Chapter Ten – The End of the Long Road

            Lucas was almost too stunned to focus again. He kept muttering things about how Kylee didn't look well, and how he almost hadn't reached her in time. It took Brad grabbing his shoulders and giving them a good shake to pull him out of it.

"She'll be fine. You did the right thing," the Captain said. He was looking away now, toward Madam Hooch, and waving her over.

"I do hope Kylee's okay," the woman said as she reached them, "However, you can't delay the game for longer than a time-out calls. I know you won't want to forfeit this one."

"No," Brad said. "Look, I know the rules. I know we can't make a substitution from players that aren't playing. But can I designate someone else to be the Seeker?"

Hooch arched her thin, greying eyebrows and pondered this for a moment. "There's nothing in the rules that says you can't… But you'll have to make sure that both teams know. And whomever you designate has to take on the full roll of the Seeker; no double-duty."

"Right, right," Brad said, looking to the others in turn. If they didn't make the substitution, Lucas knew there was no way they could win. They'd need to get the Snitch, and only the Seeker could do that. Everyone looked to Alexia, the obvious choice… Beside Kylee, she was the best flier, and the lightest.

Before anyone could say anything, she stepped forward. "I can do it."

"…No," Brad said.

"No?" Lex repeated.

He shook his head. "No. I want Lucas to do it." For a while, the others looked at Brad like he'd lost his mind. Lucas was one of the heavier players on the team, right next to Brad and Green. He wasn't exactly the ideal Seeker. Besides, Alexia had been the one practicing along with Kylee… "Listen," Brad continued. "I need all my Chasers, and I'd switch Alexia for Luc, but Luc can't score goals like the others can. And I need to be in the middle of the game; I'm the captain. Lucas, that makes you the only choice."

Hesitantly, Luc nodded.

"Lucas Redmond will be your Seeker for the remainder of the game then?" Hooch asked. Brad nodded, and the referee raced off on her broom to notify the commentator of the change in roster.

The amplified voice came in loud and clear. "Fourth Year Lucas Redmond will be taking over the roll of Seeker for the rest of the match! With a reconfiguring like this, things are really looking bad for Slytherin. Hopefully—"

"Just don't pay attention to him, or anything else," Brad said, drawing Lucas' attention back into their little huddle. "Catch the Snitch. Make it as quick as possible…" His shoulders slumped noticeably, and as Madam Hooch returned to tell them they'd need to get back into the air, Brad actually smiled a bit. "I don't care if we win anymore. Let's just give them a good fight. I'm proud of you all."

"Ready?" Hooch asked. In response, the team took to the air, and once more, she tossed the Quaffle into play.

The difference was noticeable immediately. Though the only thing Slytherin's team lost was a Beater, it seemed to show up in the overall stress on everyone's mind. They were all worried about Kylee, and Ravenclaw was taking advantage of that. Cory let four easy shots through in a row, compared to Slytherin only scoring one.

Overall, the worst thing about the match was that Ravenclaw was playing terribly. It wasn't that they were being unsportsmanlike; it was just that they were sloppy. Passes failed, shots went wide. It should have been an easy game for Slytherin to take over and win. However, Ravenclaw had what the other team did not – confidence. And their minds were all in the game, especially when Cory let two more goals in, barely exerting any effort to stop them.

Seventy to twenty. There was no way they could win now, Lucas though, dejectedly, as he continued searching frantically for the Snitch. It kept his mind off of the fact that he'd seen Kylee fall. He saw her pale face and her lightly closed eyes. The weirdest thing was, she hadn't appeared to be in any pain when he caught her…

Suddenly, the Snitch whizzed by in front of him, and his mind was torn away from his teammates fall and focused solely on catching the elusive little ball as it tore off down the field. He dodged past one of the Ravenclaw Chasers and was already circling back around before the opposing Seeker joined the chase. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some people dressed in white hovering on the edge of the field, and then in an instant his vision was swimming with the House colors as he flew past the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin stands. There was almost too much to take in at once, as he'd never had to fly so fast. His job mainly consisted of hovering at one end of the field or the other and hurling bludgers at people. In comparison to Seeking, that was easy!

