NOTES:
Yes… the Quidditch game! W00bieness abounds as our favorite people play the Spanish team!
DEDICATION:
To Kate, because she is awesome and helped me with naming, because I suck at it.
DISCLAIMER:
They were brought to me, wrapped in red ribbons, for Chinese New Year. Right…
*~*~*~*
The Spanish all-star team was the best that that nation had seen for years. Pedro Rodriguez, their captain, was an enthusiastic, dignified man of about thirty years of age. He had not only skill, but great nationalistic pride in his team and country.
One of their Chasers, Paco De Las Casas, immediately got into a grapple for the Quaffle at the start of the game. Both him and Cass had shot forward at the same moment to grab the red ball out of the air as the referee had released it. Eventually, Cass had emerged victorious, and had made off with it towards the goal posts, where Keeper Maria Lucia waited.
She managed to score, narrowly swerving out of the way of a bludger aimed at her head, but Spanish Chaser Mercedes San Josefina caught the red ball on the rebound, and determinedly flew forward with it in possession, in order to make the second shot of the game and even out the score.
San Josefina dodged the attempts of Cornfoot to capture the Quaffle, as well as a bludger from Whitby, and threw the Quaffle at the center goal hoop. Oliver managed to save it at the last minute, and threw it into Warrington's waiting arms. The Slytherin Chaser made off with it, and wove in and out of various Spanish players to reach Cornfoot; then the two passed it back and forth in coordinated movements until they had come within twenty feet of Cass, who was waiting at the Spanish end of the field.
Warrington gave Cass a look, and the other Slytherin Chaser nodded briefly. The young man pretended to fumble, tossing the ball forward and slightly downward, and Cass flew towards him, somersaulting on her broom and catching the Quaffle upside down. The maneuver was quite difficult, rarely attempted... but the two had liked to work with it when they'd played together in their schooldays. And a bludger hit by Guillermo De Oro whizzed by harmlessly, where her head would have been had she not been upside down on the broom.
By then, Steven Cornfoot, figuring out the move, had zoomed forward, and was in the scoring area. Cass turned and passed to him, and he managed to score the second shot of the game.
Catalina De Luna, Spanish Chaser, captured the Quaffle on the rebound, and along with Paco De Las Casas and Mercedes San Josefina, went into Hawkshead Attacking Formation. Dodging bludgers right and left, the Spanish Chasers managed to score.
The two teams were really about evenly matched, and in the next hour, the game was simply a battle back and forth, for the Quaffle. Sometimes the English team would have it, and sometimes the Spanish. Both Keepers would pull of spectacular saves, while the Chasers on both sides would also score brilliant shots. Within the next hour, the score was 50:40, after Warrington had put another rather difficult shot past Lucia.
So far, to Oliver's pleasant astonishment, neither teams had fouled; his team had played according to the rules, and even the Slytherins that he had a natural inclination to... worry about, were playing a fair, clean game. The Spanish team, too... they were enthusiastic, certainly, but also seemed too proud to do something such as resort to dirty tactics. Oliver was immeasurably grateful.
He watched as Cass, dark hair whipping in the wind, one hand firmly on her broom handle, the other with the Quaffle in possession, shot off, a whoosh of blue robes, towards the goal posts again. Skyler Zabini was trailing behind her teammate, Beater club in one hand, and when Paco De Las Casas shot towards Cass to intercept the Quaffle, the female Beater pelted a bludger at his head. De Las Casas ducked and the bludger passed over his head, but that second was enough for Cass to score again. Oliver smiled.
She was really a damn fine player.
Then, he shook his head, clearing it of the unruly thoughts. She... didn't love him. But then... he had been a prat, yelling at her and Warrington for no reason... he sighed, and told himself to concentrate on the game, not a moment too soon, for De Luna was coming at him with the Quaffle.
And at the last moment, just as he was bracing himself for a shot, a blue blur cut off De Luna, and Cass had gotten the Quaffle once again. The two Chasers seemed to have a small battle of their own, fighting for the red ball and for superiority as both tried to make off and score again.
In the end, the Spanish Chaser was victorious, as Rodriguez helpfully hit a bludger at Cass, and Catalina De Luna used that moment to capture the Quaffle.
De Luna scored, and Cass flew forward to catch it on the rebound. She didn't have anything rebuking to say to Oliver this time, for not making the save, much to the latter's surprise. It couldn't have been that she had not realized that the Spanish had scored again.
Cass was, in fact, too busy reprimanding herself for a moment's distraction to scold him. She had managed to intercept the Quaffle from De Luna, well aware of Wood's eyes on her back. Her thoughts had immediately gone to him, and that one moment was all it took for the Spanish captain to force her to drop the Quaffle.
