A/N: Hello, all! I'm going to finish/post this now, because in less than twenty-four hours, I head off to Germany for two weeks. I thought you guys might appreciate a chapter before I leave. Besides, if I stay up all night tonight, then maybe I'll be so tired that I'll actually sleep on the plane tomorrow, and then I won't have any jet lag! *crosses fingers* So yeah. The sad thing is, I'll be there when HP OotP comes out………… *cries* I'm really, really, really hoping that I can find it in English there. If that's the case, then I get it a good six hours before lots of you guys reading this!!!!!!! *grins* It'll be the British version, too!!!!!!!!!!!! But so anyway, here we go on the new chapter.
Oh, and Kay13: LOONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chapter 8 – The Quidditch Game
"And Angelina catches the quaffle," Lee Jordan shouted from his position as the commentator. "She passes it to Katie, who, by the way, got a new broomstick last year, from the Nimbus series. She-"
"Move it," Shawna said as she pushed him from his seat, "Cassi and I want to comment."
"But-"
"No. Allee said we could," Cassi said.
"Not fair!"
"Oh, but I think it is. Remie? Coming, dearest?" Cassi hugged Remus, who had followed her into the announcing booth.
Shawna grabbed the microphone from Lee's hand, and Cassi opened the door to allow him to leave. Utterly confused and frustrated, Lee shuffled out to join his friends in the Gryffindor stands.
"Katie Bell shoots the quaffle, and… Yes! Go Katie! She scores!" Shawna shouted.
On the Quidditch field, Ax shook his head sadly, overbalancing and falling forward again. His broom dived down with him, until he managed to pull himself upright again. During that time, Gryffindor scored twice more.
Cassi grabbed the microphone from Shawna. "Aw, Ax! Come on! You can do better than that! Beat the Gryffindors!!!!!!!!!! Oh, sorry, Remus…"
Suddenly, Tobias swooped into the field where Alicia had just taken the quaffle. As she tried to score again, he swooped in and caught it. He immediately turned his broom around and started racing for the Gryffindor goals.
Jake and Marco came along beside him to fend off the Gryffindors, who were now pressing in on Tobias, trying to keep him from scoring. A bludger flew from nowhere, and Tobias had to make a sharp turn to avoid it, nearly running into Jake. Jake spun around a couple of times before doing a nosedive toward the ground, completely inept at flying.
Tobias released the quaffle, sending it flying at the middle goal. Oliver, however, quickly beat it away, resulting in no goal for the Animorphs.
While the other players were at the opposite end of the field, Ax zipped back and forth between his three goals. As he approached one of them, he spotted a girl in the crowd stuffing something in her mouth, as well as sharing some of it with her friends. He decided to buzz by to see what it was.
Above everybody, Harry and Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob scanned the area for the glimmer of gold that would signal the presence of the snitch. However, it was nowhere to be found.
Once again, Alicia grabbed the quaffle, and started zooming towards the Animorphs' goals. She hesitated for a moment, though, when she noticed the lack of a Keeper.
In the Hufflepuff stands, Susan Bone looked at the field with confusion as the weird centaur-animagus zipped straight at her. Her friends anxiously muttered about the loony Americans. Ax came closer and closer, and Susan started to feel a bit nervous. To calm herself down, she unwrapped one of her chocolate frogs.
"Chocolate! I want chocolate! Chok-let! Ch!" Ax screamed as he crashed into the Hufflepuff stands. The students scattered, and Susan, screaming, dropped all of her candy. The Hufflepuffs huddled together in a circle around Ax, who had now dropped his broom and was standing in the midst of the candy Susan and her friends had been eating. He gave them a crazed grin, squatted, and tore open the wrapper of a chocolate frog.
Back on the field, the Gryffindors scored over and over again. Within thirty seconds, they had a score of two hundred.
"^!@%!" Rachel hissed. A bludger sailed past her, and she slammed it with her club towards Katie, who currently had the quaffle. Rachel smirked. If that didn't stop her from scoring, nothing would.
Erek watched the bludger from the corner of his eye, but turned away. However, he started to turn back, unintentionally.
