Morgan – chaser
Phillip – beater
Larquan – beater
Sam – chaser
Theresa – chaser
Backup
Pearl – beater
Janice – beater
Gladys – chaser
Calvin – keeper
Andrew – chaser
Stilgar – seeker (secret)
Thank you so much everyone who reviewed!
Chapter 40
"Gryffindor's Morgan is heading up the pitch, passes to Sam, passes to Morgan, and passes to Theresa who scores! Gryffindor 100 to Slytherin 60!" Theresa punched the air and Harry did a loop, the game had been going on for a half hour, the clouds were just starting to show…black on the horizon, Harry could hear the thunder, but he was still the only one. "Potter calls for a time out!"
The Gryffindors met in a group.
"What's wrong Harry? Phillip asked.
"Don't look now but there's a killer thunder storm on the horizon, black clouds. I know you can't yet but I can hear the thunder. It'll be here in an hour or so…there's nothing I can do about it. I don't have the power left after the elementals to summon a spark right now. We're going to be fighting for our lives in that storm! Don't get all tired now, save some for later, you'll need it. Ride the winds, don't try to go too hard into them, they'll be blowing every which way, that should help. Be careful…I've never seen a storm that bad, you'll only see a natural storm like that once a decade or so…but with what the elementals did to screw up the atmosphere lately we might ave them for weeks. Anyhow watch out for lightning, if you get to tired don't stay on past the end of your endurance, more chance of your being injured, ask one of the extras to come in. You can expect winds of up to a hundred and twenty miles per hour eventually, but not for about two hours. Good luck people." They hurried off, faces worried. They took to the air again, Harry flew off, there had been no sign of the snitch in the whole half hour they'd been playing.
Twenty minutes later the wind had picked up, the clouds were coming closer, Harry was really worried. He did have enough power to sense that the storm was huge, a monstrosity, a deadly one.
Another half hour and everyone knew about the approaching storm, a few raindrops had fallen and people had begun conjuring up umbrellas, Harry nearly laughed. The wind would be able to rip those right out of their hands. Harry looped the pitch once, flew up high…and banked to the right and twisted into a dive at nearly two hundred miles per hour, drawing gasps form the crowd, the ground was coming up fast. Harry rolled upside down and flew along it, using his toes over the back of his broom to pull out of the dive just four inches from the ground…Malfoy couldn't stop in time and went skidding along the ground. But he got up relatively okay and with a few quick healing spells was back on.
"And that was a spectacular Wronskie Feint by Potter, did you guys know that he now holds the record for pulling out of a dive at the highest speed closest to the ground? The old record was set by Victor Krum at eight inches, potter's just halved that distance!" Harry grinned broadly, a roll of thunder wiped the smile off his face as rain pelted down and the wind picked up. He guessed it at sixty miles per hour now…and getting steadily worse.
Five hours passed, around four p.m. Harry finally spotted the snitch through the howling winds and pounding rains. He took off towards it; Malfoy was off near the other end of the Quidditch pitch.
Harry struggled against the winds, lightning flashed not far away. The storm was really on them now. Sheets of heavy rain lashed at him, Harry bent his head against the winds and shot forwards. He chased the snitch down lower to the ground and along the pitch; Malfoy saw and came flying in form behind. Screams suddenly echoed about softly, drawn away by the howling wind. A huge lightning bolt had hit one of the high posts around the pitch, the hangings had ripped free on one side and it was flapping loosely. The snitch veered to wards it and soared up, Harry gritted his teeth against an especially hard gust of wind and followed it. Rain smeared his vision and poured off him, lightning crashed down only a few meters away, Harry rolled away to avoid it and kept on flying. He had to end the match, this was just too dangerous.
They were high now, far above the stadium, Harry looked over at Malfoy, fifteen feet behind him, and the other met his eyes, both their faces filled with fear. At this height they were the highest points, any lightning would surely hit them. Suddenly the snitch plummeted both followed quickly.
Crash! Another lightning bolt zapped down and hit the flapping hanging, ripping off the last of the ties. The huge hanging, covered with the Hogwarts seal and fully 150 feet long and 70 feet wide was grabbed up by the wind and sent flying about the pitch. Players frantically rolled an flew away to avoid it, to get caught in it would be death once it hit the ground or smashed against something. The snitch was dropping straight at it.
