As October drew to a close Harry became excited due to the Quidditch season approaching and couldn't wait for practice to start.
Two weeks before the first match, Oliver Wood was going around to each member of his team to let him or her know when the first practice will be. He found Harry last.
"Harry, tomorrow afternoon is the first practice. I will have a schedule of when all the practices will be and I will post it in the common room."
"Thanks. Oh, Oliver I've heard that Slythrein has a new seeker, Draco Malfoy. I also heard that the whole team has new brooms, Nimbus Two Thousand and One's. We might want to find out when they plan of training their new seeker. I think I heard that they were going to start training tomorrow, but I could have the day wrong."
"Thank you for telling me this Harry. I'll see what I can find out and let you know of any changes." Oliver then walked off to find Professor McGonagall.
McGonagall was in her classroom.
"Professor, might I have a word?"
"What is it Wood?"
"I just heard that Slytherin has a new seeker and they might be planning on training him tomorrow. I was wondering if you have heard anything about it."
"I have not heard anything but I will speak with Professor Snape and let you know what I find out."
Thank you Professor."
Just before lunch McGonagall found Oliver.
"I have talked with Professor Snape and yes they will be training their new seeker tomorrow."
"Would we be able to practice tonight and Sunday?"
"I don't have a problem with that, just don't be out too late. You have my permission and if anyone has a problem with you practicing tonight tell them to come see me."
"Thank you Professor."
Oliver ran to the dinning hall to let his team know of the change. He again thanked Harry for the information he passed on.
The practices went extremely well. Everyone was on top of his or her game. Oliver was very pleased.
"As long as they don't play too dirty we should beat the crap out of them."
"Oliver be realistic, we're playing Slytherin." Said Fred
"They always play dirty." Added George.
"Every one change, have dinner and then straight to bed. I want everyone to have a good night's sleep. We have a big game tomorrow."
Everyone headed back to the castle, put their things away and went down to have dinner.
As Oliver had told them they went straight to bed after dinner.
Early in the morning Oliver went around the dormitories and woke up his teammates. They went to the dinning hall together, had breakfast and went down to the Quidditch Pitch, changed in the dressing room and waited.
"Practices have been great, we have all been on target with what each of has to do. Even if Slythrein plays dirty, worse than they have in the past, as long as we play as we did in practices we should still beat the crap out of them. Your main job is the position you play but keep an eye out for your teammates. Harry all I want you to do is to keep an eye out for the Snitch but only catch it if it will result in us winning. Let's get out there and do what we do."
They were all fired up and ready to take Slytherin down as they walked out of the changing room and onto the field.
The captain's shook hands, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and fifteen people kicked off the ground and soared high up in the air.
Harry few around the Pitch a few times, being sure to avoid Draco. He was a little nervous, wondering if he had actually got through to Dobby and hoping that there would be no rouge bludger.
Lee Jordan was commentating.
"Gryffindor takes the first possession, Angelina Johnson has the quaffle zooming to the goal posts. Can Slytherin's keeper, Zabini Blaise prevent Gryffindor from scoring? No he doesn't, Angelina scores. The score is ten to zero, Gryffindor in the lead." Loud cheering from three quarters of the school.
"Warrington with the quaffle speeding down to the other end of the pitch. He gives it his best shot and ooh, Wood with the save. Bell with the quaffle, Montague coming straight at her, she passes the quaffle to Spinnet and she speeds to the goal post and scores, twenty to zero, Gryffindor still in the lead. Puce has the quaffle, speeds to the goal posts and Wood makes another save."
Roars and cheers from the majority of the crowd, Slytherin's booing.
An hour later, "Johnson with the quaffle…Montague…. Spinnet…. Warrington…. Bell has the quaffle and speeding to the goal posts…she scores. Forty to Thirty, Gryffindor still leading. Bole hits a bludger, which slams into Johnson knocking her off her broom. Fred or George Weasley sends the bludger back towards Bole who dodges it. Warrington with the quaffle….Bell has it and is speeding to the goal posts and scores, Ninety to Thirty and Gryffindor adds to their lead. Derrik slams the bludger right into Wood's gut knocking him off his broom, Pucey scores, Fifty to Forty. Madam Hooch blows her whistle; Gryffindor gets to take a penalty shot. Spinnet to take the shot and makes it."
