As soon as Malfoy walked away, Eddie found the others and summoned them to the room. They arrived and he turned to face them.
"Well, Lily, you know why we're here. And for the rest of you…"
He then delved into the story of Lily and him setting Malfoy up to fail. Nathan and a few others laughed, but Tom looked concerned.
"But, Eddie, none of us know how to play baseball besides you and Nathan."
"That's… the second reason why we're here. Grab a bat."
He indicated the rack of bats against the wall, thought again, and a basic baseball diamond materialized under them. For the next hour, Eddie and Nathan walked around the others, and critiqued them on where they were going wrong. Sean had a problem with swinging the bat like a tennis racket, with one hand.
"No, you've got to put two hands on the bat, like this." He demonstrated the proper way.
After a while, he had Nathan pitch to the others, while he caught, enjoying the experience.
Meanwhile, in the Slytherin common room, Draco Malfoy was pacing up and down between Crabbe and Goyle.
"So, do either of you know what this ridiculous game is?
Two noncommittal grunts followed, issuing from each thug.
Malfoy scoffed. "I expected nothing more from you dunderheads. Well, I'm off to the library then. See if I can't find anything." He spent hours that afternoon looking for any information that could potentially be of help, until he struck gold. A worn piece of parchment lying on a table with a very interesting title.
"What's this?" He picked it up and squinted at it, trying to read it.
"The Beginner's Guide to Baseball. By Lily Jackson. Oh. Ohoho. Hello…."
He looked left, looked right, and then took the paper.
Little did he know that Lily was doing some research nearby, so the parchment's absence was quickly spotted.
When Lily dashed over, she was shocked, then immediately ran to tell Eddie and the others.
She arrived at the Room of Requirement, out of breath.
"Eddie!" she panted. "Someone took my paper I was writing, I think it was Malfoy, the one about the beginner's guide to-
"Hold on a minute, what are you on about, Lily, breathe!" Eddie exclaimed.
"I was writing a paper about baseball to give to the others… and Malfoy, or one of his cronies, took it!"
"How much did you write?" Eddie inquired.
"Too much…" she said, biting her lip nervously
"Well, now, we'll be on an even playing field, won't we?" he managed a grin, trying to make the best out of the situation, but deep down he was annoyed. Why would Lily even bother with a guide?
And he went back to training the others, with a lot more fervor than before, and the fun, loose atmosphere had been sucked from the room rather quickly. Eddie knew Malfoy was smart, and he did not want to lose. The Americans had caught on pretty quickly, the British… not so much. Still in their cricket mindset, he supposed, rolling his eyes.
"Well," Malfoy was saying to Crabbe and Goyle in the Slytherin common room. "That idiot mudblood Jackson decided to leave her guide out for us. We're lucky. Blaise?"
A tall, black boy stood up and walked over.
"What did you need, Draco?"
"I'm putting together a-" he checked the paper, "bass-ball team, and I need you to help recruit players." He huffed, in the same tone of voice a rather bratty son would demand money from his parents. "It says here we need nine, so five more should suffice."
"Will do. I take it-" he added, "that the Stephens and Davidson mudbloods will not be joining us?'
"No. I despise them. They bring a deep insult to our founder. How such filth got into our purity is beyond me. They're probably on Pattinson's team anyway. Mudbloods in Slytherin! Talking and making friends out of other houses. Disgusting. Well, off with you, Zabini," he drawled, clapping his hands. "I'm going to sit down and read this thing.."
The weeks passed, and both Eddie's and Malfoy's teams were getting stronger, though Eddie had the slight edge. After that initial shock of Malfoy taking the paper, Eddie had trained his team as hard as he could, and he had spoken to Dumbledore about this little challenge, who thought it was a wonderful idea. And so he made the challenge public.
"It has come to my attention," he said, addressing the school at breakfast one morning in late March, "that there is a little challenge going on." His eyes twinkled.
"Misters Pattinson and Malfoy have decided to engage in a friendly competition in the Muggle sport of baseball. Now, most of you are unfamiliar with this particular game - even our Muggle-born friends, as it is not, from my understanding, very popular here in Britain even among Muggles - however, I see no harm in this. In my opinion, this added level of unfamiliarity makes it more enjoyable for all. They have told me the game will take place on the Quidditch pitch on the 27th of April at three o'clock, which I thought was an excellent time. I have decided to - er - "up the stakes," as you will. Pattinson and Malfoy have already given me their team rosters. Twenty points will be awarded to each member of the winning team."
