Chapter 13: Free Falling

Angelina was in a Wood-like mood.

"Keepers, move to the right! Chasers, get over there! Move!"

"Ok, this year we will need to be…" Harry tuned her out as he had grown accustomed to his first three years. He glanced over at his favorite Weasley's.

Harry had taken the past week to strengthening Ginny and Ron's chances of making the team. They both performed miraculously throughout the week, but based on the morning they had had…well…Harry knew he wouldn't forget that morning very easily.

As usual, Harry had awoken at dawn. He glanced over at Ron's bed—empty. Then he heard it—the only thing less appealing would be the cold, cruel laughter of Voldemort. Harry cautiously made his way to the bathroom.

"Aw, Ron!"

Yes, it hadn't been pretty.

"I guess you won't be eating the nice, juicy omelet I went to the trouble of asking the House-elves to make for you this morning?"

Ron glared at Harry before the inevitable happened once again. The horrific noise was accompanied, this time, by the vision of a whole mess of stuff coming out of Ron's mouth—which was wide enough to allow Ron's shoe to pass through.

"That was cruel, Harry…very, very cruel," he gasped through deep, shuddering breaths.

Harry found it funny at the time…After all, he finally found out that Ron must have had a hollow leg, for all that food to be able to come out. Now, as he glanced at his best friend, he felt sorry for him.

No matter how many reassurances from Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley's, Ron still managed to believe he was the worst quidditch player in the school.

Ginny showed no sign of nervousness. She even ate all the breakfast Harry set out for her. "The way I see it, there is no point in being nervous. The only time nervousness helps is when practicing, and since this is not a practice, there is no reason to be nervous."

It didn't seem to help Ron.

"Remember the tryouts for beaters, Gred?"

"How could I forget, Forge?"

"The other two blokes never saw us coming."

"In the hospital wing for four days."

"Nearly fainted next time they saw us…"

Surprisingly, this didn't help much either.

Eventually Hermione took him aside and said some things…he seemed to have relaxed considerably. However, considering his nerves before, even the considerable relaxation only brought his nerves down to match him with the other contenders.

"Take a lap around." Harry broke out of his musings as the group of twelve rose off the ground and sped around the field.

The tryouts soon picked up the pace as the four keepers grouped in pairs and separated to the two sets of goal posts. The chasers took two quaffles and went from side to side passing the quaffles as they rotated through the line up and the each took turns shooting at the keepers.

The other keeper with Ron was first. Harry felt bad for him. Ginny was up first.

Ron was up next after a remarkable miss by the discouraged keeper. Harry could see the unease etched on Ron's face. Ron gazed at the coming chaser, and he peered down at the stands, where Hermione hadn't taken her eyes off of him and she smiled. He turned back to the oncoming chaser with a new determination in his eyes.

He saved it.

Harry smiled. He was sure the two hadn't done anything yet. Based on Ron's not so sudden questions and conversation, Harry ventured to guess Ron had been close several times to making a move on Hermione.

This caused him to think about Ginny. How had he, Harry, the person with no idea what the opposite gender thought, managed to convince Ginny to be with him, and so quickly after he realized his feelings?

He still remembered the first kiss. It had been so sudden, but neither of them regretted it happening the way it did. Somehow Harry just felt different with Ginny than, say, Cho. Harry had nothing against Cho; from what he knew about her, she was a good person who had the misfortune of a death occur. The fact that she was a good person, and quite pretty, made Harry realize Ginny was different from anyone else. He sure couldn't explain it, being as ignorant as he was, but he wouldn't change it.

Once again Harry was brought out of his reflection by another shout from Angelina.

"Harry," she called down to him from her broom twenty feet above him. "Who do you think?"

Harry smiled amusedly at her as she came down and landed. "You can't possibly be asking me this question. I'm more biased than the twins. I'd have to go with Ginny and Ron. Honestly though? My unbiased answer? Ron and Ginny."

Angelina frowned. "As much as they hated to admit it, the twins agree with you. Katie says the Lithman kid has promise, but she'd also go with Ron. Ginny is the obvious one. What broom has she got?"

