The next day at lunch, Harry, Ron and Hermione were talking then a white owl had come rushing in with a package, dropped it off in front of Harry and then left. Everyone was looking at the package that was left in front of Harry. He was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel. "A bit early for mail, isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"But I never get mail," Harry said.

"Let's open it," Ron said, the trio opened it and saw that it was a broomstick.

"It's a broomstick," Harry said.

"That's not just a broomstick, it's a Nimbus 2000!" Ron said excitedly.

"But who…" he looked around and saw that the owl had sat in front of Ella and was being fed by her. Ella looked up and saw Harry and smiled at him. That was when he knew that the gift was from her.

Later that same day, Harry met with Ella before leaving the castle and they set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. He'd never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in the stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Harry of the plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high. Too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Harry mounted his broomstick and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling – he swooped in and out of the goalposts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever he wanted at his lightest tough.

"Hey, Potter, come down!" Oliver Wood had arrived but he was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Harry landed next to him. "Very nice," said Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant… you really are a natural. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week." Oliver saw that Ella was here.

"I asked Miss Cullen to be here tonight. Is that okay?" Harry asked.

"It's not a problem. I was just wondering why she was here, that's all," he said and he put the crate on the ground. "Now, Quidditch is easy to understand. Each team has seven players. Three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and a Seeker. That's you. There are three kinds of balls. This one's called the Quaffle," holding out a soccer sized ball. "The Chasers handle the Quaffle and try to put it through one of those hoops," pointing to the hoops behind him. "The Keeper, that's me, defends the hoops. With me so far?"

"I think so. What are those?" he asked, pointing to the three balls left inside the box.

Oliver gave him a small club, a bit like a short baseball bat and said, "You better take this," he leaned down to unhook the straps that were holding down two balls. Once he unhooked the straps, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Harry's face, "Careful now, it's coming back," Harry swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking his nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air, "Not bad, Potter. You'd make a fair beater." It zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it on the ground. Oliver was struggling with the Bludger back into the crate and strapped it in safely.

"What was that?" Harry asked, somewhat frazzled.
"Bludger. Nasty little buggers. But you are a Seeker. The only thing I want you to worry about is this," Oliver said, showing him the small, golden ball, "The Golden Snitch."

Harry smiled at what Oliver was holding in his hand, "I like this ball."

Oliver handed it to him and said, "You like it now. Just wait. It's wicked fast and damn near impossible to see."

"What do I do with it?" Harry asked.

"You catch it… before the other team's Seeker. You catch this, the game's over. You catch this, Potter, and we win," he explained. Harry gave the Snitch back to Oliver, who then put it back into its rightful place in the crate. "That's it. Any questions?" Harry shook his head. He understood what he had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem. "We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Wood, "it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these. He pulled out a bag of ordinary balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later, he, Ella, and Harry were up in the air. Ella was throwing the golf balls in every direction for Harry to catch. Harry didn't miss a single one, and Oliver was delighted. After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on. "That Quidditch Cup'll have our name on it this year," Oliver said as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons."

Perhaps it was because he was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all his homework, but Harry could hardly believe it when he realized that he'd already been at Hogwarts two months. The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had. His lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics. It was Halloween and the day went by fast and it was time for dinner, the last Harry knew he saw Hermione going off to the bathroom, crying because of what Ron had said. He looked at the empty seat beside him and asked, "Where's Hermione?"

"Parvati said she wouldn't come out of the bathroom. She said that she'd been in there all afternoon, crying," said Neville.

Then the double doors of the Great Hall opened and Professor Quirrell had come running through it, stopped midway and said, "Troll in the dungeon! Troll in the dungeon!" he paused, "Thought you ought to know." Then he fainted. Everyone in the room looked at each other then started panicking, dropped their foods and started to run.

"Silence!" Dumbledore called out. Everyone froze in their spots. "Everyone will please not panic! Now, perfects will lead their house back to the dormitories. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons," he directed, then looked at Ella and Edward, who then went out the back door immediately and scoured ahead. When they all got to the dungeon, they didn't find anything. Ella astral projected herself and saw that the troll was in the girls' bathroom and told them. McGonagall, Ella, Snape and Quirrell ran up to the bathroom. Ella had projected back into herself when they've reached into the bathroom.

"Oh, my goodness," McGonagall said. She looked at Ron and Harry, "Explain yourselves, both of you."

Harry and Ron attempted to, but Hermione beat both of them to it, "It's my fault, Professor McGonagall."

McGonagall looked at her, startled, "Miss Granger?"

"I went looking for the troll. I thought I could handle it. But I was wrong. If Harry and Ron hadn't come and found me, I'd probably be dead."

