Disclaimer: I guarantee nothing.
Author's Notes: I apologize if this chapter is lacking in dialogue—the next will have more. One can't expect too much conversation in a Quidditch match. This match took a while to get to, didn't it? Don't worry the next one will happen as soon as I can think of something sufficiently cool for them to do.
This chapter is reasonably long to make up for the lack of dialogue, and long time it took.
Note: The beginning gets figurative, keep that in mind.
Chapter 34: The Bludger and The Snitch
"Good luck."
Judy took the partially gloved hand that Harry had offered and smiled at him.
"You too."
The two stood just outside the Quidditch Pitch, dressed in full battle regalia, brooms in hand, and fully ready to go wage war on their aerial battlefield. Only an hour ago they conversed merrily in the hall after breakfast, light hearted and both of them more innocent than they looked now. Even now they weren't fully into themselves. They were at that halfway point between their normal personas and those battle ready people they became when they were up in the middle of a match.
The two shook hands with one another, and walked out at a slow march onto the Quidditch field. They were followed a moment later by the rest of their teams and there was a long silent pause as everyone in the crowd took in the sight.
The Gryffindor robes almost glowed red against the dull murky color of the ground and the grey of the sky. Each of them had their eyes locked with those of their opposing members. The new Ravenclaw uniforms made the team look futuristic, almost like mercenaries from some battle in the dark. The wind whipped up and flashed the blue and purple of their capes, which contrasted heavily against the bright orange of the Gryffindor's.
The one thing both teams seemed to have in common was the fact that every member was wearing a poker face. Each one of them had a look of grim determination mingled with eerie calm. They stood in silence and the two team captains inclined their heads to one another politely rather than shaking hands.
The crowd broke into cheers and shouts of applause. Some of the crowd seemed torn though. The Ravenclaw students wanted desperately to cheer their hardest for their team but it was difficult to shout encouragements when the Slytherin students had already beaten them to it. The Ravenclaws figured that it was simple logic though, and cheered anyway. (After all, it would have been far more frightening to see the Slytherin cheering on Gryffindor.)
Madam Hooch moved out onto the field and released the bludgers and snitch, a second later she blew her whistle and the two teams flew up into the air at such amazing speed it caused the crowd to gasp and the referee (Professor McGonagall had graciously…well… been forced into the position) to back up a bit. Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle up into the air and the Ravenclaw team snatched it before even gravity could get hold of it again.
"And they're off!" Lee Jordan shouted from his commentator's spot. He was frantically trying to see who had the Quaffle but it changed hands far too fast for him, or the crowd, to keep up. The only two members of the teams that were perfectly visible were Harry and Judy, the seekers.
Judy rose up into the air swiftly, away from the match and high above the towers. She hadn't the eyes of the hawk but she had a memory that was nearly better than written record. She was scanning the stadium slowly, her face was still flat and emotionless but she was inwardly amazed.
"This is a new snitch…" Judy muttered and snapped her eyes to the right. Her peripheral vision had mistaken Harry for the snitch, darn. Harry's eyed were shifting around nervously and he was squinting in the half-light caused by the cloud covered sky.
Judy unfocused her eyes and watched the stadium as a whole—it was far easier to spot motion that way. She caught several glints of gold, but she knew that should she dive for it Harry would see it and his broom looked far faster. Judy instead just watched the small thing move around the field and waited for the moment to strike.
Judy took a deep breath and watched as the uninterrupted snitch continued on its set path, winding though the towers and up within the flurry of brooms and capes that was the match below. There was a flash from one of the boxes and it drew the instant attention of both seekers.
The flash was from a camera.
Down behind the crowd of Hufflepuffs there was a reporter and someone in strange robes taking pictures of the match. Judy watched them for a while longer and was hardly phased when the man took a photo of her and Harry high above the game. It took her a moment before she realized who they were—they were scouts!
"Hey," Judy addressed Harry and he looked up at her—he knew who they were too. "If you could seize everything you've ever wanted, in just one moment, would you capture it or would you just let it slip by?"
