Phoenix Trilogy: Together Again

Chapter Six-Quidditch Tryouts

Harry sat straight up in bed. Sweat poured down his face, the dream sticking out beyond anything in his mind. He wiped the sweat out of his eyes, swung his legs over the side of his bed, and walked over to the window seat to gaze down at the silent grounds below.

Not a creature was moving out there, and through the strange mist that was shrouding everything on the grounds, Harry could see the beginnings of a frost on the grass. Strange, he thought. It's not even October yet... Contemplating the notion of going straight to the owlry and sending Hedwig to Sirius against talking with Dumbledore, Harry glanced at his clock. He realized that it would be irrational to go to Dumbledore at one in the morning and stupid to risk getting caught out of bed trying to get to the owlry, so he climbed back into bed and sank into an uneasy sleep.

~*~

The first thought that came to Harry during this dream was the fact that he seemed to have complete control of his body. The second was that this was not a 'Voldemort dream'.

Harry gazed out of what seemed to be a room with walls made of fire into a corridor so dark that he could swear that it swallowed all light. The moment he stepped into it, however, it flooded with a fiery light that startled him into a run. At the end of the corridor was a mist filled room that lay so thick that it seemed it could seep right into the very soul. Harry looked down at his feet to make sure he wouldn't trip over anything and saw cobblestone. They too seemed to be filled with fire, and they led off into the distance, vanishing into the mist that shrouded the room.

A disembodied voice--a singer, he thought--met his ears, one melodic and somehow, though Harry was quite sure he had never met the owner of it, familiar. The fog twisted it so that it was distorted and creepy.

Harry began to walk towards where the voice seemed to be coming from. It occurred to him at one point that the person might be dangerous, even someone who might want to kill him. He swept the thought aside and kept walking anyway.

Thinking (absurdly, at the moment) that he could reach out with his mind to contact the voice, he said, ~Hello? Who's there?~ To his surprise, the voice stopped singing and began to call his name, an echoing, distorted call.

When he reached a part in the path where it started to curve to the right, the mist began to lift, revealing a beautiful garden with large rose bushes. It startled him as he realized that they too had a somewhat fiery quality to them. He looked up at the sound of a bubbling fountain and saw the back of a tall woman with long, luxurious black curls that shone with a light source that Harry couldn't seem to place. Her dress was of medieval style, and made of deep red satin, or a close enough material. It seemed to contain a thousand whispers, each calling his name with such strength that he found he couldn't resist continuing is walk. The woman turned suddenly, and Harry found himself drowning in her impossibly clear chocolate brown eyes. Her lips were full and deep red (matching well with her pale skin, he noted dimly.) The lips parted as she cocked her head slightly to the right, like a curious dog might do, and spoke his name.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaarry," she called. Harry noticed that her voice was still echoed and distorted, though the mist that had previously veiled them had all but vanished. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarry, Harry? Harry!" Harry sat up so fast, his arms flailing as if some invisible assassin was attacking him, that he managed to hit the person that was pulling his curtains open to flood his vision with light. She squealed (She? Harry thought thickly, still half asleep) loudly and tried to defend herself with the nearby water pitcher. The only thing she succeeded in doing was breaking it, soaking her and Harry in the process. She gasped as the cold water hit her full in the face.

"Oh, Harry!" she groaned. "You've gotten my clothes sopping wet!" Harry blinked to clear his vision and saw Hermione, her hair flattened by all the water and starting to fluff out again. The agitated look on her face was all it took to make him realized that something wasn't quite right.

"What a dream" he murmured to himself, getting up from the wet bed. "Hermione, get out so I can change."

"You get out!" she shrieked. "I'm thoroughly wet as well, or had you noticed?"

"Yes," Harry said grimly, "but you were the one who insisted on waking me up. Where is everyone? What time is it?"

"It's almost eight-thirty," Hermione answered somewhat more calmly than before, taking a portion of her hair that was the most wet and squeezing it with her hands. A small puddle of water was beginning to form on the floor around her feet. "Oh, drat," she said, looking down at her blouse and trying to hide herself from Harry. He looked up and saw that the once crisp white blouse was revealing her bra and quickly looked away once more, blushing furiously.

The next thing he knew, he was sitting on his butt out in the hallway outside his dormitory with a towel being thrown at his head. The door slammed shut behind him. Harry sighed and began to towel his hair. After it yielded all the water he could manage to get out of it, he began to pat down his soaked pajamas. Hermione opened the door, her hair up in one hand and a hair elastic in the other, and walked around him.

"You have half an hour to get yourself ready for Transfiguration," she reminded him. "Don't be late, or Professor McGonagall might be tempted to take off more points than usual because you're a prefect!" Harry grumbled under his breath and went to the task of dressing and attempting once more to fight a loosing battle against his every-unruly hair. After one final comb over (which gained him nothing but another cowlick), he was ready to eat breakfast. Unfortunately, he had five minutes to get to Transfiguration at that point, which he needed to get to the room.

He skidded to a halt just outside the room, his bag clutched tightly under his arm. Audry was laughing hysterically over something Ron had just said. She stopped when he nearly knocked her over.

"Whoever said girls take longer to get dressed than boys obviously didn't know you," she noted, pulling his tie to the correct position. He ignored her and began to sort through the papers, books, quills, and ink bottles that he had thrown in his bag to see if he had managed to grab the paper that McGonagall had assigned the previous Friday. As luck would have it, he had, and he placed it neatly on the pile that was beginning to form on her desk as he walked in.

After a brief lecture of proper wand holding when transfiguring body parts, McGonagall set them to work on changing certain features, like noses, ears, or fingers to different types of food. Within ten minutes, the majority of them were laughing so hard about their friend's nose being changed to a tomato, or an ear being replaced with an okra, that mistakes began to occur. Neville managed somehow to switch Seamus' ears with branches off of the tree outside the window, and Audry couldn't explain for the life of her why Hermione's hair was suddenly a bean sprout plant. Harry and Ron tried not to look like they were laughing too hard when she first realized that she was two bits short of a vegetable garden and went into hysterics. It wasn't quite as funny, however, when in her anger she turned Ron's nose into a banana and Harry's glasses into a cucumber. Harry spent the last quarter of the hour being partially blind while Audry and Hermione took turns attempting to change them back.

Charms was equally exciting, since Professor Flitwick was beginning to teach them wandless flotation methods. Again, Neville's attempt at lifting his feather off his desk resulted in him sending the poor teacher up to the chandelier, where he clung in fear until someone found a large enough pile of cushions and Hermione located a spell that could slow the descending time of an object to a minimum. As a result, the class spent the rest of the time placing bets on when their teacher would land. Neville's luck took an upswing, and he won five free Butterbeers on the first visit to Hogsmede, six Chocolate Frog cards, and, of all things, a shoe. Audry, who had bet that he would stay in the air until four o'clock, seemed slightly subdued as they munched on peanut butter and honey sandwiches at lunch.

"Audry, is something wrong?" Ron asked, finally breaking the silence between them. She looked up in surprise.

