Chapter Thirteen

Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw

The next three weeks flew past quickly — with the normal lessons, Quidditch practice and the occasional night patrol — Harry didn’t have time worry about the letter to Mr. Kimberly. His reply came back the morning of the match, carried by the same eagle owl that had brought the first message.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We were pleased to receive your note saying your wish to accept your offer of a trail. To that effect, Charles Smythe, the England Captain and I will be accepting your invitation to attend your Inter-House match on the 5^h of December. We will give you our answer after the match.

Yours Sincerely,

Oliver Kimberly

Chairman

English Association of Quidditch

Ministry of Magic.

“They’ve replied.” Harry told his friends and handed the letter to Ginny. <Phoenix, Padfoot?>

<Yes Lion, what is it?> asked the headmaster.

<Kimberly and Smythe are coming to the match to-day.> Harry told him.

<Excellent.> said Dumbledore. <Don’t forget to tell the guards.>

<Don’t worry Lion. You’ll do fine.> said Sirius, perhaps sensing his unease.

<Thanks Padfoot.> said Harry gratefully. <See you later.> Harry paused for a moment, then spoke again. <Orion?>

<Yes.>

<I only received confirmation that they were coming a few minutes ago.> Harry explained.

<Very well,> he conceded. <But next time, give us some more warning.>

Harry sighed as he broke his link with the old tracker. “Orion is a real grouch sometimes.” he said aloud. Several of the older Gryffindors, including all the prefects, nodded in agreement.

Ginny read the note slowly to take it in, and then gave it back to him. “Are you going to tell the rest of the team?” she asked him quietly.

Ron looked up from his seat directly across from them. “Tell them what?”

“They are coming today.”

“Yes!” exclaimed Ron.

Hermione smiled. “That’s good, isn’t it?”

Harry thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. I don’t want to make the team nervous, especially Babs, she’s still not a hundred percent after her beating at the last match.”

“She’ll be fine Harry. Ravenclaw play clean.” Ginny pointed out. “You should tell them. After all, Bird, Nymph and Roger already know that

they might be coming. Only Babs, Jane and our reserve players don’t know.”

“Okay, I will.” said Harry as he got up from the table. “See you later.” Ron and Hermione nodded to him. “Good luck.”

“Ron, you’re the commentator, you’re supposed to be impartial!”

“Says who?” said Ron, puzzled.

“Humph!”

Laughing quietly to himself, Harry led Ginny, Roger and the cousins out of the Hall and down to the changing rooms.

A few minutes later, the other members of the team joined them. Harry stood up. “I have an announcement to make.”

Nine heads turned to look at him, Ginny squeezed his hand reassuringly. “Three weeks ago, I received a letter from the Ministry, the Department of Magical Games and Sports.”

He took the first letter out of his pocket and read it to them, the team ran forward to congratulate him and it was about ten minutes before he was able to take a breath and speak again. “This morning, I received another note from Kimberly. He’s coming to see the game today with Charles Smythe, the England Captain.”

A couple of the players looked nervously at each other. “Now, I know this seems like extra pressure. I suppose it is. Merlin knows, I’m more nervous now than I was last night. But we can do this, we can show them how it should be done. Right?”

“Right.” chorused the team, though one or two of them joined in a bit late.

“So nothing changes, let’s go out there and win, same as last time. Got it?”

“Hopefully, without me getting the stuffing knocked out of me, and ending up in the Infirmary.” added Babs darkly.

“Not much chance of that.” said Harry reassuringly. “Even Crabbe and Goyle have a hard time against our boys and Beating’s the one thing they are good at. Ravenclaw’s Beaters probably won’t even get close to the Bludgers.”

“It’s not the Bludgers I’m worried about.”

Jane put her hand reassuringly on her friend’s arm, “Don’t worry Babs. Peach and Sharma aren’t thugs like Crabbe, Goyle and Baddock, you’ll be fine.”

“If you really don’t want to play, you don’t have to Babs.” Harry told her. “Paul could play instead if you don’t feel up to it.”

Paul nodded, “That’s what I’m here for Babs.”

Babs shook her head, and looked Harry straight in the eyes. “I have to face my fear.” she said firmly. “I’m just glad it’s not Slytherin.”

“There’s not much chance of us playing Slytherin again this year.” Harry assured her. “They’re at the bottom of the table, and they’re over a hundred points behind their nearest rivals, Ravenclaw. They’ll have to score very high against both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to make it to the finals, I can’t see it happening myself. But anyway, we’ll deal with that when we come to it.” Harry glanced at his watch, it was 10:55. “It’s almost time for the match.”

The ten students gathered around in a circle and declared, “GO GRYFFINDOR!” Then broke apart, and the first team with Harry in the lead, walked towards the door. <Fox?>

<What announcement?> asked Ron, innocently.

<How could you have forgotten, Fox,> Hermione retorted. <They’re sitting only sitting three seats away.>

<Oops, busted.> said Ron, then paused. <Are you sure it’s okay?>

<Yes. I’ve told the team, so they’re happy enough about it, and if it rattles Boot and the other Ravenclaws, so much the better.>

<True, true.>

<Fox!>

<Oww!> said Ron. <Sorry Lion, gotta go!>

<What happened to him?> asked Ginny, concerned.

<I think Owl hit him or something.> said Harry, opening the door.

<He probably deserved it. Let’s go.> said Ginny, striding out the door. Harry and the others ran to catch up with her before she reached the end of the tunnel.

----

“Welcome, everyone, to the third game of the Quidditch season. We move into the second, round with the reigning champions and current top-placed team Gryffindor taking on the third-placed Ravenclaw.”

