Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
Harry McGonagall - Chapter 15 - Practice and Preparation
The next class they had was Herbology with the Slytherins, where they learned how to repot Mandrakes. Harry found it rather amusing when he noticed one of the baby Mandrakes try to bite Draco's finger off. `Too bad Malfoy's wearing gloves,' he thought. He further wondered what Draco would say if he knew his own elf was betraying his family. `How on earth can they be so stupid as to expect an elf they beat to be loyal?' He wisely didn't say anything about it in that room, for fear of the pompous idiot overhearing.
Before long, Harry, Hermione, and Padma were sitting together at the Ravenclaw table for lunch.
"Are you gonna tell your Aunt about the Malfoy's elf in Transfiguration class?" whispered Padma.
"I'll ask to talk with her and show her the memory."
"Can I come," asked Hermione. "All I saw were walls."
Harry smiled slightly. "Yeah. I think she was trying to protect my identity," he whispered. "She didn't know if you knew, and didn't want to give it away. I think she does understand that I am safer if no one knows who I am."
"Probably," whispered Padma. "Can I come, too?"
-
After lunch, they headed to the Transfiguration classroom, where they were surprised to see Matthew Shapon sitting at Aunt Minnie's desk. Harry glanced around the room, looking for either his aunt or a cat, with no success. He frowned. He supposed he'd have to wait until dinner to talk to his aunt. The Assistant Professor stood up, smiling nervously.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Professor Shapon. As you know, Professor McGonagall is now Headmistress, and has many important, time-consuming duties to perform. Sometimes, like today, she'll ask me to teach the class for her. She asked me to remind you that the same rules that apply when she's here also apply when she's not, which means no messing around." He then took a roll of parchment of the desk. "I'm now going to take attendance."
After roll call, he began teaching them how to turn a beetle into a button, which Harry and Hermione did on their first try, earning Ravenclaw two points each. It took until Padma's second attempt, because the button from her first attempt moved just as Matthew got to her desk to inspect her work. Harry noticed that Padma seemed to slightly blush whenever she had the Assistant Professor's attention.
-
As the trio was headed down the stairs on the way to dinner, Harry stopped suddenly. "What's that?" he asked, pointing at a tiny electric blue creature flying in front of them holding a portrait.
"I don't know," said Padma with a smirk, "but it's got a picture of Lockhart."
"That looks like a pixie," said Hermione, but how…"
At that moment, Neville Longbottom came running up the staircase with his wand out. "Immobulus!" he shouted, sending a clever freezing charm Hermione had taught them in their study group the previous year at the tricky little blighter, causing it to stay where it was. "Got it!" he said happily as he took a step toward it, only for his foot to fall through the trick stair.
"What happened?" asked Harry as he walked toward his friend.
"Lockhart, that's what. First, he gave us a pop quiz about his favorite color and other rubbish like that. Then, he let loose a bunch of Cornish Pixies on us. Once they got his wand, he ran for it! They picked poor Ron up and hung him from the chandelier."
Harry couldn't help but laugh at that picture as he helped Longbottom out of his predicament. Hermione, who was now holding the painting of Lockhart and gazing at it dreamily said, "That's not funny, Harry. Not funny at all. I'm sure that Professor Lockhart simply wanted to give you all a hands-on lesson, and his quiz was just to see how closely you read his books. In Year with the Yeti, he clearly stated that his favorite color is lilac, just like the attractive suit he's wearing in this picture."
Harry blinked. He couldn't believe that his best friend was so smitten with that fraud that she'd make excuses for losing his wand to a pixie and running away. He turned back to Neville. "Are the rest still flying around the school?"
"No. That was the last of them," he said, taking the now portrait-less pixie. He turned to Hermione with a mischievous smirk. "Shall I leave you with the portrait and tell Lockhart that it's gone?"
"Ye…No. No, or course not. Don't be ridiculous. Here you go." She said all that without taking a breath as she hastily returned it. Harry, Padma and Neville all got a good laugh at Hermione's expense. Her face was completely pink.
"Er, I can't wait until dinner. Do you think they'll have roast beef?" She walked ahead of them, barely managing to avoid the trick stair.
-
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention," said Minerva as she, Harry, Hermione and Padma exited her Pensieve. They'd spoken to her during dinner and she invited them to her office.
"So, you see why we think Lucius Malfoy is up to something," said Harry.
"Especially in light of what Draco started to say on the train," added Hermione.
"I certainly agree that it looks that way," said Minnie, "but for now, I believe that all we can do is keep our eyes open and wait for something to happen."
