Chapter 19: One More Victory Lap

The next day came faster than any of us had expected. Max, Tammy, and I woke up to Heidi forcing our bed curtains open before the crack of dawn. We barely had time to shower and change into warm clothes before she rushed us into the common room. As I sat on my knees in front of the fire, letting Max pull my hair back into a tight fishtail braid, I saw the boys begin to stumble out of their dorms and join us in the room. Cedric was the only one who seemed to be awake, coming to join us on the couch as Anthony and Jason were falling asleep on their feet. Malcolm and Michael, the two alternate players, followed behind them, more awake than the others but still looking very much like they just crawled out of bed. Once we were all in the room together, Heidi stood up on a chair to address us.

"Alright, you lot, today's the big day!" Her voice echoed slightly in the mostly-empty room, causing Anthony to groan before collapsing on the couch next to Max and Tammy.

"Get off, Rickett!" Max huffed, trying to shove him off with her elbow, pulling my hair slightly in the process.

"Make me, O'Flaherty," he mumbled back. Heidi ignored their exchange, choosing instead to point at the window, where the sun was just slowly starting to peak above the horizon.

"In three hours, we'll be out on that pitch," she said, "Ravenclaw's been preparing just as much as we have, so this won't be an easy match. But I believe we can win the whole thing!"

"Yeah, that wouldn't have anything to do with the scouts comin' to see you today, would it Macavoy?" A pillow launched itself at Jason's face from Heidi's perch, smacking him hard enough to knock him to the floor. I tried to stifle my laughter ― it wouldn't be good if one of our chasers was unable to play because our captain knocked him unconscious before the game ever even started.

"The only way we're going to win is if we keep our wits about us," Heidi continued, "Ravenclaw team's just as quick and bright as the rest of their lot, so we won't have it easy out there. But if we focus on our strengths and our strategies, as well as our new Keeper, then we're sure to beat them."

"Ya hear that, McIntosh?" Anthony drawled, flicking my head as Max finished my braid, "We're all counting on you."

"No pressure, of course," Malcolm added, the two of them laughing at my expense. I felt my cheeks flush, ducking my head down to let the few unbraided curls cover my face.

"Please don't pull a Wood and put the entire game on my shoulders," I said, turning to face the rest of the group. I hesitated a moment, then jabbed my head in Cedric's direction, "That's the Seeker's job." The whole team laughed at that one, with Cedric sheepishly rubbing his neck as they turned their jeers to him. Tammy stopped first however, blinking slowly before looking back at the team captain.

"Wait, three hours?"

"The school will start heading to the pitch at eleven o'clock, same as always." I looked back at Heidi, exasperated.

"Then why are we up already?!" I asked, incredulously. Heidi rolled her eyes, jumping down from her perch to walk towards the tunnel.

"So we don't vomit our breakfast while we play," she responded, getting ready to head up to the Great Hall, "Now let's go, people, no time to waste!" With that, she shot back up through the tunnel, leaving the rest of us to follow. I hung back just a bit, siding up next to Cedric and jabbing him gently in the side with my elbow.

"Next year when you're captain," I whispered out of the corner of my mouth, "if you wake me up before dawn for quidditch, I'll stick your head in a toilet." He gave me a befuddled look, shaking my words off with a laugh.

"What makes you so sure I'll be quidditch captain next year?" He asked me, leaving me to shrug as we finally reached the tunnel.

"Call it a hunch, golden boy."

A few short minutes later, we made our way through the big doors, finding ourselves alone — the only ones sitting in the Great Hall. Ravenclaw's team arrived not long after sunrise, but aside from Cedric's lovelorn gazes at Cho, we didn't interact much. The rest of the school finally started making their way down around 9:30, allowing me the opportunity to grab Fred and George and drag them to an empty section of table for a bit.

"Well, aren't you up bright an' early today, Rosie-Posie," George commented, snatching some bacon and toast from the serving platters and piling them on his plate.

"Ready for today's game, I take it?" Fred asked, and I just shrugged, sipping some warm pumpkin juice out of my goblet.

"Would feel more ready if Heidi'd let us sleep in," I admitted, getting a laugh from them both.

"Oh come off it," George snarked, "She's not half as bad as Wood."

"She didn't have your lot practicing in the rain all last month," Fred added, bumping my shoulder with his. I rolled my eyes.

"She would have, if Gryffindor hadn't taken the pitch all those days," I retorted, "Besides, she really wants to win before she graduates. Just wait until next year, when it's your captain's turn to leave Hogwarts." Their expressions suddenly darkened, and I couldn't stifle my laughter at the unusual serious looks crossing their faces. They shook off that train of thought and quickly began shoving me between them, causing the three of us to laugh even harder. After a moment, though, we returned back to our normal camaraderie and continued eating and talking without much outburst.

