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Chapter Seventeen: Anticipation

A slightly chilly breeze rustled the leaves in the middle of the Quidditch field on early Saturday morning in the time shortly after Halloween as Harry sat cross legged in the middle of the field, deep in thought. The last couple of months since returning to Hogwarts for his fifth year had been eventful to say the least.

Umbridge seemed to be rather keen to be in the same corridor as Harry was at very odd times, as if she was attempting to catch Harry in doing some act that would be against the rules. Harry lost track of how many times he had to give the Higher Inquisitor/Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher the slip, which Harry felt must have left Umbridge frustrated time and time again.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts study group that Harry had created was going on pretty decently, even through there were points where Harry felt frustrated that some people weren’t picking up what he wanted them quickly enough. Still, they had come a long way in the past several weeks and Harry taught them to practically use several spells that he was certain would pop up on the O.W.L exams along with a couple of spells of Harry’s own invention that could be of potential use in an hazardous situation. One such spell that Harry particularly liked would be the Holographic Projection Spell. This spell projected a holographic image of the caster in a different location for up to twenty minutes. The Holographic Projection spell required little real magical power, but an insane amount of concentration to create a realistic holographic image. The amount of concentration that was required for this spell tended to be a slight psychological roadblock for a good percentage of people.

Harry reflected on recent events as he sat in the Quidditch Field, just a few hours away from the first Quidditch Match of the season, Gryffindor against Slytherin. His team trained rather hard, flying exceptionally well on the Firebolts that Harry had purchased for use of the Slytherin Quidditch Team. Harry personally believed that his team would still be pretty good if they were riding on the slowest brooms that were available. While they weren’t exactly the most experienced team in the world, but Harry doubted that any team in recent history in Hogwarts could be more energized in playing to the best of their abilities.

Harry pulled himself up before he lost himself too much in his meditation before walking across the field to get his Firebolt which was located in the stands to fly a few laps around the Quidditch pitch to get properly warmed up for the game later this morning.

Hours later, the Slytherin Quidditch Team was dressed and ready to go for the first Quidditch match of the year against Gryffindor. Harry walked into the room, with an unreadable look on his face. To say that Harry didn’t feel a tiny bit of apprehensive would be deluding himself to a really insane degree. He just tried to block out his own nervousness for the sake of the success of his Quidditch Team. After Harry paced back and forth the locker room a few more times, he decided that he had better say something encouraging to the Slytherin Team.

“Well everyone, this is it, this is the day that we have been training for over the past couple of months, our first match together in as a team” said Harry coolly. “The good thing about this being our first match is that we are an unknown force as a team and it would be difficult for our opponents to formulate a strategy that counteracts ours as they truly would not know anything about us, with the possible exception of me. Of course, we aren’t as experienced as most of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, so we’ll have to get creative to offset their experience. I have complete confidence that each of you will be a credit to the Slytherin house so get out there and play at your absolute best.”

Harry didn’t say another word as the other members of the Slytherin Quidditch Team followed him out to the field, looking focused on the match against Gryffindor this morning. The Gryffindor Team walked out of the locker room towards the center of the field along with the brand new Keeper Ron Weasley and the brand new Gryffindor Seeker, a nervous looking Seventh Year that Harry didn’t know off hand. Madam Hooch walked out, assuming her duties as Quidditch Referee, with the crate containing the two Bludgers, the Quaffle, and the Golden Snitch tucked firmly underneath her arm.

“Captains, shake hands,” barked Hooch before Harry shook hands with the Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain, Angelina Johnson before Hooch opened the box containing all of the Quidditch balls before tossing them into the air.

A second after all the Quidditch balls were launched into the air, fifteen brooms kicked off the ground and the first Quidditch Match of the season was underway.

“Welcome to the first Quidditch Match of the season involving Gryffindor taking on Slytherin,” said Lee Jordan, who was as usual being monitored extremely closely by Professor McGonagall should he get out of line. “I’m sure this match is one to watch for the simple fact as since there is a new captain of the team, who might not resort to some of the tactics that the previous captain, Flint did but of course only time will tell if we divert from the amount of cheating that…”

“Jordan, do try and be objective and keep your opinions about previous Quidditch Players to yourself,” said McGonagall in a warning tone of voice.

