Chapter 4: Quidditch, Pranks, and Tantrums

XXX

He excitingly woke up at 5 in the morning. He didn't mind the time like he usually would if he had been woken up this early but not today. The day was his first day in Puddlemere United practice. Even if he was just a reserve, it was still something to be excited about. He wouldn't have to be there until 6:30, according to the letter sent by the manager via owl with information about the team practices, supplies like robes, and the portkey.

He got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. He continued to get ready from there. He was now eating his breakfast of delicious pancakes. Unfortunately, he made quite the raucous somehow. He must have to wake up such a heavy sleeper as Nick who came down the stairs from his gigantic room yawning.

"What are you doing up so early?" Nick asked as he took a seat on one of the chairs for the kitchen table.

Harry scowled at the boy. Nick's hair was messier than usual. He was still in his pajamas and he looked like he had just rolled out of bed. He probably had. "None of your business."

Nick shrugged. "I was just wondering. You look like you're about to go somewhere. Where? Malfoy's?"

Harry just glared at him. "You should quit being so nosy. It's none of your business what my schedule is."

They sat there in silence for the next few minutes – Harry eating his pancakes while Nick was staring creepily at him.

Finally, Nick decided the silence was too awkward for him. And he was really hungry. "Did you make any more pancakes?"

"No," Harry replied shortly.

Nick let out a heavy sigh. God, he wanted pancakes. "Can you make me pancakes?"

"No. Get off your lazy butt and make them yourself," Harry said.

"But I don't cook very well."

"Then ask one house elves to make them for you." Harry got up and went and went to wash his plate. With a glance at the house clock, he noticed he had seven minutes to get there.

After a few seconds of silence, Nick asked, "Harry?"

"What?" Harry asked Nick in an irritated tone.

"I-I was wondering about, you know, what happened last year," Nick said.

"And?"

"And I was wondering what you think about You-Know-Who," Nick said softly.

"Why?" Harry asked bewildered.

"Well, it's just that… just that… um."

He glanced at the wall clock once again - 45 seconds till his portkey activated.

"And uh… well, you're my elder brother and…uh well I guess I… um," Nick said.

"I think he's a powerful and smart man that's highly dangerous and a little on the mad side," Harry said simply.

"Well, you know well, um Quirrell last year and I think… I think."

30 seconds.

"I think that maybe…." Nick took a deep breath, probably trying to calm himself. "You know you're smart and all. I mean of course you know you're smart. You're in Ravenclaw and all and you're supposed to have like the highest scores in like half a century or something. Of course those are just rumors and you never really talk much about your scores and the rumors could not be true but everyone in Hogwarts can't be wrong, right? Yeah so…."

15 seconds.

"…So I was wondering if you could tell me what you know about Quirrell. I know that he used to be a Muggle Studies professor and I know that he stuttered a lot. I also know that you never took Muggle Studies but I was still wondering if you saw him doing something odd, you know, before this year?"

5 seconds.

He had never thought of that actually. Quirrell hardly stuttered before last year. He was usually a very quiet man that kept to himself but he never really stuttered that much. The other Quirrell, despite his shy nature, was the adventures type that would prefer his class laughing than all quiet and serious, like Snape and McGonagall preferred their classes.

But that was a good question. Just how long had Voldemort been in Quirrell's body? Had he used other bodies? And more importantly, whose body was he in now? Was he planning revenge? And more importantly because he was obviously planning revenge, what did he have in store for the next semester.

"I have to go…," and he was gone. The porkey had activated and had taken Harry along with it.

Being never good at portkeying or flooing, he stumbled a little but managed not to fall on his ass or worse, his face.

He was on the ground of the gigantic Quidditch field. Other players were starting to come in too. Today was the first day of the summer term of Quidditch so they were all instructed to go to wait here until the coach came. Then he would have to stay after and talk to the coach alone because apparently, he was the only new person on the team. The old seeker had retired at the end of the summer term of Quidditch last year.

It didn't take long for the Quidditch players and the reserve players to all come in. Markus Riley was there soon and so was a really built grumpy looking tough guy that Harry figured to be Coach Darren Williams.

"You're all back… alive. Yeah, well, I want a trophy this year. That means you all will work you're butts off this summer. Got it?" Coach Williams yelled.

There was a course of 'Yes's and 'Got it's from the team.

"Good. Now I want to see everyone working and practicing," he yelled. "Well, what are you waiting for? Do all of you want to be kicked out of the team? Go get your butts kicked!"

"That's the worst speech I've ever heard," Harry thought. "Well, at least it'll get the team to work hard. Out of fear."