"Isn't there something you can do?" asked Padma. "Can't you drag the little ferret in here and make him drink veritaserum?" By the expression on Harry's face, she knew that he agreed with that plan.
"I'm afraid not," said Minerva. "There are limits to what a Headmistress can get away with, and the use of that potion on a student is strictly forbidden. Lucius Malfoy would have me sacked and in Azkaban faster than you can say, illegal."
"I suppose so," agreed Harry, reluctantly. "Did you hear about Lockhart's first lesson with the Second-Year Gryffindors?" he added, changing the subject.
Minerva's lips thinned. "Yes. I even saw some of his students running around chasing pixies. I can't understand what that idiot was thinking!"
Hermione looked scandalized. "Headmistress! Even though his teaching methods may be a bit…unusual, I'm sure that they learned a lot. I don't think it's polite to refer to him as an idiot just because you…"
"You're quite right, Hermione. It was improper. I apologize. It's not good policy to speak ill of my colleagues, no matter what I think of them, and I shouldn't encourage you to disrespect them."
"Don't worry, Aunt Minnie. I don't need any encouragement to disrespect Professor Lockhart."
"Harry!" hissed Hermione.
"Young man," said Minerva sternly, with only the slightest hint of a smile that only those closest to the headmistress could detect, "Listen, and listen good. Don't let me catch you pulling any pranks on Professor Lockhart. The consequences would be severe."
"Yes, Aunt Minnie," he said submissively. He didn't add, "I won't let you catch me at it," even though that's what he was thinking and knew that's exactly what his aunt meant.
"Although it would be interesting to see how he deals in person with the situations he's described in his books," she added.
"Yes," agreed Hermione dreamily, "It would be amazing to see first-hand how heroic he is."
It was all Harry could do to stop himself from losing his dinner right there. He rolled his eyes at his aunt, and she winked at him. He almost burst out laughing.
"Indeed," said Minerva. "Now, if that's all you'd like to discuss…" They nodded. "I've got a bit of parchmentwork to fill out before turning in."
-
The next morning, Harry was waiting in the common room for Hermione and Padma when Luna Lovegood came walking up the stairs.
He politely said, "Good morning, Luna."
She was wearing her school robes, but had one white shoe and one black one. She answered, "Good morning, Harry," with her normal vacant expression and started looking around the common room, causing some of the girls who were downstairs to snigger.
He watched her look behind a plant in the corner and under a couch before he decided to interrupt her. "Looking for nargles?" he asked.
She stopped, got up, and looked at him. "Not precisely, but I do suspect that they're behind it. Some of my clothes, half of my shoes, some parchment, and two of my books are gone."
"What?" he asked shocked.
"Yes. Nargles sometimes steal things. It's in their nature."
Harry was mad. He couldn't believe there were thieves there. "Was everything in your dorm room when it vanished?" he asked.
"Yes. I think the nargles struck last night."
He pulled out his wand. "Accio, Luna's stolen things."
While several items, including the mates to both shoes Luna was wearing, came up the staircase, a few things came out of the pockets and bags of the older girls that were already in the room. A roll of parchment came out of the bag of a female fifth-year prefect who was talking to Penny Clearwater. Harry saw them both follow it to him as the other girls gathered around him as well.
"Harry," asked Penny, "what are you doing, taking these girls' things?"
He glared at her, not knowing whether she was part of this or not. "I'm not stealing anything! I simply summoned the things that were stolen last night from Luna!"
As he put the parchment in Ms. Lovegood's already full arms, Penelope looked at her fellow prefect, who looked guiltily to the ground. Clearwater looked around at the other female Ravenclaws who'd lost contraband to Harry's summoning charm. All it took was one look to confirm the truth to Penny as the rest of the girls started making their way up into the common room. "I, I can't believe you all! Robbing a first year! Especially you, Roberta! You just made prefect! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"
"Lighten up, Penny. It's just Loony…"
"What terrible thing has she done to you to deserve this?!" Harry yelled. He then added, "You SLYTHERIN thief!"
"Now listen here, boy!" Roberta said, "Just because your aunt is…"
"This has nothing to do with my aunt, you thief! Didn't your mom ever tell you that stealing is wrong?"
"It was just a joke!"
"No! I love pranks, but this wasn't one. It was theft! Besides, pranks are for the deserving, like Filch, who goes around talking about how he wants to hang us all by our thumbs! Luna hasn't done anything to you!"
"Harry," said Luna evenly, "It's alright. You don't have to…"
"What's going on?" asked Hermione, who just arrived. Harry saw that Padma was with her.
"Half the girls, including this prefect, robbed Luna last night." He acted disgusted when he indicated Roberta.
