Growing up too fast

Harry had slept in the next morning and was getting a quick shower before the other students started coming back to school. When the water hit his back, it stung very sharply. He moved over to one of the mirrors and notice many scratch marks. How could he have missed these last night? Thinking back, he knew exactly how he could have missed them and gave an audible laugh. Getting dressed, he carefully pulled his shirt on since the scratches were still tender. He knew that he couldn't go to Madame Pomfrey about these. He ran the conversation over in his head. "Now Mr. Potter. How did you get these scratches on your back?" she would ask, to which he would respond, "Um well, I was making love to a vampire last night and things got out of hand." Harry just laughed thinking about that conversation.

Harry went down to meet the train. When he noticed Ron, Hermione and Ginny, he ran over to meet them. "Glad you guys are back, I really missed you."

"We missed you too. Thanks for the card," Ginny said, still acting a little coldly to him.

"You missed a really good time Harry. Mum seemed a bit ticked," Ron said and then gave Harry a pat on the back, which made him recoil away. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. Just slept wrong."

"Did you have a good holiday Harry?" Hermione asked while they were walking.

He didn't want to blurt out that he had a great time because it would make it seem like he made a good choice not going with Ron and Ginny. "It was ok. There weren't many students left up here."

"So, tells us what we really want to know. How was it spending so much time alone with R.J.? Anything happening?" Ron asked excitedly.

"Ron! Don't ask things like that," Hermione scolded. "I'm sure nothing happened, and even if it did, Harry wouldn't be talking about it. He has more manners than that."

"Ok, fine. But did you at least get to see her a bit. I mean if you gave up coming with us, I hope you at least got to see her. Did she get you a present?"

"I was able to see her," Harry saw Hermione looking at him with a questioning look. "She came up to the castle some evenings. I didn't break any rules while you were gone Hermione." Well, having a girl in his room was actually breaking a rule he thought. "She gave me a sword for a present. She had it made and the handle is carved ivory. It's really nice."

Ron and Hermione started talking about something so Harry hurried up and got next to Ginny. "So, did you have a nice holiday?" he asked, trying to get things back to normal.

"Yes, it was very nice having the whole family together," she said this kind of sharply and Harry felt a sting in his heart.

"Ginny, other than asking R.J. to the ball, have I done something to make you mad? If I have, I'm really sorry. I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you?"

She looked up at him and he thought he saw a little warming in her eyes. "No, you really haven't done anything. I did kind of want to go to the ball with you and when you turned Cho down and said you were going with a friend, I kind of got my hopes up that you were going to ask me. And now everything seems to be about R.J. and you didn't even come to our house for holiday. We seem to be getting further apart."

This really pulled at Harry. "You know that I would have turned Cho down and asked you if I hadn't already asked R.J. I even asked Ron if that would have been ok. I didn't want him to be mad if I had asked you."

"Really? You asked Ron if he would mind? I wouldn't care what he thought anyway. I guess it doesn't really matter now."

"Is there any way we can go back to being good friends? It was a surprise to me about liking R.J., and I never intended for any of this to come between us. You're one of my best friends. I'd rather it be the four of us instead of just Ron, Hermione and me. I really miss you being around."

She looked longingly at him and said, "I'd like that too. I'm sorry for acting so weird to you. I just didn't know how to handle everything."

"Now all I have to do is find a way to make your mom forgive me for skipping holiday."

"She's really not mad. Well at first she was hurt, but Bill and Charlie kept reminding her how often they skipped holidays with the family to be with their girlfriends. I think that made her realize boys just do things like that. She really considers you part of the family you know."

"So really, I should have asked her how she would feel if I had asked you out and not Ron then. She'd probably think it was like you were dating your brother!"

Ginny elbowed him as they walked. He hoped things were getting back to normal now.

They all arrived for the first self-defense session since break. This would be the first time Harry had seen R.J. since term started again. He was really looking forward to it. "I see everyone is back. Did you all have a nice break?" R.J. asked the class. Harry noticed she was wearing the necklace he had given her. It did seem to fit her well.

One of the Ravenclaw girls noticed it also. "That's a beautiful necklace R.J. I hadn't noticed that before."

"Thank you. It was a recent present from a very good friend. It's quickly become my favorite."

"Don't tell me Potter gave that to you? No way he could have picked something like that out," Malfoy stated.

"Now that you've stated the obvious Draco, I can assure you that he did indeed pick it out. Now on to the lesson."

