Cheer for me!

"Cheer for me!"

Chapter Nine-The Nationals?

Gillian's shoulder had healed a month later, and I was more like my old self again. Harry's Firebolt had been picked up by Lisa. Luckily, it wasn't damaged by the accident. I explained to Harry that I now had a fear...a fear of flying, the next morning at breakfast. "I'm going to take you for a ride," Harry explained calmly. "I won't let you go...trust me." He smiled.

That afternoon, Harry borrowed one of the school's broomsticks and it lay next to him on the ground, waiting for me to use it. He was already mounted on his Firebolt, and was hovering several inches off the ground. "Hop on," he said, gesturing to the Cleansweep. I fiercely shook my head, with a fearful look on my face. "Hermione, you were tired. It wasn't anyone's fault," he explained kindly.

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you saying it was mine?"

"No, you were just tired that's all," Harry replied, calmly. "Just hop on. I'm right here," he coaxed. Taking a deep breath, I mounted the broom and gripped it tightly. The broom rose a bit higher as Harry's did. "I put a Tethering Charm on the Firebolt and the Cleansweep, you won't go anywhere until you've got your confidence back," Harry reassured me. I was still extremely shaky on it, and I was gripping it so tightly that my knuckles were white. "Will you relax?" Harry said smiling.

I tried to relax a little bit; the afternoon breeze blew in my face, pushing my hair back. Finally, after a couple of minutes I relaxed completely. "See? It's not so bad," Harry said, grinning.

"Yeah," I said smiling. We circled the grounds for a bit before we landed back down on the grass. "I wonder what's for lunch?" I mused.

"Well, let's go see?" Harry laughed. We headed back into the castle. We found the Gryffindors huddled around Amanda talking quickly and in a hushed voice. As Harry and I approached, Amanda looked up.

"Hermione! Thank God! Come sit! We've got some news!" Harry and I sat down across from her.

"What's up?" I asked, looking from her to Ginny and then Emily.

"There may not be a National competition this year!" exclaimed Emily.

"WHAT?" I shouted, making Lisa and Laura jump.

"Yes. Professor Dumbledore just told us before," said Amanda seriously.

"Why? What's going on?" I asked, alarmed.

"I don't know? He just told us not too long ago, something about not having enough room at the venue this year," Lisa replied.

"Wow," I breathed, not sure if I could take it all in. Just then, Professor Dumbledore stood up, The Hall quieted down waiting for him to speak.

"First. We must congratulate Gryffindor for winning the Regional Preliminaries!" At that, the Hall erupted into cheers, some of which were subdued from the Slytherin table. Professor Dumbledore waved his hand and the flags changed to the scarlet and gold colors of Gryffindor. Once the cheering had stopped, he continued: "Secondly, I have some rather disappointing news. The National Competition, which was to be held in Ireland this year, has now been canceled. " Murmurs went around as well as whispers.

"What are we going to do?" wailed Lisa loudly. Professor Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled behind his half moon spectacles as he looked in our direction.

"Well, I have put word in to hold the Nationals here, at Hogwarts," he announced gleefully. The effect of those words were like, Christmas had come early. Excited whispers and talking went around the Hall like wildfire. Ginny's eyes widened; Lisa and Laura were opened mouthed; Gillian had literally fallen backwards off her seat; Mary and Emily were staring blankly at Dumbledore. Ron scrambled to help Gillian up. Harry and I looked at each other with bewildered expressions. "Of course, we won't know anything until December, which is next month. There is a theme for this year; squads will have to perform a routine to Christmas music. It can be modern or classic," said Professor Dumbledore.

"Terrific! I know a great song for that!" Mary cried happily, "It's by Britney Spears and it's called My Only Wish This Year."

"Oh yeah! I've heard of that one!" Laura cried. "And I've got some great moves for it!"

"For now, we don't really know anything yet. But I promise you, I will keep you all informed. Now, let us eat!" The food appeared on the plates and usual chatter resumed around the Hall.

"Where is it usually held in Ireland?" Lisa asked, helping herself to some roast potatoes, and a few slices of beef.

"Dublin. In a huge gym," said Amanda. "The gym could hold about two thousand witches and wizards easily."

"Wow," Ginny breathed in wonder.

Neville had gotten up and sat down beside Amanda, and they began talking. Ron and Gillian buried themselves in a conversation too.

Ginny, Mary, Lisa and Laura were looking from Neville and Amanda, to Ron and Gillian, then to Harry and I. "Go ahead. Talk. We're just disappearing before your eyes. It's fine," said Emily sulkily.

Harry and I looked at each other, and then broke out into identical grins.