"Brush With Death."

"Does she really? She handles it like a pro. Almost as good a flier as you, Harry."

Angelina soon decided who the new recruits would be, and the five team members walked to the anxious group.

"I want you to know there was no favoritism nor impartiality in this judgment. Having said that, we will be welcoming two more Weasley's onto the team. The rest of you did great, and if the rest of the team is anything like Potter, you may very well be likely to be asked to fill in. Thanks for coming."

The group grudgingly dissipated and Harry finally got a good view of Ron and Ginny. Ginny was smiling and walked over to Harry and kissed him. "Thanks, Harry."

Harry smiled and continued to smile as he saw Ron, who was still holding his broom tightly, mouth slightly open. Harry's smile grew broader as Hermione raced over and threw her arms around Ron.

Ron returned the hug, but about 3.8 seconds later, he realized what he was doing and quickly let go stuttering his thanks for her congratulations. Hermione also let go quickly and they had a contest for the winner of 'The Reddest Face' award.

Harry offered his congratulations to the newest team members and asked, "Ron, what do you say to that omelet?"

"I say let's go."

"Hold on a minute, I have to discuss new team strategies…"

As Harry tuned her out, he decided that yes, Angelina was in a Wood-like mood.

Life became, once again, a routine at Hogwarts. Although, Harry now had a very different perspective. Before, it seemed like he was always behind, and working on things the night before they were due. Now, he was usually done with his work before the classes were over.

As he voiced his epiphany to Ginny, she merely nodded in agreement. "Yes, everything seems so much easier this year…"

"And I thought O.W.L. year was supposed to be the worst."

Indeed, Ginny also rarely had homework to do, and as the twins didn't do any work anyway, the four could easily spend time in the Room of Requirement working on pranks. Umbridge was the favorite.

Umbridge had turned back from the toad that evening at midnight. A message was delivered to her, hoping that she used the night of beauty to get her Prince Charming, at this the suit of armor gaped and complained that he was better than whatever Prince could be.

The next day Umbridge had been fuming, interrogating every student individually. "I know it was you, Potter!" she had exclaimed.

Harry feigned confusion. "Then why on earth are you interrogating everyone else?"

"Because I want to find out who did…POTTER!" She then calmed herself down. She spoke in her overly sweet voice. "We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way."

"What is the hard way?" Harry had asked.

Umbridge's brow furrowed. "I would have to go to the headmaster or the ministry," under her breath she muttered, "Who don't like me at the moment…" she then continued her initial thought. "Go to them, and request a permit to search you room for any proof that you did this."

Harry pondered this. "Yea, that sounds good. Let's go with the hard way."

Umbridge exploded and went to strangle Harry. Faster than he knew he could, his wand was out and he was behind the professor. "I think I'll be leaving if that's all." She nodded, quite frightened at his speed.

Yes, Umbridge was quite a bit of fun, and as he had the DA, he didn't feel bad about interrupting the useless classes.

The DA was progressing as satisfactorily as an organization could with two meetings. Hermione had come through and given them all a cleverly charmed galleon to tell them the time of the next meeting.

The group responded very well to Harry and seemed to enjoy his hands on training very much. Harry had to admit it was challenging teaching such a variety of students. He was able to break them up and move faster with some and have the other three DA founders help out.

Ginny was wonderful, and the more time they spent together, the more Harry was convinced he was in love with her. She made life at Hogwarts better than it had ever been, and that was saying a lot for Harry James Potter.

They made many trips to the Chamber to continue their advanced training. Following the quidditch tryouts, Harry took Ginny there.

"Congratulations, I got you a gift." He held out a vial containing a potion.

"What is it, Harry?"

"I seem to recall you wanting to become an animagus…no?" Ginny's face lit up.

"How do I do it? Do I just take the potion? What will I be?"

"Slow down. This will help you find what you become, and then you will have to begin the training to become the animal. I did mine extremely fast, so I bet you'll be able to do it quickly as well."

"Why is that?"

"Haven't you noticed how we…" Harry felt a blush creep up.

