Sorry for the delay. I've been having ideas for a sequel to Sourblood swimming around my head and I just couldn't continue this story until I wrote them down.
I'd also like to point out that we're at around the midpoint for this story. After this I'll be writing scenes that I've been imagining for ages :). Still, it can take me a while to complete new chapters, so if you want to read about the Slytherin v Slytherin match, Newt Ball, and Christmas Holidays... might be a good idea to add this story to your alert list.
Chapter 21: Flight of The Mudblood
It didn't take long for Harry to realise that what had happened with Ron was more than just a schoolyard fight. There was a wall between them now, and Harry was faced with the very frightening prospect that he and Ron may never be best friends again.
Worse, Harry had a feeling that Hermione and Ron's friendship had been broken beyond all repair. After dinner that fateful night, Harry and Hermione had returned to Gryffindor Tower to find Ron and Lavender having a very public snogging session.
"That bastard" Hermione had said. "He got so angry at Theo for asking me to go to the Newt Ball because apparently he wanted to ask me. But... but... that bastard!"
"He does have feelings for you Hermione" Harry had said. "Or, he did."
"Then he has the capacity for love equal to a Death Eater. He doesn't even care. His just moved on... I was nothing to him. Just a pawn in whatever game he wants to play with Blaise and Theo."
"But Hermione - "
"He was just going to use me. And we were friends!"
Hermione had run up to her Dormitory with tears in her eyes while Harry stood looking at his former best friend with rage burning within him.
I want to be able to forgive you Ron. But did you really care that little about Hermione? Did you lie to me because of some plan to get Hermione 'back' from Theo and Blaise?
The next day, Harry found himself smiling as Blaise hinted that he and Dave had organised some payback for Ron. Harry and Hermione found out all about Blaise's revenge when they returned to Gryffindor Tower to find a giggling crowd gathered around the Portrait of the Fat Lady.
"You can't do this!" Ron's voice boomed through the halls. "I... I have the password, I'm a Gryffindor... open or I'll get McGonagall!"
"I have already summoned her" The Fat Lady said. "I am no Sir Cadogan, and just because you have the password doesn't mean I am under any obligation to let you in if I think you are a threat or menace."
"How am I a threat or menace?"
"You've cause enough harm amongst your fellow students this weekend that I don't think it is in Gryffindor's best interests to let you in."
"But I... what have I done to harm my fellow students?"
"Breaking hearts, picking fights, ruining Gryffindor's good reputation. I won't have you!"
"Won't have who, M'Lady?" McGonagall walked past Harry and said.
"This pest Professor" The Fat Lady said. "Ronald Weasley. I've received a lot of complaints about him, and am using my privilege as Guardian of Gryffindor Tower to banish him forever!"
"You cannot be serious" McGonagall said.
"I'm dead serious. I believe it is in the best interests of Gryffindor House to banish Ronald Weasley. There have been precedents."
"Yes there have been" McGonagall admitted. "But, what has Mr. Weasley done to deserve banishment?"
"We'll, he has been unacceptably rude to other students. Both fellow Gryffindors and a few very nice Slytherins; so add tarnishing Gryffindor's reputation amongst the other Houses to his list of crimes. He has also been acting inappropriately with his girlfriend in the Common Room."
"As terrible as these things are, they don't amount to a banishing" McGonagall said.
"We'll I am the judge of that Professor. I am the one who decides who comes through this door. And I am not being unreasonable; I have already told Mr. Weasley that three sincere apologies will get him instantly un-banished."
"I'm not apologising to anyone!" Ron said.
"Mr. Weasley" McGonagal said. "Please just apologise."
"...But...,"
"I may overturn a decision made by the Guardian of Gryffindor Tower if she has unreasonably banished you. However, since she has given you a reasonable way to get back into the Tower, there isn't much I can do."
"Reasonable?" Ron said. "It's not reasonable. She wants me to apologise to a Slytherin! This has to be Blaise Zabini's doing. He was able to get into Gryffindor Tower before, he must have corrupted the Fat Lady! And he has it in for me, so now his kicked me out of my own Common Room."