"Kid," Williams yelled. "Get over here."

Harry steadily jogged to him.

"You're really young," Coach Williams mused. "What are you, 12?"

Harry gritted his teeth. He wasn't that short. "I'm 14."

"That doesn't matter, Kid. You're still very young. How the hell did Hooch recommend you? That woman must be insane to recommend a 12 year old to play professional," Coach Williams eyed him.

"I'm 14," he repeated.

The Coach just ignored him. "You do have a seeker's build, though. And you're a Potter. That family does have some of the best Quidditch players, especially seekers. But you're still too young. Probably won't last an hour playing with the Pro's."

"How do you know I can't last longer?"

Coach Williams continued to ignore him. "Don't know how Riley decided that you could hold your own. The man has been losing his touch lately. We'll probably have to put the try-outs back up."

"I bet I can do better than you're current seeker," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"Confident, eh? Tell you what, Kid-."

"My name's Harry."

"Whatever. You go out there and show me you're not the wimp that you are. It'll probably be pathetic but I'll pull you down if it gets too pathetic. If I pull you down, it means we're hosting the try-outs to see if there's anyone less pathetic than you. If I don't pull you down, then you're less pathetic than the ones I usually see in try-outs. You get to stay as a reserve seeker though I doubt that. Go fall on your ass, Kid."

Harry glared fiercely at the coach before turning around and heading to where all the team was.

"I doubt it." Those words rang in his head. He hadn't been underestimated since the beginning of his first year in Hogwarts. Bu he had been underestimated a lot in his life before Hogwarts. No one thought that he could even ride a broom until Hogwarts, where he won the house cup for Ravenclaw for the past 4 years. No one thought he would have gotten the highest scores Hogwarts had seen in half a century and some of the highest scores Hogwarts had ever seen in its many years. Come to think of it, no one ever expected for him to have the school under his control. Everyone had underestimated him; his talents. And he was sick of it.

It was clear - he hated being underestimated. However, he loved proving others wrong. They were both things that had been constant his whole life. One of them brought him anger, the other satisfaction.

Besides, he had to do this. He remembered his mother's words from his seventh Christmas.

"Harry, you can't even ride a broom correctly; who would be stupid enough to let you be seeker? Nick has all the Quidditch talent in the family, not you."

O.K. so maybe she wasn't talking about Professional Quidditch but whatever. He was certainly going to prove her wrong even though technically, he already had. She had hurt him really badly that day and he had never quite forgiven her. She had never even apologized so why should he? Besides, this was only one step to proving his parents that Nick was not the only talented one in the family. Nick was not the best. And although he wasn't so petty and jealous to actually have his life revolve around proving his parents wrong, he still liked to prove others wrong. It was just a habit. A habit that would take time to break.

And like he stated before, he hated it when others underestimated him. It was probably what caused him to be so determined to prove others wrong. And no, he wasn't doing this to prove himself worthy. Proving himself worthy meant that he cared what they thought. And he couldn't care less about what others who had hurt him thought. Seeing the pathetic expression on their face as they realized they had been wrong made his day.

And he knew very well he was damn worthy and he didn't need anyone to tell him what he already knew. The only one he had ever proved himself worthy to was himself, which sounded very weird even to himself. But even that had been accomplished years ago.

Williams threw everything he had at him, though he was never called him down. He continued practicing with the others until 5:30 P.M. and he was extremely sore. Not that he'd ever show that. It would satisfy the git Williams who tried anything but murder to get him down.

He had done better than the other seeker, Will Larsson, though the boy was good competition. And now he was sweaty and in need of a shower. Professional Quidditch practice was harder and longer than Hogwarts Quidditch practice. It was one hell of an exercise.

He had locked himself in his room in the Potter Manor. Why? Simple. He needed to practice with wandless magic. He hadn't done that in a while. Hogwarts was hardly a safe place to practice that without worry of being caught.

Come to think of it, he needed to find books on animagus. Over owl letters Jake, Taylor, Cedric, and him had planned to become animagus. They had each agreed to bring all the information they could get their hands on to Hogwarts. Jake would probably bring the most information because of his family owning a library that held centuries of books. He would probably have the second most information. The Marauders had to have left a few of their books in the Potter Library and the Potter library also had centuries of books in it, just not as many centuries as the Malfoy Library.

How that related to wandless magic, he had no idea. Maybe they were related because they were both things he had to do in Hogwarts and try his best to not get caught. He pushed all his thoughts out of his brain. He needed to concentrate and he still had to unpack. Wandless magic was very easy for him but he knew if he did something wrong, he could alert the Ministry and get expelled from Hogwarts.