Harry looked at Snape's leg and noticed it bleeding. Snape saw what Harry was looking at and covered it. McGonagall started to speak, "Be that as it may, it was an extremely foolish thing to do. I expected more rational behavior and am very disappointed in you. Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgment," she then turned to Ron and Harry, "As for you two gentlemen… I just hope you realize how fortunate you are. Not many first-year students could take on a troll and live to tell the tale. Five points will be awarded to each of you… for sheer dumb luck." With that said, McGonagall, Snape and Ella had left. Ella heard Quirrell say, "Perhaps you ought to go. It might wake up."

"Ella, I need you to go inform Dumbledore of the situation and inform Filch about the troll," McGonagall said as she left to go to her office. Ella went towards Dumbledore's office to inform him what had transpired.

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in the long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaverskin boots. The Quidditch season begun. On Saturday, Harry would be playing in his first match after weeks of training: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, they would move up into second place in the House Championship. Hardly anyone had seen Harry play because Wood had decided that, as their secret weapon, Harry should be kept, well, secret. But the news that he was playing Seeker had leaked out somehow, and Harry didn't know which was worse – people telling him he'd be brilliant or people telling him they'd be running around underneath him holding a mattress. It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermione as a friend. He didn't know how he'd have gotten through all his homework without her, what with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do. She had also lent him Quidditch Through the Ages, which turned out to be a very interesting read. Harry learned that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch fould and then all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them; that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.

Saturday had come and everyone was in the Great Hall, feasting on breakfast, "Just a bit of toast, mate. Go on," Ron said.

"Ron's right. You'll need your strength today," Hermione encouraged.

"I'm not hungry," Harry responded.

Snape then walked up to where he was sitting and said, "Good luck today, Potter. You've proven yourself against a troll. A game of Quidditch should be easy work… even if it is against Slytherin." With that, he walked away.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Harry and the rest of the team were changing into their scarlet Quidditch robes. Oliver cleared his throat and encouraged his team to play their best. They were standing at the Gryffindor team entrance, waiting to be introduced. Oliver looked at him and asked, "Scared, Harry?"

"A little," he replied.

"It's all right. I felt the same way before my first game."

"What happened?"

"I don't really remember," he replied. "I took a Bludger to the head two minutes in… woke up in the hospital a week later." Harry looked up at him startled.

Ella had overheard what Oliver told him and groaned, "Way to go, Oliver!"

"What is it, Ella?" McGonagall asked, who was sitting next to her.

"Oliver just told Harry what happened to him during his first game and that scared Harry more than it did calm him," Ella said.

"Wood!" Ella laughed at McGonagall's behavior. The doors had opened and the team members had flown out of it.

"Welcome to Hogwarts' first Quidditch game of the season. Today's game, Slytherin versus Gryffindor! The players take their positions as Madam Hooch steps onto the field to begin the game!"

"Now, I want a nice, clean game from all of you!" Hooch said, and then opened the trunk.

"The Bludgers are up followed by the Golden Snitch. Remember the Snitch is worth 150 points. The Seeker who catches the Snitch ends the game. The Quaffle is released and the game begins," the announcer wins. The game had started and Gryffindor had the Quaffle. "Angelina Johnson scores! 10 points for Gryffindor!" The game continued. "Slytherin takes the Quaffle. Bletchley passes to Captain Marcus Flint. Gryffindor steals it and scores! Another 10 points to Gryffindor!" Harry was flying high looking at the game then he saw the Snitch and flew after it. Halfway through, his broom was going out of control. Hermione looked through her binoculars through the crowd and saw that Snape was muttering something.

"It's Snape. He's jinxing the broom," she said.

"Jinxing the broom? What do we do?" he asked.

"Leave it to me," she said and gave her things to Ron. She left the stands, ran to where Snape was sitting. Got behind the seating to where Snape was, took her wand out and pointed to a part of Snape's cloak and said, "Lacarnum Inflamarae." She left once the fire was set on his cloak.

One of the other teachers noticed that he was on fire, "Fire! You're on fire!" Everyone around Snape was panicking and was causing quite a commotion. Harry's broom then stopped. Harry pulled himself upright onto his broom. He looked around and saw where the Snitch was and saw how the Slytherin's Seeker was chasing after it. He went after him and the Snitch. Harry had finally caught up with Slytherin's Seeker and they were shoulder to shoulder. The Snitch turned down towards the lawn and they both turned down after the Snitch. The other Seeker had pulled up when they were getting too close to the ground. Harry pulled up in time to still follow the Snitch. He jumped onto his broom and stood upon it as it was still flying. He leaned forward, trying to catch the Snitch. He leaned forward too hard and fell forward and rolled onto the ground. He sat straight up and was gagging.

"Looks like he's gonna be sick," Hagrid said.

He managed to cough up and the Snitch came out of his mouth and onto his hand. Someone called out, "He's got the Snitch."

