Chapter 5: Suspicions and Quidditch Tryouts
Damn Rita Skeeter! Her lies, she herself, both were loathsome Harry noted as he looked over her new article in the Daily Prophet. He and Ginny had just gotten up to eat breakfast and were now in the kitchen of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place which was now their home. Kreacher happily poured steaming tea into Harry's cup and after receiving thanks from Harry, slipped away quietly to attend to other chores. Ever since Harry had been nice to Kreacher when he came back to this house with Ron and Hermione so many years ago the house elf gladly did whatever Harry told him to, and the house was much cleaner and a lot less creepy, grimy, dusted, and creature infested then it had been ever before. Heads of house elfs no longer lined the wall near the entrance, all the furniture was clean and comfortable, Mrs. Black's portrait had been miraculously removed (apparently destroying it with… forgive Harry… the Avada Kedavra curse had gotten rid of Mrs. Black once and for all) a picture of Albus Dumbledore hung in its place.
Harry slammed his cup of morning tea down hard when he began to read the article Rita Skeeter had written about Alexey Dashkov's murder.
Alexey Dashkov, prison worker at Azkaban was found dead on an unconfirmed day floating in a river. All evidence points to the fact that he was killed by the unforgivable Avada Kedavra curse. Evidence leads us to believe that it may have been a Death Eater still loyal to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, our probable suspect is Bellatrix Lestrange who managed to escape capture at the Battle of Hogwarts twenty two years ago where Molly Weasley nearly died dueling her…
Harry scowled, Molly did not nearly die! In fact she probably would have won against Bellatrix had they not all been distracted when Voldemort died; the little things like this that Rita Skeeter wrote annoyed him immensely. Ginny glanced at the paper and scowled angrily too.
"Absolutely horrible, that woman," said Ginny. "Can't stand her."
"Why did the Prophet let her write for them again?" Harry asked irritably. "You work there…"
"It was because of the biography on Dumbledore she wrote."
"That was a load of rubbish!" Harry snapped. "Just like this article, no… she interviewed Umbridge?"
Harry could not think of two worse people getting together for an interview, this ought to be good. He continued to read.
I requested to interview the Minister of Magic about this tragic death however he was unavailable for comment, I tried again to reach head of the Auror office Harry Potter who rudely turned me down…
Harry nearly choked on his toast. Rita Skeeter never even talked to him! Umbridge did, and looking back on it he was probably extremely rude to her… maybe Rita Skeeter had used that to get it into the paper.
So I turned to my last hope, Dolores Jane Umbridge, Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, she graciously sat down with me to comment.
"It is most likely nothing to worry about." Umbridge stated. "We believe that it was probably a rouge Death Eater like you suggested Ms. Skeeter."
I then asked where this information came from; Umbridge was gracious enough to confide that to me as well.
"I attempted to ask the Auror Head Harry Potter," says Umbridge. "However he rudely turned me down and was very short with me, he's been so ever since I taught him in his fifth year Defense Against the Dark Arts. Perhaps you might want to include that Ms. Skeeter? I hear you're writing a biography on Mr. Potter."
Indeed I will be writing a biography about Harry Potter, detailing his life from birth till present, all the mysteries, secrets, and lies will be revealed about Mr. Potter, detailing everything from his illegal entry to the Triwizard Tournament, to his miraculous defeat of You-Know-Who, which in fact was not as miraculous as it seemed, seeing as Potter cheated in both events, full details will be revealed for I, Rita Skeeter who know Harry Potter best, I've exclusively interviewed him at least twenty seven times, though not all of them got published mind you. Anyway back on to the murder investigation which has yielded little…
Harry could no longer read. Everything Rita Skeeter wrote was rubbish, and it had gotten worse over the years. Plus she was absolutely wrong about the murder, Bellatrix Lestrange had not been seen, or heard in years, and Harry knew so for himself since he was head of the Auror office. Had he been a regular wizarding civilian like everyone else he might have suspected her as well. But in all likeliness Bellatrix Lestrange was no longer in the country, so Harry's suspicions turned to the Malfoys. He seriously doubted they could have committed murder, though he was sure they had something do with it. Everything about them at the moment was completely fishy. They had not been seen in public for months, the only news people had was that they were all terribly ill, but it was just odd. And Draco's son Scorpious was not attending Hogwarts…. It was suspicious indeed.
"Harry, you look troubled." said Ginny. That was an understatement; he was way past the line of troubled now. "Don't listen to what Skeeter writes, everyone who works at the prophet knows it's complete rubbish, and I'm sure everyone at the Ministry knows Umbridge is not to be trusted, a good amount of their lot were in Hogwarts when she took over that year."
"It's not that." Harry replied distantly, his mind still on the Malfoys and their dark, eerie mansion. Were they really all in their beds now, sick with Dragon Pox or some other terrible disease? Or were they all sitting around their own copy of the Daily Prophet and reading Rita Skeeter's article like he had this morning? Were they laughing that no one had any leads beside Narcissa's sister Bellatrix? Did they know who really murdered Alexey Dashkov, were they involved?
"What is it then?" asked Ginny.
"I… I think the Malfoys might have something to do with it." said Harry unable to stop himself, he really had no evidence to base it on at all, it was just a hunch as Ginny was about to argue.
"Harry, there's no evidence that they're tied to it, Bellatrix may be Narcissa's sister but that doesn't mean anything, and just because they haven't been seen in public for a while doesn't mean they had something to do with murder."
"I know."
"And there's no physical evidence, or magical evidence, or even circumstantial evidence."
"I know!"
"And…"
"What?"
"And you're hunches are usually right." said Ginny. Harry half expected her to be joking, or else humoring him. But the look on her face was that of the utmost seriousness. "But we'll have to wait and see…."