Hermione's eyes widened as she looked at the fifth-year. "Even you? You're supposed to set an example!"
Harry noticed that Hermione was close to losing her temper, and he didn't want any hexing to start, mainly because he wasn't sure he could take out a fifth-year. He did still have his wand out - just in case. "I think we've got things under control now, don't we, Penny?"
"Yes, I think so." She looked each of the thieves that had been caught in the eyes. "I've never been ashamed to be in this house before today. "Fifty points from Ravenclaw!"
"Fifty?" questioned Roberta. "You can't take that many away! I'll…"
"You'll what, Roberta? Complain to Flitwick that I didn't allow you to rob a first-year! He'll take away your badge if he finds out, and I've half-a-mind to tell him! I can't believe you were a part of this! I trusted you!"
"You can't!"
"I won't tell him about this incident…this time," said Penny calmly. "But if any one of you does something like this again, I'll make sure you spend the rest of the year mopping the floors with your tongue while Filch supervises." She then turned to Luna. "I'm sorry that this happened, Luna. I want you to let me know if anything else of yours turns up missing."
"You don't have to…"
"It's my job. You want me to do my job properly, don't you?"
"Yes, Penelope."
-
They went down to an uneventful breakfast, and then on to Double Defense Against the Dark Arts for their first lesson with Lockhart. Harry didn't understand why Hermione's infatuation with the old fraud bugged him so much. He knew nothing would ever come of it, but he felt a small twinge of…something he couldn't define whenever she complimented the creep. Trying to avoid thinking about that, he wondered whether they'd have the same pixie lesson that Neville had had the day before.
"Good morning, class," Gilderoy announced cheerily, managing to show all of his perfect teeth. "Allow me to introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher - me, the Great Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award - but I don't talk about that. I didn't conquer the Yeti by smiling at it!"
He waited for them to laugh; only a few people, Hermione included, did. He then began handing out test papers and said, "You have thirty minutes - start - now!"
Harry looked down at his paper, and realized that it was indeed the same test that Neville had taken when he read the first question.
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?
He did remember what Hermione had said the day before, but he wasn't going to answer these stupid questions the way Lockhart wanted. Dipping his quill in a bottle of ink, he wrote, `Gold - like a Galleon.'
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?
Harry answered, `To make tons of Galleons by forcing hundreds of students to buy all his worthless books by being their teacher.'
3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?
`Achieving the lowest O.W.L. scores for the last 500 years - the lowest ever for a Slytherin.'
On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:
54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?
`Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday was one of the saddest days in our history, and his ideal gift would be yet another picture of himself to add to his collection, but he wouldn't say no to a bag of gold.'
While Lockhart was flipping through the papers, Harry noticed his eyes bulge out as he looked at what Harry thought was his own test paper. He quickly moved it to the bottom of the stack and started complimenting Hermione's answers, causing her to blush much to Harry's irritation.
-
"So," said Harry after they left the class, which did not include the pixies, "what did Professor Lockhart teach us in class today, Hermione? Besides how red you can get when a teacher you fancy compliments you."
She stopped dead in her tracks as all her blood rushed to her cheeks. "I do NOT fancy him," she declared. "And as for our lesson," her brow furrowed, showing Harry that she was deep in thought. "Er, he…he was just trying to, to break the ice. He wanted us to get to know each other better. I'm sure that our next lesson will be much more…informative." Harry was truly getting sick of the way Hermione was defending that bloke, and he currently wasn't sure she wouldn't turn him in for pranking Lockhart. He decided that, for the first time in his Hogwarts career, he was going to have to do something behind Hermione's back.
-
"So what did you want,"
"to talk about?" asked the Weasley twins. Harry had sent them a note with Hedwig to meet him.
"I think Lockhart's a fraud, and I want to prove it. I figure that we should prank him in such a way that a wizard of his supposed skill should be able to avoid, but instead he'll have to ask for help undoing the jinxes."
"Sounds like a…" said George.
"Worthy cause," completed Fred.
Together, they sacredly said, "To insure the competence of the staff - every student's responsibility."
"We are surprised…"
"That Hermione's not here."
"Nor Padma."
Harry's ears turned slightly pink. "Well, Hermione fancies the ponce, er, like most of the girls I guess, and I don't know how Padma feels about him. I don't want to risk either of them interfering."
Both Fred and George smiled at each other. "We understand, now."
"He's a rival for Hermione's affections."
Harry's face turned red. "He's not! I'm not after Hermione's…er, affections. I'm just concerned about her. That's all!"
"Of course." Fred winked at him.
"We believe you." Now George winked.
"Look, are you in or out?"