"Huh?"

"You're awfully quiet. In fact, you have been all morning. Did Malfoy make fun of you, or something?"

"No," Audry answered, throwing him a look that said as if. "I was just thinking."

"Just thinking?" Ron asked, a grin spreading across his face.

Audry glared at him. "What? It's suddenly a sin to be quiet and not talk for once."

"No," Harry started to say. Ron interrupted him.

"You've been spacing all morning. You weren't even paying attention during Transfiguration, which, I think, was why Hermione was part vegetable garden for seven minutes."

Hermione's cheeks reddened, but she didn't pursue the matter.

"It's nothing, really," she said. She rubbed her forehead as if she suddenly had a headache. "I've been having really weird dreams lately, that's all. And I had the strangest vision this morning when I was getting ready for classes."

"That explains that," Hermione noted over her goblet of Pumpkin juice. She took a sip of it and turned the page of her Arithmancy book, which was propped up against the pitcher. Audry glanced coolly at her. For the first time in almost two weeks, Harry heard the same whispering in his head that he had heard at the start of the year feast, and again in the dream last night. He zoned in on it, frowning in concentration, and heard a snipped for the first time. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he didn't feel that the words had to be repeated out loud.

Audry frowned. "There's one thing I don't get," she said softly.

"What's that?" Ron asked, glaring slightly at Hermione, who did nothing but turn another page in her book.

Audry looked up. "Huh?" she said, as if she didn't know what he was talking about. "Oh. Never mind."

"She's a strange one," Ron commented to Harry, who nodded soberly.

Five minutes before lunch was over, Fred and George tapped Harry as he was getting up to go to Herbology. Frog-marching him over to an empty spot near where Katie and Alicia were sitting, they pushed him into the chair and began to speak.

"We've arranged the quidditch tryouts to be after lunch on this Friday. We were going to have it Saturday, but that's the day of the Hogsmede visit. You did hear about the trip, didn't you?" Fred announced.

"I think McGonagall shouted it out to us as we were leaving her class this morning," Harry said. "I wasn't quite sure. We were too busy laughing and making all kinds of ruckus."

"Right. Well, tell everyone you think would be a good candidate, and I'll post a notice on the board later this evening. Make sure that Longbottom boy doesn't come anywhere near the quidditch field, Harry," George ordered him. "I'd rather he stayed with both his feet firmly planted on the ground then on a broom up in the air." Harry grinned and began to stand up.

"Make sure that you talk to your girlfriend, Audry, or whatever her name is, about trying out. I know she's said that she doesn't even know what it is (which is a sin, if you ask me), but she's got the right build for a chaser."

"And a seeker, and a keeper, and she has more than enough spunk to relive you two of a job, as I mentioned on Monday," Harry reminded them. "I'll ask her bout it, okay? And for the final time, she's not my girlfriend! She 's a friend, who just happens to be a girl."

"Right," George said again, a grin stealing across his face. "Just ask her. And try to prod Ginny a bit, too." She's a terrific chaser, and could even give you a run for the money in a race to the snitch. She's not quite as observant as you, though," he added as an afterthought.

"You prod Ginny," Harry told him. "She's your sister, in case you forgot."

"Yea, but she'll never listen to us!" Fred interrupted, pushing George into the table. "We're her brothers, and she thinks that we think of everything as a joke."

"Newsflash," Alicia started. "You do think of everything as a joke!"

"Good point," the Weasley twins said in unison, identical grins of mischief on their faces.

Harry stood up, shaking his head and walking back over to Ron, Hermione, and Audry. The latter two of the three were in a heavy argument about something. Harry didn't give them any time to finish it, however, and began to usher them towards the doors.

They continued to bicker all the way down to the greenhouses that they were to use for the Herbology class with the Hufflepuffs that was scheduled for that afternoon.

"The wind's picking up," Ron noted over Audry and Hermione's shrill and angry voices. "There'll be a storm before long."

Harry nodded in agreement. "When d'you think these two will stop?" he asked in a whisper.

"Not sure, though I'm sure it won't be pretty. Hermione was pretty angry with her after the bean plant incident."

"Don't tell Malfoy; he'll make her the laughing stock of the school, and she'll never stop screaming to her about that!"

"Hurry up now," Professor Sprout said, opening the door and letting them file in. No sooner had she done so when Ron's prediction of a storm came true and the skies opened up. Everyone glanced warily at the ceiling at the tirade above and around them, as though the glass could break from the incessant pounding.

"Today we will be working on one of the most interesting plants in Herbology," Professor Sprout announced, trying to get everyone's attention by waving her spade in the air as she spoke. Most of the class focused on her, at least they did until one of the back windows broke with a shatter and rain began to pour in, making the greenhouse very cold. Students in the back lunged for their cloaks and attempted to protect themselves from the falling shards, while others simply ran out of the way. Harry felt a rush of air and shivered, grabbing his cloak from where he had placed it on top of his bag. Hermione groaned as she reached for her bag.

"I've left mine back up at the castle," she said to no one in particular. "That's funny, though," she continued. "I could have sworn that I wore it down here." Harry shrugged and scooted over until he was close enough to share his. He shivered again, this time not from the cold. He hadn't been this close to Hermione since the mini-ball.

Harry wasn't surprised to see that other people were sharing his idea of doubling up with those that had neglected to bring their cloaks. He glanced to his left and saw that Ron and Audry were doubling up as well, even though her cloak was in plain sight underneath the table, sitting atop her bag.

"Don't panic," Professor Sprout called over the ruckus in the back, where people were trying to dislodge glass shards from their cloaks and, in one case, hair.

She ended up sending three people up to the Hospital Wing due to cuts on their faces, arms, and shoulders. After repairing the broken window, she turned back to the class, which was still huddling together. Throwing up her hands in defeat, she said, "Forget it. Pack up your things and head back up to the castle." She pointed to a group of very wilted plants at the front of the room. "These plants need to be kept warm at all times, and if exposed to sudden cold they are useless." She shook her head and went to see what could be done to the ruined plants. Harry stood up and collected his bag.

"You heard her," he said to the slightly surprised students. "Let's go." They walked to the door and, cloaks thrown around them, some with two people underneath, they headed up to the castle, battling ferocious winds.

~*~

"Holy moley," Audry gasped, heading for the girls dormitory when they reached the common room. Harry could feel Hermione shivering violently beside him.

"Ooh," she moaned, her teeth chattering. "I don't remember being this cold ever!"

"Two words, Harry said, rubbing her arms with his hands. "Quidditch practice." Ron took his cloak in both his hands and began to wring it out; water splashed onto the ground.

"What about it?" he asked.

"In third year, for the beginning of the season I wasn't properly dry," Harry replied. His hands felt as if they were going to fall off.

"Oh. It's not about being wet at the moment," Hermione told him. "I'm just really, really cold!

"Go sit in front of the fire, then," run told her.

"It's not burning," Audry said. She sneezed and everyone turned. She had changed her clothes and gabbed several warm looking blankets. Without saying anything, Hermione grabbed one and headed up to the boys dormitory.

