All a Dream
Chapter 17
Hermione ran up to Harry as he entered the Great Hall for dinner. "Hi Harry!" She hugged him enthusiastically. "Grab a plate and some food; let's go to Hagrid's."
Harry was caught slightly off guard. But he took a plate of chicken, potatoes, carrots and a piece of cheese anyways. Hermione appeared to have already eaten.
Outside it was cold and damp, not quite raining, though the precipitation was inevitable; this was England, after all. Hagrid's small, white bungalow stood out against the Forbidden Forest, the vegetable patch in the side yard filled with pumpkins and squash.
When Hermione knocked on the large, blue door, there were several sounds at once: the barking of a dog, Hagrid's heavy footsteps, and a crying infant. Hagrid pulled open the door. "Oh, come in, come in. I'm just gonna tend to little Johnny – shush, Fang – and then I'll get us some tea." And the half-giant bustled into a nearby hallway and through a door. Harry looked over at Hermione, confused, but she just smiled back and they sat down at the oversized table.
The room Harry was in was a kitchen and dining room. All of this had been scaled to Hagrid's life-style, so everything was about twice as large as normal. Beyond this was a sitting room with a fireplace, rocking chair, and bookshelf, Winnie-the-Pooh being predominant. Some pictures above the fireplace were of Hagrid and a familiar, tall lady Harry knew as Madame Maxime. In one of the pictures she was in a wedding dress, and Hagrid was in a tuxedo. Another picture showed them together on a beach, and a third showed them outside their house, waving at the camera.
Hagrid returned soon, with a now quiet baby in his arms. The infant looked rather like Hagrid, but with much darker skin, and he was kicking his legs vigorously, making him hard to hold. When he was set down on the floor, he wiggled around on his front, trying to reach the table leg. "Well, Harry, it's nice teh see yeh back," said Hagrid, grinning. "And good teh see you too, Hermione. How's the internship comin' along?"
"Fairly well. It's too bad that Professor Barkley wasn't accepting an intern this year, so I can't get an exact look at what I'm signing up for, but Professor Snape was good enough to accept, and any kind of teaching experience will help with my degree."
"Aye, Professor Snape's a good teacher.
"Oh, I've forgotten to introduce, yeh, Harry. This is Johnny, my son," Hagrid said proudly, picking up the active child and placing him on the sturdy table. Johnny looked at Harry and gazed at him a moment. Then a huge smile grew on the baby's face, showing off his two teeth. Harry couldn't help but smile back, and Hermione giggled a bit. "How old is he now, Hagrid?"
"Five months, two days, seven hours, twenty five minutes and counting." Harry noticed large, dark circles under Hagrid's eyes.
"Colicky, right?" asked Hermione, holding out her hand for John to take (and he could envelop her hand in his. What else would you expect from a half-giant baby?) and drool on.
"You wouldn't believe," Hagrid replied. "Olympe and I've been up every few hours with him. An' only reading Winnie-the-Pooh puts him to sleep properly. Silly Muggle stuff. But still, he's my son, an' I've got to deal with him." Hagrid smiled kindly at his happy child.
.:. :.: .:.
The next few weeks passed with few events. The teachers Harry had were all very fair, though they still piled on the work. Neither Stew nor Drew made anything explode again.
The Quidditch tryouts were the third week of school, and Harry signed up immediately. The openings for the Gryffindor team were Seeker and one Beater. Harry noticed that in Slytherin's case, they were getting almost a completely new team, only their Keeper was staying, while teams like Hufflepuff and Gryffindor needed only one or two new people. Ravenclaw didn't need anyone new.
And so, on the 16th of September, Harry, Bobby Cruickshank, and many other students in the bleachers were waiting for tryouts to begin. Harry had "mysteriously" found a new broom in his trunk while unpacking the first night. He was fairly sure that his father had gotten it on their day in Diagon Alley, while he was helping shop for Erin's wand. It was a Flying Star 24, and though he hadn't tried it yet, Harry could tell it was a pretty fast broom, just from the aerodynamic shape and the way it felt in his hands.
The Gryffindor Quidditch team stepped out of the dressing rooms onto the field. Harry recognised a guy from his classes, and Mae, Ginny and Stew were in the middle of the line. The last one looked to be about third year, but very at ease with his broom.
The team Captain, a seventh year by the name of Eric Sanderson, stepped forward. "First off, let's do a few laps around the pitch." Harry and Bobby immediately mounted their brooms and took off, the younger students left behind. And Harry was flying. The Flying Star reminded him of his Nimbus, though that wasn't technically a broom company in this world. This real broom wasn't as fast as the Firebolt, but it gave him similar control.
