One of the down sides to Quidditch was Draco Malfoy. Draco also happened to
be Seeker and Captain of the Slytherin team. After his first year as
Seeker, it had turned out that Malfoy was actually very skilled at
Quidditch. However, he could never stand up to Harry, who was a natural,
but instead needed all the practices he urged the Slytherin team to go to.
It was only about 6 AM, but Harry hauled his team out of bed, except for Dean, who couldn't be found, and dragged them down to the Quidditch pitch. To his amazement and utter disgust, the Slytherin team were already there, on their new, upgraded brooms, The Meteors (A.N. yes, I know it's a sad name, but you come up with a better one, tell us, and we'll change it), which had been brought by Lucius Malfoy.
Mr Malfoy updated the Slytherins teams brooms every time a faster one came out, whereas Harry had the fastest of the Firebolt series, The Firebolt Streak.
Harry took out his wand and blasted Malfoy out of the air, where he was sitting smugly watching his team, unaware of the Gryffindor team. "MALFOY! How DARE you?! You slimy, stuck-up, filthy, rich GIT!" yelled Harry, his words unusually clear in the morning air. "You know perfectly well we booked the pitch for this time slot!"
Draco, after crashing to the ground amidst Gryffindor sniggers, pushed himself up with as much dignity as he could muster after falling 10 feet and brushed the sand out of his hair with a careless flick. He walked towards the Gryffindors. "Yes. Of course I know. After all, it was YOUR name that I scribbled out on the booking plan. It was way too easy. Madame Hooch wasn't even paying attention. And by the way, Potter, you have a girlish signature."
After this cool remark, he mounted his broom and took off again, leaving the Gryffindor team to simmer angrily. "Oh yes, but we don't mind sharing the pitch, Potter. It's certainly big enough for us all. Except for you, because the size of your ego would fill the pitch easily." Called Malfoy from the air, displaying an amazing range of flying aerobatics.
Harry simply sent another explosion at Draco's leering face, turned his back, waited for the sickening THUD! and stormed back to the changing rooms.
* * *
Two Weeks Later
Harry sat down at the table where all the Quidditch captains had gathered and composed himself, trying to listen to Professor McGonagall's speech. ".and so this is the order of the matches this year; first, the Slytherin versus Gryffindor, then the Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw match, then, in the spring term we'll have." McGonagall's words floated over Harry's head as he moaned silently in his mind. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin was going to be the first match of the year! He HAD to beat Malfoy after what he did a couple of weeks back.
McGonagall finished speaking and it was time for the dates of the matches to be settled. "As much as I hate you, Malfoy, when do you think is an ideal time for the Slytherin team to be totally thrashed by Gryffindor?" Harry growled as he and Draco decided on a date for the first match of the season. Obviously, McGonagall's eyes were upon those two, so they couldn't have a full-scale fight.
"How about this weekend? Or does the Gryffindor team want a bit more time to say their prayers?" Malfoy suggested, his eyes daring Harry to refuse. Harry said yes.
* * *
The Gryffindors and Slytherins were at war that weekend. Some sixth year Gryffindors and some seventh year Slytherins ended up being banned from the match, the scuffle being that several of them had ended up with body parts attached to the wrong places.
Harry, himself, was more concerned with Hermione, who was suffering greatly from having to spend so much time with Draco. Not to mention Blaise, who always seemed to be with Draco, doing some 'inexcusable thing'.
The day of the match was finally here, after an entire week of fights and uproars. Harry walked out onto the pitch, with a glare at Malfoy. He desperately needed luck today, since Dean and Seamus, two of his three Chasers, had been a victim in a fight, and was having their backbones re- grown by Madam Pomfrey at that moment. They did have one reserve, which helped, but he just happened to be Colin Creevey.
Since the custom was that the Captains shook hands before the match, Harry and Draco stepped forwards. Their hands touched lightly and simultaneously dropped back to their sides. Harry made a great show of staring at his hand like he had touched a pile of crap, while Draco made a disgusted face at his hand and wiped it vigorously with a handkerchief. Harry didn't even know that Draco would own a handkerchief.
As the whistle blew, 13 brooms flew into the air (remember, the Gryffindors only had one reserve chaser), and the game began. It was a lot more than a game, this year. This year, it was Harry Potter, The boy who Lived, against Draco Malfoy, The Death Eater (he's not a death eater, but obviously, everyone thinks he is!).
