Vicis Vulnus

Chapter Three. Unicorn Blood

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"HERMIONE!"

Harry bolted up, feeling himself covered in sweat. Normally his Occlumency would prevent himself from suffering from nightmares, but with the stress of going back and reliving his past he had been neglecting some more important aspects of his old skills. Wiping his brow he checked the time. Harry shook his head and stood up, dragging a pouch out from under his pillow and throwing it over his neck. Next he changed into some comfortable sweater and jeans- it was Saturday and they didn't have to wear their school robes- and left the dormitory. Sleep had become a luxury to him during his past life, and failing to get the needed amount didn't bother him so much anymore. When he first jumped back in time his younger body had needed to adjust to his new/old habits and magic power, but after practicing for over a year it was no longer a problem. He remembered first going over the procedure with Hermione, all the work that had to be done just to get him this far.

"It's like this Harry," Hermione said, reaching over his shoulder to fix the runic arrangement laid out on the desk. "The feoh looks like an os here, that's not right, and your kalc is off, it's like-"

"Hermione!" Harry said, stopping her mid-rant. The girl looked down and Harry motioned toward his pile. "This is only a rough draft, wait until it's done, okay?"

Hermione pulled her hand back and nodded mutely, a small flush on her cheeks. Looking around the room she spotted a book lying on the fireplace's mantel and walked over to grab it. Once it was in her hands she opened it briefly, closed it, began walking back over toward Harry but stopped, after looking around she made her way toward the sofa. Harry sighed as he heard her sit down and looked back at his work, but almost immediately there was a rustling sound coming from Hermione's loose blue sweater as she stood up and walked back over to stand behind Harry. After a moment of silence Harry asked, "Do you want to do this?"

"If you're having trouble," Hermione responded promptly. Harry just sighed and pushed his chair out to move, letting his friend take over his work.

"Sorry Harry," Hermione said guiltily. "I know you can do this, but it has to be perfect-"

"I know, I know," the emerald-eyed male replied. He walked over to the abandoned couch and plopped down, watching as Hermione began rearranging his papers. "Did you look up whatever it was you were talking about yesterday? You said it was a catch."

There was a pause while Hermione frowned at one of the sheets of notes in front of her. After coming to some conclusion she put it down in a different position and turned to view Harry fully. "Yes, some of the numerals seemed off in the overall arithmancy of the ritual. I wanted to make sure they were right, because if they were than I realized there was going to be a problem once we got back in time. You see, the wizard who made this spell intended its use to be for adults, not children. The entire spell was customized to be used only once and to fit his needs, nobody else's. We know Wirewood died before he was able to use it, so we can't even be fully sure if it'll work."

"But we're assuming it will," Harry interrupted, trying to get her to the point. Whenever they spoke about actually using the ritual Hermione would become nervous, and bring up all the impossibilities of the idea and what could happen or go wrong. Admittedly, he wasn't quite a fan of the idea either, but if there was any chance it would work, he wasn't going to give it up. "So what's the catch?"

"Well, Wirewood's idea was that he could send himself back to his younger body, and relive his youth," Hermione continued, barely registering the fact he had interrupted her. "We know this much from his notes. For this though, he would need to make sure his- what was it?- 'withering cynical brilliance' wouldn't hamper the things he wanted to accomplish while still keeping all of his future knowledge. Wirewood crafted the ritual to send him back to his desired age while keeping his initial youthful instinct present. Do you understand what this means?"

Hermione turned toward Harry, looking at his blank expression desperately. For a twenty-one year old man he could pull of the bemused student rather well. She sighed, and gestured roughly toward the papers on the desk. "It means, that when we go back in time we'll take over the forms of our younger selves and know everything we know now, but we're still going to want to act like children. Bits of our original personalities will leak through what we've become."

Harry thought about what Hermione had said, nodding slowly. "Okay, that might be a problem...but Hermione, you've always been mature for your age. And I've never exactly been a kid, if you know what I mean. I think it'll be fine, we'll just need to make sure we keep on track, that's all." Noticing her opening her mouth to argue he plowed on. "What about the attachment spell you were adding on it? To give us an item we can take back with us? We can add some sort of guide into our object, so we'll know what we're suppose to be doing."