"That was cold," Audry murmured, wrapping one tightly around her own shoulders. She went and sat down in front of the hearth and placed a few logs in the grate. With a shaking hand, she pointed her wand at them and mumbled something. They glowed briefly before bursting into flame. "Oh, this is nice," she said, putting her wand away and leaning up against a chair. Ron sat down in the chair and nearly thrust his hands into the fire. Audry sighed and leaned against Ron's leg, causing him to jump.

"Awww, how sweet," a gruff voice said from the top of the stairs. Harry looked up to see Sirius's smiling face.

"You're not supposed to be here!" he cried in surprise.

"Audry looked up as well. "Do...I know you?" she asked, squinting as if to see him better.

"Hello to you too, Harry," Sirius joked before turning to the American. "I don't think so. I'm Sirius, Harry's godfather."

"No...maybe..." Audry shook her head. "Where's my brain...? Audry. I'm Harry's friend!" She grinned broadly as Sirius laughed.

"I would have stayed in your dorm room, Harry, except Hermione came up there and began to change her clothes. Is it me, or does she look a bit bony?"

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed. He could feel his face grow warm. An indignant shriek erupted from the dorm room in question, as though Hermione had heard him. Sirius shrugged, a devilish look on his face. Audry scoffed and peered back at him closely once more.

"Wait a sec...you're Sirius Black, that escaped convict, aren't you?"

"Today is not my day," Sirius murmured.

"Aren't you supposed to be on the run, then?" Audry questioned him, looking suspicious. "You're not going to grab one of our wands and kill us, are you?"

"Aren't you supposed to be wary of strangers?" Sirius argued.

"I know you're name, therefore you are not a stranger. Well, to me, at least."

Harry buried his head in his hands while Ron sniggered. "Audry," he groaned.

"Sorry, my mouth's running away again, isn't it? Nice to meet you, but you--"

"Sirius, why were you in the dormitory?" Hermione asked, pulling the blanket Audry had passed her around her shoulders as she re-entered the common room.

"I was hiding," he answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not even supposed to be talking to you! Dumbledore called us all to the castle to talk about...something." He looked away when Harry tried to look him in the eye.

"What is it?" Audry asked. "Something about Harry? And...living arrangements, since your aunt did kick you out."

Harry turned to her, slightly surprised. "I never told you about that," he said slowly. "Did either of you?" he asked Ron and Hermione.

"No, not that I can remember," Hermione said. Ron nodded in agreement.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Well, maybe you should consider telling her the whole story, and why it's so important that she know."

"I hate it when you're serious, Sirius," Harry told him soberly.

"I'm always Sirius," he answered. Turning into the large black dog that was his animagus form, he padded to the portrait hole and pushed it open. With a swish of his tail, he disappeared, letting the portrait snap shut.

"Whoa," Audry breathed with a slight shake of her head. 'That was...interesting..."

They spent the rest of the afternoon in front of the fireplace, trying to keep warm. Harry watched Hermione shoot occasional glares in Audry's direction. By the time they went down to supper an hour and a half later the two were bickering again.

"I don't get those two," Ron said, watching as Audry made a slight lunging motion to Hermione. The prefect put up a hand to prevent Audry's face from hitting her arm and began to shriek at her.

"I know," Harry said, nodding his head. "Hermione's never been like this, except perhaps with Malfoy."

"At least I don't try to seduce every male in the school!" Harry heard Hermione yell.

"Uh-oh," Ron said.

"Well, at least I'm not an anorexic bitch who thinks grades are everything!"

"A-anorexic bitch?!" Hermione stuttered, fury making her voice raise an octave or two. She threw herself at the now surprised teen, grabbing her hair and dragging her nails across Audry's face. Audry yanked her head back and grabbed the back of Hermione's robes and hauled the prefect off her feet. Even though Audry was shorter than Hermione by several inches, her muscles were obviously not just for show.

"Oh, dear," Harry sighed. "If they don't stop--"

"If they don't stop, they'll end up in the hospital wing, or worse," Ron finished. "I'll grab Audry; you get Hermione." Harry watched Ron start off in the fighters' direction and Harry followed. With strength that Harry didn't know Ron had, he pulled them apart and held them at arm's length. Hermione ignored him and continued to yank on Audry's hair. Harry noticed several brown-black strands littering the floor.

"Hermione," Harry hissed at her, pulling her away from Ron and Audry, who was now yelling insults in a foreign language that Harry couldn't understand. He glanced back and saw that Ron had made a wise choice by teaming himself with the violent American: she was now starting to fight him! "Hermione, what do you think you were doing? You could have gotten your prefect badge revoked!"

"Let me at her!" she shrieked, completely ignoring his comment. Harry was just on the verge of slapping her when she hissed, "She's trying to steal you from me." To Audry, she roared, "Go back to America, bitch!"

Harry thrust her back against the wall and pulled his hand back to slap her. She flinched and he stopped. Harry pulled back his other arm and watched her slide down the wall to the floor, her head cradled limply in her hands.

"What am I doing?" she asked no one. When she looked up, Harry saw she was in tears. Harry helped her up and gave her a tentative hug. She sobbed into his shoulder for no apparent reason.

"What were you doing?" Harry asked softly when she pulled away, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. Hermione shrugged and murmured something. "You've always told Ron and I--"

"Ron and me," she corrected with a sniff."

"--that violence never solves anything, no matter how good it feels to pound Malfoy into a pulp," he finished. Hermione sniffed again but said nothing. "Why--what on Earth possessed you to even resort to name calling?"

"She's such a know-it-all," she began, her fury returning in a rush. Harry began to laugh and found that he couldn't stop. He looked up, clutching his stomach, and stopped almost immediately at the sad look on her face. "Why do you think that's so funny?"

"Because she's almost the opposite of you, yet everyone calls you a know-it-all," Harry said. "You spend your free time reading; she'd rather be talking or being the center of attention, much like Fred and George--minus the pranks. You help the underdogs; she ignores them. You hate divination; she's actually good at it!"

"Really?" Hermione said, surprised.

"Yeah," Harry said softly. "It's funny to see her telling off old Trelawney about which method of fortune telling is the best!" He gently prodded her swelling cheek and said, "It might be a good idea to get you two up to the hospital wing now."

"Yeah," Hermione agreed. "I pounded her pretty hard." Harry glanced between the two. Audry was still fighting Ron, and seemed to have acquired a red hand mark along her collarbone. Harry suspected that Ron had been putting her through a vice-grip of a sort. Something else he noticed was that Hermione was a lot worse of wear than Audry.

"Right," he said, not wanting to get her any more riled up. "If you promise not to attack her..." he trailed off and jerked his head in the direction of Audry and Ron.

Hermione made a face. "What do you think I am? A boy?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Harry said with a hurt tone in his voice. He gave her a lopsided grin, which made her smile, and turned to Ron and Audry. He approached them gingerly, aware that people were beginning to stare at them.

"...thought they were dating!" he heard one person say.

"What the...?" another said.

