Shines A Light
Chapter Fourteen: Rain
The rest of January passed, and February came. The snow departed, and was replaced by rain. Sitting in front of the fire doing his homework, Harry was glad, in some ways, that he was not on the Quidditch team. If he had been, he would have been out in the rain two nights a week, practicing for the upcoming game against Hufflepuff.
"You know Harry, I always thought that you were insane, loving Quidditch so much that you'd go out and practice in weather like this. I love the sport, well, watching it anyway, but …" Hermione remarked on one such practice night, not long after Ron had led the team off.
"Looking back, I think I might have been," Harry replied jokingly, opening a book on Potions and starting on Snape's latest essay. He and Hermione settled down to work hard and try to get all of their homework done.
Ron and the team trooped back into the common room, soaking wet and dripping all over the carpets. They all looked more than happy to race upstairs to shower and change. When Ron came downstairs to join Harry and Hermione, Harry pushed away a charms essay with a weary sigh, and pulled up a book on Transfiguration.
"How many essays have you done?" Ron demanded, looking at the papers strewn over the desk that Harry was working on. "Two now," Harry replied, "Potions and Charms. I already had half of the Charms one done though."
Ron shook his head, "I swear you're turning into a second Hermione," he remarked.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Hermione said, sounding a little hurt.
"It's not," Ron hastened to reassure her, "But … oh never mind."
He pulled Harry's abandoned Charms book over to himself and started on Flitwick's essay. Hermione smiled happily, though Ron didn't see it. She was very pleased that her friend was finally starting to take his school work seriously.
"I still don't know how you two keep up with all your work and still get E's and O's," Ron muttered, starting his Charms essay with a grimace. Harry knew that his friend must be worn out from Quidditch practice, and remembered from years previous just how hard it was to concentrate after being worn out from Quidditch training.
"If you just tried a little harder you wouldn't be getting A's for everything Ron," Hermione replied coolly, and Ron sighed.
"I am trying," he told her.
"Then try harder," Hermione was very unsympathetic.
"Hermione, could you read of my essays?" Harry asked, "Just to check for spelling mistakes and that?"
"Sure, would read over mine and make sure it makes sense?" Hermione asked.
"Since when do you ask for help?" Ron demanded in amazement.
"When you write something yourself, sometimes you leave words out by mistake or something," Hermione said loftily, "Or don't completely finish an idea, but you don't realise that you're doing it. Harry's been reading over my essays for a couple of months now, in return for me reading over his."
Ron looked between them, "You really are turning into a second Hermione," he remarked.
Harry and Hermione both shook their heads and picked up each other's essays to get started, while Ron began toiling through his Charms essay with a look of pained concentration on his face.
"There," Ron said, half an hour later, putting the final word into his essay for Charms with a relieved look. When he looked up at his friends, he found that Harry had retreated behind a book on Defence magic, his homework sitting in a neat pile beside his chair, and Hermione was similarly involved in a book on Welfare Rights of various groups, with the obvious intention of looking for something to help her with S.P.E.W.
"Here," Harry said, putting down his book and extending a hand. Ron gave him a blank look, "Give me the essay and I'll read over it," Harry said, now a little impatient. "Make sure there's no errors and that sort of thing."
Ron blinked slightly, still apparently surprised that Harry could now be trusted to do this, and then extended his essay with a look of relief. "Will you give it to Hermione when your done, just in case?" he asked quickly.
Harry gave a wry smile, "Just to make sure I don't miss anything?" he asked.
"Erm, well, uh-" Ron started, looking more than a little uncomfortable.
"It's ok, I don't mind," Harry said, "And of course I'll give it to her."
"It's a pity there isn't anything that I can help you with," Ron remarked dejectedly when his paper had been handed over to Hermione, "You two know what you're doing and you don't need any more help, especially from me."
"Just win the Quidditch cup," Harry said calmly, "That'll be good enough."
Ron cheered up at that. "I can do that," he said brightly, and Harry gave slight smile.
"Good," he replied.
The match against Ravenclaw approached, while Harry grew nervous at the lack of any activity from Voldemort. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he was sure that Voldemort intended to do something nasty.
He did his best to show his support for Ron, and the rest of the team, and never voiced his bitter thoughts on how he would have liked to have been a part of it. Of course, seeing all the rain that was coming down outside during practice nights often made him reconsider his wish to be on the Quidditch team, and flying with Grypis eased the feeling of loss at not being able to fly a broomstick any more.
