The Lion Cub (HP SI)

"You all right there, Katie?" Harry asked, sitting next to his captain.

Dumbledore could moan and groan about not giving an infinite number of chances to Draco Malfoy all he wanted. As far as Harry was concerned, the fact that Katie Bell was sitting next to him, healthy and hale, was conclusive proof that his actions delivered a net positive result.

After all, he certainly would put Katie's health and comfort over a walking disaster like Draco Malfoy any time of the day. If not Katie, it could've been anyone else from Hogwarts. That hare-brained plan of forcing a random Hogwarts student to throw the cursed necklace at Dumbledore was stupid and downright dangerous. Only an idiot like Malfoy could think up such an idiotic plan.

He hoped Malfoy would get his just desserts once the war was won. At least, it'd send the right message.

"I don't think I've ever been this cold. Is it cold out there, or am I just frightened?" Katie asked with a flustered face.

"What is there to fear? You've got the best team under you, captain. We'll trash those Slytherins on the pitch. They'll be scrapping the bottom of their non-existent skill to score a single point." Harry boasted.

He was mostly blowing a load of smoke, but Katie had confidence issues far greater than Ron right after she became the team captain. The Katie Bell he knew was funny, carefree and confident. He supposed she was all those things because she wasn't the captain.

"Oh, I used to poke fun at Angelina all the time about her paranoia when she became captain. I kind of understand it now." Katie muttered while rubbing her hands in a vain attempt to ward off the 'cold' she alone was feeling.

"Well, we both did make fun of Angelina. At least you're not being possessed by the ghost of Oliver." Harry chuckled, patting Katie's shoulder.

By the cross look on her face, he knew his joke didn't help.

"Think of it this way, captain. Slytherin had to cough up a new Seeker on short notice. Malfoy is gone, and they're playing Harper in his place."

"He is an idiot and dumb as a mule." Ginny piqued up as she pulled a pair of socks from her locker.

"See...there is nothing to worry about." Harry said, grinning at Katie.

"Remember, their Chaser Vaesy is also out of the game. That idiot is in the infirmary for accidentally drinking a faulty calming potion." Ginny grinned wickedly, "Rumour has it the idiot has been in a right rage ever since."

"Well, that does it." Harry jumped to his feet and smacked a fist into his palm, "We have the advantage, and we have an easy win out there."

"I suppose we do have an advantage. Alright then! Let's make sure Slytherin remains far away from the Quidditch Cup this year." Katie proclaimed.

Once they got properly dressed and got ready with their brooms, the team walked out of the locker room to the pitch to the thunderous roars and boos. The stadium was packed full, with a whole portion of it dressed in solid red and gold.

'The arrest of Draco Malfoy certainly damaged Slytherin's reputation more than I thought.' Harry mused as he took position behind his captain.

Madam Hooch approached them with the Slytherin team in tow.

Amidst all the yelling, clapping and booing, Harry heard the distinct sound of a lion's roar.

"Don't tell me we have a wild lion on the loose." Harry muttered, looking around for the sound.

"Oh, no. It's Luna." Ginny pointed at a spot in the stadium.

"Is that a lion's head on her hat?" Harry asked, squinting his eyes to get a good look.

"Oh, yes. A lion hat. It's very fashionable." Ginny said.

Harry stared after his teammate, wondering whether she was serious or being sarcastic.

"Captains, shake hands." Madam Hooch said.

Harry witnessed the most awkward handshake any two human beings could possibly make as Katie and Slytherin Captain Urquhart tried to crush each other's hands.

"Mount your brooms!"

Harry stood ready with his firebolt while the rest of the Gryffindor team brandished their brand-new Nimbus 2000s courtesy of Sirius. Madam Hooch blew the whistle, and Harry was off the ground, as were the rest of the team. He soared high into the air and hovered over the pitch, casting his eyes out to watch for any sign of the Snitch. He noticed Vicky take a defensive position by the hoops as the keeper while Katie, Demelza and Ginny were battling the Slytherin chasers for possession.

He directed his Firebolt and went into a sharp dive at full speed. He positioned himself between the Slytherin Chasers in the blink of an eye and kicked away the Quaffle when Urquhart tried for a pass. Demelza immediately picked up the Quaffle and sped her way on the Nimbus straight for the exposed Slytherin hoops. The Slytherin beaters attempted to send the Bludger her way, but Ritchie was there to protect her by smacking away the Bludger to the far side of the pitch. Demelza passed the Quaffle to Katie, and she punched it through one of the hoops. The stands broke out into applause, drowning out everything else, even the less favourable commentary from Zacharias Smith.

