Reviews are much appreciated! :)
Chapter 4 - Quidditch
Saturday morning dawned bright and early. The first week of Hogwarts had passed relatively quickly according to Harry, now that he was able to focus on his studies. Harry noticed that he had been seeing less and less of Hermione and Ron recently, partly because Harry wasn't in many of their lessons, so their free periods no longer matched, but also because they kept wanting to spend quality time together: without Harry. This meant that he had a lot more time to do homework, and unfortunately more time to think about Malfoy. Their Potions classes together so far had passed without an accident, sometimes, they even managed a small conversation before one of them, usually Harry ruined it and made a rude or sarcastic remark, which was rewarded with silence. Now as he got ready for his Quidditch trials, all of these thoughts vanished as he started to think about having to see Ginny again. The last time they bumped into each other, it didn't go well, so Harry hoped they could be civil towards one another.
A crash from the bed next to Harry awoke him from his thoughts. Ron had awoken.
"Hurry up Ron, trials are in an hour and you haven't had breakfast yet! I'll meet you in the great hall." Harry yelled as he walked to the door.
The reply he heard as he left sounded like "Bleurgghh" which made Harry chuckle as he made his way towards the great hall.
Saying hi to Hermione as he sat down, he dove into the massive bowls of food, scooping up scrambled eggs, and several pieces of toast. When he had finished, he turned to Hermione, "Are you coming to watch the trials then?"
"Yes, I had planned to, I want to cheer Ron on." Hermione answered.
"And hopefully there will be no confundus charms today…" Harry said with a sly grin as he downed his pumpkin juice. He got the reaction he wanted: Hermione's face turned bright red as she recalled the last trials she went to, when she used the confundus charm on Cormac McLaggen so Ron would become keeper.
"That, was a one off, and is not to be repeated to Ron, do you understand?" she Huffed.
Harry laughed some more, and then spotted Ron coming into the hall.
"Hey, Ron how are you feeling?" Hermione asked.
Ron looked up, a pale almost queasy expression on his face. "I don't think I can do it Harry!" He sat down slowly and banged his head on the table.
"Ron Weasly, how many times do we have to say this. You are the best keeper we have! I'm not going to let a couple of nerves stop you from doing something you love. You helped end the great war for gods sake! If you can do that then you can make it through this stupid trial." Then looking at Ron's face Harry added, "Now quit complaining and eat your breakfast we're walking down in ten minutes."
The authority in Harry's voice almost snapped Ron out of his daze, enough to make him eat some food at least. Once they were all ready they headed down to the Quidditch field, where Harry began to set up for the trials. Soon after they arrived, some of his old team turned up in their gear, along with some others that didn't make the team before. As well as this, the stands started filling up; Harry saw Hermione on the front row, a few Hufflepuff 3rd years behind her, and behind them… What was Malfoy doing at Gryffindors Quidditch trials? Not for the first time Harry wondered what he was up to. However, as more people showed up fro the trial, Harry had to snap out of his daze, so he put all thoughts of Malfoy to one side for the time being.
Turning back to the large group of people, Harry began to get their attention. "Okay guys, can I have everyones attention please? Could I ask everyone so split in to groups, Chasers to the left, beaters in the middle, and keepers to the right?"
Once Harry had got them organised he began to set up games; he had already planned to keep Ginny on as a chaser, as she was the best player in the team he had before, so before they got started he pulled her to one side. "Right, so you're going to be my second in command, okay? When your up in the air, keep an eye out for any good players and i'll talk through them with you at the end."
Ginny looked up at him with her big sad eyes, and a hint of anger, "Harry, you're not doing this to try and get me back are you? Because it's not going to work. I may as well be on the same level as everyone else."
For the second time this week Harry felt an invisible hand slap him round the face. In a clear, calm voice, Harry replied, "I'm asking you to do this because you were the best chaser we had in the last team, and I trust your judgement. Don't for a second think that i'm playing favourites to try and win you back. If you think I would do that then you obviously don't know me very well. So get up there and find me some good players." Without realising, Harry's voice had risen to a shout, so quite a few people were now looking at them. Great! As an after thought, Harry peered around to look at the stands, yep everyone was looking at him, including Hermione, and Malfoy. Kicking himself for being such an idiot he walked away leaving Ginny stunned.
