Dispelling a Spell

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter OR Naruto, beat that!

NOTE: I forgot to say, that I've read the latest Harry Potter book. And I'm going to kind of use a bit of the ideas from that, but the ideas will be a bit twisted because of the things I've written before. And also, the thing Sasuke has on his arm... is how stupid I was. Before I saw the fourth movie, I had always thought that the Dark Mark was at the top-near the shoulder, like the ANBU tattoo. So, it'll be that way in my story. Sorry, that must have really messed up the story, but I hope it won't really disrupt anything.

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The fumes clouded up in Harry's glasses. He wiped them, but after a few unsuccessful polishes, he lifted his wand, tapped the lenses, and muttered "impervious."

Everything in the way of his eyes seemed to dance off as the glass repelled them. In his mind, he thanked Hermione for introducing him to such a useful spell. It helped him a damn awful lot during quidditch these days.

He looked around the dungeon as the potions continued to steam. Not knowing what to do, he just stood there until--

"Harry! You're blocking the doorway!" A loud voice almost made him jump back--which he didn't (thankfully) as people were indeed jamming up behind him and in foul moods. At the front, was a blonde-haired boy, Naruto.

"Oh. Oh! Sorry, mate!" He scurries out of the way and rushed into the middle of the bleak chamber. If it wasn't for the Impervious charm, he wouldn't have noticed a plump figure also scurrying. A shiny bald spot reminded him it was Professor Slughorn.

"Ho ho! Eager to learn, I see! Come in, come in!" Said the professor. He clapped his hands dramatically in an attempt to lighten the mood, but it was too late; many of the students were completely grim in mood and language.

"Welcome to Advanced Potion studies! Yes, you've had some lessons before by Severus, of course, but now I'm the new teacher. I've decided to start fresh for you to learn it slowly. Here are some potions that I've prepared for you to get the gist of what you need to learn at your final N.E.W.T. level. Now then, can anyone tell me what this particular potion does?" He waved to a small cauldron near-by that Harry thought smelt of fresh broom wood and a few other mouth-watering things.

Hermione shot up her hand. "It's Amortatia--the most powerful love potion in the world!"

"Oho! So you know! I suppose you recognize it by noticing the characteristic swirls that its steam is in?

"Yes, and Amortatia is supposed to have the smell of what attracts you most--I smell parchment, freshly mown glass--" And she broke off quite suddenly, as if she was just aware that her mouth was going to spill very personal information.

Slughorn didn't seem to notice, but nodded approvingly. He smiled and stated: "This potion doesn't actually produce real love, that's impossible. However, it causes lust and desire in a person, maybe you'd say an, accented obsession.

Naruto leaned close to the potion cauldron and sniffed it in deeply. The miso ramen smell was the strongest one to him--It was heavenly. Also a whiff of Sakura's hair (though he was slightly reminded of Pakkun).

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Harry was very surprised that he was made Quidditch Captain, early in the year--he thought that Katie would get the captain ship, as she was the oldest. But he'd gotten over the shock. It was time for the quidditch team trials for Gryffindor. According to Professor McGonagall, he had well over 35 hopefuls for the team. And more were coming up to him and trying to bribe him into letting her be a chaser.

"So... when are you holding the quidditch trials?" Ron asked as he caught up with Harry later on.

"Day after next, why?"

Ron bit his lip and mumbled something about it being unexpected. Harry's confidence within Ron faltered: He thought that the win from last year would help Ron when it came to his self-esteem in Quidditch. He was wrong.

"Ah, don't worry. You'll do great! I've seen quite a few students around a broomstick, and they can barely sit right without sliding off the end." He lied, but it seemed to cheer Ron up a tremendous amount. The red-head's face brightened up and he announced that he was going to go practice.

For the rest of the day, all Ron seemed to concentrate on was to practice blocking the quaffle.

