Disclaimer: Standard, J.K. Rowling owns the universe and the characters that appear in her books. I own my additions to it…yadda yadda yadda. For the full disclaimer (that applies to the whole story not just the first chapter, see chapter one).

Chapter 19: Fangs, Claws, Brooms and Balls

The full moon shone on the silhouette of the lupine figure, its gleaming claws the only thing that showed it was more than a shadow. Harry dove behind a couch, Devon still clutched in his arms breathing and now shivering heavily.

Harry could hear heavy breathing coming form the direction of the window, each breath seemed to constrict his breathing more than the last.

A small speck of dust flew slowly across Harry's field of vision, a cricket chirped once, a single breath was taken by the boy in his arms, his heart beat once, the boy's beat barely after. A single step wrung though the floor as a single tick of the second hand resounded the room. The speck of dust disappeared as the cricket's next chirp echoed on his eardrum.

Harry was acutely aware of each step as he tired to figure a way out of this hopeless situation. Each resonating step, tick of the clock, chirp of the cricket, even each beat of his and Devon's hearts moments lost between them and catastrophe.

The breathing got closer and louder with each foot landing until it seemed to Harry that it was blasting his eardrums. Devon had shoved his head deep into Harry's embrace, his left hand shoved into the ear that was not intensely pressed against Harry's chest.

Harry had the intense urge to look and see where their assailant was, the only thing keeping him from doing so being the boy clutched in his arms whose fear was washing through him. Harry was glad he had been working so much with emotion as he would certainly be paralyzed with fright as he imagined Devon was right now had he not been. Harry had no idea how aware the boy was of the situation but it was obvious that he was alert enough to be terrified.

The couch suddenly lurched and disappeared leaving gleaming red eyes in its place. But what terrified Harry more than that or the wolf form only a few feet form his face was the Dark Mark clearly visible on its forearm. The mark's magic obviously powerful enough to resist even the curse of lycanthropy.

A low but quick growl came from deep within the beast which snapped Harry out of his trance. He jumped away from the beast, its hands busy still holding the couch, the awkwardness of its position allowing Harry to just escape its dreaded jaws. He ran to the portrait hoping that something would go his way, but the door remained steadfastly shut.

Harry turned to see the red eyes again and then ducked and ran under its spread arms just in time to avoid the snap of its teeth. Harry soon realized that he had no where to go and in his panic to stop before hitting the far wall, he got his feet tangled in the rug and fell to the floor. He managed to keep himself from crushing Devon but in the process they were both tangled helplessly in the rug they had just fallen in.

The next thing Harry knew was the immense pain of a sharp object he could only hope was a not a tooth going through his abdomen, just inches from impaling the both of them. He began to fade out of consciousness and the last thing he remembered before he passed out was an unnerving familiar feeling of pulling on his stomach…

Harry woke up very abruptly completely aware of what had just happened almost as if it was a dream. He would have thought that it was a dream as well if it weren't for the immense pain in his abdomen area. He was surprised that he was so alert considering the amount of blood he should have lost. Devon was still clutched in his arms although the boy himself had let go and was now soundly sleeping, his calm even breathing very soothing to Harry's otherwise hyper alert state.

He held the boy tight and looked across the room to where a now naked male form was sitting, his head between his knees in his hands, his knees pulled up to his chest much like how Devon had been whimpering.

It was then that Harry recognized the thick muscle and the short dark hair. He had seen this body many times in the changing room before and after practice and games. He didn't know how but he somehow knew that he was also the werewolf that had just attacked them. He felt a surge of anger so strong that he just dropped Devon on the floor where he was and rushed over to the man he knew as Oliver Wood.

"Oliver how could you!" He yelled at him, all that he could think of was the dark mark on the wolf's arm. Oliver looked at him, guilt obvious on his face. Harry grabbed the large muscular arm which was surprisingly devoid of scars and looked at it. Sure enough there plain to be seen was the dark mark. The guilt on Oliver's face turned to terror as he realized that Harry was referring to. Harry didn't care though, he didn't care that this man had been his captain and friend for the better part of three years. Or that he could easily overpower him if he bothered trying. No Harry wanted nothing more than to kill this man who had committed the ultimate betrayal!