Due to the missing chasers, who always worked in perfect harmony with Natalie McDonald, the third chaser, Slytherin took a good lead. Colin, who had only been entered as a reserve that year, was hyped-up and couldn't catch properly. Natalie was almost in tears. After ten minutes, it was already 80-10 to Slytherin.
Harry's only consolation was that Ginny Weasley and her co-partner, Parvati Patil were great beaters, following strictly to Harry's plan of strategy. They were to hit the bludgers, then follow them which stopped the Slytherin beaters getting near to them, and also gave them a chance to hit the bludgers towards the Slytherins were the were only about a metre or so away.
Another ten minutes or so had given way to another 60 points to the Slytherins and Harry furiously signalled for time-out. "COLIN! What do you think you're doing?!" yelled Harry, completely frustrated. "Get a grip on yourself and stop passing to the Slytherins!" Harry was going to explode, but was held back by about five pairs off hands. Colin, was completely bewildered, and thought he was doing a good job, considering that he was only a reserve. Harry was seriously considering taking Colin off, and settling for just one chaser, when Dean skidded into the changing room.
"Sorry I'm late! Skele-gro doesn't exactly work very fast." He panted, amongst the cheers and whoops of relief. "Seamus won't be able to make this match, he's still got about half his spine and 3 ribs to go." After that, Harry kept Colin on the team and desperately hoped that Dean could keep him in line.
"Ok team, NOW we can go and thrash their filthy arses!" Harry encouraged, as they ran back onto the pitch with renewed vigour. Now, all he had to do was to catch the snitch and he would be positively over the moon. All seemed well for a few minutes, and Harry was scanning the pitch for the Snitch, when he saw something that immediately expelled Colin from the team. He had scored an own goal. Three-quarters of the spectators were in stunned silence, as the Slytherins roared their approval. Harry moaned and threw his head into his hands, almost missing the unmistakable glint of gold.
As he threw his head back up, the Snitch steamed off towards the Slytherin end of the pitch, where Draco was sitting on his broom. Harry couldn't believe that Draco hadn't spotted it already, since Draco was always the only real competitor he had. Harry heard the crowd moan, as Slytherin scored again. The Snitch seemed to be almost making for Draco, as it zoomed happily away. Harry's fingers stretched out to meet the Snitch and he thrust himself onto the tip of his broomstick. The Snitch paused momentarily, but that was enough. Harry snatched it out of the air.
Just then, a bludger rocketed past Harry, who flung himself upside down on his broom to avoid it. Then it made for Draco, who was still sitting in the same position as he was before Harry caught the Snitch. Harry had scarcely yelled out to Malfoy, when it crashed into Draco's broom's tail. Draco, was hurled off his broom, and spiralled down towards the ground. He still hadn't moved from that sitting position, and hadn't even cried out.
But Harry had seen the look of terror in his eyes. Even when Harry had flared up and dislodged his from his broom, he hadn't been this high up. Harry, without a second's thought, let go of the Snitch and scrabbled around in his sleeve for his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he cried, his words deadly clear in the silence from the stands. It worked. Draco went from plunging head first in a stupid sitting position, to floating gently to the ground, where Harry deposited him, before zooming down himself, forgetting completely about the Snitch.
Harry landed and ran towards Draco, still with his broom between his legs. Malfoy wasn't unconscious, his eyes were blinking furiously, but the rest of him was positioned like his was still sitting on his broom, one hand holding it, even though his broom was about ten feet away, stuck handle first into the ground. Harry started to laugh; the sight was so ridiculous.
Various teachers had been making their way over, and Harry was surprised to hear Professor Dumbledore laughing behind him. "Finite Incantatem" he said with a swish of his wand and Draco's leg and arm that were stuck rigidly up slumped to the floor. "Well, Mr Malfoy, do you have any idea who put the Imobilus charm on you while you were flying?" Harry realised that that was why Draco had moved towards the Snitch. He couldn't move!
Draco shook his head, took out his wand, pointed his wand at himself and tried to cast a spell. BANG! His neat blond hair shot up in all directions. Harry and the Gryffindor team were convulsed with a fit of laughter. He couldn't speak either! He had just tried to take a Silencing spell off himself! Dumbledore's mouth was twitching, as he performed the counter- spell. "You creeps! I totally need a rematch!"
Harry stared in amazement. The first words out of his mouth, had it been him, would have been something along the lines of thanks, or I will kill the person who did that, but Malfoy was thinking about QUIDDITCH all the time?! And he wanted a rematch when the Slytherins were trashing the Gryffs? No way! Wait a minute. Harry had caught the Snitch! So what was the score? Harry looked up at the big scoreboard. WHAT?! NO WAY! It was a DRAW?!
