Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself in her books.
LOVE CONQUERS ALLChapter 17. Quidditch.
All in all the group's lessons were proceeding nicely, the intensive studying they had all done during the summer was serving them well and things that would have caused them problems in the past were falling into place nicely.
Hermione's birthday was on the nineteenth of September and Harry knew that with their link it would be almost impossible for him to keep anything secret from her so he asked her if she wanted a party?
She had told him that she didn't, so apart from wishing her Happy Birthday and giving her presents nobody said anything to her about it all day.
However in the middle of dinner that evening Dobby came into the Great Hall carrying an enormous Birthday Cake with sixteen candles burning on top of it. He placed it on the Gryffindor table directly in front of the birthday girl, then he said, "Miss Hermione this is a present to you from all the House Elves," and then with a pop he disappeared and a general murmur started around the hall.
Silence descended when the Headmaster stood, then he said, "The cake Miss Granger has received as a gift from the House Elves is because for the last few years she has been working tirelessly to improve their welfare," then he turned to face her raised his goblet and said, "Happy Birthday!" and then he sat down.
As had been her request there was no party in the common room that night, but there was a party at the Gryffindor table, with a lot of students from the other Houses joining in and many enjoyed the cake.
The Gryffindor Quidditch trials had produced a team of all sixth years, Ron was the captain and in goal and Harry was once again the seeker, the new beaters were Luna and Neville, Neville was a bit of a revelation. But the real surprise were the chasers Ginny, Parvati and Hermione, people thought it was a joke, fielding Hermione as a chaser, she was famous throughout most of the school for hating flying.
The first match as usual was to be against Slytherin, it was on the twenty sixth of October a week or two earlier than was normal.
However if anyone thought that the Gryffindors team trials had produced an odd looking team, their troubles were nothing compared to the Slytherin's problems. All their previous team had, for a variety of reasons left the school, these varied from Marcus Flint retired unqualified, Draco Malfoy in prison, still awaiting trial and the others had transferred to Durmstrang.
At breakfast on Match day the Gryffindor team were all in high spirits and were all eating well, Professor Snape was heading in their direction, he arrived at the Gryffindor table at the same time as Professor McGonagall.
As the Deputy Headmistress arrived Professor Snape said, "I wouldn't be that confident with those two in my team." Indicating Hermione and Neville.
Professor McGonagall prickled and answered him, "You weren't here the day they had their races, after the holiday examinations, were you? Hermione and Ginny were even after five laps around the sixteen-point circuit and Neville was only a couple of broom lengths behind. If I was you I would not just be worried, I would be very worried." Then she turned to the table said, loudly. "Are we ready?"
The whole of Gryffindor House, together with most of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw yelled. "YES!" Then they all stood up and trooped out to the Quidditch pitch.
The weather conditions were calm with light even cloud cover, perfect Quidditch weather, the team went into the changing rooms to change into their Quidditch robes and prepare for the match. They all came out onto the pitch and the captains shook hands, both teams took to the air as Mme Hooch released the balls then blew her whistle and the match was underway.
As usual Harry flew high to look for the Snitch, as he was looking around he noticed that sitting near the Headmaster was Mme Marchbanks with two other ladies whom Harry did not recognise. Also he saw Professor Tofty with about four or five people that Harry didn't know either, he gave up wondering who the strangers were and concentrated on finding the Snitch. He started listening to the match commentary, which was being given by Dean Thomas and discovered that Gryffindor were already ahead sixty to zero, no make that seventy to zero, he started watching the Gryffindor chasers, they were like a well oiled machine. Ginny intercepted the Quaffle and passed it to, Hermione to, Parvati back to Hermione, to Ginny, to Parvati Scores, they seemed to be reading each others minds?
When the score had reached one hundred and sixty to zero, Harry saw the Snitch it was about four feet off the ground, under the Slytherin goalposts, it was directly underneath the Slytherin Seeker. Harry dived off towards the centre of the pitch to his right, the other Seeker dived towards where Harry was heading franticly searching for the snitch, Harry suddenly changed direction to his left now heading directly for the Snitch, forcing the opposition Seeker to reverse his direction by which time Harry was climbing with the Snitch in his hand.