The match resumed, and Harry searched for a glint of gold across the playing field.

"Slytherin takes back possession with a nasty shove to Demelza Robins, and Coote tries to pin the Slytherin Captain with a nasty Bludger but fails. Slytherin puts the Quaffle in, but no! Vicky Frobisher saves it! I suppose this is beginner's luck for the new Gryffindor Keeper."

'Beginner's luck, huh? We'll see about that Smith.' Harry thought with a chuckle.

The advantage was squarely on the Gryffindor team's side for the next half an hour. They had a lead of eighty points over the Slytherin team, which had yet to put a point on the board. Any attempts at a goal the Slytherin Chasers made were expertly defended by Vicky. As the game progressed, Slytherin Chasers and Beaters were less and less confident, leaving themselves open for Katie, Demelza and Ginny to score more easily.

The Slytherin team morale was so low Harry stopped playing interference and just observed the play from a safe distance while looking for the Snitch. 

The hunt for the Snitch was renewed, and Harper desperately sought to get hold of it. The only way Slytherin could win right now was by catching the Snitch with Gryffindor Chasers drubbing their hoops with goal after goal.

Ten minutes passed, and Gryffindor scored more points, which put their score at 110. That's when Harry noticed a glint of gold safely hovering over the grass on the ground. He immediately raced towards the Snitch at full speed. Of course, the Snitch didn't remain idle for long. It moved from its resting place, sensing his approach. It chose to keep close to the ground as it flew around the length of the Quidditch pitch. But Harry was not willing to let it wander around to its whims.

He chased it around with the wind whistling in his ears, his mind singularly focused on the little ball of gold. The sounds from the stadium faded away, and it was just him and the Snitch out there. He could feel his heart beat faster, and then swiftly, he sensed danger. On pure instinct, he banked to the left and flipped himself on the broom. It was just in time because Harper tried to ram into him.

Harry regained his lane in the nick of time, continuing his pursuit of the snitch while Harper collided with the ground. He didn't look back to see what happened as he remained singularly focused on the Snitch. He stretched out his hand, and time crawled down to a halt. His heart hammered inside his body loudly. He could feel the moment of victory in his grasp.

Harry pulled up sharply and punched his fist high in the air with a little ball of gold safely in his grasp. The stadium erupted in a roar as Madam Hooch blew the whistle to signify the end of the game.

"Wooooo!" Harry yelled.

His teammates immediately accosted him from all sides in a group hug in mid-air while the stadium erupted in cheers at the resounding victory.

"That was the most beautiful game I have ever played." Katie screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Are you crying?" Ginny asked, staring at Katie with a massive grin stretching across her face.

"Of course not. Why would I cry? We won!" Katie sniffled and laughed at the same time.

It was quite the supercharged air in the stadium after the drubbing Gryffindor gave to Slytherin. It was 260-0 in Gryffindor's favour, and they were off to a tremendous start for the Quidditch Cup while Slytherin was staring down a horrible season with no points in their bag.

When they finally entered the locker room, many of their Gryffindor friends were there to congratulate them. After a round of handshakes, pats on the back, and hugs from almost everyone on the Gryffindor team, Harry felt his face hurt after smiling for hours straight. When he finally managed to get free from all his well-wishers, he found Daphne and Astoria standing to the side, away from the crowd.

"Congratulations, Harry." Astoria chirped happily.

"Thanks." Harry grinned, "I thought you'd be sad at the drumming Slytherin took today, but you seem pleased." 

"Of course, she's pleased. She won quite a few galleons betting against Slytherin." said Daphne.

Harry raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend, who grinned. She showed a small pouch to show she had also made a few coins.

"Nice." Harry grinned.

"Thank you. You made it possible for me to buy a couple of dungbombs." Astoria said happily and pressed a kiss on his cheek, "Warrington will rue the day he messed with my Potions essay."

"Warrington?" Harry frowned, "I thought Cassius graduated last year."

"He did. He left a younger brother, Oliver, to torment us all." Astoria said dramatically, but that was followed by a savage grin, "Oh, he'll be so pissed tonight."

"Uh-huh."

Harry was a little disturbed to see the evil grin on the usually chirpy Astoria.

