After Christmas, all students returned back to Hogwarts. The biggest incident that happened on their return was that Oliver Wood nearly had a heart attack. Why? He saw that his star player had a Firebolt as a broom. He spent the next hour drooling at it, making Harry question his captain's sexuality. There was a lot of gawking at the broom by everyone and the whole Quidditch team threatened the Gryffindor students that the news of Harry having a firebolt MUST NOT get leaked as their next Match was in two weeks against Ravenclaw. Harry didn't say that professor Flitwick knew. It was fun to see them all keep it hush-hush.
The practice started becoming guarded by fellow Gryffindors so no one saw that they had a firebolt and even Tonks(for Harry's safety). Wood had told Harry to practice breaking formations and play interfering seeker. His Firebolt was so fast that it would take only 8 seconds to go from one end of the pitch to the other. The Firebolt proved loads better than his Nimbus. It responded to his every thought and was more than 2 times fast than the Nimbus 2000. In their first practice, Harry had caught the snitch in 10 seconds flat. Their win looked guaranteed.
Harry continued his sessions with Daphne. She was improving and it was good practice for Harry. He had gotten a few creative ideas from her during their sessions. He was still the top of his classes except Herbology, History and Potions. Neville was somehow still the greenest thumb. Snape was still a biased bastard and a horrible teacher. His hatred for Harry was likely from the fact that Harry had killed his master. Dumbledore had vouched for Snape at his trial saying Snape was a spy for him. Harry doubted that Snape was genuinely on the Headmaster's side, but that was hugely due to Snape's behavior towards Harry, not on concrete proof. Even Salazar and Helga did not know what was the truth about Snape. So, Harry was always alert around him. Snape, after all, had the dark mark, a tattoo proclaiming you are in Voldemort's service.
Harry went down to breakfast on the morning of the match with the rest of the boys in his dormitory, all of whom seemed to think the Firebolt deserved a sort of guard of honor. As Harry entered the Great Hall, heads turned in the direction of the Firebolt, and there was a good deal of excited muttering. Harry saw, with enormous satisfaction, that the Slytherin team were all looking thunderstruck. "Did you see his face?" said Ron gleefully, looking back at Malfoy. "He can't believe it! This is brilliant!" Wood, too, was basking in the reflected glory of the Firebolt.
"Put it here, Harry," he said, laying the broom in the middle of the table and carefully turning it so that its name faced upward. People from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were soon coming over to look. Cedric Diggory came over to congratulate Harry on having acquired such a superb replacement for his Nimbus, and Percy's Ravenclaw girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, asked if she could actually hold the Firebolt. "Now, now, Penny, no sabotage!" said Percy heartily as she examined the Firebolt closely. "Penelope and I have got a bet on," he told the team. "Ten Galleons on the outcome of the match!"
Penelope put the Firebolt down again, thanked Harry, and went back to her table. "Harry — make sure you win," said Percy, in an urgent whisper. "I haven't got ten Galleons. Yes, I'm coming, Penny!" And he bustled off to join her in a piece of toast.
"Sure you can manage that broom, Potter?" said a cold, drawling voice. Draco Malfoy had arrived for a closer look, Crabbe and Goyle right behind him.
"Obviously I can. I am yet to loose a match, and have successfully snatched the snitch from above the head of the Slytherin seeker last year. Oh wait! That was you." The whole Gryffindor table snickered.
Malfoy's face turned red and he sneered before returning to his table.
Hedwig flew down to his arm and nipped his ear before hooting as if saying 'Good Luck'. He smiled at her and gave her bacon which she happily devoured before going off again.
"Gryffindor team! Time to go!" Wood soon shouted. The team got up and walked out amidst cheers from Gryffindors and some Hufflepuffs. Harry saw Daphne give him a discreet thumbs up from the Slytherin table.
The weather was sunny and clear. Perfect visibility. "You know what we've got to do," said Wood as they prepared to leave the locker rooms. "If we lose this match, we're out of the running, just — just fly like you did in practice yesterday, and we'll be okay!"
They walked out onto the field to tumultuous applause. The Ravenclaw team, dressed in blue, were already standing in the middle of the field. Their Seeker, Cho Chang, was the only girl on their team. She was shorter than Harry by about a head, and Harry couldn't help noticing, nervous as he was, that she was pretty. She smiled at Harry as the teams faced each other behind their captains. Harry smiled back and mounted his broom.
They took off at Madam Hooch's whistle. He heard Jordan advertising about his broom on the mic and McGonagall chastising him.
He broke off the Ravenclaw formation and kicked the Quaffle out of their chaser's hand and Katie took it and scored. "I can't believe it! Potter is playing an interfering seeker. It is usually a potential risk but Chang's comet is no match for the Firebolt's acceleration It has -"
"JORDAN! Tell us about the match!" McGonagall yelled at Lee Jordan... again.
Within 10 minutes, they were 80 points up. 80-0 was the score. Harry had not let them score at all. Wood was just hovering in the air shouting instructions at them. He was yet to touch the Quaffle. Harry again broke formation of the Ravenclaw chasers and Angelina stole the Quaffle. Suddenly he saw a flash of gold and veered his broom toward it and accelerated. He was a dozen feet away when a bludger came, hit by the Ravenclaw beater. Harry avoided it by his enhanced reflexes but then Chang blocked him. In this all, the elusive snitch had vanished. Harry growled and Chang smirked. She wanted to mark him, so be it.
