Running

Chapter 9

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

"Once again, it has been a pleasure. Goodbye, Mr Potter. GRYFFINDOR!"

———

For a moment, the only sound around Harry and Hermione was the whistle of the wind.

"So," Hermione paused and smiled, "Milord, that was a lot."

Harry let out a laugh, "Yeah it was, I honestly didn't know what to do with so much information at once."

She thought for a moment, "The hat hears all of Dumbledore's plans?" Harry nodded, "It said as much to me."

"I suppose if we had the cloak we could try and get in to ask about them."

"That's probably a good last resort. If we got caught, I can't even imagine the damage it would do."

"Yeah, you're right," Hermione sighed, "And it's not like it matters anyway when we still don't have the cloak."

"I suppose, we'll just have to wait it out until Christmas like last time." Harry flopped back onto the grass. Though the conversation had been serious, spending time out here, or rather, in here, with Hermione was still such a comforting experience.

— — —

The Headmaster had just returned from the dungeons. He sat at his desk, a bag of assorted sweets in front of him. He was unsure of Harry's likes and dislikes in treats, so getting as varied a selection of confectionaries had been essential. All of which, were, of course, imbued with several potions. A loyalty potion keyed to the Headmaster, and a potion of aggression and repelling towards Hermione Granger. That girl only ever got in the way. If she wasn't there, Ronald had been adamant that he and Harry would very easily develop a brotherly relationship. Whatever vice grip she had over him would soon be loosened. Harry would be in the palm of his hand. Harry would be his.

As he sat, patting himself on the back for his brilliant planning, a knock was heard at his door. In came Ronald Weasley, panting from all the stairs it took to get to the office. However, he wasn't too tired to not notice the small bag of sweets on Albus' desk; he picked up his pace and sat opposite the Leader of Light.

Disappointment filled Ron's heart as he discovered, much to his dismay, that he was to touch none of the sweets and they were all intended for Harry. As Ron began making the long trek back to his dormitory, he realised, he rarely saw Harry eating sweets like the selection the Headmaster had given to him. Clearly, the Headmaster just didn't know Harry as well as he did. So Ron helpfully tasted a few, just to make sure they'd be good enough for his friend.

And slowly the potion began to do its work.

One Week Later

The first flying lesson of the year was coming up and Harry was determined not to end up on the Quidditch team. It was a waste of time and would seriously push back what he and Hermione were planning. Sure he enjoyed flying, but Quidditch was brutal and tiring. The only reason he'd ever really participated was that it was the only way to get to fly while at Hogwarts. Generally, brooms seemed fairly impractical; why fly when you can literally teleport?

He was sure nothing would happen this time that would force him to join the team. Neville's slight increase in self-confidence meant he wasn't carrying his Rememberall wherever he went, and Draco, while occasionally standoffish, wasn't the bully he had been last time around.

Nothing would go wrong today, Harry assured himself. Unfortunately, Neville still ended up getting injured, but while he was escorted back inside, Harry once again affirmed that nothing else would go wrong.

Until Ron Weasley walked onto the pitch with a book in his hand.

"Hey, Granger" Ron called as he walked onto the pitch, "Look what I've got." As he said so Hermione looked over, seeing a notebook in his hand. It was a small sketchbook of hers; she'd recently been getting into drawing. To be honest, most of the sketches in that book were for practice, the works she was proud of were in a much larger sketchbook in the girl's dormitory. "Shouldn't leave your stuff lying around, should you? Wouldn't want it to get thrown away, would you?" She turned back to the other girls on the pitch, fairly unbothered. She'd probably left it in the common room, it wasn't worth getting into an argument with Ron over.

Apparently, Harry disagreed. "Give it back, Ron." Ron stepped forward, "No." He knew he shouldn't be going against his best friend, but Ron couldn't understand why Harry would be so quick to jump to the girl's defence. "In fact, I know exactly what I'm going to do with this."

Ron flew up but having never learnt how to use a broom landed straight into a tree. The book flew out of his hands and Harry skyrocketed upwards to catch it. Before his feet had even hit the ground McGonagall strode onto the pitch. After giving Ron a good verbal bashing for flying without supervision, she turned to Harry and asked him to follow her inside. It was then that Madam Hooch finally arrived on the pitch.

Hermione watched on with a smirk, it seemed that there were some things they couldn't change.

That night, as the Gryffindor Quidditch team's newest Seeker got into bed, he felt a soft package. He pulled it out from under his pillow and attached to it was a note with familiar writing.

Dear Harry,

As we are getting closer to Christmas I realised I would be needing a winter cloak. It took me completely by surprise, I found your father's cloak! Funny how these things happen. Make sure you don't get into too much trouble!

Early Merry Christmas,

Dumbledore.

24/02/2022 Changed so much about this chapter! Seriously, I'm so surprised so many of you liked this story before T-T reading it back, I can't believe how many mistakes I used to make - but at least that means I must be improving :) Let me know what you think of the new chapter!