Harry Potter and the Stolen Snitch
Part 1
Harry awoke early, as he always did the morning before a Quidditch match, to find the dormitory alive with the sound of snoring coming from his fellow Gryffindor 6th years. The sun was slowly starting to filter its way through the glass windowpanes to light up Harry's bed. He moved over to the window to survey the weather for that afternoons match.
'Damn,' He though, as he looked across the grounds and over the tops of the forest 'looks like there isn't going to be a spot of cloud today, that's gunna make finding the snitch difficult. I hope the teams not going to be put off by the sun, our last few practices have all been under heavy cloud'.
He, Harry, was especially nervous about today's match against the Slytherin team, more nervous than he had been for a Quidditch match in years, and not without reason. Today was going to be the first public display of the Gryffindor team's skill since he had been appointed captain back in September. Wood had been an excellent leader, if not a little strict, a trait Harry now had full sympathy for, and he hadn't had much experience under Angelina, but she had still managed to win the Quidditch cup last year. Harry only hoped he could live up to their names, a fact he had confided to Hermione last month, only to hear the usual lines about how great a Quidditch player and leader he was. He loved Hermione greatly, but her words were of little comfort to him now, while he was facing the match full on with heavy heart. Secondly, the team had gone through some changes for this year. Harry was back as seeker, having been expelled from the team last year, and Ron remained as the keeper, but those were the only things that remained the same. Shamus Finnegan and a 5th year boy called Geoffrey Hooper had joined the team as beaters. Geoffrey had tried out for the keeper position last year. True to her word, Ginny had stayed on as a chaser. Lavender Brown had joined, also as a chaser. The third chaser was Harry's secret weapon. He was a first year by the name Mark Evans (a name he recognised, but didn't know where from). Like himself, Mark had been chosen for the team, something first years were not usually permitted to do, however it had been on Dumbledore's recommendation. Evans was an amazing flier, and had already mastered a good number of the more complicated moves. Unbeknown to Mark, Harry had managed to find him a second hand Nimbus 2000 from Diagon Ally, and had gotten Fred and George to post it up. The resemblance to Harry's own flying style was uncanny, although that may have had something to do with the fact that Harry had been teaching Mark during extra training seasons, and Harry felt sure that when he left the team, Mark would make an excellent seeker.
His spirit lightened by this, Harry washed, dressed and, feeling that he needed the company of a fellow team member, tried to wake up Ron. Ron swore.
'Get off, Dobby's already proven that he's a better keeper; use him, although his ear's do kind of sound like the snitch when they flap in the wind...'
Laughing slightly, Harry left Ron to his dream and wondered off down to the great hall for some breakfast. The rest of the day leading up to the match went by reasonably quickly, as he spent most of his time in the Library with Hermione and Ron, trying to do their transfiguration homework. They had recently started human transfiguration, and even Hermione was having trouble mastering it.
'You will learn the theory,' Professor McGonagall has said during their last class 'and you have proven to me that you have learned the hand movement, mental fortitude and spell pronunciation to the letter will I allow you to perform any transfiguration upon yourselves, and that does not mean you can perform is upon anyone else either Mr Weasley.' She had concluded with a twinkle in her eye, correctly interpreting the smirk that had just started to play its way across Ron's face.
'All this stuff would be great to know if ever we wanted to become animagi!' said Hermione, her head rising from a book entitled 'Human Transfiguration: Don't Loose Your Head'. 'Well it would!' she retorted to Harry's raised eyebrows. 'I can't believe it took your father and Sirius so long to learn, it doesn't look that hard.' Hermione mused. 'Not to hard for you maybe' muttered Ron, but she didn't hear him.
* Getting up from the dinner table with the intent of going down to the Quidditch pitch, Harry felt someone grab his hand and pull him back down to his seat. Hermione, who was looking nervously at Ron, let go of his hand. When she was sure he was completely involved in looking over his shoulder to something on the Ravenclaw table, she flipped her eyes towards Harry. He was momentarily taken aback. He had never seen her stare so intently at him before, her breathing was fast and shallow and she was sitting close to him. He felt comforted by her, and was sure she was gong to wish him luck and remind him of all of his Quidditch triumphs.
