One Last Time
24th of May, 1996.
The morning dawned grey and threatening. Harry took his morning run in a soft drizzle. He hoped that it would clear up, but it didn't look likely. He smiled as Qozul flew over him.
"Monah, look there be little horsies with horns," Qozul said. He dived down to take a closer look.
"Back off, Qozul," Harry called out. "We don't want them to get faas, scared."
"But Qozul wants a closer look," Qozul said.
Harry sighed. "In that case, you better come down here," he said. "Let's not swoop down on them."
"Oh, alright Monah," Qozul said. He doubled back and landed next to Harry, and they walked side by side up to a clearing. Beautiful dark blue flowers climbed the trunks of the nearby trees. Golden foals ate from soft green grass. Harry walked up a few steps before sitting down on the ground.
Qozul lay down next to him with his long tail wrapped around Harry. "Tol gein, that one is grown up?" Qozul asked as a unicorn with a pearly-white coat walked out of the forest.
"Geh, yes, and we should make sure they know we're not a danger before we approach the foals," Harry said.
The grown unicorn walked up to one of the foals and bumped it before continuing to where Harry and Qozul were sitting. She lowered her head and touched Harry with her horn.
"Thank you," Harry said in Tamrielic. He wondered briefly if this was the same unicorn that had kicked him. "Can Qozul go closer? He won't hurt them."
The unicorn looked at Qozul who stood up on his hind legs. It seemed that she accepted Qozul before turning around.
"Move slowly and don't bare your teeth," Harry told Qozul.
"Okay monah," Qozul said before he moved over to the herd of unicorn foals. He weaved in and out between them and looked at them. He thought unicorns were pretty. He made his way back to Harry slowly once he had gotten a good look. "Can Qozul stay here today?" he asked.
"Only if you come when I call," Harry said.
"Qozul promise," Qozul said.
Harry smiled. He checked the time and stood up. "I better head back to the school. I'll call for you tonight, Qozul. Stay away from the horse-people," he said.
"Will do, Monah," Qozul said.
Harry started heading back to Hogwarts. He had a team to wake up and get ready. As he reached the school, a glimmer of sunlight broke through the clouds. Maybe they would have some decent weather after all.
"Hey, Harry!"
"Oliver, great to see you," Harry said. "Alice wasn't sure you could make it."
"And miss their last game. Most of the old team is graduating this year," Oliver said.
"I'm about to head up and wake them," Harry said. Then he got a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Would you like to help me?" he asked.
Oliver smiled. "Oh, now that does sound like fun," he said. "For old time's sake." He followed Harry into the school. "You have been doing a good job from what I hear. Are you considering going into Quidditch after school," he asked.
"Not really," Harry said. "I have so much other stuff going on. I'm trying my best to send out some good players though."
Oliver nodded slowly. "Well, that is certainly appreciated," he said.
They reached the common room and entered.
Hermione looked up from her book. "Harry what are you up to?" she asked. She could practically see that he was up to something.
"I just brought a friend," Harry said. "Do you think that Fred and George will appreciate it?"
"Hello Hermione," Oliver said and waved at her.
Hermione chuckled. "Do you want me to head up to get the girls?" she asked.
"If you could," Harry said. "Please don't tell them."
"Of course not," Hermione said. "Do you want me to wake the younger ones too?"
"Yes," Harry said. He watched Hermione and Oliver disappear up a staircase each. He started giggling maniacally as he heard Oliver.
"What is this dawdling? Still in bed on a game day. Up you get!" Oliver roared.
Harry made sure to block the sound up to the girl's dorms. He was pretty sure most of them were up already. He was proven right when Tanya came bouncing down the stairs quickly followed by Hermione and the other girls on the team.
"Good morning Captain," Angelina said.
"Good morning Angelina," Harry responded before greeting everyone else. They chatted for a bit before Jimmy and Ritchie came down. "That guy is insane, Cap," Jimmy said. "I'm glad he isn't our captain."
Angelina looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow. "What have you done?" she asked.
"Me? I haven't done anything," Harry said in the most wounded voice he could muster.
"Harry!" Fred and George came running down the stairs. "Save us!" They tried to hide behind him.
"Laying it on a bit thick?" Harry asked Oliver as he came down to join them.
"Maybe just a little," Oliver said. He was spotting a wide grin.
Alice rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "Did you have to," she said.
"Harry offered," Oliver said with a grin.
"Come on, let's head down to the Great Hall," Harry said. He led his team down, and they sat down to have breakfast. It wasn't just the team either. Several of their friends had joined them.
"Good luck today Harry," Cedric called as he sat down by the Hufflepuff table.
Harry gave him a thumbs up.
The team finished breakfast before most people came down and they relocated outside. The sun was shining now.
"Perfect weather," Oliver said.
Alicia rolled her eyes. "Let Harry be Captain now, love," she said.
"No problem," Oliver said.
