Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Thanks for reading/reviewing etc.
To answer a question about why Draco cares (as in why he pays attention to Harry and makes negative comments about him) about Harry at all it's because even though he's not known as "The-Boy-Who-Lived" here, Harry is still a muggleborn and Draco's a bit of a bully so it's not that he cares about Harry as much as in canon (for instance he doesn't try to "duel" him to get him in trouble) but he cares enough to make snide comments and just be a bit of a dick.
Interesting Mandrakes Fact: during the Battle of Hogwarts Prof Sprout, Neville and some of the other students threw Mandrakes at the Death Eaters as weapons - imagine being in a serious life or death situation and some 17 year old wearing earmuffs throws a screaming baby plant at you (not that they'd probably be babies by that time in the year, but for comic reasons I like to imagine that they would be).
"I hate Herbology." Harry declared definitively as they walked out of the greenhouses. It was their third lesson of the term and Professor Sprout had introduced them to the joy that was replanting baby-Mandrakes. The little beasts - which looked oddly like tiny babies (if babies were green and the roots of a magical plant) - had a cry so powerful that it would knock out anyone who heard them - and those were just the babies, the adults' cry could kill you. They'd been forced to wear scratchy earmuffs which, whilst they cancelled out the dangerous part of the cries, still didn't stop the piercing sound entering their ears. Now his hands were dirty - even though he'd been wearing gloves - and his ears were ringing. The only good part of the lesson was when he saw Malfoy's mandrake bite his finger, much to the blonde prince's disdain and anger.
"Don't let Neville hear you say that." Terry jested as they walked up to History of Magics, luckily this lesson was shared with the more amicable 'Puffs, than the Slytherins. Unluckily the lesson was so boring you almost wanted to join Binns in the afterlife.
It was the second week of term - their first full week - and Harry could already tell that second year was going to be a lot more strenuous than last year. They only had double periods now, and had less frees. They also now had to share Potions - which they unfortunately had after lunch that afternoon - with the Slytherins. Over the summer Snape had only seemed to grow more bitter and hateful, eager to take points away from any house that wasn't Slytherin. It also become increasingly evident the bias that Snape showed to his own house - Harry had heard about it last year from Neville but seeing it in action was even more frustrating.
He'd give Malfoy an Outstanding for a Potion which wasn't the right texture, and mark Harry down for doing a perfect potion. He favoured all the Slytherins, but Malfoy was a clear favourite of his, Snape seemed to make it a mission to compliment the blonde at least three times a lesson as a minimum, no matter how well Malfoy was actually doing - and other than the occasional jibe, calling Harry a "show-off" (which made Harry glad Snape wasn't aware of his true identity - what would he call him then? Celebrity boy? Fame-seeker? Glory-hogger?") he completely ignored Harry and the other 'Claws, not helping them with their studies at all, only offering detentions instead of constructive criticism and support. It had certainly made Terry and Harry's point contest more interesting - they now spent Potions trying to be perfect, not so that they would gain points, but so that they wouldn't lose any for "breathing too loudly".
"I think you might break the boy's heart if you said that to his face." Lisa chimed in. "Looking forward to hearing about some goblin rebellion again?"
Harry groaned dramatically. History of Magic was such a joke of a class. He didn't understand why Dumbledore wouldn't just fire Binns and get a decent teacher in. It wasn't like the History of Magic position was cursed as well, surely there'd be a lot of people who could teach the subject - to be fair they wouldn't even have to know that much about the actual history, literally anyone would be better than Binns. Dumbledore probably only kept him around because a ghost doesn't have wages. With a teacher like Binns for an OWL-required subject it clearly showed how little Dumbledore prioritised their education. Just because somebody's a good wizard, or a good politician doesn't make them a good headmaster - or a good person for that matter.
"Do you think he would even notice if I skipped class?" Harry asked.
"Well, he doesn't notice if we sleep during one of his speeches." Terry noted as they turned a corner moving out of the bustling crowds of students.
"He takes roll call at the start of the lesson. He'd know." Lisa commented, her tone as matter-of-fact as ever, before she turned, having heard something that Padma and Isobel were talking about that interested her.
"So, I could just leave in the middle of the lesson no? Ask to go to the toilet and just never come back?" Harry quizzed desperately, turning to face Terry.
"Harry," Terry laughed. "You're the least rebellious person - except maybe Lisa - are you really suggesting you'd actually skip a class?" He had a point, much to Harry's annoyance. "There's no way you'd risk losing house points - you're already slipping behind in our contest."
"By five points!" Harry protested. "One charms lesson and I'll be right at the top again."
"Not if you skip." Terry said wagging his finger and Harry rolled his eyes at his best-friend's antics. "Plus, we've got Snape later." He reminded Harry - not that he needed the reminder, he'd been dreading that class all day.
