Beta: Demos
Release date: 6/29/2014
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Harry Potter universe.
Chapter 12 – Location, Location, Location
Sitting down to breakfast, Ginny begins to eat when a feathery bomb barrels through the kitchen window and straight into the bowl of cereal.
"Errol?" says Ginny clearly confused.
A weak hoot comes from Errol, who sticks a leg out, with a letter addressed to Ginny. Seeing that the letter is addressed to her, Ginny's face lights up with a smile and begins reading it.
Ginny,
Keep my old broom, I don't need it. Keep up the Quidditch practice, and maybe you'll be able to get on the house team when you come to Hogwarts.
Harry
/*after breakfast the next day after the duel*/
Leaving the Great Hall, Harry, Neville, and Hermione head towards their first class of the day when Malfoy and his two minions step in front of them.
"So, Potter, how did you manage it? How did you manage to disappear from our duel last night?" sneers Malfoy, anger written all over his face.
Chuckling, Harry replies, "I don't know what you're talking about? But why don't you run along to class and stop bothering us", and with that, pushes past Malfoy with Neville and Hermione following close behind heading towards Charms.
/* Halloween */
"Today we will be learning the Levitation Charm. The incantation is 'Wingardium Leviosa'" calls out Professor Flitwick.
Professor Flitwick pairs up the students with Hermione and Ron being paired together, Harry and Seamus paired together, and Neville and Dean paired, with others paired similarly.
"Wingardium leviosa" says Ron haphazardly waving his wand widly.
"No, no, no!" It's Wing-garrrrrr-dium Levi-O-sa, emphasizing the incantation like I did, Ronald." Exclaims Hermione.
"Fine, you do it then." States Ron.
Smiling, Hermione flicks her wand and says the incantation correctly, and the feather the pair were to levitate begins to levitate higher and higher nearly reaching the ceiling when Professor Flitwick calls out, "Very good Miss Granger, five points to Gryffindor for being the first to manage it."
Heading towards the Great Hall for food, Ron says as he catches up to Harry and Neville, "Such a pain isn't she? Showing off in class."
"What are you talking about, Ron?" replies Neville.
"Hermione of course. Showing off that she's better than us."
At that moment, Hermione pushes past, hand over her stomach, and disappears. Stopping abruptly, Harry turns and faces Ron, grabs one of Ron's arms and growls, "Hermione is one of my friends and the same with Neville. You'd better find her and apologize."
"What Harry said." growls Neville in an equally fierce tone of voice, glaring at Ron.
Seeing the glares, Ron throws his hands up, sighs, and replies, "Fine, fine, I'll apologize."
"Good. Now, I believe food is waiting in the Great Hall." comments Harry, before resuming the trek to the Great Hall.
Finishing classes for the day and with no sign of Hermione yet, Harry and Neville begin to wind their way to the Great Hall. Seeing a girl from their house on the way, Harry goes up to her and ask, "Excuse me, miss, I've seen you around the common room and I was wondering if you knew where Hermione Granger is?"
Lavender giggles and shakes her head.
Sighing, Harry says, "Well, this is—"
"Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know."(*) exclaims Professor Quirrell as he comes running into the Great Hall.
Mass chaos begins and doesn't end until multiple professors begin sending off explosions and Dumbledore shouts, "SILENCE!"
Silence begins to fall over the Great Hall and Dumbledore continues, "Now, prefects, take your houses back to your common room. Professors follow me."
"Follow behind me, Gryffindors, and nothing horrendous will befall you" calls out Percy Weasley, as he exits the Great Hall.
"Percy, Hermione has been gone since around lunch time and no one has seen her, what should we do?" calls out Harry from the end of the line following Percy.
"The professors will handle it, Mr. Potter. Now, follow me."
Everyone in Gryffindor continues to follow Percy when Harry whispers to Neville, "I think we should go find Hermione ourselves. Percy claims that Hermione will be found by the professors, yet he neglected to tell them that she is missing."
Neville nods in agreement, after following behind the line of Gryffindors for a couple of floors, Harry darts around a corner, away from the group. Staying low and moving quickly away from the stairwells, Harry straightens up and a quizzical look appears on his face. "Do you smell something?"
Stopping and sniffing, Neville goes, "Urgh, what's that smell?"
Slowly turning and facing each other, they both deadpan and say at the same time, "Troll."
"Should we head towards the troll or find Hermione first?" asks Harry.
The sudden sound of a girl screaming cause Harry and Neville to shout "HERMIONE!" before dashing towards the source and watch what looks like a ten or twelve foot tall troll.