-
The next morning, while the Gryffindor Quidditch team was having an early practice, and allowing a first-year to try out to become the youngest Seeker in a century (due to how poorly their previous Seeker had performed), Lockhart was nervously opening the door to Hagrid's old hut. He'd been ordered by the Headmistress to inspect it for any hazards, and warned that she didn't know what kinds of dark creatures the half-giant who'd previously inhabited it kept as pets. She'd also said that her nephew would be among those who used it, and if anything dangerous was still in there after Lockhart said it was fine, he'd be in serious trouble. He didn't know that the Headmistress was following him, disillusioned.
"He wouldn't have had anything dangerous," Lockhart said to himself shakily. "I'll just go in there and nothing will attack me, and then I'll certify it as safe."
Minerva had a hard time not chuckling when she thought of the creatures she'd put in there while Matthew was handling her classes the last few days. She didn't consider it wrong to give the Assistant Professor extra experience. In fact, from what she'd heard, he'd done an excellent job.
The DADA Professor opened the door to find the room full of people. Not just any people, he realized with horror. They were people he'd interviewed and obliviated for his books, and they looked mad.
"LOCKHART, YOU FRAUD!!!" one of them shouted. "You said you'd make me famous! Instead, once I told you my story, you erased my memory!"
While others made similar claims, Minerva stood there shocked. She'd suspected he'd made up the stories in his books - not that he'd stolen the stories in such a cruel way. She unfortunately knew that a person's boggart can't be considered evidence. Gilderoy could claim that it's his fear that others will falsely claim he'd done that, but she knew the truth. Just as she was beginning to wonder if he'd ever catch on, Lockhart began to stutter.
"Wh,wh,wh, wait a minute. You're dead." He was pointing at an old man. "Y-you'd be older now." He was looking at a girl. This has got to be…what were they called?" he said as he absently moved his wand. "This is so ridiculous!" Suddenly, all of the faces had blank expressions like they'd just lost their memories. Lockhart then began to laugh cruelly at them, and the boggart was banished. He then looked around to make sure no one had seen, not noticing the slight distortion. Minerva smiled as she noticed a wet spot in the front of his robes. She saw him notice that and mutter, "I wish I knew a drying spell. Is this stupid job worth this? Maybe I should…"
Minerva quickly made herself visible and shouted happily from behind Lockhart. "Oh, Gilderoy. I see you're about to inspect the house. Would you care for some help?"
He stiffened for a moment before saying (without turning around), "N-No that's perfectly alright. I have everything under control here." She stayed until he actually stepped inside and started walking away, making the door close without him seeing her do it. She then disillusioned herself again to watch more.
-
Gilderoy had looked over his shoulder to see Minerva walk away, having planned to immediately leave when suddenly the door slammed. He tried opening it unsuccessfully, and realized he was trapped. That's when all Hell broke loose. He heard a fluttering of wings above him, and looked up to see about fifty winged keys that suddenly turned on him. He dropped to the floor in fright and tried to crawl under the bed for cover while his clothes, hands, and head were cut up by his attackers. He was doing his best to keep his hands over his face as he shimmied along.
When he got under the bed, he placed his left hand in a yellowish liquid that smelled of petrol. He suddenly found himself in tremendous pain and jumped back out while screaming in agony. He didn't know it, but he'd put his hand in a puddle of bubotuber puss. The keys continued their attack as he ran to the curtains, intent on wiping the puss from his hand on them. When he did, a swarm of fairy-like creatures covered in black hair flew out of the curtains at him. He didn't know what they were, but he soon found out that they had sharp, venomous teeth when one got his neck.
By this time, his clothes were torn up; his face, hands, and neck were bleeding; his hair was disheveled; and he was crying. Soon, the doxies from the curtains began biting his hair off. He screamed even more as he fell to the ground and assumed the fetal position.
-
Minerva felt he'd had enough (she didn't want to kill him, after all - that would be too much parchmentwork), so she sent a Patronus (which was quite easy to produce under the circumstances) to a few of her colleagues to summon them there. Since they'd been waiting for the sign, they were there within five minutes when Minerva gently opened the door to reveal Lockhart still in that position crying as keys and doxies continually attacked him. Flitwick, Sprout, Sinistra, and Kettleburn (the four heads of house), along with Madam Pomfrey, all looked on in amusement. He hadn't noticed them. Flitwick pulled out his wand and performed a few charms. Within seconds, the attackers were on the ground, frozen stiff.
Minerva walked up to the weeping Defense teacher and cleared her throat. He looked up at her and muttered, "Is it over?" before his eyes widened to see the others there as well. With what little dignity he had, he got up and tried adjusting the rags he was wearing. "You shouldn't have interfered," he said confidently, "I had them right where I wanted them."