"Okay everyone, I'm going to release the bludgers so be careful, can the first team please take their places in the air." As the first team rose up, the rest of the group moved to the side of the field to watch out of the way. Harry let the bludgers fly, then took out the large quaffle. "Okay, ready… GO!" Harry threw the quaffle into the air and flew up past the team to watch from above. He watched them play for a while but knew that none of them were good enough to make the team, so after a while his eyes began to wonder, across the stands, to where Malfoy sat watching the game… no, watching Harry. He flew a bit closer to see more clearly, but, yes, Malfoy was definitely watching him. Quick as lighting, at soon as he flew closer Malfoy whipped his head away and turned to look at the other players. Did Harry dream it? Everything happened so fast. Before he could contemplate further, he noticed Ginny a little way away signalling for Harry to end the game. So he blew the whistle, and everyone flew down to the ground. "Thank you for coming you guys, i'll let you know if you've been successful or not." With that, they left the field.
This carried on with two more groups until eventually it was Ron's turn. So Harry started the game by throwing the quaffle into the air, and they were off, Ginny took the quaffle, and passed it to a 5th year, who immediately had it snatched by Dean Thomas, who flew over to the goal posts and chucked it into the left hoop. It very nearly went in, when out of nowhere Ron burst up from under the hoop stopping the ball in its path. 'YES!' Thought Harry, 1 down 5 to go, slightly worried. Harry however, had no need to worry. Ron flew like he had never flown before, he didn't miss one goal, and some of them were spectacular saves. By the end of the trials Harry and Ginny, put together their thoughts and came up with a full team, including Ginny, Dean and a 6th year as the chasers, two 5th year boys for the beaters, and Ron as keeper, with Harry, maintaining his seeker position. Thanking everyone, he began to leave the field.
On his way back to the castle, Harry bumped into Malfoy exiting the stands.
"Oi Malfoy, why were you watching our trials?" What Harry really meant though, was 'why were you watching me?'
Malfoy was like a deer caught in some headlights. His eyes were wide and the two pink spots on his cheeks were back, but again, not for long, which made harry think it must have been a trick of the light. "Well, your competition aren't you? I wanted to know what your team was like. It's not a crime!" Malfoy stalked away before Harry had a chance to reply.
That actually made a lot of sense, though it didn't explain why he was watching Harry. He decided to forget about it, just as Ginny and Ron came up behind him.
"What was Malfoy doing watching our trials?" Ron asked in a disgusted voice.
"Wanted to scope out the competition apparently." Harry replied.
"Huh," Ron said, "Makes sense I guess, come on, I wanna go find Hermione before dinner.
When Harry got back to the common room, He pinned up his new Quidditch team on the notice board, then made his way down to the great hall for some food. As he sat down, Hermione looked around her before leaning in and whispering, "Harry, what is going on with you and Ginny, you know everyone heard you arguing at the trials." Harry had told Ron and Hermione that Ginny had ended things between them about a week after it happened. Ron went on a rampage, yelling at her, then ignored her for days. Whereas Hermione took a more delicate approach, trying to coax some information out of Ginny as to why she ended it, with no luck.
"She's changed. Ever since Fred's funeral, she's been more closed, won't let anyone in. I didn't mean to talk so loud, she just said some things that really annoyed me." Harry looked down at his plate. He had lost his appetite all of a sudden. Thinking about Ginny just made him sad.
Spotting Ginny entering the hall Hermione quickly whispered, "Well sort it out, you really don't want your personal life turned into gossip for the lower years." She leaned back just as Ginny sat down next the her.
"Whats going on guys?" Everyone looked down at their food, including Harry.
…
When Harry got back up to his room, he laid down on his bed. Ron came up shortly after.
"I'm really sorry about Ginny mate" Ron said as he sat on his bed.
"Yea, me too." The pain of losing Ginny was getting smaller and smaller, which made it easier to be around her.
"I seriously thought you guys were the real deal, Hermione too. I caught her looking up brides maids dresses once. I'm hoping it was intended for your wedding." Harry could see Ron pale significantly.
Harry laughed, "Don't worry Ron, you still have a long way to go with Hermione. I on the other hand need to move forward, and focus on other things, like how well you did today! Good job mate!"
Ron looking chuffed got into bed. "I remembered what you said about the great battle. I thought to myself, if I can defeat some of the worst wizards of all time, then I can sure as hell play some good Quidditch."
Smiling, Harry, laid down in his own bed. "I'm glad it worked out for you, now keep those thoughts and use them for our first match against Slytherin, okay?"
"Right" Ron mumbled before beginning to snore softly.
Harry lay there for a while thinking about the day that he'd had. Just as he was about to doze off, a thought occurred to him.
'Malfoy doesn't even play Quidditch any more!' Harry thought, 'So why the hell was he scoping out someone else competition?' This thought caused Harry to have a very fitful nights sleep, but when he awoke in the morning, all thoughts of Malfoy, had disappeared.