Malfoy, who was sulking at the Slytherin table, perked up at this a little bit. "I'm going to humiliate this Mudblood out of the school," he muttered to Crabbe and Goyle.
The night before the game, Eddie, who had skipped dinner, wasn't in a great mood. He couldn't lose to Malfoy… he couldn't… he shuddered to think of what his reaction would be. It was late and he'd had his head slumped in his hands for about forty five minutes when Lily tapped him on the shoulder precariously.
"What?" he snapped.
"Sheesh, I was just suggesting that you should probably get some rest. Don't attack me, I didn't do anything."
"Yeah sure, Miss 'I'm dumb enough to leave out my meaningless, worthless guide out where everyone can find it' didn't do anything!" Eddie knew he needed to control his temper, but for once, he simply didn't care.
"Excuse me?" Lily shrieked. "You're going to bring that up? Weren't you the one saying that we'd look past that?!" Fortunately, they were the only two left in the common room at such an hour, and they wouldn't wake anyone up.
"I was trying to look on the bright side!" Eddie hissed. "This was your idea anyway!"
"Because I was standing up for you!"
"Did I ask you to? I can handle myself, damnit!"
"Malfoy's been like this all year and you haven't done anything about him, and so I figured I would!"
"You calling me weak?" It was at this point when Eddie realized he was standing. He sighed.
"Okay… this was both of our faults." He managed a weak grin. "Sorry."
"Yeah… I suppose it was my fault, primarily… are you going to sleep fine, now?"
"I guess," he shrugged. "I shouldn't have screamed."
Lily shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I'll see you in the morning." And on that note, she departed for the girls' dorm, unsmiling, with Eddie going for the boys' dorm moments later.
The following morning, he had a quick breakfast and held a last-minute practice in the Room of Requirement, not speaking to Lily, and he thought his team was solid. The Hogwarts staff was able to obtain some baseball gear, somehow, (Dumbledore wouldn't say) so when three o'clock arrived, they were ready and set to play.
A makeshift baseball field was constructed inside the Quidditch pitch, albeit with shortened dimensions - 40 feet from home plate to the pitcher's mound, and 60 feet between bases, as opposed to the professional 60 feet 6 inches, and 90 feet.
The two rosters were tacked up on each dugout.
MUGGLE-BORN MAGIC
Team Captain: Eddie Pattinson
Pitcher: Nathan Turner
Catcher: Natalie Rogers
First base: Sean Stephens
Second base: Eddie Pattinson
Shortstop: Lily Jackson
Third base: Claire Davidson
Right field: Tom Hewett
Center field: Justin Finch-Fletchley
Left field: Victoria Parker
SLYTHERIN SERPENTS
Team Captain: Draco Malfoy
Pitcher: Draco Malfoy
Catcher: Marcus Flint
First base: Cassius Warrington
Second base: Blaise Zabini
Shortstop: Peregrine Derrick
Third base: Lucian Bole
Right field: Gregory Goyle
Center field: Vincent Crabbe
Left field: Adrian Pucey
The Quidditch changing rooms served as clubhouses for the two teams.
While they were waiting for the OK from Madam Hooch, Eddie stood up.
"Listen guys," he began, taking a deep breath. "I know we're the better team. I know we've had baseball experience, at least some of us, and I know the ones who haven't, have worked hard. Really hard."
He looked around.
"But promise me one thing. Do not, I repeat, do not take these guys for granted. They know how to play."
Lily buried her face in her hands.
"Hey, hey," Eddie said walking over. "It's not your fault, you didn't think Malfoy would be smart enough to take the paper." They exchanged a quick glance, silently promising not to tell anyone of the fight they'd had the previous night.
He turned around, looking each of them in the eye.
"Now go out there and take it."
As the two teams walked out to the field, the Quidditch pitch was more quiet than it usually was. Perhaps because this was a Muggle sport, perhaps it was new, Eddie didn't know or care. All he wanted to do was win.
"And it'll be Draco Malfoy, batting first for Slytherin," Lee Jordan's voice rang out. "Unfortunately, I don't have my assistant, she's down there on the field. This is certainly an unusual event, but I quite like it. And now we await Nathan Turner's first pitch…"
Moments later, Eddie appeared to be reconsidering this whole endeavor.
Nathan threw a fastball, which Malfoy hit pretty far, and eventually over the fence for a home run, giving his team a 1-0 lead..
"Told you, Pattinson, I am perfect at everything I do!" he laughed heartily as he passed. Eddie said nothing, staring into the middle distance.
He seemed to have proved just that in the bottom of the first inning by striking out Victoria, Sean, and Justin, on three pitches each.
