Chapter 26

Gryffindor v. Hufflepuff

The next two months passed by slowly, but basically uneventfully for those in Hogwarts Castle. Lucy Smith had still not been found, so the extra security precautions that had been triggered by her disappearance were still in effect as June began. The precautions appeared to be working as well, as no other students had disappeared, although a few attacks had taken place elsewhere in the country, proving in a terrible fashion that the school still was the safest place in the country for a young witch or wizard to be in spite of the recent disappearance.

The dueling club headed by Tonks was even more popular in the two months after Lucy's disappearnce, as first and second years from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor, who had not previously seemed all that interested in the club which focused mostly on magic beyond their ability, also started to join in hopes of gaining some practical skills with which to resist whatever unknown force in the school was apparently working for Voldemort. Tonks decided to split the club into two parts, one for first and second years, and the other for older students, in order to better accomodate the new interest. The older students would be tutored at the beginning of the evening, after which they would practice their more complicated spells while the younger children were tutored in simpler spells.

On Thursday nights, which had previously been his only free weekday evening, Harry, Neville, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, had dueling sessions of their own to practice and continue improving. They would mostly focus on spells that they had been taught by Tonks, but would sometimes also come across spells of their own finding and would practice them as well.

Neville was coming along quite nicely, and while he was still not quite on the level of Harry or Hermione as far as spell-casting went, he was to the point where he was coming out with almost an even record when dueling Ron by the end of May.

Harry's Occlumency and Legilimancy training was progressing nicely as well. Dumbledore had advised him to find other people willing to let him read their minds, and so he had practiced on Ron, Hermione, and, eventually, Neville. When Harry reported back that he had successfully linked with Neville's mind and picked up his basic emotions and sentiments (which had been somewhat nervous but generally trusting toward Harry, with a backdrop of uncertainty toward the generally unresolved nature of life in the wizarding world as the second war threatened to break full-force), Dumbledore seemed somewhat surprised.

"But as I recall, young Mr. Longbottom has never been quite as close to you as Ron, Hermione, or Ginny, am I correct?" asked Dumbledore with an air of curiousity.

"Yes, sir, you're correct," said Harry. "Although I have been spending more time with him lately, as we've been practicing dueling together, as I mentioned."
"Still... It seems that you've been able to work your way to detecting the thoughts and emotions of those who are linked to you less directly than are your closest friends," said Dumbledore.

"Well," said Harry, "I was thinking along the lines of how we were connected as being the two possible people to whom the prophecy could have referred and how we both had a great personal grudge against Bellatrix Lestrange. In addition, of course, to the obvious connections inherent in each of us being sixth year Gryffindors."

"Very good," said Dumbledore, sounding mildly impressed. "You seem quite capable in picking up on and concentrating on whatever connections exist between you and another person. Perhaps we shall soon assign you more difficult targets. And you have been making quite good progress in occlumency as well. You've nearly mastered the art of focusing so hard on a false thought as to make it seem true to anyone trying to look into your brain. That should come in quite useful if you are ever the subject of a Legilimens spell. I am not quite sure which direction we should proceed in at the moment, however, so I will not give you any homework for this weekend, and will instead think of something to assign to you on Monday at our next meeting."

That had been the way his lesson with Dumbledore had ended on the first Friday of June. It was actually quite a good thing that Dumbledore had seen fit to let him off without homework with that weekend, as the final Quidditch match of the season, between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, had been scheduled for that Saturday. Some of the professors had been rather wary of the prospect of having the final two Quidditch matches of the year, believing that such an occasion would be the optimal time for an attacker to kidnap another student.

But Dumbledore contended that there was no danger in holding the Quidditch matches, especially since during a Quidditch match, mostly all of the students in the school were out in the stands anyway, and were thus actually easier to look after than when they were all spread out in different lessons on a school day. And Dumbledore believed that if they were going to keep the lessons going, it was only fair that they allow students to enjoy Quidditch as well, a diversion even more necessary during the increasingly dark times that were upon the wizarding world.

On the previous Saturday, the match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw had been decided in Ravenclaw's favor, leading to Slytherin's first season without a win in many years. The rest of the school was quite pleased with this development, feeling it was no less than Slytherin house deserved after providing the membership of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad during the previous year.

Friday night, Harry took a while to get to sleep, excited, as always about the prospect of another game of Quidditch.

The next morning when the Gryffindor team had gathered in the locker room, Harry gave a quick speech. "Okay, as you all are no doubt aware, if we win this game, we get the Quidditch cup, hands down, being the only undefeated team. Even if we lose, we are then one of three teams with a 2-1 record, so it would then come down to a matter of points. Although some of you may have figured out the point totals necessary to secure the cup without a victory in this game, I will not bother to address the topic here, because I quite believe that we can come off with a victory. Hufflepuff team's in a rather tough spot this year, still a rather young team, still developing their talent. So, I'm quite confident that we can come out of this game with a win as well as the cup, for the third year running. And, as you may recall, if we win this match, it will be our first three-win season since I have been on the team. Even the years when we won the cup, we did so with only two wins. So, lets have this year be the first where we beat each of the other houses!"

