Harry and the Pirates, Chapter 28
To Slip the Bonds of Earth
by Technomad
Out at the Quidditch pitch, the would-be players were met by Pucey, Flint and the seventh-year Quidditch players. Pucey took the lead, pacing up and down in front of the neophytes like a sergeant inspecting his men. "Right, you lot. Quidditch is a demanding game. Not all of you will be up to playing. Even those of you who are, will be in the reserves, almost for sure, at least at first. However…" he paused, "Quidditch is also some of the best flying training there is!"
Harry, Ron, and Dudley looked at each other and grinned. Harry was one of the best fliers in their year, and Ron wasn't far behind him. Dudley wasn't as naturally skilled as his cousin and friend, but he'd grimly worked to improve, asking the older Slytherins, particularly the Quidditch players, for advice and help. With guidance, and considerable encouragement, he had overcome his relative lack of talent, and now could give his friends a run for their money in the air.
"Oh-kay," said Pucey. "First test is that obstacle course. Fly through it, five times. The faster, the better, but don't skip any obstacles. We want to evaluate your flying."
Harry was off the ground in a second, with Ron and Dudley behind him. Harry found dealing with the obstacles ridiculously easy, and following his lead, Ron and Dudley made it through all five times. Some of the others had trouble, but Draco Malfoy, who had Quidditch ambitions of his own, also made it through. All the while, Pucey and the other seventh-year players watched, conferring among themselves and writing copious notes.
At the end of the obstacle course runs, some of the would-be players were told that their flying skills weren't up to snuff. In some cases, the news was softened with advice on how to bring their skills up to the high level that the Slytherin Quidditch team required. Finally, it was down to Draco, Dudley, Harry, and Ron.
"Now, on to Phase Two," announced Pucey. "In this, we're going to test each of you in every position on the team: Seeker, Keeper, Chaser and Beater. Some of you may…and I cannot emphasize may enough…be good enough to make the first team. Those who don't, but qualify in other ways, will join the Slytherin Reserve team. That way, no matter what, we'll have enough people to play. Can you believe, Gryffindor House doesn't bother with reserves?" He laughed. "What a bunch of maroons!"
"We also believe in team members knowing how to fill other slots than their usual one, should that become necessary," put in Flint.
The first test was for the Seeker position. At first, it involved chasing golf balls that Pucey and his colleagues threw into the air. Ron and Dudley didn't do well, missing almost all of the balls, but Draco and Harry both did splendid jobs. Shortly, a rivalry developed between them, as they competed fiercely to see who could catch the ball most quickly, or from the oddest position.
When Flint and Pucey called things to a halt, Harry was ahead of Draco, but just slightly. The boys came in for perfect landings, both of them pink from exercise and bright-eyed with happiness. The older boys nodded. "Looks like we've a good selection for Seeker. We need a new one. However, that doesn't excuse you two the rest of the tests." Harry and Draco both nodded and took their places with the others.
The next test, for Keeper, involved guarding the goal rings, as the senior Quidditch players tried to score. The first attempts were easy, but as the tests wore on, each testee was harder- and harder-put to keep up. "A real Quidditch game can be pretty intense," Pucey called, amusement in his voice. "In Slytherin, our training is so tough that real games are a relaxing holiday in comparison!"
Harry, Dudley, and Draco were all soaked with sweat and trembling with weariness by the time their tests were done. From the ground, they watched in wonder as Ron kept the seventh-years from scoring, repelling the Quaffle from the rings time after time. When Pucey called the test off, Ron had prevented more goals than the other three combined, easily. He came in for a landing, grinning like a jack o'lantern.
Pucey came over and clapped him on the shoulder. "We may just have a Keeper, here. You might have to compete against our current Keeper for the job, but before you're out of Hogwarts, you'll be on the main team, if what I saw today is a fair sample of your work." Ron looked so happy that Harry thought he'd burst.
"And now for the tests for Beater!" Dudley went first, and while he'd been competent but uninspired at the other positions, he took to Beating with zeal, bashing the Bludgers around with his Beater's bat. As the test went on, targets were set up for him to aim the Bludger at, and after a bit of initial awkwardness, Dudley was hitting the targets with the Bludger easily. Harry was happy; he wanted to be on the team, but he wanted his friends and cousin with him, too!
By this time, they had an audience. Professor Snape was lounging in the stands, ostensibly correcting papers in the bright warm sunshine, but keeping a weather eye on proceedings. A little way away, Professor Lockhart was resplendent in gaudy robes that reminded Harry of one of the more opulent Chinese temples he'd seen in Asia. From Snape's body language, Harry could see that he was not happy to have the posturing Defence professor there, but couldn't find any valid way to order him away.
"Good, Dursley! Now, Malfoy, let's see how you do!" With that, Dudley landed, and Draco took to the air. Harry watched his friend and rival closely. To Harry's eye, Draco lacked the real power that a Beater needed. While he connected with the Bludgers easily enough, he wasn't able to hit them hard enough, or aim their trajectories well enough, to give Dudley any real competition. He heard the elders muttering: "There's talent there, but I don't think that the boy has the strength for Beater."
Harry wasn't surprised. The Slytherin Beaters were mostly in their sixth and seventh years, and had muscle and strength that Draco, in his second year, just didn't have. He thought that Dudley had given their elders a surprise, though. Dudley was the person that the Slytherins in his year generally turned to, when muscle was required.
Finally, Flint had mercy and called Draco back down. "Now, Potter! It's your turn!" Harry threw Pucey and Flint a halfway-serious salute and mounted his broom. He soared into the air, thinking that this was where he belonged…up in the air.
