Before I start, in reply to High Serpent King's message - I like everything about your story so far (it's REALLY original) and as soon as I finish all that you've put up I'll definitely review it.
Chapter Six - Quidditch
"FRED! GEORGE! NO MORE WIZARDING WHEEZES!"
"Terribly sorry Mum, you see, they just slipped out of George's pocket -"
"And fell into Harry's food! Awfully sorry, Harry old chap..."
Harry laughed along with everybody else (barring Mrs. Weasley, that is) while turning from a snake back to his normal human, form.
"So what do you call that one? Snake Steak?"
"Afraid we haven't quite come up with a name yet, Harry."
"After all, it's awfully hard to come up with such consistently catchy names such as 'Canary Creams' all the time that are simultaneously relevant to the joke itself..."
Harry simply shook his head, still laughing and moved towards Lupin. It was chaos outside the Burrow - Mrs. Weasley had set up a huge feast and everyone was here - Fred and George had pulled out some fireworks from work and it was a fantastic party.
"Hello Professor Lupin."
"Harry, please just call me Remus." Harry just shrugged and laughed. It was simply too awkward to address Professor Lupin in any other way, no matter how many times Lupin had insisted to call him Remus. Harry looked up as Ron set off one of Fred and George's fireworks that went off spectacularly in a huge shower of light, the sparkles changing color and zooming around the house. Suddenly, Harry heard Ron's voice.
"Harry, come on! We're gonna play Quidditch! Even Dad's gonna play! Professor Lupin, would you like to play?"
Harry was expecting Professor Lupin to decline politely, but to his surprise Lupin let out a great laugh.
"Sure, Ron, why not? So what are the teams?"
"Well, we're not sure yet - we'll just meet up with all of them over there."
Ron indicated the Burrow's backyard and Lupin and Harry followed them out there.
"Well do you know who all is playing?"
Ron counted on his fingers as he named the players.
"Let's see, should be Fred, George, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Ginny, Me, You" - Ron indicated Harry - "and Professor Lupin. Oh yeah, and Dean. And also Alicia and Angelina." Harry grinned at the mention of his two old Quidditch friends, who were now dating Fred and George. Dean was also here for the festivities - The Weasleys had invited pretty much everyone.
"Wow, almost a full house." Even with big familiies like the Weasley's, it was hard to organize games with relatively fair and nearly complete teams.
Ron grinned.
"Yeah, it's great." Professor Lupin inquired as to what Hermione and Mrs. Weasley were going to do while everyone else played.
"Oh, they're gonna watch us play. It's gonna be a great game. Especially to watch you and Charlie go at it, Harry."
"How'd you guys get the playing balls?"
"Fred and George have some."
Harry Potter flew circles around the playing field, his eyes darting around, looking for the Snitch. He had been quite curious about Charlie Weasley's legendary skills as Seeker, and Charlie was living up to the legend. He was probably the best Seeker Harry had ever seen, including Viktor Krum. Charlie could feint and dive in ways that Harry had never seen before, and Harry was fairly sure by now that Charlie had definitely created some of the staple Seeker moves in Quidditch. He had them all down to perfection, but what was more surprising was how he used them. Charlie could string together moves in the most effective manner Harry had ever seen, and was making Harry look like he was standing still. Even more impressively was how Charlie didn't use the moves for show and only pulled them out when they could be useful.
Harry glanced around at the game and then at the magical scoreboard Mrs. Weasley had conjured. 90-80 for Team 1. Team 1 consisted of Keeper Mr. Weasley, Seeker Harry, Chasers Ginny and Angelina, and Beaters Fred and Bill. Team 2 was Keeper Ron, Seeker Charlie, Chasers Alicia and Dean, and Beaters George and Professor Lupin. The teams were good enough to be professional Quidditch (as many of the players had played at Hogwarts). Mr. Weasley wasn't as quick as Ron at Keeping but was still able to predict Alicia and Dean's moves before they would start. Dean was very good at Chaser, Harry noted. He should try out for the team next year, Harry thought to himself. Bill was an excellent flier and was nearly as good at Beating as his two twin brothers. However, the big surprise to everyone was Professor Lupin's beating. He was a good flier, but he seemed to be able to tell where everyone was going to go. He was constantly keeping Harry and especially Ginny and Angelina on the edge of their brooms.
