So I'm going to post once a week, like I said, and chapter 12 will come next week, but chapter 13 won't come for two weeks after. I have to have my beta read the chapters and I want to go through them before I post them so I need a little bit of time, because since school started my time has been limited with a capitol L. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. You'll get the explanation of how M & H ended up nearly dueling in a really stupid place next chapter in the beginning.

Disclaimer, I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and this is not a way for me to criticize the books. It's just how I believe the characters would react if they read JK Rowling's brilliant work.

In This Chapter: Harry has his first game of quidditch where he nearly dies, but what else is new. The trio also get a new name to research: Nicolas Flamel

Chapter 11

"Well," Parvati got up. "This was fun, but I think we're going to go."

Lavender got up as well and the girls waved to the boys, who waved back. As the door shut behind Parvati and Lavender, Dean turned to Seamus. "Want to read eleven and twelve and be done with it?"

Seamus shrugged. "Sure."

The door opened and Dean and Seamus were expecting Harry or Ron, or even Lavender or Parvati again, but it was Neville. He looked miserable. He didn't even seem to notice Dean or Seamus as he slumped into the room and basically fell onto his bed.

"You alright there, Neville?" Seamus asked. Neville jumped and looked round at them. Then his shoulders sunk again.

"Oh. I thought you were downstairs with everyone else." Neville said.

"What's the matter?" Dean asked. Neville didn't answer so Seamus asked his own question.

"Where've you been all day? I feel like you haven't been around." he asked.

"Hospital wing." Neville said miserably. "I got hexed and jinxed several times. I think maybe some people were aiming for me in particular."

"Sorry about that, mate." Dean said. He thought about going over and rubbing his back but the truth was, he wasn't all that close to Neville. They were dormmates and even friends, but he thought rubbing the boy's back might be a little too awkward for where their friendship stood.

"Did you get anyone back?" Seamus asked hungrily.

Neville shook his head as he laid back down on his bed face first. He talked into his mattress so the other two boys had to strain to hear what he was saying. "I was too busy trying not to get hexed again to do any hexing myself."

"You were getting so good in the DA," Dean said and glanced at Seamus. Dean had previously gotten the permission of the trio to inform his best mate about what he's been doing and where he's been going. Seamus had an idea, as Dean tried to get him to go to the first meeting at the Hog's Head, but Dean hadn't been able to give any more details after that. Now he knew and they were both excited for their next meeting, whenever it was. "Maybe you just need some confidence..." Dean trailed off when Neville got up again and properly sat on his bed. He took his time kicking off his shoes before sliding back to lean against the back of the bed.

"I don't know. I don't think it was that, actually. My aim's improved a lot and... and I think I've gotten some of the spells Harry's taught us." Neville pointed out.

"So what do you think it is?" Seamus asked.

Neville looked hesitant to answer and embarrassed as well. After a moment of fidgeting he finally said, "I didn't have anyone to look out for my back, you know? It was pretty much just me out there. There were so many people, I couldn't block them from all angles."

Dean and Seamus looked at each other, suddenly feeling awkward and almost wishing they hadn't asked. There were five boys in their room. Dean and Seamus became friends the first day they were at school, Harry and Ron hit it off right away, too. They'd all found the second half of their own dynamic duos right away, but they were an odd number of dormmates. Neville never got the opportunity to get his right hand man.

They all liked Neville, he was a hard person to dislike. But Neville just wasn't anyone's first choice of someone to hang with... or second choice... or even third. It was nobody's fault, but maybe they could all work harder to include Neville. Even in the last chapter of the books, the narrative explained that Harry was glad to have Seamus as a partner because Neville apparently wanted to be partners with him but Harry did not. Before either Dean or Seamus could say anything, Neville kept going, his eyes carefully not watching either of them.

"I think if I found some people I would have been fine. Harry, Ron, Hermione, even Luna or Ginny... I have some friends in Hufflepuff..." Neville continued. Seamus felt a little hurt he hadn't been mentioned in that list, but at the same time, why would he be? "But, well, there just wasn't anyone waiting for me to finish packing up my things to walk out of class together. Or anyone to come to the hospital wing and leave with me."

Dean rubbed the back of his neck. "Nev..."

"I'm not," Neville began a little louder. "Trying to get sympathy or anything. I'm just saying... I think I would have lasted longer had I had someone to watch my back."

Dean and Seamus looked at each other. The truth was, they hardly noticed that they might have left Neville alone sometimes. For one thing, he was always a little bit closer to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. But even then, they're called the Gryffindor trio not the Gryffindor quartet, so how close could they all really be? Friendly but not friends? Or even, friends but not good friends?

"I know you would have!" Seamus spoke up suddenly, causing the other two boys to look at him, slightly startled. "Would have done better, that is, if you had someone to cover your arse. So Dean and I, we'll have to be your arse cover-ers. This is a job we're going to have to take very seriously. Dean?"

