A/N - JKR owns the idea, all of these characters etc.
A/N - Keep posting ideas and suggestions, it can only help.
Chapter 40
Crusade Continued
Harry interrupted him again. "Let's go into the Great Hall and discuss this. Besides the room being much warmer and more comfortable, it's also more private so we don't have to worry about anyone overhearing us.
A few minutes later Team GS was back in the warmth of the castle listening to Draco talk about what he and Harry had just seen.
"I don't know exactly where to start. It might be quicker to list the things that aren't guarding the flags."
"Just tell us already," Ron prodded causing Draco to glance at Harry. Harry took the hint and spoke up.
"If he's exaggerating it's not by much. For starters, they have a dragon." This startling revelation caused many in the room to drop their jaw in shock but Neville actually passed out in fear.
Hermione revived Neville and then stood up to address the group. "Ohhhh that's brilliant."
"It's not brilliant Hermione," Ron was gaping up at her in surprise. "It's bloody dangerous. What are they thinking? They must all be mental!"
"Don't be daft Ron. They're not going to risk going to Azkaban for conjuring an illegal dragon to win a game. They're false images."
"You mean they're holograms?" Dean Thomas asked.
"Hollow what?" Ron asked.
"It's a muggle thing Ron. Don't worry about it. But yes Dean, they're holograms." Hermione answered still smiling thinking about how clever the other team had been.
"You all know what this means don't you?" Hermione looked around the room.
"Just tell us Mud --- er --- Gr --- oh just tell us." It was obvious that Draco was frustrating himself by trying to be nice to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Hermione smiled almost imperceptibly at Draco's struggle as she told everyone what she was talking about.
"If we don't break that charm we're not going to know if what we're seeing is real or not. We might go all out to capture their flag only to find out that it's not really their flag but a rock. We might fly right past their flag because to us it looks like a blade of grass. It's absolutely brilliant."
"Then we don't have a chance of winning," Blaise Zabini said shaking his head in despair.
"We're going to win," Harry and Draco said at the exact same time. They were both very careful not to look at each other after that but instead pretend it didn't happen. Harry turned to Hermione.
"So do you know the counter spell?"
"Of course." This one simple statement caused all of the Slytherins and a few of the Gryffindors to groan loudly. Hermione rolled her eyes and continued.
"You boys tell us what else you saw and I'll work on the counterspell."
Draco looked at Harry and then at Hermione before asking, "what's the point? If everything we saw is fake why bother talking about it. After all there's no point in Longbottom passing out again." Neville was nodding his head in agreement.
"Draco, it might make us think of something else. Besides I need some time to work on this and so you two might as well tell us what you've seen." Draco and Harry shrugged at each other and Draco started telling the group what else they saw.
"They've put the flag --- at least we think it's the flag --- in the middle of the quidditch pitch. Every last one of them is within twenty-five meters of the flag. Half of them are on the ground and the other half are either in the air or on the ground ready to mount their broomsticks."
"Do they have any traps set up?" One of the Slytherins asked.
"Dunno," Harry said shrugging.
"Is that it?" Neville asked timidly. He was obviously hoping that they would say yes.
"Not exactly," Harry answered trying not to scare Neville any more than was absolutely necessary. "There was a wall of fire surrounding the flag as well as a few other --- er --- creatures defending the flag, or like Draco said, what we think is the flag." Silence fell over the Great Hall as everyone thought about what they were going to have to defeat to win the game.
"Well," Ron started, "let's begin like figuring out what their plan is."
"It's obvious isn't it?" Hermione said looking up from whatever she was doing off to the side. "They're expecting us to launch an all out invasion to take what it probably a fake flag and trap most of us in the process."
Draco and Harry looked at each other. They nodded slightly to each other signifying that they agreed with what Hermione had just said.
Draco said to everyone, "Let's hear everyone's suggestions. Just toss them out and we'll talk about some of them later."
"We could try to sneak up on them and take them out one or two at a time."
"We could launch an all out attack."
"The longer we wait the better because they're wearing themselves out staying in the cold tensed up expecting us any second."