"Not good…" he muttered. Suddenly, he found himself speeding towards the bludger. "Oh, no. Definitely not good." He picked up more and more speed as he went, until he was nothing but a blur. "CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled. "I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE MY PROGRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"What the heck?" Rachel said as she watched her supposed partner race toward the bludger.
Katie threw the quaffle through the goal and turned back to her teammates with a smug smile. The smile dropped, however, when she saw the bludger flying straight for her face, and it was no more than a few meters away.
Erek closed his hologram eyes, wishing he could do the same with his real light sensors. He did not want to watch what happened. Just as the bludger was about to knock Katie into oblivion, he slammed into the ball, effectively knocking it away from Katie. His hologram faded, then came back, then shut down completely.
"Owwie…" Erek said. With those words, he slipped off his broom and fell.
"Crap," Rachel said. "Crap. EREK, DAMN YOU, WHY DIDN'T YOU USE A PEMALITE CRYSTAL OR SOMETHING BEFORE YOU TRIED TO BE A BEATER?!?!"
Marco and Jake looked at Rachel, looked at each other and shook their heads sadly. They immediately rushed down to see if Erek, now a heap of metal on the ground, was okay.
"I'm okay!" Erek yelled from the ground. However, his words were followed by a shower of sparks.
In the commentator's spot, Shawna burst into peals of laughter. Cassi, on the other hand, grasped the microphone tightly. "Oh, dear," she said. "We seem to have had an injury. Erek, you okay? Uh… Somebody call an ambulance or something. Yeah, people, anybody here a good mechanic?"
In the Gryffindor stands, Hermione gaped at the field. "That's not possible! If he's an android, he should have frozen up the moment he stepped onto Hogwarts property! The magic is too strong! It screws up electricity!"
A boy sitting behind her leaned forward and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Who are you?" Hermione demanded. Ron scooted closer to her, and turned around, too.
"Carl. Allee's boyfriend."
Ron's jaw dropped. "Boyfriend? It's possible to date that madwoman?"
Carl shrugged. "I suppose. I am, so yeah, it's possible."
Ron shook his head and turned back to the game. "Unbelievable."
"What I was going to say, though, was that you should just stop relying on rules while Allee's around. She tends to make up her own. And the universe, or, the multiverse, in this case, tends to listen to her. Especially when she has a laptop."
"The laptop shouldn't be working either."
"Well, she says it should."
"The laws of science say it shouldn't."
"Since when did the laws of science apply to magic?"
Hermione glared at him for a moment, then turned around with an indignant sniff.
Carl giggled. "I win."
From her position on the Quidditch court, Allee yelled, "No! I win!"
Sighing, Carl shrugged. "Darn…"
***
Jared huddled in a corner of the boat. Fog drifted around him in gray wisps, and it was cold. It was like some sort of nightmare. The only other occupant of the boat was the captain, an scary old man with a cane. For some reason, he reminded Jared of the old man Jafar pretended to be when he got Aladdin to find the lamp in Disney's Aladdin.
"Whaddya do?" Jafar asked.
"Huh?"
"Whaddya do to get into Azkaban?"
"Oh." Jared shrugged. "I don't know. I met the friend of my girlfriend."
"Unless the friend's name is one that must not be named, I didn't realize that was a crime."
"Neither did I."
Jared turned away, wanting the conversation to be over. Luckily, the captain seemed to take the hint. They sailed through the fog in silence. As they came closer to the island, however, Jared heard the sound of singing. He looked around in confusion. After about a minute, the words became clear.
"Ninety-nine people with happy thoughts in the jail, ninety-nine people with happy thoughts! Take one down, kiss him around, ninety-eight people with happy thoughts in the jail!"
"What?" Jared repeated. The song went to the tune of "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer".
The boat bumped to a stop at the dock, and the captain jumped out the tie the boat in place. "Here we are," he croaked.
Jared stood uncertainly. "Thanks. I think."
With a gap-toothed grin, the captain raised his cane towards the top of the hill. "Meet your prison guards… The dementors!"
