Harry looked at the wooden stick dangling from the paper ring on his right index finger. The ring was his latest attempt at his Runes project, and the runes on the ring and the paper tag, which was stuck to the bottom of the fake wands, were working perfectly.
As he fed a small trickle of his magic into the ring, the runes activated and pulled the targeting tag, and the wand it was attached to, directly to him. The wand would even fly around corners and avoid things like furniture if they were in the way.
The problem was, even though the ring was a lot better than the bracelet that he had come up with originally, it was still a fiddle to grip the wand in a way that you could cast with it once it was dangling from the ring.
Harry rubbed his eyes as he fought off the weariness that was threatening to claim him. It wasn't even that late, it was just that with the last quidditch game of the year next week, followed by exams a little under a month after, and then Buckbeak's trial being set for the day after his last exam, Harry hadn't had much rest recently.
He was glad that the project for Hermione's hairband and tail sock had gone a lot smoother. He now had both items ready to be presented to Professor Babbling, and whoever was selected to evaluate his project with her.
He had wanted to give the items to Hermione in the meantime, but she had refused, saying that she didn't need them while they were at Hogwarts, and that it would look better in the evaluation if they weren't covered in cat hairs.
Harry was quite proud of the list of things that he had been able to cram into the simple items. The tail sock now wouldn't leave any bulge at all behind his girlfriend. Harry didn't mind either way (personally, he thought Hermione's tail was cute), but Hermione wanted to go swimming over the summer and visit the beach, and obviously Muggle swimming costumes didn't leave a way to hide a tail stub. Harry, upon hearing that Hermione wanted to go swimming, had added water-proofing runes to go along with the list of enchantments he had been able to add both items.
Now, the items would keep Hermione's ears and tail at a comfortable temperature. They were also self-cleaning, in case she had to go a while without removing them, like she had to over Christmas, and the hair band could change its colour and pattern to match whatever Hermione was wearing. It also had a function that Hermione could turn on and off as she pleased, and that was to remove the muffling effect that the hairband had on her hearing. Sometimes, it was just too loud for Hermione to be comfortable with her enhanced hearing.
The most complicated runes were the realistic illusion of human ears that Harry had added. The challenge wasn't the ears themselves, but modifying the runes so that the illusion was anchored to the right spots on Hermione's head; if the hairband moved, the ears would have to stay where they needed to be.
Harry looked down at the fake wand sitting on the common room table in front of him, and decided that he had given up for the day; he was too tired to think straight right now.
He started packing away his stuff. He slipped off the paper ring and slid it onto the fake wand, so that it wouldn't get damaged, then put it in a small box that he was keeping the project in. He was just about to close the lid when he pulled out the wand again and looked at it.
"Eu-fucking-recka!!!"
The paper ring had slid down the wand, and had come to rest on the handle, where the wand was just a little thicker than his finger. He picked up the fake wand, holding it as though he was going to cast a spell, and while the paper ring wasn't exactly where it would need to be, he only needed to slide it about half an inch down, so that the paper ring was inline with where it was on his index finger only a few minutes before.
Harry pulled all his materials back out from the box and pulled one of the sheets of parchment towards him. He began to redesign the targeting array to work as a ring, instead of the normal flat design he had been using so far.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Hermione was having trouble sleeping again. Every time she fell asleep, her dreams always seemed to be some sort of variation of LeStrange coming after her, Harry or one of her friends. After waking up for a third time, this time with images of Daphne and Tracy being the latest victims of her overactive subconscious, she gave up on sleeping alone.
It was a little embarrassing sneaking into the boys' dorm, but it was more than worth it for a good night's sleep. Something about sleeping next to Harry was able to calm her anxieties enough that she could actually get to sleep.
Not to mention that she enjoyed hugging and lying next to him. It was something about being able to press up against him that helped her sleep better than any potion or spell could.
She had tried asking Madam Pomfrey for help with her dreams, but the mediwitch had explained that the dreamless sleep potion was dangerous if used for more than a few days. Apparently, it was far healthier for her to work though her issues without magic.