It was like a bomb exploding, the ground erupted in cheers as Gryffindor had won three hundred and twenty to zero because the chasers had scored again while he was chasing the snitch. There was a big team hug in the middle of the pitch and the only girl, who didn't kiss all the boys in the team, was Parvati she would only shake Ron's hand then she went back to disregarding him.
The pitch had been invaded by students and was starting to clear when the Headmaster came over with all the guests, he introduced those who the students did not know, they were the Chairman and coaches from the Holyhead Harpies, the Appleby Arrows and Puddlemere United.
Mme Marchbanks asked, "Are you really that good or were they that bad?"
Hermione blushed and answered, "I suppose that they were really not that good."
Then Hesta Jenkins the coach of the Harpies said, "I am not so sure that anyone would have lived, in the air, the way you three were playing, I would like to sign you four girls to Provisional Professional Quidditch Contracts, now."
Luna immediately asked, "What does, a Provisional Professional Quidditch Contract, mean?"
"It means Luna, that you can't sign to play professional Quidditch for any other team, that you will receive coaching, that we can call on you to play for us in an emergency and that you will be paid one thousand Galleons a month, each. Oh, and if we do call you out to play you will get a playing fee of five thousand Galleons with another five thousand win bonus, each."
The girls grinned at each other and Ginny said, "We ac…"
The coach of the Arrows interrupted her, "We will beat any off…"
Hermione interrupted him, "The Harpies is a Ladies team and this is not about money, it's a girlie thing. We accept."
Hesta Jenkins smiled and said, "Would it be possible for you all come for a training day with the team, say between Christmas and the New Year?"
The girls looked at the Headmaster who gave a little nod then Ginny said, "We would be proud to come."
The Puddlemere coach came over and said, "Please tell me that you are all English, I'm Bruno James and besides being coach for Puddlemere United I am the assistant coach of the English National Team, I think that you are that good." He turned towards Hesta. "May we come and watch when they come to you for their training day."
The girls were flabbergasted, Hermione was the first to recover and she pointed to Parvati and Luna then said, "You do realise that, that was the first Quidditch match that Parvati, Luna and I have ever played and the first time Ginny has ever played as a Chaser. Oh, and we are all English. As for coming to watch us that is not our decision."
All the coaches were amazed at Hermione's revelation, and then the Headmaster said, "Well I did promise you an interesting afternoon and you can all attend all of the other inter-house Quidditch matches if you want to. I think we should go back to the school now, I will arrange a special table for you all to sit at for some lunch."
Mme Marchbanks then asked if they could all sit at the Gryffindor table and the Headmaster said that he would see what he could do for them.
They arrived in the Great Hall to louder cheers than usual because it was the worst beating Slytherin had ever received.
Looking around they found that there were seats for all of them, including the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall, at the Gryffindor table, which had been extended and both sides of it in the centre were free. As they took their seats they had to explain to the rest of the house who the guests were and Lavender Brown seemed to have become permanently affixed to Ron.
The three chasers discovered that Ron and Neville had been offered trials by the other two league teams, the coaches told them that they had not had enough to do for them to be able to assess their real potential. Harry however, had been offered a similar contract to the girls, though more lucrative, by two of the teams and the Harpies had offered him an extremely lucrative coaching deal. Harry's deal meant that he would not be allowed to coach any boys or anyone contracted to any other professional Quidditch team, after talking to Hermione for a few minutes he accepted it.
Moyreg Williams the Chairwoman of the Harpies then said, "The Harpies all fly Firebolt Mark Two's, so we will send you five of them over next week and as Harry is one of our coaches now, he can teach you to fly them before you come for your day with the Harpies after Christmas, how about Saturday the twenty eighth of December?"
The whole team had a discussion and decided that this date was fine and asked how many guests they could bring and Moyreg said, "Does up to ten each sound fair?"
Having decided that it did, with a cheeky grin Ginny asked, "Would the Minister for Magic and his wife be invited?"
