Chap 24: The Slivery Swan

With the Quidditch, Prefect duties, Occlumency, mastery lessons and DA taking up all of his time, Harry soon found November flying past rapidly. Thankfully for him, the month was fulfilling to say the least with Harry accomplishing many things. Firstly, his team was performing up to standard during Quidditch with Ritchie and Jimmy improving drastically under the intensive Beater training Harry and the twins came up with. The rest of the team continued to improve with the Chasers looking even more dangerous than before, partly due to Ginny's rapid improvements threatening the places of Katie, Angelina and Alicia in the team, motivating them to work even harder, Demelza, seeing herself fall behind, committed herself even harder, always seen flying around the obstacle course before the training even starts and practising shooting after training till it becomes completely dark. To Fred and Angelina's relief, Harry also did not share about their late-night exploits with the team, sparing them from the embarrassment. They however, still looked as close as ever, Angelina was often found sitting on Fred while Fred caressed her body. Harry did not want to think about it, but he was sure that the reason why they at times showered after the entire team had left was due to some naughty reasons.

Secondly, his Prefect patrols were thankfully less eventful than that fateful night with Daphne, they however, had caught a few more students performing questionable things, notably catching Montague performing the deed with a fellow Slytherin, something that Harry did not hesitate and reported to Snape, landing Montague in detentions. Speaking about Snape, Harry was relieved and pleased to see that Matilda was being protected by Snape now. Daphne had told him that Snape called the entire Slytherin house into the common room where he interrogated every single one of them about past deeds, apparently using Legilimency to see if they were lying. As a result, nearly the entire house got into detentions, with Malfoy and his cronies getting the worse end of the stick, Malfoy himself got detentions which lasted to the next year. Harry also learned that he and his cronies had apparently sexually harassed many Slytherin girls which utterly disgusted him, unable to believe that Malfoy was so caught up in his delusion that he was superior and thus could do whatever he wanted. In retaliation, Malfoy apparently wrote to his father regarding Snape's punishment and after a confrontation between him and Dumbledore, Malfoy was given even more detentions and his father was banned from ever stepping foot into Hogwarts again. Malfoy and his cronies temporarily had a more restrictive form of the Trace played on them, allowing the Professors to monitor his every move, ensuring that he cannot harm anyone again. For all this trouble, Snape had deducted so many points that Slytherin was left with no points in the House Championship, leaving Daphne devastated as she had earned so many hard-earned points for the house. This earned him and his group death stares from most of the Slytherin table that he was already accustomed to. To the school's surprise as well, many Slytherins started distancing themselves from the main Slytherin group, making friends with the Slytherins who were originally considered outcasts such as Daphne and Blaise, forming a new group of Slytherins which the school grew to enjoy the company of, this resulted in the splintering of the house as the Slytherin table was only half-filled ever since with the new group of Slytherins started sitting with different houses, each finding and making new friends. This however, had a negative impact on Blaise who was benched by Montague largely due to Malfoy's demands, Blaise then promptly resigned, giving Harry his best regards to destroy them in their next fixture. For Matilda, she had also grown as a person, with her and Astoria being the new faces of the Slytherin group despite being second years, with Harry's permission and encouragement, a few of the Slytherins joined the DA, learning under Harry's teaching.

Thirdly, there were also astronomical shifts in Snape's attitude towards other houses and his. While he still wasn't the kindest of teachers, demanding excellence from his students, he was less mean and started teaching properly, something that Harry truly appreciated as it turned out that he was actually an excellent teacher. Most students had no idea how this particular shift happened, but Harry and his group knew about that night, the night that Snape became a changed man, with even Neville admitting that Snape wasn't that bad anymore. Snape had also begun to treat Harry very well, being cordial with Harry during their interactions, praising him more in one lesson than he ever had during the last 5 years. One incident which was now stuck in Harry's mind was when he brewed a highly complicated potion, to which Snape said that his mother would be proud, touching Harry's heart.

