A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I wanted to reply to RIP FRED I, who made me think a lot. As to george not being on the team, I felt it would have too many memories of Fred. However, I admit I did forget about Aberforth, but definitely not about Professor Bell - love her to bits! And Grimmauld Place? We'll have to see... Enjoy the match, everyone!
"Come on, you have to eat something. Usually it's Ron who gets the first-match jitters." Harry was trying to persuade Demelza to eat before the match. Playing on an empty stomach wouldn't win them the match. Reluctantly, Demelza ate some eggs and nibbled a slice of toast. Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote, who had made it back on the team as beaters, were blocking McLaggen's way, preventing him from asking, yet again, why Harry hadn't chosen him for the team.
"Good luck today, everybody. Minerva, I mean Professor McGonagall, has told me how good it is to hold the trophy in your office. I want to see it staying with us." Harry turned to find Professor Bell with her usual grin and wicked glint in her golden brown eyes.
"It's a dead cert," called Peakes from where he was restraining McLaggen. Coote rapped McLaggen on the head with his Beater's bat, causing him to push past Peakes and begin to give chase. Coote ran past Professor Bell, who held out her arm to stop McLaggen.
"Save your energy for the match, boys," she said calmly.
"But I'm not in the match, Professor," moaned McLaggen. "Potter's always choosing his friends for the team."
"Well I'm sure you'll want to put that energy into cheering for the team then." McLaggen sat back in his seat, saying nothing but wearing a dark scowl on his face. Fifteen minutes before the match was due to start, Harry and Ginny gathered everyone in the changing rooms. They all got changed into their Quidditch robes in silence before Ginny and Harry came out of the Captain's plotting chamber, as Ron so cheerfully referred to it.
"Hogwarts has changed. Everybody's lives have changed. The world has changed. But there's one thing we must not change."
"Quidditch," said Harry simply. "We have to win this year. We're all friends here. We all get along, we all know each other's situations, and we therefore have the greatest teamwork of any team here. Let's not spoil that. Let's go out and win." A fanfare blared outside at that point, and they all grabbed their brooms, their faces set.
They heard Luna announce the Ravenclaws as they stood by the doors, waiting to emerge onto the pitch. It seemed that everybody had been sufficiently amused by her previous commentaries to let her back. Harry grinned as he heard her remark that she had cured the Ravenclaws of a bad case of Wrackspurts the night before.
"And now we have the team who has been drawn to play Ravenclaw. It's Gryffindor, who've been the better team for the past seven years, but have only won three times. The team must be under the influence of a Blibbering Humdinger, probably living in the Gryffindor common room. Affected this year are:
"Beaters Peakes and Coote! Keeper Weasley! Chasers Robins and Thomas! And the joint captains, Weasley and Potter! They're an item now, so I wish the luck of the Gernumblies to them. Madam Johnson bring the balls to the pitch and is about to start the match."
All fourteen players stood in a circle around Angelina as she released the Snitch, then the Bludgers, from the crate. She took the Quaffle in her hands, put her whistle in her mouth and tensed. As quickly as possible, she threw the Quaffle up and blew the whistle. Both teams kicked off hard from the ground, which squelched slightly with the morning dew. Angelina Banished the crate to the referee's changing room and kicked off as well, settling into a position where she could see clearly and make swift judgements on any fouls. A bell rung out as Demelza threw the Quaffle into the Ravenclaw goal, putting Gryffindor into an early ten-point lead.
The lead was maintained and increased in terrific style as Ginny, Demelza and Dean worked extremely well with each other, allowing the Ravenclaws only a few shots at goal while they made their Keeper work for his place in the team. Both Ron and the Ravenclaw Keeper made an equal number of saves, so by the time the match had been underway for twenty minutes, Gryffindor were ninety points up.
As the Chasers extended the Lions' lead to three figures, Harry spotted the telltale glint of gold that was the Snitch. The Ravenclaw Keeper was nowhere near it and looking the other way, so Harry flew with less of his usual urgency to where it was hovering. It flew further towards the stands and Harry gave chase. The crowd ducked as Harry hurtled towards them, eventually catching the Snitch just inches above their heads.
As the cheers erupted around him, Harry raised his fist in triumph. He turned, only to see Cormac McLaggen, the only person on the Gryffindor side not cheering, with that same scowl. Harry immediately flew away, landing in the middle of the pitch, where Ginny and the rest of the team joined him.
"Oh, is it over?" Luna's voice echoed across the pitch. "It seems Harry's caught the Snitch and won the game by two hundred and fifty points. Maybe they've got rid of the Blibbering Humdinger. Well done, Gryffindor." Even though she was a Ravenclaw, she took no sides in the commentating of the match. She was one of the most impartial commentators they had ever had, and McGonagall was thankful for that. No longer did she have to enforce impartiality.
"Party in the common room!" shouted Ron in the changing room.
"Which one?" asked Coote. Ron looked blank. As realisation suddenly dawned, you could see the change on Ron's face.
"Ohhhh," he said. "I can see why this might be a problem." He got into an amusing thinking pose. "Maybe we should ask Professor Bell if we can hold it in the Gryffindor common room. We are the Gryffindor team, after all." Hermione, who had been listening at the entrance to the changing room, squealed and barrelled into Ron for a hug.