"Mr. Zabini is the Slytherin you have to apologise to?" McGonagall asked.
"Well, no. She didn't say anything about Zabini."
"Well I don't see any reason to suspect him. Come with me Mr. Weasley; I'll arrange somewhere for you to sleep and study until you swallow your pride."
"But..but...,"
"But?"
"My stuff's in there."
"We'll get it later. Now follow me."
As Ron and McGonagall walked past him, Harry caught sight of something different waving to him from the walls. He saw Dave sitting with a group of nuns and grinning. The poster gave him a wink and Harry couldn't help but giggle.
He didn't see the pain on Ron's face as he looked back and saw his best-friend laughing at his misfortune.
Meanwhile:
Blaise was surprised at how happy he felt. His mother had locked him out of The Shop for a week, and Xanthe was cross with him, but he felt like a huge load had been lifted from his shoulders. Must be due to him and Dave getting the Fat Lady to banish Ron Weasley.
"You've hardly spent any time with me lately" Xanthe said as they finished off their dinner.
"It's not like you've been there for me every day of the week" Blaise said. "You're always off gossiping; you can't blame me for wanting to hang out with Dave instead of being ignored."
"But you're not hanging out with Dave" she said. "Dave says you just ignore him and tinker with that locket all day."
"I don't tinker with it all day!"
"You spend most of the day with it" Theo said. "I'm kinda glad your Mum locked you out of the Shop; it was kinda scary watching you obsess over it that night."
"You don't understand Theo" Blaise said. "There is something really, really wrong with this locket. There is something inside it messing with whatever powers Slytherin put in it, and I want to open it! I have to find out what's in there. It's driving me crazy."
"I think you should give it back to Harry" Theo said. "It seems to be effecting you really badly."
"It's a locket, it's not doing anything wrong to me" Blaise said.
"You said yourself that there is something really, really wrong with it" Xanthe said. "Are you sure you should be playing around with it?"
"I have to" Blaise said. "If I can't get it open I'll never know what is inside it. And I have to know!"
"Alright" Theo said. "But after the Shop gets reopened, promise you won't skip classes or stay up all night working on it."
"But Theo...,"
"Promise or I'll tell your mother about the locket."
"You wouldn't!"
"It's for your own good."
"Fine, fine I won't skip class or stay up late to work on it."
"And could you also stop wearing it outside the Shop?" Xanthe said. "You just seem really grumpy when you have it on."
"That's ridiculous" Blaise said.
"Please Blaise? For me?"
"Oh alright Xanthe. I'll keep it locked up in the Shop just for you."
"Thanks Blaise. Hmm... so what are you and Theo doing tonight?"
"Well Theo is going to go and work with Harry and Hermione on our Potions assignment, and I was going to go to the... hmm... I don't know what I'm going to do actually."
"Would you like to hang out with me?" Xanthe said. "Since I'm like, supposed to be your girlfriend and you've been too busy with that locket to spend any time with me."
"I... I'm sorry alright. But don't you have some friends to gossip with?"
"Not tonight. I've missed you too much. And besides, Urquhart has called Seeker tryouts for this Friday, so everyone is talking about that."
"This Friday?" Theo asked. "Isn't that well, a bit soon?"
"A lot of the Pure-Freaks are saying that" Xanthe said. "But it's been like, two weeks almost. And with the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff game just two weeks away, this may be Urquhart's last chance to book the pitch until after then."
"Ah, yeah that makes sense" Theo said.
"Are you going to try out Theo?" She said.
"What? Me?"
"You flew really well when you caught Malfoy" she explained. "I bet you'd make a good Quidditch player."
"No thanks" Theo said.
"It'll never happen Xanthe" Blaise said. "Have you finished eating? Why don't we leave Theo to his studies and go hang out? As distracting as the locket is, I've missed you too."
