Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw
Harry wiped the water from his eyes in frustration. Just his luck that it should start raining five minutes after the game started. He was only in the rain for thirty seconds before he was totally drenched. The strong winds and fierce rain not only made Harry wished for the raging fire in the Gryffindor common room, but also for a set of dry clothes. Now he truly understood how the little match girl felt in the famed fairy tale. Through the fuzzy blur of falling waters, Harry could make out three red figures flying in a zigzag manner between three blue figures. A whistle sounded somewhere and some faint announcement echoed soon after.
"Time out, please?" Harry flew down to Ms Hugh and requested for a break. Ms Hugh nodded understandingly. She herself seemed in a desperate need for a time out as well. As Harry flew downwards, he heard her blasting her whistle.
"Ten minutes, time!"
The Quidditch team gathered at their 'departure point' and met Hermione and Ginny. All seven of them looked as though they had lived underwater for a few years.
"Okay… guys… this rain is not going to make our job much easier. So, Hermione, can you do that erm… water-repelling thing on our eyes? Ginny… is that… erm…"
Ginny held out a flask and handed them to Harry while Hermione did the spell on the Quidditch team's eyes. Her expression was passive. "Warm water, from Dobby."
Harry smiled and nodded his thanks. As he turned to pass the flask to his teammates, he could have sworn he saw Ginny smiled slightly. While the Quidditch team downed the water, Alex edged closer to Harry.
"Keep a look out for Cho."
Harry nodded. "I will."
Alex shook her head. "Not in that way. I feel that something is going to happen… just… just keep a look out for her, okay?"
Harry looked at Alex sceptically, but nodded. Something about her tone and the intense way her eyes bored themselves, wielded her thoughts and even slight fear into Harry's mind and half-covered the feeling of disbelief.
Through the racket the rain made, Harry made out a whistle indicating the end of time out. He sighed. "Alright guys… time to go."
As he soared into the pouring rain again, he puzzled slightly over Alex's words. She had not seemed that serious, neither was she so grim before. Harry bit his lips. Alex came from the country of mysterious legends, and she seemed so much more knowledgeable that anyone in Hogwarts was. Her words seemed credible enough to be taken seriously.
Harry squinted through the foggy mist in search for a familiar raven hair Ravenclaw. Due to the spell Hermione did on his glasses, the previously almost-opaque rain was slightly more transparent. With only a few seconds of squinting, he saw his friend, doing something suspiciously like squinting and peering. He smiled and flew down to her.
"Looking for cute guys?" he asked teasingly.
Cho jumped and grinned at him. "Yeah, now I'm seeing one."
Harry grinned in reply. The two Seekers hovered above the ground, looking around for the precious Snitch. As Harry's half obscured vision swept past the field, he saw Alex looking at the both of them every so often. He wondered at that.
"One more goal for Gryffindor!" Jordan Lee's voice echoed somewhere, amplified by magic. "Gryffindor leads Ravenclaw by a score of hundred and seventy to twenty!"
Cho raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Can we have Alex for our next game?"
Harry laughed slightly. "Ask her and Madam Hooch about…" Then, he caught sight of a sparkling glimmer in the distance. Without finishing his sentence, he sped towards the Snitch.
Cho pressed forward and caught up with Harry's broom. It was then he realized that Cho was using the same broom as he was. They exchange a knowing smile. Both of them pressed forward, their brooms barely overtaking each other. Harry was vaguely aware of Jordan Lee's voice getting high and excited as both of them were nearing the Snitch. The little golden ball whiz around to field, trying to shake off the pursuers, but both Seekers were close to its wings. Suddenly, The Snitch shot upwards. In a neck-breaking twist of direction, both Cho and Harry changed their direction and flew vertically.
He heard Jordan Lee's voice, magically amplified in the distance. "Now, both Potter and Chang are chasing the Snitch! And – oh my lord! – both are using the same broom, THE Firebolt. Now, Potter's broom was two years old, while Chang's seemed brand new. Will Potter get the Snitch with an older broom? And there goes the Snitch again! The Snitch had now changed direction and is flying towards the Ravenclaw's goal posts!"
Harry held on tight to his Firebolt, and urged his broom to fly even faster than Cho's. The Snitch whirred its wing and sped off in another direction. The Seekers followed, but a few minutes later, it shot downwards again. Harry followed the Snitch, but Cho had not managed to follow the sharp turn and overshot by a few metres.
