In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter X: Let's Hear It for the Boy

Because what he does he does so well
Makes me wanna yell
Let's hear it for the boy
Let's give the boy a hand

"Let's Hear It for the Boy"
Deniece Williams

HARRY:

The morning of my first Quidditch match was freezing. I had barely slept I was so nervous, and I struggled to eat, too.

"You've got to eat some breakfast," Ron said, just before eating half of a slice of bacon in a single bite.

"I'm not hungry," I mumbled.

"Just a bit of toast, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not hungry."

Seamus had heard the conversation, and added his two cents as he drowned his sausages in ketchup. "Harry, you need your strength. Seekers are always the ones who get nobbled by the other team."

"Thanks, Seamus." I waited for Lucy's concerned input, but none came.

"I can't eat when I'm nervous either," she said, shrugging.

Lucy had started spending more time with us now that Hermione had decided to talk to Ron and me again after the troll incident. She still largely kept to herself, more often than not just sitting silently with us as we all worked on homework and offering help whenever Hermione couldn't answer a question. When Skye asked her to start coming to every practice instead of just every other practice, we walked there and back together, and she would talk a little then.

One day, we were walking to the Pitch together when we heard a high-pitched scream. Lucy and I both jumped, but we relaxed when we saw Katie Bell sprinting away from the twins, fingers held to her nose as she squawked profanities at them.

"I had lots of fun planning the haunted house with those two," Lucy had said, "and after Halloween, they offered to 'show me the ropes' of pranking. I almost said yes, but, holy Helga Hufflepuff, if I got into as much trouble as they do, my parents would be furious. As Cedric Diggory's little sister, I don't have much room for making mistakes."

"I understand," I found myself saying.

"I had a feeling you might." She sighed. "I guess we'll have to come up with our own ways of finding adventure, huh?"

"Like fighting a troll in the bathroom?"

She flashed a rare smile. "Something like that."

Now that I was mere hours away from my Quidditch debut, I understood what she said better than ever. Even as I stared at my empty plate, I felt dozens of stares as people gestured subtly at me and whispered behind their hands. I was Harry Potter, after all.

"Harry Potter!" the twins chorused in unison as if they'd read my mind, sitting across from me on either side of Lucy and immediately beginning to fill their plates with whatever food they could reach.

"How's our star Seeker feeling about today?" Fred asked.

I shrugged, not wanting to admit just how nervous I was.

"You're going to be great, Harry, you really are," George assured me.

"After all those hours of practice Parkin put us through-"

"Blimey, she must have dueled every single Quidditch captain to get all that time on the Pitch uninterrupted-"

"Actually, George, Skye strikes me as more of an arm wrestler," Fred chuckled. "Anyway, Harry, you've got nothing to worry about. Just keep looking for the flying golden thing with wings and get it before the bloke in green does, and you'll be set!"