"What?" Ginny had a confused look in her eyes.

"I dunno, I guess we get our power from each other…sort of. We have the same skills, and—"

"Yea, Harry. I guess we do." She smiled reassuringly at Harry before snatching the potion out of his hand and downing it.

She went into a trance, and Harry waited for her to come out. When she did, she broke into a huge smile. "What are you?"

"A unicorn!"

After the initial shock, Harry gave her instructions to practice her transformation. He then left her to practice, and went to see Dumbledore.

"Sir, what are the odds of both of us being magical creatures. I don't understand."

Dumbledore, eyes twinkling madly, muttered to himself. "Simply amazing. No wonder it's happening so quickly…powerful."

He then turned his attention to Harry, whom he seemed to forget was present. "Ah, yes. Well, the odds of two people, who know each other, having magical animagi is incredibly low. However, I'm not that surprised once I think about it. You are both exponentially growing in magical reserves and power. The only explanation is that you both have more magical influence, thus the magical animagi."

Although Harry felt Dumbledore knew more than he was letting on, he let it go with that and thanked the professor and headed back to Ginny.

Indeed, as Harry had previously said, she did in fact complete the transformation as quickly as Harry had his. The two of them found out that unicorns had abilities just like the phoenix.

Similar to the phoenix, the unicorn had spectacular strength. Harry guessed Ginny could take out a giant. However, the strength was overshadowed by the sheer power coming from the horn. Harry could feel the power radiating off of it, and he estimated that one blow from the horn could go through the stone walls of Hogwarts.

However, most impressive was something only Ginny could do. She found that she could read Harry's emotions and sometimes thoughts when she looked into his piercing, emerald eyes. Harry found this a little uncomfortable at first, but didn't have anything to hide from Ginny, so he didn't mind when she sought out his eyes.

Once they had finished exercising her unicorn abilities, they returned to normal life—at least as normal as they could at Hogwarts. Pranks were a constant, and the students loved them…most of the students. Although everyone got pranked, the Marauders seemed to pick certain Slytherins as testers for the twins' products.

The twins had indeed told Harry and Ginny about their joke store plan, and Harry made sure to give as much input and help as he could. He knew that with the coming war, a good laugh would be needed, and the twins could always give that.

The weeks went by, and the leaves of the forbidden forest changed into a beautiful range of colors, and the Whomping Willow seemed to pose its new look for students as they passed by. Soon, Halloween was upon the students of Hogwarts.

"I don't know, Harry. Something bad always seems to happen on Halloween. Trolls, Mrs. Norris attacked—although that wasn't necessarily a bad thing—Sirius cut the Fat Lady's portrait, and your name was drawn out of the Goblet of Fire. That is not a good record."

"No, but I'm still here aren't I?" Harry said lightly.

Ginny frowned at him, but grabbed his hand anyway as they headed down to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast.

Two months had passed. Harry literally could not believe it. The year had gone great so far. The downsides of the year were put aside by much better things.

The DA had met nine times, each time reminding Harry that they were going behind the moronic ministry's back, not to mention the stupid toad (who had been turned into a toad several times since the first). The group was progressing adequately, and Harry couldn't help but feel a little proud every time he watched Neville stun another student.

However, the downside to the DA was that certain students were able to spend some extra time with Harry and Ginny. A fourth year Hufflepuff had taken to following Harry around all class. Ginny had expressed her feelings toward Cassandra Cartwright after class one day. They result of this caused Harry's stomach to ache for several days due to the amount of laughter caused.

On the other hand, Ginny had a following of a sixth year, Benjamin Boothe. Ginny had been both flattered and disgusted at the boy's flirting skills. Once again, after a different DA meeting, she voiced her concerns once again. Harry decided that he would no longer have to do sit-ups every morning if Ginny continued her rants.

Quidditch. The team had no chance of losing. Ginny worked with the other two girls better than the trio of chasers ever had. No keeper would be able to contain the complete chaos the three chasers would cause.

Ron, although still not quite up to par with Oliver Wood, was getting better and better. Something seemed to have triggered in his mind, and the only reason the Quaffle ever got past him was because the chasers were so superior.