Judy glanced over at him and they locked eyes.
"Could you?"
Judy didn't answer him; she just turned and narrowed her eyes on the field. She reeled her broom up, spun it over and dove down using all the inertia she could. Her broom sped up and Judy dove down into the thick of things, Harry right on her tail.
"Bacilli has spotted the snitch!" Lee Jordan shouted with renewed vigor—he'd not been able to comment the game had been going so fast.
Harry pulled off to the side and sped up past Judy. He was focused to reach the snitch before she could but she'd managed to trick him. He pulled so far past her that he'd not noticed when she snapped her broom upwards and doubled back at twice her original speed. She pulled up and broke through the melee of chasers, keepers, and beaters as she raced up towards the snitch's path. Judy could see the gold out of the corner of her eye, but what she couldn't see was the wayward bludger that was headed at her from behind.
This just serves to show that what you don't know can hurt you.
Judy's hand reached out and stopped the snitch but was struck before she could close her hand on the small gold orb. The bludger struck her open palm both shattering the thinner bones in her hand like strands of dried noodle and damaging the snitch. Judy let out a cry and snapped her right hand back to her side releasing the snitch and freeing the bludger to fly down below.
"Bacilli's been hit by a bludger—where were the Ravenclaw beaters?" Lee Jordan shouted and looked around before he remembered that the Professor whom normally took his microphone away was the referee.
'I can't let them pause the game,' Judy thought as she watched the struggling snitch with nothing short of awe. The little gold ball was flapping its wings irregularly and aside from the massive dent that had practically reshaped the whole thing there was a chunk that had fallen out of the top.
'I'll lose it….'
However, Judy's thoughts were interrupted by the one sound she'd wished wouldn't come. She could just barely hear it over the cheers, jeers, and shouts of the crowd as well as the fighting below her. McGonagall blew her whistle with all the force her lungs could muster.
She tried to ignore the whistle and waved her left hand down at McGonagall who simply returned a cross and very stern stare that seemed to scream 'Don't move.'
"Are you alright?" Harry flew up and swung his broom to a stop next to hers. Judy quickly covered her right hand before looking at him.
"I'm good enough to finish the match." Judy smirked and Harry eyed her. She turned back and looked at the air just a few inches away from the tip of her broom at the very same time Harry did.
There it was, the broken, battered, and all around decrepit (slightly less golden) snitch. They stared at it as it fluttered in the air almost as if it was hovering and they both reached out to grab it. Their hands both moved slowly as if rushing it would spook the snitch, but despite their efforts the small globe shook violently for a moment before shooting down into the physical body of the crowd.
McGonagall blew the whistle again, and Judy looked over at Harry.
"Everything you've ever wanted," Judy started quietly and Harry locked eyes with her. "Just one shot." She smirked and Harry spoke up.
"Could you?" He asked and glanced back at the irate Professor trying to break through the match to get to the two seekers.
"Without a doubt." Judy looked back at the crowd—the snitch was hovering directly over one poor Hufflepuff boy who was resisting great temptation to reach up and snatch it. ("Don't touch it!" "You'll ruin the game!")
"Me too," Harry agreed and the both dove down into the crowd. ("Duck!" "They're headed right for you!")
McGonagall was both shocked and furious that they'd ignored her like that, and if the seekers didn't pay her any mind the rest of the teams weren't going to. She narrowed her eyes and watched the rest of the match.
Judy and Harry swept down into the swiftly parting crowd and the snitch, as if sensing their presence, took off in an erratic and clumsy flight. The two seekers pulled up before they managed to run someone down and followed the snitch down through the supports that held up the bleachers, then up and around the towers.
Judy couldn't keep up with Harry's broom should this turn into a contest of pure speed but luckily the broken snitch was far too random to safely chase at nearly one hundred and fifty miles an hour. The two followed, neck and neck, weaving in and out of whatever obstacles the snitch placed between it and them as it dove around.
