Chapter 8: The Rogue Bludger
I don't own Digimon or Harry Potter
"I don't believe this," Daisuke grumbled, one day during their next Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. She and the rest of her class were forced to watch as Lockhart reenacted scenes from his books for them all to supposedly marvel at.
Ron who sat beside her nodded in agreement. "Yeah, at least it's better than him letting loose more live creatures for us to deal with." He whispered.
"I think Harry wishes he was dealing with creatures instead of this," Daisuke replied, gesturing to Harry who was often the one Lockhart forced to help him reenact scenes from his books. Currently, Harry was being held in a headlock by Lockhart who was regaling the class with how he defeated the werewolf from his book.
"Now Harry, nice and loud with your howl," Lockhart told the boy who grumbled before letting out a fake werewolf-like howl. "That's it. And if you'd believe it, I threw down the werewolf, like this." He continued, throwing Harry to the floor making the boy grunt as he landed, Lockhart then drew out his wand and held Harry down with his other hand. "And with my last remaining strength I managed to cast the very complicated Homorphus charm, he let out a pitiful moan…" he waited for Harry to let out a moan. "The fur vanished, the fangs shrank, and he turned back into a man. Simple, but effective and another village will remember me forever as the hero who saved them from the monthly terror of werewolf attacks."
Daisuke frowned, narrowing her eyes at Lockhart. If anyone in this class thought to do some research, they'd know that there was no cure for Lycanthropy. Especially not some silly charm Lockhart was telling them about.
While she was thinking of various ways to expose the blonde idiot, the bell rang signalling the end of the lesson. "Right then, homework is to compose a poem of my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf," Lockhart told the class.
Harry got up and walked over to his friends who were waiting for him at the back of the classroom "Ready?" he asked Hermione who nodded.
"Wait until everyone has left," Daisuke told her. Once the rest of the students had left, Hermione walked towards Lockhart clutching a piece of paper in her hands.
"Excuse me, Professor Lockhart, sir." She stammered making the man look up from his desk "I…I wanted to get this book out of the library, just for some background research. But the thing is that it's in the Restricted Section and I need a teacher's signature to get it. I was hoping it would help me understand more about what you say in Gadding with Ghouls about slow-acting venoms."
Lockhart grinned brightly at her as he took the piece of paper from her. "Gadding with Ghouls, that is probably my most favourite book. You enjoyed it?' he asked.
"Oh yes," Hermione said eagerly. "So clever the way you trapped that last one with a tea strainer."
Lockhart chuckled. "Well, I suppose no one will mind if I give the best student in her year a little help." He took out a large peacock quill and he signed the paper. As Hermione put it in her robes, Lockhart turned to Harry.
"First Quidditch Match of the season is tomorrow, isn't it? I used to be a Seeker just like you. I was even asked to try for the national team, but I decided to spend my time eradicating the dark forces in our world. But if you ever feel the need for private training come and see me, I'm always willing to impart my knowledge to less than stellar players." He continued. Harry gave the man a shaky half-smile before following his friends out of the classroom.
"What a complete and utter….!" Daisuke grumbled. "He didn't even look at what book we wanted to bring out."
"Because he's an idiot." Ron huffed. "He'll sign anything you give him."
"He's not an idiot!" Hermione half-shouted at him as they ran towards the library.
"Just because he says you're the best student in the year. And did you hear what he said about Harry's skills at Quidditch? I bet he never even played for a team." Ron whispered as they entered and almost ran straight into Madam Pince, the woman in charge of the library.
"Moste Potente Potions?" the woman asked once she was told what book they wanted to check out. She tried to take the paper from her, but the girl held onto it.
"I was wondering if I could keep it." she squeaked.
"Oh, for the love of…" Ron huffed, snatching the paper, and handing it to Madam Pince. "I'll get you another autograph later." He told her. Madam Pince frowned and held the paper up to the light trying to detect any signs of forgery, but it seemed to pass that test and she walked off.
