Harry Potter and The Tomb of Hogwarts

Harry Potter and

The Tomb of Hogwarts

Chapter 20

Quidditch Game 1,

Gryffindor VS Slytherin

"And the Slytherins get the Quaffle. Montague passes to Pritchard, Pritchard dives. Pritchard passes to Davis... My lord can she move. Look at that broom fly. The rumours about her father giving her a new broom must be true. She winds back, throws, this is going to be ugly... Weasley Baggers it! Can you believe it?"

Harry expelled a loud sign of relief.

He was sitting on his broom, watching his team as they worked flawlessly, now breaking out in full stride as they whipped around the pitch, the Slytherins like turtles chasing hares.

Suddenly his eyes shot down to the stands, wandering from one bench to the next, searching for someone. Then he saw them, Hermione and Davie, and a moment later they looked up at him, both waving, and he knew they had gotten the pictures he wanted.

"Weasley to Creevey, or is that MacDonald... now back to Weasley... She shoots... Ten points for Gryffindor!"

The crowd roared at the first goal of the game.

They quickly calmed down as the Quaffle was sent back up, but the Slytherins didn't stand a chance this time. Not holding back, Ginny, Dennis, and Tracey all sped off, catching the Quaffle less than two feet from Madam Hooch's hand, passed back and forth no less than six times before firing it through the hoop and..."

"Another ten points for Gryffindor. That's two goals in as many minutes. If they Slytherins want to win this one they're going to have to work fast and..."

Harry didn't hear the rest. He suddenly realised that as good as his team was playing it would be worth nothing if Malfoy caught the Snitch. He looked up and saw a furious Malfoy, searching franticly for a glint of gold.

"Why Malfoy, you look truly panicked."

Malfoy's eyes shot over to Harry, a sneer across his face as violent as humanly possible.

"Piss off, Potter," he spat.

"Come now, Malfoy. You don't really think you can win, do you? You've never beaten me in a fair game of Quidditch, and after last week we know you can't beat me in a proper duel either. And then there was that little thing with your Dad last June..."

Malfoy snapped. He lunged forward on his broom, taking a brutal swipe at Harry's head, but he was too slow, and even if he hadn't Harry had been expecting it and was ready. He flipped himself upside down, executing a perfect Sloth Grip Roll and rocketed off towards the stands, Malfoy on his tail.

Harry wanted to make sure he kept Malfoy busy and there was no better way than a game of tag.

He dove for the base of one of the stand towers, pulled lightly to the right and climbed, orbiting one of the stands as he rose, Malfoy closely behind him.

One thing he had to keep remembering was to restrain his speed and broom control. He didn't want Malfoy to know any more about his broom than necessary until they were going after the snitch. Still, he found he was enjoying the chase, especially since he knew his stalker had no chance of catching its prey.

When he reached the top of the tower he turned towards the other stands and chased the crowds, swooping over heads and just out of the grasps of the Slytherins who tried to throw things at him. Ironically, most of these things were thrown too later and hit Malfoy instead.

"See, even your own mates think you stink as a seeker," he called back. "Come on, you can do better than this, can't you? Even Hermione's faster than this."

Harry could hear Malfoy scream back at him, but he couldn't hear the words because of a loud cheering that grew from the other side. Gryffindor had scored again. That was their third goal, and that meant that Ron was about to unleash.

Sure enough, moments later Harry saw Ginny, Dennis, and Natalie tossing the Quaffle all about and buying Ron the precious extra seconds he needed. He flew over where Harry saw Hermione and Davie earlier and stopped for a moment, waving his hands upward, trying to get the attention of the other Gryffindors. It didn't take long.

Soon the chants could be heard throughout the pitch; no, not chanting but singing, "Weasley is our king, Weasley is our king, He never lets the Quaffle in, Weasley is our king!"

Harry laughed out loud, knowing this would be rightly pissing Malfoy off, and that's when it happened.

There was a loud thud as something struck the back of Harry's head, and then everything went dark.

The sun burned his eyelids, forcing him to open them as he slowly regained consciousness.

He half sat up, checking his surroundings and finding himself not only on the ground but surrounded by Hermione, Davie, Professor McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey who was smiling softly at him, shaking her head and mumbling something he couldn't hear to herself.