"We --- we --- c --- could send decoys." Neville said very timidly.
Harry turned to Neville. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well when I was younger the only way I could get people to stop beating me up was to trick them into chasing me by my teachers --- "
"Teacher's pet." Crabbe sneared.
"Shut it Crabbe!" Harry commanded while simultaneously poking Draco in the ribs. "You were saying Neville."
"Never mind." He said sullenly staring intensely at his shoes.
Harry whispered something in Draco's ear. No one else could hear what Harry said but Draco spoke up next. "Come on Neville. Finish telling us what you were saying."
Whatever Neville was expecting Draco to say that wasn't it. Out of pure shock at Draco's demeanor, Neville finished telling everyone his idea. "They're probably expecting groups of two or three to wander in to their ambush so let's give it to them, except we'll be leading them into the ambush. Everyone else will be waiting out of sight to ambush them instead."
"Neville, that's brilliant." Hermione said trying not to sound too surprised that Neville could come up with such a great idea.
Harry stole a glance at the three professors that had been following them around all morning. Professor Dumbledore was wearing his usual smile but Snape and McGonagall looked as surprised as Harry felt.
In no time the team decided to go with Neville's plan. After all, probably very few wizards had as much experience as Neville in getting beaten up and picked on by a group. However everyone agreed that Neville's plan couldn't happen until they knew what they were really facing.
Hermione got up and started handing out goggles to everyone. After everyone got a pair she told everyone what she had done.
"These have all been charmed with the counterspell. If we wear them we'll see things as they really are."
"Thanks Hermione." Harry said. "But we still have the problem that we don't know anything for sure. Two of us have to go out there. I'm going but Draco should stay here in case we get caught. As a matter of fact, I think it's better if we plan on the other person getting caught. I'll follow behind and see what they do to capture the person as well as where the flag really is. Ok then, I need a volunteer."
Even though it was just a school game, no one relished the thought of getting caught by the other team. At the very least the hexes and curses required to catch the person would probably hurt a lot. Harry cleared his throat. He was really expected that at least Ron would eventually offer to go with him but Ron suddenly seemed very interested in a spot in the floor.
"Anyone --- anyone at all?" He looked around at the different faces in the group but very few teammates made eye contact with him. Most were much more interested in studying their shoes.
During the time that everyone was waiting for someone to speak, Goyle snuck over to behind where Neville was standing. Goyle pulled a small pin out of his robes and jabbed Neville in the backside.
"HEY!"
"Whoa, way to go Neville," Ron was patting him on the back.
"B --- b --- but ---"
"Good for you Neville," Hermione praised.
"Bu --- but --- "
"Good job Neville," Dean Thomas cheered.
"But --- but --- "
"Come on Neville, let's go." Harry called out as he walked over to Neville and started leading him out of the Great Hall. Harry had a plan but he had to double-check the rules to be sure that it was legal. To double-check the rules, he needed to be sure that Neville wouldn't turn and run the second Harry let go of him.
"Neville, you're going to be fine. Don't give the Slytherins the satisfaction." Harry couldn't tell if Neville was nodding his agreement or shaking with fear. He decided to risk it and use his left hand to pull the rules out from his robes. There it was --- no invisibility cloaks. It didn't say anything about turning invisible without a cloak. Besides, Harry reasoned to himself, Dumbledore knew he could do it so if didn't want him to turn invisible on his own he would have worded the rule differently. He had caught a break with Neville because he should be able to turn invisible without Neville noticing but instead thinking he had just lost him somehow. Perfect!
When they got outside Harry told Neville that he was going to hang back so he could get a better view and not risk getting caught. He told Neville to just stay on the broomstick and to try to take out one or two of them I the process.
"All right. I guess I'm ready."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm putting on the goggles so I can see properly."
"Oh no you're not," Harry said snatching the goggles away.
"Wh --- what? Why not?"
"Neville, think about it. If you get caught with those then they'll know that we can see through their disguises. That would defeat the purpose of this. You do see that, don't you Neville?"
