A/N:
Lady Featherweight: Thanks for your review. I'm not going to tell if Aurora and Harry become a couple. You just have to read to find out. I'm telling you this, in this story (year 3) there isn't going to be any romans. Next year (my next story) there will be. So if you want to find out you will have to read the next story ;)
bloody alanna: Loved your review. Aurora and Harry aren't going to kiss in this story. Maybe in the next one ;) you are going the read the next one to find out. There will be some kissing in the next one.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Chapter 9: Everything is ruined
It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship.
Each was so angry with the other that I couldn't see how they'd ever make up. Ron was enraged that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him, and was still trying to pretend that Crookshanks was innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds. Hermione, meanwhile, maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, that the ginger hairs might have been there since Christmas, and that Ron had been prejudiced against her cat ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.
Harry was sure that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, and when he tried to point out to Hermione that the evidence all pointed that way, she lost her temper with Harry too.
"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she said shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"
Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard indeed.
"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," said Fred bracingly. "And he's been off-color for ages, he was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly — one swallow — he probably didn't feel a thing."
"Fred!" said Ginny indignantly.
"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," said George.
"He bit Goyle for us once!" Ron said miserably. "Remember, Harry?"
"Yeah, that's true," said Harry.
"His finest hour," said Fred, unable to keep a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting tribute to his memory. Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new rat, what's the point of moaning?"
In a last-ditch attempt to cheer Ron up, Harry persuaded him to come along to the Gryffindor team's final practice before the Ravenclaw match, so that he could have a ride on the Firebolt after they'd finished. This did seem to take Ron's mind off Scabbers for a moment ("Great! Can I try and shoot a few goals on it?") so they set off for the Quidditch field together.
I stayed in the common room. I wasn't allowed to go outside anymore. I saw Hermione sitting at her table again and went to her. She was buried in her work again. Seriously, that girl is trying to kill herself. I can't believe she can keep up. I know she's brilliant but this is too much for a person, even for her.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" I asked her.
She looked up. I took in a breath, she was looking bad. Circles under her eyes, she looked so tired.
"I'm fine, but Aurora, if you don't mind, I really want to finish this, so if you would leave me alone," she said.
"Ok, that's it. I don't care you have still some work to do, but you are going to bed, right now young Lady! No arguments and I don't want to hear a no. Close those books and upstairs with you!"
I took a hold of her books and closed them. She spluttered but I was looking stern at her. I was not taking a no for an answer. She looked at me and sighed. She took her books in her arms, smiled at me and said thank you. She went upstairs and I followed. I wanted to make sure that she went to bed. I kept an eye on her for an hour or so and when I was sure she was sleeping I went back downstairs. I took out my homework and waited for the boys to come back.
When they got back, Harry was looking pale and Ron was looking angry.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Crookshanks," Ron said and he went to the stairs. "I'm going to bed."
"Harry?"
"It's probably nothing, but I thought I saw the Grim. It's silly, I know," He said.
"Your right, it was probably nothing just a trick of the light. Go to bed, you've got a big game tomorrow. You need to rest. Goodnight." I told him. I went to him give him a kiss on the cheek and went to bed.
When I was lying in my bed, I couldn't help thinking about what Harry said. The Grim, here, it can't be. There's no way he could get here, but on the other side, he knows how to…
I'm being silly, there's no way. I turned so I was lying on my side and fell asleep.
Harry came down to breakfast the next morning with the rest of the boys in his dormitory, all of whom seemed to think the Firebolt deserved a sort of guard of honor. As Harry entered the Great Hall, heads turned in the direction of the Firebolt, and there was a good deal of excited muttering. I saw, with enormous satisfaction, that the Slytherin team were all looking thunderstruck.
"Did you see his face?" said Ron gleefully, looking back at Malfoy. "He can't believe it! This is brilliant!"
Wood, too, was basking in the reflected glory of the Firebolt.
