The Flaming Broomstick

Harry stood shaking slightly from anger but mostly from the desire not to sneeze. You see it's only logical that the wind had thrown around quite a bit of dust. Remus had no problem with hacking up a good coughing fit, maybe because of his werewolf nose and yelling "Darian?" A moment later he felt Remus's hand touch his back and ease past him.

"Albus? Are you alright?" Moony asked in the general direction of the Headmasters desk. They simply assumed the old wizard was crouching behind, presumably with his hands protecting his head and shivering in a very feeble way.

This was not the case as Dumbledore stood up, shaking off some lingering dust from his robes. "I'm fine." He said.

"Don't talk about Sirius. He's a good man!" Darian said. In all honesty he was slightly disappointed Dumbledore hadn't broken a finger nail or something.

"Was a good man my boy, was. And he would want you to be keeping a low profile, he was a master at hiding himself." Dumbledore glanced about the room impassively and reflected dryly "I see you've managed to destroy my office once again. Can you not see you are a danger to those around you? What will you do one day when your friends become particularly annoying and you really hurt someone? Miss Granger could blow your cover, we cannot let that happen. I am asking you to stay away from her; I won't allow her to be a danger to the world, nor your carelessness just because you miss your friend. Undoubtedly, there are many people in this school who would pay to be your friend. Would you like a lemon drop?"

This was obviously not the right thing to say, as the room was beginning to get a bit breezy again. Remus said, glaring at Dumbledore, "Let Darian be with his friends, she wouldn't tell anyone anyway. I thought we were going to explain the Everson's to him, familiarize him with his supposed past?"

With a wave the chairs righted and they sat down again. A few spells from Dumbledore's wand and the room had proper lighting once more. House elves would probably have to fix the rest.

"Right." Apparently Remus was going to explain about the Everson's, after all they were Remus's relatives. "Your 'mom' was a medi-witch and your father didn't have a job or profession of any kind. They were quite rich as they were both pureblooded. Despite their wealth, they never shared it with anyone, never gave me a knut and generally weren't very nice people. Here's a not so nice picture of them."

Remus handed him the picture. Like he said, it wasn't very nice. The husband and wife appeared to be arguing. Harry took a good look at it, memorized their appearance and pushed it to the back of his mind as it wasn't a sight anyone would want to dwell on.

Hard on the eyes really, is what Harry thought before handing it back to Moony. He half expected Remus to jump up and yell; "It's a miracle! Not even a scratch!" as he had been rather destructive lately.

Instead Moony said "in truth they never had any children, but lucky for us that is not exactly common knowledge. They didn't have many relatives at all. Anybody able to inherit money from their deaths mysteriously went missing or was murdered under suspicious circumstances, say over dinner at their house?"

"Wow" Was all Harry could say. Dumbledore nodded his agreement. "So who gets all their money?"

"Not us that's for sure, probably the government. Hey don't make that face!" Harry had snarled slightly. What on earth would Fudge spend it on?

"You mentioned to me once that you told Ronald that you moved a lot, I guess going from the cupboard to the smallest bedroom doesn't count though. Anyway you weren't wrong, they did move often. That's how extremely picky those gits were, no matter where they went soon enough they got bored and had to move again. You'd think one beautiful home would be enough but nooooo, they wasted their fortune selling and buying new ones." Remus continued to grumble like this to himself for a while.

Rather bored but still testy Harry asked Dumbledore "Anything else?"

Dumbledore considered him some more then asked "what curses do you know?"

"I don't have enough paper to list 'em for you." Harry replied.

"Good, good..."

I should have listened to Percy, he told me Dumbledore was off his rocker, Harry thought to himself.

"We'll be starting on curses and hexes now in defense class and we want to use ones that you don't already know, that way it won't hint to Hermione who you are. You are well known for your skills in defense. Besides, it's you who really needs to learn to watch your back." Remus smiled then said "You always get yourself into trouble, famous or not."

"Oh thaaaanks Moony." Harry said, not quite smiling himself yet.

"Let's see what spells you know then Remus will know what to teach you."

Standing up Harry had to ask "Err, whose gunna be the guinea pig sir?"