Harry chuckled. "So this is the last game. For most of us in more ways than one," he said. "We have near-perfect weather conditions so this is ours to win or lose, but remember that what we really want to do is have fun. We're a great team. We can do this. The Ravenclaw team is good but we have trained for this and I know we can do it. Now chasers, I need you to score. Chase block as much as you possibly can but don't worry if you let a few in. We need to be up by fifty points or they will still win the cup even if I catch the snitch." Harry looked at them all. "We can do this, team," he said. "We will win."
"Yeah!"
Oliver smiled. He wished he could have managed what Harry had. He just didn't have the mindset for it.
The team headed off to the changing rooms to get changed. They wanted to do some warm-ups before the game.
Oliver watched as his old team flew around. They were so happy and carefree that a part of him itched to tell them to focus. It was game day after all. But Harry was the captain now and he encouraged this.
With fifteen minutes to spare the team headed back to the changing room and the youngsters grabbed Oliver so they could get some good seats. Hermione and Neville sat down with Natalie and a bunch of other second-year students quite close to the second team.
Slowly, the stands filled with people. Lee Jordan settled down in the commentator booth next to Professor McGonagall and Dennis Creevy. Just like the quidditch team had gone ahead and found replacements so had Lee. Dennis had commentated on a few practices held between the two Gryffindor teams. He was pretty good at it too.
For this game, they were going to co-commentate. It would be amazing.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the last game of the year," Lee said.
"Not just the last game of the year. This will be the last game for quite a few of our Gryffindor players," Dennis said.
"Luckily for Gryffindor, their captain seems to have a whole team in the wings," Lee said. "And here we have them. Welcome to the Gryffindor team. Keeper Chace Andrews. Chasers Angelina Jones, Alicia Spinet and Katie Bell. Beaters Fred and George Weasley and last but not least team Captain and seeker Harry Potter!"
The crowd cheered and Harry cast a sonorous on himself. "Let me hear you roar, Gryffindor!" he called. He handed Angelina his broom before running forward and cartwheeling.
As the crowd calmed, Dennis introduced the Ravenclaw team. They were cheered on and Madam Hooch walked up between the teams. "I hope to see a nice clean game," she said. "Captains shake hands."
Harry held his hand out to Roger Davis and they shook hands. "Good luck, Davis," he said.
"And to you Potter," Roger said.
"Teams take to your brooms," Madam Hooch said.
The teams took to the air and settled to wait for Hooch. Then the balls were in play and they were off.
Cho was a good seeker, but she was just a tad unfocused. Harry didn't stay still. He kept moving while both keeping an eye on the gameplay and one on Cho.
"Wonderful catch there, by Andrews," Lee said.
"Andrews has a lot of potential," Oliver noted. "He is focused and he moves well. He is lacking a little reach maybe, but he'll grow into that."
"Chace is good for a school team," Kyle said. "If he wants to go professional we have a lot of work to do."
"But he might not want to go professional," Demelza said.
"And that is fine," Kyle said. "I'm just glad that Cap is good enough to go pro 'cause that means he challenges us."
Oliver watched Harry; he had heard about the seeker's game where Harry had gone head-to-head with Victor Krum. Looking at Harry he could see it, but he had always known that Harry was good. He loved seeing how well the Gryffindor team worked together. Time and time again they scored. Sure Andrews let a few quaffles in, but they were tricky shots by Davis.
"Nice intercept by Chambers there," Dennis said.
Harry took a turn. He had seen the snitch they were ahead but he wished they had a bit more of a head start. He twisted his broom and rolled past Cho. At least she had stopped being glued to him. He closed his hand around the snitch.
"And Harry Potter catches the snitch! Gryffindor wins with 270 to 90 taking the house cup. Go Gryffindor!" Lee shouted.
"A valiant game from the Ravenclaw team. We hope to see more from them next year," Dennis said.
Oliver was pretty sure that Professor McGonagall would be able to relax now that Creevey was taking over the commentator's seat. He seemed capable of being neutral, something Lee had never been good at.
All of Gryffindor was celebrating, but the team still took some time off by themselves.
It felt good to send them off on a victory.
26th of May, 1996.
Albus sat down by the head table that morning and looked out over the hall. As usual, Harry was already there and he had several younger students around him. It looked like he was explaining something to them.
Albus was glad to see how Harry had matured. Something was nagging at him though. Then it hit him. Last year the wards on the Dursley household had fallen. Severus had confirmed that everything seemed alright over there, and Albus had a lot to do the year before. Remus had dropped Harry off and everything had been good for the summer. At the very least he needed to add some new wards to the house. He couldn't leave Harry unprotected another summer.
He scratched his beard. He would just have to make time for that before it was time for exams.
…
Harry looked up as the owls came flying in. He held his hand out as an unknown owl landed in front of him carrying a fairly heavy letter. He smiled. "Thank you," he told the owl.
It was a letter to Raiden from Tonks. She was guiding recruits again and she hated it. At least Luke was forced to help her out this time.
He couldn't do more than a quick scan right then Hermione would start asking questions and Raiden was an identity she wasn't supposed to know about. He wished he could grab a day and go see Tonks. Maybe he could work that in soon. For now, they had homework to deal with.