"Awww... that's sweet Blaise. Well, I'll see you around Theo."
"Bye Xanthe."
"Later Theo" Blaise said.
"Later Blaise. Oh, are you two going to the Newt ball together?"
Blaise stopped and stared at Xanthe. Ha hadn't even thought to ask her about that.
"Of course we are" Xanthe said. "Right Blaise?"
"Right on" Blaise said.
Later that Week
Wednesday morning saw Harry struggling with the blood replenishing potion that Snape had set as an in-class exam. Harry had panicked at first, but as Theo's advice came back to him, Harry found that it actually wasn't that hard to get it to the correct brown-red colour. At the end of the class Harry noticed that his potion was looking just like Hermione's. Maybe he would be able to get that O and stay in Snape's horrible class.
Ron however, had a bubbly cauldron full of pink goop. Despite what had happened between them, Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for his friend.
Neville, Dean, and Seamus had all approached Harry earlier in the week to say that they were not going to get involved in the whole affair, however Harry had a feeling that Dean and Seamus were more inclined to take Ron's side.
The Gryffindor girls had all sided with Ron and Lavender and were shunning Hermione, but Hermione seemed to be taking it well. She simply pointed out that she wasn't close to any of them, and that if they turned mean on her she could easily hex them.
The fight with Ron was not the only thing on Harry's mind. The strange conversation between Theo and Dave also kept coming back to him. He had no idea what Theo had been talking about when he said things hadn't been good for him before Hogwarts, but it made Harry think about his life with the Dursleys.
He had told many people that the Dursleys were horrible to him, but he had never gone into detail before. He had even downplayed his imprisonment when the Weasleys freed him and took him to the Burrow for the first time. The Dursleys had never seriously hurt him or starved him, so Harry had always just told everyone that they were simply mean. And just being mean wasn't the same as being abusive.
Yet, whenever Harry allowed himself to dwell on the early years of his childhood, he couldn't deny that the Dursleys had hurt him.
But he had never let that upset him before. Not when he was at Hogwarts.
Later that night, during his session with Miss. Io, he decided to bring the Dursleys up.
"It's never really bothered me before" Harry said. "Well, not while I've been at Hogwarts or at the Weasley's. But ever since I heard Theo mention that things weren't that good for him before Hogwarts, well I've been thinking of the Dursleys a lot, because things weren't that good for me either."
"That sounds like a rather vague trigger" Miss Io said. "Has anything else been happening that may have gotten you worried about your life outside Hogwarts?"
"No not that I can think of" Harry said.
"Alright then" She said. "Now, you mentioned the Weasleys just then. They've been a surrogate family for you haven't they?"
"Yeah they have."
"And you don't dwell on the way the Dursleys treat you when your with the Weasleys?"
"No" Harry said. "The Weasleys are more a family to me than the Dursleys have ever been. Mr. Weasley is like a father to me, and Mrs. Weasley is like the mother I'd always wanted. And Ron..., oh god."
"What is it Harry?"
"Ron's like a brother to me" Harry said. "But now he doesn't want to have anything to do with me. I... I don't know if I'll be able to see his family again."
"I see. There aren't any other relatives you can talk to about this?"
"These Ginny, but we haven't spoken since the fight." And I'm too afraid of losing her to approach her and talk about it he thought.
"I think you better have a talk to her. Let her know what her family means to you. Maybe you should write a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and let them know what's going on."
"But their Ron's family. I shouldn't be trying to like, force myself on them or anything."
"Harry, from everything you've told me, and everything I've heard about the Weasleys, they are more of a family to you than those abusive Dursleys."
"The Dursleys aren't really abusive...,"
"You've just told me that they repeatedly locked you in a cupboard, failed to provide you with adequate clothing, allowed their son to beat you up, belittled and insulted you, and purposely set out to make your life as miserable as possible. Harry, just because they didn't beat you up, starve you, or molest you doesn't mean they weren't abusive. You're very lucky that you came to a happy, safe place like Hogwarts and met people who care for you. You're coping really well considering what you've been through.
