Chapter 12 - Quidditch and Dementors
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe… JKR owns all!
AN: Thanks to Turnlach for his BETA work once again!
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Harry woke up at five in the morning. He quietly slipped into some training clothes he had bought over the summer and headed towards the Room of Requirement. He had decided that it was time to start working out again. Once he had started in his sixth year, it had helped a lot. He was able to last longer in a duel and could play Quidditch longer without getting exhausted. He also knew that if he started training now it would definitely help in the Tri-wizard Tournament.
The room had changed into a large track; in the middle of the track were a number of different kinds of muggle weightlifting devices. Harry started out with the usual stretches before starting to jog around the track.
After his tenth lap Harry was panted heavily. He wandered over to where the muggle weight lifting equipment was and there was also a water fountain there now. The room had made it appear when Harry had need for it.
After Harry caught his breath he began to use the muggle devices to work out. Today he was mainly working his upper body, concentrating on his chest and torso. He had decided that he would work out five days a week and have the other two days for his body to recover.
About two hours later Harry left the Room of Requirement. His body was aching, much like it had when he first started to work out. He knew that in a couple of weeks it wouldn't hurt as much after a work out but he also knew the results were well worth the little bit of pain.
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The full moon was this weekend and Harry knew what was coming for Defence. Everyone was surprised when Professor Snape strolled into the room his cloak billowing out behind him as he closed all the windows with a flick of his wand.
"Er… where is Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked. Snape just glared at her.
"Lupin is currently feeling under the weather so I will be taking this class." Snape said before walking over to the desk, "Now Lupin has left nothing of what you are doing…"
"Oh! We have been learning about Boggarts, Redcaps, Hinkypunks…" Hermione started,
"I did not ask for a run down Miss Granger! I was simply commenting on Mr Lupin's poor organization and management skills! I would expect first years to be able to handle Redcaps!" Snape said.
"Professor Lupin is the best teacher we have had!" Dean said rather bravely. Luckily for him, Snape seemed to ignore his comment.
"Today we will be learning about… werewolves." Snape said, a large smirk on his face. Harry just rolled his eyes and looked at Hermione in amusement; he could easily see that she was quickly working out that Remus was a werewolf.
"Harry…I need to talk to you later… alone." Hermione whispered to him. Harry just nodded and opened his book to the section on werewolves. The class was rather boring, it was mainly writing down facts about werewolves and how to spot them. Harry knew that Snape was trying to get the students to find out about Remus.
After the class, Hermione quickly dragged Harry out of the classroom, and when no one was looking into a broom closet.
"You do know what people usually do in here don't you?" Harry asked, his voice clearly amused.
He could see the small smile form on Hermione's face, as she leaned forward and gave Harry a sweet innocent little kiss on the lips.
"Now Harry… I wanted to ask you…" Hermione started.
"About Remus being a werewolf?" Harry finished for her.
"Yes…so he is one?" Hermione asked. Harry just nodded.
"Yes he is… he is also one of my father's and Sirius' best friends." Harry said softly. Hermione smiled and gave him a hug. She then lent forward and gave him another kiss, though this time she ran her tongue across his bottom lip. Harry quickly allowed her access and Hermione deepened the kiss. Harry and Hermione had never kissed like this yet. Sure, they had kissed each other but they hadn't actually snogged yet.
Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist and one of her hands went into his hair. She let a soft groan escape her mouth as their tongues duelled each other. About a minute later Hermione broke the kiss and leaned against Harry's chest, breathing heavily and trying to catch her breath.
"Wow…" was all she could say, Harry just smiled and hugged her, giving her forehead a soft kiss.
"As much as I would love to stay here holding you… I have to get to Quidditch training." Harry said with a small smile. Hermione just nodded and gave Harry another small kiss before he left.
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"Ok… this is it… Our first game… and it's against Slytherin." Wood said as he paced in front of them, "We have a superior team, and better brooms but DO NOT get cocky!"
Everyone in the room just shook their heads; they found it rather amusing how Wood took Quidditch. "Don't worry old' Woody." George said,
"We will be good…" Fred said.
"…and hit a couple of snakes!" George finished.
Wood continued on with the speech while Harry was quickly reinforcing his metal shields, everything was the same as last time, it was raining hard, there was lots of wind, and Harry would bet every galleon he had that the dementors would come… the only difference was that this time they were playing Slytherin instead of Hufflepuff.
"Ok let's go!" Wood said. Harry got up, though then remembered something. Taking off his glasses he tapped them with his wand, muttering the words 'Impervius'.
"What was that Harry?" Wood asked.
"Huh? Oh it makes them repel the water." Harry said with a shrug, "Oh and by the looks of it… it might be smart to put heating charms on our clothes."
"Brilliant thinking!" Wood beamed as the team muttered the heating charms. "OK TEAM LETS GO!" Wood roared and they headed out onto the pitch.
Slytherin was entering as well and they met in the middle, Flint and Wood walked up to Madam Hooch. She was the first to notice the team's new brooms.
"Merlin! You've all got Firebolts!" she exclaimed. Wood watched as Flint eyed his broom and looked at him, Wood just gave a smirk.
"What, never seen one before?" Wood asked innocently. Flint didn't say anything.
Madam Hooch tossed the coin, which Wood called then selected the north goals to defend.
"ALL RIGHT MOUNT YOUR BROOMS!" Hooch called out over the rain. The Gryffindors mounted their Firebolts while the Slytherins mounted their Nimbus 2001's. Hooch kicked the lid open and the bludgers and the snitch flew out. She then picked up the quaffle and threw it high into the air, blowing her whistle.
