The Boy Who Couldn't See: Year 3

The Flight of Beatrice

TW: lots of talk about harry's past abuse in this chapter

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DADA quickly becomes everybody's favorite class, excluding Malfoy and his friends, who's only reason for not liking Professor Lupin seems to be that his robes are frayed. After Harry's little temper tantrum (Ron's words, not Harry's) about the boggart, he was angry with Lupin for a total of about a half of a lesson. Now, he's definitely Harry's favorite teacher but, obviously, he's not going to admit that, so he's stuck just begrudgingly complimenting Lupin when Ron or Hermione say something.

Harry's other classes, however, are nowhere near as good as Lupin's. Snape is in a much worse mood than usual and it's most definitely because of the story of Neville's boggart, which had spread like wildfire after the class. He's bullying Neville much worse than normal and it's really testing Harry's ability not to lose his shit.

Divination was a bad idea in Harry's book. Of course, he only took it to have the class with Ron, but he's starting to regret not taking Arithmancy or Runes, especially because Runes actually sounds interesting compared to using your inner eye. The way Hermione talks about it makes Harry very mad about his class choice. Parvati and Lavender have started speaking to Harry in hushed voices, as if he's on his deathbed, and that's really not helping.

Care of Magical Creatures, after the action packed first class, has now become very dull. Hagrid seems to have lost his confidence. They've been looking after flobberworms since that first lesson and they have to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.

At the start of October, though, Harry gets something else to focus on: Quidditch. The season is fast approaching and the Thursday after the start of the month, Oliver calls a meeting to discuss tactics.

"This is our last chance — my last chance — to win the Quidditch Cup," Oliver tells them, a note of desperation in his voice. He's a seventh year now, meaning it really is his last chance, and Harry thinks he deserves to win it. "I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it.

"Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. Okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world — injuries — then the tournament getting called off last year... But we also know we've got the best — ruddy — team — in — the — school," he says, some of his usual manic determination returning to him.

"We've got three superb Chasers. We've got two unbeatable Beaters."

"Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us," Fred and George say together.

"And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" Oliver says proudly. "And me," he adds a second later.

"We think you're wonderful too, Oliver," George says.

"Oh yeah, wonderful Keeper," Harry says, grinning.

"The point is," Oliver continues, "the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing..."

"Oliver, this year's our year," Fred says.

"We'll do it, Oliver!" Angelina says.

"Definitely," Harry says.

Full of determination to make Oliver's last year his best yet, they begin practicing three times a week. Despite the weather getting colder and wetter, Harry's thoughts are never swayed from winning the Quidditch Cup. Usually, they practice with a Crowd Cheering Charm that Oliver managed to find that simulates the sounds of the crowd so Harry can train his ears to hear over it, but now they've started practicing with rain sounds and crowd sounds. To make it fair across the board, the rest of the team manages to find charms that limit their vision just like a storm would in a regular game, and now everybody is honing their skills to match the predicted weather conditions on game day.