"That's giving me some trouble, but it should work," Hermione relented. "We'll vanish the objects during the beginning of the ritual after putting a special Name on them, then we can summon them from their nonexistent state once we're our younger selves. We just need to decide what we're bringing back- if it has too irregular of a magical signature than it could make the spell more difficult. If it works at all."

The spell had ended up working after Hermione tried it various times, the main concern having been whether they could still summon their objects after going to the past when they wouldn't have yet existed. They had been relying on the theory that vanished objects go both nowhere and everywhere, including different times. Harry was able to come back in time on his own after Hermione had passed away and the scroll finished setting. The change had been rough, and it took a while for Harry to be able to keep his magic from getting out of his control with his ten-year old temper. He admitted that it hadn't made his tenth birthday very fun, but he hadn't been willing to risk trying for eleven and not having enough time to prepare for Hogwarts.

Creeping quietly into the common room he looked around to make sure there was no one else awake. Once he had checked thoroughly, he opened the pouch around his neck and pulled out two objects he didn't want anyone else to see. His invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map, both from his original timeline. Before jumping back he collected all the valuable items he had or that would be needed for the war and stored them inside his pouch, which had a feather light spell and extension charm so it could carry much more than what it appeared to be able to. He had gotten Hermione to do it for him in the original timeline, taking the idea from her beaded handbag. Unlike her bag however, his was made of Mokeskin, the last present he ever received from Hagrid, and had special traits to avoid anything inside being stolen.

Throwing the cloak around his shoulders and pulling it over him, he checked the map and carefully made his way out of the common room. The castle was empty at this time of night, and he began wandering around, thinking of what he should do. Finally he reached a decision and began making his way out to the lake to relax. He carefully pushed his way out of the front doors and down to the lake, following the shore with the Forbidden Forest behind him. Once he reached a part of the lake that was hidden behind a clump of trees Harry sat down, watching the water lap against the rocks near him. The air was cool, but it was still early enough in the season where his sweater was enough to keep him warm. He was so enthralled in simply staring at the moon's reflection that he didn't notice the sound of hooves coming up behind him. The moment he did he stiffened, but quickly relaxed as he remembered he hadn't taken his cloak off. There was no way a centaur would notice him. It didn't stop him from being nervous however, and he glanced to his side. Only to find it wasn't a centaur.

A large black Thestral was sniffing around the shore covered in shadow, and it seemed to be getting closer to where he was sitting. Harry reached out an invisible hand and stroked its neck, hoping it wasn't going to freak and bite him. It turned its head toward him at the touch, but didn't make any aggressive movements. Harry smiled and pulled off his cloak. They were creepy as hell, but he kind of liked the skeletally winged horses. Once it was able to see him it came closer, giving him another few sniffs before turning to the lack shore. Apparently, now that it know what he was it wasn't interested. Harry laughed, wishing half the wizarding world was like that. He continued to stroke the creature, marveling at the fact that he could still see it when his fingers ran across something sticky. He pulled back suddenly and inspected his hand in the moonlight.

It was a silvery-blue liquid and shone brightly once it was in the rays of the moon. Harry felt himself choke, and swerved his head back up at the Thestral. He got up slowly, trying not to startle the creature while pulling out his wand to cast Lumos. The foreign blood was splattered along its side, and Harry felt himself stumble back. When were the unicorns suppose to start being attacked? Not this soon, surely. Why was there unicorn blood here then? Harry fought to stay calm. He hadn't done enough to change such an important event, he barely acknowledged Quirrell at all. Then he had to pause and wonder- maybe nothing had changed. Was Hagrid certain that the unicorns were only attacked later? Could there have been a few he didn't notice dying before that? Harry nodded mutely. He would have to visit Hagrid after tryouts that day. Until then, he quickly conjured up a vial and summoned the blood on the Thestral's body to go in the container. He had no idea if he would ever find a use for unicorn blood later, but he knew that if he did he would never have the courage to kill one of the creatures himself, so this was the best he was going to be able to do.

