I cannot express my thoughts in words at the moment. The response I get from all of you has no match whatsoever. The way I get motivated to write after reading your comments is unparalleled. Thanks for all of your support, appreciation and reviews. 3
Here's Chapter 23... Enjoy!

Harry spent the entirety of the week trying to avoid Colin. Everywhere he went, he found Colin with his camera, asking for a photograph. And whenever he had the misfortune of running into Draco, he had to endure the trolls without retaliating. Controlling Ron was also getting difficult by the day as Draco always made it a point to taunt Ron. Harry and John were worried about Ron's broken wand. It had already proved itself a nuisance during their Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration classes. And their worries were proved correct on Saturday morning.

Harry found himself woken by his Quidditch captain, Oliver Wood, several hours earlier than he would have liked. His early morning got worse when he found himself tailed by Colin, asking hundreds of questions about Quidditch. The Quidditch team meeting that he was hoping to be a respite turned out the exact opposite. Their captain, Oliver Wood had spent long hours during the summer break devising tactics and patterns of play that would ensure Gryffindors victory. And Oliver had decided to explain everything on that early morning to his team. Things got worse when they finally decided to put the instructions into practice as they found themselves interrupted by the Slytherin team.

"I don't believe this. I booked the field for today, we'll see about this," hissed Wood and rushed towards the Slytherin team, his team followed.

"Hey, Flint! This is our practice time, you can clear off now," he bellowed.

"Plenty of room for all of us," replied Clint with a cunning smile.

"But I booked the field," shot Wood back.

"We have a special permission letter from Professor Snape too," replied Clint and handed Wood the note he had.

It read, "I Professor Snape give permission to the Slytherin Quidditch team to train today owing to the need to train their new seeker."

"Who's your new seeker?" asked Wood angrily.

From behind a group of Slytherin students came Draco Malfoy, holding his broom.

"Malfoy!" exclaimed Harry. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm the new Seeker, haven't you heard?" laughed Malfoy.

"Isn't he Lucius Malfoy's son?" whispered Fred. But his whispers were heard by everyone standing there.

"Funny you should mention his father," said Flint. "You should see the generous gift he's made to the Slytherin team," he added as the entire team showed their broom proudly. It was the newest edition of the Nimbus brooms, Nimbus 2001.

Ron, Hermione and John who had been seeing the scene unfold from far away in the stands came rushing towards it.

"Weasley... Have a look at our brooms," said Malfoy the moment he saw Ron. Ron gasped at the sight of the brooms, trying but failing at hiding his expression. "Maybe I can ask my father to provide you with one too. But you'll probably just sell it for money. Would feed your entire family for a month, I expect," he continued his taunt.

John had held Ron's shoulder trying to prevent him from reacting.

"At least his father didn't buy his son's place in the team," retorted Hermione.

"You filthy little mudblood, no one's asking for your opinion," spat back Malfoy.

"How dare you?" roared Ron and made a dash for Malfoy. Draco who was holding his broom had no time to react and just ducked blindly. John who found his grasp of Ron loosening tried to stop him but failed. Ron had barely gotten 2 blows at Draco when students from either side pulled them apart. Draco's face had gone red with embarrassment and anger. He shrugged off the hands that were holding him and got his wand out. Ron had his wand out from his pocket too and aimed it at Draco and cast a spell. But the spell backfired in a completely different direction and hit empty space. Draco in return cast a spell at Ron but before anything could happen out of it, John had blocked it. Harry and Hermione had their wands out by this time. They both tried to calm Ron and get him to back down. But just then a spell from someone in the Slytherin team hit Ron and he fell back.

"Ron... are you okay?" asked John as he rushed towards him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit breathless," replied Ron coughing a little and got up immediately.

The attack on Ron had clearly broken John's anger threshold. He flicked his wand towards the Slytherin team and almost instantly they all got pushed back by a gush of wind.

And then suddenly everything happened at once. John had cast a spell at the direction at the Slytherin team, or so he thought. At the same time, Ron hit presumably Draco with a spell. Harry who had his wand in his hand had tried to block a spell from the other side blindly. The Gryffindor quidditch team was predominantly trying to hold Harry and Ron back. And when everyone finally got back to their senses a moment later, their eyes lay on a body that had fallen on the ground beside Ron. The hair was unmistakable, it was Hermione Granger laying on the ground motionless.

"Oh No," groaned John. He rushed towards Hermione on the ground while the entire Gryffindor team along with Harry and Ron joined.

"We should take her to the hospital wing," said Oliver, in a shaken voice.