"Really?" asked Minerva with a smirk.
"Oh, yes. You see, I wanted to pretend, er, for the sake of my classes. You see, I wanted to try and learn what it's like to be a victim. You see, a man of my talent has never really had anything to fear. Therefore, I refrained from defending myself. Unfortunately, since I knew the whole time that I was in no real danger, I didn't experience what I was hoping for - fear."
Minerva could almost smell the manure Lockhart's story was filling the cabin with as Madam Pomfrey began healing his wounds without a word.
Sprout said, "Then perhaps you would care to assist me in eliminating the infestation of garden gnomes that have made their way into one of the classrooms. We'll just throw them out the window. They shouldn't be able to return. The room is on the fifth floor."
He smiled charmingly at her, glad he hadn't lost any teeth, and said, "I'd love to assist you, Pomona, but unfortunately, I'll be busily grading homework for the next few weeks."
"I see," she responded.
-
After Flitwick left, Minerva quickly took care of any threats in that room and asked Harry, Hermione and Padma to come to her office, where she showed them the memory of what had happened at Hagrid's old hut. Hermione looked more distressed than Harry had ever seen her.
"B-but he…he wrote…how could he? He lied. Not only that, but it looks like he erased their memories. How could he? And he laughed, laughed at them." Her face turned hard and unforgiving. "He got what he deserved! You shouldn't have helped him!"
"Miss Granger, Hermione," said Minerva. "I agree that his behavior is abominable, but I couldn't just let him die." She took a deep breath. "Unfortunately, there is no evidence of what he's done." She then looked at the three kids with a smirk. "However, if for some reason he didn't like it here and decided to quit, that would be another story."
Harry looked around at the two girls, and could tell by their expressions that he could now count them in on the plans he and the Weasley twins were making. "That would be so…unfortunate," he said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm.
"Anyway," said Minerva, "the hut has been cleared of anything dangerous. You may now take possession of it. I suggest you ask the house elves for assistance. I've already authorized them to give you any spare furniture in the castle and any other assistance you may need."
-
Later that afternoon, Hermione was reluctant at first to take Professor McGonagall's suggestion about using the elves until Harry asked her this question:
"Are you going to pick up Hagrid's bed and get it out of here?"
Her ears turned pink as Padma giggled.
"Er, no, I suppose not. It's not like it's hard for them to do something like this. It shouldn't do any harm."
"And remember," said Padma, "We're not trying to put them out of work right now - just stop the abuse. They should actually be happy to help make this into our office."
-
With the help of a few elves, who were only too honored to help, all of the giant-sized furniture was eliminated within five minutes of that conversation. Some bookshelves, two normal-sized tables, fifteen chairs and a trunk with a very sturdy lock were brought in. Harry set his boom box on one of the bookshelves, and they listened to music while they worked. When the place was set up properly, with ten C.A.R.E.-related books on it, Harry started playing on his Game Boy while Padma was reading one of the books and Hermione was composing a list of other books to get. While they were still doing that, there was a knock at the door. Hermione opened it.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall," she said.
Harry paused his game and looked up, grinning at his favorite aunt. "Hi. What do you think?"
"The place certainly seems roomier without Hagrid-sized furniture in it. I am curious why you have two tables here."
"That's so that we'll have room for more people to work if we have a project or study groups," said Hermione.
"Or if we have lunch here," added Padma with a grin. Each table had six chairs with it, with the three remaining chairs in different corners.
"Well, you've certainly done a good job with it." She then got her wand from its holster and performed a spell on the door handle. "I've transfigured this lock to be much more secure," she said before pulling three keys out of her pocket. "I've already made these for you. I've done something special with these keys so that a simple duplicating charm won't make a key that works on the door. Come to me if you need any more copies." She then handed one to each of them.
"What did you do to them?" asked Hermione curiously.
Minerva smiled inwardly at how eagerly the girl sought knowledge. She was the quintessential Ravenclaw. However, she'd already made her decision regarding the key. "That's for me to know and you to find out. I don't want a thousand copies of that key floating around, and I think that this is a good way to keep track of it. Perhaps one day I will show you, but not for a couple years."
"Yes, Professor," Hermione said quickly.
"Very well. Enjoy your day, all three of you."
-
The trio soon left Hagrid's hut after Harry locked his boom box and Game Boy in the trunk (that he also had a key to). They then revised for a few hours, and then Harry decided to call his family. Hermione mentioned that she was going to do the same thing.
"Hi, Brianna."