Hermione and Ron were staring at him. "What?" he mouthed and then went back paying attention to the lesson. After class they went up to R.J. Hermione quickly said, "Nice to see you again, did you have a nice holiday?"

"One of the best times I can ever remember Hermione," she added giving Harry a quick glance. "Did Harry tell you about our Christmas eve supper?"

"No, Harry didn't give us many details except to say he really liked the sword you gave him."

R.J. went on to tell them the all about the meal on the roof and how romantic she thought that was. Ron kept gagging and rolling his eyes but Hermione seemed to appreciate hearing about it. Hermione seemed impressed about the thought Harry had put into finding the perfect gift.

They were walking back to the common room and Ron kept joking, "I can't believe you acted like that with her? What are you turning in to? Private romantic meals. C'mon."

"I think it's sweet Harry. It seemed to mean a lot to R.J.," Hermione said.

"Oh, it's so sweeeeet Harry," Ron said laughing.

"Shut up Ron!" Harry said. Ron knew he was kidding.

After climbing back into the common room Hermione asked, "Can we see the sword Harry?"

"Um, sure. I'll go get it." Harry quickly ran up and pulled the sword off the wall over his bed and brought it down. He handed it to Hermione who studied it closely.

"This is really impressive work. There's so much detail."

"She said it was made from the same metal as her sword. Did you see the handle?" Harry said.

"What's this carving on the side with your initials? Why would she have a griffin there? And, on the other side the initials R.J.V. What does the V stand for?"

Harry thought quickly. He hadn't wanted to admit he had been keeping him being an animagus from them. "The griffin must be for Gryffindor. She wouldn't tell me what the V was for. She said she would some time though." He took the sword and the all headed up to bed.

Things had gotten into a routine of schoolwork, Quidditch practice and trying to see R.J. as much as possible. Their next Quidditch match was coming up this weekend against Slytherin. Slytherin was also undefeated so far but Gryffindor was ahead on points right now. Harry wanted to beat Slytherin more than any other team. Ron was worried about this match.

"We really need to be ready for them. They play really dirty. Harry, catch the Snitch as soon as you can and let's get out of this with a quick win."

"Ron, we've played them before. We know what to expect," Harry responded.

"I've heard they are even worse this year though. Someone has gone to Madame Pomfrey after every one of their matches so far." Ron sounded kind of worried.

Harry noticed Cho walking alone and ran up to talk to her. "Hi Cho. I haven't seen you since the break. Did you have a good holiday?"

"Hi Harry. It was very nice being with my family. I didn't see you on the train, did you stay here again?"

"Yeah. There weren't many students left here but I was able to get some studying done."

She looked at him for a minute and said, "You seem different. Did you change your hair?"

"Um. No. Haven't changed anything."

"Something seems different. It's a good thing though. See ya."

This seemed odd but he went back to Ron and Hermione.

"So, what was that about?" Ron asked.

"Just asking how her holiday was, that's all."

"Since when do you just run up to Cho and ask how she's doing?" Ron asked confused.

"Ron. What's wrong with that? Harry's just being nice to her. Honestly," Hermione added.

The Quidditch stands were crowed for this match since both teams were undefeated. Harry wasn't nervous but could tell that both Ron and Ginny were. It actually seemed that Ginny was handling it better than Ron. Fred and George kept telling Ginny to be careful since the Slytherins didn't play nice. She got angry and kept yelling that she could take care of herself.

The match started and sure enough, the Slytherins were playing rough. They were sending Bludgers as fast and hard as they could. Harry was concentrating really hard on finding the Snitch quickly just as Ron suggested but hadn't seen any sign of it. Ginny had been playing amazingly and had already scored five times. Ron had been able to stop all but one of the Slytherin shots so far. Fred and George were doing a fantastic job of keeping the Bludgers away from the team. They didn't have time to try and aim them toward the Slytherin team, they were just trying to keep them away from the Gryffindor team. This was one of the longest times Harry had played and not even seen the Snitch yet. He heard a whistle blow. Slytherin had called a time-out. Harry went down to the rest of the team and heard Fred yelling. "We're up one-hundred-eighty to twenty! Ginny, you're killing them." It was true; she was almost unstoppable so far. "We're just waiting on you now Harry. Let's end this thing."

