Chapter Two
Quidditch practice had started up, and with Harry's ban being lifted he had gladly taken to the sky on his beloved firebolt, flying in hyper circles to try and get rid of some of his adrenalin rush.
"Oi! When you've finished snogging with your broom you can join us for practice!" Ron had yelled up at him and Harry laughed as he joined the team. Ron had found his confidence last term and was a spectacular keeper as far as Harry was concerned. With Ginny becoming a chaser alongside Katie Bell (their captain) and Seamus Finnegan (who's wits were hard to beat on the pitch), and having Lily Warwick and Jason Buckley (from Ginny's class) as their beaters, Harry felt confident that this year they would do well. He grinned at his firebolt and silently told Sirius that this would be their best year yet. He was very fond of his broom, and the main reason was because his godfather had given it to him. It had been a magnificent gift, and he would treasure it always.
Towards the end of their first practice everyone was feeling good and Harry, snitch tucked away in his robes, joined them as they bombarded Ron with the quaffel. Ron's face was locked in concentration, his blue eyes intense and Harry admired his movements as he easily flew around his three posts, trying to fend off the attack from his five other team mates as they tossed the quaffel back and forth, looking for an opening. Harry watched in amusement as Ginny was the one to attack her big brother, throwing the ball sharply. With a spectacular burst of speed Ron threw himself forward and, releasing his hands from the broom, dove for the ball, just knocking it out of the way. It was an incredible save and for a moment they were all stuck in awe, that was until Ginny, who had apparently been struggling since she released the quaffel, began to slip off her broom.
"Ginny!" Angelina yelled and Harry, who was closest, caught her just in time, holding her in place on her broom with his one arm and steering them to the ground with the others following closely. Quickly they all dismounted and surrounded her, as she protested Harry's help, her face going red in embarrassment.
"What was that?" Harry asked, finally letting her go and watching her carefully as she blushed and made to straighten her practice robes.
"I don't know really. I was fine until I let loose with the quaffle, and then I suddenly felt dizzy and weak, like I was drained of all my energy." Harry noticed Ron pale in concern as he looked her over carefully. "I feel almost completely better now though. It just hit for a moment and then it took me a few seconds too long to recharge I guess."
"Well, we've had a good practice today, so I think we'll call it here." Angelina announced and pet Ginny encouragingly on the shoulder as they all righted themselves. Ron was watching her carefully and looked about ready to carry her back to the lockers at the first sign of distress. "I think you should stop by Madame Pomfrey's before supper, just to be safe. Right?" When she had Ginny's reluctant agreement they headed back to the lockers at a relaxed pace, Harry and Ron taking up the rear as the rest chatted animatedly about his last save and the practice overall.
"Are you okay Ron? You're looking a little washed out." His friend hadn't regained his full colour yet and Harry was worried that maybe he'd been hurt in that last save and wasn't telling anyone in all the excitement.
"Yeah I'm all right." He noticed Harry's disbelieving look and rolled his eyes in typical Ron fashion, as if he thought Harry was being silly. "I guess I forget how dangerous quidditch can get, and seeing Ginny lose herself like that…I thought she was seriously going to fall. Thanks for catching her." He was regaining his colour and Harry nodded in satisfaction, grinning broadly when Ron threw his arm over his shoulders and walked with him like that until they reached the lockers. Madam Pomfrey couldn't find anything wrong with Ginny much to everyone's relief, and deducted that since it was the first practice and they had all been working so hard that Ginny just became light headed for a moment. There were instructions for water breaks in their future practices and that had been the end of that. Ron and Harry joined Hermione for supper and then they all retired to the library to try and start their essays for potions.
The next morning had Harry rushing through his routine of shaving his sparsely scattered facial hair with Ron rolling his eyes at him as he brushed his teeth.
"What?" Harry demanded and then jerked as he nicked his chin, glaring as his friend laughed lightly at him. "You think this time wasting tradition is funny?" He glared and Ron spat his paste into the sink and quickly rinsed his mouth.