"McIntosh!" Heidi's voice called from behind me, and I turned to see her leading the rest of the team out the door. "Let's go!"

"Guess that's my cue," I said, standing up from the table, "Wish me luck!"

"Make sure to kick their arses," George said, giving my shoulder a playful punch.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to spend all that time prepping to cream you ourselves just for you to lose to Ravenclaw," Fred added. I shoved his head away as I moved, waving a little before running to catch up with the others.

Once the team finished putting on our yellow and black uniforms, the sound of the stadium filling up with spectators finally began to reach us. I peeked out of the curtains just for a moment, and saw just rows and rows of people ― students, teachers, and a few others as well ― talking and laughing and cheering. It was a strange comparison ― having grown up with piano and singing and dancing recitals, followed by being dragged into ensemble or tech work for my sister's plays and musicals as we grew up, only to still be peeking out at the "audience" so similarly for something completely new. Something just for me. A new set of nerves filled my gut, and I turned back to the team quickly as Heidi started another motivational speech.

"We don't want to be the ones facing Slytherin after this match is done, yeah?" she said, looking over at each of the team members.

"Yeah, because we'd never be able to beat them on their new broomsticks," Anthony muttered under his breath, though I doubted anyone heard him other than me.

"...We have trained and prepared for this match all year," Heidi continued, "And now we're going to show all three other teams why Hufflepuff House is not to be slept on!" Most of the team cheered at her words, leaving me to sit there anxiously as the sound of Madame Hooch's whistle rang through the tent. It was time.

"Let's go, team!" With that, Tammy and Max grabbed hold of my shoulders and steered me out onto the pitch with the rest of the team. The stadium was full to bursting, it seemed, and all eyes were on us and Ravenclaw's team as they joined us on the grass. The cheers, unlike Gryffindor and Slytherin's game, were pretty evenly split between the two houses, which somehow did ease my nerves a little — less pressure if only half the school wanted us to win, rather than three-quarters. With a quick nod to the rest of the team, we all mounted our brooms and kicked off, only myself and the other Keeper moving to our positions.

Heidi moved forward to shake hands with the Ravenclaw captain, Roger Davies; I recognized his name for a brief moment, but aside from what I'd seen and heard of him from Heidi herself, I couldn't remember much about him from the story at all. The sight of Madame Hooch between them took my attention again, shaking me from my thoughts as she opened the trunk at her feet. The older witch stood below them on the ground, releasing the bludgers and the snitch as the Seekers and Beaters took their positions. She pulled the quaffle from the box and held it aloft.

"On my whistle…" she said, her voice amplified to be heard across the field. "Three… two…" A screeching whistle sound filled the air, and she threw the quaffle high above to the Chasers. The game had begun.

Everything was far more complex than it had seemed in the films or the books, for certain, but somehow it also felt more simple; so long as I kept my focus on my own task, it should be easier for me to not mess up. I tried to tune out the cheering and Lee's commentary as I honed in on the quaffle. Tammy had managed to grab it first, leading the charge to throw it through Ravenclaw's posts before they could steal it. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Max hovering nearby, and Anthony flew not too far from her in Cedric's shadow. Looking more closely, he at least seemed to be focused on finding the snitch rather than staring at his crush.

The clanging sound of a bell shook me out of my thoughts, focusing me back in just as Lee announced the first 10 points of the game to Hufflepuff.

That could've been Ravenclaw, I thought, I need to focus. Shaking my head once more to clear any thoughts, I flew back around to another goal post, eyes darting between the chasers battling for the quaffle ahead of me. I could see one of the beaters — Inglebee, I think Lee had said his name was — hovering just in the corner of my vision, and I twitched, shifting every now and then to make myself a more difficult target until finally I saw the quaffle heading towards our end of the stadium. Stiffening up on my broom, I zoomed to the right, kicking my leg out hard to knock the ball back again, just barely making the save.

"And that's a fantastic save from McIntosh!" Lee shouted over the intercom, catching my eye across the stadium with a wink, "Isn't she lovely, gents?" He tried to continue with the flattery and mild flirting, only for McGonnagall to scold him again as I turned my back with an eye roll. I flew back to the center goalpost, managing to quickly duck and roll out of the way as a bludger flew past my ear with a whoosh! I could hear Inglebee groan across the pitch — the same sound he makes when Flitwick assigns an essay, I noticed — and I smirked, moving away again as the bludger circles back past me towards the chasers once more.