Harry smiled as he inched towards the Snitch. Suddenly, before him, a blue figure zipped under his nose and knocked his balance off. A loud applause was heard as Harry tumbled in an undignified manner onto the wet and muddy pitch.
"Cho Chang got the Snitch! Gryffindor and Ravenclaw draw for the second game!" Jordan Lee's voice announced, half excited and half disappointed. Harry picked himself up and allowed the rain to wash off the mud on him. In a few seconds, Cho and Alex joined him. Albeit Cho and Harry were in different teams, they hugged each other tightly in exhilaration.
"That was great!" Harry said to Cho's smiling face.
"That was a fluke," Cho replied modestly, but her eyes sparkled in great delight.
"Harry! Cho!" Hermione and Ginny came running to them, their Gryffindor velvet cloaks were drenched and sticking to her arms, but they didn't care. Hermione and Ginny exchanged a hug with Cho, both congratulating her for getting the Snitch.
"Good one man…" Harry turned and saw Julian extending a hand, his bronze face breaking in a wide smile. "I wouldn't be able to do all that twists. You're good."
Harry smiled modestly. "It's not really that great… I..."
"Don't be modest. The flying was awesome! The whole game practically stopped to see both of you!"
"That's right," one of the Ravenclaw Beaters grinned lopsidedly. He stuck out a hand at Harry. "I'm Devir Polis. Your friend there was right. All of us stopped when Lee described both of you flying and just hung down there and watched! Truly amazing!"
Harry felt his ears burning slightly from the praises. "Nah… It's just the broom."
Devir shook his head. "Nope… flying needs the broom and the flier, right Cho?"
Cho grinned. "Right."
"Great game," Devir stuck his hands at the Weasley twins and grinned. "You guys were good too."
"Thanks."
"Hey… Cho?"
Cho turned towards Devir, who had a cheeky look on his face. "Haven't you always wanted to show off that you had caught the Snitch in front of the famous Harry Potter?"
Cho and Harry laughed. Then Cho raised the wriggling Snitch up high and was awarded a deafening applause from both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
The sky flashed and something crashed down onto the Quidditch teams. The impact caused a deafening explosion and threw everyone in a circular direction. Harry felt a faint ringing sound in his head as he picked himself up for a second time. The centre of the Quidditch pitch was charred black with a single blue figure lying in the middle of it. Her ebony hair was strewn messily about her.
"Cho!"
Harry scampered up and pressed a hand to his temple. He staggered towards Cho, who was lying motionlessly with a dying Snitch in her hand. As the golden ball wheezed and whirred, Cho's face was tensed and spoke of intense pain. He reached out a hand to touch her.
"Harry! Don't!" Alex and Julian shouted. They half ran, half stumbled to him. Alex spoke first. "She's struck by lightning. Don't touch her yet."
Harry felt his heart stopped temporarily and he dropped onto the grass as his knees felt the strength seeping outwards.
'Cho…'
* * *
Harry felt the gentle hand on his shoulder and he turned back. "Hey Alex."
Alex smiled back in reply. "I'm sure Cho would be just fine."
Harry clenched his fists tightly and banged them on the side of the mattress, barely missing Cho's motionless body. "Why did this happen? Why? Why?" Then in frustration, he buried his face in his palms.
Alex did not answer, but the grip on his shoulder tightened. Her brows knitted tightly as she cast a look at Cho's marble like complexion.
"Alex… Was this why you want me to look out for Cho?" Harry's muffled voice drifted from between his fingers. "Did you know something was going to happen? Have you seen it before?"
"I..."
Harry turned over and grabbed her wrists with a death-like grip. "Tell me. Will any of my friends be wounded or hurt?" Seeing that Alex did not answer. "TELL ME!"
"Harry! Calm down!" Alex cried. Madam Pomfrey shot them an annoyed Look and shooed them out of the hospital.
"Harry… I know you're upset about Cho's mishap, but you have to calm down."
Harry looked up. Alex could see, with crystal clarity, the anger as well as the desperation in Harry's jade eyes. "Alex… please… I want to protect my friends…"
Alex bit her lips. She gently eased her wrists from Harry's hands and sighed. "Yes, I have seen it…"
Harry gripped her shoulders this time. "How? Can you See things at your own will?"
She looked troubled, but Harry did not realize. "Yes, I can." Alex then took a deep breath. "I saw your incident with your scar, as well as Cho's mishap…"
Harry swallowed. He knew there was something about Alex's look that day at the hospital. But the main problem now was not the past. He was more concerned about the future. "Tell me, Alex. Will any of my friends be hurt again?"