In response Dumbledore conjured up a dummy. (Ron? Nope, darn it.) Harry cast a spell then did the counter curse. This worked fine for a while, but some of the curses he knew just wouldn't work on a dummy, they were for live people! Like pain spells or jinxes cast just to impair the person, or break a bone. They just weren't going to work on a fake. The Headmaster had to take his word on his ability to do those.

"Amazing boy! That's a lot of spells. When did you learn this?" Dumbledore asked. He had been calling him boy for some reason and he felt like a 2-year-old. Dumbledore probably just didn't want to call him Darian and wasn't supposed to call him Harry. Heretofore, boy.

"I dunno, just over the years I guess. And I picked up a bunch from Mad-Eye." Harry said.

"Yes, Mad-Eye informed me of you progress in dueling. He seemed impressed." Dumbledore said.

"Ya right. He just wanted to flatten me. Anything else we have to talk about?" Harry asked, tired of Dumbledore.

"I should tell you that Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley are restarting your Defence Association in a month or so. You can participate but you still cannot teach it, nor can you use your patronus. One last thing, how did you manage to overcome the silence charm? It really shouldn't be possible. With your permission I would like to cast it upon you and see how you do it."

Growling slightly Harry replied "Later maybe. I told you it's hard on the throat and quite frankly I just don't want to be gargling salt all night." At their blank looks he added "It's a muggle remedy."

"I'll stick to Poppy's thank you! Yes, you may go. But I want the two of you to work out some schedule. We need to get you magic under control my boy."

About 2 weeks later Harry was heading to Gryffindor Tower with Dean, Seamus and Neville having just left Astronomy class. He was using the time turner for homework purposes. He actually had another self in the boys dormitory currently doing his charms work.

Dean told him that Quidditch tryouts were on Saturday morning and asked if he was trying out. He said that he was and for the seeker spot. They all seemed surprised at this. "What?" he asked irritated.

"Well, I have never actually seen you play seeker (he'd played beater and chaser all summer) but I can tell you that the seeker is going to Ginny Weasley. Not only is she gorgeous and the kindest witch around, but she's also pretty good and it helps that she's Ron's little sister" Dean said.

Would Ron really do that? Harry knew he could do laps around Ginny but if Ron was giving it to Ginny because they were related... And Ron hadn't been especially friendly. They got along well enough now but Ron wasn't his best friend anymore. He had sort of fallen away from him, but different from in Fourth year. Now he just sort of had well, a lot of friends. Just a lot.

That night Harry had the boy's dorm to himself. Letting his snitch fly around the room he locked the door and took out the chest Sirius had left him. Steadying his breath he gently lifted off the lid. A small explosion was triggered in which confetti flew up into his face, startling him. Had Sirius ever actually pranked him before? Shaking confetti out of his hair (which he really should cut soon as it was getting messy) he began rooting through it. There was actually more in the chest than should have fit, no law of physics there.

The first things he found were wizard robes. They looked expensive, they were made of the best materials he was sure and some had spells on them. One changed colours and another had a picture of a dragon which kept moving around the robe. He took off his school robe and shuddering at his memory of the horn tail donned the dragon styled robe. This robe didn't have a hood like most of the ones he had seen and it was a bit big for him as Sirius was a pretty tall guy. Sad he folded up the others and put them to the side.

Next he found a letter from Sirius himself that made him cry and laugh at the same time. In that letter Sirius told him about everything that he had left him, how much money was left to him and what all the things he left him were actually for. Sirius had left him a fortune, even though it was split among people. Apparently most of the clothes went to Remus who-quote "needed style almost as badly as Harry himself did".

Sirius left him a journal the marauders had kept in school where they wrote down all the pranks they had pulled and how they did it, many of which were played on a certain potions professor. There were also notes on how to become animagus, which he would look into probably sometime over the summer. It was hard work and took years! He was rather busy already.

He was also given a set of car keys and biking gloves. Sirius had another letter with them that explained that Harry had inherited Sirius's motorbike. He was to keep the keys for later when he could learn to ride it and the gloves would keep his hands warm if it was windy. They looked like normal mountain biking gloves and non to warm but hey they were probably magical.

The next items were "questionable". Sirius had left him what appeared to be lock picks for any door of any size, climbing equipment for who knows what and a list of spells and their uses. For example kolourous blue was a spell to change your hair blue or red or black, what ever you said after the incantation.

Generally his Godfather had left him a load of stuff, useful stuff mind.

