Secrets

Chapter 5 - Ravenclaw vs. Ravenclaw

Roger Davies had arranged a House pick-up-game for the next Saturday, beginning at 4. He'd been bound and determined to play a game of Quidditch with Professor Bale, but the Professor had been otherwise occupied during the weekends. That Saturday had been the first one that Professor Bale was available for the entire afternoon and evening. The seven players on the House team all got to play, the excuse being that they needed the practice. With Professor Bale playing, that left six open positions - a Seeker, two Beaters, two Chasers, and a Keeper.

Lisa was the first to sign up, claiming one of the open Chaser spots. She would have made a better Seeker, but she didn't want to have to compete against Cho and she also wanted to actually be in the game with the Professor. Anthony Goldstein and Lucy Pebble signed up as Beaters, Sarah Kingston as Seeker (she still hadn't gotten over nailing Roger in the face with a Bludger), Michael Corner as Keeper, and a fifth-year named Mara Hawkins filled in the last Chaser spot.

Madame Hooch agreed to ref the informal match and the players drew straws to determine who would be on which team. It would have been a washout if the House team had played against the pick-up team, so they mixed the players up. Much to Roger's annoyance, he was not chosen to play on the same team as Professor Bale. That honor went to Lisa and Kyra, Sarah Kingston, Lucy Pebble and Noel Goddard, and Terry Boot. Roger's team consisted of Mara Hawkins and Greg Chambers (the final Chaser on the team), Cho Chang, Anthony Goldstein and Joseph Lange (who was the new team Beater, along with Noel), and Michael Corner.

Lee Jordan had graduated from Hogwarts, and the magical megaphone had been handed down to Dennis Creevey of Gryffindor. He had asked to commentate the pick-up match as practice, and Roger had agreed. As a result, the pick-up game ended up being a much bigger deal than any of the Ravenclaws had anticipated. The rest of the house had climbed into the stands, but a large portion of the rest of the school had also turned out to watch the game.

The two Ravenclaw teams lined up on the Quidditch pitch, Roger Davies facing off against Professor Bale. Roger grinned at his former teammate, who grinned back. He might be a teacher now, but his love for Quidditch would always be the same. Madame Hooch tossed the Quaffle high into the air, and they were off!

"And Davies takes the Quaffle!" Dennis Creevey called out over the magical megaphone, his voice ringing through the stadium. "Professor Bale is hot on his heels, and Oh!" he exclaimed, "Davies just managed to dodge a Bludger aimed at him by Goddard!"

Lisa and Kyra chased after Roger. He dodged another Bludger, zoomed towards the goal posts, and hurled the Quaffle towards the right-most ring.

"Terry Boot with the save!" called out Creevey, and the stands roared.

Kyra flew past her teammate, who passed her the Quaffle. She took off, Professor Bale on her left and Lisa on her right. She dodged a Bludger and Mara Hawkins and passed the Quaffle off to Professor Bale.

"Bradley passes the Quaffle to Bale, Bale's heading for the goalposts, Davies cuts him off, and he passes to Turpin!"

Lisa saw Roger heading in to intercept Professor Bale and maneuvered into range. To her delight, she managed to not drop the Quaffle. Roger changed direction and came after her, but the Professor anticipated the move and Lisa passed the Quaffle back to him.

"Bale shoots, and he scores!!" Cheers rang out from the stands, and Kyra's team whooped.

Michael Corner passed the Quaffle to Roger, who immediately got nailed by a Bludger from Noel. Kyra swooped in and stole the Quaffle, making a run on the goalposts. She faked left, and Michael fell for it.

"Twenty points for Ravenclaw!" hollered Creevey. "Or, rather, Team Bale!" he corrected himself. Justin Bale had been the team captain before Roger Davies, so Kyra proposed that he be the captain of their pick-up team, rather than herself or Terry. He'd tried to refuse, but the rest of the team had insisted.

This time Michael handed the Quaffle off to Chambers. He dodged a Bludger aimed by Lucy, passed off to Mara when Kyra tried to tackle him, who dodged Professor Bale and handed off to Roger. Roger swooped up on Terry, but passed off at the last second to Chambers, who put the Quaffle through a hoop.

