Chapter 7 Table Tennis Match

The match began soon. It wasn't a formal one, for the game would end when a side got six points. Terry Boot was the first to go for he seemed to play better than the others. He was facing a girl with pale skin and auburn hair.

"Three to three!" the audience clapped.

"Six to five!" the muggles cheered as Mr Harris said, "You next, Charles! And perhaps you, the boy with black hair?"

Harry had no choice but to go down when he heard people behind him shouted "Harry!" encouragingly. "I won't get zero if Terry can get five…", he thought, "Charles'll be too friendly to let me get zero."

Charles served the ball. The orange ball flew towards Harry's right hand side quickly, spinning. With his quiditch instincts, he thought that was a snitch and caught it.

"Mr Potter, what you need to do is to hit the ball back instead of catching it." Mr Harris told him.

Harry mumbled, "Sorry, I forgot."

The match continued. Harry got three points and Charles four. Harry felt lucky, for he got a point by hitting the ball to a tricky corner of the table, and Charles could only touch the ball after it fell to the ground. He had just won another point because Charles hit the ball too hard causing it to fly above everyone's head.

The ball dropped and rolled, through the students' feet, under the chairs and finally stopped under a big cupboard. Harry ran to it and found his hand was too short to retrieve the ball. He pulled out his wand, and murmured, "Accio ball." The ball soared into his hands without any other people noticing. He walked back to the table then threw the ball to Charles. It was his turn to serve the ball.

"Four to five, exchangers team leading!"

The ball flew towards Harry, who hit it back successfully, and landed on the left hand side of Charles, then back to Harry again, with increasing speed. It was too fast for Harry, he didn't know what to do. To his surprise, the racket made its way to the ball on its own record. The ball flew to the middle of the table and Charles missed it.

"Hurray!" Cheers and claps exploded out the exchangers team's side. "Just like a quiditch match." thought Harry.

After a rest, it was Ron's turn. His opponent was the boy that beat him lately.

It was proven that Ron hasn't got the knack of playing table tennis. He kept missing balls, and lost courage when he did one mistake, just like his keeping skills. The points now were-

"Four to zero!" said the teacher. The boy smirked and made a face to Ron.

Ron got hit by the ball, leaving a round red mark on his face. He looked like being smacked by a bludger.

Harry noticed something swooshing past him. He looked at Hermione, who stood next to him. She frowned at him, before asking him what happened.

"Did you hear something whooshing past us?" questioned Harry suspiciously.

"What? Nothing!" Hermione looked a little nervous. Her wand poked out of her pocket.

Ron's opponent stared at the ball blankly. Instead of hitting it back to Ron, he placed his face in front of the ball, as thought wondering what it is. The ball hit him, and made the same red, round mark on his face. Some muggles sniggered.

"Five to one!"

But Ron missed another ball. The exchangers team lose.


"Hermione, did you do something to that boy?" Harry asked at that evening, when Ron wasn't noticing.

"Well, Yes! But didn't you see how impolite the boy was?" Hermione replied.


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