Soul Searching/End Game
EG Chapter 4 - Quidditch and the DA
By Chem Prof
Chapter 4, Quidditch and the DA
Saturday, September 6
Saturday dawned clear and sunny – “perfect quidditch weather” Harry commented to Hermione as they went out for their running. Ginny, Ron, and Neville joined them and they set out around the lake. As usual, their respective paces eventually separated them and after a while Harry and Hermione were running alone. Hermione was unusually quiet this morning, apparently lost in thought, so after receiving her assurance that she was OK Harry left her alone and dropped back to run with Ron and Ginny for a while. They were both wearing their new exercise clothing today. Harry made sure to tell Ginny how good she looked in it, and was rewarded with a big smile and a quick kiss on the cheek.
At the halfway point Hermione was waiting for them, having evidently resolved whatever was on her mind, and the four of them chatted amiably for the rest of their run. Harry could sense, though, that she wanted to talk to him so at the end of the run they excused themselves and went back to the Heads suite, agreeing to meet for breakfast later.
“Harry, I was wondering,” Hermione started. Harry let her know he was paying attention and motioned her to continue. “What do you think of the idea of me playing quidditch?”
Harry’s first impulse was to laugh, but he managed to control that successfully. Given the amount of time she had obviously spent thinking about his, she was clearly serious. He was thankful that Ron was not part of this discussion, though, because his red haired friend would have been sure to make some sort of unthinking remark.
“It’s fine with me,” he answered. “But what’s with the sudden interest in quidditch? You’ve barely tolerated it in the past.”
“Well, the whole point is to get more students involved, isn’t it? I think it would be a good example of what we’re trying to accomplish if I played, too. Besides, it’s not like I don’t know how to play. You three managed to drag me into a lot of games last summer. And I wasn’t that bad, was I?”
“No, actually,” Harry admitted. “The two of us held our own reasonably well against Ron and Ginny didn’t we?”
“So you think it’s OK? I’m afraid people are going to laugh at me. Will you back me up?”
Now Harry realized the real reason why they were having this conversation. For all the progress she had made this summer, Hermione still had her insecurities. “Of course I will,” he answered quickly. “You know you can count on me.” He was rewarded with a bright smile from his relieved friend and a quick hug. “Maybe we can have some fun with it, though.” Hermione’s eyes lit up and they soon had a plan to tweak their friends a little.
-ooOoo-
That afternoon they joined the stream of students heading out to the quidditch pitch. Ron and Ginny were proudly carrying their new Firebolts, basking in the awe of the other quidditch players as Harry and Hermione joined them, Harry with his trusty Firebolt and Hermione with her new Silver Arrow Mark II. As expected, their classmates’ eyes widened in astonishment, none more so than Ron and Ginny.
“Her..Hermione? You…you’re going to try out?” Ron’s reaction was almost comical.
“Well why not, Ron?” Hermione responded briskly. “After all, I’ve been watching you and Harry play for years. Don’t you think I must know quite a bit about quidditch by now?”
Ginny turned bright red, fully aware of the reference being made to her catty comment of last spring, when she told Hermione not to embarrass herself by pretending to know anything about quidditch. While she had been trying to defend Harry at the time, she knew it had been unfair and it had hurt Hermione. Ron didn’t notice though, and continued. “Uh, OK. So … what position do you think?”
“Oh, I’ve given that quite a bit of thought. Keeper seems pretty easy, don’t you think? I mean, all you do is sit there on your broom and knock down a shot now and then.” She paused as Ron began to turn an interesting shade of purple and Ginny snorted, her embarrassment forgotten. “But then I thought about Seeker, too.” This time she turned to Harry, who grinned back at her. “But it seems pretty boring. After all, they just fly around in circles for most of the game.”
Now Ron began to sputter and Ginny covered her mouth with her hand to try to keep from giggling. The rest of the crowd of students looked at Hermione like she had gone daft, then glanced over at Harry to see what his reaction would be. But he just continued to smile at Hermione who gave him a quick smirk and went on. “Beater would be a good way to take out your aggression I would think. Just the thing for relaxing after a tough exam wouldn’t you say?”
