Chapter 105

News of Harry becoming the new Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team spread quickly. The very day after try-outs in fact. It seemed the Hogwarts rumor mill had been working overtime with anything concerning him. Harry had once more been the subject of much talk among the student population, and even more gawking than he had been subject to before.

This didn't bother Harry like it had back when school first started and people gawked at him like he was some circus freak show. At the beginning of school, when everyone stared at him, it had been annoying. Now he actually enjoyed them, because unlike before, the stares and admiring glances and envious looks he received were because of something he did; something he had accomplished with his own skills and abilities; not because of something that happened to him when he was a helpless baby.

He would admit it felt nice to have people looking at him with so much respect. To listen to students talking in the hall about how Harry Potter, not the Boy-Who-Lived, but Harry Potter made the Gryffindor team as its Seeker.

Acknowledgment. He was finally being acknowledged as his own person. He still had a long ways to go before the stigma of that thrice damned title disappeared, but he was making inroads towards that goal.

The only real problem that came from his joining of the Quidditch team, as far as he could see, was the jealousy that came with the news. While many people were in awe of him and looked at him with admiration and respect, just as many were jealous of his accomplishment. Several times while he walking through the hallway, he would hear people talking about how how they could have done better if they decided to try out for their teams. Draco Malfoy had been particularly loud and obnoxious whenever he discussed how unfair it was that Harry had been made Seeker when he could have done so if he had realized it was allowed.

That was not the worst of the dissension, however. No, while the people boasting about how they could have made the team if they tried, and put him down by claiming he had only gotten on the team due to his fame because they were jealous bothered him, they were easily ignored. He would simply show them how wrong they were during his first game and that would be that. By far, the worse rumor was the one about how the staff was showing him favoritism by letting him join the Quidditch team.

These rumors had no basis in fact. Professor McGonagall had actually been against letting him join the team at first, stating that it was against the rules. And when Harry told her there was no rule claiming he was not allowed to join, she told him it didn't matter because he could not bring a broom to Hogwarts. It was only after a demonstration of his skills and his promise that he had a plan that would let him use a broom better than the ones Hogwarts possessed without actually bringing his own (funny because he doesn't have a broom) broom to school that she finally relented. No one else knew this, however; only his friends and his new teammates were aware of these circumstances, and so rumor persisted.

He almost chuckled when he thought of how upset Oliver was when news of Harry's position as the team's Seeker came to light the next day. The man seemed to have been hoping to keep it a secret until the first game. But of course, that would have been impossible since there were several people who saw him trying out that day.

According to rumor, one Cormac McLaggen had been seen in the Gryffindor Common Room telling people about how unfair it was that a first year became Seeker because of his fame, when someone who was obviously more talented (like him) had been denied. Harry did not know if there was any veracity to those rumors, seeing as how he was rarely in the Gryffindor Common Room, since he preferred to spend time either with his friends or one of the empty classrooms on the second floor practicing magic, but when he took into account how much of a braggart McLaggen was it made sense. He did not doubt for an instant that the boy would say something like that in order to lessen the sting on his pride.

Truly, his decision to become Gryffindor Seeker was a double-edged sword.

With a small sigh, Harry put his thoughts on his decision to join the House Quidditch team on hold and looked at the letter he was writing. He was sitting in one of the squishy arm chairs next to the fire place. A merry fire crackled before him, its flames a mixture of yellows and reds that danced around each other like a pair of star-crossed lovers. Harry blamed his euphemism on Lisa's trashy novels and absently wondered if the fire was charmed.

He reread the letter for errors and to make sure it contained all of the legalese and details requires, his calligraphy pen tapping a steady rhythm on the coffee table. It was a letter to Andromeda Tonks, a very important one that could help him exponentially in his goals, and the wording needed to be just right so she would know exactly what he wanted. After several rereads, Harry decided it was perfect.

As if knowing his letter was finished, Hedwig came swooping in through the window he had opened before starting on the letter. She flew down and landed on the coffee table next, her amber eyes going from him, to the letter, then back to him.

"So impatient," Harry teased with a small grin. "I haven't even sealed the letter yet and you're already demanding I attach it for delivery."

Hedwig gave him an indignant hoot as her wings flapped and her eyes bore into his.

"Yes, I did call for you," Harry agreed with a nod. "I just didn't expect you to get here so fast. If you had been in the owlery, it would have taken at least two minutes for you to fly up here. It's almost like you've been waiting outside this whole time." Which she had. Harry had heard the flapping of wings while he wrote the letter and had been able to feel her impatience the entire time he checked it over.

Hedwig barked at him, her feathers ruffling as she gave him a glare worthy of Professor McGonagall.

"Don't look at me like that," Harry said, still grinning at his owl. "You have got to be the most impatient bird I've ever seen." Hedwig tried to bite his finger at that, but he moved it out of the way and ran his fingers along the feathers at the back of her head. "But don't worry, you're still the best, most beautiful and most intelligent owl I know."

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