"Hey…" he asked the Thestral quietly. It turned its head to look at him. "C-could you bring me to wherever this unicorn was hurt?" He held up the vial and felt his voice stutter- not out of fear of the Thestral but horror at what he was actually about to do. The creature looked at him for a moment before turning its head back toward the forest. "If it's still alive I can try to help it. If not…"

There was a silence. Then the Thestral looked back toward Harry, and next thing he knew he had thrown his cloak back onto him and clambered onto its back. It flapped its wings and they were flying straight into the forest at an amazing speed. Harry watched as the trees blurred past him, and tightened his grip as they swerved to avoid branches and vines. The trip seemed to go on for a long time, the trees getting thicker the further in to the forest they got. Finally he felt them beginning to slow down and he caught sight of silvery blood glinting wherever the moon crept through the branches. There was a large puddle of the liquid where the Thestral finally stopped, and Harry felt himself let out a shaky breath. If the unicorn wasn't here it meant it might still be alive. He wasn't sure why he cared so much, but he realized he did, and that was all that mattered. He looked around, the trees were extremely thick and he wondered how they hadn't crashed into something during flight. This unicorn was obviously much deeper into the forest than the first one Hagrid would find later. In a way this comforted Harry, because it meant that it was quite likely nothing had changed so far.

He climbed down from the Thestral's back, glancing at it in worry that it would fly away. It seemed content to shuffle along behind him however, as if it knew he would be needing a ride back and was willing to wait for him. Harry pat its neck gratefully and made his way toward the puddle of blood, looking for a trail that would lead away from it. Seeing the globs continue deeper into the forest he lifted his wand and cast a soft Lumos spell, hoping Quirrell wasn't still nearby to notice. He followed the straggly line over the knotted tree roots- he was certain that this was the deepest into the forest he'd ever been before. After a heart stopping moment when he stepped onto a twig that let out an audible crack, he silently cast a muffling charm on his shoes as not to make any more noise when he walked. After what seemed like hours of searching Harry finally spotted a white glow coming from between two large trees, and made his way over warily, keeping to the shadows of the foliage.

The sight made him want to throw up and cry in relief all at the same time. The unicorn was obviously badly hurt with its blood spilling around the tree roots while it lay in a crumpled heap, but there wasn't any cloaked figure around trying to drink from it, so he figured it had gotten away in time. Harry moved forward cautiously, making sure it wasn't a trap set up for him and made a sweep of the area with some detection spells to ensure that there weren't any other creatures nearby save the Thestral that had stopped just behind one of the trees to watch him.

Finally pleased that he wasn't in danger, Harry knelt beside the unicorn and began inspecting the damage. It looked like it had been hit with a severe cutting hex along its thigh and its leg was swollen. "Hey, err, girl." Harry began in a calm voice, trying to alert it to his presence without startling it. "I'm going to try to help you, okay? So just stay calm, I won't hurt you."

The unicorn made no acknowledgment of him, and Harry hoped that it was still alright. He pulled out a book from his pouch titled The Art of Healing: Volume 3 - Magical Creatures. He had originally bought the series of books for the human aspects, but after saving Dobby from a fatal stab wound with the others in the set he had begun carrying them all around with him. He flipped the book open to the section on magical horses and quickly looked at the heading of 'wounds'. It wasn't until after he had finished cleaning it and casting the appropriate charms to still blood loss that he heard a noise coming from his right. He spun toward the noise and raised his wand. A moment later he identified the sound of hooves and lowered it fractionally.

From behind one of the trees a trio of centaurs stepped forward, ones Harry recognized from his time in the forest in the past life. They stopped upon seeing someone kneeling beside a fallen unicorn, and the tiny space grew deathly silent, but Harry could care less what it looked like to them. Instead he turned back to the creature in front of him, trying to remember where he had left off.

"What are you doing, boy?" the black haired centaur called Bane asked. He was looking between the two of them suspiciously, but at least Harry had the grim pleasure of knowing they didn't seem to think he was responsible for its injury.

"Trying to help," Harry said, glancing back down at the book. There was silence between them again as Harry found the next spell that he cast silently onto the wound. He felt a wave of relief as he saw the wound begin returning to a healthier color instead of the sickly pale it had been growing.

