Chapter 39

The next two months passed quickly for Harry, he spent most of his time attending classes, completing assignments, attending the practice sessions of the English national Quidditch team pn the weekends and practising his magic alone in the Room of Requirements or fine-tuning his duelling with Professor Flitwick , thrice a week in the Abandoned Duelling classroom. Harry had not even come close to defeating Flitwick again in the two months since their first duel. He just couldn't match the professor's speed and magical power yet. But his spell casting had become very fluid and he had mastered a number of spells he learnt from Flitwick and had also improved his awareness of his surroundings tremendously.

The second quidditch match of the school season for Ravenclaw was against Hufflepuff, which Harry ended pretty quickly ending the match in the favor of Ravenclaw 180-20.

Harry found that England's team for the Quidditch World Cup was atrocious. The only decent players were himself and Gwenog Jones , the captain of the Holyhead Harpies who was a chaser. She was also the captain of the National side, this year.

Flashback:-

Harry sat besides the coach as they saw the chasers going through their drills. Harry had just finished his practice and was resting.

When he saw the awful performance of the beaters and keeperturned towards the coach and said, " really coach, with such awful beaters and keeper, I don't see how we are going to win, even among the chasers only Gwenog Jones is playing well. We only have till March to prepare for the World Cupsnd we will have a huge problem if our players play like this. "

"The kid is right, coach. We can't win this team. Are these really the best players you could pick? " remarked Gwenog Jones who had snuck up on them during their conversation.

She hugged Harry tightly , pressing his head into her bosom and said, " Excellent flying as usual, Little Harry. " She smirked, making Harry bluster in embarrassment as inspite of his Occlumency barriers, he was still a hormonal teenager, and Gwenog had made it her task to embarass Harry as much as possible. She had taken Harry under her wing and had taken to calling him "Little Harry".

" You both are correct in your assessment, but unfortunately these were the best among the players who turned up for the trials. If you know any better players, I will gladly try them out for the spots," the coach said.

Harry thought for a moment and said, " I have an excellent idea for the beaters, the Weasley twins, George and Fred. I have seen them play and have played against them. They are the best there is. They are a pair of human bludgers, they have amazing chemistry between them and they are strong and have amazing aim with the bludgers. And Oliver Wood is also a very good keeper, definitely better than our current keeper. "

" I would suggest a couple of Hollyhead Harpy chasers , but the two of them left Holyhead last year and moved to France and I heard that they will be playing for France this World Cup, the French offered them a very good offer. Harry, are there aby good chasers at Hogwarts? " Gwenog remarked.

Harry thought for a moment and said, " why don't you observe a few matches at Hogwarts and then see. I am not much knowledgeable about chasers, that is your speciality. "

As they ended the practice and everyone dispersed with Gwenog and Coach Jones,promising to attend the next Gryffindor match to see Wood and the Weasley twins in action.

Harry suddenly remembered something and pulled six Holyhead Harpies jerseys from his backpack and turned towards Gwenog saying, " You don't mind signing these would you, I promised my sisters and a couple of friends to get a signed Jersey of yours. And one is for me. They, along with me are your die hard fans. "

Gwenog just smiled and signed the jerseys and kissed Harry on the cheek and left after playfully ruffling his hair.

Gwenog and coach Jones attended the next Gryffindor match against Hufflepuff and also the practise sessions of Ravenclaw and Slytherin under Disillusionment charms and readily agreed with Harry's assessment of Wood and the Weasley twins.

As Harry approached them after the match, the coach said, " You were right Harry, the Weasley twins and Wood are miles better than our current players. They are selected. As for the chasers, I would like to hold a trial between the three Gryffindor chasers and Roger Davies for the two Chaser spots. You can inform them to come with you to the next training session with you. "

Harry approached the Gryffindor team after the match. The twins saw Harry and Fred said, " Harrykins, what are you doing here? "

" Yes, what does Ravenclaw's star player doing here, Harrykins? " George said.

Harry just smiled and said, "I have excellent news for you guys. I suggested that you guys as replacements for the players in the English National Team for the World Cup. The selected players are atrocious. The coach and captain watched your match and were impressed. Fred, George and Oliver, you guys are selected. Angelina, Alicia and Katie, the Coach wanted you to come to the team practice session tomorrow to participate in the trials for the two chaser spots along with Roger Davies. So, what do you guys say? "

Harry found himself in a bone crushing group hug from all the Gryffindor players, all of whom thanked him over and over again.

- Flashback end -

After the trials, the final squad was:

Keeper - Oliver Wood

Chasers - Gwenog Jones (captain)

Angelina Johnson

Roger Davies

Beaters - George Weasley

Fred Weasley

Seeker - Harry Potter

Reserves: Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell

After the changes made to the team, the practices went much better for the rest of the time till Christmas.

Finally it was December 21st , the day for performing his third ritual, which was to increase his sensitivity to magic. Harry had already starter practising sensing magic on various enchanted and cursed items provided by the Room of Requirement for his practice, as well as various wards placed on objects by the Room of Requirement. He had already perfected breaking simple wards. This ritual would greatly increase his already impressive magic sensing skill.

Harry was currently in the Room of Requirement,sitting in a circle drawn from his blood and placed his two slit hands on two ritual circles on his either side which were also drawn with his blood and channeled his magic after drinking a potion which took one month to brew i.e. one full lunar cycle. The two ritual circles lit up a brilliant scarlet color and Harry suddenly had a feeling of intense euphoria which was followed by a feeling of vertigo. The aftereffects of the ritual took a few hours to abate.

Harry wasted no time in asking the Room to provide him with an array of cursed and enchanted objects and Harry observed that he could easily ascertain the purpose of the enchantments and the curses with much more ease than before. Harry was very pleased with the results as he wanted to develop his magic sensing skill such that he could ascertain the intent behind the spells being cast at him even they were cast nonverbally.

Harry was also very pleased with the progress of his Occlumency skills. He had succeeded in accessing his magical core whenever he wanted in a heartbeat and was currently trying to find and access his animagus form in his Mindscape and he believed that he would have it down by the time the Christmas vacation had ended.

Harry returned to his dorm under the invisibility cloak and called out, "Rosey".

She appeared with a crack and said upon seeing Harry, " Master Harry, what can Rosey be doing for you? "

Harry smiled at the loyal she elf and said, " could you please pack my belongings, Rosey? I am afraid I was busy and forgot to pack my trunk and the train leaves from Hogsmeade station in an hour. "

Rosey beamed happily and with a couple of snaps of her fingers all his clothes were folded neatly and his trunk was fully packed. She turned towards Harry and said, " does Rosey be needing to do anything else Master Harry? "

Harry just shook his head saying, "No, thank you for your help Rosey. You can go now.But before you go, check if my sisters have packed their belongings and if not then help them, will you. "

Rosey popped away with a crack to complete her orders and Harry shrunk his trunk, placed it in his pocket and went to the Great Hall to have breakfast and then headed over to Hogsmeade in the Thestral drawn carriages with his sisters and friends.