Hermione said something to him but he couldn't quite make it out as his ears were still ringing. He tried to sit up and get hold of his bearings.

Madam Pomfrey bent down to him and gave him a goblet filled with some misty liquid and helped hit to fully sit up so he could drink. Its affects were instantaneous. He sat up fully, quickly, and all the sounds from around him, including above him in the stands, were all coming into focus.

"That will help a bit," she said smiling, "but if you plan on getting back out there you're going to need to rest a few more moments. This draught goes straight to your head first, and then slowly works its way through the rest of your body. If you give it another two minutes and you should be ready to get back up there and get yourself another life threatening injury," she added, shaking her head.

"Right," Harry said, not quite sure what she was talking about.

But Hermione filled him in quickly with her next words.

"It was Malfoy. He used that back of his broom to smack a Bludger right at you. We got a free goal out of it, but ever since he's been laughing his head off. It's probably the only reason he hasn't caught the snitch yet. He's been..."

"WHAT?!?" Harry shouted, now fully awake. "The game's still going on?"

"You betcha," replied Davie, "and the Gryffindor's are going to make Hogwarts History if they keep going like they are. So far the score's Five Hundred and eighty to a hundred and twenty, and the only reason they've got that is cause the Slytherins were have been cheating for the past hour, trying to send everyone to the showers."

"What?" Harry asked, baffled. He couldn't understand how the game would still be going. Then he remembered. This is Quidditch. That's why they haven't suspended the game.

Harry jumped to his feet. "Where's my broom?" he asked, looking about him.

"It's over there," said Davie, pointing to the nearest stand. "Hermione said it saved your life."

"How's that?" Harry asked as he headed for it.

"Well, after you got hit by the Bludger you lost your grip on the broom, but it didn't lose its grip on you. There's some kind of safety spell that stopped you from falling off. You were upside down, obviously unconscious, but your feet were stuck to it like they were glued or something. Then your broom just glided down and landed nice and soft on the ground and you just sprawled out. Madam Hooch called for a five minute time-out so they could take you off the field and then they started up again."

"How long was I out?" he replied.

"About three hours," replied Davie. "But your big problem is over there. Both Jack and Dennis were just taken out about half an hour ago and Madam Pomfrey said they aren't likely to get back in the game for at least another half-hour, if not longer. And Andrew just got back a few minutes before you woke up. Those fraggin Slytherins are trying to take out your whole team."

"Bloody Hell," Harry cried, then saw McGonagall looking over at him. "Sorry Professor."

"I didn't hear a thing. You just go out there and get your team back together again and get us a nice big win," she added with a smile.

"Right," he replied, jumping on his broom. He shot out with the most speed he could muster and he was surprised just how much speed it could get.

He rocketed up through the stands and back into the game so quickly that when he finally arrived in the middle of the pitch and slowed down he heard a thunderous crack behind him, announcing his entrance. Everyone in the stands when suddenly silent as they stared up at him before they all erupted in applause, except of course for the Slytherins.

He watched as Jack met up with him, both bats in his hands, and welcomed his Captain back into the game.

"Thanks," Harry replied. "But we've got to get the game back under our control. What we've got to do is get our team to score so we can call a quick time out."

"Right. But they've been controlling the game by juggling the Bludgers between those two oafs," he said, pointing at Crabbe and Goyle.

"Okay, then lets take it from them. Give it here," he said, waving at Jack who threw the spare bat to Harry. "Follow me."

They took off straight towards the two Beaters, speeding directly between the both of them.

"If we time it right we can pull a Double Bander Banker on them. On three."

Jack smiled and nodded as he pulled right up beside Harry as they flew for the gap between Crabbe and Goyle.

"One... Two... and... THREE!" he shouted, intercepting one Bludger as Jack caught the other, both belting them straight back and their respective Beaters.

Astonished, both Slytherins were hit hard in their respective sides, lost their balance, and started diving towards the ground, barely holding on to their brooms until Crabbe finally lost his grip and fell the last twenty feet and landed hard on the sand.

Harry looked down for only a few seconds before turning his attention to back to Malfoy, making sure he hadn't caught sight of the Snitch and found him staring right back at him, snarling.