"Er...Ron?" he said as Ron pulled Audry's fist away from his face. "Audry?" he said to the American. She turned and faced him.

"You done talking to the bitch?" she asked, practically spitting out the last word.

"Audry," Harry began.

"No, don't you, 'but Audry' me! I have had enough of that to last me a lifetime! I want to know what the hell is wrong with her!"

"I could ask you the same," Ron told her, shaking her slightly. She stared back defiantly, her lips pressed tightly together. "Listen up," he said finally, his voice sounding unlike Harry had heard it before. "If you don't apologize to Hermione for the name calling that you did..."

"You'll what?" Audry shot at him. "Beat me up? For your information--"

"Give it a break!" Harry said angrily, throwing up his hand in the air. "Audry, just apologize! She's not about to hurt you anymore--"

"Harry, you don't understand," she hissed. Her eyes darted about as she looked him in the eyes. Harry swallowed. At the moment, the brilliant green seemed to be flashing.

"You're right; I don't understand why you two can't just get along," Harry murmured to her so that only she could hear.

"Because..." she began, biting her lip, which, Harry noticed, was bleeding at the corner.

"Never mind," Ron said, turning her around and pointing her in the direction of the hospital wing. "Let's just get you two off to the infirmary." Harry returned to Hermione's side, who took his hand in hers.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she said as they followed Ron and Audry down the corridor. "If you're still mad at me--"

"What gave you the idea that I was mad at you?" he asked, slightly surprised.

"Well, when you...when you nearly smacked me..." She trailed off.

"You weren't listening to me," Harry said. "It was the last thing I wanted to do, and the only thing I could think of--at the moment, that is."

Hermione gave Harry another small smile and then glanced at Audry. She hesitated, and then began to speak. "Audry, I...I'm sorry for--"

"It's okay, Hermione," Audry interrupted. "I was wrong too."

"Well, isn't this sweet," Malfoy drawled, spotting them as they came to a branch-off of the corridor.

"Get lost, Dumb," Audry sneered.

"Skive off, Malfoy," Ron said at the same time. Malfoy gave him a small grin, which looked more like a grimace, and turned to Harry.

"We didn't find your trick too nice," he told him, his silver-gray eyes narrowing to slits.

"What trick?" Harry asked, confused.

"Just remember," Malfoy said, ignoring him. "When the Dark Lord comes, he'll be after your friends first--what is better to put the Boy Who Lived in pain than to put his friends there first?" Audry wrenched away from Ron, much to his surprise, and punched the surprised Slytherin as hard as she could. He stumbled backwards, a hand clamped over his nose, crying out.

"Maybe he should reconsider," she said. Malfoy tripped over Harry's foot and fell to the ground. Blood spattered on the floors. Audry walked over and kneeled by his head. "And maybe you should consider watching what your mouth says. One day, you will need us, and when that time comes, you had better hope that we're willing to help." Audry shook her hand a few times, and then stood up, seeming to gain a few inches in height. Her eyes flashed dangerously as she began to walk towards the hospital wing. She turned suddenly and looked down on Malfoy once more. "You might want to wait for twenty minutes or so to see Madam Pomfrey. Tell her...you fell down the stairs. Which you did, right, Draco?" The way she said it made Harry shiver. He glanced at Ron, who looked startled. He grabbed the crook of her arm and pulled her in the direction of the Hospital Wing once more.

The nurse was not pleased at the sight of the two Gryffindor girls. Hermione's right eye had swollen up so much that it was nearly shut, and she had scratches all over her face. Audry's left sleeve had been ripped from her robes, revealing a bloody cut. Her face also had numerous scratches, and she complained of a splitting headache. Harry suspected it was from Hermione tugging at her hair, but said nothing.

When Madam Pomfrey asked what happened, Audry proudly announced that they fell down the stairs from the girls' side of Gryffindor tower. The woman looked doubtful, glancing at the scratches on each girl's face, but healed them anyway.

Audry and Hermione seemed to have forgiven each other, for the time being anyway. Both were overly polite to one another during the evening meal.

After finishing his bowl of lukewarm soup, Harry looked up at the enchanted ceiling and watched the forked lightning dance about the sky.

"Some storm we're having," Audry remarked. "You know, I don't recall hearing that England was so cold--or so wet!"

"It's not normally so cold, and the storms aren't really as fierce as this one," Ron told her.

"Maybe it's a hurricane," Audry suggested. She looked slightly scared, but Hermione piped up at that point.

"I don't think we're close enough to the ocean for a hurricane," Hermione said. She blew on her spoonful of soup to cool it a bit and then swallowed it. Harry felt someone tap his shoulder lightly, so he turned around. Professor McGonagall stood behind him, her lips pulled into a tight line. For one wild moment, Harry thought she was angry. The next he could have sworn she was about to burst into tears.

"Come with me, Potter," she said, her voice trembling. Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as confused as he felt. His gaze went to Hermione next. She was watching McGonagall with eagle eyes over her goblet of pumpkin juice. As he stood, he looked to Audry. Her eyes were narrowed and a frown was planted on her lips. Harry turned and walked out behind his head of house. When they reached the silent Entrance Hall, McGonagall closed the door and stared at it for a moment or two, one hand still resting on it. She sighed, turned to Harry, and he spotted a tear falling down her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, startled.

"Albus wishes to see you in his office immediately," she said quietly.

"Look, if this is about Audry's and Hermione's fight earlier--"

"What? No...go, Potter. Tell the gargoyle the password--licorice wands--and see Albus." She turned and walked away, pulling what looked like a tissue out of the sleeve of her robes. Harry frowned, wondering what had gotten her so upset, and began to walk in the direction of Dumbledore's office.

By the time he had reached the stone gargoyle, he was so anxious with fear of something happening to Sirius that he didn't want to go up the moving staircase he knew lay beyond the ugly thing. He stared at it for a few moments, seeming to take in every fold of "skin" on the statue, and finally gave the password. It leapt aside and revealed the passage and staircase, which Harry stepped onto. He heard the grating of stone and knew the passage was closing. It was too late to turn back, even if he had wanted to.

Harry stepped off the staircase and studied the door, much as he had the statue but moments before. I could turn back, he thought. He shook his head. I mustn't turn back...I have to go through with this...Balling his hand into a fist, he rapped lightly on the door and waited for an answer. Dumbledore opened the door, looking older and more wizened than Harry believed was possible.

"Come on in, Harry," he said soberly. Harry did so. As the door snapped shut behind him, Harry noticed Sirius in one of the chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk. What made him almost dart back down the stairs again was the fact that he had his face in his hands and appeared to be crying!

This can't be good, Harry thought. He had never seen Sirius this way--didn't want to see Sirius this way--and it took a good portion of willpower to get himself to sit down in the chair next to Sirius' and listen to Dumbledore. His godfather sat up when he heard Harry come around behind him, and Harry had to force himself to look neutral at his red and puffy eyes.

"Sirius, perhaps you should tell him the story," Dumbledore told him quietly. Harry glanced back to his godfather.