She climbed out of bed, and after a little fumbling in the dark, she pulled on her dressing gown and slippers. Her frequent trips to join her boyfriend in the middle of the night had taught her that the uncarpeted parts of the castle were rather cold on her bare feet.
As she walked down the spiral staircase that led from the girls' dorm to the common room, she mused over how close she had gotten to Harry. She knew that it wasn't normal to have such a strong relationship while she was this young, even in the wizarding world, where people were pushed by their magic to get together younger than they do in the Muggle world. She was still only fourteen, yet the solidarity of her and Harry's relationship made her feel that it wasn't going to end anytime soon.
She was brought out of her musings when she reached the common room to find that it wasn't empty; Harry was sitting at one of the desks, working away at something, completely oblivious to the fact that every other Gryffindor had gone to bed.
She tiredly shuffled over to him and looked over his shoulder. He was using the rune carving kit she had gotten him for Christmas, and was carving runes into a wooden ring while he constantly referred back to the mess of notes that he had, which had no organisation whatsoever, as far as she could tell.
"Harry, why are you still up?" Harry jumped when she asked her question, evidently not realising that she was there. His chair clattered to the ground and he was on his feet in an instant.
When Harry saw that it was only her, he visibly relaxed, though the sudden fright had left him out of breath, "Hermione, why did you sneak up on me like that? You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Don't be so dramatic", Hermione sighed, "I didn't sneak up on you. I walked over and asked a question. One you still haven't answered. Why are you still up?"
At Hermione's question, Harry finally looked around and saw that the two of them were alone in the common room. "Wha- where is everyone?"
"In bed."
"What time is it?" Harry asked. He wasn't talking to her; he was just thinking out loud as he pulled the watch her father had given him for Christmas from his pocket.
Surprise and shock spread over his face as he flicked the cover off the watch realised that the time was a little after 1AM, "Oh shit! I didn't realize it was that late. Sorry, I guess I just got caught up in my work. Speaking of which, I think I worked out the problem for the rune summoning. Turned out, the answer was rings."
"I thought you were already using a ring?"
" Rings , plural. Two to be exact. One on my finger and one on the wand, look," he picked up one of the fake wands; this one had a ring of parchment etched with runes wrapped around the handle, and a second paper ring hung loosely on the shaft of the carved stick. She watched as he slipped the second ring off the wand and put it on his own index finger.
Then, without warning, he threw the wand across the common room. It landed on one of the overstuffed comfy chairs near the fire. He then held out his hand, and the wand came whizzing straight back to his hand. He pointed the fake wand at Hermione's impressed face and said "bang!" like a kid pretending to shoot someone with their finger.
With the wand being fake, and Harry having not used a spell, there was obviously no effect, but it did show Hermione that the wand fit into Harry's hand in the same way he held it to cast spells. Hermione could see what he had been working on now; while the wand had gone to his hand when summoned, the angle in which it met his hand, and then the time it would require to right the wand, meant that it was inefficient in a fight, when every second could be the difference between winning or losing.
Hermione jumped up and down, shrieking in excitement, before throwing herself into Harry's arms, her nightmare completely and utterly forgotten in her excitement. "Oh, Harry, that's brilliant! You finally did it; I'm so proud of you."
She took the fake wand from his hand to examine his handiwork herself while he explained the finer details to her, "Of course, i'm not going to be using paper rings; that would make all sorts of problems. What I'm going to do now is carve some rings made out of wood , so that they'll be more durable-"
"Not tonight, you won't," Hermione said sternly. Harry opened his mouth to argue, but she silenced him with a look, "Harry, as much as you're excited to finish this idea of yours, and I'm excited to see it, you know you should be sleeping; we still have lessons in the morning."
"But tomorrow is the last day before half-term..."
