Even When There's No Way, There's Always A Will
- There isn't really a reasonable explanation as to why I haven't been updating my fics. I'll try harder to update sooner. -
Chapter 30 - Round Robin Knock Outs
Silence fell across the Great Hall. It was the morning of the first Round Robin Knock Outs. The only people eating at this time were the players. Everyone else was still asleep. The games weren't due to start for another three hours, however, the teams were too anxious to sleep.
Hogwarts Gold and Silver were the only teams not seated together. Slytherins simply refused to sit at any table but their own, and the players from other houses were too annoyed to argue.
The Starkals White team all were standing in a tight circle with their arms around eachother, singing "We Are The Champions". Several people glared at them from behind their food, but Starkals Black hurried over to join them.
'Hey,' Melanie said. 'You only came second! You can't join in!' Tai glared at her for a moment, and it seemed as though the two captains were locked in death stares. Suddenly, they both burst out laughing, hugged, and continued in their team bonding.
'Why can't Hogwarts be like that?' Katie complained, looking over at her scattered team mates.
'Because at Hogwarts they encourage inter-house competition, at Starkals they obviously all live in peace and love and harmony.' Harry snarled.
'What's the matter with you?' Alicia asked. 'We've won all our games, are in the best possible position for Round Robin, you have no reason to be bitter!'
'No, I'm simply agreeing with Katie, Hogwarts team skills are bad.' Harry watched as the students who had come with Starkals but hadn't made either team poured into the Great Hall.
As if it was previously planned, the guys and girls paired off, and began some sort of square dance country routine. Music began to play out of nowhere - Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive".
Some players from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang took some pictures of the ridiculous sight, but the Hogwarts students stared in shock. After a few seconds, Cho jumped up.
'I know this one!' She said happily, grabbing Roger Davies and dragging him to the floor where the Starkals students were dancing, and they joined in. Phillip Davidson and Tai Sullivan immediately stopped, followed by the rest of the Starkals bunch. They all stared at Cho and Roger, who hadn't seemed to notice that the music and the dancers had stopped.
'This will get ugly.' Harry speculated. Seamus, Alicia and Katie nodded in agreement. No sooner than Cho and Roger had noticed the Starkals students had stopped, than every Hogwarts student in the Great Hall was standing behind them. Cho and Roger looked highly humiliated.
'Excuse me, I don't believe we asked you to join in.' Melanie Bennett, captain of Starkals White sneered.
'We didn't need an invitation thanks, this is our school you know.' Cho said, keeping her temper down.
'This is our pre-match ritual,' Phillip said, stepping to the front, his cold, harsh eyes bore into Cho's. Draco Malfoy had somehow snuck into the Great Hall, un-noticed. He stepped forward to face Phillip head on. Phillip was taller than Draco, but Draco was more strongly built, and the look on his face was menacing, however, Phillip held his ground.
'Davidson, isn't it?' Draco said in a harsh tone, spitting at Phillip's feet, then turning his cold, grey eyes back to the Australian.
'Malfoy.' Phillip replied. 'I've read about your family, a bunch of evil death eaters if I ever saw one.' Draco reacted somewhat harshly to that comment, he lunged forward, grabbing Phillip's robes and pulling the other boy's face inches away from his.
'Be careful what you say about my family.' He spoke slowly, and dangerously before shoving Phillip back into the crowd of Starkals students. Draco glared around at the rest of the Starkals bunch. 'Fuck off.'
One by one, the intimidated students resumed their seats. Draco glanced at his fellow students, and then he turned and swept out of the Great Hall.
Of all people, Harry chased after him.
'Malfoy,' Harry yelled, chasing Draco out onto the Hogwarts grounds, and under the closest grand stand - Draco and Cho's favourite spot.
Harry found Draco curled up, seated on a wooden plank with his face buried in his arms.
'Just get lost, Potter.' Draco said.
'Why did you threaten that boy like that?' Harry asked. Draco sighed and looked up at Harry.
'Did you see the way he looked at Cho? Like she was a common prostitute.'
'You defended her, and the rest of us for that matter, why?' Harry asked. 'You have no ties to Cho anymore, and you don't even like the rest of us! I find no reason in the matter.'
'Love needs no reason.' Draco said.
'You're only fooling yourself Malfoy, what you feel for Cho is not love, mere lust.'
'How dare you say that!' Draco roared, rising to full height. 'You cannot possibly judge me!'
'You haven't been loved your whole life, you don't have the faintest idea of the concept.'
'You speak like you have been loved your whole life. Don't make the assumption that I don't know about your past, with the Dursleys.' Draco spat.
'They have nothing to do with it, don't you dare bring them into this!' Harry yelled.