The Bludger came at him, and he batted it away. However, unlike the times that the others had done the same thing, instead of bouncing off in the direction that Harry had hit it, it looped around and came at Harry. He was so surprised that he barely ducked in time, and the iron ball whistled past just over his back, close enough to ruffle his robes. Then it turned and came back again; Harry hit it again, and it came back again.
Harry was worried; he had seen more than enough to know that this was not normal behavior. Again and again, he swatted the Bludger, and again and again it came back, harder every time.
Down on the ground, at first, nobody noticed that anything was really wrong. Then Ron looked up more closely. "Dudley! Draco! It looks like Harry's in trouble!"
Draco looked up, his eyes narrowed. "You're right; I've never seen a Bludger acting that way!" Without waiting for orders from the older Slytherins, the three second-years vaulted onto their brooms and rode to Harry's aid. At first, the older players didn't seem to realize what they were doing, but when they saw what was happening to Harry, they also soared into the sky, Beater bats in hand.
By the time Dudley got to his side, Harry was having trouble; he was already tired from trying to hold off the rogue Bludger, and had been grazed several times. "Dudley!" he gasped. "Thank Buddha! Keep that crazy thing off me!"
Dudley hit the Bludger hard, then moved to shield Harry as best he could, as Ron and Draco, and the other Slytherins, arrived. Between them, they were able to keep the deadly iron ball at bay, but it was apparently getting cleverer and cleverer, and nearly got through their guard more than once.
"I'll help you!" came a call from the ground, and a blast of magic, aimed at the Bludger, hit Harry's broom instead, sending him spinning toward the ground with his broom in flames. He managed to keep some control, but struck the ground hard. The last thing he felt was the mad Bludger thudding into the ground right beside him. Then everything went black.
"You killed Harry!" screamed Dudley, stooping on a horrified-looking Lockhart like a falcon on a mouse, his wand out. Right behind him came the other Slytherins, who had instinctively assumed position in an aerial-combat formation, just as they'd been trained to do. Slytherin broom training included a lot of defensive and offensive flying.
"No! I…" Lockhart sheathed his wand, picked up his robes and ran for his life. "Severus! Help!"
Before the enraged Slytherins could carry out their goal of lynching Lockhart, a shield sprang into existence between him and them. "Stop right there!" roared Snape, striding onto the field, his black robes billowing around him like great wings. "Get on the ground, now, young men!"
The sight of their House head got through to the furious Slytherins. Reluctantly, they brought their brooms in for a landing, as Dudley and Ron ran to Harry. "He's alive! Professor! Do something!" The others were distracted from their fury at Lockhart, gathering around Harry, who was lying on the grass, unconscious. Beside him, a deep crater showed where the rogue Bludger had managed to bury itself.
"That thing shouldn't be doing what it was doing!" snapped Pucey, gesturing the others back from where the Bludger was. Ron's eyes went wide at how the ground was bulging. The ball had buried itself deep, but was still trying to get at Harry.
Reassured that they were no longer planning to murder him, Lockhart came back. "Oh! I say! Mr. Potter's hurt! Good thing I'm here! I've handled dozens of these cases, as my books explain…" He was rolling up his sleeves and pulling out his wand when he stopped, paling again, as Snape whirled to cover him with his own wand.
"You are not a certified Healer, Professor," Snape purred, his voice like poisoned honey. "As it happens, I am. You will stay back. Your ill-aimed spell did enough damage, I think." The Slytherins all scowled and fingered their wands, and Lockhart turned slightly green. Snape cast several diagnostic spells. "Concussion, several broken bones, and some internal injuries. This will need Madame Pomfrey's attention, I believe." Snape conjured a stretcher, and gently levitated Harry on to it. "Run ahead and tell Madame Pomfrey that she'll be needed. We can finish these tryouts another time." The Slytherins leaped to obey.
Once they were alone, Lockhart turned to Snape. "Well? Aren't you going to punish them?"
"Punish them? My dear Gilderoy, why ever should I punish them?" Snape's voice was utterly bland as he guided the stretcher forward. "Do get out of the way, dear colleague. And quit wringing your hands."
"They tried to murder me! You saw it!"
"Professor," Snape snarled, suddenly ineffably weary of this posturing dunderhead, "I also saw that you took it upon yourself to shoot Mr. Potter's broom out of the sky! If he was one whit less skilled at flying, he could easily be dead right this minute." Snape smiled a very carnivorous smile. "Think of how that would look to the press! 'Lockhart Kills Boy-Who-Lived!' 'Teacher A Murderer?' and such headlines. Not to mention the Wizengamot and Aurors getting involved. And when the Aurors start snooping, there's no telling what they'll find, is there?"
Lockhart turned very, very pale. Snape wondered just why he was acting that way. Did he have some hidden secret? He made up his mind to take a good long look at his new colleague.
Madame Pomfrey, alerted by an onrush of excited Slytherin boys, came out to see Harry into the infirmary. When she was informed about just what had happened, she gave Snape a piercing look.
"I'll want to know how that happened. Those Bludgers are supposed to be impossible to fiddle!"
Snape nodded. "I'll look into it myself."
"See that you do!" And with that, Snape found himself ejected from the infirmary. Outside, he found Ron Weasley, Dudley Dursley, Draco Malfoy, and the older Slytherin Quidditch players all sitting and looking morose.
"You do understand that you can't go attacking teachers, don't you?" Snape intoned, his voice solemn. The boys all nodded, looking utterly miserable. "For this, I must punish you. Ten points from Slytherin and one night's detention with me."
"Ten points apiece?" asked Pucey.
"No. Ten points for the lot of you. Now, along with you! I've got to report this to the Headmaster and Madame Hooch. They'll want to examine that Bludger!" They alonged.
END Chapter 28.