Once play started, Slytherin had gotten seriously dirty. Their beaters were swinging the bats and not caring if they hit the other players or not. The Gryffindor chasers had dropped the Quaffle twice just trying to get out of the way of a swinging bat. Harry knew he had to find the Snitch fast. He saw Ginny get the Quaffle and head toward the goal and then caught a flash of gold near the ground. He dove toward it and Draco was right behind him. He heard a Bludger coming and turned in the last second to just miss it but lost the Snitch in this move. Looking back up, he saw the Slytherin beaters and one of their chasers heading toward Ginny from different sides. Harry flattened out on his broom and was going to try and get there first. They had collided with her and she lost her balance and started falling. Harry knew he couldn't turn his broom around and get to her in time so he just dove off of his broom after her. He started to change into his griffin form but suddenly got a strong feeling that he shouldn't. All he could think to do was to try and slow Ginny down. He tried wandless magic to summon her. All of this was happening so fast and yet he felt like everything was in slow motion. He kept concentrating on summoning Ginny. They were both approaching the ground quickly when she seemed to slow down and almost hover. Harry was still falling and grabbed her but now both of them were falling even faster. He changed to trying to banish the ground. There wasn't much time, and they hadn't slowed down. He felt them start to slow but the ground was still coming up fast. They were slowing down but he realized it wasn't going to be enough. At the last second, he rolled so that he was on bottom and they hit the ground with a loud thud and there was the sound of breaking bones.

Only the Cruciatus curse had been more pain than this, and this was real pain, it couldn't be blocked. He tried to stay conscious and said, "Ginny, are you all right?"

He heard her say. "I think so. I think my arm is broken though. Are you ok?"

That's all he wanted to hear. Once he knew she was going to be OK, he was only able to get out. "I don't think so." Before passing out.

Harry awoke to darkness. He felt so sore. He realized he was in the hospital wing and then noticed a shape near the window. Without his glasses, he couldn't recognize who it was. "Who's there?" he said with a gravely voice.

"Harry! You're awake." The shape came over quickly.

"R.J. What're you doing here? What happened? The last thing I remember was falling and... GINNY! Is she ok?"

"She's fine Harry, just a broken arm. Madame Pomfrey fixed her right up. How are you feeling?"

"Sore, I hurt all over. How long have I been here?"

"This is your second night. You broke most of your ribs; you're leg and your collarbone. Plus you had some internal bruising that will be painful for a while. I'm glad you're awake, I was really worried when you didn't wake up at all last night." She was gripping his hand.

"You've been here both nights? Thank you. I'm glad you're here."

"What were you really thinking? Why didn't you fly to her on the broom or change into the griffin?"

"I knew I couldn't change directions on the broom fast enough. I planned on changing as soon as I jumped but something inside of me just told me not to change. I can't explain it but it just seemed like a bad idea. But I had already jumped so I had to do something. I guess trying to banish the ground wasn't such a good idea."

"It must have worked some, you're still alive. Falling from that height without slowing down at all would have probably killed you."

"You know what I really want?" he asked weakly

"No Harry, what do you want?"

"I want a kiss. It's been too long." he said trying to force a smile.

She kissed him and then he fell asleep again. He woke again the next day and pulled his glasses from the table and quickly put them on. There were many cards and much candy on the table around his bed. There was an especially large tin of candy from Mrs. Weasley. Madame Pomfrey must have heard him moving around since she came over quickly. "Finally decided to wake up did you? You had done pretty well this year; I hadn't seen you for any treatment until this time. Of course you made up for that with the damage you did this time. How are you feeling?"

"I'm a little sore but everything seems ok. How long do I have to stay here?"

"If you feel up to it, you can leave right before lunch. I do have some rules though. Your bruises are still healing internally so no rough activities for a week. That means no Quidditch practice until next week. And don't try flying again until you learn to grow wings."

Just then, the doors came open and Ron, Hermione and Ginny ran over. "You're awake!" they all said together.

"Oh Harry, you saved my life!" Ginny tried to hug him but when he groaned in pain she let go. "Sorry. I can't believe you did that. How did you get to me? Why didn't you change?"

"Change? What's she talking about change?" Ron asked.

"What happened with the match? Did we lose after we were gone?" Harry asked anxiously.

Hermione frumped and said, "No. You won but everyone else ended up with detention. The rest of the team attacked the Slytherin beaters and then the rest of their team joined in. It took Snape, McGonagall and Hagrid to break it all up. The Slytherins were disqualified for such dirty play."

