Sorry about how late the last chapter was. Contractors are tearing down my bedroom wall soon, so I've been spending my time packing my room. Ten books were dedicated to books alone, and I just finished packing all my clothes. We probably have to move to a town house for a bit, so expect a bit of a slow down for the foreseeable future. I've also been getting into Kai-chowa Maid-Sama! recently, and I've been thinking about making a crossover for Maid-Sama! and the Total Drama Series, working the story of Maid-Sama! a bit with the cast Total Drama Series and the storyline of Total Drama World Tour. Before you ask, there will be romance and no, it won't be with Cody. As for the other idea I've been kicking around, I'm doing it. I just really want to work on this story and I feel like I should start right after I finish the Chamber of Secrets. Info on the series will be posted on my homepage soon, detailing how I'm going to structure it and where it will end. I will not be doing GT, that is just a convilcade of bad writing, bad world building, bad characterization and bad story telling. Also, considering the cast, the original Dragonball will only be mentioned sparingly. While I work on getting the outline out, I'll leave this chapter for my readers while I'm out of the house and the construction crews are building a bathroom that will allow us to move back, or until we have a more stable living situation. Until then, I do not own Harry Potter or Ed, Edd and Eddy. Those are owned by J.K. Rowling, AT&T and Warner Media.
Quidditch
"Remind me again why we're studying out here instead of in the common room." Marie asked Hermione as she, Ron and Harry huddled together with her in a circle in the corner of the western castle courtyard, trying to warm her hands by some bright blue fire that Hermione had conjured in a jar. Hermione sighed. "Because Fred and George threw a dungbomb in the fireplace, contaminating the common room. And before you ask, the reason we aren't in the library is because all the desks were full." Marie growled. "Stupid Fred and George. Forcing me out in the cold." "Don't you live in Wisconsin?" Harry asked. "Yes, doesn't mean I have to like the cold."
November had come quickly and harshly upon the shores of the Highlands. The mountains around the school had been covered in silvery gray snow. The lake had turned a foreboding dark grey, with Madam Pomfrey having to treat several cases of frostbite because students were daring each other to stick their hands into the water for long periods of time. The grounds were covered in frost every night, and with several inches of snow whenever it was raining the previous day. With the arrival of Quidditch season, Hagrid has been seen defrosting the brooms every morning, standing out in the early morning dawn in his mole skin coat, his hands covered in rabbit fur gloves and his beaver skin boots, the ground glistening like diamonds as the rays of the sun danced across the frost.
The fact that Harry had go out in this weather to fly on a broom was something that Marie found rather stupid. She had been to one practice in order to spend some time heckling the team, only to grow bored of it before she could even throw a single fruit as the team went through movements that seemed dull to her. The closest sport that she could equate to is soccer, something interesting to do, but boring to watch. After Harry had read through Quidditch through the Ages the first time, he had leant it to her to read, which only made her more confused about the sport. There were more than seven hundred ways to commit a foul in Quidditch and somehow all of them were done in a match in 1473. She also learned that while players rarely died playing Quidditch, referees tended to disappear for several months before reemerging, unharmed, in some area of the Sahara Desert. When she returned the book to Harry, she commented that Quidditch is more archaic than the NFL.
Hermione's addition to the group had proven an unexpected boon for Marie. Since Hermione was the most intelligent person in school, her friends had been able to convince her to check over their work to make sure that it was good. While she did make sure that they showed their own work, her corrections allowed Harry and Ron to generally get the right answers anyway. Marie however, since she already was good at doing her work already, just had Hermione proofread her stuff so she could get to McGonagall quicker, allowing her more time to focus on other things, like learning wizards chess with Ron and Neville.
Hermione's personality had also been able to bounce off Marie's better. Hermione, while she had relaxed around the rules since the troll incident, still had a healthy respect for authority and order. Marie couldn't care a hoot about authority, as showcased when she spray painted 'Gordon Brown is George Bush's puppet' on the walls of the Great Hall. Marie lost ten points (mostly because most of the purebloods and teachers didn't know who Gordan Brown is) and got a detention with Professor McGonagall doing the first years laundry. This, combined with the fact that Hermione was more than a year older than Marie, made her more of an older, fussier sister figure for Marie than a friend. But the fact that she had someone that she could work with without having to slow down to explain or to stop to help her study partner was a nice change of pace.
"Alright, I'll stop complaining. Now, can you remind me what we're supposed to be working on?" Ron rummages through his rucksack and pulls out a note. "We're supposed to be writing an essay on one of the eight planets and two dwarf planets of the solar system and describing how they got their names and why. I got assigned to Neptune." Marie huffed. "Oh right. You got one of the cool ones, while I got stuck with Venus." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Are you still upset about that? I would've thought writing about a planet so hot that the air is made out of sulfuric acid would've made you excited to talk about it." "Oh right, I would like to write about a love goddess that came from sea foam that regularly cheated on her husband with his brother?" Marie exclaimed indignantly. "Oh yes, definitely something I would like to write about." Hermione glared at her. "That still doesn't excuse trying to throw a desk at Professor Sinistra and shouting 'How could you betray me like this, I thought we had something'." Marie scowled at that. "You were lucky that you weren't given detention for that." "Yes, Mom. I'll be on my best behavior from now on." "Stop being so sarcastic. Now suck it up and write." She then thrust a roll of parchment, a few quills, a bottle of ink and a book into Marie's hands.
