AUTHOR's REPLY- Thanks, you guys. Oh well, at least I know what the heck I'm goin to do now. I usually make stuff up from the top of my head (last page I completely made up as I went along).
Harry was pleased to find that it was Ron and Luna, who were striding briskly up the cobbled street towards him and Hermione.
"So where'd you go?" Harry asked, when they were within hearing range. Ron shrugged.
"Apparently exact same as yours, but a little ahead of you. We thought to double back, and here you are, right behind us."
This remark made Harry smirk. Perhaps there was more to his and Ron's interests than he had consciously known.
"Luna's just been telling me," Ron spoke up again. "She's made it on the Ravenclaw team."
"Really?" Hermione said excitedly. "What position?"
"Seeker." Luna said serenely.
Harry was the slightest bit disconcerted.
"How good are you?" he asked.
"Good enough." Luna smiled mysteriously at him.
They walked for a while, until Harry checked his watch.
"Almost lunchtime." he told the other three. "We'd better go back to the castle."
*
Although the Hogwarts students were supposed to come back to the school for lunch, they were welcome to go back to the village after, if they wanted. However, Ron had announced an impromptu Quidditch practise, because the pitch was free for the afternoon. No one argued.
On the contrary, Harry personally was looking forward to the sensation of freedom in the air.
An hour after they had ate and rested, the Gryffindors walked down to the pitch. Harry started out with a couple of snitch drills, but he had caught each within five minutes. After the third one, he resigned himself to joining in by offering Ron some defense and giving the Seekers extra opportunity to make their best manouveres.
"Come on, ladies!" Harry called to them. "Let's see what you've got!"
They all giggled at being called ladies. With a bit of a start, he realised that each one of them had liked him at some point or other.
AUTHOR's REPLY - Ah don't worry, I learned to type with every finger except the injured one. How coincedental.
They flew at Harry so stunningly fast that even he was hard pressed to turn his world-class Firebolt to keep him between the Quaffle and the goalposts. Even so, Hermione feinted beautifully, and tossed it almost carelessly behind her shoulder to Parvati, who picked it up in full flight, bypassing Harry in a flash, who turned too slow.
Ron was eagerly anticipating the shot. Parvati deked once, twice. Ron was smart, however, and stayed back to protect the posts, cutting the angle down flawlessly.
Parvati couldn't pass, Harry was also falling back by the goalposts to keep an eye on Ginny. Hermione was circling below them.
She shot, and Ron saved it perfectly. Everyone cheered, even the Chasers. Dean beat the one Bludger so hard out of sheer adrenaline that it flew through a window.
A moment later, they heard a shocked squeak, which could only mean that Flitwick's classroom was currently under seige from a mad, very aggresive ball.
"I'll see if he's OK." Dean said resignedly. They all knew that Flitwick, as the Charms teacher, was perfectly capable of dealing with a single bludger by himself.
Sure enough, Dean flew back out the window some time later looking enormously relieved. The window repaired itself seconds later, and Harry could see the little Professor leaning against the wall, watching their practise.
"Thought he was supposed to be marking our assignments." Seamus said, grinning.
"Where's the rogue Bludger?" Ron asked, looking around worriedly.
"Here," Dean said, drawing out the ball from his robes, which was limp, and seemed dead. Reading their looks, Dean added. "Don't worry, he said it'll revive in around....(he checked his watch)...fifteen seconds."
And with that, he drew back his arm, and threw the ball as hard as he could towards the opposite end of the field.
It hit the ground, rolled, and came back to life.