"They deserved it Hermione. They almost killed Ginny!" Ron said.

Ginny was still holding Harry's hand when he said. "That mean's we're going to play for the cup! Ron, if we win you'll be the captain of the team that won the cup!"

Hermione looked at Harry seriously and said, "Back to something important. What did Ginny mean when she said 'Why didn't you change?' How did you plan on getting her when you jumped? I'm assuming you used wandless magic to slow her down because she almost stopped in mid-air."

Harry had to tell them now. "Ok, please don't be mad at me but I've been keeping something from you two that Ginny knew about for a while now." Ginny was hanging her head. Ron and Hermione both looked at each other confused. "I knew I couldn't turn my broom around fast enough so when I jumped, I planned on changing into a griffin to catch her."

"What do you mean 'changing into a griffin'?" Hermione asked

"I'm an animagus. I learned during my first detention this year. I can change into a griffin," he said hanging his head.

"Really? You can really do that. Harry, you'll get into a lot of trouble if anyone finds out you're an unregistered animagus. I still can't believe you learned that without us finding out."

"Why didn't you tell us? And, why does Ginny know?" Ron asked sounding hurt.

"I won't get into trouble Hermione. I've filled out the paperwork but Professor Dumbledore doesn't want me to register yet. He thinks it is better if this is kept quiet so that Voldemort doesn't find out. I may be able to use it the next time he comes after me. Remember when I said there was a griffin in the forest and Ginny really wanted to see it. Well she went with Professor Dumbledore and me to see it one day and then I just wanted to show someone after I learned how to change. Please don't be mad."

"How could I be mad at my best friend lying in a hospital bed when they just saved my little sister? But quit keeping these kinds of things from us!" Ron said with a smile.

"Was it hard to learn Harry?" Hermione asked matter-of-fact. "How long did it take?"

"McGonagall thinks it was something I had in me. I used to grow my hair back when Aunt Petunia would cut it. McGonagall then made a potion using the fur from the griffin, kind of like polyjuice potion that turned me into one for a few minutes. With her help, I learned in a couple weeks. So only McGonagall, Dumbledore you three and of course R.J. know about this."

"You told her and not us?" Ron added angrily

"No more, I won't keep anything else from you," Harry promised.

They walked down to the hall for lunch. Hermione kept asking him what it's like and questions about how he learned. When they opened the door and walked in, it got quiet for a second and then it erupted into applause and cheers for Harry. He blushed and tried walking around the side to avoid as many people as possible. He sat down at the Gryffindor table. Fred and George couldn't stop thanking him. They didn't look good, they both had black eyes and some scratches. He looked over and the Slytherin's looked even worse. "It looks like you got the best of them. I wish I could have seen that." He said. Everyone kept asking him how he got to Ginny and there were many questions about her seeming to slow down before he caught her. He tried to just dodge the questions instead of telling everyone about wandless magic. Cho had come over and hugged Harry saying how glad she was that he was ok and that Ginny was really lucky to have such a good friend. She smiled broadly at this.

Harry said quickly. "If you win your next Quidditch match, we'll be playing you for the cup this year. We won't be going easy on you." He smiled as he said this.

"You mean when we win our next match and I wouldn't expect you to go easy on us. Don't think we'll be a pushover either. Bye," Cho said with a twinkle and then left.

Fred leaned over and said, "Now Harry, are you sure you're making the right choice? Cho is such a nice warm-blooded hottie."

Then George added, "He's been so close to death enough that warm-blooded isn't important to him anymore."

Harry and Ron were walking to Divination when Colin Creevey came up to Harry and said. "Harry. Professor Dumbledore would like to see you." Harry shrugged his shoulders at Ron and then walked to the statue that leads to Dumbledore's office. Harry said "Bats Balls" and the statue opened. At the top of the stairs, Harry knocked on the door and heard Professor Dumbledore tell him to come in.

"Ah Harry, sit down, sit down." Dumbledore said, seeming to be in a good mood. "I understand you gave quite a performance at the Quidditch match. I wish I could have been there to see for myself. There are many rumors on why you're not dead and how exactly Miss Weasley seemed to slow down." His eyes were twinkling. "One question though. Why didn't you change into the griffin?"

Harry explained the story again about planning to change but getting a strong feeling that he shouldn't.