"Harry Potter receives 150 points for catching the Snitch!" the announcer said.

Hooch blew into her whistle and said, "Gryffindor wins!" All but the House of Slytherin was cheering as he stood up proud on the ground with the Snitch in hand.

After the game had finished, Harry went to clean up. While cleaning up, he thought about spending some time with Ella to get to know her and her family a little bit better. He thought that maybe he could spend some time with them during the Christmas holiday, which was just around the corner. He knew immediately that that was something he had to talk to her about right after he finished up. He opened the double doors of the Great Hall and saw Ella standing with her coven and approached her. "Miss Cullen?"

She turned around and smiled, "Harry, congratulations on winning the game today."

"Thank you. Honestly, I didn't think I'd win but it felt good when I realized that I had the snitch," he said, smiling somewhat.

"That's good. Is there something that you wanted to ask me?"

"I was wondering if I could spend time with you and your family during the winter holiday. I would like to get to know you and your family a little bit better. Ron and Hermione are planning to visit their families and I thought it would be a good time to ask you my questions," he explained.

"Of course you can stay with me and my family," she said. Everyone else chimed in, agreeing with Ella's approval.

Before anyone knew it, it was the winter holiday, Hermione had come by the Great Hall to find Harry. She saw him sitting with Ron, Ella and Edward. Ron and Harry looked like they were playing chess. "Knight to E-5," said Harry.

Ron looked at his pieces and smiled, "Queen to E-5." The Queen slashed her sword at the Knight and Hermione was appalled.

"That's totally barbaric!" she exclaimed.

"That's wizard's chess. And it seems that Miss Cullen doesn't mind it," said Ron. He saw her luggage, "I see you've packed."

"I see you haven't," Hermione said.

"Change of plans," he informed her. "My parents went to Romania to visit my brother Charlie. He's studying dragons there."

"Good," she said. "You can help Harry with you know what!"

"We've looked a hundred times!" he complained.

"Well, I'll allow Harry to tell you," she said. She didn't want either of the Cullens to hear what they've been doing, "Happy Christmas." And she left.

"I think we're a bad influence on her," Ron said. Harry nodded.

"What have you been up to, Harry?" Ella asked. "I thought that you were planning to spend time with me and my family."

"Umm, nothing, really," he replied. Ella looked at him skeptically. "I promise, it's nothing bad. We're just trying to find some information on a certain wizard and we can't find anything," he tried to explain. "I do want to spend time with you and your family. I wasn't aware that Hermione wanted to continue researching during the holiday." Ella didn't say anything but looked at Edward carefully. Edward nodded slightly. Ron was contemplating something.

"Ron, what is it?" Edward asked.

"Harry, do you still want to spend time with Miss Cullen and her family?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, maybe we could go and spend time with them. I don't want to study throughout the whole holiday. You know me! I hate studying," Ron commented.

"That's true. We could just tell Hermione that we tried but found nothing," Harry said.

"That really isn't nice thing to do to a friend, Harry," Ella informed him.

"I know but it's the holidays and I'd… we'd rather spend it with our friends and families instead of studying and trying to find information. That's not what the holidays are about," Harry explained and Ron was nodding his head furiously. Edward and Ella both laughed.

"Okay, then you both better start packing your things after the game is over. We'll be leaving before dinner," she said.

After the game, both Ron and Harry hurried off to their dorm room and packed as quickly as possible and left the room. They both met the family at the main entrance.

They had seen Dumbledore speaking to the family. "Ella, please do take care of Harry and Ron."

"I will. My family will help me take care of them and protect them. We will bring both of them back to Hogwarts safely, Professor," she said, smiling at Dumbledore's over-protectiveness of the two boys, especially for Harry, since he didn't have family, except for his aunt and uncle.

"Professor, I'll be fine," Harry chimed in.

"Oh! Harry, I didn't mean for you to hear that," he said.

"Whether or not I was meant to hear that, it's still nice to hear someone cares about me and Ron," he said. Ron stood there scowling.

"I have enough people in my life to take care of me, thank you," he responded.

"It doesn't hurt to have more people to care about you, Ron," Ella said.

"We'll see you next term, professor," Harry said as they were all ready to leave. They all said their good-byes and headed towards the train station. "Miss Cullen?"

"Harry, since we're not in school anymore, you don't have to call me so formally. You can call me Ella," she said.

"Ok, Ella then, I was just wondering how we will get to your house from the train station?"

"We will have three cars waiting for us at the train station," she explained. Ron heard what she said and burrowed his head. "What is it Ron?"

"How is it possible that you will have three cars waiting at the train station when we get there?"

"Ron, we have someone who takes care of our transportation while we are at Hogwarts," she said. "Also, we have someone taking care of our house while we're not there. You'll understand what happens once you've seen everything," she enlightened, smiling. We all found a compartment in the train and sat down.