Rising to power.

Forbidden Forest

"You nervous?" Archie asked as he chewed on a piece of bacon for breakfast. It was the morning of the first game of the year, and as luck would have it, Ravenclaw were set to verse Gryffindor.

"No" was Harry's simple and cold reply. That was another thing that confused Archie; ever since that particular history lesson about the 'Boy-who-lived' where Harry had stormed out of the classroom, he had become distant and cold.

Well...more than usual anyway.

Archie had even enlisted the help of Hogwarts resident pranking twins to try and get a smile on his face, but all the Weasley twins managed to accomplish was proving that there is no way in hell anyone can prank Harry Potter. He always just seemed to know when someone was going to prank him. The Weasley twins and Archie had, in their frustration, named his uncanny ability to thwart their schemes as 'Harry's super duper, mega, and ultra cool Pranking sense'. The name was still up for discussion at their next meeting.

Something that only served to frustrate the trio more was when they had asked him how he continued to evade being pranked, in the hopes of making their pranks all the more unavoidable, he had just replied that they needed more 'skill points'.

What the hell were skill points?!

When that question was put to Harry, he had replied that to know what skill points were, they needed to acquire more skill points.

Suffice to say, they didn't have the required skill points and Harry was succeeding in diverting unwanted attention.

Stephanie had advised to give Harry his space when he had asked for her advice on the situation, but after a month passed with no change in his attitude, he was honestly starting to get worried.

"Well, do you think we've got a chance at beating the Gryffs today?" he asked, trying to get at least a few words out of his friend.

"Mm, Ellwood, Davis and I have a strategy to neutralize Weasley" he supplied quietly while chewing on his own breakfast. That answer surprised Archie for the wrong reasons, aside from several grunts, mumbles and monosyllabic answers; he really didn't speak all that much lately. It was sad that he really had to think to remember the last time he had strung a full sentence together.

"Well...ehh, care to share?" he asked, a huge grin on his face.

"No."

Archades sighed dejectedly, hoping a win today would at least help his friend lighten up a bit. He was sure he wouldn't mind so much if he at least knew why he was acting this way.

It was an extremely cold Sunday morning that found Archie sitting in the Hufflepuff stands beside Cedric so they could watch their friend debut for the Ravenclaw house Quidditch team against Gryffindor. The news of the two second years making the team was a secret that Ellwood intended on exploiting and using to his advantage, so naturally, everyone in the castle had found out about it not two hours after their first training session.

That didn't seem to bother the Ravenclaw captain as much as it should have, mainly because he too had caught wind of five of Gryffindor's new recruits; the Weasley twins as their new beaters, and Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet as their new Chasers. The only experienced players they had on their team were Charley Weasley and Jeremy Brown with Oliver Wood as a second year keeper. This game definitely had the potential to prove whether Ravenclaw were finally able to make a legitimate run at the cup.

Meanwhile in the changing rooms, Harry and the rest of the Ravenclaw team had changed into their dark blue and bronze Quidditch robes. Harry had made sure to place a temporary sticking charm on his glasses so they didn't fall off while he was playing, he knew that his flying style was flamboyant at the least, so it was a smart decision on his behalf.