Disclaimer: Recognize it from the books? Then it ain't mine. Never heard of it before? Probably came from my deranged mind.

A/N: Its been a while but here's another chapter for your enjoyment.

Vincent - "Took you long enough."

Kev - "Sorry. I just happened to be working and getting ready for the holidays."

Phoenix - "I can't wait for Christmas!" (Starts humming "Jingle Bells")

Vincent - "But Thanksgiving isjust barely over yet!"

Phoenix - "So?"

Kev - "Oh well..."

Exystence - Trust me, you can't "grow out" of gameritis. It's a chronic illness. Just when you think you've mastered your urge to game, it comes back with new strength. Even after extensive therapy and excessive abstinence, all I got was withdraw. The best thing to do is to play occasionally for one or two hours a day and just get on with the rest of your life. Just accept it and move on.

ShibiChicken – You should just be glad I'll never write slash fiction.

Chapter Thirteen: Strange Sonata

Frost covered the ground and the air was crisp. Harry thanked Merlin that he had worn thermal underwear because he would have frozen hours ago if he hadn't. The quidditch match had been going for about three and a half hours and neither Harry or Draco had seen the snitch. The chasers were getting tired and the beaters were almost exhausted. The commentator, Seamus Finnigan, seemed board out of his mind, only speaking to acknowledge a goal. The snitch had yet to be seen. Even more frustrating was that Malfoy had been tailing him for the entire time. The wanker couldn't even be original about it either. He just floated there sneering as though he had thought of something morbidly funny.

Harry rubbed his eyes in frustration. As he did so he saw a glint of gold. He was about to start flying after it when he realized something startling. He had seen the snitch with his eyes closed. That was impossible. It was totally – wait. Harry's brow creased in thought. He knew he had read about something somewhere, but what? He continued to wrack his brain for the hidden information. He didn't see the maniacal grin that spread across Draco Malfoy's face at that moment. Carefully the prince of Slytherin inched up behind the distracted Gryffindor seeker. No matter how he tried Harry just couldn't recall the rogue fact back to him. He once again closed his eyes in frustration.

Harry opened his eyes and instinctively rolled out of the way as he saw Draco lunge at him. Malfoy lost his balance and began to topple off of his broomstick. He was just fast enough to catch his broom by crossing his ankles. His hands flew back and forth swiping for anything to steady himself as his robes fell over his head. Immediately the stadium flew into hysterics. "Ladies and gentlemen boys and girls," came the voice of Harry's dorm mate with renewed vigor, "Do we have a treat for you tonight. Featuring Draco Malfoy and his stunning yellow undies." Impossible as it may have seemed even the bludgers had stopped pelting around and were shaking as though with mirth.

While the sight was quite amusing Harry was more amazed by the fact that he had seen Malfoy coming from behind him while his eyes were closed. And it finally hit him. True-Sight. Harry finally recalled it from one of Trelawny's classes. The old bat hadn't been a complete fraud after all. Completely ignoring Malfoy's predicament, Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on that tiny golden ball known as the snitch. Instantly he found himself looking at an overhead map of the stadium. Small icons that were the other players and balls were flying to and fro across the mini map. He located the snitch and watched as it bobbed and weaved across the field.

Harry opened his eyes and searched off to his left. There, just above the Slytherin keeper's left shoulder was the snitch. Harry also noticed that Malfoy had finally righted himself and was heading right toward him, with a cold fury on his face. Harry took off in the opposite direction of both the snitch and the ferret-boy. He just barely heard Seamus yell "There goes Potter, has he seen the snitch?" Harry hurtled through the most dangerous zones of play looping and twisting as both Crabbe and Goyle aimed bludgers in his direction. Closing his eyes every now and then to find both the snitch and Malfoy, he noticed that he was getting closer to the snitch and farther away from Malfoy.

"What is Potter doing?" was the next question out of Seamus' mouth. After deftly avoiding two more bludgers and startling all of the Slytherin chasers Harry took one more look at his mental map and then sped straight at the commentator's box. He was pushing his Firebolt at full speed. Just as he reached the small set of stands that held most of the teachers he swiped out, his hand passing mere inches from Seamus' nose, neatly grabbing the snitch. It seemed to happen in slow motion and as soon as the snitch was in his grasp, Harry pulled up, the silver wings fluttering between his fingers.

"Ladies and gentlemen I have just been the witness of one of the most spectacular catches in my history at Hogwarts, and in the process I may have wet myself."

"Seamus!" McGonagall's voice rang out as light laughter came from three quarters of the stadium, the Slytherins groaning at another defeat.

"Anyway, Gryffindor has won the match 390-210." Seamus commented. "Now I should probably go change for our victory party before I start to smell."

"Honestly," Professor McGonagall muttered just loud enough for the stadium to hear, "Just as bad as Lee."

Back in the common room later that night everyone was cheering and reveling over the victory. Several people thumped Harry on the back rewarding him for a job well done. Seamus had even been to talk to him (wearing clean robes of course), "Scared me to bloody death mate, but I loved every minute of it." he said, shaking Harry's hand. Dean Thomas, the team's one reserve chaser, complimented him on his catch, "Bloody brilliant catch mate, and not a moment too soon. My arms were falling to sleep out there."

Soon enough the common room began to empty out and Harry was loath to give up his seat in front of the fire. Before he could start arguing with himself about the pros and cons of sleeping in the common room he found two shadows coming over him. These two shadows were connected to Ron and Hermione. Harry was about to rise and leave when Hermione said, "Wait," seeing Harry still intent on rising she added, "Please?" Harry looked skeptical but relaxed back into his chair. The two looked at one another for a moment and then Ron spoke up.

"We wanted to apologize," he began, "for everything. We didn't think clearly and never thought to talk to you about this, and we're sorry."