"So far so good," Daisuke muttered as she looked around the library to see if anyone was watching them. A few minutes later Madam Pince returned with the book and handed it to Hermione who gently placed it in her bookbag and the four left the library. Once they were in the clear, the four walked off somewhere secluded to read the book and as luck would have it, Moaning Myrtle's bathroom wasn't too far.
Daisuke opened the door quietly and ushered her friends in before she followed them and shut the door and locked it behind her. "This will do. Just keep your voices down."
"Daisuke, is that you?" a voice called out from one of the stalls.
"Yes Myrtle, it's me," Daisuke answered with a soft smile. "I promised I'd come back to visit you after all."
"Who are you talking to?" Ron whispered before he, Harry and Hermione saw Myrtle float up into the air and the ghost looked at the three newcomers with a frown.
"Who are they? Your friends?" she asked Daisuke.
"That's right. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, I'd like you to meet Myrtle." The girl introduced her friends to the ghost.
"Hello." Harry greeted softly and Myrtle smiled slightly.
"So, what're you all doing here at this hour?" she asked curiously.
"Oh, just doing some private study, we hope you don't mind," Daisuke answered. Myrtle nodded and floated away allowing the four to sit down and open the book.
"Ugh…now I see why this book was in the Restricted Section," Ron muttered, seeing a few of the potions. "I definitely don't see Jun teaching me how to make any of these."
"For good reason," Daisuke whispered. "These are things I wouldn't wish to be used on even Malfoy." She shivered at the sight of a picture of a woman who had spider's growing out of her hair.
"I found it!" Hermione whispered, pointing to the potion on the next page. "The Polyjuice Potion." She and the others read over the instructions for what seemed to be the most complicated potion they had ever seen.
"Lacewing Flies, Leeches, Fluxweed, Knotgrass…" Ron muttered. "That's all in the student store cupboard we can help ourselves."
"But powdered Bicorn horn?" Daisuke asked. "And shredded Boomslang skin and a piece of whoever we're turning into…recommended is strands of hair, toenails…ugh."
"I am not drinking anything with Crabbe's bogeys in it," Ron growled in disgust.
"Don't worry about that, we'll be adding that last," Hermione told him.
"How much are we going to need to steal?" Harry asked. "We're going to have to get into Snape's private stores for some of these things."
"Leave that to me and Demi-Veemon," Daisuke whispered with a small grin. "The little guy's an expert with distractions."
"How long will it take to make?" Harry asked Hermione as she read the rest of the instructions and she paled.
"A month, we'll need to stew the Lacewing Flies for at least 21 days and the Knotgrass needs to be picked at the full moon." She told them.
"A month!? Malfoy could have attacked half the school by then!" Ron hissed.
"I know, but it's our only chance to find out if Malfoy is behind this," Daisuke said softly.
"We'd have much better luck if you or Harry knock him off his broom tomorrow," Ron grumbled.
"True, speaking of that. Can I borrow Hedwig, Harry?" Daisuke asked with a smile. "I need to send a letter to my parents tonight."
"Sure," Harry replied with a smile.
The next morning, Harry and Daisuke woke up rather early, they both got dressed and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. There they found the rest of their team had already started eating, Daisuke and Harry sat beside Fred and George and joined them.
"I wonder if my letter got to my parents already." Daisuke thought as she took a sip of her orange juice, in the letter she had told her parents about her recent visions and what they could mean. She had thought about telling them what happened to Mrs Norris on Halloween, but she had second thoughts. She didn't want to worry them but if another person ended up petrified, she would send a letter straight away.
At eleven o'clock the entire school began leaving the castle and heading to the Quidditch Pitch. Jun hurried over when she spotted Daisuke and Harry and gave them both a tight hug. "Kick some ass you two, show those snakes why Gryffindor's the best it's ever been." She told them.
"Right." Both said and Jun hurried off to catch up with Percy and her other friends. Ron and Hermione also came over to wish them both luck as they were entering the changing rooms, Demi-Veemon sat on Ron's shoulder and wore a tiny Gryffindor scarf around his neck.
Once in the changing rooms, the team began changing into the Quidditch Robes. "Right. Slytherin has better brooms than us, no denying that. They thought they'd have an advantage, what they didn't count on was Daisuke having the same broom they did, letting us have a chance to experience what it was like competing against them." Oliver said, beginning his pep talk.