'Harry,' she whispered 'I have something I need to talk to you about.' 'What is it?' Harry stared deeply into her eyes, trying to remember anything he could of the Legimens lessons Snape had given him last year, when he was suddenly filled with a feeling he didn't expect, and it wasn't coming from him. 'I can't really talk about it here,' she glanced over at Ron again 'can we meet up after your match? In the common room after every ones gone to bed? It's important.' 'Yeah, ok.' He said, slightly stunned, slightly curious, but mostly confused. Had he really managed to see into what Hermione was feeling? If he had, what had he just felt? This close to a Quidditch match in which both her best friends were playing he expected concern, or excitement, but that wasn't what he had felt. What was it? 'Oi! Hawy.' he heard Ron call through a mouth full of cake. Ron swallowed. 'When are we supposed to be down on the pitch?' 'In about 20 minutes, but I'm off now to sort things out down there.' Harry replied. 'Oh, good. Ok, I'll see you down there.' and at that, Ron wondered off towards the Ravenclaw table. 'See you Hermione, we'll talk later' 'Ok Harry, good luck.'
*
Five minutes later Harry arrived at the changing room door, slightly out of breath and a few minutes later than he had planned. He was still confused about what he had just seemingly done, and felt, and was wondering what it was Hermione wanted to talk about, but he didn't have time to dwell, he had a Quidditch match to think about. He walked up to the door to the captains' room and muttered 'snidget', which was followed by a slight click as the door reacted to its password. The room was small but comfortable and had a small bookcase along the right hand side. He had looked over these books when he was first allowed into this room and they included volumes such as 'Quidditch rules', '1001 ways to avoid breaking Quidditch rules' and 'Careers of those who abide'. He sat down at the table, which had a diagram of the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch on it, and 14 little models of players next to it. Harry moved the models into the team's new starting positions and tapped the diagram. Fourteen little figures pushed off from the table and started to perform the various manoeuvres they had been learning over the past months. Looking out of the window that faced the castle Harry saw that the sun was still in full spirits and, sighing, resigned himself to a difficult match. He heard a slight clink behind him and turned round. The little Gryffindor keeper figure had collapsed down onto the table. With a sniff of laughter, he tapped the table once again with his wand to stop the replica match.
'Maybe I have been working these little models for to long'.
Harry heard the door to the changing rooms open and close, and then voices in high spirits started to filter through the door. People were starting to make their way to the stadium now, and Harry could hear people laughing, talking, screaming and bickering their way past him. He stood up, walked over to the wardrobe and started to get changed. Part 2
Five minutes later Harry walked out into the changing rooms to find Ron, Lavender, Mark, Ginny, Shamus and Geoffrey sat waiting for him, all in their Quidditch robes. He stood for a moment looking at them, and smiled.
'Ladies and Gentlemen, this, as they say, is it. Our first match together, and it is against the Slytherins. Lavender got a good look at their training season last week and it looks like they have managed to find at least a little bit of skill from somewhere. This combined with the usual, erm, bulk that the Slytherin team usually puts onto its broomsticks could mean trouble.'
'I know what you mean about bulk,' said Mark, 'look at the size of their beaters!' 'What, Crabbe and Goyle? Their think as anything, only good at taking orders, you can fool them easy' said Ron in comforting tones.
'It's not the beaters we have to worry about.' Harry continued. 'You three,' he looked over at Ginny, Lavender and Mark 'can fly better than any school chaser trio I've ever known of. Crabbe and Goyle don't stand a chance. I'm concerned about their tactics. The Slytherins have a reputation of playing by their own rulebook, and we'll have to be alert for any dodgy moves they try and pull. Our moves are close the perfect and if we concentrate on those, we will rip through them like paper.'
Harry heard a huge cheer go up from the crowd and knew it was time. 'Ok team, remember we are the Gryffindor house Quidditch team, we are brave, we can concentrate in the face of an apposing side, and we're going to win! Lets go.' Hanging back with a smile on his face, Ron moved closer to Harry. 'That was really tacky, you know that right?' 'Shut up Ron' Harry replied, twinkling. 'What was going on at the Ravenclaw table that you were looking at earlier?' 'Nothing.' Ron replied quickly, going red. 'I hope this sun doesn't course a problem.' Harry smiled back at him, and walked out onto the pitch.
As soon as Harry stepped onto the pitch he realised something was up. Madam Hooch looked concerned and a little worried, and people were walking fasted paced around the pitch with their eyes on the ground. Even the crowd seemed a little agitated. He heard Tania Turner, a Hufflepuff girl who has started commentating this season say 'Gone? What do you mean it's gone?' Ginny was running towards Harry and Ron now, looking a little flustered and worried. 'It's gone Harry!' she shouted as she arrived, panting. 'I got that much, what has gone?' 'The Golden Snitch! It's not in the case with all the other balls. Madam Hooch went to release the Snitch before letting the bludgers go and there was just an empty hole. She said the case had been locked away in her room since the last Slytherin practice.' 'I bet they stole it! Didn't want to play us, too scared!' puffed Shamus as he ran up to join the group. 'Can't prove that though.' Commented Geoffrey from Harry's right. 'We will have to postpone the match then I guess, can't play without a snitch. Damn Slytherins!' Harry hissed. 'Whats that potty? Thinking of postponing the match?' The slow meticulous tones meant only one thing, Malfoy. 'If you do, you will forfeit the match and loose by default!' 'Try not to be so thick Malfoy, you can't play without a snitch' laughed Ron. 'I'm afraid you'll have to boys, unless both sides agree to postpone.' Said the voice of madam hooch from behind Ron. 'Not a chance' chuckled Malfoy 'Then you'll have to play' replied Madam Hooch. 'But how will the game end?' enquired Harry 'The game will end when the snitch it found or replaced, released into the game and caught by a seeker.' Said Madam Hooch. 'Oh dear this could be a very long game! Ready people? Standby for my whistle.'
