Of Love and Quidditch

"On my whistle, now," Madam Hooch said, eyeing each member of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams in turn, "One, two, three--" She blew her whistle hard, and threw up the Quaffle. The two Bludgers sprung up from their encasement, and the Snitch, after briefly circling Malfoy and Cho Chang's heads in turn, flew up and out of sight. The match had begun. Dean Thomas's magically magnified voice boomed across the pitch.

"The Quaffle is immediately taken by Chaser Madison Kurt, what a flyer that girl is, and she's doing very nicely up there too--"

Madison was tearing through the pitch, she felt invincible, her hair flying free behind her. The Quaffle safely under her left arm, she quickly turned her head and saw that two Slytherin Chasers were hot on her trail and--Madison blinked, and she saw the familiar face of Ethan Dartmoore. The dance had begun. She couldn't help but smirk at him before she turned around again. The goalposts were nearing, and Keeper Bletchley had his eyes right on Madison, ready. The two Slytherin Chasers were gaining, and Madison eyes quickly darted around the vicinity. She caught the eye of Chloe Smythe, another Chaser on the Ravenclaw team. She quickly threw the Quaffle to Chloe, and at the last second swerved to the left to get out of Chloe's way.

"Solid pass to Ravenclaw Chaser Chloe Smythe, nice bit of flying on Kurt's part, Smythe throws the Quaffle, Bletchley misses, RAVENCLAW SCORES!"

Cheers erupted from the Ravenclaw side of the stands, the Slytherins booed and cursed. That was a cool bit of strategy, Ethan thought to himself, but swore loudly as soon as he saw Malfoy scowling at him. Ethan zipped around the pitch, hoping to get a sight of Madison. He saw her; she was following Ravenclaw Chaser Ian Yardley not too closely, just making sure she was in the vicinity just in case he wanted to pass. Then, suddenly, he heard a voice behind him.

"Dartmoore, you git, watch out!"

The voice was Slytherin Chaser Adrian Pucey, and a bludger was headed for Ethan's head. Quickly, Ethan whacked it with his club, and it soared towards the Ravenclaw goalposts, almost knocking Chloe Smythe off her broom.

"You better pay attention or you'll get your head knocked off." With that, Adrian zoomed off.

"Yardley in possession, Pucey's gaining on him, Yardley swerves around Pucey, throws the Quaffle, Bletchley dives and blocks the Quaffle!"

The Slytherins stomped and cheered from the stands. Madison gave Ethan an exaggerated mock-angry look. Ethan humored her, giving her back a puppy-dog apologetic look, and Madison grinned at him once more.

"Pucey in possession, he's tearing through the air, but Yardley and Kurt are gaining on him!"

Indeed, Ian Yardley and Madison were flying parallel to each other, gaining on Pucey. Ethan followed the three of them with his eyes, but suddenly a bludger came at him again, and he whacked it away. His attention away from Pucey, he did not see what happened but heard an uproar from the Slytherin side of the stands.

"Keeper DuPont misses by an inch, Pucey scores! Yardley in possession, he passes to Smythe, then to Kurt, THAT WAS FOUL!"

Paul Jones, the other Slytherin Beater, had rammed so forcefully into Madison that she was jolted off of her broom. The Quaffle dropped from her hands, and she started to fall, her mouth open in shock. It was like time had stopped, everyone had his or her eyes fixed on Madison, even Pucey. She fell and fell and fell, and Ethan, not stopping to think, put his club under his arm and zoomed under Madison. She landed right in his arms, the impact causing Ethan's broom to jolt, but he held on tight. Madison clutched Ethan's robes, and looked up into his eyes, her almost-violet eyes wide and her face white with fear. Their eyes locked for what seemed like a long time, Ethan could not pull himself away.

"And a gallant move made by Slytherin Beater Ethan Dartmoore, the Ravenclaw team calls time out."

"Th-Thanks," Madison whispered, her voice shaking.

"Er...I'll fly you down to your team," Ethan replied, not knowing quite what to say. He helped Madison position herself so that she sat right in front of Ethan on his broom, and they flew down to the muddy ground. Ravenclaw's Captain Cho Chang, who was already on the ground, came running, her face contorted in worry.

"Madison! Oh, Madison, are you all right?" Cho wrapped an arm around Madison's waist, and they walked a few steps away from Ethan.

"I'm f-fine...really, Cho, s-stop it, I'm just a l-little shaken up." Madison said, her hands trembling. Cho's arm still around Madison's waist, the two made their way to where the other five members of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team had congregated, their faces wearing a mask of worry that matched Cho's. After lingering for a few minutes, Ethan soared back up to where the Slytherin team was. Malfoy flew up to him, his gloomy gray eyes shooting daggers at Ethan's.

"Why did you do that?"

"What?" Ethan asked, trying to sound innocent.

"You know bloody well what, Dartmoore, why did you catch her like that?"

"Well," Ethan paused uncomfortably, "she sort of just...fell into my arms, I dunno."

"Oh, rubbish," Malfoy spat. "You moved to catch her. I saw Ian Yardley trying to get under her, and you're always tailing her during our matches, if I didn't know better I'd start to think you fancy her." On those last two words, Malfoy moved his face closer to Ethan's, his voice becoming slower and more venomous.

"Oh, come off it!" Ethan retorted, backing away from Malfoy and trying to sound offended by his words. Luckily, Dean Thomas's booming, magically magnified voice came to Ethan's rescue.

"Madame Pomfrey says Kurt's all right, penalty shot awarded to Ravenclaw."

The Ravenclaw team had mounted their brooms again, and moved to one side of the pitch as Chloe Smythe flew up to the Slytherin goalposts, clutching the Quaffle in two hands. The Slytherin team moved to the other side, giving Malfoy a second to shoot Ethan another dark look. Chloe swept quickly to the left, and then to the right, and pelted the Quaffle at the right goalpost. Bletchley missed, and Chloe let out a triumphant whoop, swooping over to her team, who all gave her enthusiastic high-fives.

"Damn Ravenclaws," Ethan heard Jones mumble, and the game began again.

"Yardley in possession, nearing the Slytherin goalposts, dodges that Bludger nicely, passes to--blimey, was that the Snitch?"

Everybody seemed to stop, looking over his or her shoulder for the Snitch. Malfoy had seen it first, and was hurtling down towards it. Cho quickly caught on, and was gaining on him. Neck and neck they were, zooming farther and father down towards the ground, which was becoming dangerously nearer. Malfoy was quick, but Cho was quicker, and with a graceful swoop she caught the Snitch. A roar came from the Ravenclaws, and Cho was grinning wildly. Smythe did a few loop-de-loops, and Yardley rose high into the air, whooping like a madman. Malfoy emitted every curse he knew, and Ethan tried to stop himself from grinning.

"CHANG CATCHES THE SNITCH AND RAVENCLAW WINS!!!"

As both teams touched down to the ground and prepared to go back to the castle, Ethan stole one last look at Madison. She was talking to Yardley and Smythe, still looking a bit shaken. Before Madison could catch Ethan's eye, he had stalked off with the rest of the Slytherin team, trying to make sense of what had just happened.