Saturday came up quickly. As usual he woke before everyone else. He ate a light breakfast in preparation for the upcoming Quidditch practice and,having met up with Ron and Dean, headed to the change rooms. Halfway there he met up with Hermione who pulled him to the side of the hall for a "pep talk". She looked very nervous and couldn't make eye contact with him.

Eye's cast at the floor she asked quietly "would you like to go to Hogsmeade? With me... next weekend...like on a date?"

"Wh what!" Harry was flabbergasted. She sure never expressed an interest like this last year! I heard her wrong he thought desperately.

"Do you want to go out with me?" Hermione said this very fast.

"Errrr, I can't!" Harry answered. His heart was going a hundred miles per hour, what was he supposed to say? bloody hell she's starting to cry! Think think think... "I already have a girl friend!" he said.

"You don't have to lie to get rid of me! I just like you and didn't know how you felt!" Her voice was high pitch and loud.

As she turned to leave and the voices around him rose he was attempting to salvage the situation. In a last ditch attempt to do something he glanced around him quick and pulled a nearby girl to his side. "I'm going out with Lavender." Hermione turned and took one look at the girl next to him before turning a brighter shade of pink and amongst the giggles and laughter fled the hall.

He heard a few voices ask curiously "when did that happen" before he was turned around and held in a tight hug by Lavender Brown, his new girlfriend.

He vaguely heard Dean tell him he'd meet him later on the field as Lavender continued to squeeze out any remaining air in his lungs. "Darian, I knew you liked me! But, you never asked me out."

"Yeah um, can we talk for a minute?" Harry asked.

After a short explanation that was rather close to the entire truth Lavender was somewhat less confused. All in all that girl didn't really care a whole lot why he suddenly pronounced her his girlfriend. She was caught up in the moment perhaps? Or just dumb. In any case their conversation soon turned into something similar to this:

"I know what you're going through. Believe me it happens to loads of peoples."

"What, really?"

"Yeah, you're just shy. I wouldn't have thought you were that type but you just couldn't ask a girl out because of it." Completely unaware of his confusion she closed the gap between them. Lavender took his right hand and played with his hand in hers. Wow that feels good. Suffice it to say this distracted him sufficiently enough to stop him from correcting her. He didn't have much experience with girls at all.

"You're trying out for seeker right? H- Harry had that position, Ron won't be giving it out easy. You'll need some luck." She smiled brightly at him and brought her lips to his.

"Wow Darian what did you two do? Never mind, I don't want to know." Dean said with a laugh. He for one was very good-natured about the turn of events. Harry had almost been late for tryouts.

Thinking back to it he was sure there were moments that he was missing. He didn't know Lavender was such a good kisser! He was all smiles now and Hermione's feelings would have to wait until later. One thing was for sure; with the kiss Lavender gave him he now had a lot of luck.

The captain, Ron, called for everyone's attention. "Alright. Ummmm, you 20 odd people are all here for the same reason. You want on the Quidditch team, right? The only way to do that is to prove to me that you deserve a spot more than the rest. I'll be watching for er, talent, sportsmanship and your general ability to, you know, fly. Please if you can't fly leave, er now." At the last statement surprisingly a few people actually did so.

"Yaaa... Thank you! Now we are all cramped in the boys change room because I don't want to risk the girls, it's cold outside and the rest of the castle is a free space. Errr, I'm gunna explain a few rules of the game then we'll get to the try outs!"

No jewelry was to be worn so Harry had to make his time turner and necklace both invisible. He had left the mirror and his newer wand in the dormitory on purpose as he really, really didn't want either to break. In an emergency he still had his original wand safe in its holster and his daggers. The Death Eater alert one turned out to be more of a hindrance than anything. He actually got frostbite from it just the other day in potions class. Which is to say, there were a few new Death Eater recruits in Slytherin.

All who were trying out for seeker had to wait a long time as they were last. While he waited he observed the others trying out. There were 7 of them. These included him, Ginny and a bunch of younger students he didn't know. A few of them were probably too big to do a good job and Ginny was always a bit hesitant. Before she had wanted to be a chaser, maybe it had something to do with that. A few of the kids looked like they had potential.

Finally it was their turn. Ron set up a bunch of hoops and explained what they were doing. "Okay! Obviously only Ginny will be able to do this well as she was the seeker last year, but you all get to try anyways. You have to get through all the hoops in whatever order you want to grab the floating muggle folgball!"