"They haven't been training as hard as us, they've not flown in the same kinds of weather we've flown in."
"Don't we know it." Fred muttered.
"We've not been properly dry since August…" George added.
"And we're going to show them and that slimy snake Malfoy that you can't just buy your way onto a Quidditch team and expect to get your way. Harry, it'll be up to you. Catch that Snitch before Malfoy does, show him that a Seeker needs more than just a rich father." Oliver continued and Harry nodded.
"What about me?" Daisuke asked.
"You'll be starting with Angelina and Alicia. If need be, give me a signal and I'll sub you out with Katie and that goes for all three of you." Oliver told the Chasers. "We've got to win today, we've got to!"
"No pressure then." Daisuke sighed, the others all sharing a brief chuckle as they headed out onto the pitch, Katie standing at the entrance watching the others walking to the middle of the pitch, the entire stadium erupting into cheers or boos depending on what house they were from.
The two teams glared at one another as Madame Hooch instructed Oliver and Flint to shake hands which they did with fierce glares and stronger than necessary grips. "On my whistle, one, two, three!" the woman shouted, blowing her whistle and the players mounted their brooms and flew high into the air.
Harry flew higher than the rest, making sure he was above the chaos of the match below so he could find the Snitch. "Alright there Scarhead!?" he looked down, seeing Malfoy streaking through the air down below, showing off the speed of his broom but Harry didn't respond; he knew that was what Malfoy was looking for.
Down below, the Quaffle was tossed into the air and Daisuke shot off, grabbing it before one of the Slytherin Chasers could and she rocketed off. "And the Quaffle is taken by Gryffindor Chaser, Daisuke Ainsworth, and she's riding a Nimbus 2001 as well." Lee Jordan's voice rang through the stadium as he sat with the teachers doing the commentary as he always did.
Daisuke weaved and dived avoiding the Slytherin Chasers and the Bludger sent at her head by one of their Beaters, she soared up towards the goals and threw the Quaffle and it went through the hoop. "And Gryffindor scores the first goal of the match!" Lee Jordan cheered.
Daisuke cheered and nodded to Alicia and Angelina as they flew off after the Slytherins who got the Quaffle. Their Nimbus 2001 brooms were outpacing the brooms Alicia and Angelina were using but Daisuke was right on their tail, it was clear the Slytherins believed they would be untouchable with their new brooms, how wrong they were.
"I'll take that!" Daisuke shouted as she flew past Marcus Flint, punching the Quaffle out from his arm and catching it before turning and flying back towards the goal.
"Get her!" Marcus shouted to the other two Chasers and the three flew after her intent on taking back the Quaffle. Daisuke glanced over her shoulder and threw the Quaffle ahead of her towards Alicia just as a Bludger flew past them and scattered the Slytherin Chasers.
"Thanks, Fred!" Daisuke shouted as the Weasley flew overhead, Fred nodded before he spotted the other Bludger shooting up towards Harry.
Harry saw the Bludger and he dodged it barely, he turned around to see George Weasley chasing after the Bludger as it came back around, the Weasley swung his bat hitting the Bludger sending it flying towards Malfoy but before it even reached the blonde, it halted mid-air and flew back towards Harry.
"Watch it!" Harry yelped as George smacked the Bludger away again and Harry shot off, the Bludger spinning around and chasing after him. He glanced back at the Bludger seeing it was gaining on him, this shouldn't be happening, the Bludgers were enchanted to go after all the players during a match, not just one player.
He reached the other end of the pitch and ducked as Fred swung his bat sending the Bludger off course again. "That's done it!" he shouted only to pale when the Bludger curved back around and chased after Harry again.
"Someone's tampered with this Bludger!" George shouted, the other Weasley having flown over to aid his brother in trying to keep the Bludger away from Harry.
"Time out! Time out!" Fred hollered down to Oliver who heard him, Madame Hooch's whistle blew, and the Gryffindor team flew to the ground and huddled up.
