Harry Potter and the Secrets from the Past

8. GRYFFINDOR VERSUS SLYTHERIN

...

No, our love won't be

An adventure

Or a fire which may die in the wind

It will live

As long as the world does

Until my eyes

Will have light to gaze in your eyes.

...

"An adventure" by Lucio Battisti

Harry's week passed by filled with lessons, homework assignments and Quidditch practices to prepare the team for their first match next Saturday, Gryffindor versus Slytherin.

Harry and Ron were still avoiding each other; during Quidditch practice, they tried to talk to each other as little as possible. Once, they had even risked a fight; Harry was shooting impossible Quaffles at Ron, and each time he wasn't able to save the goal, Harry shouted at him like mad. Ron always answered him back, and all the others players ended the game frozen in mid-air, rolling their eyes.

During their practices, Hermione watched them from the spectators' stands, but Harry tried carefully not to look at her.

The whole week Harry was in a really bad mood and he avoided talking to anyone, even to Hermione, who seemed really wounded by her best friend's attitude. Even during Occlumency lessons, Harry used all his anger to reject Snape's mental attacks, causing the teacher to end the lessons earlier.

As if it wasn't enough, Harry was having the same odd nightmare almost every night, the one with the ancient and dilapidated mansion, in which he heard a desperate woman screaming. The nightmare always ended with him running and running along an endless corridor until his scar abruptly started to burn. He kept asking himself the meaning of it, but he couldn't understand what it meant.

Finally Saturday morning arrived, bringing the first Quidditch match. Harry was eating breakfast, or at least pretending to eat it, but all he had accomplished in consuming was a couple bites of toast.

While heading to the changing room, he started to feel nervous, as he always did before a Quidditch match, but especially this time because it was his first match as captain, and everybody certainly wanted a lot from him.

When the players were finally ready, Harry gathered all of them in front of him and made his first pre-match talk.

"We have trained hard for this match, and I'm sure that you won't disappoint me. They're strong, but we're even stronger, because we put our heart into what we do."

Most of his teammates were staring at him entranced: Ginny was smiling at him, though Ron was stubbornly staring at the ceiling. Then Harry spoke again:

"Now let's go, and let's show everybody what we're able to do!"

"YEAH!!" They answered all together in a loud and excited voice before marching in single file line out of the changing rooms. Harry was the last one to leave. He was really hoping that his talk had given the right strength to his players.

The stadium was amazing, the spectators' stands were full of people screaming and chanting for their Quidditch team. The day couldn't have been better: the sky was a uniform pearly white and there was no wind.

When all the players were ready, Madame Hooch blew her whistle and the match started.

Slytherin immediately took possession of the Quaffle and they were already heading towards the Gryffindor goal. Unfortunately Ron was not able to save the goal.

"Slytherin score! Ten to zero!"

The match went on and now Ginny had the Quaffle, but she wasn't able to throw it to her mates, because Stinger from Slytherin reached her and nudged her hard in the stomach, stealing the Quaffle from her.

The Gryffindor supporters were horrified, but Ginny was still flying.

Harry moved toward her to check if she was ok, and she nodded her head yes.

"Slytherin score! It's now twenty to zero."

Harry turned to Ron, and for a short moment he asked himself if his ex-best friend was playing badly on purpose, to show everybody that he was a bad captain. The only way to save the game was to catch the Golden Snitch and Harry started to scour the pitch, until he saw it, flying lower, very near to the grass.

Without losing time, he dived, before realizing that Malfoy was right behind him.

"Another ten points to Slytherin making the score thirty to zero!"

Harry had almost reached the Snitch and with all his strength he tried to catch it faster than Malfoy, who in the meantime was on his side, trying to push him off the broom. Suddenly the Snitch scooted off toward the sky, and Harry zoomed upwards, chasing it. Malfoy was not as fast, and he hit the ground face first.

Harry was heading toward the sky like a lightning bolt, the wind in his hair. In that very moment he lost sight of time and space: there was just him and the Golden Snitch, which was fluttering in front of him. Then he stretched his right hand and finally closed his fist around it, feeling its tiny wings struggling in his palm. He had done it. Gryffindor had won against Slytherin.

Afterwards, everything happened very fast, and he felt a terrible stroke: something really hard hit him right in the head, and he couldn't think anymore... he just realized that he was falling and falling...

***O***

"Do you think that he'll be ok?"

"Yeah... he always is! Believe me, Harry's a really strong guy!"

"But he fell from about 40 meters up...."

"Hey, look... he's opening his eyes."

Harry was slowly regaining consciousness and he found himself lying on a bed in the hospital wing. His friends were gathered around him, but he couldn't see very well who they were, since he didn't have his glasses.

When he stretched his arm to the table to take them, he felt a sharp pain in his head and he decided not to move further.

"Your glasses, Harry."

Hermione just handed them to him, and he put them on. Now he could clearly see his friends' worried faces. There was Hermione, Ginny and all the other players, still with their Quidditch robes on. Ron wasn't there.

"What happened?" he asked them in a low voice, and Ginny answered promptly.

"You had just caught the Snitch, when Stinger chucked a bludger at you, which hit you right in the back of your head... then you fell 40 meters..."

"Luckily Madam Hooch saw the whole thing and she transfigured a rock into mattress, otherwise we would still be looking for your pieces around the pitch!" said Slovoy, one of the new two Chasers, with a light smile on his face, but Hermione stared at him sternly. Then she spoke sweetly.

