Bloodline chapter 13 -

Chapter 13 -

The next day, rumours circulated the school at a rate far beyond the norm, spreading everywhere like wildfire. Every student wanted to talk about what had happened. A few had even managed to sneak out and see the troll's body before the professors could get rid of it. The Weasley twins had been heard telling people that the troll was twenty feet tall and had a small army of goblins with it. Some praised Harry as a hero, others said that he was scary; the one thing everyone agreed on was that he was a very dangerous individual.

Iris, by now, had become used to learning how to ignore the whispers and stares of the Hogwarts population. They had been staring at her since she had gotten to this school for one reason or another, so she was handling this a lot better than Hermione. Hermione felt overwhelmed; she was never really used to attention, except when she was being called a know-it-all or when someone needed help with homework. But now everyone was staringat her since she had also been rescued by Harry.

"This is so weird," Hermione said, hugging her transfiguration book to her body like it was a lifeline as they entered the library and sat down at a nearby table. "I've never had this many people focus on me before."

"You get used to it," Iris said with a small sigh. "Be glad that you're nowhere near as interesting to them as I am. When I came to Hogwarts, I felt like I couldn't even sneeze without someone noticing."

"Hey girls," Dan said, arriving with his friend, Terry. The pair both sat down at the same table. "How are things going?" He asked as he began pulling out his books.

"It's going," Iris snorted. "I had barely gotten down into the common room today when a bunch of girls demanded details about what happened. From all seven years, by the way."

"Yeah, a seventh year tried to ask me if it was true that Harry took his shirt off when battling the troll," Hermione said, blushing slightly.

"Did he?" Terry asked with genuine curiosity.

"Not while I was there," Hermione replied honestly.

"Yeah, well, at least you didn't have Lavender in our year asking if your brother's single," Iris responded with a scowl. "One girl offered me ten galleons to set up a date with him."

"You should have taken it; we could have split the money," Dan sighed. "Honestly, you have no business sense."

"That's what I have you for," Iris replied easily.

"Excuse me," A voice cut in as a fifth-year Hufflepuff girl walked up to the group. "Is your brother around?" She asked Iris with a bright smile. "Could you please help me get a date with him? I'll pay you if you want." Iris let out a deep sigh.

"Look, I-"

"How much are we talking about?" Dan interrupted before she could say more.

"How about five galleons?" The girl offered.

"Five galleons?" Dan repeated with a scoff. "We've already got one offer for ten galleons, try again."

"Oh...um...eleven galleons?"

"We don't accept odd numbers here unless they end in five," Dan told her in a very serious tone. "Even numbers or nothing."

"Twelve," The girl said reluctantly.

"Brother of a national celebrity, heir to a most ancient and noble house, extremely good-looking, best student in his year-perhaps even the whole school-and just recently tossed a troll through a wall, and you want to pay only twelve?" Dan asked in a slow voice, staring at the girl as if she had severely disappointed him and personally offended him.

"Fine," She gritted out. "Fifteen galleons, final offer." Dan stared at her for a moment before nodding his head.

"Very well, I'll arrange a meeting with him as soon as you pay up." He told her in a professional voice.

"A meeting?!" The girl demanded. "I wanted a date!"

"Then you'd better impress him in the meeting," Dan shrugged. "There are plenty of other girls who are older than you and happy to pay much more than that. Consider yourself lucky that you can even get this meeting with, a meeting sponsored by his beloved brother. You want it or not?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She stared at him for a moment before reluctantly fishing through her pockets and handing him two galleons.

"I'll give you the rest later," She told him before walking off.

"See, that's how it's done," He told Iris before handing over one of the galleons to her. "That's part of your split, I'm thinking we go five for me, five for you and Harry."

"Thanks," Iris couldn't help but smile. Terry let out an impressed whistle.

"That wasn't half bad," He complimented Dan. "You sure you shouldn't be in Slytherin house, you'd fit perfectly there."

"Be sure to tell Harry about it," Iris told Dan. "Where is he, anyway?"