Lucas was aware of the other Seeker in the periphery of his vision as the blue cloth of a Ravenclaw sleeve began whipping around his face. He tried to focus his attention on the Snitch in front of him, and block everything else out. He had to get it. If he got it, they'd win the game… If not, it would be all over.

And then, he closed his hand around it. In that fraction of a second, he'd won Slytherin the game.

At that point, he didn't care if it was enough for the House cup. What mattered was that the people in the stands were on their feet cheering; all of them. His team was gathering around to congratulate him. For one beautiful moment, he was elated, and the first thing he said to the others as they touched down on the ground was, "That was for Kylee."

Their smiled faded when one of the people in white broke from the sidelines and hurried in their direction. The Ravenclaws were hovering just on the outside of the Slytherin huddle, waiting to congratulate them on the victory, but they, too, turned their attention to the pudgy little doctor who was hurrying toward them. Madam Pomfrey herself had come to the Quidditch Pitch.

For a moment, she looked between the two teams, then headed toward the Slytherins, eventually drawing Brad aside. She whispered something to him.

What Lucas saw next would remain forever in his memory. Their captain, as strong as he was, suddenly couldn't support himself on his own two feet. He sank heavily to his knees, burying his head in his hands as Madam Pomfrey backed off, folding her hands in front of her and looking away. It was as if the light had gone from the field, even though the orbs still shining brightly; the hush that fell over the crowd was tangible as both the Slytherin team and the Ravenclaws approached Brad to hear the news.

He turned to them, his face already wet with tears. Lucas shook his head… It couldn't be…

"It was her heart," Brad said. "She just had a weak heart. She couldn't… She shouldn't have been playing. I knew that…"

Alexia's hands were already covering her mouth. Her eyes were wide.

"But she wanted to," Brad continued. "I couldn't say no…"

The Ravenclaws looked away.

Cory actually sobbed.

No one had to say it for it to be true. Kylee was dead.

There was a long silence then, almost as if no one was quite sure what to say. The Slytherins looked at each other… Perhaps hoping that Brad would suddenly smile and say something along the lined of, "Just kidding! She's fine!" He didn't. All he could do was sit there, looking shocked. Alexia turned to Cory and cried into his shoulder, while Green and and Ryan bowed their heads. Lucas couldn't believe it. She had looked so peaceful when he caught her…

Maybe she'd already been gone by then.

Their sorrow was interrupted by Madam Hooch, who cleared her throat politely to alert the others to the fact that she was there. Gently, she informed them that the Quidditch points were now tied between Slytherin and Ravenclaw… Lucas couldn't remember her exact words, but she said something about having a shoot-out. They'd just have to play until one of the teams scored.

Cecil Andary stepped forward. "Isn't there another way you can determine the winner?" he asked.

"I'm afraid not," Hooch said, not unsympathetically. "Either of you could forfeit the game, but then it would go to House point totals. The cup would go to Gryffindor."

Brad dug his fingers into the ground, forcing himself to his feet. "We're not going to give up."

"She put her all into the game," Ryan said. "We have to at least finish it."

No one knew what to say. It was as it they'd forgotten how to play Quidditch. Madam Hooch actually had to tell them to get into formation above the field. She even had to do the toss-up twice, because neither of the teams' Chasers had gone after the Quaffle.

When Lucas looked up, Cecil had the Quaffle in his hand. He looked around the field to the rest of his team, and then threw a pass…

Right to Green.

For a moment, Green didn't know what to do. As if in a panic, which was uncharacteristic for him, he threw the Quaffle back to a Ravenclaw Chaser, who tossed it right back.

Cecil waved him toward the rings.

Still in shock, Alexia and Ryan followed Green down the field. Why were they giving the game away?

It didn't matter if they won. But it sure would be nice to be able to put Kylee's name on the cup.

Both teams hovered around the rings as Green faced off against Anna. They stared at each other for nothing more than a moment, and then she moved aside.

Though it was probably the easiest goal in Quidditch history, it was the hardest game won in a very long time.

