Nessu Fanni

After Christmas, all the Hogwarts students returned to the school, making it as busy as ever. Some thought that Harry and Hermione were now an item. After all, they spent Christmas alone together in Gryffindor Tower.

"They never stay apart!"

"I can barely see one without the other," people would say. Of course, Harry and Hermione knew that this was only because of Ron's absence. If it wasn't for Seamus, they'd still be a trio instead of the supposed "couple."

With classes resuming came, of course, O.W.L. preparation. Harry felt that Ron was lucky to be away from Hermione. She had made sure that Harry was studying if he wasn't busy being in classes or at Quidditch. Harry made as many Quidditch practices as possible but it seemed that the Ravenclaws had the same idea.

"They must have another Hermione in their house,' Harry thought one day as he saw them practicing. He was staring longingly at the Quidditch Pitch from a small window in Gryffindor Tower. Even though it was raining, Harry envied the Ravenclaws.

"Harry! Are you done yet? We have loads to do! You're far enough behind on Astronomy as it is," Hermione yelled across the room. Harry looked over at her and noticed that she didn't even stop working to talk to him. She continued to write in her notes. Hermione didn't even slow down. Harry wondered if her hand would cramp up from writing so quickly for all those hours, but he figured that she put a spell on her hand. Harry walked over to her and sat down, taking out a quill. He sighed before taking out his revision notes on Pluto's and Neptune's tracks. It was going to be a long night.

Every night that week was the same. The only thing different was the subject that he worked on. Tuesday night was Potions, Wednesday was Charms, and Thursday was Care of Magical Creatures. Hermione had explained to Harry that they were reviewing the work from September - December so it wouldn't be so hard to review at the end of the year He admitted that it did make sense to him, but he'd rather skip revision entirely.

Finally, Hermione gave Harry Friday night off. She knew that there would be no school work done that night in the common room. At two o'clock that day was Gryffindor's second Quidditch game. Gryffindor was playing Ravenclaw. The Hufflepuff Seeker had an injury and they couldn't find a replacement. They had to forfeit and the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match was moved up to February.

It was still very cold, though it had stopped snowing. Harry hoped that it would remain that way long enough for him to catch the snitch. The Gryffindor team, including Seamus, walked on to the Pitch once more. It was a lot colder than their last game, but they had as much determination, if not more.

Harry met the Ravenclaw captain, Roger Davies, in the middle of the field and shook his hand under Madam Hooch's gaze. He barely heard her commence the game. Ginny hit him on the arm before speeding up into the sky. Harry was deep in concentration and remained that way as he, too, flew up in the air. He began to zoom around the pitch, trying to find the Snitch. If he could only catch it quickly, he'd be in Gryffindor Tower enjoying some butterbeer. Dean had promised before the game to smuggle some from Hogsmeade. Harry wasn't quite sure how he could get there, but he didn't question him. He might have given away his secret; he didn't want to risk that.

Harry looked around the field and saw that Cho Chang was zooming down to the ground. What was she doing? She couldn't have spotted the Snitch in less than three minutes.

She must be faking it, Harry thought.

With a harder look at the grass, Harry noticed a small golden ball fluttering in the grass.

"She's not!" Harry yelled out loud. Harry zoomed towards her, almost knocking Hermione off her broom in the process. He heard her yell at him, though didn't hear exactly what she said. It didn't matter.

Just as Cho was about to grab the Snitch, Harry zoomed into her out of control and knocked her to the ground. The Snitch flew off in an instant. Cho wasn't very far from the ground, only a few inches, and didn't get hurt. She glared at Harry and got back on his broom. He tried to apologize to her, but she wouldn't listen to him. She only flew away from him, to the opposite end of the field.

Harry almost wanted to let her catch the Snitch after letting her fall. Well, making her fall would be more accurate. What possessed him to do something like that? Harry sure didn't know. May be someone put a curse on his broom, though Harry tried not to think of that. He trusted his Firebolt very much and didn't want to think of it going out of control. His only explanation was that he got distracted. After all, he was only staring at the Snitch. He could barely see exactly how far way Cho was.

Yet again, Harry soared around in the air with no specific destination. He didn't have a certain route. He was just trying to spot the Snitch, wherever it was. It could have been anywhere and he recently took to believing that it was fate whenever he saw the Snitch. How else could spotting the Snitch be explained? What were the odds that Harry would see the Snitch, when it could be anywhere? Even when he did spot the Snitch, it usually just soared away without a sign of where it was going to end up.

Deep in his thoughts, Harry missed the Snitch yet again and didn't realize that he had seen it until it was gone.

"Harry! What are you doing?" yelled Ginny as she flew past him. She didn't wait for an explanation and left Harry speechless. He just sat there, as far away from the ground as could be, and tried to say something. He seemed to be a very disappointing captain already. They hadn't even played two games and he was already off in the distance. Technically his body was still in the Quidditch game, but his mind had wandered off for a good few minutes.

With a new determination for finding the Snitch and trying to prove to his team that he was worthy, Harry flew down around the Gryffindor hoops. He circled them three times before a Bludger nearly knocked him into the middle hoop. He spun his broom just in time to avoid serious injury. For once in his life, Harry didn't want to get hurt while playing Quidditch.

When Harry finally regained his comfortable position on his broom, his gaze caught a light hovering on the fringe of the grass in the middle of the field. He started to fly towards it, knowing that it was the Snitch.

Nothing hovers like the Snitch, he thought as he soared towards it. He flew so low that he felt the grass brush past his right foot. It felt like to fly low, though Harry didn't feel secure about it. He felt much safer flying near the clouds where something couldn't grab him from his broom.

Suddenly, the glint of gold disappeared. It was replaced by a human hand, Cho's hand to be specific. She had caught the Snitch before Harry could reach her.

Harry slowed to a stop directly in front of her. He tried to force a smile and shook her hand.

"Good job, Cho. You really put up a good fight," he said. She returned the smile with a real one. She was positively beaming. Harry knew that the entire Ravenclaw house would be celebrating in their common room. He also knew that he would not be. He didn't want to face the Gryffindors and exited the Quidditch Pitch without a word.