"I think he's preparing, he's got a Quidditch match later."

(.)

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the first Quidditch match of the year!"

In the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium, the crowd erupted with applause. The students were all sitting on the stadium benches while the majority of teachers and special guests were sitting on some of the surrounding towers, allowing them a higher view. In one of the towers, Professor McGonagall sat next to the match commentator, Lee Jordan, a dark-skinned boy in the same year as the Weasley twins.

"Introducing first, the awesome, good-looking looking and absolutely brilliant Gryffindor team!" Lee shouted enthusiastically into the microphone as the Gryffindor team walked out. "Leading the team is Captain and keeper, Oliver Wood! Accompanying him are the team chasers and three of the best-looking girls ever to be put in a Quidditch uniform."

"Jordan," Professor McGonagall said warningly.

"What?! They are. And they are Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and our newest chaser, Katie Bell!" Jordan continued. "The beaters of the team are none other than our resident menaces, the chaos twins, Fred and George Weasley. And our newest seeker, I hope he can seek half as well as he can brag, Cormac McLaggen." The Gryffindors section of the crowd burst into applause for the team, followed by a fairly decent set of cheers from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs, meanwhile, the Slytherins booed. This went on until the team reached the centre of the stadium, and then half a minute after as well. Once it had died down decently enough, Lee spoke again. "And now, introducing the slimy snakes of Slytherin."

"For Merlin's sake, Jordan, try to be at least a little bit professional," Professor McGonagall groaned.

"Never," Jordan said bluntly. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, introducing the snakes. At the front, we can see Walter Reeds, the team's keeper. Following after him are Richard Drake and Tim Grayson, the team's beaters. Behind him is the seeker, Lawrence Jackson. Introducing the trio of chasers for the team: Leroy Carrow, Freya Roseson, and the team captain, Harry Potter." A thunderous cheer erupted from the crowd, one far louder than the Gryffindor one.

Harry took in a deep breath as he and his team walked over to the centre of the stadium. He saw that his team looked calm as well. Walter Reeds was a red-headed boy with a freckled face, Richard and Tim were both black haired boys, though Richard had blue eyes while Tim had brown. Leroy had sandy brown hair and matching eyes. Freya was a dark-haired girl with blue eyes. This was all their second year on the team with him, and they were confident in their victory. Rightly so.

He ignored the crowd around him and focused on the people in the stadium in front of him after he sent a wave and a nod to Dan and Iris, both of them were sitting with their respective houses. He stopped in front of Oliver, the Quidditch Captain of Gryffindor. As expected of them, the pair both extended their hands out and shook the others. For a brief moment, Oliver tried to squeeze Harry's hand, a wandless stinging hex and a warning squeeze of his own convinced Oliver not to try that again. They stepped back as Madam Hooch arrived on her broom, a small brown chest levitating after her.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" She asked as she landed, the chest floated down in front of her. "Up in the air, hurry up, we don't have all day."

"You won't win," Oliver whispered to Harry as his team started flying up. "I live for Quidditch."

"My little brother and sister are in the crowd, trust me, you're not beating me in front of them." Harry shot back before he mounted his broom. Seconds later, everyone was up in the air and spread out. Madam Hooch opened the chest, two bludgers shot out of it and began flying around the stadium. A second later, the golden snitch shot out of the chest and quickly disappeared from sight. Leaving only one ball left in the chest, the quaffle.

"Looks like the match is going to start soon," Lee's voice echoed throughout the stadium thanks to his microphone. "She's got the quaffle, she's tossed it up, and the game begins! Oh, Johnson narrowly missed the quaffle, and possession belongs to Slytherin. Carrow is taking the quaffle straight towards the Gryffindor posts. He dodges Bell, ducks a bludger but...yes! Johnson got the quaffle back! She dodges a quaffle and...crap! Potter's got the quaffle!"

"Jordan, please, a little less bias!" Professor McGongall hissed at him.

"I'm sorry, Professor, but...oh. Professor?"

