Harry potter : Forgotten Lord

Looking around the Great Hall as everyone discussed the results of the first Quidditch match of the season, Harry watched Gryffindor house loudly celebrating their victory over their Slytherin rivals, with Professor McGonagall in the background sporting a smug, cat-like grin.

It had been exciting to watch and extremely fast paced, just like Padma had promised, even if he didn't fully understand all the rules yet ... there were like 300 rules and another 1000 sub clauses ... Luckily, he had Padma next to him explaining the rules as the game went on, with Penny adding and pointing out bits and pieces of interest.

Naturally they had ended up supporting the Gryffindor team over their Slytherin rivals, simply due to the fact that they preferred the fair game the lions usually played, over the questionable tactics the Slytherins often resorted to to win. Tactics like intentionally ignoring the rules and more often than not bullying their way to victory.

And frankly, no one likes cheaters, especially when individuals can get seriously hurt as a result. Personally, he had no issue with cheating under the right conditions and circumstances, but it seemed rather pointless to cheat when playing a simple school game, when you willingly enter an amateur competition to prove yourself against others...

However, Slytherin players didn't really see it that way, resulting in Katie Bell, one of the Gryffindor chasers, getting knocked out within the first 10 minutes of the game from a questionable move committed by the Slytherin team captain.

Fortunately for Gryffindor, Longbottom ended up stealing the game for the team with a daring move, leaping from his broom to catch the snitch before the Slytherin team could take advantage of having an extra player advantage. Frankly, he considered it stupid and rather reckless jumping from one's broom just to win a school Quidditch game... but then again he was a Raven.

It had still been a close run thing, even with Neville's broom playing up halfway through the match, by trying to throw its rider off.

The current running theory to explain this, if you believed the rumours that is, was that Neville had seen the snitch early on in the game. But before he could give chase, the head of Slytherin house, Professor Snape, Hogwarts' resident potion master cursed his broom in an attempt to eliminate the Gryffindor seeker, to ensure his own team's victory.

Personally, he found the whole idea dim-witted and very unlikely with the resident potions master being surrounded by other members of the staff, including the headmaster himself.

The man may love taking house points over the smallest and most dubious of things, especially from the Gryffindors, but no way would the head of Slytherin house attempt to do something so reckless with such real consequences should he be caught.

More than likely it was one of the older students, either a jealous Gryffindor who lost the chance to play seeker due to Neville's recruitment, or some Slytherin student, tempted to remove Longbottom from the game.

After all, the Gryffindor house had no open tryouts for the seeker position this year, thanks to Neville stealing the slot after Wood saw him playing on one of the Weasley twins' brooms.

How could the Gryffindor captain refuse the Boy-Who-Lived when he had the terrible two backing him? No one wants trouble with the twins. If the rumour mill was correct, Neville had been playing Quidditch with the Weasleys for years before coming to Hogwarts.

Either way, he was sure this had made the boy some additional enemies; what were the odds of Wood just happening to come down to the pitch, just to see the boy training with the twins? Clearly it was a set-up. This added to the fact that Neville was clearly the favourite of the Deputy Headmistress, and had somehow managed to get around the rule about first-years not being allowed to bring brooms.

Just proves that favourites get away with far more than others, especially celebrities, which just reinforced his desire to become a favourite amongst the staff.

Thinking over the game, he couldn't decide whether it was skill or luck, since it was the first game he had ever seen; only time would tell if Longbottom was truly a skilled seeker. However, it didn't stop the lions from celebrating their victory; not even their own head of house sending them those potent warning looks of hers could calm them for long.

Leading up to the match, Percy had attempted to pull Penny into the Gryffindor ranks, as well as give her his Gryffindor scarf, which frankly wasn't a very discreet attempt at marking his territory by any standards. He might as well have put a massive sign above Penny's head, with big capital red letters saying, 'Taken by Percy' just like you would when marking a piece of food in the refrigerator for later.

However, things didn't go the way the lion obviously intended, after Harry discreetly and silently cast a tripping hex at Percy as he tried to pull Penny away from them, while ignoring Harry and Padma entirely.

The hex had flown straight and true, causing the prefect to lose his balance and stumble on some conveniently loose gravel. Unfortunately, in the process he desperately grabbed hold of Penny while attempting to stay upright, dragging their friend down with him.

Acting quickly to take advantage of the situation he had surreptitiously created, he rushed over to help Penny back to her feet like a true friend would.

"Percy get your hand off my ass right now!" a ferocious Penny shouted, attracting several other students' attention, clearly not liking the idea of Percy feeling her up, whether on purpose or by accident. Which was rather hard to tell since they had fallen rather oddly, as Percy seem to freeze up, just like a deer does when blinded by the headlights of a fast moving car.

Helping his friend back to her feet as she unwrapped herself from Percy's frozen embrace, getting a series of giggle and chuckles from the growing group of onlookers, he cast a quite vocal cleaning charm on her, rather than reveal the fact that he could cast the spell silently, and risk revealing his own involvements. The charm efficiently removed the dust and dirt from her jeans and sweater, catching her by surprise at the expert use of a second-year charm.

It was easy to act concerned, because he really was, to a point. After all, his target had been Percy, not Penny, but that didn't mean he wouldn't use this situation to his benefit.

Examining him for a couple seconds before her curiosity got the better of her, "When did you learn that?" Penny asked, as Padma looked on with equal interest, clearly wanting to hear the answer as well.

Offering a friendly hand to Percy, he answered Penny's question, "Well, most second-year charms only need a bit more power than first-year charms, the main difference is the focus and intent behind it," He started in explanation, wondering if Percy would be smart enough to take the offered hand.

"So when I was looking over the charms and studying ahead, I thought it would make the most sense to learn charms that would be of the most use in day-to-day life," he explained, as Percy slapped his hand away in anger and embarrassment.

That simple action reminded Penny of her earlier anger at her fellow prefect, "Percy that was awfully rude! Where are you manners? You're meant to be a prefect, setting an example to all these students," she lectured, as Percy seemed to be growing increasingly red faced which wasn't uncommon to see on his brother Ron's.

Watching the unfolding drama with hidden amusement, she gave her fellow prefect a rather brutal talking to in front of the audience of students, who were clearly enjoying watching the annoying Gryffindor prefect finally being on the receiving end of the lecture for a change, rather than the one giving it.

After all, he deserved it; since the beginning of term, Percy had been throwing his weight around with his prefect status, making himself rather unpopular amongst the student body and becoming a bit of a bully in the process.

Looking over his shoulder to check on his other friend, he saw Padma making the effort to slip unnoticed into the audience of onlookers, rather than being in the lime light of the 'stage,' as it were.

Deciding that it would be best to move on before Percy demonstrated the famous Weasley temperament, after remembering the incident in the hospital wing, he spoke. "Penny, it's fine," taking the high road, as he slipped his arm around her, pulling her away from the older red faced male.

"He should apologize to you Harry," Penny argued heatedly while looking over her shoulder and sending the Gryffindor an angry scowl. Her words echoing back to the audience and the red faced lion.

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