"Fine. But why couldn't I have gotten Pluto? Harry already did the essay on him and he's been doing four Quidditch practices a week." She then gestured to Harry, who was reading Quidditch through the Ages while the others worked. "Because Sinestra isn't omniscient and didn't know that you liked Disney's Hercules, get to work." Hermione snapped. Marie grumbled as she flatted the parchment on the book and dipped a quill in the ink well before focusing on her essay. The three of them worked on their essays (Hermione had been assigned to work on the dwarf planet Ceres) for some time. They were taking a break around the fire with Harry when Snape crossed the yard, Marie noticing with a clear limp that seemed to have him forcibly dragging his right leg behind him. The four of them huddled closer together to block the fire from view, certain that it was somehow against the school rules. Unfortunately, Hermione, Ron and Harry didn't have very good poker faces, causing Snape to march over to them in suspicion. Luckily for them, he hadn't seen the fire, but Snape never did need much of an excuse to deduct points from Gryffindor.
"What have we got here, Potter?" he sneered, pointing a finger at the book in Harry's hands. "Library book sir." Harry answered, showing Snape the cover. "Library books are not to be taken outside of the castle." Snape drawled, swiping the book from Harry's hands. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor." Marie opened her mouth to protest, but was quickly gagged by Hermione to keep the situation from escalating. Even with Marie biting her on her palm, Hermione refused to let go until Snape had limped out of sight. "He's just making the rule up. Wonder what's wrong with his leg?" Harry muttered. "Dunno, but I hope it's hurting him." Ron spat bitterly. They then heard a slight tearing sound. "FUUUCCCCKKKKK!"
After a quick stop at the hospital wing to repair the gash on Hermione's hand and for Marie to wash the blood out of her mouth, the four of them returned to the Gryffindor common room, which had now been purged of all smells of dung by an irate Filch, to continue the work they had started. "I can't believe that you ate the skin after you tore it off." Hermione grumbled, nursing the raw skin that Madam Pomfrey had regrown. "You should've released my mouth before you volunteered for humanitarian aid then." Marie answered dispassionately, as she was busy writing 'What, in your opinion, would a creative use for the cutting charm?' for Charms. "That's not funny." "Wasn't meant to be." "And don't think I don't see that you're taking this opportunity to procrastinate on working on that essay for Astronomy. You're going to have to do it sometime before Monday." "And I will," Marie replied, her nose in the air in a faux snobbery. "It's not procrastination if you're still doing school work, it's just having a different priority." Ron and Harry snickered as Hermione rubbed her temples, a headache starting to develop.
The four of them grew silent as they worked into the evening. The common room refilled and the noise grew as more and more Gryffindors returned to the common room. The buzz was aggravating the four of them. Hermione was reviewing Ron and Harry's essays, cutting through lines and wrong answered with quill as if it were a katana through pork, Harry was sitting at his sitting in frustration, his fingers tapping against the table with the force of drumsticks against a bass drum, Ron was struggling through an essay on hair growth potions and Marie was writing about Venus. None of them were particularly happy.
Harry stood up. "I'm going to ask Snape if I could have my book back." he stated. The other three looked up dully. "Rather you than me." Ron and Hermione said together. "We'll be sure to give a stirring eulogy at your funeral." Marie said distractedly as she turned back to her essay. As Harry left, Marie took the time to review her essay so far. All that was on the page was an embroidered The that would put most medieval manuscripts to shame. 'Damn it, she's right. I am procrastinating.' She sighed as she shoved the parchment away. 'It's not like there aren't any parts of Venus that wouldn't be interesting to talk about, like how it's rotation causes the sun to rise in the west and set in the east, or how a year on Venus is shorter than a day on it, but all I see when I think about it is a stupid blonde japanese girl wearing a sailor fuku and shouting about defending love and justice.' She blew out a breath. 'Really wish someone would put on some Sex Pistols, or Days of Future Passed. Could use some good old fashioned rock music right about now.'
She looked around the common room. Lavender and Pavarti are giggling with each other, looking through a copy of some wizarding fashion magazine called Witch's Weekly in the corner of the room, clearly talking about something stupid. Neville was talking with Sally-Anne about Jupiter, with Sally-Anne looking as if she were about to faint, so that was a no. Seamus and Dean were playing gob stones, a version of marbles that squirted this sticky and smelly glop that would probably be a great gift to give to Ed, but she wasn't that big a fan of it, wasn't a big fan of sticky stuff in general. Fred and George were serving a detention after the made the desks in Transfiguration into semi-sentient horses that wrecked the classroom. That left Runcorn, who was reading a book by the fire.