"Hey, Harry," she said, smiling at her brother.
"How are things at home?"
"Great. They're making Lightfellow retire from baseball. They made him fake an injury to stop him from playing until his trial. He's going to have the hearing next month, and I've been asked to testify at it. I got the letter yesterday. If somehow he gets off, then he'll say that he recovered. If, as is expected, he gets convicted, his `injury' will be so great he can't play again. He might even get jail time."
"I'm surprised they need you to testify."
"I think they just want as many witnesses as they can get. Did you get you and Hermione's love-shack ready yet?"
Harry's ears turned bright red, but he managed to keep a straight face. "Perhaps you have a love-shack you share with Bobby, but the C.A.R.E. headquarters is ready, if that's what you mean. Aunt Minnie liked it. She had us watch her memory of that idiot Lockhart trying to inspect the place. The doxies would've killed him. Of course, Hermione was devastated watching it. Especially his boggart."
"What's a boggart?" asked Brianna.
Harry explained what they are, and what Lockhart's said to him, and then the rest of what happened. Finally, he said, "Can you get me mom and dad, or do I need to hang up on you and call them?"
-
The next day, Harry and Hermione got up early to go to the Quidditch tryouts. Harry brought his broom along. They'd planned on sharing it that day. The captain of the team, a seventh-year girl named Michelle Hamilton, had posted it a few days before.
They arrived at the pitch to see a small crowd of about thirty people sitting on the stands. Facing them was a very attractive girl with long, curly red hair and a very nice figure. She was wearing a light blue t-shirt and jeans under her open school robe that showed a Quidditch Captain badge. She was floating on a broom held onto by just her legs, and holding a muggle clipboard and a pen. He figured that she was muggle-born that had realized how inconvenient quills and ink were. Her brows were furrowed with thought in a way that Harry thought was very cute. He was staring open-mouthed at her.
"If you'll put your eyes back in your head," said Hermione irritably, "we should take a seat."
He was brought out of his stupor by this. "I wasn't…" he said defensively as his ears turned pink. Hermione never got to hear what Harry wasn't doing, because at that moment, Michelle began to speak. They quickly sat next to Cho Chang.
"Hello, everyone. Thanks for coming. For those of you who don't know, Ravenclaw has both a regular and reserve Quidditch team. So far, we're the only Hogwarts team that does, but doing the smart thing is part of being a Ravenclaw. Am I right?" She asked the last question enthusiastically, and earned a few yells of ascent and clapping. Smiling in a way that, for some unexplained reason, made Harry's stomach feel funny, she continued her speech.
"Although some of you were on the team last year and performed admirably, I'm still requiring everyone to try out. I want to make sure we have the best possible team, so every position, except mine as one of the starting Chasers, is open right now. I'll apologize in advance if I hurt anybody's feelings by rejecting them, but I want to win the Quidditch Cup this year. I'm not trying to be mean and it's not personal." She took a deep breath. "First of all, I'd like to make sure that everyone here can at least fly properly."
She had half of the hopefuls, Harry included, fly around the pitch while the other half watched. She eliminated five of them who seemed to wobbling along on their broomsticks, acting as though this was their first time flying. Harry landed beside Hermione. "Here you go," he said smiling, handing her his broom so she could fly with the second group of fifteen. "I know you don't need luck to get past this part." Hermione would never admit it, but she was glad that Cho Chang was part of her group, and wasn't sitting next to Harry.
After four others were eliminated, Hermione returned to Harry's side to find him gazing at the Captain. "Harry," she said with a smirk, "Isn't Michelle pretty?"
"Yeah…I mean, I suppose she's alright. Bit too old for my taste, of course." Hermione was giggling as Harry's face turned red. She'd thought about Harry's apparent crush on Ms. Hamilton while she was flying, and realized that Harry would no more go after her than she would've gone after Lockhart before watching the Pensieve. She also knew that Michelle would be gone the next year, and probably had a boyfriend - if not a fiancé. So, therefore, she decided that the best solution to the problem was to tease Harry mercilessly about it.
"Alright," said Michelle. "Now we're going to have tryouts for positions. We'll start with Chasers, because we'll need them to test Beaters and Keepers. The last position will be Seeker." She looked around at the crowd. "I hope there's a good one out there, because I've heard the Gryffindor's got a new Seeker, who they consider their secret-weapon. I don't know anything else about this person."
