Chapter 14 - Holidays, Quidditch and Party's
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe… JKR owns all!
AN: Thanks to Turnlach for his BETA work!
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The Christmas holidays quickly approached and before they knew it the students were coming back from their holidays. Unfortunately Harry had not been able go back to Sirius'. Peter had disappeared off the map… he was obviously not on school grounds anymore.
Over the holidays Ron and Hermione's training had progressed in leaps and bounds, they were now learning more of the advanced stuff. At the moment they were currently working on the Patronus charm. So far only Hermione had managed to get a thick vapour shield while Ron's was rather thin. They now had a number of useful spells that could be used to capture and hold a person and Harry had also taught them a couple of stronger shield charms. Harry knew that this time when they went to the Department of Mysteries that it would be different. They would catch the Death Eaters themselves, and Sirius wouldn't die. Harry would also kill Voldemort in the atrium this time.
But first they needed to get Sirius free and to do that they would need to capture Peter Pettigrew, who was currently missing. Harry was wondering where he was disappearing to, but then reasoned that there were places on in the castle that were not on the map, and that he may in fact be hiding somewhere.
Harry was broken from his thoughts by the sound of Crookshanks hissing and spitting. That could mean one thing… Peter was somewhere. Harry quickly followed Crookshanks line of sight and his eyes landed on the rat. Harry quickly jumped to his feet, and Crookshanks also pounced. Peter quickly ran out of the common room.
Ron must have been walking up the stairs since he heard Ron call out.
"SCABBERS THERE YOU ARE!" There was a moment of silence before Ron yelled again, "GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU STUPID CAT!! OUCH!" Harry came around the corner only to find Ron holding his hand and Crookshanks' paw once again in the wall.
Harry knew that Peter had gotten away again, so he went over to Ron and helped him up.
"That cat's scared Scabbers again! And Scabbers bit me since he was scared!" Ron said to Harry, throwing a glare at Crookshanks as the cat walked back into the common room. Harry and Ron then heard Hermione voice came from inside.
"Oh Crookshanks! Your paw is bleeding!" Hermione voice said. The colour from Ron's face vanished.
"WHAT!" he screamed! And ran inside, Harry on his tail.
"What Ron? Crookshanks has some blood on his paw…" Hermione stopped when Ron's face went as red as his hair.
"YOUR DAMN CAT KILLED SCABBERS! HE WAS CHASING HIM AND MUST HAVE GOTTON HIM!!!" Ron yelled, "YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S PETS! AND NOW LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENED, YOUR STUPID ANIMAL HAS FINALLY KILLED MINE!" with that Ron stormed out of the common room.
Hermione broke down into sobs and Harry quickly comforted her, holding her as she cried.
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Ron and Hermione didn't speak to each other for the rest of the Christmas holidays. It was starting to get on Harry nerves. Ron would always send glares at Hermione, and also glare at Harry when he talked to her. Harry just ignored Ron when he did this though.
The time was coming for the next Gryffindor Quidditch match. This time they would be playing Ravenclaw. Wood had been holding training session after training session, to get them ready. Hermione's work load was also starting to weigh her down, though Harry had said nothing about it yet.
Ron, though still not speaking to her still talked to Harry, and had been asking him how Hermione was managing to get to all of her classes. He had even brought forward points that people in her other classes had said Hermione hadn't missed a lesson, which according to Ron was impossible since she was with them in a different class.
Harry for his part just shrugged his shoulders. If Ron had been talking to her, he might have told him about the time turner, but their recent fights had stopped him, knowing that Ron was one to let secrets slip when he was angry. After all, it was during a fight between Ron and Harry in their sixth year, which led to everyone in the school knowing about the prophecy. That was then followed by newspaper article after newspaper article picking apart Harry's life and all the times it involved Voldemort.
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It was the day of the Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor match. Hermione was now swamped with work but still managed to come down to watch the game. She gave him a quick good luck kiss before she headed up to the Gryffindor stands.
Wood gave them the usual speech before they headed out into the field. Hooch called Wood and Davis in to shake hands before the coin was tossed. Once again Wood won the toss and chose to defend the north goal.
In a matter of seconds the game was off, Harry shot into the air searching for the snitch. Chang was following his every move, trying to block his path. But her Comet didn't even come close to comparing to his Firebolt and he quickly avoided her.