She walked over and leaned over the couch. "What yaw readin'?" Eliza looked up, her eyes widening a bit before her shoulders relaxed. "Oh, nothing much." She showed Marie the title of the book, A detailed history of the Ministry of Magic, Volume 3: The Ministry during the Early Colonial Era by Caligulus Malfoy. Marie quirked her eyebrow. "Are you one of those people that like to read history textbooks?" Eliza Runcorn blushed and nodded. Marie shrugged. "Hey don't worry, I'm not going to take the mickey out of you for it. There's a guy back home where I live that does it as well and his intelligence is one of the things I like about him." She leaped over the couch and took a seat next to her. "Besides, why should you care about other people's opinions on what you want to do?" Eliza, while initially started, started to ponder. "I guess I shouldn't, it's just that my dad is a member of the ministry and the Wizengamot. I'm kind of expected to know about their history.." Marie gave a derisive laugh. "Oh please. Do you really expect these morons in the government to care about archaic laws useless they could benefit them in some way. Please, my president doesn't even know how to articulate the saying 'If you fool me once, shame on you. If you fool me twice, shame on me.'" Eliza considered this. "Is your country stupid?" Marie shrugged. "We allowed a woman whos only claim to fame is a sex tape to get her own reality tv show and the Oscar for best picture to go to Crash over Brokeback Mountain. I think we're well on our way to mentaly deficient. All we have to do is elect a reality TV star to the Presidency and our road towards Moronville will be complete."
Eliza nodded before turning back to the book. She stared at the cover for a minute. "Hey, do you have any suggestions, for say, some light reading?" Marie raised her right eyelid. "You sure? I was raised entirely in the muggle world. I wouldn't know any wizard world recreational reading." Eliza snorted. "Please, the only things wizard created that might be recreational reading are The Tales of Beedle and Bard and some comic books. I want some of that muggle stuff that I hear Dean or Seamus talk about." "The Tales of Beedle and Bard." Marie commented. "What is that? Is it a singular tale or a collection of short stories?" "The last one." Marie put her hand under her chin, pondering. "Do you like it?" Eliza shrugged. "I like a few of the tales, especially the darker ones. But it's mostly for children." "I think I have something you would like. They're called Grimms Fairy Tales, and trust me when I say they are very dark." At this moment Harry barged back into the room, looked harried and slightly terrified. "I'll talk to you later. If you want, I can write a letter to a friend of mine for some book suggestions." Eliza nodded. "Yeah, that would be nice."
Marie rushed over to Harry as he staggered into a seat near Ron and Hermione. "Did you get it?" Ron asked. He then looked up and saw the pasty white of Harry's face. "What's the matter?" "Yeah man, you look as if you walked in on Snape with Filch." Harry stared at Marie in stunned horror. Marie's eyes widened in disgust. "Oh god you did. Ah god, now I can't get that image out of my head." Harry sputtered in stunned disbelief as Ron's cheeks tinged a grass green and Hermione blushed. "What?! No, I went to the staff room to ask Snape for my book back and I found him with Filch treating a bloody wound on his leg. Before he saw me he said to Filch 'Blasted thing, how are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?'" He then leaned forward and whispered. "You know what this means? He tried to get past the three headed dog on Hallowe'en! That's where he was going when we saw him-he's after whatever it's guarding! And I'd bet my broomstick he let the troll in, to create a diversion!" "I'll take that bet." Marie said, her eyes sparkling with rage. "Personally, I think Filch let the troll in." Hermione looked at her sceptically. "Why Filch?" "Think about it. The staff have to know about what's in the corridor, so why didn't he go to Madam Pomfrey to get his leg fixed? She could fix broken bones in minutes, so healing a bite wound should've taken even less than that, so why didn't he? Simple, because people would find out. And yet, he went to Filch. If he was working alone he could've treated the wound himself but he went to Filch for help. Because he trusts him, why? Because he's in on it. They're working together."
Ron eyes widened in horror. "It's a conspiracy. A conspiracy by the two biggest wankers in existence." Hermione still looked conflicted. "But, they wouldn't try to steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe." She said cautiously. "Hermione, they were willing to steal from Gringotts. Why wouldn't they try to steal from under Dumbledore's nose?" Marie stated.
"Coffee. Coffee." A death like groan came from the Gryffindor table. A tangled mess of navy blue hair covered a figure of shallow white skin and bloodshot eyes as it listly tried to find the energy to lift it's arm. Ron looked up from his breakfast, his mouth full of baked beans as he gazed at the grotesque creature before him. "Whass up wit 'er?" "Ronald, swallow your food before you speak." "Sorry. What's up with her?" Hermione turned her head to look at the zombie that sat next to her. "Don't mind her. She didn't get enough sleep last night. She kept waking us up in the middle of the night because she had nightmares of Snape and Filch." "Really? What kind?" Ron asked "Well at one point she woke us up by shouting 'Stupid sexy Snape' so make of that what you will." Hermione replied as she took a swig of black chai tea. Ron looked at his spoon, then down at his plate of baked beans and sausages, back to his spoon, then put the spoon down and pushed his plate away.