"And our first lesson is potions . Do you really want to give Professor Snape an excuse to have you in detention, instead of practicing for your game against Slytherin? You know he's still mad you were able to do that essay. If you fall asleep in his lesson tomorrow, or if you don't even pay full attention, you know he will try to have you in detention on Thursday during the match," Hermione reasoned.
She saw the flash of understanding cross his face. "Damn, you're right; I should get to bed," He started packing up all his rune equipment, before he turned back to her, "Mione, why were you up?" It took him only a second to think of the reason, "Nightmares again?"
His concern bled through his voice, and he reached out to embrace her. She nodded and let him pull her into his side, his one arm wrapped around her shoulders while the other rest on her lower back.
Hermione breathed out and felt the anxiety slowly start to drain out of her.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"L-LeStrange was there...s-she was killing you, over and over again, and I couldn't move or help. I couldn't do anything but watch her hurt you..." She buried her face in his chest.
His right arm tightened around her, almost uncomfortably so, though she would never want him to let her go.
"Let's go get some sleep," He packed up his runes project with his free hand, and while it was harder to do so, he didn't even consider letting her go.
The two made their way up to the boys dorm, and Harry only let her go for a few minutes when he needed to change out of his robes. Hermione blushed as she saw Harry in nothing but his boxers as he pulled out a t-shirt; it was one of the ones that her father had given him in the few days between his arrival at home and their shopping trip. It was grey, with the slogan ' May the floss be with you' written across the chest, and her father had gotten it from a dental care conference a few years ago.
Harry climbed into the bed next to her, and she snuggled into him. The two of them quickly fell asleep.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Monday 30th May
Harry and Hermione's first lesson-free day of the half term break was interrupted before it could begin. The weather was warming, and the air was filled with sweet aromas as spring awoke the plants from their frost-induced slumber.
The two of them had planned to take their books out into the grounds with a picnic and take advantage of the sun, while studying for the exams that were suddenly looking very close.
Wood had tried to get the Quidditch team together for a practice today, but with the Ravenclaw Vs Hufflepuff match tomorrow, those two teams had priority for the pitch. The Badgers had it in the morning till lunch, and the Eagles had it from lunch to dinner.
The interruption to their plan came in the form of a beautiful white snowy owl bearing a letter addressed to the two of them. Harry exchanged some bacon from the serving platter in the middle of the Gryffindor dining table for the letter his familiar carried. "It's from your parents; to both of us," Harry informed Hermione after looking at the envelope and seeing his and Mione's names in her father's handwriting.
Hermione swallowed her mouthful of breakfast and looked over at the envelope, "You want to open it here, or should we take it upstairs?" They both knew that the letter was probably about whether he would be sent back to his relatives. It was why Hedwig had spent so much time in London since his conversation with the headmaster.
"Upstairs." Hermione nodded and they stood up, abandoning the remnants of her mostly finished breakfast.
The two made their way up to the Seventh floor in relative silence. Until the letter arrived, the thought of returning to the Dursleys had been an abstract concept, now that he was carrying the letter in his hand that might send him back there, everything that could mean was hitting him, and he could feel his anxiety rising to the point that it almost felt difficult to breath.
Hermione opened the Room of Requirement, and the two of them walked in. Harry was too focused on the letter in his hand to do more than notice that the room had the usual sofa that he and Hermione normally sat on.
He stared at the letter for almost a full minute, before he finally ripped open the envelope;
Hermione & Harry,
We got your letter. Sorry about not writing back straight away, but we wanted to get in touch with Director Bones before sending you a letter without any answers in it.
Director Bones has confirmed that she does not think that it would be in Harry's, or the wizarding world's, interest for him to return to the Dursley's. The fact that the chances are high that Harry would have to defend himself with magic, and in doing so risk revealing the magical world to us non-magical folks, presents too high a risk. While it is disturbing that that holds more legal weight in the magical world than the fact that Harry would be at risk, unfortunately we have to utilise that to keep Harry away from those 'people'.