"How did you know the unicorn needed help?" Firenze questioned quietly, walking over to stand closer behind Harry.

Harry jerked his head back at the Thestral that had settled down behind him while muttering a spell under his breath. Finally he answered, "Saw the blood on the Thestral down by the lake and I asked him to bring me here." Then he decided to ask his own question. "Why are you here?"

There was a moment of pregnant silence before Bane answered, "Mars is growing brighter."

Harry resisted snorting. It would figure, even at a time like this he wouldn't get a straight answer from them. He cast another few spells, and was glad to see the wound finally close itself. He leaned back and sighed, running his hand through his short raven locks- only to regret it a moment later when he discovered that there was now blood all over his hair as well as hands and clothes. He looked down at himself, indeed, he was soaked through with the glimmering liquid. He glanced at the unicorn in worry, hoping he had done enough to help it survive. He couldn't replace its blood the same way he could with a human- he simply didn't have the resources to do it. They sat in silence, the only sound being the slightly labored breathing of the unicorn which was growing steadily better.

Unable to hold himself back any longer he turned and looked at the three centaurs. "Do you think she'll be alright?"

If the question surprised them they didn't show it. Instead Ronan stepped forward and knelt down to look at the closed wound, and he seemed to come to a conclusion after debated thought. "The healing was done well. It is up to the unicorn now if she'll survive."

"But do you think-?"

"Mars is getting brighter," Bane answered, gazing at the sky between the trees. Harry resisted smacking himself in the head repeatedly. These people were bloody annoying- whatever else they might also be. They fell silent, not saying anything. Finally Harry felt a tug of weariness pulling at his vision and decided that he had done all he could. He stood up shakily, the exhaustion of his magic and pure fatigue taking its effect.

"I've done all I can think of to do," he said, rubbing his eyes while ignoring the sticky feeling he got from the blood clinging to his face. He checked his watch and sighed. 4:43 in the morning. He was pleased that Quidditch tryouts weren't until after dinner or he doubted he'd be able to attend. He slowly made his was over to the Thestral which got up as it saw him approaching. Harry turned and gave the best wave he could muster to the centaurs before saying, "I have to get back to the castle. Take care."

"You as well, Harry Potter," Firenze said as the centaurs watched Harry stumble onto the Thestral's back while slipping his cloak back over his shoulders and taking off. He whispered instructions asking it to take him straight to Gryffindor Tower and the creature complied. Instead of weaving its way through the forest like before it shot straight up so it was over the trees, and flew toward the castle without the previous jolting. Harry climbed through the tower window after checking the map for anybody's presence and stroked the Thestral's neck in thanks. He watched it fly back to the forest before turning around and heading toward the showers to wash up.

Walking back to the dormitory after his quick shower he began hearing a commotion, and quietly opened the door to peer inside.

"Mister Potter!"

He jumped, and looked wide-eyed at their Head of House standing in their dormitory, glaring at him with a livid expression on her face. "Eh?" was the only genius reply he could think of.

"Where have you been?" she asked in an icy voice. "Wandering around the castle with Misters Weasley and Longbottom perhaps?"

"Huh?" He asked again, looking around the dormitory. Both Seamus and Dean were watching him, but for the first time he noticed his other two dormitory companions missing. Where were they? Neville wasn't the type to just wander off, and it had always been him who got Ron into that kind of trouble. "Wandering around the-?" Deciding he would sort that out later he turned back to his Head of House, who was glaring at him while waiting for a response. "I don't know what you're talking about, Professor."

"I couldn't sleep so I figured I'd go take a shower," He gestured toward his wet hair. McGonagall watched him for a long moment, as though trying to detect a lie.

"And how long where you in there for exactly Mister Potter? Mister Weasley reported that your bed had been empty for quite some time."

Harry felt his jaw drop. The Weasel had done what?! He felt a flush build up on his face and- trying to figure out what he was going to do to the redhead later- answered her question. "I was down in the common room reading for a while first, Professor." He held up his book to show he wasn't lying. Well, not completely. "I saw the time and decided for a shower before everyone else would be waking up. I haven't been wandering around the castle ma'am." Which was again true. Sort of. He had been wandering around the forest, not the castle. If you didn't count going through the castle to get to the forest.