'My emotions are for me to decipher, no one else.' Draco jeered, and he stormed out of the grand stand.
--
'WELCOME TO THE FIRST ROUND ROBIN KNOCK OUT! WATCH STARKALS WHITE GO HEAD TO HEAD WITH HOGWARTS SILVER, TOP OF THEIR POOLS, HOW WILL THEY FACE OFF AGAINST EACHOTHER?'
'THANKS KARL! PLAYING SECOND IS BEAUXBATON INDIGO AND STARKALS BLACK!'
'THANK-YOU ESMERELDA, THE WINNERS OF BOTH THOSE GAMES WILL THEN PLAY TO DETERMINE THE FIRST TEAM HEADED TO THE ROUND ROBIN FINALS!'
'FINISHING THIRD POSITIONS WERE HOGWARTS GOLD AND DURMSTRANG GREEN, WHO WILL PLAY OFF FOR A BETTER POSITION.'
'DURMSTRANG BLUE AND BEAUXBATON VIOLET WILL PLAY OFF, BOTH TEAMS FINISHING LAST IN THEIR POOLS. THE WINNER WILL ADVANCE AND PLAY THE WINNER FROM HOGWARTS GOLD AND DURMSTRANG GREEN, AND THE LOSER WILL BE COMPLETELY ELIMINATED FROM THE ROUNDS AND RECEIVE THE WOODEN SPOON!'
The two announcers, Karl and Esmerelda continued talking about not very much, but they had explained which teams would play eachother. The "Wooden Spoon" was the award given to the team which finished dead last.
'How exciting Ron!' Hermione said, jumping up and down.
'Come on you twit, let's go watch some good quality Quidditch.' Ron replied.
Hogwarts Silver and Starkals White, the top two teams. They were playing for a chance to enter the grand final. Only one could be victorious. Most of the audience were watching the field, anxiously awaiting the start of the match, while some stragglers were seated in the grand stands of other games.
'WE ARE HERE TO WITNESS THE GAME OF HOGWARTS SILVER VS STARKALS WHITE! HANG ONTO YOUR HORSES AS THE TEAMS TAKE THE FIELD!'
'THANKS KARL! PLEASE WELCOME STARKALS WHITE! KEEPER, PHILLIP DAVIDSON; SEEKER, VICTORIA HEATHER; BEATERS, LUKE GAL AND BRITTANY MITCHELL; CHASERS, RICKY KUNDE, RYAN PANCARI AND THE CONSEQUENTIAL CAPTAIN, MELANIE BENNETT!'
The Starkals White team took the field. They wore new robes of bright white with "White" scrawled across the front in black text. Also, on the back of their robes written in black text were the players' last names.
'Snazzy.' Hermione said.
'THANK-YOU ESMERELDA! WELCOME THE HOGWARTS SILVER TEAM; KEEPER, ROGER DAVIES; CHASERS; HANNAH ABBOTT, ALICIA SPINNETT AND CORA BLACK; BEATERS; GREGORY GOYLE AND MICHAEL CORNER; AND THE PALATIAL, UNDEFEATED SEEKER AND CAPTAIN, HARRY POTTER!'
Hogwarts Silver took the field to face Starkals White, who looked impressive and intimidating. The game took off with Karl and Esmerelda commentating the players' every move.
'STAR CHASER RICKY KUNDE SINKS YET ANOTHER GOAL MAKING THE SCORE 50 - 0 TO STARKALS WHITE!' Esmerelda shouted.
Ricky had certainly been the star chaser of the tournament so far, scoring twenty-seven goals for his team all up, more than any other chaser.
'Harry! Catch the snitch now!' Michael Corner bellowed as he sent a bludger hurling at Ricky, who dodged it with ease.
'I'm trying!' Harry yelled back, getting impatient.
'VICTORIA HEATHER AND HARRY POTTER, THE TWO UNDEFEATED SEEKERS OF THE TOURNAMENT, WHO WILL TAKE HOME THE SNITCH?' Karl was saying.
Vicky caught Harry's eye from across the pitch, and she smiled. Harry returned the smile quickly and then returned his gaze to the pitch, searching all over for the ruddy snitch. Where are you? Harry willed the snitch to come into view. It didn't. Harry resumed his flipping tricks in the air.
'RICKY AND RYAN SCORE FOR STARKALS WHITE WITH AMAZING TECHNIQUE! THIS MAKES THE SCORE 70 - 0 TO STARKALS WHITE! HOGWARTS SILVER ARE GOING TO HAVE A NASTY TIME CATCHING UP! BUT LOOK, HARRY'S SEEN THE SNITCH! HE'S GOING FOR IT!'
