Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Please don't sue.
Another problem with the divination coop, besides the back that it bored most the Gryffindors silly, was it left little time to prepare for the second Quidditch game: Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff. They arrived back at Hogwarts late Friday afternoon, and the match was early Sunday afternoon.
Harry could tell the team was slightly out of practice. While he managed to find the snitch within a reasonable time, the chasers seemed slightly out of sync. Several times Ron would pass the quaffle to Jill Stephans, only to have her look back to catch it after it had passed her by. Natalie McDonald seemed to be doing ok, except she looked a little out of practice at flying itself, and wasn't pushing her broom as hard as she could. Dean and Seamus were doing well, but Harry was getting annoyed at them. They appeared to give up hitting bludgers at the chasers and went after more agile game: him. While it helped him prepare for the game, it was really irritating to have to dodge and swerve every ten seconds.
The Gryffindor team wasn't completely ready by Sunday. Or at least ready by Ron's standards – Harry felt sure they would do fine. Ron couldn't go an hour without mentioning how good of a team Ernie Macmillan had put together. Harry would've remarked how Ron was turning into Oliver Wood, but he realized that he was the only one who played while Oliver was captain.
"Ok men," Ron called.
"And women!" shouted Ginny. Harry had an odd sense of déjà vu.
"And women," Ron conceded, "This is the big one." Harry's face split into a grin, finally remembering where he had heard this before.
Ron looked oddly at Harry, and repeated, "The big one. The one we've all been waiting for." Harry broke into laughter, and the rest of the team just looked at him, not knowing what he was laughing.
"Are you ready to take the field?" Ron turned around, and saw Madame Hooch had been waiting for them.
Ron hesitantly said, "Give us a couple of seconds. Our seeker is, er…" Ron apparently didn't know how to describe Harry's sudden laughing fit, and smacked him hard on the shoulder.
Harry straightened up, but chuckled, "Wood."
Ron looked at him oddly, and the Gryffindors stepped out onto the field. "And for the 4th game of the season," called Dennis Creevey's magically amplified voice, "Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, in what promises to be an exciting match. And Madame Hooch steps out on the field, and THE GAME BEGINS!"
Harry tore off, and decided to throw off the opposition. He did something rarely done by seekers, and looped the keeper. The opposing keeper stared off at him oddly, and didn't notice in time to stop Ron from scoring the first goal of the game.
"AND GRYFFINDOR SCORES!" boomed Dennis Creevey. Harry was amazed – he had never heard the mousey boy yell that loud before. Harry looked over at the opposing seeker, who Ernie introduced to him as Lena Morgan, a second year. He knew it wasn't wise to underestimate an opposing team, but Lena didn't look like she was going to be much of a problem. She kept looking at him with something between admiration and fear. Harry remembered yet again that he was a legend in the wizarding world, and probably a small legend within the Hogwarts Quidditch community; a new seeker would be bound to be intimidated playing against him.
However, it didn't matter how intimidated Lena was of him if he didn't catch the snitch either, and so far the snitch was doing a better than average job of hiding from him. Harry snorted as Ron made yet another goal and the score "180-10" was announced.
Finally, a goldish glimmer caught Harry's eyes, and he tore up the field towards it, Lean close behind. The snitch dived; so did Harry. However, when Harry chanced a look behind him, he noticed Lena wasn't diving. She wasn't even moving; she was just watching him.
Harry abandoned the snitch and flew up to her, slightly angry. "What do you think you're doing, Lena?"
Lena looked at him and nervously said, "I was… well, you're Harry Potter, and you're flying a Firebolt! And you had a head start, and it didn't matter whether I caught the snitch or not, your team would still win."
"You… gave up?" Harry asked incredulously. After Lena gave a small nod, Harry furiously said, "That's the most foolish thing I've heard! Why do you think I'm any better than you?"
"You're…" Lena stammered, "Well… You're the boy-who-lived."
"Exactly!" Harry said, "But I didn't live because I gave up! If I ever see you throw a game again…" Harry didn't finish his statement, but didn't need to, seeing as how Lena gulped when he trailed off.