Moyreg with her own cheeky grin said, "Ok, what's the catch?"
Ginny pointed at Ron and said, "Well, their our Mum and Dad."
Moyreg had a look of mock horror on her face, "Hesta," she said, "I hope those were the fair contracts you gave them to sign. Seriously though, high Ministry officials and Department heads will be welcome."
The good humoured banter continued for a while, with a lot of students from the other houses, sitting round, listening as well, then Moyreg noticed Mme Marchbanks had been talking quietly to Hermione for ages so she said, "Oy, Grizz who's that lovely young chaser you're talking to?"
Grizz called back, "This is my friend, Hermione Granger and she is the most brilliant witch or wizard you are ever lightly to meet, twenty four OWLS and six NEWTS in one year tell their own story." Hermione was blushing furiously.
A murmur went around the students from the other houses, not being a boastful person it had not been general knowledge just how outstandingly well Hermione had done in her examinations.
"My god," said Hesta, "and she plays Quidditch like that as well, what's the world coming to."
Grizz continued, "The other three aren't exactly thick, Parvati scored sixteen and six and the other two were forth years last year and they only studied for a few weeks in their summer holidays, one scored fourteen and six the other fifteen and six. OWLS and NEWTS that is."
There was a lot more murmuring going around the other students again.
Moyreg thought for a minute, then turned to Harry and said, "Alright I am trying for the cleverest team in the league, so how did you do Harry?"
He looked sheepish and told her, "Eighteen and six, Mme."
"My name is Moyreg, and that is what I want you all to call me, unless you are hauled up on the carpet for doing something wrong. Eighteen and six that's a pretty good score, isn't it?"
The Headmaster said, with a small smile, "The second best score ever, as you can no doubt work out, Hermione's is by far the best ever."
This caused the murmuring to restart, Harry to go even redder and Hermione to join him.
Their talking went on for over an hour until the Headmaster broke it up and the students all returned to their house common rooms. For the Gryffindors it was to a party that was in full swing.
x-x
Everybody was at breakfast on Tuesday morning and when the post owls arrived, standing out among the normal varied assortment were five pairs of eagle owls, each pair were carrying what was obviously a broomstick. These were delivered to Luna, Parvati, Hermione, Ginny and Harry, none of them had lessons that morning, so because the weather was excellent they decided to go and practice on them for a couple of hours, Hermione was obviously starting to enjoy Quidditch.
The following day was Halloween and they all had a full day of lessons, but after dinner in the evening, unusually, there was to be a Halloween Ball. As was quite normal all forth years and above were invited, third year girls could attend only if they had been invited by a boy from the senior years, but they had to be back in their dormitories by ten, or else there would be trouble.
Luna, Hermione and Ginny had finished dinner by five thirty then they had disappeared up into their dormitories to get ready for the ball which was due to start at eight. Parvati and Lavender Brown had even skipped dinner in order to give themselves more time to get ready.
Harry had noticed quite a few girls had been looking lustfully at Ron on several occasions recently and he was fairly sure that Ron had noticed them looking as well. However Harry was also fairly certain that Padma and Lavender hadn't noticed them, because as yet full-scale warfare hadn't broken out in the corridors.
Harry and Hermione had been dancing a little as had Neville and Luna, both Harry and Neville had danced with Ginny and Parvati who didn't have dates, they had told the rest that they didn't want one. Each of them had been invited by at least a dozen boys since the Quidditch match and had politely declined all of the offers, they had also told them that there was no one free at Hogwarts they really fancied at the moment.
Ron was with Lavender and Padma, he had been dating both of them alternately and together and all three seemed quite happy with the arrangement. Now the trio were doing a peculiar three-person dance that seemed to involve a lot of tripping, grabbing hold of each other and giggling.
The six of them were sat at a table finishing the last of their Butterbeer they had been discussing Draco Malfoy. His case had been reported in that day's Daily Prophet, he had received three years in Azkaban and his wand had been broken, all in all they thought it was a fair verdict. They had briefly discussed the new Muggle Studies program, which appeared to be running along quite smoothly and now they were talking about going to bed, tomorrow was Friday so they had Potions all morning.
