1If Things Were Different: The Sorcerer's Stone
Chapter Fourteen: Of Quidditch and Reporters
Summary:What if Harry left the Dursley's behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive?What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R
A/N: Sorry for the long delay, again. I'm in this crazy thing called college now, and its hard to find time to worry about this fic. Anyway, I'm trying to break away from the books little by little, but anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Over the next couple of weeks Harry discovered that the hellish quidditch practices were taking up more and more of his time. Flint was calling practices at all hours of the day, from sunrise to sunset the team was always "on call" for a practice, whether it was freezing cold and raining, as it commonly was (which was a shock to Harry, who had become used to the warm weather of the southern states), or if the sky was clear and the sun unusually bright. Flint demanded the practices were necessary if the Slytherin team wanted any chance to defeat the Gryffindors, who had finally found a new seeker in the form of Kevin Riley, a sixth year.
According to Flint, Riley was a tall, lanky kid who had always been a bit clumsy. "The dunderhead isn't too talented," the Slytherin captain claimed, "But he has long arms and a good eye, you'll have to keep a watch on him Potter."
Overall the practices weren't as grueling for Harry as they had been, due to the fact that the rest of the team had been working with different formations and sketchy tactics Flint was coming up with, instead of concentrating on getting Harry. Nevertheless the practices were still hard and time consuming for the first year, leaving him with little time to focus on his studies, much less to investigate the third floor any further.
With such a hectic schedule the time flew by, and on the morning of the first match Harry was quite surprised it had snuck up on him so fast. It was a bright and cold morning, not a bad day for Quidditch, Harry decided, but it wouldn't be bad if it were a little warmer.
"Come on Harry, lets go get some food in you before the match." Draco called out when Harry made it down to the common room. "Audrey and Blaise already headed out."
"I'm not that hungry."
"You think I care? Come on, you need to have your strength if you're gonna represent Slytherin."
The seeker decided against further protest and headed up to the Great Hall with his blonde friend, despite the large knot in his stomach. Breakfast smelled delicious as they entered, with smells of sausage, bacon, and pancakes wafting through the air.
They made their way over to the Slytherin table, passing by taunting Gryffindors on the way. Harry paid them no attention and sat down at the table, looking down at all the wonderful food in disgust. Nevertheless he piled some food on his plate and began to eat, only to discover he couldn't get down much more than some toast and a bite or two of eggs.
Harry was just getting up to head down to the locker room when Audrey stopped him. "Wait a minute Potter, I think we should do something about your hair."
"What do you mean?" He asked defensively, he subconsciously reached up and tousled his hair. "I like my hair."
"Course you do, but it looks like your representing Ravenclaw with all that blue in it. Here, let me fix it." With that she waved her wand over his head and muttered a spell. "Now, that's perfect."
"What'd you do to it?" Harry asked, trying to make out his reflection on an empty plate.
"I turned all the blue to green, now not only do you look like a Slytherin, but it also matches your eyes." Harry was slightly agitated, but he shrugged it off.
"I'm heading down to the pitch, you guys coming." Blaise stuffed one last mouthful of sausage in his mouth and stood up with Draco and Audrey as they followed Harry out of the Great Hall. On the way out they passed the Ravenclaw table where Terry wished him luck, which made Harry a little guilty for not spending more time with his Ravenclaw friend.
When they reached the quidditch pitch his friends wished him luck and headed off to the already filling stands, and Harry made his way to the Slytherin dressing room. The rest of the team was already getting dressed, so Harry quickly threw on his gear and sat down to listen to Flint.
"All right guys, you know the drill. Now lets get out there and stomp those Gryffindorks."
It wasn't much of a speech, but it was all that was said. The team then stood up and headed out onto the field where they were met with a mixture of loud cheers from the Slytherin section and some of the Ravenclaws, along with boos from the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.
At center field Madame Hooch called for a fair game, forced Flint and Wood to shake hands, and then blew her whistle to start the game.
As soon as the whistle sounded Harry pushed off hard into the air and headed up above the match. Only a few seconds into the game Harry was forced to dodge two speeding bludgers, flying much faster than what the Slytherin team had ever sent at him. He looked down only to see the Weasley twins laughing at him.
"Sorry Potter, got to do what we got to do." Fred called, before racing off after one of the stray bludgers. Harry shook his head and held in a laugh, he hadn't expected them to apologize for going after him, the match was at stack after all.
Before long the twins stopped aiming at Harry however, since there were more important matters going on below him. The match quickly turned out to be a gruesome affair, as the two rivals began throwing everything they had at each other. It quickly became obvious that the Gryffindor team was in fact more talented than the Slytherins as they racked up four scores before the Slytherin team managed their first goal.
"Oh, its turning into a nasty game out there," Lee Jordan, a Gryffindor, was commenting the game from the stands. "Looks like the Slytherin team has taken to playing dirty, no surprises there."
"JORDAN!" McGonagall was seated next to the Weasley Twins' friend, attempting to keep his commentary unbiased.