She seemed to take in his insulted expression, and proof that he did look wet and was carrying his reading material as a sign that he was telling her the truth, because she nodded. "Very well Mister Potter. I have some business I need to go back to, for now you should all return to bed."

The three remaining Gryffindors watched her go silently. Finally Harry turned to look at his roommates. "What the bloody hell is going on?" He demanded tiredly.

"Wish we knew mate," Dean replied before rolling back onto his bed. Seamus shrugged, and Harry shook his head in defeat, figuring he'd find out the next day.

"How long do you plan to stay in bed?" An annoyed voiced asked, pulling back his curtains and letting in the burning light.

"Merlin Hermione!" Harry said, turning over to avoid being hit by the harsh rays that were seeking his cozy flesh and sleepy retinas. He swore the sun was really a magical creature that wanted to destroy all sleepers, there was really no other way to explain it. "It's Saturday!"

"Yes, and breakfast is almost over," she continued. "Weren't you going to try out for Quidditch later? That means you need to get your homework done now. Come on, I've already planned out what we're doing first. Snape's essay is rather long, we should get to start on it sooner, and we still need to practice for Charms. Are you up yet?"

"Yes Hermione," he droned, rolling into a sitting position as he looked around for his discarded shirt. He was still wearing his pants, so he didn't care for Hermione's presence. Even if he did, she was standing over by the window looking out toward the forest, so she didn't see him getting up. "Then we need to work on our charts for Astronomy. After that we can go to lunch, finish our Herbology homework and Transfiguration essay. I already did my Defense Against the Darks Arts work, you did too, right?"

"Yeah, finished that last night," Harry said throwing his pouch over his neck and motioning to her that he was ready to go. "We got hit hard with homework this weekend though. We normally don't have this much."

"We did," Hermione said, walking down the spiral staircase. She still seemed to be in an extremely annoyed mood. "It would figure that today you wanted to waste time on a broomstick."

Harry frowned. "Err, something up?"

"You haven't heard?" She said, turning back to look at him even more crossly.

"I was sleeping," he reminded her with an exasperated grin.

"We lost a hundred house points last night."

It took a moment for her words to sink in, then Harry blanched. "What?"

"Yes, thanks to those selfish, immature, disrespectful prats! I can't even believe they would do something like that, honestly, you'd think they could just grow up. But no, Ronald and Neville- I can't even believe Neville got dragged into it, he's normally so quiet!- but Ronald and Neville were both caught, wandering around school after hours! They lost us a hundred house points! Fifty each!" Everything was said extremely quickly, and Hermione took a long breath, trying to calm herself down. Reaching the foot of the stairs she looked back at him. "I heard they tried to drag you into it as well."

Flashes of the night before came back, and Harry recalled what McGonagall had been saying. "Yeah…" Harry said, "Professor McGonagall was in the tower this morning. She asked me where I'd been-"

"Where you'd been?" Hermione practically shrieked. "You mean you weren't there?!"

"I was coming back from taking a shower," Harry lied defensively. "I couldn't sleep, so I read a book for a while and took a shower. When I went back to bed she was there and asked me where I'd been. I guess Weasley said something to her."

"Harry, you should wait until morning to do things like that! What if you hadn't come back in time, you could have lost us even more points!" Hermione said.

Harry stopped and sent a minor glare at her, saying in a flat voice, "Hermione, I didn't do anything wrong last night." He couldn't consider saving a unicorn wrong, even if he had been breaking rules to do it. "If I hadn't come back in time I would have seen her in the morning to straighten things out. Don't worry about it so much."

"Don't worry?" Hermione repeated, but her voice had gotten a little calmer. "Of course I'm going to worry!"

Harry shook his head. "Come on, let's get some food, I'm starving." Then he added with a grin, "My epic nighttime adventures wore me out."

Hermione huffed behind him, sending a glare into his back.