"And they're off!" the voice of Lee Jordan roared out, "Gryffindor with the Quaffle! Spinnet to Johnson! Oh close miss there, Johnson with a LOOP PASS AND BELL SCORES! 10 nothing to Gryffindor!" Lee was screaming, though over the wind and rain it came out normally.
"Now I think it might be a good time to inform everyone. We would like to thank Mr Harry Potter as he donated seven BRAND NEW FIREBOLTS to the Gryffindor team! Saying it was a going away present! And since he was already on the team… he was not buying his place like a certain Slytherin…" Lee started but was whacked over the back of the head by McGonagall, though he could see her smiling.
"Oh fine bludger by Fred or George Weasley! Who can tell them apart? Knocking the Quaffle out of Vaiseys hands, which was then intercepted by Spinnet! Spinnet is soaring up, OH AND THROWS IT DOWN TO JOHNSON! WHO SCORES…A PERFECT PORSKOFF PLOY!!! 20 NOTHING TO GRYFFINDOR!"
By now Harry was searching for the snitch. He couldn't remember where it was but he remembered that it led him into the clouds. Malfoy then decided to pull up beside him.
"Where did you steal that broom from Potter." Malfoy drawled.
"Bought it Malfoy, as well as the six others." Harry said, "Unlike you I don't brag about having money." Harry said before he shot downwards, flying straight towards the ground. The crowd had stopped speaking as they watched Harry plummet to the ground at around 200 miles an hour. Malfoy, who thought Harry had seen the snitch was following after him.
Harry pulled the broom up as hard as he could, levelling out, as his knees skimmed the grass. Malfoy wasn't as lucky, as Harry heard a sickening crash as Malfoy slammed into the unforgiving earth.
"OH MY GOD! HARRY POTTER HAS JUST PULLED OF THE WRONSKI FEINT! A PROFESSIONAL QUIDDITCH MOVE!!" the voice of Lee could be heard along with the roaring cheers of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
That was when Harry spotted it, a glint of gold coming from above him. He shot off as fast as he could, pushing the broom to it limits, the spectators watched in awe, as Harry Potter turned into a blur, heading straight for the sky.
The snitch seemed to see him coming and took off, heading into the clouds, higher and higher. Harry could feel the air getting thinner and that was when he felt the air go cold…dementors. He pushed his broom even harder and had just managed to grab the snitch before he had to quickly dive under a dementor.
Harry quickly pulled into a dive, heading as fast as he could for the ground. He had to dodge a number of dementors but finally broke from the clouds. He all of a sudden heard hundreds of people start to scream. Looking behind him he noticed that the dementors were following him.
When Harry turned back, he didn't have time to turn as he went flying straight though a dementor, which let out a wailing shriek, before the black robes slowly fell to the ground. Oh now they had it in for him…he had just killed one of their own.
Harry quickly landed on the ground; he turned to see at least a hundred dementors swooping down towards him. Not even thinking about it Harry whipped out his wand, "EXPECTRO PATRONUM!" Harry screamed out.
Instantly a large stag, at least three times the size of a real stag and about four times the size of Harry, ripped from his wand and went flying towards the dementors. It ran full pelt into the creatures, sending them tumbling and into retreat. Once its job was done the stag slowly came back, bowing to Harry before it faded away.
"HARRY!" the voice of Hermione screamed out, Harry spun around thinking that she may be in danger only to find himself tackled to the ground by her. She then gave him a deep, long kiss, which Harry happily returned and made Ron making gagging sounds. When Hermione finally broke the kiss she dug her head into his chest. She was crying, mumbling how she thought he was going to die. Harry softly whispered comforting words in her ear.
It was then that the teachers came running towards them. Dumbledore was first, "Harry my boy are you ok?" he asked quickly, looking around to see if there was any other dementors. Harry just nodded; he could see the sincere look in the old man's eyes. It was this that made Harry decide that he would try and change Dumbledore instead of cutting him completely off.
"If you are alright Harry… I think it might be best if you and your friends headed back to your tower… I expect that Gryffindor will have a lot to celebrate tonight." Dumbledore said with a small smile. Harry for his part just nodded, and he, Hermione and Ron started to make their way back.
As they were walking back Harry took them off course, heading towards the seventh floor.
"Harry? Where are we going?" Ron asked, confused.
"You said you wanted me to teach you some spells, I'm showing you where we are going to learn them." Harry said as he paced back and forth in front of the blank wall. All of a sudden a door appeared, and Harry entered, followed by Ron and Hermione.
On one side of the room were a couple of nice soft looking couches and about five bookshelves packed full of books, all on combat and duelling. The other side the room was made into a training area; there were practice dummies, targets, as well as the muggle weightlifting equipment.
"Welcome to the Room of Requirement." Harry said holding out his hands.
"Wow…" was all Ron said, Hermione was still looking around wide eyed.
"Harry… who did this for you." she asked softly. Harry just smiled at her.
"No one… when I was pacing in front of the room before, I was thinking that I needed a place to learn and teach Defence magic and the room supplied me with what I needed… it can do practically anything." Harry said as he made a table with three butterbeers appear in front of them. "See" he said handing them the drinks.
"COOL! You have to show me how to do that!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione's mind was swimming with the possibilities, which caused Harry to laugh.
"Ok… we will come here… say two or three times a week, and I will teach you heaps of defence spells… I can guarantee in about a month you will be the best in Defence Against the Dark Arts." Harry said. Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement before they left the room and headed for the party that was no doubt happening in the Gryffindor tower at the moment.
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AN: AH another chapter uploaded! Well tell me what you think! R/R!