"So, Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Hope Harry's doing alright, he looked like he was about to lose what little breakfast he had when he left." "Well it is his first game and Seamus's 'words of encouragement' certainly didn't help. I just hope nothing bad happens up there." "Same. Those Slytherin players looked like a bunch of thugs. You'd think that they'd come from a line of troll hybrids." Hermione shuddered. "Please don't remind me of trolls, the day I see a troll in a book drawing would be too soon." she whimpered. Ron flinched. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Hermione shook her head. "It's okay, you didn't know." she whispered. Before they were able to fall into an awkward silence, they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching. They turned and saw a blood Slytherin first year walking towards them.
"What do you want?" Ron growled. The Slytherin blinked autonomously. "Good morning to you too." she said in a monotone. She looked over at the decaying zombie who was trying to weakly reach a large iron kettle. "You look awful." she stated blankly. "Coffee." the grotesque horror groaned. The Slytherin looked over at the pot. She grabbed it, threw the horrid animal down on the bench and poured half of it down its throat. The being swallowed, causing a spectacular transformation. It's skin flushed, the red veins receded from its retinas and life returned to the animated corpse. "I LIVE!" she shouted as she rose like a mummy from its sarcophagus. She then looked around the hall. "Where am I?" "Hello Yank." Marie looked up. "Oh hey Daph, what are you doing here?" The Slytherin, who's name appeared to be Daphne, had her right eyebrow rise a fraction of an inch. "Well it is the Great Hall. I tend to come here to eat often." Marie smirked. "See this is why I like you. You always know the right thing to say." She turned around. "So, what can I do for ya?" "Nothing, I just wanted to inform you that I will be spending the game with my dorm mates." Marie sighed. "You don't need to tell me these things. I'd understand either way. Do you like them at least?" Daphne blinked. "I've created a repore with Tracy Davis and Lily Moon, but Millicent Buldstrode is a brutish delinquent and Pansy Parkinson is a catty shrew. Luckily for me she's nowhere near as bright as her father is, so that's something." "Still playing the political game huh?" "Yes, unfortunately I'm finding it depressingly easy. If it weren't for Nott and Snape's favoritism of Malfoy I would've taken control of half of the house by now." Hermione and Ron watched in stunned amazement as Marie chuckled. "Ah, the perils of a young Machiavelli, nepotism. Just find some muscle and you should be fine. I'll see you in potions then?" "Indeed. I take it you're going to ignore my advice and cause another commotion in class." Marie gave an evil grin. "Of course. Goodbye Yank. Hope you enjoy the game."
Ron and Hermione watched Marie wave the Slytherin away. "What the hell was that?" Ron exclaimed angrily. "Oh, I was just talking to my, friend? Acquaintance? Colleague? Honestly I don't know what our relationship is. The best I can figure out is that we're like magnets, our opposite charges just keep drawing us to each other. Other than that, the best I can say is that she's just interesting to interact with. It's like a rock having a conversation with a leaf." Hermione looked at Marie in confusion. "I guess I can see where you're coming from, but where did you meet her?" "Oh, Madam Malkins. We were getting fitted at the same time and we started talking. I kept it up with her because I find that her stoicism is kind of cute." "Cute?!" Ron shreacked indignately. "Yeah, like a girl trying to act all adult-like. I think it's really cute." A loud roar ripped through the hall. "Hey, are there any pancakes left?"
The three of them left for the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the school about an hour later. The vast mob of students trudged down the slightly damp slope towards the stadium, mist starting to rise from them. While the scarves were able to designate what house the students were from, flags of red, gold, green and silver dotted the crowd, the true supporters and the temporary bandwagon fans united in their desire to see their respective team win. The college-like atmosphere was infectious, with even non quidditch fans like Percy and Hermione swept up in the enthusiasm. They entered into the wooden interior and climbed up the stairs before entering out into the ringed palisade that looped the stadium in a oblong oval. 25 meter towers dotted the pitch every 30 meters, which the early fans quickly filled so that they could have the best seats. A few fist fights broke out as hundreds of students fought for the right to not be shoved into the seats behind the goal posts. Two sets of three of them towered at intervals of 20 meters, 23.5 meters and 27 meters towered like giant bubble wands on either side of the pitch, their bronze finish reflecting off the late morning sun.
"You think that with a thousand years they would've updated the seats." Marie complained as they moved down the rotted wooden benches near the center of the pitch. "These things look like they'll collapse underneath us. How are they still even standing?" Hermione tapped the bench, listening to the sound of the wood. She then grabbed the bench and attempted to rip off some of it. "I think it's some sort of combination of a preservation spell and a strengthening spell. Has to be, considering that the wood isn't stained for protection from the elements." The three were joined by Dean, Neville and Seamus carrying a rolled up bed sheet. "You got it then?" Ron asked. Dean nodded. "Yep. Just finished it this morning." The three of them unrolled the bed sheet. They had transformed it into a banner. In messy sans-serif font they had written Potter for Prime Minister in rose red letters and decorated the bottom with a gold Gryffindor lion. "Pretty good ain't it?" Dean asked with pride. "Almost." Hermione responded. She then took out her wand and pointed at the letters. "Mico colorum." With its unterance, the letters on the banner started to flash. First black, then jade green, then sea blue, then dark silver and on and on it flashed, the words changing colors every three seconds. "There, now it's perfect." Hermione answered excitedly.