"Put it here, Harry," he said, laying the broom in the middle of the table and carefully turning it so that its name faced upward. People from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were soon coming over to look. Cedric Diggory came over to congratulate Harry on having acquired such a superb replacement for his Nimbus, and Percy's Ravenclaw girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, asked if she could actually hold the Firebolt.
"Now, now, Penny, no sabotage!" said Percy heartily as she examined the Firebolt closely. "Penelope and I have got a bet on," he told the team. "Ten Galleons on the outcome of the match!"
Penelope put the Firebolt down again, thanked Harry, and went back to her table.
"Harry — make sure you win," said Percy, in an urgent whisper. "I haven't got ten Galleons.
Yes, I'm coming, Penny!" And he bustled off to join her in a piece of toast.
"Sure you can manage that broom, Potter?" said a cold, drawling voice.
Draco Malfoy had arrived for a closer look, Crabbe and Goyle right behind him.
"Yeah, reckon so," said Harry casually.
"Got plenty of special features, hasn't it?" said Malfoy, eyes glittering maliciously. "Shame it doesn't come with a parachute — in case you get too near a Dementor."
Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.
"Pity you can't attach an extra arm to yours, Malfoy," said Harry. "Then it could catch the Snitch for you."
The Gryffindor team laughed loudly. Malfoy's pale eyes narrowed, and he stalked away. We watched him rejoin the rest of the Slytherin team, who put their heads together, no doubt asking Malfoy whether Harry's broom really was a Firebolt.
At a quarter to eleven, the Gryffindor team set off for the locker rooms.
"Good luck Harry," I said smiling, "I know you will be great!"
He turned around and give me a smile, he mouthed thank you.
The weather couldn't have been more different from their match against Hufflepuff. It was a clear, cool day with a very light breeze; there would be no visibility problems this time, and I, though nervous, was starting to feel the excitement only a Quidditch match could bring. I went to the stadium with Ron. Ron was really excited but I was feeling anxious. I think I was wondering if there was going to be any Dementors today. I was really hoping that they wouldn't show up, I don't think I would survive another attack from them. We took place and waited for the game to begin. I triple checked if I had my wand with me, just in case and I know that Harry has his with him to. Not that I was going to be a great help because I couldn't do the Patronus charm, but hey, you never know, a miracle can always happen. There is something called Magic you know.
The team walked out onto the field to tumultuous applause. The Ravenclaw team, dressed in blue, were already standing in the middle of the field. Their Seeker, Cho Chang, was the only girl on their team. She was shorter than Harry by about a head. Wood and the Ravenclaw Captain shook hands, they mounted there brooms, there was a whistle and of they went.
I could see Harry kicking off into the air and he zoomed higher and faster than any other player; he soared around the stadium and began squinting around for the Snitch. I was watching him like a hawk, he's really a good flyer, listening all the while to the commentary, which was being provided by the Weasley twins' friend Lee Jordan.
"They're off, and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. According to Which Broomstick, the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship —"
"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice.
"Right you are, Professor — just giving a bit of background information — the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and —"
"Jordan!"
"Okay, okay, Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor, heading for goal…"
The game was really good, but I felt some anger for Cho, the seeker from Ravenclaw. What's her problem. She kept cutting across Harry, so he was forced to change direction and she kept following him. She was really getting on my nerves.
Harry rounded the Ravenclaw goal posts and Cho fell behind. Just as Katie succeeded in scoring the first goal of the match, and the Gryffindor end of the field went wild, I saw it — the Snitch was close to the ground, flitting near one of the barriers. I could tell that Harry saw it to. Wait a minute, how is it that I could spot he snitch. Wauw, I'm good. I grinned.
"Come on Harry!" I yelled.
Harry dived; Cho saw what he was doing and tore after him — Harry was speeding up, I was really getting excited, I stood up so I could see it better.
Then a Bludger, hit by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, came pelting out of nowhere; Harry had to veer off course, avoiding it by an inch, and in those few, crucial seconds, the Snitch had vanished.