The tryouts went all morning, with Hermione using the broom more than Harry. She was kept in the mix with six others when the Beaters started hitting Bludgers at them. One of the Beater-wanna-be's was so bad that he almost hit Harry, who was patiently sitting in the stands. Finally, the people trying out for Keeper were brought in, and six of the Chasers were separated into two teams, and had to try to score goals while the Beaters were going at them. It was a regular game minus the Seeker - the only difference being that timeouts and replacements happened a lot more often as Michelle was narrowing down her choices. Hermione scored a few goals, but a few others scored more. Once, she was hit with a Bludger, but managed to pass the Quaffle just before the impact, and did stay on the broom. When the mock-game was declared over by the Captain, who'd been taking notes the whole time, Hermione flew down next to Harry.
"Thanks for letting me borrow your broom. Good luck." She seemed to Harry as though she'd decided that she didn't make the team and was trying to accept it.
"You did a good job out there, Hermione," he said, earnestly.
"There were better Chasers out there, not to mention Michelle…"
"Who hasn't announced who's made the team yet. Maybe you have and maybe you haven't. We'll deal with that, later. Either way, you still did good out there. I was proud of you." Her ears turned pink as Harry mounted his broom. "I've got to get out there."
As it turned out, only one other person was trying out for the Seeker position, which pretty much guaranteed that he'd at least be a reserve. The Captain was going to release the Snitch, and whoever caught it would be the starting Seeker. That would change if the other showed more skill during practices. Everyone else was allowed to leave if they wanted. Hermione stayed. Harry looked at his competitor, Cho Chang, and grinned. They were friends, and she was a member of C.A.R.E., so this wasn't a grudge match. He said, "May the best man win."
She stuck her tongue out. "I'm sure she will."
After fifteen minutes, Harry was getting bored as he scanned the pitch, with Cho marking him. He knew they'd missed lunch, and planned to visit the kitchen once this was over. He hadn't caught sight of the Snitch, and obviously Chang hadn't either. He decided to add some excitement. He looked straight at the ground, gave a look of enthusiasm, and flew straight toward the ground. Cho followed.
He got closer and closer to the earth, gaining speed the whole way. When he was four feet away from crashing, he pulled on his Lightning Bolt, going level with his feet touching the blades of grass. He heard a small thud behind him, and then Cho's angry voice shouting, "I'll get you for that, McGonagall!" so he knew she was alright. He rose up in the air and scanned the pitch again. He saw that his competitor was in the air again by the time he was back where he'd started. He kept looking around, and just as Chang got about level with him, he saw that the Snitch had actually gone where he'd dived to before. He started diving back down immediately, not even hearing Cho shout, "Do you honestly think you can fool me again?"
He was half-way to the Snitch when he saw it starting to move away. He adjusted his course to follow it, and heard a swear word coming from his competitor just before his fist wrapped around the tiny winged ball. She was still fifteen feet from him.
Michelle flew up to him, beaming. "Congratulations, McGonagall! That was some great flying. You'll be our starting Seeker."
"Er, thanks," he said, blushing. He then turned his broom to fly over to Cho, who appeared unhappy. "I'm sorry about that feint, Cho. I hope you didn't get hurt."
Not looking very happy, but not angry either, she said, "Don't worry about it, Harry. You out-flew me. You really are good."
"Thanks," he said, before flying down toward Hermione.
"Harry, I thought I was going to die when you did that dive! What were you thinking? Don't ever do that again!"
He chuckled at her response. With a completely insincere expression on his face, he answered, "Yes, mom."
-
After sneaking to the kitchens for a late lunch, they went to library to do some revision. They had the first meeting for the year of their study group in about a half-hour.
"Oh look," said Hermione, "There's Ginny Weasley." He looked and saw her sitting alone at a table. She did look very excited as she wrote into what appeared to be the same book she'd had on the train. Harry imagined that it was probably her diary.
"She looks happy," he commented.
"Why don't we go talk to her?" asked Hermione.
Shrugging his shoulders, he agreed and they went up to her.
"Hello, Ginny," said Hermione.
The girl stopped writing immediately and closed her book. "Hi, Hermione, Harry."
"Er," said Harry, "We just wanted to ask how your first week has gone."
"Oh, really well. I'm…" She frowned for a moment and then her expression became neutral. "Well, I'm doing good. Don't forget out bet."
He smiled. "I won't when it's time for me to collect. I just made the team."
Her eyes widened. "Y-you made it. Weren't you trying out for Seeker?"
He nodded. "Yes, so now I'll personally make sure we win."
The redhead turned to Hermione. "Did you make the team, too?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. The rest of the positions haven't been listed yet."
"But she did a great job during the tryout."
"Well, good luck."
"Thanks," said Hermione. "Listen, we're going to have our study group here in about fifteen minutes. You're welcome to join us."
"Thanks, but I wouldn't want to be the only first-year."