'Ok team, this is what we do,' said Harry thinking fast, 'we play as normal for now, except I'll play as a backup chaser in case anyone drops the quaffle, and as run about between team members. If the match goes on to long, and people start getting tired then we will have to drop down to four players, 2 chasers, a beater and a keeper, we can rotate who is on and who is off. Looks like this game is not going to be won by the catching of the snitch, so all the emphasis goes on goal scoring ok? Shamus, Geoffrey, I want you to concentrate on making sure the Slytherins score as little as possible. I want you to be ready to get a bludger in their way if ever they get to close to our goals. Ginny, Mark and Lavender, stick to the simple moves to start with, we don't want to tire out to fast, and don't forget I'm around if you run into a bludger. Try not to use me to much though; it will be less confusing if you three do the scoring and chasing. Ron, you'll have a good chance to watch the Slytherin tactics. If you spot something that might help, yell for me. Everyone ready?' Everyone nodded 'Ok, lets go.'
They all mounted their brooms, the whistle went and fourteen players pushed off from the ground. Mark got hold of the quaffle first, and passed it to Lavender, who dodged a bludger from Crabbe, threw the quaffle to Shamus, who smacked it towards Ginny. She jumped from her broom to catch it, almost lost her balance landing on it again, but then pushed off as fast as she could with Harry in her wake. She was feet from the goal but the Slytherin keeper was rushing towards her. Looking like she was going to dive Ginny pushed her broom downwards, but then suddenly right back up again, looped the keeper and scored in the far right hoop. Ten to nothing. Mark scored the next two by batting the quaffle into the hoop with the back of his broom. Thirty points to Gryffindor. By the time the score line showed sixty points to nothing, the Slytherins were getting angry. Malfoy, who until then had been standing on the sidelines, started diving towards the chasers so violently, he almost knocked Lavender to the ground twice. Harry, spotting this, put all his energy into stopping him by moving in front of the Gryffindor chasers during his attacks.
'Move out of my way Pothole, or I'll ram my broom handle down your throat!' Malfoy shouted. 'Just because you can't get a girlfriend doesn't mean you can start stalking Miss Weasley like that.' 'Just because you can't find a human girlfriend doesn't mean you have to settle for Miss Bulstrode.' Retorted Harry. He heard Shamus, Lavender and Ginny laugh from just behind him and turned to look at them. As he did, he heard Ron shout 'look out!' and he had just enough time to duck both bludgers.
Both teams were determined to stop the other from scoring, three hours later the score line showed one hundred and thirty points to eighty to Gryffindor, and it was starting to get dark. 'This is ridiculous Harry' Ron said after calling him over. 'Ginny and Mark are almost falling off their brooms, and Geoffrey doesn't look to happy either.' 'Your right, I think its about time we went down to 4 players. I don't think the Slytherins are going to be reducing their numbers though, that could course a problem.' However, at that moment Ginny proved Ron's point by loosing her balance and falling 10 feet before recovering herself. 'Ok, I'll go and tell them. Are you still ok to carry on?' Harry asked Ron. 'Yeah, ill be fine.'
So Harry took over as the second chaser. He had never really played as a chaser before, but he had practiced so many of the moves that he picked it up fast. However, Shamus wasn't enough on his own to fend off the Slytherin attacks and by the time Ginny, Mark and Geoffrey came back on the score line was up to 170 : 190 to the Slytherins. 10 minutes later Harry was calling Lavender and Shamus to have time off. 'You should take a breather as well Harry; you'll never catch the snitch in your current state.' Ron pointed out. He was right, Harry felt so tired he could barely keep his eyes open so he followed Lavender and Shamus towards the changing rooms. The crowd was down to barely 50 people now and it was strange to hear a match going on behind him in the dark, with hardly anyone there to watch it. Even Professor McGonagall has temporarily replaced Madam Hooch.