"Look! Potter and Malfoy are after the snitch! What are they doing? That's too high! Any lightning bolt could easily hit them!" The crowd looked up and gasped, dropping at a rate of nearly 250 mile per hour they flew, they had been, at the highest, around eighteen thousand feet up, that a long way to fall. At fourteen thousand feet the snitch twisted and flew sideways, both followed, a sudden gust of wind lifted the hanging. Harry heard Draco's frantic shout as it slapped against them, then they were wrapped in it folds. Harry felt it wrapping tightly around him and tossing him about like a mastiff with a kitten.
Harry couldn't draw his wand, he was wrapped up too tightly, suddenly he spotted an opening in the flapping banner. He reached back and grabbed Draco's leg. Harry flew towards the opening, the banner was being swept towards one of the pillars. Harry ducked the flapping ends and rolled.
The crowd had watched in horror as the two were caught in the flailing banner and dragged along it through the winds almost the entire length of the pitch. Screams broke out as people saw where it was heading, just second before it struck the pillar two forms came flying out of it and tumbled down the side of the pillar before pulling out of their mad dive and racing away. Sighs of relief filled the stands as teachers ran forwards to remove the banner.
"They're safe! Potter and Malfoy are all right! The snitch is gone." Ron's voice echoed loudly around the magical speakers. "the wind speed is at ninety miles per hour folks, this match had better end soon!"
But it didn't, the snitch had vanished. Two hours later it was pitch black out, most of the school had gone inside to watch from the great hall where a huge screen had been erected so they could see everything. Four people were being treated for hypothermia. The temperature had dropped from eighty degrees to fifty-two in the past ten hours. It was six o clock and not one of the players had had a break yet.
Out on the pitch Harry called for a timeout, it was five minutes before he got Ron's attention through the rain and thunder.
"Captain Potter is calling for a time out!" The Gryffindors met in a small huddle. Harry put warming spells on everyone. Unfortunately he couldn't use drying spells, a drying spell was considered level three magic, whereas warming was level four. No spell above level four was allowed to be used in the match. And even the warming spells weren't allowed to stay on once the game began again.
"Everyone at eight we'll call in the reserve beaters. Phillip, Larquan, you'll have four hours off. At nine we'll call in the reserve chasers, Morgan, Sam, Theresa, you'll have your four hours break then. At ten we'll call in the reserve keeper." There were nods all around.
"What about you Harry?" Ira asked him, Harry grinned.
"I've got a surprise for you! Two weeks ago I found us a reserve seeker. Stilgar, he's a second year. He's not too good and this will be his first match, but with a little training he'll easily be an excellent seeker. I'll call him in at eleven. That way there will almost always be one of the team members here, except from eleven to midnight. This weather is making nearly impossible to locate the snitch. Be careful everyone, this isn't a normal storm; the Elemental's have a weird effect on the weather wherever they go. Good luck!" They took to the air again. The score was 170 to 120 Gryffindor.
Harry spotted the snitch three more times before his break came. Gryffindor scored four goals and Slytherin two. He was so exhausted he nearly fell off his broom. All three times the snitch had led him on a merry chase, all three times Harry ad been within an inch of grabbing it. One time both bludgers had hit him, another time some spectator's umbrella had hit him hard, he was bleeding from a long gash along his face, and the third time the top had been ripped off the teacher's stand and clobbered Malfoy, Harry had gone into one of his more stunning evasive moves and managed to get away. Draco and he had agreed one the switch schedule. Slytherin was operating on the same rotation schedule they were. This made it equal. Technically they didn't have to do this and be so equal, but the weather was so severe that the two teams were agreeing on just about anything to end the match…beside who got to win.
"Hey Harry," Stilgar greeted him. Stilgar was Morgan's younger cousin. He was small, just under five feet, with wavy black hair and dark brown eyes. He looked very nervous, this was his first Quidditch match and it was under terrible conditions. He clutched his Clean Sweep Seven tightly as he went out.
"Wait." Stilgar turned back to Harry, Harry took Stilgar's broom and handed him his Firebolt. "Use this Stil, and do be careful, that's one killer storm!" Stilgar stared at the broom.
