Professor Potter

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 

Harry lay back on the comfortable new chaise lounge that he had received for his birthday. He was staring up into the night sky looking for familiar constellations. It was a little after midnight so his birthday was officially over. The party had finally come to an end less than an hour before and it had begun at noon. The entire family had been there to include the elder Delacours, Grangers and Johnsons. The Tome Study Group was also in attendance. The cover story was that they had been spending a good part of the summer working on taking Harry's Applied Magic concepts and migrating them to the standard curriculum. 

A number of other guests had come and gone during the course of the day to include other faculty members, Aurors and Patrollers, and a few members of the Ministry hierarchy. Quite a bit of flying had taken place over the meadow and Snuffles had worn himself out responding to all the attention he had gotten. It was amazing how many people loved the big gangly puppy, as long as they were able to leave him with his family when the day was done. The last Harry had seen of him, he was sprawled out on an old blanket in the middle of the floor of James' nursery. 

The food had been nonstop and Harry was sure that the house elf staff was likewise sleeping like the dead after the day long effort that they had put in. It was a warm night and the cushioned chair had him relaxed. If he wasn't so worn out from the festivities he would have been tempted to turn dragon and go flying. Instead he let his gaze sweep across the sky, looking for any hints of what his brethren in the herd were able to fathom. Try as he might, he found no road signs to the future. Had he found any he wouldn't have gone to bed shortly after in as good a frame of mind. 

The first issue arose from a visit he paid to the Quidditch park the following Saturday. He had been invited by Nathaniel Pinewood to see the progress being made on the general purpose building. He arrived around noon and found that a great deal had been accomplished. The stone work repairs to the foundation had been made earlier in the summer and had been allowed to set. They had also laid additional stonework to create a waist high wall around the perimeter of the foundation upon which the timber framing was being erected. They were using traditional timber work similar to that used for the old barn. 

It was explained to Harry that on the very outside chance that a muggle would get this far onto the property and see what was going on they would only see what looked to be a repaired or renovated farm building. Inside, work had begun on the partitioning for the various rooms that would include a cafeteria, changing rooms, infirmary, and several shops. Harry liked what he saw and said so. When they got outside he could see that several matches were underway. He could also hear quite a bit of noise coming from the fourth pitch. He looked over at Pinewood who shrugged and said, 

"I know, they create quite a bit of noise. The same bunch every weekend, practically all weekend long. We've had some complaints from other groups but they figured out that if they shift their team members around after each match it gets around the rule about only one time slot per team. A pretty rough and tumble bunch, too. We had words with them but they've pretty much ignored us and like I said, technically they aren't breaking any rules." 

"Terrific," Harry said sourly, "Quidditch hooligans." 

"What?" 

"Hooligans. A term from my muggle days. Muggle football, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's hugely popular, all over the world, in fact. Some of the fans, however, create problems with their overly enthusiastic, sometimes criminal behavior. Drinking, fighting, harassing other teams and fans. I wouldn't have thought to see that here. With so many other witches and wizards with wands, you'd think they'd behave." 

"Well, Harry, I think your average witch or wizard isn't likely to pull a wand and stupefy someone for making a row. They do spoil things a bit though."