The snitch's behavior was strange and was attributed to the fact that it had been struck by a bludger, but no one in the stadium—including the Quidditch scouts—expected what happened next.
The snitch was pulling Harry and Judy behind it like streamers and on the third dive past the Hufflepuffs it veered off and shot through the air like an arrow. It was headed towards the castle. Both Judy and Harry were astonished but they zipped off after it. The only difference this made was the size and complexity of the field.
The snitch slammed into the huge wooden doors at the entrance of the school. It didn't have quite enough force (or mass) to wedge the doors open so it simply bounced back and remained paused in the air for a moment allowing Judy and Harry time to catch up. But just as the two had sped up on the straightaway the snitch shot off to the right and passed over the muddy ground.
Harry turned his Firebolt right around demonstrating its masterful capabilities and took off after it. Judy, however, didn't have the same turn radius and barely managed to get her broom around. She pulled her broom to the right and landed both her feet on the door. She pushed off hard and took off at breakneck speed after the snitch. She easily caught Harry as the snitch whipped around him and flew down over the lake.
The snitch skimmed the water sending up a spray of lovely near frozen water up to greet the two blurs that followed behind it. After properly diving in and out of the water nearly three times and covering both Harry and Judy in a thin film of icy sheeting the snitch whipped off over the lake and back towards the castle. The two seekers followed after it and shot at their top speeds towards the waterfall that was pouring out of the castle—the snitch was headed for the Ravenclaw house.
"Aw crap!" Judy shouted as the snitch dipped down and passed up into the small area that was directly behind the waters which seemed to have no end.
Judy and Harry flew straight into the arctic current of water that was pouring over the top of the section of the castle and into the dark, frigid cavern between the thundering torrent and the stone of the wall. The two lurched to an abrupt halt and looked around in the dimly lit tunnel formed by the water. They could see their breath, they could see their reflections in the water, they could make out their fingers a few inches in front of their face but they could see no snitch.
"Where did it go?" Harry all but shouted and looked around frantically.
There was a small splish-ing noise and that was all they needed. The two flew straight up through the water and spotted the snitch whipping through the air up above them. They sped up and followed the tiny golden thing into the air as it went over the section of the castle, dove down, and zipped over the roof. Judy fought hard not to let her left hand slip off the broom but the combination of numbness, a slippery handle, and high speed wasn't a very good thing.
The snitch flipped over in the air and flew down between the greenhouses. Judy and Harry didn't dare fly down after it—too much glass that risked braking. The snitch shot up and barreled through the air at a speed neither Harry nor Judy knew it was capable of. Harry and Judy followed it as best they could before an idea dawned on Judy.
'Its just lost some of its control…it will still go back to the start….'
Judy pulled her broom to a halt and spun it around leaving Harry to chase after the snitch on his own. She leaned forward and her broom flew back towards the Quidditch pitch at its fastest. She zipped past the first rows of seating and made a wide turn into the stadium. She could see the small gold snitch fluttering towards the pitch at high speed and she assumed that the red blur behind it was Harry. She didn't bother to slow down she flew as fast as she could towards the spot where the snitch had first been released. Harry and the snitch were approaching too fast though.
Judy used her legs and brought her broom to a screeching halt. She snapped her left hand out into the air and felt the wing of the snitch… there was a break in the glorious moment though. Her hand closed on Harry's. The only sound that pierced the silence in Judy's mind was the cheering as someone lobbed the red Quaffle through the hoop and scored the last goal of the game.
It had happened in a split-second. Harry had come careening to a stop at the very moment Judy had and both their arms had shot out at the same time. Only a small fraction of a second later, Judy would have caught it, and Harry's hand would be the one wrapped on her own.
Everyone in the stands fell silent, the other players' concentration was broken, and Lee Jordan was staring at them with an amazed expression. There was a click as one of the scouts snapped another picture and then Lee decided to go back to his job.
