Training Before Dawn
"Don't you think that professor's been watching us the whole time?" Percy asked as he had breakfast beside Harry, who was trying to study the new spell that had appeared in his magic tome.
Harry glanced toward the staff table.
There, the Masked Hero was, strangely enough, not talking and driving the other professors crazy with his endless chatter. Instead, he was staring directly at them, until he noticed the two of them looking back. He immediately shifted his attention and started talking to Professor Flitwick beside him, who had seemed to be enjoying a peaceful breakfast until he heard his colleague's voice and, unable to help himself, instantly wore an exhausted expression... despite breakfast having only just begun.
"Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much. At least he's not like those two," Harry said as his gaze drifted to another part of the Gryffindor table, where the first-year students were having breakfast.
There, two pairs of eyes were staring at him even more intensely.
"Hi, Harry!" Colin Creevey greeted him enthusiastically the instant their eyes met, wearing a huge smile. Then he gestured toward the camera that never seemed to leave his hands, very obviously inviting Harry to pose for another picture.
And the other stare belonged to none other than Ginny, who, as always, got nervous the moment she made eye contact with Harry, knocking over the glass of treacle juice beside her and spilling it all across the table.
"Well... I wonder if they've already started a Harry Potter fan club or something," Percy said, unable to help noticing the same thing while looking rather amused at Harry's troubles with being popular. "I wonder if I'll have one at Camp Half-Blood," he added with genuine interest.
"Yeah, because everyone at camp likes you so much. I'm sure your fan club was founded by the children of Ares, and Clarisse is the president. She's probably making little dolls of you right now and decorating their eyes with needles," Harry said, giving Percy a flat look.
"Okay, I get it," Percy replied with mild annoyance before deciding it was better to go back to eating his breakfast.
As they continued eating breakfast, Oliver Wood, Gryffindor's Quidditch captain, walked over to Harry and handed him the practice schedule for the weekend. It started early in the morning and covered most of the day, making Harry's expression grow somewhat dark and exhausted the moment he looked at it.
Percy leaned over to see the schedule as well and couldn't help smiling mockingly at his brother's suffering.
"See? That's why I never joined the Quidditch team. And not because I'm afraid I'll get struck by lightning or something while flying," he added confidently.
Although the fact that he felt the need to clarify that already said far more than enough.
Harry simply gave him a sidelong glance without saying much.
"I was planning to go see Hagrid tomorrow. Tyson seems to have really grown on him, although..."
Harry looked toward the Hufflepuff table, where Tyson was happily chatting with his Housemates while they all ate breakfast together.
"Looks like he got used to Hogwarts even faster than we did," Percy said as he watched the young Cyclops. "And before this, he couldn't even stay too far away from us."
"Yeah," Harry said with a small smile as he watched Tyson chatting with the other Hufflepuffs.
Even so, Dobby's warning crossed Harry's mind again.
In the end, Harry shook his head.
Nothing had happened so far, so maybe he was just overthinking things.
Not long afterward, he finished breakfast so he could go get his things ready for the next day's practice, which would probably end up being even more exhausting than the schedule suggested.
...
In the end, just as Harry had expected, the schedule Wood had given him turned out to be completely useless.
Early the next morning, when the sun was only just beginning to rise and the castle was still wrapped in morning mist, Wood walked into the dormitory Harry shared with Percy, Neville, Ron, and Seamus and started shaking him awake.
Of course, the instant Harry felt that first shake, his eyes snapped open and he pulled out the wand he kept beneath his blankets, pointing it directly at Wood's face and startling the captain with his reaction.
"Hey, easy there. I just came to wake you up so we could start practice," Wood said as he raised both hands, staring at Harry's wand pointed right at his nose. A tiny spark of light could already be seen gathering at its tip.
"Although if you want... you can sleep for another half hour," he added, thinking Harry might be the type who woke up in a bad mood.
Luckily, he hadn't turned toward Percy's bed. Having heard the strange noise in the room, Percy had opened his eyes and was now holding his sword in his hand. But the moment he realized it was just Wood, he simply sheathed it again, rolled over, and pulled the blankets over his head to keep sleeping.
"Sorry. It's a habit from summer vacation," Harry said as he woke up properly, lowering his wand and letting out a huge yawn.
Even so, despite having plenty of questions he wanted to ask, Wood decided not to.
"Well, I'll be waiting for you in the changing room. I still have to explain the strategies we'll be practicing," Wood said, quickly recovering from his surprise, which never lasted very long whenever Quidditch was involved. "Don't be late," he added as he left Harry's dormitory, no doubt on his way to wake up the others while praying none of them ended up throwing a spell at him like Harry had nearly done.
Harry ran a hand through his hair as he put on his glasses and looked through the things he'd prepared the day before, grabbing his clothes and broom, which he slung over his shoulder before leaving the room. Not before smacking his brother with a pillow first, though, unable to hide the envy that Percy got to sleep a little longer while he had to get up this early.
Percy merely grumbled something unintelligible beneath the blankets before becoming completely motionless again.
...
By the time he reached the changing room, the rest of the team was already waiting, though none of them looked any more awake than he did.
Even the Weasley twins were snoring while leaning against each other on the bench.
Meanwhile, Alicia Spinnet was struggling to keep her eyes open, which seemed to require every ounce of her willpower.
And Angelina Johnson looked like she was in an absolutely terrible mood, her hair still a complete mess as she glared furiously at her captain.
Just like her fellow Chaser Katie Bell, who seemed to be chewing on a licorice wand, perhaps trying to use it to stay awake.
The only one who was completely awake—and actually excited—was Wood, completely oblivious to everyone else's condition.
"There you are at last. I thought you'd gotten distracted," Wood said energetically, standing in front of a chalkboard already covered with plays and strategies that looked surprisingly professional.
Because if there was one thing Wood took seriously, it was Quidditch.
Perhaps a little too seriously.
"I spent the entire summer putting together a completely new training program. I'm sure it'll help us improve," he said as he pointed to the board behind him, which was filled with arrows, crosses in every color imaginable, along with general notes and explanations, to the point where anyone looking at it would probably get dizzy from the sheer amount of information.
Wood began explaining the tactics with complete enthusiasm, never noticing that practically no one seemed awake enough to keep up with him, including the sleeping Weasley twins.
Even Harry felt like his brain still hadn't fully woken up and that, right now, he'd much rather be eating breakfast.
By the time Wood finished, the sun had fully risen, and they could already hear the students around the castle beginning their day.
Getting up before dawn to practice had turned out to be practically pointless.
Naturally, no one was going to say that to Wood, who still looked immensely proud of his brilliant winning strategy for that year.
"Is everything clear? If there aren't any questions, we can move on and head to the pitch," Wood said as he finished.
And, of course, no one there wanted to ask a question.
Not only because they hadn't understood most of it, but because they didn't want Wood to start explaining everything all over again, from the first chalkboard to the fifth... or maybe even pull out a sixth.
"Good, then... let's go," Wood said, completely delighted that his team had been paying such close attention. "Come on, get out there and put the new theories into practice!" Wood shouted, grabbing his broom and leading everyone out toward the Quidditch pitch, where practice would finally begin.
But they hadn't even gotten very far before they ran into the Slytherin team, who were also dressed in their practice robes with their brooms in hand, heading in the same direction.
"Oh, no... now what?" Wood said the moment he spotted Flint, the captain of the Slytherin team, his voice filled with annoyance.