By now Ron was beside himself. This kind of talk was almost sacrilege. Comparing quidditch to schoolwork was just plain wrong. Finally Hermione turned and smiled sweetly at Ginny. “But I think I’ve decided on Chaser. There’s so much more thinking involved in that position, and a lot of teamwork. I think I’d enjoy that the most.” Ginny could only nod, not trusting herself to open her mouth. Hermione turned quickly back to Harry. “What do you think?”
“That sounds like an excellent idea, Hermione. I don’t know why we didn’t think of that before.” Ron turned to Harry in astonishment. Hermione? Quidditch? What was he saying? What about their plans? His thoughts were interrupted when Madame Hooch called to him to join her on the temporary podium that had been erected on the quidditch pitch.
Now that the entertainment provided by the Gryffindors was over, everyone looked around. Hooch and Charlie Weasley had been hard at work, and had erected two practice quidditch pitches on either side of the quidditch stadium. Harry was impressed with their work, and even more impressed by the size of the turnout. He reckoned that there must be about a hundred students present.
Hooch introduced Ron as her assistant and then quickly gave the details of the revised quidditch tournament. For the first month there would be no fixed teams, with pickup games available every evening to whomever came to play. On the weekends there would be practice times for specific positions, with students free to join any group if they wanted to learn more about a position. At these times students were encouraged to work together as much as possible to improve their skills.
After a month students would form their own teams and register for a tournament that would take place for the rest of the school year, with the Quidditch Cup awarded to the best team at the end of the year. The only restrictions on the teams were that the maximum number of players on a team from any house was three, and there must be at least one player from each house on each team. Up to ten players would be permitted on each team, so that there could be three reserve players. Teams were encouraged to rotate their players during each game, so that everyone got a chance to play.
Charlie then stepped up and introduced himself, then announced that there would be special instructors for each position. He himself would be instructing the seekers along with a former professional quidditch player. Immediately a hush fell over the crowd as everyone noticed several people on brooms rocketing toward the stadium.
“Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Viktor Krum.” There was a stunned silence, then a roar of cheers broke out. “As I just stated, Mr. Krum will be helping out prospective seekers. To assist in instructing chasers and beaters, I’d like to introduce Mr. Patrick Troy of Ireland and Miss Gwenogg Jones of the Holyhead Harpies.” Seamus Finnegan let out a whoop for the Irish chaser and more cheers broke out, especially among the female students for the famous beater.
“Returning to Hogwarts to help instruct keepers we have Oliver Wood of Puddlemere United.” More cheers greeted Oliver as he flew into view. “And finally, we have several other former students who will be helping us out as well.” A group of past Hogwarts quidditch players flew into the stadium including Fred and George, Angelina and Alicia, and Roger Davies, the former Ravenclaw captain. Another roar went up for this last bunch, and soon the students began to break up into groups, some to go to meet the instructors, some heading toward one of the practice pitches, and some clustering to begin discussing teams.
Harry moved up to greet Viktor and Troy, waved at his old teammate and captain Oliver, then mounted his broom and began flying around the pitch. Hermione and Ginny went over to where Troy was beginning to talk to prospective chasers and joined in.
As the afternoon went on, Harry kept an eye on his friends from high above the quidditch pitches. Seeker was the glory position of quidditch, and Charlie and Viktor had their hands full with eager students learning to dive after elusive snitches. Ron was with Oliver and about a dozen prospective keepers. Ginny was outpacing most of the aspiring chasers, but Hermione remained in the main pack, paying close attention to her instructors and trying to master the fundamentals of the position. She had one of the fastest brooms at Hogwarts, so in the speed tests she held her own, but she had a long way to go in learning the other skills of chasing.
Finally, it was dinnertime and the friends gathered back together and headed for the castle. Ron had finally recovered from his earlier shock, but it was obvious that he was still nervous about the thought of Hermione playing quidditch. Due to the rule limiting the number of players on a team from each house to three, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and he would not all be able to be on the same team, and he was clearly worried about who would be left out. Hermione, however, knew exactly what he was thinking and eventually let him off the hook.
“So, what did you guys think of the first practice?” Hermione asked happily. They all responded positively and Ginny congratulated her on doing pretty well as a chaser. “Have the three of you decided on who else you want to have on your team?” That brought them all to a halt. Ron and Ginny looked at her questioningly, and she laughed at the relieved expression on Ron’s face.
