A/N: I just wanted to say, as a good friend of mine asked about it, that nothing in the story is a dream. It's all real, no matter how I might suddenly switch to another moment in time. The switches, for example this jump of about six weeks, are supposed to be as though the scene of a film is changing with some fancy fading in/out. I don't know if you want to picture it that way, but you can add any other screen effects you might want :) Add some background music too, if you wish!

"Oi! Harry, stop daydreaming!" Harry shook himself to see Ron staring at him. Ron shook his head. "Totally out of it, you were. Now wake up. Post's about to arrive." Harry looked up at the small opening in the rafters where the owls would fly in. It was partially obscured by a large cloud scudding across the enchanted ceiling.

It looked like today was going to be a good day, and the rest of the week looked good, so Harry had booked the Quidditch pitch for that evening and most of Saturday. It was almost two weeks until the first match of the season in early November and the conversations in the Great Hall and common rooms were beginning to turn towards the upcoming match. Harry was relieved that he was still allowed to play for Gryffindor.

The tryouts had been interesting, to say the least. There were now two captains of the team, and so neither of their positions were guaranteed. Harry was more nervous about this than Ginny, as he had never had to try out. Unfortunately, the Seeker tryouts were last on the agenda. Ginny's tryout, however, came first, as there was always a large number of people trying out for Chaser positions.

As the best two people to try out for the Keeper, both Ron and Cormac McLaggen were enlisted to help select the Chasers. Harry had made the tryout so that there were six teams of Chasers on the pitch at once, firing at both sets of hoops. This was designed to test their aim in shooting at the goal, as well as their agility and speed in dodging everyone else. Almost twenty seconds in, Ginny had scored her first goal, and was nicely assisted by Demelza Robins, who had a chance to score just a minute later, and did so with quite some style.

McLaggen was furious when he let in that second goal and was kicking the central hoop ferociously. Meanwhile, Ron saved a goal, and then another shot from the rebound, to massive cheers. Everybody in the group who were hoping to try for the Keeper position groaned and made their way into the stands, giving up entirely on that spot. Harry decided to let the Bludgers out, and they rocketed around, trying to knock people off their brooms. Every Chaser needed to know how to dodge a Bludger.

Suddenly, there was another cheer as a third goal was put past McLaggen. It seemed that Dean Thomas had, completely on his own, caught the Quaffle, flown through an excellent defence by an opposing team of Chasers, dodged both Bludgers and scored from just inside the scoring zone. Harry blew his whistle and everybody flying touched down around him.

"That was very good from everyone. I'll post up the results of the Chaser tryouts tomorrow, on the noticeboards. As we have nobody else trying for Keeper, I'll put those up, too." Everybody except Ginny and McLaggen retreated to the stands.

"Who got the Keeper spot then?" asked McLaggen.

"I said I'd post the results up tomorrow," replied Harry shortly. "Until then, you can join everyone else in the stands." McLaggen stumped away, thoroughly irked once again. Harry turned to Ginny. "Do you want to do the Beaters?"

"Ok then," she agreed. She then twirled her wand at a nearby target, which flew up into the air and around the pitch. "Everybody wanting to be a Beater should get into a total of four equal-sized groups. The first few to hit the target with a Bludger will proceed to the final round of selection in much the same format. Places will be announced tomorrow." Ginny's magically amplified voice rang out across the stadium, ensuring that the tryouts continued smoothly, meaning it was barely a quarter of an hour until the Seeker tryouts. Harry steeled himself for the challenge, which was a simple one: catch the Snitch before any of the others. With more than one Seeker flying around, the Snitch would be caught quickly, but the question was by whom.

The Snitch was released. Harry tried to follow it with his eyes from the ground, but it soon disappeared. Then the whistle blew. Harry kicked off, heading for where he had last seen it. A group of three people followed close behind him, so he dived down as though he had seen the Snitch. They followed, of course. In the end, two of the three of them rolled off their brooms onto the pitch below. Harry looped up and round behind the third person, spooking them into veering out of the stadium, giving him time to look for the Snitch.

A Bludger whizzed past Harry as he scanned the pitch, looking at the two others flying around the edge in order to look for the elusive golden ball. Suddenly, all three of them spotted the golden glimmer halfway along the pitch. Harry was easily closest, and as he grasped the old, slightly worn Snitch, he let out a huge sigh of relief. He had never before had to compete for his livelihood.

"Never again," he breathed.

"Never again what?" asked Ron. Harry began to answer, but was interrupted by his ginger friend. "Oh, good. The post's here!" The clouds on the ceiling of the Great Hall were blocked out by a large cloud of brown, white and grey as the mass of owls pured into the Great Hall and began to look for their owners. As each of them were spotted, part of the cloud broke away to swoop over them and deposit either a letter, a parcel or a newspaper. A handful of owls began to fly over to the four friends.

Hermione still had a subscription to the Daily Prophet, and so paid an owl a Knut for the pleasure of its delivery, and a letter addressed in purple. Harry received three letters, one of which looked remarkably similar to Hermione's. Ron, however, received only one letter, as did Ginny.

"Hey, look!" he exclaimed. "We've all got the same letter from someone. Do we know anyone who uses purple ink?" The others shook their heads and proceeded to open the letters. The first thing they noticed was the logo heading the letter, indicating that they were from the Daily Prophet. Harry, Ron and Hermione immediately dropped the letters without giving them a second look. Ginny, however, dutifully read hers.

