Chapter 5
So, what's happening ^^ now... Harry and Malfoy had their first flying lesson with Madame Hooch and Professor McGonagall told Professor Snape "how" Harry lost some points for Slytherin. Great start in the new school year... loosing points in his second week! ;)
In this chapter it's all about homework... Only joking but Harry realises that he has to do quite a bit of extra work for the magical school he has just learnt existed and in addition to that he has practice and extra work and so much more he wants to discover.
Chapter 5
Harry just walked around the corner, when he ran into Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle as they were walking towards him. “Did you talk to Professor Snape?” Draco asked, sounding worried, “I’ll talk to him, or my father! They can’t expel you just like that!” He didn’t apologize for throwing the blasted glass ball in the first place, but at least he had been worried about getting Harry expelled. “It’s fine Malfoy, I won’t be expelled just yet,” Harry said with a grin, “You’ll have to put up with me just a bit longer!”
“So what exactly?” Nott asked curiously while Crabbe and Goyle chuckled, probably about the fact that Harry had almost been expelled… in his first two weeks…
“Snape thinks I need help following instructions and gave me extra work… a lot of that,” Harry complained and realized the impact the other part of Snape’s punishment would have! He’d have to go and meet Marcus Flint for Quidditch instructions! He’d have to play a game he’d never played before, with a bunch of older and a lot more experienced Slytherin students… and do all of that in front of the entire student body… and the teachers!
The boys looked at the scroll in Harry’s hand and nodded, “That sucks, man, but how about we all help you? Malfoy is actually really clever! And I’m sure Crabbe and Goyle are good at something!” “There is something else that Professor Snape decided,” Harry said nervously and glanced towards Malfoy, “He wants me to practice with Marcus Flint on Saturday morning… I was a bit shocked, but I think they want me to be the Slytherin’s new Seeker…”
“That’s awesome!” Theodore exclaimed. “But that’s against the rules,” Goyle wondered, while Crabbe chuckled, “The teachers will have to break their own rules to let Potter play!” “Don’t be dumb!” Malfoy finally said and turned his gaze towards the plumb boy. “They don’t break their own rules, they’ll just bend their words! The rules simply state that Potter can’t try out for the Quidditch Team! Try outs are next weekend! Potter won’t be attending the try outs as a possible player, he’ll be a team member already!”
“See!” Nott chuckled, “I told you he’s smart!” “That was never debatable, Nott!” Malfoy complained and nodded towards the common room, “Let’s go back and help Potter with his extra work!” Harry smiled thankfully and followed the boys back to the common room. He’d been worried about how Malfoy would react to those news after telling Harry how he would try out for the Quidditch team next year.
“Malfoy, “ he said just as they reached the common room entrance painting. “Yes?” he asked and the others slipped in through the hidden door. “I’m sorry about making the team by accident, the only things I know about Quidditch so far is what you and the others told me since I got here. And you know so much about it and actually wanted to play so badly…” Harry apologized, but Malfoy stopped him. “Don’t apologise, Potter,” he said and shook his head, “The only one I could be mad at would be myself for throwing the remembrall, but I’m not. I will be mad though, if you don’t do your best and catch that snitch for us!”
“If I catch the snitch, the game will be over and we win?” Harry asked, remembering the rules. Malfoy nodded and entered the common room, “In most cases yes, however, the points still matter. If our team scored more than 150 points and the other team only catches the snitch, we would still win as we have more points. To have a result like that we’d need an outstanding Keeper though…”
“If you catch the snitch the way you caught that remembrall, you’ll be fine and even Dumbledore won’t be able to keep you from the team!” Nott chuckled and pat Harry’s shoulder. “What was that thing anyways?” Harry asked as they headed towards a free table.
“A remembrall is for remembering things. If you forget something the smoke turns red, that fat ass just doesn’t remember what he’s supposed to remember!” Malfoy laughed and Crabbe and Goyle joined in as they sat down with their parchment, ink and quills.
“Okay,” Nott sighed and looked at Harry’s scrolls, “Should we start our homework first?” The boys agreed and started to work through essays, summaries and instructions on how to defend magical creatures, mix potions and it’s uses and transfiguration charms. Luckily Professor Sinistra hadn’t assigned any homework to the night before.
“Hey boys,” they heard a female voice behind them as the first year girls approached, “Are you coming to dinner?” “What?” Nott called out, “It’s that late already? No wonder I’m hungry!” Leaving everything as it was, he ran off towards the door when Daphne Greengrass called after him, “Theo! You still have time to pack your things, unless you want your parents to send you new school stuff by tomorrow! And you’d have to re-do your homework!” “Ups,” he chuckled as he returned to re-pack his school bag before the five boys carried their bags to their bedroom.
“It was very nice of you to stand up for Longbottom,” Millicent said as the ten of them sat in the Great Hall, filling their plates with delicious food and pumpkin juice. “I just thought it was the right thing to do,” Harry said with an apologetic glance towards Malfoy. “I think his flying skills were much more impressive! It was his first time on a broom, you know! How did you do that anyways?” Pansy Parkinson asked and Daphne looked at Harry sceptically, “Yes, and how come you’re not expelled? McGonagall looked so angry?”