The six of them tied the banner around the inner wall of the pitch. "So, this your first Quidditch match Marie?" Dean asked. "Yeah. I don't understand what the big deal with it is. I watched one of Harry's practices and it was about as interesting as watching a tennis match." "Just wait until it gets started." Ron stated excitedly. "Fred and George told me that Gryffindor versus Slytherin matches are always dirty and fierce games. Should be amazing. I hope it goes on for a week." Hermione smacked his arm. "Don't say that! Can you imagine how behind we'll be in our lessons if that were to happen!" she exclaimed indignantly. Marie looked over at Ron in concern. "Why are you hoping that it will last a week? These things don't take that long do they?" Ron shook his head. "Not usually, but it happens more often than you think. The only way for a game of Quidditch to end is for the seeker to catch the snitch you see, and since the snitch is about as big as a walnut and moves very quickly, it's also hard to see, especially in bad weather." "Yeah," Seamus agreed, a grin plastered on his face. "The record for the longest match is three months. The teams kept having to bring on reserve players so that they could eat and sleep." Neville, Marie, Dean and Hermione looked at Seamus in stunned disbelief. "And I thought that baseball games went on for way too fucking long." Marie muttered as she lifted her binoculars to see if the teams were coming out of the dressing room yet.
"Oh look, Madam Hooch is coming out." The hawk eyed witch was walking across the field carrying a medium sized cedar casket. She walked out into the middle of the field below the stands and placed it on the ground. In the center box, Lee Jordan opened up on the microphone with a homerism only rivaled by Rick Jeanneret and Merrill Reese. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the first game of the 2007-2008 Hogwarts Quidditch season and it is an amazing day to open the season. The weather is currently hovering at around 3 degrees Celcius with a wind chill of 1 degree Celcius with clear skies and a little breeze, so nobody is going to be blown off course in today's game. And what a game to start the season with, Gryffindor," (2/3rds of the stadium roared in ravenous exaltation) "versus Slytherin." (the same 2/3rds booed in rapid hate) "There have been very few changes in the lineups for today's match. Starting in their first games for the Slytherins are chasers Adrian Puecy and Graham Montague and Keeper Miles Bletchley, and chaser Katie Bell and seeker Harry Potter for Gryffindor. Everyone give them a big hand!"
The audience roared as the two teams made their way onto the field, each draped in the robes of their respective houses colors, a dark emerald green with a silver trim and a burnt red with a pale gold trim respectively. The captains separated once they reached the middle of the field and shook hands before mounting their brooms. The casket was opened, the whistle was blown and the horses were off.
In hindsight it was rather stupid of Marie to assume that Quidditch was just soccer on brooms. As she watched the speed that the players flew up and down the court, the quickness of their reactions as they threw the quaffle, the multitude of possession changes caused by either a bludger hitting a chaser or a brilliant interception she thought 'This isn't soccer of brooms, this is hockey on brooms!' A grin grew across her face as she took in the chaos above her, Lee's commentary punctuating the match with rapid-fire snips. "Quaffle taken by Slytherin-that's Adrian Puecy speeding off towards the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second bludger-sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which-nice play by the Gryffindor beater anyway. Johnston back in possession of the quaffle, clear field ahead, look at her fly! Dodges a speeding bludger- the goalposts are ahead-come on now Angelina-Bletchley dives-misses and SHE SCORES!"
Swept up in the enthusiasm, half the stadium roared in cheers, a quarter booed and the other quarter politely applauded. In the more mixed sections, a few shooves were given in response to either the cheers or the boos, but no fights had yet broken out.
"Budge up there, move along." The six students turned around as they responded to the low rumble. "Hagrid!" Hermione exclaimed happily moving closer to Ron so that he could have enough room. "Been watchin' from me hut, but it ain't the same as bein' in the crowd." He looked around the field with his massive binoculars. "No sign of the snitch yet, eh?" "Nope." Ron answered disappointedly, his head swiveling all over the field. "Harry's had nothing to do yet." "'Kept outta trouble though, that's something." Hagrid muttered as he raised his binoculars to track Harry, who was zig zagging around the pitch. Hermione winced. "I'm guessing you heard about the troll?" Hagrid lowered his binoculars and nodded. "Aye. Nasty piece a business that. Four of ya' are lucky to have survived at all, let alone unharmed. Trolls are tough creatures, in spite oh their stupidity. Their skin is resistant to most spells an' their long arms give 'em a long reach. And you beat it wit' just a hoverin' charm?" he chuckled. "Begger's belief, that's impressive. Mind ya, not somethin' I want either of yeh to do again." Seamus scoffed. "Oh come on Hagrid, they're not that suicidal." "Yeah, besides we were only trying to get Hermione because she wasn't at dinner with us." Ron explained. "It's not like we meant to fight a troll." Hagrid nodded and the group turned their eyes back to the game.