It was only Devon's cry of his name that snapped him out of it. His anger disappeared all at once at the terrified cry of the boy and Harry dropped Oliver and rushed over and pulled the sprawled boy into a hug. His adrenaline gone he felt the wound again and quickly fell into a stupor quickly falling out of consciousness…

This time he woke up surrounded in a familiar softness that he instinctually knew was the hospital wing. He was strangely aware that there were people around him. Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Remus and Professor McGonagall were all standing by his bed. Poppy Pomfrey was walking back and forth between him and two other beds, although she seemed to be looking over him more than the other two. There was another man there, a blond man who Harry didn't recognize, but he was standing by another bed and so wasn't as prevalent to Harry as the others were.

Poppy was the first to speak, "You are very lucky Mr. Potter, although that is not news to me." She spoke to him but addressed the group as a whole. Remus looked particularly pale with anticipation. "Your wounds were apparently caused by claws and not teeth as I did all the standard tests for lycanthropy and some much less standard ones and you seem to be fine." Harry was not exactly surprised by this but the others, especially Remus let out great sighs of relief.

Dumbledore spoke next. "How much do you remember?" He asked, the twinkle in his eye noticeably absent.

Harry remembered the entire event in great detail, and quickly restated it. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. It still had a very dreamlike quality to it and yet he knew on some level that it was not a dream. And he remembered it more clearly than he had ever remembered a dream before, even one about Voldemort.

Hermione and Ron both let out shocked breaths at the mention of Oliver. The adults didn't seem surprised at all. It was then that the blond man walked over to them. Dumbledore quickly sent Ron and Hermione away, Hermione protested but Dumbledore was adamant. He then asked Poppy to give them some privacy. They all knew that tone and so she left, but not without her usual muttering about how these meetings really should be done somewhere else besides the hospital wing and about patients, even fully healed ones needing more time to recuperate.

In the end it was Harry himself, Remus, Dumbledore, McGonagall, the blond man and the two other people in the beds. Whom Harry assumed were Oliver and Devon. Oliver was confirmed at least when he stood up, wearing a hospital gown much like Harry was looking relieved but very wary.

It was McGonagall that ultimately broke the silence and addressed him. "And I suppose you have a good explanation of this Mr. Wood?" She said in her no nonsense tone. She then grabbed his arm from where he had been covering it and turned it over, where exactly as Harry remembered it, the dark mark appeared for all to see. Remus looked totally shocked, McGonagall angry. Dumbledore did not show any cognition whatsoever except a small short stare into his eyes.

Oliver looked terrified now, but he spoke anyway, his voice cracking every so often. "I… I don't know, I… I…"

The blond man spoke next, and Oliver looked relieved. "I think I can explain as well as anyone. Although neither of us is exactly sure what happened."

McGonagall spoke to him sternly. "You would be Thaddeus Killian then, the star chaser?"

The man nodded and then continued, "We were on our way back from a game on a route which took us decently close to dangerous territory where Death Eaters had been spotted. We were already late and despite our protests they sent us that direction anyway. Well, me and Oliver realized we were near a town and decided to go get a drink. The others were not interested and declined. Unfortunately while we were gone death eaters attacked the team. Two of us were muggleborn. No one survived the attack and by the time we got back it was already over and done with. The only clue we had was the Dark Mark in the sky above the corpses and destroyed equipment." Thaddeus than moved to sit down on the chair next to Harry's bed wearily before continuing, "After that we both walked back to the city and went to an Inn. Thanks to well planning we kept a large amount of muggle money with us in case we ever needed to stay in a muggle city or something. Then we both almost turned on each other. Both of us accused the other of orchestrating the attack nearly simultaneously. Both of us then showed each other out forearms, neither had a dark mark, at least not that evening."

"When I woke up the next morning Oliver was crying in the bathroom. I looked in and saw him holding his arm. There, where just the night before there had been nothing was the dark mark. My initial reaction was to think he had hid it somehow, that he had tried to deceive me. But then he turned towards me and said, 'Not again, why me?' And I knew that he was just as befuddled about it as I was." Oliver simply nodded at this and shivered, his eyes darting back and forth scared, but hopeful.

Dumbledore finally spoke, "I take it then that he was bitten before this than?"