"We need boyfriends... We're pathetic," Lisa muttered.

"Don't worry, we won't ignore you," I said, in a somewhat loud voice. Gillian and Ron didn't look up. Neither did Amanda and Neville.

I raised an eyebrow. "Anyway, what's your favorite music?" I asked Emily, quickly changing the subject.

"Oh! Bryan Adams definitely."

"Me too," I added. "And I like Play."

"Ooh yeah! Their song, Us Against the World, is awesome!" Laura agreed excitedly.

"I know you don't want a boy's opinion," said Harry slowly.

"Go ahead!" Emily coaxed eagerly.

"I like the Sex Pistols," he announced smugly.

At that, Emily blushed furiously, and started sliding down in her seat until she was almost submerged under the table. The only thing visible was the top of her dark brown hair. I heard giggles coming from somewhere beneath the table. That set Lisa, Ginny and Laura off too. I was grinning and shaking my head, but I soon joined them in giggling. Harry just had this blank look on his face as if to say, "Why are they laughing?"

I heard Emily mumble something that set Lisa, Ginny and Laura off even more; apparently they heard her clear as a bell.

"What was that?" I asked, grinning as I peered under the table at her.

"I said (cough) that Harry could check out my Pistols any day," she spluttered.

Well, I nearly fell over myself, we were all giggling uncontrollably. Harry was still baffled as to why four girls were giggling. It was just the blank look on his face that set us off more.

Finally, Gillian, Ron, Amanda and Neville looked up. "Why are you four giggling?" Amanda asked, breaking into a grin.

Ginny leaned close to her and told her what Emily had said. She giggled, and then relayed it to Gillian, Ron, and Neville. Gillian started laughing, Ron and Neville looked at each other.

"Girls," Ron said shaking his head.

Knowing Gillian, she would add something to it and sure enough, she did. "Emily! Just imagine he found yours! You would have to tell him what to do!" Gillian called.

Emily was blushing so scarlet that she looked like she had stepped into a hot shower. She managed to pull herself back up onto the seat, but then slid back off in a fit of giggles. By now, we were laughing so hard we were crying the other tables were shaking their heads and chuckling. Some were just looking at us like we were nuts.

Even I had to bury my face into my arms as I laughed. Emily let out a snort as she laughed. That set us off more, the whole of Gryffindor table was either getting up leaving with grins, or just getting up annoyed. At this point, even Neville and Ron were giggling, and only Harry remained in the dark.

"Can I ask a stupid question...what are you all laughing at?" he asked, slowly.

Gillian chose that moment to let out a loud raspberry. Gillian fell off her chair again. Then, Lisa did too. I finally managed to calm down long enough to tell Harry what happened.

He blushed furiously.

"You're definitely well loved," I said, snorting with laughter.

Harry broke out into a mischievous grin. "Trust me...if I wasn't so in love with Hermione, I'd go for it, Emily." He winked and squeezed my knee affectionately.

Emily had to bury her face into her arms to hide the furious blushing.

"Whooo! Why not a threesome?" Gillian called.

Well, now it was my turn to blush furiously. Harry was also; he and I looked at each other and then, blushing, moved our eyes away from each other's.

"Alright...enough, girls. We're starting to get out of hand here," Amanda giggled. We all managed to calm down, occasionally letting out snorts and giggles as we headed to Potions class.

Gillian and I sat in our usual place and shared a cauldron, while Ron and Harry had the one beside us. The rest of the squad and the rest of Gryffindor were behind us. The Slytherins were right next to us on the other side of the dungeon. When Professor Snape deducted five points from Gryffindor because Neville accidentally overdid his Wallex Potion, Gillian broke out into a low song, but it was enough for me, Ron and Harry to hear it.

"Professor Snape likes to wear woman's panties...not tight.

Leopard skin or zebra print.

He also wears woman's bras...double D or triple C. Whatever's comfortable for him.

He stuffs them to make them fit."

She was singing the lyrics to Shakira's Wherever, Whenever tune. I smothered a snort and I heard Ron and Harry giggling beside us.

Professor Snape paused by our table, Gillian looked up at him with innocent eyes.

"Yes Professor?" she asked, casually.

Professor Snape narrowed his eyes. "Were you just talking?"

"Why no sir? I was concentrating on my potion," Gillian said, nonchalantly.

Professor Snape's eyes moved onto me. I quickly kept a straight face. "Miss Granger, did you hear anyone talking?"

"No sir," I said with a straight face.

