Hi, sorry this took so long, it's quite a long chapter. I have to say I'm not very happy with it – have writer's block! Not my best chapter, hopefully the next will be a bit better!

Quidditch Tryouts

Harry and Hermione could get nothing out of Ron in the common room that evening, but by the next morning he was acting normally, even suggesting to Harry that he start to prepare the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Harry, distracted totally suddenly felt a familiar glow of pride in his stomach, a rarity, as he walked with them down to breakfast. Gryffindor Quidditch captain. Even thinking it made him feel better, but it made him wonder something.

"Who are the other captains?" he asked Ron. However, it was not Ron, (who was busy eating his toast), but Hermione who answered.

"Ernie Macmillan is for Hufflepuff, I'm surprised he didn't tell you, Ravenclaw's is a fifth year called Henry Peters, he's a keeper, and Malfoy is for Slytherin." She said this last bit with disgust, but Harry didn't notice.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in Quidditch?" asked Harry, surprised.

"Oh I'm not," she said unconvincingly, "I just heard it from Ernie in the library." She paused for a moment, and seemed to be casting around for a subject. "I still don't know who is head girl yet, head boy is a shy Hufflepuff called Arnold Prass, but whoever the head girl is she's keeping it quiet. She wasn't in the meeting on the train."

Harry gulped, considered for a moment and decided on the truth. "It's Cho."

Both Ron and Hermione looked up. "How do you know?" asked Ron suspiciously. Harry was forced to explain all about his trip to the Owlery and meeting Cho there, and about their talk. Truthfully he had thought about it a lot, and although still quite unsure, he didn't think he felt the same about Cho as he had. He liked her a lot, but there was too much of a history between them now to make it too awkward to have a relationship of that sort. And more to the point, Harry thought he would have messed it up anyway.

Hermione seemed to sense that Harry needed a bit of support, and she spoke up again. "You two argued too much anyway." Harry was a bit surprised at Hermione's comment, but kept it to himself. He decided he would put a poster up later for Quidditch tryouts, but then Hermione got up announcing they had charms in five minutes, and Harry reluctantly followed.

*

"QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS:

WOULD ALL GRYFFINDORS INTERESTED IN PLAYING ON THE QUIDDITCH TEAM THIS YEAR PLEASE COME DOWN TO THE QUIDDITCH PITCH AT 8 O'CLOCK ON THE FIRST OF OCTOBER (NEXT FRIDAY). THANK YOU."

Harry stood back to let some other children forward, as he finished pinning up the note. It was lunchtime, and Harry had a little while before his second charms class of that day would continue, (they were working on protean charms, one which Hermione had already mastered and used the previous year by herself), to make a small poster about Quidditch Tryouts. Harry was very much looking forward to being back on the Quidditch pitch, but was not sure how good he would be as a captain.

*

September rolled on, with triple potions being about as bad as Harry thought it could be. The first double lesson was spent analysing the entire N.E.W.T course they would be taking, and the afternoon lesson working on a small potion to make sure everyone still understood all the terms used in making potions. This surprised Harry, until he realised they were making a type of poison, which in an odd way made Harry relax. A catch up lesson would have been too out-of-character for Snape.

October the first was a bright day, probably the last bright day before the autumn falls, and Harry was quite worried about the Quidditch trials to take place. He was so worried, that he accidentally charmed Professor Flitwick to make people constantly want to avoid him and get worried when he came near.

By the end of the afternoon he was quite nervous, in fact he felt quite ill at the thought of the responsibility he was now shouldering. He walked down to the pitch and changed unsteadily into his Quidditch robes. He walked onto the pitch to see who had turned up and he was shocked to see a small crowd their, some obviously supporters, others obviously not. With Ron and Ginny the other two definite members of the team at his side, he surveyed the new players. His jaw dropped, for the second time in his life considering who it was.

It was Hermione. She was blushing furiously and trying to hide out, but they soon called her out of the group to speak to her.

"So this explains the sudden interest in Quidditch!" said Harry, smiling broadly. "What position are you applying for?"

"Don't laugh..." she said timidly, "but I'm applying to be a beater."

"Why would we laugh?" said Ron, confused. Hermione laughed, her nerves obviously lessening slightly, and turned to Harry.

"When do we start?" she asked. To answer her question, Harry called for quiet so he could speak to the hopefuls. He didn't like talking to big groups, and he was sure they weren't going to really listen to a word he said.

