Chapter 8: Eyes on the Snitch
"Hurry up! Hurry up! Or else you'll all be late! Fred! George! Stop using your wands for everything! Use your hands!"
It was Sunday morning and everyone in the Burrow was all up early, including Harry. It was time for them to return back to Hogwarts. Mrs. Weasley didn't allow them to sleep late last night for fear that they might miss the train. Harry wasn't bothered though; if in case he missed the its, he could always fly to Hogwarts using his Firebolt. But he didn't want to upset Mrs. Weasley so he followed her order and went straight to the room after dinner, leaving Hermione and Ron who seemed to be eating slower than usual. Harry knew they were doing it on purpose so they could still spend some time together before going to sleep.
"Harry dear, are you all done?" Mrs. Weasley asked Harry while fixing his coat.
"Yes Mrs. Weasley," Harry answered.
"And your books?"
"All packed," Harry smiled at her.
"Very good," patted his cheek. "Now I need to check on Ron." She went up the stairs leaving Harry alone in the living room.
Harry could hear the twins' laughter from outside the house but he wasn't quite in the mood to join the fun so he sat on the couch and decided to just wait for Ron to go down. After a while, he heard footsteps from upstairs followed by a sound like something's being dragged down. Harry turned to look at the direction of the sound and found Ginny dragging her trunk down the stairs. As soon as he saw her, Harry immediately stood up and helped her. For a moment, he thought Ginny would fight him off when he got hold of her trunk but she didn't; something that Harry was thankful for. When they reached the landing, an awkward silence enveloped them. They just stood there waiting for each other to speak.
"Thanks," Ginny finally muttered.
"No problem," Harry answered looking straight at her. Ginny was looking straight at him too but Harry couldn't read her expression. If she was still angry at him or had she forgiven him, he had no idea.
The twins entered the room talking loudly at each other and Harry and Ginny broke apart. He went back to sit on the couch while Ginny took her trunk outside. Harry felt something that's not familiar to him during the short time he and Ginny were alone, just looking at each other.
"Harry?" Hermione broke into his thoughts.
Harry looked up and saw Hermione's confused face.
"Yeah?"
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"I am. Why?"
"Nothing," Hermione answered. "But why were you smiling to yourself?"
Harry was caught off guard by Hermione's question. He unconsciously sat straight before he answered.
"Am I? I didn't notice."
Hermione stared at him. "Yes, you are. But never mind. C'mon. Ron said to just wait for him outside."
~ToH~
"Now you lot, better behave. We don't want another letter from the headmaster telling us of some stupid crime you committed," Mrs. Weasley was telling her kids but she seemed to be directing this to the twins.
"Don't worry, Mum. We won't do anything stupid… " Fred said, giving her mom a kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah," George agreed and he too, kissed his mom. "And if we do, we'll make sure it won't reach you."
Mrs. Weasley tried to grab the twins by their shirts but the two were fast enough to get inside the train and run.
"Oh that two! Anyway, you just watch them Ron, you're a prefect so give them some detention if in case they blow something up," Mrs. Weasley kissed his son and Hermione and Ginny.
She then turned to Harry and hugged him, "You take care, Harry dear. Alright?"
Harry nodded and smiled.
"Great. I will miss all of you. See you on Easter! Train's leaving. Off you go now," Mrs. Weasley said and the three of them hopped onto the train. They bade Mr. and Mrs. Weasley goodbye and went to look for an empty compartment.
"We need to patrol the area Ron, prefect duties," Hermione reminded Ron when he was about to sit in the compartment with Harry.
"Oh right, almost forgot. Where's Ginny?" Ron said.
"She went somewhere," Hermione answered. "Meeting some friends."
"Alright then. We'll come back later, mate," Ron said standing up.
"Oh sure. No problem. Enjoy your prefect duties," Harry teased Ron before he could close the door.
A moment after his best friends were gone, there was a soft knock on the door. Harry looked and saw Cho. He smiled upon seeing her.
"Hi!" Cho said cheerfully and kissed Harry on the cheek.
"Hi! How are you?" Harry said closing the door behind Cho.
"Good. And you? How was Christmas with Ron and Hermione?" Cho asked, still smiling.
"Oh, it was great. Brilliant actually," Harry answered.
"Mine too. My parents threw a big party for everyone. Had I known earlier, I would've invited you."
"Great. I would've loved that," Harry smiled at her and she smiled back.
"I missed you, Harry," Cho said and laid her head on Harry's shoulder.
At that moment, he saw Ginny passed by with a group of fourth years and wondered if she saw him toos. Still looking at the place where Ginny was earlier, Harry unconsciously answered:
"Yeah, me too. I miss you."
~ToH~
"Potter!"
Harry almost dropped his fork when Angelina called his name at the Great Hall. They were having their usual breakfast of eggs and toast before going to class.
"Has Fred and George told you and Ron?" Angelina asked as soon as she reached him.
"Told us about what?" It was Ron who asked her.
"We're playing off Slytherin for the next match," Angelina answered looking worried.
"Sytherin? I thought we're playing off Hufflepuff next," Harry asked, confused.
"That's what I thought too. Apparently, there's some confusion when they were sorting out who's playing off whom. Anyway, decision's final they say. We're playing them off in three weeks. We need to prepare really hard this time. We know how Slytherin works," Angelina said determinedly.
"Of course," Harry agreed. "So when do we start?"
"Tomorrow. I'll post the time on the notice board in the morning. I'll have to consult with everyone's schedule first," Angelina said and started heading off towards Fred and George.
