"Are you alright Harry?" Ron asked
"Yeah, just nervous,"
"Me too, I mean, my first match!" Then Ron suddenly went really pale. "What if I'm terrible? What if I totally mess it up? And we lose! I'll never hear the end of it! Especially not from Malfoy! What will I do?"
"Ron! Calm down! You'll be fine. Trust me!" Harry reassured him.
"Wow! Harry!" George cried
"Our little boy is all grown up!" Fred shouted coming towards them.
"What are you talking about?" Harry wondered
"You're a great captain you know!" Fred and George laughed
"Giving our Ron advice like a grown up!"
"Leave him alone,"
"Ooh, don't be stressed, Ronny," Fred laughed
"It was just a joke!"
Then Madame Hooch called for them to come onto the pitch for the first match of the season.
She blew her whistle and the balls were freed.
Harry shot up into the air to get a better look.
He saw Ron at one end by the hoops looking quite green and sick.
Draco Malfoy flew up on his new broomstick, the Nimbus Sky-Flyer, "Hello Potter!" He shouted
"Yeah? What do you want?" Harry replied
"Nothing, just be polite, got a problem?"
Harry knew Draco was just trying to wind him up and take his mind off the game. So he pretended he'd seen it and swooped down. Malfoy soon followed. Harry was about to crash on the floor when he changed direction and began to fly back up. He was nearly at a safe distance from the game and Malfoy, when a Bludger hit him on the face. Harry span around. His glasses had cracked but he remained on his broomstick. He was facing the lake when he thought he saw a black dog, which looked liked Sirius. He got annoyed. Sirius hadn't been in touch with him, and they hadn't arranged to meet. How could he come to Hogwarts, and not see Harry? Especially when he'd been sighted only three weeks ago.
'No' Harry thought 'I must keep my thoughts on the game.
It was Slytherin 60 and Gryffindor 20. Harry looked over at Ron who looked very scared. He zoomed over to him to throw Malfoy off course and then turned around, as if chasing the Snitch. He then turned around again, back towards Ron, and shouted "Good work Ron! Keep it up!" Hoping to make him more determined.
It worked a bit, for Ron zoomed around the goalposts, refusing to let any more in. After five more minutes the score was Slytherin 60 and Gryffindor 60. Everyone except Malfoy looked very tired. The match had been going on for an hour, and it just started raining. Harry knew he had to keep his mind on the match, because if Malfoy caught the Snitch, then they would win. But his mind kept wondering back to the Black dog. He flew up once more to see it again, but it was gone. He looked around, but Sirius was nowhere to be seen. He tried not to think about it, but he couldn't.
Suddenly, Draco Malfoy dived down. Harry looked to where he was flying, and there was the Snitch. Harry dived down as well, and followed it. Malfoy and Harry were chasing each other. Everyone else stopped playing. There were shouts from the crowd. But Harry blocked them out. He was getting ahead, and was about to catch it when one of the Slytherin chasers dived down in front of Harry, this put him off, and he went flying through the air. There were shouts from both the Slytherin and the Gryffindor supporters. Harry was sure Malfoy would catch it, when suddenly there was silence. The Slytherin chaser that had distracted and knocked off Harry had caught the Snitch. Harry didn't know what this meant. Did Slytherin win? Did Gryffindor win? Had the chaser been disqualified? This was too much for Harry. With the rain beating down on Harry's face, he began to fall. He was falling, falling, down, down, down. Pictures of the Black dog, Sirius, the newspaper article, where flashing through his head. He carried on falling until he woke up in Madam Pomfrey's office.
*****
Harry couldn't see anything. He reached over for his glasses. They were still broken from the bludger.
"What day is it?" He asked Madam Pomfrey, who was standing at the end of his bed.
"It's Monday. You should rest." She said
He lay down. His arm was aching terribly.
Madam Pomfrey was muttering to herself.
"Quidditch! What a stupid sport! It's very dangerous. Thirty four times I've had patients injured because of Quidditch. Thirty-four! Unbelievable!" she said
Just then Ron and Hermione came rushing through the door, to Harry's great relief. Madam Pomfrey looked disturbed at their presence.
"Harry! Thank goodness your alright!" Hermione yelled
"Ssshhhhh!" Madam Pomfrey cried
Harry sat up "Who won?" He said
"What?"
"Quidditch. Who won?" He asked again
"Amazing. You've been unconscious for two days, and now your awake, all you can think about is Quidditch!" Hermione looked appalled
"Give him a break Hermione," Ron yelled "He wasn't all there at the end."
"So… Who won?" Harry asked for the first time.
"We did you fool!" Ron said, jumping up and down with excitement. "Malfoy gave that idiot a right old punching. Then they both got stopped. He was yelling all sorts of stuff. Then Madam Hooch. Grabbed his arm and he shouted at her! He got three days detention starting today!" Ron looked really excited at this.
Harry was getting a headache. Madam Pomfrey shooed both of them out of her office and gave Harry a potion for his injuries.
He drank it before lying back down again. And he fell asleep again.