It would be the first time that the Gryffindors had to face the Potions Professor since they destroyed the Slytherin Quidditch team and it would not do, for them to be less than one hundred and ten percent, ready for their encounter with the Head of Slytherin House.
Potions had been the source of some discontent; this was because if you took advanced Herbology then you had to take the Potions course as well, the two subjects were interlinked. If they had known before term started it would have been one reason that would have convinced Harry to drop Divination in favour of Potions. Although the others didn't have all the homework that the advanced course students had, to Ron and Neville especially, even being in the company of the greasy haired Potions Professor was, to put it mildly, objectionable.
Now as they all were walking around the dance floor on their way out Ron shouted above the music, "Where are you all going? It's only ten thirty."
Luna smiled and answered him, "Darling Ronniekins, tomorrow morning first thing you have your favouritist teacher in the whole wide world and Professor Snape doesn't like us half asleep."
The pair of girls looked daggers at her, but Ron said, "Don't worry, I'll manage," then he went back to dancing.
He did manage, he managed to lose fifty five points for Gryffindor, Ron had arrived fifteen minutes late loosing thirty points and then messed up the whole lesson, for the rest, Gryffindor was lucky Lavender did not take Advanced Potions as well. Padma arrived twenty-five minutes late, she looked as though she had just jumped out of bed, thrown on her robes and grabbed her bag. Professor Snape looked as though Christmas had come early, she cost Ravenclaw fifty points by just walking into class and they both also had a detention.
x-x
It was early Friday evening in the common room. Harry, Ginny, Parvati, Luna and Hermione were talking about brooms and Harry said, "Hermione do you think that I could borrow your old broom to teach my cousin Mark to fly?"
"My old broom, is only about three months old and you bought it any way, I never did remember to put the money into your account for it and after riding that Mark two Firebolt I'm never going to want to ride it again, we can give it to him if you like."
Harry called over, "Mark, would you like to learn to fly a broom properly?"
The common room went absolutely silent, and then Mark came over followed by quite a few others, he said, "Yes please, will you teach all the others as well?"
"I am going to teach you because we are cousins," Harry said, "but you were there when I signed that coaching contract for the Harpies, so I am not allowed to teach boys really, only the girls, I reckon I can teach you because you are my cousin."
Instantly there was a loud groan from the boys and a lot of giggling from the girls, then one of the girls asked, "Well will you teach us girls then?"
"Yes we will," he said, "and there's nothing in my contract to say that says the girls can't teach the boys."
"Or us teach them." Ginny said waving at Hermione, Parvati and Luna. "There's nothing in our contracts about teaching or not teaching anyone, Neville would you like to borrow my Nimbus Flash for a bit and lend us your Cleansweep, so we will have three brooms to teach with." Seamus called across my broom's a Cleansweep 70 as well, and then Ron said how about my Nimbus two thousand?
Harry replied, "Thanks Ron, do you want to borrow my Firebolt until one of those clubs give you something better?" Ron thanked him and Harry continued. "Right how are we going to decide who the other four to have the lesson's are?" Hermione counted the ones who said they wanted lessons there were eleven, so she went and borrowed the pawns from Ron's chess set and put seven white pawns and four black ones in a bag, then said.
"If you draw a black piece you have to be at breakfast at eight in the morning, then you will get your flying lesson." The ninth piece was the fourth black pawn to be drawn; there were three girls and one boy plus Mark Evans, for the lesson.
The lesson went very well and by the end of it Gryffindor House had five more extremely competent flyers.
Towards the end Professor Snape arrived with the Slytherin Quidditch team, he said, "Are you coaching Potter?"
"Yes Professor." Harry answered, the three Gryffindor chasers waited with him, the younger Gryffindor students, not being particular fans of the Potions Professor, left as quickly as they could.
Snape continued, "Only Gryffindors I see."
"Only Gryffindors have asked me. Professor"
"Can you help me coach this lot?" Indicating his team, he sounded almost hopeful.
"Only the girls, sir."
Slytherin House never normally had girls on their Quidditch team.
