The injured Snape

In the Gryffindor common room, Ron was telling the story of how he, Harry, and the other two had battled the Troll for the thirteenth time. It was a story rather than an account because, by now, his version bore almost no resemblance to what had actually happened.

Throwing a wooden board once had become a relentless barrage of splintered wood, delivering blow after blow, complete with critical hits, that distracted the Troll.

Neville grabbing Hermione and running for dear life had become a series of rolls and dodges between the crashing blows of the Troll's club.

Harry's three spells-one of which had failed-had become a storm of magic that tore the Troll's skin open and sent it staggering.

Hermione's Freezing Charm had actually only frozen the water on the floor, making the Troll slip, but Ron described it as turning the entire Troll into an ice sculpture.

In short, Ron made the danger ten times greater and everyone's performance twenty times better.

Harry and Hermione could barely stand to listen anymore.

At least Ron did not exaggerate only his own exploits; he included Harry and the others too. He had that much decency, at any rate.

Did Gryffindor's little lions know Ron was spinning a tall tale? Of course they did.

Most of them had already heard more than one version. That did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm for listening, though. No matter how wildly Ron embellished the events, the final result remained the same: Harry and the other three had taken down an adult Troll.

That was certainly no easy feat for first-year witches and wizards, or even for anyone below sixth or seventh year.

With Halloween over, November had arrived.

They were already halfway through the first term. The weather gradually grew colder, but the atmosphere at school kept heating up for one simple reason: the Quidditch House Cup was about to begin.

Harry and Ron had already taken part in several practice matches, though both had played as reserve Chasers. There was no Golden Snitch in practice matches, after all.

Gryffindor's practice matches were almost always against Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, rarely Slytherin. At least, Harry had never been in one against them.

Hufflepuff never played practice matches against Slytherin at all.

Wood had said that Ravenclaw was the only team Slytherin could reliably arrange practice matches with. Harry guessed this had something to do with the fact that many Ravenclaw students also came from wizarding families, including the so-called Twenty-Eight Pure-blood families.

Many students from those two houses had known each other before starting school.

That had changed somewhat this year, however. More than half of Ravenclaw's current players were girls, while Slytherin's style of play had become rather rough over the past two years. Ravenclaw was not particularly keen to arrange matches with them.

As the match approached, practice matches and training sessions became more frequent. This cut heavily into the time Harry and Ron had for homework.

More than once, Ron congratulated himself on having improved his relationship with Hermione in time. Otherwise, Padma alone would probably have struggled to help both of them-especially since she paid more attention to Harry.

Two days before the match, Harry was so nervous that he could barely enjoy his meals.

He found this very strange. He had taken part in plenty of competitions in primary school, including football, basketball, and baseball, yet he had hardly ever felt nervous.

Now, however, his nerves were getting the better of him. After discussing it with Ron for quite a while, Harry reached a conclusion he was reluctant to accept: he was a little worried about falling off his broomstick...

Harry's nerves rubbed off on Ron, who did not actually need to play since he was a reserve, as well as Hermione and Neville.

Hermione even made a special trip to the Library to find them a hefty book about Quidditch, Quidditch Through the Ages, which covered the game's various rules and amusing incidents from its history.

Even Ron, a devoted fan, only learned then that there were more than seven hundred ways to commit a foul in Quidditch.

Still, Ron assured Harry that even referees in international matches could never remember that many rules.

In fact, in many matches he had watched, players had committed fouls described in the book without the referees reacting at all.

Harry flipped through only two pages before declaring the book utterly unreadable and returning it.

To his mild surprise, however, he spotted an unexpected name in the borrowing register: Snape.

The book he had borrowed was Can Muggle Diseases Affect Wizards?!

After noticing this, Harry quietly drew Hermione's attention to it. She looked visibly surprised as well.

By now, Harry, Hermione, and the others were very close-they had faced death together, after all. Hermione understood what Harry meant and borrowed the book.

Hermione borrowed so many books on such a wide range of subjects that Madam Pince thought nothing of it.

"Why would Snape borrow a book like this?" Ron looked utterly bewildered at the latest hefty volume Harry and Hermione had brought back. Learning why they had borrowed it only left him more confused.

Neville scratched his head in puzzlement too. "I've heard Gran say that most Muggle diseases don't really affect wizards..."

Harry and Hermione knew this as well. It was not merely because wizarding potions could treat most illnesses, but also because bodies imbued with magic were highly resistant to most germs.

The Black Death and smallpox, which had once terrified Europe, had never caused wizards any serious harm. Even a severe case of viral flu would probably leave a wizard with no more than a runny nose for a couple of days.