'Ok guys, we'll have 40 minutes rest then we'll be back on.' Harry said as he slumped onto one of the benches. Slowly he started to drift away so that the sounds of the match going on outside were little more than a blur of sound and action. Lavender and Shamus were fast asleep by the time they had to get back out onto the pitch, and Harry had to shake them awake. Bleary eyed but refreshed, they walked back onto the pitch, kicked off and took their place. It was obvious that the Slytherins idea of not taking any time off was starting o wear them down, as the score has reached 290 points to 200 to Gryffindor. Still they were only 100 points up, not enough to make the snitch useless. Harry set about putting the teams' best moves into play. With all three of the chasers having has time off they were all fully awake and, with little hassle from the Slytherin team, pulled off the manoeuvres with ease. After a further one hours' play the score line was up to 340 points to 200, 140 points up for Gryffindor.
Then Harry spotted something out of the corner of his eye. A small golden glitter coming from somewhere between the stadium and the castle. He took a closer look only to find that it was a Slytherin student on his way over to the pitch, probably having finished lunch, the glint must have been a watch in the moonlight. However, Malfoy had also seen something, for he was now circling around the side of the pitch closest to the castle. Were his eyes not good enough to see it was a student? Harry went back to the game, getting Geoffrey and Shamus the pelt bludgers at the Slytherin chasers. The 2nd year Slytherin student was at the side of the pitch now, and Harry saw something glitter again in his right hand. In his hand? That wasn't a watch! As if in slow motion, he saw that Malfoy was diving towards the boy with a huge grin on his face. Cheating or not, if he got his hands on whatever that was, and it turned out to be the snitch, Slytherin would win the match. Harry dived. He knew that he was to far away, as he had started from the other end of the pitch. A bludger flew in Malfoys direction, but missed by inches. A huge gasp and a scream came from the crowd. A sudden idea flew into Harry's mind at that moment, and he opened his mouth and yelled, 'I'VE GOT THE SNITCH!' In a split second Malfoy, confused, turned around on his broom, but in his tiredness failed to hang on to the handle and began to fall. At the same time, the small Slytherin 2nd year opened his hand to look at the small fluttering snitch he had been holding. Harry, barely feet from the ground dived off his broom. He felt his hand close around the tiny, cold snitch before slamming headfirst into the Slytherin boy.
Harry got up and looked around but could hear nothing from the crowd. He looked over at Malfoy to see him staring at the Gryffindor goalposts with an evil smile on his face. Harry followed his stare and what he saw made him start to run. There was a crowd of people gathered around the bottom of the middle goal post, all looking at the floor. The rest of the Gryffindor team were already flying over, and Hermione was running across from the stands. When he arrived, Harry pushed his way through the crowd to the middle. On the floor, he saw Ron, unconscious. Both Ron's right arm and left leg looked broken, and he had blood oozing from somewhere on his head. His broom was lying in pieces underneath him and there was blood all over his robes where pieces of splintered broom had buried themselves in this flesh. He was breathing, just. Hermione appeared at Harry's side, squealed and buried her face in Harry's quidditch robes. Madam Hooch was already taking change, and had magiced a stretcher for Ron, and was beginning to shout at people to move out of her way as she directed him towards the castle. Harry, Hermione and Ginny followed, and Madam Hooch did not object. 'What happened?' Harry asked 'Well,' Ginny sniffed, as she tried to wipe away her tears 'just before you called out about something, Goyle hit a bludger towards Ron. He must have known that Ron was the only Gryffindor player not to take a break. Anyway, Ron was too tired to move out of the way in time and the bludger.the bludger.it hit his head. I saw his head flail backwards so fast I screamed. He slumped backwards onto his broom.and fell, about 30 feet.' She started to sob. 'It'll be ok Ginny, you'll see. He's still breathing, he's alive, and Madam Pomphrey will be able to make sort it out. Ok?' said Hermione, throwing a fearful look at Harry. Harry trudged back up to the castle, full out guilt. Why hadn't he remembered that Ron hadn't taken a break! He wasn't sure if he was angrier with Goyle or himself, but eventually, the worry for Ron overpowered all other feelings. Harry, Hermione and Ginny sat with Ron all through the night and it wasn't until the morning that they were told to leave. 'Will he be ok?' Harry asked. Madam Pomphrey looked across as Hermione and Ginny. 'I don't know. I've fixed his injuries, both arm and leg, plus in cleaned up the blood from his head and repaired.repaired the cracked bone.' She was quite for a few seconds. 'But as for what damage has been done to his brain, I just don't know. I'm sorry. You can come back later today but for now, I must ask you all to leave.'
Ginny and Hermione cried all the way back up to the Gryffindor common room, and Harry couldn't blame them.