"Slytherin in possession. Puecy dodges two bludgers, Weasleys and Bell and speeds towards the-wait a moment-was that the snitch?" A speck of gold passed by Puecy's left ear, distracting him and causing him to drop the quaffle. Harry and the Slytherin seeker, Terrance Higgs, tore after the snitch. Higgs size allowed him to remain neck and neck for a bit, but Harry's speed was starting to allow him to get ahead. He was ahead bit half a head, a full head, half a broom length, a broom length, two. He was almost there. He sped up. And then WHAM! The captain of the Slytherin team, chaser Marcus Flint, had intentionally blocked Harry from the snitch, causing a collision so fierce that Harry was sent spinning out of control, hanging onto his broom for dear life. But dirty or not, Flint's plan succeeded. The snitch had disappeared in the confusion.
"Send him off ref! Red card!" "Put him in the penalty box you blind hag!" "Dean, this isn't futbal. You can't send people off in quidditch-and what's a red card? And a penalty box?" "They oughta change the rules, Flint coulda knocked Harry out of the air." "Bloody snakes, scum the whole lotta them." "Seamus, language." Ron banged his fist on the railing as Lee announced (with some censorship from McGonagall) that Madam Hooch had awarded Gryffindor a penalty shot. "Come on, come on, YES!" he shouted as Alicia Spinnet slipped the quaffle through the right goal post. "Alright," Seamus declared smuggly. "And we got the quaffle back, even better! COME ON LIONS!" The game continue like this for several minutes, the quaffle changing possessions, the players zooming up and down the field, a close matchup of Gryffindors speedy counter-attack offense with Slytherin's strong, hard hitting defensive attack, a contest not just between the school's longest rivalry, but between the two best teams Hogwarts had seen in two decades. And then everything went wrong.
"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing." Hagrid muttered, his binoculars fixed on Harry. "If I didn' know any better I'd say he'd lost control of his broom. But he...can't have." As he released what was happening, the entire stadium looked up. Harry's broom was jerking around like an untamed bronco. It bucked, flipped, twisted and did everything that it could to try to throw Harry off. Everybody, from the fans to the players were distracted by his plight. Then, one particularly strong buck threw him nearly completely off the broom, leaving him dangling from the shaft by one hand.
"Did something happen when Flint blocked him?" Seamus asked. "Can't 'ave." Hagrid answered shakelily. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful dark magic. No kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand." "No student..." Marie muttered as she and Hermione started to frantically search the crowd. "I knew it." Hermione growled, binoculars focused on the center box. Marie followed her gaze. "That callous littleā¦" Enraged, she crushed her binoculars in her hand, bit of metal and glass scattering onto the crosswalk. "What is it?" Seamus asked. "It's Snape. He's jinxing the broom." Hermione seethed. "WHAT?!" Seamus, Dean and Hagrid shouted, the three of them diving for their binoculars. "Don't worry. I'll put a stop to it." Hermione declared as she took off through the stands.
While she forced her way through the crowd, the game had ground to a halt. Fred and George had moved underneath Harry in an attempt to pull Harry onto their broom, but everytime they got close, the broom moved out of reach, eventually forcing them to circle underneath in an attempt to catch when he was eventually thrown off the broom. The Slytherin beaters, in a rare showing of solidarity, also flew nearby in order to prevent bludgers from heading his direction. The only one still paying attention to the game was Flint, who took advantage of the others distraction to score five goals, giving Slytherin a comfortable 60-20 lead. "Come on Hermione." Ron muttered, his binoculars trained like a hawk upon Snape, who was whispering some spell under his breath, his glistening eyes focused coldly on Harry. Seamus and Dean were just as focused, their binoculars following Hermione through the crowds as she shoved and bumped her through crowd after crowd of students towards the central box. "She's not going to make it in time." Neville wailed into Marie's shoulder, unable to look at Harry. "Don't count her out just yet." she replied as she tracked Hermione with Neville's binoculars. "She just reached the center box." Hagrid and the three others joined her in watching the box. "Okay, she's got her wand out." Dean muttered. "She's going to...wait. Did she just?" "I...I think she did." Seamus replied in disbelief. Marie started shaking, her fist stuffed into her mouth to keep herself from laughing. "Wha' on earth is she doing?" Hagrid uttered in amazement. "Setting Snape on fire apparently." Ron replied, just as amazed as Hagrid as he watched Snape stamp out the fire on his cloak. "Well, it looks like it did the trick, look!" Seamus pointed in joy as Harry climbed back onto his now stable broom. He flew back towards the ground, when he threw his hands over his mouth, looking as if he was able to lose what little breakfast he had. He hit the pitch on all fours, coughed and a small, golden ball fell into his hands. Marie, after witnessing this, couldn't stop herself anymore and fell to the ground, laughing.
"Well, you can't say that this game wasn't interesting." Dean commented to Seamus and Neville as he skipped a stone across the Black lake. Seamus took a swing of some chilled pumpkin juice he had been able to swipe from the Great hall. "If you can call the smartest witch in our grade committing arson by setting our teacher on fire and our seeker choking on the snitch just interesting, I hate to see what your version of boring is." "Oh come off it Seamus." Dean snarked as he skipped another stone. "We won the game and nobody was seriously hurt. Even Snape was able to put the fire out without it damaging his cloak too much." Seamus growled, before taking another swig. "Git should've gotten more than just a burnt cloak for what he was trying to do. One more good buck and Harry would've been sent home in a casket." Neville whimpered. "Can we please not talk about this anymore." Seamus winced. "Sorry Nev, I didn't mean it like that." Dean skipped another stone, rougher this time, it's skips taking it further out into the lake.
