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 Eight: The Match, Part 3
"You sure about this?" George asked Harry.
"Gotta be. Ginny's good, but she's better as a Chaser. 'sides, we all know Luna's penchants. She's as likely to catch the Snitch by accident as she is to Seek it on purpose." The two men grinned at each other.
"Ten seconds," Daggeron called. George jogged over to take off with the rest of the team, and Harry turned to climb into the stands.
He grinned at the sight of the crowd above him, an equal mix of the more curious, magically accepting human citizens of nearby Briarwood, and the mystic denizens of the forest. He also saw something he missed during a Quidditch match, concentrating as he was on his flying at the time. Unlike Muggle sports crowds, who did their best to get seats up front and close to the action, Quidditch fans had a tendency to take the top-most outer seats in the bleachers first, the better to see everything.
"Oh! Harry! Here, let me help," Udonna's motherly voice said from above him. She was in the nearest of the four high boxes with the new Commentators, Phineas and Vida. Harry looked up to see her peering down at him, then she disappeared, to come out of the door in the side of the box nearest to him. "Come on," she said with a grin. Wrapping an arm around him, she steered the two of them back to the door, and helped him up the steps to the top box. He tried not to lean too heavily unless he needed to.
They got to the Commentator's bench about three minutes back into the match. Harry cursed, wondering what he'd missed, but Vida leaned over and caught his hand in a reassuring grip. "Don't worry, Harry. Score hasn't changed, yet. Not for lack of trying, though." She patted the seat next to her, and with a quiet "Thanks," to Udonna, he settled in to watch, and help commentate.
It turned out sport-fan Phineas and amateur radio-host Vida, while capable of keeping a running narrative about who was where doing what, were both too new to Quidditch to get all their plays straight. So Harry jumped in with the necessary terms of the different maneuvers the two teams were using against each other. The three of them were talking up the various brooms the players were using during a brief lull in action, when Luna seized everybody's attention.
"I think she's seen the Snitch!" Vida cried, her Sonorus-enhanced voice ringing out. The crowd surged with cheers, all expecting the newest player to wow them with an early capture. It was not to be, to the Ranger team's relief.
Harry and the others gasped as Zander Bly dove to where Lovegood was headed, and the pair almost collided like Vida and Harry had. There was a concerted groan from the crowded stands as Luna veered up at the last second, and Zander flew right into a Bludger Bill had 'whock'ed from the other end of the Pitch.
"Whoa! That was the Wronski Feint with teeth!" Vida announced for the fans. "What was that, Harry?"
"That was new even for me, V." Harry grinned, his amplified voice carrying his chuckle across the playing field. "I guess we'll have to call that the 'Luna Variant', huh, folks?" Another cheer went up.
Zander, who'd saved himself at the last second with his metallic arm, looked back over at Bill, who was staring off after Luna himself, just as flabbergasted. Haring off to his left with a shrug, Zander took a page from Harry's playbook, and headed high, trying to keep the whole Pitch in eyesight as he circled. He became aware of Luna, flitting back and forth as if she was a giant Snitch herself, about seventy feet lower down.
Bill and George kept a wary eye on Luna as well, taking turns swerving up from the main cluster of swirling players to knock back the occasional Bludger Nick and Leanbow targeted their replacement Seeker with. In the meantime, they did their best to harass both Charlies and Madison. Beaters' bats cracked like thunder across the Pitch as the four men all did their best to keep the others' team from scoring.
Chip finally managed another goal against Ron, tying the score up again, and Katie and Angelina decided enough was enough. "Ginny! Hawk's-head!" Katie yelled, passing the petite redhead the Quaffle from her brother.
The three Gryffindors arrowed together towards Clare, Ginny in the lead. Angelina did a hurried Sloth-grip Roll as Leanbow knocked a Bludger at her, and cried "Incoming!" She had to spin again the other way as a speedy George Weasley swooped past and swatted it right back, away from his sister.
"OW! Hey! How does shie keep doing thait?" Zander yelled from Angelina's Two-o'clock seconds later.
Curious, but too busy flying to turn and look, the dark-skinned girl listened to the commentary she usually tried to tune out.
"Whoa!" Vida was saying. "Luna puts her new trick into play again! With a twist! Give us the replay, Harry."
"Here's how it went, for those looking the other way. Leanbow, Beater for the Rangers, takes a shot at Gryffindor Angelina, who performs a perfect Sloth-grip Roll away from it. Bludger is then hit by George Weasley, who sends it back past Angelina. Leanbow deflects it up and away from himself, towards new Gryffindor Seeker Luna Lovegood, who swerves out of the way to give the hit to unsuspecting rival Seeker Zander Bly! And just like Zander, we're all wondering how she does it."