"How do you feel? We were all really worried this time... luckily everybody saw Stinger hitting that Bludger at you, and I'm sure that Professor McGonagall'll put him in detention..."

Harry was still puzzled and didn't know what to say. His head was hurting so much and he thought it was going to explode. Finally Madam Pomfrey came to him with a soothing potion.

"Come on boys and girls, let him rest.... Here we are Mr. Potter, drink this and you'll feel better."

Madam Pomfrey helped him drink the potion, which had a terrible taste, but Harry didn't complain.

When Madam Pomfrey left his bed, Harry spoke to his friends:

"At least we won..."

Hermione stared at him sternly: Harry knew that she didn't care about Quidditch as much as him.

"How can you talk like that? I can't believe that for you it's more important to win a Quidditch match than to stay alive!"

Harry was tempted to answer that for him playing Quidditch was the most important thing, but he remained silent, gazing at her with a silly smile on his face.

Then Madam Pomfrey asked everybody to leave him alone and they left the hospital wing.

***O***

Harry slept all afternoon, until Madam Pomfrey came to bring him some food. He was feeling slightly better, even if he wasn't able to get up yet. It seemed that the impact had been really tough.

After dinner Hermione came to visit him.

"How are you feeling Harry?"

"As if a train just knocked me down! Actually, I'm feeling a lot better then I did, thanks," answered Harry smiling, while Hermione was sitting in a chair close to his bed.

"I heard that Professor McGonagall has gone to Professor Snape complaining for what Stinger had done to you.... and Snape gave him detention.... but I also heard that he just had him write a few lines," commented Hermione bitterly.

"Typical!"

"But it's not fair, Professor McGonagall should go back to Snape and demand for a better punishment... I don't like constantly fearing those stupid Slytherins... they're always doing what they want, without getting the in trouble..."

"Now you're talking like Filch!"

Harry smiled slightly and stared at her sympathetically, even if she was still upset.

"Well, let's change topic, then.... Would you like to know what Professor McGonagall told us today before lunch?"

"What?"

Hermione seemed very excited about what she was going to tell him.

"She said that for Halloween, two old friends of ours are going to join Hogwarts students for the banquet... in just three weeks we are going to see Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum again! And they will stay for the weekend."

"Are you serious? But... why?"

"Professor McGonagall just told us that Dumbledore wanted to invite them for, she said, a 'courtesy visit', but I'm sure there's another reason...."

Harry thought about that for a moment, asking himself what the real reason could be. Then Hermione told him her theory.

"I'm sure that this invitation has got something to do with the Order of the Phoenix... Fleur and Viktor have both been champions of their schools, and maybe Dumbledore will ask them to join the Order against Voldemort! What do you think about that?"

"Maybe you're right, even if Viktor's Headmaster has been a Death Eater in the past... I don't know, but the whole story seems odd to me... I don't trust Viktor very much!"

Harry's words offended Hermione, who spoke in rising anger.

"You're completely wrong! I know Viktor very well and I may assure you that he has never been attracted to dark magic."

Suddenly Harry remembered that during their 4^th school year, Viktor was falling for Hermione, even if he never talked to her about that. He was starting to feel embarrassed again and his stomach hurt as if there were thousends of butterflies struggling inside. Without thinking it over, he spoke with a frown.

"Ha, yes... I forgot that Viktor was your boyfriend some time ago!"

Harry was teasing Hermione to see her reaction, and in fact she blushed before answering him back, seemingly annoyed by that statement.

"For your information, Viktor and I never dated! we're just good friends and we wrote to each other a few letters in the past; it has been about one year since he sent me his last letter... besides this isn't your business at all!"

Hermione got up and was ready to leave, but Harry grabbed her arm to stop her.

"No, please stay a little bit more.... being forced to lie on this bed is so depressing!"

Hermione sat again and her mood changed.

"Come on, Harry! Be patient... I'm sure that tomorrow morning you'll be able to leave the hospital wing."

"I really hope so."

Harry sighed and stared at the bedspread. Then he thought about Ron, and he asked himself if he knew that he was recovering from that bad fall.

"Ron feels really guilty about how the match went."

Harry raised his head abruptly and looked Hermione in the eye with surprise: again his best friend knew exactly what he was thinking about.

"Why does he feel guilty?"

"Because he didn't save a single goal... he says that if it wasn't for you, Gryffindor would have lost the match."

"Well, now that you're telling me, I believe that Ron really should feel guilty!"

Harry's temper was starting to rise.

"I agree with you, if you mean that Ron hasn't done a great job today, but I don't understand why you keep giving him all the blame!"

"Because it's his fault! If I didn't catch the Snitch on time, we would have lost the match. He didn't do anything to stop Slytherin from scoring... and you were there, you have seen everything!"

"NO, it isn't true! I think that Ron has done his best for..."

"Well, if that was his best, then I think that I'am going to ask him to leave the team!!"

This time Hermione got up in a fury and glared at Harry with anger.

"Why don't you stop talking like that? How could you be such a selfish boy! Ron is still your best friend and he feels bad for this situation, just like you. Listen to me Harry Potter! I'm not going to talk to you again, until you make peace with Ron!"

As soon as she finished her sentence, she rushed out of the hospital wing angrily without giving him a chance to reply.

(A/N: Now poor Harry has managed to argue with Hermione as well... please review, and you'll find out what comes next!)

1