Harry Potter And The Fortunate Queen

The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days. The theories about how he had entered the castle became wilder and wilder.

The Fat Lady's ripped canvas had been taken off the wall and replaced with the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat grey pony. Nobody was very happy about this. Sir Cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords, which he changed at least twice a day.

Neville Longbottom, who were talking to Ginny a lot nowdays, always forgot the password, so he tried to walk in groups , so anyone can answer the password for him. One day, Chris and Ginny even found him outside common room, almost asleep on the floor. They woke him up and took him inside with them.

"He's barking mad," said Seamus Finnigan angrily to Percy. "Can't we get anyone else?"

"None of the other pictures wanted the job," said Percy. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer."

One night, Chris, Ginny and Colin were talking, sitting on chairs near the window in the nearly empty common room. Outside the rain was pouring heavily. Distracted Chris was watching the rain drops hitting the window glass. Suddenly Ginny shook Chris hard.

"Wh... What?" She said looking at them.

"Tell me what're we talking about?" Ginny said crossing her hands.

"Umm... about our last Defence Against the Dark Arts class ?" Chris guessed.

"No, Chris." Colin said sadly.

"Sorry I didn't hear."

"You're doing this for last few days now Chris. Always distracted. What's going on in that brain of yours?" Ginny asked getting impatient. "Mind telling us?"

"Yeah. Ginny is right. Nowdays your eyes looked more dreamy than Luna's." Colin said thinking.

"It's just..." Chris tried to lie.

"The truth Chris!" Ginny said loudly.

"Fine. I'm trying to solve this mystery about Sirius Black." Chris sighed. "And I'm going nowhere. How he fooled the Dementors? How he entered the castle? Why he wants to get in at our common room? What's his connection with Harry and why Professor Snape thinks that Professor Lupin helped Sirius Black.... so many questions but I don't have any answer."

"Nobody does Chris. Everyone is thinking the same thing." Colin said putting a hand on Chris's shoulder.

"Wait. How did you know Professor Snape thinks that Professor Lupin helped Sirius Black?" Ginny asked raising her eyebrows.

"O! That's what I think." She told them the late night talk between Dumbledore and Snape.

"Ok. So you know more than everyone else here." Colin said looking smart.

"No. I'm sure, Harry, Ron and Hermione knows much more than this. But what?"

"Chris, I want to help." Ginny said seriously.

"Are you sure? I mean we're dealing with a murderer here, the Dementors are involved. It can be dangerous Ginny." Chris asked uncertainly.

"I know. And that's why you can't do this alone." Ginny said confidently. "Last year, you did everything alone Chris. Let me help this time."

"Yes. I don't know how much I can help but I'll try my best." Colin said looking serious as well.

"Ok." Chris thought for a moment. "Ginny, I saw Percy is keeping a eye on Harry always, so if you can get information from him about Harry; then that'll be great help. Just make sure he doesn't understand why're you asking."

Ginny nodded and Chris turned towards Colin. "Listen Colin, if you found anything unusual in castle.. anything that you never saw before in Hogwarts.. You're going to tell me immediately. Am I clear?"

Colin nodded. "I can take pictures as well."

"No don't. If anyone heard the cl.i.c.k.i.n.g noise, you can be in danger. So just use your eye. Ok?" Chris asked.

"Ok" Colin said seriously.

_______________________________________

The weather worsened steadily as the first Quidditch match drew nearer. Undaunted, the Gryffindor team were training harder than ever under the eye of Madam Hooch.

"It's because of Harry. They're trying to keep an extra eye on him, always." George told Chris, when she asked about Madam Hooch. Then, at their final training session before Saturday's match, Oliver Wood gave his team some unwelcome news.

"We're not playing Slytherin!" he told them, looking very angry. "Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."

"Why?" chorused the rest of the team.

"Flint's excuse is that their Keeper is injured, he fell from the stairs," said Wood, grinding his teeth furiously. "But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances …"

There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day, and as Wood spoke, they heard a distant rumble of thunder.

"There's nothing wrong with him, we saw him falling!" said George furiously. "He's faking it!"

"I know that, but we can't prove it," said Wood bitterly. "And we've been practising all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory .."

Angelina suddenly giggled.

"What?" said Wood, frowning at this light-hearted behaviour.

Chris and Ginny looked at her.

"He's that tall, good-looking one, we saw that day." said Angelina looking at Chris and Ginny.

"Oh! Yes. I saw him." Ginny said giggling next.

"Why didn't I saw him?" Chris said, trying to remember.

"I don't know why you're worried, Oliver, Hufflepuff are a pushover. Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?" Fred said impatiently.

