Disclaimer: The characters of this fiction are borrowed and used as a tribute to the wonderful world created by J.K.
Rowling. They're not mine, never were and never will be. No money is being made on this either.
Author's notes:
Well, this didn't take as much time as my last one. See if I can keep it that way. Anyway, I'm a bit unsure
about the grammars in this chapter, so I will have to ask you to bear with me, English is not my native language. And
unfortunately I'm too proud and stubborn to look for a beta-reader.
The new Quidditch team-members showing up here are mostly my own characters except for Natalie McDonald. And Sally Jordan is not Lee Jordan's sister if anyone wonders.
On with the story…
***************************************
It wasn't long until Saturday, and Harry and a dead tired Ron reluctantly got out of bed to attend to Quidditch
practice. Them and several other people mostly from younger classes dragged themselves out to the field where Ginny
stood waiting, looking completely rested and all business.
'Good morning everyone.' Ginny greeted them brightly. 'I'm happy to see so many of you willing to fight
for Gryffindors glory. After all, we need four new members and two reserves, since the beaters Jack Sloper and
Andrew Kirke resigned.' Harry and Ron gave her a questionable face.
'Well all right, I sacked them. They stunk!' Ginny confessed. 'Atleast they hold no grudge towards me, they
realized too that they were no good. So let's get started!' Ginny rubbed her hands together. 'Ron, take
your position infront of the Hoops… And stop yawning! Bet you spent all evening playing Exploding Snap.'
Ron threw Harry a strange look before he took off. 'What's gotten into my sister?' he asked him. Harry only
shrugged as he himself took off in the air. It was nice to fly again, it felt like liberation.
The tryouts went on the whole morning, and Ginny was beaming when she announced the new members.
'Ok guys. I have selected the new chasers along with myself. Those are Natalie McDonald and Sarlinda Kentucky from
third year.' The girls squealed with excitement. Harry and Ron clapped their hands. 'And our beaters will be
Christina Conover and Sally Jordan from my own year.' More squealing, and Harry clapping hands followed. Ron
remained motionless with a suspicious look. Ginny dismissed them all after she picked two reserves and they all went
inside for a late breakfast.
'Ginny!' Ron rushed up to his sister. 'What're you doing? You only picked Girls for this team!'
'Is there something wrong with that, Ronald? Ginny asked indignantly.
'It's five girls and two men…'
'I wouldn't exactly call you a man acting like that about girls.' Ginny interrupted. Ron wisely ignored
that remark.
'I just don't understand… why only girls?'
'Because girls are smaller and lighter, you Nit! They'll be faster on the brooms, and besides… girls are
mentally more equipped to handle stress than you men.'
'But is it really a good idea to have girls as Beaters?' Ron argued.
'Why not? I choose Christina 'cause she plays Tennis on her holidays and Sally's not half bad
either.'
'What's Tennis?' Ron asked.
'Forget that I ever mentioned it.' Ginny said, rolling her eyes.
Ron continued to argue about having mostly girls on the team when they reached the Great Hall, and he was trying to get
Harry to back him up. But his attempts were futile, 'cause Harry stated that he had no problems whatsoever with
being outnumbered of the opposite sex. They all sat down at the Gryffindor table around Hermione, who had her nose in a
book as usual. She looked up from it though when she heard Ron's ranting.
'What's up now?' she asked.
'Oh not much.' Ginny answered as she sat down. 'It's just that my bro there got his macho-image a bit
torn up since him and Harry are the only boys in the team. He feels inferior.' And then she went on telling
Hermione what she told Ron about Girls being faster on brooms and better stress-equipped.
'Well, it is true.' Hermione said with a shrug.
'Yep. The team will be more agile and better-organized thanks to that. I'm positive that we will beat the
brutes from the other teams who thinks brawns are better than brains.' Ginny went on as she put some marmalade on
her toast.
'Ginny!' Ron was really starting to get sulky now. 'Just because I happen to be a man doesn't mean you
can inferior-talk me like that! I may not always use my brains all the time, but I never let my brawns do the actions
during Quidditch!'
'Sorry Ron.' Ginny said with a smile. 'I guess I'm still a little miffed with Michael Corner because
that's the kind of attitude he was living. That's why I dumped him.'
'Yeah, and went straight to Dean Thomas.' Ron muttered.
'No, I didn't. I just said that because I wanted to point out to you that you are not to decide my love
life!' Ginny said resolutely. 'Dean Thomas was just the first name that came to mind.'
'Oh! So you're still single?' Ron asked, actually looking happy.