"Tell me what?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. Almost reluctantly, Sirius glanced at Harry, took a deep, shuddering breath, and began to speak.

"We should have told you about this long ago," he announced. He brought up a semi-grimy hand to his filthy hair and scratched at his head.

Beginning to become irritated, but still dreading whatever Sirius was going to tell him, he asked, "Told me what?"

Sirius took another deep breath and looked down at his knees. "When Voldemort arrived at your house almost fourteen years ago, he intended to kill you and your father, but primarily you," Sirius continued. "Evidentially, he read somewhere that you and..." he trailed off and gulped.

"Continue, Sirius," Dumbledore told him.

"My father?" Harry pressed. He now knew that he didn't want to know what was coming. He didn't know what was telling him so fiercely that he didn't want to hear it, but his always-traitorous mouth spoke without bidding once more. "My mother?"

"No," Sirius said slowly. He gulped again and looked up at Harry. His eyes were telling Harry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry, but like Harry, he kept talking. "You and your"--he sped up--"sister would be his downfall."

"I don't believe I heard you correctly," Harry said.

"You heard correctly," Dumbledore told him.

"But I can't have--I would have seen her here, at Hogwarts--wouldn't I?" Harry realized he must have given Dumbledore a look of pleading, for he shook his head and stood up.

"I am sorry you had to find out now, but I had written it all in that letter that I left with you for your aunt and uncle," he told him. Harry felt his nose and eyes begin to itch and looked down at his knees as well.

"She was found dead a few feet from your father," Sirius said in a dull voice. "You two were indistinguishable, almost, except that she was a girl and you a boy. And the fact that she kept her blue eyes, and yours turned to green within a few weeks of your birth." Sirius began to shake.

Not quite trusting his voice, but needing an excuse to leave, Harry said, "Thank you, Professor." He got to his feet. "I have homework--Potions--you understand."

He felt rather than saw Dumbledore's smile. "Of course, Harry. If you need anything..." he left the offer standing as Harry reached the door. Controlling his face, he turned again and forced a smile.

"No, thank you," he said. The scene of Cedric Diggory lying dead on the grass in that graveyard where Voldemort had been reborn flashed in front of his eyes, nearly crumbling his resolve. He turned hastily and sped-walked down the stairs.

As the wall slid open, the sound of whistling met his ears. He furrowed his brow, listening to the tune, and then shook his head as he recognized it as Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

Audry looked up as he stepped out. "Harry!" she cried, dropping off from the whistling. "Fancy meeting you here, of all places!"

"Yeah," Harry said dully. "Fancy that."

"Something wrong?" she asked, falling into step beside him. Harry, unthinkingly, had started back towards the Great Hall. Changing his mind so fast that Audry had to turn and run to keep up, he headed back to Gryffindor tower. She absently pulled the sleeve of her robe that had been ripped back over her shoulder and said, "Harry, you okay?"

Harry ignored her and kept walking. If he really had a sister, he would have a picture in the photo album. A baby with black hair and blue eyes; a little sister. Or...Harry began to wonder. Was she older than me? Was she a--he hated to think it--a mistake?

"Earth to Harry...?" Audry's voice cut through his thoughts. "Earth to Harry? Come in, Harry!"

"Harry!" He almost turned at the sound of Hermione's voice. He knew that Audry was there, however, and he didn't want to break down...not yet... "Harry! Would you slow down? Audry, what's wrong with him?"

"Dunno. He's said barley three words since coming out of that office," Harry heard Audry tell Hermione. Hermione sped up and came to Harry's left side.

"Harry, did something happen to Snuffles?" she asked him.

Harry shook his head.

"Was your aunt killed?" Audry asked.

Another shake.

"Did you get your prefect badge revoked?"

Harry shook his head once more.

"Did Hedwig run away with another man?" Audry joked. He heard Hermione smack her in the back of the head. "I wish you'd stop doing that," she told her.

"Mister Toad," Harry told the Fat Lady.

"An excellent character from an excellent Muggle book," she said back with a grin. Harry clambered through before it was even fully open, which meant that he scraped his arm on the sharp edge, ripping his robes. Ignoring the pain, Harry headed up to his dormitory and pushed open his trunk.

"Harry, what is going on?" Hermione asked, coming in. Harry turned and saw her close the door. A thump announced that Audry had been trying to follow. He leaned back against his trunk, stopping his search, and put his face in his hands. "If you don't tell me right now--" Hermione started.

"I have a sister," he interrupted.

"What?" she said, clearly not expecting this answer.

"Had. Excuse me."

"What?!" she repeated, this time with more force.

Harry turned back to his trunk and rummaged around until he found the photo album that Hagrid had given him back in his first year. He had never shown it to anyone, not even Ron. Neither of his two closest friends even knew about it.

"Harry, what's that?" Hermione asked slowly. Harry ignored the question and flipped through it until he found a picture that had his parents, Sirius, him, and a baby that Harry had always assumed to be the daughter of a friend of the family, perhaps of the person who had taken the picture. James Potter smiled and put his arm around his wife, who leaned into him.

"Here," Harry said, removing the picture and passing it to her. Hermione took it and looked at it.

"I didn't know you had pictures of your family," she said. She flipped it over. "'Sirius, James, Lily, Harry, Cassandra; 31 July, 1981.' Harry, that's exactly three months before your parents died!"

"And my sister," Harry said quietly.

"Pardon?" she said, still confused. "Harry, what are you going on about? You don't have a sister."

Harry took the picture back and showed her what her hand had covered. "'Harry and Cassie's first birthday party.'"

"Do you realize what this means?" Hermione asked.

"That I'm an orphan and an only child anyway due to the fact that Voldemort killed my whole family and destroyed the life they worked hard to maintain?"

"No." Hermione sat down in front of him on the floor. She cupped his face in her hands. "She was your twin. Not only did you have a sister, but she was linked to you. If some of the things I've read before about twins are true, the power of magical twins, if broken, goes on living. Since she died, her power is in you. Any power that she had, or that would be developed as she grew older, is now in you. When life fled from her body, the magic went right to you, protecting you in a way your mother's love did not." Hermione paused and drew closer. "It protected you from madness, Harry. Do you think you were the only one to which this has happened to? Certainly, you are the only one who has succeeded in actually defeating a Dark Lord in that fashion, but are you so naïve that you think that you are the only one this has happened to?"

Harry stared back at her. It was amazing how hard it was to concentrate when she was so close to him.

"Harry, every other person this has happened to has gone mad, or was even killed anyway. My guess is that Cassandra had some sort of protection against madness--if she went through something that would cause her to go mad, it would not work. Say, prolonged exposure to the Cruciatus Curse, or the Babbling Curse, or something. When she died, it went to you."

"I can see why a person would go mad under the Cruciatus," Harry whispered. His mind was saying, I don't know why I'm not going mad with you holding me like this and me not doing anything about it.

Suddenly, Hermione said, "Harry, did you ever have an imaginary friend when you were young?"