"Really? I can? What if I damage it?"
"Stil the Whomping Willow couldn't dent it, it's got too many protection spells on it. It'll be fine, just keep Slytherin off the snitch whatever you do and it'll be fine, careful off the wind, don't go straight into it. Go back and forth diagonally across the pitch to move into the wind, it won't slow you down and it'll save energy. Remember when you dive, you're really going sideways because of the wind." Stilgar nodded, a determined look shining in his eyes and left. Harry limped painfully back to where the other team members from both teams were sleeping.
"How's your leg Harry?" Draco asked as they took the two remaining beds.
"It aches, damn this storm is something!"
"Huh," was the tired reply, Harry lay down and was soon asleep. He had four hours before he had to go back into that again. Outside the winds slowed slightly and slackened off as a shot calm fell over everything…a half hour later the game was still in progress and the winds began to picked up again, even more fiercely than before thunder boom and lightning flashed, but the sleep teams were oblivious to it all. All of them except for Harry, Harry watched the match through his dreams while he slept.
In the castle the students waited anxiously for news of the game. Everyone slept down in the great hall that night, waiting for news. But none came.
**
At three a.m. Harry woke just as Stilgar staggered in. He stood and helped the younger boy dry off and lie down.
"How'd it go?" Harry asked quickly, knowing he had only two minutes before he had to be out there.
"Oh terrible, that Slytherin chap is built like a muggle bulldozer. Saw the snitch twice…couldn't get to it either time, but he didn't either." Harry smiled and tapped his wand to the other boy's forehead.
"You did well Stil, thanks, someone will wake you if anything happens." Stilgar was about to answer when the spell took effect and he dropped off to sleep. Harry took up his broom and hurried out onto the pitch where the wind had reached a new speed of one hundred and thirty miles per hour and the temperature remained at a mere forty six degrees. A huge flash illuminated everything briefly, followed by a colossal rumble and boom of thunder that shook the school, outside the players went to work, trying their hardest to end the game soon, before anyone got badly hurt or killed.
Review please!
Phillip – beater
Larquan – beater
Sam – chaser
Theresa – chaser
Backup
Pearl – beater
Janice – beater
Gladys – chaser
Calvin – keeper
Andrew – chaser
Stilgar – seeker (secret)
Thank you so much everyone who reviewed!
Chapter 40
"Gryffindor's Morgan is heading up the pitch, passes to Sam, passes to Morgan, and passes to Theresa who scores! Gryffindor 100 to Slytherin 60!" Theresa punched the air and Harry did a loop, the game had been going on for a half hour, the clouds were just starting to show…black on the horizon, Harry could hear the thunder, but he was still the only one. "Potter calls for a time out!"
The Gryffindors met in a group.
"What's wrong Harry? Phillip asked.
"Don't look now but there's a killer thunder storm on the horizon, black clouds. I know you can't yet but I can hear the thunder. It'll be here in an hour or so…there's nothing I can do about it. I don't have the power left after the elementals to summon a spark right now. We're going to be fighting for our lives in that storm! Don't get all tired now, save some for later, you'll need it. Ride the winds, don't try to go too hard into them, they'll be blowing every which way, that should help. Be careful…I've never seen a storm that bad, you'll only see a natural storm like that once a decade or so…but with what the elementals did to screw up the atmosphere lately we might ave them for weeks. Anyhow watch out for lightning, if you get to tired don't stay on past the end of your endurance, more chance of your being injured, ask one of the extras to come in. You can expect winds of up to a hundred and twenty miles per hour eventually, but not for about two hours. Good luck people." They hurried off, faces worried. They took to the air again, Harry flew off, there had been no sign of the snitch in the whole half hour they'd been playing.
Twenty minutes later the wind had picked up, the clouds were coming closer, Harry was really worried. He did have enough power to sense that the storm was huge, a monstrosity, a deadly one.