Dear Miss Weasley,

We at the Daily Prophet are interested in writing an article about the events of last year from the perspective of those directly involved with it. We would appreciate it if you could spare the time for a short interview giving your own account of what happened at Hogwarts, as well as of events outside the castle. Please send your reply as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance,

Isobel Greengrass

"What does she mean by 'events outside the castle'? We never left the castle, not even for Hogsmeade."

"I think she wants to question you about our search for the... you know..." said Ron through a mouthful of cornflakes, milk dribbling down his chin. They had all sworn not to mention the Horcruxes in front of anyone else. Hermione looked at Ron, disgusted.

"You're so charming, Ronald," she said scathingly. He swallowed his breakfast before wiping his face and replying.

"Anything interesting in the paper today?" he asked in mock politeness.

"Yes," confirmed Hermione. "Apparently we were out searching for dragons last year. And..." She flicked through a few more pages. "...we were also raiding everybody's vaults in Gringotts to find out who the Death Eaters were."

"Close enough," grinned Ron. "What's in your letters, Harry?"

"One's from Xeno Lovegood." Ron and Hermione's faces dropped into scowls. "He apologises for everything and asks politely if we might also give him the opportunity to interview us again. You know what? I'm inclined to accept, to give our own side of the story again. Not to some rag like the Prophet. Anyway, the second letter's from Ollivander."

"What does he say?" asked Hermione, excited. "Is the wand ready?"

"Yeah. He wants to know whether we can come down to London for the testing this weekend."

"What, and leave Hogwarts? We aren't allowed to do that!"

"I think we technically are," said Ginny. "I mean, we are Professors. The other Professors are going out all the time." Hermione nodded and smiled.

"Tell him we'll go," said Hermione.

"Ok, but I'll have to tell him we can only do Sunday. Ron, Ginny and I have all got Quidditch practice." Hermione tutted and rolled her eyes while Harry wrote a quick reply to both letters. Unfortunately, the owls that had delivered the letters had flown back, so Harry had to go up to the owlery to borrow one of the school owls at breaktime.

That Sunday, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny walked into the sixth floor classroom and each took a pinch of Floo powder. Harry pulled the hidden iron lever and they flooed into Diagon Alley, stepping out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. They muttered a quick thanks to Tom, the barman, and gave him a Sickle as payment for the use of his fireplace before leaving through the back entrance.

Harry was reminded of the first time he came here as the hole appeared in the brick wall in the back alley to reveal the archway into Diagon Alley. It was again different from last year. There were fewer stalls by the roadside selling no doubt phoney magical protection and other useful items. A few of the previously boarded-up shops had been reopened, a few by different people. Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, for example, was now run by Geoffrey Flume, brother to the proprietor of Honeydukes.

Ollivander's shop was back in business, too, but hadn't changed a bit from when Harry had first seen it. He led the way into the musty shop, the familiar faraway tinkling reaching their ears as he opened the door. The main area of the shop had been cleared of its usual clutter and sheets covered the shelves around the walls. From the back rooms of the shop, Mr. Ollivander approached his new potential customers. Seeing who it was, however, he broke out into a broad grin.

"Ah, Harry, Hermione, Ronald and Ginevra. Welcome, welcome! We'll begin testing the wand momentarily. I do want to thank you for the idea of silver. It seems to make a good wand. That is, as far as we can see without actually testing it. Let me fetch my assistant." Ollivander disappeared for a moment, returning with a goblin in tow, who was holding a fantastically designed silver wand.

"This is Gortuk," said Ollivander, indicating the goblin. "He's 'on loan', so to speak, from Gringotts in order to help me make and test the first wands. Seeing as these wands will be for goblins, I thought 'who better to test them than a goblin?'. Gortuk, if you could stand in the middle of the testing area please. Ladies and gentlemen, if you could join me behind the counter, thank you."

They gathered behind the counter and Ollivander put up a shield, just in case. Gortuk, knowing what to do as he had tested the original wooden prototypes, stood in the centre of the cleared space, facing the five people behind the counter. He raised the wand with a trembling hand, then brought it sweeping down in a fountain of sparks. The sparks were brighter than usual, and singed the floor and walls where they hit.

A few of the sparks touched the sheets covering the shelves of wands, and the sheets easily caught fire. Flames began to spread quickly up the sheets while Ollivander took the shield down. By the time he got to the shelves, there were more sparks flying around as wands began to catch fire in their boxes.

"Aguamenti!" they all cried in unison. They doused the entire wall with wide sprays from their wands and the fire was put out in a hiss of steam. Luckily, only a dozen wands were charred, and the rest had escaped any damage. Gortuk, however, was staring at where the fire had been, his mouth open in a very un-goblinlike manner. Ollivander took the dazed goblin into the back of the shop and the others followed.

"Well, I think that went well," said Ollivander unusually brightly.

"How can you say that?" asked Hermione. "It almost burned the entire shop down."

"Ah, it's just a little too powerful, that's all. I think Gortuk's a bit exhausted after that. Powerful magic really takes it out of you at first, especially if it's so uncontrolled. I'll just alter the design slightly and it'll be perfect." Ollivander was practically bouncing with excitement at the first breakthrough in wandlore for centuries. "Thank you so much for everything."