Hermione, sitting in a seat up behind Ron, was laughing her head off. She knew exactly what Luna was up to. The pair had been in Arithmancy classes together. Luna had been such a natural at it, Professor Vector had bumped her forward a grade after her first half-term. Along with the various Numerologies, Arithmancy also had included the same Algebra, Calculus, and Geometry as Muggle secondary schools. Now, Hermione could see Luna plotting her next tangents and vertices against Maddie as the silver-haired girl spun and twirled, ostensibly looking for the snitch.
Suddenly, Luna and Zander were both diving pell-mell towards Ron, and with an 'Eeeep!' Hermione saw why. 'So, she actually was looking for the Snitch,' Hermione thought, watching breathlessly along with her bleacher-mates as the two Seekers raced toward them.
Ron looked all around himself in a panic, and upon seeing the sneaky Snitch doing loops around his right goal-ring, did his best to stay out of the pairs' way while still watching where the Quaffle was, just in case the Rangers managed to get it away early from the determined Ginny.
There was a deep 'gong!' sound, as Luna and Zander both grabbed for the Snitch at the same time, and Zander's metal limb slammed against the goal-post. At the same time, There was a piercing blast from Daggeron's whistle from the Rangers' goal-end, and Ginny could be seen trading high-fives with her teammates. The crowd was going crazy, as all turned to look from one goal to the other, not sure who was winning after the last ten seconds.
"Daggeron is calling a time-out as the Quijudges confer, and check to see who touched the Snitch first," Vida announced, as Zander and Luna, each with a hand clenched around the Snitch, set down on the Pitch under Ron.
Harry winced as he got to his feet, anxious to see better from the side of the top box. As he leaned over, Ginny appeared in front of them. The two grinned at each other, and Harry snagged the sleeve of her robe to reel her in for a congratulatory kiss.
They broke apart at the sound of a nearby growl, and looked around, expecting Bill. Vida was grinning at them. "Sorry, she said cheekily. "Couldn't resist."
"Pretty realistic," Harry admitted, smiling back. Having heard Bill – and their old DADA teacher Remus Lupin – both growl (and mean it!) before, he could be considered an expert. Ginny just grinned as well, and pulled Harry back in to finish their kiss.
"Commentator to the field, please," Daggeron bellowed. The four non-players all jumped.
"Give me a lift, Ginny?" Vida, the most limber of the three despite the bandage around her leg, asked. The red-haired Chaser nodded, and Harry stepped back so Vida could climb over the side of the box and onto Ginny's broom. The pair of young women cruised over to where the rest of both teams were gathered around Zander and Luna, along with Daggeron and his assistant Quijudges, Itesis and three of the Briarwood High School coaches.
"Okay, this is going to be one for the record books," Daggeron said, shaking his head. "We need to find out whether my whistle blew for the last goal before these two caught the Snitch."
"What?!" Ginny gasped. Quidditch fanatics that her family was, each with their own favorite teams, Ginny had more than her fair share of useless trivia regarding winning moments and close calls. The Chaser couldn't think of a time when the Quaffle had ever made a difference against the Snitch at the last minute.
"It is elementary, Miss Weasley," Itesis said, turning her kohl-limned eyes to Ginny. "The Seekers both caught the Snitch at the same time, and barring your final goal, the score was tied. We need to determine the exact sequence of events, to say whether the final goal is to be added to your team's score, or if the Snitch's capture, which would end the match, happened first."
"Do I get a say?" Ginny asked, thoughtful.
"How could that help?" Vida asked. "Wouldn't you be biased?"
"Actually, if the whole thing falls down to my last goal, I'd rather we ended the game with a tie." Daggeron looked at her in surprise, and the assistant Quijudges all gave her warm smiles.
"How very sportswomanlike," Itesis said, while waiting for Daggeron's ruling.
"How very Gryffindor," Luna added, her dreamy expression enhanced with the beaming smile she directed at her best friend.
"All right," Daggeron said, after reviewing the two available videos people had managed to make of the end of the match. One was Hermione's, who hadn't been able to resist catching Luna's triumphant capture on her cell phone's camera, and the other was a memory from old Grisilda, who had been sitting near the Ranger's three goals, willingly pensieved for the Quijudge. "Much as we would love to accept your selfless vote, Ginny, the winner of the match is …"