Harry didn't like the idea, but before he could voice his opposition to it an ashy black owl zoomed out of the chimney and landed before Harry, nearly knocking his tea over. Harry noticed it had a letter tied to its leg, he quickly pulled it free and gave a bit of his toast to it, the owl then flew into the air and soared back out the chimney. Ginny watched as Harry unrolled the small piece of parchment and found that it was a letter from Al.
Dad,
School's been good so far except all the homework that McGonagall and Longbottom have given us. I met Professor Slughorn, in the first lesson I won a bottle of Felix Felicis for making a healing potion faster than anyone in the class, he said I inherited your talents. You didn't tell me you were good at potions, I thought DADA was your subject.
Anyway I'm going to try out for Quidditch, I want to be a seeker like you were, hopefully I'll do good and James will let me play. Did you notice Scorpious Malfoy hasn't come to Hogwarts this year? I reckon he must be sick. Well, hopefully I'll see you at my first Quidditch match then.
Albus
Harry smiled, he'd been so proud when James made the Quidditch team, and even more so when he had become Captain this year. If Albus made it as well, that might just make his day, and maybe sometime in the future Lily would eventually get on the team, his children all had Quidditch in their blood, Ginny was a chaser and a right good one too, and Harry had been the best seeker in Gryffindor since Charlie Weasley. However once these thoughts left his head his suspicions of the Malfoys returned to fill it. He handed Ginny the letter from Albus and told her he was going to head off to work, it would likely be a long busy day dealing with that murder case, and he was sure that if Umbridge decided to speak with him again the day would be longer still.
XxX
Albus was nervous for all sorts of reasons, and it did not help that James decided to hold the seeker tryouts last, nor that he would be using a school broom, a Nimbus Two Thousand model which may have been fast back in his father's days but it was very outdated now. He stood nervously in the Quidditch pitch as James tried out the Chasers first. Albus watched as they hit the quaffle around, some were clearly much more adept than others, and a select few looked as though they had never before ridden a broom. Many of them dropped like flies and left the Quidditch field in embarrassment, especially a mousy brown haired fifth year who made out as though he was an expert at Quidditch and there was no chance he would not be picked. He fell off his broom when he managed to catch the quaffle after seven failed attempts.
Beaters were tried next, in groups of four, two on two. The first group consisted of a fourth year girl, and a sixth year boy on one side, and the next was made up of two sixth year boys who did horribly, only one managed to hit a bludger, the other was hit in the shoulder by one. It turned out that the fourth year girl and sixth year boy made the best beaters. Albus thought they were likely to be chosen and James did compliment them well.
Next were the keepers, only two out of the entire lot managed to save more than three goals thrown by James, one was a fourth year boy who managed to save six out of seven shots, the other was a sixth year boy who saved the first five exquisitely and with great skill, but stumbled horribly on the sixth shot which fell bounced off the tip of his fingers and flew through the middle hoop, the last shot he completely missed. James did have his eye on most of whom he though were excellent, but he decided not to choose anyone that day, he made that announcement shortly before he told the seeker hopefuls to step out onto the field. By this time everyone who had tried out before hand sat in the stands, Albus could barely make out Hugo and Phil amongst the crowd.
James was trying out seekers in pairs; he released the snitch, sent two possible candidates up in the air, and got two beater candidates to hit bludgers at them, this way James could see how fast and nimble they were, whilst also testing how well they could find the snitch. Also, with this idea of training people got cut like flies because most of them were hit by bludgers whilst searching for the snitch, only one person managed (so he said) to catch sight of it, but he was hit in the arm with a bludger.
Now James called Albus to try out, against another boy, a fourth year named Colin Mucilage who was an exceptionally muscular muggle born. Albus thought he might have a chance, muggle borns didn't get to practice Quidditch skills during summer holidays….
The moment James blew the whistle, Al kicked up off the ground hard and found himself soaring around the Quidditch Pitch, no one yet had caught the snitch, he intended to be the first, it would surely secure him a spot on the team. He circled the pitch once before he noticed a bludger was zooming straight at his head, pushing down, he divided slightly to avoid it, only to have it arc back around a shoot like a bullet toward his arm. He barely dodged in time, pulling up, and over the black ball as it flew toward a beater who then hit it toward Mucilage.
For the better part of seven minutes this went on, and then Al noticed a glint of gold near the Slytherin stands, just a few feet under him, he dived steeply, the snitch was in sight, in his hot pursuit a bludger flew at him and missed only by luck, snapping off a few twigs of the broom, as he neared the flying gold that would secure his position on the team Mucilage flew up next to him, gloved hand outstretched to take the glory for himself, however one of the beaters smacked a bludger Albus's way, he ducked in the knick of time, the thing overshot him and hit his opponent square in the shoulder, knocking him right off of his broom so he fell several feet before hitting the ground. Once he landed Albus distinctly heard several of his father's most carefully picked swear words pour from his mouth. He laughed in triumph as he reached out for the snitch, he was so close to victory, so close and then…
A blinding pain shot up his leg and he unintentionally dived forward. Some bludger had doubled around and it had caught him right in the side of the shin, however, as he dived against his will his outstretched hand smacked something round and closed upon it. He had caught the snitch! Cheers erupted from the crowd, he was the only one out of the seeker hopefuls that managed to catch the snitch, and he was the last one! He landed lightly near his older brother.
"Well Al," said James. "you did good."
Pointing his want at his neck James muttered something and when he spoke next his voice was magically magnified.
"Alright, that's all for Quidditch tryouts, results will be posted at the end of the week, now off you go you useless lot! Haven't you got studying to do?!"