"I'm especially ashamed of myself," Hermione piped, "I should have known better than to jump to conclusions. We apologize."

"If you don't want us to hang around anymore, we understand," Ron explained.

"But we hope that you can forgive us even if it takes all year." Hermione hung her head for a moment, then added, "And if you do we'd like to have Cho hang around with us a little more so we can get to know her." Then both of them fell silent, waiting for Harry's answer.

Harry took a long breath and sighed. He was silent for a few moments and just as Ron and Hermione were about to leave, spoke. "You two are forgiven for now," his friends looked immensely relieved, "But your not off the hook yet. You have some major making up to do." Harry stood up and gave his two best friends of five and a half years a group hug and said, "Now lets get some rest. We've got classes tomorrow."

Harry slumped tiredly in the corner of the rather large classroom he and Rai had been using for training. It had recently started snowing and after two days the ground had frozen enough that the white fluff had started piling high. Harry let his longsword fall to the floor with a loud clang. He and Rai had been training for two and a half hours and Harry needed a brake. "Ten minutes," Rai called with a broad grin on his face. Harry could only nod in response, grateful for the long rest. Usually he would only have five minutes. "Your getting much better with your sword technique," the elf said, sitting next to Harry both breathing heavily, "and I've seen you favoring that shortspear lately. So I think it's time to start working on duel-weapon techniques."

Harry groaned. "Would you like to kill me now or later?"

"Don't give me that," Rai chuckled, "You love every minute of it."

Harry thought about it and said, "Yeah, you're right," and grinned broadly. He checked his watch and groaned again. "Ten minutes are up." He rose and moved out into the center of the room. They had chosen this room because it was out of the way. Located in the west side on the fifth floor. There weren't any classrooms in this area and all of the dormitories were either above or below this floor, or so Rai had assured Harry. There was little chance of being interrupted.

"Hey Harry! Catch!" Harry spun and caught the shortspear in his right hand. Rai was standing next to the case putting the swords away. "First we spar with these," he said holding up his own shortspear, "and then we start getting you used to duel-weapon fighting." Then without warning Rai lunged at Harry with almost inhuman speed.

The head of Rai's spear came down at Harry's head angling down and right toward the side of his head. Harry heaved up on his own spear grabbing the handle in one hand and just behind the blade with another. Rai's spearhead crashed with the stout pole of Harry's weapon. Rai jumped back and began another assault. Harry grabbed the center of the spear with his wand hand and began to twirl the spear like a baton, batting away Rai's attacks. Trying another charge Rai was once more repelled by Harry's quick parrying. Harry flashed into action instantly, He held the base of the blade in his hand and the length of the handle parallel with his right arm, he sliced and slashed pushing Rai toward the east wall.

Rai suddenly jumped, back-flipping and bounding off the wall with his toes, coming down with his spear once more. Turing his right arm up Harry blocked the stroke and shoved the length of the pole towards Rai's stomach, forcing him away. Harry gave his spear a spin around his arm grabbing the handle once more. Harry lunged sending a series of light thrusts in the defense professor's direction. Rai managed to block most of the thrusts but barely dodged one that came close to his right ear, taking a few strands of his golden hair with it. Harry pulled back quickly going into a defensive stance anticipating a series of attacks. To his surprise Rai held his hand out palm forward and muttered something under his breath. A bolt of red magic arced toward Harry with Rai just behind it.

Harry planted his spearhead into one of the cracks in the flagstone floor, holding the handle tightly and muttered a spell of his own. A force shield erupted from Harry's clenched fists, deflecting the mild stunner and flinging Rai backwards. Rai performed a perfect front flip and landed on his feet near the west wall. He charged again but Harry was ready. Both teacher and student were in the air. Rai's spear arched downward and Harry's upward at an angle. A clash of metal and the two spears flung to opposite sides of the room, landing with a clatter. Harry was on his knees gasping for air and massaging his wrists. Rai was leaning back on his heels gasping and flexing his hands.

"That," Rai gasped, "was excellent. Keep... that up and you'll...." he paused for a moment to catch his breath, "surpass even me by... the end of the year." Harry was too out of breath to answer but grinned all the same. Harry crawled over to one of the walls and slumped against it once more. His white muscle shirt was soaked in sweat, he was sweltering from all of the exertion and could see the heat rising from his chest and arms. His glasses had slipped to almost the tip of his nose and his hair was matted against his forehead. The cold stone felt very good against his back.

Rai moved himself into position to meditate and looked at Harry. "Training's over for today," he said breathing more evenly now. He was wearing the same training uniform as Harry and he was no better off. "Go ahead and get some rest," he glanced toward the door, "Oh, and Ms. Chang," he smiled, "I hope you enjoyed the show." Harry heard a small uneasy squeak as the door opened to reveal Cho Chang. She was blushing, obviously embarrassed about being caught spying.

"Sorry about that Professor," She said nervously stepping into the room, "I heard something as I was walking past and couldn't help myself."

Rai waved her apology away, "That's quite all right Ms. Chang. I don't mind having an audience. But I would like to know why you were in a corridor that is as far away from anywhere you could possibly be going." At this Cho blushed again. Harry didn't really understand what was going on, but he was really too tired to care anyway, so he ignored it.

Harry reluctantly stood and made his way toward the door. He was breathing more evenly now, but he was still weak from the workout. He stopped next to Cho. "Was there something you needed to talk about?"

"Um.." she hesitated, "yes. But it can wait."

"All right. We can meet in the kitchens for lunch tomorrow. OK?" Harry asked. She nodded and he smiled, "Great. See you then. I need some sleep." Harry then headed in the direction of Gryffindor tower for a quick shower. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.