Fourthly, Daphne was beginning to see success with Neville, taking Harry's advice, she paid immense attention to Neville, showing genuine interest in everything he said, and asking many questions about him. While Neville was completely taken aback by her behaviour initially, he began to warm up to Daphne and they started to spend more time with each other, both of them always sitting next to each other. When they talk to each other or when they talk about the other, Harry can see in both of their eyes the same thing that he sees in Cho when she is talking to him, the lighting up of the eyes regardless of the fatigue, the slightly dazed and loving look and the fiery passion when talking about the other. Harry also caught Neville stealing some glances at Daphne whenever she was not looking, something that Harry could not blame Neville for. While he was sure that they had feelings for each other, Harry decided to let the situation play out, hoping that they naturally get together before he decided that he had to step in and give them the go-ahead nudge.

Fifthly, Harry's lessons with McGonagall were going successfully, with Occlumency, he was making slow but steady progress, able to push McGonagall out of his mind faster every lesson and using less energy to do so, while they were both happy with Harry's progress, Harry was getting impatient, completely committed to mastering the art as soon as possible. For his mastery, McGonagall had decided that Harry would do better at Battle Transfiguration, teaching him the nooks and crannies of Transfiguration, giving him a better understanding of how to better perform Transfiguration, by the end of November, Harry was successfully transfiguring shields of rock from the ground to protect himself from spells, emphasising it's ability to protect one from the Unforgivable Curses. In addition to the shield, Harry had mastered the quick transfiguration of objects thrown at him in mid-air and sending a more dangerous object back at the caster. With his quick progress, they were moving onto conjuration, something that Harry had discovered that he had a talent for.

Last but not least, the DA sessions were progressing very well, with the group quickly moving from the Stunning Spell to the Shield Charm, a charm Harry placed immense emphasis on despite it being difficult to master. After quite a few sessions, the group had reached a satisfactory level, all of whom par the new arrivals capable of casting a strong and effective one. Harry then decided to begin teaching the Impediment Jinx which he believed could be very useful should any of them be caught in a fight. After teaching the members the basics, Harry allowed them to continue to practise while Harry focused his attention on the new Slytherin students, teaching them all the spells the group had already learnt.

"Should we go up now Cho?" Harry whispered to Cho, who was reading one of her textbooks. It was 1hr before the next DA session and Harry had something in plan for Cho.

"So early?" Cho asked, looking at her watch.

"Yeah, I want to teach you something new before the class," Harry replied, raising Cho's eyebrows.

"Come on, let's go up then I will tell you," Harry said, taking her hand and dragging her to the room of requirement.

When they finally entered the room, Harry turned to face a curious-looking Cho, interested in what Harry had installed for them.

"So what do you want to teach me?" Cho asked, looking at Harry excitedly.

"I want to fulfil a promise that I made in August," Harry replied. Cho's eyes lit up as she understood what exactly Harry was referring to.

"I figured that at the rate the sessions are going, we will be moving onto Patronus Charm soon, since it is a really hard spell to master, I want to just teach you first and at the same time, fulfil my promise."

"Let's begin then!" Cho said excitedly.

"Alright, I assume you know what a Patronus does right?" Harry asked. Cho rolled her eyes and responded.

"Obviously, it protects us against dementors and is capable of sending messages."

"Fantastic," Harry praised, "Let's move on to how you exactly cast one, to cast a Patronus Charm, you have to envision a very happy memory and say the incantation Expecto Patronum."

"So just envision a happy memory and cast it?" Cho asked, confused at how simple it sounded.

"It sounds simple, yes, but it isn't that easy really, try it," Harry suggested.

Cho looked uncertainly at Harry before casting the Charm, to her dismay, nothing came out of her wand.

"You see, it's actually really really hard to perform, the advice that I can give is to really feel how you felt when that memory happened, try to feel the happiest in your veins," Harry suggested.

Cho casted the Charm again and this time, there were small amounts of vapour exiting her wand.

"Ok that's progress, you won't be able to cast a Corporeal one for quite some time so do this patiently, you have to just keep changing memories, feeling the happiest and keep trying."

After some time of trying, Cho could still only produce a small amount of vapour.

"I don't get it, what am I doing wrong?" Cho said disappointedly, glaring at her wand.

"Relax Cho, remember what I said about magic before?" Harry asked.

"That it is more about the willpower than the technic."