Harry awoke early, as he always did the morning before a Quidditch match, to find the dormitory alive with the sound of snoring coming from his fellow Gryffindor 6th years. The sun was slowly starting to filter its way through the glass windowpanes to light up Harry's bed. He moved over to the window to survey the weather for that afternoons match.
'Damn,' He though, as he looked across the grounds and over the tops of the forest 'looks like there isn't going to be a spot of cloud today, that's gunna make finding the snitch difficult. I hope the teams not going to be put off by the sun, our last few practices have all been under heavy cloud'.
He, Harry, was especially nervous about today's match against the Slytherin team, more nervous than he had been for a Quidditch match in years, and not without reason. Today was going to be the first public display of the Gryffindor team's skill since he had been appointed captain back in September. Wood had been an excellent leader, if not a little strict, a trait Harry now had full sympathy for, and he hadn't had much experience under Angelina, but she had still managed to win the Quidditch cup last year. Harry only hoped he could live up to their names, a fact he had confided to Hermione last month, only to hear the usual lines about how great a Quidditch player and leader he was. He loved Hermione greatly, but her words were of little comfort to him now, while he was facing the match full on with heavy heart. Secondly, the team had gone through some changes for this year. Harry was back as seeker, having been expelled from the team last year, and Ron remained as the keeper, but those were the only things that remained the same. Shamus Finnegan and a 5th year boy called Geoffrey Hooper had joined the team as beaters. Geoffrey had tried out for the keeper position last year. True to her word, Ginny had stayed on as a chaser. Lavender Brown had joined, also as a chaser. The third chaser was Harry's secret weapon. He was a first year by the name Mark Evans (a name he recognised, but didn't know where from). Like himself, Mark had been chosen for the team, something first years were not usually permitted to do, however it had been on Dumbledore's recommendation. Evans was an amazing flier, and had already mastered a good number of the more complicated moves. Unbeknown to Mark, Harry had managed to find him a second hand Nimbus 2000 from Diagon Ally, and had gotten Fred and George to post it up. The resemblance to Harry's own flying style was uncanny, although that may have had something to do with the fact that Harry had been teaching Mark during extra training seasons, and Harry felt sure that when he left the team, Mark would make an excellent seeker.
His spirit lightened by this, Harry washed, dressed and, feeling that he needed the company of a fellow team member, tried to wake up Ron. Ron swore.
'Get off, Dobby's already proven that he's a better keeper; use him, although his ear's do kind of sound like the snitch when they flap in the wind...'
Laughing slightly, Harry left Ron to his dream and wondered off down to the great hall for some breakfast. The rest of the day leading up to the match went by reasonably quickly, as he spent most of his time in the Library with Hermione and Ron, trying to do their transfiguration homework. They had recently started human transfiguration, and even Hermione was having trouble mastering it.
'You will learn the theory,' Professor McGonagall has said during their last class 'and you have proven to me that you have learned the hand movement, mental fortitude and spell pronunciation to the letter will I allow you to perform any transfiguration upon yourselves, and that does not mean you can perform is upon anyone else either Mr Weasley.' She had concluded with a twinkle in her eye, correctly interpreting the smirk that had just started to play its way across Ron's face.
'All this stuff would be great to know if ever we wanted to become animagi!' said Hermione, her head rising from a book entitled 'Human Transfiguration: Don't Loose Your Head'. 'Well it would!' she retorted to Harry's raised eyebrows. 'I can't believe it took your father and Sirius so long to learn, it doesn't look that hard.' Hermione mused. 'Not to hard for you maybe' muttered Ron, but she didn't hear him.
* Getting up from the dinner table with the intent of going down to the Quidditch pitch, Harry felt someone grab his hand and pull him back down to his seat. Hermione, who was looking nervously at Ron, let go of his hand. When she was sure he was completely involved in looking over his shoulder to something on the Ravenclaw table, she flipped her eyes towards Harry. He was momentarily taken aback. He had never seen her stare so intently at him before, her breathing was fast and shallow and she was sitting close to him. He felt comforted by her, and was sure she was gong to wish him luck and remind him of all of his Quidditch triumphs.