As soon as they entered the Great Hall the entire Gryffindor table turned to see who'd entered. Noticing it wasn't who they wanted- err, didn't want- they went grudgingly back to their food. The air was thick as Harry and Hermione sat down, pulling food trays toward them silently. Harry felt it was extremely awkward that for once this atmosphere wasn't directed at him, and was afraid that if he made a sound he would be gutted for disturbing the other Gryffindors anger. Hearing the doors open behind him he felt the others turn around. The table went absolutely silent- how did it go silent? Harry briefly wondered, it was already silent!- and he knew that Ron or Neville had entered. After a moment he heard a small squeak beside him, and looked to his side to see Neville standing there, almost begging with his eyes for a seat. He saw Hermione was glaring at him along with everyone else, but knowing how he had always felt whenever this happened to him nodded his head and let the boy sit beside him. A number of the tables glares were turned on him.

Ignoring them all he asked in a neutral and quiet voice, "What happened last night? I know you, it seems a little odd for you to just get up and cause trouble. Something else must be going on, am I right?"

Neville nodded, but he still seemed scared by the way he was looking around at the table. Hermione looked over with interest, although she didn't seem quite as forgiving as Harry. "Whatever it was it was wrong! Why would you do something like that, did you even think?"

"Hermione," Harry said, glancing at her. "I want to hear this, then I want to decide if it was wrong. There's a difference, you know."

She looked completely confused, as did Neville. Nobody else was within earshot. "A difference in what?" The bushy haired girl asked finally, frowning.

"Breaking the rules and doing something that's wrong," Harry replied, shrugging. He turned to look at Neville. "You should eat something, I have a feeling you'll need it."

Hermione looked completely aghast. "What are you talking about Harry? Rules are rules because breaking them is wrong! That's why they exist!"

"I disagree," He said calmly. "Right and wrong are differences in perspective. You've heard the expression, 'there is no black and white, only shades of grey' before, right? Rules are made by people with one perspective, but they might be followed by someone with another. If I left the common room after hours and wandered around the castle out of boredom, that might be wrong-"

"That would be wrong!"

"-but if I left the common room because I knew my friend was lying unconscious in a bathroom somewhere for some reason, it would be okay."

"What? That's ridiculous! How would you even know if something like that had happened? You would have had to have seen the unconscious friend first, before you left the common room, and then it'd be wrong to walk away until after hours just to go back and help them! That, or you left the common room first for no reason, then found the friend, in which case the action of leaving would still be wrong, even if they did something right while you were out!" Hermione huffed.

Harry cringed. "Alright, alright. Not the best of examples."

"I would say!"

"Anyway…" Harry said, rubbing his neck while trying to find the right words. "Listen, I don't know how to say it, but I know what I'm saying, okay? I just want to know why. The reason is more important than the action to me, okay?"

Neville had been listening to their conversation silently, but as Harry turned back to look at him, he gulped. "I-it was…well…Y-yesterday, after you and Hermione left dinner, M-Malfoy came over. He started saying some things, and him and Ron got into a fight. So t-they a-agreed to meet each other this morning for a W-wizards Duel. At three thirty in the Trophy Room. I heard him get up and I woke up, but by that time y-you were gone." He looked at Harry like he had been betrayed. "Ron thought you had found out and gone to tell McGonagall. I-I tired to stop him, but he told me to b-bugger off and that he was going to go to meet Malfoy, t-then find you and make sure you didn't tell anyone. I only meant to follow him out a little!" Neville suddenly said with emphasis. "B-But when I went to go back inside the Fat Lady was g-gone. I didn't want to stay out there and get caught! A-and you were gone!"

"He thought I had someone managed to find out at three in the morning and would run off to tattle on him?" Harry asked incredulously. "At three in the morning? I was…honestly."

"But where were you?" Neville asked. "You weren't in your bed, you weren't in the common room…" Hermione's head snapped up, and she swerved to view Harry.

He shrugged. "We probably just missed each other when I was off to the bathroom, but I was reading for most of the morning down in the common room." He appreciated the way the prospect of torture could make him into a better liar. For most of his youth the first time he couldn't tell a lie to save his life.

"O-oh," Neville said quietly, looking down.