"Mhm, magic works in very interesting ways, in this spell, you are trying to channel all of your positive energy into the Patronus, you have to remove any negative energy and focus solely on the positive ones, try to feel it rush through you, like you are overwhelmed with joy," Harry suggested, "tell me, what memory do you think would help you produce this type of overwhelming rush of happiness?"

Cho was silent for a while, deep in thought. Suddenly, Harry saw a sparkle in her eyes, something that Harry knew meant that she thought of the answer. Curiously, Cho walked up towards him, without any warning, planting her lips firmly onto Harry's. Harry reciprocated, sinking into Cho's lips, embracing her gently while doing it. When Cho broke apart, Harry heard her mutter.

"Expecto Patronum."

Harry watched as a slivery swan exited her wand, moving around the room gracefully.

"She's beautiful," Cho whispered softly, watching the swan move around the room.

"Like her caster," Harry said before sinking into Cho once again, kissing her gently but firmly.

After some intense snogging which eventually brought them onto the couch. Harry and Cho finally broke apart, giggling at the experience.

"That was amazing Cho," Harry said softly.

"The snogging or the Patronus?" Cho teased.

"Both," Harry said without hesitation, "but just so you know, I won't always be here for you to snog before you cast a Patronus."

Cho burst out laughing, before giving Harry another peck.

"We will just have to practise more I guess, make the sensation as familiar as possible so that I can imagine your lips on mine even when it isn't" Cho said, a sly smile on her first.

"Just admit that you want to snog with me," Harry teased.

"You want it as bad as me."

"Not wrong," Harry replied.

"Alright guys, this is it, everything that we trained for for the past month," Harry said to the team, all of whom were huddled together. They were all in full match attire with the exception of Fred and George who were suspended for this game. In a minute's time, they will be heading out for their second game of the season against a much weakened Hufflepuff side.

"We all know how good we are, there is no doubt that we can beat Hufflepuff, all that's left is actually going out and doing it," Harry said, "So let's go out there and destroy our opponents like we always do! 3, 2, 1! GRYFFINDOR!"

With that, they heard Lee Jordan complete the introduction of the Hufflepuff side.

"AND NEXT!" Lee exclaimed, "THE REIGNING CHAMPIONS AND THE RECORD BREAKERS! GRYFFINDOR!"

The crowd erupted into loud cheers and Lee started calling out every player.

"AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THE CAPTAIN AND SEEKER! HARRY POTTER!"

Harry burst out of the changing room, pushing his broom to the limit speed-wise, as usual, there was a mix of cheers and jeers as he appeared, something that he was used to already.

"Captains, shake hands," Madam Hooch said to both Harry and Zacharias who looked like he was dreading the start of the game.

"Good luck Zach, I haven't forgotten Hogs Head," Harry called out, winking at Zacharias who looked pale with worry. Satisfied with his unsettling of the opponent, Harry flew back and prepared for the start of the game.

"THE QUAFFLE IS RELEASED AND THE GAME BEGINS!" Lee Jordan announced.

Almost immediately, Angelina snatched the Quaffle away, bolting straight down the middle where Zacharias was, attempting to go in for the snatch, Angelina out-muscled him, pushing him away and unsettling him.

"Johnson out-muscles Smith, an incredible display of strength from the Gryffindor girl!" Lee commentated.

Watching his team, Angelina continued to bolt down the middle, the 2 other chasers were getting too close to her, one front and one back. Looking for Katie and Alicia, Harry realised that they were too far away to disrupt the opposing Chasers. Knowing this, Harry immediately made up his mind and dived straight at the Chaser at the front who looked startled and swerved out of the way.

"GREAT PLAY BY POTTER! Incredible disruption play, flying straight at the opposing Chaser and scaring her away, Johnson is on goal now, she shoots and… SCORES! 10 to nothing for Gryffindor!" Lee exclaimed. Satisfied with his play, Harry returned to his seeker duties but not before another wink at Zacharias who looked annoyed now.