There was a great "Ooooooh" of disappointment from the Gryffindor supporters, but much applause for their Beater from the Ravenclaw end. George Weasley vented his feelings by hitting the second Bludger directly at the offending Beater, who was forced to roll right over in midair to avoid it.
"Gryffindor leads by eighty points to zero, and look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn — Chang's Comet is just no match for it, the Firebolt's precision — balance is really noticeable in these long —"
"JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!"
Ravenclaw was pulling back; they had now scored three goals, which put Gryffindor only fifty points ahead — if Cho got the Snitch before Harry, Ravenclaw would win. Harry dropped lower, narrowly avoiding a Ravenclaw Chaser, scanning the field frantically, I was looking to, I spotted it before, I could do it again — a glint of gold, a flutter of tiny wings — the Snitch was circling the Gryffindor goal post…
Harry accelerated, eyes fixed on the speck of gold ahead — but just then, Cho appeared out of thin air, blocking him —
"Argh, stupid Cho, why did she do that, come on," I said. I really started to hate that girl.
The Snitch had vanished again. Harry turned his Firebolt upward and was soon twenty feet above the game. I saw that Cho was following him. Come on Harry, I thought, show her what you can.
Harry dived again, and Cho, thinking he'd seen the Snitch, tried to follow; Harry pulled out of the dive very sharply; she hurtled downward; he rose fast as a bullet once more. He accelerated; so, many feet below, did Cho. He was winning, gaining on the Snitch with every second — then —
I was holding my breath, he was going to get the snitch, we were going to win.
"Oh!" screamed Lavender, who was the row below me, pointing.
Distracted, I looked down. Three Dementors, three tall, black, hooded Dementors, were looking up at Harry.
I didn't stop to think. Plunging a hand down into my robes, he whipped out my wand and I run down so I was closer and have a better aim and roared, "Expecto patronum!" I could hear someone else yelling it to.
Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of my wand.
It shot directly at the Dementors and was soon joined by another, I could see it really good, but I thought I saw two big animals; my mind was still miraculously clear, I looked up and saw that Harry was grabbing the snitch.
Madam Hooch's whistle sounded. Harry turned around in midair and six scarlet blurs bearing down on him; next moment, the whole team was hugging him so hard he was nearly pulled off his broom. I could hear the roars of the Gryffindors in the crowd. I was standing there, yelling and clapping like crazy, we won!
I saw a gaggle of Gryffindor supporters sprinting onto the field, Ron in the lead. Before Harry knew it, he had been engulfed by the cheering crowd. I didn't follow, I will see him later.
I turned around to look if the Dementors were really gone. What I saw made me laugh so hard, I could hardly stand. This was hilarious!
Lying in a crumpled heap on the ground were Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint, the Slytherin team Captain, all struggling to remove themselves from long, black, hooded robes. It looked as though Malfoy had been standing on Goyle's shoulders.
Standing over them, with an expression of the utmost fury on her face, was Professor McGonagall.
"An unworthy trick!" she was shouting. "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!"
When I turned around, I saw Harry and uncle Moony, standing a few feet behind me. Harry was laughing to.
If anything could have set the seal on Gryffindor's victory, it was this. Ron, who had fought his way through to Harry's side, doubled up with laughter as they watched Malfoy fighting to extricate himself from the robe, Goyle's head still stuck inside it.
I went to them and give Harry a hug.
"Good game, Harry, you were amazing!"
"Thanks Aurora," he said smiling.
"Come on, Harry!" said George, fighting his way over. "Party! Gryffindor common room, now!"
"Right," said Harry, and feeling happier than I had in ages, we and the rest of the team led the way, still in their scarlet robes, out of the stadium and back up to the castle.
It felt as though wehad already won the Quidditch Cup; the party went on all day and well into the night. Fred and George Weasley disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets.
"How did you do that?" squealed Angelina Johnson as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.
"With a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred muttered in my ear.
