Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Four

Harry had just made it to the library to explain that he\'d got down to the
potions lab just fine, but on his way back, he had done his best to avoid a
rather testy looking Baron. Ron winced in sympathy, clearly believing him,
as they\'d done the same together one night on the way back from the owlery.
Hermione, on the other hand, looked skeptical, but seemed to take his story
for the truth, or close enough.

They had evidently been in a conversation before he\'d gotten there, and they
continued on that, almost ignoring his presence but to ask for his opinions.
Hermione had been thinking about women\'s rights, as she\'d learned about them
in Muggle Studies that day. Harry wasn\'t really tuned in to all their
points, but he did catch that Ron agreed with her on most things. That
helped to keep the conversation positive, as Hermione didn\'t have to become
affronted by someone disagreeing with her.

The bell rang, and Hermione belatedly said she\'d sent Ron up to their dorms
to grab Harry\'s bag, with his Quidditch robes inside, and his books for
their next class. \"Oh, thanks for that,\" Harry said to her, taking the bag
and swinging it over his shoulder. She smiled at him and they made their way
out of the library, being glared at suspiciously by Madam Pince as they
left.

\"I s\'pose you\'re going straight to practice after, Harry?\" Ron asked him
when they got into the greenhouse. They set their things down at their
table, and Ron had to prod his friend after a minute, since Harry had
evidently not heard him. \"Oi.\"

\"What?\" Harry said, turning to face Ron. \"Oh, yeah, I probably will, since
I\'ve got my robes on me.\" Harry had forgotten that the Slytherins weren\'t in
the same greenhouse as they were today, as they had been for the past week.
They were separated with the gender of the plant they were working with.
Slytherin students were moved to Greenhouse Four, with the males, and the
Gryffindors were in Greenhouse Three with the females.

\"I\'ve still got to grab mine. What\'s with you?\" Ron asked suddenly, and
Harry immediately tried to stop glaring wistfully, if it were possible to do
that, at the table that Malfoy and Goyle usually used.

Harry shook his head, \"Nothing, just forgot the Slytherins were moved for
the rest of the week.\"

Ron grinned, \"Yeah, good thing, too. We would never have gotten these seeds
if they were in here yakking about random things to try and distract us.\"
Just then, Neville, hearing what Ron had said about their progress on the
plants, leaned over said plants to see them both more clearly from his
table.

\"I helped Professor Sprout carry some soil into Greenhouse Four, and a lot
of the Slytherins\' plants are wilty and dead,\" he said, smiling. That would
mean their rival house would have points taken away for letting their plants
die off. Harry and Ron laughed at that, and then turned their attention to
Professor Sprout, who had just entered the greenhouse.

\"Alright, I\'ve set the Slytherins to mending their neglected plants. Now,
let\'s all see the seeds you\'ve collected...\"

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\"You alright, Harry?\"

Harry turned to see Neville following him in the direction of the Quidditch
pitch. Hermione and Ron had already bid him \'see you later\' and he\'d started
on his way to the Gryffindor change room to grab his broom and pus ros robes
on. \"Neville. Yeah, I\'m alright.\"

The forgetful boy caught up with him, and looked a bit confused at that. Oh,\Oh,\" he said. \"Well, I just thought you looked a bit off during Herbology,
thought you might be ill.\"

He thought about that for a moment, and it was true. He had been a bit over
there throughout the lesson, as he\'d tried in vain to look through the fuzzy
green walls of the house over to the adjacent Greenhouse Four, but to no
avail, naturally. \"Er, it was just a bit muggy in there today, fogged my
brain up.\"

Neville laughed at that, and agreed, nodding. \"You\'ve got practice, I won\'t
keep you,\" he said, smiling and turned to make his way back to the castle,
where the last of the Slytherins could be seen reaching the top step.

Harry waved and turned back to face the pitch, still in the distance. His
mind was pleasantly blank as he suited up and retrieved his Firebolt from
the broom cupboard in the change room. He met Ron as he was leaving the
room. \"Oi, hurry, will you? I want to get started.\"

Ron nodded, obviously thinking he was late enough to not reply other than
just agreeing and heading in to grab his broom and change. Harry walked out
to the pitch to see his team assembled already, sans Ron.

Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil were already up in the air trying out some new
passes they\'d been working on, while the team\'s Beaters were tryin kee keep
a bludger restrained. Finally giving up on leaving the ball box open, they
simply shut the lid. The bludger gave a final jerk, moving the box at least
an inch to the left, before it quieted. Seamus and Lavender, said Beaters,
saw Harry coming over and stopped discussing the antsy ball when he reached
them.

\"So?\" Seamus asked. He was rather non-descript, usually wanting to get to
the game and have fun. He was a good Beater; strong and fast. With a good
build for swinging the bat, it only increased his muscle size, and he didn\'t
have an ego for it. All around a good player, Harry thought.

\"Soon as Ron gets out here, we\'ll start... something.\" He took a breath of
the late afternoon air, frowning slightly as he tried to think of what they
needed to work on. Mostly they practiced with the quaffle and the Chasers
would perfect passes and dodge hits that would come from the other team.
But, that left the Beaters with not much to do, except pretend to be on the
other team, and do the hitting.

Lavender Brown barely suppressed her annoyance at his delay. She\'d gotten
tired of everyone telling her she was too snotty and prissy, so what did she
do? Join the Quidditch team. In what position was what surprised most
people. Gryffindor was known for having many female Chasers, but not many
female Beaters. She got the respect for it, and for being a surprisingly
good Beater, and people stopped saying she only cared about herself.

