Chapter 4 - Capture the Flag

After the feast and some more catching up with his fellow Slytherins in their common room, Barney didn't end up going to bed till well past midnight. So he was very glad the next day was a Sunday and he could have a lay in.

When he did wake the sun was already streaming into his dormitory as the sound of Maximille snoring in a bed nearby filled the room. Marek was already awake but silently reading in bed, while Everard was still fast asleep but Eustice's old bed was empty. Though he was now in America at Ilvermorny academy, his bed was being occupied by Velyan Dagon but he was no where to be seen. It wasn't long before he showed up, having got up early and was returning from the showers.

"Good morning," he said cheerily to Barney and Marek as he entered.

"Morning," Barney replied. "How did you sleep?"

Barney had wanted to speak to Velyan last night but it was impossible to get a word in edgeways as everyone in Slytherin wanted to talk to him too, he seemed to be somewhat of a celebrity.

"It's always strange sleeping in a new place for the first time but I'm sure I'll get use to it," Velyan replied as he started to get dressed.

"Is this your first time abroad?" Barney asked having only been abroad once himself for a holiday to Spain.

"Oh no my family travels a lot. We often spend Christmas and summer holidays vacation at different places. I've been to London before but this is my first time to Scotland."

Velyan moved over to a mirror and started to comb his wet red hair back across his head.

"It must be nice that your sister is here too," Barney added as he got out of bed himself and started to dress hastily (after using a quick cleaning spell on himself, one of the most useful spells he'd ever learnt).

"I guess so. We're not that close though. I've got two more brothers and another sister. They're all younger than me. I'm closer to my brothers."

Barney looked across to Velyan and back to his own clothes. Velyan was dressed in smart black trousers, a maroon shirt and the latest top brand trainers, whereas Barney had on a t-shirt, tatty jeans and an old pair of trainers which had started to split.

"So who's hungry?" Velyan said as he put his comb and his wand in his pocket.

Barney, Velyan and Marek made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was now well past nine o'clock but the hall wasn't too busy with only a few other Slytherins at their table. They sat down and started to help themselves to the food that was laid out.

"So is Hogwarts much different to Ilvermorny?" Barney asked between mouthfuls of pancakes.

"It's similar in ways. It's a castle too and we have a house system as well. But it's slightly less eventful. We heard all about Voldermort, Harry Potter and the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Yeah I'm so glad I wasn't here when that was going on," Marek added, having only been two at the time but having been told the story by his parents and many others over the years.

"I hear you even had some trouble recently with a student trying to take other people's magical powers?"

"Oh yeah our Barney here saved the day," Marek said and gave Barney a big pat on his back which made him almost choke on his breakfast.

"Wait that was you? Who saved the school?" Velyan asked a little shocked.

Barney had suddenly gone very bashful and could only manage a nod of acknowledgment. He didn't realise his exploits in his first year had been known outside of the school, let alone all the way over in America.

"Let me shake your hand," Velyan said as he reached his hand across the table.

"Thanks," Barney finally managed to mumble as he shook Velyan's hand and went slightly red.

"Well it's an honour to meet a real life hero," Velyan added, which only made Barney even more coy and went even redder.

Only yesterday evening everyone in Slytherin was acting like Velyan was some sort of royalty. Everybody wanted to shake his hand and speak to him. And now here he was calling him a 'hero'. Barney felt like this year at Hogwarts was going to be a very good year indeed. All thoughts of 'dark times' had completely gone from his head.

Later in the afternoon (and having spent much of the morning with some of the other Slytherins showing Velyan around Hogwarts) all the sixth years were summoned to the practice lawns where they were met by Madame Hooch.

"Is that everyone?" Madame Hooch asked, sounding a little put out as she scanned the crowd of students. "Well we haven't got all day. Any stragglers will just have to jump in when they get here. Right now students this afternoon you will be doing a team work exercise in your house teams."

There were some excited murmurs amongst the students as they wondered what the activity could be.

"In your house teams you will be competing against each other in a game of capture the flag. For anyone who hasn't played this game before it's simple - each house has a flag and the objective of the game is to retrieve the other houses' flags whilst protecting your own. Any questions?"

Before anyone even had chance to raise their hand or ask a question Madame Hooch continued.

"Good. Now within your house you will divide up into two groups. One group's job will be to protect their flag whilst the other group will be on brooms trying to steal the other flags. You are only allowed in the school grounds, no hiding flags indoors. And as always the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds. You can not use spells to hide your flags but you may use spells to defend it. Also flags have been protected against summoning charms so anyone who was thinking you could just do that you can't. And remember this is meant to be a fun game so please keep it friendly. Is that all clear?"