It's also worth noting that Director Bones has not received any letters or messages from your Headmaster about Harry, and Dumbledore has apparently had plenty of opportunities to do so, as he corresponds with Director Bones regularly in his role as Supreme Mugwump. Speaking of, how can one man hold such important full time positions at the same time? Even with magic, it must be affecting the quality of his work? I'm not sure I like the idea of your schooling being sub-par because your Headteacher is spreading himself so thin.
Madam Bones also wanted us to give Harry a message; "Unless you receive a signed notice from her, or an official ministry of magic letter headed parchment telling you specifically that the relocation order has been withdrawn, then you cannot legally return to the home or neighbourhood of your relatives." She also advised that you don't meet with them in a muggle area, but said that if you wanted to meet them in a place like the Leaky Cauldron, then that would be acceptable, as any unprecedented outburst of magic there would be contained to the magical world.
Harry, If you do want to meet with your aunt and/or uncle, then Emma or myself will go with you. I know you will probably say you don't want to, and that is fine, just be aware that the option is open to you if you want it.
Director Bones has also been helping us to make some arrangements, so there will be a surprise waiting for the two of you when you get home...
The letter went on to talk about other things, with some details of Hermione's parent's lives and business. Harry skimmed through the rest of the letter, too concerned with what he had read about his relatives to take much notice of the rest of the letter. He would read the rest of the letter over later, once he'd stopped worrying.
He handed over the letter to Hermione. He took the time as she read it to let as much of the tension and anxiety leave him as possible. He didn't realize how much it was upsetting his stomach until he started to feel somewhat better.
He wasn't going back to the Dursleys!
He knew that the Granger's had promised that he would never go back, he also knew that they truly meant it. He wasn't naive though. There was only so much they could do if the ministry decided to send him back. He hated how little say he'd had in his own life.
That line of thought would only get him down, so he instead focused on Dan's mention of a surprise. Just what kind of surprise could Emma and Dan be arranging that would need Madam Bones's help?
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Harry gripped his broom tight enough that his knuckles cracked. Malfoy wasn't playing Quidditch. He was on the pitch as Slytherin's seeker, yes, but he seemed to be more concerned with showing off his new broom than actually trying to find the snitch. Instead of looking for the golden ball, Malfoy was performing stunts; everything from simple loops and barrel rolls, to more complicated free fall turns, where, instead of turning in an curve, you stop flying altogether and freefall a little before flying in a different direction. It could be a little faster, especially if you were heading down rather than up, but it was also a lot more dangerous to perform.
What was annoying Harry more was that he had already seen the snitch twice now but couldn't chance it, what with Malfoy's huge broom advantage.
The Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw match had gone to the Ravens, meaning that, if Gryffindor won by 180 points or more, they would get the cup, but if Slytherin won by just 60 points, the cup was theirs. Any other result between the two would see Ravenclaw crowned the Quidditch champions. Because of this, Harry couldn't go after the snitch until Gryffindor were at least 30 points in the lead. The score was currently 30 - 50 in their favour. The Slytherins were playing the same dirty tricks they always played, but their keeper and captain, Flint, was doing a much better job of guarding the hoops than normal, which meant that Angelina, Alicia and Katie hadn't been able to capitalise on the penalties that the Slytherins kept conceding as well as they normally would.
It wasn't that the three chasers were having a bad game at all. The three of them were actually playing better and more intensely than Harry had ever seen. Flint, however, was unfortunately having the best game of his life as well. He was making save after save that would have probably gotten past him last year.
Harry looked around, searching for something to do. As a seeker, he wasn't able to help his teammates as his role was to catch the snitch, and of course, he couldn't do that yet. What he really wanted to do was knock Malfoy off his broom.
Harry watched as one of the Slytherin chasers took a shot at the Gryffindor hoops, only for Wood to punch the ball back away to the pitch, straight into Katie's hands. The Gryffindor chasers passed the ball back and forth between themselves as they made their way down the pitch.
