Wondering how much longer his stomach would be able to keep breakfast down, Ron watched the Quaffle make its way down the Quidditch pitch, towards the golden goal posts he was protecting. Slytherin Chaser Montague was headed towards Ron, the Quaffle held tightly in his oversized hands.
Why did Harry put me back on the team? Ron thought, trying to watch out for the Slytherin Beater, Crabbe, while keeping his eyes on Montague. I'm not good at this at all! Half of the saves I've made today have been pure luck!
Just then, Crabbe sent a bludger hurtling towards Ron's head at the same time that Montague threw the Quaffle at the goal Ron was protecting. Swining his lef out to het more speed, Ron whirled his body completely around the broomstick, resettling himself on the broom just in time to catch the Quaffle.
See? Ron thought as the Gryffindors in the stands cheered his save. I'm terrible!
Ron chucked the Quaffle at Ginny, who had been tailing Montague on her Cleansweep Seven. After Ethan, Isabel, and Rochelle had had their little conversation with Ginny last week, Ginny had been more tolerant of the new students and their assuredly temporary relationships. She would now take active participation in Harry's game strategy, even passing the Quaffle to Ethan when she needed to.
Ethan had turned out to be an awesome Quidditch player. He always caught the Quaffle, and the ball seemed to somehow go through one of the three Slytherin goal hoops, even if it wasn't the one Ethan had appeared to aim for. Even the commentator, Luna Lovegood, noticed that something was going on with Ethan.
"I think the new Gryffindor Keeper, Ethan Roberts, could be a knitchy," Luna announced. "He's too perfect at Quidditch. There he goes now, clearly aiming for the left goal post. He throws the Quaffle… the Slytherin Keeper goes to catch the Quaffle… the Quaffle swerves around the Slytherin Keeper… the Quaffle flies through the goal post on the right! If Ethan Roberts is not a knitchy, then I don't know what a knitchy is!"
Hearing this over the magical loudspeaker, Ron laughed aloud. I guess she doesn't know what a "knitchy" is, then! he thought.
Looking into the stands while the Quaffle was on the Slytherin end of the pitch, Ron saw Rochelle, Hermione, and Isabel watching the game. Each one of the girls held a sign over their head: Hermione was waving a sign supporting Ethan, Isabel's sign was in support of Harry, and Rochelle's sign pronounced Ron the best player of them all. All three signs sported moving pictures of their respective Quidditch players, although where they found an action photo of Ethan playing Quidditch, Ron would never know. Ron had enough trouble just wrapping his mind around the idea of there being a book about his and Harry's and Hermione's seven years at Hogwarts.
Ron shivered, remembering just how close he and his two friends came to actually not coming to Hogwarts this year. He and Hermione had accompanied Harry to Godric's Hollow like they had planned at the end of last year, and visited the Potters' graves. Harry had sat for a long time, just looking at the headstones marking where his parents' bodies were buried. Sometime during that three-hour period when all Harry did was look at his parents' graves, Harry had decided to return to Hogwarts to complete his seventh year. When Ron and Hermione had asked what had made him want to go back, Harry had replied that there were two reasons: he didn't think his parents would ever want him to drop out of school, and he thought that it would be easier to find out more about Voldemort among teachers who had lived through his reign of terror once already. Most of the teachers being in the Order of the Phoenix, Harry said he could ask some of the teachers if they would teach him more about Voldemort's weaknesses. Ron and Hermione had agreed, stunned with Harry's reasoning, and gone back to Hogwarts with him.
Ron lunged, punting the Quaffle away from the middle hoop at the last second. He'd gotten too caught up in his memories; he had to keep his mind on the game. Although with Ethan on the team, he really didn't need to; the score was 180-30 to Gryffindor, and this was only the first ten minutes of the game.
Ron saw Harry suddenly fly straight up into the sky. The new Slytherin Seeker—Malfoy having left the school with Snape last year—saw this too, and began following Harry up into the clouds. Suddenly, though, Harry made a sharp turn to the right, his arm outstretched. Ron saw a tiny glint of gold ten feet away from Harry's hand. Instead of flying straight towards the Snitch, Harry had gone up and then to the right, distracting the Slytherin Seeker.
Harry and the Snitch disappeared into a cloud, but there was no doubt that Harry was going to catch the flying golden ball; the Slytherin Seeker was still flying straight up, a slightly confused expression marring his triumphant face. He had thought Harry had pulled away due to lack of oxygen in the thinning air that high up. Harry dove down to the ground, jumping off of his broom to land on his feet at the last second. He waved the golden Snitch triumphantly over his head, and the stands for Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff began to cheer ecstatically.
Ron smiled and began flying towards his best friend. I am so glad we came back this year!