On the top of the hill were five black figures, skipping toward them. Yes, skipping. Their arms were linked, and as they came, they sang. "Ninety-seven people with happy thoughts in the jail…"
Jared looked at them for just a couple seconds, then fell into a sobbing heap. "No, no, no! I want to go home!"
"Thanks, buddy!" one of the dementors yelled to the captain, then grabbed Jared.
Jared continued to cry as the icy cold presence of the singing dementors penetrated his body, and they dragged him toward the main building.
"Take one down, kiss him around, ninety-five people with happy thoughts in the jail!"
***
Ax stood in the Hufflepuff stands, moaning. It felt like his stomach was jumping around his insides!
"What are these things?" he cried, holding up the wrapper of a chocolate frog.
"Don't you like them?" Susan asked, finally having overcome a bit of her fear and crept closer.
"Noooooo…"
Susan frowned. "Here. Try these."
She pushed a carton at Ax.
"What are they?"
"Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans."
"Jelly beans? I like jelly beans."
A few of Susan's friends giggled. "Yes. Jelly beans."
"Beans!" Ax grabbed a handful and shoved them into his mouth. He chewed once, twice. All color drained from his face, and he bent over and spat all of them out.
"Do you not like them?"
Ax stood again, shaking. "I will never eat human food again. You people are crazy." With that, he grabbed his broom and flew back into the field.
Erek laid on the ground, sparks flying from his android body. However, he pushed himself to a standing position and looked around. "Was the girl okay?" he asked.
Marco and Jake rolled their eyes. "Yeah. She's fine."
"Good," Erek said. "I don't think I like this game."
Erek stood shakily and climbed on his broom. It didn't seem to fit under him right, though.
"Uh… Erek?" Marco said. "I think you might want to sit the rest of the game out."
"Why?"
Jake pointed at Erek's hips. They were swiveled around to a ninety-degree angle from his torso.
"Oh."
Marco shrugged. "Sorry, buddy."
"Think I'll be able to find somebody who can fix a Chee?"
Jake shook his head. "Good luck."
Erek stood and crabwalked off to the side of the field. He wasn't going to be able to play anymore.
Jake and Marco gave a commiserating smile, then they jumped back onto their brooms and flew back into the air to help out Tobias.
From above them came Rachel's crow of triumph. "YES! NO MORE USELESS ANDROIDS! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Tobias buzzed by Jake. "Your cousin is crazy."
Jake nodded. "Yeah. But you're the one dating her."
High above them, Harry spotted a glimmer of gold at the far end of the field. He fell into a deep dive. He could see himself grabbing the snitch now.
Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob watched him in horror. There was no way she could grab it now.
She froze. Unless… Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob closed her eyes and began to concentrate.
Harry was only five meters from the snitch. Four. Three. Two. One.
Suddenly, a thick pink cable snapped out in front of him and snatched the snitch, keeping it in place with the many suction cups on it.
"What the…"
The cable snapped back, and Harry turned around, his jaw gaping open.
Zsa-Zsa Billy Bob was still where she had been hovering when Harry had begun his dive, but now she was different. She still had a human body from her waist down, but from her waist up…
She had two enormous eyes, and what seemed like an entire jungle of tentacles sprouting from where her arms would be. She was part giant squid.
"AND ZSA-ZSA BILLY BOB GETS THE GOLDEN SNITCH!!!" Cassi screamed. "THE GAME IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"AND GRYFFINDOR WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Shawna added, grabbing the microphone from Cassi. "THE FINAL SCORE IS 150 TO 250!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Shawna dropped the microphone, and she and Cassi hugged. Cassi dragged Remus into it, too.
Allee and Lenny both grinned.
"I told them that they had tricks up their sleeves!" Lenny exclaimed.
"Definitely," Allee agreed. "Now, if you'll excuse me… I need to go announce what happens now."
Allee's ponytail flew up again, started twisting, and she rose into the air.
***
"Eighty people with happy thoughts in the jail, eighty people with happy thoughts!"
Jared cried as the dementors locked him in his jail cell.
A/N: Yesterday was Lenny's birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! She's nineteen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So all of you go bake her cookies and sing for her. Yeah. lol.