Oliver nodded and Thaddeus began speaking again. "Yes he was. It was three full moons ago sometime in mid or late summer. We were flying over a forest when a volley of curses knocked us off of our broomsticks. We would likely have brushed it off as simply some fans of a different team getting too rowdy and I still think that is as likely an explanation as any as the curses themselves were not particularly dangerous. What was dangerous was that whether purposely or not we were directly above a small pack of three or four werewolves at time. We had no idea of this as we hadn't intended to land for another hour or so and it was at our destination city as well. To make a long story short Oliver jumped between us and the wolves and gave us all time to fly off. It had looked to us that we had escaped unscathed, but upon further examination Oliver had a cut on his leg where something grazed him. It was obviously either a claw cut or a tooth cut but it was not deep enough for us to tell. So we decided not to tell anyone except for the other team members. We knew that if it was a bite mark and it ever got out Oliver's life would be ruined, even though he had been bitten trying saving the rest of us. He would go down so the team wouldn't, so all of us prayed that it was a claw and not a tooth that had made the scratch.

"Alas that was not to be, actually we had all but forgotten about it by the next full moon. It was a stroke of luck, there was a werewolf scare in the daily prophet the night before the full moon or I likely wouldn't be here right now. We remembered then about Oliver's cut and put him in the cage we had bought and forgot about exactly for that purpose.

"We all watched it, I tried to break away, and I assume others did as well but we couldn't. It was all too morbidly fascinating. We watched him rage all night, his clothing gone, destroyed within minutes. When he turned back into just Oliver again, he was whimpering and then he started crying. We had never seen him so much as whimper let alone cry, so we knew it was bad. He said it was the most painful thing he had ever experienced. We were all quidditch players. Pain was part of the job. Oliver had never even really reacted to pain before. Yet there he was, crying like a small child." Thaddeus put his head in his hands as he said this, the memory obviously a painful one. "All we could do was keep his secret safe. And we did, at least until now.

"Oh and I have no idea how we got here, we simply walked semi randomly and ended up in Hogsmeade the night of the full moon. Oliver had recognized the place and almost went hysterical trying to find a place to keep himself from hurting anyone. We thought we had found such a place. I was standing guard, but I fell asleep. He was gone when I woke up and I imagine you know the rest of the story. I guess I was lucky I wasn't hurt during his escape. The thought did occur to me at the time that I could have fared much worse."

"Where did you go?" Dumbledore asked.

"It was a cave on the outskirts of the forest by the castle. The entrance to that particular part of the cave was a rather tight fit. Werewolves, or at least Oliver as a werewolf grows noticeably bigger and it looked to both of us that while he could just squeeze through, his wolf form wouldn't be able to get out. Obviously we were wrong." Oliver was still silent, his face obviously ashen with guilt.

Caves by the forest… Those must have been the caves Sirius was hiding in fourth year! Harry mused for a bit, listening to what was being said.

"That is a rather unbelievable turn of events." Dumbledore said, Oliver's face went even whiter then it was and Thaddeus walked up in front of him protectively. Dumbledore's face stayed even. "However I have learned that the most unbelievable stories are often the most reliable ones." Oliver's face got some color back. Dumbledore continued, "Still I cannot safely take your word without some form of confirmation. Minerva, will you fetch Professor Snape and Professor Saren please?" McGonagall nodded with her usual poise and quickly left the room.

"Now, I have called for our best potions master and legillimencer. I trust that you have no problem with a little assessment? To confirm your story of course…" Oliver and Thaddeus both nodded their assent with no hesitation.

Thaddeus spoke next and what he said surprised Harry. "I trust that you will be using veritaserum right? I don't usually like the stuff but I think it is much too important that you believe our story for that to not be considered." Dumbledore's eyes seemed to shine slightly at the note, other than that his demeanor remained unchanged. Oliver nodded his agreement.

Harry got tired of laying there and so while the adults were busy staring at each other he decided to see who the last patient who was possibly hearing all of this was so he stood up. If any of the adults noticed this they didn't seem to care and so he simply walked over to the bed which had a curtain between his bed and it. Harry was not surprised to see Devon Witter there, and he was quite happy to see that the boy was obviously asleep. His eyes were closed and his breathing was deep and incredibly regular. He noticed that the boy slept silently and unmoving.