“Don’t worry, Ron, I’m not going to break up your team,” she chided playfully, giving him a quick hug. “I’m just happy the three of you are finally going to get to play together for more than one game.” She went on to explain. “The other seventh year prefects and I are going to form a team. We decided that it would be a great example for the rest of the school to see us working together. And we’re just going to be in it for fun, so that should send a message to the other students as well, that they shouldn’t be shy about forming a team just because they’re not the best players.”
“What positions are you going to take?” asked Ginny. “I noticed Hannah Abbott and Tracey Davis with the Chaser group.”
“Right,” Hermione confirmed, “the three of us are going to try chaser, Ernie MacMillan and Blaise Zabini are planning on being beaters, Anthony Goldstein will be keeper and Padma Patil is going to take a shot at seeking. But we have a month to decide, and we’ll try several different positions. Maybe I can get Harry to make me into a seeker,” she said, taking Harry’s hand and giving him a smile.
Harry just smiled back and gave her a shrug as they broke apart and headed for their dorms to get cleaned up for supper, leaving Ron and Ginny in a vigorous discussion on possible chasers and beaters for their team. Harry kept smiling as he helped her through the portrait hole into the Head suite. This was turning out great. He would be able to play one final year with Ron and Ginny, and could cheer Hermione’s team on as well. And this year he would be able to relax and just play, and let Ron worry about all the details of the team.
-ooOoo-
On Wednesday of the next week there was a noticeable level of excitement among a group of older students. In the Great Hall a certain scene was repeated over and over with only slight variations. “Did yours?” “Yeah, mine too.” “When?” “Tonight, same place as before.” The DA galleons had been activated. In the seventh year DADA class that afternoon there were a lot of knowing glances exchanged, and many thumbs up were flashed at Harry.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Neville were waiting in the Room of Requirement as the students arrived in ones and twos. Harry was amazed to see that every one of the old DA members had returned, all twenty of them, and a feeling of gratitude swept through him. This was the nucleus of the group that would go to war with him. He felt Hermione’s hand give his a little squeeze, and he saw a slight smirk on her face. Even without telepathy her message came across loud and clear. “I told you so!” She knew what he had trouble realizing – that every one of these students felt that they owed a debt to Harry Potter, and were determined not to let him down.
Harry began the meeting by thanking them all for their support and began to explain their plans. The DA would meet every night during the week, and they were welcome to attend as many of the sessions as they could. He related McGonagall’s instructions regarding the group and told them that they were expecting a lot of new members. All of the students who wished to join would be divided into groups according to their ability, and he expected the more experienced ones, such as them, to help instruct the others. However, one night a week would be set aside for the elite group, who would work on the most advanced spells and learn battle tactics.
The door opened again, and to the surprise and shock of several of the members, Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass, and Blaise Zabini entered. Immediately there was some muttering punctuated by a few cries of outrage.
“Quiet!” Even though Harry hadn’t raised his voice that much, the tone of command silenced the room. “I just said that this group was open to everyone and I meant it.” The three newcomers flashed a grateful look at Harry and went over to stand with some of the other students from their Potions class, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, and Padma Patil. Hermione joined Ernie Macmillan in walking over to welcome them as well. “Hermione gave a special invitation to these three to join us tonight. It’s important that the rest of the school see that all the houses are united in this. Does anyone here have a problem with it?”
Several of them turned to look at Ron, who despised Slytherins as much as anyone in the school. But Ron merely folded his arms and moved to stand beside Harry, giving him a brief nod. Seeing that, the rest of them relaxed and turned their attention back to Harry.
“Good. Now, this group was originally formed to help us learn defense and pass our OWL’s, because we had a worthless Defense professor.” A lot of smiles were exchanged at that remark. The word had spread and they all knew that their defense OWL scores had been the highest in the school, despite the efforts of Umbridge. Harry exchanged a smile of his own with Ron before continuing. “But this time is going to be different. For one, we have an excellent Defense instructor this year.”
“Two of them!” came a shout from the back. The rest of the group broke into laughter at the embarrassed expression that remark brought to Harry’s face. He waved them off good-naturedly and went on.