Neville made a slight noise that Harry chose to consider as an agreement.
They both mounted their brooms and Harry lagged behind just long enough to put on his goggles and turn himself invisible. Harry was able to see it almost right off. Hermione had been almost exactly on the money with her guess. But, of course, this was still going to be harder than he hoped. He could see the real flag was in a tree about 20 meters from the fake flag. After several times of staring right at the flag and taking off his goggles he finally figured out that the flag was disguised to look like a limb on a tree.
While he was scanning the area, Harry looked up and saw more than half of the Hogwarts staff perched on a broomstick about fifty feet in the air. He guessed that they had picked a location where they could see both the fake flag and the real flag. This was the first time he had ever seen Filch on a broomstick but upon some reflection there was no reason why a squib couldn't ride a broomstick.
The loud noise snapped Harry's attention back to his partner. He looked around and saw everyone on the other team laughing. He almost dreaded it but nevertheless he searched the skies for Neville. It was obvious what was making them laugh. For no particular reason at all Neville was jerking his broom up and down, left and right, and sporadically in all directions. When Harry thought to remove his goggles he could see that Neville thought he was avoiding the flames from a fifty-foot fire-breathing dragon that looked a lot like the Hungarian Horntail Harry had faced last year.
Harry finally got tired of everyone laughing at Neville and decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled out his wand and took control of Neville's broomstick. He started flying him toward the fake flag. Neville now had a death grip on the broom since it seemed to have decided to stop following his commands, not that it ever followed then that closely in the past.
Team HR stopped laughing and collectively decided that Neville was now a threat, or at least that's what seemed to be the case because now they were attacking him. Harry made Neville dodge the first curse and then the second and even the third, if he could at least make it to the middle of the group ---
"Furnuculus"
"Impedimenta"
"Stupefy"
"Reducio"
"Rictusempra"
It was impossible to know who had shouted what spell. When the flurry of spells, most of which Harry couldn't make out, ended a haze surrounded Team HR. Someone cast a quick spell to get rid of some of the smoke and everyone looked around to see what had happened. Five of their own team members were unconscious. Most of them must have fallen off of their broomsticks. They obviously hadn't considered the ramifications of being in a circle and trying to curse a target in their midst. Instead of finding their mark, they were caught off guard when Neville suddenly dove toward the ground and ended up cursing each other.
Neville was trying to look around to see what had happened. Harry was more than slightly surprised to see Neville still riding his broomstick. He couldn't know how powerful a death grip Neville had on his broom. Harry decided to use the confusion for a last ditch effort. He magicked Neville's broomstick, to the real flag disguised as the tree limb.
Almost there --- almost there --- got it! No! Harry groaned so loud that he was surprised no one heard him. Neville flew right by the disguised flag but he didn't realize it so he didn't grab it. The one downside to not letting Neville wear Hermione's goggles was that he didn't know where the real flag was. Harry didn't have any way of telling him. There was no way Neville was going to let go of his death grip just to see if anyone had written him notes on the magical parchment. They were so close. He had to think of something.
"Sorry Neville," Harry muttered as he turned Neville's broom around and flew him straight at the tree branch. Harry couldn't afford to waste this opportunity. He cast a shield charm around Neville. By now some members of Team HR had recovered enough to start tossing hexes at Neville again. The shield only had to last a few more seconds.
"Hang on Neville," Harry said almost inaudibly. "Almost there --- hang on --- "
YES!!! Neville captured the flag! Of course he knocked himself out in the process but the game ended once Neville (trying only to save his life) reached out and grabbed the tree limb that was actually the flag. Unfortunately Harry was so relieved to have won that he forgot to slow Neville down and he flew straight into a thicker larger branch rendering him unconscious.
Madame Pomfrey led the way as all the staff made their way down to the ground. Dumbledore sent Professor McGonagall in to the Great Hall to bring out the rest of the victors. Harry snuck off somewhere where he couldn't be seen to remove his invisibility spell. Harry met up with his confused teammates and walked with them the rest of the way to where everybody was standing around.