Eyeing the rest of us, he continued to pace around the dungeon. We both broke into snorts of laughter, he whirled around and glared at us. We stopped and pretended to add some of the Ryet skin to the potion; Snape then went over to the Slytherin side of the class. A Ryet was a small creature that lived in a swamp; it had small horns above each eye and was poisonous. It was a deep blue color and ran on four legs, it had a thin horse like tail was behind it. The Wallex Potion was used to help stop pain when someone broke a bone kind of like Muggle morphine. Gillian and I glanced at each other, and then winked. We went back to our potion.

After Potions, Professor Dumbledore called for a special assembly. The rest of the classes had been canceled for the rest of the day. We all entered the Great Hall and sat down at Gryffindor table. Once the students had quieted down, Professor Dumbledore stood up. The whole Hall watched him intently and curiously. "I have some wonderful news! I just received word that the Nationals will be held here!" The whole Hall buzzed with excitement. "On the twelfth of December, the top squads who won each division at the Regional will be spending the weekend here. As you may remember, there were three main divisions...Youth Magic Division, Intermediate Magic Division, and Advanced Magic Division. The Gryffindors had competed in the Advanced Division because of the Maret Routine, other wise they would have been placed in Intermediate division. The Youth Division pertains to students aged five to seven the Intermediate is seven to ten. And the Advanced is ten to fifteen. I hope you all decide to show the young ladies some hospitality when they arrive."

We all talked between ourselves about the other entrants. "Wow. That is awesome!" gushed Laura

"Yeah! It was cute to see the little girls cheerleading, remember?" asked Emily smiling.

"Yes, it was," I admitted.

"It's going to be so cool to see the other squads and what they have to offer," Amanda said eagerly.

"We've got to come up with one last routine!" wailed Ginny. "This is nuts!"

"D-M-Y," said Laura grinning.

"D-M-Y?" Emily asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Don't Mess Yourself."

Gillian burst out laughing. "I love that! Where'd you get it from?"

"The Simpson's TV show." Laura grinned.

Gillian giggled. "Oh right! I love them!"

I shook my head and chuckled.

"I know a nice, easy, simple routine to the song I mentioned earlier," Laura added.

"Oh that's right! The Britney Spears song," Lisa replied nodding.

"Right. I can show you some movements now, the rest later on," Laura said.

She made fists, and then moved her right fist over her left, then underneath it. She dipped her left shoulder and moved right. "Cool! You've got to show us the rest tonight!" cried Mary excitedly.

"I will," Laura promised grinning.

After that we went back to our common room for a bit before we headed to the classroom that Professor McGonagall had let us use the entire time for practice sessions. "Okay. Here we go," said Laura as she turned on the little boom box. She began showing us the moves. First she sidestepped and then twirled around slowly, all the while moving her hips. Then, she cartwheeled to the side, quickly changing to a one-hand cartwheel. She continued the moves.

"I don't think I can do a one hand cartwheel," I said, slowly.

"Sure you can! Try it!" Laura said encouragingly.

Sighing, I leaned down, extending one hand and tried to do the cartwheel. In mid air, I heard a tearing sound. I quickly got to my feet and my hands immediately flew to my bottom.

"What was that noise?" Gillian asked, grinning.

"I think something just ripped," I said, slowly.

"Like...drawers?" Amanda asked, also grinning.

"Maybe," I mused. There was silence before they all erupted into laughter. Harry too. I soon joined in.

Amanda, still giggling, bent over to tie her shoelace. Deciding to get back at her, I made a raspberry sound. She stood up abruptly, looking embarrassed. "Excuse me," she said, blushing.

"That was Hermione that did it!" Harry said, laughing.

"Ooh!" Amanda said as she playfully came over to me and we all began having a tickling fight. Once that was done with and we all swore no more pranks until after we won the Nationals, we practiced the routine that Laura had come up with. It was fairly easy she called it the Nanedem Routine. Everyone managed to pick it up fairly quickly.

The next morning at breakfast, Gillian called over to Malfoy, "D-M-Y, Malfina!" We roared with laughter.

Gillian said she had to get one more joke in before we began practicing every other day. It was already November twenty-six. The twelfth was not too far away now.

We were also really excited to see the other squads and to see their routines. We probably could get an idea of how good they are before the big event.

Ron and Gillian had decided to go steady. Harry and I were totally serious about each other. Amanda and Neville were serious now too. Ginny confessed to us a few days later that she and Dean had been going out; when and how we had no idea. Ron was not too happy. Emily found someone from Ravenclaw named Eric Falter. She was happy, but poor Lisa, Mary and Laura were left still single. They assured us that they were happy and knew they'd find someone eventually.

We were just too excited about the Nationals to worry about Malfina.