Sorry it's been a while since the last chapter! I've been away in Khazakstan, and only got home on Friday night! I was more exhausted than I've been in my entire life!

"I mean, we can do it tonight," said Ron, as he, Harry and I walked down the sloping lawns toward the Quidditch pitch, our broomsticks over our shoulders, Hermione's dire warnings still ringing in our ears.

"And we've got tomorrow. She gets too worked up about work, that's her trouble. . . ." There was a pause and he added, in a slightly more anxious tone, "D'you think she meant it when she said we weren't copying from her?"

"You two are actually able to copy from her?" I said

"Yeah, why? Doesn't Demelza let you and Amy do so?"

I laughed "Bro, try suggesting it to her and see how she reacts, that's all I'll say"

"Still, this is important too, we've got to practice if we want to stay on the Quidditch teams . . . ." said Harry

"Yeah, that's right," said Ron in a heartened tone. "And we have got plenty of time to do it all. . . ."

We collected balls from the cupboard in the changing room and set to work, Ron guarding the three tall goalposts, Harry and I playing Chaser and trying to get the Quaffle past Ron. We thought Ron was pretty good; he blocked about half the goals we attempted to put past him and played better the longer we practiced. Tina could have some competition for her first team spot if she wasn't at her absolute best!

After a couple of hours we returned to the school, where we ate lunch, during which Hermione made it quite clear that she thought we were irresponsible, then returned to the Quidditch pitch for our real training sessions.

As it had been 2 years since we'd seen anything of the reserve team, we decided to sit in the stands and watch their practice. Unfortunately, the experience was made annoying by the presence of Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson, who must have heard that Ron was now on our reserve team, and wanted to make his time as difficult as possible. I could only hope that Ron would ignore them and just focus on his game, as he'd just proven that when he's concentrated, he could be good!

"What's that Weasley's riding?" Malfoy called in his sneering drawl. "Why would anyone put a Flying Charm on a moldy old log like that?" Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson guffawed and shrieked with laughter. Ron mounted his broom and kicked off from the ground and Sloper followed him. We'd decided to keep him as the reserve seeker despite Jack Handy's spectacular performance in the last game, due to him having been around for longer. It was brilliant to have such superb squad depth though! I saw Hermione shout some encouragement to Ron and he seemed to lighten up a bit at his girlfriend's words.

Sloper reversed away from the others to the far side of the pitch. Ron fell back toward the opposite goal. Alicia raised the Quaffle with one hand and threw it hard to Andrew, who passed to Amy, who passed to Sloper, who passed to Ron, who dropped it. The Slytherins, led by Malfoy, roared and screamed with laughter. Ron, who had pelted toward the ground to catch the Quaffle before it landed, pulled out of the dive untidily, so that he slipped sideways on his broom, and returned to playing height, blushing. We saw Andrew and Amy exchange looks. "Pass it on, Ron," called Alicia, as though nothing had happened. Ron threw the Quaffle to Demelza, who passed back to Sloper, who passed to Amy. . . .

"Hey, Potter, how's your scar feeling?" called Malfoy, turning his attention to us. "Sure you don't need a lie-down? It must be, what, a whole week since you were in the hospital wing, that's a record for you, isn't it?"

Andrew passed to Alicia; she reverse passed to Sloper, who had not been expecting it, but caught it in the very tips of his fingers and passed it quickly to Ron, who lunged for it and missed by inches.

"Come on now, Ron," said Alicia crossly, as Ron dived for the ground again, chasing the Quaffle. "Pay attention."

It would have been hard to say whether Ron's face or the Quaffle was a deeper scarlet when he returned again to playing height. Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin team were howling with laughter. On his third attempt, Ron caught the Quaffle; perhaps out of relief he passed it on so enthusiastically that it soared straight through Hermione's outstretched hands and hit her hard in the face.

"Sorry!" Ron groaned, zooming forward to see whether he had done any damage.

"Get back in position, she's fine!" barked Alicia "But as you're passing to a teammate, do try not to knock her off her broom, won't you? We've got Bludgers for that!" Hermione's nose was bleeding. Down below the Slytherins were stamping their feet and jeering. Amy converged on Hermione and gave her what looked like one of the twins sweets to swallow.

"That will be the other end of a Nosebleed Nougat" Fred said to me, "should clear that up in seconds"

"All right," called Alicia "Amy, Andrew go and get your bats and a Bludger; Ron, get up to the goalposts, Sloper, release the Snitch when I say so. We're going to aim for Ron's goal, obviously"

When Alicia blew her whistle, Sloper released the Snitch and Amy and Andrew let fly the Bludger. It was Sloper's job to recapture the tiny fluttering golden ball that was worth a hundred and fifty points to the Seeker's team and doing so required enormous speed and skill. He accelerated, rolling and swerving in and out of the Chasers. But too soon, the whistle brought him to a halt again.

"Stop — stop – STOP!" screamed Alicia. "Ron — you're not covering your middle post!"

I looked at Ron, who was hovering in front of the left hand hoop, leaving the other two completely unprotected. "Oh . . . sorry . . ."

"You keep shifting around while you're watching the Chasers!" said Alicia "Either stay in center position until you have to move to defend a hoop, or else circle the hoops, but don't drift vaguely off to one side, that's how you let in the last three goals!"

I had to facepalm at this, that was Keeping 101, and he'd been doing it fine the entire time Harry and I had practiced with him! He was making himself look so much worse than he really was!

"Sorry . . ." Ron repeated, his red face shining like a beacon against the bright blue sky.

"And Hermione, can't you do something about that nosebleed?"

"It's just getting worse!" said Hermione thickly, attempting to stem the flow with her sleeve.

I saw Amy look horror struck and quickly check her pockets, pulling out something purple. I looked at Fred and George.

"Shit" said Fred

"We must have accidentally given Amy the Blood Blisterpod!" said George

"Well, let's try again," said Alicia. She was ignoring the Slytherins, who had now set up a chant of "Gryffindor are losers, Gryffindor are losers," but there was a certain rigidity about her seat on the broom nevertheless. This time they had been flying for barely three minutes when they had to stop again. Alicia, Amy and Andrew all flew as fast as possible towards Hermione, who was now chalk white and covered in blood!

Amy and Andrew took her up to the hospital wing, and a disastrous reserve practice ended early.