The score was still 1-0 in the bottom of the second, as Nathan had pitched flawlessly since.
"And here's Pattinson, hoping to get payback from Malfoy."
He never got the chance, as Malfoy hit him in the helmet with his first pitch. This got a few growls from the Hufflepuff section of the stands, particularly Ernie, Susan and Hannah.
"I'm gonna kill him." Hannah muttered. Susan had to restrain her.
"He's fine, Hannah," she told her. "Look."
For Eddie had gotten up and dusted himself off, and trotted to first base without a word.
"Sorry Madam Hooch!" Malfoy called out. "It just slipped!" Madam Hooch, who looked completely disinterested, didn't respond.
On the next pitch, Eddie dashed for second base.
"Malfoy, duck!" Flint shouted, and tried to whip the ball over his head, but nailed the blonde Slytherin square in the nose, and he crumpled to the ground. Eddie had stolen second base.
In the confusion, Eddie scampered for third base, then, noticing the ball was still lying by Malfoy's limp body, continued right on and scored. They were tied.
As the innings passed, it became apparent that Malfoy had in fact trained his team well, despite not having access to the Room of Requirement. Eddie would later find out that they'd used beater's bats and shrunken Quaffles for practice. Malfoy was not pitching well for his part, but he kept getting saved by his defence. Zabini made an excellent catch of a hard hit ball by Claire to keep the bases loaded and end the 4th inning. Warrington fell to his knees and hung on to a ball hit by Natalie for a critical out in the 6th. Not that Eddie's team was playing badly. Tom reached over the fence and stole another home run from Malfoy, which led to a heated argument with the umpire, Madam Hooch.
"It was over the wall!" he shrieked.
"Rules say that if it's caught before it hits the ground, I don't care if the ball is hit to Mars, it's an out!" she screamed back, despite having little knowledge of the game.
The game reached the eighth, still tied.
"And it'll be Pattinson again leading off." Lee's voice called. "Still no hits for him, though he scored that crucial run in the second. "
On the first pitch from Malfoy, Eddie made perfect contact and lined the ball back up the middle. Draco ducked and allowed the ball to skip into center field. Eddie was on base. He tapped his helmet twice, which started the chain of signals he had planned. Nathan rubbed his batting gloves together to show that he got the sign. Natalie pointed at Eddie, which meant that she got the sign.
"Well then," Eddie thought. "All systems go."
Malfoy delivered, Eddie attempted to steal second base again. This time, Flint had the sense to throw a laser to Zabini covering the base, not Draco's face. Eddie slid in safely, however. Next pitch, Nathan bunted, to the bewilderment of most of the Slytherin players, who hadn't seen a bunt before. Malfoy though, had bothered to read through the entire guide. Bunts were deceptive trick plays to hit the ball softly, so the hitter could reach base before anyone had a chance to throw them out. He fielded it cleanly and threw towards first base for the out. All according to plan. Eddie advanced to third base on the play. They tried the bunting trick again with Natalie, only this time, Eddie started running before the pitch was even out of Malfoy's hand. Natalie made contact with the ball and it dropped in fair territory. Eddie scored - a perfect suicide squeeze bunt.
Now with their first lead of the game, Nathan recorded the first out, Zabini. Eddie ordered Nathan to walk Goyle intentionally. Nathan complied. Lobbing four pitches far out of the zone, Goyle, who had no idea what an intentional walk was, grinned at Nathan and trotted down to first base, thinking that Nathan was bad. Eddie had another trick up his sleeve. It was Malfoy up again, and he was looking for revenge. He was expecting another fastball (Lily's pamphlet had elaborated on the different kinds of pitches) and he guessed wrong - it was a curveball. He popped it up behind second. Already frustrated with himself, he screamed at Goyle to run. As Goyle was Malfoy's ever-obedient minion, he did so. Malfoy realized his mistake, but it was too late. As per the rules, Goyle would have had to stay at first on a ball in the air and less than two outs. Eddie made the catch, and flipped it to Sean for the final out, and that was the game.
Malfoy was in shock.
"Hate to break it to you, Malfoy..." Eddie came over in a jovial way. "But you aren't perfect. I had Natalie tell you that it was a fastball so you'd crush it. Boosting your self-esteem. Then, I sent my three worst hitters to the plate so you'd strike 'em all out. That's just how it goes sometimes." And he left to join the celebrations.
Unable to speak for a long while, Malfoy cast aside his baseball gear as though it was acid.
"Mudblood filth. Whatever is Father going to say?"