"Move it firstie." Harry heard a voice yell from in front of him, looking up to see Cassius Warrington, a Slytherin sixth year shoving a small Gryffindor boy to the floor. Harry grimaced: he hated bullies more than anything in the world - even Dumbledore.
"Hey, are you okay?" Harry walked over to the boy who was on the floor, desperately trying to grab all of his books and quills that had fallen out of his bag before they were trampled on by the unsympathetic crowds of Hogwarts students who kept walking by.
"Here." Terry said crouching down besides Harry and the boy. "This is yours right?" He asked extending his arm to hand the boy a camera. The boy nodded fervently, all of his attention now focussed on the camera, and ignoring the discarded books, and the ink which had spilt and was now running free along the floor.
Harry started to gather all of the boy's possessions that he was ignoring in favour of examining his camera.
"It still works." The Gryffindor breathed out, clearly relieved. "Thank you." He added staring up at Harry and Terry with wide eyes as Harry handed him his books, choosing to leave the ink pot, deciding it was a lost cause anyway. "I'm Colin. Colin Creevey, Gryffindor!" He rambled excitedly, shoving his books and quills in his bag haphazardly, and putting the camera around his neck as he stood up.
"Harry Reynolds.", "Terry Boot." The duo introduced themselves.
"Cool camera." Harry added and the boy's eyes lit up.
"You're a muggleborn?" The boy - Colin - asked, continuing without waiting for an answer. "Cool. Me too. A muggleborn that is. I'm a muggleborn." Terry and Harry exchanged a bemused glance at his eagerness. "I love photography. Do you? Can I take a picture of you two? You know, for helping me?"
"Umm," Harry and Terry exchanged another bewildered look. "Sure." Harry answered hesitantly, unwilling to dissuade the boy's passion and friendliness - despite the fact that he'd just been shoved to the floor.
"Say cheese!" Colin clicked his camera and a bright light flashed in their direction.
"Got a fanboy, Reynolds?" A patronising voice called as Malfoy walked past. "Can't imagine why." The blonde added as he moved past, Harry not warranting him an answer, somehow Malfoy always seemed to appear at the most inconvenient times - just like last week, on the train, a conversation which, thankfully, hadn't been elaborated on. Though Harry couldn't stop thinking about how gentle he had been when Harry had blurted out that he was adopted, the entire image was confusing, it juxtaposed everything Harry knew about Malfoy.
"Thank you!" Colin exclaimed, completely ignoring Malfoy as though he didn't even register that he had been insulted. Probably used to it, Harry mused bitterly.
"No problem." Terry replied. "We really should be off to class now though." He added and Colin nodded acceptingly, stringing his bag back over his shoulder and moving in the opposite direction to them, at a small run.
"We were never this..." Harry trailed off.
"Happy? Excited? Small?" Terry offered with a smile and Harry laughed, nodding. "Well... I was never that small... you- you probably were." He jibed and Harry shoved him lightly, before reaching down to pick up the bag he'd put down when he was helping Colin gather his stuff.
"Come on, we don't want to be late for the best class of the day, now do we." Harry drawled sarcastically and the two reluctantly made their way to the History of Magic - luckily Binns was too absorbed in a rant about a goblin rebellion to care that his students were a couple of minutes late (if it had been Snape's class they'd have surely been docked ten points each, and maybe even given a detention if Snape in a really bad mood).
"Harry said what?!" Neville exclaimed dramatically.
"Sh." The group immediately whispered around him but it was too late. She'd heard.
"Quiet!" A voice hissed from behind them, Madam Pince, the librarian.
"Sorry." Anthony said and Pince smiled at him, somehow Anthony got everyone to like him - hell, Harry wouldn't be that surprised if him and Mrs Norris were secretly best buddies.
"Sorry Nev." Harry laughed at the disgruntled expression on Neville's face - clearly the boy was extremely upset that Harry didn't love Herbology like he did. "Blame it on the Slytherins. Having to share a class with Malfoy is enough to make any class hell - two years in a row as well."
"It is nice doing Herbology with the 'Puffs. Susan and Hannah are always nice to talk to." Neville replied, looking a little bit more placated whilst Terry sighed, looking down at his parchment, his quill between his teeth as he thought.
The group were all sitting in the library - it was the only practical place where everyone could meet up. The Ravenclaw common room wasn't accommodating to the Gryffindors that they were friends with, and the Great Hall was still being used as a dining area - during the middle of the day, if they had a free, they could use it to study but for most of the day it was being used for eating. This didn't leave many places which were useful to study with other houses - going outside wasn't exactly top of Harry's agenda in the Scottish winter. Something about Hogwarts didn't quite seem to promote inter-house relationships.