Again Madame Hooch didn't wait for anyone to ask anything before she carried on. "You have ten minutes to split up your teams and hide your flag. I will then blow my whistle to signal that the game has begun. The game is over when one house has all the flags or after a period of time when it seems you are all thoroughly bored and have lost interest then I will blow my whilst again to signal the game is over. Got it? Good."

The nine members of Slytherin quickly gathered as Madame Hooch went around and handed each team a flag in their house colours with their emblem on and six brooms. Silvanna immediately took charge of the team and got them to huddle up so they could discuss tactics. "Right now me, Maximille, Genevieve, Marek and Barney will be on the brooms. Velyan you any good on one?"

"I'm not bad," he replied with a smirk.

"Good then you'll be our sixth flyer. Everard, Odette and Uma you'll be guarding the flag. Everard you're in charge of this team. Find somewhere that has good visibility all around so you can see any attack coming. Use whatever spell necessary to protect the flag. If someone gets hurt then so be it."

"Silvanna I don't think we should be purposely hurting other students," Barney interjected, not liking the sound of this plan.

"Barney this is no time to be soft. All that matters is winning."

"I mean Madame Hooch never mentioned any prize to the winner so does it really matter? She said it's about team work," Barney added, looking around the rest of the group for support but either everyone was in agreement with Silvanna or no one wanted to go against her.

"Be a team player then and do whatever it takes to make Slytherin victorious," she said sternly before the huddle disbanded and Everard and his team quickly sped off with the flag to find somewhere to hide it. The rest of Slytherin mounted their brooms, waiting eagerly for Madame Hooch to blow her whistle.

"I think the best move will be if we split up into pairs and scout the grounds," Silvanna added as they waited, hovering on their brooms. "Once we've scouted out the grounds we'll regroup and plan our attack. Maximille and Genevieve are a pair, Marek you go with Barney and Velyan you're with me. OK?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

All the broom riders waited patiently around the practice lawns in their house groups, each sizing up the other team. Barney looked across at the Hufflepuff team which included Theo, Astrid and Emery who were all on the Quidditch Cup winning team from last year. They were definitely going to be the team to beat.

The shrill sound of Madame Hooch's whistle broke the tension and soon each team was zooming off through the air all over the castle grounds.

The Slytherin team dispersed in different directions with Marek and Barney heading towards the Black Lake. They glided above the silky water as their reflections followed them below. On the far side of the lake they could see students gathered on the far shore. But as they got closer they could see it was their fellow Slytherins who had their flag guard by a dome of water that flowed around it. Nice work Barney thought as the three Slytherins stood guard around the dome, wands ready to ward off anyone who tries to steal their precious flag. After a quick sweep around the rest of the lake Barney and Marek headed back to the practice lawns to rendezvous with the rest of their team.

Silvanna and Velyan were already waiting and it wasn't long before Maximille and Genevieve joined them.

"Any luck?" Silvanna asked her team.

"Nothing," Marek said disappointedly with a shake of his head.

"Hufflepuff have theirs tied to the Whoomping Willow," Maximille said. "No idea how we're going to get that one."

"OK lets worry about that one later. Doubt anyone else will be getting it anytime soon," Silvanna said as she checked the skies to see if she could spot any of the other teams. "Gryffindor have theirs in the Quidditch Stadium and they've got two of their flyers helping to guard it. But if we all attack at once we should be able to grab their flag."

Once Silvanna had formulated a plan the Slytherin team sped off on their brooms again towards the Quidditch pitch. They broke off in their pairs once more and positioned themselves around the outside of the pitch, hidden out of sight behind the stands.

Barney dared to take a peek over the top of the stands as he hovered on his broom.

"They've got Hugo and Anna on brooms, they're both strong beaters," Barney whispered to Marek as he ducked back down. "This isn't going to be easy."

Barney and Marek waited patiently for Silvanna's signal to strike. Barney could feel his heart racing as he clung tightly to his broom. As he waited he took another peek inside the stadium and spotted something on the horizon beyond the far side of the stadium in the sky.

"Oh no we've got company," he uttered as he watched the students on brooms close in on the stadium.

"Now!" echoed around the stadium as Silvanna signalled to her fellow Slytherins to make their move, having also spotted the approaching rivals.

Instantly Barney and Marek lifted up over the stands and were diving down to the pitch towards the Gryffindor flag.

Barney had to duck as a spell cast by one of the Gryffindor on the ground flashed past him and he pressed his body closer to his broom as he picked up speed.

The rest of Slytherin were also on the attack and spells were flashing everywhere around the stadium. Barney turned to see Maximille frozen in the air, obviously hit by an Immobulus charm.