"I think the fact that you have to shave is funny, you barely have fifteen hairs on there." He poked Harry's cheek and laughed as Harry swatted at his hand. Ron thought this was amusing because he didn't yet have to shave. The fact that he had a few hairs starting to grow on his chin himself didn't bother him because his red hair wasn't nearly as obvious as Harry's black.
"Laugh it up; you'll get yours in the long run." He retorted and quickly dried his face, instantly healing the nick with some basic quick nit nick cream from an unnamed brand. He threw his stuff back in his bath bag and rushed to brush his teeth. The three of them had decided to stay up until two-thirty the previous night, finishing the two foot essay that Snape had assigned to their class. It wasn't due for another three days, but none of them had wanted it hanging on their heads. Hermione had finished hers by twelve and had moved on to charms, leaving her paper within easy sight for Ron and Harry to skimp from. What a girl. They'd have to do something nice for her on her sixteenth birthday, which was coming up soon. Harry and Ron had already come of age in the summer, but neither of them had paid any attention to their own birthdays, what with trying to recover and everything. It had taken Ron a few weeks to properly heal from the brains that he had attacked himself with and the rest of the family had been too caught up with order business to do anything more than a dinner with the whole family. That had been more than enough for Harry, who wasn't used to even being wished a happy birthday let alone celebrating it.
Coming back to the moment however, had Harry quickly cleaning his teeth and then rushing back to his bed, throwing his bath bag on it and reaching up for his school robes. They had slept past their screech owl clock and hoped that they would be able to make it in time for some breakfast. They'd been at school for a month now and Harry was beginning to worry that Ron was neglecting to eat enough. Sure he piled food onto his plate and usually finished it all, but there had been moments when Harry and Hermione had both had to order him to finish his food when he'd pushed it away half eaten. The cheeky bugger said he didn't want to ruin his figure, but in the end he ate in order to get them to stop mothering him. For the most part it appeared harmless, but Harry was used to seeing his best friend consume everything in sight if given the chance. Harry wondered what Ron did when his two friends weren't there to watch him eat.
"You coming then, or do I have to carry you?" Ron called from the door and Harry quickly threw his book bag over his shoulder and followed him out. The common room was empty as they passed through and the fat lady took a brief moment to wish them a good day before returning to her breakfast with two visiting witches. "Boys will be boys" Harry heard her sigh in her knowing voice and he continued down the hall, keeping up easily with Ron's longer strides by simply walking a bit faster. They easily fell into a comfortable rhythm whenever traveling somewhere together and Harry was proud to note that they never had any trouble adapting to Hermione either. The three of them always fell into comfortable step around each other; they clicked in a way that made Harry oddly proud.
As they approached the hall for breakfast though, Harry noticed Ron tense a bit, though he made no move to slow down, and when they entered the hall Harry felt the frustration shifting through it. Students were talking in half hushed tones and congregating together as if something important was happening.
"Bloody hell, what now?" Ron muttered and Harry shrugged at the question, even though he knew it wasn't directed at him. He led the way to the Gryffindor table and sat down, noticing his other room mates happily eating away across from them.
"Glad you could make it!" Seamus enthused and grinned cheekily at them.
"No thanks to you, ya gits. You couldn't have woken us up on your way out then?" Ron growled as he plopped ungracefully into his seat beside Harry and leaned over him to snag a bit of toast.
"Well really, you both looked right tuckered. We figured we were doing you a favour letting you lie in like that." Neville spoke up and Harry laughed. You really couldn't get mad at Neville, especially since he was finally beginning to become confident enough to make fun of his friends. He was growing away from the shy child he had been and was becoming a right bit of fun to have around, even though Harry had always thought very highly of him before. Ron just glowered at them much to their delight, and then began munching on his toast and looking around expectantly. He was waiting for them to tell what was up with the school, but it was Ginny who took that challenge as she squeezed in between Neville and Dean, grabbing for the juice. Both boys looked slightly startled by her sudden appearance but made room nonetheless.