Dragging its club, the troll lumbers deeper into the girls bathroom, and Harry quickly turns to Neville and says, "I'll distract it and then we can try to lure it away from the bathroom."
Running behind the troll, while staying out of range of the club, Harry yells, "Hey, over here fatso."
The troll turns and swings the club so quickly that Harry is caught unaware, and the club catches Harry right in the chest and Harry goes flying across the room.
"Harry!" exclaims Neville.
Sitting up, Harry rolls out of the way of the club coming down, and while holding his left side of his chest, limps as fast as he can out towards the entrance of the bathroom.
"I'm fine, Neville. For the second time, my test Quidditch gear has probably saved my life."
"Good. Now, how do we stop the troll from crushing Hermione?" asks Neville.
"Hmm. Spells probably won't work due to a probably similar natural resistance to spells, like giants." Says Harry loudly, sending off multiple stinging jinxes at the troll while sliding to the right across the entrance of the bathroom.
Pausing, Neville queries, "Then why did you do send some stinging jinxes at it?"
"To become a nuisance and draw him towards us and away from Hermione."
"Good idea" and Neville begins to throw some stinging jinxes at the troll.
Roaring, the troll turns around and lumbers towards the entrance, causing Neville to ask, "Uh, Harry, now what?"
Stopping his movement, Harry looks over the situation, sighs, and replies, "Well, I hadn't planned this far ahead yet. Surely he has an Achilles Heel, but where? The neck?" Quickly looking over the troll, Harry spots it, the clear weak spot and shouts, "Neville hit the troll in the back of the leg, around the knee cap area."
"Hit it with what?"
Rolling out of the way of the club, Harry shouts, "With anything you can."
Looking around him, Neville mutters to himself, "Haven't been taught anything powerful enough, so I'll have to use something sharp and strong, but what can I use?"
"Neville, hurry up. Get your sword out and put it into the back of the knee!"
Neville sighs, and obliges. Harry continues sending jinxes and shouting randomly to keep the troll confused. Moving constantly, Harry ends up with his only way out of the bathroom blocked by the troll.
"Well, this is a fine mess I'm in" mutters Harry.
An eardrum shattering roar erupts from the troll as it lumbers forward, just to fall backwards, where troll lands on its back, with metallic shards scattered around and in the right knee of the troll. Not seeing the troll moving, other than a slow but steady movement of the chest up and down, Harry says, "That's a relief. Hermione, it's safe, but we don't know for how long. Are you ok?"
Hermione's voice is heard, "Yes, the troll never got to me. Thank you, Neville, Harry", before hurrying out of a nearby stall, and hugging both of the boys.
"Miss Granger, Messrs Potter and Longbottom, what are you three doing here?" exclaims Professor McGonagall, with a hint of hysteria in her voice.
Standing up, Harry rolls his neck, smiles ruefully, and replies, "Just informing Hermione about the troll."
"I believe that Mr. Potter here is just like his father, arrogant and believes that he is above the rules. When told to follow his house's prefects, he and Mr. Longbottom here, decided that following the Headmaster's order was not for themselves, and came here." drawls a sneering Professor Snape.
"If I may, Professor Snape, Hermione has been missing since shortly before lunch, and when no one knew anything about her whereabouts, we got concerned. Then when we raised the point about Hermione being missing to Percy Weasley, he said that the professors will take care of the matter of finding Hermione, however, he never informed a professor before dashing off to take the rest of our house back to the common room." replies Harry.
"And good thing that we did break off from the rest of the group, as then Hermione would have been all alone with the troll, and then you'd have a dead student on your hands." comments Neville, brushing his shoulders off.
Professor Snape's sneer disappears and is replaced with a dark scowl.
"Hmm. Miss Granter, may I inquire as to why you were out of class?" inquires Dumbledore.
Blushing, Hermione pipes up, "My stomach has been churning since shortly after breakfast. So I came to the bathroom and haven't really left all day."
"Silly girl, if you weren't feeling well, why didn't you go to the Hospital Wing." remarks Professor Snape dryly.
"Well…I normally wait this stuff out, but you're right, Professor Snape."
"Messr's Potter and Longbottom, were either one of you two injured during your fight?" queries Dumbledore.
Neville shakes his head and then says, "No, but Harry was hit in the chest with the club."
All eyes in the room, minus Harry's and Neville turn in shock to Harry, who is standing nonchalantly.
"Mr. Potter, is this true?" queries Professor McGonagall.
"Yeah, but I'm fine though."
