May the Power Protect …the Quaffle?

Disclaimer: I wish I owned them but I don't; I'm just borrowing them for the duration of the story.

Chapter Seven: The Match, Part 2

Harry leaped back into the air with a grin. Ginny and Katie were already swerving back and forth around Charlie, who'd won the toss-up. Chip swung under him warily, hoping his temporary teammate could manage to pass the Quaffle safely away if he had to. Maddie meanwhile was zooming around with her sister, plying the far end of the field as backup while simultaneously giving the Gryffindor Beaters something distracting to aim at. Bill unfortunately recognized the pack tactic for what it was, and stayed at their end of the field, facing off against Nick in a high-speed, dangerous tennis match from Hell seventy feet in the air.

After Leanbow ('Leanbow, of all people!' she griped to herself at the time.) missed the Bludger George smacked her way, Vida careened to the deck, cruising along with her toes millimeters from the turf the Rangers had planted across the Quidditch field. The Snitch had had a good twenty minutes to hide itself unobserved, and now she and Harry were both risking neck- and eye-strain trying to track the golden bugger down.

A ragged cheer went up from the stands, and Maddie twirled to see the Quaffle flying right at her head. Werewolf reflexes kicked in, she spun completely over in place, and kicked it straight back towards the Gryffindor goals, where it hit Ron with such force he bounced off the center goalring. It rang like a gong. Unfortunately, He didn't fall through the hoop, meaning no points, and he managed to grab hold of the Quaffle afterwards, so the British team had control again. Maddie swore and wheeled around to start covering Ginny again.

It paid off almost immediately. Maddie got to Ginny's position just in time to intercept Angelina's pass. "Hey!" the red-haired girl cried, swooping in circles around her and trying to make Maddie drop the Quaffle by sheer annoyance. The Water Ranger's lips peeled back from her teeth in a predatory display, and she barreled towards her tormentor's brother at the other end of the pitch.

Ron watched fatalistically as the girl in pale blue headed towards him. Just as he tried to match her last-minute swerve to his left, keeping one arm out the other way in case it was another feint, Harry went streaking straight down between them all, to a concerted gasp from the stands. Ron flubbed the save, but Maddie had thrown it wide thanks to Harry anyway, and it went between his two lefthand goals, pointless.

Harry had seen the Snitch. He was sure of it! Barreling straight down across everyone else's flightpaths, he failed to see Vida closing in on the shimmer of gold that had drawn both their attentions. Then it was too late.

Harry and Vida collided thirteen feet above the ground with a sickening crunch, to plummet the final four yards tangled together with their brooms as the Snitch took off again. Harry, seeing the thing disappear out of the corner of his eye, swore. That thing was worse than devilishly cleverly enchanted. It was cursed.

Vida moaned from under his left leg and right arm. Their collision had made their landing look like a rather bad round of Twister™ gone horribly, medically wrong. "Wohoppen?" she groaned.

"We missed the Snitch, but we didn't miss each other," he reported fatalistically. "God, I want a shot of Firewhiskey." Trying to turn his body around to its correct alignment made him wince, and breathing became much, much more painful. Trying to look down, he saw one of their brooms was jammed into his ribs.

Vida tried to chuckle at the lame joke, only to moan some more. Something was bent the wrong way, but for the life of her, she couldn't tell what. Everything else was screaming in pain too. "Forget Firewhiskey. I want a dedicated team of emergency chiropractors."

The pair became aware of belated footsteps closing in, and both tried to look up to see who was coming to rescue them. 'Oh good,' thought Vida with a giggle, seeing the number of feet sideways in front of her. 'Everyone.'

"Wow," George said, surveying the pile of limbs and brooms. "Oi, Hermione! That new phone of yours got a camera? Mum and dad aren't gonna believe this one." He knelt down next to Harry's head, holding Ginny off with one arm. "Jest wait till we get them untangled, Gin. I don't think hugging him's the best idea right now." Two other people were carefully extracting the brooms from the tangle, and both players groaned when they heard one of them crack ominously.

"Oh, Harry …" Ginny cried. "Your Firebolt." She looked even sadder all of a sudden.

"'s'okay, Ginny," he managed to babble, trying to think about the lost broom instead of the possible lost limbs. "Not the first broom I've lost, is it? Surprised if it's the last, considering my life." Weak chuckles went around them.

"Gor, Harry, I haven't seen anybody that plowed since the second crash Kelly took at the World Cup." Ron sounded strange, almost worried. "Remember that match?"

"Yeah. Er, a bit," If Harry didn't know better, he'd think Ron was trying to distract him … "Look, what's the hold-up? Can't somebody just, I dunno, Levicorpus me up off of her first, so we can both get fixed up, here?"

At least, that's what he tried to ask. He didn't get further than the first syllable of the incantation before someone clamped a hand over his mouth. "D-Don't say any spells, H-Harry. Don't eve-ven think one right now."