“But I’ve learned the hard way during the last few months that there’s a lot more to fighting and winning a battle than knowing a lot of spells. Some of us,” here he motioned towards Ron and Hermione, “have had some training this summer and have been in a few fights. We’re going to try to teach you how to fight a battle, and just as importantly, how stay alive.”
“Harry?” Justin called out. “Did you guys really kill Death Eaters this summer?” The room became deathly silent as everyone awaited the response.
“Yes, we did,” Harry replied in a grim voice. “More than I want to think about.” Not a sound greeted this pronouncement. If everyone wasn’t serious before, they were now. “This isn’t a game anymore, people. It’s not a bunch of students hiding from a petty teacher. It’s not about passing a test. It’s about surviving long enough to graduate and get on with our lives. If we can accomplish that without killing anyone, great. But the guys we’re fighting against won’t hold back and neither can we.” Beside him Ron merely nodded, and the listening crowd remained silent, all of them asking similar questions of themselves. When the time came, would they be able to do the same?
After giving them a moment to digest that idea, Harry turned and walked over to an area of the room with a padded floor. The rest roused themselves from their thoughts and followed him, wondering what he had in store for them.
Harry addressed them again. “The best way to survive a battle is to not get hit. Hermione?” Hermione walked up and took a position opposite him on the padded area. Without another word Harry pulled out his wand.
“Stupefy!” A bright red streak shot toward Hermione, but she merely flicked her wand and the curse impacted against a shield that immediately appeared in front of her. Then she looked back at Harry and stuck her tongue out at him, followed by a slight tilt of her head and a saucy grin.
Jaws dropped all over the room. Hermione Granger had just openly flirted with Harry Potter in public! A dozen heads spun to look at Ginny, who was standing with her arms folded across her chest, staring straight ahead. No one could quite believe that Ginny had let Harry go so easily and most had been expecting a nasty outburst from the fiery redhead sooner or later. Perhaps this would be the time. Then something else dawned on some of the students.
“She didn’t say the incantation!” called out Ernie.
“And that wand movement was different than we learned for Protego,” protested Padma.
“I’m glad you noticed,” said Harry, seemingly oblivious to the other item that was on everyone’s minds. Those are two other things we’re going to learn. Last year we started working on silent spellcasting, but not many of us got the hang of it. That’s absolutely critical in a duel. And we’re going to teach you several variations on the shield spell. Watch.”
Harry then proceeded to hurl a variety of hexes and jinxes at Hermione, who blocked them all easily. Then he began to cast silently as well, and she had to be more alert. As he began to cast faster she was more hard-pressed, but she managed to get up a shield each time, although some were just barely quick enough.
Harry paused to give them both a little breather. They turned to see the rest of the students watching them in awe. Very few of them had been aware of just how much time the two Head Students had spent practicing during the summer, but now the evidence was before them. They all realized that none of them would stand a chance in a duel against either of these two.
“Don’t worry if you don’t think you can do that right now,” Harry reassured them. “Hermione is better with shields than anyone I know.” Glances were exchanged all around, followed by a few smiles. Same old Harry Potter. Somehow he managed to ignore his own impressive performance. “Now there’s something else we need to show you,” he continued. “Here’s another way to avoid getting hit by a spell.”
Once more he turned and cast a spell at Hermione, but this time she merely ducked. Again she gave him that little tilt of the head and a challenging grin. He shot two more at her and she leaned to the side, then hopped over the second one.
“I bet he’s going easy on her just because she’s his girlfriend,” Michael Corner said to Terry Boot, standing beside him. Whether by design or not, everyone heard him and there was an embarrassed silence, with more students sneaking glances at Ginny. A small giggle escaped from Lavender Brown before she quickly brought up her hand to cover her mouth. Ginny turned and glared at her.
Still apparently unaware of the gathering tension, Harry looked over at Michael and grinned. “OK, let’s let someone else try. Um, Ginny, could you help us out here?” There were several gasps and quite a few students unconsciously clasped their hands together. This was too good to be true. Hermione and Ginny had been acting towards each other like there was nothing out of the ordinary but they just knew that there had to be some ill feeling between Harry’s past and present girlfriends.