He suddenly veered his broom in a vertical dive, slower than normal firebolt speed. As expected, Chang followed. At the last moment Harry pulled up. Chang crashed her pretty face into the mud. "I can not believe it. Harry Potter has executed a perfect wronski feint." Gryffindor were screaming themselves hoarse. He looked around again. The score was 100-0. Suddenly he saw the gold flash again. He put the broom at full speed and went towards the snitch. A bludger was shot at him, but it was aimed pathetically. He didn't even need to dodge. He caught the snitch.
Madam Hooch's whistle sounded. Harry turned around in midair and saw six scarlet blurs bearing down on him; next moment, the whole team was hugging him so hard he was nearly pulled off his broom. Down below he could hear the roars of the Gryffindors in the crowd. "That's my boy!" Wood kept yelling. Alicia, Angelina, and Katie had all kissed Harry; Fred had him in a grip so tight Harry felt as though his head would come off. In complete disarray, the team managed to make its way back to the ground. Harry got off his broom and looked up to see a gaggle of Gryffindor supporters sprinting onto the field, Ron in the lead. Before he knew it, he had been engulfed by the cheering crowd.
They had won the match. But the final Battle was yet to come and it was against their arch nemesis: Gryffindor v/s Slytherin Quidditch match 1993-94, here they came.
That night there was a massive party in the common room. Everyone except Hermione was celebrating. She was studying in a corner with several books spread on the table. "Hermione, come on! You can leave that for a while! You are running yourself ragged!"
"I can't, Harry. I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" said Hermione, now sounding slightly hysterical. "Anyway…" She glanced over at Ron too. "He doesn't want me to join in."
The quarrel between Ron and Hermione was on an all time high. Apparently, Hermione's cat had eaten Scabbers and Ron was pissed. He always said that the rat was useless but now was making Hermione's life hell over it. Their fights were getting so frequent that Harry had started spending more and more time with Susan, Cedric and the Gryffindor quidditch team. Cedric by now was a good friend of his. They shared a lot of common interests: Quidditch, Defense and Transfiguration, both the boys were the top student of their year and both hated Snape.
Susan Bones was a kind girl, always ready to help and gentle. Helga would have loved her as a student. She wanted to follow her aunt's footsteps and become a hit-witch. Harry had offered her help with DADA and dueling. She was included in the little group of Harry and Daphne after the Christmas Break.
Harry had no doubt that both the girls could gauge the alliance that was forming- House Bones-Greengrass-Potter. All of them were heirs of Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses. Harry and Susan would be Lord Potter and Lady Bones respectively. Daphne would also be Lady Greengrass unless she married in a Family of equal standing which would need her to take her Husband's name while her Sister would continue the Family line by becoming Lady Greengrass and marrying a guy from a lower house, so that the Husband would take the Greengrass name.
It was a rare case scenario as only three options were currently there for Daphne for this: Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom or if a Black heir emerged. Truthfully, it was a high chance that Harry would become heir or Lord Black after Sirius Black's death if the Lord ring judged him worthy. The only competition to him was Draco, but Harry could force Lucius to deny his son. So it was practically Harry's after Black got the dementor's kiss. Still Harry would wait till it was confirmed. He still had three and a half years before he sat on the Wizengamot.
Ron chose that moment to say loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them —" Hermione burst into tears. Before Harry could say or do anything, she tucked the enormous book under her arm, and, still sobbing, ran toward the staircase to the girls' dormitories and out of sight.
"Can't you give her a break! You are now NEEDLESSLY antagonizing her! I am tired of your fights!" Harry snapped.
"No," said Ron flatly. "If she just acted like she was sorry — but she'll never admit she's wrong, Hermione. She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on vacation or something."
He wasn't completely wrong.
That night Harry was woken up by a scream. He wandlessly summoned his wand from the night stand and pointed it at the source of the sound.
It was Ron.
Ron was sitting up in bed, the hangings torn from one side, a look of utmost terror on his face.
"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!"
"What?"
"Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! Woke me up!"
"You sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" said Dean.
"Look at the curtains! I tell you, he was here!"
They all scrambled out of bed; Harry reached the dormitory door first, and they sprinted back down the staircase. Doors opened behind them, and sleepy voices called after them.
"Who shouted?"
"What're you doing?"
The common room was lit with the glow of the dying fire, still littered with the debris from the party. It was deserted. "Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?"
"I'm telling you, I saw him!"
"What's all the noise?" Kingsley asked in his deep voice. Tonks was there too, in her nightdress, wand out and eyes alert.
Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!" The common room went very still. "Nonsense! You..." Percy began but was cut off by Tonks. "Are you sure Ron?"
"Yes. Even my bed curtains are slashed open." Ron replied.
"Now, really, that's enough!" Professor McGonagall had arrived with a furious expression. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! You both are aurors, Kingsley, Nymphadora! I expected better from you." She told the aurors. Tonks' eyes narrowed. "Professor, Ron Weasley woke us all up saying he saw Sirius Black."
"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"
"Ask him!" said Ron, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw —"
Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with bated breath. "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"
"Certainly, good lady!" cried Sir Cadogan. There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room. "You — you did?" said Professor McGonagall. "But — but the password!"
"He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk. "Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.