"Sorry Nev," Harry said, trying to make it seem what he did really wasn't so bad and coach the boy's confidence up a little, knowing his ego was going to be suffering with everything else. Neville muttered something under his breath waving it off, but didn't seem to brighten up any.

"Harry," Hermione said, catching his attention. She motioned toward his watch. "We have to go to the library to start our homework." She looked uncertainly at Neville, and deciding to follow her friend's example asked, "Would you like to come with us?"

The round faced boy looked up and shook his head. "No thanks Hermione, I'm…just going to go back to the common room. Thanks guys."

They both watched him slump off out of the Great Hall, which was less crowded then it had been when they first entered. Exchanging glances they got up and followed their friend out, but turned in a different direction as they headed off to start their work.

That night after supper Harry went down to the field with Hermione, whom had brought a book to enjoy while waiting for Harry's turn. Possibly even during Harry's turn, the boy wasn't completely sure. He was happy that she was coming at all however, and didn't push the issue. The night was cool, and it was still light enough for them to see the grounds clearly. Wood was waiting down by the pitch and inspecting some of the brooms that the applicants would be flying, a grim line forming on his lips. The rest of the team players were lounging around, looking the field over and glancing at the people who had come down. Harry had desperately wanted to pull out his Firebolt (which he had gone back to retrieve later in the war; the Dursley's never went back to Private Drive and the Death Eaters had ignored his small pile of belongings while searching for him- it had been one of the few things he had found comfort in once things had gotten much worse) but knew it wouldn't be possible since it wasn't invented yet. Instead he picked up one of the better brooms from the pile Wood was standing by.

The Keeper saw him and nodded, unsurprised by him showing up. Harry had to figure that Madame Hooch had given Wood the information of everybody that would be coming down. Then he frowned. She hadn't done that for him when he was Quidditch Captain. Could it be she actually mentioned him because she thought he was a good choice? That would be even better. He noticed another student come over to grab a broom and was both relieved and disappointed when he saw it was McLaggen. He looked over to the side and noticed that there was a small group of people waiting. After thinking for a moment he remembered that there was also a chaser being replaced at the same time. He saw Katie Bell in the group, but she wasn't looking over at him so he didn't say anything.

"Who is that?" Wood asked frowning as he motioned toward Hermione's figure sitting in the stands. "I wanted to keep this as private as possible."

"Who do you think it is?" Fred asked sarcastically while George nodded his head toward Harry. Wood glanced at the raven haired boy before back at the stands and made a small nod, turning to walk over to the people trying out. Harry stared at him before turning to look at Fred and George. What the hell was that? The two of them just grinned before looking after their captain. Wood motioned for the Gryffindors trying for Seeker to stand back while the Chasers were given their tryout first. There were three of them who stepped aside, Harry, a boy he recognized as Towler from Fred and George's year, and McLaggen. What McLaggen was playing at with trying to be Seeker Harry had no idea since his build suggested either a Beater or Keeper.

Deciding it wasn't his business Harry watched as the hopeful-to-be-Chasers flew the length of the pitch and back. Afterward Wood directed them to try to get five Quaffles into the hoop while he protected it. Harry was pleased to see that Katie had done the best and was given the position while the rest of the people slowly made their way back up to the castle after putting their brooms away, instead of staying to watch. Giving a few last directions to Katie, Wood sent her to stand with the rest of the team and turned to the next group.

"Alright. All of you over here are applying for the position of Seeker." He began, pacing back and forth while he gave his brief lecture. "The position of Seeker is one of the hardest in the game to play, you need to be fast and able to avoid all of the opposition coming at you. As Seeker you are most likely to fouled or injured. The other team will be trying to take you out before any of us, and I need you to understand your danger before joining the team." Wood stopped and turned a determined glare at the three gathered. "We will not allow for cowardice from any of our players. Catching the Snitch comes first, protecting yourself comes later. Do you all understand this?"

The three Gryffindors nodded- Harry oppressed a grin as he remembered all of the injuries he had gotten from Quidditch over the years- and Wood looked at them each in turn. Harry glanced at his side and saw that McLaggen had a bored expression on his face, obviously not believing he would be in much risk if he was picked. Towler seemed a little put off but nodded all the same. Something must have shown on Harry's face, because Wood spent a moment longer looking at him before nodding and pointing to the end of the field at the goal hoops.