"I agree, that means we always have to be on step behind you." Dean jumped right in. "Can't cover your arse if we're in front of you. So we're always going to have to wait for you to pack up your things. You'll be surprised how sick of us you'll get."

Neville still looked embarrassed, maybe even more embarrassed now, but he still smiled and said, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. And since we're here, maybe you'd like to read with us?" Dean shrugged. "That's what we were about to do. Did you read chapter ten?"

"Er, no I didn't. Sorry." Neville said.

"Well you can read it now and we'll wait for you to be done, and we could read the next chapter." Seamus suggested. Neville smiled again and went in his bag for his book. He was aware this was pretty much pity friendship, but he also knew it came from a place of genuineness. He liked Dean and he liked Seamus, so there was no reason to deny their efforts. While Neville read through chapter ten, a bit faster than he normally did as he didn't want to keep Seamus and Dean waiting, the others played a quick game of exploding snap on Dean's bed. Neville was finished in no time, though.

"Wow." Neville said as he finished the tenth chapter, and joined them by sitting on the foot of Dean's bed. Neville hesitated at first before Seamus pulled him down. In their first year, he and Hermione had formed a friendship by being sort of the outcasts. After that night, she, Harry, and Ron were inseparable. Neville had felt like he'd lost his one friend, even if this wasn't true. While he was sure he would have been pissing himself and done little good at the time, he almost wished he were in that bathroom with that troll, as well. Neville had yet to see a friendship closer than Hermione, Ron, and Harry. He got jealous of it more times than he could count.

"I know." Dean grinned, oblivious to Neville's thoughts. "Only they would forge a friendship like that."

Neville silently agreed.

"Just to settle a debate, do you think Hermione was 'brilliant' in this chapter?" Seamus asked. Neville shrugged.

"I think Hermione's always brilliant. And it was good of her to try and keep Ron and Harry out of trouble." Neville said. Dean looked smugly at Seamus, who ignored him.

"Let's get into this next chapter, shall we?" Seamus said, annoyed that he was now outnumbered.

While reading the chapter on Harry's first Quidditch game, all three boys seemed to come to the agreement that reading about Quidditch is not nearly as fun as watching it. They got through the chapter quickly and then Seamus dropped it to his side.

"Nicolas Flamel. Hagrid's got to be the worst person with secrets in the history of... Wizardry. Why does Dumbledore tell him anything?" Seamus said.

"Because he would trust Hagrid with his life," Dean said in a bad impression of their head of school. Seamus and Neville smiled with amusement.

"Either that or he wanted them to find out." Neville said. Dean and Seamus looked at him, clearly shocked. "Probably not, though."

"Wasn't that the time those three spent all of their free time in the library?" Dean asked. "At the time I thought Hermione rubbed off on them pretty quickly."

"We all thought that." Seamus said. "And who's betting the rest of the school's going to be in there researching the name too, now."

"It would be easier having the entire school on the job. Especially because at least one person probably knows what he did." Neville absentmindedly tapped on the pages of the book in no real rhythm.

"I'm curious myself," Dean said staring at the name. "I might go to the library myself."

"I'm sure Harry, Ron, and Hermione all know now. We could probably just ask them." Neville pointed out.

"I didn't even think about that." Dean chuckled. "Apparently what Seamus and I were missing this entire time was your common sense, Nev."

Neville smirked a bit.

"I'm still betting everyone's going to be researching the Flamel bloke." Seamus said.

"Don't go around betting," Dean said. "Harry bet his broomstick that Snape was the one who let the troll in. And I do plan on collecting."

"He didn't bet you!" Neville said laughing. "And even if he did, he bet his nimbus! Do you really want that pile of splinters?"

Dean frowned. "On second thought..."

"Only a Dementor could really get Harry off of his broom." Seamus commented with a bit of a laugh. "I mean, bloody hell the thing was bucking and he still managed to stay on."

"What a memorable game," Dean sighed in remembrance of the first Quidditch game he ever saw.

"It was piss-yourself terrifying, you mean." Seamus stated with no room for disagreement. "Neville cried."

"I was eleven!" Neville defended himself with pink cheeks.

"Hey, no judgement here, mate, I was right there with you." Seamus said.

"And not to mention it seemed to be going on for even longer than we realized. It said no one noticed at first." Dean said shaking his head. "I was scared just looking at him, imagine how terrified he would have been?"

"Really shows you what an impressive flyer he is." Neville acknowledged. "Even back then. I would have fallen off for sure."

"Most people would have." Seamus agreed.

"And it could have been avoided if Flint hadn't blocked him from catching the snitch the first time. All of the bucking and everything happened after that." Neville seemed to realize in that moment.