All of Harry's classes continued to be simple, and his new Arithmancy class was quite interesting. It seemed to help with the understanding of all his other subjects. Charms, hexes, curses, and jinxes were easier to cast with the knowledge of the form and structure behind them.

Harry's favorite pass time during Potions was annoying Snape without being able to be punished. Every correct question answered, potion brewed correctly, and absence of rule-breaking was shattering Snape's usual attitude. He criticized less and stayed quiet more. The grades of the entire class went up.

Now, as Dumbledore stood to address the school, Harry broke out of his reflection and squeezed Ginny's hand. She smiled up at him, causing the warm feeling it had caused since the middle of summer. He had yet to find a fault with Ginny that he didn't enjoy.

Was he in love? Harry had no idea what the word meant. He enjoyed spending time with her, more than anyone. She could always make him feel good. He couldn't imagine being with anyone else.

Yes, whatever it was he felt for Ginny Weasley, love was a good word for it.

"Another Halloween has come. The Hall has been decorated wonderfully. I especially love the giant pumpkins every year." He glanced at Hagrid who blushed, although no one could see through his mess of hair on his face. "Anyway, I would like to tell everyone there will be a Hogsmede trip in two weeks time, the Saturday after the first quidditch game. Now, tuck in!"

The Great Hall was suddenly decorated further by a wonderful feast. The students immediately began chatting about the Hogsmede trip and quidditch game as they reached for juicy meat.

Ron spoke first. "What do you want to do in Hogsmede this time, Harry?"

Harry bit his lip before saying, "I am actually going with Ginny to this one, Ron…sorry."

Ron seemed taken aback, but immediately said, "Hermione, do you still want to come with me?"

Hermione was very surprised by his invitation and accepted quickly. "Oh, of course I want to come with you, Ron."

Ron was suddenly very happy he had spoken before he thought about what he was doing. He stayed happy the rest of the night and chatted pleasantly with Hermione the whole time.

"Ron scored major points with Hermione tonight," Ginny said, as she leaned over the tower's wall, looking across the Hogwarts grounds. Harry often took Ginny up to this tower. They sometimes went there to just talk…other times they did other things.

"I'd say. If he doesn't do something at Hogsmede, I don't know what it will take to get them together. Why doesn't Hermione do anything?"

"She is just as clueless as he is. She knows she likes him, but isn't sure of his feelings."

"WHAT? How can she not be sure of his feelings…he's more obvious than you were in your first year!"

Ginny glared at him. Harry smiled innocently back. "It's my loss that I didn't clue in sooner, I suppose."

She then smiled at him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Good recovery."

"So, Gin…I was right."

"About?"

"Nothing bad happening today," he said haughtily.

"The night is young, Harry, and you just jinxed us."

They sat in companionable silence for a while before Ginny got up once again. She went to her favorite spot to look off onto the grounds of Hogwarts. "This is probably the farthest fall from any point on the castle." She hoisted herself up on the wall to peer over the edge.

Her necklace that Harry got for her dangled from around her neck. As if it were jinxed, the necklace unhitched in the back and slipped off. With her quick reflexes, she whipped her hand up and caught the necklace, but not without sending a force out below her, sending the rest of her body over the edge.

Harry raced to the edge as he heard, "oh bugger" come from Ginny as she fell over the edge. Harry quickly cast a charm as he dove off the edge after her, pushing off the edge to give him more speed.

As he fell, he cast a slowing charm on Ginny, and also on himself as soon as he reached her. "Now, Ginny, you didn't just fall off to prove that something bad always happens on Halloween." He grabbed onto her and held her close as the wind rushed by.

"Of course I didn't…you are the one who jinxed us."

"So, Ginny, what's your plan?"

The couple was spinning quite freely as they fell down and down. "Well, you're the one that can turn into a phoenix," she said calmly.

"Ginny, we've been practicing opening your mind. Come now, stretch it out, what do you feel?"

Ginny closed her eyes. Suddenly she opened them, angry. "Those perverts. Benjamin and Cassandra are spying on us? Omnioculars, too?"

