Chapter Seven: Nothing Good Ever Happens on the Quidditch Field

"I don't like this," Julie muttered as they stood in the stands of the Quidditch pitch. They were shivering and shaking, it was sleeting like there was no tomorrow and everyone was drenched to the bone. Including our heroes and heroines even though they had a manna shield overhead to ward off the worst of it. In spite of the gale force winds and the sleet the game must go on and so it was Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.

"This is madness." Gwen agreed, and then seeing Ben about to speak, "if you say that line I'm punching you and then you can sit in the rain with everyone else." He promptly halted in speaking.

"Quidditch goes on until the Snitch is caught, weather be damned." Ron spoke sagely, for once.

"Look at them!" Julie gestured to the players, "They can't even see where they're going, let alone get there!"
It was true; each player was but the toy of the wind, being tossed and turned to it's whims.

"Doesn't matter. The game is played."

Ben and Kevin each were stonily silent, facing opposite directions; just as the girls did they too sensed that something was up. They just didn't know just how bad and that's what worried them.

The first sign was Kevin going to his knees, saying, "They're coming."

The temperature, already so low, dropped below zero to where the sleet turned to actual hail and snow.

"Crap!" the Dementors swarmed, flitting above the stadium.

"Ben, get Harry!" Gwen took control, grabbing Kevin and hauling him to his feet, "Julie get Kevin and the kids into the castle."

"Right." Julie grabbed her barely coherent friend, putting one of his arms over her shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist, "Ron, Hermione, get moving, now."

They nodded, with Ron actually taking a place at Kevin's free side and helping.

"Gwen!" Ben called over the now howling winds, "I can't get up there! The winds will break my wings!"

She was about to respond when several girls screamed and they turned back to the pitch to see Harry plummeting to the ground, limply and clearly unconsciously.

"GOOP!" the roar was lost on the wind but Goop-Ben vaulted to the pitch and went into Ultimate form, increasing his volume. He formed a cube of green jell-o and caught Harry, letting the boy sink into the soft and moldable goop. With Harry secure inside him Goop-Ben formed into a large ball, hardened the exterior of the ball into a stone-like substance, and sped off to the castle.

With their charges safe Gwen turned her attention to the Dementors. The teachers were herding the students back to the castle, firing off bright white things at the creatures but she was pissed. Pink-eyed she gathered her power and every positive feeling in her body and began to fire off tennis ball sized spheres of manna powered by love. Only two made contact with their targets but it was enough. The two hit let out terrible shrieks and dissolved into nothingness; their comrades saw this and fled. Panting, replacing a couple locks of hair that had fallen from their place, she stormed off to find the Headmaster. Oh was he going to get a piece of her mind…

She stormed into the hospital wing an hour later and she found Harry still unconscious, with everyone gathered around his bed.

"Let me through, let me through," she pushed her way through the crowd, summoning her powers once again and running her hands over the boy's head.

It wasn't a physical injury that was keeping him out cold, something mental was at fault.

Within minutes he came to, groaning and moaning. She backed up as Hermione flung forward, hugging Harry, and conjured a clothes press. She took off her robes and fed them through the press, cranking the machine manually, wringing out the water. She was soaked and cold but she could dry her clothes with her powers but the robes were too loose to do the same. With just a thought she began radiating enough heat to instantly dry her clothes and she finished wringing her robes, vanishing the press with a wave of her hand. She then approached Harry's bedside again.

"We need to talk."

He sighed but nodded, "I heard the woman again; it was clearer, louder this time. She was screaming my name. Over and over again. It sounded like she was being tortured or something."

"Did you see anything?"

"Yes…no…maybe…"

"'Maybe'?"

"I saw a lot of green light okay. That's all…" he was getting agitated so she let the conversation end.

He looked around, "Where's my broom?"

Everyone went silent as Ron came up and deposited a bundle at the foot of his friend's bed, uncovering it and saying sadly, "Nobody thought to get it so the wind had it…it met the Willow Harry…this was all we could find…" there lay three twigs, a foot rest, and the broom handle section that sported the number '2000'.

"We can't fix it Harry," Hermione continued apologetically, "even the teachers, because we couldn't find enough of it to fix…"

Harry turned to Gwen, "Can you fix it? Your magic's different than ours…"

She shook her head, responding softly, "I can't. There isn't enough of it left. I'm sorry."

Then Kevin leaned over and whispered into her ear; a smile spread over her face as she nodded.