Chapter Seven
Harry and Ron led everyone outside into the backyard, explaining to Leo and Blake that the area was enchanted so that it was not only vastly enlarged, but also invisible to muggle or trespassing eyes. Harry looked at the brooms Leo and Blake were holding. The stick was made of some kind of dark, highly polished wood. It looked almost red, though it wasn't painted.
"What are your brooms?" asked Harry. "Neveer seen them before."
"Lightning 2.0," replied Leo. "One of the best in America. It's a performance broom, very fast and very maneuverable. Cost me a small fortune to tell you the truth."
"What are you flying?" asked Blake with a cocked eye. "It looks nice."
"Firebolt," answered Harry with a smile. "It is the best in England, no broom like it. I've had it for a few years now. My Nimbus Two Thousand broke in my third year."
"Well then, it seems we're gong to have a fun game then," said Leo. "So how is it you guys practice? We don't really have another team."
"We don't need another team," said Ginny. "Fred and George practice de-brooming us as Beaters, while the others just try to score on Ron as best as they can. Harry's the only one who's succeeded, and that was with the sickest move I've ever seen. He's very good."
"Really?" asked Blake with a huge grin. "Well, we're pretty much the best Chasers in the USA. Maybe we can see how Ron measures up to American play."
"Bring it on," said Ron, kicking into the air with his Cleansweep and heading straight for the hoops.
"We have three Chasers already," said Harry. "I'm out of practice as Seeker. You guys work on Ron, and I'll work with the Snitch."
"Fair enough," said Ginny. "Let's go guys." She took the Quaffle into the air and began the game while Harry took the Snitch in his hand. The golden wings unfolded from around it, and it bounced into the air, hovering around him, sizing him up apparently. It took off into the sky.
Harry let it go for a few seconds, knowing it would be all too easy if he just watched where it went, and went up only when he was sure the little golden sphere had had sufficient time to hide itself.
He watched Gnny streak toward the hoop, Blake and Leo on either side of her. Ron sat perched on his broom with both hands raised in a goalie stance. Ginny passed it to Blake while passing to his other side. Blake bounced it to Leo in an instant, who immediately bounced it back without even catching it. Blake only caught it just in front of Ron and tossed it up for a point. Ron extended his hand quickly and caught it with only one hand.
"You guys have to come up with something more creative than that to full him," said Ginny. "He's good. Really good. It's going to take all we have got."
"Right then," said Leo. "We were just gauging his abilities. That's all. We'll take it up a notch." Leo flew backwards as the ball was passed to him. Harry kept watching. He'd never seen a broom fly properly backwards, because brooms weren't aerodynamic for such methods. He was sure it would require the greatest balance. Leo stopped and shot forward, palming the ball with one hand. He acted like he was throwing, following through so the Quaffle left his hand only for an instant. As soon as he had thrown it, he caught it again, faking Ron out only for a second as he moved to the left.
Leo recovered quickly and threw it to the exposed goal as hard as he could. Ron was faced with having to make a difficult grab. He was still going the other way when the ball was halfway to the goal. He jumped off of his broom toward the other hoop and grabbed the rim with one hand while reaching with his other. He deflected the ball from his goal, and it fell to the ground.
"Nice one!" shouted Leo. "I though I had you for sure!"
"Can someone fetch my broom?" asked Ron, still dangling high up. "I can't go anywhere like this!" Something streaked right past Leo at the speed of light, coming from behind him. It was Harry on his broom, as he and everyone else had quickly realized, and he was no doubt chasing the Snitch, only feet in front of him. Harry had his hand extended to grasp it as he closed in. It would only be a matter of a few quick seconds before he could caught up with it. Harry looked ahead and immediately realized that he was in a tight spot. The Snitch was flying right for the goals, evidently prepared to go through one. If Harry had to swerve to avoid one, a decision that he had about a second to make, the Snitch would loose him for sure. Time did make that much of a difference. One little distraction, and it could all be over.
Everyone had stopped playing to see what he would do. Harry knew his alternative was to go through the hoop with the Snitch, but even that would slow him down a bit. He had no choice but to catch it now or as it went through, or else he would have to start over again.
He increased his speed as they met the hoop. The Snitch led into the center rim as Harry lightly jumped off of his broom. He straightened his body as he twisted into a 180 degree spin. He passed through the hoop while he caught the golden Snitch and landed on the other side on his Firebolt, which had passed right around the hoop.
"Holy shit!" yelled Leo. "I did not just see that."
"We've come to accept this as being normal by now," said Fred.
"Yeah, he's that good," said George.
"He does crazy stuff like that all the time!" asked Blake.
"Yep," said Ginny. "He even surfed on his broom one time. Hell, he played almost an entire game with a broken arm."
Harry came up to them with the Snitch struggling in his hand. He was smiling, pleased that his stunt had impressed everyone.
"He reminds me of you for sure," said Blake to Leo. "He's as nuts as you are. Like, there was that time you jumped onto someone else's broom!"
"You did what?" asked Ron. He was still helplessly hanging from his goal.
"He jumped off of his broom at an opponent and landed on his broom on his feet, and he kicked off to jump up and land back on his broom," said Blake.
"I was just showing off," said Leo with a smile. "I do that every now and then."
"KIDS! Come on inside! It's time for dinner!" yelled the familiar voice of Molly Weasley.
"We better get going," said Ginny. "Mum doesn't like latecomers at the dinner table." Ginny descended while flying towards the house, and Fred and George flew behind her.
"Great flying man," said Leo. "I can tell we're going to get along just fine with Quiditch between us."
"Oh yeah," said Harry with a great smile. "Tis the sport that binds us all. Quiditch knows no cultural boundaries."
"Hell yeah," said Leo. They gave each other a dramatic high five.
"Now let's go eat," said Blake. The three of them flew down to the house.
…
"Hello!" yelled Ron. "I'm still up here!... Anybody going to help me?"
End Chapter Seven
I know it's short, but i have some things to do today. Also, I'm going to be watching the Harry Potter 2 movie on ABC tonight for the sake of seeing the previews for teh 4th movie. Th have a great special with behind the scenes stuff for the Goblet Of Fire, so I'll be pretty busy. I'll see if I can't get a new chapter up.
Catch y'all later.