'Harry,' she whispered 'I have something I need to talk to you about.' 'What is it?' Harry stared deeply into her eyes, trying to remember anything he could of the Legimens lessons Snape had given him last year, when he was suddenly filled with a feeling he didn't expect, and it wasn't coming from him. 'I can't really talk about it here,' she glanced over at Ron again 'can we meet up after your match? In the common room after every ones gone to bed? It's important.' 'Yeah, ok.' He said, slightly stunned, slightly curious, but mostly confused. Had he really managed to see into what Hermione was feeling? If he had, what had he just felt? This close to a Quidditch match in which both her best friends were playing he expected concern, or excitement, but that wasn't what he had felt. What was it? 'Oi! Hawy.' he heard Ron call through a mouth full of cake. Ron swallowed. 'When are we supposed to be down on the pitch?' 'In about 20 minutes, but I'm off now to sort things out down there.' Harry replied. 'Oh, good. Ok, I'll see you down there.' and at that, Ron wondered off towards the Ravenclaw table. 'See you Hermione, we'll talk later' 'Ok Harry, good luck.'
*
Five minutes later Harry arrived at the changing room door, slightly out of breath and a few minutes later than he had planned. He was still confused about what he had just seemingly done, and felt, and was wondering what it was Hermione wanted to talk about, but he didn't have time to dwell, he had a Quidditch match to think about. He walked up to the door to the captains' room and muttered 'snidget', which was followed by a slight click as the door reacted to its password. The room was small but comfortable and had a small bookcase along the right hand side. He had looked over these books when he was first allowed into this room and they included volumes such as 'Quidditch rules', '1001 ways to avoid breaking Quidditch rules' and 'Careers of those who abide'. He sat down at the table, which had a diagram of the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch on it, and 14 little models of players next to it. Harry moved the models into the team's new starting positions and tapped the diagram. Fourteen little figures pushed off from the table and started to perform the various manoeuvres they had been learning over the past months. Looking out of the window that faced the castle Harry saw that the sun was still in full spirits and, sighing, resigned himself to a difficult match. He heard a slight clink behind him and turned round. The little Gryffindor keeper figure had collapsed down onto the table. With a sniff of laughter, he tapped the table once again with his wand to stop the replica match.
'Maybe I have been working these little models for to long'.
Harry heard the door to the changing rooms open and close, and then voices in high spirits started to filter through the door. People were starting to make their way to the stadium now, and Harry could hear people laughing, talking, screaming and bickering their way past him. He stood up, walked over to the wardrobe and started to get changed. Part 2
Five minutes later Harry walked out into the changing rooms to find Ron, Lavender, Mark, Ginny, Shamus and Geoffrey sat waiting for him, all in their Quidditch robes. He stood for a moment looking at them, and smiled.
'Ladies and Gentlemen, this, as they say, is it. Our first match together, and it is against the Slytherins. Lavender got a good look at their training season last week and it looks like they have managed to find at least a little bit of skill from somewhere. This combined with the usual, erm, bulk that the Slytherin team usually puts onto its broomsticks could mean trouble.'
'I know what you mean about bulk,' said Mark, 'look at the size of their beaters!' 'What, Crabbe and Goyle? Their think as anything, only good at taking orders, you can fool them easy' said Ron in comforting tones.
'It's not the beaters we have to worry about.' Harry continued. 'You three,' he looked over at Ginny, Lavender and Mark 'can fly better than any school chaser trio I've ever known of. Crabbe and Goyle don't stand a chance. I'm concerned about their tactics. The Slytherins have a reputation of playing by their own rulebook, and we'll have to be alert for any dodgy moves they try and pull. Our moves are close the perfect and if we concentrate on those, we will rip through them like paper.'
Harry heard a huge cheer go up from the crowd and knew it was time. 'Ok team, remember we are the Gryffindor house Quidditch team, we are brave, we can concentrate in the face of an apposing side, and we're going to win! Lets go.' Hanging back with a smile on his face, Ron moved closer to Harry. 'That was really tacky, you know that right?' 'Shut up Ron' Harry replied, twinkling. 'What was going on at the Ravenclaw table that you were looking at earlier?' 'Nothing.' Ron replied quickly, going red. 'I hope this sun doesn't course a problem.' Harry smiled back at him, and walked out onto the pitch.
As soon as Harry stepped onto the pitch he realised something was up. Madam Hooch looked concerned and a little worried, and people were walking fasted paced around the pitch with their eyes on the ground. Even the crowd seemed a little agitated. He heard Tania Turner, a Hufflepuff girl who has started commentating this season say 'Gone? What do you mean it's gone?' Ginny was running towards Harry and Ron now, looking a little flustered and worried. 'It's gone Harry!' she shouted as she arrived, panting. 'I got that much, what has gone?' 'The Golden Snitch! It's not in the case with all the other balls. Madam Hooch went to release the Snitch before letting the bludgers go and there was just an empty hole. She said the case had been locked away in her room since the last Slytherin practice.' 'I bet they stole it! Didn't want to play us, too scared!' puffed Shamus as he ran up to join the group. 'Can't prove that though.' Commented Geoffrey from Harry's right. 'We will have to postpone the match then I guess, can't play without a snitch. Damn Slytherins!' Harry hissed. 'Whats that potty? Thinking of postponing the match?' The slow meticulous tones meant only one thing, Malfoy. 'If you do, you will forfeit the match and loose by default!' 'Try not to be so thick Malfoy, you can't play without a snitch' laughed Ron. 'I'm afraid you'll have to boys, unless both sides agree to postpone.' Said the voice of madam hooch from behind Ron. 'Not a chance' chuckled Malfoy 'Then you'll have to play' replied Madam Hooch. 'But how will the game end?' enquired Harry 'The game will end when the snitch it found or replaced, released into the game and caught by a seeker.' Said Madam Hooch. 'Oh dear this could be a very long game! Ready people? Standby for my whistle.'