Harry felt his face go slightly red. "I had no friends before Hogwarts. In my dreams sometimes I would see a girl about my age with blue eyes and short curly black hair. She was my friend; she stood up for me when Dudley and his friends--I have no idea why my subconscious put them in there--and when I was so lonely that I would..." he trailed off slightly. He had never mentioned this much about his past to Ron or Hermione. They had never asked, and he had never volunteered before this moment.

"That you would cry?" Hermione asked softly. "That you would curl up and try to fade into the shadows?" Harry nodded. Memories that he had banished to the very back of his mind suddenly flooded forward and spilled from his mouth like a river flooding its banks. He told Hermione about his earliest memories; he told her about his horrible times at school; and he told her about his elation (and suspicion) when Hagrid had first shown up and told him about the wizarding world--and about how his parents really died. By the time he had finished, he was slightly hoarse, and his throat was scratchy.

"Would you believe that I didn't even expect presents my first Christmas here?" he asked her. Hermione shook her head and wiped a few stray tears from her face.

"I can't believe that we've never heard that story before," she said quietly, her voice slightly shaky.

Harry hesitated. "I'm actually sort of glad that you never asked to hear it," he told her finally. She furrowed her brow. "To me, you and Ron always seemed to have the life that I've always wished for. Ron with his eight siblings and loving family, you with your parents who always pushed you to do your best while you were in Muggle schooling." Hermione ducked her head and blushed slightly. Harry leaned even closer to her so that there was perhaps and inch between their faces. Hermione looked up once more, her brown eyes scanning his green ones.

"Harry," she said slowly. She looked as if she didn't want to ask the question, but at the moment he would have told her anything, just so long as he could keep staring at her. "What happened in June when you disappeared from the Quidditch field and came back with Cedric?"

Anything but that.

He stood up and went to the door. Audry was still laying spread eagled on the carpet, her eyes slightly crossed. A dribble of blood was coming from her nose.

"Harry?"

"Help me wake her up," he said, ignoring her original question.

"Harry--"

Harry looked up with her and knew it was a mistake. He could feel his eyes and nose itching again, and something wet dripped down from his eye to his chin. Hermione was leaning up against the doorframe, her lips pressed tightly together.

"Oh, Harry." She came and knelt down by him and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm so sorry." She leaned forward to kiss him--

"Gaaah!" Audry yelled, sitting straight up and knocking both teens askew. "Holy shiote, what the hell were you two doing? Trying to kill me, or somein'?"

"Pardon me?" Hermione said, trying to sit up. Harry quickly wiped his face and attempted to look (and sound) like nothing was wrong. Audry swept out her arm as she stood up and knocked Hermione over again.

"Wha..." Audry ignored Hermione's cry of pain and looked around. "What happened?"

"Err..." Harry glanced at Hermione, who was attempting to get up again. "Hermione accidentally closed the door on your face, judging by the fact that your nose is bleeding." Audry looked down at her nose (making herself quite cross-eyed in the process) and touched the base of it.

"Ewww," she said as she pulled it away. "I'll be right back..." Audry down the stairs and turned right to go to her dormitory. Harry looked back down at Hermione, who was still on the ground.

"Harry, I thought that I should let you know...I'm moving back into the girls dormitory tonight. Padma's going back to the Ravenclaws, so I don't need to be staying in here anymore."

Harry held out his hand to help her up. "Back downstairs earlier," he said calmly, as though he hadn't been in tears moments before. "When you and Audry were fighting? She called you..." he thought back for a moment until the unfamiliar word came to him. "An anorexic--" he stopped as Hermione flushed with remembered anger.

"Oh. That." She grasped Harry's hand and he pulled her up. "She's been pestering me about that. Thinking that I'm anorexic, that is, and I can't get it through her head that I'm not."

"But why would she think that in the first place? You've never been a picky eater, as far as I can remember."

"She keeps saying that I eat almost nothing during meals, and I sometimes skip lunch. I haven't skipped lunch in two weeks, and I told her so. She exploded on me and threatened to tell you if I didn't shape up."

"But why would she still say that?" Harry asked in confusion.

"I don't know...jealousy comes to mind." She grinned at him.

Harry rolled his eyes. "C'mon. Let's get your stuff together..."

~*~

Ron came up and joined them as they were shutting Hermione's trunk shut and helped them drag it over to the girl's dormitory. Audry was sitting on her bed, swapping dumb blond jokes with Parvati and Padma, much to Lavender's annoyance. Upon seeing them enter, Audry asked, "Why was the blond staring intently at the orange juice container in the supermarket?"

"Why?" Parvati and Padma asked, their laughter subsiding for the moment.

"Because it said, 'concentrate'!" The twins erupted into laughter while Lavender's frown increased.

The rest of the week went by smoothly with no other fights between Hermione and Audry, and Harry had no other strange dreams.

By Friday evening, Harry had managed to persuade both Audry and Ginny to try out for the quidditch team. Ginny seemed suspicious and asked if her brothers had anything to do with his asking. Harry only smiled, and the youngest Weasley blushed.

"Harry!" he heard Fred yell to him as he entered the Great Hall during supper.

"What?" he asked as the Weasley twin ran up to him.

"Meet me on the field in fifteen minutes. Actually, come with me now," he said, changing his mind as Harry tried to protest in hunger. "Go get your broom," Fred told him coldly when Harry voiced his protest finally. Reluctantly, Harry walked back into the Entrance Hall and up the stairs to grab his Firebolt, and then headed out to the Quidditch pitch. The rest of the team had gathered as well.

"Okay, here's the plan," George told them, handing out clipboards to the team. "We'll be trying out the chasers first. We have"-- he consulted his list--"two second years, a third year, three fourth years, a fifth year, and a sixth year trying out--that's eight people all together. Then we'll do the keepers. For that we have"--he consulted his list again--"a second year, a fourth year, two fifth years, and a seventh year; that's five, making a total of thirteen."

"What order are we going in?" Harry asked.

"Pardon?" Fred said.

"What order are we going to do the students in? From where they signed up, class year, alphabetical order, birth-date?"

"Class year," Fred announced after a moment of thinking. "Starting from the oldest. Harry, since you're only a seeker--"

"Only a seeker?" Katie asked, raising an eyebrow. "He's the best damn one Gryffindor's ever had!"

"--you will be the keeper. Do not, under any circumstances, favor your girlfriend, or Ginny, or that boy, Tucker Glims, who's in your year."

"Fred, I've never played the keeper position," Harry told him. "And Audry is still not my girlfriend!"

"Get up there and practice being keeper, then," George said. "And he knows she's not your bloody girlfriend; he just thinks he funny."

"You mean I'm not?" Fred said in shock.

"You heard the man," Audry said, coming onto the field.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I have to listen to him." Fred frowned suddenly. "Didn't I write up not to come out until one of us leads you down?"

"Well, yeah, but I kinda need to practice. I've never ridden a broom before, so I'm not entirely sure that I'm any good."

Katie and Alicia turned to glare at the Weasley twins, who stood gaping at the American. "You mean to tell us that you've never seen her fly?" Alicia asked angrily. "She could kill herself trying out!"