'Yes, right now I am. And wipe that stupid smile off your face!'
'But that means that you can choose someone better this time. I can think of one guy that…' But Ron silenced as
he received another death glare from his sister.
'Well… the guy I thought of isn't available anyway…' Ron mumbled quietly so that no one heard him.
********************************************************************************************************************
Sunday became an exciting time for some members of the three houses of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Harry had
granted the spoken wish and taken up the DA-meetings once again. Most of the old members, Cho included, were now once
again gathered in the Room of Requirements, along with some new ones that had been recruited after some rumours of the
secret club that had taken place last year. Harry noticed the fourth-year Ravenclaw boy Daniel Cody, who Harry and his
friends had saved from Malfoy the other day. Ginny had brought her Prefect-colleague Lucas Pamir as well as the new
members from the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Ginny would later tell Harry that she was afraid for the two young chasers
to become targets of abuses from the Slytherins, just because they were part of the team. They needed to be able to
defend themselves, and Harry couldn't disagree.
'Welcome to a new session of the DA-club.' Harry addressed the lot. 'Personally I'm a bit surprised of
the interest you all got for this, but I suppose with the dark times we are inevitably facing, it will not hurt with
some extra training…'
Harry walked around the people and looked them over. 'I hope you don't mind, but I feel it necessary to split
you into two kinds of groups. We have a couple of first-timers here, but some of you other guys never had the chance to
reach an acceptable standard since we were so rudely interrupted last year. So I want the first-timers and the ones who
feel that they need more basic training to move over to my right, (or your left) while you others who managed to
advance to good levels will move over to my left, (or your right).
The people split up into the two groups. There were some confusing from the ones who didn't know where his or hers
abilities lay, so Harry had to use his own opinions of their progress to sort them out.
'Ok.' Harry said, turning to the group to his right. 'I think it would be best for you first-timers to
start practice "Expelliarmus" just like we did when we started this. If you who'd been with us the short
time before would be so kind and help them with that, you in this group will advance faster to match the level the rest
of us have already reached.' Seamus who had joined the DA late looked a little reluctant at this, but agreed.
'As for the rest of us…' Harry said turning to the other group. 'Do forgive me if I might tend to get a
little hard with you. You've all learned numerous curses here, but you've never put them to practice when you
really need them.'
The old members of the group looked at Harry curiously, some even looked a bit nervous as they wondered what Harry
meant.
'What I'm saying is: do you have enough wits to defend yourselves when there's real danger
lurking?'
'W-what are you planning to do to us?' Terry Boot asked Harry.
'Tut, tut.' Said Harry waving his index finger in front of Terry. 'As the attacker, do you really think
I'm going to warn you which curse I plan to use on you?'
'He's gone nuts!' said Zacharias Smith. 'Let's get out of here.'
'Go ahead and leave, if you can get to that door. Serpensortia!' Harry suddenly bellowed and conjured
a large snake that landed right in front of the door. Everybody screamed and backed safely away. 'You've gone
mad!' said a pale faced Justin Finch-Fletchley who still had the encounter with a similar snake from his
second year fresh in mind.
'Now, now Justin. Do you really think that I would let it hurt you? I want you to deal with it in an appropriate
way, if you got the wits to do it.'
'Okay, okay, if that's the way you want it…' Justin said with a bit of a high-pitched voice as he pulled
out hi s wand. 'Now, what was the spell he used…? Oh yeah. Alarte Ascendare!' What Justin only managed
to do was to repeat the action that happened at the duelling club in their second year: the snake flew ten feet into
the air and landed hard, becoming enraged. Justin escaped even farther back.
'{Calm down!}' Harry told the snake in Parcel tongue. '{Be still!}' Although very angry, the snake did
as it was told and coiled in front of the door. 'Justin, I meant for you to stun the snake, not enrage it!'
'B-but… Lockhart maybe was a fool but that spell he was trying to use then must've been good for something in
an situation like this, other wise he wouldn't use it, would he?' Justin sheepishly tried to explain.
'Justin, casting an incantation without knowing what the intended performance belonging to it is to be, it will
only result in an chaotic result such as this.' Hermione patiently explained. Justin looked downfallen.
'Allright, anyone else wanting to have a go?' Harry addressed the group. A shiver ran through almost all of
them.