Alex shrugged weakly and looked away. "I haven't tried Seeing things for a while…" Her voice trailed off.
"Can you? Now?" Harry persisted. "Please?"
She sighed and finally nodded. "Follow me."
* * *
Harry was amazed. He knew Alex came from a country with 5000 years of mythology and magic, and that her foundation of magic would be much stronger than hers, but never had he expected her to have the abilities to conjure up a room out of nowhere from the fireplace in their common room. He looked around the spacious room, which was probably able to fit five or six four-posters comfortably, and was amazed by the numerous exotic ornaments placed around the room. In the centre of the room, was an octagon shaped drawing with a circular diagram resting directly in the middle. Each of the sides had three lines placed in a column, but some of these lines were broken at different positions to create eight unique sides.
"Alex?"
"Yes?"
Harry pointed to
the formation. "What's that?"
"Ba Gua, or what we called Eight Trigrams," Alex replied matter-of-factly. Seeing Harry's puzzled face, she continued with a smile. "This formation was created by one of our gods, Fu Xi. Each of these sides represents one of the elements around on around us, namely, Sky, Wind, Water, Mountains, Earth, Lightning, Fire and Marshes."
As she listed the various elements, she pointed to each of the sides in a clockwise direction starting from the very top. Harry nodded. Then he eyed the circular diagram in the middle. It was a figure that on first look, looked like two commas resting against each other to form a perfect circle. One of the sides was white while the other was a contrasting black. Something that Harry noticed was that in the broader end of each side, there would be a smaller circle of the opposite colour.
"That's the Yin-Yang diagram. It symbolises the equality of the Yin-Yang forces around us. If you really measure the area of the sides, you will find that both sides are actually of the exact same area."
"Awesome…" Harry breathed, temporarily forgetting his upset feelings a moment ago. Alex gazed at his child-like look for a while before looking away.
"Harry? I need you to stand at least a metre away."
Harry straightened up and looked enquiringly at Alex. She shrugged. "The process might affect you."
'Affect?' Harry wondered but followed Alex's instructions. As he estimated the metre distance, Alex sat on the Yin-Yang diagram and closed her eyes. Immediately, the lights in the room dimmed considerably. Harry looked at Alex as she placed her palms together and started murmuring to herself in, what Harry guessed, Chinese.
* * *
(A/N: The following will be in Alex's point of view, which I had been trying to avoid writing in. But this is really, really required for this Seeing part, so… hope you guys like it! By the way, those in italics are Chinese. So sorry if you guys don't understand it… I'll put the translation at the end of the chapter… ;D)
"*Tian, Feng, Shui, Shan, Di, Lei, Huo, Ze," Alex chanted. "**Qing ni men gei wo li liang, rang wo zai ci neng gou wang xiang wei lai zhi shi."
She felt a strong energy force gathering within her palms and using her right index and middle fingers, she directed this energy force to her forehead, between her eyebrows. Then, she saw images flashing past rapidly in her mind's eyes. She knew that all of these are pictures of the future. Now's the hard part.
"***Yin li, Yang qi, qing zhu wo yi bi zhi li." Alex could feel the images slowing down, but also, her body warming up uncomfortably. "****Rang wo kan dao wo gai kan dao de shi qing!"
She saw a smiling, friendly face flashed past in front of her, and then, an even more familiar face grinned cruelly at both the face and then at her. The last thing she saw, was a wrinkled palm heading for her.
Then, she lost control of the force.
* * *
* Tian, Feng, Shui, Shan, Di, Lei, Huo, Ze are the Chinese pronunciation for the elements in the Eight Trigrams in clockwise order. (Tian = Sky, Feng = Wind, Shui = Water, Shan = Mountains, Di = Earth, Lei = Lightning, Huo = Fire, Ze = Marshes.)
** Qing ni men gei wo li liang, rang wo zai ci neng gou wang xiang wei lai zhi shi (please give me the strength, enable me to have the vision of future)
*** Yin li, Yang qi, qing zhu wo yi bi zhi li (power of the Yin force, strength of the Yang force, please aid me…)
****Rang wo kan dao wo gai kan dao de shi qing! (Please let me see all that I was supposed to see!)
* * *
Hihi! Sorry for not updating for sooooo long. Almost three or four months I guess… =P real sorry. Hope you like this new chapter. The information about the Eight Trigrams and Yin-Yang are true, (I hope… =P) but if my research had not gone wrong, those should be true. ^_^ Thank you for reading… and would you just review it as well? #^_^# a million thanks!!!!!!!