He had already decided that even if his back did improve enough to fly before the last Quidditch match of the year, he wouldn't. He would let Ginny Weasley have the glory of winning the Quidditch Cup as Seeker.
The day before the match, everyone in Gryffindor was in high spirits, and Harry slipped away from the common room to try and get some peace and quiet. In the library, he ran into Blaise, who was doing her homework there, away from the Slytherin crowd for a short time.
"Escaped did you?" Harry asked her with a smile.
"Yeah," she said briefly, shifting some things from a chair so that Harry could sit down. "Listen, I've been looking for you all day, but you've in the Gryffindor common room too much," she didn't look up from her work, and her voice was pitched so low that Harry had difficulty hearing her.
"Really?" he asked, pretending to be interested in a book on Defence Against the Dark Arts that she had out. He'd already read over it several times already, so he wasn't actually reading the words on the page that he flipped too. At Hogwarts he and Blaise had to be careful – a Slytherin who found them together might ask awkward questions that neither of them would want to answer.
"Yeah. Draco and I were summoned last night – You-Know-Who plans to attack Diagon Alley in the next week or so," Blaise replied. Harry kept his book from wavering with some difficulty.
"Does Snape know?" Harry asked hurriedly.
"Yes, he was there with us. When we came back, he went out again very quickly, muttering something about needing to alert someone."
Harry nodded slightly. The Order knew already then … but it was good to know that Blaise was telling him things anyway. "Do you know the means of his attack? Anything about what's going on?" he enquired.
From behind her book, Blaise continued speaking, telling Harry everything that she knew about the pending attack, which wasn't all that much. "I think Professor Snape knows more," she told him apologetically, "He picks up a lot of stuff where most would miss it."
Harry nodded slightly, "Well, thank you for telling me. Snape will have already alerted the necessary authorities, but it's always nice to know what's going on."
Blaise gave a slight nod of her own, and then started backing up her things. Harry waited a few minutes before doing likewise and heading for Tatsu and Neko's rooms – he really felt like talking to them for a little while.
After talking with his guardian, Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room to find it almost devoid of occupants, as most people had already headed up to bed, in particular the Quidditch team, who would need their rest.
The only people still awake were those who were finishing off their homework before they went to bed, and they only offered Harry sleepy greetings before returning to their work. Harry headed upstairs and went to bed, feeling rather tired himself.
The next day dawned miraculously clear, and Harry heard the Ron muttering happily under his breath about great playing conditions after all the rain they'd been having lately. He had to agree – it was a miracle that the skies could be so clear, on the one day that really mattered as far as the Quidditch teams were concerned.
Harry followed the rest of the Gryffindor's down to breakfast, where Ron stood over them, making sure they ate, while eating nothing himself, until Harry pushed a piece of toast at him. "Thanks," Ron mumbled around mouthful of food.
"Don't mention it," Harry replied calmly. The Gryffindor team left soon after to change their robes and get ready for the game. Harry and Hermione walked with the general press of students and found their seats in the stands, again accompanied by Tatsu and Neko.
The match against Hufflepuff would most likely be an easy one, and Harry wished, again, that he could play in it. But no, let the other's have a chance to shine. He had his own things to deal with after all. It wasn't like he needed Quidditch, what with all the other training he was doing at the moment.
Didn't stop him missing it though … the match began, and Gryffindor took the Quaffle straight off, flying for the Hufflepuff's goals and going strong. Harry smiled, proud at how good the team he still thought of as his was looking.
The clouds began to come back overhead when Gryffindor was only twenty points in the lead and the game had been going for almost half an hour. Harry kept an eye on them, looking between the game and clouds every couple of seconds, hoping that the rain would hold off until the match was over. Gryffindor was still performing well, but then again, so was Hufflepuff.
As the clouds swirled over the game and plunged things into semi-shadow, Ginny spotted the Snitch, and raced for it, as did the Hufflepuff Seeker. The dark storm clouds overhead held for a moment, then released their wet and soaking burden down upon the players.
But the rain came too late to help the Hufflepuff team with a distraction, and Ginny's had closed around the Golden Snitch. Harry gave a proud smile and clapped and cheered with the rest of the crowd, even as the rain soaked him to the skin within seconds of touching him. It was cold, but his pride gave birth to an internal heat which seared the cold of the rain from his mind.