Lee's voice echoed over to Harry, as Gryffindor scored their second goal. Ravenclaw was still yet to score. Harry pulled into a sharp dive, plummeting towards the ground. Cho had followed him, though she must have guessed or learned from Malfoy since she pulled up just in the nick of time. Harry watched as Angelina pulled off a nice reverse pass to Katie and then Katie passed the Quaffle behind the goals to Alicia who scored. Harry had to admit they were good, he had forgotten how good they were actually.
Harry shot off into the air again as he looked around for the snitch. He circled around the pitch, dodging a couple of bludgers that were shot his way. It was then he saw it, on the other side of the pitch. Harry noticed that Cho was closer, so he shot off after it as fast as he could. It looked as if Cho might actually catch it first for a second before she let out a high pitched scream.
Harry looked over to see what had happened, and he watched as three dementors hovered over towards him. Harry instantly remembered what had happened last time… it was Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Harry whipped out his wand and sent a banishing charm at the three, which knocked them off their brooms and sent them falling down ten feet to the ground.
Harry just smirk and looked back for the snitch, however to his dismay it was once again gone. He then heard Madam Hooch blowing her whistle to call the game to a halt.
"Hold the game!" she yelled out as she went over to the three black cloaks that were now rolling around on the ground. Harry also flew down and landed next to them. McGonagall and Snape were the first people to arrive and Snape quickly pulled the robes off the boys. He then turned to look at Harry, the anger was easily visible though his eyes.
"You will be banned for this Potter! Attacking students while playing! Detention and 100 points from Gryffindor!" Snape hissed.
"OH I don't think so Professor Snape! These boys were not playing this game and dressed up as dementors to try and cause havoc! They will be serving detention for the rest of the year and will be losing 50 points for Slytherin! Mr Potter did nothing wrong!" McGonagall said. Snape looked furious before he dragged the three boys back to the stands.
Madam Hooch soon resumed the game though it didn't last long as Harry saw the snitch two minutes in and in another twenty seconds he had it in his hand. The crowd went wild, well all except for the Slytherins who booed as usual. Wood was ecstatic, and Fred and George announced that there was a party in the Gryffindor Common room.
As they were walking back to the common room Fred and George came up to Harry.
"Harry… could we borrow the you-know-what?" Fred whispered.
"Yes… we need to pick up some supplies for the party." George added with a grin. Harry just nodded and quickly rushed up into his dorm and gave them the map.
About an hour later they were back and they handed Harry the map before they called everyone to silence.
"People! It is time to thank Harry! And ourselves! We have a treat for you!" with that five crates of Butterbeer appeared on the table, as George removed the invisibility charm.
Everyone in the room cheered and started thanking Harry, George and Fred. Harry grabbed two bottles of butterbeer and then went looking for Hermione. He ended up finding her huddled in a corner quickly writing down on some parchment. Harry walked over and sat down next to her.
"Hi Harry." she said, not even looking up to see if it actually was him.
"How did you know it was me?" Harry asked raising an eyebrow.
"Don't know… I just did…" Hermione said before she quickly went back to her work.
"Come on Hermione, have some fun." Harry said in a sigh.
"I can't… I have to do this! I need to get all the homework and stuff I already know done so that I can start studying the stuff I don't know." Hermione said in a sigh. Her work load was really starting to wear her down.
"Ok… I've got a proposition for you." Harry said. Hermione instantly looked up; she desperately wanted a way to get more time.
"I will do the work that you already know for you… so that you can work on the stuff that you need to study." Harry said. Hermione just raised an eyebrow.
"Umm… Harry… but you don't take half of my classes. How would that work…?" she said trailing off as she noticed Harry raised his eyebrow.
"Trust me when I say I can do third year Arithmancy, Runes, and if you remember I lived with muggles so I don't think Muggle Studies will be a problem." Harry said with a smile.
Hermione instantly pulled him into a rather passionate kiss which Harry happily returned. When she broke the kiss she sighed and hugged him, "You're a life saver Harry." she said softly.
Harry just gave her a lopsided grin, "I try to please." he said, which caused her to giggle.
"So now… how about we enjoy this party?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded. She took his hand and they walked out into the crowd and begun to dance.
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AN: Will there you go another chapter! I hope that you enjoyed it :P R/R!!