"Flint could have knocked him off his broom there," Dean said. "Hagrid was right when he said the rules should be changed a bit. Flint shouldn't have been able to keep playing after that one."

"No way, the game's been how it has since forever! Sure the rules are a little bit blasé," Seamus conceded. "But that's what makes the game interesting!"

"Watching our classmate almost die is interesting?" Neville questioned.

"A good story came out of it." Seamus held up the book. "And you should read about other crazy matches. Quidditch Through The Ages has them. That's the only book I've Granger'd."

Neville looked surprised. "You've what?"

"Granger'd. Read and memorized cover to cover." Seamus explained. "Parvati, Lav, Dean and I coined the phrase in our second year."

"All in good fun, of course." Dean said quickly seeing the look on Neville's face. "Not to make fun of her or anything."

"Well, I don't know about that, but I do know the safety of our friends should be more important than an interesting game or a good story." Neville scolded.

"In his defense, I think wizards are sometimes hindered by magic. Most injuries are healed immediately, so we don't take them as seriously and we're not as careful." Dean said.

"Should I be insulted?" Seamus asked. "I'm not sure."

Neville snorted. "The important part is that Harry got back onto his broom."

"Yeah," Seamus grinned. "After Hermione set Snape on fire!"

He roared with laughter and Dean and Neville couldn't help but join in. Dean said, "Yeah, I can't believe I never knew about that! I know it said she got better about the rules, but she never seemed like it back then."

"We thought she rubbed off on Ron and Harry, apparently they rubbed off on her!" Seamus snorted.

"Brilliant. She was brilliant!" Dean was saying. "Seamus you can't deny-"

"I'd never!" Seamus said. "I wanna get a banner! Say, Dean, you think you could do another one like the one you made for Harry for his first game? But make it say, HERMIONE SET SNAPE ON FIRE!"

The dormitory was filled with laughter again, though Neville went quiet first as he made a thoughtful expression. "Say... that's not a bad idea."

"We'll put it in the Great Hall," Seamus said, still snickering.

"No, no, although I reckon we should do that too. I was thinking we could make another banner like that, only this time we could do it for Ron. That way he might be more confident in his next game and maybe won't be so... you know..."

"Clumsy?" Dean suggested.

"I was going to say nervous." Neville said with a smile.

"I like it, that banner was some of my best work." Dean grinned.

"And if it helps Gryffindor win, the better!" Seamus raved. "We need all the help we can get, especially now that Harry can't play."

"Well maybe Harry won't get hurt so much now that he's not playing." Neville said. "He nearly dies in every game!"

"Almost every game." Dean corrected. "But you're right, maybe we should have taken what happened at his first game as an omen or something."

"After a game like that, I'm not surprised he needed a cuppa tea." Neville continued.

"If I were Hagrid I would have dumped the tea and gave him a cuppa whisky instead!" Seamus joked.

"I wouldn't have minded that after my run-in with Fluffy ." Neville mumbled.

"Fluffy." Dean scoffed. "Only Hagrid would name a three headed dog Fluffy."

Seamus shrugged. "Maybe it really was fluffy."

"Hagrid sees the best in everything. Even giant, man eating, three headed dogs." Neville said.

"That's probably why he was so determined not to believe them about Snape." Seamus concluded.

"Well, I think he had more faith in Dumbledore than Snape himself, considering his argument." Dean countered. "Notice he said nothing of Snape's character, just about how he'd never do anything because he's a Hogwarts teacher. Mind, his logic's quite flawed, especially now."

"What do you mean?" Neville asked.

"Well just look at who we've had as teachers! We know it turned out not to be Snape, obviously," Dean began to explain.

"Although Snape is the most suspicious person ever." Seamus interrupted him. Dean ignored him (but agreed).

"But it was Quirrell," Dean continued. "Who was still a Hogwarts teacher! Then there was Lockhart, the crazy bloke who posed as Mad Eye..."

"And Umbridge!" Seamus butted in fiercely.

"Exactly." Dean said with a bit of a smile at Seamus.

Neville nodded. "So being a Hogwarts teacher doesn't stop someone from being-"

"A heartless, soulless toad?" Seamus suggested.

"Evil, yeah." Neville laughed.

Seamus stretched and yawned, laying comfortably on Dean's side. "Their first mistake was not telling Hagrid while the whole thing was happening."

"Yeah, because you would have kept a cool enough head to think of doing that." Dean quirked an eyebrow at him.

"I wonder why Hagrid didn't hear them while they were talking about it." Neville wondered.

"Too high up." Seamus murmured with a lazy wave of his hand in the air to signify height.

"You mean they were too high into the air and the winds were blowing too strong for their conversation to be heard clearly?" Neville asked.

"That," Seamus said slowly. "Or Hagrid's head, and therefore ears, were too high above Ron and Hermione to be in the range of their conversation. But it was probably that thing with the air and.. Whatever you just said."

