Chapter Ten
Gryffindor were scheduled to provide assistance to Madam's Hooch and Pomfrey before the match. They gathered at the bottom of the stairs at the entrance of the Great Hall after breakfast and before the match. Ginny quickly divided them, sending three students up to the Hospital Wing to help Madam Pomfrey bring her supplies down to the Quidditch Pitch and she went with the other three students, heading over to Madam Hooch's office.
Ginny kept checking her watch, she still had to take these balls and supplies down to the Quidditch Pitch, hot foot it back to the castle, dress for the match, meet Hermione who was going to walk down with her to watch Cho in the first match of the year! She couldn't risk not checking with Madam Hooch that she was satisfied with Gryffindor's pre game effort, she wanted to satisfy her obligations and she didn't want to lose House points for an oversight or misunderstanding.
She bolted back up to the Castle, thank goodness for all the running Cho had made her do in training, not that she would ever be admitting that out loud. She ran directly to the Room of Requirement, pacing up and down, her furrowed brow signalling some hard thinking was occuring. The door shimmered into view and became more corporeal as Ginny quickly reached to give the handle a twist and ducked inside.
Fifteen minutes later, Ginny was waiting for Hermione, nervously at the bottom of the stairs in the Entrance Hall, she was by turns either looking around anxiously for her friend and then pacing quickly with her head down, hoping nobody would recognise her. The whole floor was packed with students, pouring out of the dining room, down the staircase and from their various House Common Rooms. The first Quidditch game of the year!
Students were flooding through the front doors of the Castle, into the outdoors and heading toward the pitch in great excitement and exuberance, laughing, chanting, some wearing their House Colours or the House Colours of the team they were hoping to win today. With difficulty Hermione made her way through the throng of students, and spotting Ginny, her eyes opened wide but she pursed lips to refrain from either laughing or making a smart comment.
Ginny saw it, but she was already bright red with humiliation, nothing said could make her embarrassment any keener. She grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her along with the tide of students before she could change her mind and dash back to the Room of Requirement and change her outfit. In the lead up to the game, Cho had made a comment about Ginny wearing Ravenclaw colours to support her and Ginny had taken the comment to heart.
She tried to lift her chin, and walk with purpose, her Ravenclaw Quidditch Robes flowing and swirling around her body, she had attached a huge pair of Raven's wings to the back of her robes and a hat that made her head look like the head of a Raven. As if that wasn't enough, in her right hand she was carrying a huge flag featuring a silver raven on a blue background.
"It's just a show of support for Cho, it's her first game, the Selectors will be there," Ginny tried to mollify herself with her justifications.
"You look great," said Hermione, seriously, "and I'm no Quidditch expert but wont your Gryffindor teammates be a little… miffed?"
"I'll tell them I lost a bet!"
"But you didn't?"
"No, I didn't, although I am rather wishing I had."
The pitch was empty except for Madam Hooch, standing over the Quidditch Trunk into the very centre of the ground, in preparation for the release of the Quaffle, Bludgers and the Snitch. The sunlight glinted off of the shiny silver whistle hanging around her neck. Within minutes, the players of both teams had walked out onto the grass for the start of the match, Madam Hooch was gathering them all around her.
"First game of the year! Hufflepuff," she said her eyes raking over the players,
"Ravenclaw," her eyes now passing over their faces,
"I want a nice clean game, all of you." The players nodded and moved back a pace or two as she beckoned forward the Captains,
"Shake hands and mount your brooms," she blew her whistle, the Quaffle was released, followed by the Bludgers and finally the Golden Snitch.
The players of both teams leapt on to their brooms and flew straight up into the air, heading for their positions, leaving the Captains to rise at the speed and height of the Quaffle, engaging in a perfectly legal tussle over the ball. The Hufflepuff Captain got a clear shot and punched it up to a Chaser who grabbed it and the game had begun proper. The spectators were cheering like mad, even Hermione gave a polite round of applause.
Cho rose straight up high over the pitch, higher than all of the players on both teams and appeared to circle lazily around the pitch. Ginny knew however that she wasn't actually being lazy; she was being extremely thorough in her search for the Snitch, but she was such a skillful flyer and very experienced that she made it look so easy.
The Quaffle was passed and caught by a Hufflepuff beater and passed methodically from team member to team member like it was a training session, the Ravenclaw players looked to be late to intercept every pass. The first goal came within the first minute and the match and the Match Commentator could be heard calling "Score! Hufflepuff scored the first goal of the Tournament, Hufflepuff ten, Ravenclaw zero." And the celebration was deafening!
The players all moved back into position after a quick Hufflepuff round of high fives and an even quicker Ravenclaw message about bucking up, back to places and keeping positive. Ginny was watching every player; she was a very keen Quidditch fan in every event, she was going to be playing both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff at some point over the next five weeks and needed all the intelligence she could get, also she was hoping that Ravenclaw would find a way to overcome their slow start before it became a rut.
Winning the first game of the year would be a shot of confidence for whichever team managed it. Ginny was sitting forward on her seat, highly engrossed in the match, next to her Hermione was sitting back, with a brand new copy of the Daily Prophet folded under one arm, saved for just such an occasion as she became bored, which was highly likely, especially if it was a long game.
