Chapter 8: Quidditch
As November arrived, the weather started to turn cold. The ground was covered in frost every morning and the mountains surrounding the castle were icy grey.
Professor McGonagall was furious when she had heard about the statues, though she had used that spell herself for serious purposes, but since there were no proof that it was James Potter and Fred Weasley's doing, they were unpunished. Sylvia had reversed the charm that night and everything was normal when lessons started on Monday.
Quidditch season was starting, the first match of the schoolyear would take place on the second weekend of November, which was Gryffindor verses Ravenclaw. The first-year girls didn't go to bother James and Fred too often as they had Quidditch practices.
In the morning that Saturday, the whole school – or nearly everyone – went down to the Quidditch pitch to watch the game. Sylvia had noticed Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy were missing, but they hated Quidditch anyways, so she didn't bother.
The two captains shook hands, then Madam Hooch, the referee, blew her whistle and fifteen brooms with four balls took off into the air. The Snitch was out of sight in an instant.
"The Quaffle is taken at once by James Potter and passed to Rose Granger-Weasley," Leo Jordan, the commentary from Gryffindor was saying at his megaphone under the close watch of Professor McGonagall, "The superb Gryffindor Chaser roamed across the pitch, she's going to sc – no, saved by Andy Egwu, the Ravenclaw Keeper and Ravenclaw takes the Quaffle – that's Chaser Alnia Lilium, a great Chaser and a rather attractive girl with gorgeous hair -"
"JORDAN!" McGonagall barked at the comment and the crowd laughed.
"- just a fun fact, professor – a neat pass to Dorcas Mollis then to Tonda Nordum and off he goes, swooping like an eagle – the result of training for five years – Fred Weasley beats a Bludger at him, but beats back by Pridi Planus – he throws the Quaffle – Keeper Yann Fredericks dives – ooh, close but misses - RAVENCLAW SCORE!"
The Ravenclaw crowd cheered, mixed with moans from the Gryffindors.
"That's a nice move," Sylvia heard Tim mutter, "Got to remember it."
Toby and Dan, both teams' Seekers, were trying to get the other hit by a Bludger. They were doing circles far above the pitch.
"Rose got the Quaffle again – passes to Roxanne Weasley who dodges a Bludger – OUCH – hit by the other one from Hayden Rivers, must have hurt – James gets the Quaffle and passes to Rose – and back to James – he's going to go left – no, right – a few fancy tricks there – GRYFFINDOR SCORE!"
The cold air was filled with Gryffindor's enthusiastic cheers, while the Slytherin crowd booed.
The game carried on as the score went to seventy-eighty to Ravenclaw. Tensions were running high when the game had gone on for thirty minutes.
"They need to end this soon," Mora whispered, "Or there'll be fouls..."
And she turned out to be right. Tonda had the Quaffle, but instead of attacking the three goalposts, the ball hit Roxanne in the head.
"FOUL!" Leo went wild and danced out of Professor McGonagall's reach, "Take that, you dirty - "
"Jordan, I am warning you - "
"- Sorry, Professor – penalty to Gryffindor, Rose has the Quaffle and zooms across the pitch – Gryffindor sc – a close save by Egwu – then Gryffindor in possession, Roxanne passes the Quaffle to James – no, stopped by Alnia and passes to Mollis – and back to Alnia – to Mollis again -"
Fred seemed to be seeking revenge for his sister and hit Dorcas right in the head with his club, making her drop the Quaffle. The Ravenclaw crowd yowled angrily.
"Penalty to Ravenclaw – Alnia grabs the Quaffle and attacks the goal furiously – Yann's no match to an angry lady – Ravenclaw score and Gryffindor in possession – a pass from Rose to James being blocked by Partum - "
The game went on but neither sides had scored a lot and were both getting more fussed.
"I have a feeling that this is going to come out as two Slytherins." Davina breathed as another foul was preformed and Rose was nearly knocked off her broom by a Bludger from Pridi.
"I agree." Matilda responded and Tonda was crushed in mid-air by James, who claimed he didn't see him.
More fouls and more penalties were seen for the next ten minutes, and clouds were starting to form in the sky. This was definitely not a short Quidditch game.
"Come on Seekers!" Tim growled in frustration, "End this game before it rains!"
"- Ravenclaw in possession, Alnia gets the Quaffle and passes on to Partum – back to Alnia – no, James grabs it in mid-air and passes to Rose – and to Roxanne – back to James – he dodges a Bludger but drops the Quaffle - Mollis passes to Alnia – then back to Mollis – "
Then, without warning, Toby seemed to see the Snitch and dived, with the Gryffindor Seeker Dan Dashtom at his tail.
"- Yann amazingly saves the tricky throw from Dorcas and Gryffindor regains the Quaffle – the Seekers has seen something!" Leo had noticed it too.
"Do you think Toby's move is fake?" Sylvia whispered as the two Seekers dived towards the ground in a dangerously fast speed.
"Might be," It was Tim who responded, "Hope the Gryffindor Seeker won't break his neck."
