David Korhol and the Rise of Chaos

"You bet," said Cho, "I'll grab my broom and we'll head off to an early breakfast."

"Me too," said David, strolling up to the dormitory and grabbing his broom. Samir ran up to the other dormitories and got the other three players, Hal, Charles and Andy. David ran back down the stairs, broom in hand and a smile on his face. Quidditch season had finally arrived; he was nearly bursting with excitement now. He jumped the last three steps from the dormitory and saw Cho had gotten ready and Samir stood smiling. Hal, Andy and Charles were all rubbing their eyes but they were awake.

"Ready for practice?!" asked David, excitedly. He was nearly jumping up and down from excitement. He would finally get to fly again, he barely got to over the summer, and it wasn't easy to find a clearing large enough in the city.

"Alright, let's go," said Cho.

"Yeah!" said David, running out the door at a near sprint, leading them outside. David ducked into the Great Hall and grabbed some toast from their table and brought it out to the rest of the team which was just passing the Great Hall. He passed them all their toasts.

"You're really excited, aren't you?" asked Cho, laughing.

"Damn strait!" boomed David.

"What time are the people coming to try out for the last chaser position?" asked Andy.

"I posted a message on the bulletin board to show up at ten," said David.

They got to the Ravenclaw changing rooms and began to change into their robes. After a quick reminder to turn their backs as Cho was changing, they headed off to the field. David grabbed the ball case. Then, like they normally did, they broke into groups. The two chasers passed the ball and made shots against the keeper. Samir and David grabbed one bludger and whacked it back and forth, trying as hard as possible to knock each other off their brooms. Cho, because there wasn't anyone to throw balls at her, she simply went around, watching everyone else. Normally, Cho chased the snitch during practice, but it was never wise to do that the first day. After about an hour of practice, the new recruits arrived. It was mostly 2^nd years, but there were also a few older students. Since David and Samir had the same brooms, they paired off people trying out and they threw Quaffles at them, seeing how many they were able to catch. They also gave each person five Quaffles and saw how many shots they could make. Ultimately, they chose a pretty, young 2^nd year witch, named Sara Melendez, who was surprisingly quick even with the mediocre brooms that David and Samir had. They put a seventh year girl on standby, in case one of the chasers was injured. They gave the rest of the people who tried out a goodbye and a sorry and asked them to leave. They smiled and said goodbye, a few looked mildly disappointed.

"Right," said Samir, "election time. Okay, nominations first. Floor's open."

"I nominate Cho," said Hal, awkwardly.

"I second the motion," said Sara, the new chaser.

"Okay, Cho's up for running," continued Samir.

"I nominate David," said Charles.

"Second, alright, David's up," said Samir, sounding official. David smiled at the concept of being captain of the team.

"Right, anyone else? Nobody? Okay. David and Cho turn around," said Samir, they did so. "Right, everyone send up blue sparks for Cho, yellow for David." David and Cho gave a quick glance to each other and Cho mouthed to David, "Good luck."

"Right, you may turn around," said Samir, giving David a sad look and David already knew the answer. "The new Ravenclaw captain is...Cho Chang." David smiled, and looked at Cho, rather awkwardly. He smiled and she smiled back, in David's mind, he simply thought, "Fuck."

Practice had started up again, for about another hour. It was great, especially towards the end, when David and Samir got instructions from Cho to start whacking bludgers at the chasers, especially Sara, she told then she needed to toughen up in fairly short amount of time. As they landed their brooms, it was about lunch time. As they left, they saw a full Gryffindor team walk onto the field, apparently they had already started their practicing a bit earlier in the year. David looked at Potter, seeing a large patch on his robes that had a golden 'C' on it, so he was the new captain. As David surveyed Potter, he saw his eyes glance towards the new Ravenclaw captain. An unmistakable smirk appeared on Harry's face and David had a hint what about. David jogged over to Cho and said in mock drama and an outrageous French accent, "He liiikkkkess you. You liiiikkkeeee him. But, you are torn apart by your own feelings! It is FORBIDDEN love."

"Shut up, David. I never should have told you," said Cho, smiling.

"You're very right," said David back, smirking widely.

"Right about what?" said Samir in his normal Indian accent.

"Oh, about Harry P..." started David, his mouth was quickly covered by Cho.