"Sorry professor. Back to the game, Gryffindor in possession – Angelina Johnson has the quaffle, passes to Spinnet, she's headed toward the goal – watch that bludger! She passes the ball – Oh! Intercepted by Flint, he's headed to the goal, he shoots – BLOCKED! Gryffindors have it again, Johnson in possession – OH! That has to be a foul! Adam Pucey just performed an illegal move, you can't hit another chaser from behind like that!"
Madame Hooch blew her whistle and Pucey was charged with the foul, he had elbowed Angelina in the head as she was flying down field. The Gryffindors made their bonus shot, making the score 50 to 10. That didn't stop the Slytherins' aggressive and dirty tactics however. Over the next few minutes Harry's team managed to score two more times, but they weren't able to draw any closer as the Gryffindors scored three more times, twice as a result of foul shots, making the score 80 to 30.
Meanwhile, Harry was 50 feet above everyone else in search of the Golden Snitch. He was becoming quite unhappy with the Gryffindor seeker, who had taken to following Harry's every move and cutting him off at any chance he had.
Then he saw it, the Snitch was hovering over by the goal posts, just under Wood's feet. Unfortunately Kevin Riley saw it as well, and the two both turned towards the golden ball and shot off after it.
"The Snitch! It's been spotted ladies and gentlemen, and the seekers are off after it. They're neck and neck, looks like Potter's Nimbus doesn't have too much speed over Riley's Cleansweep. Come on Riley! This is the first match ever for both seekers, but we'll see if Potter can contend with his elders. They're headed down towards the ground now, where's the Snitch?"
Harry knew where the ball was however, it was just a matter of getting to it before his opponent. The Snitch had taken off away from the goal posts when they shot after it, and it was now darting along the pitch, only feet above the ground. Riley saw it too, and as they headed after it the two began bumping into each other, each trying to knock the other out of their way. Riley had a better advantage at this, due to his size, but now Harry was noticing just how much more control his broom had over his rival's.
Harry reached the ground quicker than he expected and had to pull up suddenly, which cost him some speed and allowed the Gryffindor seeker to pull half a broom in front of him. Now, with his long arms Riley was sure to get the Snitch if Harry didn't do something, so he did.
The young Slytherin pointed the nose of his broom at the tail of the Gryffindor's broom and leaned forward slightly to gain more speed. He nudged the tail of the broom, and at such a speed that the Gryffindor was sent spiraling off course and into the ground. The whistle blew and Harry was called with a foul, but he didn't care. He'd stopped the Gryffindor from getting the Snitch.
Unforunatley he lost site of the golden ball as well, so as the uninjured, yet ruffled Riley got back on his broom and the Gryffindors took (and made) their bonus shot Harry shot back above the pitch, amidst defying boos from the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff section, and loud laughter from the Slytherins. He began searching for the Snitch once again, as Lee Jordan declared. "That's it folks, any doubt I had about Potter has been confirmed. He's officially a dirty Slytherin."
"Jordan!"
"Sorry professor, back to the game. Gryffindor makes the shot, making the score an uneven 100 to 30. Lets seal this win Gryffindors!"
Harry stopped paying attention to the commentary however, as his broom had just made a giant lurch and shudder. He frowned and gripped the broom tighter, but to no avail as the broom began going crazy, rocking back and forth and lurching this way and that. It was as if the Nimbus had become a mechanical bull that was designed to throw you off.
The broom continued to act crazy, zigzagging every which way and paying no attention to Harry's command. It continued to do so for what seemed like eternity before the crowd finally began to notice. When they did notice Harry was not met with the laughter and catcalls he expected, instead the stand had become eerily silent. It was obvious the broom was malfunctioning, something which only dark magic could cause.
With another jerk Harry was all but thrown from the broom, in fact he was thrown from it. Luckily for him he was able to keep one hand on the broom as he dangled nearly 100 feet over the ground. He didn't know what to do, in fact he was considering letting go, after all a few of the players from both teams were now hovering beneath him, intending to catch him if he fell.
And then, quite suddenly, it stopped. Confused and frightened Harry swung back onto the broom, which was now behaving quite normally.
"I don't know what's going on with Potter's broom." Lee Jordan called out, voicing the thoughts of the crowd. "If I were him I'd look into suing the Nimbus company, he could have been killed just now. Nevertheless, play is once again underway as Potter gets control of the broom. Gryffindor in possession – what's that! How'd Slytherin get 40 more points!" The crowd turned their heads to the scoreboard and was shocked to see that the score now stood at 100 to 70, apparently Flint was busy scoring goals while Harry was almost dying.
Unsurprisingly this led to loud boos and protests both on the pitch and in the stands by Gryffindor supporters. Nothing could be done however, since Madame Hooch had never blown her whistle and stopped play during Harry's peril.