"But now that such a large part of your support net has been taken away from you, it's natural that the hurt and anger you've been able to just ignore are troubling you a bit more than normal now. Especially since you haven't quite gotten over losing Sirius yet."
"I... I guess that kind of makes sense" Harry said. "You know, the first night I met Sirius he offered to take me away from them and let me live with him."
"Yes, I bet you jumped at the offer."
"I sure did."
"And now even though you're starting to accept Sirius's death, I think it will take you a lot longer to accept that you've lost that means of escape. And if you let this fight with Ron sever all your connections with the Weasleys, then you're going to have problems coping with losing them. And I think you'll be reminded much more of what it was like with the Dursleys."
"Yeah... I'll write to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley tonight. Let them know what's going on."
"That's a good idea Harry. Also, keep close to your friends; you need all the support you can get."
"Yeah."
"Now, we've gone a bit over time, did you want to continue?"
"No, I think that's enough for tonight."
"Okay. Let me know how everything goes then."
"I will. Thanks Miss Io. See you next week."
"See you next week Harry. Bye."
As Harry left Miss Io's office, he realised that was the first time he had ever sincerely thanked her.
When he got back to Gryffindor Tower, he spotted Ginny straight away talking to her friends. Harry asked her for a privet word, and she seemed friendly enough as she said yes and let him lead her off to an empty nook
"This is about Ron isn't it?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah" Harry said. "I just, I want you to know that I'm really sorry about what happened, and I want to try and fix things. But I think Ron is really out of line, and well, we're still good right?"
"Still good?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah well, you're not angry with me because I'm fighting with Ron are you?"
"Of course not Harry. I mean, I'm a bit surprised you sided with Nott over Ron -"
"I was trying not to side with anyone. But I didn't like the way he was talking to Theo, so well, I told him off about it and he saw that as siding with Theo."
"Whatever. I saw Ron and Hermione's argument, and I saw the way he went off snogging Lavender Brown after Hermione apparently broke his heart. Personally I think they were both a bit out of line, but I don't hold what happened against Hermione, I'm not going to shun my own brother for it, and I don't see how this should affect my friendship with you either."
"Thanks Ginny. That really means a lot to me. I was worried that since I wasn't on speaking terms with Ron anymore, that well, you and your family might not well, like me that much anymore."
"Harry that's stupid! After all you've done for my family, we aren't going to disown you just because Ron's hormones have started causing trouble."
"Thanks Ginny. Your whole family has always been there for me. I'm sorry if this whole situation has made things awkward."
"Don't worry Harry. It's not like you could just turn around and snub Hermione and Nott because Ron had a hissy fit."
"I know. But I was just really worried I'd lost you all. Especially since I haven't seen you since the whole incident."
"Oh sorry, I should have talked to you straight away. The girls and I have just been a bit busy preparing for the ball."
"The Ball?"
"The Newt Ball. I'm going with Dean, so my friends have been helping me pick out new dressrobes and stuff in the catalogues."
"Oh, right. Yeah I forgot about that."
"After all the trouble it's led to you've forgotten?"
"Well, it did come along quite suddenly. And it has caused a lot of trouble."
"I guess. Do you know who you're going with yet?"
"Not sure. Maybe Blaise's sister."
"Ah okay. Hmm... you know, we haven't spent much time together this year. Want to do something together soon Harry?"
"Um, yeah sure. What did you have in mind?"
"Well, do you want to come with me to watch the Slytherin Seeker tryouts?"
"The... Slytherin tryouts?"
"Yeah. Matt Powers is going to try out and I want to watch him fly. But none of my friends want to go, and it would be nice to go with someone else whose really into Quidditch."
"Why don't you go with Dean?"
"He doesn't think it's safe to go to a pitch full of Slytherins" Ginny said. "He forbade me from going. As if his the boss of me."
"Oh I see. Well, I'll let him know I'm going with you. Should make him feel better."