He, Tatsu and Neko slipped away from the crowd and headed back up to the castle quickly, so as not to get too wet or cold. Grypis met them there, standing the doorway to their office studiously licking one of his paws.
Harry smiled at his companion and lifted the golden-furred cat into his arms. "You're lucky you aren't in your real form, otherwise I wouldn't be able to lift you," Harry remarked silently to his friend.
"It would be worth it if I could life in my other form at all times," Grypis returned, a little sad. "One day, soon I hope, I will be able to fly free in my true form and not worry about what might happen in response to people finding out what I am."
"That day will come," Harry promised, and Grypis nodded.
"You are wet," the griffin remarked, jumping down from Harry's arms. "If you want to hug me again, you can do it when you are clean and dry."
Harry laughed and said farewell to Tatsu and Neko and headed up to the Gryffindor common rooms for a quick hot shower and changed out of his school robes and into casual clothes. "Well, let's go and congratulate them on a game well played, huh?"
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Grypis agreed, jumping onto Harry's now dry shoulder happily.
Well, that'll do for this chapter … I'll try and get the next one out very soon! Sorry it's so short, I've had writers block on this for a couple of months now (I wrote a lot of the story before I went away in September, and have managed about two pages since I returned … now that's what I call writer's block – it was a good thing I managed to get so far ahead!)
Thanks:
Xyverz – the sword shall soon be found!
Shadowmonk – I think I did pretty good for myself this Christmas, and 2005 promises to be a very good year! I hope it will prove so for you as well.
TuxedoMac – I'm glad you like the Blaise/Draco stuff … I wasn't sure how well that would go down, as it's my first real attempt at anything remotely romantic.
Aishwarya – My Christmas (all three of them, because I have too many 'families') were very Merry, and I hope yours was as well!
IRM Karmada Dothlthleig – I'm working on descriptions at the moment, but intend to start looking into vocabulary in the not too distant future! Sorry I haven't been online much, I've been using AIM, under a new name, TanyaBussa, for awhile now instead.
Lady Siobhan – you'll find out when I get there, of course! –laughs-
Lady Siobhan – I like Blaise as well … I'm hoping to develop her more soon. I had a fantastic Christmas, and I hope you did also. And I can't remember if Ron is a prefect or not … -sigh- too many chapters, too many stories … I'll have to read back and check on that one though. Your many reviews, particularly when you went through the last story, were very well received and I thank you for them!
FlyingPixie - I'm going to be working on chapter length now. Harry Potter and the Seeker of the Shadows, my other story, is getting nice long chapters, and starting next chapter, I'm hoping to achieve something of the like for this story as well … hopefully this will be the last short chapter, because I hate them too.
JeanieBeanie33 – glad you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you like this one also!
Moonypadfoot – Blaise's life isn't going to be an easy one, but it will be a good one!
-Blank- - I don't pay much attention to time-zones – I just know that everyone that I know in the Northern Hemisphere is a day behind me, while those friends of mine in the southern hemisphere are only a few hours different …
Dumbeldave - I know the feeling. I get the same about my own favourite stories. I'll do my best to update as much as possible, but I don't know how often that will be …
Marauder #3 – I'm glad that you enjoyed the story, and I hope this chapter is as good as you'd like.
Kordolin – Here's more! Well not really, here's another chapter (my brother's name is More, and he isn't here…)
Lyss33 – I hope your Christmas was as good as mine, which was very good, thank you for asking!
Ezmerelda – Yeah, I like Mature!Harry, Immature!Harry just annoys me …
Emma Barrows – I'm glad you're enjoying the story. My own satisfaction with this piece of work is wearing thin, but one I finish it I can move on to better plotlines and better writing. In the meantime, I'm glad that people continue to enjoy the story.
uNoeWho – well, it's not really SOON, as such, but it's an update!
Hexe605 – I'm sad to hear that you haven't been able to get on as often as you'd like, and honoured that you are finding the time to read this work still. You went to England? –very jealous- The Red Wyvern? Yeah, it's good, I always enjoy it when I read it, but it's the 1st of the 3rd quartet, and it won't make as much sense unless you read the other two first … the first book in the whole series is 'Daggerspell', followed by 'Darkspell' – I think there is a list on her website, . Next chapter we find out more about the inheritance, don't worry! I'll go and look for the two books you suggested next week sometime, I haven't read them yet … I'm reading the Gryphon books by Mercedes Lackey myself at the moment, although I've always loved the HalfBlood Chronicles (written with Andre Norton).