Harry saw Ginny feint and then do an expert backwards no-look pass to Angelina, which promptly caused Angelina to cannonball the Quaffle at the left goal. Ron had been able to see what would happen before though, and caught it and deftly threw it to Alicia, who was racing up to Mr. Weasley with Dean alongside her. Harry had been extremely disappointed to miss Ron's big game when against Ravenclaw in fifth year but it was clear now that Ron had a lot more confidence, as he was Keeping extremely well against Angelina and Ginny. Harry also thought that it was lucky Ginny liked Chaser better, because she was very good at it, and had excellent teamwork with Angelina. It was the same for Alicia and Dean, though, and Harry knew that it would ultimately depend on who caught the Snitch first.
Alicia tossed it up to Dean who rose out of the fray and slapped it into the goal with his broom, slipping past Mr. Weasley's outstretched arm. As Alicia and Dean high-fived each other Harry looked for the Snitch even more frantically. Ron was being nearly unstoppable and hadn't let Angelina and Ginny score since they had ninety points, and despite Mr. Weasley's best efforts, almost no Keeper could win routine 2 on 1's, especially with such great Chaser's. The score was now 120-90. This is not good, Harry thought to himself as Alicia intercepted a pass gone awry.
Meanwhile, the Beaters were near perfect matches for each other, and were severely confusing both the other teams's Chasers. Bill was concentrating on trying to distract Dean while Fred tried to protect Ginny and Angelina. George, however, had taken to pummeling the Bludger towards Alicia, while Professor Lupin expertly kept Angelina and Ginny away from Alicia and Dean.
The real wildcards in the matches were Harry and Charlie. They would weave in and around the Chasers and Beaters and use distraction techniques, but they mostly just tried to wear out the other person. Charlie would rise way up and suddenly plummet down towards Mr. Weasley, forcing him to get out of the way or at least turn his head to give Alicia or Dean a chance to score. Harry would mercilessly appear out of thin air and force Angelina or Ginny to move out of the way. Charlie and Harry were simply two blurs moving almost as fast as the Bludgers and Quaffles. All this was happening as they looked around for the Snitch.
30 minutes later, and still Harry's team hadn't scored. It was now 150-90 and Harry was getting desperate. Mr. Weasley suddenly called a time out.
"What is it, Mr. Weasley?"
Mr. Weasley proceeded to give them a pep talk (slightly reminiscent of Oliver Wood's, except less bloodthirsty) that did the job he intended it to do. The team came back fired up and ready to compete again.
Unfortunately, Harry thought as he eyed the other team, they look exactly the same. These people aren't stupid enough to get lazy. Alicia, Dean, Angelina, and Ginny were now flying around as fast as Harry and Charlie had been. Harry was sure the ball changed hands about six times in ten seconds at how fast paced it is. Angelina lobbed over to Ginny only to have Dean fly out of nowhere and intercept it - he, however, lost the ball while narrowly avoiding one of Fred's bludgers, causing Ginny to race under him and catch the Quaffle. Ginny tossed it to Angelina, who immediately feinted and did a quick pass back to Ginny. Ginny pulled back and fired the Quaffle at Ron, who expertly intercepted it and passed it back to Alicia. Alicia tossed it halfway across the field as Dean caught it and shot. Harry held his breath and exhaled as Mr. Weasley caught it. A bludger was approaching Mr. Weasley at rapid speed. Mr. Weasley barely dodged it before firing the ball off to Angelina.
The game went on like this for about half an hour, with particularly spectacular Keeping from both ends. The pattern was changed, however, when Angelina suddenly acted as if she was about to shoot but then tossed it to Ginny at the last second. Ron realized the trick at the last second, but too late, and Team 1 finally broke 100.
Ginny's goal prompted an even more furious attack by the Beaters and Chasers of Team 2, and Team 1 responded in the like. The pairs of Chasers had started to pull out moves Harry had never seen before.
An hour later the score was 230-190, Team 2 still leading. It was basically at a stalemate, neither team could score on the other. Despite the Chasers' best efforts, the Keepers almost always succeeded in tipping the Quaffle away from the goal.