Some of the students in the back began to casually move out to the sides to improve their view of the coming catfight. Still off a little by themselves, Tracey Davis and Padma Patil exchanged a look. Something funny was going on here. The Harry Potter they had been getting to know lately wasn’t this dense.
With a tight-lipped smile fixed on her face Ginny moved to the front and pulled out her wand. Harry addressed the group again. “Just to make it clear, this is about dodging spells. We learned this summer that it can be an advantage to be able to evade a spell without having to cast a shield. That leaves you free to counterattack more quickly, and is less of a drain on your magic. Now, to make it interesting …” He walked up to Hermione and took her wand away from her as her eyes widened. Several of the students watching closely noticed that Hermione now showed signs of nervousness.
Harry went back toward Ginny. “Ginny, have you been practicing your spellcasting accuracy?”
Ginny didn’t take her eyes off of Hermione, but a predatory grin formed slowly on her face. “You bet I have.”
“Just a minute, Harry,” called out Hermione. Everyone turned to see what she wanted and were amazed to see her pull her robes off over her head. Underneath she was wearing one of her exercise outfits, with stretch leggings and a T-backed scoop necked tank top. This action was greeted by an assortment of gasps and murmurings.
Two thoughts dominated the minds of the onlookers. ‘Wow, check out Hermione!’ was all that the male brains could process, while the female brains went a little further and added, ‘where can I get an outfit like that?’ Harry was having a difficult time keeping a straight face and a glance over at Ron didn’t help any. His redheaded friend was grinning from ear to ear. Another glance at Ginny showed her struggling to keep a frozen smile in place, twitching a little with the effort.
“Ginny, use mild bludgeoning hexes, OK?”
“I’ll use whatever hex I feel like,” she snapped, having finally lost the battle to keep her expression neutral.
“You’ll use what I tell you to use.” Suddenly Harry’s voice was icy cold. Blazing brown eyes locked with glowing green ones for a moment before Ginny smiled and replied in an overly sweet voice. “Whatever you say, Harry.”
She turned to face Hermione and immediately fired off a bludgeoning hex, hoping to catch the older girl unaware. Hermione dodged it with ease and gave her the same saucy grin she had given Harry. Red faced, Ginny cast again and once more Hermione dodged, twisting her body out of the way and then the one-sided duel was on in earnest.
For several minutes Ginny kept up a steady stream of hexes while Hermione jumped, twisted, ducked and rolled out of the way. Initially none of the onlookers made a sound, being completely amazed at what Hermione was doing. They all knew Ginny was athletic, and if the pair of girls had reversed roles, they might have been able to accept what they were seeing, but they were all blown away by the presumed bookworm’s physical prowess.
A few of the clever ones like Padma and Tracey were beginning to understand that Harry had done this intentionally. If someone as non-athletic as Hermione could learn to dodge spells like this, any of them should be able to do it. Then Harry began to shout encouragement to Hermione and the rest of them followed suit, cheering for both girls.
Finally Hermione appeared to tire and Ginny connected with a spell, hitting her in the hip when she couldn’t lean out of the way in time. Hermione flew off her feet and everyone winced as she hurtled toward the floor. But just as she was about to hit she tucked in and rolled once before coming to a stop.
Before she had even hit the floor, though, Ginny was hurrying forward in concern for her friend, dropping to her knees in front of her. “Hermione, are you OK?” she gasped. Surprisingly, Harry moved calmly up to her and merely reached out his hand. Sitting up quickly, Hermione smiled at him and took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. They shared a look that communicated without words their secret knowledge – her magical necklace had absorbed most of the spell.
Harry smiled back and pulled her into a short hug, whispering “Great job!” before backing away and facing the stunned students once more. “And now,” he commented wryly, “you see the other lesson for today. Learn how to fall without getting hurt.”
No one said anything as the students stared at him, then looked at Hermione, then Ginny, then back and forth between the two girls a few more times. Hermione had moved over to the shorter girl and given her a quick hug to show she was OK, and the two of them were grinning at each other.
