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In Every Darkness
Chapter Seventy Three: First Match
15.11.1996
Harry paced around the Gryffindor common room, his green eyes alight with nervous energy.
"Harry, stop that, you're making me tired just watching you!" Hermione begged him.
It was the day before Unity's first match. Anyone could see why Harry would be nervous – it was his first match as the Captain of a team. He got nervous anyway, but now …
"Sit down!" Lily said sharply, catching hold of one of Harry's arms and unceremoniously dragging him down to a sitting position the couch.
"What if we lose?" Harry asked suddenly, and his friends sighed. Ron and Lily could identify with Harry's nerves, having played Quidditch themselves, and that was only as ordinary players.
"Then you lose and there's nothing you can do," Hermione said, brutally frank.
"But we won't," Ron assured Harry. "We've trained, we know what we have to do! We are the best we can at this point in time!"
"Yeah, and you're the best captain ever," Lily assured him. "You'll be fine. We'll be fine. If we don't win, it won't be through lack of trying!"
Harry smiled thankfully at his two fellow team members. "Harry, it's ten o'clock, shouldn't you get some sleep?" Hermione suggested. "You'll need to be rested if you are going to play well tomorrow."
"Right," Harry agreed. "Team, we should get some sleep now!" he called out over the common room, and those on Harry's team who were Gryffindors saluted him with grins and started getting ready to get to sleep.
Harry bounded up the stairs, still filled with that nervous energy. Without thinking of anything else, Harry let his body flow into the familiar rounds of Kata, the dance-like activity that incorporated fighting movements he used all the time.
If he couldn't pace out his energy, he'd fight it out. Ron came up to the dormitory, but stopped when he saw his friend. For a while, he watched Harry, and envied the other boys graceful movements.
Harry's movements became more and more sluggish, and eventually he stumbled over to his bed and collapsed, so tired that he couldn't even be bothered to undress. He did manage to slip beneath the covers and pull the curtain shut.
"Why can't I be like that?" Ron wondered aloud.
The next morning dawned, unusually for November, light and sunny with a gentle breeze. Harry smiled as he looked out from the window in his dormitory.
No one else was awake yet, after all, the sun had only just risen, but Harry was awake and ready to face the match.
The nerves of the night before were gone completely now. In just a few hours he'd be in the air, free. Harry smiled again, wider. He'd missed playing Quidditch.
Alone, Harry walked downstairs, his Firebolt in his hands, to eat his breakfast in the relative peace of the Great Hall before the students all awoke.
The team that they would be playing today was composed of Durmstrang students, and called themselves Dark Flight. Lily said that the people on the team were good flyers and worked well together.
Harry was the only person in the Great Hall when he started eating, and as he finished, a few students were starting to drift into the Hall. Harry picked up his broom and headed out to the Quidditch Pitch.
When he arrived, Tatsu was doing Kata in the centre of the pitch. Harry smiled, and mounted his broom, kicking off from the ground and shooting up into the air.
On any other day, he might have joined his guardian in Kata, but not today. Today would be his first Quidditch Match since early the last year, and he wanted to fly.
Harry flew, rolling, diving, shooting upwards. He was ready to play Quidditch!
Tatsu stopped his movements and watched his young ward darting through the air as easily as any bird.
The rest of the team arrived about half an hour later for a warm up flight, and then it was time to head for the changing rooms.
Harry's nerves came back.
"The schools out there," Ginny murmured, looking out of the change room door. "All the schools … and all the teachers!"
"Should have an alright game then," Harry mused.
"Wouldn't bet on it," Lily muttered darkly. "That lot don't like rules much …"
"Sounds a lot like Slytherins," Harry remarked. "Not to worry, we always manage to beat the Slytherins!"
"Slytherins don't practice flying as much as Durmstrang students do," Lily replied. "But I think we are in with a fighting chance!"
"Glad to hear it," Harry smiled. "Come on, let's get out there!"
A Hufflepuff student by the name of Nell Kellen had taken over from Lee Jordan as commentator. Harry knew her vaguely from DA, enough to know that she was quick to laugh and was rarely down. She would make an amusing commentator for matches.
"And here comes Unity! Captain Harry Potter of Hogwarts, youngest Seeker in a century, leads them onto the field, along with Ginny Weasley of Hogwarts, Luna Lovegood of Hogwarts, and Gabrielle Delacour of Beauxbatons as Chasers, Ron Weasley of Hogwarts as Keeper, Ernie McMillan of Hogwarts and Lily Adams of Durmstrang as the Beaters!"
Most of the crowd roared it's approval of the team. Harry almost wished he had a Slytherin on the team, just to make Unity complete, but oh well!
"And here comes Dark Flight, made completely of Durmstrang students! We have Captain and Beater Mark Sluppen, his brother Martin also playing Beater, Joel Delisky, Sam Dusk and Sam Kell as Chasers, Keith Allen as Keeper and Edgar Troyce as Seeker!"
"That was a really bad choice of Seeker," Lily murmured in Harry's ear. "He's better as a Keeper, doesn't like flying too fast and not much of a diver … He's known to be a cheat and more than a little violent."
"I'll remember that," Harry murmured as Hooch called for the Captains to shake hands.
"May the best team win," Harry said pleasantly, shaking hands with Mark Sluppen.
"Don't worry, we will," the other boy said, gripping Harry's hand almost painfully tight. Harry held onto his smile and gripped back. Mark winced, and Harry let go.
Suddenly Harry was in the air. He had little recollection of anything happening after shaking Mark's hand, but now … Now he was back home in a Quidditch game.
"And there goes Potter – look at him move! Last year forbidden to play Quidditch for the majority of the year, it looks like he hasn't lost his touch!" he vaguely heard Nell saying into the microphone.
