Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. i do own the idea of the puffpods and trolls, as I got that off the HP & the Sorceror's Stone Playstation game. Now on with the show.

Chapter Eight

Ron, lightly shaking him, awoke Harry the next morning.

"Best be getting up Harry," Ron instructed his best friend, "Unless you want to late for breakfast and, in turn, then late for Potions."

Harry shot up at this and quickly dressed in his school robes. Hermione was already down at breakfast and as usual she had her nose stuck in a very thick book. The title caught Harry's attention and kept it. The title of the book was The Legends of Gryffindor, Merlin, and Hogwarts. Hermione saw his puzzled look and smiled.

"Alexia loaned me this to read up on the Heirs of Gryffindor, the other three houses of Hogwarts, and Merlin."

"What?" Harry replied, still half asleep.

"Oh, never mind!" Hermione groaned and then began to eat.

After breakfast, the three hurried to Potions class and barely made it on time. Snape made his usual door-breaking entrance. He snarled at Harry for coughing due to all the dust Snape had disturbed with the door. Harry had the feeling that this was not going to be Snape's normally hard class but worse.
~~~~~~~~~

After Potions class, all Gryffindor members groaned as they had lost fifty points for the stupidest things, like sneezing or breathing too loud. Next was the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Needless to say, the trio was looking forward to it. It started out with a bang and then a couple sneezes, literally, as Neville's wand backfired and blew up the examples that Alexia and Jordan had been using, Puffpods.

The Puffpods were to explain that sneezing fits could defeat a Troll. Trolls that were standing on sewer grates, who had had a Puffpod tossed at them, would sneeze and then they fell through the grate to the awaiting dark. Though the Slytherin house saw no need of knowing this, the Gryffindor house found the information useful. Harry, Ron, and Hermione approached Alexia and Jordan after class.

"I know that that class seemed useless, but what did you think of it?" Jordan asked them.

"We found it interesting, but we really could have used that our first year," Hermione stated with a small chuckle.

"I know," Alexia replied, "That's kind of why we decided on the uses of Puffpods against Trolls for our first lesson."
~~~~~~~~~

Ron and Harry sighed as the Gryffindor Quiddich team met. They were going to vote who was the Captain only a few hours before the first match. The vote came in, Harry found himself the new Captain, and Ron was now the Keeper. A few hours later, Harry sighed nervously as the first match of the season and his first match as Captain started.

"Welcome to Quiddich! I'm your commentator Lee Jordan! Today's match is Slytherin versus Gryffindor! Here comes the Gryffindor team! First up is the new Captain and the world's greatest Seeker, Harry Potter. Followed by the two best Beaters in the world, Fred and George Weasly-"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry Prof. just being loyal to my house. Now our here comes our three Chasers, Miss Lavender Brown-* whistle *-"

"JORDAN! FOCUS ON THE GAME!"

"Sorry again Prof. Mogonagal. Darn, Mrs. Hooch has tossed the Quaffle already. Alicia has the Quaffle…now Slytherin has the Quaffle…now Seamus has the ball…ten points to Gryffindor! Harry Potter has seen the Snitch and there he goes! GET IT HARRY!"

"JORDAN!"

Hermione looked up from her book as she heard Harry's name. She stood with the crowd as they chanted for Harry to catch the Snitch. Harry suddenly went into a dive and Draco followed. Harry suddenly veered off course to narrowly avoid a rogue Bludger. Hermione's heart nearly stopped as Harry came precariously close to the ground. Harry looked up and cursed his luck for loosing sight of the snitch.

Draco would be sniggering behind him at the fact Harry had missed, but he was no longer conscious due to the fact that he hadn't pulled up in time. Harry saw the Snitch once again, hovering near the Slytherin side of the field, and went for it. Harry was so concentrated on the Snitch that he didn't notice that a Bludger was closing in and that Fred was chasing it as fast as he could. His hand closed around the Snitch and Harry suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and then in his temple.
~~~~~~~~~

Hermione's heart nearly stopped in terror as she saw Harry suddenly jerked around twice and then he, and his broom, started plummeting a quarter of the height of the stadium, which was a nauseating six stories. He landed with a sickening crunch in the sand. She let out a scream, not that anyone cared, and headed toward the field. They weren't allowing anyone on the field besides Madame Promfrey.

When they saw Hermione and the tears in her eyes, they let only her out on the field. She ran to Harry's side and let out a gasp, as Harry was a mess and Madame Promfrey had been working on him for a while. She dropped to her knees beside Harry's still form and grasped his empty hand. Madame Hooch had to pry the Snitch out of his other hand. Madame Promfrey shook her head, as Hermione looked her hopefully.

"He's unconscious, a very bad head injury, several broken bones, and he lost a lot of blood before I could get out of here," she told Hermione, "I'm sorry, but you might have to say goodbye."

"No! No, no, no!" Hermione sobbed out, "He can't die!"

Hermione half heard a thunk behind her.

"I'm so sorry!" Fred choaked out from behind Hermione.

Hermione turned around and saw Fred was on his hands and knees, gripping the grass below him tightly. Alicia was rubbing the red head's back, trying her best to comfort him.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione!" Fred choaked out and looked up at her.

Hermione was shocked to see tears in his eyes.

"If only I had been a better Beater! If only I had been faster! If only-" Fred stopped, apparently too choaked up to continue, "Harry you can't die on us! You can't!"

Harry, of course, would have the last word…