The Portkey Solution

CHAPTER 12 - Gryffindor vs. Slytherin

The first few weeks of school eased by, and after several days most of the students seemed to relax, realising Voldemort was not about to storm the castle, and Harry got fewer sidelong looks in the halls. The exceptions were certain Slytherins, who went about with tense, worried expressions. Malfoy seemed especially edgy, snapping over imagined slights and throwing insults at Harry at every opportunity. Harry ignored him with a careless ease, which drove Malfoy even madder. Once he resorted to punching Harry from behind in Care of Magical Creatures and got detention from Hagrid.

The tryouts for Gryffindor's reserve team went over smashingly, and they soon had a full slate of seven to back up the original team. Colin Creevey's little brother Dennis proved to be a promising Seeker, quick to spot the Snitch but somewhat out of control in chasing it. Finally, in exasperation, Madam Hooch cast a Rebounding Charm on Dennis that would make him bounce any time he fell more than six feet from the ground, which resulted in several attempts by the Weasley twins to toss him over banisters. They found out the charm had worn off after sending Dennis over the balcony and down to the common room in Gryffindor Tower. Fortunately, Dennis only spent a few hours in hospital.

Ginny slid into the lineup as if she'd always been there. She, Katie and Angelina made an efficient group of Chasers, scoring almost at will in their run-throughs. The rumours spread about their amazing practices, and soon the other houses were holding tryouts for reserve teams as well. But Gryffindor had the advantage in its head start, and Harry tried very hard to emulate Wood's drive without falling prey to his obsessive streak.

Ron sulked over Harry's abandoning him in Divination, especially when McGonagall refused to let Ron transfer as well. "Mr Potter has enough to worry about without Professor Trelawney bringing up You-Know-Who every single week. You, Mr Weasley, do not have that problem."

Ron complained bitterly about it at dinner one evening. Harry did his best to look sympathetic, but apparently Trelawney had spent the time since Harry had bolted predicting his utter doom at the hands of Voldemort. Surprisingly, Pavarti and Lavender agreed with Ron.

"It's simply terrible," Pavarti said as she chased a pickled onion on her plate with her fork. "It's as if she's decided what she's going to predict and then twists the cards to mean it."

"Exactly," Lavender chimed in. "She did the Celtic Cross spread for us. She was supposed to be doing a reading on how successful Professor Valora is going to be this year. The way she read it, the swords and cups exchanged meanings, in order to predict that she would die of shame after failing to protect Harry!" Her voice rose in scorn at the end. "When Pavarti pointed it out, Trelawney almost threw the deck at her!"

Pavarti nodded. "Hermione might have had a point about her being a fraud."

Harry thought about his experience with Trelawney at the end of his third year, where she had gone into a trance and accurately predicted the escape of Wormtail and Voldemort's return. "She's not a total fraud, she just doesn't do it the right way."

Lavender and Pavarti clamoured for an explanation, and Harry briefly outlined what had happened during his final exam, without going into too much detail. He also mentioned that Dumbledore had referred to it as Trelawney's second accurate prediction. They speculated for a few minutes on what the first prediction might have been. Then the girls invited Ron to join them in doing their card readings for the following week. He jumped up and followed them with alacrity, hoping they could explain why the Lovers had turned up in every single one of his spreads so far.

Harry was ploughing ahead in Arithmancy, actually only needing pointers instead of tutoring from Hermione after the first few classes. As she had said several times, Arithmancy was a logical application of magical meanings, and could even be used as a divinatory tool on occasion. Of all the professors he'd studied under, Professor Vector was his favourite after Hagrid and Professor Lupin. She had a lively sense of humour and could be counted on to treat all the Houses equally.

Above all the other good things about the start of the year was the lack of Snape's Potions classes. As Neville had told them, Snape set all fourth through seventh years an independent project, to think of an effect and create a potion to achieve it. As they had agreed in Diagon Alley, Harry, Ron and Hermione joined Neville to help him on his idea for restoring memories damaged by spells. Neville presented their hypothesis, reading with only a little stammer from Hermione's notes, and Snape looked witheringly at them and shrugged. "I suppose having all the troublemakers in one group will make it easier for me to contain the inevitable explosions. Very well. You may proceed." They used their Fridays to continue Neville's research in the library.

*****

Harry and Ron led a group of Gryffindors in planning a small party for Hermione's birthday on September 19, after Arithmancy. It was Harry's job to detain Hermione in the library.

"Just for a minute, Hermione. I need to find something that explains Pythagoras' theories better than our textbook. It's just not clear to me."

"Oh, all right, but I don't see why you can't ask Professor Vector in class next week."

"Might not remember by then."

While they were in the library, Ron led the others in decorating the common room with Dobby's gleeful help. Ginny stood lookout for Harry and Hermione, using George and Fred's latest invention, Extendable Ears. They had gotten an inspiration from playing with the Muggle sound enhancer at Staci's house. Now, Ginny had one end of a long, fleshy cord in her ear, with the other snaking under the Fat Lady's portrait into the hallway.