"What happened?"
"Why is it over?"
"Did we win?"
"Did we lose?"
Questions were being tossed at Harry from all sides. He didn't know how to answer so he didn't. He was still hoping to be able to conceal his ability to make himself invisible. Harry's teammates fell silent as they saw Neville lying unconscious on a stretcher still holding onto the flag.
"No way!"
"Neville?"
"Longbottom?"
"What happened?"
"How did he get the flag?"
"Neville?"
Almost everyone had a comment as they took in the scene. The game was over and Neville Longbottom had captured the flag. Dumbledore addressed the staff and fifth years.
"Yes, as you can all see the game is over because Team GS captured the flag before sunset. Congratulations to all of the houses for an excellent match. Let's go into the Great Hall to discuss what happened today over some cocoa and cookies shall we?" Slowly the group started walking back towards the school. Draco walked up alongside Harry.
"So," Draco started with his usual drawl, "was this your plan all along?"
"What?"
"To leave us all in the Great Hall while you go and capture the flag all by yourself. You can't resist showing off at least once can you?"
"What are you talking about? This wasn't my plan. Besides I didn't get the flag, Neville did. You saw it yourself."
"Don't be stupid or worse, don't treat me like I'm stupid. It's obvious that you picked Neville to go with you because everyone would know that he's incompetent and give you all the credit."
Ron jumped in this time. "Malfoy, don't be a git for once in your life. Harry didn't pick Neville."
"Weasley ---" Professor McGonagall walking up between them cut him off.
"Well done you two," she said offering Draco and Harry a rare smile as they entered the Great Hall. The fifth years split up into their usual house tables and dove right into the snacks. Dumbledore stood up almost immediately and began speaking.
"Again, I must congratulate everyone in here on an excellent job. I hope that everyone in here learned something new today because that was the ultimate objective after all. Now as soon as we take care of one little matter, the staff will tell everyone what all happened today during the game so that everyone can know what everyone else did. But first, Gryffindor and Slytherin you're rewards are --- "
A/N -Share your thoughts with me
.
A/N - Keep posting ideas and suggestions, it can only help.
Chapter 40
Crusade Continued
Harry interrupted him again. "Let's go into the Great Hall and discuss this. Besides the room being much warmer and more comfortable, it's also more private so we don't have to worry about anyone overhearing us.
A few minutes later Team GS was back in the warmth of the castle listening to Draco talk about what he and Harry had just seen.
"I don't know exactly where to start. It might be quicker to list the things that aren't guarding the flags."
"Just tell us already," Ron prodded causing Draco to glance at Harry. Harry took the hint and spoke up.
"If he's exaggerating it's not by much. For starters, they have a dragon." This startling revelation caused many in the room to drop their jaw in shock but Neville actually passed out in fear.
Hermione revived Neville and then stood up to address the group. "Ohhhh that's brilliant."
"It's not brilliant Hermione," Ron was gaping up at her in surprise. "It's bloody dangerous. What are they thinking? They must all be mental!"
"Don't be daft Ron. They're not going to risk going to Azkaban for conjuring an illegal dragon to win a game. They're false images."
"You mean they're holograms?" Dean Thomas asked.
"Hollow what?" Ron asked.
"It's a muggle thing Ron. Don't worry about it. But yes Dean, they're holograms." Hermione answered still smiling thinking about how clever the other team had been.
"You all know what this means don't you?" Hermione looked around the room.
"Just tell us Mud --- er --- Gr --- oh just tell us." It was obvious that Draco was frustrating himself by trying to be nice to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Hermione smiled almost imperceptibly at Draco's struggle as she told everyone what she was talking about.
"If we don't break that charm we're not going to know if what we're seeing is real or not. We might go all out to capture their flag only to find out that it's not really their flag but a rock. We might fly right past their flag because to us it looks like a blade of grass. It's absolutely brilliant."
"Then we don't have a chance of winning," Blaise Zabini said shaking his head in despair.
"We're going to win," Harry and Draco said at the exact same time. They were both very careful not to look at each other after that but instead pretend it didn't happen. Harry turned to Hermione.