'Ron.' Luna Lovegood nudged the youngest Weasley boy. 'Why don't you have a go at it?' Ron looked
at her as if she's gone mad. Ginny suppressed a giggle. 'C'mon, it will be really brave of you.' Luna
urged on dreamily. The brave talk made Ron's mind up, and he stepped forward in front of the group with his wand in
a steady hand, only to retreat back again as the snake raised it's head and hissed at him. Harry tried to urge the
others again, but none seemed to want to take up the challenge. Harry couldn't help to feel a little disappointed
with them all. Then Hermione stepped forward…
'Vipera Evanesca!' she said loudly and the snake evaporated in black smoke.
'That's the way to do it.' Said Harry giving Hermione a smile.
'Of course, it only works with conjured snakes unfortunately.' Hermione said smiling back at Harry. That caused
Cho to knit her eyebrows a bit.
'Well guys.' Harry said. 'This proves that you're not really ready to deal with the dangers out in the real world. That means that we will practice more with duelling against each other. That's what we'll do next time.' Everybody nodded, feeling ashamed for having their apparent inexperience exposed like that. And that's what Harry did. For the rest of the evening they duelled each other with Harry as usual walking around inspecting them. The first-timers were to Harry's delight quickly learning, it wouldn't be long until he could train all of his members on equal terms.
********************************************************************************************************************
The weeks went by with no real difference in their lessons showing up. In Transfiguration & Charms
they had planted the seeds of their favourite plant into their pots and was now learning how to summon the water
molecules from the air itself to water them. (Dean and Lavender failed miserably with this.) Potions were as
usual a real pain in the neck. Snape had them to do an extremely advanced mixture of Liquid Air, giving its drinker a
fifteen minute oxygen supply for the body in case a person for some reason had to walk through an area with polluted
atmosphere.
Defence against the Dark Arts was as interesting as it was when they had Remus Lupin teaching them, but they
still cringed under Professor Vladislav Malfoy's cold stare. A cold stare was returned to him from Draco Malfoy who
completely loathed his uncle by now, which he wasn't exactly keeping to himself. He earned many penalties for
Slytherin thanks to that.
Another thing that hadn't changed was Harry's visits to Madam Pomfrey who insisted on checking him three times
a week. Harry felt this as a waste of time since he hadn't had to use his worry balls since his first week, but for
the sake of peace between him and the teachers and Lupin, he complied.
The day before his first Quidditch match against Ravenclaw he was once again in the hospital wing for a check-up.
'So Madam Pomfrey, will I live?' Harry asked cheerfully. The matron stared at him sternly.
'I can no longer deny that your health has improved considerably, Mr. Potter.' Poppy said. 'But knowing you
I wouldn't be surprised if I found you in here by tomorrow evening after your game.'
'Then I am fit to play?' Harry said hopefully. Although he had participated during practice, he still needed a
clean bill of health to join the real game.
'It's against my better judgement…' Poppy sighed. '…but I suppose it could no longer hurt.' Harry
smiled brightly. 'But for safety measures I want you in here right after the game. And should you feel trouble, I
want your word that you'll step out of the match immediately!'
'I promise.'
'Good. Then I promise that we can cut down your visits to two times a week. You may leave now.'
'Thank you, ma'am.'
Harry was about to open the door when somebody knocked on it, and then Professor McGonagall stepped inside.
'Ah, Minerva.' Said Madam Pomfrey almost anxiously. 'Please take your leave Mr. Potter.' The matron
showed Harry out. He was outside and closing the door, but his curiosity got the better of him again. He left the door
ajar and listened.
'Are you absolutely sure about it, Poppy?' Professor McGonagall asked.
'Yes Minerva. There has definitely been a theft in here. But that what's been stolen is beyond me.'
'What has been stolen?'
'Mr. Potter, I said you could leave!' Madam Pomfrey then shouted. Harry quickly closed the door and
hurried away. Once he had gotten back to the Fat Lady's portrait, which concealed the entrance to the Gryffindor
common room, (the password was Parrot's beak,) he had decided that this was nothing worth mentioning to either Ron
or Hermione since he never heard just what had been stolen from the infirmary.
********************************************************************************************************************
The first Quidditch match arrived. In the changing room where they changed into their scarlet robes, the mood was
tense. As the veteran Harry was used to the situation, but the four new girls was having butterflies in their stomachs,
Ron was afraid to humiliate himself again and Ginny was having cold feet because this was the first game where she was
responsible for the team. All this in turn affected Harry, making him nervous as well. After all: he only played one
match last year before ha got banned, so he was afraid that he might have lost a bit of his abilities.
'All right girls… and boys…' Ginny addressed her team. 'I have no idea what kind of speech Oliver Wood used
to give his team, but then again, this isn't his team. This is our team. All the people out there waiting for us
may think of us as some kind of Quidditch wannabe's just because we're young and inexperienced, but I choose
you all for this team because we are the kind who quickly can overcome inexperience. So let us all go out there and
show them what we really got! Are you with me?' Ginny stretched out her right hand.