The worried voice was Hermione's, as was the hand. He could tell by the hand lotion she used; some weird concoction of lilies, aloe, and something that smelled like an engine cleaner. (You didn't spend seven months on the run with someone in a tent without becoming all-too-familiar with their choice in soaps and sundries.)

"What's wrong, gang?" Vida rumbled. They knew better than to hide bad news from her at this point. She'd almost been a Vampire. The Master had turned her sister into a Werewolf. She was entitled to some straight answers.

"You two are both skewered on Harry's wand," her sister muttered. Vida's eyes grew wide, and she started to shudder, making her and Harry cry out in pain. "God, V, don't move. It's through your leg." Maddie's voice squeaked at the end.

"All that running around last year, trying to ensure the downfall of You-Know-Who, and you end up dying on your own wand in a Quidditch accident," George smirked. "Can anybody here spell 'ironic'? I wanna make sure they get it right on his tombstone."

Ginny clobbered him with the Firebolt's remains. "He's not dying!" She leaned down earnestly next to Harry, afraid to touch him, but (he could tell) using every ounce of strength in her cute, strong, young body to not reach out and try to help, herself. "You hear me, Harry James Potter? You are not dying today. You promised me."

"Tranzvisia," somebody said from out of Harry and Vida's sight. "Okay, I don't see much in the way of the wand, and there's not much blood … Looks like we can just lift him after all." Vida vaguely recognized the voice, but couldn't think of the name through her pain. "Finite Incantatum," the same voice said.

"Wouldn't it be better to keep that up until we get them separated?" Bill asked from behind Maddie.

"I'd rather cast it again afterward to assess their damage, instead of stare through people in the meantime," the same cool voice said. It was infuriating Vida that she couldn't place it, but she didn't dare turn her head.

"Thank you, Itesis," Udonna said from near Vida's feet. That's who that is, the Air Ranger realized. "I couldn't remember the spell."

"Understandable given the circumstances," Itesis replied. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Leanbow and Daggeron replied, from opposite sides of the accident. "Wingardium Leviosa!" they both said, and Harry had the most unpleasant seconds of his young life next. He could feel the wand pull out of the hollow behind his hip, and felt every muscle in the area spasm. With blood flow unblocked, a steady trickle started coming out as well, but not the spray many had feared.

Vida looked up in wonder as Harry floated off above her. "Urgh," she said on sight of his wound, before they rotated him flat and somebody else floated a stretcher under him. Chip, Charlie, Ron and George grabbed hold like litter-bearers, and took off with him to get the Chosen One sewn back up.

"Aullroight, V, ye're next," Zander said, his cool metal hand brushing her short hair away from her cheek. "Heah, grab hould," he offered, presenting the metallic limb for her to hang on to during her move. He knew better than to offer her flesh and bone to crush in extremis. Vida gave him a wan smile, and with a wince for all the sore muscles involved, snaked her hand through his silver fingers.

"Okay, do your worst," she grunted. Daggeron and Leanbow lifted her as well, and the rest of her team (Clare took Chip's place) brought her own stretcher in, then carried her to the makeshift infirmary the teams' locker rooms had become.

Vida was much better off than Harry, it turned out. She'd been skewered by the narrow end of the wand, and it had missed damaging anything major in her thigh. Once they were both bandaged, potioned, and spelled back into a semblance of one piece, the two teams vanished the wall between the two rooms, and Vida and Harry looked at each other.

"So …" they both said at the same time, then chuckled. Everyone around them joined in. Once it was quiet again, Harry looked at Daggeron, their Quijudge. "Think we can call this off with both Seekers out of action?"

He smiled tolerantly. "Only of both teams can't come up with a replacement."

Both injured seekers looked around expectantly, and found Ginny and Zander grinning at them respectively. Daggeron laughed.

"That will leave the Gryffindor's flying one Chaser light, unless you've got another spare player still."

"Uh, can you give us a second?" Harry asked. They had two more experienced flyers left besides Fleur, but he'd never seen either of them on a broom in an athletic capacity.

"Five more minutes, then either play light, or call it. Your choice," Daggeron said impartially. "I'll be waiting out on the Pitch." He gave both teams a wave, and headed back outside.

"Well?" Ron said, turning to Hermione, who had come in along with the other Gryffindor women once Harry - and the hole in his bum - was bandaged and covered. She gave him a terrified glance, then stared at her feet.

"Oh, ohmigod, Ron … Harry … No. I c-can't. I just … I can't." She fled from the group, never looking back up.

George shook his head. "Poor gel's never been right on a broom, Harry. Thought you two would have known that by now."

"Well, that just leaves … Luna," Ron said fatalistically.

"I'll go get her," Ginny said, grinning. "She's still up in the Commentator's stand, keeping the crowd entertained. Probably has them all looking under their seats for miniature giant space hamsters by now." She headed out the door, and looked back before leaving their sight. "She'll be thrilled, Harry. She tried out for the Ravenclaw team. She's a great flyer, but her housemates thought she was too distractable."

The Gryffindors let out a collective groan, and the Rangers across the space, who had gotten to know just how distractable - and distracting - Luna Lovegood was over the last week, all laughed.