"Interesting. It's probably best since you recovered nicely. Explaining away why you're not dead is easier than explaining how you changed into a griffin. I'm very proud of you. Once again, you put someone else's life above your own safety. I imagine that Sirius will have some harsh words for you but that's expected. It's quite a feat to stop someone from falling even with a wand, and yet you managed it without one. With a bit more time you may have been able to stop your fall as well. You were able to slow down enough to prevent any long-term injuries. How have you been handling the questions about what happened?"

"I just try to act like I don't know what happened and I'm just lucky to be alive. Everybody seems to believe me when I play dumb."

"I too often find that is the best course of action."

Harry hadn't seen R.J. since she came to the hospital wing. He had missed the first training session and now Madame Pomfrey wouldn't let him participate in this one so he had to just sit and watch. He didn't mind just watching R.J. Class was a little rough and Hermione had landed a few hits on Ron so he as a little sore at the end of class.

"This was a brutal class Harry, good thing you were sitting out," Ron said winded.

"I wish Madame Pomfrey had let me come back tonight, I'm ready."

"We'll see you back in the common room Harry. Bye R.J.," Hermione said.

"Do you feel well enough to meet me this evening?" R.J. asked with a sly look on her face.

"Sure. Where do you want to meet, down by the forest?"

"How about the tower where Dobby brought our first meal?"

This surprised him but it sounded better than the forest. "Great, how about in one hour?"

"Good, I'll be waiting for you."

He met up with Ron, Hermione and Ginny in the common room. He was in a very good mood but didn't want to say anything about why. Hermione would be mad he was sneaking around and he didn't want to mention meeting R.J. in front of Ginny. They had finally gotten back to being good friends again.

They had been studying for nearly an hour when Harry announced he was going to bed. Ginny said she was going also but Ron and Hermione were going to stay up for a bit. Harry quickly gathered up his robe and quietly headed down the stairs. He hoped Ginny hadn't come back down. Luckily only Ron and Hermione were there.

"I thought you went to bed." Ron said sounding annoyed. Harry realized he wanted some time alone with Hermione.

"Don't be mad Hermione but I'm going to see R.J."

"Harry, you can't go into the forest anymore, you'll really get into trouble."

"She's in the castle. I'm going to go see her for a while. OK?"

"As long as you're staying in the castle, I'll pretend I didn't see you."

"Don't hurry back," Ron added and then he heard "Ow." And assumed Hermione had hit him.

Harry threw on the cloak and scrambled down the corridor and up the stairs to the tower when they had their first meal during the holiday break. He slowly opened the door and said, "R.J. are you here?"

She stepped from behind the door and said, "You can take the cloak off now Harry."

He let the door shut and then removed his cloak. Immediately she gave him a big hug and a kiss. "I was so worried about you when you were in the hospital. You wouldn't wake up."

"It was nice that you were the first thing I saw when I did wake up. Are you still going to be able to come and see the final match? We're playing for the cup."

"I wouldn't miss it. I'll speak to Severus about making the potion I need. Now back to our limited time together." She smiled and then pulled him to the floor. Harry felt much more comfortable this time with what was going to happen. They had to try and be quieter than the last time since there were many students in the school now. It was so enjoyable to watch her pull her top off and walk toward him. He kept walking backwards just so it would take her longer to get to him. After they were fully undressed, he just kept teasing her and then finally got on top first this time. She was really strong and forceful once they got going. They had rolled over many times before they both collapsed in total enjoyment at the end. After laying back he realized she had scratched his back again. He rolled her over and ran his fingers over her back for the next few minutes until she rolled back and gave him a long deep kiss.

"You should be getting back to your room Harry. I don't want to get you into any real trouble."

"It'd be worth it. It seems so long ago when we first did this." They both got dressed and Harry left first. He made it back to the common room without any trouble and was being very quiet coming through. He went to his room and saw the Ron was already asleep so he slipped into his bed and quickly fell asleep.

Ron and Harry went to watch the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch match to see which team they would play in the finals. Hermione and Ginny had other things to do so they planned on meeting them later. Harry caught Cho's eye when she was looking around and waved at her. She smiled and waved back. "I say she's still interested in you. Are you sure you don't want to give in to her?" Ron asked.

"She's just becoming a better friend, that's all. So, how are things going with you and Hermione? Are you spending enough time alone? I really don't mind if you two want to do things without me tagging along. I fully understand. I'd be telling you to bug-off if you were always hanging around R.J. and me."