Fred, George, John and Oliver carried Hermione to the Hospital wing while Ron and Harry followed behind. Along the way, Ron stared at his wand in shock. His eyes caught Harry who was looking at him in shock.

"I didn't mean for this to happen. I don't even know what happened," said Ron, shaking.

"Not your fault mate. Hermione will be fine. She's probably just unconscious," replied Harry putting an arm around Ron's shoulder, though he had no idea what had happened to Hermione. Madam Pomfrey was absolutely livid the moment she heard what had happened.

"Out... all of you... Now," she shouted angrily.

Harry, John and Ron stayed back outside the wing while the others left promptly. Shortly after that, Harry and Ron's heartbeats sore up as they could see Professor McGonagall walking towards them. She walked past them into the room. It took about 5 minutes for her to come back outside.

"Miss Granger has some internal injuries. Madam Pomfrey is tending to her. Now, all 3 of you tell me what happened," said Professor McGonagall.

"It was Malfoy, Professor... He called Hermione a... a..." fumbled Ron.

"He called her a filthy mudblood, Professor," intervened John. There was a noticeable change in Professor McGonagall's expression.

"And then what happened?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"I hit the Slytherin team with a... a spell and it backfired and hit Hermione," replied John. Ron and Harry looked at him shocked as that was nowhere close to what had happened.

"Your spell backfired?" asked Professor McGonagall surprised. She had noted the expression on Ron and Harry's faces. She could also see Ron holding his broken wand tightly.

"Yes," replied John coldly.

"There's no point in lying, Mr Smith," said Professor McGonagall.

"I'm not lying, Professor. You can examine my wand," replied John and handed his wand to her.

"Okay, Mr Smith. I'm hereby confiscating your wand. You two," she said and looked at Ron and Harry. "You two will have detentions for your actions. This incident will be reported to your parents... and guardians. I'll speak to Mr Malfoy along with his house headmaster, Professor Severus Snape," she added and walked away.

A cold silence took over the void left by the Professor.

"Why did you do that?" asked Ron suddenly looking at John.

"It wasn't your fault. He provoked you, he has been doing that for a long time now. Also, if I hadn't said what I said, you'd probably have been removed from Hogwarts. You guys already have a strike against your name this year," replied John.

"But now your wand has been taken, for something I did," said Ron.

"Don't worry about me," replied John.

"I'm anyways going to go back home. When my mother hears what happened today, I'll be done for," sighed Ron.

"Your mother won't do anything when she hears why you did what you did. She'll be angry but she'll also be proud of her son," replied John calmly.

"What does mudblood mean anyway?" asked Harry slowly.

"It's one of the most insulting things one can say," replied Ron.

"Pureblood wizards have always frowned upon wizards who are muggle-born. There are some that consider them to have impure blood and hence a derogatory term they use for muggle-born wizards and witches is mudblood," added John and walked away.

"What's with him?" asked Ron.

"I... honestly don't know," replied Harry. "Probably just upset," he added.

Ron and Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room a short while later. The news of Hermione's injury had spread like a forest fire in the school. Everybody who lay their eyes on the 2 of them, kept staring and whispering behind their backs till they remained in sight. There was no one in the common room when they got there. They sat in the common room in silence for close to an hour.

"Let's go and have something to eat," said Harry as he got up from the couch.

"You really want to be around people right now? Everybody was staring at us, whispering behind our backs as if we did something wrong," replied Ron frustrated.

Harry didn't have the heart to reply, "But we did something wrong". So, he decided to take a different route, "Sulking in here isn't going to do anyone any favour. What has happened has happened. Hermione will be fine within no time. And to hell with anybody out there says, we know what happened."

Ron reluctantly agreed. On their way to the great hall, they decided to not go there after all, but to go and visit Hagrid. They hadn't visited Hagrid that year yet and that moment was better than ever to go and visit him.

Their afternoon went better than their morning had. Hagrid was always good at that. He was able to cheer Ron and harry up. Also, seeing Hagrid get worked up over what Draco Malfoy had said brought a smile to their face.

"There's nothing our Hermione can't do"

"... poor Hermione..."

The conversation finally changed to Harry's shadow, Colin Creevey.

"You didn't get me a signed photo, Harry?" asked Hagrid laughing.

"I haven't been signing any photos," snapped Harry.

"I'm only joking," said Hagrid.

Hagrid showed the boys what he had been growing for Halloween. Large pumpkins, bigger than Harry had ever seen.

"Well, I have been giving them a bit of help... you know?" said Hagrid faintly.

