A Sad Celebration
"You have to pick the United! They're like my favourite Quidditch team ever! Our old keeper Oliver Wood is on that team too!" Lavender nagged him for the tenth time that morning. Darian had "let slip by accident" his opportunity to Lavender. All he wanted was her opinion but now she wouldn't stop giving it!
Directly following this irritating pronouncement Harry made up his mind. "Lavender", he said. "I want to break up with you." Immediately the girls eyes began to water and her lip started trembling. He'd gotten to know Lavender really well and found that she was what you may call the dumb blonde. Although his identity would never be found out by her, and the snogging was awesome, he was tired of her. She had this tendency to be a tad annoying.
"Wh- why?" She asked.
Not wanting to be overly mean, Darian said "I just don't think it's working out. It would be better if we both looked for other people you know?" The conversation ended there as Lavender ran from the empty common room.
Now with his mind firmly set on the Tornados as the team of choice Darian marched back up to his dorm room did some homework and later got his two way mirror. "Remus Lupin" he called into it. For a few moments all he saw was the inside of Moony's robes, then Remus's head appeared.
"Hey Darian, what's going on? If your asking for help on you defense homework you can ask Hermione."
"It's not that, I've decided I want to play for the Tornados. Should I try to get a hold of-" he was cut off by a whoop of joy on the other end, which was strangely followed by the question "did you and you girlfriend have a fight?"
"Er, I broke up with Lav ya, why?" Harry asked, thinking this can't be good.
"Because she's at the Gryffindor table in tears. Doesn't look that bad though. Hey, why aren't you down here eating like everyone else? Flitwick is starting to look at me funny, thinks I'm talking to my lap."
"Not hungry." Harry replied. Clearly someone was getting grumpy.
"Nightmare?" Remus asked concerned.
"ya, Dumbledore wants me to write 'em all down, but he isn't going to do anything about them anyway, the old ."
"Darian!" Remus exclaimed as Harry said something very rude.
"Well he is! Remember the first one?" Harry continued, referring to the one concerning his deceased relatives. Darian had gone to see Dumbledore since then about nightmares and every time the headmaster claimed that they couldn't use the information he provided most of the time. Even if they could they had to wait so long so that it would seem reasonable that he had a spy inform him or something. This was because not even The Order could know that he was alive. So, while his visions were accurate and super reliable, they were taboo. He had them three to four times a week. Mme. Pomphrey had to supply him with Dreamless sleep potions and something that came in a questionable candy bar form that made him feel better after the crucio curse. After his first vision they had put up a silencer around his bed, but he kept Remus's mirror strapped to the post so he'd know what was going on. Remus had come and woken him up many times already, thank Merlin. It acted as an effing baby monitor, making Harry feel so mature.
With a sigh moony advised two things. "Come and eat , than go see Dumbledore. He'll make arrangements with Mr. Minolta and we'll all work out a schedule." Probably remembering what Dumbledore said about Harry having to get physical exercise Remus added "I guess this way we won't be going out of our way to get your exercise."
The next afternoon (Sunday) would find Remus, Harry, Dumbledore Mr. Minolta and Coach Oakley in the Headmater's office finalizing the contract and working out a way for Harry to get to practices. School did tend to take a chunk out of your day.
Mr. Minolta introduced everyone. Coach Oakley and Darian had already met; she was the coach for the Tutshill Tornados. Basically they wanted him on the team. There were a few problems however. For one thing, how would he get to practices? They were scheduled outside of Hogwarts, in fact, he wasn't sure where. He asked but the adults didn't explain that well, a Quidditch Pitch somewhere. Near the end Mr. Minolta started suggesting that he dropped classes so Darian spoke up.
"Why don't I just use a time turner? It's the only way I can get there and go to class."
"Well, that's not true", Remus said. "We could clone you, but that may perturb your performance. We could instead, er, no, no that won't work. OR-"Moony was (thank Merlin) cut off but Dumbledore.
"Professor Lupin I believe that is an idea that may work. No, not the cloning, the time turner. Players have done this in the past. Coach Oakley what is your opinion on the subject?"
"Ya, it could work. We'll need to get permission to use one though. The Ministry doesn't hand them out like candy which is hard enough to come by as it is." Way to use strange similes.
Dumbledore being old and senile as he is, went off on a tangent here. -"Ah yes, I remember the time when I offered the Head of Dangerous Creatures a lemon drop. Tried to spell it for any sign of aggressive behaviour as I recall. He picked it up and-"
"Headmaster Dumbledore?" Coach Oakley butt in, "Everson's idea will work just fine. I will personally request one, knowing your relations I feel it will go more smoothly. It may help that the Head of that office is a Tornados fan", she added with a smile.