His worries had become true as Toby pulled up just in time when he was nearly on the ground, while Dan wasn't so lucky. The Gryffindor Seeker crushed to the ground while trying to pull up but luckily avoided the worst part and got up with his nose bleeding.
"Does that count as foul?" Mora murmured.
But that wasn't the only part of the move. The Snitch was really there, near the ground, and Toby grabbed it when Dan was struggling to recover.
"HE'S GOT THE SNITCH!" The boys beside them roared as Madam Hooch blew the whistle that was barely heard to end the game. The score in the end was two hundred and sixty-a hundred and twenty to Ravenclaw.
Sylvia had to cover her ears to prevent herself from being deaf for the next few hours. The cheering of Ravenclaw was so loud that it covered the groans from Gryffindor completely. She didn't fancy cheering and screaming to drain her voice too much, but she smiled and clapped for the Ravenclaw team.
"We won!" Mora jumped up and down in her seat in excitement.
The crowd slowly spit up and returned to the castle and the Ravenclaw Quidditch team followed after changing. They went up to the Ravenclaw tower for partying with the rest of the house.
"Did you know that Ravenclaw tower is the tallest tower in Hogwarts before some Gryffindors attached a broomstick to theirs?" Miya asked with her eyes dazing, "But it was blasted off during the battle so Ravenclaw's is the tallest again."
"Err, no," Davina frowned, confused by the weird subject, "Who attached the broomstick though?"
"It was rumoured to be the Marauders, but it was unnoticed for long after they graduated," Sylvia cut it off, "Anyway, our team just won and the whole house's partying, are we going to join or what? Not that I fancy parties too much." She added.
"At least our house parties aren't as crazy as Gryffindor ones, according to Haze." Matilda pointed out.
"True. Ours' is just a mild celebration." Mora looked around the common room.
"Thank goodness." Davina murmured before going off to talk with Prefect Eleanor.
Although no one was completely sure of which team Slytherin supported, or if they just wanted the two teams to injure each other enough to affect the next match, the troubles were far from ending.
It was quite a gloomy day on Hogwarts grounds, when Sylvia and Matilda just happened to be right there. A bunch of older Slytherin students formed a suspicious circle around something.
"Get out of my way!" Came a hot voice from the inside.
"First-year." Sylvia murmured and dragged Matilda along to see what was going on.
"Still want to say something, mudblood?" One of them sneered.
She stiffened. How dare they use that word?
"You have no proof that I'm Muggle-born, and I said, get out of my way!" Sylvia recognised the voice now, Rubia Talari.
"How very Slytherin of them." Matilda hissed.
Growing furious, Sylvia marched much closer than they should be and released her anger, while Rubia did so as well. The redhead's hair glowed and seemed to be on fire, which scared some of the Slytherins. Rubia's golden eyes blazed. At the same point, Sylvia's powers were released from her usual calm self. A force of air pushed the Slytherins apart, sending a few falling over and two of them flying.
"Leave." She said coolly but dangerously.
"Thanks." Rubia murmured as the bullies scrambled away from the two first years who just preformed wandless magic. Powerful ones.
"Did you know how you did it?" Sylvia eyed the still flaming hair.
"I'm not really sure. It happened before when I was angry, like, very." Rubia frowned, "What about you?"
"I kind of can control certain things when I want to." She replied as realization clicked in her mind. That's the thing that helped with the wind spell and flying.
"That. Was. Amazing." Matilda ran to them and breathed, "How?"
"I need to go," The Gryffindor girl sighed, "To calm down."
"Curse those Slytherins," Sylvia heard her sister mutter, "I thought they should be okay now that the war's over."
"Next goal: hex Slytherin." Sylvia said with a slight smirk.
"Not all of them though," Matilda added, "I've come across Albus and Scorpius once or twice, they were fine."
"Weird," She frowned, "I mean, Merlin was in Slytherin, Salazar Slytherin was a great wizard. How come Slytherins are such gits now?"
"Of all the stupid things, Voldemort happened to be in Slytherin and most of the Death Eaters were in that house," Matilda reminded her, "A lot of Slytherins now are Death Eaters' children and have that pureblood nonsense."
"We have a pureblood name too, though the family's not pure anymore, Ollivanders are still one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight." Sylvia said.
"There's only like five out of twenty-eight families that aren't in Slytherin." Matilda sniffed.
"Six out of twenty-eight, if you count the Shacklebolts." Sylvia looked up to remember the pureblood family books.
"Who are they again? Abbott, Longbottom, Ollivander, Prewett, Shacklebolt, Weasley... oh, and Macmillan, that makes seven." Matilda counted the so called "blood-traitors" or at least not evil families.
"So, there's twenty-one more that are in Slytherin. The other pureblood families are in Slytherin in most cases as well, like Crabbe and Goyle. The Potters are fine." She spoke.
"The Potters," Matilda smirked, "say that to Albus."
"Albus may be in Slytherin but he's not evil." Sylvia said fairly.
"Slytherin traits are cunning and ambitious, not exactly bad but..." Matilda trailed off. They both knew what evil students in Slytherin meant.