To change the future

COS-7

Harry spent a lot of time over the next few days dodging out of sightwhenever he saw Gilderoy Lockhart coming down a corridor. Harder to avoid was Colin Creevey, who seemed to have memorized Harry'sschedule. Nothing seemed to give Colin a bigger thrill than to say, "Allright, Harry?" six or seven times a day and hear, "Hello, Colin," back,however exasperated Harry sounded when he said it.Hedwig was still angry with Harry about the disastrous car journeyand Ron's wand was still malfunctioning, surpassing itself on Fridaymorning by shooting out of Ron's hand in Charms and hitting tiny oldProfessor Flitwick squarely between the eyes, creating a large,throbbing green boil where it had struck. So with one thing andanother, Harry was quite glad to reach the weekend. He, Ron, andHermione were planning to visit Hagrid on Saturday morning. Harry,however, was shaken awake several hours earlier than he would have liked by Oliver Wood, Captain of the GryffindorQuidditch team.

George and Fred groaned, having dealt with that for years

"Whassamatter?" said Harry groggily."Quidditch practice!" said Wood. "Come on!"Harry squinted at the window. There was a thin mist hanging acrossthe pink-and-gold sky. Now that he was awake, he couldn'tunderstand how he could have slept through the racket the birds weremaking."Oliver," Harry croaked. "It's the crack of dawn."

"Like that was going to change his mind." Fred grumbles

"Exactly," said Wood. He was a tall and burly sixth year and, at themoment, his eyes were gleaming with a crazed enthusiasm. "It's partof our new training program. Come on, grab your broom, and let's go,"said Wood heartily. "None of the other teams have started training yet;we're going to be first off the mark this year -"Yawning and shivering slightly, Harry climbed out of bed and tried tofind his Quidditch robes."Good man," said Wood. "Meet you on the field in fifteen minutes. When he'd found his scarlet team robes and pulled on his cloak forwarmth, Harry scribbled a note to Ron explaining where he'd gone andwent down the spiral staircase to the common room, his Nimbus TwoThousand on his shoulder. He had just reached the portrait hole whenthere was a clatter behind him and Colin Creevey came dashing downthe spiral staircase, his camera swinging madly around his neck andsomething clutched in his hand."I heard someone saying your name on the stairs, Harry! Look whatI've got here! I've had it developed, I wanted to show you -"  Harry looked bemusedly at the photograph Colin was brandishingunder his nose.A moving, black-and-white Lockhart was tugging hard on an armHarry recognized as his own. He was pleased to see that hisphotographic self was putting up a good fight and refusing to bedragged into view. As Harry watched, Lockhart gave up andslumped, panting, against the white edge of the picture."Will you sign it?" said Colin eagerly."No," said Harry flatly, glancing around to check that the room wasreally deserted. "Sorry, Colin, I'm in a hurry - Quidditch practice -"He climbed through the portrait hole."Oh, wow! Wait for me! I've never watched a Quidditch gamebefore!"Colin scrambled through the hole after him."It'll be really boring," Harry said quickly, but Colin ignored him, hisface shining with excitement."You were the youngest House player in a hundred years, weren'tyou, Harry? Weren't you?" said Colin, trotting alongside him. "Youmust be brilliant. I've never flown. Is it easy? Is that your ownbroom? Is that the best one there is?

"He's certainly...enthusiastic." Toni says after a few seconds

Harry didn't know how to get rid of him. It was like having anextremely talkative shadow."I don't really understand Quidditch," said Colin breathlessly. "Is ittrue there are four balls? And two of them fly around trying to knockpeople off their brooms?""Yes," said Harry heavily, resigned to explaining the complicatedrules of Quidditch. "They're called Bludgers. There are two Beaters), on each team who carry clubs to beat the Bludgers away from theirside. Fred and George Weasley are the Gryffindor Beaters.""And what are the other balls for?" Colin asked, tripping down acouple of steps because he was gazing open-mouthed at Harry."Well, the Quafe - that's the biggish red one - is the one that scoresgoals. Three Chasers on each team throw the Quaffle to each otherand try and get it through the goal posts at the end of the pitch -they're three long poles with hoops on the end.""And the fourth ball -""- is the Golden Snitch," said Harry, "and it's very small, very fast, anddifficult to catch. But that's what the Seeker's got to do, because agame of Quidditch doesn't end until the Snitch has been caught. Andwhichever team's Seeker gets the Snitch earns his team an extrahundred and fifty points.""And you're the Gryffindor Seeker, aren't you?" said Colin in awe."Yes," said Harry as they left the castle and started across the dew drenched grass. "And there's the Keeper, too. He guards the goalposts. That's it, really."But Colin didn't stop questioning Harry all the way down the slopinglawns to the Quidditch field, and Harry only shook him off when hereached the changing rooms; Colin called after him in a piping voice,"I'll go and get a good seat, Harry!" and hurried off to the stands