"Golf ball" one kid corrected him.

Ron glared at him then said, "This is a timed event. Best score wins." Pointing to the kid he snarled "You get to go first."

Said boy didn't have a problem with this as he smiled big and mounted his broom. He was actually very good, an equal to Ginny at any rate. Some of the attempts were just sad, some actually got the golf ball but it took them forever. Even those kept having to turn around and attempt to go through a hoop or two over and over because they missed it. Ginny got the best score, then it was his turn.

Confident he mounted his broom and kicked off. The course was pretty simple, he had to pull off loop de loops and a couple sharp turns to get the fastest time possible. Pulling out of a long dive he whistled past the floating golfball and touched back down. Satisfied he presented the golfball to Ron who stopped the time.

"You got lucky. Almost hit the ground even!" Ron stated.

"Whatever, what was my time?" Harry pressed. He knew he had gotten the best and at least halved Ginny record.

Grumbling slightly Ron said "three minutes twenty seconds." That was sooo definitely the best time.

Next the top three times got to do another drill, while the others were thanked for trying out and asked to leave. They did so and some went to sit in the stands. Harry's eye searched the stands to see who was watching and he spotted Remus, Dumbledore McGonagall, a few Gryffindors including Lavender and her friends and Hermione. He also saw Rita Skeeter! She was siting next to some adult he didn't know, probably some poor soul she was interviewing. She had written everything about Harry Potter's death, including the funeral. He'd gotten the papers from Remus. She gave him a positive appearance even!

"Darian? Darian!" Ron was yelling to get his attention. "About time mate. I will release this snitch and the first one to get it is Gryffindor's new seeker. Got it?" He, Ginny and the boy who corrected Ron nodded or otherwise indicated in the affirmative. They mounted their brooms, Ron released the snitch and they kicked off.

Harry circled high above like a hawk searching for the tiny glint of gold. Ginny was doing a wider circle below and he had no idea what the younger boy was doing. This high he could see the entire field and the surrounding area, it was only a matter of time until he saw it. The younger boy found it first and took a grab for it, missed and they continued searching. A flash caught his eye by the stands but disappointed he saw it was only a camera, then another to the right of the stand. It was the snitch! He immediately shot for it, he was going to get it. Ginny and the boy were on the other side of the field.

He was just above the stands when his broom tail caught fire and banked. His hand was still outstretched towards the golden ball as he tilted backwards. He was going down, he instinctively grabbed the ledge with his hand, which stopped his fall. His arm immediately rejected his sudden weight against gravity and gave out with a pop. He screamed in pain as he fell only to be caught a second later around the middle and dragged into the stands by someone, right then he didn't care who.

"You're going to be alright. Here, look at me." Harry refused to do so and grunting through the pain pulled a dagger from his boot his spare hand, incidentally his left hand. The stranger made a cry something like "Ahhhh, he's nuts!" and backed away. Harry carefully pulled back his shirt and made a smallish cut on his shoulder. It seared with the additional pain for a moment then faded. His shoulder was going numb; he couldn't feel the pain. He had gotten a look at his shoulder though, it wasn't right. Breathing hard he put the dagger back in his boot.

"Riiiiight, You're going to be fine. Look here, here!" Harry was vaguely aware of someone rubbing his back in a reassuring way and rough hands forced his face up. His eyes fell on someone he'd never seen before and he panicked. He tried to move away but the man spoke again "I'm trained; I can fix your arm a bit. Stop moving!" Harry did so but only because he was surprised by the man's forceful and commanding bossiness. He hadn't digested that the man was going to fix his arm. The man eased the robe off his shoulder and used some spell to cut his shirt. "Can you do me a favour? Look at this fine woman for me?" Harry turned to see who he was talking about. His eyes fell on Rita Skeeter and his arm unexpectedly filled with a sharp pain. "Fuck!" He exclaimed both in pain and shock. Rita would have a field day.

"Okay up you get." The man held him up by throwing his good arm over his shoulder and heaving slowly up, bringing Harry to his feet. "Think you can walk?" The man asked. Harry considered himself for a moment then took a step forward. A forever later the man was leading him to the hospital wing. The man asked him many questions all the way, probably to keep him talking and from going into shock or something. Not likely with all the things he'd been through. The pain in his arm ceased altogether and Harry calmed down.