His trunk came flying towards him. With a click, the trunk flew open. He things flew out on their own. The clothes flew in the opened closet while his books flew and landed on the selves he had in his room. When completely emptied, the trunk closed itself and shrunk. It became the size of a book, flew, and landed on his desk.

His messy room started cleaning itself and was in complete chaos for a minute while everything flew to where it belonged. He sighed as he looked around his room to find anything he could do wandlessly. He finally smirked when his eyes landed on his desk.

A few pieces of parchment were on the desk and he had received letters from Taylor, Jake, and Cedric that he had yet to answer. The quill started writing on its own. In elegant writing that looked a lot like his but wasn't, it wrote Cedric.

Quidditch practice was okay. I'm younger than all the people there who are at least 20 and over. The coach also thinks that I'm a 12-year-old and my name is Kid. Of course, that's not as bad as the nicknames he has for the others. There's this girl there that he calls Pettycakes. Her real name is Patricia but everyone calls her Patty hence the name "Petty." And the letter went on.

When he was done with three letters written using wandless magic, he glanced up at the wall clock, 11:24 P.M. That meant that everyone was probably asleep. And he had missed dinner. Not that they had noticed. He had been missing dinner and every other meal with his family for the past 6 years and they hadn't noticed then. They weren't going to notice now.

He headed down to the kitchen to make himself some sort of sandwich.

XXX

He groaned. Another day finished at professional Quidditch practice and he felt like crap.

"Kid, stay after. The rest of you get to the showers," Coach Williams yelled. "Come 'ere Kiddio."

He sighed and jogged to the coach. Just so he said it, or thought it, the nickname Kiddio was worse Kid.

"I've decided to let you stay. There will be no try-outs or anything. You're not… you're not as pathetic at Quidditch as I thought. If you were a few years older, you'd be playing the real thing but for now, you're at reserve. You've got a little more talent than most of the idiots that think they can be seekers so you're staying," Coach Williams said.

He was too sore to care about the fact that Coach Williams had actually commented him in his own, weird way.

After his shower, he portkeyed home.

He ended up in the living room where his family was having what looked like some kind of fun meeting. Sirius, Remus, all the Weasleys excluding Bill and Charlie, and the Brat's friend, Granger. They were all laughing at some joke someone said, probably Sirius.

It took them a few seconds to realize he was there.

"What happened to you?" James asked talking about his tired form.

"Where were you actually? I don't remember you asking me to go outside?" his mother asked.

"It was 5 in the morning. You were asleep but you said yes. It's probable that you don't remember that," Harry lied skillfully. Like hell he'd ask her for permission.

His mother nodded in an understanding way. "So where did you ask me to go?"

"Cedric's," he answered.

"What did you boys do? Muggle Wrestling? You look really beat up. Was Malfoy there?" his father asked.

"No, we didn't wrestle and Jake wasn't there. We just played Quidditch and that's it," Harry said and left the living room. He went into the kitchen to get himself some drink. He searched the fridge to find something, anything, before he found Butterbeer that was not supposed to be in a fridge where kids could easily take. Sirius must've put it there. The guy never grew up and matured.

"You asshole!"

He rolled his eyes. "What did I do now?"

"You didn't tell us - Michaels and I. We had to find out from Cedric who accidentally told us. He said that he thought we already knew. He also said, and I quote, 'Harry had since the Winter Holidays to come up with something. I would've thought he did that by now.' WINTER HOLIDAYS! You've known for that long! And…"Jake stopped when he noticed the adult in the kitchen.

"What's going on? Malfoy, maybe you should head home," his father said. He (Harry) rolled his eyes. God damn, he knew his parents didn't approve of the Malfoys but couldn't they at least be a little polite. Jake hadn't been here for what, 2 minutes or maybe 40 seconds.

"Everything's fine. Jake and I have something to discuss in my room," Harry said and went to his room with Jake closely following along.

James left the kitchen after glaring at Malfoy's and Harry's back for a few seconds. He went back and took his seat in between Sirius and Lilly.

"What were they taking about?" Molly Weasley asked.

"Something about Harry not telling something to Malfoy and the Michaels kid. He apparently told Diggory and the boy let it slip. Harry's also known of it since Winter Holidays or something. I don't know but Malfoy seemed really mad," James said.

"And you let him stay?" Molly asked.

"Harry dragged him up to his room before I could do anything," James said simply.

"What could Prongslet be hiding? Did he tell you two about anything out of the ordinary?" Remus asked curiously.