"Wow, they look great," said Harry, even though he suspected Hagrid had used magic to enlarge the pumpkins.

"That's what even your sister said," replied Hagrid looking at Ron.

"Ginny?"

"Met her just yesterday! Said she was just looking around the grounds. I suspect she was hoping to run into someone else at my house," replied Hagrid winking at Harry.

"Hagrid!" exclaimed Harry.

"Give her a signed photo, Harry," said Hagrid laughing.

"Ha Ha! very funny. Can we change the topic please?"

The boys' spirits ad definitely lifted. After spending some more time with Hagrid, they returned to the castle. This time, they were genuinely hungry. On their way, they ran into Professor McGonagall.

"Potter, Weasley, you'll be having your detentions today evening," she said.

"What about John?" asked Harry.

"This isn't for what you did today. This is for what you did with your flying car, Mr Potter," replied Professor McGonagall.

Their hearts sunk. For a moment there, they felt ecstatic at escaping with barely a detention.

"Mr Potter, you'll be serving your detention with Professor Jane, while Mr Weasley, you'll be helping Mr Filch polish in the trophy room, without magic," she added, handed them a note saying the same and walked away. All the lifted spirits evaporated instantly.

"She knows John was lying. Why else would she send you to Professor Jane while sending me to clean trophies? Argh! There must be hundreds of trophies in that room. Filch will keep me all night," sighed Ron.

John was brooding, sitting near the great lake. He tried to recollect the events of the morning but found his mind cluttered. Mostly, he was just blaming himself for the events of the morning, how everything had turned out. He had spent hours sitting there. But, suddenly, a few hours later, he heard footsteps. He looked back and saw a 1st year Ravenclaw girl walking towards him.

"Professor Jane asked me to give you this," she said with a soft voice, handing him a note.

"Thanks," replied John.

"You have something on your hair, same as Professor Jane," said the girl.

"What?" asked John shocked, feeling his hair. He couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary.

"It's vermirantur, they are found very rarely. My father once wrote about them for The Quibbler," said the girl.

"The Quibbler... you are Luna... Luna Lovegood?" asked John surprised as he got up.

"Yes," replied Luna.

"Hi Luna, I'm John Smith, nice to meet you," said John.

"Nice to meet you too," she replied and walked back the way she came.

John had a smile on his face for a while. After a few seconds, he opened the note that Luna had delivered.

It read, "Now"

John read the only word written in the note and kept it back in his pocket. He made his way to his sister's office.

"Nice touch, sending the note with Luna," said John the moment he entered the office.

"This is not the time to be funny. What on earth were you thinking?" asked Jane, her voice hadn't been louder in a while. Anger and disappointment were obvious in her tone.

"He has been taunting Ron all week, actually even last year. And I have remained patient. But they attacked Ron, what was I supposed to do?" replied John.

Jane walked over to him and sat beside him on the couch.

"John, you have to be careful. You can't let your emotions out of hand. We'll blow our cover otherwise," she said.

"How's Hermione?" asked John.

"She'll be fine in a couple of days. I can't believe it was Ron's spell that did this to her. All of this is my fault. I should have gotten Ron his wand immediately. I thought I'll wait a couple of weeks. If I hadn't thought that, none of this would have happened," sighed Jane.

"It's not your fault. We have a bigger problem," replied Jane.

"What bigger problem?"

"It wasn't Ron's spell that did this to Hermione," said John.

"John... you don't have to lie to me. I know why you're protecting him; I'd do the same, you know that" replied Jane.

"Do I look like I'm lying? Why would I protect Ron from you of all people? It wasn't Ron's spell, it was mine," said John.

"What... what do you mean?" asked Jane, worry all over her face.

"There's something wrong with me. I can't control my magic. It was my spell that backfired and hit Hermione. I don't know why this is happening. It happened earlier this week where the intensity of my illusion was way more than I intended it to be. And it has happened today again," replied John. He was shaking as he spoke.

"John... come here," she said and hugged him tightly. "Is this because of your transformation?" she whispered in his ear.

"I... uh... I don't... know," replied John.

"John... this is serious. We can't continue if this gets out of hand. I'm not prepared to lose you, not for this, not for anything," said Jane.

"Let's wait before we jump to conclusions. It's a good thing Minerva has my wand. I don't particularly trust myself with it anyway," replied John.

"Okay, but let me know immediately if there's something wrong. You will, right?" asked Jane.

"Of course," replied John and went out of his sister's office.

PS - Chapter 24 will be out next week, hopefully, Monday, maybe Tuesday.