Chapter Thirteen: Love Sparks on the Quidditch Field!
Since today was Saturday, and there were no classes on Saturday, Harry and Ron had a day all to themselves. After finishing their delicious magical breakfast, the two decided to take Alicia Spinnet up on the offer she made to them on their first day of school.
The two of them went down to the Quidditch Pitch, where the Gryffindor Quidditch Team was practicing. The only man there, a big burly guy who was guarding the goal-posts while the girls tried to throw balls through the hoops, saw Harry and Ron coming and jumped off his broom to greet them.
"I am Oliver Wood! What brings you two little boys to my lair?"
Ron took the lead on this conversational challenge, as he had more experience talking about Quidditch than Harry.
"We are here to apply for the Quidditch team!"
"Well, well well. We have one opening, but it is against the rules for first-years to play Quidditch ever because they are too tiny," Oliver Wood said, his voice bringing terrible news like a tarantula wasp brings parasitic larvae.
"What if we prove ourselves in a test of skill and mettle?" Ron demanded.
"That's not necessary Ron. We can just wait-"
"A test of skill and mettle? Why, we haven't had one of those for millennia! I like your style red-headed boy-child! Let's see how you two fare…against the Bludger Barrage! Ron's brothers…ATTACK!"
"Oi!" The twins said from thirty feet up, using their Quidditch bats to slam the iron bowling balls at Harry and Ron. Ron, used to his brothers hilarious attempts to pretend to murder him by almost murdering him, easily evaded the ball, but Harry, whose family was dead, was not as accustomed to the joys of older brothers and it was only by stumbling over his broom that he avoided having his skull bashed in.
Despite dodging the first assault, it seemed like things weren't done yet as the Bludgers flew into the air and started circling Ron and Harry like a dog shortly before it goes to bed. The Bludgers made a few feints and dives, always pulling back just as Ron and Harry started to move.
"Boys! Get on your broomsticks!" Oliver Wood said.
"We don't have any! First years aren't allowed to have broomsticks!" Harry said, ducking as a Bludger blew past his head.
"Hmm, that will make this difficult. Fred, George, throw your clubs at them!"
"Yes sir!" Fred and George say, hurling their clubs at Ron and Harry.
Harry managed to backflip over the club and a Bludger, but as Ron prepared to dodge as well the club bounced off the Bludger, sending the ball careening into the ground and the club into Ron's shin.
"OW!" Ron shouted, as his shin hurt. "Harry, you must save us!"
Harry knew Ron was right. He dashed to Oliver Wood, side-stepping as a Bludger crashed into Wood's gut and sending the larger boy tumbling. Before the Bludger's could return, Harry grabbed Wood's broom and took off into the sky, both Bludgers in hot pursuit.
He flew straight towards Fred and Fred's brother, who stuck out their arms, preparing to grab Harry and hold him in place so that the Bludger's may barrage him…but just before Harry was in reach, he shot underneath them.
KER-POOSH
And Fred and the other one were hit in the face by the Bludgers and fell to the ground. Harry gracefully landed on the ground and Ron high-fived his head.
"Good show chaps!" Oliver said, as the twins were taken by Bludgers to the hospital wing. "Harry, you get full marks. Ron, you were hit by a club so you lose five points from Gryffindor. You have to step it up, for the Quaffle Scuffle! Girls, do that thing that you do!"
The three older, attractive girls nodded and flew around in a big circular triangle, throwing the lumpy, misshapen Quaffle ball around to each other.
"I know what we have to do!" Ron said, "We have to catch the ball!"
"Catching a ball? Ron that's nearly impossible!" Harry said, still standing on his stolen broom.
"No Harry, it's totally impossible…and that's why we'll do it, because impossible things are really easy as long as you cheat!" And with that, Ron picked up Fred's brother's broom and sat on it too.
"Cheating is for Malfoy's!" Harry said, aghast.
"You shouldn't be a ghast Harry, they're scary."
"I think you're thinking of ghouls," Harry said, as the two flew up.