Harry then caught sight of the snitch again, although it was much closer, and directly behind Lena. Harry immediately took off, and Lena followed, and Harry noted she was much more serious about her efforts this time. However, despite renewed efforts on Lena's part, Harry didn't expect what she did next. As Seamus flew nearby going the opposite direction after a bludger, Lena rammed Harry. Harry gasped as he was suddenly pushed into Finnigan's flight path. Harry swerved hard, completely forgetting the snitch for the moment. Seamus spiraled out of control, and eventually pulled out before he hit the ground. Harry lost grip of the broomstick, and fell, although he was only a few meters off the ground at that point. Harry glared as Lena was chasing the snitch alone, almost ready to catch it. He ran to his broomstick, which had fallen several meters away, while a good portion of the crowd booed Lena's aggressive tactics. Harry took to the air, and crosscut Lena's path, throwing her temporarily off the trail as well. He swerved back, and found that the two were again on the trail of the snitch.
However, Harry second guessed the opposing seeker, and abruptly dived when she tried to ram him again. Lena gasped as she missed Harry and was flying at an odd angle away from the snitch. Harry quickly rose, and finally caught the snitch.
"Gryffindor wins!" cried Dennis, "360-20!"
Harry landed, and shook Lena's hand. Lena blushed, and Harry said, "Thank you, Lena! Wasn't that a lot better than just letting me catch it? And you came really close to catching it yourself!" Lena jerkily nodded, and took back off to the castle with her teammates.
The party for the Quidditch victory lasted well into the night. Not only did they win, but they won with an enormous margin. Ron capped it off by loudly announcing the Quidditch standings, "All right, everyone! Now, we won our first game 210-50, and this game by 360-20. Now, the only games left in the season are Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Slytherin lost against Ravenclaw, and didn't win by a large margin against Hufflepuff. So right now we're in the lead by 270 points from any of the other teams!" At his announcement, the Gryffindor commons again burst with cheering. Harry smiled – apparently the final game probably wouldn't even matter.
Harry finally made his way to bed at 1:30 in the morning, and was worried about getting enough sleep for his early morning Arithmancy class the next day. No, Harry thought glumly, my Arithmancy class today. It's past midnight.
However, as Harry quickly made his way into sleep, a night landscape filled his mind. Harry looked around, and saw saw Voldemort, glowering angrily over a group of Death Eaters, who surprisingly were not masked. Harry noticed that Draco Malfoy was one of them, and he also noticed that Voldemort appeared exactly as he did at the end of the third task – not a trace of Padma remained.
"Well," Voldemort hissed, "I see that you finally decided to return. Of course you do this after your leader perished by my minions. Each of you will have to pay the price for your disloyalty." Each of the unmasked death eaters was then bound by one of Voldemort's group. A few briefly struggled, but Voldemort ended that with only the silent threat of his wand.
Voldemort continued, almost casually, and said, "I've been reading the Obsidian Tome. Interesting magic, this necromancy. Did you know, for instance, that the strength of the creation doesn't depend so much on the power of the necromancer, but the age of the corpse? Freshly dead, the corpse is still capable of rudimentary magic. A few weeks, and it still makes a strong warrior. Several years, and it can barely hold a sword. I guess this explains why the ministry was able to defeat my legion so quickly."
All 17 of the bound death eaters trembled. Voldemort didn't appear to notice, and hissed, "Of course, the solution to creating stronger animations is simple – you perform the work on younger corpses. And by far, the easiest way to assure a fresh body is to be the one who actually kills the person in the first place."
Harry was mortified – Voldemort surely couldn't be planning… Several of the tied up traitors figured out what was going on and struggled ineffectually against their bonds. Voldemort smiled, and pulled out the same ceremonial dagger he had used at the Patil residence.
Voldemort slowly and menacingly made his way to the first of Lucius' followers, who Harry saw was Draco Malfoy. He can't! Harry's mind screamed, He can't! As Voldemort brought the blade up high above Malfoy's chest, Harry's mind was still desperately insisting, He can't! Voldemort brought the blade down, and right before the blade could penetrate Draco, Harry woke up screaming.
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This is the main reason the story is PG. I don't think I could have imagery like this and call it G…
Well, you know know pretty much everything about the Tome.
AllAboutMe: Thanks!
Serayane: Well, it wouldn't matter much if Padma was freed. Keep in mind, she did voluntarily turn to evil.
Garina: I'm looking for a spot in my outline where I could get him in. Unfortunately, I'm really near the end of the story, so it's not looking too good.
Kim: Actually, I said a canon student. And yes, Draco is now pretty much dead.
Seifer: Thanks!
Temporary Insanity: I think you just came up with the most humorous way to bump of Voldemort. About the force – it's really not that bad. Some rough calculations on my part showed an exit speed of 14 m/s (30 miles/hour) if half the second chamber were open to the outside. About the energy – it's Harry spell. What can I say :)
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