"That was fantastic decision-making, Ron!" she said in a muffled voice.
"Always the tone of surprise," remarked Ron to gales of laughter from Harry, Dean and Ginny. She extracted her face from Ron's shoulder, looked at them and stuck out her tongue.
The entire Gryffindor Quidditch team, plus Hermione, made their way into the castle as an imposing horde, all chattering with the excitement and adrenaline of the match they had just won. They climbed the marble staircase and turned left, heading for McGonagall's old office. They carved a swathe of slightly damp footprints through the castle until they reached the simple oak door that represented the threshold to the office now occupied by Professor Bell. Everybody fell silent as Harry knocked on the door.
"Come in," came her voice from inside. Harry and Ginny stepped into the office and the rest of the crowd waited outside, looking through the door in order to hear the news.
The office had changed from when Harry had last been inside, though this was hardly surprising. Gone were the tartan decorations and biscuit tin. Gone was the sense of rigid order and severity. Instead, the room was a splash of bright colour in an otherwise dusty, traditional castle. Muggle posters adorned the walls, beanbags could be found in the corners of the room and her desk supported a number of silver picture frames. The colour in the vivid display that really caught Harry's eye, however, was green, although she was clearly the head of Gryffindor due to the large Gryffindor crest behind her desk.
"And how may I help my winning team?" she asked as she looked up from a Muggle typewriter she was using.
"I was wondering," said Harry slowly, "whether we could hold the usual celebration party in the Gryffindor common room."
"And you wanted to know whether you were allowed in? Of course you can hold the party up there! May I join in?" Harry looked back towards the door. Dean and Ron were shaking their heads, but Demelza, Jimmy Peakes, Ritchie Coote and Hermione were all nodding.
"Of course you can! It's your team too!" The eight of them, accompanied by Professor Bell, walked along to the wide, sweeping staircase that led all the way up to the seventh floor.
"Last one there's a Horklump!" shouted Professor Bell, grinning, and with that she rocketed up the stairs. She took them three at a time, except when larger steps came up, and nobody could outpace her. When they eventually saw her again, she was leaning against the wall by the portrait of the Fat Lady, panting heavily. "Oh, I'm not as young as I used to be," she said. "Horklump."
The Fat Lady swung open to admit them all into the Gryffindor common room. Cheers erupted from inside, and Professor Bell clambered through the small hole. Instead of the cheers growing quieter due the presence of a teacher, they grew louder, as though the Gryffindors were cheering the fact that she had joined the party. As the team entered the common room, they could see that Professor Bell was dancing in the middle of the floor, starting a growing trend.
"She's an amazing head of house," said Peakes, running over to join the dance craze.
"Yeah, she's like one of us," said Coote, doing the same. Music was playing from a fifth year's wand, and it soon began to play the Macarena. Surprisingly, the Gryffindors all lined up and faced the same way, with Professor Bell at the very centre. Ginny, Dean, Harry, Ron and Hermione watched from near the entrance. As they began to dance to the Macarena, Harry's jaw dropped.
"How do they all know the Macarena?" he asked, utterly bewildered.
"More importantly," interrupted Ron, "what is a Macarena?"
"The Macarena," explained Hermione, "is the dance that they're all doing now. It's a Muggle dance. As to how they all know it, I'd hazard a guess that, because she's the Muggle Studies Professor, Professor Bell has taught it to them all, possibly at a previous party."
"They've had parties without us? Merlin's beard, I wish I was younger. Hey, where's Ginny gone?" As Ron looked around for her, Harry spotted her. She had joined in with the dancing at the edge of the crowd, where Peakes and Coote were trying to teach her. By the fourth iteration of the dance, she had almost completely got it and she was joined by the other eighth years. Eventually, the Macarena finished and the rows of dancers disbanded, only a few people staying on the dance to the next tune.
Professor Bell strode purposefully to the corner of the room and said something. The music was too loud for Harry to hear what she had said, but the next moment a house-elf had appeared, wearing a Hogwarts sash and a smile on his face. She spoke to him for a few moments before he nodded and disappeared again.
"Tables out!" she called loudly. Two dancing sixth years snapped to attention, saluting her, then drew their wands and pointed them at the wall. As they twirled their wands and muttered an incantation, tables emerged from the wall, each covered in a red and gold tablecloth. Almost immediately, plates and bowls appeared on the tables, laden with food. It was an even more impressive display than Fred and George had ever put on.
"Out of the way!" yelled Ron as he barrelled through to the tables. Picking up a plate, he loaded it with cocktail sausages, crisps, Honeydukes chocolate, pumpkin pasties and a chocolate frog.
"Ron!" scolded Hermione when she joined him. "That's not healthy." Ron grinned at her and turned back to the food. He grabbed a single leaf of lettuce and placed it on top of his food mountain. This earned him a smack on the arm.
The party was amazing, and when it eventually wound down, Professor Bell put the tables away and bid everyone goodnight. Nobody complained about having to go to bed as they were all so tired. Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Dean trudged back to the eighth year common room, yawning every step of the way.
"That was the best party I've ever been to," said Ginny, "and now I'm completely zonked." She stifled a yawn. Harry looked at his watch, frowned, and concentrated on it again.
"But it's only eight o'clock," he said. "We've never finished a party this early."
"Well, I think she did a good job. McGonagall could never have got us to finish this early."