"Ok... errr, thank you all for coming." He said quickly. They were all silent, and he carried on nervously. "First, I will look for new chasers, would those applying to be chasers please come forward."

A small group of people moved forwards, including Colin Creevey, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Ginny also stepped around Harry to join the group, as it was only fair that she try out rather than buy straight onto the team, although from Harry's view she was a certain. Harry ushered the others, who had to be beaters, to sit on a row of benches by the side of the stadium.

"Ok. What we are going to do, is Ron will go in goal, and I will play as the third chaser. I've also borrowed Ernie Macmillan from Hufflepuff to act as a beater to make it more real." Harry stuck up a hand and waved over Ernie, who was clad smartly in his blue Ravenclaw Quidditch robes. "We'll try you two at a time then. You two can go first." He indicated Ginny and a smaller, fourth year boy. They both clambered onto their brooms and took off.

And so it went. Harry spent the best part of an hour flying backwards and forwards, gathering dropped Quaffles, and assessing the players that came through. Ginny, Lavender, Parvati, Colin and a third year called Charlie Gulmore made it to the second round, where Harry assessed each individually, and then in different combinations. He, Ron and Ernie, all quite tired, sat away from the group. Between them, they decided that Ginny, Lavender and Colin were the best three.

Harry walked over and informed the lucky three, who all tried to celebrate modestly and look suitably surprised, Lavender blushing appropriately and insisting to Parvati that she was amazed Parvati didn't get in to the team. Parvati however, seemed to be concentrating on acting like she didn't really mind.

Harry stood back and closed his eyes. He was tired and had a headache, and amongst all the Quidditch, he was still thinking about Cho. He knew now he didn't feel that way about her, but how to tell her was eluding him. Mentally noting to decide later, he turned to the group of beaters.

"Ok. Using the chasers I have just selected, they will try to keep possession of the Quaffle and score as many goals as possible past Ron, but you have to put them off. Hermione and...." He frowned at another girl he didn't recognise.

"Leanne Filroy." She prompted with a shy smile. Harry nodded and continued.

"Hermione and Leanne, you will go first." The two of them clambered on to brooms, (Hermione a Comet Two Sixty), and ascended into the air with Harry, who handed them their bats, before diving to the ground again. He gave them a count of three and released the bludgers.

Harry thought Hermione was pretty good. She certainly had power, although she truly did lack precision, and often her wayward aim caused her to make bad contact with the bludger, which often hurt her more then anyone else. However, one bludger hit Colin so hard he almost had to go up to the hospital wing, much to Hermione dismay, though Harry assured her it would not count against her too much.

Leanne on the other hand, was superb. Even Ron commented on it afterwards, and Harry knew straight away that she would be in the team, although he tried to force himself to be impartial. Her aim was phenomenal, and she was very aware of who had the Quaffle, and could often interpret well whom the next pass might be to. On more than one occasion she actually hit the Quaffle in mid flight, something almost unheard of.

There were six people left to trial, and the first four passed off without much incident, or without much sign of flair or particular skill, (Harry suspected Seamus had volunteered as a dare by the way he kept hitting the bludger straight at Ron), until finally only two were left. One was a third year who looked like he might attack you if you commented on how small he was, ("He really was a midget," said Ron later on), and the other was Jack Sloper.

Jack had been in the Quidditch side last season and had not been very good, but Harry thought that, considering all the others, he would be the only other person to challenge Hermione for the second spot in the team. Judging by his performance, Harry knew Jack had been practising over the summer and he knew equally, with a tinge of disappointment, that Jack was better than Hermione. By the look on Ron's face Harry knew Ron agreed, though he would never admit it. Harry and Ron walked over to the group.

"Congratulations to Leanne Filroy and Jack Sloper, you're in the team. Sorry to all other participants." Harry addressed them as a group, but spoke almost to the floor rather than his feet, and retreated to the changing rooms as soon as he was done. He sat there for a long time, worrying about how Hermione might react. After getting changed, he trudged upstairs and found that Hermione's reaction was possibly as bad as it could have been.

She was ignoring him. Sat in a corner, a book in her hand and her face red, she stubbornly refused to acknowledge Harry, even after several apologies. Harry sat down next to her and tried to do his Potions homework, but he couldn't concentrate. Deciding that he would do it tomorrow morning, he ascended the stairs, thoroughly worried and miserable, and clambered into bed, where he didn't fall asleep until much later.

*

Harry awoke the next morning to find Ron standing over him, almost shouting.