"Smith has the Quaffle now, he is flying straight at Gryffindor's defence, and he is face to face with Bell, SNATCHED! Bell makes an easy snatch from Smith who was too ambitious with his play, Bell with an easy run to the goal now, Heron (Hufflepuff beater) tries to stop her with a Bludger, INTERCEPTED BY PEAKES! Excellent cover by the Gryffindor beater, Bell is now one-on-one with Lesley (Hufflepuff keeper), SCORES! 20 to nothing, fantastic start from the Gryffindors!"

Harry smiled smugly, happy that he had gotten into the head of Zacharias, this was going to be an easy game as long as he caught the snitch. Focusing on his own game, Harry flew up to try and find the snitch.

To his surprise, Harry immediately spotted a flash of gold, without hesitation, Harry pushed his broom to its limit, lowering his body as much as possible to improve aerodynamics. Taking quick glances around the pitch, Harry spotted Hufflepuff's seeker, Prott who was many metres behind. Turning his focus back to the snitch, Harry chased after it relentlessly. The snitch tried to turn a sharp right as Harry got very close to it but by taking a longer but smoother line, Harry soon found himself centimetres from the snitch. With one last push, Harry grabbed the snitch out of the air.

"MERLIN'S BEARD! HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! WHAT A CATCH! TAKING A LONGER LINE RATHER THAN MAKING A SHARP TURN, A PLAY WHICH SHOWS POTTERS' UNDERSTANDING OF HIS BROOM!" Lee exclaimed, "I have just gotten more information about the catch, IT'S BEEN ONLY 3 MINUTES AND 9 SECONDS OF GAME TIME! THIS IS A NEW RECORD AT THE INTER-HOUSE CHAMPIONSHIP! WHAT A PERFORMANCE FROM GRYFFINDOR, 180 TO NOTHING!"

Relishing in his success, Harry flew up to the centre of the pitch, opening up his arms once again and doing a 360 turn with his legs, something that he had decided would be his signature celebration. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his group of friends cheering excitedly for him. Looking at Cho's expression, Harry decided to make the moment more special for himself.

Flying towards Cho, Harry was soon face to face with his girlfriend.

"Quite a catch isn't it," Harry said, throwing the snitch to Cho.

"Indeed Zhu," Cho smiled, "you are one for theatrics aren't you?"

"Oh I'm not done yet," Harry said cheekily, leaning in to give her a nice and long kiss.

The crowd erupted in cheers once again as Harry broke apart from Cho who was burning bright red but looked like she really enjoyed it.

"See you downstairs Zhu," Cho said before shooing him away for him to go and celebrate with his teammates.

Landing back onto the ground, he was once again jumped on by his teammates, all of whom were cheering loudly.

"That was fucking brilliant Harry!" Fred exclaimed.

"3 minutes and 9 seconds? You are different!" George continued.

"Yeah yeah, good job all of you though, you all played great in the limited time that we had," Harry said, embracing every single teammate.

"You are a mean captain Harry," Jimmy teased, "giving us 3 minutes of game time for our debut game, tsk tsk."

The entire team broke out in laughter before they were interrupted once again by the ugly pink toad.

"Mr Potter, that's a month of detention for you!" Umbridge shouted.

"For what exactly Professor?" Harry asked curiously.

"For assaulting Ms Chang after the game," she said, making Harry burst out in laughter.

"Very funny indeed Mr Potter," she snarled, "That will be 2 months of detention for you then."

"My apologies Professor, but you have gotten the situation wrong once again," Harry said calmly, though he truly wanted to fall on the ground and roll with laughter at Umbridge's attempt to get him in trouble.

"What exactly did I get wrong this time," Umbridge growled, "you did assault her in front of the entire school, we all saw it."

"Yes Professor, I did, but you see, she is my girlfriend," Harry said, "you know, the person I'm in a mutually agreed upon relationship where both sides love each other."

"I KNOW WHAT A RELATIONSHIP IS MR POTTER!" Umbridge yelled at Harry's sarcastic explanation, something that Harry was relatively proud of.

"In that case, you should understand that that isn't assault, we have previously agreed that this is well within the boundaries of our relationship, matter of fact, you can ask Cho, she is here on pitch," Harry said, pointing at Cho who was running towards them.

"Zhu? What's going on?" Cho asked confusedly, looking between him and Umbridge.