"Yeah sure, or they were just speaking hushed and quietly." Dean said with a slight roll of his eyes. They would certainly get enough practice at it, he thought. It was when they were trying to figure out who Nicolas Flamel was when they first started to get secretive. It never really stopped after that. Dean realized, with a start, that he was going to know quite in depth just what those three always whispered about. He'd wondered since his first year, but he never thought he'd ever actually know.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Seamus brought Dean back to where he was. "Especially since Neville didn't seem to hear either."

"I didn't." Neville confirmed.

"But that might have been because he was crying." Seamus finished.

"I was eleven!" Neville shouted. Dean and Seamus laughed. Neville was warmed by the fact that he was not embarrassed, but knew that they were just joshing him, as friends. He joined them in laughing. "Did you notice the way it changed perspective in the middle of the chapter?"

"Oi yeah, what was that about?" Seamus grunted. "Bloody confusing, that was."

"Who's perspective was that in? Ron's? Hagrid's?" Dean asked.

"Hermione's, probably, since it followed her to setting Snape on fire." Seamus said.

"Unless it just switched again when she ran." Neville pointed out. Seamus groaned.

"Hopefully that doesn't happen too often." he said.

Neville looked at his watch and began to get up. "About time for dinner. Are you coming?"

"Right behind you, Nev." Dean said getting up as well.

"Arse protectors, one stop behind!" Seamus announced. He was actually a few steps behind because he was the last to get up. Dean and Neville were the first to get to the common room and therefore noticed the common room was mostly empty.

"Probably all in the Great Hall." Neville concluded as they walked towards the portrait. Seamus caught up and followed them out. The topic found Quidditch again as Seamus talked animatedly about the unintentional advantage the Ravenclaws had by having blue uniforms.

"I mean, I'm all for representing the house colors, but we're big scarlet targets in the air!" Seamus ranted.

"At least the uniform isn't yellow." Neville said, remembering hearing something similar from Ernie MacMillian.

"What's this here?" Dean said as they came across a gathering of students just a bit outside the Entrance Hall.

It reminded them of the circle that had formed around Umbridge and Trelawney when the latter had gotten fired. They fought their way to the middle where Ron and Harry were facing Malfoy and his goons.

"What's happening?" Neville asked. Hannah Abbott, who was close by, answered him.

"They're having the duel that never happened." Hannah said in an excited whisper.

Seamus didn't miss a beat. "Kick his arse, Harry!"

"Is arse your favorite word or something?" Neville asked above the loud applause that followed Seamus' yell. Seamus grinned in reply.

"So, is Crabbe still your second?" Ron asked as the surrounding crowd quieted down, not wanting to miss a thing.

"Actually," Blaise moved up. "I'll be his second. Back up Crabbe, Goyle."

Perhaps too good at taking orders, the troll like boys took a few steps back. Hermione was behind her two friends looking pretty annoyed. "Wasn't the duel you two had in front of everyone in second year enough?"

"That didn't end right." Ron said without taking his eyes off of the Slytherins.

"What's ending right?" Hermione argued. "Ending in death?"

Well technically... Neville thought.

"Are we doing this or not?" Malfoy cut Ron and Hermione's argument short.

"I should think, not!" came the stern voice of none other than Professor McGonagall. The crowd parted for her as all four boys in the middle of the circle dropped their wands and looked with wide eyes. "I've just about had it with the ridiculous dueling in the halls! It is strictly forbidden! And the example you're setting for the younger students!"

Those on the edges of the crowd found their ways into the Great Hall without notice while those in the middle were stuck. McGonagall came closer to the near duelers and they all took an unintentional step back.

"I think that's fifty points each from both of you, twenty points from your seconds , and if I could, I'd take away more for starting this all in your first year!" McGonagall said as the rubies and emeralds shot up the hourglasses. "I will refrain from doing that, as I know you could not have known such a thing would happen. But your response to sneaking out and breaking rules at eleven is to break more rules at fifteen?"

No one dared speak, especially not Harry, but McGonagall still approached him. "I am not sure how the books came to us, nor do I agree with Professor Umbridge's distribution of them. But take them as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes, not expand upon them."

With that she turned and walked to the Great Hall doors. She paused, looking back. "I expect you all to follow me in here, or else to your dormitories. And be glad it was I who caught you and not her."

She walked through the door, followed by the floods of students who had tried to watch the Potter-Malfoy duel. Malfoy and Blaise looked at each other and followed the rest of them. Dean and Seamus went as well and so Neville followed, but not before hearing Hermione, Ron, and Harry.

"She's right, you know." Hermione said.

"Yeah I know." Harry muttered.

"Would have loved to see you blast Malfoy's head off." Ron said eloquently.

"Nice, Ron." Hermione said as Harry laughed.