Terry shot an angry look at Chambers before retrieving the ball and throwing it to Lisa. Lisa took off down the field, Kyra and Professor Bale by her side. Kyra blocked Chambers from tackling Lisa, and Noel swooped in to save her from a Bludger. Lisa dived under Roger and handed the Quaffle off to Professor Bale. He dodged Mara Hawkins and a Bludger aimed at him by Joseph Lange, pulled a quick reversal, faked a hand off to Kyra, and threw the ball to Lisa. Lisa caught it and raced towards the goals. She faked up, but threw it towards the left-most ring. Michael raced towards it and managed to catch it just before it passed through the ring.

"And Corner has the save!" Creevey exclaimed. "He passes off to Davies, who dodges a Bludger from Pebble, and another one from Goddard - man, have they got it in for Davies!"

"Oh! Davies is tackled by Bradley! And Bale has the Quaffle!" The stands went wild as Kyra tackled Roger, knocking the ball out of his grasp. Professor Bale was right below them and he caught it as it fell.

"Bale passes to Turpin, Turpin dodges a tackle by Hawkins, she passes to Bale - and Chambers gets nailed by a Bludger as he tries to intercept! Nice work by Goddard! Bale's passed the Quaffle back to Turpin, who shoots - no, passes to Bradley, who puts it through the posts! Wow, what a play! Team Bale is on fire!"

"There doesn't seem to be any sign of the Snitch anywhere," continued Creevey as Michael retrieved the Quaffle. "Chang and Kingston are looking pretty bored up there."

At that moment, something shiny flashed past Lisa's face. Cho apparently spotted it at the same time Lisa did, because the girl shot into a steep dive, heading right towards Lisa.

"Apparently I've spoken too soon!" shouted Creevey. "Chang's spotted the Snitch, and look at her go! Kingston is hot on her heels!"

Luckily, the Snitch didn't hang around Lisa's face for long. It disappeared from Lisa's sight almost as quickly as it had appeared, Cho and Sarah following close behind.

"Hawkins has been tackled by Bradley!" Creevey exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention back to the players on the field. Krya had taken advantage of Sarah's momentary distraction by the Seekers and swiped the Quaffle from her with ease. She passed off to Professor Bale who took off towards the opposite end of the field. He was too quick for Roger, dodged passed Michael, and scored ten more points for the team.

The game went on for another hour. Lisa didn't drop the Quaffle once, she actually managed to score twice, and even tackled Roger once. Terry was a far better Keeper than Michael, and as a result the score was 110 to 40 when the Snitch was finally caught. Unfortunately for Team Bale, Cho Chang caught the Snitch on her new Firebolt, scoring Team Davies 150 points, for a final score of 110 to 190.

The team and housemates all shook hands after the match, congratulating each other on a game well played. Terry ran up to Lisa and enveloped her in a bear hug.

"You were great!" he complimented, beaming at her.

Lisa blushed at the praise, and Terry released her to beam at Kyra and the rest of his teammates. "Well, Professor," he said, "I don't know about you, but despite the fact that we lost, I thought that was a great game!"

"I hate to say it," Professor Bale replied with a lopsided smile, "but I think that's the most fun I've had since I graduated from Hogwarts."

"Seriously?" Kyra asked, aghast. "If that's the case, I don't ever want to graduate!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" the others agreed as they filed off the Quidditch pitch,

"So, you want to do this again some time, Professor?" Roger Davies asked.

The Professor grinned. "Definitely!" Lisa and Kyra were walking on either side of him, and he draped his arms around their shoulders. "We owe you a re-match, right ladies?" he asked them.

"You bet!" Kyra replied, smiling at her professor and tilting her head towards Roger in agreement with the challenge.

Lisa, however, had turned into a large puddle of goo when the Professor had touched her, preventing her from saying much of anything else for the rest of the walk back to the locker rooms.

Professor Bale paused in front of the team photographs on the wall in the locker room. "There are a few more photos up here than there were the last time I was in here," he commented, looking at all of them. Kyra, Terry, and her teammates beamed back at him from the black and white moving images on the wall.

"That's what happens when you grow up, I guess," Terry replied, shrugging out of his robes.

"Yeah, I guess," the Professor replied. Lisa was sure she heard a small bit of wistfulness in his reply.

They hit the showers then, having to take turns. There were only four showers on each side of the locker room. Kyra, Lisa, Cho, Lucy, and Mara finished quicker than the guys did, seeing as how five showers went much more quickly than nine.

They all headed back to the castle afterwards and enjoyed a late dinner in the Great Hall. Professor Bale was a great guy, and for most of the day the students had almost been able to forget that he was a teacher and not just another Ravenclaw Quidditch player.

~*~