A few minutes later McGonagall led Leon and Snape into the room. Harry noticed to his satisfaction that there was a slight pause as the door shut that none of the adults seemed to see. I wonder who that could be? He thought, knowing full well that any of his dorm mates would not only know where his invisibility cloak was but also want to know what was going on. He only hoped that Moody wasn't nearby as he was certain this was nothing Dumbledore wanted any student to hear. In fact Harry was surprised that he hadn't been stunned or sedated, but as he was not particularly fond of either he decided to remain quiet about it. Oliver was obviously surprised by Leon, as he stared at the blindfolded man. Thaddeus seemed to be surprised at both of them as his gaze kept shifting between them like a child might look at animals fighting, trying to get good looks at both things while not being able to decide what merits looking first.

Harry simply laid down on the bed again, intent on listening to what was going on. Remus came up and sat next to him. Harry noticed that he was intently staring at a random corner of the room with a smile on his face. Harry smirked inwardly. Remus always had been the biggest supporter of giving the students more information, and now he had the perfect chance to be the adult about something and he was totally looking the other way. Harry supposed that since he was no longer a professor here he essentially had no reason to stop them, that and he was a marauder, so he must also be wondering just how far they could get and not get caught. It did show that someone besides him had noticed the door. Harry found it hard to believe that any of the professors here had not noticed it. Snape, Leon, McGonagall and Dumbledore were the most perceptive professors short of possibly Madam Hooch.

Dumbledore had Oliver and Thaddeus sit in chairs that he conjured. He conjured three more chairs for Snape, Leon, and himself. McGonagall had already conjured her own chair and Remus and Harry were on his bed. The other in the room, whom only Harry and Remus had apparently noticed, remained as such.

Leon spoke as soon as he was sitting in his chair. "First things first, the entire account of what happened. Not using any magic at all." He said in a clear tone.

"Why? I though the whole point of this was to make sure we didn't lie to you?" Thaddeus asked in a quite confused tone.

"And how may I ask can we judge whether you are lying if we do not know what your story is in the first place Mr. Killian?" Snape looked at him evenly as he said this. It was greatly apparent that Thaddeus was rather unnerved, likely by the fact that Snape had referred to him not only by name, but by surname, when they had not been properly introduced or introduced at all as far as Harry could tell.

Thaddeus didn't seem to have a response, and just sat there with a slightly shocked expression on his face for a few minutes before responding. "I'm sorry. I'm just surprised you trust us enough to even bother getting our story without the magic give the circumstances."

Leon responded next, "Trust has nothing to do with this actually. It is very easy for one with the correct training to state deceptive half truths, possibly outright lies, even under the influence of something as strong as veritaserum. While an incredibly unlikely turn of events it is something that we cannot ignore. Hearing your story with your minds clear will not only give us something to compare your other story to but also a way to gauge your mental responses and whether they change or not while you are under the influence of outside effects." Harry was surprised, he had never seen his professor look or speak so harshly before.

Snape concurred, simply saying, "Indeed." Dumbledore said nothing.

So Thaddeus restated his story again. Although this time Oliver found his voice and interjected his own views of things here and there. Leon, Snape and Dumbledore were obviously listening and concentrating intently on them. Harry picked up on some mind speak and quite a bit of mental activity but unlike the students who wore their thoughts, especially their mind spoken thoughts on their foreheads for anyone who knew how to see, the three professors were very adept at keeping them private. So even though Harry could definitely tell that they were communicating mentally he didn't have a clue what they were saying.

Upon the completion of Thaddeus' and Oliver's story, they wasted no time giving them the veritaserum and then having them sit down and tell their stories again. But this time they had them tell their stories separately and kept drilling the two men on the specifics. It turned out that their stories were not only nearly identical. But that it was also nearly identical to the story Thaddeus had spoken of before. The only things new about it were fine details that one would not likely be expected to remember of one's own accord. There was one interesting thing that came out of this though.

"While it appears that they are both telling the truth. I noticed that there is a memory charm on Thaddeus that is not on Oliver." Leon said after they were done grilling the two but before they removed the enchantments.

Snape responded, "Yes, I noticed that as well. But it unless Oliver is the best occlumens I have ever encountered there is no way he could have cast it. Not only was it too intricate to be a simple obliviate. But there was no mention of the spell at all in Oliver's own accord of events." Dumbledore, as usual in such situations, remained silently listening.