He smiled slightly, and swerved, avoiding a Bludger as he looked around the field.
Luna was streaking towards the goals, Harry had been surprised to note how good a flyer she actually was … She worked well with the rest of the Chasers, especially Ginny.
Indeed, the red-haired girl was not far behind Luna, and was ready and waiting when Luna tossed the Quaffle back.
"Neat pass by Lovegood to Weasley, Weasley heading for the goals, Allen looking ready to block … Weasley feints to the left, passes behind to Lovegood, who puts it neatly away into the right hand goal! And it's ten-zero to Unity!" he heard Nell calling.
Turning his attention from the activities of the Chasers, Beaters, Quaffle and Bludgers, Harry concentrated on searching for the Snitch and keeping an eye on Troyce.
The opposing Seeker was lagging behind a little. He had a Nimbus Two Thousand, and Harry reminisced for a moment on the days when he himself had flown one of those.
Lily was right, Harry could see it immediately. Troyce was not at all at home as a Seeker, and Harry knew that he'd have little trouble outflying the other… But that meant she was probably right about him resorting to cheating easily.
Oh well, Harry thought, nothing new … After all, I've been putting up with Malfoy doing it for years…
Keeping an eye on the other Seeker, Harry searched the Snitch, occasionally paying attention to the game.
By the time half an hour was up, the score was seventy-thirty to Unity, and Dark Flight seemed to be getting a bit nervous. They were resorting to cheating quicker, but almost always got caught, which gave Unity more and more chances to score goals.
The Beaters were working mercilessly, whacking Bludgers with all their might towards Unity, but Lily and Ernie easily kept them at bay.
When they hit the hour mark, Harry saw the Snitch. To his annoyance it was up, rather than down – he'd felt a bit like a dive – but it was a lot closer to him than it was to Troyce, and he had the faster broom anyway.
As he turned his broom sharply upwards, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, a Bludger streaking towards him. Ignoring this for the moment, Harry raced for the Snitch, throwing himself forward, partly off his broom, and closing one fist around the little golden ball.
Before he had a chance to settle himself properly on the broom again, the Bludger slammed into his back, throwing him completely off balance.
His fingers closed tighter around the little golden ball as he fell through the air. He wondered if this would kill him, as the wind whistled through his robes and hair, tearing his glasses from his face in a savage yank.
Suddenly he was slowing down. Opening his eyes, he saw Dumbledore standing in the teachers stand, his wand out and pointing at Harry. The boy relaxed – he should have known that Dumbledore would not allow him to fall to his death.
He landed softly on the ground, and swiftly summoned his Firebolt – he wasn't about to lose it the way he had his last broom. This broom was special – Sirius had given it to him.
"And Unity wins!" Nell called out happily. "Potter looks to have a taken a dive there – you're supposed to have broom with you before attempting one of those, mate – but seems to be A-ok!"
Harry smiled – he quite liked Nell's sense of humour.
With the Snitch still firmly held in his hands, Harry waited for his team to land around him, as the fans swamped down from the stands to engulf the team in a rush of screaming, cheering mass.
Harry smiled. He loved winning Quidditch.
Somewhere some ways away, someone else was not having a good time.
The bloody potion is going faster than I'd hoped it would, Severus realised.
I'm sure it'll be fine, Lupin said tiredly. Even if you do finish it ahead of time, it just means that the Dark Lord will be happy, Fudge will die sooner and hopefully Dumbledore will be able to escape.
I … I suppose you're right. But still, I would much rather this take longer than I thought it would. I don't like the idea of making a potion to kill the Minister, or Albus Dumbledore. Even if Fudge is an insufferable idiot, Severus replied.
You're right there, Lupin remarked. But still, Voldemort will kill you if you fail, and will punish you if you are late. I, and most of the rest of the Light, place your life above the Ministers, Severus. You, at least, serve a useful purpose and are not power hungry.
Still … Oh, shut up Lupin and let me work! Snape said after a moments thought. He didn't want to argue with a stubborn Remus Lupin about this – not until he was sure of what he was about for himself, at least.
That's right – I was starting to get a little worried about you. You hadn't insulted me for almost ten minutes, Lupin sounded like he was smirking… Or would have been, if he'd had lips to smirk with.
Severus ignored this, and went back to working on the potion, trying to sort out his own complicated feelings, emotions and thoughts, and at the same time ignore Remus J. Lupin – something that was easier said than done. The deceased werewolf did not appreciate being ignored.
Once more back at Hogwarts, Harry was thoroughly enjoying himself … As was everyone else from Unity and their friends, companions and supporters.
A party of epic proportions was going on, and the only place that they could meet up was the Room of Requirement, since they all came from different houses, different schools.
But this, of course, didn't retract at all from the general party atmosphere. A large group of students were dancing at one side of the room, another group clustered around the tables laden with food – the House Elves were only too happy to make sure that everything continued coming, making sure that no one would go hungry.
A few more were practicing duelling under Harry's watchful, critical eye, and others were just sitting and chatting, reliving the game and praising their favourite players.
Harry looked over the scene and smiled – this would never have happened if he hadn't caught that little Snitch. If Troyce had caught it, everyone would be moping about the defeat of their friends.
But not to think about that for now – he'd won the game of Quidditch. His first game since the year before, and he'd still managed to win. His first game as Captain too. But it had happened.
Now he just faced another three matches. One more match, then the semi-finals, the finals, and then the grand final. He sincerely hoped that he would still be in the running for the grand final … But wasn't every other captain hoping the same? Only two could make it.
***
Well, I'll leave it there, I think. A nice, happy note! Fudge-haters, your fondest dream will be realised before too long! Next chapter out in two days, or so one would hope! See you all then, and please REVIEW!!
~WolfMoon~