Terry sighed again - loudly this time.
"You alright?" Harry asked, resting his book on the table, careful to keep his finger marking his place.
"This potions essay is hell." Terry moaned. Snape had set them a two foot essay on Flobberworm mucus and its uses in properties - which due to his lack of ever teaching them anything but practical potions (leaving them to do all the theoretical side), they had to research fully on their own, with no guidance, not even any book references.
"That's why I'm leaving it until the weekend." Harry told him as he offered him a sympathetic smile. "More time to flesh it out and make sure it's perfect - can't have Snape finding any excuse to mark it down."
"The weekend?" Terry asked. "What about quidditch trials?"
Quidditch trials - which Terry had all but bullied Harry into agreeing to going to - would take place that Saturday, and despite not even being sure he wanted to make the team, Harry was really nervous. A boy named Chester Davies, who was a seventh year, was the captain, and a lot of the last year's team had been seventh years, leaving many spots open. Chester, a chaser, a fourth year named Jason Samuels who was a beater, and Grant Page, sixth year, who was a keeper were the only fixed members of the team.
"I'll have time. Trials are only meant to take a couple of hours anyway, right?"
"We might be here for two hours, we might be here for two days." Chester started speaking, his eyes scanning the crowd of hopeful 'claws in front of him. The boy had dark brown hair, deep brown eyes and a fair complexion and looked almost identical to his younger brother, Roger, a fourth year who was trying out for the team. "I don't care how old you are, how loud you are, how much you complain or how much you try to suck up to me," He paused his eyes running through the crowd before him once more, "All I care about is how good you are. Last year - I'm going to be honest here - we were shit." He paused again, this time for dramatic effect.
"We got thrashed by Slytherin, thrashed by Gryffindor, the only team we did beat is Hufflepuff - and even that was embarrassingly close. This year is my last year, and I really want to knock those snakes of their podium. We did it last year with the House Cup - this time let's bring the Quidditch Cup home!" He shouted and the crowd cheered. "We're going to start with some basic flying drills, get rid of everyone who can't fly because unlike Flint I'm not just going to choose you based on how aggressive or strong you are. I want to beat them by being better than them, not by fouling them excessively. We're Ravenclaw. We have style. We have tactics. We play smart. That's how we win." He finished with a satisfied smile, clearly this was a pre-rehearsed speech that he'd been practicing for this very moment.
"First off however, everyone is to use the school brooms," The majority of the crowd groaned but Harry couldn't help but feel relieved that he wouldn't be the only one using a school broom. "Now, now," Chester began, hushing them, "I have it on good authority from Madam Hooch that they replaced the old twigs last year with some newer ones - no Comet 260s or Nimbus 2000s - but enough for a level playing field. So," He said looking at them expectantly, "Pick up a broom."
He lined up everyone, before making them do a speed lap around the whole field. Already two players were eliminated. Then there was some agility work, weaving between players. Another one went. Next Chester organised everyone into groups of three to do some basic passing - whilst not everyone was trying out for a chaser or keeper he claimed it was still necessary to see how one could be balanced whilst interacting with other people on the team. Two more players were knocked out (Terry was only just hanging in).
"Who here is trying out for chaser?" Chester asked and seven people came forwards, a clear majority of the group, Terry sent Harry a smile as he left to join the group, mouthing a quick "good luck".
"Beater?" Chester asked and two people stepped forwards, leaving just Harry and another girl behind. "Meaning you two are the two wannabee seekers." Chester said, now clearly addressing Harry and the girl. He snapped back around abruptly. "Samuels," He said talking to the current Ravenclaw beater, "You take those two run them through some beater drills." The boy nodded and the beaters left. "I want all the chasers to go with Grant and do 1v1s against him whilst I check out our seekers." The boy, Grant, nodded and the seven chasers flew after him, each picking up a quaffle as they made their way towards the hoops. Even from the field Harry could here Grant bellowing orders.
"So." Chester looked at the two examining them. "You want to be seekers?" He asked rhetorically, his eyes running up and down, examining them and he walked over to Harry. "Your name?"
"Harry Reynolds." Harry replied feeling nervous as the boy approached him.
"Nonverbal boy." He commented, his eyes lighting up with realisation, Harry nodded slowly, half-wishing that that label, and the expectations that came with it would just disappear. "Good build," Chester mumbled, "Small, and looked fast in the laps." He nodded approvingly at Harry before turning to the girl. "You are?"
"Cho Chang." The girl answered confidently. She was a slender girl, of medium height, objectively pretty but she also looked fierce, and a bit aggressive perhaps.
Chester nodded after he visually examined her. "So why do you think you should be a seeker?" He asked her.