"Tomorrow! But we just got back few days ago! Can't we have time to rest?" Ron said spitting some of his food. Hermione glared at him.
Angelina looked at him sternly. "You had plenty of that over the holidays, Weasley. It's time to get your ass off to work. How about this? We win this match and then I'll let you rest? Alright?"
Ron waited for Angelina to walk off before turning to Harry.
"I hate her when she's like that. What are we, soldiers!"
"She's captain, Ronald," Hermione reminded him. "You could always quit, you know."
"I don't want to quit! It's just that she's being too much sometimes. I think Wood's better," Ron said still looking annoyed.
"Wood's worse, I'm telling you. He will make us practice at dawn when all we want is to get more sleep. At least, Angelina's doing it in the afternoons," Harry told Ron, hoping this will cheer him up.
"Right. Now cut it Ronald," Hermione said. "By the way, Harry, have you talked to Dean?"
Harry looked up from his plate to Hermione, his eyebrows knitted together in thought.
"Dean. About what?"
"Oh nothing. Just finish your food. I'll go ahead. See you later at the common room," Hermione said and picked up her books.
"What is it Hermione?" Ron asked while holding Hermione's arm so she can't go.
"I said nothing. Finish your food Ron. I'll be late for Ancient Runes," She then turned to Harry. "I guess it's nothing important to you anyway so just forget about it."
"I hate it when she does that," Ron said as soon as Hermione left.
"Well, whatever that is, we'll find out soon enough. We always do. We know Hermione's not that good on keeping it all in," Harry said laughing.
"Right. And what could be something important that we need to hear from Dean? I bet that's just some stupid basketball matter again," Ron said while finishing his food.
They both laughed and headed to the class as soon as they finished eating.
~ToH~
Harry was running late for his Quidditch practice. He and Ron were made to do some writings by Snape as punishment for failing to submit an essay regarding grindylows. He wanted to curse Snape right then and there for always giving him detentions every time he needed to attend Quidditch practices.
"Faster, Ron! Angelina will kill us if we don't make it," Harry called to Ron, panting.
They arrived at the Quidditch pitch just in time when Angelina Johnson was calling her members to come out of the dressing room.
"Harry! Ron!"
He stopped in his tracks and looked over to the spectator's area. Neville and Hermione were waving at them; beside her was Luna and Ginny though she wasn't looking at him. He was surprised to see Dean and Seamus seated next to her. Those two never watched their practices before. Harry waved back at them.
"Oh good thing you two decided to show yourself," Angelina turned to them as soon as they joined the group huddled at the center of the pitch.
"Sorry, Snape gave us detentions," Harry said, half-apologetic.
"Well next time we have our practice, try not to annoy Snape to avoid detention. I'll let you two do that for all you want when we don't have to meet here. Places, everyone!" Angelina shouted to the group and everyone kicked off the ground and went to their positions.
Once above the pitch, Harry looked down to where he saw Hermione and the rest earlier. They looked quite a happy group down there; or at least Ginny, Dean and Seamus were. He didn't know that Ginny was close to the two. When he heard the whistle, he brought back his attention to the practice.
They played quite an easy game during the first one. He was able to catch the Snitch only a few minutes after it has been released which brought him applause from everyone.
"Nice one, Potter! But it's only because no one's chasing you and fighting you off for the Snitch. I'm sure you know how dirty Slytherins play," Angelina reminded him before blowing the whistle to get the others into position again.
"Yeah. Don't worry. I wouldn't let them win," Harry re-assured her.
Angelina smiled at him. "That's the spirit! Now, places!"
They played a couple of rounds more and every time Angelina would call for a time-out, Harry would look over to where his friends were seated and would feel somewhat annoyed to see Ginny laughing with Dean and Seamus. He found himself occasionally glancing to that area even when the game's on just to see what they were doing.
"PRRRRRRTTTTTTT"
That was the fourth time Angelina blew the whistle for this round. Harry thought it was his fault again for coming near a bludger and was ready to hear some shouting when Angelina flew to Katie Bell's direction. Harry took the opportunity to fly towards Ron.
"Hey Ron, since when did Ginny become close to Dean and Seamus?" Harry asked him as soon as he reached him.
"Dunno. Why?" Ron asked him, confused.
"Well, they're constantly laughing together for about an hour now," Harry said, annoyed. He looked over to them again and got annoyed even more.
Ron looked over to where he was looking. "They are, aren't they? Maybe she got close to them through Hermione. What's it to you, anyway?"
Harry quickly looked away. "Oh, nothing. Just curious. Never mind," Harry dismissed and went back to his place when he heard the whistle.
For the following rounds, Harry couldn't hide his annoyance anymore and resulted to him losing concentration on the game. He couldn't explain why he would feel annoyed at the sight of Dean talking and laughing with Ginny, though Hermione and Luna would sometimes join them. He totally lost all his attention on the Snitch when he was supposed to be catching it.
"POTTER, WATCH OUT!" Harry heard one of the twins calling to him.
Whether it was Fred or George, he didn't have time to find out. He saw a bludger coming his way and hit him in the chest.
Then it was all black.
A/N Hi guys, I really do appreciate it if you would take your time to leave comments. It inspires me to write and upload chapters faster. Though it's not really a requirement, (and I do allow silent readers here, haha!) it would really be nice to let me know what you think, how you liked the chapter etc. No matter how short it is, I would really really appreciate it :) Thank you!
