Ch 23 Game Prep

The next morning, New Years Day, Harry and Ginny made their way back to the common room. They were lucky that no one was in the common room, as they were all in their dormitories sleeping it off.

"This must have been some party!" Ginny commented.

Harry responded by almost tripping on a 4th year, who had fallen asleep on the couch and had fallen off at some point during the night. He then slipped on the remnants of a shattered butterbeer bottle.

"Why would someone break a bottle? What purpose does that serve?" Harry wondered aloud, not expecting a reply.

"We had better get back to our dormitories before our roommates wake up and find us gone." Ginny said.

"Bye, love." Harry replied, kissing her. As Harry walked back to his dormitory he thought about the word love, he liked how it sounded when addressing Ginny.

Harry changed into his pajamas and closed his four-poster, but could not go back to sleep. So he lay there, going over the castle's defenses until Ron awoke.

"Harry wake up!" Ron said, pulling open the curtains around Harry's bed.

"Why?" Harry asked, doing his best to act as if he'd been asleep.

"I thought we could go for an early morning flight; you know warm-up."

"Warm-up for what?" Harry asked, pretending to wipe sleep from his eyes.

"Quidditch game today, mate" Ron told him, and seeing the blank look on his face continued "you remember there was supposed to be a game on the 22nd, well it was delayed so that you could play."

"Why did no one tell me this?" Harry asked.

"Guess we must have forgotten, in the excitement of having you back." Ron said "Hurry and change, as captain you need to have a feel for the conditions."

Harry changed into his robes quickly, he grabbed his broom and went with Ron to the Quidditch pitch.

It was a nice day, almost perfect for Quidditch, but with too much sun. Downward passes were the order of the day, Harry concluded.

They walked back to the castle, exhausted. They sat down at the breakfast table, and caught the last end of a conversation about latenta charms involving Hermione, Neville and Ginny.

Harry sat down, feeling slightly light headed, and filled his plate with bacon.

"Morning Harry, and Happy New Year" Hermione greeted him "I noticed that you weren't at the party, where were you?"

Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance.

"I was out for a walk." Harry replied, but seeing Ginny flinch told him that he had said something wrong.

"Funny" Hermione started, smiling slightly "Ginny was out for a walk at around the same time."

"Uh… so, why did no one tell me about Quidditch today?" Harry asked, trying to change the subject.

"Like I said, we all forgot in the excitement." Ron said, he obviously had not drawn the conclusion Hermione had and thankfully Hermione dropped it.

Half an hour before game time Harry, Ron, and Ginny headed for the Quidditch pitch. They changed into their robes and waited for Harry's inevitable prep talk.

"I am not very good at this, but here it goes. I've already been on the pitch and the sun is the biggest problem. The solution is downward passes. Try to receive the ball at a low altitude and then fly up and pass back down, that way, intercepting players are looking into the sun. The only problem is, our receiver will be too. So, I've enlisted Hermione Granger to help us out.

Hermione walked into the locker room, and looked around.

"I have a simple charm to keep the sun from your eyes." She said, pointing her wand at Alex Hornbee "Flutter-Sunbeam."

She did the same spell to all the team members, before turning to leave.

"Hold on" Alex piped up "How do we know that the Slytherins haven't used the same charm?"

"Two reasons: first, this is the Slytherins we are talking about; they aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, second, this spell is only in one book in the library, and I have it safely in my bag" Hermione said, lifting a book out of her schoolbag.

"Ok, let's win!"

A/N: There will be a Quidditch game in the next one, jeeze I hope I do it justice. Thanks for all your reviews; they inspired me to get this chapter out. Keep em coming. The next one likely won't be out till the new year, as I have a curling bonspiel and that wil keep me busy for the next two days.

P.S. My birthday is tomorrow (and I accept gifts).

Happy New Year!

-HarryGinny