"Well, I'm fast, agile, good reflexes." She answered, again sounding more confident than Harry could ever imagine feeling.
"And you?" He said turning to Harry.
Harry paused, trying to think of a good answer. "I don't know?" He replied hesitantly, "My friend told me I'd be good at seeker - but honestly I would try out for any position."
"Confident." Chester replied sarcastically with a raised eyebrow, unknowingly pulling on Harry's insecurities. "Well, after such a resounding pitch from Reynolds here I think we better see why your friend thinks you should be a seeker than shouldn't we." He paused, clearly thinking something through. "We're all using the same brooms, so I want to test to see whether either of you can beat me. Two laps of the pitch, this is the finish line. Get in the air." He commanded.
"Up." Harry muttered and the broom leapt to his hand, a sliver of confidence returning to him as he recalled the weightless sensation of flying in the open air. He looked around to see both Cho and Chester ready in the air and quickly rose to join them.
"3...2...1... Go!" Chester called and the three burst forwards. Harry slightly behind them as the two raced ahead circling the first set of posts on the near side of the field. Now in the air Harry dismissed all his previous insecurities, instead focussing solely on the joys of flying, of the wind on his face and how it felt that all his problems left him now that he was up in the air.
By the time they reached the opposite side of the field Harry had caught up with Cho, and was gaining in on Chester who had been comfortably lying ahead of them. Cho sent him an irritated look as he caught up with her but Harry just ignored her, focussing purely on flying. Half a lap later and Harry had caught up with Chester now, trying to stop himself from laughing when he saw the shocked expression on the seventh year's face as he came into his vision. Instead he just kept flying.
As he reached the finish line he pulled up quickly, stopping his broom just after the line despite the blistering speed he'd been at mere seconds before, Chester pulled up behind him, the disgruntled expression on his face quickly replaced with joy as he came to some sort of realisation, Cho stopping a couple of seconds after them. The race had been quite close, but Harry had still clearly won, and outpaced both of the older students - and you could see on Chester's face that he knew, given another lap, Harry's lead would've only extended.
"You're fast!" He exclaimed breathlessly before calming himself down. "But that's not all there is to being a seeker." He added as he dropped back down to the ground, his left hand firmly gripped around his broom as he walked over to a box, pulling something out and turning it around.
"The golden snitch. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, you catch this and we win." He told them. "See seeker isn't all about speed, it helps, but your real hardship is being able to focus on the snitch, ignore the game but avoid the bludgers, find this, beat the other seeker to it, we win. Simple as that." He added with a small smile before releasing the small golden ball into the sky, both Cho and Harry transfixed on it as it fluttered away, but unable to keep sight of it as it disappeared into the sky. "Best of three." Chester said, "Whoever wins is the new Ravenclaw seeker. In the air." He instructed and both Harry and Cho flew to their positions. "3...2..1..."
"Let me introduce you," Terry waved his hands about dramatically as the Ravenclaw second years surround him, "The new Ravenclaw House Quidditch Team's Seeker!" He exclaimed, revealing Harry, who was wearing a sheepish smile and a faint blush, behind him.
"Harry!" Lisa exclaimed, amidst over clamours from the others. "Well done!"
"Congratulations mate." Anthony said pulling him into a brief hug, Harry's blush only grew.
"He was amazing!" Terry told them excitedly. "Mike too, he made it onto the reserves, but I think he's a bit disappointed. He went to straight to the dorms so maybe don't bring it up to him." Terry said, the same however could not be said for him, he didn't care at all that he wasn't picked for the team, only celebrating the success of Harry and Michael. "We really stand a chance this year I reckon. With Harry as seeker, Chester's obviously a good chaser as are Cho and Roger, the new chasers - Cho was Harry's competition as seeker, she wasn't good enough to beat him but she's still a really good chaser - Jason's a decent beater, I didn't really see the other guy, I think his name was Duncan, Duncan Ingles or something-"
"Inglebee." Harry corrected and Terry waved his hands dismissively.
"Right, and then we've got Grant as keeper, and he's alright - not as good as Wood - but solid." Terry listed off, informing them all of the team. "Got some alright reserves as well, Michael obviously is a reserve chaser, as is a guy called Jeremy, and then Cho can always be a reserve seeker if Harry gets injured. This might be our year!" He enthused.
"Wouldn't mind knocking them snakes of their perch." Harry replied and Terry lightly shoved his shoulder.
"We're going to destroy the Slytherins, and win the cup!" Terry half-corrected Harry, not allowing him to have any doubt.
"Ugh." Harry groaned suddenly, to the confusion of everyone's else. "I've still got my Potions essay." He moaned, regretting that he didn't do it when Terry did, on Wednesday. Terry, however, did not show any sympathy, only laughing at the misery of his friend.