"What's going on?" Daisuke asked softly as it began to rain.
"Where were you two when that Bludger stopped Angelina from scoring?" Oliver asked the twins.
"Twenty feet above her trying to stop the other Bludger from murdering Harry!" Fred answered angrily. "It's been fixed or something, it hasn't chased after anyone else all game!"
"But that's not possible, the Bludgers have been locked up in Madame Hooch's office since our last training session, they were fine then," Oliver replied. Daisuke frowned and glanced around at the stadium, something wasn't right, she just couldn't figure it out.
"Listen," Harry said, glancing at Fred and George. "Stop flying around me, I won't be able to catch the Snitch unless it flies into my mouth like last year. Focus on protecting the others, I'll be fine."
"But that Bludger will kill you," Fred said.
"Yeah, it's not worth playing the match if you die," George added.
"If we stop now, we'll have to forfeit the match, I am not losing to Slytherin because of some mad Bludger," Harry said.
"Damn you for being so stubborn," Daisuke grumbled, punching his arm. "I've been a bad influence on you." Oliver sighed and rubbed his eyes, weighing up the options in his mind.
"Fine. Fred, George, you heard him. Let him deal with the Bludger himself." He told the twins.
"This is going to end badly, mark our words." George and Fred said.
Madam Hooch blew her whistle a few moments later and the teams kicked off into the air, Harry soaring into the sky, higher and higher as the light trickle of rain had become a downpour. Harry could hardly see through his glasses as he zigged and zagged, rolled and spun avoiding the Bludger as it chased after him.
"Training for the ballet, Potter!?" he heard Malfoy shout at him through the roaring rain. Harry glared over at him in hatred when he spotted a glimmer of gold just behind Malfoy's head, the Golden Snitch.
He shot towards Malfoy nearly knocking the blonde off his broom as he yelped and dodged the charging boy, he spun around and saw him chasing after the Snitch and he chased after him. Malfoy slammed his elbow into Harry's chest as he flew past, the Snitch diving down to the trench that surrounded the Quidditch pitch separating it from the stands.
The rogue Bludger chased after them, smashing through wooden beams as it did so. "You'll never catch me, Potter!" Malfoy called back to Harry.
"It takes more than just a broom to be a good Seeker!" Harry shouted at him, urging his broom on as it slowly began catching up to Malfoy, the two Seekers were side by side and slammed sideways into one another before the Bludger slammed through the side of the trench behind them and both glanced back at the hole it had made.
Harry's head snapped back around when seeing the Bludger smash through the wall ahead of them and speed towards them. Harry weaved out of the way as did Malfoy, but the blonde looked back at the Bludger for a moment too long.
When he turned around, he cried out as he almost hit one of the beams, he dodged but his broom clipped another beam and he was sent catapulting out of the trench and onto the pitch, he bounced and rolled before landing on his backside with a sickening crunch and he fell backwards his eyes bulging from the pain.
Several people in the stands winced or let out grunts of pain feeling sympathy for the blonde but all that was forgotten when Harry soared out of the trench and chased the Snitch across the pitch. He held his arm out, reaching for it when the Bludger soared in from the right, slamming into his elbow and breaking his arm.
"ARGH!" he cried out in pain; his leather glove being knocked off from the impact, but he kept chasing the Snitch. He slowly stood up on his broom again, reaching for it with his unbroken arm, when he was close enough, he leapt off his broom and snatched the Snitch out of the air and landed in the large pit of sand around the goalposts at one end of the pitch.
"Harry Potter has caught the Snitch, Gryffindor wins!" Lee Jordan cheered out and Harry smiled weakly, holding the Snitch in his hand before he saw the Bludger flying down towards his head, he rolled to the side and the Bludger slammed into the sand before flying back up and coming down again, narrowly missing as he scooted back.
"Reducto!" a voice shouted, and the Bludger exploded into tiny pieces, Harry weakly looked over to see it was Daisuke who had jumped off her broom and pulled her wand from her robes before she ran over to Harry with Hermione and Ron and the rest of the Gryffindor team right behind her.
