"I keep telling the faculty that it's too dangerous for children to play such a sport," Madam Pomfrey muttered, bustling about. "They keep getting younger. Drink these, there's a good lad."
Harry gagged on the potions.
"What happened I don't…"
"Don't remember? You cracked your skull open after you caught the snitch. Some memory loss is to be expected."
"I caught it?"
She gave him a nod and a concerned look. "What's the last thing you remember?"
Harry wanted to say that the last thing he remembered was her asking him what the last thing he remembered was, but felt it would be inappropriate.
"I remember Madam Hooch blowing her whistle, then kicking off the ground."
She nodded her head in understanding. "You caught the snitch and won the game for Ravenclaw, but something seemed to happen to your broom. I thought it looked confounded and Professor Flitwick took it to his study to examine."
"I won?"
"Yes, I'm assured that when your broom was behaving you flew quite well."
Harry didn't believe it.
"I did?"
Madam Pomfrey huffed at him.
"Drink these, alright? You'll be out in a few more days, but you need to sleep."
Harry drank the much smoother tasting draught, and was asleep in moments.
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His friends were all concerned for him when he was let out. But when he said he didn't remember the match at all, Daphne had giggled. She thought his frustration at not knowing how he did at his first game was hilarious. It was hardly his fault though, he was evidently good at something and had no way to know it.
Daphne's laughter caused Hermione to glower at her, starting her off on a tirade of reprimands for 'insensitivity'. Harry thought they were going to come to spells at one point.
Tracey spent time catching him up on gossip and Neville had kept track of his homework for him, which made Harry's chest feel warm.
He did get to see the memory of his fall through Hermione's eyes. It was a nasty one. He found himself wishing, less jokingly, that someone really had ran around beneath him with a mattress.
"He wasn't blinking, and his lips were moving. He was casting a spell. I know it. I've read all about them."
"I've read all about spells!" Daphne mocked in a poor imitation, if not an inaccurate one.
Hermione was removed by the Matron when she started to shout, and Harry saw victory in Daphne's he caught a trace of some anxiety in Neville's thoughts.
"Is something wrong, Neville?" The boy nearly jumped.
"Well… the other Gryffindors think… it's because of your-" He was stammering worse than usual.
Daphne seemed to take pity on him. "It's because you're a parselmouth, like You-Know-Who." She looked at Neville, gaping at her. "What?" She sighed. "You know the Weasley family? The clan of redheads, with the tall boys? The twins? Them. They're a Gryffindor dynasty, they've been in Gryffindor, every single one of them, for the last century. Now here you are, speaking to snakes and hanging around with Slytherins."
"I though the houses didn't matter so much."
"They don't to me, but it's likely Ron Weasley thinks you're evil, or some sort of rubbish. Your victory over Malfoy has the other first years terrified of you. I bet Weasley told you that you shouldn't hang around Harry, right?" She directed the last part at Neville.
Neville gulped and nodded.
"It was hardly a fight, though." Harry protested. "And it's not like I did anything. How often is talking to snakes useful anyway?"
Tracey just shook her head and Daphne threw her arms up in exasperation.
"Wait, how does everyone know about the duel…" He looked right at Tracey who turned pink. Hermione chose that moment to let herself back in, barely wincing at Madam Pomfrey's withering look.
"You really did have a duel with Malfoy? That was true? How could you be so irresponsible?"
He blanched.
"Well, he did win it." Daphne returned politely. He would never understand how she could be polite like that even to someone she disliked.
Hermione looked speechless, but before she could rant Madam Pomfrey swept back in and kicked them all out.
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Christmas was coming, and Harry was excited about that for the first time in recent memory. He had probably overtaxed Hedwig terribly to ensure that he could get his friends the right things. A book for Hermione, because how could it be anything else? An introduction to runes which, even though they couldn't take the class for several more years, were 'ever so important.'
A beginning enchanter's set for Daphne, so she could practice the charms. She told him while they practiced defense spells with one another that she wanted to enchant things for a living, but Harry suspected she just wanted to call herself an enchantress. It only contained a few specially prepared items to enchant; miniature quidditch balls, a stuffed teddy bear to animate, and a combination lock, amongst other things.
He bought an owl for Tracey, after she stated her desire for one several times. They were, he was told, 'just too cute.' He bought some sort of seed for Neville. Some cactus whose name he couldn't pronounce that had a lot of 'm's in it. He had decided, quite last minute, to send a box of chocolate frogs to Lisa.
The lake froze solid at some point, and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban.
The Great Hall looked spectacular. There was wreaths of holly and mistletoe hung around the walls. Harry had heard of some prank the Weasley twins pulled involving mistletoe, and endeavored to avoid it. He stepped the long way around every mistletoe branch he could see.
Hagrid had worked hard on it the decorations, and was more than happy to show Harry about. It was almost a tour, except it was one room and he could see everything. Still, he listened to Hagrid explain how the trees grew so tall using some fertilizer Professor Sprout put together every year.