Kassandra Bauer and the Order of the Phoenix. (Book 5)

Chapter 34: The Great Exams.

Ron's euphoria at helping us scrape the Quidditch cup was such a rush that he couldn't settle to anything the next day. All he wanted to do was talk about the match, leaving Hermione and Harry very little time to input anything. But as for the rest of us. Well... all we could do was keep our mouths shut and say that Hermione played a great game. But Hermione told everyone that it was going to be a one time thing. 

At least a few days after the match, on a fine warm day, Hermione, Harry, Ryan, and I persuaded him to join us on the edge of the lake to revise. He wasn't very keen on the idea at first- he was thoroughly enjoying being patted on the back by every Gryffindor who walked past, not to mention the occasional outburst of Weasley is our King, but after a while, he agreed that some fresh air might do him well. 

With every intention of continuing to revise for the Potion exam, we spread out our books in the shade of the tree and sat down, while Ron continued to talk us through his first save of the match for what felt like the hundredth time. 

"Well, I mean, I'd already let in that one of Davie's, so I wasn't feeling all that confident, but I dunno, when Bradley came towards me, just out of nowhere, I thought- you can do this! And I had about a second to decide which way to fly, you know, because he looked like he was aiming for the right goal hoop- my right, obviously, his left- but I had a funny feeling that he was feinting, and so I took the chance and flew left- his right, I mean- and well- you saw what happened." He concluded modestly, sweeping his hair back quite unnecessarily so that it looked interestingly windswept and glanced around to see whether the people nearest to them- a bunch of gossiping third year Hufflepuffs had heard him. "And that's when Chambers came at me about five minutes later- What?" Ron asked having stopped mid sentence at the look on Harry's face. Which was grinning. "Why are you grinning?" 

"I'm not." Harry answered quickly. "I'm just glad we won, that's all." 

"Yeah." Ron agreed, savoring the words. "We won. Did you see the look on Chang's Face after Rath hit her and Ginny snatched the Snitch right out from under her nose?" 

"She didn't like that." I answered. "Well... she cried. But only out of frustration than anything else. She did chuck her broom away when she got back to the ground." 

"Er-" Harry said. Oh that's right. I forgot that Harry still had feeling for Cho. However slim. 

"Well, actually... no." Hermione gave a heavy sigh, putting down her book and looking at us apologetically. "As a matter of fact, the only bit of the match Harry and I saw was Kassie's first goal." 

Ron's carefully ruffled hair seemed to wilt from disappointment. "You didn't watch?" He asked faintly, looking from one to the other. "You didn't see me make any of those saves? You didn't see Kassie make those other shots?"

"We couldn't, Ron." Hermione answered. "I couldn't risk being spotted and people finding out about the Polyjuice Potion. It was a good plan, Ryan."

"Thank you, Hermione." Ryan thanked.

"Oh yeah... right... that's... a good reason why you didn't watch." Ron admitted.

"Though... I'm not sure that Professor McGonagall would approve of using such tricks." Harry grinned.

"I smoothed it over with her." Ryan assured. "McGonagall called me in and asked me:" And he made a McGonagall impression. "'Why in the world did you use Polyjuice Potion to disguise your players?' And I said: 'To get even with Umbitch.' And then she said: 'Understandable.' And then she admitted that it was a good plan. But not to do it again. And then I told her that I was only doing it once."   

"So what were you two doing anyway?" I asked Harry and Hermione.   

"It was Hagrid." Harry told us. "He said he needed our help with something. He wanted us to go into the Forest with him, we had no choice, you know how he gets. Anyway..."