"But why though?" he pondered, rolling his shoulder to deal with some aches. "I know that he hates Harry, but he hates all of us so it can't be because of that." Seamus scoffed. "Maybe he was angry at Harry making the Quidditch team. Figured that Gryffindor would be too good with him on it, so he did it to weaken the competition." Dean shook his head. "Doubtful. He didn't know how good he would be in a game, for all he knew Harry would have crashed and burned. And besides, don't you think he would've told his team what he was going to do if he was going to do it for that?" "Yeah, the Slytherin beaters were trying to help rescue him just as much as Fred and George were." Neville agreed. "And Higgs didn't look for the snitch at all while Harry was hanging on his broom. The only one who kept playing the game was Flint." Seamus chuckled darkly. "Didn't look too happy did he when Harry caught the snitch in his mouth." "Is he still complaining to Madam Hooch about it?" Neville asked. "Think so," Dean answered as he picked up another rock. "Probably should give up though. The game ended an hour ago." Seamus smirked. "Merlin, what a sore loser."
Neville chuckled with the others, before laying back against the base of the hill, a small smile on his face. It felt nice to just hang out with the other Gryffindors without having to worry about homework. While he loved his grandmother and he did feel grateful for all the things she'd done for him, he didn't like being under the weight of all of her expectations. He always felt that he had to live up to some achievable ideal when he was with her, that she was trying to make her into her ideal of what her grandson should be rather than who he was. Hogwarts gave him the chance to relax, make friends on his own terms and spend time doing subjects that he actually liked, like Herbology. Heck if it weren't for Snape or Malfoy, things would be perfect.
'Although," he thought sourly. 'It would be easier if there weren't a monsterous cerberus hanging around the third floor.' That was the big unknown elephant in the room, the damocles that was held at the throat of each and every student at Hogwarts. He peeked over at Dean and Seamus, watching as Dean laughed at some joke that Seamus told before skipping yet another stone. They didn't know. As far as he knew, he, Ron, Harry, Hermione and Marie were the only ones besides the teachers that knew that there was a giant and potentially lethal dog lurking in the castle. Why, he didn't know. The only thing he knew was that it was guarding...something. But what could be so important or so powerful that an entire corridor had to be sectioned off as an oversized dog house? Neville shook his head, clearing his mind of such curiosities. No, best to try to forget that the dog existed. Focus on the lighter thing; homework, his friends in Gryffindor, the green houses. Those are the things he needs to think about.
"What's got her in a knit?" Seamus asked. Neville got up and saw that Marie was stomping over the rise, agitation smeared all over her face. She plopped down on a patch of dirt by the rocky shore of the lake and glared out over the flat water. "Stupid Snape. Stupid Hagrid. Stupid Filch. Stupid Granger." she muttered, not noticing that they were there. The three looked at each other. 'Stupid Hagrid?' Dean skipped a rock close to her, catching her attention when some splashed water got in her eyes. "Alright, which one of ya' did it? Either way, someone is going swimming today!" The three of them back up in fear. While neither of them had been on the extreme end of her anger, but just last week she had thrown a fourth year Hufflepuff through two walls for accidently knocking her over while she was coming back from detention. This got her another detention from Professor McGonagall cleaning the owlery, but it had firmly established herself as someone you did not want to anger.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Dean panicky exclaimed. "Just wanted to know why you're upset at Hagrid and Hermione!" Marie's glare grew more intense, but it was now directed across the lake, so the three boys now assumed that they were safe. "Just some things we discussed with Hagrid and Hermione getting on my case on that stupid astronomy paper. Again." She growled. She grabbed a rock and hurled it across the lake. The three boys watched in amazement as it skipped clear across the lake and clunked against a tree on the other bank. "Not my fault that I can't get that stupid show out of my head whenever I even think about Venus." "Wait you don't like Sailor Moon?" Seamus asked questionably. "I thought that with that 'Oven-Mitt' you keep pining about, you would be into that kind of show." Suddenly Seamus was yanked off his feet and found himself staring into a shark-like grin. "Thank you for volunteering." Marie then hurled Seamus fifty meters through the air into the frigid depths of the Black lake.
The three kids watched from the shore as Seamus landed with a momentous "SPLASH!" Marie wiped her hands together, a content smile on her face. "Ah, I love productive anger management." Dean walked over to Seamus's dropped bottle of pumpkin juice, muttering scathingly. "It's not like it's not reasonable to make that assumption with you." "Oh yeah, a punk like me watching some girly girly show about vapid feminene girls in those outfits. Please." Dean quirked his eyebrow. "Didn't you carve D.D. and Marie on every desk, in every classroom in the school." "NOBODY CAN PROVE THAT WAS ME!" Dean rolled his eyes and took a swing from the bottle.