The Slytherin beaters tried to stop them, but Fred and George were just too much to handle. Wood's insane training had paid off, and the two human cannon balls were enjoying sending the bludgers straight at Malfoy. Their plan was simple enough; it didn't matter what kind of broom Malfoy had if he was unconscious. An unconscious seeker couldn't catch a snitch.
Angelina got her hands on the quaffle and took on Flint for her fifth attempt at scoring this match. So far, Flint had blocked three of her attempts. Harry held his breath as she entered the scoring area. She feigned a throw towards the right hoop, but the quaffle never left her hand. Then she turned sharply to the left hoop. Harry watched as Flint flew to cover the left hoop, and it appeared as though he hadn't been fooled by Angelina's feint.
But then the quaffle went straight to the right hoop that Angelina had targeted originally. It took Harry a few seconds to understand what he had watched. Angelina had done a double feint, and she had scored.
Gryffindor was 30 points ahead. If only he knew where the snitch was.
An idea suddenly flashed through Harry's mind. If he was going to do it though, the time was now. Malfoy was flying a lot higher than normal, confident that his broom's speed would allow him to beat Harry to the snitch from wherever he was on the pitch.
Harry dove.
And he dove hard, pushing his broom as fast as it would go. The crowd went wild, assuming that Harry knew where the snitch was and had just been waiting for the points to be in Gryffindor's favour. With all the commotion, Harry knew Malfoy was now following him. He must be pushing the Firebolt as hard as he could to close the gap between them.
Harry continued his dive. He even stretched out his arm as if he was reaching for the snitch. He could hear Malfoy behind him, "You don't stand a chance, Potter!"
Harry ignored him and focused on his plan. If this went badly, there was no way Hermione was ever going to let him play Quidditch again. The ground was rushing up at Harry dangerously fast, but he held the dive. A part of him wondered if this plan was more Gryffindor or Slytherin.
On one hand, the dive was pure Gryffindor boldness; it was reckless and daring, and more than a little bit idiotic, and yet, the whole plan hinged on being cunning enough to trick Malfoy into following him. And that was pretty Slytherin.
Harry held his nerve till the last possible second, and pulled up when he was only about twelve feet in the air. He was too close to the ground to avoid it completely, and he felt the short grass of the pitch wip at his knee as a warning to him just how close he was to disaster.
Malfoy, however, was going much faster than Harry, and he wasn't able to pull up completely in time. Harry didn't look back straight away, to concentrate on controlling his broom as he recovered from the dive. But, the loud thump and crack behind him was enough to tell him he had succeeded far better than he had planned.
Once Harry had regained enough control, he brought his broom around to look at what had happened to Malfoy, and upon seeing the sight that lay before him, he had to fight back raucous laugh. The blond git was already back on his feet, cursing up a storm, and the reason for his outburst was clear.
It was easy to see where Malfoy had hit the pitch; there was a six foot furrow carved out of the pitch, and sticking out of the one end was Malfoy's shiny new Firebolt. Or...at least half of it. The other half, the half with the twigs and stirrups, was lying at Malfoy's feet.
Harry's plan had worked out way better than he hoped. He had hoped that Malfoy would pull it off the dive sooner, once he realised it was a feint. He was hoping that when he did spot the snitch that Malfoy would hesitate and second guess before following, giving Harry a few extra seconds when it counted.
He never considered that Malfoy would overcommit to the dive. Maybe he thought that with his broom advantage he could pull off whatever Harry could do on his broom easily. If that was the case, then Malfoy had committed a basic fundamental error; the faster you are going the less time you have to react. It doesn't matter how good your broom's turning is if you don't react in time.
Whatever had caused Malfoy to plummet into the ground, the Slytherins, and Malfoy himself, were now down a broom. And a very good broom, at that. Madam Hooch called a time out while she flew down to check on Malfoy. The time out was technically against the rules of standard Quidditch. Usually, the other teammates were supposed to check on an injured player, while the referee continued the game. As Hogwarts was a school, however, as a teacher Madam Hooch had to take care of the students if they got hurt.