Seamus nodded behind Harry at Ron finally coming over to them. Ron was about
to say something before he caught the look on Lavender\'s face, and grinned.
\"Letting the bludgers loose today, Harry?\"

Harry laughed, \"Yeah, I reckon we are.\" He moved to the box and flipped the
lid up, noting the bludger had calmed down, and frowned. \"Where\'s the
snitch?\"

\"Oh,\" Parvati said as she landed. Harry turned to her. \"Creevey set it loose
just before you came out, but then he had to use the loo.\" She shook her
head, moving to stand beside Lavender and they began to fuss over a chipped
nail. Harry looked confused at her. For Parvati being a determined Chaser,
and Lavender being a toned up Beater, they were such girls sometimes.

\"Harry! Harry!\" Soft padding feet were rapidly approaching from behind as
Dennis ran towards them. \"Sorry,\" he panted, \"It just hit me and I had to
go. The snitch is out.\" Dennis had been the latest addition to their team,
after losing Katie Bell last year due to her graduation. Colin Creevey, avid
Harry Potter fan, had tried to persuade his little brother to take his
camera up in the air, but Dennis had rightfully declined.

As for the snitch being let out by the youngest teammate, that was almost
typical by now. Dennis did, indeed, have a keen eye for the little walnut
sized ball, and the first game they played, had actually told Harry were it
was, winning them 210 points after beating Ravenclaw. They would need a
Seeker next year, after Harry had left Hogwarts, so he encouraged Dennis to
get some practice in occasionally.

\"Right,\" Harry nodded. \"Let\'s get this sorted, then.\" And sorted it was, in
about ten minutes. Ron took his spot as Keeper first, followed by Dennis,
and Dean as \'Team 1\' Chasers, and Parvati and Harry, as \'Team 2\' Chasers.
Seamus took \'Team 2\' for his own, and Lavender was left with \'Team 1\'.

Two Chasers to a team, yet Harry would still have to catch the snitch, since
it was loose anyway. One Beater to a team, one Keeper to the game, and all
the balls. Harry stayed on the ground while the rest of his team flew up to
standard playing height, and then he let loose the bludgers. They zoomed
straight up and then abruptly took right angles, aiming for Chasers. Seamus
and Lavender went straight after them immediately, and Harry mounted his
Firebolt and started into the game, as well.

It went well, Ron saving all but two shots, until there was an accident.
Dean was hit by Seamus\' bludger, and had to be taken inside. That left the
teams uneven, so Harry opted to just catch the snitch and then they\'d call
it a day.

He hovered around the opposite end of the pitch that they were using,
watching for the golden ball. Being so high up, he could see all the way to
the castle, and see the large wooden doors leading inside. The sun was
starting to go down, and Harry wanted to go inside and go to bed. He felt
strangely tired, yet not. He didn\'t have any homework to do, so he supposed
he could just lie in bed with his wand lit and read something guaranteed not
to bore him to sleep.

Harry saw a glitter near a Hufflepuff-colored spectator stand, and started
after it, surprised he even saw it. On his way speeding towards it, when it
realized he was closing in, it up and fooled him by heading straight for
him. Harry did a 180 and took off behind it, and then he suddenly remembered
a time Malfoy did the exact same thing to him, being a little miffed that
they were so close, and the snitch no where in sight. Malfoy had thought,
\'Get one more goal, injure Potter enough to knock him off his broom, and
Slytherin wins.\'

It was a very close game, and he and Malfoy had been *so* close to either
one of them catching the snitch. They had it cornered under the stands, and
had strangely worked together to lure it out enough to be grabbed. Malfoy,
Harry thought, as he scissored his fingers closed over a wing, and felt the
little mechanical animal flutter helplessly before it gave up and folded.

Harry rose and watched his team through glazed eyes as he thought of Draco
Malfoy. What was going on with them? Befor rea really got thinking any
further, he heard angry shouts coming from his team. \"Finnegan, that was not
a goal!\" \"Yes, it was!\" \"No, you were on a slant and it just looked like
it.\" \"Seamus, it wasn\'t,\" Dennis said.

Seamus sighed, defeated, and Harry made his way to them. \"What\'s the score?\"
Harry asked, as they all just started descending on their brooms, seeing the
snitch in Harry\'s hand.

\"60 to 80,\" Ron said. \"It was close, but then my hand got skimmed by a
bludger and bruised it, so I missed a few. Seamus thinks it should be 70 for
his team, but, oh, well.\"

\"It\'s just practice,\" Seamus conceded, not upset at it, but simply accepting
his mistake. \"I hope Dean\'s okay, though.\" He\'d had a cracked rib and broken
wrist when they\'d left the infirmary, but Madam Pomfrey assured them he\'d be
fine and sent them off again.

\"Harry?\"

Harry lifted his head from watching the stone steps as he walked up to the
castle. He saw Parvati waiting for him, holding the door open. \"You coming?\"

\"Yeah,\" he answered, trying to give a smile, but it didn\'t quite come out.
She smiled back at him, anyway, though. Maybe he should try to talk to
Malfoy? Not that Harry thought he\'d listen, or not deny anything, as long as
he had Crabbe or Goyle around him. He had no idea how or when to catch him
alone.

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