Harry caught his breath as he saw the Snitch for about half a second near Ron's goal. Harry immediately raced towards Ron, and noticed with dread that Charlie had seen it. The Snitch changed directions and went into a steep dive, forcing Harry to do a dangerously fast reversal and immediately go into a near vertical drop. He nearly crashed into Charlie, who was approaching the Snitch at a different angle, before the Snitch reversed again, speeding right past Harry. He saw Charlie do a spin to stay upright with such a fast reversal and then go up into a climb. Harry followed as fast as he could, catching a glance at the scoreboard while he was at it - 250-200. The Snitch then proceeded to dive through one of Ron's goals, forcing Harry and Charlie to go to the side around the goalposts. Harry, however, was thrown off course by a Bludger from Lupin, who had aimed it so that the only way he could go to avoid it was down - the opposite direction of the Snitch at the moment. Harry immediately went into a dive, barely staying in it long enough to shake off the Bludger, only to have to dodge one from George. Harry was frustrated - at this rate, he would never be able to reach the Snitch before Charlie. He was proved wrong, however, when he saw that Charlie suddenly had to dodge simultaneous bludgers from Fred and Bill, causing him to lose the headway he had gained against Harry. By now, all the Beaters were participating in the Seeker match. Harry saw another one approaching from the right and the other from behind, forcing him to move upside down on the broom for a moment. Meanwhile, with the lack of Beaters to protect the Chasers, the score had rapidly rose to 320-310. Harry caught his breath as he saw Charlie go into a steep dive towards the Snitch. Harry reached, but he was too far away. Charlie suddenly dramatically pulled out of his dive, clutching the Snitch in his hand.
None of the players in the game had ever felt so exhausted in their lives. They all congratulated each other on an excellent game, and then proceeded to talk about the game for three hours straight.
"That was some really amazing Seeking, Harry..."
"No way, Charlie, you're far better than me."
charlie grinned at Harry, but shook his head.
"Oh no, I just got lucky...Professor Lupin! That was some really nifty beating you did there!"
Harry smiled to himself and turned to approach Ron, who was lying on the couch next to Hermione.
"Nice Keeping out there."
Ron laughed. "Thanks. That was probably the best game I've ever played."
Harry nodded in agreement.
"Yeah...me too."
Hermione laughed to herself. It wasn't enough that they had played Quidditch deep into the night, then they had to talk about it after too! She actually didn't mind Quidditch that much, she rather liked watching it, in fact - but she was getting tired. She said goodnight to everybody, and everybody turned towards her to wish her goodnight.
"Here Hermione, I'll walk you to bed." Hermione turned to face her friend - that is, boyfriend - Ron.
"Sure, Ron, thanks!"
Ron nodded and grinned before walking her up the stairs.
"Well, goodnight."
"See you in the morning."
Hermione suddenly saw Ron hesitate but then he kissed her on the cheek before leaving into his room. Hermione was standing completely still for about three minutes before she finally came to her senses. Ron had kissed her on the cheek! Hermione went to the bed in peaceful bliss, only to suddenly wake up from it with a scream four hours later (5:00 in the morning). She woke up to hear Ginny's concerned voice.
"Hermione! Hermione! What's wrong?"
"Ron, Ginny, where's Ron?"
"In his room, I guess? Where else would he be?"
Hermione suddenly stood up and approached the hallway purposefully.
"Hermione, what're you doing?"
"I've got to see if he's there. Don't worry - I won't wake anyone up if he is."
Ginny nodded sleepily and went back to bed. Hermione went outside the door, but hesitated at Ron's room. It really was foolish, doing all this because of the dream. But Hermione suddenly recalled something from a long time ago that Ron had said - something about dreams in the wizarding world being more than just dreams. And this one had felt so real...
Hermione opened the door soundlessly to Ron's room and tiptoed in. She scanned Ron's bed and sighed in relief, turning around before suddenly realizing something. She turned back, and, to her horror, her suspicions were confirmed.
Ron wasn't in his bed.
I bet you just love that she had a dream and that you have no idea what it's about. Whatever. You may have noticed that this chapter is rather Quidditch-heavy, but then again, I love Quidditch, and you can skip over it all if you want. Anyway, I'll try to get the next chapter up soon for whoever's reading. Until then...