---

The award ceremony should have been a happy time, but it wasn't. Brad stood in the press box with the Quidditch cup on the chair beside him. Already, magically, the names of the Slytherin team had been engraved around the bottom ring. The names would likely change next year, but right now, it was theirs.

Everyone knew by now what had happened, and the usually noisy pitch was quiet as Brad waited not to deliver a victory speech, but a eulogy.

"Hey," he started. "I've never done one of these speeches before, so… Bear with me while I think on it for a moment. I don't know what to say, really. Kylee Hasek came to me at the beginning of the year. She wanted to play, so I gave her a chance.

"Some say the fault would… rest on me… That she died. I thought about that, and I felt bad for a bit, but… What really would have been a crime is if she'd never gotten a chance to do something she loved. Something she was good at… Not that she wasn't good at a lot. Kylee was everyone's best friend. I don't think there was anyone here that didn't like her."

He looked around him, especially at the four teams standing down on the field. They weren't separate, but standing together. Perhaps that was one of the best gifts Kylee had left them. Cory stood with Alexia, and they were right in between a couple Gryffindors who were offering their sympathy. Green leaned heavily on Anna, who was trying her best to support his weight; she was aided by one of the Hufflepuffs, who leaned on her from the other side.

"It's kinda funny, you know…" He continued, "How much we've been through to get here. And how we waited almost nine years to play again, hiding in fear from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, when it didn't even take a Dark Wizard to—" He couldn't finish the statement, but everyone knew what he was going to say. They'd been afraid of the wrong thing.

"Aesop told a fable once. He was a writer. A Muggle, back a long time ago. It was about a deer who was blind in one eye, and she'd feed on a cliff that stood right next to a lake. That way, she could keep her good eye on the forest, since that's where she expected to find the hunters. But she was struck down by an arrow that came from the water… I guess it's true that danger comes from where we least expect it. I went through this season urging my team to win, but I didn't see what I was doing to them until we played this game.

"As captain of the winning team, I suppose I have a say about what goes on the cup. Kylee's name is first…" He held it up, pointing it out even though no one could see it. "But Ravenclaw's names are all going to go on here, too. They could have easily gotten that win, and they didn't. They deserve the honor just as much as we do."

He looked as if he was about to say something else, then he backed away. There really wasn't anything else to say.

---

The next day, they sat at their table in the Great Hall feeling tired, despite their victory. There was an empty seat, and it just didn't feel right.

Green had his head down on his hands, his eyes studying the grain of the wood, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning, he saw Anna standing there, with a slight, albeit sad smile on her face. In her hand was a paper, which she held out toward him. He took it and unrolled a copy of the Daily Prophet, which had not one, but two pictures on the front page.

"I didn't know if you'd gotten yours yet," Anna explained. "My owl… brought mine to my room early this morning."

The picture on the left was the Ravenclaw team, who smiled and waved to the camera. They seemed sad, though, in a way, as if they were all aware of that had happened. Impossible as it was, it was very convincing.

On the right was the picture of the Slytherin team – all of them. Even Kylee.

She was smiling as well, acting as if nothing was wrong as the others held up the cup. Brad was the only one in the picture that looked horribly grumpy, but Alexia was trying to cheer him up by poking him in the side.

It wasn't working too well.

"I wish I'd smiled," Brad said, though he couldn't keep the chuckle out of his voice.

"Hey, it gives you character," Ryan returned offhandedly, watching the paper a little longer. The Kylee in the picture paused in her victory waving, and seemed to focus on those outside the newspaper. She pointed at her heart, then pointed at her head.

"…She knew," Cory said.

"At least she was doing something she loved," Alexia added, as Green handed the paper back to Anna. Eventually, they'd get their own copies.

They were silent for a moment, lost in their own memories as Anna went off to join the Ravenclaw table again. Finally, Ryan smiled. "She played with her heart. She gave it her all, and she never gave up. It didn't matter if we won, or lost; didn't matter what the weather was. She didn't care how she was feeling, she just played, and she did her best."

One statement seemed like a fitting account for the life of a person they'd never forget. Someone who exemplified all the great qualities of a House whom so many had dismissed as Dark and without redemption.

Brad smiled and whispered, "It's all in how you play."