“Anyway this match is underway as Chaser Bell now has her hand on the Quaffle, who passes it to Spinnet but Slytherin Chaser Martinez zaps past Spinnet, swiping the Quaffle in a blink of an eye, which is not that hard to do on those excellent Firebolts that the Slytherin Quidditch Team has acquired but Bell manages to knock the Quaffle out of Martinez’s hand but she lets the Quaffle slip away from her, right into the hands of Slytherin Chaser Ginny Weasley, sister of veteran Gryffindor Beaters Fred and George Weasley, who zooms up forward, avoiding the Bludger and passing the Quaffle off towards Martinez, who looks to be passing it to Knox, no wait, Martinez fakes us out, before moving forward towards the Gryffindor goals,” commented Lee without taking a breath as Harry watched above, one eye looking for the Snitch and one eye watching the successful play from his Chasers. “Martinez aims the Quaffle towards the goal, guarded by new Gryffindor Keeper Ron Weasley and he dives to the left but Martinez shoots through the center hoop and Slytherin manages to score.”

Harry circled the field, seeing Ron wearing a look of frustration at his inability to block the last goal. Katie Bell managed to gain possession of the Quaffle but the two Slytherin Beaters darted forward, on either side of Katie who managed to find an opening to pass the Quaffle off to Alicia Spinnet. Alicia launched the Quaffle towards the Slytherin goal posts but Blaise expertly caught the Quaffle before passing it off to Isabelle who flew down the field, avoiding Fred and George smashing Bludgers towards her, before passing the Quaffle to Ginny who aimed the Quaffle towards the Gryffindor Goal Post and tossed it right for the center hoop. Ron hesitated and reached forward, just missing the Quaffle from going through the hoop, raising the score up twenty to zero in favor of Slytherin.

“Angelina Johnson quickly manages to gain possession of the Quaffle, moving towards the Slytherin goal posts, passing it to Katie Bell who moves forward but it looks like as if the Gryffindor Seeker Mullins has spotted the Snitch, but outrunning Potter might prove to be a bit more of a challenge than a player in his first match might handle,” said Lee in a booming voice but Harry was on the Gryffindor Seeker’s tail to prevent him from grasping the Snitch. “Potter looks to be darting in front of Mullins, with a diversionary tactic, causing Mullins to spin out of control on his broom. Mullins looked to be pretty lucky to fall off his broom. Tough luck as Bell passes the Quaffle to Spinnet who manages to fake Zabini out spinning towards the right and tossing the Quaffle around through the left hoop. Finally, Gryffindor manages to find its way on the board with that impressive throw.”

Harry glanced around for the Golden Snitch but it seemed as if that had vanished from sight. The Gryffindor Chasers managed to slip past another goal shortly, but four more attempts to gain a goal were blocked before the Slytherin Chasers managed to gain control of the Quaffle, much to the horror of Ron who looked on the verge of nervous collapse cause of nerves and dived the wrong way to the left on another attempt of a goal from Ginny, despite the goal being obviously thrown to the right without any diversionary plays.

“Thirty to Twenty in favor of Slytherin,” said Lee in a slightly depressed voice. “The Gryffindor Beaters now switch strategies, attempting to keep the Slytherin Chasers away from the Gryffindor goalposts. Two Bludgers are smashed towards Martinez by the two Beater Fred and George Weasley but the Slytherin Beaters Turner and Maff manage to protect her but Knox has the Quaffle. Katie Bell comes up from behind, blocking her from scoring and manages to pry the Quaffle away and aims the Quaffle towards the Slytherin Goal Post but Ginny Weasley manages to catch the Quaffle before passing it off to Isabelle Martinez. Martinez backwards passes it towards the goal and Slytherin pulls ahead further, pumping the score up to Forty to Twenty.”

Harry spotted the Golden Snitch flittering upwards towards the Gryffindor Goal Post and he zoomed upward. Mullins flew behind Harry, but the speed of his broom seemed to be a bit too much for the Gryffindor Chaser to handle, so he spiraled out of control nearly crashing into Katie and Angelina, but the Golden Snitch vanished out of Harry’s reach. Harry decided to back off, watching the game from up high while searching for the Snitch out of the corner of his eye. In the next half hour, the Slytherin Quidditch Team chasers scored six more goals against Ron, two for Victoria, one for Ginny, and three for Isabelle, but to his credit, Ron managed to block one attempted goal. The Gryffindor Team began to lose focus because of the Slytherin team pushing ahead with so many points, only scoring one goal within a half an hour window.