'Ok team, this is what we do,' said Harry thinking fast, 'we play as normal for now, except I'll play as a backup chaser in case anyone drops the quaffle, and as run about between team members. If the match goes on to long, and people start getting tired then we will have to drop down to four players, 2 chasers, a beater and a keeper, we can rotate who is on and who is off. Looks like this game is not going to be won by the catching of the snitch, so all the emphasis goes on goal scoring ok? Shamus, Geoffrey, I want you to concentrate on making sure the Slytherins score as little as possible. I want you to be ready to get a bludger in their way if ever they get to close to our goals. Ginny, Mark and Lavender, stick to the simple moves to start with, we don't want to tire out to fast, and don't forget I'm around if you run into a bludger. Try not to use me to much though; it will be less confusing if you three do the scoring and chasing. Ron, you'll have a good chance to watch the Slytherin tactics. If you spot something that might help, yell for me. Everyone ready?' Everyone nodded 'Ok, lets go.'
They all mounted their brooms, the whistle went and fourteen players pushed off from the ground. Mark got hold of the quaffle first, and passed it to Lavender, who dodged a bludger from Crabbe, threw the quaffle to Shamus, who smacked it towards Ginny. She jumped from her broom to catch it, almost lost her balance landing on it again, but then pushed off as fast as she could with Harry in her wake. She was feet from the goal but the Slytherin keeper was rushing towards her. Looking like she was going to dive Ginny pushed her broom downwards, but then suddenly right back up again, looped the keeper and scored in the far right hoop. Ten to nothing. Mark scored the next two by batting the quaffle into the hoop with the back of his broom. Thirty points to Gryffindor. By the time the score line showed sixty points to nothing, the Slytherins were getting angry. Malfoy, who until then had been standing on the sidelines, started diving towards the chasers so violently, he almost knocked Lavender to the ground twice. Harry, spotting this, put all his energy into stopping him by moving in front of the Gryffindor chasers during his attacks.
'Move out of my way Pothole, or I'll ram my broom handle down your throat!' Malfoy shouted. 'Just because you can't get a girlfriend doesn't mean you can start stalking Miss Weasley like that.' 'Just because you can't find a human girlfriend doesn't mean you have to settle for Miss Bulstrode.' Retorted Harry. He heard Shamus, Lavender and Ginny laugh from just behind him and turned to look at them. As he did, he heard Ron shout 'look out!' and he had just enough time to duck both bludgers.
Both teams were determined to stop the other from scoring, three hours later the score line showed one hundred and thirty points to eighty to Gryffindor, and it was starting to get dark. 'This is ridiculous Harry' Ron said after calling him over. 'Ginny and Mark are almost falling off their brooms, and Geoffrey doesn't look to happy either.' 'Your right, I think its about time we went down to 4 players. I don't think the Slytherins are going to be reducing their numbers though, that could course a problem.' However, at that moment Ginny proved Ron's point by loosing her balance and falling 10 feet before recovering herself. 'Ok, I'll go and tell them. Are you still ok to carry on?' Harry asked Ron. 'Yeah, ill be fine.'
So Harry took over as the second chaser. He had never really played as a chaser before, but he had practiced so many of the moves that he picked it up fast. However, Shamus wasn't enough on his own to fend off the Slytherin attacks and by the time Ginny, Mark and Geoffrey came back on the score line was up to 170 : 190 to the Slytherins. 10 minutes later Harry was calling Lavender and Shamus to have time off. 'You should take a breather as well Harry; you'll never catch the snitch in your current state.' Ron pointed out. He was right, Harry felt so tired he could barely keep his eyes open so he followed Lavender and Shamus towards the changing rooms. The crowd was down to barely 50 people now and it was strange to hear a match going on behind him in the dark, with hardly anyone there to watch it. Even Professor McGonagall has temporarily replaced Madam Hooch.