"No, not really. Harry's like the king teenager of teenagers. He's very self-kept," Lilly said as if it explained everything while Ron, Nick, Hermione, Percy, and the twins were trying to stifle a laugh. Lilly had no idea how dead on she was.

"None of my kids were like that, Lilly. It's not common for a kid to be as independent as Harry is. You two need to show these kids whose boss or they become untamable. Next thing you know, he'll be roaming around the place as if he owns it," Molly ranted.

"As if he doesn't do that already," Fred muttered under his breath so only the current Hogwarts students could hear it.

"Molly, it's not that easy with Harry," James said.

"Then take away his independence. You shouldn't let him use the floo, owl his friends, skip on meals, go to Diagon Alley on his own, skip on family meetings, and you know," Molly said.

"You know what, we'll actually think about that," Lilly said.

"That won't work," Percy said, matter-of-factly like almost everything he said.

"Oh, and why not?" Molly dangerously asked her son.

"If you try to force anything on him, he'll probably run away. It's just the way most teenagers are," Percy shrugged. "He's used to his independence. He'll see it as a treat if you take it away from him.

"Percy dear, you don't know what you're talking about. Unless you're a parent, you won't know much of anything on parenting," Molly said.

Percy rolled his eyes. Who better give advice on how to handle teenagers than teenagers themselves? Of course, parents were too stubborn to give in. Parents always thought they knew everything. With a shake of his head, he went back to his book.

XXX

After Jake finished staring in awe at his room, he jumped on Harry's bed and laid there. Then he tilted his head to glare at Harry.

"I just noticed this is the first time I've ever been in your room, or your house. Most times we meet at Cedric's. His parents are the only ones that don't judge us. Must have to do with being a Hufflepuff," Jake said thoughtfully.

"I'm sure," Harry said sarcastically.

Jake shot him a questioning look, taking note of the sarcasm.

"You're parents seem fine with me and Taylor's parents are fine with all of us. The only thing holding us back from practically living there is the muggles part," Harry explained.

"I see your point. The only person's parents that don't seem to like all of us are your parents, Harry. It's ironic, really. You're parents are famed light wizards. They are known for their belief in equality and their hate for prejudice. Yet, they are still prejudiced against me and view me as scum, unworthy to kiss their boots," Jake explained.

"My parents don't hate all of us. They just hate you. It's the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry that has been going on for centuries at place. You're parents, true Slytherins, despise all Gryffindors. My parents, Gryffindors to the bone, despise all Slytherins such as yourself," Harry said. "Now I'm sure you didn't come here and yell at me in a rather not Pureblood like in front of others to just talk about the Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry."

"When were you going to tell us - Michaels and I? Matter of fact, why didn't you tell us already? I've known you for some time now Harry and I know for a fact that you'd have something planned out by now. Not meaning to start any girl drama, but you know how much Michaels and I desperately wanted this. Cedric also wanted this, and you know that. You - you never wanted any future in Quidditch. You just did it because we all did. And I'm not exactly saying that you're bad at Quidditch, but that I never thought you'd pursue a career in Quidditch," Jake said.

"I understand where you come from and you're right. I never wanted a future in Quidditch and I still don't. Besides, it's not like I'll be actually playing the real thing anytime soon. And I didn't tell you nor Taylor because I knew that you that you wouldn't take it kindly straight away. You'd become a jealous, dramatic freak and I know how much you two would love to be in my place. You'd view me as unworthy of the position simply because I don't want it as much as you do," Harry said.

Jake was silent for a moment. "You need to stop pretending you know everything, you know? You don't. And you have no right to predict mine and Michaels actions."

Harry's eyes narrowed. The boy was avoiding saying that he had predicted both his and Michaels actions accordingly. That was just a cover up.

"I admit to not knowing everything but that doesn't mean you aren't feeling jealous towards me. You do view me as unworthy of professional Quidditch and you keep telling yourself that it should've been you. It's pathetic, really. You try to cover up your faults by bringing up my faults. And you are acting dramatic like I knew you were going to," Harry stated.

Jake sighed softly. "You know, you never answered my first question. When were you planning on telling Michaels and I and dealing with all this drama?"

"Whenever the world discovered me would be the same time you discovered of my acceptance to a professional Quidditch reserve team."

"You're kidding! You were going to make us wait that long. Why? Is it because Potty was too much of a coward to face the mighty Jake Malfoy and the less mighty Taylor Michaels?" Jake taunted.