"Uh… Gryffindor wins—hold on a minute…." Lee stopped and looked back at the small counter he used to score the game. He'd not been able to shout the scores aloud nor who'd scored it so the crowd simply assumed that Gryffindor had won seeing as Harry had caught the snitch. When Lee paused murmurs passed through the crowd like wildfire and many began shouting.
"Well?" Judy asked and pulled her hand off of Harry's. "Who won?"
"Nobody did…." Lee looked back to them, pale and shocked.
"What?" Harry asked and both seekers moved over to the teachers' box.
"It's-it's a tie," Lee stated simply into the microphone and the crowd started shouting angrily. "One fifty—Gryffindor. One fifty—Ravenclaw." He turned the box and both of the seekers looked at it and went pale. "The Ravenclaw team scored one hundred fifty points…without the snitch…." Lee looked like he was going to faint.
"Bloody hell…."Harry said in a soft voice and looked over at Judy with an incredulous expression.
"Indeed…." Judy looked back at him and then glanced over her shoulder. Every other member of either team pulled up next to the box and stared at the score. The oddest thing is, they weren't mad about it at all—nothing like the nearly rioting crowd.
"Who had tie game and Harry catches the snitch?" One of the Gryffindor beaters, Fred Weasley, took a pad of paper out of his robes and flipped through it.
"I did," Mixy flew over and smirked at Fred.
"Anyone else?" George asked shakily as he glanced over his brother's shoulder and spotted the odds to win on that particular outcome. Everyone shook their heads and George let out a sad sigh of relief.
"Dang. I had tie game and Judy catches the snitch…." Bruce grumbled and rolled his eyes.
"Just what is going on here?" A furious McGonagall pulled up next to them on her broom and nearly glared.
"Tie game." Lee Jordan squeaked and tried to hide under the box wall just in case the Professor wanted to scold him for what few comments he made during the match.
"What?" McGonagall stared at Lee Jordan like he'd just transfigured another head on his shoulders. She looked over at the score box and straightened up. "It's a tie game…." She stated the obvious and glanced back at the surly crowd who were now shouting 'We want scores!' She moved around the gathering of players and snatched the microphone from Lee.
"Attention," She started in a very authoritative and commanding tone that silenced the nearly rioting crowd. "This is officially a tie match. One Fifty, and One Fifty." She spoke sternly and the crowd went silent. They didn't start cheering they simply stared and waited for someone to announce the punch line—surely this had to be a joke.
The two teams landed silently and started heading back towards the castle. The crowd hadn't dispersed whatsoever, even after the announcement of the tie. The only members of the crowd who were even moving at all were the two scouts and they were leaving so they could go report back to their respective bosses.
"I think they're waiting for the rest of the match…." Harry said quietly over his shoulder and Judy laughed.
"I wonder how long they'll wait before it sinks in," Judy said and contemplated this aloud while she walked back to the castle with Harry and the rest of the team.
"By the way," Harry interrupted her thoughts as they followed their teammates through the castle doors (which still had two foot shaped imprints from Judy's shoes on them). "How's your hand?" He glanced over at her and smiled sheepishly—they'd gone back to their calm, normal personas.
"Numb, but I'm sure when that wears off it's going to hurt like no one's business." Judy admitted and turned away from the crowd. "I'll see you all at lunch—I'm off to find Pomfrey and warm up." Judy waved her left hand and shuffled off down the hall.
"What a great way to start off the morning." Judy sighed happily and clutched her now purple and swollen right hand. "Oh no, numb is going away—Madam Pomfrey? Where are you?" Judy shouted and started walking much, much faster.
Reviewer Thanking Time:
Duckchick- Snape getting his comeuppance and the charred Malfoy was fun, Mordred might have had a bit to do with it…(*dramatic pause*)… 'They do?' I might just be brain dead…but what? ^_^; Ah well! I love you! You review! I hope you enjoyed the Quidditch Match, and the new gear will have explanation later (meaning next chapter). Feel free to e-mail me concerning the pictures, I've finished one of them—which happened to be vaguely based on the D/G short-fic you wrote. Hope you'll forgive me for the borrowed inspiration! Gomen nasai.