“Of course they can’t expel him!” Nott complained and waved the thought of expelling Harry away, “He’s got to do some extra work, but that’s all the punishment he’s got! Instead Snape assigned Potter to the Quidditch Team as our new Seeker!” “What?” the others cried out, shocked and surprised about the news they had just heard.
“They’ll just bend the rules to suit their needs,” Malfoy said with a sneer that reminded Harry a lot of their head of house, “At least that’ll be in our favour for a change!” “That’s right!” Pansy Parkinson chuckled, “We’ll win the House Cup for the 8th year in a row!” The others cheered and celebrated this victory with more food, drinks and sweets, while Harry thought about all the pressure their expectations put on him!
Everyone in Hogwarts seemed to expect so much of him anyways. Apparently what ever had happened to him when that dark wizard had murdered his parents and when he had tried to murder Harry as well, had been a huge thing in the wizarding world. Something everyone remembered with worry and fear in their eyes. The fact that Harry had survived what that attempted murder had set the entire wizarding world to believe that Harry was special. Not that he saw what that was supposed to be, but it was nice that he felt like he belonged in Hogwarts, that he wasn’t a waste of air and space.
After school on Friday the first years sat together in the Slytherin common room, working through their remaining homework and Harry’s extra sheets. The scroll seemed to never and soon they decided to go outside for a while to explore the school grounds before dinner and their second weekend in Hogwarts.
While the others slept in on Saturday morning, Harry snuck out, fully dressed and ready for his first practise with the team. Harry met Marcus Flint, the captain and sixth year student, and another blonde Slytherin student in the Quidditch uniform on the field, just placing a huge box on the ground.
“Morning, Potter,” they said as he approached, “This is our previous Seeker, Terence Higgs, he’ll help me train you.” The boys shook hands and started their training with an explanation and a demonstration of how the balls were acting in a match, how they were handled and what the players were supposed to do.
There was a big brown ball, it would be thrown through one of the three hoops on either side of the field to score points. The two medium sized balls that were restrained with metal chains, would fly on their own, trying to throw the players off their brooms, while the Beaters would do their best to hit them towards the opposing team with baseball bats.
To demonstrate, Flint released one of them, picked up the bat he had brought and handed it to Harry. “You’ll need this, Potter, just hit it as hard as you can!” Once released the Bludger shot up into the air and straight towards Harry! Quickly he aimed for the ball, swung the bat, and hit it as hard as he possibly could. Impressed Harry lowered the bat and watched as it flew towards a statue on the castle wall, shooting straight through the two swords of the stone figure.
“Not bad, Potter, you’d make quite a decent Beater!” Flint said as the other boy, Terence Higgs, mounted his broom and went after the ball to retrieve it before it would hurt a student. “You’ve met the Quaffle, a Bludger, but for you,” he said and opened the little box at the top to take a small golden ball out, “the Snitch will be the most important ball to look for. It’s fast and small and almost impossible to see. Like a remembrall flying towards the castle as I’ve heard! McGonagall was quite impressed, you know!”
Harry blushed and looked at the small golden ball as it opened it’s wings in Flint’s hand, like a tiny bird, trying to fly off. He opened his hand and the golden snitch fluttered around Harry for a moment, as if it said Hello. “I like this one,” Harry smiled as he followed it with his eyes.
“Wait for your first match, Potter,” Flint laughed, trying to keep an eye on the golden shimmer, “I repeat, fast and almost impossible to see!” As Flint looked in a completely different direction, Harry pointed towards the Snitch, following it with his finger, “It’s over here, Flint.” “Thanks,” he said, pulled out his want and muttered a spell, as Harry presumed, considering the word didn’t make any sense to Harry, and the little golden ball returned into his hand. “Unfortunately that does not work during a match. In a match the balls are protected against charms to keep the game fair,” Flint explained as he placed the Snitch back in its compartment and Terence Higgs returned with the Bludger, struggling with the resisting ball. It took both players to secure the baseball sized ball into the wooden box again and they quickly locked it once again.
“Now, lets get a bit more technical,” Flint said and the boys explained Harry different game strategies and what roles each player had, pointing out that Harry’s most important job, besides catching the snitch, would be to stay on his broom. As they explained their strategies, Harry realised that it wasn’t only having a radical family background that gave Slytherin a bad reputationi. Most of Flint’s strategies sounded like cheating and fouling to Harry. He didn’t seem to care if others would get hurt or injured and from Flints and Malfoys stories about previous games, the Slytherin team had never really cared about playing by the book or by proper Quidditch rules!
However, Harry was new in the team and to the magical world, so he decided to keep quiet for now, until he had been able to make a name and a reputation for himself. For now he didn’t even know if he could catch the golden snitch at all!
“Do you have any questions about the strategies?” Flint asked and watched Harry, “Your role is pretty simple, as you’re generally doing the same. Try not to get knocked off your broom and do your best to catch the snitch.” Harry nodded, “So far it’s all good.” “Perfect,” Flint said with a grin, “Let’s see how you’ll do on the broom! Let’s see if you can impress us as much as old McGonagall!” Harry wasn’t sure about that, so he simply nodded, pretending that he felt comfortable with the thought of his first team practice!