"Mr. Potter, you will go to the Hospital Wing with Hermione, and get checked out. Once Madam Pomfrey has declared you fit to leave, you then may return to your common room. Understood?" states Dumbledore.
Nodding his acknowledgement, Professor McGonagall leads Hermione and Harry to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey bustles out of her office and commands, "First the lady" before running her wand over Hermione's body, before announcing, "Lie down on a nearby bed", before Hermione goes and lies down on a nearby bed.
Turning to Harry, Madam Pomfrey runs her wand over Harry and a puzzle look appears on her face.
"According to my scans, there isn't anything wrong with you. Why are you here then?"
"The headmaster told me that I needed to come down here because I got hit in the chest by the troll's club."
Gasping, Madam Pomfrey turns to Professor McGonagall and asks, "Is this true, Minerva?"
Sighing, Professor McGonagall explains, "He and Mr. Longbottom went off to find Miss Granger here, and found the troll instead. That much I do know."
"Mr. Potter, I'll need you to remove your shirt so I can more closely inspect the point of impact."
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
"Potter! Shirt off now!" commands Professor McGonagall.
Shrugging his shoulders, Harry takes off his robe and shirt to reveal the chestplate of the Quidditch gear.
All eyes look at the plate with a dent in the middle and cracks radiating away from the center, and smiling ruefully, Harry says, "I'm fine thanks to the gear. Although it looks like I'll need to get a new one."
Recovering from the surprise, Madam Pomfrey asks, "Will you remove your chest plate so I can examine you more thoroughly?"
Nodding his head, Harry removes the chest plate and Madam Pomfrey quickly does some diagnostic scans, ending with, "You have nothing to be worried about, Mr. Potter. You're free to go."
"Now, Miss Granger, please take these potions and you should be good to go as well."
"Thank you." replies Hermione, downing the two potions given to her in a single gulp apiece.
/*a week or so later*/
"Tomorrow's your first game of Quidditch. Are you excited, worried, anxious?" asks Hermione.
"I'm excited to play on a real team, instead of just friends and family." replies Harry.
With a confused look on her face, Hermione asks, "You've played before?"
"Yes he has. I've played many times with him, and he has some decent skill." replies Neville, not looking up from his Potions essay he is revising.
Hermione turns to Harry with a look of shock on her face, "Harry, you never mentioned that before."
Shrugging, Harry says, "It's nothing special. Like I said, I've played with family and friends. Just ask Ron about the whooping he, Fred, and George got from Neville, Ginny, and I gave them."
Hermione stands up and goes over to where Ron and Dean are playing chess while Harry pulls out his mirror and murmurs, "Sirius".
A few seconds later, Sirius's face appears in the mirror, "Pronglet, what can I help you with?"
"You know how you're showing up tomorrow, right? Well, can you possibly bring me a new chest plate and Neville another sword?"
"Yeah, sure-, wait, what? Why, what happened that you two would need new gear?"
Sighing, Harry replies, "Well, a troll got into the castle, Hermione was missing, we found the troll, and managed to shatter its kneecap while rendering it unconscious, and saved Hermione."
Sirius and Harry hold a pseudo eye staring contest before Sirius breaks the silence with, "So that's the short version, but what's the long version?"
"I'll tell you later. Have to get back to studying and then grab some sleep before the match."
Sirius snorts and his image in the mirror disappears.
/*the next morning*/
Arriving in the Great Hall before most of the students had arrived, Harry and Neville sit down and begin eating at a leisurely pace. Slowly the rest of the student body arrives, with postal owls swooping in.
"Neville, remind me to send Hedwig out on a postal run soon, alright?"
"Sure. Say, shouldn't you be headed towards—" begins Neville.
"Harry! It is time for us to go." choruses the Weasley twins.
Walking into the locker room, the trio see Wood stoically standing, his back to the room.
"Wood, we've brought who you've been seeking for." states Fred.
"And he can seek anything else that you need seeking of." comments George.
Shaking his head, Oliver turns around, sighs, and says, "You two never change. Pranks, puns, etc. Seeing as you three are here, get dressed, and then a speech before the match."
Groaning, Fred comments, "It'd better not be the same speech that you say every year."
"Is there something wrong with my speeches?" growls Wood.
"Just that you give the same one year in year out." replies George.
"You're sticking around to listen, even if it is the same speech as before."
"Fine."
Roughly ten minutes later the rest of the team troops in and prepares for the match. Seeing everyone ready to play, Wood stands at the front of the room and clears his throat, "Team, we haven't had much success with obtaining the House Cup for the past few years. But, with Potter here now, I think we stand a great chance at winning the House Cup this years. So, let's put our best foot forward and show Slytherin that we won't let them win again."
