On the morning of the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the Gryffindor team seemed confident. Wood was deep in thought at breakfast, no doubt going over new tactics. Fred and George were cracking jokes and the three girls were quite at ease as they ate porridge.

Before they sat down for breakfast, Dudley took Ron to one side.

"Do you want to borrow my Nimbus 2000?" Dudley asked.

Ron looked shocked for a moment. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, we have to beat Slytherin this year, and we'll have a better chance if you're on my broom."

Ron looked relieved. "That's great—definitely. I know I can fly better than Malfoy, but his broom is much better. This will definitely make things easier. Can I tell Wood?"

"Tell whoever you like," Dudley said, amused.

Ron told Oliver Wood who broke out in a grin at the news. He actually came over to thank Dudley personally.

"Cheers, Dud," he said, clapping him on the back. "I was going to have one of the Weasley's target Malfoy again, but now Ron has a better broom, I don't need too."

The winds were howling and the rain was pouring down when the school made their way to the quidditch stadium. Hermione had somehow managed to a bunch of umbrellas big enough to fit two people under, so they paired off and took one. Dudley sat huddled under one with Dean, Hermione with Neville.

Ginny and Luna came to sit with them. They didn't have an umbrella, merely rain coats with the hoods pulled up. Hermione budged up to make room for Ginny and Dudley budged up so that Luna could fit under there's. It was a tight squeeze, Dudley, despite his diet, was still quite hefty.

"I'm supporting Gryffindor," Luna announced, quite unnecessarily since she was sat in the Gryffindor section. "I made this to wave." She removed from her robes a flag in Gryffindor colors but instead of the Gryffindor lion, it featured a hand drawn image of Ron Weasley's face which shouted "Go Gryffindor!" whenever it was waved.

"Cool," said Dudley, exchanging an amused look with Dean. They both knew Ron would hate the flag.

The rain grew even worse as the match started. It was so dark and so rainy that it was difficult to keep track of the game.

"Bell passes to Johnson. Johnson goes past Montague. She shoots … did that go in? No, it seems Bletchley saved it."

Lee Jordan, who was providing commentary was also struggling. "Great bludger by one of the Weasleys—did it hit Flint? I didn't see. Must have done, I just saw Spinnet with the quaffle."

From what Dudley could see, the teams were both evenly matched. While Slytherin had the faster brooms, Gryffindor had the better players. This time, with Ron on a Nimbus, the Weasley twins didn't have to worry about targeting Malfoy as they had last year, so the game was much closer.

Dudley couldn't see Ron at all, the rain was so quick. He occasionally saw Malfoy flash by—whenever he did, the entire stadium booed and hissed. Malfoy seemed to be staying low, diving amongst the players whereas Ron, it appeared was staying on high.

"And Malfoy dodges a bludger there," Lee Jordan said as a bludger went past Malfoy's ear. The crowd booed again.

"And here's Johnson speeding towards goal. She shoots—she scores. 80-60 to Gryffindor."

The crowd cheered—even the Ravenclaws and even the Hufflepuffs. Luna waved her flag hard, the wind catching the fabric so it ballooned out.

Then came Wood's whistle. It seemed he was calling a time out.

"It's tough going," Dudley said as they teams huddled together on the pitch to discuss new tactics.

"I believe in Ron," Luna said. "He's a much better flyer than Malfoy."

Dudley stared at her. He hadn't known or expected Luna to know much about quidditch.

"Oh, daddy sometimes takes me to see the Appleby Arrows play," Luna replied. "He went to Hogwarts with one of their ex-chasers."

The team's took off again. Gryffindor had shifted to a more possession type play from what Dudley could tell. They were passing the ball quickly but cautiously, not advancing much towards the Slytherin goal.

"Now!" Wood suddenly shouted. As one, the chasers shot forward, the speed of the sudden attack taking Slytherin by surprise. Lit up by a flash of lightning, Dudley saw Katie Bell throw the quaffle long, over the heads of the Slytherin chasers. Johnson flew to meet it. She shot. Bletchley got a hand to it but Alicia Spinett was there to finish the rebound.

"Goal! An excellent surprise attack catches Slytherin off guard. 90-60 for Gryffindor!" Lee Jordan said.

Beside him, Luna was jumping up and down in delight. Ginny was on her feet cheering too.

"Ohhh look at Ron!" Luna cried.

Lightning flashed again and sure enough, Ron was diving towards the ground.

"Look out!" Hermione screamed. There were sudden cries of fright and yells of shock from the stands. As the lightning flashed, illuminated on the quidditch pitch were a cluster of Dementors, hooded heads turned towards the sky as Ron dived towards them.

"Ron, break!" Wood called.

Ron however, dived into the black mass. The Dementors closed in around him. There were yells from the crowd. The Weasley twins fired charged towards the Dementors, bats raised.

Suddenly a white bird like object shot out of the stands towards the Dementors. It parted the horde and there was Ron, flying up into the sky, hand raised with the snitch gripped tightly in his fist—pale, shaken but victorious.

The crowd were on their feet cheering. Luna was leaping up and down, hugging Ginny. Dean threw his arm around Dudley's neck.

"What a catch!" he bellowed, applauding.

Hermione had tears pouring down her face as she cheered.

On the pitch, Ron had landed and was been hugged by the rest of the team.

The white bird had chased the Dementors into the wood.

Back at Gryffindor Tower, was soon in full spring. The Twins had disappeared for an hour and returned with food and cakes and drinks from the kitchens. Oliver Wood had put on the Wizarding Wireless which was playing a song from the band The Weird Sisters at full volume.

Ron was the hero of the hour, sat sprawled in the armchair by the fire with the rest of the team.

"What a catch!" Lee Jordan was saying. "They'll be talking about that for YEARS! Diving straight into a crowd of Dementors."

"Amazing," said Angelina Johnson in agreement.

"That was very brave," Luna said. She had come to join the celebrations with Ginny and had been dancing quite by herself to one of the slower Weird Sisters songs and had now come to join the group gathered around Ron, Wood and Angelina.

Katie and Alicia were stood apart, selecting a cake to eat.

"I just wanted to beat Malfoy," Ron admitted. "I wasn't thinking about the Dementors until I was in the middle of them. Then I thought, 'oh crap' what am I meant to do now?"

They all laughed except Hermione who looked worried.

"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked, anxiously.

"Of course," Ron said. "They didn't hurt me, though it was weird … the crowd went silent. You know. It was like I was alone, flying down a tunnel—pitch black with just the snitch ahead of me and those things all around. And I could hear voices. It felt horrible, but I was just focused on the snitch. Then, they all went away."

"It was Dumbledore, he cast some sort of charm,"

"It was a bird," Neville said.

"Looked a bit like a chicken," said Dean

"I thought it was a pheasant," Dudley said.

"It was a pygmy dragon," Luna said. "Daddy told me about them. The Ministry of Magic covers up their existence but Dumbledore must be able to summon them."

"Whatever it was, it got rid of the Dementors pretty quickly," said Hermione.