"Indeed. Not only would they have a secret about me--" They were now well past the halfway point of the fall, "but they'd also have it recorded on those omnioculars."

Ginny was fuming. "Oh, they are going to regret this…"

"So, what's the plan?"

"Well," she said, still red with fury. "When you told me to stretch my mind, I also felt a broom racing at us, quick thinking, Harry."

As if on cue, a Firebolt raced along side the couple. Harry grabbed a hold of it, keeping his firm hold on Ginny as well. He pulled out of the fast dive only moments before crashing into the ground. He pulled up, and they got seated better.

Ginny began tugging at the broom to face where the two Peeping Toms were hiding with their omnioculars.

"Easy, Gin…we'll get them tomorrow, DA meeting and what-not."

That's exactly what they did. Arriving a bit late to the room, Harry entered to find the entire group huddled around the two lovesick students. "Then, at the last possible second, a broom came and they pulled out of the best dive I've ever seen." Cassandra sighed deeply and Benjamin took over.

"Yea, and the thing is, they were calm the whole time, just talking the whole time!"

Harry and Ginny interrupted. "And just how would you know that?"

No answer. Harry raised his eyebrows. "Omnioculars. I was looking at the stars...Astronomy project. I saw motion so I looked over."

Ginny spoke up. "Funny…I am in that class with you, Cassandra…Why don't I have a project to do?"

Ben spoke up. "She was helping me with mine."

Cho gazed amusedly on. "Ben we don't—"

"So, Harry, what are we learning today?"

Harry took pity…somewhat…on them and announced. "Review day. I will come around and go against each of you to test your skills."

The group soon dissipated into pairs. Harry and Ginny walked around and took the pairs apart, testing each of them and telling them what needed work. He arrived at Ben and Cassandra. Ginny took Ben, he had Cassandra.

"Let's do protego first. You block my spells." Cassandra nodded, visibly gulping.

"Stupefy!"

She fell instantly.

After reviving her, he told her, "So, stargazing, huh?"

"Stupefy!"

"Protego!"

Harry had made the spell arc, easily avoiding the girl's pitiful shield, which wouldn't have blocked the spell even if it was a direct hit. Again he revived her. She was quite dazed this time.

Harry continued this for several minutes, all the while telling her in as nice of a way he could to back off and quit following him around. Eventually, she couldn't get up when he revived her, so he told her to go rest.

Harry glanced at Ben who was running away from strange colored bats, holding a bleeding nose. Ginny merely glared at him, not smiling in the smallest bit. Harry walked over to her, laughing. She looked over at Cassandra, who was pitifully crawling over to the couches. She broke out in a beautiful laugh, and Harry said between laughs, "I…guess they…need to…work on their…shields."

Thus ended the crush fiasco. No longer was Harry pestered by Cassandra, nor was he angered by Ben's lame attempts at attracting Ginny. After the DA meeting, Ginny and Harry celebrated.

The air continued to get colder, but just in time for the opening Quidditch game of Gryffindor vs. Slytherin a warm front moved in. The skies cleared and students happily walked out to the stands eager to watch the biggest rivalry of Hogwarts.

Harry endured a pep talk from the captain and walked with Ginny out to the field. Just before the whistle blew, Ginny gave Harry a chaste kiss saying, "For good luck."

And the match had started accompanied by the usual commentary from the twins' friend Lee Jordan. "And the Snitch is off!"

Harry floated up high, and looked behind him to see the ever present Malfoy.

Draco Malfoy had quieted down this year. Harry's threat must have jarred him, as he rarely made a derogatory comment to Harry anymore. However, in the thrill of the game, he must have forgotten his place in the fifth year at Hogwarts.

"Come now Potter. You think your broom will give you the edge you need to win?"

"Well, your broom certainly hasn't helped you against any of the other Seekers!" Harry already knew where the Snitch was. He merely wanted his team to get a lead before he tore off at it.