"Well…I think we should double check this, although Severus does have a point that unless he is the best occlumens any of us have encountered he could not have hidden that part of the story from all three of us. One of us should have caught something." Leon looked towards Dumbledore for a response.

"I certainly agree with both of you. But the problem remains that we do not know what kind of mental training Mr. Wood has had during his foray away from school. And while it may seem rather unlikely, I think we should treat it as though it were possible. After all is it any more unlikely then this story that they expect us to believe?"

"No, it is not." Snape responded evenly. "And as much as I trust veritaserum, my potions making abilities, and our mental prowess I know that nothing is foolproof." He glanced at Harry for a split second. "People have a way of surprising even those like myself and I for one do not think this is a time where we can afford any surprises." Dumbledore nodded.

Leon seemed to think for a second before hesitantly making a suggestion. "There is a way we can at least be more sure that they are telling the truth if in fact they are. Imperius…" Harry's eyes widened at his professors suggestion.

Snape and Dumbledore looked at him with expressions of intense thought. Harry knew that Leon wouldn't see them but if they were not occluding him too much then he would be able to sense this. "Actually headmaster, as much as I dislike that particular curse I think it may be our only viable option." Snape finally said with much disdain.

Dumbledore looked at both of his colleagues. "Yes, I know neither of you would consider this without much thought. I also have to unfortunately agree that as much as it is obvious that no one in this room would like to see this happen, that this is the only way that we can be any surer of the truth than we are. And it is obvious that as it stands we are not sure of it at all." The expressions in the room were all grave at this point. But no one made any complaint. Harry found interestingly that he did not trust Dumbledore with the imperius curse, he had seen to many examples of the man manipulating this subtly for him to. He in fact trusted Dumbledore with it less than Snape, and he wasn't exactly sure what he thought of the man in this case. He found oddly that while he didn't exactly trust him with such a powerfully manipulative curse he didn't distrust him with it either, at least not nearly in the same category as with the headmaster. Snape was shrewd, intelligent and somewhat hidden. But he wasn't manipulative in the same way. Harry then wondered whether the hat really made any sense at all with its choices. As described by the hat it seemed to him that Albus Dumbledore should have been Slytherin and Severus Snape should have been Gryffindor. Snape had never once shown a lack of a backbone and Dumbledore had on many occasions showed his ability and more important willingness to alter events from behind the scenes. The last year really changed me as much as it changed my friends. I was never this analytically perceptive before. Maybe Hermione is rubbing of on me?

Harry totally trusted Leon not to overstep his bounds or let anyone else do the same. He seemed to have a very good grasp on what was safe and what was not when dealing with the mind. Something he had never seen either of the other two men exemplify. This was the reason he didn't say anything. It had even been Leon's suggestion. Whether he was lying or not, Harry still couldn't conceive of Oliver as anything but a friend and so the notion that anyone would manipulate him negatively in any way irked him.

"Leon, if you will please?" Dumbledore said.

Leon turned to face Oliver and then pointed his wand and said, "Imperius." Harry had seen this curse in action before, had it cast on him in many occasions. But in none of the cases he saw did the person go into quite as apparent a trance as when Leon cast it. It was quite obvious that there was something abnormal about this person. Harry found it rather interesting. It wouldn't particularly be useful to send such a person out using the curse to control them in this case. It was obvious that Oliver was not himself.

The three men stared at him for a second before Dumbledore spoke. "Mr. Wood, do you know anything about the memory curse put on Mr. Killian?" Oliver didn't respond. Harry was surprised at this. That was a yes or no question wasn't it?

Leon nodded however and then said, "He is confused, I don't think he had any reason to suspect anything and the question totally caught him off guard."

Snape responded, "I get the same feeling. Mr. Wood, are we correct in our assumptions?" Oliver gave an obvious nod.

"Well then I suppose this is all we are going to get out of them isn't it?" Dumbledore said, the statement was phrased as a question but it was obviously rhetorical.