Once the laps were finished – Harry and Bobby had been leading the pack – Eric spoke again. "Now, since there're two open positions this year, we're going to split you in two groups, one for potential Beaters, the other potential Seekers. Seekers, over here." He pointed to Harry's right. "Beater's over here. William and I'll be with the Seekers, Mae, Stew and Ginny with the Beaters."
Harry walked to one end of the pitch, about a quarter of the others following him. He was slightly surprised when Bobby was walking to the Beater's group – Bobby was more the build you would expect of a Seeker – but he may not have had the reflexes required. Harry was unsure. He remembered the way that Bobby had flown during the informal game at home, and if even a sneeze could take him off course like that, then maybe he would be better at Beating.
Eric and the third year named William were carrying a small crate between them when the Seekers group got to their end of the pitch.
"Okay, so you lot want to be Seekers, yes?" asked Eric. The group all muttered things like 'yeah'. "Good. Okay, we'll set up some obstacles for you to go through first, and then see how good you are with reflexes." And when the two Quidditch players opened the crate, they took out several small cardboard boxes, which they enlarged and levitated. "Okay, first years go first; seventh year - that means you, Harry - go last." Harry chuckled.
The first years were not that bad at flying, considering that the instructors would make the boxes lunge at the potential Seekers at unexpected moments. The second years were not much better, but the third years were rather good. There was only one fourth year, and she used different manoeuvring techniques than Harry knew. Fifth years weren't amazing at dodging, but when it came to speed they weren't bad. Sixth years just sucked out loud.
Harry wasn't a fair judge as to how he did for the navigation test; he was obviously biased towards himself. But he thought he did pretty well. None of the boxes were impaled upon the front of his broom, at any rate.
The next test was to see how efficiently people could catch. Everyone did about equally, the first years being a little bit worse. Finally, Eric and William brought out the Snitch. They partnered up the students to see who could catch the Snitch first. Harry was partnered with the fourth year, and they were both fairly good. Harry caught the Snitch, though, and he got it fastest out of the whole Seekers group.
The Beater's tryouts weren't quite done when the Seeker's were finished, so they all watched the much larger group wielding the bats, some of them more dangerously than others. Stew was desperately trying to calm down the younger candidates while the older students were being given instruction.
Finally, the tryouts were over and the incomplete team went into a loose huddle away from the bleachers. It didn't take them long to decide on the new Seeker. Harry was officially the new Seeker, and he felt a jolt of excitement rush through his body when his name was announced. Eric asked him to stay around while the new Beater was chosen. This process, however, took several minutes, and voices in the cluster grew louder for a while, as though a small argument was taking place. At last the decision was made.
"The new Gryffindor Beater is Kenneth Malcolm," announced Eric. And a fourth year boy suddenly took on the approximate shade and colour of a beetroot. Harry saw as he stood up that he was exactly the build for the job: burly and a little bit on the short side. Also, as Harry looked on, he saw Bobby looking at the ground, downcast but with a blank expression on his face.
.:. :.: .:.
"Hey, Bobby!" yelled Harry across the grounds. He'd just been introduced to the rest of the Quidditch team and had his new robes in hand.
Bobby Cruickshank stopped and turned to look at Harry running towards him. "Oh, hi Harry. Congrats on the Seeker position," he said in a monotone.
"Thanks, but what was up with you at the pitch? You looked like the world was coming to an end."
Bobby sighed. "I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough to be a Beater." He pressed his eyes with his hands and sighed again. "All the guys in my family have been Beaters. I'm the wrong build for that position, and I know it, but they say Beating's in my blood. I'm a disgrace to the family, apparently, if I don't get on the Quidditch team. Look at the Quidditch House Cup and you'll see that every time Gryffindor has won there's a Cruickshank Beater on the plaque, except for the last three years; my brother isn't in school anymore, and I haven't held up the bloody tradition."
Harry didn't know how to respond to that appropriately. "You're the build of a Seeker, though. I could tell the team that they should audition you for that position instead."
Bobby looked at Harry for a moment, weighing his options. "I'll think about it."
A/N: So long, good readers, for the time has come for a proper vacation. I'm leaving tomorrow for the nearest airport, and flying tomorrow at 06:30. How fun is that, you ask? Not all that much, I reply.
Hagrid's son is a little baby I know. Not much different, except his eyes are lighter, but he's absolutely adorable. :)