"What? Are you saying I need your protection?"
"No, but I'm in a big mess with Ron for getting involved in whatever's happening with him, Hermione, and Theo. I don't want Dean to think I'm trying to come between you and him too."
"Oh, right. Sorry Harry, I thought, never mind. But, you do want to go watch Matt Powers fly right? It's not a matter of you going to protect me is it?"
"Ginny, I remember fighting alongside you in the Department of Mysteries. You don't need my protection at the Quidditch Pitch, and I'd really like to watch Matt fly."
"Okay. Thanks Harry. It's a date. A platonic date I mean."
"Of course. Thanks for staying by me Ginny."
"Anytime Harry. Anytime."
The Quidditch Pitch was packed, and not just with Slytherins. Greg even saw Potter and the Weaslette in the stands, looking excited if not awkward.
Of course their here Greg thought they want to gloat about Draco not being Seeker anymore.
There had been a large number of applicants for the Seeker position, but after a number of simple tests Urquhart had narrowed it down to three flyers. Harper, Lilith, and The Mudblood. Vince had sneered and beat his broom in frustration when Urquhart had announced that The Mudblood had made it to the final test, but Greg wasn't surprised. He was easily one of the stand-out flyers, and was certainly on par with Lilith and Harper.
"If Urquhart chooses The Mudblood, let's beat him up" Vince said.
"But what if the Mudblood flies better than Harper or Lilith?" Greg said. "I mean, we have to take the best Seeker right? Otherwise we'll just get beaten."
"Damn Greg, don't tell me you want a filthy Mudblood flying with you?" Vince said.
"No of course not" Greg said. "But I want to win!"
What he didn't say, was that flying with Lilith sounded even more appealing than winning to him. Not that he couldn't have both; she was an undoubtedly good flyer too.
"Don't worry guys" Vaisey said, her and Selwyn flying next to the Beaters as Urquhart and Bletcherly explained the final test. "There hasn't been a Mudblood on the team in over two-hundred years; and we aren't about to let one join now."
"But what if he wins the test?" Greg asked.
The final test Urquhart had devised for the hopeful Seekers was the ultimate test of speed, agility, and precision. Simply put, it was a race around the pitch. However, along the way the flyers had to dodge Bludgers from Greg and Vince, and capture flags attached to the ends of Bletcherly, Vaisey, and Selwyn's brooms. At the end of the lap Urquhart was hovering with a potentially tie-breaking flag behind his broom for whoever crossed the finish line first. In the end, whoever had the most flags would be Seeker.
"He won't win" Vaisey said. "We won't let him. Eleanor, if he tries to get your flag kick him out of the air. Beaters, knock him off his broom. I won't fly with a Mudblood!"
Urquhart blew his whistle and the crowd cheered. Greg took up position in the middle of the pitch with Vince, while Bletcherly and the Chasers got into position along the track. Harper, Lilith, and The Mudblood were poised to start. Lilith gave him a quick smile, and Greg winked back to her. He was desperately hoping that she made the team.
The whistle blew again and they were off. Greg threw the bludger up in the air and whacked it towards The Mudblood. Vince had been quicker with his Bludger; it reached The Mudblood first, however he simply swerved around it and then ducked below Greg's. The movements had put him behind Lilith and Harper, but now Greg and Vince had to fly after the Bludgers before they could hit him again.
The Mudblood almost caught up as the racers reached Bletcherly. However he wasn't fast enough; his broom may be a superfast Millennium Speedster like Harper's, but Harper was able to grad the flag of the end of Bltcherly's old Nimbus 2001 and Greg caught up to a Bludger and sent it straight towards The Mudblood.
It missed it's mark, but again The Mudblood was slowed up dodging it. Greg went after the Bludger, and out the corner of his eye he saw Vince line up his next shot, and Lilith getting all the speed she could out of her Cleansweep 11. She was right behind Harper now and gaining fast. They were approaching Selwyn, either one of them could get her flag. No, Harper was just slightly too fast, had just slightly better reach...