"Anyway, it was a nice game. Toodles." Astoria said before she slinked away.

"Chocolate?" Daphne offered a handful of chocolate.

He plucked a chocolate from her and enjoyed its honey mixed with chocolate flavour.

"Thanks. Only chocolate? Don't you think your boyfriend deserves a kiss for winning the match?" Harry asked with a wink while moving closer to Daphne.

"He'd have if I cared a whit about Quidditch," Daphne said disinterestedly while scrunching her nose, "…and if he wasn't so sweaty and smelly."

"Oh, come on." Harry made to hug her, but Daphne skipped away with a tinkling laugh.

"Go take a shower. You smell like a wet cat." Daphne yelled before she turned the corner and disappeared from his view.

Harry shook his head at her antics.

"C'mon, Harry. Party in the common room." Dean yelled, pumping his fists in the air.

Harry also joined in the festivities once in the common room, which was heartily supplied with butterbeer and sweets he had arranged beforehand with the help of Dobby and Winky.

*****

After a long break, Dumbledore summoned him for another one of the man's stupid and entirely wasteful 'special lessons' followed by a lecture on working together for the sake of the greater good and whatnot. Supposedly, Dumbledore was now 'overlooking' his 'actions' for the sake of ending the war.

Harry was up to the inch of his limits, tolerating Dumbledore's higher-than-thou attitude and the man's preconceived notions of what constitutes good behaviour. He consoled himself with the fact that this was all coming to an end by the end of the academic year. Therefore, he trudged through the 'documentary' of Voldemort's life story. This time, the story was seen through a younger Dumbledore's eyes when he went to recruit young Tom Riddle into Hogwarts. It was all very dramatic and boring. Harry was suitably numb from boredom when the whole light and show ended. He even felt like these ridiculous movie lessons were purposely made to torture him. All that showed him was how thoroughly disturbed the matron of the orphanage was with Tom Riddle, and the young Dark Lord was a kleptomaniac.

It was a complete waste of his time.

The days after the 'movie night' with Dumbledore were hectic, to say the least. There was another quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Though he wanted to spend the time in training, Daphne convinced him to spend the day with her on a date. So, they went together to see the game, and he was thankful he did so simply because of the commentary.

Professor McGonagall, in her infinite wisdom, gave the job to Luna Lovegood. In her usual fashion, Luna spoke of inane things like the strangely shaped cloud following Zacharias Smith, suggesting that the Hufflepuff Chaser was cursed. She claimed Smith was bound to have slippery fingers and was secretly afflicted with an ailment. While no one initially believed her claims, throughout the match, Smith found himself unable to hold on to the Quaffle. Ultimately, Ravenclaw won the match, and many Hufflepuff fans blamed Smith for the loss.

Harry personally thought Smith played well, but the guy was a right prick to everyone. So, no one liked the git, and they seemed content to blame him for the loss.

It was right after the match Slughorn held his party, the Slug Club. The original date of the party was moved further down because of Draco Malfoy's sudden incarceration. Harry supposed the Potion Professor got skittish after learning Voldemort sent a student assassin to kill Dumbledore. The man couldn't be blamed. If he were Slughorn, he too would be looking at each student and wondering whether there was an assassin lurking behind with a mission from the Dark Lord. He bet Slughorn tried to escape from Hogwarts or at least wanted to leave, but somehow Dumbledore talked the man out of it.

Despite his dislike of the Headmaster, he had to admit the man had a peculiar skill to bullshit his way out of any situation. 

Either way, Slughorn was staying, and the party was rescheduled for a later date.

However, Daphne refused to be his date for the Slug Club. Samhain was fast approaching, and Daphne was supposedly preparing for some obscure ritual this time, which required her complete attention. Harry was doubtful of that claim, though. He suspected his girlfriend had given in to pressure from a cunning friend who conveniently became his guest for the day.

"Hey, Harry." Tracey said jovially.

"Hey. You look good." Harry said, appreciating her shiny cream dress.

"You clean up nice as well." Tracey smiled while offering her hand, "Shall we."

Harry took her hand and walked together with Tracey towards the Slug Party.

"So, I'm curious to know. What did you give up for making Daphne allow this?"

"I don't know what you mean." Tracey looked up innocently at him.