Another person who was running over was Lockhart followed by Hagrid and some of the teachers. "Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked him.
"Ugh fine…" he grunted, trying to sit up.
"Don't worry Harry, I can fix this right away," Lockhart said, kneeling beside the boy.
"No! Anyone but you!" Harry said.
"Oh, the boy is delusional. He doesn't know what he's saying." Lockhart said, and before anyone could stop him, he whipped out his wand and he took Harry's broken arm in his hand and pointed his wand. "Brackium Emendo." A faint blue light washed over Harry's arm and once Lockhart let it go, to everyone's horror it turned limp.
"Oh my God!" Alicia gasped as Lockhart grabbed Harry's arm.
"Ah, yes you see that sometimes can happen, but at least the bones aren't broken anymore." He said trying to be optimistic.
"Broken!? There are no bones left, you Muppet!" Jun shouted angrily as Lockhart rolled Harry's arm up only for it to unfurl and a few of those around them gagged in disgust.
"Come on, let's get him to Madam Pomfrey, someone who knows what they're doing!" Daisuke said, helping Harry to his feet with Ron and Hermione and they all headed off back to the castle.
Soon, they were in the Hospital Wing and the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Hermione, Ron, and Jun were near Harry's bed while Draco was in another bed groaning dramatically in pain as a few of his friends surrounded him.
"Oh, Mr Malfoy, stop your moaning, you can go." Madam Pomfrey said as she entered the room, a white bottle in her hand as she made a beeline towards Harry. "Out of my way, out of my way." She told the ones huddled around their friend. "You should have come straight to me at once, mending broken bones I can do but growing them back…"
"You will be able to, won't you?' Daisuke asked the nurse in concern.
"Oh, I'll be able to. But it'll be painful." Madam Pomfrey replied, uncorking the bottle, and pouring a small glass of the potion inside which began steaming the moment it left the bottle. "You'll be in for a rough night Potter, Skele-Gro can be quite painful."
Harry gulped and took a sip of the potion before spitting it out in disgust. "Ugh…"
"What did you expect, Pumpkin Juice?" Madam Pomfrey asked him.
"Um…sort of." He answered and she rolled her eyes while a few of the others giggled.
Suddenly, they all heard shouting from outside just before the doors to the Hospital Wing were thrown open as Alexander and Natsumi walked in followed by Professors Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, and Lockhart.
"Oh, Harry." Natsumi gasped, rushing over to the boy's side.
"Lockhart, what the hell were you thinking!?" Alexander shouted, turning, and glaring at Lockhart who gulped and began sputtering out excuses. "No, wait in order to think one must have a brain, something which you are clearly lacking!"
Lockhart cowered back as Albus held one hand up. "Now Alexander…"
"No Albus, don't you 'Now Alexander me.' That man hurt my son and I will not stand for it. You're lucky I'm not suing the pants off you!" Alexander shouted, glaring at Lockhart once again. "Next time wait for a medical professional rather than trying to fix things yourself, you incompetent oaf!"
"Your son?" Harry whispered, looking at Alexander in shock and the man blinked and sheepishly rubbed his head.
"Oh, that was meant to be a surprise. Sorry, dear." He said, looking at his wife who smiled softly as she sat beside Harry, wrapping an arm around him gently.
"It's alright dear. Completely understandable considering the circumstances." She said, running a hand through Harry's hair. "You see Harry when Molly told us that Ron, Fred and George discovered when they picked you up from your relatives, we were shocked at what they were doing. So we decided to start the adoption process with you."
"And as of this morning, everything was finalised," Alexander said, walking over to them. "You're now Harry James Ainsworth-Potter. Our son, Daisuke's brother, and Jun's other cousin."
"Really?" Harry whispered; his eyes wide as he stared at them.
"Awesome!" Daisuke cheered.
"Sweet, another cousin," Jun said with a grin.
"And we've already had a room set up for you. You can design it however you want. We can do that over the summer." Natsumi told Harry who nodded.
"I can't wait." He said softly and his new family shared a smile before Madam Pomfrey ushered everyone out to let Harry rest.
The end of the chapter
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