"So Darian" apparently he'd already told him his name. "You sure know how to pick enemies eh?"

"Wha?" he asked, what was this guy talking about?

"Well, most people wouldn't set a broom on fire, he could have killed you"

"So I'm not dead" Harry replied thickly. The man only laughed and Remus, Dumbledore and the others caught up.

After that it was all a lot of talking and arguing. Harry tuned them out, they were giving him a stinging head ache. In no time they were in the hospital wing where Madame Pomphrey took over. She didn't have much to do, she just put his arm in a sling congratulated the man who put his shoulder back in place on a good job and forced Harry to down some potions. As it turns out he had dislocated it when he grabbed the ledge on the top of the stands to keep from falling. Supposedly he was lucky he was so close to the stands when his broom caught fire.

"So, what happened?" He asked. He was sitting on the side of a bed waiting for the nurse to tell him he could leave. She was currently waiting herself for her patient to regain feeling in his shoulder. It was still numb from the cut he made.

"You're not going to want to hear this." Remus said sadly.

"Spit it out uncle!" he said impatiently. He added uncle in for the benefit of the others in the room like Rita, the guy that fixed his arm, Hermione and Lavender. His girlfriend was on his left holding his good hand. Everyone else was asked to wait outside.

Sighing Moony explained "Ron cursed your broom. He shot fire at you! You're lucky he only hit the broom."

"Why would he do that?"

"We haven't asked him yet but I think we can guess. He wanted Ginny to get the snitch. She got it right after you went down, you would have had it for sure. Ronald is saying that Ginny got it fair and square so she got the position."

"There's no way Ron would do that!" Harry said, but inside he was wondering. Ron might have, he really might. Lavender squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"So you know this mentally challenged boy well?" A sweet voice asked from the door.

"Skeeter?" He asked fearing the answer.

"Oh so you know me. Perfect! So can I get a statement, it's Darian Everson with two A's right?" The reporter had entered the room and was eagerly scribbling on her paper. "And the werewolf is you uncle?" she asked happily.

"Out, out, out you slanderous wench! Can't you see you're upsetting my patient! Out!" Madame Pomphrey said ushering Skeeter out. The cabinets had started shaking, probably because of Skeeter but it could have been just a coincidence.

Soon after he was permitted to leave the hospital wing. (Lavender was still holding his hand.) Hermione gave him the oddest look and hurried off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, or the Library. Ron was led off by Dumbledore and McGonagall to get punished somehow. The man caught up with him and asked if they could "talk". He grudgingly promised to meet Lavender for lunch and followed the strange guy.

"I guess you're wondering who I am. My name's Mr. Minolta, I'm a talent scout. I came to the tryouts to see if there was anyone promising," he said.

Harry was too shocked to say anything, he didn't mean what he thought he meant, did he?

"You would have had that snitch if that boy hadn't stopped you, and from what I saw you're the fastest seeker since... a long time!" Mr. Minolta exclaimed.

"Sir?"

"Damn lucky he didn't let you on the team, if I leak a word or two about this people will be begging to see you fly. I could get you on the Cannons or the Tornados, depending on who'll pay you more, unless you have a preference."

"Mr. Minolta? Can I do that? I mean, I'm still in school." he asked. Surely he wasn't this lucky?

Mr. Minolta only smiled and replied "Isn't Krum still in school? We'll figure something out. You do want to play don't you? And get paid?"

"Hell yeah!" Harry said loudly.

"Well then, I want to fit you on a team but right now I need to find one that's open for you. Here's my card if you need anything. I'll find out what I can then we'll talk with the Headmaster about practices. Don't tell anyone about this though, except your parents. Certain teams like to surprise their opponents. Any questions?"

"Er, is it safe to play Quidditch with all the Death Eater activity? And how long will it take you to find a team? And can the Headmaster keep me from playing? And-"

"Hey hey! Give me a second. We have higher security now than at the world cup games and we played throughout the last war. Those criminals aren't after Quidditch players."

"Hmmmm, normally it would take me longer but now only about a week or so. Lot's of muggle born players quit over the summer and no, only your parents can keep you from playing, and only until you're of legal age." Mr. Minolta glanced at his watch, yelled "bloody hell!" real loud and ran out of sight. Apparently he was late for something.