"Can you believe the nerve!" She exasperated, waving her arm at a group of people reading what looked like the daily prophet and forcing Dean to lean back lest he be smacked in the face. She looked at him apologetically.
"Absolutely appalling." Ron agreed.
"A bit outrageous really." Harry piped in, reaching for the now semi-cold eggs.
"Beyond ridiculous!" Ron finished and Ginny rolled her eyes, realizing that they had no idea what was going on.
"Fudge has gone bonkers and insisted that the world cup be postponed indefinitely, what with you-know-who running around and all."
"What! He's a mad hatter!" Ron exclaimed to nodding heads around him, and then staring incredulously at Harry, as if seeking his agreement. "Let me see that!" He ordered and held out his hand to the group down the table. Their paper instantly flew over in a flutter and landed in a messy pile in front of him and Harry, which Ron instantly began flipping through to look for answers. "Blimey, this is serious. What's everyone going to do if they can't congregate for some friendly sport? It's bound to start tearing apart certain relations!" He growled, taking no notice to the sudden stunned silence in his immediate area.
"Hey, give that back Ron, we weren't finished with it!" Pavarti called up the table and glared at him.
"Then you shouldn't have tossed it to us then." The red head snapped back but, nonetheless, folded and tossed the paper in their general direction.
"They didn't toss it to you Ron, you took it." Ginny stated, breaking the silence that Ron still hadn't clued into as he bristled over the news, his ear tips turning a lovely shade of rose.
"Don't be daft." He fumed and she glared at him as he finished his last bite of toast. "I see the sense in calling it off for safety reasons, but really, the wizarding world knows the threat now and can make their own decisions as to whether or not they attend." He huffed and then finally clued into the fact that they were staring at him with somewhat wide eyes. "What? You don't agree then?" Harry felt that he should speak up and say what he thought was on everyone's mind.
"I've no doubt that we completely agree with whatever it was you just said."
"Then why do you all look like a school of landed fish?"
"Ron, you just summoned that paper without a wand." Harry informed his apparently oblivious friend and Ron immediately blanked, staring as though they had all lost their minds.
"Yer all nutters, I didn't."
"You did Ron, why do you think Pavarti was so peeved!" Ginny exclaimed and stared at him as though waiting for an explanation.
"That's not what I'm saying Ginny, I'm saying I did summon it, but I used my wand." He held it up in his other hand where, apparently it had been the whole time. Neville's eyes seemed to light up in understanding but Ron saw that Ginny was still staring at him strangely.
"Since when have you become ambidextrous?" Neville asked, excitement in his voice and Harry stared at his friend in surprise.
"I've been practicing this summer. I wanted to make sure I could still use my wand, in case I sprained a wrist or something." Ron shifted in his seat, as though uncomfortable with revealing this tid-bit of information. "I didn't realize it would be so traumatizing to you lot."
"When did you have time to practice?" Ginny accused but at that moment Hermione loomed over Harry and Ron's shoulders and gazed at the group.
"We're going to be late for class if you don't get a move on." She ordered and Harry noticed that McGonagall had already departed from the teachers table. They all hurriedly stood, forgetting the conversation, and for a moment Harry had to grab the table to steady himself. He felt a whoosh of dizziness and then it was gone as Ron grabbed his elbow in sudden support.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, fine. Just a bit of head rush." He explained
"We've all stood to fast it seems." Dean exclaimed as he and Neville released their grips from the table and Ginny looked up as though she feared them falling on her. They laughed at the look on her face and then hurried out, because it really wouldn't do to be late to double transfiguration, especially since he and Ron had already rushed so much to be on time. Class had been so busy with practicing their new lessons that Harry didn't notice how quiet Ron had been since breakfast. By the time lunch came around he had completely forgotten the incident at breakfast as the three of them burst into the hallway talking excitedly about how they'd been able to manipulate their objects. Instead of what they had previously learned in class, to change on abject into something else entirely, they were now focusing on spot changes.