"Harry! Wake up! Potions is in twenty minutes!" Harry blinked, dazed for a moment, but then the severity grabbed him and he sat up sharply. Pulling his robes on, he grabbed his books and quills, before following Ron quickly down to the Great Hall.

"I'll do the homework as we eat," said Harry hurriedly, as they walked down the final staircase and into the entrance hall. But Harry stopped; he had seen Cho. "I'll catch you up." He said quietly to Ron, who went into the hall to start the essay.

Harry walked over to Cho, who blushed a little.

"Hi." She said quietly.

"Hey." Harry replied shortly. Unsure of where to start, there was an awkward silence for a moment, which Harry broke. "I was thinking about, err... what we were talking about the other day..." he tailed off, he didn't want to hurt her feelings, but he knew stringing it out any longer would make it worse. "I think you're a err, really great person, and anyone would be err lucky to be with you... but I, err, don't think we should erm..." He trailed off again, looking at her apologetically. She smiled at him.

"Its ok. I didn't think you would want to anyway." Harry looked at her, and sensed this was a lie, but didn't push it. "I'll see you around Harry." And before Harry could say anything, she was gone, leaving Harry standing there. For a moment he wondered if he had done the right thing, but quickly shook himself – he had done the right thing, he knew it.

He turned and strode quickly into the hall, where Ron was sat next to Hermione. She was livid at the pair of them for not doing their homework the night before, but she did not chide Harry, just Ron.

"Hermione, please forgive me!" he said desperately. "I'm sorry about not choosing you as beater its just that you... I mean Jack... I mean..." Harry realised he was probably just making it worse for himself. So he turned away from her, took a bite of toast, and started to take out his materials.

"Too late now mate," said Ron, who was now rolling up his half empty parchment, "we'll be late if we don't go now."

Harry sighed, resigning himself to a likely detention, and headed for the dungeons.

Arriving at Snape's lesson knowing you hadn't done the homework was one of the worst feelings that Hogwarts could provide. Harry walked in with his shoulders slumped as Snape summoned the parchments to him across the room. Counting them up, Snape frowned, but then smiled evilly and looked up.

"Which pair of you did not finish the homework?" Harry felt his stomach unclench slightly, he wasn't alone at least. Gingerly raising his hand in the air, he looked around the room, but to his surprise, no one else had raised their hand.

"Ah, Mr Potter, how disappointingly predictable. As you were honest at least, you will only get the one detention. Now who else did not do it..." he scanned the list of names on the register, before scanning the home works. He looked up, and looked around the room, his eyes alighting on the Slytherin table.

"Crabbe, where is Malfoy?" he asked quietly.

"He's ill today Professor. Up in the hospital wing." Crabbe replied, while Goyle nodded solemnly by his side.

Harry frowned, he thought they seemed serious. But before he had the luxury of wondering what was wrong with Malfoy, Snape had accepted the excuse, and had started the lesson.

Ron spent much of the lesson gleefully discussing Malfoy's possible ailments, while Harry was trying to get Hermione to forgive him. He was quite angry now.

"You've got me a detention, will you forgive me now?" he said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, so it's my fault now is it?" Hermione retorted angrily. "Its all my fault that you didn't do your homework, oh I see!" and with that she didn't say another word to Harry all lesson, and Harry left quickly at the end of the lesson.

He walked quickly out of the dungeons and out of the door into the grounds. He spied Hagrid's hut, and he ran down the sweeping immaculate lawns to the small stone building like a border post on the edge of the wild that was the forbidden forest. Ignoring the gloomy shadows of the forest, Harry knocked on Hagrid's door, and heard the usual amount of barking and "Quiet Fang!" cries from inside the hut. The door opened and Hagrid's beaming face greeted him.

"'Ello 'Arry!" he said jovially. "Bout time you came down ter see me! How've yer been?"

Harry considered saying "fine", but soon found himself spilling everything to Hagrid, about how Hermione was upset with him, about what had happened with Cho, about how he didn't think he could stand the responsibility of being the only one who could stand up to Voldemort, and about how all his work was taking its toll.

Hagrid sat quiet for a second, and started to respond, but a glance at the clock told him he had a lesson in five minutes, and Harry got up to leave. Hagrid stopped him though.

"If ever yer want to talk to me proper, just send an owl in advance and I'll come an' talk to yer, alright?" Harry nodded, before turning and stepping back out onto the stretching lawns. He started to run back, as he realised he was late for transfiguration. It was going to be a long day.