"About Harry Pevchev, he's such a crappy seeker, shouldn't be on the Russian National Team," stammered Cho, looking flustered.

"Yeah, right," said David, taking her hand off his mouth.

"Well, I've gotta go talk to Mr. Vulpes about some more advanced weapons techniques."

"You've really taken a shining to weapons training, haven't you?" asked David, smiling.

"It's fascinating, I like it. I'm off." said Samir. He trotted off and David earned a stern look from Cho, who walked with David to the Great Hall. Cho gave David a punch in the arm when Samir was out of sight.

"What was that for?"

"You almost told him. You know how he acts to boys who like me. If it hadn't been for you and Jill, he would've rushed Cedric and beat him senseless when he asked me to the Yule Ball."

"He came around...eventually."

"Yeah! Three months later!"

"It's really weird; normally he's a very peaceful guy. Bookish type, pretty quiet, just except when someone likes you."

"He's sweet for trying to protect me."

As they entered the Great Hall for lunch, they saw everyone crowding around the message board. Sara, who had gotten there before David and Cho, ran up to them and threw her hands on her hips.

"Ugh! I'm so jealous!" said Sara, glowering at them, playfully.

"Why?" asked Cho, looking confused.

"The sixth and seventh years get to participate in a swordsmanship tournament. It's going to be after Easter Holidays."

"Really?!" asked David, excited. He was growing to like his weapons training and this was the perfect chance to test out the skills for real. The girl nodded. Cho looked excited as well. She had been doing extremely well with the pike that she often used. Even though Ravenclaws, in general, weren't the action-type. David, Samir and Cho had always had an affinity for it. They all figured that because they were on the Quidditch team, they had improved hand-eye coordination. David had noticed recently that he was having more fun doing action-type things than he had always been in the quiet study of the library. David, in his earlier years at Hogwarts, had always gone to the library to calm his nerves, the quiet solitude and study in the library always seemed like a haven for him. However, more and more often, David found that he better vented frustration and tension in a heated argument about politics, whacking someone with a bludger or practicing parries, thrusts and slashes with Samir and Cho. David suddenly realized he was staring, letting his mind wander and shook himself back to reality. Cho chuckled at David.

"What?" asked David, curious.

"You were daydreaming again," Cho said back to him, chuckling lightly.

"I was not, I was...in deep thought."

"About what?" asked Cho, a grin rising on her face, crossing her arms.

"Ummmm....."

"You were thinking of silly stuff, weren't you?" scoffed Cho, sitting down at the table, picking up a chicken wing from the tray at the Ravenclaw table.

"Well, right then I was thinking of silly stuff, but, I think about the important issues."

"Like what?" asked Cho, curiously.

"The forces of darkness and destruction that are dangerously close to killing and burning everyone I know and love," David said soberly, very serious. He looked deathly serious.

"You scare me sometimes David," Cho said back to him with a hint of fear in her voice, but she had a look in her eyes that lightened David's heart.

"Another frivolous load of tripe, you Ravenclaws are nothing but talk," said an all too familiar, thick-headed voice from behind them. It was Ardius, the Slytherin boy who had taken a liking to beating up David and hitting on Cho.

"Get lost, Ardius," said David, clenching his fist under the table.

"So, Cho, I was wondering if you'd like to hang out in Hogsmeade during the next visit. Maybe, I'll show you the inside of the Shrieking Shack," said Ardius, turning to Cho. He put his arm right next to her, barring her way out of the seat. David gave an angry look to Ardius, but then noticed that Samir was walking towards Ardius from behind him.

"Maybe, you and me could get something going on. Maybe stay the night in the Shrieking Shack."

"Son of a fucking bitch!" said Samir, grabbing his shoulder and turned him around and punched him right into his nose. The move had obviously startled Ardius, because in no time Samir had him on the stone floor and was beating the living daylights out of him. Samir wasn't nearly as big or strong as the seventh year, but when defending Cho, his fury knew no bounds. Samir put his knees on the Slytherin's chest and delivered furious blows to his face and gut.

Samir's dominance did not last for long, however. Once the other Slytherin boys had realized that Samir was beating Ardius senseless, they rushed to aid him. Within no time, several boys had thrown Samir off him and had gone to work on him. This was David's breaking point.