Half-hour later, "Montague makes it, Sixty to Ninety. Wood looks a bit shook up still after that bludger to the gut. Johnson zooming up the pitch and scores. Bell knocked off her broom, another bludger to Wood's gut, Slythrein scores. Spinnet zooming up the pitch, Warrington knocks the quaffle out of her hands, Pucey catches it and zooms down the pitch and scores."
Forty-five minutes later, "Gryffindor taking a beating from Slytherin. Sixty to One hundred and fifty, Slythrein in the lead and it looks like Potter sees something as he dives, Malfoy follows. Malfoy nearly crashes, Potter only feinting. Potter off and hauling ass down the pitch, dodges a bludger, dives to miss colliding with Bole, Derrik knocks Potter off his broom. Wait…it looks like Potter has the snitch."
Madam Hooch blew her whistle, "Game over, Gryffindor wins, Two hundred and ten to One hundred and fifty."
* * * * * * *
The next day Ron and Hermione were walking around the grounds at lunch. Hermione saw Harry and Ginny having lunch by the lake; she tried to casually change their direction. It was too late Ron had spotted them by the lake and headed over.
"Ron, leave them alone, they're only having lunch by the lake. Right now they are only friends, they'll always be friends. You have said more than once that you trust Harry. Ron don't do this. All you are going to do is make Ginny pissed at you. I suggest you let it go unless you want your sister to be pissed. If I were you I wouldn't want Ginny pissed at me."
Ron didn't hear a word that Hermione said and kept on walking over to Harry and Ginny.
"What the bloody hell is going on?"
"Uh…Ginny and I are having lunch by the lake."
"She's only eleven."
"And I'm only twelve!"
"Ron you're such an asshole." Ginny said and stormed off to the castle.
"I hope you're happy that your sister is pissed at you." Said Hermione
"It's for her own good."
"Ron, I thought you trusted me."
"I do."
"Well, I don't believe it. You keep saying that you trust me yet you act like this every time Ginny and I are alone. It doesn't matter if it's two seconds. Either trust me or don't and please hurry up and decide." Harry said, "I would like to know where I stand with my best friend" Harry added sarcastically.
In the common room Ginny walked right into Fred and George.
"Ginny what's wrong?" Fred asked
"Ron is what is wrong with me. He's a big fat liar."
"What did he do now?" George asked
"Having a fit because Harry and I chose to have lunch out by lake. We tried to find him and Hermione to join us but they were nowhere to be found so went by ourselves. I wish Ron never found out about Harry liking me. He keeps saying that he trusts Harry but then he explodes at the littlest things." Ginny said with tears streaming down her face.
"We'll talk to him."
"It won't do any good."
"So write to mum and tell her that Ron's being a complete git."
Ginny was so upset and angry with Ron that she took Fred and George's advice and wrote a letter to her mum. She hoped that Ron was going to be in a lot of trouble.
After that day Harry and Ginny stayed in the dining hall to have their meals. They would sit together and chat. Ron would always sit on the other side of Ginny, Hermione would sit across from Ron to kick him if he was deserving of it and that was often.
One day Ron received a letter at lunch.
"Well, it's not a howler why not open it and read it?" Hermione asked
"It's from my mum. She's never sent letters to me at school before. I can't imagine what I could have done."
Hermione just shook her head.
Ron was alone in the common room and took the opportunity to read the letter. He opened it and read,
Ronald,
How dare you treat your sister and Harry like that! They are friends! They can hang out without supervision and they certainly can eat lunch anywhere they want! Don't make your father and I take you out of school!
Mum
Ron was trying to figure out who told his mum. 'I don't think that Harry would send a letter to my mum about how I have been. That leaves Ginny, I just don't see her doing it though. It could have been Fred and George if they got wind of my behavior. I do trust Harry; I know he has good intentions towards my sister. Why do I get so angry when they are off having lunch together by the lake? Why am I so protective of her when it has to do with Harry? He wouldn't do anything that isn't appropriate. With six brothers he wouldn't have a chance. I have got to stop doing this to them.' Ron thought to himself.