Chapter Six - Quidditch
"FRED! GEORGE! NO MORE WIZARDING WHEEZES!"
"Terribly sorry Mum, you see, they just slipped out of George's pocket -"
"And fell into Harry's food! Awfully sorry, Harry old chap..."
Harry laughed along with everybody else (barring Mrs. Weasley, that is) while turning from a snake back to his normal human, form.
"So what do you call that one? Snake Steak?"
"Afraid we haven't quite come up with a name yet, Harry."
"After all, it's awfully hard to come up with such consistently catchy names such as 'Canary Creams' all the time that are simultaneously relevant to the joke itself..."
Harry simply shook his head, still laughing and moved towards Lupin. It was chaos outside the Burrow - Mrs. Weasley had set up a huge feast and everyone was here - Fred and George had pulled out some fireworks from work and it was a fantastic party.
"Hello Professor Lupin."
"Harry, please just call me Remus." Harry just shrugged and laughed. It was simply too awkward to address Professor Lupin in any other way, no matter how many times Lupin had insisted to call him Remus. Harry looked up as Ron set off one of Fred and George's fireworks that went off spectacularly in a huge shower of light, the sparkles changing color and zooming around the house. Suddenly, Harry heard Ron's voice.
"Harry, come on! We're gonna play Quidditch! Even Dad's gonna play! Professor Lupin, would you like to play?"
Harry was expecting Professor Lupin to decline politely, but to his surprise Lupin let out a great laugh.
"Sure, Ron, why not? So what are the teams?"
"Well, we're not sure yet - we'll just meet up with all of them over there."
Ron indicated the Burrow's backyard and Lupin and Harry followed them out there.
"Well do you know who all is playing?"
Ron counted on his fingers as he named the players.
"Let's see, should be Fred, George, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Ginny, Me, You" - Ron indicated Harry - "and Professor Lupin. Oh yeah, and Dean. And also Alicia and Angelina." Harry grinned at the mention of his two old Quidditch friends, who were now dating Fred and George. Dean was also here for the festivities - The Weasleys had invited pretty much everyone.
"Wow, almost a full house." Even with big familiies like the Weasley's, it was hard to organize games with relatively fair and nearly complete teams.
Ron grinned.
"Yeah, it's great." Professor Lupin inquired as to what Hermione and Mrs. Weasley were going to do while everyone else played.
"Oh, they're gonna watch us play. It's gonna be a great game. Especially to watch you and Charlie go at it, Harry."
"How'd you guys get the playing balls?"
"Fred and George have some."
Harry Potter flew circles around the playing field, his eyes darting around, looking for the Snitch. He had been quite curious about Charlie Weasley's legendary skills as Seeker, and Charlie was living up to the legend. He was probably the best Seeker Harry had ever seen, including Viktor Krum. Charlie could feint and dive in ways that Harry had never seen before, and Harry was fairly sure by now that Charlie had definitely created some of the staple Seeker moves in Quidditch. He had them all down to perfection, but what was more surprising was how he used them. Charlie could string together moves in the most effective manner Harry had ever seen, and was making Harry look like he was standing still. Even more impressively was how Charlie didn't use the moves for show and only pulled them out when they could be useful.
Harry glanced around at the game and then at the magical scoreboard Mrs. Weasley had conjured. 90-80 for Team 1. Team 1 consisted of Keeper Mr. Weasley, Seeker Harry, Chasers Ginny and Angelina, and Beaters Fred and Bill. Team 2 was Keeper Ron, Seeker Charlie, Chasers Alicia and Dean, and Beaters George and Professor Lupin. The teams were good enough to be professional Quidditch (as many of the players had played at Hogwarts). Mr. Weasley wasn't as quick as Ron at Keeping but was still able to predict Alicia and Dean's moves before they would start. Dean was very good at Chaser, Harry noted. He should try out for the team next year, Harry thought to himself. Bill was an excellent flier and was nearly as good at Beating as his two twin brothers. However, the big surprise to everyone was Professor Lupin's beating. He was a good flier, but he seemed to be able to tell where everyone was going to go. He was constantly keeping Harry and especially Ginny and Angelina on the edge of their brooms.