Harry flew over to the rest of the Gryffindor team. The six of them were all looking at him with unrepentant glee. As soon as as he was close enough to hear them, they started up;
"That was amazing!"
"Why didn't you tell us you were going to do something like that!?"
"That dive was legendary ..."
They were all talking over each other, and Harry only caught a few sentences before they calmed down enough to talk one at a time.
"Did you see the look on the Ponce's face?" One of the twins asked.
"Which one? The one eating the pitch, or the one in the stands?" Alicia replied with a grin. Malfroy's father was watching from the stands.
"Both!" The twins exclaimed in unison.
"Ok, calm down you lot," Wood took control of the conversation, "Malfoy's Firebolt looks like it's out of commission, but he himself looks mostly fine. I wouldn't be surprised to find out he has expensive Quidditch armour under his robes with the kind with cushioning charms to keep him safe when stuff like this happens. Don't forget that Malfoy still has his Nimbus 2001, so he will still have a broom advantage, albeit a lesser one."
"Harry can just break that one too," Katie crowed, and the other chasers nodded at her statement.
Harry was a little embarrassed by the chasers' faith in his skill. "Not likely, I didn't intend for him to crash. My guess is, he just didn't react fast enough at the speed he was flying at. He won't make the same mistake twice."
"He also won't be as overly confident on his Nimbus. He will actually be looking for the snitch instead of just showing off his fancy new broom," Wood continued. "We haven't won yet, but we have a good shot now. So, when Madam Hooch restarts the game, let's give it all we got. We can win this, guys, I can feel it," Wood really liked to give his speeches, even at times like this. Harry thought he would be a great coach In a sports film, giving one last speech in the final few minutes of a game where you only need one more goal; that would be just up Oliver's alley.
"And let's not forget-"
"No matter what happens here today-" The twins were back at their doublespeak.
"Win or lose Malfoy still broke his shiny new broom during his first game with it."
"And that will always be a win." The team laughed at that, and soon Madam Hooch was blowing her whistle to get their attention so she could resume the game.
According to madam Hooch, Malfoy was almost completely fine, a few bumps but nothing to worry about. Harry had no trouble believing their flying instructor, while she was no healer or medi-witch the former quidditch player was a dab hand at diagnostic charms.
The game restarted with fourteen of the fifteen flyers in the air: seven Gryffindors, one referee, and six Slytherins, as Draco was rushing to the Slytherin broom lockers to retrieve his old broom. Harry thought it was a pity that Malfoy didn't keep his Nimbus in his dorm, he would have loved to have had all the time it took for Malfoy to run there and back to look for the snitch.
Unfortunately, despite Harry's best efforts, when Malfoy returned Harry was still looking for the elusive golden ball.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
After the excitement of his dive and the destruction of Draco's new broom the game picked up. The Slytherin team's confidence took a dive and it showed in their game play. Gryffindor had already scored another four times to Slytherin's one. Every time Gryffindor scored it put more pressure on Malfoy and took a little off Harry. The green-clad blond seeker was frantically searching for the snitch now, a direct contrast to his attitude when he was flying his Firebolt.
Harry was also looking for the snitch, it had been forty minutes since the feint and there was still no sign of it. Harry looked around searching as he completed yet another loop around the pitch, still unable to locate the ball.
Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw one of the Slytherin chasers had the quaffle and was flying towards Wood for an attempt at a goal. A loud cheer erupted from the Slytherin stands, telling Harry, without even needing to look or pay attention to Lee Jordan's commentary, that the Slytherin chasers had closed the gap in points a little.
Just then, however, with everyone distracted by the goal Harry saw it! The snitch was hovering right behind the left golden hoop on the Slytherin side. The problem was that Malfoy was a lot closer to it than he was. If Harry just shot at the snitch like he normally would, Malfoy would see. With him being closer and having a slightly faster broom, there was no way Harry would get to the snitch first. He might still catch it in that situation, but that would be more because of Malfoy failing to catch it before Harry caught up.