Greg hit his Bludger towards Harper and he was almost knocked off his broom. Lilith gracefully dodged his out-of-control broomstick and swiped Selwyn's flag.
"Greg what's wrong with you?" Vince said, chasing after his Bludger after another miss on The Mudblood."
"We have to test those two somehow" Grag said, racing after his Bludger. Harper had regained his balance and was now neck-and-neck with The Mudblood. Both were gaining fast on Lilith, who was pushing her broom farther than Greg would have thought possible. She is so beautiful on a broom he thought.
The three of them were now much closer, and he couldn't get a clear shot at The Mudblood. Still, he aimed ahead of Powers's path, but the shot was easily dodged without costing the Mudblood any ground.
They were all about equal as they came up to Vaisey. Three hands reached out for her flag, whilst one leg reached out for The Mudblood's face. Greg also saw Vince's next Bludger aimed straight at Powers's back.
Neither leg nor Bludger found their mark though. The Mudblood swerved to avoid Vaisey's kick, and upon seeing the incoming Bludger he flipped over on his broom, and righted himself just in time to swipe Vaisey's flag from the side. The crowd below cheered and Greg felt his jaw drop. Mudblood or no, this Matthew Powers sure could fly.
Vaisey's kick ended up landing in Lilith's gut, and Harper ended up crashing into Vaisey. In the few seconds it took for them to untangle themselves and fly towards the finish, Powers had gained a massive lead. A Bludger from Vince did little to slow him down.
Greg sent the other Bludger towards Powers and it almost hit him. Vince got the other Bludger flying after Powers in record time, and Greg thought that maybe, just maybe the rain of Bludgers might be slowing him down enough. Lilith was catching up, with Harper right next to her. Harper was overtaking her; now he was just ahead of her. But would it be enough? Greg had almost caught up to his Bludger, but he knew he wouldn't get a chance to get Powers with it.
And there was no way Harper was going to catch up with Powers; unless Vince's next shot connected. Greg could see Vince carefully aiming his shot. He swung his club with both hands and sent the Bludger with a loud crack to the spot Powers was going to be.
It was a perfect hit, but Powers was able to pull off the perfect dodge. He spun his broom upside-down at the last possible second, flew past the finish line upside-down, then righted himself and gracefully took Urquhart's flag as Harper and Lilith finished.
Vince whacked his club against his broom handle and shrieked out a big 'NO', but it was drowned out by the roar of the crowd. Powers raised his two flags in the air and suddenly people were on their feet screaming. Greg saw Potter and the Weaslette jumping up and down, he saw Zabini and Rivers break from their snogging session to cheer, Astoria's sister was hugging the Creevey Mudblood, even Nott and Granger were down there and looking excited. Everyone was so happy for the snivelling little Mudblood.
"I give you the new Slytherin Seeker" Urquhart screamed in a magically amplified voice. "Matthew Powers!"
The crowd cheered again and Powers looked as happy as a pig in shit. Vince flew in next to Greg and whacked him over the head.
"What was that for?" Greg asked.
"You hit Harper" Vince said. "He could have got that flag and then they'd have to do a tie-breaker, but you ruined it."
"How was I to know that Powers would get a flag and come in first at that point?"
Selwyn also flew in beside the two Beaters, and her face was contorted with rage. So was Vaisey's, but she just kept flying until she was with Urquhart, Bletcherly, and Powers.
"You hit me you bastard" Harper said, flying towards Selwyn and the Beaters with Lilith.
"I'm a Beater" Greg said.
"Idiot."
"I think Vaisey is going to try and talk Urquhart out of it" Lilith said.
"He won't change his mind" Harper said. "Urquhart's hardly better than a Mudblood anyway."
"Make Harper Seeker!" Vaisey said when the noise of the crowd died down.
"What?" Urquhart said.
"Harper!" Vaisey said. "He should be the Seeker!"