After about fifteen minutes the room was ready and Ginny hissed, "They're coming! They're coming!" The cord retracted into a small lump, like a Muggle earplug and she pocketed it.

Dobby doused the torches and everyone hid behind furniture or tapestries. Harry and Hermione came in and Hermione stopped short, seeing the darkened room. "What's wrong? Why are the torches out?"

As one, everyone jumped up and yelled, "SURPRISE!" Dobby relit all the torches with a snap of his fingers and light burst over the welcoming faces. Hermione stood there with her mouth open as Ron rushed forward excitedly.

"Happy Birthday, Hermione!"

She turned to Harry, who was taking her bag from her and had just as giddy a smile as Ron did. "Happy Birthday."

She began to recover as others gathered around them. "My goodness...I'd forgotten what day it is!" She looked around at the dazzling red-and-gold decorations, a few of them some kind of firework dancing around without losing their sparkle. "You all did this for me?"

"Of course we did," Ron replied. "And about time as well. When did you ever forget one of our birthdays once you knew when they were?"

Harry shoved a large parcel in her hand. "Here, this is from both of us."

She unwrapped it and found a book, of course. But it was a lovely one, with a handsome illustrated jacket showing profiles of Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Tubman, and a few other people she didn't immediately recognize. The title was Five Hundred Years of Magic: Wizardry in America 1492-1992.

"Oh, this is wonderful! Who knows how much of this can be used in the O.W.L.s!"

Fred had overheard and groaned. "Hermione, you are far too bookish for your own good! Come on, have a dance!" At his words, music started playing from somewhere and he swept her off to the fireplace, where the chairs had been pushed back to make room. George grabbed Katie Bell, Pavarti dragged Ron out, and Lavender approached Harry with a shyness that puzzled him. It was a fast song, at least, and didn't require any special knowledge of dancing beyond moving around. He tried to get away at the end of the song, but Lavender followed him to the refreshments, chatting about nothing special until he pushed her to dance with Seamus. Ron reappeared, having got away from Pavarti and a couple of fourth-year girls, and they were happy to drift off to one side, away from the dancing.

Harry was even more pleased when Staci arrived. He had mentioned the party in his last owl to her, hoping that she might drop in. Professor McGonagall brought her into the tower and stayed long enough to tell Hermione she had gotten an "O" on that morning's essay. That turned into a dissection of the grading system for O.W.L.s and how it differed from the system used in most of the wizarding boarding schools in the States.

"We get the same A-B-C-D grades as an ordinary school. Enough students opt for college, it makes it easier to send transcripts. All that's needed is to change the names of the courses, like Chemistry for Potions, Biology for Herbology."

"So a D is actually a passing grade there? We should tell Mum we got plenty of O.W.L.s in America!" George laughed.

"And a P would mean 'pass'--'failure' is F--so actually you could tell her you got all twelve," she replied.

Harry noticed Ginny was about to slip out of the room. She had her bag in her arms. He slipped over and caught up with her at the Fat Lady's portrait. "Gin? What's up?"

She shifted the bag to her shoulder. "I've got to meet my Potions group in the library. We agreed to try my idea, and it's a hard one, so we've got a lot of work to do."

"A lot more than Snape has right now, certainly. He's got, what, just the first through third years to teach every week?" Ginny nodded and Harry tried to shake his sudden resentful mood. "What's your idea? We're trying to find a potion that will repair damaged memories."

"We're trying to come up with something you can put on objects to determine if they're enchanted in some way."

Not hard to see why Ginny would think of that. "Sounds interesting. Be sure to ask Staci for help. They spend so much time researching everything in the States, they might have a direction for you to try."

Ginny nodded absently, tucking a long red tress behind her ear. "I will, thanks. Need to go." Luna Lovegood had appeared down the hall and waved to them merrily.

Harry watched them disappear around a corner before stepping back through the hole and into the common room.

*****

With their spectacular practices, Harry felt more confident going into Gryffindor's match against Slytherin than any other game before. The Slytherins were still in some disarray: they had taken Crabbe and Goyle onto the team as Beaters, possibly through Malfoy's influence, and Blaise Zabini from Harry's year was a Chaser. Harry could not keep the smile off his face as he shook hands with Warrington, the new Slytherin captain. Kicking off into the crisp October air felt like coming home.

The four balls went airborne, three on their own and the red Quaffle thrown by Madam Hooch. Ginny shot toward it, drawing the attention of all three Slytherin Chasers, and appeared to muff the catch. The Gryffindor supporters in the stands groaned, then roared as one. Ginny had "dropped" the Quaffle into Katie Bell's waiting hands, and she easily avoided Goyle and Keeper Adrian Pucey to score. Lee Jordan, back in his role as commentator, cheered with the rest before remembering he was supposed to be describing the game. "And Gryffindor draws first blood with a superb move by new Chaser Weasley, finished by Bell!"