"We're alone enough. It's kind of weird when we are. We only talk about school stuff and how stupid you are. We haven't even kissed. Just the thought of that seems a bit weird. Have you kissed R.J. yet?"

"Sure, we kiss a lot now. It's really nice. We talk about everything, growing up and things we like and don't like. I can honestly say we've never talked about how stupid you are though. I think the big difference is that you and Hermione have been good friends for a long time now so you know all about each other. R.J. and I haven't known each other long. It's just different."

The match started so they got into the action and were cheering for Ravenclaw to win. Ron actually wanted Hufflepuff to win since they would be easier to beat but Harry wanted Cho's team to win. It didn't take very long for Cho to catch the Snitch. Now she would be playing Harry's team for the Quidditch cup. Harry walked down to the field to congratulate her.

"Cho, you were great again. I really hope you have an off day when we play you."

She gave him a quick hug and said, "Thanks Harry. I hope we play our best so we have any chance at all. You want to go to Hogsmeade with us? The rest of the team won't mind."

This sounded fun to Harry so he asked, "Ron, we didn't have any plans later with Hermione did we?" Ron shook his head. "I'm going to go to Hogsmeade with the Ravenclaws, I'll see you tonight."

He was having a really good time with their team. They weren't treating him like an enemy and were just enjoying their win. "You guys really played well today. It should be a good match for the cup." Harry told them.

"We hope you go diving off your broom again so we can get an advantage," One of the other players joked.

They were all coming back into the castle later when Fred and George saw him and came running over. "You guys weren't prying any team secrets out of him were you?" The Ravenclaws made a bunch of rude comments about Fred and George and continued on. Harry stayed behind and talked to Fred. "Do you think we can take them without too much trouble?" Harry asked.

"Should be able to if Ginny stays on her broom. So, what's really up with you and Cho? You're not seeing her and R.J. are you? Wouldn't want to cheat on a vampire, I can tell you that." Fred responded.

"Cho's just a friend."

"That's what you said about R.J. at first too," George jumped in. "Mum couldn't believe that your girlfriend was a vampire. Then Charlie admitted he'd always had a thing for vampires also. They've both ditched the family for girlfriend so mum couldn't stay upset with you. Heck I'd ditch the family in a second for a girl."

Over the next few weeks, Harry had been able to see R.J. alone a few more times. They'd only talked and kissed but it was still nice just being around her. The night before the Quidditch Cup match, she had left him early saying she wanted him to get enough sleep. She was going to meet Ron and Hermione to watch the match. It would be nice to see her during the day.

Harry mad his way to the pitch with the rest of the team they all felt nervous since this was for the cup but had confidence that if they didn't make any mistakes they could win. Ravenclaw took the field first to loud applause from the stands. Then Gryffindor came out and the applause seemed about equal. Harry made a lap around the field and settled in high above the goals. Cho Chang came up and hovered off of his left side. She was probably going to do her usual tactic and mark wherever he flew. Before the whistle, Harry yelled over to her "Good Luck today Cho."

She smiled back and said, "You too Harry." Harry looked in the stands and saw R.J. setting next to Hermione and on her other side was Professor Snape. Harry wondered what Hermione thought about setting so close to Snape.

The whistle blew and the real action started. Harry and Cho both kept trying to find the Snitch and watching out for Bludgers. Both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor played clean games so they didn't have to worry about sneak attacks from the Bludgers. Harry decided to keep Cho on her toes and acted like he saw the Snitch. He went racing about half way down the field and dove straight toward the ground. Cho was tailing him as close as she could. Right before hitting the ground, he pulled up and streaked across the field. Cho had pulled out of the dive earlier and now wasn't near Harry. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the flash of gold and knew it was the Snitch. Since he was still so close to the ground it was close to his level. Cho looked where he was going and saw the Snitch also. She dove from where she was but it would be a harder catch for her to get it coming from above. Right before Harry got to the Snitch, it darted toward one of the stands. He was getting closer and Cho was right behind him. The Snitch veered straight up right next to the stands and Harry pulled his broom to go straight up flying very close to the students in the front row of those stands. He twisted around and was closing on the Snitch when a Bludger mad him veer off. Cho was behind him and continued closing in on the Snitch that was now above where Harry was. He would be coming at the Snitch from almost directly below and Cho was still closing straight behind it. This was going to be very close, she may get to it before he does. Cho was reaching out to grab the Snitch and the instant before she closed her fingers, Harry came streaking up from below and snatched it before she could get hold of it. That was the closest he had come to every losing a match.