"Impossible! I'm not afraid of ghouls!" Ron stated confidently.
"I thought you were afraid of something like that," Harry said, carefully studying the attractive older women of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
"Yeah Harry, I'm afraid of GIRLS. They're weird and they have icky parts. Kind of like spiders, but hairier and with less legs."
"We are not spiders!" Alicia Spinnet said, distracted temporarily by Ron's distraction.
"Ah ha!" Harry said, taking advantage of the distraction to steal Spinnet's and the other girl who was not Katie Bell's brooms.
"Oh no!" Katie Bell said with a grin, "I have no one left to pass it to."
"You can pass it to me," Harry said, throwing the brooms at Ron. She did, and everyone caught something.
"Congrats! Ron, you sucked less that time and Harry you're still awesome! Now for the final challenge, Keep-away Keeper!" Oliver Wood said, picking up the three brooms lying on the ground.
He sat on one normally and then used magic to attach the other two to his arms. This seemed unusual until he took off, and then it became clear that the other two brooms were acting like magic rocket engines that blasted him into the stratosphere!
"Quick Harry! Before he comes back! Pass me the Quaffle!" Ron said, as Wood made a long curving loop in the sky.
Harry did, but Wood used his extra broomsticks to correct his course and at blistering speeds he smashed into Ron, shattering his broom and sending the red-head tumbling to the ground. Fortunately the ball bounced up and Harry caught it. Wood smiled and made a laughing noise.
"You are truly talented Harry Potter. I will let you be on my team, and get you a broomstick that does not belong to Fred's brother."
"Wow thanks!" Harry said, getting off his broom and landing next to Ron.
"What about me?" Ron asked.
"You suck," Wood said.
"What?" Ron and Harry shouted.
"I am just JK-ing with you! HA HA! No but seriously you're not good enough. Come back next year."
Before Harry could revel in his victory over Ron, they were suddenly teleportaled into Dumbledore's Office!
"Ah Harry, and Harry's friend Ron. So pleased that you tried to join the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Dumbledore said, his face twinkling with elderly amusement like a sun exploding. "Here is a broomstick Harry."
Dumbledore waved his hand and a large broomstick shaped package appeared in front of Harry. Harry and Ron excitedly open it and discover a broomstick. It was a Nimbus 20000 and it was awesome, but what was really surprising wasn't the broom but who was holding it!
"GINNY?" Ron shouted, his voice amazed.
"Yes, I am your sister Ronald!" Ginny said, her red-headed girlishness sending Ron into an epileptic crisis.
"You see Ronald, since we no longer have Dudley to protect us, I have been searching for family members of existing students that are not quite the appropriate age to start Hogwarts yet and enrolling them in Hogwarts anyways, so that their magical talent may bloom. Ginny is to be in Gryffindor with you, and she is much smarter and prettier than I initially suspected!" Dumbledore said sagely.
"You flatter me, Professor Dumbledore," Ginny said, prancing around like a beautiful antler.
Ron was still in shock, and Harry, confused and suddenly sad again because he remembered Dudley had died, decided to leave. His joy and sadness merged inside him as he trod around the school, until he found himself in the dungeons, where dungeon equipment lay. Dejectedly Harry ran his hands over the wall, next to some manacles, chains and spikes, thinking about how dead his parents were and that it was sad. Before he could degenerate into better, more advanced levels of being sad, a hand pushed Harry into the wall, roughly, but not enough to hurt him.
"What?" Harry said as a pair of arms grabbed the stunned Harry and spun him around, with great skill and grace. And he found himself looking into the face of Ginny!
She rapidly shackled Harry's hands to the wall and grinned mischievously at him. "Oh Harry, I was hoping for some help with…Potions homework. I heard that you and Snape did some Potions together…and the two of you were spectacular."
"Sure, I can help," Harry said, walking over to the table where Ginny's potions homework was strewn about. He helped, and the two bonded and it was cool.
As everything seemed to be winding down, Professor McGonagall suddenly appeared.
"Potter, terrible news. We have discovered your parents bodies. Also, they are dead."