Harry started flying across the pitch and slowly tracked towards the Slytherin goal hoops. He kept one eye on the snitch and one on the other seeker, but it was difficult; he didn't want to look directly at the snitch in case Malfoy saw where he was looking. He also didn't want to look like he was avoiding looking at an area for the same reason, and he had to be careful to not lose sight of the snitch. Harry slowly closed the gap between the snitch and himself. He was close to it now, just a little more to overcome the 2001's slight speed and acceleration advantage.
Then Malfoy turned towards the Slytherin goal and the snitch and started to accelerate. Harry pushed his own broom to its highest speed and the two of them sped towards the snitch. The chase was on.
Malfoy had a bigger distance to cover but not much of one, and with the broom advantage got to the snitch first. The tiny ball darted away from him as though his life depended on it. Of course, as it was enchanted to act like the Golden Snidget, a magical bird that was hunted to near extinction by being crushed to death by the people who caught them, acting like its life was on the line was exactly what it was supposed to do.
The two of them chased the winged ball as it wove between the goal posts and players. Both Harry and Malfoy had to dodge a bludger that Harry suspected came from a Slytherin beater; the twins were too good to send a bludger at Malfoy that would hit Harry it Malfoy managed to avoid it.
While Draco's broom was faster, Harry was reacting quicker to the snitch's change of direction so he was flying a shorter distance. In fact, Harry was somehow reacting at the same time as the snitch. If it turned left, so did Harry at exactly the same moment. Harry was confused as to how he could know where the snitch would go at the same time as the little ball moved. The ball dove down towards the pitch and the two seekers followed.
As Harry dove after the snitch, for a split second the sun was directly over his shoulder and hit the snitch with a blinding flash from the mirrored gold surface. For just a moment, the little golden ball was nothing but a white circle on a green background; Harry was reminded of Hedwig's games of follow-the-leader in the air currents around the towers.
Then it clicked. That was how he knew what the snitch was going to do. Brooms and other magical ways of flying didn't concern themselves with air currents, winds, or even wings. The snitch, though, was enchanted to move like a Snidget. And while the Snidget was a magical creature, it was still a bird. Birds used air currents to fly. Harry had been subconsciously following the air currents just like he did when he flew with Hedwig!
Harry followed the snitch as it dove straight down. It would have to change direction soon or it would pull a Malfoy and crash into the pitch. But which way would it go? Suddenly, Harry was struck with inspiration and looked not at the snitch but the grass below it. What direction was it blowing in? It was difficult to make out but he could just about tell.
Harry corkscrewed as he dove and started to pull up just a little in the right direction. Malfoy edged ahead a little but then the snitch changed direction and practically flew into Harry's outstretched hand. His fingers tightened around the snitch and he pulled up, holding the flying ball over his head as the stadium erupted in noise.
They had done it! Finally, after three years of being on the team, in Captain Wood's last year, they had finally done it. The Quidditch Cup was theirs!
The next few hours were filled with the cup being presented to the team. Colin Creevey insisted on getting a photo of each of them holding the cup individually, as well as one with the whole team where Harry and Wood were holding up the cup. Practically every member of Gryffindor came up and congratulated them. Hermione's congratulations was the most enjoyable for Harry as it came in the form of her pulling him aside when he walked into the changing room, pushing him against the wall, and kissing him like her life depended on it. They kissed for what felt like mere moments, but it was long enough for the rest of the guys on the team to get impatient enough to ask her to leave so they could shower and change.
Then it was back to the common room for the biggest party Harry had ever been to in his entire life. Even Hermione, not normally one to party, got the gramophone Harry had gotten her for Christmas out, and the twins were able to get a veritable mountain of food from the kitchens. They were the centre of attention as they entertained the crowd with a play-by-play of the match from their perspective, as well as a number of simple pranks that were good-natured and got everyone laughing. They were all still having a great time until one o'clock in the morning, when professor McGonagall came in and kindly but firmly told them all it was time for bed.