Uh, ooops. Why did I have to say it? Now I have to tell them I already have one. Dammit. "Eh, I already have one. So really all we need is permission to use it. Hehe." He tried laughing to lighten the mood a bit.
Dumbledore asked the obvious questions "Where did you get one?", "Why do you have one?" and "Why wasn't I told about this?" followed by "Please explain!".
Oshitoshitoshitoshitoshitshitttttyyyyy! Very uncomfortable now he answered slowly "Er, well, Mad-Eye had one and he never actually used it…"
"You stole it from that nutcase!" Moony exclaimed right before he burst out laughing. "Way to go kid! YES!" Seeing the dirty looks he was getting from the other adults he quickly shut up and said instead "apologize later kay?" Clearly Remus still didn't like Mad-Eye.
Dumbledore of course had to put in his bit. He said "Have you ever used it previously?" Harry answered in the negative. That would be a no. Dumbledore continued "If Alastor allows it you may keep that one. Do you have it with you?" Harry dug into his shirt and pulled out the time turner. As he did so Dumbledore got a glimpse of the necklace he permanently charmed around his neck and smiled. Harry handed it over for the old man to inspect. "You pilfered a rather good one my boy. How many hours can you go back on this?"
He answered dishonestly saying "The longest I've gone back is 6 hours. You may want to ask Mad-Eye that one."
Dumbledore frowned and said "So you have used it?"
Awww Fuck! Dumbeldore you sneaky ass bastard! Instead he replied "Er, only for homework purposes sir."
Dumbledore seemed unconvinced. Mr. Minolta was amused though. "Riiiight, sure. What a ladies man. Don't blame the boy Headmaster, it's natural for boys to be interested in the opposite sex."
Before Harry could protest Coach Oakley said "Alright, this is getting off topic. I have to get back to my team. Everson I want you at the pitch tomorrow morning 7:00 sharp. We'll get you a jersey that fits and your number. You get new equipment and our first game with you as seeker is 3 weeks from now so I want you training hard! No more eating that chocolate junk. It's a world Tournament, you'll be missing a good two weeks of school which we already talked about so ask for your homeworkwork early. We'll be receiving details later. Any questions? No? I'll be off then." She got up and left through the Floo.
Mr. Minolta wrapped up our business saying "Alright Mr. Everson, I'll need you to sign here, here, and here. You don't have to right now. Take your time and read it over. Or even better, get Proffesor Lupin here to read it for you! It just states that we are in no way responsible for any injuries you may attain. You do get a good health care bonus I believe. It also says how much money you'll make monthly and such. Just technicalities. I'll leave that with you, good luck!" With that he left too. Now it was just him, Dumbledore and Moony. No doubt he was going to be punished for stealing the time turner.
Predictably it was Dumbledore who spoke first. "Now I'm not going to ask you what you did with the turner, it is clear you are adamant about not telling me. I must remind you of the consequences you may have to face for using time in this way. Any number of terrible things could occur as I'm sure Miss Granger has already stressed upon you."
"Sir, she doesn't know I have it. I always have it except for gym class and yes, I know what could happen but I'm careful with it."
Dumbledore asked "What made you think you needed one Harry?" Remus nodded in agreement; apparently he wanted to know as well.
"Err, it was you who said that I should let go and enjoy myself sir." Dumbledore of course didn't like his excuse but Remus just shook his head muttering "too much like Sirius and James… At least we didn't go with the cloning." Harry would have laughed at that but Dumbledore was angry enough as it was. Impatient to leave Harry decided to finish things up. He only had one question "why didn't you send wizards to Privet Drive?"
"Harry I have already explained this. We cannot act on the information from your visions. Voldemort would begin to suspect disloyalty among his ranks. This could only mean trouble for our spy's. We can't afford to have them dead. With the exception of your visions there is no way we could have such a fast alert of his activities, thus it is best to act carefully with the information you provide."
"Fine anything else you want or can we go?" Harry asked right before he heard something break to his left. He wasn't even that mad that time! The thing just broke!
"Don't worry about my clock; I'm sure I can fix it again." Dumbledore said reassuringly. "Come to my office at 6:30 tomorrow morning. We are going to port key you to the Quidditch area. I'll have the House Elves provide you with a breakfast. I will inform Alastor of your theft. He shouldn't mind, I believe he has more than one time turner."
"Although he may want to turn you into a ferret." Remus teased. Hopefully kidding, yes. How he heard aboutthe Malfoy incident with Mad-Eyewas a question worthy of consideration. Harry didn't remember telling him.
"I'll just go then. Bye." Harry got up and left just grateful that they didn't call him back.