"Alicia, did you forget how Harry earned his position on the team? Get up there, but the way, Potter!" Harry shook his head and, while ignoring the seventh years bicker, took to the air. He couldn't help grinning as he flew around the stadium a few times. He hadn't been on a broom since the previous November, during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.

Slowing to a stop in front of one of the goal posts, Harry looked down on his team and Audry. Katie had taken to poking one of the Weasleys in the chest while he gestured with one of his hands towards Audry. Audry was, in turn, ignoring the team and busy mounting her broom. From the sky, Harry saw her hair begin to float up around her head, whipping around violently. Ever so slowly, she rose up above the ground.

Harry watched in awe. He had no idea why, but he could have sworn that the wind itself had stopped. Never before had the sound of a broomstick rising above the ground been so loud. He was vaguely aware that the Weasleys, Alicia, and Katie had stopped arguing to watch her.

A frown of concentration creased Audry's face. Her green eyes were looking intently in front of her. She began to increase in speed, and before Harry knew it, she was flying in front of him, a grin on her face.

"Why didn't you tell me flying was this much fun?" she inquired, breaking the abrupt silence. The wind was back, ruffling their hair. Harry glanced back down and noticed that his teammates were back to fighting, but this time it was Fred and George doing the chest jabbing and Katie and Alicia gesturing wildly.

"Harry?" He looked up and nearly fell off his broom. His mother sat on thin air before him. He blinked, and Audry was giving him a strange look from where Lily Potter had been seconds before. "Harry? You okay?"

"What? Yeah," he said, finally finding his voice. Audry's grin flashed back.

"You wanna race?" she asked.

Harry grinned back. "Here to the other side and back?"

"You got it. Go!" They took off, laughing, to the opposite end of the field. They were neck and neck for a long stretch; slowly, Harry started to inch his way ahead of his friend. They careened around one of the golden posts. Harry heard an anxious scream come from below, but he ignored it.

The wind pulled its fingers through his hair and slapped at his face, making his cheeks raw and his eyes water. It whistled in his ears and made involuntary shivers run up and down his spine.

The golden hoops were drawing closer and closer. A full foot was between him and Audry now, he realized as he looked back. He looked forward again and--

"Harry! Look out!" four voices screamed from below. Harry glanced around and saw that a heavily cloaked figure, obviously have taking off from one of the turrets of the school, was hurtling towards him and Audry. A long white face with huge, gaping black eyes and a cartoon rendition of a mouth was under the trailing cowl--a mask, Harry noted. Long wisps of yellow-white hair streaked from underneath the cowl. Harry leaned to the right and down, crashing into Audry as he did so and bearing her down to the ground. The cloaked person had more speed than he did, however, and caught both teens by the shoulders. They stopped so abruptly that their brooms tumbled to the ground.

Harry could feel Audry shaking violently beside him. The figure seemed to be examining the teens up and down. A ghostly, echoing voice that sounded more like a group of voices began to speak.

"Gemini speaks for the congregation; Leo and Leona for truth. Angels grace the skies above on items made of wood. The Lions will discover all, lest naught but lies remain. So quoth the fiery bird."

"P-pardon?" Harry stammered. The cloaked figure seemed to watch the frightened teens for a few more moments, and then vanished so suddenly that Audry screamed and lunged through the air to grab Harry. Harry yelled and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the hard ground to claim them. When it didn't, he opened his eyes and discovered that they hadn't moved at all.

"We-we're not moving," he stuttered. Audry popped a wary eye open and scanned the air around them.

"Audry! Harry! Are you two okay?" George yelled from below.

"Y-yeah!" Audry yelled back.

"Audry?" Harry said.

"What?"

"You can let go of me now."

"Oh...heh." She gave him a feeble grin and released him. They still hovered in mid-air, unmoving, so Harry yelled at Fred to bring their brooms up. He did so, and they managed to get down to safety.

"What was that thing?" Katie asked shakily.

"I'm going to postpone tryouts," Fred said at the same time.

"No, it's okay," Audry said, still shaking. "I'm fine! That...that thing didn't hurt us at all."

Harry frowned.

"What's wrong?" George asked him.

"Whatever that thing was, I think it gave a prophecy of some sort. But Audry's right," he added quickly before the twins, Katie, and Alicia could question him. "Neither of us is hurt, so we can continue with the tryouts as planned."

"Please?" Audry asked, pouting ferociously.

"Alright. Katie, go get the others and we'll begin."

It took ten minutes for Katie to gather the twelve remaining students who were trying out down onto the field, and another five to get them to quiet down. Audry ended up sticking two fingers into her mouth and letting out a piercing whistle that hurt Harry's ears.

"Thank you, Audry," Fred told her. He then proceeded to tell the students what they were going to do (only occasionally interrupted by George), and sent Harry, Katie, and Alicia into the air. Harry felt a swoop of fright as he mounted his broom once more, not wanting to be caught by a cloaked figure and paraded seventy feet or more above the grass again. It quickly faded however, and he gritted his teeth and took to the air.

Katie and Alicia were already circling around in the middle of the field, so Harry flew over to the three golden hoops and waited for Fred to send up the first contestant--Or should I say "victim"? he thought with a grin. Gryffindor was known for its quidditch matches, since they had won almost every single one since Harry became seeker. Only two matches had been lost; the first was in his first year, and he, Harry, had been in the hospital wing, unconscious. The second had been in his third year. Harry shuddered as the image of a dementor came unbidden into his mind.

"Samantha Craigs, would you please come forward and explain your past experience with quidditch," George announced after a brief conference with his brother. Harry watched Samantha step out of the huddle of students. She was a plain looking sixteen-year-old with long brown hair and doe-like brown eyes.

Harry glanced at Katie and Alicia. "She'll have to cut her hair if she wants to be on the team," Alicia noted. Harry nodded, noting her boyishly short-cut curls and Katie's chin-length copper red hair.

"She could just have it pulled back all the time," Katie argued. "That's what I did at first."

"And then you saw the flaws of that when--who was it? Flint, I believe?--yanked on the ponytail and put you out of commission for the last match of that year." Katie grinned sheepishly.

Samantha must have finished her "oral exam", because she swung one of her legs over her broomstick (a Nimbus 2000, Harry noted) and kicked off. She circled around briefly and met Katie and Alicia in mid-air.

Concentrate, Potter, Harry told himself, grasping the stick of his broom tighter. He released it slightly as he felt it tremble under his grip. "Sorry," he muttered to it, as though it could hear him.

"Why is he being keeper?" Samantha asked snottily as she spotted Harry. "I thought he was seeker!"

"He is the seeker," Katie told her. "We don't have a keeper yet, so he's filling in for now." Samantha tossed her head haughtily and let her eyes fall on Harry. He was surprised to see how much menace was in them.

"This will be a piece of cake, then," she said so quietly that Harry almost couldn't hear her. Alicia and Katie's faces hardened suddenly.

Give it your best, Harry thought to Katie and Alicia. If she doesn't survive you, then it won't matter if she gets past me!