At first the crowd didn't know who had grabbed it. Then Harry raised the Snitch over his head and heard the announcer "Gryffindor Wins!" and then the stands erupted into applause. Ron was the first one to him yelling. "We won the cup! You did it Harry!" Then the rest of the team got to him and they were all screaming that they won the cup. When they got to the ground, they were all hugging each other when the Ravenclaw team came over. Even though they lost, they were really good sports and congratulated him on the catch.

Cho gave him a big hug and said. "I almost got you that time Harry. Once before I leave school, I'd like to beat you." Just then Hermione and R.J. came running over. Hermione was hugging Ron and R.J. gave Harry a big hug.

"You all played great," Hermione said very excitedly. "Ron, you're the captain of the Quidditch Cup team."

"Harry, that was amazing flying. I never knew you would be that good." She leaned in and whispered. "Kind of like something else you are amazing at." Harry blushed and saw Hermione looking at him. He wondered if she had overheard R.J.

R.J. turned to Ginny and said, "You are an excellent flier also Ginny. If the match had lasted much longer you would have scored enough that catching the Snitch wouldn't matter."

Ginny smiled at her and said, "Thank you R.J. I appreciate you saying that."

R.J. pulled Harry aside and said, "I'm going to leave now, it gets more uncomfortable the longer I'm out in the sun. I'll see you next week, ok?"

"Thanks for coming, it really meant a lot to see you there. See you." Harry gave her another hug and she left. He watched her go until he was being drug back into the celebration.

The celebration really got going after supper. They started out in the Gryffindor common room but moved to one of the bigger classrooms to have more space. Harry got the rest of the team together and asked if it would be ok to invite the Ravenclaws since they played so well. They all agreed so Harry found Nearly-Headless Nick and asked him if he wouldn't mind going and inviting the Ravenclaws to the party. After a few minutes they started coming in until most of their house were enjoying the celebration also. They even hung their banner along side the Gryffindor banner. It was great that Ron and Ginny were getting so much attention from this win. Ron deserved to have more good things happen to him and Ginny needed to get more confidence on her flying.

The next few weeks were very busy. Everyone was studying hard before taking his or her O.W.L. tests. It was very important in the wizarding world to get a high mark on these tests. The self-defense training classes were cancelled so everyone would have more time to prepare. Harry was only able to sneak around and see R.J. a couple nights. He wanted these tests to be over soon. Finally the time came. The tests would be held over the next two days. A perfect score would be sixteen. Percy Weasley had gotten fourteen when he took the tests. Fred and George had only gotten seven. Ron really wanted to beat Fred and George. Hermione really wanted to get a perfect score. All Harry really cared about was getting them over with.

After the first day, Harry and Ron thought they did pretty well. "Divination was questionable since we just make stuff up anyway," Ron said. "You should have gotten full marks in Transfigurations since you're an animagus already Harry. Tomorrow the big ones are Potions and Defense against the Dark Arts. "

Potions was the one Harry was worried about the most. It all came down to how hard Snape wanted to be on him. First he breezed through Defense Against the Dark Arts. Having the Auror training over the summer really prepared him for this. Ron didn't think he did very well on the test though. Potions was really difficult. They had to make a potion that would age them to be one hundred years old and then make the reversing potion after they took the first one. It was hard enough for Harry to think but his one hundred year old brain wasn't working as quick. Finally he managed to get it right and returned to his fifteen-year-old form.

They were all waiting anxiously for the letters to come with their results. Professor McGonagall came into the common room to hand them out. Harry, Ron and Hermione took theirs and went to the far corner of the room to open them.

"You go first Hermione, you'll be the best," Harry said, making her blush.

She opened and read the letter then said, "Well I didn't get a perfect score. I only got fifteen."

"Fifteen! That's better than Percy did!" Ron yelled and then hugged her.

"That great Hermione. Where did you miss a point?" Harry asked.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts. That was really hard," she said sadly.

"Ok Ron, you next," Harry said.

"Why me?" He responded but went ahead and opened his. "Nine, I got nine! That's better than Fred or George. Ok Harry you go."

Harry opened his and looked stunned. "I got eleven! How did I get eleven? Look at this; I got full marks in Divination. All I had to do was predict my painful death and she gives me full marks. I think we all did great. This calls for a celebration in Hogsmeade tomorrow. What do you say?"