Disclaimer: Anything you recognize doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling but anything else, is mine.

Chapter 7: Quirrell and Snape

"Are you nervous about tomorrow?" Hermione asked concerned for her friend. He was fidgeting and couldn't seem to concentrate on his work; he hadn't turned the page in nearly ten minutes. Harry just shook his head but Hermione knew that he probably hadn't even heard her.

"Come on mate, it won't be too bad. The Slytherins don't stand a chance with you on the team." Ron tried to calm his friends' nerves; it didn't seem to work either. Harry ran an exhausted hand through his messy hair and sighed.

"I'm never going to finish this essay in time." Harry threw the still empty parchment on the floor and closed his book roughly. "I need to go talk to my brother, I'll be back later."

Harry took off out of the common room and realized only then that he had no idea where to find his brother. He was probably in his own common room in the dungeons. So instead he took the next left and headed down to the library, where he knew for sure that he would be able to find Dorinda.

"Dorinda have you seen Julian around anywhere?" Harry took a seat at the table, which was empty save his sister.

"No Harry I haven't but he was suppose to meet me here in ten minutes to help him finish up his Transfiguration essay." Dorinda didn't even bother to look up from her horribly long book. "Why is there something that you needed?"

"Just nervous about tomorrow's game that's all." Harry confessed Dorinda nodded understandingly. "Do you plan on coming?"

"Yes I do, despite having to finish this book; I want to see my brother play." Dorinda remarked turning the page. Harry smiled, he wanted his family there to support him and it made him feel less nervous about the whole ordeal.

"Hey there Harry!" Julian's loud voice and rough hand slapping his back, interrupted. Julian smiled over his shoulder at the tightlipped look Madam Pince sent his way. "Nervous?"

"A bit." Harry admitted, looking down at his hands.

"Don't worry brother, you'll do fine." Julian smiled broadly. "Not to mention, the Slytherins are horrible." Julian whispered, Harry smiled at the encouragement.

"Thanks Julian." Harry gave his brother a grateful smile, he was feeling better already.

"Aw how we all get along!" Dorinda smiled sincerely if not a little sarcastically. "Now let's get to work."

The month of November was turning out to be very cold, the lake was frozen like steel and the mountains were frosted with snow. Nobody noticed however, not today anyways, because today was the day of the highly anticipated match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Harry's training had for the most part been kept a secret, so hardly anyone had actually seen him play yet.

Harry learned that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them; that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.

"Blaise you have to admit, Slytherin doesn't stand a chance." Rose smiled at her friend. She had seen a few of her brother's practices; he was a genius on the broom. The same however couldn't be said about her, everything about being on a broomstick just felt so wrong.

"We'll see Rose." Blaise said stoned faced. They were headed to the match as they spoke and so was the rest of the school. It was cramped as everyone fought their way through to get to the pitch first so that they could get a good spot.

"Let's go over by Julian." Rose grabbed onto the taller boy's arm and led him through the crowd of Ravenclaws and over to the Slytherin section. She tended to stick to her family instead of staying with the Hufflepuffs, the Slytherins hadn't liked this at first but Potter was a respectable name in the Slytherin house and out of that respect, they just ignored her now.

"Morning Rose." Julian and Rose exchanged a quick hug while Blaise, Julian and Draco exchanged nods. "Harry looks nervous."

The Gryffindor team had just been announced and Harry came flying out. He scanned the crowd and finding his brother and sister he waved with a nervous smile. A moment later he seemed to find Dorinda as well and then Hermione and Ron, encouraging smiles were all exchanged and then the game began.

Fifteen brooms rose into the air, the two teams of seven and Madam Hooch. The two teams seem to be glaring at each other, Slytherin and Gryffindor definitely had the biggest house rivalries and today that was clearly being shown.

"I want a nice clean game." Madam Hooch's hawk eyes pierced through the teams. "From all of you."

The quaffle was thrown up and the Gryffindor chasers, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell raced forward and captured it before the Slytherin boys even had a chance. Chasers Adrian Pucey and Marcus Flint were on them quickly and they weren't going to play clean, both boys ran into the girls roughly.

"Foul!" The Gryffindor section yelled, Draco and Julian sniggered. Rose sent a disapproving look his way but Julian just smiled.

"Did you hear about Snape?" Julian whispered into his sister's ear, Rose shook her head. "He got bitten by Fluffy on Halloween."

"How do you know this?" Rose scrunched up her face, confused.

"I walked in on him and Filch talking in the Professors lounge, Filch was wrapping his leg and he was limping that night when he took me back to the common room." Julian explained.

"What were you doing down there?" Rose asked, her mind going a mile a minute trying to process this information.

"Getting Harry's book back for him." Julian acted like it was obvious; Rose just nodded however and turned back to the game.

"Look, Harry!" Rose pointed; her brother was diving towards what was obviously the snitch, which she couldn't see herself. The Slytherin seeker, Terrence Higgs, was diving as well. Marcus Flint however came out of nowhere and blocked Harry purposefully, causing him to pull up before he reached it. The snitch buzzed out of sight and was again nowhere to be seen.

Lee Jordan, a Gryffindor, could be heard commentating the entire game and he obviously was a bit biased. Every now and again, he would spout off words that McGonagall wouldn't have approved of and it wasn't any different when Flint fouled Harry. The boy took no hesitance in voicing his opinion of the Slytherins as the Gryffindors took their foul shot.

Harry was constantly dodging the bludgers and trying to remain unnoticed until he spotted the snitch. His and Wood's game plan was to remain out of trouble until he could get the snitch and that was what Harry was attempting to do when his broom gave a jerk.