A resounding cheer resonates throughout the locker room, followed by Wood shouting, "Now let's grab our brooms, go out onto the field and do this!"
The team grab their brooms and head out onto the field. Standing in a half circle formation, with the curve towards the center.
"And here is the Gryffindor team lineup. Starting with the chasers, we have Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, and Katie Bell. For beaters Gryffindor we have the dynamic duo of the Weasley twins. Oliver Wood mans the goal posts, with the newest addition to the team, Harry Potter, as seeker!" announces Lee Jordan's voice across the Quidditch pitch.
Lee's voice booms over the pitch announcing the Slytherin team's members.
"Now captains, come shake hands." Commands Madam Hooch. Wood and Flint from Slytherin walk to the middle and shake hands.
"I want both teams to play a clean game." announces Madam Hooch, before giving a shrill blast on her whistle.
Both teams rise into the air, the keepers to their goal posts, with the chasers waiting to snag the quaffle when thrown.
"And there goes the quaffle, with Johnson grabbing the quaffle, making her way towards the Slytherin goals, she throws, and Bletcheley saves the goal."
The match continues, but with Slytherin unable to block too many goals.
"And Gryffindor scores again, 220 to 40. A clear victor—wait what's happening to Potter?!" exclaims Lee.
High in the air, Harry's broom attempts to buck him off, but is failing.
"Harry!" shouts Fred being the nearest one of the team, flying as closely as he can.
"Fred, or is it George?" replies Harry.
"It's Fred. I'm going to try to get close to your broom and get you on my broom instead."
"No, just keep the bludgers away from me and I'll be fine." states Harry, holding securely onto the broom.
"What are you thinking? You'll be killed if you stay."
"You might be surprised."
Wood, spotting Harry, flies to Madam Hooch and exclaims, "We need to pause the match while Harry gets his broom under control!"
"According to the rules, he is still flying on his own power, therefore there is no reason to halt the match." Replies Madam Hooch.
"But—"
"No buts, Wood. Now get back in the air!"
Wood begrudgingly clambers back onto his broom and takes flight. In the stands, Hermione, Ron, and Neville are looking through binoculars when Lee's announcement about Harry's broom is heard.
"Neville" begins Hermione hesitantly, "this isn't normal, right?"
Shaking his head, Neville says, "No, this isn't normal, but Harry should be fine. He's handled worse."
"Worse?!" exclaims Hermione.
"Well, he has the testing version of some Quidditch gear on, which has a cushioning charm and a couple of other spells to protect him, so I doubt he'll suffer more than a headache and some bruised ribs."
"But, he showed us in the Hospital Wing, and his armor had multiple cracks in it."
Smiling, Neville replies, "Correct, and it still does, but it is still intact enough to protect him", before his expression changes to one of concern, "but we do need to find out who or what is modifying the broom's actions. It's a fairly new broom."
The trio look through their binoculars through the stands and to the sky, looking to see if they could spot the culprit.
Hermione whispers, "Look at Professor Snape, he isn't breaking eye contact with Harry and his lips are moving continuously. But what and why is he doing?"
"If he is doing that, then we need to stop him from that, without causing too much trouble."
"But how do we do that?" asks Ron, joining in the conversation.
Neville smirks, puts a hand into his robes, and pulls out a couple of small tube-like objects with a string out of the back.
"We're going to use fire crackers?" queries Hermione.
"These aren't your typical fire crackers, but some magical ones that start duplicating once the wick goes inside the tube. Sirius stated that each tube will also transfigure into an animal or something as well."
"Those sound awesome!" exclaims Ron.
"Well, they are still in the testing phase, so I don't know if they will actually work or not, but it should do something to distract Professor Snape."
"Let's go then." says Hermione.
"I'll add an extra long wick on each, so we can get back over here and see the effects without being caught. Let's go."
Arriving at the stand where Snape is, Neville hands a single tube to Hermione and Ron, before lighting his with a match and then lighting the others. They quietly place the tubes near Snape's feet, before making a quiet but quick retreat to where they were sitting before. Sitting down, they notice Harry still on his bucking broomstick, with Lee's voice announcing in a sad tone, "…and Slytherin score again, 170 Slytherin, 220 for Gryffindor."
Suddenly a trumpeting sound reverberates through the pitch, followed by a smokescreen and the sound of explosions, and everyone in the stadium goes quiet.