Sod distraction... but... to be fair, it wasn't Wood's fault...
She found that she couldn't automatically blame him, and didn't know whether to be vexed, or gratified about that fact.
She caught it, and passed it to a nearby Steven Cornfoot, who zoomed off with it, Kevin Whitby covering for him as De Las Casas went forward in an attempt to intercept it. Steven passed it back to Cass, who passed it back to him, and at the last moment, the Ravenclaw scored.
Catalina De Luna caught the Quaffle on the rebound, and flew off in the opposite direction with it, passing it about halfway down the field to Mercedes San Josefina.
Warrington punched the Quaffle out of San Josefina's arms, and Cass shot forward to join him, automatically participating in the Porskoff Ploy as they endeavored to score again. It was successful, and Warrington scored. And so, the score was 80:50, in the first two hours minutes of the game, in favor of the English team.
San Josefina made another shot for the Spanish, and the gap between the scores lessened, the Spanish supporters cheering in the background. Cass captured the Quaffle again, and practically spinning in continual somersaults on her broom to avoid the intercepting arms of the Spanish Chasers and the bludgers hit by the Spanish Beaters, she managed to get the Quaffle to Warrington once again.
Warrington shot forward with it. Built differently than Cass, he was not so much for aerial acrobatics, but depended more on his superior size and strength rather than limber agility to keep the Quaffle in possession. Guillermo De Oro hit a bludger at him, as Paco De Las Casas flew to his other side in an effort to steal the Quaffle.
"I don't think so," Skyler Zabini said in a deceptively cheerful, almost sing-song voice, shooting off towards the bludger hit by De Oro and altering its trajectory with a swipe of her bat. De Las Casas narrowly avoided getting hit in the midsection, and Warrington's path was clear to score once again.
"90:60, Warrington scores for England!" the Commentator announced, and as Steven captured the Quaffle on the rebound, Warrington smirked and blew Skyler a kiss.
Steven scored again, and English supporters, whistling and cheering for Warrington and Skyler, broke into applause once again.
Mercedes San Josefina captured the Quaffle on the rebound this time, and shot off in the opposite direction. And then, as she was about halfway across the field, the crowd gasped as Harry Potter and Miguel Sanchez suddenly dived towards the Commentator stand.
The Golden Snitch had appeared.
San Josefina, uncaring of the fact that the Seekers had gone in pursuit of the snitch, continued towards the goal posts, weaving in and out of other players. Cass, who had been at about midfield when San Josefina had caught the Quaffle on the rebound, immediately went towards the English goals as well, in defensive mode.
Pedro Rodriguez, watching carefully, saw San Josefina pass into the scoring area, and hit a bludger at Wood.
Wood braced for impact, intent on saving the shot rather than ducking the bludger and allowing San Josefina to score.
But impact... of the bludger... never came.
There was the sickening crunch of a bludger hitting and breaking a bone, then a scream of pain, immediately drowned out by the roar of the crowds as Harry Potter caught the snitch.
And then there was impact. Oliver all of the sudden found a figure in blue falling towards him.
Cass. Cass?! She had shielded him.
And then, it made sense. She had cut right in front of him, just as San Josefina had thrown the Quaffle, and the red ball had glanced off her arm, a split second before the bludger had hit her.
Just as Harry had captured the snitch.
Cass was hurting badly, her right arm useless, the bone broken where the bludger had impacted. She swayed on her broom, trying to keep from falling off, but the pain was blinding... she felt herself leaning dangerously backward... wondering if anyone had noticed, with the Seekers...
She would fall...
But she didn't, and instead found her wobbling form caught around the waist, and the whoosh of air as she was flown to the ground. The pain was increasing at every second, and gradually, the world seemed to fall away... there were a pair of warm, brown, familiar eyes, dark with worry, staring into hers.
"Cass..." Oliver said urgently, pulling the girl onto his own broom and flying off with her towards the mediwizard tent, completely unheeding anything else around him, including the referee flying behind him telling him to go accept the World Cup that he and his team had won after so much work. All his attention was focused on the injured woman in his arms, her face pale with pain, her eyes wide, her hair tangled with the wind. Her good arm was wrapped around him, clinging to him as he flew off with her.
And the last thing she did before losing consciousness from the pain, was give him a small smile.
He dropped her off at the mediwizard tent, and the referee, clucking disapprovingly, dragged him off.
Their team had won the Cup.
But she was not there to share it... to be passed the trophy as all the other held for a moment.
Oliver was glad for the victory, but at the moment, it didn't seem to have impacted him yet.
Or perhaps, his heart was elsewhere.
*~*~*~*
w00t! They won! They won!! And I promise... Oliver and Cass will work things out and start snogging soon! Really!