Though it was just a quidditch trial, it stirred up a lot of minds. Even one of the three new students. Harry saw Sasuke stride up to him and asked quietly, "Can you care explain quidditch more to me? I've only heard of it a little, but I'm afraid that I do not understand it as much as I would wish."

"Oh sure! It's just a sport played on broomsticks. There are four ball and seven players. Three of the players are called the chasers. They catch a ball called the quaffle and pass it around--to try to score a goal into one of three hoops at the opponents' site of the field." The wizard paused slightly, and continued when he saw Sasuke slightly nod. "The player called the Keeper tries to block the balls from passing him into the goals.

"There are two players, called the beaters, who carry around heavy bats to stop the bludgers. Bludgers are balls that are black and slightly smaller than the quaffle. They zoom around the field trying to knock the players down off their brooms. Beaters usually hit the bludgers away from their own team players and towards the other team players.

"The last player is called the Seeker. I'm the seeker in the Gryffindor quidditch team. I look for a small ball, called the snitch. The snitch is about the size of a walnut. It's usually very hard to see and even harder to catch. As soon as the snitch is caught, the seeker (who caught it)'s team gets an extra one-hundred fifty points for their team, and the match ends. Obviously, the team who has the most points is the victor."

Sasuke nodded again, taking in the rules of the sports. Harry stated "That's just the basics, though. To get more, you'd have to check out Quidditch Through the Ages, or something from the library.

"How, how does a broomstick fly?" The ninja asked, though he knew the answer.

"Some sort of flying charm, I think? Yes, that's what it is."

"Oh." Sasuke was slightly annoyed at how reliant these people were upon magic. They barely ever seemed to do anything be themselves. Though, in hypocritical thoughts, he'd have a hard time without Chakra. "Ah, I think I get it all, thanks." The raven-haired teen hesitated, but shuffled away without looking back.

Harry didn't mind the explanation at all, but he rushed back to his trunk to get out a few books to research some creatures for his back-breaking homework.

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"Okay, I'm thinking that you should divide up to groups of ten and fly around--so I can see how well you do." There was a some giggling, a fair amount of feet shuffling, and a truckload of talk (rude, admiration--but all loud and proud).

After the fifth group went, Harry was absolutely sure that his choice of dividing them up was correct. Many of the hopefuls were first to third years who'd never touched a broomstick in their life. The fourth group was full of Hufflepuffs.

The teen was losing his patience. He scooped out the non-Gryffindors in a pissed question and continued the groups. Damn Ravenclaws made up the sixth and seventh groups.

It was an interesting surprise to discover, that Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji wanted to try out on team. Harry didn't think that they'd make it around the field, as he had just explained the game to Sasuke yesterday. He turned to watch them, to see if he was proved wrong. Naruto hopped onto the broom. And jumped, trying to get the broomstick to get up with it. He frowned, and after yelling for 20 seconds, he tapped the broom and turned his back to Harry. The broom seemed to jump to life. It started to fly up with Naruto on it. Neji was already up, by then. And Sasuke too was starting to rise a little behind the blonde.

Harry wondered what was with Naruto and the broom's strange behavior, but decided that it wasn't worth thinking about--as the four other students (third years, mind you) had just about the same amount of trouble (maybe more) with their own broomsticks. He turned to watch them fly around. The three Japanese students seemed to have a little trouble at first, but had gotten the hang of it. Sasuke seemed to object to the red-and-gold scarves of the Gryffindors, and was wearing a black one that flew along with the wind. Naruto was wearing his robes, but under them, Harry could see a bright orange jacket or what-not was underneath.

Overall, the three seemed to pick things up pretty easily. Naruto was still a little clumsy, but not that bad.

Now, only a few were left. But he had two chasers picked out already, though he knew they'd basically secured the place. They were Ginny Weasley and Katie Bell. He found a new girl, Demelza Robins, who was particularly good at dodging bludgers. Now was time to find some beaters. The group of people who were set on becoming beaters were small, now that he weeded out the incompetent.