"Cho, Professor Umbridge here does not believe that we are in a relationship and that I assaulted you with that kiss, would you explain to her the situation?" Harry asked politely, trying to conceal his smirk.

"Oh! Yes, I'm dating Harry Professor," Cho said, smiling innocently at Umbridge.

"Ms Chang, you do not have to lie to me, Mr Potter will not be able to threaten you while I'm here," Umbridge said with fake concern.

"Oh no Professor, Harry is not threatening me, the opposite really, he has been protecting me for the whole year, after all, he did protect me from the dementors that you potentially sent," Cho said. Harry stared at her with amazement at the courage she had to say that to Umbridge.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Umbridge shrieked, grabbing Cho by the collar of her shirt.

"PROFESSOR! PUT HER DOWN NOW!" Harry yelled, moving towards them and pointing his wand straight at Umbridge's head.

"LOWER YOUR WAND POTTER, I AM THE SENIOR UNDERSECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY, I WOULD NOT BE HELD AT WAND POINT BY YOU OF ALL PEOPLE!"

"I do not care about your stupid position, lower Cho down or there will be serious consequences," Harry snarled.

"Lower her down Professor," Ron added, stepping up with his wand pointed at Umbridge, the rest of the team followed suit and soon, there were 12 wands pointing at Umbridge.

"LOWER DOWN MY STUDENT DOLORES!" Dumbledore yelled, a thunderous boom of voice echoing throughout the pitch which turned Umbridge's face pale.

"I WILL NOT UNTIL YOU TELL YOUR STUDENTS TO LOWER THEIR WANDS!" Umbridge shrieked despite looking absolutely terrified.

"Do not test me Dolores," Dumbledore threatened, "I will not allow any of my students to be harmed."

Umbridge looked at him worriedly once more, before letting go of Cho who instantly moved towards Harry, glaring at Umbridge.

"Lower your wands," Dumbledore said calmly as he walked up towards them, Harry immediately complied with the rest of the team doing so as well, Harry looked at Dumbledore who was once more accompanied by McGonagall and Snape, both of whom were glaring at Umbridge.

"Dolores, you know that I would not take the safety of my students lightly, I have made it explicitly clear to you in our previous chat with Cornelius," Dumbledore said, eyes burning with fury.

"I was doing so till they disrespected me!" Umbridge shouted back.

"That does not make it a better excuse to physically threaten one of my students," Dumbledore said darkly, making Umbridge more pale.

"Harry, what happened before we showed up," Dumbledore asked Harry politely.

"Professor Umbridge accused me of assaulting Cho when I kissed her and when Cho said that she wasn't, Professor Umbridge tried to make it seem like I was threatening Cho and she quickly denied it, one thing led to another and she grabbed Cho so I pointed my wand at her demanding that she placed Cho back down," Harry explained.

"Understood Harry," Dumbledore said before turning back to Umbridge, "Dolores, I can confirm that Mr Potter and Ms Chang have been happily together for over half a year now and that everything between them is consensual, Ms Chang's parents know about this and Mr Potter had even stayed at their house and in her room for a week before the unfortunate dementor attack in muggle London, something that you should be aware of."

"What are you insinuating Albus?" Umbridge snarled again.

"Nothing, since you were there for the trial, you should know the details about their trial, speaking about the trial, I believe the memories that both sides presented showed mutual love and feelings for each other with both even planning the number of children already," Dumbledore chuckled, making both Harry and Cho's face turn bright red, Harry appreciated Dumbledore's help but he just wished that he had left some finer details secret like Harry sleeping in Cho's room and the children thing.

"I reckon that this case is dismissed, Mr Potter and Ms Chang, you are free to go, so as the entire Quidditch team, you have a press conference to attend, I recommend you all get mentally prepared for it."

"What about their punishment!" Umbridge shrieked.

"I beg your pardon?" McGonagall asked, glaring at Umbridge.

"They all raised their wands at me, the Senior Undersecretary!"

"They did, but it was only after you physically threatened their friend," Dumbledore explained, "being a ministry official does not make a difference, they raised their wands as self-defence for their friend and that will not be punished, in fact, I would award all of you 3 points each for the courage to stand up to a Professor when they are wrong."