Harry grinned and continued his lazy figure-eight, looking for the Snitch. He spotted Staci and Bill in the stands with Ron and Hermione, and Sirius and Lupin in a visitors' box with Omniculars. Malfoy was shadowing Harry closely, muttering insults to distract him. Harry's Firebolt was far more mobile than Malfoy's Nimbus 2001 and he shook off Malfoy several times playfully.

By the time Harry had rounded the pitch five times, Gryffindor was up eighty to twenty. Fred and George were hanging back slightly to help Alicia; Crabbe and Goyle kept sending Bludgers at her to try and disable her. But the Gryffindor Chasers were punishing Pucey, anticipating his every move and stealing possession with ease.

Their moves made them seem almost telepathic. Angelina traded glances with Ginny, who stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled at Katie. With no more signal than that, they began "the plait", a move where they literally wove across the pitch, handing off the Quaffle to one another at random. Lee was trying to keep up: "Weasley, Bell, back to Weasley, Johnson, Bell, no, Weasley again...bloody hell, no one can see what they're doing!" Pucey suddenly looked like a deer in headlights, unable to tell who had the Quaffle as the girls ignored the attempts at interference by the other Slytherins. Pucey saw Angelina headed straight for him, arm up and over her chest; he shot toward her and grabbed at her, only to hear the roars of the Gryffindors as Ginny tossed the Quaffle in the left hoop. Pucey put it back in play with the morose expression of the already defeated.

To amuse himself as he searched, Harry tried to see if he could modify the Wronski Feint to send Malfoy into the stands. After the first two close shaves, with Harry shooting toward a silo with one arm out and turning at the last second, Malfoy began to widen the distance between himself and Harry. Lee sang out, "And Potter is schooling Malfoy on how to fly! Looks like Malfoy doesn't want to risk his pretty face!"

Ginny was proving adept at sneaking up behind Zabini and punching the Quaffle out of his arms. Harry watched her with pride as she did it again, sending the ball to Angelina for another score.

WHAP! Something hit Harry across the face hard enough to make his eyes water, and his cheek began to sting. His glasses had fallen off. Madam Hooch was blowing her whistle furiously. Harry put a hand to his cheek and it came away bloody. Instinctively he grumbled, "Accio glasses" and was surprised when they sailed up into his other hand. He put them on to see Malfoy cackling at him from across the pitch.

"Thought you'd like a second scar, Potter! A matched set, you know. No problem in risking your face! " he shouted, making a joke of Warrington's protests to Madam Hooch that Malfoy must have been grabbing for the Snitch. Angelina put the penalty shot through with ease and play resumed.

Harry noticed the artfully undone buckle on Malfoy's wrist guard that had sliced his face. His eyes narrowed on a point past Malfoy's shoulder, ignoring the glint he had spied zigzagging below. He took off toward the Slytherin goals and Malfoy followed him, growling expletives.

Harry zoomed straight for Crabbe as if he didn't see him and the big Slytherin wound up his club, intending to knock Harry out of the air. At the last second Harry plunged down and made a jaw-dropping turn to go for the Snitch. He dimly heard Malfoy's howls of pain where Crabbe had hit him. Unchallenged, Harry did a show-off roll in the air and nabbed the Snitch halfway through.

Three houses burst into cheers as Lee Jordan announced the winning score, two hundred sixty to thirty. The Gryffindors took a victory lap before setting down. Harry noticed Malfoy on the ground, bleeding from a gap-toothed mouth; he'd lost three teeth to Crabbe's club. Harry considered it fair; his cheek still stung like fire.

Ginny was nearly beside herself with her first victory. Her brothers consented to three rib-crunching hugs each before shoving her at Harry. She gasped at the blood still dripping down his cheek and whipped a handkerchief from her sleeve. She pressed it to his face, scolding in a voice still high from excitement, "You should go to the hospital wing! That needs a Skin-Sealing compress!"

Harry mopped up his face and was about to reply when Staci appeared at his elbow. "May I?" she asked with humour. Harry nodded and Staci traced the cut with her wand, murmuring "Sanare." Harry felt the pain ease as the cut disappeared without a trace and wiped the last of the blood away. Staci gave him a congratulatory hug and the handkerchief dropped to the ground unnoticed as they were overwhelmed by a wave of celebrating Gryffindor students.

*****

The celebration lasted well into the night. Everyone was gleeful not only over Gryffindor's new Chaser but also Harry's spectacular catch. Ron was already calling it the "Potter Special Snitch Snatch", much to Harry's embarrassment and Hermione's amusement.

When he finally staggered up to his room, Harry found an unfamiliar horned owl and a note on his bed.

Dear Harry,

Great game today! Can you do me a favour and meet me at our usual place in Hogsmeade next weekend? About four o'clock on Saturday?

Sirius

Harry was almost too tired to think. He found a quill, borrowed Dean's ink bottle, and scrawled, "Sure, see you then" at the bottom. The owl picked it up as soon as he was finished and took off through the open window.

Harry wrote a second note to himself on his Arithmancy homework and dropped into bed. He started to wonder why Sirius hadn't found him after the match, but fell asleep before he could finish the thought.