He held on tightly, forgetting about the game for a second so he wouldn't fall to his death. He'd never felt anything like that before, something was definitely wrong with his broom. The broom gave another jerk and that is when Harry realized that he had lost complete control over it. It started zigzagging all over as it rose higher and higher; nobody seemed to take notice though for the moment.

Slytherin was in possession of the quaffle, Flint was weaving in and out of the Gryffindor chasers when one of the Weasley twins sent a bludger at him. It hit him straight in the face but didn't stop him from throwing the quaffle and scoring passed an un-expecting Wood. The Slytherins cheered loudly while the rest of the school booed.

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid mumbled. He stared through his binoculars. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom but he can' have."

Suddenly, everyone was taking notice of Harry's broom as it started to roll over and over. The whole crowd was gasping as Harry struggled to stay on when it gave a wild jerk and he swung off. He was dangling from it, holding on with one hand. Rose gasped horrified.

"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Seamus whispered, he was another Gryffindor first year.

"Can' have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can' nothing' interfere with a broomstick expect powerful Dark magic an' no kid could do that ter a Nimbus Two Thousand."

At these words, Hermione grabbed Hagrid's binoculars from him but instead of looking up at Harry, she looked over to where the Professors were all sitting.

"What are you doing?" Ron moaned, confused and gray-faced.

"I knew it!" Hermione gasped. "Look over at Snape!"

Ron grabbed the binoculars. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath.

"He's doing something. Looks like he's jinxing the broom." Hermione said.

"What should we do?" Ron asked frantically.

"Leave it to me."

Up in the Ravenclaw stands however, a whole different situation was going on with Dorinda. She had seen a whole different scenario that was completely confusing but she knew her eyes were not deceiving her.

"Quirrell?" Dorinda asked aloud, but it couldn't be. Dorinda grabbed another Ravenclaw's binoculars to look again, but it was! "That sneaky git!" Dorinda was furious, how dare he jinx her brother. What had he ever done to that blubbering professor, Dorinda didn't even knew he had it in him. She had to do something, Harry wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.

Harry was doing his best to stay on the broom but it was vibrating so hard it was becoming almost impossible. The Weasley twins were trying to reach him so they could pull him to safety onto one of their brooms but every time they got near enough, the broom would jump up even higher. So the two dropped lower and circled beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell. Marcus Flint took advantage of the distraction and like a Slytherin would, grabbed the quaffle and scored five times without anyone taking notice to him.

"Look Dorinda, what's Hermione doing?" Padma Patil was squinting into the binoculars; they were pointed still over by the professors' stands. Said girl had just knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the front row, obviously by accident and kept sneaking behind the Professors until she reached Snape. Crouching down, she shot blue flames out of her wand and onto the hem of Snape's robes.

It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire. When he did however, Hermione scooped the fire into a jar and took off before the Professor ever noticed her presence. It was enough however, Quirrell stopped the jinx and Harry was soon back on his broomstick safely.

Dorinda turned back to the game just in time to see Harry speeding towards the ground and putting a hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick, he hit the ground on all fours. Said boy coughed and something gold fell into his hand, the snitch! Dorinda gave a loud whoop of celebration.

"I've got the snitch!" Harry yelled and the game ended in complete confusion as the whole crowd roared happily. Except the Slytherins.

Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to sixty. Marcus Flint had spent twenty minutes telling anyone who would listen that Harry hadn't even caught the snitch, that he had practically swallowed it. Harry hadn't heard a word of it though; he was currently at Hagrid's hut being served a cup of tea. The rest of the Potters were there as were Hermione and Ron.

"It was Snape," Ron was trying to explain but Dorinda was shaking her head. "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick; muttering and he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

"Exactly, I swear it was Quirrell. Harry's broom stopped reacting as soon as Quirrell was knocked over by Hermione." Dorinda said in a matter of fact tone. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rose and Julian however exchanged a look.

"We found out something about Snape though Dorinda," Julian explained. "He tried to get pass Fluffy on Halloween. She bit him. They think that he was trying to steal whatever she's guarding."

"Barmy." Hagrid and Dorinda both said, Hagrid however looked at Rose nervously. She wasn't supposed to have told them that Fluffy was his, Rose smiled apologetically.

"What do you think of Snape Julian?" Rose asked her brother, he spent the most time in the man's presence. Snape was Head of House in Slytherin after all.

"Snape isn't a good guy by far but that doesn't make him evil." Julian tried to explain, he didn't think his Head was the one who had jinxed the broomstick. "Or stupid for that matter."

"Exactly, Julian." Dorinda nodded proudly at her brother. The others however seemed unconvinced.

"But Quirrell?" Hermione asked disbelievingly. "He's not exactly the most courageous or intelligent man."

"How do you know that for sure?" Dorinda asked skeptically. "I seen him muttering as well, and I know a jinx when I see one."

"He wasn't blinking?" Hermione asked, Dorinda sent an annoyed look at the girl.

"No Hermione, not in the slightest." Dorinda replied.

"Yer wrong, the lot of yeh." Said Hagrid hotly. "I don't know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student an' neither would Quirrell. Now, listen to me, the lot of yeh. Yer meddlin' in things that don't concern yeh. It' dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicholas Flamel!"

"Aha!" Ron exclaimed. "So there's someone called Nicholas Flamel involved, is there?" Harry obviously hadn't shared Rose's information yet with Hermione or Ron.

Hagrid looked furious with himself for slipping once again.

Yet, who had truly cursed Harry's broomstick?

Redone: December 9 2010