"Short of completely breaking down their thoughts one by one, yes that's it." Leon said. Snape nodded his assent. "And since none of us have the tools in question let alone the will to do such an invasive thing, I think that we have to take them at their word. After all, he affirmed their story while under imperius and veritaserum simultaneously. If all of us couldn't detect obfuscation under those circumstances than I suspect no one could. Harry should have been able to pick up something if it was there, and I will admit that in terms of invading other minds he is not nearly my best student." Leon sent knowing smirk in Harry's direction as he said this.

"Yes, we have put Mr. Wood through enough." Dumbledore said. Snape merely nodded his assent, although it looked obvious from his expression that it was impossible to put the Gryffindor through enough. Then again Harry was biased when trying to interpret Snape's views, so he couldn't be sure. Wow, when did I get this contemplative? He smiled at himself. Whenever it happened it sure beat out the child controlled by his emotions that used to inhabit his space. These psionics really seem to be helping. I wish I had known about them before I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble.

It was then that the curse was lifted and the antidote to the potion administered. Oliver was quite relieved when Dumbledore informed them that he believed their story and that they could stay here as long as they needed. Harry noticed that he did not mention Thaddeus' memory charm at all, I see he still likes keeping people in the dark of very important things that they should know.

At this point Pomfrey was let into the room and shooed all the professors out. Leon insisted he wanted to speak with Harry, and offered to escort him back to the common room. Remus wanted to stay as well and, at Harry's insistence that he did in fact want to speak with his two friends, Madam Pomfrey nodded her assent mumbling something like "He would probably find a way to get out of here tonight anyway…" to herself. She would allow now others however and Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall quickly left the room, knowing full well that the nurse was not to be questioned when in her own ward.

As soon as everyone had left Leon faced the corner and said. "You can come out now Mr. Creevy." Colin slowly removed Harry's invisibility cloak, his face ashen. He was caught and he obviously knew it. Harry noticed that he didn't seem to have his camera with him. This seemed odd to him. Then it clicked.

"You're ok!" Harry almost yelled before receiving a hush from madam Pomfrey, who seemed to be totally ignoring that there was a boy who had sneaked into her ward. Colin smiled and nodded in Harry's direction. The smile was lost though when he looked back at Leon and Remus. However it quickly came back as Harry noticed that both men were smiling mischievously.

"You're welcome." Leon said, "I took the liberty of obscuring your mental pattern so that the others wouldn't notice you. I always thought that Albus was a bit too secretive." He said.

Remus on the other hand seemed to be staring at his chest. "That is a really good disillusionment charm. Who cast it?" It was then that Harry noticed the very slight blur in the shape of a camera that was hanging in front of Colin, presumably by an also disillusioned band around his neck.

"Hermione did." He said, "Pretty much all the Gryffindors heard the commotion in the common room but none of us could get out of our rooms. So we all got together because we wanted to know what happened. I don't exactly know how we knew that it was going to happen right now. Dean just seemed to know and everyone believed him. I was just the natural choice because I'm small and could capture what was going on for everyone else."

Remus smiled, "Sounds a lot like a group of people I knew." He beamed at Colin happily.

Leon smirked, "Come on, I think we should get going before someone gets suspicious. Besides I haven't been able to get anything mentally by Dumbledore in months. I believe that would make us three to two my lead." He said, his smirk broadening mischievously.

Harry thought they were both acting rather childish but was happy that they were none the less. He would have done the same thing. He totally agreed that Dumbledore was way too secretive about everything.

With that they walked towards the Gryffindor common room.

In the common room everyone was waiting. What happened next made Harry respect Colin a lot more than he ever had before. Colin disappeared into the floo to a darkroom somewhere. Harry didn't even know the castle had a darkroom. When he came back he had developed the entire roll of film into wizarding photos. But it had only taken about ten minutes. Harry knew that developing muggle photographs took significantly longer. He figured that developing wizarding photos wouldn't take as long but since it was done with a potion. Still Harry assumed that the sheer number of photos would be a feat to complete in a mere ten minutes (there were at least thirty photos).

The photos themselves were also quite impressive in that they were different than regular wizarding photos. Instead of animating the images into characters with similar personalities to the real people, each photo was playing the entire event continuously as if it were a movie.