Another half hour and everyone knew about the approaching storm, a few raindrops had fallen and people had begun conjuring up umbrellas, Harry nearly laughed. The wind would be able to rip those right out of their hands. Harry looped the pitch once, flew up high…and banked to the right and twisted into a dive at nearly two hundred miles per hour, drawing gasps form the crowd, the ground was coming up fast. Harry rolled upside down and flew along it, using his toes over the back of his broom to pull out of the dive just four inches from the ground…Malfoy couldn't stop in time and went skidding along the ground. But he got up relatively okay and with a few quick healing spells was back on.
"And that was a spectacular Wronskie Feint by Potter, did you guys know that he now holds the record for pulling out of a dive at the highest speed closest to the ground? The old record was set by Victor Krum at eight inches, potter's just halved that distance!" Harry grinned broadly, a roll of thunder wiped the smile off his face as rain pelted down and the wind picked up. He guessed it at sixty miles per hour now…and getting steadily worse.
Five hours passed, around four p.m. Harry finally spotted the snitch through the howling winds and pounding rains. He took off towards it; Malfoy was off near the other end of the Quidditch pitch.
Harry struggled against the winds, lightning flashed not far away. The storm was really on them now. Sheets of heavy rain lashed at him, Harry bent his head against the winds and shot forwards. He chased the snitch down lower to the ground and along the pitch; Malfoy saw and came flying in form behind. Screams suddenly echoed about softly, drawn away by the howling wind. A huge lightning bolt had hit one of the high posts around the pitch, the hangings had ripped free on one side and it was flapping loosely. The snitch veered to wards it and soared up, Harry gritted his teeth against an especially hard gust of wind and followed it. Rain smeared his vision and poured off him, lightning crashed down only a few meters away, Harry rolled away to avoid it and kept on flying. He had to end the match, this was just too dangerous.
They were high now, far above the stadium, Harry looked over at Malfoy, fifteen feet behind him, and the other met his eyes, both their faces filled with fear. At this height they were the highest points, any lightning would surely hit them. Suddenly the snitch plummeted both followed quickly.
Crash! Another lightning bolt zapped down and hit the flapping hanging, ripping off the last of the ties. The huge hanging, covered with the Hogwarts seal and fully 150 feet long and 70 feet wide was grabbed up by the wind and sent flying about the pitch. Players frantically rolled an flew away to avoid it, to get caught in it would be death once it hit the ground or smashed against something. The snitch was dropping straight at it.
"Look! Potter and Malfoy are after the snitch! What are they doing? That's too high! Any lightning bolt could easily hit them!" The crowd looked up and gasped, dropping at a rate of nearly 250 mile per hour they flew, they had been, at the highest, around eighteen thousand feet up, that a long way to fall. At fourteen thousand feet the snitch twisted and flew sideways, both followed, a sudden gust of wind lifted the hanging. Harry heard Draco's frantic shout as it slapped against them, then they were wrapped in it folds. Harry felt it wrapping tightly around him and tossing him about like a mastiff with a kitten.
Harry couldn't draw his wand, he was wrapped up too tightly, suddenly he spotted an opening in the flapping banner. He reached back and grabbed Draco's leg. Harry flew towards the opening, the banner was being swept towards one of the pillars. Harry ducked the flapping ends and rolled.
The crowd had watched in horror as the two were caught in the flailing banner and dragged along it through the winds almost the entire length of the pitch. Screams broke out as people saw where it was heading, just second before it struck the pillar two forms came flying out of it and tumbled down the side of the pillar before pulling out of their mad dive and racing away. Sighs of relief filled the stands as teachers ran forwards to remove the banner.
"They're safe! Potter and Malfoy are all right! The snitch is gone." Ron's voice echoed loudly around the magical speakers. "the wind speed is at ninety miles per hour folks, this match had better end soon!"
But it didn't, the snitch had vanished. Two hours later it was pitch black out, most of the school had gone inside to watch from the great hall where a huge screen had been erected so they could see everything. Four people were being treated for hypothermia. The temperature had dropped from eighty degrees to fifty-two in the past ten hours. It was six o clock and not one of the players had had a break yet.
Out on the pitch Harry called for a timeout, it was five minutes before he got Ron's attention through the rain and thunder.
"Captain Potter is calling for a time out!" The Gryffindors met in a small huddle. Harry put warming spells on everyone. Unfortunately he couldn't use drying spells, a drying spell was considered level three magic, whereas warming was level four. No spell above level four was allowed to be used in the match. And even the warming spells weren't allowed to stay on once the game began again.
