Nothing is mine, and some/most of this was taken directly out of the third book.
The weather worsened instead of doing as the first quidditch match grew nearer. Undaunted, the Gryffindor team was training harder than ever under the eye of Madam Hooch. Then after their final training session before Saturday's match, Oliver Wood gave his team some unwelcoming news.
"We're not playing Slytherin!" He told them looking very angry, "Flint has just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."
"Why?" Chorused the rest of the team.
"Flint's excuse is that their seeker's arm is still injured," Wood said grinding his teeth, "but it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances..."
There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day. and as Wood spoke they heard a distant rumble of thunder.
"There's nothing wrong with Draco's arm," said Grace furiously," he's faking it!"
"I know that, but we can't prove it," Wood said, "and we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin. Instead, it's Hufflepuff and their style is quite different. They've got a new Captain and seeker, Cedric Diggory-."
Angelina And Katie suddenly giggled.
"What?" Said Wood, frowning at this lightheaded behavior.
"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" Said Angelina.
"Strong and silent," said Katie, and they started to giggle again.
"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," said Fred impatiently, "I don't know why you're worried Oliver, Hufflepuff is a pushover. The last time we played them, Harry caught the snitch in about five minutes, remember?"
"We were playing in completely different conditions," Wood shouted, "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"
"Oliver, calm down," Grace said, "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously."
On the day of the Quidditch match, Grace woke up extremely early, so early the sun hadn't risen yet. For a moment she thought the roaring of the wind had awoken her. Then she felt a cold breeze on the back of her neck and bolted upright. Peeves the Poltergeist had been floating next to her blowing in her ear.
"What did you do that for," Grace asked furiously.
Peeves blew out his cheeks, blew hard, and zoomed backward out of the room cackling. Grace fumbled for her alarm clock and looked at it. It was 4:30. Cursing Peeves she rolled over and tried to get back to sleep but it was very difficult, now that she was awake, to ignore the sounds of the thunder rumbling overhead, the pounding of the wind against the castle walls, and the distant creaking of the trees in Forbidden Forest. In a few hours, she would be out on the field battling through the gale. Finally, she gave up any thought of more sleep, got up, dressed, picked up her Nimbus 2001, and walked quietly out of her dorm.
The noises of the storm were even louder in the common room. Grace knew better than to think that the match would be canceled; Quidditch matches weren't called off for trifles like thunderstorms. Nevertheless, she was starting to feel very apprehensive. Grace whittled away the hours until dawn in front of the fire thinking about Sirius. At long last, Grace thought it must be time for breakfast, so she headed through the portrait hole alone.
"Stand and fight, you mangy cur," yelled Sir Cadogan.
"Oh shut up." Grace yawned.
She walked to the Great Hall and revived a large bowl of porridge, and by the time she started on her toast, the rest of the team had turned up.
"It's going to be a tough one." Wood said, who wasn't eating anything.
"Stop worrying Oliver," Grace said soothingly, "we don't mind a bit of rain."
But it was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the Quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went. Just before Grace and the team entered the locker room, Grace and Harry saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, laughing and pointing at them from under their enormous umbrella.
The team changed into their scarlet robes and waited for Wood's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He had tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly and beckoned then to follow. The wind was so strong that they staggered sideways as they walked out onto the field. If the crowd was cheering they couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder. Rain was splattering over Harry's glasses from what Grace could tell. How was he going to see the snitch?
The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary yellow robes. The captains walked up to each other and shook hands. Diggory smiled at Wood but Wood now looked as though he had lockjaw and nearly nodded. Grace saw Madam Hooch's mouth from the words 'Mount your Brooms'. She pulled her right foot out of the mud and swung it over her Nimbus 2001. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant-they were off.
Grace rose fast, but her broom jerked to the left with the force of the wind. Within five minutes Grace was soaked, she was hardly able to see her teammates let alone the quaffle. Grace lost track of time, shy kept doing her best to get the quaffle somewhat near the hoops. She scored twice and the rain kept on getting worse. With the first flash of lightning came the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle; Grace could just see the outline of Wood through the rain, gesturing her to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the mud.
"I called for a time out!" Wood roared at his team. "Come on under here-."
They huddled at the edge of the field under a large umbrella.
Grace saw Harry take off his glasses and wipe them on his robes.
"What's the score?"
"We're up by fifty points," Wood said, "but unless we get the snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."
"I've got no chance with these on," Harry said waving at his glasses.
At that very moment, Hermonie appeared at his shoulder; she was holding her cloak over her head and was beaming.
"I've got an idea, Harry! Give me your glasses, quick!"
He handed them to her, and as the team watched in amazement, Hermoine tapped them with her wand and said, "Impervius!"
"There," she said, handing them back to Harry, "They'll repel water!"
Wood looked as though he could have kissed her.
"Brilliant," he said, "ok team, let's go for it."
Grace mounted her broom and flew off immediately grabbing the quaffle. There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. This was getting more and more dangerous. After a couple of minutes of back and forth action with the quaffle, Grace finally got it in the hoop. She turned around and got distracted by a silhouette of an enormous black dog. What's he doing here? Grace thought. Grace's numb hands slipped off the broom handle and her broom dropped a few feet.
"Harry," Grace heard Wood yell, "Harry, behind you!"
Grade looked over to Harry, Cedric Diggory was pelting up the field, and a tiny speck of gold was shimmering in the rain-filled air between them. Soon after Harry flew toward the snitch he stopped suddenly. It wasn't until Grace looked down did she realize why. There were at least a hundred dementors, their faces pointing up at Harry. Harry fell off his broom and Dumbledore said a spell to make him slow down.
Grace ran up to Harry and helped carry him to the Hospital Wing. When she got there, she made sure Madam Pomfrey took care of Harry before she laid down on one of the beds and passed out.
A/N
I'm terribly sorry for the long wait. Life has been busy. We got to see Grace in action playing Quidditch! Hopefully, the next chapter will be up faster than this one was. Hope you enjoyed it. Please give me constructive criticism if you feel the need to. I would really appreciate your thoughts and opinions. Have a great rest of your week!
~amhowe