So he waited. It didn't take long. His assumptions about the unbeatable team were correct. In less than an hour, the Gryffindor team had escalated to the score of—

"One hundred forty to twenty…Gryffindor surely isn't a team to mess with this year. Weasley steals the Quaffel—Johnson to Bell—back to Weasley who puts in another one. One hundred fifty to twenty!"

Harry decided it was time. After throwing Malfoy off the trail several times with his Wronskie Feint, the Slytherin didn't tear after Harry as he dove into a spectacular dive. His broom was at a 90 degree angle. Suddenly the Snitch changed direction, and a Bludger was screaming at him as it slid across the field.

Harry quickly took in several calculations. He saw Fred searing after the Bludger—he would be there in time—the Snitch hadn't moved—George was below him—Harry flipped backwards off of his broom.

Harry was reminded of Halloween as he took a freefall down. The Bludger went straight into where Harry's head would've been, had he stayed on the broom. George was able to get under Harry's broom and caught it.

Meanwhile Harry was soaring down, hands stretched out as his robes billowed behind him. It was there. It still hadn't changed direction, as Harry knew—somehow he knew—it wouldn't. Harry stretched out and clasped his hands around the Snitch.

He still fell though. Fifty feet, forty, thirty, and then he felt the reassurance of Fred's arm wrap around him as they slowed the fall and landed not quite so gracefully on the Pitch.

The crowd was roaring, the team was in shock, and Malfoy looked as if he'd just swallowed the transformed Umbridge.

Fred was yelling his praise and anger at Harry, and he was quickly joined by the rest of the team. Except Ginny.

"Ginny! He could have killed himself! Don't just stand there, that was insane. Are you going to let you boyfriend almost die like that?"

Ginny shrugged. "It was a nice catch," she said lightly.

Ron started yelling. "What? How…what are you…Ginny, he could've died!"

"Nope, he's too smart for that." She reached up and pecked his cheek. "Nice catch, Harry."

Harry smiled. "Thanks, Gin. What, ninety points from you alone? Simply amazing chaser skills, you three. Ron nice keeping, and twins, great beating, as usual.

"What, Potter…couldn't stay on your broom? Had to go and be the hero again didn't you? Couldn't stand to catch the Snitch like anyone else."

Harry turned around to Malfoy. "Pretty much, yea. But it was Fred who was the hero. Without him I'd be dead."

Malfoy seemed stumped by Harry's lack of concern for what he said, so the Gryffindor team joined three houses in celebrating the amazing victory over Slytherin.

The party in the Gryffindor room was one to remember. The twins used some fireworks they had been working on. The worked quite miraculously. They never seemed to end, and continued all through the night.

Harry, sick of hearing how amazing his catch was, had taken leave halfway through the party. He went to the Chamber alone, he enjoyed some alone time every now and again.

However, when he arrived, he found he was not alone.

"Sirius?"

"Ah, Harry…I hoped you'd come…"

"What's going on?"

"Can't a guy come see his Godson?"

"Yea."

"That was some amazing flying, today, Harry. Risky, but that's the way it is meant to be. I must say James would be in awe at you right now. Lily would be wondering where she went wrong."

Harry laughed. "You were there?"

"I was Dumbledore's dog. Let me tell you, he loved the game. Best one in all his life at Hogwarts…which is most of it, he said."

"So why are you here?"

"Oh, it's Moony's night again. I have to tell you…we've gotten a whole lot more werewolf support in this war because of you, Harry."

"What did I do?"

"Moony took your post-wolf refreshing potion instructions. The werewolves love it. They say you are a good person, for helping out with this. Most have agreed to help, or at least not join the opposing side."

The fire burst into emerald flames, and Moony stepped out. "Harry! How are you? I heard about the game, terrific snag."

"Thanks Moony. What took ya?"

Remus turned a little red. Sirius looked as if Christmas had come early. "Ah Moony…is Tonks keeping you?"

Harry couldn't believe his ears. "Tonks? You and…wow…didn't see that one coming. Well…"

"There is nothing with us. Even if there was, there can't be, as you know why."

Before Harry could argue, however the man began his transformation. "Cut it close, did we?"

So Harry spent the night with his father's best friends, just as they had so many times before.