All right, so far so good. Now, focus! It was harder than practice, for sure, and certainly more challenging than the simple games we'd played back at the Burrow. It took everything in me not to look around as much, to keep my focus on the goals and the balls in play and not to glance around the stands at my classmates. At one point, I met Fred and George's eyes to the side of me, barely able to give them a smile before narrowly avoiding being hit in the face with a poorly aimed quaffle shot.

The bludger, too, was way worse than expected. Almost half an hour in, the score at 30-50 Hufflepuff, Anthony finally knocked one over to the Ravenclaw chasers, bashing Randolph Burrow in the shoulder and nearly knocking him off his broom. Hooch blew the whistle to let the team swap out a reserve, and I took the moment to breathe, shooting a look towards Cedric as he passed me.

"Feelin' alright there, McIntosh?" He called out, and I glared at him, my nose surely as pink as my hair from the biting cold wind.

"The sooner you catch that snitch, the sooner the team doesn't drop kick you into the lake for making goo-goo eyes at Cho Chang!" He blushed fiercely at that, zooming off to the other side of the pitch as I laughed. The game passed relatively easy after that, even with the constant threat of bludgers and Lee's incessant flirting over the intercom. I only missed a handful of shots, all from trying to dodge the Ravenclaw beaters and focus on not falling off my broom, but we managed to keep up point-wise. I soon enough could see the sky beginning to darken with the heavy clouds, likely filled with rain or perhaps even snow (likely snow, considering the cold that seeped into my bones even through the thick quidditch robes), and tried to focus even more ― none of us wanted to catch a cold from playing out in whatever mess was about to start.

"Let's hurry this up, some of us aren't built for this weather!" I shouted out, earning a couple laughs from Tammy and Max as they flew past, quaffle under the former's arm. That, however, seemed to be enough to distract them, as not soon after a bludger came flying at Max, knocking into her arm and knocking the bat from her grip. Her shout of pain caught Anthony's ears from across the pitch, and he soon was flying down to catch the bat and toss it back to her before it could hit the ground.

All that effort was in vain, of course, as Ravenclaw had already taken the quaffle from a dumbfounded Tammy and started flying towards me. The three blue and bronze-clad chasers keep formation as they rush forward, the ball passing from hand to hand so quick I could scarcely see it anymore. I steadied myself on my broom, preparing myself to try and stop the next shot. I could see the other team's beaters rearing up behind, aiming and ready to strike―

"AND DIGGORY CATCHES THE SNITCH!" Lee's voice pulls me from my focus, stopping us all in our tracks as Madame Hooch calls back the bludgers. "HUFFLEPUFF WINS, 230 TO 70!" The crowd erupted into cheers around us, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff alike screaming in victory as our team quickly flew down to the ground, all of us dogpiling onto Cedric as soon as his feet hit the grass. His face was flushed, golden snitch still held tight between his fingers even as we all latched onto his arms and hugged him tight.

"We did it, mates!" Heidi's voice rang out, cheerful and bright in a way I hadn't heard since joining the team ― her tone likely more relieved about impressing the scouts than about the actual win. My heart was racing, my eyes wide as I looked up and saw the twins grinning down at me, some weird noise maker in their hands as they cheered. I couldn't believe we'd actually won! I gave them a wave, my cheeks aching from smiling so wide. Max and Tammy wrapped their arms around my shoulders, they're own shouts and cheers drowning out everything else around me. I couldn't remember a time before this where I felt so alive. The night would likely be filled with celebration, sleep unlikely to be achieved in the wake of our win, but for now I couldn't have cared less. Nothing, not Willow's issues, not the chamber, not even Voldemort himself could stop me now.

I was unstoppable.

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry it's been such a long time since I updated. Things have been busy over here, and with a myriad of things such as changing hyperfixations and developing an improved writing style, unfortunately coming back to fanfiction has been moved to the backburner. BUT! I am currently (November 12, 2021) working on the next chapter. I am going to work on writing at least the next three or so before I post another update, however, so that I have something to post during longer hiatuses in the future. I haven't given up on this, though my writing is taking a bit of a hit as I try to continue using this old style for the forseeable future (just for continuitys sake). For those of you who have stuck around so far, thank you so much for your continued support for this! Having a long-term plan for a story and actually getting it out into the world are two very different things, and I appreciate every one of you who has been so patient as I straddle that line with every new chapter. I hope any of you will continue to stick around, I don't plan to leave this story in the dust any time soon!

-Hannah