"You won't be," said Harry, "Luna's gonna be here."
"You'll be able to ask for help with anything you're having a problem with," said Hermione. "Just try it one time."
Ginny appeared deep in thought for a moment. "I suppose it won't hurt. Ron's not in the group, is he?"
"No," said Harry with a grin. He then turned to Hermione. "Why don't we move the group to headquarters once everyone's here?"
"I don't see any reason not to," said Hermione with a grin.
"Where's that?" asked Ginny.
"You'll see," said Harry. "We set it up yesterday."
-
Half an hour later; Harry, Hermione, Padma, Anthony, Luna, Hannah, Susan, Neville and Ginny were sitting at the tables in headquarters, with soft music playing in the background. Harry had stopped by the kitchens to get a pitcher of pumpkin juice and some cups while the others made their way to the cabin. "Isn't this much better than the library," Harry said after drinking deeply from his glass.
"There aren't any garflets here," said Luna in agreement, "so we should be able to concentrate."
"Er, right," said Harry. The others had already been warned not to comment on Luna's remarks. "To start out, do you or Ginny have any specific problems with what you've been taught this week?"
The girls each had a few difficulties, although Luna explained hers in a much more colorful way than Ginny. After moving on from there, Hermione summarized what the younger girls needed to understand before going on to second year material, doing her best to make sure the girls weren't lost. The most extra time that was spent helping the first-years was ten minutes, and Hermione felt that it would greatly benefit them to see where they were headed. Both Ginny and Luna said they'd meet with the group only once per week, since neither wanted to hold the second-years back. The study session ended at dinner time.
-
When the Ravenclaws got back to their common room after dinner, they noticed that the Quidditch team was posted. Harry practically had to carry his best friend to the message board so she could find out the results of her tryout. She frowned when she saw that the starting Chasers were Michelle Hamilton (Captain, 7th Year), Roger Davies (4th Year) and Sean Bradley (3rd Year).
"I didn't make it," she said, sounding defeated.
"But you did make the reserves," said Harry, pointing at her name on that list.
Her frown turned into a smile for a moment, and then wavered. "Do, do you think that my parents will still buy me a broom?"
"There's only one way to find out," he said, grinning. He was certain that her parents would still do it. She was a member of the team, after all.
"I suppose so," she said, and went down to her dorm, presumably to mirror call her folks.
Even though Harry already knew his name would be on the list, it still felt good to read `Harry McGonagall' as the starting Seeker. He was still looking at the names when Hermione reappeared beside him. She was beaming ear to ear.
"They said YES!" she declared, hugging him.
He hugged her back, saying, "I knew they would. I told you that you did a good job. You wouldn't believe me."
She let go and smiled at him for a moment before looking back at the list. "It says here that practices begin next Saturday. I should have it by then."
-
The rest of the month went by swiftly after that, with the Weasley twins planning the prank on Lockhart with the Golden Trio. They had to make certain potions that required time to brew, so unfortunately, it wouldn't be ready until October. A few minor pranks had been pulled on Gilderoy, but nothing of consequence. By Wednesday, Hermione had gotten a Nimbus 2001 from her parents, and was looking forward to trying it out at practice. On Friday, Harry could have sworn that Ginny Weasley received a wrapped broomstick with her mail, but didn't say anything about it, although he did think that he'd done a better job of smuggling one in the year before. He was honestly surprised that no one caught her.
Ravenclaw practices went very well, and it soon became obvious that Hermione was the best reserve they had. Cho didn't seem to be holding a grudge when she saw Harry at practices. The format of the practice sessions was for the Captain to speak for about five minutes about any problems or opportunities for improvement that she'd noticed, and then they'd have a full game of the starters versus the reserves, with Michelle interrupting any time she saw a problem. She wouldn't waste practice time (where they had to reserve the pitch) talking strategy, especially because most strategies only involved one of the positions. She'd hand out scrolls to each player at the end of practice describing the strategies, and tell them to talk to her before the next practice if anything wasn't clear. If she did feel that the team needed a speech, she'd do it in a corner of their common room.
Malfoy was mad that his punishment for the previous year still held, and he wasn't allowed to play Quidditch for Slytherin until his fourth year. Despite how the jerk bragged about his Quidditch abilities, Harry thought it was probably good for Slytherin that he wasn't allowed to play. He had no doubt that the idiot would find a way to buy his way onto the team, and be the worst player out there.
Harry threw a small birthday party for Hermione with their study group, only this time it was at Headquarters. He gave her a wrist wand holster like his own. His family, using the mirrors, wished her a happy birthday during the party as well. Before they knew it, October had arrived.
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