They thought this was quite amusing, because they had never had a problem giving their teacups legs before when they had been trying to turn them into mice. However, controlling the change and purposefully just giving their object legs was much more difficult then they had thought it would be. By the end of this lesson Harry had been able to give his spoon a set of butterfly wings, but the object had been too heavy to fly. Next class he would work on giving it a sturdier set to propel itself with. Hermione had hands growing out of her text by the end of class and they had helpfully turned pages for her as they propped the book up. Ron, unfortunately, had managed to give his fork some little, half-grown, crab legs that scuttled about in all directions and eventually broke off, flopping painfully on his table. He hadn't been discouraged though, which he normally might, and in the end they had all laughed despite their professors disapproving look. With practice he would be able to transfigure it as well as any of them, he always did.
"Ron!" Neville called as they went in for dinner, the midday sun shining brightly on them all from the ceiling. "I just want to say that I think you have a brilliant idea, what with practicing spells in our non-wand hand. I'm going to follow your lead there, you never know when it might come in handy."
"What are you talking about Neville? Ron isn't ambidextrous."
"Actually, Hermie, he is." Harry supplied and grinned at her astonished look as she pivoted on her flaming haired friend.
"Since when!" She demanded and he backed up a step as she stared at him.
"Uhhh, this summer?" He posed it as a question rather then a fact and Neville laughed, clapping him on his back and leading him to their table, away from his attacker.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea at all." Hermione approved as she sat down with them and helped herself to a sandwich. She frowned when she saw that it was cucumber but, not wanting to waste the house elves effort, she ate it without saying anything and made sure she chose differently next time. "It wouldn't hurt for all of us to practice that a bit, so long as it doesn't diminish our efforts with our normal curriculum." Ron seemed shocked that she actually thought well of his idea and pretended to swoon with gratitude at her approval. He would have done his twin brothers proud with his act.
"Speaking of which," she announced in a way that stated her new topic was completely unrelated, "Hogsmeade weekend is coming up. Have either of you any plans?" Harry looked wearily at Ron before shrugging vaguely for the both of them, hoping they weren't going to get wrapped up in some "free the house elves" campaign. "Great! I figure since neither of you have tried for you apparition tests and I just turned sixteen," she beamed at them remembering the surprise party they had arranged for her just the week before, "we should do it then. There's an office in Hogsmeade that will conduct the tests and license us, sending the results to the ministry from there." Ron grinned stupidly, seeming to have been waiting for a chance to get his testing done. His birthday had been all the way back in march, but there had been no time during school or over the summer to get his license; and with the twins popping around everywhere it had been a bit of a sore spot for Harry and him to be of age and not licensed.
"What time are we booked for?" Ron asked and Hermione blushed at being caught in already booking the appointments. Ron grinned cheekily at her, knowing that she was sometimes overzealous in organizing their time along with hers. He didn't seem to mind in the least in this instance though.
"Ten, ten-fifteen and ten-thirty." She stated and Ron crowed.
"That's perfect, that way we can pop into the burrow that afternoon and show mum and dad!" He exclaimed, already planning exactly what it was he needed to bring back to Hogwarts on their return trip. Ron always forgot something at home. From then on the rest of their spare time had been spent studying for the apparition tests, as they were all determined to pass in their first go. At one point Hermione had become beyond frustrated with Ron and told him exactly where he could apparate as she stormed off to deal with some out of place first years.
"Do you think she'd agree to marry me?" Rounding innocent eyes on Harry who subsequently choked on his tongue in surprise. "It's just that we row so well already that I always think of my parents. It's a match made in heaven really." There was a twinkle in his eye and Hermione had not been impressed when she returned to the table to find them trying to stay in their seats as they cried in laughter. "Men!" she huffed and stormed off once again, her bushy hair bouncing nicely in her wake.