"YOU!" Umbridge shrieked.

"I would advise you against another outburst, I would not be as patient as I am now if my students or staff is threatened again," Dumbledore warned resulting in Umbridge shrinking.

"If you would excuse me, I have a press conference to moderate, have a good day Dolores," Dumbledore said before walking away with McGonagall and Snape, both of whom glared at Umbridge in contempt for another second before following.

Sitting in McGonagall's office, Harry was patiently waiting for his visitor. At that moment, McGonagall's fireplace turned green and a tall and lanky man in green robes with Nimbus' logo on the left walked out. With a quick spell, he cleaned his robes of soot and walked out.

"Good evening Professor," Marcus said politely, nodding at McGonagall who reciprocated.

"Ah, Harry my boy!" Marcus exclaimed in delight, embracing Hary tightly

"I would leave you 2 to continue your discussions, I would be back in 30 minutes," McGonagall said.

"Thank you Professor," Marcus replied before McGonagall walked out of her office.

"How have you been Harry?" Marcus asked, both taking a seat.

"Been alright I guess, just really busy," Harry shrugged, "we can talk about that later, what do you want to discuss with me about today?"

"Becoming professional hm?" Marcus teased, "Well said, let's begin then, firstly, I'm here to discuss with you about your performance in and out of the field."

"Fret not, the higher-ups at Nimbus have been overjoyed about your performances, winning both of your games and catching the snitch in both, rather impressive."

"Well, I did not do much in the first game," Harry shrugged, believing that his team was the highlight.

"You didn't indeed, but the team is yours after all, their success is your success," Marcus praised, "And you did catch the snitch in both games, that's what we are hoping you would do thus the hefty bonus if you catch the snitch."

"Yeah, the contract Nimbus signed with me is honestly amazing," Harry admitted. Nimbus had offered him a contract of 1000 galleons per month, an absurd amount of money for a student and with a 500 galleon bonus for every snitch catch and a 250 galleon bonus for every win due to both of them earning Harry and Nimbus pages on the Daily Prophet. While all of this looked crazy to Harry at first glance, he eventually understood that by using his name to market brooms, Nimbus would be earning a crazy amount of galleons from broom sales. Add to the fact that there were plans to begin to sell House jerseys to the public and the fact that Harry's would have a small Nimbus emblem on it, the amount of money they are giving him did make sense.

"Well as I've explained before, the contract is mutually beneficial," Marcus shrugged, "Matter of fact, with the recent attention that you are gaining, Nimbus is probably benefitting even more than we originally planned."

That fact was also true as the 2 confrontations between Umbridge and him after the game have given Harry headline news in the Daily Prophet. For the first time as well, the papers were printing Harry in a good light, emphasising his calmness in handling the situation while Umbridge seemed out of control. Harry inferred that this was probably due to Madam Bones's active supervision over Fudge's moves, meaning that Fudge could no longer incentivise or force reporters to run a smear campaign on Harry, allowing them to write freely and writing Harry in a positive light seemed like the best way to go about things. Another thing Harry had going in his favour was the press conferences which Harry had handled amazingly, quickly becoming many reporters' favourite as Harry's professional and calm demeanour at his age really impressed them.

"True I guess, so you came all the way to Hogwarts just to tell me that I'm doing wonderfully?" Harry joked.

"You are actually half correct," Marcus admitted, "I was sent by Nimbus to actually give you a report on what's going on, something that you should expect to be the norm, sponsorships are like that, the company will always keep you updated on how you are doing in their eyes, whether you have to improve or whether you should maintain what you are doing at the moment."

"I see, but what's the other half that you want to talk to me about?" Harry asked.

Harry watched as a bright and excited smile appeared on Marcus's face with his eyes flaming with excitement and passion. He knew that he was in for something interesting.

"The second reason for my visit today is to enlist your help in signing new players onto our youth development program," Marcus said.

"Wow, you guys are expanding that fast, I thought you wanted to wait till next year?" Harry asked.