When asked where how he did this Colin answered that Hermione had helped him change the potion. Hermione responded that Colin had done the majority of the work and that she really had only helped him pick out the ingredients. Apparently Colin was almost the top of his class in potions, and certainly the best fifth year Gryffindor at the subject. Harry never would have guessed. Although he suspected now that he thought about it that Snape would have complained about him more to the other Gryffindors do to his exuberance were that not the case. That and he surmised that any photographer let alone a wizarding photographer would need to be at least competent in potions.

Colin gave all of the sixth year and seventh year Gryffindors each photos and then handed out the rest to lower years on a first come first serve basis until he ran out, keeping one for himself. He said he would make more copies if anyone wanted one. Hermione suggested that they keep this to students only as much as possible.

Later Hermione told Harry that she, Dean and Colin were starting a sort of underground student information network. She had already included Justin and Ernie for Hufflepuff and Padma and Terry for Ravenclaw. Blaise was their sole confidant in Slytherin, but she said that was more so he would get the information than because they expected him to spread it around there. Her reasoning was that too many things had happened to students that they had no idea was coming because of information being hidden from them. She brought up the petrifications in their second year and Cedric's deaths as examples, both of which earned a moment of silence. She said that if they weren't going to be given the information that they were going to gather it themselves!

Harry felt quite relieved hearing this from Hermione and not from someone else. He was certain that she would go through every possible safeguard so that only the truth would be spread around. Not some distorted gossip laden version.

Harry noticed Dennis seemed a lot less uptight, Colin was so exuberant that it was difficult to think of the image of him as unconscious as real. Harry slept well that night despite the strangeness of the day.

It was that time again, quidditch time. It had been an exciting few days since Oliver and Thaddeus had shown up, as both of them were quite famous quidditch players. The fact that the first game of the season was coming up was also not lost on everybody. Oliver and Thaddeus decided to give into the pressure and help preside over the first game. Blaise was also excited do to his new position as the announcer.

So here it was, a cold November morning. And everybody was on the pitch wearing anywhere between three and four layers. Except the Ravenclaw and Slytherin players of course who were all shivering in their robes obviously waiting anxiously for the game to start.

Harry was sitting next to Wesley and Ron. Hermione was opposite Ron next to Wesley. Behind them were Seamus and Neville. Fred and George were flanking Hermione and Ron. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Wesley were in the front row right at the edge of the stands. Harry, Hermione and Ron had the omnoculars they had gotten at the quidditch world cup. Wesley was excited. He had never seen a real quidditch game played before.

Oliver and Thaddeus flew around the itch earning quite a few "oohs" and "ahs" and then the two teams took the field. Blaise started commenting, "And now taking the field are those green robed, sneaky, underhanded Slytherins who will do anything to win…" Harry was surprised…did he just hear Blaise say that? "Their captain is none other than, you guessed it! Draco Malfoy…" Blaise' voice fell into a sigh as he said the name. Obviously he wasn't at all thrilled at this notion. Malfoy gave him a look that said "say that again and you won't be able to announce anymore." Harry couldn't tell if Blaise responded.

Blaise continued, "And now the brianiacs with the skills to match! The Ravenclaws! And their captain seventh year, and single by the way, Roger Davies!" Harry just about laughed as McGonagall slapped her forehead. This was surprisingly familiar. Malfoy and Davies went up to shake hands, which Davies came away from shaking his hand obviously none too happy.

Madam hooch then let the bludgers and the snitch go. "Now I want to see a clean game." Harry wasn't certain but he thought she glanced at Malfoy seriously as she said that. With that she through the quaffel, and Blaise started his commenting.

"It's Davies with the quaffle, to Patil, to Bradley, to… Ok, and it's the first foul of the game as Warrington hits Bradley from behind." Harry flinched as Bradley fell off his broom face first and nearly slammed head first into the ground as no one was near him at the time. As it was he was obviously hurt, but at the very least he had managed to land on his back. Now the Ravenclaws were down one Chaser as Bradley was sent to the hospital wing. Blaise continued again, "Davies takes the penalty shot and scores. But this does not look good for the Ravenclaws.