Knowing now that he didn't know where the Snitch was Harry rocketed off towards the two Slytherin chasers; a chicken run in the making. They accepted the challenge and dove for him, pulling together and closing the gap between them. They were flying as one and Harry couldn't have asked for more.

A whistle came from above him and Harry looked up, watched Jack and he signalled, and nodded back. He pulled out the bat, watching fear flood the Chaser's faces at the prospect of being hit, their eyes locked on his bat. Therefore they didn't see or even hear Jack as he walloped a Bludger straight at the two chasers, bouncing it off the back of one and into the back of the head of the other, both of which spiralled uncontrollably away from each other and leaving Tracey Davis all alone.

She was totally outgunned and a few moments later the roar of the crowd told Harry that they had scored once again.

Harry flipped, raced towards the centre of the pitch and called for a time out. Madam Hooch blew here whistle and gave them a five-minute time out, considering that the Slytherins had just lost four of their team members in the same number of minutes.

The five remaining Gryffindors gathered together near their own goals and huddled up.

"First, I'm sorry I've missed some of the game, but you guys did great and I'm very proud. But their not going to stop cheating and you can bet that they're going to keep going until they take us all out, so we've got to switch up the game. We've got to make them play our game, and right now the name of the game is catch the Quaffle. We're way ahead and there's no chance of the catching up if we just make sure that they never get the Quaffle, so here's what we do."

The team moved in closer, listening intently as Harry unveiled his plan.

"Unless I miss my guess Andrew should be back in the game in about half an hour. So until then we're going to run with the Quaffle, taking shots only when it's a guarantee. If you're not a hundred percent sure of the shot, don't take it. I want us to keep it in possession for as long as possible. Got it?"

His two chasers nodded in agreement.

"Good. Remember, the longer we have the Quaffle the less chance they're going to have to score, which brings me to you, Jack. I want you to stay back here with Ron and watch out for Malfoy. Ron, you watch the rest of the game and warn Jack if the Slytherins get the ball and get too close to our side, in which case he'll help you out. I'm going to start searching hard for the Snitch and try to end this game before they take out anyone else. With some luck I'll catch it quickly, but we can't count on it. Now, if for some reason we lose the Quaffle, I want to stick to manoeuvres seven, thirteen, and fourteen only. With a bit of luck we won't have to use them too often. And the moment they get both of the Beaters back I want to go for a goal as soon as possible so we can get another time-out. Any questions? Good. Then let's keep that Quaffle people, and win ourselves a game."

As one they cried out "Gryffindor!" knocked their broom tips together, mounted up and flew off to their separate posts.

A few moments later they were set to go and Madam Hooch blew her whistle.

His chasers quickly captured the Quaffle and began juggling it between them while Jack raced after one of the Bludgers. Unfortunately, he did have some competition with Crabbe who came back with two of their chasers, including Tracey.

But Harry was confident in his team and he had to get working on finding the Snitch. But whatever plans he had made for his team couldn't have prepared him for what came next.

Harry turned around and headed for the Gryffindor goalposts to get a bird's eye view of the pitch, but after only a couple of yards he caught a glimpse of gold which caused him to radically change course. The Snitch had just turned around the bottom of the middle goalpost and was soaring straight at him. All Harry had to do was catch it, and that quickly the game would be over.

He dove for the Snitch, looking back to see if Malfoy was anywhere close and found him racing off in the opposite direction, likely planning to do the same thing he had planned to do.

He turned back towards the snitch and took aim. At these speeds he'd only have one shot at it, so he had to make it count.

Down he flew, arm stretched, preparing to swipe the Snitch, now fifty feet away.

Suddenly the Snitch changed direction, diving straight down for the ground. Harry quickly adjusted, catching up with its trail just feet away from his quarry.

But as he looked past the Snitch he saw he was less than a hundred feet from the ground. He knew immediately that if he caught the Snitch he would do so only feet from the ground, so he hopped up, firmly placing his feet at the base of the broom and preparing for a variation of the Wronski Feint which was quickly becoming his favoured move.

He once again stretched out his hand, preparing to catch the Snitch and pull up at the same time.

Again he checked his distance which was cut in half, now less then fifty feet, but now he was less than five from that small golden ball.

Moving his hand up another foot on the broom he stretched, pulling to within three feet, pushing harder to get some extra speed.