Harry saw Ginny feint and then do an expert backwards no-look pass to Angelina, which promptly caused Angelina to cannonball the Quaffle at the left goal. Ron had been able to see what would happen before though, and caught it and deftly threw it to Alicia, who was racing up to Mr. Weasley with Dean alongside her. Harry had been extremely disappointed to miss Ron's big game when against Ravenclaw in fifth year but it was clear now that Ron had a lot more confidence, as he was Keeping extremely well against Angelina and Ginny. Harry also thought that it was lucky Ginny liked Chaser better, because she was very good at it, and had excellent teamwork with Angelina. It was the same for Alicia and Dean, though, and Harry knew that it would ultimately depend on who caught the Snitch first.
Alicia tossed it up to Dean who rose out of the fray and slapped it into the goal with his broom, slipping past Mr. Weasley's outstretched arm. As Alicia and Dean high-fived each other Harry looked for the Snitch even more frantically. Ron was being nearly unstoppable and hadn't let Angelina and Ginny score since they had ninety points, and despite Mr. Weasley's best efforts, almost no Keeper could win routine 2 on 1's, especially with such great Chaser's. The score was now 120-90. This is not good, Harry thought to himself as Alicia intercepted a pass gone awry.
Meanwhile, the Beaters were near perfect matches for each other, and were severely confusing both the other teams's Chasers. Bill was concentrating on trying to distract Dean while Fred tried to protect Ginny and Angelina. George, however, had taken to pummeling the Bludger towards Alicia, while Professor Lupin expertly kept Angelina and Ginny away from Alicia and Dean.
The real wildcards in the matches were Harry and Charlie. They would weave in and around the Chasers and Beaters and use distraction techniques, but they mostly just tried to wear out the other person. Charlie would rise way up and suddenly plummet down towards Mr. Weasley, forcing him to get out of the way or at least turn his head to give Alicia or Dean a chance to score. Harry would mercilessly appear out of thin air and force Angelina or Ginny to move out of the way. Charlie and Harry were simply two blurs moving almost as fast as the Bludgers and Quaffles. All this was happening as they looked around for the Snitch.
30 minutes later, and still Harry's team hadn't scored. It was now 150-90 and Harry was getting desperate. Mr. Weasley suddenly called a time out.
"What is it, Mr. Weasley?"
Mr. Weasley proceeded to give them a pep talk (slightly reminiscent of Oliver Wood's, except less bloodthirsty) that did the job he intended it to do. The team came back fired up and ready to compete again.
Unfortunately, Harry thought as he eyed the other team, they look exactly the same. These people aren't stupid enough to get lazy. Alicia, Dean, Angelina, and Ginny were now flying around as fast as Harry and Charlie had been. Harry was sure the ball changed hands about six times in ten seconds at how fast paced it is. Angelina lobbed over to Ginny only to have Dean fly out of nowhere and intercept it - he, however, lost the ball while narrowly avoiding one of Fred's bludgers, causing Ginny to race under him and catch the Quaffle. Ginny tossed it to Angelina, who immediately feinted and did a quick pass back to Ginny. Ginny pulled back and fired the Quaffle at Ron, who expertly intercepted it and passed it back to Alicia. Alicia tossed it halfway across the field as Dean caught it and shot. Harry held his breath and exhaled as Mr. Weasley caught it. A bludger was approaching Mr. Weasley at rapid speed. Mr. Weasley barely dodged it before firing the ball off to Angelina.
The game went on like this for about half an hour, with particularly spectacular Keeping from both ends. The pattern was changed, however, when Angelina suddenly acted as if she was about to shoot but then tossed it to Ginny at the last second. Ron realized the trick at the last second, but too late, and Team 1 finally broke 100.
Ginny's goal prompted an even more furious attack by the Beaters and Chasers of Team 2, and Team 1 responded in the like. The pairs of Chasers had started to pull out moves Harry had never seen before.
An hour later the score was 230-190, Team 2 still leading. It was basically at a stalemate, neither team could score on the other. Despite the Chasers' best efforts, the Keepers almost always succeeded in tipping the Quaffle away from the goal.
