defence against the Dark arts lesson.

Harry was pleased to find that he only missed one question on his exam. He was also pleased to find that they were starting patronuses.

"I'm doing it a bit soon, but I think you're ready." Professor Lovegood said, surveying the class. "It takes a precise flick of the wand and the words 'Expecto Patronum' to get it, but you also must imagine a very happy memory. The clearer you see it, the more likely your spell is going to work."

"Expecto Patronum!" Shouted Harry and the same familiar stag erupted from his wand.

"Excellent!" said Professor Lovegood happily. "Five points to Gryffindor."

Gryffindor gained thirty points during that lesson, as most of them had already done patronuses before, in Harry's Defence against the dark arts club last year. Seamus' unidentified hairy patronus came bounding across the classroom to shrieks from the students. Especially Lavender and Parvati who stood on their desks to avoid contact with the thing.

"I think it's some kind of monster." Said Seamus fondly as the thing vanished.

"It's ugly." Parvati decided. "Mine's much prettier."

At the end of the lesson, Harry was surprised to see that Hermione didn't leave for Transfiguration with him and Ron, but stayed in the classroom, talking to Professor Lovegood. "You go on without me." She called over.

"What d'you think she's doing?" Ron asked bewildered.

"That's obvious." Sneered Piers Polkiss. Once again he was with Malfoy.

"What?" Ron and Harry asked together.

Malfoy smirked. "Father's always said, you don't find anything out if you don't know people at the ministry. But then there's Dumbledore. Always trying to cover things up. In my opinion it should be out in the open." They walked off together, shooting occasional superior glances back at them.

"Don't you think Hermione would tell us..." Ron began, Harry shrugged.

"I dunno." He said. "We'll ask her in Transfiguration."

But Hermione wouldn't answer any of the questions Harry and Ron pressed on her. "It's not important!" She snapped exasperatedly, flicking her wand in frustration so that her Salamander egg turned purple. Ron glared at her in annoyance. Hermione raised her eyebrows sympathetically and flicked her wand again, clearing the purple from the egg.