"Everyone at eight we'll call in the reserve beaters. Phillip, Larquan, you'll have four hours off. At nine we'll call in the reserve chasers, Morgan, Sam, Theresa, you'll have your four hours break then. At ten we'll call in the reserve keeper." There were nods all around.
"What about you Harry?" Ira asked him, Harry grinned.
"I've got a surprise for you! Two weeks ago I found us a reserve seeker. Stilgar, he's a second year. He's not too good and this will be his first match, but with a little training he'll easily be an excellent seeker. I'll call him in at eleven. That way there will almost always be one of the team members here, except from eleven to midnight. This weather is making nearly impossible to locate the snitch. Be careful everyone, this isn't a normal storm; the Elemental's have a weird effect on the weather wherever they go. Good luck!" They took to the air again. The score was 170 to 120 Gryffindor.
Harry spotted the snitch three more times before his break came. Gryffindor scored four goals and Slytherin two. He was so exhausted he nearly fell off his broom. All three times the snitch had led him on a merry chase, all three times Harry ad been within an inch of grabbing it. One time both bludgers had hit him, another time some spectator's umbrella had hit him hard, he was bleeding from a long gash along his face, and the third time the top had been ripped off the teacher's stand and clobbered Malfoy, Harry had gone into one of his more stunning evasive moves and managed to get away. Draco and he had agreed one the switch schedule. Slytherin was operating on the same rotation schedule they were. This made it equal. Technically they didn't have to do this and be so equal, but the weather was so severe that the two teams were agreeing on just about anything to end the match…beside who got to win.
"Hey Harry," Stilgar greeted him. Stilgar was Morgan's younger cousin. He was small, just under five feet, with wavy black hair and dark brown eyes. He looked very nervous, this was his first Quidditch match and it was under terrible conditions. He clutched his Clean Sweep Seven tightly as he went out.
"Wait." Stilgar turned back to Harry, Harry took Stilgar's broom and handed him his Firebolt. "Use this Stil, and do be careful, that's one killer storm!" Stilgar stared at the broom.
"Really? I can? What if I damage it?"
"Stil the Whomping Willow couldn't dent it, it's got too many protection spells on it. It'll be fine, just keep Slytherin off the snitch whatever you do and it'll be fine, careful off the wind, don't go straight into it. Go back and forth diagonally across the pitch to move into the wind, it won't slow you down and it'll save energy. Remember when you dive, you're really going sideways because of the wind." Stilgar nodded, a determined look shining in his eyes and left. Harry limped painfully back to where the other team members from both teams were sleeping.
"How's your leg Harry?" Draco asked as they took the two remaining beds.
"It aches, damn this storm is something!"
"Huh," was the tired reply, Harry lay down and was soon asleep. He had four hours before he had to go back into that again. Outside the winds slowed slightly and slackened off as a shot calm fell over everything…a half hour later the game was still in progress and the winds began to picked up again, even more fiercely than before thunder boom and lightning flashed, but the sleep teams were oblivious to it all. All of them except for Harry, Harry watched the match through his dreams while he slept.
In the castle the students waited anxiously for news of the game. Everyone slept down in the great hall that night, waiting for news. But none came.
**
At three a.m. Harry woke just as Stilgar staggered in. He stood and helped the younger boy dry off and lie down.
"How'd it go?" Harry asked quickly, knowing he had only two minutes before he had to be out there.
"Oh terrible, that Slytherin chap is built like a muggle bulldozer. Saw the snitch twice…couldn't get to it either time, but he didn't either." Harry smiled and tapped his wand to the other boy's forehead.
"You did well Stil, thanks, someone will wake you if anything happens." Stilgar was about to answer when the spell took effect and he dropped off to sleep. Harry took up his broom and hurried out onto the pitch where the wind had reached a new speed of one hundred and thirty miles per hour and the temperature remained at a mere forty six degrees. A huge flash illuminated everything briefly, followed by a colossal rumble and boom of thunder that shook the school, outside the players went to work, trying their hardest to end the game soon, before anyone got badly hurt or killed.
Review please!