Harry caught his breath as he saw the Snitch for about half a second near Ron's goal. Harry immediately raced towards Ron, and noticed with dread that Charlie had seen it. The Snitch changed directions and went into a steep dive, forcing Harry to do a dangerously fast reversal and immediately go into a near vertical drop. He nearly crashed into Charlie, who was approaching the Snitch at a different angle, before the Snitch reversed again, speeding right past Harry. He saw Charlie do a spin to stay upright with such a fast reversal and then go up into a climb. Harry followed as fast as he could, catching a glance at the scoreboard while he was at it - 250-200. The Snitch then proceeded to dive through one of Ron's goals, forcing Harry and Charlie to go to the side around the goalposts. Harry, however, was thrown off course by a Bludger from Lupin, who had aimed it so that the only way he could go to avoid it was down - the opposite direction of the Snitch at the moment. Harry immediately went into a dive, barely staying in it long enough to shake off the Bludger, only to have to dodge one from George. Harry was frustrated - at this rate, he would never be able to reach the Snitch before Charlie. He was proved wrong, however, when he saw that Charlie suddenly had to dodge simultaneous bludgers from Fred and Bill, causing him to lose the headway he had gained against Harry. By now, all the Beaters were participating in the Seeker match. Harry saw another one approaching from the right and the other from behind, forcing him to move upside down on the broom for a moment. Meanwhile, with the lack of Beaters to protect the Chasers, the score had rapidly rose to 320-310. Harry caught his breath as he saw Charlie go into a steep dive towards the Snitch. Harry reached, but he was too far away. Charlie suddenly dramatically pulled out of his dive, clutching the Snitch in his hand.
None of the players in the game had ever felt so exhausted in their lives. They all congratulated each other on an excellent game, and then proceeded to talk about the game for three hours straight.
"That was some really amazing Seeking, Harry..."
"No way, Charlie, you're far better than me."
charlie grinned at Harry, but shook his head.
"Oh no, I just got lucky...Professor Lupin! That was some really nifty beating you did there!"
Harry smiled to himself and turned to approach Ron, who was lying on the couch next to Hermione.
"Nice Keeping out there."
Ron laughed. "Thanks. That was probably the best game I've ever played."
Harry nodded in agreement.
"Yeah...me too."
Hermione laughed to herself. It wasn't enough that they had played Quidditch deep into the night, then they had to talk about it after too! She actually didn't mind Quidditch that much, she rather liked watching it, in fact - but she was getting tired. She said goodnight to everybody, and everybody turned towards her to wish her goodnight.
"Here Hermione, I'll walk you to bed." Hermione turned to face her friend - that is, boyfriend - Ron.
"Sure, Ron, thanks!"
Ron nodded and grinned before walking her up the stairs.
"Well, goodnight."
"See you in the morning."
Hermione suddenly saw Ron hesitate but then he kissed her on the cheek before leaving into his room. Hermione was standing completely still for about three minutes before she finally came to her senses. Ron had kissed her on the cheek! Hermione went to the bed in peaceful bliss, only to suddenly wake up from it with a scream four hours later (5:00 in the morning). She woke up to hear Ginny's concerned voice.
"Hermione! Hermione! What's wrong?"
"Ron, Ginny, where's Ron?"
"In his room, I guess? Where else would he be?"
Hermione suddenly stood up and approached the hallway purposefully.
"Hermione, what're you doing?"
"I've got to see if he's there. Don't worry - I won't wake anyone up if he is."
Ginny nodded sleepily and went back to bed. Hermione went outside the door, but hesitated at Ron's room. It really was foolish, doing all this because of the dream. But Hermione suddenly recalled something from a long time ago that Ron had said - something about dreams in the wizarding world being more than just dreams. And this one had felt so real...
Hermione opened the door soundlessly to Ron's room and tiptoed in. She scanned Ron's bed and sighed in relief, turning around before suddenly realizing something. She turned back, and, to her horror, her suspicions were confirmed.
Ron wasn't in his bed.
I bet you just love that she had a dream and that you have no idea what it's about. Whatever. You may have noticed that this chapter is rather Quidditch-heavy, but then again, I love Quidditch, and you can skip over it all if you want. Anyway, I'll try to get the next chapter up soon for whoever's reading. Until then...