"Powers won the challenge" Urquhart said. "And he won it with the Beaters unfairly targeting him. I only saw one Bludger aimed at the other two. Powers was undoubtedly the best flyer!"
"I won't fly with a Mudblood!"
"You won't? What kind of a Slytherin are you? Willing to throw away our best chance of winning the Quidditch Cup because of some stupid prejudice?"
"His. A. MUDBLOOD!"
"Well his our Seeker; if you don't like that you're off the team!"
"I challenge your Captaincy! Selwyn, Crabbe, and Goyle are all with me; I have the numbers."
"So we're going to let Hooch decide this?" Urquhart said. "Fine; she's a very reasonable referee. Let's go get her now."
"She, she is reasonable" Vaisey said. "She won't let such a hated person stay as Captain when the majority of his team wants him gone!"
The crowd was booing now, and Greg felt queasy. As much as he hated Mudbloods, he couldn't help agreeing with Urquhart; Powers was a great flyer, and could possibly secure Slytherin the Cup this year. Normally that would count for more than his blood on the Quidditch Pitch. Taking on anyone who could give Slytherin an advantage no matter what the cost, that was the Slytherin way of doing things.
But if he said that to Vaisey, she'd say he was a mugglelover. And what if he let slip that he really respected Powers for flying so well? Vince had punched him in the gut last year when the DA lessons and forced Greg to admit that Hermione Granger was quite a skilled witch.
Once again, Greg felt he was just too stupid to understand the whole obvious blood-status thing.
:Later:
"Please Potter, it would really, really make a huge difference" Urquhart said, as he helped Harry levitate a large crate down the stairs. "We've gotten half the old Slytherin practice bookings, plus tomorrow afternoon to stage the tryouts, but Vaisey managed to book half the free sessions ahead of us. The Broomstick Formation team let us have their weekly session, and the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff teams each gave us one of their sessions, but I need more. I have a week to recruit and train a team and Potter, your hour on Thursday afternoon could really help."
They reached the Entrance Hall and Harry set the crate down in the designated area. Two hours had passed since Urquhart had chosen Matt Powers as his new Seeker. In that time he and the rest of the team had gone to see Madam Hooch and she had come up with an extreme solution that satisfied both the Slytherin Captain and the opposing majority of his team; a game. The two factions of the Slytherin Team would play a game of Quidditch next weekend, with the victors winning the right to be the Slytherin Team.
If Urquhart wanted to keep his team, he had to find two more Chasers and a pair of Beaters, train them, and then defeat Vaisey's Slytherin all in a week. After the mediation, Urquhart, Bletcherly, and Matthew had began a mad scramble to get as many practice sessions for their team. Now Urquhart wanted the only Pitch booking Harry had been able to get for this week.
Harry thought about it; as much as he wanted Urquhart to win, his team had only managed one practice session last week. If he didn't get his team out flying again soon, it would be a lot harder to get back in form after the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff game. And Gryffindor's next opponent was Hufflepuff, who had the best record against Gryffindor since Harry had been at Hogwarts.
However, that last practice session had been the day before the incident with Ron. Now that things were so wrong between them, Harry had been dreading the next session. And besides, he really wanted to see Urquhart beat Vaisey.
"Yeah sure" Harry said. "You can have my booking. You better beat those jerks though."
"Thanks Potter, I will; don't worry about that. What are you setting up here?"
"Oh this?" Harry said, placing a quill, ink bottle, and notebook on the crate. "This is the sign up book for the new Dumbledore's Army. I want to have the first lesson the Monday after the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw game."
"Sweet" Urquhart said. "Mind if I sign up now? Even with Umbridge gone, I really want to be a part of it this time around."
"Sure, go ahead" Harry said, putting a sign above the crate and casting a protective charm over the whole set up as Urquhart wrote his name in the book.
"Oh, Urquhart?" Harry asked.
"Yes Potter?"
"What should I wear to a Slytherin vs. Slytherin game?"