"So do you know the counter spell?"
"Of course." This one simple statement caused all of the Slytherins and a few of the Gryffindors to groan loudly. Hermione rolled her eyes and continued.
"You boys tell us what else you saw and I'll work on the counterspell."
Draco looked at Harry and then at Hermione before asking, "what's the point? If everything we saw is fake why bother talking about it. After all there's no point in Longbottom passing out again." Neville was nodding his head in agreement.
"Draco, it might make us think of something else. Besides I need some time to work on this and so you two might as well tell us what you've seen." Draco and Harry shrugged at each other and Draco started telling the group what else they saw.
"They've put the flag --- at least we think it's the flag --- in the middle of the quidditch pitch. Every last one of them is within twenty-five meters of the flag. Half of them are on the ground and the other half are either in the air or on the ground ready to mount their broomsticks."
"Do they have any traps set up?" One of the Slytherins asked.
"Dunno," Harry said shrugging.
"Is that it?" Neville asked timidly. He was obviously hoping that they would say yes.
"Not exactly," Harry answered trying not to scare Neville any more than was absolutely necessary. "There was a wall of fire surrounding the flag as well as a few other --- er --- creatures defending the flag, or like Draco said, what we think is the flag." Silence fell over the Great Hall as everyone thought about what they were going to have to defeat to win the game.
"Well," Ron started, "let's begin like figuring out what their plan is."
"It's obvious isn't it?" Hermione said looking up from whatever she was doing off to the side. "They're expecting us to launch an all out invasion to take what it probably a fake flag and trap most of us in the process."
Draco and Harry looked at each other. They nodded slightly to each other signifying that they agreed with what Hermione had just said.
Draco said to everyone, "Let's hear everyone's suggestions. Just toss them out and we'll talk about some of them later."
"We could try to sneak up on them and take them out one or two at a time."
"We could launch an all out attack."
"The longer we wait the better because they're wearing themselves out staying in the cold tensed up expecting us any second."
"We --- we --- c --- could send decoys." Neville said very timidly.
Harry turned to Neville. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well when I was younger the only way I could get people to stop beating me up was to trick them into chasing me by my teachers --- "
"Teacher's pet." Crabbe sneared.
"Shut it Crabbe!" Harry commanded while simultaneously poking Draco in the ribs. "You were saying Neville."
"Never mind." He said sullenly staring intensely at his shoes.
Harry whispered something in Draco's ear. No one else could hear what Harry said but Draco spoke up next. "Come on Neville. Finish telling us what you were saying."
Whatever Neville was expecting Draco to say that wasn't it. Out of pure shock at Draco's demeanor, Neville finished telling everyone his idea. "They're probably expecting groups of two or three to wander in to their ambush so let's give it to them, except we'll be leading them into the ambush. Everyone else will be waiting out of sight to ambush them instead."
"Neville, that's brilliant." Hermione said trying not to sound too surprised that Neville could come up with such a great idea.
Harry stole a glance at the three professors that had been following them around all morning. Professor Dumbledore was wearing his usual smile but Snape and McGonagall looked as surprised as Harry felt.
In no time the team decided to go with Neville's plan. After all, probably very few wizards had as much experience as Neville in getting beaten up and picked on by a group. However everyone agreed that Neville's plan couldn't happen until they knew what they were really facing.
Hermione got up and started handing out goggles to everyone. After everyone got a pair she told everyone what she had done.
"These have all been charmed with the counterspell. If we wear them we'll see things as they really are."
"Thanks Hermione." Harry said. "But we still have the problem that we don't know anything for sure. Two of us have to go out there. I'm going but Draco should stay here in case we get caught. As a matter of fact, I think it's better if we plan on the other person getting caught. I'll follow behind and see what they do to capture the person as well as where the flag really is. Ok then, I need a volunteer."
Even though it was just a school game, no one relished the thought of getting caught by the other team. At the very least the hexes and curses required to catch the person would probably hurt a lot. Harry cleared his throat. He was really expected that at least Ron would eventually offer to go with him but Ron suddenly seemed very interested in a spot in the floor.