"We were playing in completely different conditions!" Wood shouted, his eyes bulging slightly. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin are trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"

"Oliver, calm down!" said Fred, looking slightly alarmed. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously."

Chris pulled Angelina and Ginny aside after training.

"What's it Chris?" Angelina asked.

"Angelina, I was thinking, we should know about the Hufflepuff Chasers and Keepers. That way we can prepare ourselves." Chris said thinking. "Look, if that Diggory is a really good seeker as much as Oliver thinks, then Harry can have problems beating him. So I was thinking if we can goal more than the Golden Snitch points then we can still win; even if Harry fail to catch the Snitch."

"That's a really great idea Chris... but." Angelina said. "But.. at the same time very difficult."

"Yes we've to do more than fifteen goals and have to stop every single goal of them." Ginny said seriously. "But.. we can try to do that..."

"Fine. If you two are up to it, we'll try our best. I'll tell Wood about this. He'll be less grumpy." Angelina smiled and left.

"Cool idea Chris." Ginny smiled.

"Thanks for supporting me."

"Anytime."

________________________________________

The day before the match, the winds reached howling point and the rain fell harder than ever. It was so dark inside the corridors and classrooms that extra torches and lanterns were lit. The Slytherin team were looking very smug indeed.

Chris, Ginny, Luna and Colin entered the Great Hall for lunch after their Transfiguration class. Fred and George were sitting with Ron, Harry and Hermione. So they also went to sat near them. Chris noticed Hermione was looking very upset and Ron and Harry were looking angry for some reason.

"You ok Hermione?" Chris asked sitting beside her.

Hermione looked up at her but didn't speak anything.

"It's because of that Snape." Ron said fuming.

"What happened?" Ginny asked sitting beside him.

"Snape took our Defence Against the Dark Arts class today." Harry answered.

"What happened to Professor Lupin?" Chris asked.

"He said Professor Lupin is not well to teach." Hermione said quietly.

"So he took over his class and ..." Ron was too angry to speak.

"He said bad about Professor Lupin's teaching methods, called Hermione a know-it-all and took God knows how much house points from Gryffindor." Harry completed.

"And gave me detention to scrub out the bedpans in the hospital wing. Without magic!" He slammed his fist on the table.

"That's too much." Luna said. "Is he doing this intentionally? It's like he have something personal problems with Professor Lupin or else it's Wrackspurts, who are making his brain go fuzzy."

Everyone looked at Luna and then Chris said, "I think the first one Luna. I think it's personal."

"I think so to." Harry agreed.

________________________________________

Next Morning, Chris woke up early, hearing Ginny's mumbling. First, she thought, Ginny was mumbling in sleep but when she opened her eyes, she saw Ginny was fully dressed, pacing in the room.

"What are you doing Ginny?" Chris yawned and checked the clock. "It's five o'clock in the morning."

"It's our first Quidditch match Chris! Have you seen the weather outside." She said a little louder than intended. "Sorry. I'm nervous and excited."

There were sounds of the thunder rumbling overhead, the pounding of the wind against the castle walls and the distant creaking of the trees in the Forbidden Forest. In a few hours they would be out on the Quidditch pitch, battling through that gale.

"It's ok. Please stop mumbling. I'm trying to sleep." Chris said closing her eyes again.

"What?" Ginny came to Chris's bed. "Why are you going to sleep? We'll be late."

"Ginny it's too early to go."

"Maybe, but not too early to get ready." She pulled the blanket. "Get up. C'mon. "

"Ginny please let me sleep a little." Chris said opening her eyes.

"No. You've slept enough last night. Now get up." Ginny pulled her from bed.

Chris pulled her messy hair back and glared at her, "You're an extremely bad person."

"I know. Go." Ginny gave a big smile as she pushed Chris towards the bathroom.

After that they took their Firebolts and went downstairs.

"No one is awake. I can bet about it." Chris said.

"Don't or else I'll win." Ginny said and pointed towards a armchair near the fireplace in common room.

Harry Potter was sitting their alone with his Nimbus Two Thousand.

"Are you nervous and excited too?" Chris said raising her eyebrows as they walked towards Harry.

"What? No...." Harry looked at them startled. "It was Peeves. He woke me up."

"Oh! Same story. Except it was Ginny in my case." Chris said looking at Ginny.

"O, C'mon, no need to be so grumpy. It's a good thing to wake up early, it helps to concentrate." Ginny said sitting on another chair.

"Actually that's right." Harry said.

"You're nervous. Aren't you?" Chris said narrowing her eyes on Harry.

He sighed. "A little worried about Diggory."

"Well. Honestly I've a good feelings about this match." Chris said smiling. In reality she had a very bad feeling about Harry today but she didn't want to say that on his face and make him more nervous.