"Now it's Pucey with the quaffle, to Warrington, to Pucey, and Pucey is hit with a bludger, but Warrington saves the quaffle…only to be hit by another bludger…and another…and another…wow where are the Slytherin beaters? Oh, there they are… Well, it looks like Warrington is out…which means that the teams are even again." Blaise sounded bored. Harry had to admit that this looked a lot more like a Grudge match than a quidditch game. The Slytherins had started it, but apparently the Ravenclaws intended to finish it, their beaters going after one person at a time, and totally owning the field, Vincent and Gregory had no chance. They also didn't seem to be into the game. Harry recognized the body language…they both seemed annoyed at the behavior off the Slytherin team. The main difference between the Ravenclaws and the Slytherins seemed only to be that they weren't breaking the rules. And so were ahead purely on penalty shots. "Ooh…and Davies is out…cold. Patil is now on her own, but it looks like Pucey has a broken arm…and leg and wow! That's gotta sting. So it seems to be Patil against Nott…who interestingly enough seems to have totally ignored the rest of the Slytherins and played by the rules… Well that's Theo for ya, one of a few good men. Any way it looks like its Nott vs. Patil… What was that? I have never seen that before, and Malfoy collides with Patil who collides with Nott taking out the last chasers in the game. Well this is just silly. All six chasers are out and there hasn't been any sight of the snitch yet. It literally comes down to the seekers. There would be a penalty shot…but there is no chaser to take it. Apparently anyone on the field can take it though so Cho is going to make a shot. But she misses pitifully, oh well, stick to Seeking, your awesome as that."

And so there it was. Blaise eventually stopped commenting as it was apparent that they were going to be here for a while. Without the Chasers this was by far the stupidest quidditch game Harry had ever seen. The score was only 50 to 20, so whoever found the snitch won the game. Cho obviously had the advantage as Vincent and Gregory had just about given up on ever getting the bludgers away from the Ravenclaw beaters. Harry was impressed. The Ravenclaw beaters were incredibly skilled this year, much better than last. They were easily as coordinated as the Weasley twins had been.

The game never actually got to a real conclusion, as eventually the Ravenclaws succeeded in breaking not only Malfoy's arms, but one of his legs as well. He claimed cheating but of course nothing of the sort had happened. After about another 30 minutes with no sight of the snitch, Madam Hooch summoned it and declared Ravenclaw the winner. "And that ends one of the silliest games of quidditch I have ever seen. That reminded me of the game between the Tree-Skimmers and the Hammers where both team's seekers and reserve seekers managed to knock each other out and the game went on for nearly 3 days while they waited to recover, the Snitch hovering over the Hammer's scoring hoops for nearly the entire game." Blaise sounded incredibly bored and continued to list famous quidditch bloopers. Meanwhile Madam Hooch mentioned something about talking to the teams about backup members. Harry was happy that they had already taken that into account.

"I hope that wasn't a normal example of a game?" Wesley said with a skeptical expression on his face.

"Certainly not," Harry said. "That was the silliest game I have ever seen. Never before has every chaser been taken out of the game do to injury, at least not that I have seen." Harry sighed, the fact remained that the Rules of quidditch didn't seem to have any real solution to the problem of no players remaining. Not that there really needed to be one. But that game was rather ridiculous and rather than the usual elation that accompanied the end of a game the general feel of the school was that of annoyance at essentially wasting a perfectly good day.

Harry spent the remainder of the day sitting in the common room doing his homework. He had been studying a lot more lately than he used to, the importance of his NEWT classes dawning on him. This was mostly do to being let into Snape's class on a technicality, but he realized that doing well in his other NEWTs was important to landing a job. And surviving the war with the dark lord… Although I don't see how an essay on animagi is going to help me do that, but the spells I'm learning are at least useful.

Harry was on his way to dinner when it happened. A set of arms reached out of an empty classroom and forcefully pulled him in. "Expelliarmus!" he heard and before he knew what was happening he was staring at the end of Theodore Nott's wand. Theodore looked down at his feet, guiltily Harry thought, before whispering, "Avada Kedavra…"

Afterthoughts

Sorry about another cliffhanger. I hope to not keep you all waiting another two months, but I can't control when my brain allows me to write as much as I'd like and a lot of that is in the reviews I get. So if you want to see chapters faster please give me substantial reviews. I mean I would prefer a "this story is cool" to no review at all, but I like getting commentary whether positive or negative (although I prefer positive to negative of course :) ) which is explained. I like to hear what you think and why. Thanks to the new reviewers.

Nightlit