Chapter 30 – Knock out

"Why didn't you tell me that my boyfriend was in the hospital wing?" Lavender Brown yelled at Harry and me when we were having breakfast in the great hall.

Harry and I exchanged glances. I blinked a few times in the hopes of coming up with an answer. "Ummmm…"

"It happened so suddenly that we were not able to think." Harry said.

"I should have been informed." She looked right at me, "We are roommates, you should have told me."

"We're sorry. We were just too worried to think. Besides, we didn't get to see him until midnight." Apologies always work. She should leave us now.

She looked suspicious, "So, you all just stood out of the hospital wing the entire day waiting to be let in."

"Yes." Harry answered. "And other than the three of us, only his family was there."

"Three of you? Don't tell me Hermione Granger was there are well!"

"Yes. We all are friends." Harry said.

"Oh please! She's not been 'friends' with him since he started going out with me. But I guess she wants to be around him now that he's all interesting."

"How is getting poisoned interesting? He almost died." I said.

She shrugged and left us.

"Did she actually say that?" Harry asked.

"I can't believe it either. Glad H went to visit Ron, if she were here Lav-Lav and H would have gotten into a fight."

"Potter. I want to discuss strategy with you." McLaggen sat next to Harry.

"Good Morning to you too, McLaggen." I wished him. After last night, just being in close proximity with him irritates me.

He looked at me like he didn't even know I was here. "Oh ya, good morning. So Potter, I was thinking that beaters and chasers need some more practise. Last time we gave away some unnecessary points to Slytherin."

I could tell Harry was not enjoying this, "Excuse me, if you didn't notice, I'm having breakfast with my girlfriend."

McLaggen looked at Harry like he didn't understand what was told to him. I looked at him and gave him a sickly sweet smile and even waved at him for added effect.

"But we are talking about Quidditch. That's more important than breakfast with your girlfriend. The match is next week."

"This is the first time in months my girlfriend and I can sit here together and talk without either of us having to run after Hermione or Ron. So, I want use this time to my advantage. We have practise in the evening, we'll talk about it then." Harry dismissed him.

For moment he looked he was going to punch Harry. He just stared at him. Maybe he's not used to being spoken to like this. Then he got up and left.

"What a tool!" Harry exclaimed.

"Yeah! We all played really well that's why we won. 'Gave away unnecessary points' what is he talking about?" I complained.

"I wonder how Hermione is with him."

"Well, she says he's not such a bad guy when he's with her. Maybe he's got like two sides, you know like one for her and one for everyone else." I said it with spider fingers.

"You're so dramatic!"

"You love me for it."

He paused, "Yes, I do. Let's go visit Ron."

I didn't like the pause. I nodded and we went to the hospital wing to join Hermione and Ron.


"That was horrible!" Jimmy Peakes, one of the beaters, said.

"That was the worst practise ever." Demelza Robbins said.

"I hope this doesn't happen during the match." Ritchie Coote, the other beater, said.

"Yeah, me too." I agreed with Ritchie.

We just had our first practice with McLaggen and it was a disaster. He had plans for everybody. He was instructing each and every player like he was the captain of the team. The guy maybe a good Keeper but he's no Oliver Wood. He should learn his place.

"He was even giving Harry tips to be a good seeker." Ginny said. Ever since Ron got poisoned, Ginny and I have been painfully cordial to each other. "He is the best goddamn seeker in the school, right now!"

"Yeah! And what's up with Harry, he seems to be very distracted. Normally he would more attentive with a week left but this time, he doesn't seem interested." Jimmy pointed out.

Harry's been obsessed with Draco for the past few weeks. He keeps checking the map for Draco's whereabouts. He is busy trying to figure out where Draco disappears off to when he was not on the map. This had gone to a point where even Quidditch has become less important for him. Not good! It won't take him long to figure out where Draco's been going to.

There were all looking at me for an explanation, "What?"

"Well, you must know something." Demelza said.

"He has been worried about Ron."

"But he is fine. I just saw him in the morning." Ginny said.

"I know. But he's shaken up. He is his best friend. So, he's just a little worried."

Ginny looked at Harry who was having a talk with McLaggen after we all complained to Harry. It looked like Harry was not able to get his point across because McLaggen kept talking and not listening to Harry at all.

"Well, best friend or not, I hope he is more attentive during the match." Jimmy said.

"Please, Harry always gives his best during matches." I hoped they believed me.


Harry told me that he would meet us in the dressing room. He wanted to meet Ron before the match. Ron was not too happy when found out that McLaggen had replaced him. I went down to the pitch with H. She wished me luck when we had to go separate ways – she went to the stands and I went to the dressing room.

"Where the hell is Potter?" McLaggen was irritated.

"Yeah, where is he?" Jimmy asked.

"He said he was going to meet Ron before he came down here. He should have been here by now." I answered.

"Is this the time to visit sick people? He could have gone after the match." McLaggen yelled. "Weasley, go get him."

For a moment, it looked like Ginny was going to hexed him but after staring at him angrily, she turned around to go get him.

While Ginny was gone, McLaggen was giving everyone last minutes instructions. It was hard to tell if anyone was listening to him. Finally, Ginny returned with Harry.

"Where were you, Potter? It doesn't matter now, I was just telling Coote and Peakes to fly away from the sun." McLaggen said when he saw Harry.

"McLaggen, you just worry about the goalposts. The others will do their job." Harry told him. And then he whispered something to Jimmy and Ritchie and they nodded.