His teammates smiled at him confidently as they made their way out onto the pitch.

Things looked rather bleak for the Hufflepuffs from the beginning of the match; they seemed not to have improved much since their match with Slytherin. Their keeper, who had shown himself to be not quite up to the challenge of the mediocre Slytherin chasers, was absolutely no match for the combination of Bell, Ginny, and Finnigan. However, Ron was having a bit of an off-game himself, and so the score was a bit more even than it might have been, registering at 120 to 80 in Gryffindor's favor at the end of about twenty minutes.

Harry, however, was at the top of his game, and was briskly circling the pitch from a healthy distance above the action, keeping a watchful eye on Wilson, the Hufflepuff seeker, as well.

Just as Ginny increased Gryffindor's score to 130, one of Hufflepuff's beaters, while trying to defend one of their keepers from a roving bludger, hit the bludger toward Harry. Harry, diving to avoid it, managed to catch a glimpse of the Snitch toward the ground near the Hufflepuff goal post, at nearly the opposite end of the pitch from where he was.

Harry did some quick mental calculations to judge the situation before making a move. Wilson was about 30 yards closer to the Snitch than was Harry, but made no signs of having observed the golden ball. Although Wilson had seemed to be a good Seeker during his match with Slytherin, Harry knew he wasn't quite to his own level this early in his career as a seeker, and therefore, given Harry's advantage of having seen the Snitch first, he should probably have no problem in making it there first.

Of course, all of these mental calculations took Harry no more than about half a second, during which time he had been aiming his broom casually toward the Hufflepuff goal-posts anyway, and so once he decided that it was not necessary to feint, he went into a quick dive in the direction of the glittering Snitch.

Although Wilson had a quicker reaction time than Harry had anticipated, Harry had already gained 20 of the 30 yards that Wilson had originally been nearer the Snitch by the time Wilson went into a dive of his own. Harry, who had been picking up speed for a longer amount of time, continued to gain on Wilson as he tilted his broom into an even sharper dive in order to pick up more speed. He knew that this would put him a bit farther under the Snitch than he would have liked, but he reckoned he could still grab it if he stretched his arm.

While Harry was about 4 feet away from the Snitch, Wison was 3 feet away, coming in from slightly to the right. Harry reached out his hand, managing to maneuver it just in front of Wilson's outstretched hand, and then Harry grabbed the Snitch.

As both Seekers descended the remaining few feet to the ground, Wilson had a look of disappointment on his face. As soon as they landed, Harry went over to him to shake his hand. "You gave me quite a scare there, Wilson," said Harry truthfully. "I hadn't reckoned on you being quite so quick in seeing me make my move, or being so quick flying toward the Snitch once you saw it. You just about had that game won there."

"Would have too, if I'd gone against any other Seeker," said Wilson, grinning slightly. "I don't know how you managed to come in that fast on that dive. Oh, well. If I had to lose to somebody, it might as well have been you."

This quick conversation was all Harry was allowed before the rest of his team came over to start congratulated him on his spectacular catch, and started asking him whether he'd be up for a celebration in the Gryffindor common room.

The party went on for several hours, during which time the team and the fans recounted the most spectacular moments from throughout the season while generally stuffing themselves on sweets and pumpkin-juice that had been knicked from the kitchens.

After he was done celebrating, Harry was able to go into an easy sleep, which quite made up for the slightly restless night previous. He went to sleep in a very optimistic mood. At one point, he felt a pang of guilt at the thought that he should not be enjoying himself so much while Lucy was still missing and was probably being held captive (or worse) at the hands of the death-eaters. But then, he thought, perhaps it had all been some kind of misunderstanding. Maybe Lucy had simply felt too pressured by school and run away of her own accord. There was always a chance that she might be found the next morning, having been hiding out by herself in Hogsmeade, having simply desired to get away from it all for awhile.

However, it seemed as if Harry's opmtimistic moods were simply not destined to be long-lived. The next morning, quite opposite from a break-through in the case of Lucy Smith, the students were given another bit of startling news over breakfast. Doug Wilson had just gone missing.

A/N: All right... I'll admit, this chapter probably wasn't my best. It's just, I already put most of the action that I had planned out for this story toward the beginning of the year, and wanted to save the other bit of action for the end. So, this chapter was just kind of transitional, and therefore one chapter covered a couple of months. Oh well... Hopefully it was enjoyable anyway. For those keeping track, by the way (assuming you exist...), there should be between 2 and 3 chapters after this one. I know I'm cutting it close, but I'm still holding out hope that this story will be finished a couple of days before Half-Blood Prince thoroughly contradicts it, so be on the look out for another chapter soon.