I hope that Sirius didn't give me something more dangerous goes the thought through Neville's mind. As soon as that happens, multiple high pitched squeals are heard, and the word, MICE is heard from the stands where the tubes were placed. Harry's broom stops bucking, but alas it is too late. Losing his grip, Harry falls from his broom, arms spread out, falling, all spectators watching him on baited breath, waiting to see the outcome. Landing, Harry's back hits the ground first, causing an explosion, leaving a two foot crater. Seconds tick by slowly when out of the crater comes Harry's fist, with golden wings out from the sides. Seeing this, the spectators rooting on Gryffindor cheer, with Lee announcing, "AND POTTER GOT THE SNITCH!"
Sitting up and then getting out of the hole, the entire Gryffindor team surrounds Harry, cheering when a voice calls out, "Harry, over here."
Looking to the location of the voice, Harry spots Sirius and Remus standing, smiling. Breaking away from the rest of the team, Harry comes to rest in front of the duo.
"Congratulations, Pronglet." says Sirius.
"You were just like your father up there; a natural flier." comes Remus.
"Thanks" returns Harry, smiling widely.
Digging into a robe pocket, Sirius pulls out a shrunken trunk and hands it to Harry, "Harry, this has a couple new sets of test gear for you and Neville to use", before turning serious and continuing, "Alice and Frank think Neville should be wearing a chest plate as well, after hearing about the troll and the, erm, duel you and Mr. Malfoy had."
Remus opens his mouth to talk when spotting the horde of mice running away from the stadium causes him to narrow his eyes and say accusingly, "Sirius, you didn't make the 'Double Trouble Tubes'…did you?"
Throwing his hands into the air, Sirius grins ruefully, "You caught me, Moony. Yes, I did, as an experiment, and then placed some into the trunks of Neville, and of course our wonderful Harry here."
Remus hangs his head, then says exasperatedly, "You seemed so mature asking out Director Bones on a dinner date, but this, this places you back in Hogwarts mentally."
"But you have to admit, the explosions were a nice touch. Distracts the target—"
"And deafens them too!" exclaims Remus.
Turning back to face Harry, Remus speaks, "Anyways, we are here to drop off the test Quidditch gear that Professor McGonagall asked for, so we shall be seeing you. Also, Harry, we will still need to talk about the duel and the consequences", before striding towards the castle.
Entering the locker room, Harry's eardrums are quickly overwhelmed, before shouting, "ENOUGH! Let's tone it down a bit, my ears are ringing."
"Yes, let's tone it down. Now, Potter, that was a spectacular save, but don't be trying that again, as I doubt you'll be that lucky. But good job though, holding out on that broom. We've retrieved it for you."
Taking a hold of the broom, Harry smiles and says, "Thanks."
/*later that evening after everyone has eaten*/
"Now that you all have eaten, Professor McGonagall has announcement she'd like to make to everyone." announces Dumbledore.
Standing up, Professor McGonagall announces, "Today we all saw Mr. Potter make a catch that was death defying, and suffered nothing more than a bruise or two. It is because he had been testing out some Quidditch gear, and by a majority vote, the staff contacted the makers, Marauders Emporium, and requested that each house has a set for each players, as if weren't for his gear, Mr. Potter may have died. So, captains, please see me after regarding your team's set. Before you object, Madam Hooch had inspected the gear and decided that it was within the rules for Mr. Potter to use. The explosion causing the crater was due to the charms and runes on the armor to intermingle unexpectedly, but as long as your gear does not crack enough to break the runes, you won't have an explosion occurring to you. Thank you."
As the Great Hall empties of students, the Quidditch captains line up in front of Professor McGonagall to get their respective team's gear.
Author note: (*) indicates a direct quote from the Sorcerer's Stone. I find the wording to be much better than what I would have written, but with this in mind, know that I will be trying hard to stay away from quotes from the books, for personal reasons.
For anyone interested in why I didn't write in Lee announcing the individual members of the Slytherin team, I only found a few members, and instead of announcing just four members and skipping over a few, I thought it best to skip over them completely. I understand any flack that you all give me regarding this decision.
I was beginning to feel that the action was slowing down, so I threw in a couple of explosive moments to liven things up with.
Katiek121 – Thanks for liking the duel scene. As she mentioned, "…but in the second part Ron seemed surprised Harry made it on the Quidditch team, even though Harry mentioned it to him in the first part…" and here is why that happened [and I'll see what I can do to fix it] is that I wrote the first half of the chapter [right before the "at dinner that evening" and where Malfoy asks Harry about his punishment] and then I decided that the chapter would seem boring, so I decided to add the duel scene, which was originally scheduled for chapter twelve, and moved it to chapter eleven to make the chapter more interesting.