It was only about 6 AM, but Harry hauled his team out of bed, except for Dean, who couldn't be found, and dragged them down to the Quidditch pitch. To his amazement and utter disgust, the Slytherin team were already there, on their new, upgraded brooms, The Meteors (A.N. yes, I know it's a sad name, but you come up with a better one, tell us, and we'll change it), which had been brought by Lucius Malfoy.
Mr Malfoy updated the Slytherins teams brooms every time a faster one came out, whereas Harry had the fastest of the Firebolt series, The Firebolt Streak.
Harry took out his wand and blasted Malfoy out of the air, where he was sitting smugly watching his team, unaware of the Gryffindor team. "MALFOY! How DARE you?! You slimy, stuck-up, filthy, rich GIT!" yelled Harry, his words unusually clear in the morning air. "You know perfectly well we booked the pitch for this time slot!"
Draco, after crashing to the ground amidst Gryffindor sniggers, pushed himself up with as much dignity as he could muster after falling 10 feet and brushed the sand out of his hair with a careless flick. He walked towards the Gryffindors. "Yes. Of course I know. After all, it was YOUR name that I scribbled out on the booking plan. It was way too easy. Madame Hooch wasn't even paying attention. And by the way, Potter, you have a girlish signature."
After this cool remark, he mounted his broom and took off again, leaving the Gryffindor team to simmer angrily. "Oh yes, but we don't mind sharing the pitch, Potter. It's certainly big enough for us all. Except for you, because the size of your ego would fill the pitch easily." Called Malfoy from the air, displaying an amazing range of flying aerobatics.
Harry simply sent another explosion at Draco's leering face, turned his back, waited for the sickening THUD! and stormed back to the changing rooms.
* * *
Two Weeks Later
Harry sat down at the table where all the Quidditch captains had gathered and composed himself, trying to listen to Professor McGonagall's speech. ".and so this is the order of the matches this year; first, the Slytherin versus Gryffindor, then the Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw match, then, in the spring term we'll have." McGonagall's words floated over Harry's head as he moaned silently in his mind. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin was going to be the first match of the year! He HAD to beat Malfoy after what he did a couple of weeks back.
McGonagall finished speaking and it was time for the dates of the matches to be settled. "As much as I hate you, Malfoy, when do you think is an ideal time for the Slytherin team to be totally thrashed by Gryffindor?" Harry growled as he and Draco decided on a date for the first match of the season. Obviously, McGonagall's eyes were upon those two, so they couldn't have a full-scale fight.
"How about this weekend? Or does the Gryffindor team want a bit more time to say their prayers?" Malfoy suggested, his eyes daring Harry to refuse. Harry said yes.
* * *
The Gryffindors and Slytherins were at war that weekend. Some sixth year Gryffindors and some seventh year Slytherins ended up being banned from the match, the scuffle being that several of them had ended up with body parts attached to the wrong places.
Harry, himself, was more concerned with Hermione, who was suffering greatly from having to spend so much time with Draco. Not to mention Blaise, who always seemed to be with Draco, doing some 'inexcusable thing'.
The day of the match was finally here, after an entire week of fights and uproars. Harry walked out onto the pitch, with a glare at Malfoy. He desperately needed luck today, since Dean and Seamus, two of his three Chasers, had been a victim in a fight, and was having their backbones re- grown by Madam Pomfrey at that moment. They did have one reserve, which helped, but he just happened to be Colin Creevey.
Since the custom was that the Captains shook hands before the match, Harry and Draco stepped forwards. Their hands touched lightly and simultaneously dropped back to their sides. Harry made a great show of staring at his hand like he had touched a pile of crap, while Draco made a disgusted face at his hand and wiped it vigorously with a handkerchief. Harry didn't even know that Draco would own a handkerchief.
As the whistle blew, 13 brooms flew into the air (remember, the Gryffindors only had one reserve chaser), and the game began. It was a lot more than a game, this year. This year, it was Harry Potter, The boy who Lived, against Draco Malfoy, The Death Eater (he's not a death eater, but obviously, everyone thinks he is!).
Due to the missing chasers, who always worked in perfect harmony with Natalie McDonald, the third chaser, Slytherin took a good lead. Colin, who had only been entered as a reserve that year, was hyped-up and couldn't catch properly. Natalie was almost in tears. After ten minutes, it was already 80-10 to Slytherin.