Fred and George walked into the common room and saw Ron sitting at a table reading a letter. As the got closer they noticed that it was from their mum.
"So, what are in trouble for?"
"Buzz off Fred."
"I take it Ginny sent a letter to mum."
"How would you know if she did or not?"
"Well, she was really upset the day she and Harry were having lunch by the lake. We suggested that she write to mum."
"Mum doesn't understand." Ron said defensively
"We do though. Harry told us about him and Ginny in the future how he knows it to be."
"Oh. Wait, so the two of you don't mind?"
"No! We basically gave Harry our blessing and that we would do our best to keep everyone from killing him."
"How can you take it so lightly? Why aren't the two of you having fits?"
"Well the difference between us and you is that you are Harry's best friend. The only think I can think of is that you are afraid of loosing your best friend to your sister. The only problem is that if you don't quit you will loose both your sister and your best friend." George said
"You might even loose Granger over it." Fred added and the twins went on their way up stairs to the dormitories.
From then on Ron did his best not to say anything to Harry or Ginny. He thought about what George said about being afraid of loosing his best friend to his sister. It made sense but it didn't make it right how he had treated them. Ron knew he had some major sucking up to do with Ginny, Harry and he even felt he had some sucking up to do with Hermione.
* * * * * * *
"Harry, Ginny I want to apologize for how I have acted. Harry I do trust you with my life as well as my sister. I will try to keep myself under control, I can't promise anything."
"I'll think about it." Ginny said smugly
"I guess I can accept that." Harry said
"Ron, maybe from here on out you should listen to me." Hermione said insisted.
"I will try to listen to you Hermione, no promises."
Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head.
* * * * * * *
Harry was excited about the upcoming holiday. He was looking forward to being away from Hogwarts and spending time with his Godfather.
"Harry."
"What?"
"Are you all right? You looked like you were in a trance or something."
"Yeah, I'm all right just lost in thought."
"You might want to get packed if you haven't started yet. We leave soon."
Harry quickly finished packing what he was taking with him and went down to the common room. It was full of nearly the whole house.
Harry scanned the room for Hermione and Ginny. He thought he saw Hermione across the room but didn't get the chance to take a better look as he was smacked into and then hugged. Harry smiled and hugged the person back as he realized that it was Ginny.
"Have a great Holiday Harry."
"You too Ginny."
"Harry, tell me you are all packed."
"I have packed everything that I am taking with me Hermione. You can relax. Ron should be coming down any minute, I know he's already packed and ready to go."
* * * * * * *
Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione were all in the same carriage.
"So, Harry why is Sirius meeting you at Hogsmead Station and not Kings Cross?"
"Don't know."
Just then the carriage came to a stop and they climbed out and walked up the steps to Hogsmead Station. Harry quickly looked around for Sirius. After a few minutes he spotted Sirius, turned to his friends,
"Have a great Holiday and I'll see you in January." Harry then turned and walked to Sirius.
"I am sure you are wondering why I wanted to meet you here instead of Kings Cross."
"A little bit."
"I thought we would go into Hogsmead. See if Honeydukes might have anything you want to send to your friends over the Holiday."
"I have heard of Zonko's Joke shop. It might seem strange but I have a few friends that would get a good laugh out of getting stuff from a Joke shop, they will have their own Joke shop someday."
Harry and Sirius went into Hogsmead and straight to Honeydukes and bought quite a bit of sweets for his friends and for himself and Sirius. They next went to Zonko's where Harry bought things that he was sure would give the twins a laugh.
"So, Sirius how are we going to get to the house?"
"Before we go there I though we would stop by Diagon Alley so we could do some serious Holiday shopping."
"Sounds good to me, I could use a stop at Gringotts though. Hold on, how are we going to get to Diagon Alley?"
"By apparating. Grab hold of my arm."
Harry did what Sirius told him to so. He had not yet told Sirius that he could apparate without help and he did not want to have that conversation in public.