'Ok guys, we'll have 40 minutes rest then we'll be back on.' Harry said as he slumped onto one of the benches. Slowly he started to drift away so that the sounds of the match going on outside were little more than a blur of sound and action. Lavender and Shamus were fast asleep by the time they had to get back out onto the pitch, and Harry had to shake them awake. Bleary eyed but refreshed, they walked back onto the pitch, kicked off and took their place. It was obvious that the Slytherins idea of not taking any time off was starting o wear them down, as the score has reached 290 points to 200 to Gryffindor. Still they were only 100 points up, not enough to make the snitch useless. Harry set about putting the teams' best moves into play. With all three of the chasers having has time off they were all fully awake and, with little hassle from the Slytherin team, pulled off the manoeuvres with ease. After a further one hours' play the score line was up to 340 points to 200, 140 points up for Gryffindor.
Then Harry spotted something out of the corner of his eye. A small golden glitter coming from somewhere between the stadium and the castle. He took a closer look only to find that it was a Slytherin student on his way over to the pitch, probably having finished lunch, the glint must have been a watch in the moonlight. However, Malfoy had also seen something, for he was now circling around the side of the pitch closest to the castle. Were his eyes not good enough to see it was a student? Harry went back to the game, getting Geoffrey and Shamus the pelt bludgers at the Slytherin chasers. The 2nd year Slytherin student was at the side of the pitch now, and Harry saw something glitter again in his right hand. In his hand? That wasn't a watch! As if in slow motion, he saw that Malfoy was diving towards the boy with a huge grin on his face. Cheating or not, if he got his hands on whatever that was, and it turned out to be the snitch, Slytherin would win the match. Harry dived. He knew that he was to far away, as he had started from the other end of the pitch. A bludger flew in Malfoys direction, but missed by inches. A huge gasp and a scream came from the crowd. A sudden idea flew into Harry's mind at that moment, and he opened his mouth and yelled, 'I'VE GOT THE SNITCH!' In a split second Malfoy, confused, turned around on his broom, but in his tiredness failed to hang on to the handle and began to fall. At the same time, the small Slytherin 2nd year opened his hand to look at the small fluttering snitch he had been holding. Harry, barely feet from the ground dived off his broom. He felt his hand close around the tiny, cold snitch before slamming headfirst into the Slytherin boy.
Harry got up and looked around but could hear nothing from the crowd. He looked over at Malfoy to see him staring at the Gryffindor goalposts with an evil smile on his face. Harry followed his stare and what he saw made him start to run. There was a crowd of people gathered around the bottom of the middle goal post, all looking at the floor. The rest of the Gryffindor team were already flying over, and Hermione was running across from the stands. When he arrived, Harry pushed his way through the crowd to the middle. On the floor, he saw Ron, unconscious. Both Ron's right arm and left leg looked broken, and he had blood oozing from somewhere on his head. His broom was lying in pieces underneath him and there was blood all over his robes where pieces of splintered broom had buried themselves in this flesh. He was breathing, just. Hermione appeared at Harry's side, squealed and buried her face in Harry's quidditch robes. Madam Hooch was already taking change, and had magiced a stretcher for Ron, and was beginning to shout at people to move out of her way as she directed him towards the castle. Harry, Hermione and Ginny followed, and Madam Hooch did not object. 'What happened?' Harry asked 'Well,' Ginny sniffed, as she tried to wipe away her tears 'just before you called out about something, Goyle hit a bludger towards Ron. He must have known that Ron was the only Gryffindor player not to take a break. Anyway, Ron was too tired to move out of the way in time and the bludger.the bludger.it hit his head. I saw his head flail backwards so fast I screamed. He slumped backwards onto his broom.and fell, about 30 feet.' She started to sob. 'It'll be ok Ginny, you'll see. He's still breathing, he's alive, and Madam Pomphrey will be able to make sort it out. Ok?' said Hermione, throwing a fearful look at Harry. Harry trudged back up to the castle, full out guilt. Why hadn't he remembered that Ron hadn't taken a break! He wasn't sure if he was angrier with Goyle or himself, but eventually, the worry for Ron overpowered all other feelings. Harry, Hermione and Ginny sat with Ron all through the night and it wasn't until the morning that they were told to leave. 'Will he be ok?' Harry asked. Madam Pomphrey looked across as Hermione and Ginny. 'I don't know. I've fixed his injuries, both arm and leg, plus in cleaned up the blood from his head and repaired.repaired the cracked bone.' She was quite for a few seconds. 'But as for what damage has been done to his brain, I just don't know. I'm sorry. You can come back later today but for now, I must ask you all to leave.'
Ginny and Hermione cried all the way back up to the Gryffindor common room, and Harry couldn't blame them.