'Go Harry!' Hermione yelled from the grand stands, but her voice went unheard as Harry blocked out all noise and focused on chasing the snitch. Vicky came up beside him, her flying technique dazzling Harry just for a second.
'Hello, good luck!' Vicky said, before taking off at enormous speed leaving Harry behind. With shock, Harry turned inward and darted through the pitch and players. He cut right across the field and barrelled into the snitch milliseconds before Vicky's outstretched hand caught it. Harry kept going, however, and crashed right into a tower, knocking himself unconscious.
'Harry!' Hermione and Ron screamed as they rushed from their seats trying to find the quickest path to their friend.
'IN AN AMAZING PERFORMANCE, HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! MAKING THE FINAL SCORE 150 - 80 TO HOGWARTS SILVER!'
--
Harry woke a few hours later to be faced by Ron and Hermione. He rubbed his eyes and grabbed his glasses from the bedside table.
'Please tell me that the games have been postponed.' Harry grumbled.
'Of course they have, but the bottom half have played off to get their team into the final.' Hermione said.
'Hogwarts Gold beat Durmstrang Green, Beauxbatons Violet beat Durmstrang Blue who now get the wooden spoon.' Ron said.
'Then Hogwarts Gold beat Beauxbatons Violet.' Hermione finished.
'When you recover, you play Starkals Black who beat Beauxbatons Indigo.' Ron told him.
'Oh great, I was hoping that Beauxbatons Indigo would beat Starkals Black.' Harry moaned.
'No such luck, buddy.' Ron said.
--
'I can't believe we lost to Starkals Black…' Alicia muttered to Harry as they walked back to the Gryffindor common room. 'It was a good game, but they were just too strong, even though you caught the snitch.'
'I had to end the game at that, they were butchering us.' Harry replied.
'I'm glad you did, we barely scored three goals!' Alicia said sadly.
'Their chasers worked so well as a team, Josh, Ashlee and Kerri, they're magnificent.'
'Plus their damn hot keeper.' Alicia muttered.
'Joel? Ryan's twin brother.'
'Yeah, him.'
'Oh well, I'm sure we'll get another shot at making the Grand Final, after all, there's still two more Round Robin's.' Harry said.
'We won't need two, now with Starkals Black out we should be set to making the semi final from the next Round Robin.' Alicia replied.
'We're going to have to watch out for Starkals White, we almost didn't beat them today.' Harry said.
'Ah but we did beat them, and that's all that matters.' Alicia replied.
'Did you see how fast Vicky was flying? She had the Snitch on her fingertips when I barrelled into it.' Harry said.
'Sure she's a good flier and seeker, but you're better, or else you wouldn't have gotten the snitch today. You even got it against Tai Sullivan again.'
'But we still lost.' Harry mumbled.
'We won't lose to them next time.' Alicia said confidently. 'In the Grand Final, we will win.'
They had reached the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, where Harry noticed Cho sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. She had her eyes closed.
'You go on in, I'll be there soon.' Harry whispered to Alicia, who nodded, spoke the password and entered the common room.
Harry knelt down beside Cho, and gently put a hand on her shoulder. She gasped and her eyes snapped open. They were bloodshot, like she had been crying not so long ago. Cho calmed down when she saw that it was Harry who had woken her.
'Harry…' She trailed off, and he wrapped his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her. She held onto him and wouldn't let go.
'What's happened, Cho?' Harry asked.
'Nothing, I just need a friend right now.' Cho said softly.
'Is this to do with Malfoy?' Harry asked suspiciously. Cho looked up at Harry.
'Maybe…' She said quietly. Harry pulled Cho's arms off him and he stood up.
'Look, Cho, I don't want anything to do with you as long as you have something to do with Malfoy.' Harry said. 'He's broken up with you, let it be.' Cho stood up to face Harry.
'I can't just let it be, you don't understand, I'm in love with him.' Cho pleaded. 'I just need you to be there for me like you have always been.'
'If you're so in love with him then why did you tell him all those lies about you and me?' Harry asked. 'Yes, I know about that.'
'I was wrong to say that, I know now, but I just wanted to test his loyalty.'
'What's there to test about a Slytherin's loyalty? You know as well as I do that Slytherins have no loyalty or honour.' Harry replied.
'You are so wrong, Harry, I'm sorry to say.' Cho told him. 'You have the wrong idea of Slytherins, and you'll never change your view until you're in love with one of them.'
'I will never be in love with one of them.' Harry spat coldly. 'Now go away, you have no sympathy from me.'
Cho gave him a stern look before turning and leaving him alone.
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- Well there's the chapter posted. I appologise for not updating for such a long time. I hope you all liked it and please review. -
- Gryffindor Gal -