Suddenly Ron started clapping and was joined immediately by Neville, then Luna. Soon nearly everyone was laughing and cheering, realizing they had been had, although there seemed to be a little disappointment on Lavender’s and a few others’ faces. Before the applause had died down Ginny had removed her robes to reveal an outfit similar to Hermione’s, and Ron and Harry had likewise stripped to tee shirts and sweat pants.
In order that the ogling wouldn’t get out of hand (from both sexes) Harry and Ron took the guys and Hermione and Ginny took the girls and they split up as the four of them spent the next hour first demonstrating how to fall, then tips for how to dodge. By the time the session was over the whole DA was tired and sore, but excited. All of them agreed that this had been the most unusual defense lesson they had ever had.
At the end of the period Harry had one more thing to say. “There is a good possibility that sometime during this year we are going to be in a position where we are fighting for our lives. When that happens you have to be able to trust the person fighting next to you completely. There is absolutely no room in a battle for personal problems or hurt feelings. All that stuff gets left at the door when you come in here. If you can’t do that then stay out of the fight. Does everyone understand this?” There were a lot of embarrassed looks and sheepish nods.
“I’m not saying you have to be best friends with everyone in here.” Harry deliberately avoided looking at anyone in particular when he said this. Frankly, there were one or two students here that annoyed him but he needed to make this point. “But we’re going to be forming small teams that will fight as a unit and you do need to be completely comfortable with the other members of your team. Keep that in mind and be sure to let us know when we form the teams if there’s going to be a problem.” Wanting to end on a positive note, he concluded, “OK, great job everyone and we’ll see you next week.”
Before everyone left, Hermione took care of some business, explaining the newest version of the loyalty charm (quite a few people shuddered at hearing the consequences but everyone signed eventually) and getting commitments to assist in training the new students for each night of the week. While she was doing this, Padma, Ernie, Tracey, Daphne, and Blaise came over to where Harry was conferring with Ron. Tracey first addressed Ron.
“Thanks for accepting us. If someone with your history can accept students from Slytherin house, maybe there’s hope for the rest of the school.”
Ron nodded to her, and then to Blaise and Daphne. “I guess Harry and Hermione are having an influence on me, but we all had to do some growing up this summer. The three of us nearly died …” he glanced at Harry who shook his head slightly. “… nearly died more than once in Death Eater attacks and that sort of gives you a different perspective on things. In the past I would have blamed all Slytherins for those attacks just because some of the attackers were from your house. But these two and Professor McGonagall finally made me realize that I can’t lump everyone together like that. So if Harry trusts you, and Hermione … well if you signed her parchment then you … believe me, you do not want to cross that girl. So I suppose I can accept you as well.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Ron Weasley?” Tracey laughed. Blaise was chuckling too as he reached out and shook Ron’s hand.
Before releasing Blaise’s hand Ron looked him in the eye and said in a low voice, “now, I heard that you had something to say about my sister.”
“What about your sister, Ronald?” came the annoyed voice of a petite redhead who had just walked up behind them. Harry slowly backed away as Ron and Ginny squared off, with Neville, Ernie, and Blaise looking on in apprehension. He turned to see that Tracey, Daphne, and Padma were still with him.
“That was quite a show you three put on earlier. Was the whole thing orchestrated?” asked Padma as Tracey regarded him with a smirk.
Harry raised his eyebrows and smiled. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Watch it Potter,” Tracey teased. “That sounds rather Slytherin of you.”
“Would it surprise you if I told you the Sorting Hat almost put me in Slytherin?”
Once again jaws dropped. Daphne regained her speaking ability first. “No way! The Gryffindor Golden Boy a Slytherin?”
Now it was Harry’s turn to smirk. “Maybe the differences between the houses aren’t as big as you think they are.” And on that note he left his new friends still gaping at him and rejoined Hermione who had finished her paperwork and was waiting by the door. Taking her hand, he looked back over his shoulder and gave them a wink, then disappeared.
-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-
For those of you who still think Hermione’s afraid of flying and would never play quidditch, please read the beginning of chapter 6 of Half Blood Prince. Although JK calls her dreadful, she and Harry were ‘reasonably well matched’ against Ginny and Ron. Of course that’s ridiculous — Ginny and Ron would cream Hermione and Harry — but there it is. She is clearly willing and able to play the game.