“Bell manages to gain possession of the Quaffle, passes it off to Spinnet, she flies to the side, avoiding a Bludger pelted at her by Turner, barely avoiding getting her head taken off by a frontal assault from a Bludger fired by Beater Maff but Fred and George Weasley manage to back off by pelting the Bludgers towards them, leaving the path open for Alicia to aim the Quaffle, towards the right,” commented Lee. “Alicia spins around quickly; she tosses it towards the center. Zabini blocks it! He tosses it back into the game, and Martinez gains possessing of the Quaffle, blasting forward, but the Quaffle pops right out of her hand after she flew way too hard, a simple, yet common rookie mistake in Quidditch. Angelina manages to grab a hold of the Quaffle in the confusion, and tosses the Quaffle towards the Slytherin goalpost and she manages to put the Quaffle right through the center hoop. Gryffindor manages to close the gap, at one hundred to forty, but Slytherin still remains in the lead at this time.”

Harry scanned the skies high above for the Golden Snitch, which disappeared from sight for a moment. Circling the field, Harry double checked to make sure that he did not miss the Snitch from the angle that he was searching a few moments ago. The Slytherin chasers managed to widen the gap in the score with two more goals, bumping it up to one hundred and twenty to forty before Harry spotted a flicker of gold hovering near the ground. In a flash, Harry hurtled towards the ground, chasing after the Golden Snitch, attempting to get after it before he lost sight of the Snitch once again. The Gryffindor seeker attempted to tail Harry, but Harry was too far ahead and he reached forward, reaching for the Snitch. Harry’s fingertips were on the Snitch when a Bludger was sent spiraling towards him.

“A Bludger manages to distract Potter for long enough for the Golden Snitch to get away and the Gryffindor Team to keep in the game,” said Lee. “On the other end of the field, Katie Bell has possession of the Quaffle but not for long as Isabelle Martinez manages to snatch the Quaffle before passing it off to Victoria Knox who is in position to toss the Quaffle. Ron Weasley dives to the side but he is unable to block and Slytherin scores once again, bumping the score up to one hundred and fifty to forty in favor of Slytherin.”

Harry zoomed around at the glitter of gold that he saw out of his eyes and the Golden Snitch was right in the crossfire, with Mullins already speeding towards it. Not wasting a second, Harry zoomed towards the ground, before shooting right in front of Mullins, causing the Gryffindor Seeker to spin to the side. Harry reached forward but a Bludger flew towards Harry at the speed of light, cracking Harry right in the right hand.

Harry slumped forward on his broom, in anguish, partly because of the Snitch once again flying out of sight, but also because of the fact that Harry was pretty damn sure that his right hand was broken from the Bludger smashing right into it at the speed of light. He shook his head, attempting to shut off the pain from coursing through his hand.

Ginny flew over towards Harry, looking concerned but Harry waved her off before answering the unasked question

“I’m fine,” muttered Harry in a pained voice, as he could barely concentrate because of the pain. “Just go and resume playing.”

Ginny paused for a brief second, frowning but Harry nodded, causing Ginny to fly off after giving a second glance at Harry.

Harry shook his head to clear his thoughts; his right hand was useless in attempting to capture the Snitch right now, so he needed to focus on using his right hand. In the corner of his eye, Harry saw Gryffindor managing to score another goal, managing to close wide point margin to a mere one hundred and fifty to fifty in favor of Slytherin. Harry looked up and sure enough; the Golden Snitch was hovering just about twenty feet above his head. Adjusting his broom, Harry blasted high into the air, reaching up towards the Snitch, before rolling underneath a Bludger and reaching up, clasping his left hand on the Snitch, earning another one hundred and fifty points that gave the Slytherin the definite win.

“Harry Potter managed to grab the Golden Snitch despite an injury in a completely fairly played game, giving the Slytherin the win by a whooping three hundred points to fifty,” stated Lee Jordan but Harry paid little attention as he dropped down to the field, with his team surrounding him and looking rather excited.

It took Harry just a few seconds to realize that the pain that was just causing his right hand to ache vanished exactly at the instant that he caught the Snitch.

“Excellent job everyone,” said Harry in an encouraging voice, as he tried to make sense of why the apparent injury to his hand mysterious vanished. “But that was only the first match of the season, we still have two more. However, if you keep this up, we should have no problem keeping the streak of the Slytherin House’s streak of holding the Quidditch Cup alive and well.”