Harry laughed in amusement. Whenever and wherever Jake or Taylor had the chance to insult each other, they took it with hesitation. Their arguments were the source of Harry's and Cedric's laughter more often than not.

"I was not cowardly and it's Potter not Potty. I never thought that you were so thick that you couldn't even pronounce Potter right. It shames me to actually be friends with you," Harry said as Jake glared.

"Shut up and answer the question."

"I didn't say anything because I didn't, and still don't, think that I'd ever be put in the spotlight. That way you'd never have to know. I'm a reserve, not an actual player," Harry explained. "Besides, if it happened, I would be older than and know how to handle your little tantrums better."

"I do not throw tantrums," Jake denied said causing Harry to laugh. "So now that I'm in your house, I want to make the life of the people currently staying at your house hell."

Harry grinned. "What do you have in mind?"

Jake got an identical grin in his face. "Your father, Black, and Lupin were well-known pranksters during their time in Hogwarts. And what's better than a pulling a prank on pranksters?"

"Let's do something simple," Harry instructed. "It'll be funnier when they find out that a beginners prank was pulled on them."

"Let's prank everyone else here too. The Weasley Twins are also pranksters," Jake said.

"So what's the oldest prank in the book that you can think of?" Harry asked.

"Um… we should… we should drop water on them? I don't know…. How about we spike their drinks? We should spike each drink differently. Then we can guess who got which," Jake suggested.

Harry grinned evilly. "My mother has a potions storage room for potions that she think will come in handy. And not all of them are to be used as medicine."

"Shall we?"

The headed down to Lilly Potter's potions storage room where they grabbed 13 different potions. From there, they went to the kitchen where they poured 13 glasses of pumpkin juice. Each of the 13 glasses contained a drop of a different potion.

"Blink!" Harry called for the house elf.

With a sharp pop, the house elf was standing right before them. "Yes, Master Harry?"

"Take these to everyone there. Make sure everyone gets a glass and at least sips a little from it," Harry commanded.

Blink nodded. With another sharp pop, Blink disappeared from the kitchen and so did the 13 glasses of pumpkin juice with him.

"Come on," Harry urged Jake. "Let's go watch."

Everyone happily took the juice from the house elf without questioning it. After all, it was pumpkin juice. Harry and Jake snickered while they watched Sirius Black grow pimples all over his face. James Potter fell into laughter. Then his hair started to grow abnormally fast, causing Sirius to laugh.

"X'inhu Għaddej?" Ronald Weasley asked. He must have drunk the potion that made you speak a different language for a full week. And the language changed every time you spoke….

Sadly, the only thing that happened to the Boy-Who-Lived was every hair on his head turned into a different color. It looked disgusting and would wear out in just 2, long weeks.

"Wait, if Prongs and Padfoot didn't do it, and Fred and Gorge didn't do it, who did it?" Lilly Potter, who had her face and whole body painted in a rainbow that would last for only 3 days, asked.

Harry and Jake, who were on the floor in laughter, soon had 13 people glaring at them.

"When I say go," Harry hurriedly whispered, "you run in the direction to my room and lock the door the same way we got down. I'll run in another way to my room to distract them. I'll knock 4 times. Let's stall it make and them run around the whole manor."

"HARRY! MALFOY!" James Potter yelled.

"GO!"

Harry was being chased by the adults mostly, the ones who didn't really know to what extent his power was. Sirius, James, Arthur, Lilly, Molly, and Remus. It was disappointing actually. The only fast runners of the group were James and Sirius from their Auror jobs.

Jake had Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, Nick, Percy, and Hermione chasing him. They were all excited to get one over the soon to be Death Eater, Jake Malfoy. Malfoy had helped make their life hell in Hogwarts, with the exception of Ginny. The idea of getting back at Malfoy who didn't know his way around the Manor was just too tempting.

The goose chase continued with Harry effortlessly dodging spells cast by the adults and Jake pushing a lot of his chasers to the ground when he met a dead end. Soon, both boy's had lost the crowd chasing them and were in the library, laughing.

"You should have seen it! It was so funny. Your brat brother and Weasley Number 6 looked as if they were about to pass out," Jake laughed.

Harry smiled and led Jake out of the library. They continued walking and laughing about various things until something caught their eye.

"What do you mean?" The obnoxious voice of the Boy-Who-Lived asked.

"Mister Nick Potter mustn't go back to Hogwarts. Great dangers await at Hogwarts. There is a plot - a plot to kill Mister Potter. History mustn't repeat itself," a house elf said.

There was silence for a few seconds before a low growl came from Jake Malfoy.

"Dobby."