"GET THE HELL OFF HIM!" screamed David at the top of his lungs. His anger was growing so quickly that David felt that his mind no longer controlled the rest of his body. A simple desire to hurt those hurting his best friend had taken over David's entire mind. David joined the fray and started swinging furiously at figures that David didn't even stop to see who it was. David felt several other people hit the mob that was forming between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables. David continued kicking and punching blindly until he got to his feet and saw that the fray was now separating into two lines of students. David screamed in fury, with no distinct words.

All of a sudden, the whole situation had escalated in a very short amount of time. One of the Slytherin boys drew out a muggle pen from his pocket and held it in his left hand and took out his wand with his right.

"Furiosa Brutus!" shouted the boy that David didn't even recognize. In a flash of bronze light the boy held in his hand a short sword. As if this was a symbol of an immediate decision by all the Slytherins, they all drew pens and wands. Within a few moments, all of the Slytherins held large weapons in their hands. The shining blades glared in the candlelight and they all grinned maliciously. They all glared at each other, for some reason David didn't feel any fear from their weapons. David didn't carry a pen with him, so he was not able to be armed. About five seconds later, the Slytherin prefect and Terry Boot, the Ravenclaw prefect, stood between the two lines of students and were telling each of their houses off for fighting.

"BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!" shrieked Professor McGonagall, running between the two lines. "Fifty points from Ravenclaw! Two hundred points from Slytherin! For reckless fighting in school grounds! And you Slytherins! I am utterly shocked!" she said, looking white and with her lips so thin that they were almost invisible. "I will be speaking to Professor Snape about all of you. You will all follow me to Professor Snape's office. Put your weapons away immediately. Give me the pens immediately after you have changed them back. You are all in very serious trouble!"

David smirked ear to ear, thoroughly enjoying Ardius getting in the trouble that David always thought he deserved, but never got. Samir still looked infuriated at Ardius, David put his hand on Samir's shoulder, and Samir nodded his head, calming down. David noticed as the Slytherins were marching out of the Great Hall, that Harry Potter was walking into the Hall. They all took a seat at the table. Cho looked shocked, she hadn't noticed Harry yet.

"Samir," stared Cho, looking sincere, "you didn't have to do that, you know."

"I know," said Samir, looking guilty, "but, force is the only thing that skull-head understands."

"Well, that and trying to get play from Cho," chimed in David, smiling. All three of them laughed, feeling a bit lightened from the gravity of the situation, Samir knew that he was probably going to get detention for this and a few points from Ravenclaw. While Samir was looking at his food, David pointed to Harry Potter very discreetly. Cho looked at what David was pointing at and almost instantly a rose color was rising in her cheeks. David smirked at her.

"Talk to him," whispered David, trying not to let Samir hear him.

"No," said Cho, blushing furiously.

"Go, I'll take care of Samir," said David, smirking and tapping Samir on the shoulder.

"Samir, I need help on my Arithmancy essay," said David, he actually wasn't lying here; he did need help on his Arithmancy essay, as always. David prodded Cho in the back and walked up to the common room where Samir and David wrote essays for each other; Samir wrote David's Arithmancy essay and David wrote Samir's charms essay. It wasn't that Samir couldn't do the Charms work, but David felt he shouldn't just let Samir do work for him without doing anything for him. Immediately after finishing the essay, David plopped down on the couch and began work into the night on his History of Magic essay, even though it wasn't due for about a week.

Stranger and stranger things were beginning to happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Death Eaters were becoming more and more active, three muggles had been killed in Scotland, and the word was that they just looked at some Death Eaters the wrong way. It turned out that Mr. Arbury was the head of a Ministry of Magic division that were special investigators, they figured out who was really a spy for Voldemort. Ravenclaw's first match, against Slytherin, had been a great way to start out the season; they absolutely demolished them, 230-40. Cho had been spending less and less time in the common room, David suspected something strongly relating to the famous Harry Potter. When finally, much to David's delight, the day of the Quidditch tryouts had arrived.

It seemed as though the entire school had showed up to try out for the team. There were so many that Madame Hooch limited the tryouts to only members of the house teams. About half of the crowd that had gathered on the Quidditch pitch trudged back to the main building, looking very irritated. So there they all were, no uniforms, all of them were equal. It was odd, they were all on the same team now, they were all for Hogwarts. All the players lined up on the side of the pitch, with no house lines or anything of the sort and then Madame Hooch briskly walked out in front of the line and said, "Good morning, students. Today you will be trying out for the Hogwarts All-school team. For every position on the team, there will be 1 player and one replacement player. Okay, keepers step forward."