Harry's only consolation was that Ginny Weasley and her co-partner, Parvati Patil were great beaters, following strictly to Harry's plan of strategy. They were to hit the bludgers, then follow them which stopped the Slytherin beaters getting near to them, and also gave them a chance to hit the bludgers towards the Slytherins were the were only about a metre or so away.
Another ten minutes or so had given way to another 60 points to the Slytherins and Harry furiously signalled for time-out. "COLIN! What do you think you're doing?!" yelled Harry, completely frustrated. "Get a grip on yourself and stop passing to the Slytherins!" Harry was going to explode, but was held back by about five pairs off hands. Colin, was completely bewildered, and thought he was doing a good job, considering that he was only a reserve. Harry was seriously considering taking Colin off, and settling for just one chaser, when Dean skidded into the changing room.
"Sorry I'm late! Skele-gro doesn't exactly work very fast." He panted, amongst the cheers and whoops of relief. "Seamus won't be able to make this match, he's still got about half his spine and 3 ribs to go." After that, Harry kept Colin on the team and desperately hoped that Dean could keep him in line.
"Ok team, NOW we can go and thrash their filthy arses!" Harry encouraged, as they ran back onto the pitch with renewed vigour. Now, all he had to do was to catch the snitch and he would be positively over the moon. All seemed well for a few minutes, and Harry was scanning the pitch for the Snitch, when he saw something that immediately expelled Colin from the team. He had scored an own goal. Three-quarters of the spectators were in stunned silence, as the Slytherins roared their approval. Harry moaned and threw his head into his hands, almost missing the unmistakable glint of gold.
As he threw his head back up, the Snitch steamed off towards the Slytherin end of the pitch, where Draco was sitting on his broom. Harry couldn't believe that Draco hadn't spotted it already, since Draco was always the only real competitor he had. Harry heard the crowd moan, as Slytherin scored again. The Snitch seemed to be almost making for Draco, as it zoomed happily away. Harry's fingers stretched out to meet the Snitch and he thrust himself onto the tip of his broomstick. The Snitch paused momentarily, but that was enough. Harry snatched it out of the air.
Just then, a bludger rocketed past Harry, who flung himself upside down on his broom to avoid it. Then it made for Draco, who was still sitting in the same position as he was before Harry caught the Snitch. Harry had scarcely yelled out to Malfoy, when it crashed into Draco's broom's tail. Draco, was hurled off his broom, and spiralled down towards the ground. He still hadn't moved from that sitting position, and hadn't even cried out.
But Harry had seen the look of terror in his eyes. Even when Harry had flared up and dislodged his from his broom, he hadn't been this high up. Harry, without a second's thought, let go of the Snitch and scrabbled around in his sleeve for his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he cried, his words deadly clear in the silence from the stands. It worked. Draco went from plunging head first in a stupid sitting position, to floating gently to the ground, where Harry deposited him, before zooming down himself, forgetting completely about the Snitch.
Harry landed and ran towards Draco, still with his broom between his legs. Malfoy wasn't unconscious, his eyes were blinking furiously, but the rest of him was positioned like his was still sitting on his broom, one hand holding it, even though his broom was about ten feet away, stuck handle first into the ground. Harry started to laugh; the sight was so ridiculous.
Various teachers had been making their way over, and Harry was surprised to hear Professor Dumbledore laughing behind him. "Finite Incantatem" he said with a swish of his wand and Draco's leg and arm that were stuck rigidly up slumped to the floor. "Well, Mr Malfoy, do you have any idea who put the Imobilus charm on you while you were flying?" Harry realised that that was why Draco had moved towards the Snitch. He couldn't move!
Draco shook his head, took out his wand, pointed his wand at himself and tried to cast a spell. BANG! His neat blond hair shot up in all directions. Harry and the Gryffindor team were convulsed with a fit of laughter. He couldn't speak either! He had just tried to take a Silencing spell off himself! Dumbledore's mouth was twitching, as he performed the counter- spell. "You creeps! I totally need a rematch!"
Harry stared in amazement. The first words out of his mouth, had it been him, would have been something along the lines of thanks, or I will kill the person who did that, but Malfoy was thinking about QUIDDITCH all the time?! And he wanted a rematch when the Slytherins were trashing the Gryffs? No way! Wait a minute. Harry had caught the Snitch! So what was the score? Harry looked up at the big scoreboard. WHAT?! NO WAY! It was a DRAW?!