'We're with you!' said Harry and placed his hand on top of Ginny's.
'All the way!' Sally Jordan spoke for the four new members and they all placed their hands over Ginny's and
Harry's.
'Let's go get them!' Ron shouted and put his hand on top of the others.
'YEAH!' they all shouted in chorus as they completed the handshake and walked out towards the Quidditch pitch,
everyone filled with a feeling of a unique team spirit.
They were met with loud cheers (and some boo's from the Slytherins) when they came out to the pitch where the
Ravenclaw team was already waiting. Harry was half expecting to hear Lee Jordan's voice commentating their arrival,
but to his surprise, the voice belonged to Colin Creevey.
'And here comes the Gryffindor team led by team captain Ginny Weasley, followed by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley,
Christina Conover, Sally Jordan, Natalie McDonald and Sarlinda Kentucky!' The team waved their hands as they were
presented, and shortly afterwards they reached the middle of the pitch where Madam Hooch waited for them.
'Team captains, shake hands.' Hooch commanded. Ginny and Roger Davies shook hands rather pleasantly since there
was no real rivalry between them.
'Good luck.' Ginny said brightly.
'You too.' Roger smiled back. Harry caught Cho's eyes and winked at her. She winked back.
Then they all mounted their brooms and took off and suddenly the game had begun.
'Wow!' shouted Colin excitedly. 'We didn't even have time to blink before Natalie McDonald immediately
took possession of the Quaffle and speed up towards the Ravenclaw goalposts. The Ravenclaw chasers are trying to
intercept her but she passes the Quaffle to Sarlinda whom were just zooming past above her, she ducks under a Bludger
and passes the Quaffle to Ginny who's got no opponents around her, she throws the Quaffle and SCORES! Ten points
for Gryffindor!'
Ginny had been right. The girl's smaller frames made them quite fast and the Ravenclaws had done the stupid mistake of underestimating them. They were determined not to do the same mistake twice, but it didn't help much. Ginny on her Nimbus 2001, Sarlinda and Natalie were as fast and agile as Hawks, and Sally and Christina where always around keeping the Bludgers away from the rest of the team. Christina, who played Tennis was extremely dangerous: when one of the Ravenclaw Chasers were speeding towards the Gryffindor goalposts and was about to pass the Quaffle to Davies, he was thrown off-balance in the middle of the throw by a Bludger sent by Christina. The Quaffle was sent off course and Natalie was quickly there to steal it, speeding off towards the opponents posts were the keeper was waiting for her. But Natalie tricked him. She aimed for the post to her far right, but sent the Quaffle to her side instead where Sarlinda was waiting, who snatched the Quaffle and sent it through the unguarded post to the far left.
'Another goal for Gryffindor!' Colin shouted excitedly over the roar of cheering from the Gryffindor
supporters. Harry whooped and Ron cried happily: 'All right! All Right!'
'Be ready, Ron!' Ginny shouted. The Ravenclaws who were beginning to feel a bit sour had managed to get
possession of the Quaffle once again and was aiming for a goal. Ron grinded his teeth and prepared himself… The chaser
threw the Quaffle and Ron instinctively jerked his broom. There was a second of confusion before the Gryffindors again
burst out in cheers. Ron had blocked the Quaffle.
'Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He didn't let the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King,'
'the Gryffindor stands suddenly burst out.
'Weasley can save anything,
He never leaves a single ring,
That's why Gryffindors all sing,
Weasley is our King.'
Ron glowed red as that song was heard again, and that made his spirit rise a bit more. He managed to save another goal shortly after that and the Ravenclaws became more and more frustrated, so frustrated that they became reckless. When Davies and his fellow chasers mounted for another attack they neglected to keep on eye after Ginny, who suddenly shot up between them from underneath and stole the Quaffle in the middle of a pass. She instantly sped towards the Ravenclaws goalposts, dodging the Bludgers the Ravenclaw beaters shot at her and scored yet another time. 'Gryffindor is now in the lead with 30 points to 0, as Ginny Weasley makes another score! The Gryffindor team is totally unbeatable today!' Colin commentated excitedly. The Gryffindors began to sing again, but this time with different lyrics:
'Ginny is our Queen,
Ginny is our Queen,
She always throws the Quaffle in,
Ginny is our Queen.'
'Oh, please!' Ginny exclaimed when she heard the song, but Harry could see how she turned red with pride.