"Anyone --- anyone at all?" He looked around at the different faces in the group but very few teammates made eye contact with him. Most were much more interested in studying their shoes.
During the time that everyone was waiting for someone to speak, Goyle snuck over to behind where Neville was standing. Goyle pulled a small pin out of his robes and jabbed Neville in the backside.
"HEY!"
"Whoa, way to go Neville," Ron was patting him on the back.
"B --- b --- but ---"
"Good for you Neville," Hermione praised.
"Bu --- but --- "
"Good job Neville," Dean Thomas cheered.
"But --- but --- "
"Come on Neville, let's go." Harry called out as he walked over to Neville and started leading him out of the Great Hall. Harry had a plan but he had to double-check the rules to be sure that it was legal. To double-check the rules, he needed to be sure that Neville wouldn't turn and run the second Harry let go of him.
"Neville, you're going to be fine. Don't give the Slytherins the satisfaction." Harry couldn't tell if Neville was nodding his agreement or shaking with fear. He decided to risk it and use his left hand to pull the rules out from his robes. There it was --- no invisibility cloaks. It didn't say anything about turning invisible without a cloak. Besides, Harry reasoned to himself, Dumbledore knew he could do it so if didn't want him to turn invisible on his own he would have worded the rule differently. He had caught a break with Neville because he should be able to turn invisible without Neville noticing but instead thinking he had just lost him somehow. Perfect!
When they got outside Harry told Neville that he was going to hang back so he could get a better view and not risk getting caught. He told Neville to just stay on the broomstick and to try to take out one or two of them I the process.
"All right. I guess I'm ready."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm putting on the goggles so I can see properly."
"Oh no you're not," Harry said snatching the goggles away.
"Wh --- what? Why not?"
"Neville, think about it. If you get caught with those then they'll know that we can see through their disguises. That would defeat the purpose of this. You do see that, don't you Neville?"
Neville made a slight noise that Harry chose to consider as an agreement.
They both mounted their brooms and Harry lagged behind just long enough to put on his goggles and turn himself invisible. Harry was able to see it almost right off. Hermione had been almost exactly on the money with her guess. But, of course, this was still going to be harder than he hoped. He could see the real flag was in a tree about 20 meters from the fake flag. After several times of staring right at the flag and taking off his goggles he finally figured out that the flag was disguised to look like a limb on a tree.
While he was scanning the area, Harry looked up and saw more than half of the Hogwarts staff perched on a broomstick about fifty feet in the air. He guessed that they had picked a location where they could see both the fake flag and the real flag. This was the first time he had ever seen Filch on a broomstick but upon some reflection there was no reason why a squib couldn't ride a broomstick.
The loud noise snapped Harry's attention back to his partner. He looked around and saw everyone on the other team laughing. He almost dreaded it but nevertheless he searched the skies for Neville. It was obvious what was making them laugh. For no particular reason at all Neville was jerking his broom up and down, left and right, and sporadically in all directions. When Harry thought to remove his goggles he could see that Neville thought he was avoiding the flames from a fifty-foot fire-breathing dragon that looked a lot like the Hungarian Horntail Harry had faced last year.
Harry finally got tired of everyone laughing at Neville and decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled out his wand and took control of Neville's broomstick. He started flying him toward the fake flag. Neville now had a death grip on the broom since it seemed to have decided to stop following his commands, not that it ever followed then that closely in the past.
Team HR stopped laughing and collectively decided that Neville was now a threat, or at least that's what seemed to be the case because now they were attacking him. Harry made Neville dodge the first curse and then the second and even the third, if he could at least make it to the middle of the group ---
"Furnuculus"
"Impedimenta"
"Stupefy"
"Reducio"
"Rictusempra"
It was impossible to know who had shouted what spell. When the flurry of spells, most of which Harry couldn't make out, ended a haze surrounded Team HR. Someone cast a quick spell to get rid of some of the smoke and everyone looked around to see what had happened. Five of their own team members were unconscious. Most of them must have fallen off of their broomsticks. They obviously hadn't considered the ramifications of being in a circle and trying to curse a target in their midst. Instead of finding their mark, they were caught off guard when Neville suddenly dove toward the ground and ended up cursing each other.