At fifteen feet from the ground he reached out, watching as his fingers actually began to grow, stretching an extra three inches, closing to within half a foot of the Snitch.

With one last lunge he swung his hand, pulling up as his hand swiped for the Snitch. But it was at that same point that the snitch turned, not up, left or right, but straight down, under his broom as he pulled up, sweeping and bouncing off the ground twice before levelling off.

When he finally got control of his broom and turned around, the Snitch was nowhere to be seen.

"Bugger!" he shouted, searching the surrounding area for a glimpse of the Quidditch prize. It was gone.

A moment later Harry heard the hideous sound of Malfoy, laughing at Harry from behind him.

"You get lucky, the Snitch all to yourself, with the top of the line broom, and still you can't measure up. What a git!" he laughed, running off back to his end of the pitch.

His face a crimson red, Harry flew back to Ron, updating him on his near catch of the Snitch.

"Sod him, Harry," Ron said encouragingly. "Just keep your eyes out. You haven't failed us before, and even if he gets lucky we just scored again, so they're going to have to score against me another dozen time before we even need to worry about it, not that I am. Just get out there and don't let that Nogtail get to you."

"Right," answered Harry. "And you keep an eye out for those Bludgers. It looks like Goyle's coming back in the game faster than we thought. Stay alert. I'll be back."

Harry flew off, scouring the ground around the pitch searching intently for the Snitch, passing Malfoy as quickly as he could, trying to ignore any snide comments thrown his way.

On his fourth run around the pitch he got some good news as he saw Dennis join Ginny and Natalie and it wasn't long before they scored once again.

Again Harry called a timeout and the team met at Madam Pomfrey's tent for their huddle.

He was first to arrive and found Hermione waiting for him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked bluntly.

"Sorry, I just thought you might want to hear the good news," she replied, obviously offended. "If you don't want to hear it, fine," she added as she turned to leave.

"Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it; I was just surprised to see you is all. What did you want to tell me?"

"Apology accepted. As I was saying, I looked up at the scorecard a few moments ago and realised something. If you guys score another fifty points, and you catch the Snitch, you guys will break two Hogwarts Quidditch records."

"Really? Which ones?"

"The most points scored in a game and the biggest winning spread. The biggest spread so far is five hundred and thirty, and the most points ever scored in a single game at Hogwarts is a thousand one hundred and thirty, but they weren't in the same game. If you guys get another eighty points and you catch the Snitch for another hundred and fifty, that'll give you the two hundred and thirty more points you'll need to have the highest scoring game in Hogwarts history, and if the Slytherins score less than eleven times by then, you'll have a total score of seven hundred and ten to Slytherin's one seventy, giving you a total spread of at least five hundred and forty."

"Okay, if you say so," he replied, shaking his head. "So that's another eight goals for us with them scoring less than a dozen. Got it, thanks. Now, I've got to go rouse the troops," he added, turning for the team and smiling while shaking his head.

He joined up with the rest of his team which was beginning to look drained. He looked over at his sole Beater and knowing what he first needed to address.

"Jack," Harry said, addressing him with a smile, "could you find out if Andrew's going to be able to get back in the game? I've got a few things I can cover with my Chasers really quick."

"Right," he replied heading around the stands towards Jack who was still sitting on the bench next to Madam Pomfrey.

"Now," Harry said, turning to his newly rejoined threesome, "the game plan's pretty much the same as it was before, but now that we've got Dennis back I want to start going for more points. It seems these new brooms have inspired the Snitch. I've never seen a Snitch move that well, even at the Quidditch Cup. I don't know if it's just a new Snitch or what, but I want to make sure that even if Malfoy somehow gets hold of it before I do, we still win, and with the biggest margin possible. I want to prove that the Snitch is only a part of the game, not all of it. Alright?"

"Yeah!" the chasers cheered as one.

"And Ron, I need you to be even more watchful. They've got their full team back now and I have no doubt they're going to try every dirty trick they can come up with and I want to be sure that we stay one step ahead of them. I know you don't believe it, but we've all seen what you can do and I honestly believe you're the best Keeper this team's had in a long time. Now's the best time to prove it."

"If you say so," said Ron softly.