"Well, here's the bat. We can't let the bludgers out now, 'cause it might cause some injuries, but I'm going to have Ginny throw some regular balls at you, and you try to hit them far away from us. You'll have to by moving around, and the balls will be coming from everywhere to everywhere. Err... Neji, you go first...?"

Neji nodded a few times and climbed on the broomstick he was currently using. It rumbled a little bit (it's an ancient cleansweep, by the way) and rose up. Neji flew around and Ginny followed up. She let loose a few hard balls, but Neji swirved as much as possible to reach the destination before the ball did. He got there just in time to swing a strong hit to each bludger his way. They zoomed off into the distance, but before they went too far, Harry retrieved them with a simple accio! He thought that Neji was pretty good.

Sasuke's trial went pretty much the same way as Neji's did, but he seemed to have hit it harder, but not with as precise aim as Neji had. Though Neji missed one, Sasuke went perfecto and got all of them.

Naruto climbed upon his broom last, and he spiritedly rose up. He seemed the most determined amongst all the other participants, Harry noted. He leaned foward to get the most air possible. And he reached the ball. It he swung so hard, that he missed, unfortunately, but he quickly changed his bat's direction and swung it a second time. This time, he hit it. It blurred in everyone's vision as it flew off into the distance. Harry almost couldn't get it back, even with the summoning spell.

After the beater trials were over, he told them to wait as he decided who was who. He thought for a while. Neji was good at aiming, Sasuke wasn't at good at aiming, but was good at getting everything, Naruto was just really good at hitting. He decided after long last, that Sasuke and Naruto were going to be the new Gryffindor beaters. They still did not have the old brilliance of Fred and George, but they were pretty damn good, especially if that really was their first time flying. He announced the new members, and was pleased that Neji's expression held no resentment. In fact, he looked like he plain didn't give a shit.

It was time for the Keeper trial. Only two people were left, and that was a tall Gryffindor named Cormac McLaggen and Ron. Cormac went first, and he got four out of five goals on target, but on the fifth one, he completely zoned out and went the wrong way. He huffily returned to the seats in rage.

Harry was worried for Ron's sake. He'd hoped that the stadium would have emptied out at the end, but it was just plain packed. Ron was faced with many people watching him. He shakily got into the air.

One save...

Two saves...

Three saves...

Four saves... (nearly missed!)

FIVE!

Harry was ecstatic, and so was the red-head. Hermione rushed down from the sidelines and hugged them both. Cormac was still in a bad mood as he marched up to the quidditch captain in fury.

"Give me another go. Now." He demanded.

"No, you've had your turn. You got four, Ron got five, you loss. Now go away, please." Harry was nervous for a second that he thought Cormac might hit him. But instead he stomped off to join his friends to get back to the common room.

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Done with this chapter. (puffs puffs). I'm fairly satisfied with this one, but it's a bit boring for those of you, I presume. I hope this chapter doesn't have that "zomg I'm making you hate this fanfiction forever" kind of quality.

So, I'm making it that I'm using my own ideas and everything, but using some ideas from the Half Blood Prince too. I was really surprised that the Naruto three showed up for quidditch trials. I didn't think they'd be interested at all. And I have a feeling Neji's not doing his part. I'm thinking of removing him... (Nuuu! from all you Neji fans...?). The only reason I got him in was because my other fanfiction, the one that was originally intended to be the partner of this one, had that team because Sakura was away on medical training. And because Neji was my friend's favorite character at that time. But Sasuke and Naruto are more main than Neji is. And easier to maintain. I know them more. Tell me if I SHOULD remove Neji or not. If you think he should stay, give me a reason. I want to edit a few of the chapters anyway.

And for those of you yaoi fans: This fiction wasn't originally intended with that thought. But I'll give a few hints of it if you'd like. My feeling on yaoi and regular hetrosexual pairings are mutual. So it won't hurt me to add only a few hints.

I hope I didn't leave out anything very important or something.