By now the Hufflepuff team who were flying towards the stadium had descended on it. Usually during a Quidditch game players were dressed in their house kits but today everyone was in their own clothing so it was hard to tell who was on what team with everyone moving so fast.

Barney moved in closer to the flag but jolted as Emery from Hufflepuff crashed into him. They flew side by side as each one tried to muscle the other one out of the way as they both soared towards the Gryffindor flag.

A bright light dazzled ahead and Barney instinctively veered off to the side as he saw out of the corner of his eye Emery take a hit, Barney started to gloat but it was short lived as another flash of light was heading towards him. He tried to move out the way but the spell struck his broom and he lost control of it. His broom suddenly went into a furious spin, sending him spiralling to the ground. The broom was about to crash into the ground when Barney jumped off at the last second and rolled across the grass of the pitch. He heard his broom slam into the ground beside him and half expected to see it broken in two but luckily it was still intact but a little bent.

Feeling rather bruised and with the wind knocked out of him it took Barney a couple of seconds to regain himself before he got back on his feet, picked up his broom and mounted it again. He was about to kick off from the ground when he looked up to the sky and saw the Hufflepuff team were gone and so was the Gryffindor flag.

In the air hovered some very disappointed Slytherins and even more disappointed Gryffindors. Barney took off and rejoined his team in the air. Maximille had now been unfrozen and Marek was sporting a black eye but otherwise the team were ready to go again for the next flag.

"We can still get that flag back when we take Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's is still out there somewhere," Silvanna said trying to boost morale in a dejected group.

The Slytherin team flew out of the stadium and decided to scout around again to see if they could see where Ravenclaw were hiding their flag when they saw down below some students waving at them trying to get their attention. As they moved closer they saw it was Everard and the other Slytherins who were supposed to be guarding their flag but it was nowhere it sight.

Furiously Silvanna swooped down towards them as fast as she could.

"What in Merlin's name happened?!" she fumed.

"The Ravenclaws attacked us. We tried our best to protect the flag but Odette was hit with an ice jinx and Uma a quicksand hex. There was nothing we could do," Everard said, recounting the surprise assault they had encountered.

Odette and Uma remained very sheepish, disappointed that they had let their team down and expecting an earful from Silvanna.

"Great so now both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have two flags each and we have nothing," Silvanna seethed.

"It's not all bad news," Everard added. "We managed to see where Ravenclaw took our flag. They're hiding out on the roof."

Silvanna and the rest of the Slytherins immediately turned up and looked towards the roof of Hogwarts. There were many towers and turrets making it an ideal hiding place for a flag.

"OK maybe all is not lost," Silvanna retorted as she started to formulate a plan in her mind. "But we need to act fast. Hufflepuff will be after those flags too. Everard, Odette and Uma head over to the Whooping Willow and do what you can there. If nothing at least you'll keep the Hufflepuffs on the ground busy for a bit. With any luck Gryffindor will be trying to attack them too. The rest of us will search the roof in our pairs. As soon as anyone spots the flags signal the others and we strike right away. There's no time to lose!"

Barney was beginning to think what had meant to be a friendly game had taken on a serious tone. He was a competitive person himself but Silvanna was taking it to a whole new level. But at least he thought it would be a good opportunity to show off his Seeker skills before try outs.

They took to the air and Barney and Marek headed for the east side of the castle as the other pairs spread around Hogwarts. It wasn't long before they saw the Ravenclaws on a small walkway between two towers with the two flags. Barney and Marek positioned themself behind one of the towers and while Barney kept watch on the Ravenclaws as Marek raised his wand into the air. Red sparks flew from it and shot up it the sky, signalling to their teammates that they had found them. Immediately Barney and Marek rounded the tower and dived down towards the flags at full speed. Out the corner of his eye Barney could see Maximille and Genevieve emerge from behind a turret and were shooting down on their target. Spells started to fly through the air as light flashed passed Barney who manoeuvred himself at speed out of harm's way. He stretched his wand out forward as he held on tightly to the broom with his other hand and returned fire. He felt a searing pain as a spell caught his leg but he pushed on.

One of the Ravenclaws shot a blue light from their wand which went straight up into the sky. The lights swirled around and started to take the shape of an eagle. That soared in a circle above them.

Barney looked up, losing focus on what he was doing as he wondered what was going to happen next. Would the eagle attack them? But soon he found out it's true purpose as the six Ravenclaw members on brooms started to appear, having been alerted to the attack by the eagle.

Spells and curses were flying around everywhere and it wasn't just the Ravenclaws that had seen the eagle in the sky. The Gryffindors had noticed it too and wanted in on the action as the skies above the castle descended into chaos.