"Where were you?" I asked him when he got to me.

He looked around. The others were checking their gear and then he whispered, "I ran into Malfoy."

"Um…"

"He was going somewhere with two girls. I wanted to follow him."

"I'm glad you didn't and came here." I'm also glad you didn't follow Draco.

He nodded. "Let's go." He squeezed my hand and then the seven of us went to the ground.


I'm not sure when the match started going downhill. McLaggen kept barking at each of us when we lost the quaffle and Hufflepuff scored. In return, we shouted back that if he concentrated on the keeping, he probably would do a better job. While was shouting at us, Hufflepuff scored again. It was really annoying. The three of us worked get the quaffle while Harry told McLaggen to guard the posts. On top of all this Luna's commentary was making people laugh, she spoke about anything but the match. At regular intervals, Prof. McGonagall would bark out the score.

Then out of nowhere Luna says, "Look, McLaggen has one of the beaters' bats."

Everybody stopped moving, including the Hufflepuff players. Everyone was stunned. McLaggen had Jimmy's bat in his hand and was showing him how to hit a bludger with it.

"Give that back to him and go back to the goalposts." Harry shouted.

McLaggen ignored him and continued to demonstrate his beater skills, he aimed towards one of the Hufflepuff players who decided to use this distraction to score. But he hit the bludger a little to hard and it ended up hitting Harry. He got a hit hard on his head. I knew by the way his head made contact with the bludger that he was out cold. It was really scary to watch. Jimmy and Ritchie went to catch Harry so he wouldn't fall, while I called for a time-out. Madam Hooch agreed and blew the whistle.

We all landed. Jimmy and Ritchie brought Harry down carefully. Prof. McGonagall and H rushed to the field. Everyone looked at McLaggen murderously.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Ginny growled.

The others were about to say something along the same lines. I stopped them. "Not now. We still need a keeper."

"Shepherd is right. This is not the time to get angry. We still have a match to play."

"But, professor, he cost us our seeker." Demelza whined.

"Ginny play seeker for the rest of the match. Demelza, you and I will continue as chasers. The rest play their positions."

"Actually, I think…" McLaggen started to speak but a look from Prof. McGonagall stopped him.

"McLaggen, I suggest you follow Shepherd's instructions for the rest of the match. Shepherd, you are the captain for the rest of the match."

I nodded at her. Prof. McGonagall waved her wand and gurney appeared. She magically placed Harry on the gurney. They moved him, I was about to follow them but H stopped me. "I'll stay with him. You've got a match to play."

I nodded at her.

"Gryffindor, ready?" Madam Hooch asked.

"Yes." I turned to the team before Madam Hooch before she blew the whistle. "Ginny, find the snitch as soon as you can. Rest of you play only your positions." I looked at McLaggen as I said that.

The match resumed.


"Hufflepuff wins! Final score 320-60!" Luna announced the final score. The Hufflepuff seeker caught the snitch.

I landed on the pitch along with my dejected team. When match resumed after Harry's injury, it was evident we were playing only to finish the match not to win it. We lost our morale and Mclaggen lost confidence or maybe it was on purpose, we'll never know. We were so bummed, we just let McLaggen do whatever he wanted to. It was difficult for Demelza and me to keep possession. Three will always overpower two and that's what happened to us. With this loss, we kissed our chance to be in the final match goodbye.

As soon as I landed, I made a beeline for McLaggen and punched him real hard on the face, "That was my boyfriend, you brainless git!"

I wanted to do it during the time out but then we would have lost two players and that would have been worse. McLaggen looked very very angry. I stomped back to the changing room. After freshening up, I ran to the hospital wing. H was sitting on a stool in between Ron and Harry's beds. Harry was unconscious. When I got close, H put her hand on mine.

"What happened?"

"Cracked skull." Ron answered.

I scrunched my face. I didn't like the sound of it, "In times like these I'm glad we are witches and wizards. He didn't wake up till now?"

"No. Madam Pomfrey says it will be a while before he wakes up." H said.

"I'm sorry the match was such a bust." Ron said.

"Huh! Once this happened," I gestured towards Harry, "nobody really felt like playing."

"I'm surprised you controlled your temper." H commented.

"We had to get through the match. Harry would have wanted us to finish the match, even if we didn't win it. I punched him after the match." I told them with a mischievous smile.

H looked scandalised and Ron looked happy, "Good job!" We high-fived.

"You shouldn't have done that." H said.

"C'mon Hermione, you know that idiot deserved it." Ron spoke before I could say something.

"I suppose, he did!"


In evening, H and I were in the common room doing our homework when we heard someone clear his throat. We looked and saw McLaggen glaring at me.

"How dare you hit me!" He snarled at me.

"How dare you leave the goalposts! You, single-handedly, cost us the match and our chance to play in the finals." I yelled at him. By now everyone was staring at us.

"We lost because the team didn't play well."

"Oh everyone was doing well until you decided to become beater. And you endangered a member of your own team." The rest of the team joined H and I.

"Potter doesn't know how to handle a team. He doesn't deserve to be the captain,"

"Don't you dare say anything about Harry! He's a better player than you'll ever be." H yelled at him.

McLaggen looked shocked. "Not you too, Hermione."

"You cracked my best friend's skull do you really think I'll be on your side. This is your fault. Harry loves quidditch. He's been playing since he got here and he's a better player." H glared at him. "Just in case, you didn't get it. Whatever this is," she gestured to herself and then to him, "it's over."


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