"What is it, Mr Jordan?" She asked in a less-than-patient voice.

"You're wearing a Gryffindor scarf," He noted.

"Your powers of observation are as sharp as ever, what of it?" She asked dryly.

"Well, I just couldn't help but notice you also have a Slytherin flag in your hand. Wait, does that say 'H.P' on it? Isn't that -"

"Back to the game, Jordan!"

"Back to the game!" Jordan agreed at once and turned his attention back to what was going on in the stadium. "Potter dodges the bludgers, he nearly crashes into McLaggen. He's going to shoot. Come on, Oliver, block the damn thing. Ooohhh! So close! That's ten points to Slytherin. The quaffle is picked up by Wood, he throws it to Bell, who flies towards the Slytherin hoops. A one-two between her and Spinnet keeps the Slytherin team from getting the ball. Whoa! That bludger nearly took her head off!"

"Carrow, Roseson," Harry called out. "Box her, now." He ordered before flying higher, the two chasers nodded their heads and flew towards Katie. Freya pushed Katie with her body to the left, where Leroy shoved his body into the side, keeping her in place. She tried to get out, but the two matched whatever direction she was trying to go in. They didn't need to hold her long, as Harry dove down from above and snatched the quaffle from her and proceeded to dive down to the ground.

As he neared the edge, he changed direction and flew towards the Gryffindor hoops while hanging upside down from his broom, his back a meter or two above the ground. One of the Weasley twins tried to shoot a bludger at him, he spun to avoid it and ended up back in a normal flying positon before arching up as he neared the Gryffindor hoops. He tossed the ball upwards before spinning so that his broom hit it and shot it even higher into the air, where it was caught by Carrow. Oliver moved towards the closest hoop to defend it when Carrow suddenly tossed it to Roseson, who tossed the ball down to Harry, who hit it with his broom, sending it rocketing into another hoop."

"Slytherin scores again, that's twenty points now," Jordan said enthusiastically.

Harry bit back a smirk as he flew up into the air, only to pause when he felt his broom suddenly come to a stop. Suddenly, it started spinning around and tried to buck him off. He held on tightly and quickly cast a wandless countercharm on the broom. For those who were looking, it looked like his broom had a minor malfunction. But Harry knew better, his eyes narrowed as he looked around the stadium. He took in a deep breath and allowed a smile to come onto his face before he flew back towards the match.

"Jackson," Harry said, stopping next to him. "Get the snitch quick."

"But I thought you wanted to wait until we were fifty points up," Jackson said with a frown.

"Change of plans," Harry told him. "Get the snitch quick." He told him before flying off. He saw the Weasley twins shoot one of the bludgers at Carrow so he flew forward and pulled Carrow down so the bludger went over his head.

"Whoa, thanks!" Carrow said gratefully, just as Roseson stopped next to them.

"You're welcome, we're ending the match early. Go for three-one." He said before flying forwards, the other two followed, and Roseson quickly snatched the quaffle from Spinnet and began heading straight to the Gryffindor goalposts with the other two chasers following as they flew on her right. She dodged Angelina Johnson and barrel-rolled to avoid a bludger that skimmed her shoulder, she hissed in pain but pushed through and kept flying. She raised the quaffle as she got closer. Once she believed Oliver to be sufficiently motivated to keep his eye on her, she tossed the quaffle in Carrow's direction.

Carrow leaned back and allowed the quaffle to fly past him and into Harry's hands. He tossed the quaffle towards the post. Oliver shot forward, his hand reached out, managing to graze the ball with his fingers before it entered the hoop.

"That's the third goal in this match and...Oh no! Slytherin caught the snitch! Slytherin wins!" Jordan groaned, placing his face in his hands. "Damn it, I had bet ten galleons against that little Ravenclaw firstie."

In the Ravenclaw section of the crowd, Terry's Boot's gaze, along with several other nearby Ravenclaws, snapped towards Dan, who whistled innocently as he counted the coins in his hands.