"You fancy finding yourself a Slytherin girlfriend do you? Potter."
"It is in the rules of my coaching contract, I am only allowed to coach females. The Holyhead Harpies insist on it. Sir."
"We only have one girl and she's the goalkeeper." It was definitely a first, however she was Millicent Bulstrode's little sister thirteen years old and already six foot one tall, so 'Little' was not exactly a word that could accurately be used to describe either her or Millicent.
"I don't do goalkeepers, Professor, you would have to ask Ron Weasley."
"Oh, go away Potter," so they did.
Luna asked him, "Would you really coach girls from other houses?"
"Yes I would, if I thought they showed promise. Although I wouldn't teach the youngsters basic flying like we did earlier, for the Gryffindors. Oh and Hermione, we can't give Mark your old broom until the end of the year, first years aren't allowed their own brooms."
Hermione said brightly, "Good for you being prepared to train girls from other houses and you handled yourself very well with Professor Snape back there, I'm proud of you." So she kissed him, then continued, "I had completely forgotten about first years not being allowed their own brooms," and they made their way back up to the Gryffindor Tower.
x-x
The next weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend, so Harry insisted that those who wanted to learn to fly were at breakfast by seven thirty, the second training session went as well as the first and by the end of it there were five more competent flyers in Gryffindor House.
Ginny, Hermione, Parvati, Neville, Luna and Harry, spent much of the rest of the day in Hogsmeade first visiting Honeydukes, where they bought some sweets and chocolate. However Ginny and Parvati decided that they fancied a packet of ready salted crisps, these were not available anywhere in Hogsmeade. Next they went to Gladrags where the girls checked out the fashions and Harry bought several pairs of socks, as a Christmas present for the Headmaster. Then much to Harry's embarrassment, they all bought themselves some long underwear to keep themselves warm under their robes.
Their last port of call was the Three Broomsticks, where all Harry's hard work avoiding Cho Chang came completely undone. It was as the gang were sitting in a corner eating Steak Pie and Chips, when she came into the pub with two of her Ravenclaw girlfriends.
The trio walked over to where he was sitting, pulled up chairs, sat down and she said, "Hello Harry. I hear that you have a contract with the Harpies to coach any girls with Quidditch potential, will you coach me please?" Harry asked Hermione mentally, what he should do, she told him to tell the truth.
So he told her the truth, "Cho, my contract is to coach girls who I believe to have potential, or the Harpies tell me to, we have played against each other four times and not once have you come anywhere near catching the Snitch. I do not think that you have the potential to be a professional Seeker, you were at the last match, and can you fly like these three? I don't think so, do you want to be a beater or keeper?"
Cho was in tears again, "I thought I meant something to you Harry?"
He took her hands in his, "If I had not been such a gormless prat and asked you to the Triwizard Ball before Cedric, then who knows what might have happened. But the night that Voldemort murdered Cedric our paths became divided and I don't think that anything we can do now will bring them back together again. I want to be your friend Cho but the lack of romance you can put it down to another bad turn that Voldemort has done the world."
Cho had stopped crying and dried her eyes, Harry let go of her hands and she said, "Sorry Harry, I shouldn't have cornered you like that, it wasn't fair."
He replied, "Look Cho. You've a match against Hufflepuff in a few weeks and the Harpies Coaches will probably be there. Make sure you put on a good show, if they tell me too I will coach you." Cho smiled and stood up, Harry stood as well, he put out his hand to shake hers but she pulled him to her and kissed his cheek, then she hurried away with her friends in tow.
Hermione wiped her brow and said, "God does she fancy you something rotten."
He replied, "I know that's what it was all about. If I have to coach her I want at least two of you with me all the time."
Ginny laughed, "Poor defenceless little Harry Potter, frightened of the Head girl," she put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek and continued, "don't worry we will protect you, but it's your own fault for being so devastatingly attractive, to all us women." Parvati, Luna and Hermione joined Ginny with their arms round his neck from all around, they all kept giggling and kissing him until the laughter overcame them all and they had to stop. Needless to say Neville was nearly killing himself laughing.
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