'Ginny is our Queen,
She always scores in every ring,
That's why Gryffindors all sing,
Ginny is our Queen,'
Harry looked around the players to get a look on all their faces, Gryffindors and Ravenclaws alike. The Ravenclaws
looked quite dismayed right now, Harry spotted Cho on the other end of the pitch, almost furiously scanning for the
snitch in hopes of saving the day for them. But there was no sign of it. Harry risked a glance over at the members of
the Slytherin team to read their reactions and to Harry's delight; he saw that Malfoy didn't look happy at all.
Then Harry saw something else: The snitch! It was lurking beneath the Slytherin rows. Cho had spotted it and
immediately dove after it. Harry sped towards it as well.
'The seekers are on the move!' Colin cried. 'They are both heading towards the Slytherin stands... yes I
can see it. The golden snitch is indeed there! Who will get it first?'
During the excitement when the seekers dived after the Golden Snitch everyone turned their attention towards them, and
Roger Davies meanwhile managed to make one goal when Ron wasn't looking. But no one cheered for him.
Harry saw the look on Cho's face that this was a chance she would not give up so easily; in this game their love
for each other was to have no meaning. Harry suddenly recalled the game from his third year when they both were in this
situation, and he remembered Oliver Wood's words: Harry, this is no time to be a gentleman! Knock her of her
broom if you have to! Very well, if Cho wanted to play this game, she had to take the consequences. He wasn't
prepared to knock her off her broom, but Harry was going to see if she was willing to knock him off
his broom. They were side by side about twenty feet away from the fleeing snitch when Harry suddenly dove in right
in front of her, blocking her path. As Harry had predicted, Cho panicked and swerved to avoid flying in to him.
With Cho out of the way Harry had more room to manoeuvre and…
Madam Hooch whistled. 'Gryffindor wins!' she shouted.
'Harry Potter has got the Snitch!' Colin Creevey yelled. 'Gryffindor wins with 180 points to 10!' The
stadium exploded and the other six members of the team landed looking extremely happy. A tear-eyed Ginny threw herself
into Harry's arms and Ron followed shortly hugging them both.
'We did it! We did it!' the girls squealed.
'They completely flattened us!' cried Roger Davies, looking very disappointed.
The Gryffindor supporters poured in and began patting and hugging the team. Hermione hugged all three of her closest
friends.
'Congratulations you guys.' She said. 'That was one of the best games I ever seen.'
'That was great Ginny!' said Katie Bell. 'I kind of regret my resignation now.'
'HARRY!'
Harry turned and saw Cho coming towards him, fuming with anger.
'What did you think you were doing, going right into my path like that? You gave me quite a scare, I
almost impaled you with my broomstick!'
'Cho, surely you don't think that I would play a dangerous game like that?' Harry said, giving her a boyish
smile. 'Don't forget, Quidditch is my favourite activity, I know almost everything there is to know about the
game and the broomsticks. And I knew that there was no real danger flying in front of you like that. Your Comet and all
the later models have a special safety incantation for those kinds of situations. You see, the tip of your broomstick
is enchanted with an anti-collision spell, you would never be able to hit me unless you really wanted to.'
'Maybe I want to do it right now, you cost me my victory with that stunt.' Cho snapped.
'C'mon dear, no hard feelings?' Harry hugged her. Hermione looked away.
'Maybe not, if you promise to take me out, just the two of us at the first Hogsmeade weekend.'
'You got it, Honey.' Harry said, beaming. Cho looked a lot happier while Hermione looked disgusted. 'Aargh…
oh no.' Harry suddenly burst out. 'Cho, I can't. I'm no longer allowed to go to Hogsmeade. It was my
godfathers name on the permission-form… when he died, the form expired.'
'Oh.' Cho said looking downcast. Hermione smiled to herself.
'But maybe…' Harry then said. 'I can't go to Hogsmeade, but how about a picnic to the lake? Just the
two of us?'
Cho immediately smiled. 'I'd love to, Harry.'
Hermione's stomach twisted itself so much that she felt as if she was to throw up. As the rest of the Gryffindors
took their team back to the tower to celebrate, Hermione walked away to one of the girl's bathrooms where she
locked herself in. She kind of hoped that evening that another troll would find itself into the castle again, and end
her misery once and for all.
Author's notes:
I hope you liked chapter 7. The spells that were used during the DA-meeting were from the DVD of CoS, I wrote them off
from the sub-text. So if you find them wrong somehow, then I am actually not to be blamed…
Until next chapter… Be well.