"NO!" cried Harry suddenly, a fire in his eyes. "I want to hear you say it. I want to hear you tell me you're the best and I want to believe it."

"FINE! I'm the best. There's no Keeper better than me."

"I said I want to believe it, and I mean it. Unless you want to sit up there in the stands and watch us take the Slytherins apart without you, I want to hear you say you're the best, and I want to believe it!"

"I'm the bloody best Keeper at Hogwarts!" Ron shouted, a light sparkle in his eyes.

"And what are we going to do to the Slytherins?"

"We're gonna wallop them," shouted Ron.

"We're going to do what?" called Harry.

"We're gonna wallop them," Ginny cried with Ron.

"I can't hear you!"

"We'll gonna wallop them," called the team in unison, including Jack and Andrew who were just walking up to join them.

"Good show!" Harry replied, looking over at Andrew. "Are you ready to go?"

"I'm ready," said Andrew in a defiant tone, "but Madam Pomfrey says I've got to have one more tonic before I can get back in the game, but I have to wait another five minutes before I can drink it, then another five minutes before she checks me over one last time. Fifteen minutes at most and I'll be up there, good as new."

"Good. As soon as you're ready, head for Ron. I'll keep an eye out for you and I'll send Jack back to meet you as quickly as we can. If we're lucky we can get the two of you together quickly. From there, I want you keeping their Beaters as busy as possible. They're our only real problem. They've got one good Chaser and two that aren't, but none of them can hold a candle to you three, and that's what we're going to show them. Hermione just told me that if we can hold the Slytherins back and score fifty more points before I find the Snitch, we'll break two Hogwarts records at once, and I say we do it. What do you say?"

"Yeah!" cried the team together, energy filling their previously drained bodies.

"Are you ready to make history?" he called out.

"Yeah!" they cried again.

"So what are we going to do?"

"Wallop the Slytherins."

"What?"

"Wallop the Slytherins!" they cried aloud.

"ONE MORE TIME!"

"WALLOP THE SLYTHERINS!" they all cried.

"Then lets do it!" he answered, raising his broom.

They all raised their brooms to his, tapped their tips, and off they went again.

The next hour saw a lot of action.

Ginny, Dennis, and Natalie worked the Quaffle with a renewed vigour that dazzled and bewitched the fans, passing the Quaffle with ease and rocketing them through the goalposts as though the Slytherins had never played the game before.

Of course, this did not stop the Slytherins from trying to cheat, but their first attempt was welcomed with some serious repercussions when Andrew, just coming out to the field, watched as Crabbe took Jack's broom by the bristles. Ducking the Bludger which Jack was about to hit, Crabbe pushed the broom hard into a tailspin and seemed to be enjoying himself way too much to notice that Andrew had hit the same Bludger back up to him, nailing him right in the kidneys. Soon thereafter, Crabbe took Andrew's place next to Madam Pomfrey to get patched up.

Newly reunited, it didn't take long for Jack and Andrew to pave the way for their chasers. They were soon half way to the hundred and ten points needed to get the spread record when Harry got a horrific knot in his stomach.

Halfway across the field Malfoy was pulling out of a turn near the bottom of one of the Ravenclaw stands and climbing straight up, hot on the tail of the Snitch and closing fast. With such a great distance to cover in such a short time, Harry knew there was no way he'd be able to get to the Snitch in time without going to fast to catch it himself, so he was going to do the only other logical thing. He had to make sure that if he couldn't catch it, Malfoy wouldn't either.

The only thing Harry could think of was to rocket towards Malfoy in a game of chicken, shooting straight at him and cutting him off at the last seconds and hopefully throwing him off balance from the threat of crashing. And so Harry took off, laying down flat on the broom and pushing with all of his will, trying to force the broom to go faster.

I need more speed! thought Harry intensely. Come on, faster. Faster. Faster!

And faster he went, the wind blowing across his face, starting to push so hard that it began to mould around his cheeks in spite of the broom's protective spells. Still he pushed harder.

As the wind began to become unbearable he bowed his head down and praying his head wouldn't fall off as he pushed even harder, now less than a hundred feet from Malfoy.

But when he looked up he saw Malfoy stretching his hand out, his fingers struggling to wrap themselves around the Snitch.

With one last push Harry soared, pushing himself just a bit faster; just a little harder; when suddenly, everything went quiet.