"Uh-huh. Daphne is too busy with a super-secret ritual that I don't know about or can't find in the Hogwarts library. Then you happened to be free, and Daphne felt guilty about making me go alone, so she generously asked her trusted friend to accompany me as my date for the party." Harry deadpanned. "I'm not brain dead to believe all that nonsense."

"A wee bird told me the Holyhead Harpies are guests of honour in this party. I mean to get an autograph from them all." said Tracey.

"You must've given something substantial in return for Daphne to let you come in her stead." Harry looked intently at his date.

"Something like that." Tracey murmured.

Harry didn't push for more because they arrived at the entrance of the party venue, and Professor Slughorn ushered them in quite jovially. He spent the next few hours as Slughorn's most precious showpiece. But he got acquainted with quite a few acclaimed personalities and posed with a few of them while Colin Creevey took the photos. Tracey also got her way by collecting the autographs of the entire Holyhead Harpies. They even had a group photo to commemorate the event. 

When they finally turned in for the night, Harry noticed snow outside the window. It was the telltale sign of the early arrival of winter and, with it, the Samhain.

*****

An excerpt from Magical Communities of Western Europe & the Continental War by Diana Adler.

The magical communities of mainland Europe lived a completely different life than their cousins in the Scottish Empire. There were significant magical communities in Europe during the golden era of the Roman Empire and during its decline. However, the rise of the Scottish Empire, the first openly magical polity in the known world, radically changed the dynamics of Europe.

Until then, wizards and witches had always been careful to conceal their magical abilities and blend in with the non-magical population. However, the emergence of Scotland and House Targaryen presented a direct challenge to this practice. It showed that wizards and witches could live openly without the need to hide their gifts.

The rise of a single magical family to forge a vast empire like Scotland sparked a new line of thinking among many other magical families. They entertained the idea that they could achieve such greatness by emulating House Targaryen.

From the eleventh century onwards, such thoughts gained traction within the magical communities of Europe. But the problem was that no magical family could exert such great power as House Targaryen and impress upon their brethren to unite under a common cause. Often, the magical families ended up fighting each other and destroying any sort of strength by shedding blood within the community. This caused a long period of bloodshed called the Warring Barons Era.

The constant warring between relatively well-off magical families led to the consolidation of powerful magical communities across different regions in Europe. Different landowning families came together to form closed-off communities within Europe with the aid of the Scottish Empire. While House Targaryen, during their long reign as magical monarchs, were disinterested in expanding its power into mainland Europe, they were keen to see the wizards and other magical creatures in the continent safeguarded.

To ensure the safety of magical communities in Europe, the royal court of Scotland dispatched some of their best enchanters and ward masters to create warded spaces. These spaces provided a secure environment for magical communities to thrive.

These communities were allowed to send their children to Hogwarts for their magical education, and over time, these communities started developing their own schools. One of the first such institutions was the Aesir School of Magic, built amongst the Ahir Hills of the Rhineland. It became one of the premier schools of Western Europe by 1357.

Many such schools of magic cropped up across Europe under House Targaryen's patronage or even without such patronage.

In the next century, many Wizengamots started forming across different regions of Europe, emulating the Scottish senate. The Rhine and the Pyrenees region had two of the most prominent magical schools in Western Europe. Centred around these two schools, they also formed two of the most significant magical communities.

In the Rhine, the Aesir School of Magic was built and with it came the Rhine Ministry of Magic of Rhineland. The Rhineland Wizengamot, formed in 1412, declared itself an independent authority and was formally recognised as such by the Scottish Empire. In the southern Pyrenees, Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons was built, and in 1422, the French Ministry of Magic was formed by the French Wizengamot. By the early 1500s, Bavarian, Russian and Austrian ministries were formed, taking inspiration from their Western counterparts.

Despite wizards and witches banding together in mainland Europe, they lived in secluded communities under muggle-repelling wards and in mostly defensible areas like hills and mountain ranges. However, the relatively sheltered life of these communities changed when King Titus Targaryen launched the Continental War.

It was the pivotal moment in the history of magical Europe that changed the destiny of wizards and witches across the land. The calamitous upheaval that took place in Europe as the Continental War waged affected the Ministries of Magic spread out across Europe.

It started with the Ministry of Rhineland swearing their support to the Scottish Crown, followed by the other ministries as the war progressed. The time for wizarding rule in Europe had arrived.

AN:

To read ahead of the update schedule;pat(r) eon. C (O) M/Dragonspectre

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