"Where are Harry, Ron and Hermione? Are they still at Hagrid's?" Neville asked. Marie got more contemplative. "No. They went to the library to try to do some research on something Hagrid accidently told us. Something about Nicolas Flamel and something he did with Dumbledore." Dean and Neville looked both confused and concerned. Usually Harry and Ron wouldn't be caught dead in a library if they could help it. "Why on earth would you guys be trying to find out who Nicolas Flamel is?" Dean asked. Marie looked over at Neville, a look of doubt on her face. "Hey Neville, remember that giant three headed dog in the forbidden corridor on the third floor?" "Pfffft!" "WHAT!?" Marie turned to the waterfront after hearing the second. Seamus had apparently returned from his unintended dip to hear her question and was now staring at her in bug eyed shock while Dean had devolved into a coughing fit. "*cough cough*What do you *cough* mean there's a three headed dog in the *cough cough* third floor corridor?" "No, nix that. WHY is there a three headed dog in the third floor corridor? And more importantly, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS?!"
Marie looked timidly over at Neville's snow white face. "Uh heh heh heh. Ooops?" "Ooops? Ooops! I think not telling us that there's a cerberus THAT COULD KILL US being in the school and nobody telling us about it is more than just a simple OOOPS!" Seamus screamed. Marie smashed her forehead into Seamus's, lightning bouncing between their eyes. "Hey, it's not like we went out of our way to discover what is in there. We found this out completely by accident!" "And you didn't think that it might be a good idea to tell the rest of us about what's in there?!" "Oh sure, cause mass hysteria and panic by telling the school that there's a cerberus on the third floor guarding a trap door and the only thing stopping it from getting to the rest of the school is the fact that it's too big to fit through a wooden door with a locking charm!" "Is that supposed to make me feel better!?" "Oye, wankers." The two of them turned to Dean. "WHAT?!" Dean withstood the category 2 storm that washed over him with a stone expression on his face. "What's this about a trap door?" he asked calmly.
Marie slapped her forehead while Seamus glared at Dean in indignation. "What does that have to do with anything?" "Because it's why the dog is here!" Marie screamed. "Do either of you remember that Gringotts break in a few months ago?" Seamus and Dean looked confused, but Neville's eyes widened. "Are you saying that whatever was in there was moved to the school?" Marie nodded. "The paper said that the vault that was broken in had been emptied earlier that day. The only way a vault could've been emptied would've been if there had been barely anything in the vault to begin with." "And the only way that someone would've had a reason to break into a vault with barely anything in it would be because whatever was in there was either valuable enough to risk robbing from the goblins, or powerful enough that they'd want it for themselves." Dean finished in frightened realization. "Exactly," Marie stated, pointing to Dean as she did so. "In addition, Harry was there at the bank that same day with Hagrid and told me that they had went to a vault with nothing in there besides a 5 centimeter long package, which Hagrid removed from the vault on 'Hogwarts business.'" The three boys' eyes widened. "You, you think that whatever was in that package is guarded by the dog." Neville stammered. "Not just that it's here." Marie answered ominously. "But who's after it."
Seamus's glare returned, more pronounced than ever. "Snape," he spat. "Now I understand why he was trying to get rid of Harry today. It's because you guys are on to him." Marie nodded. "When Harry, Ron and I were going to get Hermione when the troll was attacking, we saw Sanpe had in the direction of the third floor. Why would a teacher go towards an area where the troll isn't, especially when he knows that said troll has been reported in the dungeons?" Dean, in a rage, threw the bottle into the lake. "That fuckin' bastard! He let the troll in just so he could try to steal what the dog was guarding!" "Luckily he failed." Marie remarked coldly. "The dog was able to give him a bloody leg for his troubles." Seamus spat. "Pity the dog didn't rip that leg off!" he growled. He whirled around on her. "How do you know he has a bloody leg anyway?" "Harry found him getting his leg treated by Filch and he told Filch about the dog as well." Seamus, now apocalyptic, grabbed a large rock and chucked it into the lake. "That slimy troglodyte! He's in on the whole thing as well! He probably let the troll in while Snape was in the great hall just to throw us off!" By now, everyone was in a foul mood. Even the kind, timid Neville, looked ready to help start a riot.
"Are the three of you willing to help?" Three resolute nods were given. "Good. I don't need you three to help us find out about Flamel. Hermione, Ron and Harry can work on that end and I'm planning to send a letter to someone that might find out about him for us. Instead, the four of us are going to make Snape's and Filch's lives as much of a living hell as we can." She picked a rock as large as her fist. "Snape tried to kill one of our friends, and his actions nearly killed another." She crushed the rock in her hand as easily as if it were an empty soda can, small pieces of gravel slipping out from her clenched fist. "I think it's time he finds out what happens when you get on the wrong side of a Kanker."
God this took so long. Looking at this script from my laptop, this thing is about just more than fifteen pages long. I just keep building and building it up until it reached this point. I'm going to take a short break from the main story, so the next chapter will be an omake. I'd also like to thank my reviewer for what he said about my writing, so I'm going to try to deviate as much as I can from the stories plot beats as I can, so there will only be one trip to the mirror of erised in the next Hogwarts chapter. As for the setting change from 91'-92' to 07'-08', I have an idea that I want to work with that I feel would benefit from it. I'll see you soon and thanks for checking this out. Catch ya later.