Hermione cornered him later that day and enthusiastically explained her and Ron's plans for the DA. They had organized it so that it was no longer a secret association more like a club. It would not be in the room of requirement as they agreed that it was better off as a more secret place. Basically they wanted to keep it to themselves. It wouldn't be any good if the whole school knew about it! Instead Dumbledore was providing them with a large unused class room to use. Everyone above 3rd year was welcome and it sounded like there was going to be a good turn out for the first meeting.
She had an extensive list of spells already, but not only did she not know how to do half of them, the list wouldn't last them the whole year. So basically she was asking him to add to it. Off the top of his head he tripled the list both for offensive and defensive spells and curses. What can I say, I had some spare time over the summer, Harry thought.
"So you'll go to the meeting tonight? It's at 6:00 on fifth floor corridor. Ron put up signs so it should be easy to find, provided he didn't get lost." She stated.
He promised to be there, and then he told her he was playing for the Tornados and she hugged him, really hard. She was happy for him he could tell, but then she had to ask the question "have you told Ron?"
"Erm, promise not to curse me if I say no?"
"Are you serious Darian, he is your best friend, he just doesn't know it yet. You have to tell him, he'll figure it out eventually."
"I doubt he would 'Mione. Besides, can you imagine how pissed he'd be if he heard I play for the tornados, not the Cannons? He doesn't know Darian Everson, we don't have a strong friendship you know that."
"He'll be madder if you don't tell him now", she said in her "you're wrong I'm right" voice. Hell she probably was.
"Well what do you expect me to say? Hey Ron, I think the Cannons are crap so I play for the Tornados instead?"
"Darian…"
"O and maybe I'll add that I get paid huh?" Harry went on getting into a right angry mood.
"Darian"
"And if things are going well I'll just rub in that I'm going to be famous and miss weeks of school for tournaments. Ya that'll go smoothly" Darian concluded sarcastically. Someone tapped his shoulder and he turned only to meet a fist right in the face. The blow connected hard with his right eye, but not as hard as Uncle Vernon's punch had. He heard Hermione scream and quickly recovered looking to his assailant. His eyes widened as he realized the furious red head he saw was Ron, so the first attack wasn't a fluke, Ron had become considerably violent.
Ron moved to attack again but this time he was ready. He had after all learned a few things from Mad-Eye, even if they didn't cover hand to hand combat. When Ron sailed his arm at his head again he ducked it and using all of his weight flipped Ron over his back and moved into a duel fighter stance ready for anything. Mind you, Hermione would never forgive him if he really hurt Ron, but it was tempting. Ron got up slowly in pain and upon seeing that Darian had his wand pointed purposefully at him he shot for his own. As angry as he was he drew fast and had a spell on his lips but Darian was prepared. He quickly put up a shield which effectively blocked the curse and retaliated. "Eat slugs buddy!" he called before lashing out at Ron. The spell quickly took effect and Ron barfed up a big one. Feeling he himself was going to be sick he turned and left only stopping to advise Hermione to take him to the hospital wing.
He didn't see Ron for the rest of the day, Ron even missed the DA meeting. Hermione said he was still barfing up slugs. That's a long time to barf up slugs, maybe he put more power into it than he meant to. Oooops.
Right, about the DA meeting, everybody that showed signed up but overall he felt that the meeting was a total and complete embarrassment. Ron was going to be the victim to Hemione's demonstration of spells, but as Ron wasn't there he had to sub in. It started out alright, they reviewed stunners and simple curses and then Hermione went insane. She felt that it was going so well that she should let the members try a few things out on an experienced battle combatant, him. He could dodge and shield so it was good experience. Well that was fine, until one especially giddy chick got an idea.
"Now, nothing that can potentially harm Darian, just disarm got it?" Hermione asked. The girl was a stressed out fourth year Hufflepuff who would probably go to her common room and do more homework after this. Supposedly she was looking for a good time. She nodded understanding and smiled nervously. This is when Harry first started to get panicky; he didn't want this girl looking at him like that.
The girl said her spell and he tried to dodge, but unfortunately was not fast enough. All Darians clothes disappeared, save for his boxers. Very clever, haha. Blushing more than he ever had in his life he quickly conjured up some clothes, which he was never very good at but somehow he managed. Before he could cloth himself however Colin Creevey had struggled his way to the front of the onlookers and very pleased girls to take some serious blackmail pictures. He only managed a few flashes however before Harry got the clothes on. So there you have it. What an eventful day. Everybody had a good laugh at his expense and tya, everyone had a good time. Hermione quickly wrapped up the meeting and everybody left. Harry was just too embarrassed to ask for his clothes back. Poor Harry has a bad track record with clothing, first Moony banished his sock, the Mr. Minolta ripped his shirt and now this, perfectly spiffing. It was really tempting to go back in time and steal Colin's camera.