Two celebrity guests, Chairman Oliver Kimberly and Captain Charles Smythe of the England National Team have joined us today. They’ve asked that their reason for being here not be announced, but anyone with half a brain, so that leaves you Slytherins out…”

“WEASLEY!” shouted McGonagall and tried to wrestle the mike from him, boo’s, hisses came from the Slytherin quarter of the stands.

“Come on, Professor, I’m only making fun.” said Ron, just about managing to fend off the deputy headmistress. “Couldn’t work out what they are here for.”

“Get on with it, Weasley.”

“Sure Professor,” Ron assured her. “Gryffindor are playing the same starting line up as they did for their last game against Slytherin, nice to see Babs Parrington is up and about after her injuries.”

The team walked onto the pitch with Harry in the lead, with Babs, Jane and Ginny, behind him, the Beaters behind them and Peter bringing up the rear. “May I present? Weasley, Parrington, Masters, Aquanis, Monk, Falco, and POTTER!”

There were cheers from the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor stands, the Ravenclaws stayed silent and the Slytherins booed and hissed as usual. “Representing Ravenclaw today we have… Gorman, Dirking, Quirke, Lacey, Sharma, Peach, and BOOT!”

He paused until the Ravenclaws’ loud cheers and a few quiet cheers from some of the Hufflepuffs had faded. “And they’re off. Weasley takes the Quaffle, heads towards the Ravenclaws, she shoots. Ohhh, good save by Quirke, Ravenclaw in possession, Dirking moving up to the middle of the pitch, she dodges a Bludger, passes to Boot. Parrington intercepts, passes Weasley, she shoots again. SCORE! Gryffindor leads ten to zero!”

The play was fast and furious as usual. The Ravenclaws were good, but Gryffindor’s stronger and faster players had a bit of an edge. “Boot closes in on the goal, ducks one Bludger, ducks the other, he shoots, Falco dives to intercept, he scores! Ravenclaw now trail thirty to seventy!” Ron growled under his breath. “Gryffindor back in possession, Masters makes for the Ravenclaw, watch out for that Bludger! Nice deflection by Monk. That must have hurt, Sharma was a little too slow with the club there and his arm looks like it might be broken. No, he’s turning, knocking the Bludger back at Monk. Monk deflects it with a swift backhand towards Quirke, she ducks it. Masters lines up for a shot, she shots, it hits the post, Weasley catches it on the rebound and she shoots. Score! Gryffindor now lead eighty to thirty!”

Harry glanced around the pitch, looking for the Snitch, his gaze wandered to the Teacher’s box at the corner of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw stands. Sitting near Ron and Hermione, and between Dumbledore and Sinistra were two people Harry didn’t recognise — one was a stocky gentleman with the build of a former athlete gone to seed, who wore a set of dark blue dress robes and a bright-red bowler hat with a white trim; the other a fitter, younger man, wore white Quidditch robes. That must be Kimberly and Smythe. The younger man, Smythe, noticed Harry watching him and nodded a greeting. Harry nodded in return, and returned to scanning the pitch.

Seconds later, he saw it; the Snitch was hovering about twenty feet above the Gryffindor goal. He glanced around, Lacey was at the other end, she hadn’t spotted the Snitch yet, and her old Cleansweep Seven couldn’t catch him anyway, so Harry began to fly slowly towards Peter. Ginny shot past him heading in the opposite direction, with Gorman, Sharma and one of the Bludgers in close pursuit.

Harry followed her path toward the Ravenclaw goal for a few seconds. When he looked back at their own goal, the Snitch was gone. Harry swore under his breath. “She shoots! Good save by Quirke. Gryffindor in possession, Parrington circles around, aims for the goal. She scores!” yelled Ron, “Gryffindor now lead 120-50!”

Five minutes later, the score was 140-60, and Harry was thinking that it was about time to bring the match to a close. He looked around, he didn’t see the Snitch anywhere.

“What the…!” sputtered Ron, “The Snitch just flew into me!”

Harry turned looking towards the Teachers box and saw the Snitch flying across the Gryffindor stands away from him. He turned his broom and dived towards it, out of the corner of his eye he could see Lacey speeding towards the Snitch too, She’ll never catch it though.

At that second, the Snitch turned sharply and sped up the pitch. Harry swore, again, and leaned hard to the right so that his body was parallel to the ground he sped after the fleeing ball.

“Another spectacular move from Potter as he rockets after the Snitch. Can he get it? Lacey’s closing in from the opposite direction.”

Harry urged his broom to greater speeds. Just as he was about to grab the Snitch, it veered upwards. Harry leaning back hard on his broom and wrenching it upwards, he shot up. Passing the Snitch, he thrust out his hand and grabbed it. Then he aerial-looped around in victory, as Ron shouted the good news. “After a amazing catch by Seeker Potter, Gryffindor wins 290-60!”

As he and the team were walking into the changing rooms, Sirius and the two Ministry officials caught up with them. Smythe stuck out his hand, “Good game Mr Potter, that was the most fantastic set of manoeuvres I’ve ever seen, you’re even better than Charlie Weasley or Thomas Hillard.”

“You mean...?”

“Of course I do?!” exclaimed the brawny Quidditch captain. “You want the spot, you’ve got it!”

<YES!> exclaimed Harry, “I accept.”

“Good, I’ll be in touch to discuss team-training sessions. See you later, Harry.”

“See you later, Charles.” said Harry under his breath. He needn’t have bothered though, the cheers of his team would have drowned out all but the loudest shout.

Ch.14 Christmas