Harry dismissed the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch Team, with the exception of Ginny who Harry motioned to stay behind.

“Ginny, something really strange happened with that Bludger,” muttered Harry. “It cracked into my hand at full force and my hand felt like it was broken up until I caught the Snitch then the pain left me in an instant.”

“Harry, I did see something strange when that Bludger struck you but I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me because of the fatigue of playing Quidditch for an extended amount of time,” said Ginny slowly, as if trying to figure out whether or not her eyes had deceived her. “But I’m almost certain for a brief minute that there was a third Bludger on the field and that was the Bludger that smashed into your hand.”

“Very strange,” said Harry. “Yet, I distinctly only saw two Bludgers on the field for the duration of the game and I’m at a loss at where a third Bludger could have come from.”

Before Harry could say anything, Hermione, Daphne, and Theodore managed to push their way through the crowd in the stands.

“Harry, are you alright?” asked Hermione in a concerned voice.

“I’m fine Hermione, my hand felt like it was broken once the Bludger hit but the minute I caught the Snitch, the pain vanished, which I still can’t wrap my finger around,” said Harry with a frown.

“Harry, I saw something very peculiar about that Bludger that struck you,” said Daphne. “Call me crazy, but a third Bludger materialized on the field long enough to smash you with full speed in the hand. And then the second it hit, the mysterious and illusive third Bludger looked to have vanished into thin air.”

“Daphne, I think we’re both bonkers because I saw the exact same thing,” said Theodore.

“So I’m now being attacked by phantom Bludgers that cause temporary injuries,” said Harry in a crisp voice. “I don’t like this. Something smells rotten but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

“Harry, the fact that something like this happened doesn’t worry me as much as how someone would get away with such an elaborate piece of spell work without being since,” said Hermione fretfully. “Whoever did this covered their tracks pretty well, and I’m not sure many might have looked twice at an attack disguised as a Bludger.”

Harry closed his eyes deep in thought. For once, he didn’t have an answer of how someone could pull this off or why this had happened.

“I’m really not sure if this incident can even be classified as an attack, Hermione,” said Harry slowly. “It’s something more complex.”

Harry looked at his friends with a serious look on his face before turning and walking up towards the school. Ginny, Daphne, Theodore, and Hermione followed Harry, not saying a word as it looked as if Harry decided that the subject wasn’t any more thought at this present moment in time.

Little did they know, the two shadowed figures who spied on Harry in Hogsmeade when he formed his Defense Against the Dark Arts study group watched Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Theodore, and Daphne leave the Quidditch field. The first shadowed figure pulled a two way mirror from underneath his sleeve before tapping it with his wand. The obscured features of their mysterious superior appeared on the other end of the mirror.

“The first test on Harry Potter has concluded and he seems as if he can adapt well enough to an obvious physical handicap to achieve success, on a short term basis at the very least,” said the first shadowed figure to his superior.

“Very well, has Harry Potter given any indication that he is wise to the fact that our organization is monitoring him?” said the mysterious superior in a low, cool voice.

“He seems suspicious that something out of the ordinary is going on but he gives no further indication that he knows what,” said the second shadowed figure.

“Interesting, continue the observation of Potter, as full and complete knowledge of his abilities is crucial for our organization,” said the superior in a calm voice. “We must be certain of every available outcome before taking a more hands on approach regarding Harry Potter. Still, we must gain a complete or rather close to complete assessment of Harry Potter’s abilities rather quickly, as the Dark Lord will not remain idle for too much longer when we gather information. We need to act promptly but discreetly if our plans involving the Dark Lord are to be carried out successfully.”

Without another word, the line of communication between the two shadowed figures and their superior went blank. The two shadowed figures moved to the side, moving off the grounds using their intended plan of escape before anyone got wise to their presence on the Hogwarts grounds.

In the early evening at Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge walked towards her office shortly after her most recent meeting with Minister Fudge. Hogwarts was slowly but acceptably being brought up to Ministry approved standards. All of the teachers had been evaluated and been sent reports telling them what they are to do to improve their teaching style.

Umbridge raised her wand, unlocking the door of her office before she pushed the door open, before walking through the door way. As Umbridge walked into the office, she felt something smack right into her face.

Staggering backwards from the mysterious attacker, Umbridge raised her wand,

“Lumos,” muttered Umbridge illuminating the office to a very strange sight.