Barney kept dodging spells and firing off his own as he looked for a clean path to the flags. Every time he got close he had to change direction to avoid being hit. He swooped down and landed on a turret out of harm's way to catch his breath. Living in the muggle world meant he couldn't do as much flying practice as he had wanted over summer so he was out of shape. As he rested against the tiled roof when Velyan spotted him and flew down.

"You OK?"

"Yeah this is impossible. I can't get near the flags without being hit," Barney replied as he used the back of his arm to wipe sweat from his face.

Velyan peered around the turret and looked down at the scene below. Ravenclaw were now heavily defending the two flags with all nine of its members. And though Gryffindor were helping to keep them distracted, trying to get to the flags was going to be no easy feat.

"Come on I've got a plan," Velyan said defiantly as he reached out to Barney and pulled him up before leading him down to the castle grounds.

Both Lara and Ling from Ravenclaw were circling around their two flags as the rest of their team were spread out both on the walkway and on brooms in the air nearby. They were doing a stellar job of protecting their flags but they didn't know how long they could keep the defence up as both Slytherin and Gryffindor seemed to be showing no signs of tiring.

Velyan and Barney hovered in the shadows. Above them they could hear shouting of spells being cast constantly.

"Ready?" Velyan asked as he looked towards Barney.

"As I'll ever be," he replied as he gripped his broom tighter.

Having made their way stealthily from the ground up they were now hidden beneath the walkway where the two flags were positioned. Velyan led the charge with Barney close behind him as they shot up and were immediately on the walkway. Lara and Ling were taken by surprise, not expecting an attack to come from below them. At once they were raining down spells on the pair.

Velyan in front had his wand out and was doing his best to deflect the spells. They only had a short distance to fly to reach the flags as suddenly Velyan rose up. Both Lara and Ling's eyes were on him and they at first didn't notice Barney drop down behind him and head straight for the flags.

Before they could do anything Barney had his wand at the ready.

"Stupefy!" he called out and managed to hit both of them with the same spell and sent them flying backwards, leaving the flags unguarded.

Before the rest of Ravenclaw knew what was happening Barney snatched up the flags and dived back below the walkway with Velyan right behind him, ready to deflect any spells that came their way.

Silvanna who was flying high above had just managed to catch what had happened and threw her fist into the air in celebration.

"Retreat!" she hollered to her fellow teammates and they were all diving down to protect Barney and the flags.

But neither Ravenclaw or Gryffindor were ready to give up yet and they started to give chase.

Barney weaved in and out of the castle's many turrets and walkways trying to shake off his pursuers as Velyan shot curses backwards trying to protect him.

As Barney rounded the castle towards the open lawns he could see in the sky heading straight for him were the Hufflepuffs flyers. He dived down and quickly turned as Hufflepuff dived too. Barney sent his broom down into a nearly vertical dive at speed before quickly pulling up again and managing to shake off some of his pursuers. He could now see the Whoomping Willow in the distance and there in front of it running away from it were three people clutching two flags that they were waving into the air. They'd done it. Slytherin had all four flags. In his excitement Barney lost focus on his surroundings and didn't see the flash of light heading straight for him. The spell caught him right on the hand and he lost grip on his broom. The force of the hit sent him into a barrel roll and he came off his broom. Instinctively he managed to grab out and catch his broom with one hand and dangled underneath it. But he had let go of the flags and he watch helplessly as they fell down to the ground.

Out the corner of his eye he saw Emery Lawtey from Hufflepuff immediately dive towards them and knew he'd let his team down at the last second. Emery was one of the fastest flyers in their year. No one would catch him. But there was another blur moving towards the flags. They were moving so fast that at first Barney couldn't tell who it was. It was only when he noticed the bright red hair that he knew it was Velyan. Both Emery and Velyan were nearing the flags, flying at breakneck speeds that he had never seen anyone do on practice brooms before. The flags continued down, almost to the ground. Surely neither Velyan or Emery would be able to get them without crashing into the ground below. Emery started to pull up realising if he kept up his pace he wouldn't be able to stop in time. But Velyan kept on. He had his hand stretched out as the ground was nearing faster. He was only ten meters away from crashing, eight meters now. Barney, who had now climbed back on his broom, thought Velyan would never be able to pull up in time.

Six meters.

The other flyers in the air looked down in fear.

Four meters.

Barney couldn't bear to watch and turned away.

Two meters.

Velyan pulled up in a near perfect one hundred and eighty degree turn and the rest of Slytherin let out a cheer as Velyan turned again and swooped down to the ground with two flags in his hand and landed beside Everard. Slytherin had all four flags again. They'd won.

But a horrible thought entered Barney's head. He might just have a rival for the position of Slytherin Seeker this year.