"For the first test, I want you each to fly to the end and back. This is to check how well and fast you can fly with what you have. Obviously, you're all using school brooms so they aren't the best models and it won't be a fair race so we're not judging who gets back first. Get ready, you go at three."

The three mounted and their brooms, and as soon as Wood gave the signal, took off.

-:-:-:-

Fred gave his brother a nudge in the ribs as he watched the three take flight.

"Was it just me," he asked in a soft, grinning voice, "or did Potter look almost happy when Wood told him he might get his skull cracked open?"

"A masochist, perhaps?" George said back with a similar mischievous tone.

The rest of the team glanced over at them, mixtures of disgust and amusement at what they were saying.

"Focus!" Wood called to his teammates as the three flyers came back, Harry in the lead.

-:-:-:-

Harry landed, knowing he had done perfect in the quick flight. Towler was an average flyer, something that wasn't good enough for Seeker, but McLaggen hadn't done that badly- although his body type played against him. They weren't very good competition and Harry knew that he had the position nailed. The two other flyers landed beside him after another moment and Wood looked back at them.

"Alright, none of you fell off your brooms so you're all good so far." Wood said, inspecting the people again. "Next is the real test. We'll be judging how well you can catch and dodge, simultaneously. Whoever catches and dodges the most will get the position. Let's start with Towler."

Harry watched as both of the other Gryffindors gave their attempts. Towler had dodged more than caught and McLaggen had done about the same. They were dodging balls roughly the same size as bludgers which were smacked at them by the Weasley twins, and they were suppose to catch golf balls that were thrown by the Chasers. Once it was Harry's turn he quickly mounted his broom and shot up in the air to join his soon-to-be-team. He didn't have the slightest doubt that he could do better than the both of the others, but tried not to look too smug either.

Harry caught all ten of the golf balls that were thrown, even the two that were thrown at the same time in different directions. He had also dodged all but one of the balls being aimed at him. Harry knew that what Wood really wanted was someone who would be able to get the snitch, not someone who'd be dodging a lot, so he didn't mind getting hit once. In truth the balls weren't nearly as hard as a bludger. At the end Wood was extremely pleased with how the try-outs went, and he sent the other two off while he spoke to the new Gryffindor Quidditch team. McLaggen was fuming, but the results had been obvious to everyone and there was nothing he could do.

"The both of you were brilliant!" Wood said happily. "Potter, you're going to need a new broom if you actually want to be able to catch the snitch, but I'll talk to Professor McGonagall about that tomorrow. This year for certain, that cup will have our names on it. I'll contact you all for the next practice, that's it for now."

With that the team left, chatting to its other members. Harry stopped by the foot of the stairs to wait for Hermione to come down. When she did she seemed pleased, and they departed to the castle a short way behind everybody else. "Congratulations Harry! You did really well. Was the other day really your first time flying? I know you said it was but you were brilliant out there. The other two weren't nearly as good you know."

Harry gave a goofy grin, feeling oddly happy despite his intentions. Hermione had never really complimented his flying before, she would only say how worried she was after he had crashed fifty feet to the ground. Hopefully she wouldn't return to that after the first game.

-:-:-:-

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Author's Note

This chapter was suppose to include Halloween as well, but it started getting a little long so I split the events up and made the Quidditch try-outs take a bit longer. The only reason why I'm including so much about flying early on is because it's something Harry enjoys, and playing Quidditch just gives him an excuse to fly more often. Also, a small note about Draco. He isn't exactly a "good-guy" in this story but he isn't evil either. Not for the entire time at least. He'll be explain more later though, which is something I don't want to give away now.

Also, one last thing. At the end of the last chapter, I mentioned the two of them going to the Astronomy Tower, which as I so brilliantly forgot, can be interpreted as a place for couples ^^;. That's not what I meant by it, although this is a HHr fic so it can be viewed that way. Their relationship remains as just friends to minor crushes until about the third or fourth year. I don't like fanfics that rush those things, so I'm going to try not to. Just wanted to point that out. ^^;