Harry Potter and the Dark Lord

Chapter 54 Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw

Summary: Set in Harry's sixth year. He encounters far more than he ever could have expected, but he does not have to go through it alone. An old friend returns to help him. Harry's defeat of Voldemort rests on him getting The Scepter of Light and Dark, something that would allow Voldemort to destroy the world if he can get the whole thing. Voldemort's powers are getting stronger and Harry has more than one encounter with him.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Updates: will be several times a week. if you want to be notified of updates, please join then review and add me to your author alerts.

Reviews: I will dedicate a chapter to my 50th reviewer, 100th reviewer, 150th reviewer, and so on

Thank you to the following reviewers: Pure Black, seirra(4)

Seirra: I promise you shall be very surprised when you see who the Death Eater is. Its the person you'd least expect.

This Chapter: A Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

Now...on with the story!


During Potions the next day, Snape was unusually quiet. The only words he spoke to the class were to tell them what potion they were to be making, where the ingredients could be found, and to bring a flask of the potion at the end of class.

He sat at his desk and watched them like a hawk during the entire double period. Harry supposed he had been at a Death Eater meeting. He wouldn't know because he was getting much better at Occlumency. Dumbledore had even suggested slowly stopping taking the Dreamless Sleep potion.

At the end of Potions, he gave Snape a flask of his potion, quickly cleared away his belongings, and left the room, followed by Ron, Hermione, and Sirius. They hadn't gotten very far down the corridor when Harry felt someone tap his shoulder. He stopped walking and spun around to see who it was.

"Professor Snape told me to give you this." said Malfoy, holding up a vial.

"He said he didn't want to chase you all over the school just to give it to you."

"Thanks Malfoy." said Harry.

He hadn't expected Snape to ask Malfoy to deliver it to him, but Malfoy was a spy for Dumbledore, it should be okay.

He took the vial from Malfoy and put it in his bag. The rest of his day was uneventful, and he went to bed that night nearly forgetting to take his potion. He took it out of his bag and drank it. Climbing into bed, he fell asleep immediately.

"Get up Harry." He ignored the voice and burrowed deeper into his blankets.

"You'd better get up unless you want cold water dumped on you." Harry dived out of bed and got tangled in his blankets, crashing to the floor.

"That wasn't very nice." said Harry. He stood up and tossed the blankets back on his bed.

He had a splitting headache, but he didn't dare tall Sirius, who was sitting on Ron's bed, twirling his wand between his fingers. Instead, he changed into robes and got his bag. Harry's classes flew by quickly, as did the weeks, and soon it was time for the final Quidditch match against Ravenclaw.

Harry awoke the morning of the match feeling tired, although he had quit taking the Dreamless Sleep potion several weeks earlier. He got out his Firebolt and walked downstairs to the Common Room with Ron and Sirius. They met up with Hermione and Ginny, then headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Sirius's POV

Sirius walked slightly behind the four kids. He wanted to watch Harry, who had been looking sick for several weeks. He knew Harry had too much pride to admit he was sick, so he watched him.

When they got to the Great Hall, Harry and his friends sat down at Gryffindor table and Sirius sat at the staff table, next to Dumbledore. He couldn't focus on eating, he was too busy watching Harry, who also wasn't eating. It could have been nerves from Quidditch, but Sirius knew it wasn't from watching Harry for so long. He looked to his left to see Dumbledore also watching Harry.

"What do you think is wrong with him?" asked Sirius.

"With anyone else, I'd say the Quidditch match, but Harry is usually the one urging his fellow teammates to eat, so I honestly don't know what is wrong with him." said Dumbledore. Sirius suspected that he did know, but didn't push the matter.

"Do you think it's a good idea to let him play today?" he asked.

"Let him be the judge of that, Sirius." said Dumbledore.

Sirius reluctantly returned to his breakfast. Sometimes Dumbledore just infuriated him, and this was one of those times. He didn't agree with Dumbledore's judgment, but he knew that nothing would keep Harry from playing Quidditch.

He saw Harry get up and usher his teammates out of the Great Hall and refrained himself from following him. Instead, he waited until Ron, Hermione, and Ginny got up and made their way out of the Hall to get up and leave. He quickly caught up to them and they walked together out to the Quidditch pitch and seated themselves in the Gryffindor section.

The rest of the school came out to the stadium several minutes later. He saw Harry's team come out of the locker rooms on the right side of the pitch and the Ravenclaws on the left. They met in the center of the pitch and Harry shook hands with a dark-haired girl that Sirius recognized as Cho Chang, Harry's ex-girlfriend.

The teams mounted their brooms, rose into the air, and the game began. Sirius blocked out the commentary and focused his attention on Harry. He hoped that Harry would catch the Snitch fast. He watched Harry fly in circles around the pitch, searching for the Snitch. The Chang girl was flying on the opposite side, also searching intently for the Snitch.

Sirius spotted the tiny golden ball hovering near the base of the Ravenclaw goal posts and hoped Harry saw it too. Apparently, he had, because he suddenly dived for the ground. Cho spotted Harry diving, and followed him, but her broom was no match for a Firebolt.

Several seconds later, Harry had the Snitch, but had been so focused on catching the Snitch that he hadn't pulled out of his dive, and flipped forward off his broom. Sirius bolted from the stands to see if Harry was all right. When he reached Harry, he saw that he was standing up with the Snitch clutched in his right hand.

Harry grinned when he saw Sirius and said, "Look, we won!" Harry looked slightly dazed from his fall, but rather happy.

He watched Harry stand there for a minute, then started when Harry screamed, "We won the Cup!"

His teammates, who hadn't realized either, began to scream with joy. Harry was presented with the shiny silver Cup and Ron announced that there would be a party in the Common Room.


Next Chapter: Back to the Lair

Warning: There are only four more chapters to this. The sequel will be up soon after this one's completion, I promise.