The youngest of the Weasley brothers, Ron, stepped forward for Gryffindor, Hal stepped forward for Ravenclaw, Ardius Ransak for Slytherin and the Hufflepuff keeper stepped forward as well, they all looked firmly resolute. She ordered for them to mount their brooms and they were off. David watched them line up by the posts and Madame Hooch summon a Quaffle from inside the box. She took the Quaffle and shot 10 times at the each keeper. All of them were quite good, in the end the Gryffindor keeper, Ron Weasley, was chosen and the Slytherin keeper was the back up. The Gryffindor keeper landed looking on top of the world and ran to the stands where a girl had been watching. There had been a few people who were watching the tryouts, mostly friends of the people who were trying out. Madame Hooch landed and walked in front of the line of students, stood at attention as if a general were inspecting his troops. She smiled at all of them; they were all staring forward, looking very, very tense.

"Beaters next, step forward, chaps," she said, stiffly. The beaters all stood forward at once, bringing up their brooms. Each had a club and their broom in hand.

"I will release six bludgers; the last two beaters left on their brooms are the school players. If you are dismounted from your brooms, land, give up or are in any serious physical danger, you will be disqualified and leave the field immediately. If someone is caught cheating three times, they will be disqualified. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!" chanted all the beaters simultaneously, nobody was messing around at this point, not even Fred and George. They were all extremely focused; it would be a melee, fight to survive. David and Samir looked at each other; a secret treaty was between them. They would neither protect nor hurt each other; they were to leave each other alone.

"Mount your brooms!" boomed Madame Hooch as she raised her whistle to her mouth. David felt something flowing through his veins, it was as if the blood was going to fast and the heart was having problems processing it. David breathed deeply and cleared his mind as Madame Hooch's sharp whistle pierced the very quiet air. David kicked off the ground, a bit over enthusiastic; he shot up like a bullet, above the rest. Madame Hooch released the bludgers and it was now war. All the bludgers zoomed out of the box at breakneck speed, each picking someone to zoom at first. The beaters weaved in and out of each other, trying to get a good shot at the bludgers. One of the bludgers shot strait up at David, but David was ready, he raised his club and gave it a mighty swipe downward, directly into the bludger. The bludger raced downward with extreme force, the weapons training must have been paying off. David soared downward into the middle of the melee, it was damn near impossible to get a proper view of what was going on. As David swooped down he saw the madness of it all, clubs flying everywhere and bludgers soaring at great speeds all over the place. As he soared down swiping at a bludger, he saw one of the Hufflepuff beaters get whacked in the face with a bludger, but couldn't keep his eyes off the battle long enough to see him fall. David swung downward under Fred Weasley and then hit a nearby bludger towards George, who hit it towards a Slytherin beater, knocking the Slytherin off his broom. The other Slytherin looked infuriated and charged head first into George's chest. Fred saw the Slytherin's action and hit a bludger directly into the head of charging Slytherin. George was winded and the Slytherin fell off his broom. The remaining Hufflepuff, seeing George's momentary weakness sent a bludger right into his back and George slid off the back of his broom, looking too much in pain to stop himself.

The four remaining players all pulled away from the middle, fairly far apart from each other. It was Fred Weasley, Samir, David and one of the Hufflepuffs, at this point there were six bludgers and four beaters, this was going to be very difficult. Two bludgers soared at David; he squeezed the handle of the beating stick and raised it above his head. He swung downward and hit one of the bludgers so it spiraled directly downward, but the other came up and hit David in ribs. An immense pain in his jaw told David it had just been broken. David spun backwards in recoil and recovered just in time to hit a bludger away from him. David struggled to stand up again and saw a bludger coming right at him and luckily it just hit him in the shoulder, it merely bounced off. David leaned into his broom and saw that a bludger was trying to catch up to him. David flew directly at the Hufflepuff boy and no more than three feet in front of the boy, David shot directly downward. Just as David began diving, he heard an 'Oof!" David knew they boy had been hit pretty hard. David wheeled around and saw that three bludgers were all racing towards Samir.