"Get ready!" George yelled from below. Harry saw him wave his wand and something silvery appeared in his mouth. Seconds before the ringing sound of a whistle filled the stadium, Harry realized what it was and shifted his eyes back onto the girls.

Katie and Alicia zoomed forward, passing the quaffle between them so fast that Harry almost couldn't see it. Samantha, obviously surprised at their abrupt absence of the space around her, didn't notice that they were gone until they were halfway to Harry. She sped off after them and intercepted the quaffle in mid toss. She ascended slightly so that she was above Harry and tossed the ball with all her might. To his very great surprise, Harry found himself clutching the quaffle under one arm and hurriedly floating back down into position. Katie and Alicia turned suddenly, and Harry tossed it back to them. Again, Samantha intercepted and flew to the middle of the field and back towards Harry. This time, she took a different approach and again Harry caught it.

Greedy little thing, he thought as he tossed it towards the girls again. Not good team material. Harry glanced down at the twins and nodded to signal that this 'match' was over. Just as Samantha pushed Katie out of the way to catch the quaffle, George blew the whistle.

"Uurg!" the sixth year growled angrily, glaring around at the three teammates in the air. She flew down to the ground and spoke briefly with Fred, and then stomped off the field.

"O-kay," Harry mumbled, raising an eyebrow.

"You would think that she was a Ravenclaw, or a Slytherin at the very least!" Alicia exclaimed, swooping over to talk to him. "By the way, nice job for a first try!"

"Maybe my grandfather was a keeper," Harry suggested with a shrug. "My dad played quidditch, so it would make sense if his father did too, wouldn't it?" Alicia nodded crisply and headed back to the middle of the field.

"Tucker Glims," Fred called out after glancing at his clipboard. Harry was slightly surprised to hear his roommate's name being called. Tucker was what Audry called 'a longer', since he never talked to anyone, he always sat alone during meals, and he gave only minimal effort during classes. Why he would want to play quidditch, a sport that made you an instant celebrity, was beyond Harry.

Tucker finished talking to Fred, and then mounted his broom and took to the air. He was a much better team player than Samantha had been. He, Katie, and Alicia had ten shots, only four of which got by Harry. Tucker seemed slightly pleased with himself when he landed, and was invited to stay on.

Harry groaned loudly when Fred called out the next name. Colin Creevey, grinning from ear to ear, stepped up and promptly tripped on his robes as he approached Fred. Katie and Alicia glanced at Harry, their mirth plainly evident on their faces.

As Harry had sort of expected, Colin didn't even make it past the third shot without banging into the goal post and knocking himself out. Harry shook his head at Fred so hard that he felt his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose.

"Virginia Weasley," Fred called out, a malicious grin on his face.

"I've told you not to call me that, Fredrick," Ginny retorted, her face turning the color of her hair.

"Virginia!"

"Fredrick!"

"Enough, you two!" Harry yelled down. "I haven't had anything to eat yet! Let's go!" Ginny and Fred stuck their tongues out at him, but Ginny mounted her broom and kicked off anyway.

Ginny managed to slip past Harry five times. George had been right: she had speed enough to beat him as a seeker, but the exhilaration on her face betrayed her love for being a chaser. She didn't appear to want to quit, either, when George blew his whistle to signal the end of the match.

The rest of the chasers were reasonably good, with the exception of Dennis Creevey. He panicked and lost control of his broom when he flew too fast towards Harry.

The third year, Noland Petershank, was nearly brutal in the way that he wielded the quaffle, and twice nearly hit Harry in the head. When the whistle blew, Harry flew over and said, "Come back next year for beater tryouts if you don't make it this year!" Fred and George may have been like "human bludgers" themselves, but this was their seventh year, and next year they would need to replace four spots instead of two.

At last, they were finished with the chasers. The students that they'd kept sitting on the side lines were Tucker, Ginny, and a second year named Natalie McDonald.

"Right," George said, handing the whistle to Fred, who took it gingerly and wiped it off on his robes. "We're going to take the keepers now. Gregorio Nicastro," he called, looking at the remaining four. Gregorio was a tall, thickly built seventh year with warm brown eyes and dark hair. He was quite obviously Italian, even without the mouthful of a name. Audry winked at him as he passed, and a slow blush crept up his neck.

"Don't tell me," Harry said, gliding down and landing on the ground near George. "I get to be a chaser now, right?"

"Correct," George said with a nod.

"Great," Harry said sarcastically. "Just great."

"Whatever you do, don't say, 'Why me?'!" Audry told him, winking at him as well.

"Why me?!" Harry asked the sky. He took to the air before Audry could slap the back of his head.

Gregorio was a decent keeper. He blocked the throws that even a two-year-old could have caught, but some of the more difficult ones, the ones that Katie and Alicia normally used, he missed.

"Audry," George called dully as Gregorio swooped down the ground again, looking pleased with himself. Audry tossed her head to get her hair out of her face, and then deftly did it up in a tight bun so fast that Harry barely saw the movements. He glanced at Katie and Alicia, and noted that they were nodding in approval.

Audry was even better than Gregorio, Harry noted with a grin. Even though she had had possibly the worst experience that anyone could have on a broom almost half an hour ago, she still ranked as one of the best keepers that Harry had ever seen, excluding the professionals.

Tucker tried out for the keeper position as well, but he wasn't as good as he had been for the chaser position. Harry wondered if he had been dared by one of the older boys in the house--or another house, for that matter--to tryout.

The second year and the fourth year who tried out were both quite good, and Harry believed that they both had previous experience on a team.

Harry barely made it to the Entrance Hall after the tryouts were finally over. His stomach was rumbling so loudly that Audry kept breaking into fits of giggles. She escorted him into the Great Hall, and he wolfed down some food, watching Audry discuss something with Professor Dumbledore across the room.

"Good! You're here!" Alicia exclaimed as he entered the common room of Gryffindor Tower. "Fred wants to read out the new players now, but you and Audry were 'AWOL', as he said."

"I was hungry!" Harry explained sheepishly. "I was dragged from my empty dinner plate to the quidditch field before I had anything to eat!"

"Excuses, excuses," Katie said, clucking her tongue at him.

"Right. Now that everyone's here," George began, "I'd just like to say that you all did quite well. Our new keeper--may you do as well as Oliver did during his time at Hogwarts--is none other than our resident American: Audry!" A cheer went up as the American blushed heavily and ducked her head.

"Thank you, thank you!" she said bashfully, standing up from her armchair. "I don't know who this Oliver is, but I have heard from several people that he was a hottie!"

"Figures," Ron whispered to Harry with a grin.

"I hope that you guys aren't disappointed in me!" she ended, ginning so hard that it looked like her face hurt.

"I'm off to go congratulate her," Ron whispered and then did just that, meeting her as the crowd enveloped her.

"And now," George said after a few minutes, "the one you've all been waiting for! Our new chaser is..."

VWW: ~*evil cackle*~ Nova, would you please add your thoughts about the end of the chapter?

Nova: