When they went down to the common room, Hermione wasn't there. Harry figured that since they took a while, that she went ahead of them. When Harry and Ron reached the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall they didn't find her there either. They figured that she was probably at the place she usually was when she wasn't with them, the library.
They sat down and served themselves dinner, when all of sudden Hermione turned up looking flustered. They looked at her, and then at each other.
Harry asked her, "what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," she said, but it was very apparent that this was most definitely not the case,
Ron persisted "come on Hermione, what's going on?"
"It's just that Neville," Hermione started.
Harry asked, "what about Neville?"
"Well, he asked me to the ball and," Hermione continued.
Ron prodded her, "and?"
"I said no. He looked devastated. He ran away, crying, and I tried to run after him, find him, but I couldn't."
Harry and Ron had to do everything in their power to stop from falling on the floor with laughter. They thought Neville was a nice enough, and considered him a friend, but couldn't help but think that this was incredibly funny. Last year Neville had asked Hermione to the ball. She turned him down, because at the time she was already going with Krum.
Harry, when he was able to regain his composure, asked, "what exactly happened?"
"When I came down to the common room tonight Neville came up to me. He asked me to go to the ball with him. I wasn't expecting this, so he taken me by surprise."
Ron muttered under his breath, "yeah, who could have possibly seen that coming, maybe, if she didn't drop divination…"
Hermione ignored Ron, and continued, "well, I didn't want to hurt him, of course, I told him that I liked him and I just wanted to stay friends."
Harry and Ron rolled their eyes and exchanged really disgusted looks to each other. Harry has only been on one date and never been in a relationship, but even he knew that was the last thing in the world a guy wants to hear.
Hermione had a puzzled look on her face and asked, "what did I do wrong?"
Harry said, in as gentle a voice as he could muster, "Hermione, I know you think you were doing the right thing, but."
Ron continued in anything but a gentle voice, "what were you thinking. That is the last thing in the world any guy wants to hear, and you have to know how he feels about you."
Hermione sobbed, "what should I have done?"
Harry looked in her eyes and said, "I know you were put in a difficult position, but you need to take other people's feeling into consideration in a situation like this." As Ron was nodding next to him all Harry could do was think of Sirius telling him the pretty much the same thing earlier that day, and now he understood, perhaps for the first time.
After dinner, they went to Hagrid's hut. As they sat around Hagrid's table, he made them some tea and some rock cakes, as he asked how there day went.
When Hermione told him what she did, the boys smirked while Hagrid winced at first, but afterward he was far more sympathetic than either Harry or Ron.
After Hermione finished explaining what had happened, Hagrid said, "don't worry Hermione, Neville will get over it. It's really no big deal."
They went to bed early that night. The next day will be their first Quidditch practice of the year, and they needed the rest. Harry, however had a difficult time going to sleep, not only was he nervous for Ron, but he still couldn't get Hermione out of his head.
Harry was so preoccupied all day that during charms class, when they were learning the deflating charm, forcing flying things to land, he kept missing his target. Harry once missed the balloon that he was supposed to be aiming at, and struck Parvati's hair in front of him instead. She gave Harry a nasty look. Flitwick immediately corrected this mistake, and Ron found it very funny, but Harry hardly noticed.
After lunch, they had History of magic. When Harry finally woke up at the end of class, he went up to his dormitory with Ron and grabbed his Quidditch equipment. They ran down to the Quidditch pitch and met up with the remainder of the Gryffindor team.
There were the twins, Fred and George, as the Beaters. There were the three chasers, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell, whom also returned. In fact, the only member not to return was Wood, who is now on the Puddlemere United Reserve Team, and now the remaining five players will be graduating at the end of the year.
All of the players met in the locker room and after they changed nobody said anything, so Harry decided to step forward. As he cleared his throat, the entire team looked at him.
"I know that I am not the most senior player, and I am not even the best player on the team either but I just wanted to say something. I didn't know Oliver as long, or as well, as the rest of you, bur I know that he would be chomping at the bit for an opportunity like this.
"There is no reason that the seven of us can't represent the school in this tournament. We aren't just the best team collectively, but we are also the best team individually. I understand this is your last year and I think that we can finish it with another championship."
Since nobody said anything, Harry sat down next to Ron and waited. The twins looked at him and Fred gave Harry a wink, and got up.
Fred said, "Harry's right, we can do this, come on."
They all ran on to the field and had a pretty intense workout, The chasers were beating Ron on a pretty regular basis. After a while, some more of the Gryffindors joined them, and they had enough to have a full match.
Just about everyone was there, even Neville seemed to get over Hermione sufficiently enough to show up. Neville was playing as the opposing keeper, and was doing so badly that after a while Katie, looking sympathetically toward him, just threw the Quaffle right into his chest, so he would have at least one save. Unfortunately, when she did this it almost unseated Neville off his broom.
The next month and a half was exhausting. In addition to all the Quidditch practice they could get, they also had so much homework. If that wasn't enough, on top of that Hermione had started scheduling O.W.L. practice sessions for all three of them. When Harry was leaving Quidditch practice one morning, he ran into Cho.
"Hello Harry," Cho said.
"Hello Cho."
Harry was walking with Ron when Cho asked if she could have a word with him in private. Ron looked at him, gave him a little bit of a grin, and said that he will see him latter.
Once Ron was out of earshot Cho said, "Harry, I want to ask you about the Halloween ball. Are you going with anybody yet?"
"No, not yet. How about you?"
"No. So I was wondering, would be interested in being my escort for the night?"
Harry couldn't believe his luck. Ever since he first met her in a Quidditch match in his third year he was attracted to her. He tried to compose himself, not wanting to appear nervous.
"Ok, I would love to," Harry said in the most relaxed voice he could muster.
Cho smiled, and said, "I'll meet you in front of the Great Hall then."
Harry said ok and walked back to the Gryffindor common room, where Ron was waiting for him.
"Well, what happened?"
"She asked me to the ball," Harry said as they sat next to Hermione.
Ron waited and finally asked, "and what did you say?"
"I said yes," and when Harry said this, Hermione took her eyes off the book she was reading, looked at him for a moment, and then returned to her reading,
Ron meanwhile looked amazed, asked, "what does it feel like to have anything you want Harry?"
"I don't have everything I want," Harry said defensively, before he quickly changed the added, "have you asked anyone yet, Ron?"
Ron went slightly pink, as he stammered, "me, uh, no, not yet."
"Well, you should. I mean, we only have a week left before the ball. How about you Hermione?"
Hermione immediately changed the subject to their schoolwork without answering his question. Taking the hint, he didn't press the subject any further.
On the last practice session before the Quidditch tryouts the Gryffindors were down to only 10 people showing up, most of the students stopped showing up after a couple of sessions. After the practice, on the way to their dormitory, Ron asked Harry an interesting question.
"How are they going to select the team members?"
Harry thought about for a minute. He really didn't have any idea how they were going to be selecting the squad, Maybe they will use a hat, or a broom in this case, to make the choices, like the sorting hat does, or maybe they will have a person, like Madam Hooch, pick the players. Harry simply shrugged.
Harry spent the night wondering about Ron's question. In a fair competition, he felt he had a good chance. However, what if this wasn't fair? What if Snape was the one to select the team? After a while, despite this depressing thought, Harry eventually fell asleep.
The next morning Harry and Ron, escorted by Hermione, where among the first to arrive at the Quidditch stadium. Fred and George, who were already there, walked up to them. Harry asked the twins if they knew how they will be selecting the team.
Fred said, "well, we heard," but before he could continue, Madam Hooch called them over.
"First I would like to thank you all for showing up. I also would like to wish all of you good luck. We are going to be selecting a starter and a reserve for each position. We will be starting with the beaters, and then we will be moving on to the chasers, then the keepers and lastly the seekers.
"When your turn is over, you may either wait in the stands for the rest of the tryouts, or you may return to your house common room. We will announce the team's roster tonight during the feast. Now, those who will be trying for the beater position, follow me, and everyone else proceed to the locker room. I will come for you when we are ready."
About eight other people went with the twins and Madam Hooch, Including Dean and Seamus. As Harry and Ron grabbed seats on the bench next to each other in the locker room, Cho approached them,
"I wanted to wish you luck Harry, and you too Ron."
"Thanks Cho, and the same to you," Harry said.
"Yeah, good luck to you too," Ron said and as she was walking out of earshot he said in a lower voice, "you're going to need it."
Malfoy, as he approached Harry and Ron holding proudly his Nimbus 2001, looked at their Brooms and dropped his own.
"Weasel, where in the world did you get one of those?"
Ron could see now what Harry had been talking about earlier. The look on Malfoy's face was precious.
Ron didn't say anything, so Malfoy continued, "your family couldn't afford one of those in a million years. Where did you get it?"
Ron grinned and said, "from something that you never had, and probably never will have."
"Oh yeah, and what exactly is that, Weasel?" Malfoy said with his usual sneer.
"From a true friend," as Ron said this Harry beamed at him and the rest of the locker room exploded with laughter. With that, Malfoy sulked away into the corner of the locker room, without uttering another word.
After that, the locker room became quiet again. Apparently, everyone was so nervous about the tryouts that they were too nervous to talk. After about an hour Madam Hooch returned and called on the people who were trying out for chaser. Harry and Ron wished Alicia, Katie and Angelina luck. Harry, however felt that they were the best in the school and had no doubt that they should be selected.
Ron was looking through a Quidditch book that Hermione had given him, apparently trying to get any edge that he could. Harry thought that this was a good idea, but was surprised Ron, who didn't exactly like to read, would be doing this.
After about 90 minutes, Madam Hooch returned. She called for those whom were trying out for the keeper position to come with her. Harry whispered to Ron, "you'll be great. Just relax."
When they left, there was just Harry, Cho and Malfoy as the only ones remaining in the locker room.
Harry was thinking of strategy again. Maybe he will try that Wronski Feint for the first time. He wondered how they were going to test them. They probably were going to release a snitch and see who would be the first with a capture.
An hour latter Madam Hooch returned and called the last three of them to follow her. When Harry went to the pitch, he saw in the stands Ron was sitting next to Hermione. They were waving at him now, so he waved back. In addition to Ron and Hermione, there were Fred, George and several other members that had tried out in the stands. Something took him by surprise. He saw Charlie Weasley, Ron's second oldest brother, and Wood was there as well. Harry wondered what they were doing here. Maybe they were just here to watch the competition. Madam Hooch gathered them into the center of the pitch and began to tell them what was going to happen,
"This is the fourth and final part of the team trials, for the position of seeker. When we begin, we will release ten golden snitches. You will have precisely one hour to catch as many as you possibly can. When you catch one, you must release it, and it cannot be caught again for three minutes. To calculate how many you capture, and to make sure you don't capture any illegally, we have recruited the assistance of several of your former captains to judge this."
When he heard this, he saw Roger Davies, the former Ravenclaw captain, Marcus Flint, the former Slytherin Captain, and several other people he didn't recognize.
Madam Hooch continued, "I will release the snitches, and you will mount your brooms. After ten seconds, I will blow my whistle and you will take off. After one hour, I will blow my whistle again and you will land. Do you all understand?"
After the three of them nodded, she opened a wooden crate and ten snitches were suddenly flying in all directions. Harry mounted his Spitfire and waited for the first whistle. At this point, his heart was almost beating out of his chest. She blew her whistle and he kicked off the ground hard.
He was flying fast off the ground when he spotted his first snitch. He flew as fast as he could and grabbed it, raised it for a second, and released it. After he twisted, he saw another one. Apparently, Cho saw it too, and she was closer, so he rocketed over and beat her to it. He smiled at her as he released it.
He went up higher to get a better look at the field when he saw Malfoy about to catch a snitch that he was only about a foot away from. Harry somehow got there in time to grab it just before Malfoy was able to clamp his hand on it. Before Malfoy could say anything Harry released his third capture and flew clear across the field.
After about 15 minutes, the most difficult part was remembering which ones you could capture, and which ones to ignore since they had already been captured less than three minutes ago. Harry decided that after about 20 minutes he didn't care if the snitches were good or not and he caught as many as he could get to first. He figured he would just catch as many as possible and let the judges sort them out later. After about 30 minutes, Harry figured that he caught about 30 snitches, but only 14 or 15 were good captures.
When the second whistle blew an hour after he took off, Harry released his last snitch and landed on the ground. Harry stopped counting a while ago, but he figured he probably caught about 80 snitches, however he also thought that perhaps only 30 or so where going to actually count. He hoped that was going to be enough.
After he dismounted, a moment later Cho and Malfoy landed near him. While Malfoy, who had a nasty look on his face, left the pitch without saying anything, Cho was smiling at Harry, and congratulating him on his performance. With a smile, she reminded him that she would meet him in the entrance hall tonight, before the ball.
After Harry left the field, he found Ron and Hermione waiting for him in front of the locker room. Ron looked at him uncomfortably, and started to say something to him before his twin brothers, Fred and George, interrupted him.
Fred jumped from behind Harry and shouted, "brilliant Harry, just brilliant."
George pushed Fred aside and said, "yeah, you really kicked their butts out their Harry."
"How did the rest of us do?" Harry asked the twins. Since the beaters went first they would have seen the entire competition.
"Great. I think we really nailed this down," Fred said.
"I agree. Even Ron over here did well enough," George said.
Lee Jordan, who announced all of the school Quidditch matches, came over. He was congratulating them all, on their performances. Harry could now tell Ron really wanted to speak with him, so he excused himself, and went up to the dormitory. A few seconds later, Ron joined him.
"Congratulations Ron. The twins seem to think you did well enough to make the team."
"Yeah, but..." Ron was still visibly nervous.
"What's wrong Ron?" Harry was now starting to get concerned. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine it's just, well, there is something I need to tell you."
Harry sat down on the corner of his four-poster and asked, "what is it?"
"You know the ball tonight?"
"Yeah," Harry said, finally thinking he knew what the problem was. "You weren't able to get an escort for tonight?"
"No, that's not exactly the problem."
Harry was getting frustrated, as he asked, "well. What is it then?"
"I. I mean, you didn't ask her, and well," Ron was getting pinker by the second.
"Ron, calm down and tell me what you are talking about," Harry said in as calm a voice as he could muster.
"You see, Hermione, well," and Ron stopped again, leaving his though incomplete.
"What about Hermione?"
"I asked her out," Ron blurted out.
Harry was a little surprised, but Ron had done the same thing last year, so he asked, "and what happened?"
"She said yes," Ron was now talking to Harry's feet by this point. "I asked her after my turn on the Quidditch tryouts were over."
"So, what's the problem?"
"Well, it's just that, since I know you have feelings for her," Ron said.
"What are you talking about Ron? We're just friends. You know that," Harry said.
"That's what you say, but you can't see yourself when you're around her."
"What do you mean?"
"If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you," Ron said, as he laughed.
"Ok, Hermione," Harry said, as they both were laughing now.
They went down to the common room, where they found Hermione waiting for them, having a nervous look on her face.
"Everything ok," she asked, tentatively.
"Yeah," they said together, and Hermione looked relieved.