"SAMIR! LOOKOUT!" screamed David, without a second thought. Samir looked up for a moment and was hit in the small of his back, then his ribs and finally right in the gut. Samir began to fall off his broom, but before he was able to do so, Madame Hooch had caught him and began to guide him to the ground. David soared down and landed on the pitch, not caring that he was on the team, he rushed to Samir. Samir looked pretty banged up, he was on a magical stretcher, and the Ravenclaw team was all huddled around him.

"Are you okay, Samir?" David said, looking down at him concerned. Samir looked up at David and smiled. Samir looked as if he was in a large amount of pain, he lay very still in the stretcher, but he still smiled at David.

"Peachy." said Samir, his smile growing wider. David laughed hard, Samir was taken upstairs to the hospital wing, David wanted to go up but Madame Hooch insisted David stay for the remainder of the tryouts. After that, David sat down and watched the rest of practice. David was sincerely disappointed that Harry Potter had gotten the house spot over Cho; Cho didn't seem too broken up about it. However, David felt that the best part of the tryouts were for the chaser positions. The Hufflepuff girl David had seen in Defense against the Dark Arts class, Tina, had gone extraordinarily well. It had been amazing; she had looped almost all of the other players, only two others players were even able to keep up at all. The chaser tryouts had essentially just been all twelve chasers trying to get the Quaffle and score individually. Tina had scored an amazing six times in ten minutes, which was with keepers. The other two players were Angelina Johnson, from Gryffindor and much to David's delight, Charles Horwitz from his own house of Ravenclaw.

After the tryouts were over Madame Hooch assembled all of the members of the team together. She beamed around to all of them, looking very proud of them.

"Okay. Welcome to the team everyone. Let's just go through the lineup. Okay, first at seeker, Ron Weasley. Our two beaters, Fred Weasley and David Korhol," said Madame Hooch, David felt a small swelling of pride and Fred and David nodded to each other, acknowledging that they are on the same team now. "We have Tina, Charles and Ian at chasers and finally our seeker, Harry Potter. The backup players are these, they've already headed back to the castle, but they are: Ardius Ransak, ("shit", thought David) Samir Naninanajar, Bill Ripken, Angelina Johnson, Cho Chang, Katie Bell and Andy Maguire. First practice is on Thursday, make sure that you tell your respective teams that you have to schedule practices around it. Okay, everyone, have a nice day and I'll see you on Thursday.

With that they headed back to the castle, David walked alone up to the castle but then saw that Tina was walking alone too, she had been the only Hufflepuff to make first squad. David jogged up to her, deciding to accompany her back up to the castle. He gave her a tap on the shoulder and then began to walk alongside her.

"Hey Tina, you were absolutely amazing. It was brilliant, I wouldn't be surprised if you were made captain," said David, smiling at her. She gave a pleasant smile back to him and said, "Well, you were great as well, I was amazed taking two bludgers and staying on your broom that's pretty tough." David smiled wider, feeling fairly proud.

"So, looking forward to the tournament?" asked David.

"Very much, I can't wait to tell my parents I made the team. They're both originally from Stonewall, in Canada; they've been telling me how proud they'd be if I made it. I've been making fun of them because I know Hogwarts will whomp Canada, assuming we play them."

"That's pretty confident," said David, opening the castle doors for her.

"Well, you gotta have faith. We're just gonna have to work really hard."

"So, where were you born?"

"Well, originally I'm from Canada but now we live in London," said Tina.

"Really? I'm from London, too, what part?"

"I live by Piccadilly Circus. Where do you live?"

"I live by the British Museum," said David. They continued talking until, in what seemed like very little time at all they had arrived at the entrance to the Hufflepuff, a painting of knight who interrupted their conversation, asking Tina for the password.

"Oh, well, I'll see you around," said David, smiling pleasantly.

"Thursday?" said Tina, grinning.

"What?"

"Practice...remember we just came from there?"

"Oh yeah. Whoa. Okay, yeah Thursday, see you then," said David feeling a bit foolish.

"Well. Bye," said Tina stepping through the portrait hole of the proud-looking knight.

"Bye," said David as the door closed. With that, David walked back to the common room with an odd spring in his step. When he got there, he fell fast asleep, with a smile on his face.