After that they talked for a while, mostly about Quidditch and Harry's first match. Ginny wasn't awkward around Harry anymore. Being in the Quidditch team helped her a lot to gain confidence. At last when they thought it must be time for breakfast, they headed through the portrait hole.

"Stand and fight, you mangy cur!" yelled Sir Cadogan.

"Oh, shut up," Harry yawned.

"Later Sir Cadogan." Chris replied and left.

They started to eat breakfast when the other team members turned up.

"It's going to be a tough one," said Wood, who wasn't eating anything.

"Stop worrying, Oliver," said Angelina soothingly, "we don't mind a bit of rain."

"Be positive Wood." Chris said putting a bacon in her mouth.

But it was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns towards the Quidditch pitch, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went.

They entered the changing room and the team changed into their scarlet robes and waited for Wood's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly and beckoned them to follow him.

The wind was so strong that they staggered sideways as they walked out onto the pitch. If the crowd was cheering they couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder. Rain was splattering over Harry's glasses. Chris noticed it and stopped Harry.

"Before we go." She said, took his glasses from him, took out her wand and, "Impervius."

She gave the glasses back and Harry put it on. "Better?" She asked putting her wand back.

Harry nodded slightly smiling. Everyone in the team were watching Chris in amazement.

"Brilliant!" Wood said hoarsely looking at her, "OK, team, let's go for it!"

The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the pitch, wearing canary-yellow robes. The captains walked up to each other and shook hands; Diggory smiled at Wood and Wood tried to smile a little and nodded. Chris looked at Ginny, who mouthed, "Don't forgot the plan." Chris nodded and then saw Madam Hooch's mouth form the words, "Mount your brooms." She pulled her right foot out of the mud with a squelch and swung it over her Firebolt. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant – they were off.

Without waiting Ginny seized the Quaffle.

Ginny and Chris made the plan, that, no matter what, the Quaffle should not go to any Hufflepuff Chasers hands. They've to goal as much as possible.

Ginny threw the Quaffle to Angelina, who gracefully catched it and tried to goal but the Hufflepuff Keeper stopped it. Chris catch the Quaffle and dodged a Bludger. Then passed it Ginny, who noticed how the Keeper stopped the last goal did a trick and GOAL. Soon the Quaffle came back and Angelina caught it and passed it to Chris. Chris went towards the hoop and in rain confusing the Keeper was a easy job and GOAL. Soon Chris was soaked to her skin and frozen, Keeping her eyes open in rain was also a difficult job, if they hadn't practiced in rain before it would have been impossible to do so.

They did goal after goal, in this rain, thunderstorm and focusing only on the Quaffle, she lost her count of goals. Harry was moving around the ground very fast, maybe looking for the Snitch.

The Hufflepuffs finally got the Quaffle from Ginny and did few goals.

Then with the first flash of lightning came the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle; Chris saw Wood through the thick rain, gesturing them to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the mud.

"I called for time out!" Wood roared at his team. "Come on, under here .."

They huddled at the edge of the pitch under a large umbrella.

"What's the score?" Chris and Harry said together.

"Our score is one hundred twenty and theirs thirty," said Wood, "but unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."

"One thirty?" Harry said shocked. Chris smirked looking at him. He hurriedly said, "I'm trying to find it Wood. I'll see it soon. Don't worry."

They nodded and went to took off when Angelina said looking at Ginny and Chris, "You two are doing great. I've no doubt in Harry but let's play it safe; six more goals."

Chris and Ginny nodded; and with full of determination, the three girls, urged their brooms through the turbulent air.

Soon Angelina did back to back three goals.

"Harry!" Chris heard Wood's anguished yell from the Gryffindor goalposts. "Harry, behind you!"

And Harry zoomed towards the Snitch.

There was something going on, taking chane of the confusion, Ginny and Chris did two goals each.

But then Chris realized what was wrong. Ginny was shivering badly on her broom. Chris was feeling cold as well but this cold was different, she looked up and saw at least a hundred Dementors.

'Harry! Harry is up there' screamed her mind. Without thinking Chris flew up, as fast as the Firebolt can go. Chris found Harry surrounded by the Dementors. "Leave. Now." She shouted. The Dementors turned towards her. They tried to suck her soul but a voice came from somewhere, "Don't. You've no idea who she is." The Dementors backed away looking at Chris. But before Chris can found out who it was or why they listened to her, she saw Harry was falling. She grabbed Harry by hand, Harry was very skinny but his weight was more than Chris and it dragged Chris down too. Luckily, Fred came and grabbed Harry by his robes and finally they able to stop him from hitting the ground. Madam Hooch whistle sounded and they land on ground. Ginny came down as well looking pale. Ron and Hermione came running, they carried Harry to the Hospital wing.