Both women watched Cho as she circled the pitch, the Snitch was yet to be seen but Cho was still busy, not only was she looking for the Snitch herself, she was also busy out working her opponent. Ginny was impressed and cheered for her regularly. Ravenclaw seemed to have been able to intercept a few passes, but they were yet to hang on to it convincingly, Hufflepuff managed to keep the Quaffle at their goal end for several minutes and were eventually able to capitalize on a Ravenclaw error, "Goal! Hufflepuff score a second goal, 20 to nil!"
Cho kept working, she would zoom away from her direct opponent, the Hufflepuff Seeker, Danny Grey, and hover at a distance with her eyes peeled. She would allow him to sidle up to her, appearing unconcerned or as though she hadn't noticed, Cho would wait for him to become distracted and alternately edge back and gain height catching him by surprise or she would feint spotting the Snitch and take off let him get the lead and pulling out to circle the Pitch once more.
"Good work, Chang, keep working hard!" Ginny called out loudly, standing up, Cho heard Ginny's voice above the raucous cheering of the whole school and searched for her amongst the crowd. Ginny nodded her head to make it appear as though the Raven was pecking at something and waved her arms, making her huge wings open and close, catching Cho's eye. Cho gawked momentarily at her friend's ensemble, remembered her own comment about Ginny wearing Ravenclaw colours, she laughed and waved back. Then Ginny unfurled the banner and waved it enthusiastically.
Cho couldn't stay inattentive to the game for long, she took her happiness and returned to the match and seconds later she was shifting subtly away from Danny, who was also now staring at the giant Raven, and she had left him in her wake before he had even noticed she had gone.
"Look over there," said Hermione, leaning forward to catch Ginny's attention.
"What?" responded Ginny, squinting her eyes in the direction of Hermione's index finger. On each side of the pitch were four spectator stands, one for each of the Houses, in between and more than half way up the stands were four smaller, floating stands, adorned with the Hogwarts symbology rather than House colours, these were for 'independent' members of staff, family members who found sitting with enthusiastic students challenging and other guests, members of the Ministry, the Press and in this case - Selectors!
"Oh wow," said Ginny, suitably impressed. "That was a really thoughtful thing you did, Hermione,"
"It was nothing, really," Hermione brushed off the compliment.
"Well, what's nothing to you could have a huge impact for Cho, for me too, if it comes to that," It would never have occurred to Ginny to send such a notice, it was a brilliant idea and she wasn't going to let it go unmentioned.
"Can I borrow your omnioculars, Hermione?"
"Here," said Hermione, digging them out of her beaded bag. Ginny put them to her eyes, twiddled the knobs to improve the focus and then zoomed right in on the panel of Selectors. One or two had actual clip boards, another one or two were just making small marks on scraps of Parchment, others were watching the match with great interest and commenting to one another. Ginny thought she recognised one fellow as having played for Puddlemere United when she was a child.
"That man is wearing a Tutshill Tornados badge, I wonder if he works for them or supports them?"
"What difference does it make?" asked Hermione, it was a genuine question rather than a smart retort and Ginny knew Hermione well enough to know the difference.
"The Tornados are Cho's team, she has followed them since she was a kid. It would be really cool if she ended up getting signed to them and wearing their colours for real, wouldn't it?"
"Oh, I see what you mean, yes, that would be cool."
Just then the noise of the crowd erupted, Ginny tore the omnioculars away from her eyes and returned her attention to the game, searching madly to find evidence to explain what everyone was reacting to.
"Is it the snitch?" asked Hermione.
"No, it's the Ravenclaw Chaser, here," she said, handing Hermione the onicoculars, "See, she's been hit by a bludger and is getting brought off for Madam Pomfrey to patch her up. They will be a team member down until she gets back into position."
"Ew, she's bleeding everywhere," said Hermione, in disgust.
"Yeah, it's just a nasty gash above her eyebrow, she will be right in a minute."
Ginny looked around for Cho who was working extremely hard just now, it would be just like the Snitch to make an appearance when the attention of absolutely everybody was fixed elsewhere. She looked from Cho to the selectors and was pleased to note that their attention had not been diverted, they, like Cho, were too experienced. They will be wanting to know which players had lost concentration and put themselves and their team at a possible disadvantage.
The Ravenclaw Captain, Chrissie Berry, was talking, reminding her team not to let the injury or their slow start get them down, barking specific instructions about where specific players should be centred, and reminding them of their tasks. That when Ravenclaw were in possession they should spread out and when Hufflepuff were in possession they should man up on their opponent, sticking tight to them.
It seemed to work because for the first time in the match, Ravenclaw had managed to get the Quaffle down to their own end, Cho cleverly and strategically chose this moment to feint for the Snitch in the opposite direction, dragging her own opponent away from the play. The energy Cho summoned and expressed in her bullet like movement also served to distract some of the nearby Hufflepuff players and made it possible for Ravenclaw to finally get the Quaffle through their centre hoop.
Ravenclaw team members and fans alike erupted into chaotic and rather insane celebratory performances - there was a rather uncoordinated attempt to start up several chants and choruses. Ginny stood and waved her arms - she knew that Cho's performance made certain an otherwise only possible goal. She grabbed the omnioculars once again and levelled her gaze over the Selectors on the other side of the pitch, hoping to spot them all talking about Cho, but of course it was impossible to tell. Some of them were making notes, and that was enough to make Ginny feel certain they were noting Co's on field brilliance.