Umbridge’s office contained a plague of toads. Toads were all over the floor, on Umbridge’s desk, and chairs, hopping all around causing all sorts of general mayhem. One of the toads leapt up, knocking over a bottle of ink from Umbridge’s desk. The bottle of ink sailed straight off the desk, smashing all over the floor.

Angrily, Umbridge raised her wand to attempt to get rid of these vermin who were polluting her office. If she ever gotten her hands on the person who did this, Umbridge would make sure they would pay dearly.

“Evanesco!” shrieked Umbridge pointing her wand at two of the toads. As the beam of light struck the toads they duplicated much to the absolute horror of Umbridge.

Umbridge cringed as she saw one of the toads hop, knocking over a stack of papers on her desk before one of toads grabbed her favorite quill in its mouth.

“You disgusting creature, give that back,” said Umbridge in a notable departure from her usual falsely sweet demeanor but her words fell on deaf ears as the toad hopped out of the open doorway with the quill his mouth. Umbridge winced, she had to get that quill back, not only she could go to Azkaban for possessing such an item but it was also an Umbridge family heirloom. Not to mention the fact that it was really rare, as the production of blood quills stopped during the thirteenth century because of some nonsense about them being used for cruel and unusual punishment. Umbridge believed that they were an excellent tool of conditioning the students of Hogwarts not to state Ministry approved opinions.

Umbridge decided to shift her attention on the more pressing problem that the problem of her office being infested with toads. She came to the conclusion that she couldn’t vanish them, because whoever pulled this prank on her had given the toads the ability to duplicate when someone fired a vanishing charm at it.

A toad barely missed catching Umbridge fight smack in the face as Umbridge’s unwelcome guests hopped around.

“Reducto!” cried Umbridge but all she managed to accomplish by this plan of attack was to blast a tiny hole right on the side of her desk.

“What seems to be the problem, Professor Umbridge?” asked a cool voice, which caused Umbridge to turn around to see Severus Snape standing in her office wearing his usual indifferent expression, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary from dozens of toads leaping in her office.

“These blasted things, they’re everywhere!” shrieked Umbridge. “Wrecking my entire office!”

“Funnily enough, I deduced that much from when I walked in here,” said Snape coolly while entertaining the notice of making that horrid woman squirm for a little bit more before taking deciding to take pity on her.

Snape raised and flicked his wand causing the toads to disappear in the blink of an eye with a silent Finite Incantatem spell.

The minute the toads vanished from sight, green fog materialized in Umbridge’s office, before contorting into a message that read:

Umbridge, stop meddling in things that you have no business meddling in. You have been warned. The next time I catch nosing around my business; there will be consequences far more serious than your office getting trashed by a plague of toads.

Umbridge had a look of fury on her face as the message slowly faded before vanishing but quickly contorted it into a forced, artificially sweet smile as she turned her attention to Snape.

“I assume this isn’t a social visit Snape, you did come to my office for an important reason,” said Umbridge.

“No, Lucius Malfoy sent me a very important message with some pressing inside information straight that he managed to find out when he was being sent to Wizengamot for investigation and told me to deliver it to you,” said Snape.

Umbridge nodded as Snape handed her the message, wondering what exactly Malfoy knew that she did not. She made a mental note to read the message after she had cleaned up the message those horrid toads made. Whoever pulled this prank would be found out and Umbridge would personally make sure they were expelled for vandalizing her office. This was second only to finding out what Harry Potter was up to. Umbridge knew the boy was up to something that directly contradicted Ministry law but she couldn’t pinpoint any information that might incriminate Potter. When Umbridge found enough information to convict Potter of treason against the Ministry of Magic, she would personally make sure the boy received the Dementor’s Kiss. He was simply too dangerous for the Ministry of Magic to let live. The anticipation of finding information to convict Potter would be most certainly worth the final award of seeing the meddlesome brat getting utterly destroyed.

Harry Potter stood in the corridor right across from where Umbridge’s office was located, wondering if his little message got through that woman. Looking over the highly illegal dark magic implement of torture that he had in his hand, Harry became sick to his stomach and he had a strong suspicion of what exactly Umbridge was using that blood quill for. The second Harry could get concrete proof of Umbridge’s crimes, he was going straight to the Wizengamot and if Harry had anything to say about it, that foul woman would be receiving the Dementor’s Kiss.

Sufficient to say, this disturbing turn of events knocked the incident earlier in the day with the phantom Bludger right to the back of Harry’s mind.