"We did, but the success we are seeing with you and the current tournament makes us think that we should pounce at the best talent before other companies like Firebolt and Comet come in," Marcus explained, "Do you know how much attention the inter-house tournament is gaining on the Wireless?"

"Nope."

"An average of 15,000 per game," He said, eyes screaming with excitement.

"Wait, isn't the population of wizards in UK around 20 000?" Harry asked, genuinely confused.

"Indeed, most of the UK is tuning in to watch the games and to our surprise, other countries have attracted a decent number of viewers, namely France, Beauxbatons and the French government have been asking our government for advice on how to run their own one after seeing the success of our system right now."

"That's bloody brilliant!" Harry said in amazement.

"Exactly! That's why we think that it's time to expand our roster while Firebolt and Comet are still hesitant to jump in, this way, we have all the best talents on our roster before they get snatched away," Marcus said.

"Who are you all planning to sign," Harry asked.

"You are going to love this," Marcus said with a large smile, "we are targeting for Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Cho Chang."

Harry's heart jumped with excitement at the mention of 2 of his teammates and his girlfriend. He could already imagine the dominance that Gryffindor would have when his teammates signed and got the Nimbus Lightning 1. For Cho, Harry was overjoyed that she was going to get a sponsorship, something that would propel her forward towards her dream of playing for the Tunshil Tornados.

"That's fucking amazing!" Harry exclaimed.

"Watch your language Harry," Marcus laughed, "I would not want Professor McGonagall storming in to give you a lecture, she still scares me to this day despite her teaching me 20 years ago."

"My bad, I'm just too happy for all of them," Harry said, smiling brightly.

"I would be too if they signed, we were also thinking about signing Blaise Zabini but he recently left the team which really disappointed us."

"He left the team due to Malfoy and Montague being pricks, when Montague leaves next year, Blaise will probably rejoin the team and if current events were to tell me anything, I reckon Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle would not be the captains of Slytherin, Snape will then probably reach out to him to make him the captain and have him come back, he is really stunning as a Chaser," Harry said.

"Agreed, hopefully, what you say is right then, we really want to sign him to our roster, unfortunately, waiting till next year will probably mean that there will be some competition for him," Marcus said dejectedly.

"Urm, well… we can maybe create a situation to ensure that he signs for you," Harry suggested, attracting Marcus's attention again, beckoning him to continue.

"Well, Blaise and I are pretty good friends, if you can work out a contract where if he returns to Quidditch next season, he would automatically be signed to you," Harry suggested.

"You reckon you can convince him?" Marcus asked.

"Probably, you just have to have good enough terms in the contract to actually convince him to sign."

"Well, we are not planning to put anyone on the same contract as you," Marcus admitted, "you are a different calibre in terms of fame."

"I guess so, but the terms have to be good enough though," Harry said.

"We will work on it."

"Marcus, I have a question about the players you are targeting to sign," Harry asked.

"Hm?"

"Why did you only sign Angelina and Katie from my team, they are fantastic but so are Alicia, Fred and George."

"Ah yes, we did consider signing all of them as well but we don't have the funds to do so," Marcus explained, "so what we did for the 7th years was to focus on the ones that wanted to go professional, after all, signing 7th years for half a season more won't profit us that much if they don't go pro."

"Ah, understood, the 3 of them do not actually plan on going professional."

"Exactly, that's why we did not sign them" Marcus responded, nodding happily at Harry's understanding.

After a few more details, Marcus and Harry had finished planning for the negotiating of all 3. It was decided that Harry was to bring all of them to a private room in Hogsmeade during the next Hogsmeade weekend which was next week, Marcus and a few other Nimbus employees would then meet them there together with the guardians of Cho, Katie and Angelina. There, they will discuss the terms of the contract. As for Blaise, he wasn't a priority for Nimbus yet and the details would be planned after Cho, Katie and Angelina were successfully signed. After a few more minutes of casual chatting, talking about the development of the Nimbus Lightning 1.5 which would be the upgraded version of the Lightning 1 with some small minor tweaks to the design on the original chassis to improve its capabilities, they were eventually interrupted by McGonagall signalling the end of their fruitful meeting, Marcus left through the Floo network as Harry beginning to plan how to deliver the good news.