Neville was trying to look around to see what had happened. Harry was more than slightly surprised to see Neville still riding his broomstick. He couldn't know how powerful a death grip Neville had on his broom. Harry decided to use the confusion for a last ditch effort. He magicked Neville's broomstick, to the real flag disguised as the tree limb.
Almost there --- almost there --- got it! No! Harry groaned so loud that he was surprised no one heard him. Neville flew right by the disguised flag but he didn't realize it so he didn't grab it. The one downside to not letting Neville wear Hermione's goggles was that he didn't know where the real flag was. Harry didn't have any way of telling him. There was no way Neville was going to let go of his death grip just to see if anyone had written him notes on the magical parchment. They were so close. He had to think of something.
"Sorry Neville," Harry muttered as he turned Neville's broom around and flew him straight at the tree branch. Harry couldn't afford to waste this opportunity. He cast a shield charm around Neville. By now some members of Team HR had recovered enough to start tossing hexes at Neville again. The shield only had to last a few more seconds.
"Hang on Neville," Harry said almost inaudibly. "Almost there --- hang on --- "
YES!!! Neville captured the flag! Of course he knocked himself out in the process but the game ended once Neville (trying only to save his life) reached out and grabbed the tree limb that was actually the flag. Unfortunately Harry was so relieved to have won that he forgot to slow Neville down and he flew straight into a thicker larger branch rendering him unconscious.
Madame Pomfrey led the way as all the staff made their way down to the ground. Dumbledore sent Professor McGonagall in to the Great Hall to bring out the rest of the victors. Harry snuck off somewhere where he couldn't be seen to remove his invisibility spell. Harry met up with his confused teammates and walked with them the rest of the way to where everybody was standing around.
"What happened?"
"Why is it over?"
"Did we win?"
"Did we lose?"
Questions were being tossed at Harry from all sides. He didn't know how to answer so he didn't. He was still hoping to be able to conceal his ability to make himself invisible. Harry's teammates fell silent as they saw Neville lying unconscious on a stretcher still holding onto the flag.
"No way!"
"Neville?"
"Longbottom?"
"What happened?"
"How did he get the flag?"
"Neville?"
Almost everyone had a comment as they took in the scene. The game was over and Neville Longbottom had captured the flag. Dumbledore addressed the staff and fifth years.
"Yes, as you can all see the game is over because Team GS captured the flag before sunset. Congratulations to all of the houses for an excellent match. Let's go into the Great Hall to discuss what happened today over some cocoa and cookies shall we?" Slowly the group started walking back towards the school. Draco walked up alongside Harry.
"So," Draco started with his usual drawl, "was this your plan all along?"
"What?"
"To leave us all in the Great Hall while you go and capture the flag all by yourself. You can't resist showing off at least once can you?"
"What are you talking about? This wasn't my plan. Besides I didn't get the flag, Neville did. You saw it yourself."
"Don't be stupid or worse, don't treat me like I'm stupid. It's obvious that you picked Neville to go with you because everyone would know that he's incompetent and give you all the credit."
Ron jumped in this time. "Malfoy, don't be a git for once in your life. Harry didn't pick Neville."
"Weasley ---" Professor McGonagall walking up between them cut him off.
"Well done you two," she said offering Draco and Harry a rare smile as they entered the Great Hall. The fifth years split up into their usual house tables and dove right into the snacks. Dumbledore stood up almost immediately and began speaking.
"Again, I must congratulate everyone in here on an excellent job. I hope that everyone in here learned something new today because that was the ultimate objective after all. Now as soon as we take care of one little matter, the staff will tell everyone what all happened today during the game so that everyone can know what everyone else did. But first, Gryffindor and Slytherin you're rewards are --- "
A/N -Share your thoughts with me
.