All the sound of the world ceased as he shot by Malfoy with such speed that it looked as though he and the Snitch were suspended in mid-air, and suddenly he was fifty feet beyond him; a second later, over a hundred.

Pulling back hard on the broom his speed slowed, very quickly by any standard and Harry prayed he would not be thrown from his broom. In less than five seconds he'd come to a complete stop, surprised that he was able to keep up on his broom with minimal effort, and noticing as he stopped that he could hear again.

Then he remembered Malfoy and quickly turned around to see if he'd succeeded in stopping him from reaching the Snitch.

He hadn't.

It seemed that Malfoy had a little distance, but not nearly enough for Harry to do anything about it now. Malfoy was going to catch the Snitch.

All he could do was watch as he realised that he'd probably passed by Malfoy so quickly that he seemed like only a quick disturbance, slowing him down for only a second before returning to his hunt. And now he was only inches from capturing the Snitch.

And then Harry watched as the most mesmerising thing began to happen

A ripple in the air, just barely visible, began washing quickly over the stands towards Malfoy and himself. As it passed over them the crowds began doubling over, their hands clamped to their heads.

It reached Malfoy just as he was reaching for the Snitch. As though hit by a tidal wave, Malfoy was bouncing hard in one direction while the Snitch was blown off in another direction.

Taking the advantage, Harry started off in the same direction as the Snitch when suddenly the wave hit him too.

The sudden sound was deafening. A thunderclap filled his head as loud as anything he'd ever heard before, releasing right on top of him, his hands to instinctively clamping over his ears in attempt to soften the sound. It made little impact.

It took half a minute for his ears to stop ringing and another ten minutes before he was able to fully get his bearings back. Of course by then the Snitch was long gone.

And so another forty minutes had gone by and while his team had scored another eight goals to Slytherin's three, Harry still had not found the Snitch. Then, just as he and Malfoy had crossed behind the Gryffindor goalpost, they both caught sight of the glitter of gold.

The snitch was right in the middle of the pitch, heading straight towards the opposite side of the pitch.

Off to his left he could see Malfoy who had shot after it, somehow hoping he could out-race Harry. Harry sped after him, pulling up next to him just as he came within five feet of the Snitch.

He pulled ahead, preparing to reach for it. But then the Snitch abruptly jumped five feet, then dropped back down a few seconds later. It continued this erratic behaviour, and soon Malfoy had pulled right back up to Harry, also trying to reach for it.

Again it jumped up, and Harry knew he'd have to take a chance and hope that his broom would hold true.

He jumped up once again, first kneeling on his broom, then slowly standing up while trying his best to keep his balance as he surfed his broom.

Again the Snitch dropped down, but if it stayed true to its behaviour it would jump back up in another ten seconds.

Inching his way to the tip of his broom, Harry took a quick glance to his side and saw Malfoy still sitting, stretching out his hand out, but he was still a foot away.

Harry pushed forward again, aimed, and waited.

Sure enough, as Malfoy closed to within six inches of the Snitch it jumped back up, now less than three inches from Harry's outstretched hand.

Praying that the safety charm which kept him from falling from his broom would also hold his foot in place, Harry balanced himself on one leg at the tip of his broom, balancing as best he could. The Snitch made a final swerve before dropping back down and Harry lunged forward, swung for it, and dropped forward from his broom.

Incredibly, he did not fall. Instead he found himself standing upside down on his broom, the whole world flip-flopped, and instinctually he reached up and grabbed the broom with his right hand, and swinging himself back up.

The crowd cheered when they saw Harry had recovered from his fall, but when he threw up his hand and revealed that he had also captured the Golden Snitch the crowd went wild. Gryffindor had won, nine hundred and sixty to two hundred and seventy, and in doing so they secured more than just a victory, they broke two Quidditch records and would be forever immortalised in Hogwarts, A History.

Crabbe & Goyle - Beaters Draco Malfoy - Seeker Malcolm Baddock - Keeper Montgomery Montague, Graham Pritchard, Tracey Davis - Chasers

Andrew Kirke & Jack Sloper - Beaters Harry Potter - Seeker Ron Weasley - Keeper Ginny Weasley, Dennis Creevey, Natalie MacDonald - Chasers