I can't believe that they hadn't figured it out already, but then again, boys, not so very bright.
Only one person wasn't joining in the festivities. Hermione, incredibly, was sitting in a corner, attempting to read an enormous book entitled Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. I broke away from the table where Fred and George had started juggling butterbeer bottles and went over to her.
"Did you even come to the match?" I asked her.
"Of course I did," said Hermione in a strangely high-pitched voice, not looking up. "And I'm very glad we won, and I think Harry did really well, but I need to read this by Monday."
Harry came and went to stand next to me.
"Come on, Hermione, come and have some food," Harry said, looking over at Ron. I was wondering whether he was in a good enough mood to bury the hatchet.
"I can't, Harry. I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" said Hermione, now sounding slightly hysterical. "Anyway…" She glanced over at Ron too. "He doesn't want me to join
in."
There was no arguing with this, as Ron chose that moment to say loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them —"
Hermione burst into tears. Before I could say or do anything, she tucked the enormous book under her arm, and, still sobbing, ran toward the staircase to the girls' dormitories and out of sight.
"Can't you give her a break?" Harry asked Ron quietly.
"No," said Ron flatly. "If she just acted like she was sorry — but she'll never admit she's wrong, Hermione. She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on vacation or something."
"Can't you see you are hurting her? Don't you have any emotions at all?" I asked him.
He ignored me. I was really fed up with him. I gave him a glare, smiled at Harry and went to sit with Neville, the only one from my year that doesn't hate me.
The Gryffindor party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up in her tartan dressing gown and hair net at one in the morning, to insist that we all go to bed. I climbed the stairs to my dormitory, with Lavender and Parvati following me. I checked on Hermione, but she was fast asleep. I took the book from her chest, marked the page and put it on her bedside table. At last, exhausted, I climbed into bed, twitched the hangings of my four-poster shut to block out a ray of moonlight, lay back, and felt myself almost instantly drifting off to sleep…
"AAARRGGHH! NOOO!"
I shot up in my bed. What the hell? I could see that the others didn't hear anything. Maybe It was in my dreams. I let myself fall back again. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. I climbed out of the bed and went to the stairs, that's when I heard shouts and talking. I ran down the stairs and saw Harry coming down the same time as me. The others boys close behind him
Doors opened behind them, and sleepy voices called after them.
"Who shouted?"
"What're you doing?"
The common room was lit with the glow of the dying fire, still littered with the debris from the party. It was deserted.
"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" Harry asked.
"I'm telling you, I saw him!"
"What's all the noise?"
"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!"
"What's going on?" I asked.
A few of the girls had come down our staircase, pulling on dressing gowns and yawning. Boys, too, were reappearing.
"Excellent, are we carrying on?" said Fred Weasley brightly.
"Everyone back upstairs!" said Percy, hurrying into the common room and pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke.
"Perce — Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"
The common room went very still. I paled and started shaking. This wasn't good.
"Nonsense!" said Percy, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron — had a nightmare —"
"I'm telling you —"
"Now, really, enough's enough!"
Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around.
"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" said Percy, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare —"
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"
Professor McGonagall stared at him.
"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"
"Ask him!" said Ron, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw —"
Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with bated breath. "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"
"Certainly, good lady!" cried Sir Cadogan.
There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room. I sank to my knees. This wasn't happening, it's just a dream.
"You — you did?" said Professor McGonagall. "But — but the password!"
"He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"
Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk.
"Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.
I felt someone sitting next to me and putting an arm around me.
"Come on." It was Hermione.
She helped me up and led me to the staircase. Everyone I passed, looked at me like I was something dirty. Everything was ruined, even the twins were glaring at me. Tears were rolling down my face. Hermione helped up the bed and sat next to me. She held me the whole night, comforting me. I cried the whole night. Everything was ruined.
A/N: I'm sorry it took so long for me to update, but I was out, celebrating that my exams were over ;)
Hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know. So review! Thank you!