Harry took advantage of the confusion and continued to search for the Snitch, and to his surprise he spotted it within seconds, hovering innocently in the middle of the field. Riley was busy protesting to Madame Hooch and didn't notice it, in fact Harry was quite sure he was the only one who had spotted it despite its obvious position. He cautiously made his way towards it, making it appear as if he was just hovering around, so that Riley wouldn't notice. The plan worked, and he slowly moved in on the golden globe.
Slowly.
Slowly.
He reached out and grabbed the ball quite easily and held it high in the air. It was almost an entire minute before Madame Hooch noticed and blew her whistle to end the game, shocking not only the crowd but also a confused Gryffindor team.
As Harry descended to the ground he was engulfed by the rest of his team, and then soon half of the stands, all wanting to clap him on the back and congratulate him.
Later that night in the Slytherin common room the celebration party was beginning to die down, and the Boy-Who-Lived was sitting next to the fire with Draco and Blaise, sipping on a butterbeer.
"I still don't see why your broom went crazy like that." Draco said, bewildered.
"I'm telling you, it must have been cursed. Nothing but dark magic can make a broom act like that. I knew it'd only be a matter of time before someone wanted to get the Great Harry Potter." Blaise said in his usual silent voice as he stared into the fire.
"But then why would they just stop. If they wanted me dead you'd think they would have kept at it for a couple more minutes."
"Exactly what I was thinking." Draco pitched in.
"Well, someone must have stopped them. You held on for long enough, somebody must have realized what was going on and done a counter curse right? I mean, they must have been doing it right under Dumbledore's nose, my guess is that he saw what was going on."
"I don't know, maybe. I guess you guys really might have to start the Potter Protection Agency after all." Harry said, laughing a little to hide his discomfort and worry.
"Hey, I thought you might want to read this." Audrey said, plopping down across from Harry on a green couch, and tossing him what appeared to be a newspaper. "They're selling those down in the Great Hall."
"The Hogwarts Weekly? I didn't know we had a school paper." Harry said, reading the title of the paper.
"Well its never been very popular until now. The Ravenclaws put it out, so the articles are usually rather dry and above everyone's head. That is, until now – now they are having trouble printing enough copies for everyone. Go ahead, read the cover article." Audrey said, and Harry picked the paper up with little interest.
That is, until he got a good look at the front page. There were several large moving pictures of him, including one of him struggling to hold onto his broom with one hand, dangling 100 feet over the quidditch match. He glanced down at the article.
The Mysterious Harry Potter: Friend or Foe
The arrival of Harry Potter at Hogwarts has been highly anticipated ever since his defeat of You-Know-Who ten years ago, on that dreadful Halloween night. However, it was with great shock that the wizarding world discovered young Mr. Potter may not be everything we hoped for.
Judging by the history books and countless retelling of Harry's story, I'm sure that I am not the only one who expected The Boy Who Lived to be a great noble hero. But apparently the stories may have deceived us, as Mr. Potter doesn't seem to be what we expected him to be. It was a shock to us all when Harry was sorted into Slytherin, a house with a fishy past, notorious for producing dark wizards including He Who Must Not Be Named. That is only where the doubts about Harry begin, however.
Ever since Harry's arrival at Hogwarts, mysterious happenings have began, including the student ban of the mysterious third floor corridor, the arrival (and mysterious death) of the troll on Halloween, not to mention the behavior of Mr. Potter's broom today – which appeared to be the work of dark arts. Has Harry Potter's arrival at Hogwarts brought a dark cloud over the school? According to Divination Professor Trelawney, this is possible. "Dark forces are at work this year at Hogwarts, I sense a dark presence within the school." Is it possible that young Potter is the culprit?
That seems to be one thought going through the halls. Ron Weasley, a classmate and rival of Mr. Potter declares, "Nobody knows how he survived You Know Who, or what Potter did when he went to America, do they? I say Potter and his gang are up to no good. He has assaulted me in the halls for no reason, not to mention he conned himself onto the Slytherin team. I think we all need to keep a watch on him." Thanks to Ron for his input, but we also spoke with Terence Higgs, a housemate of Potter's who also has his doubts about Harry. According to Higgs, "I don't like him, he's a dirty slime ball." Eloquently put Terence.
It is important to say that everyone does not feel distrustful of Harry Potter, Terry Boot and Neville Longbottom, of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor respectively, both claimed Harry was not in fact an evil mastermind. Personally, I don't know if Harry is a friend or a foe to the side of light, but I'll be sure to keep you posted on any further happenings surrounding the life of the mysterious Boy Who Lived.
- Kelsey Bulprit, your roving reporter
"Well, at least your getting some publicity." Blaise joked after reading the article.
"Just what I need, for everyone to be talking about how I'm the next Dark Lord, you'd think it was enough that I was almost killed today in quidditch. Now half the school is going to want to crucify me in front of the Ministry of Magic.
"We ought to teach that Kelsey Bulprit a lesson, she's just a third year." Draco stated, always quick to seek revenge.
"Nah, that would just give them more to talk about." Harry shrugged off the idea and headed off to bed, it'd been a long day.