Griffindor vs Ravenclaw

Elsie Wood was more than happy. She was completely ecstatic. Of course, this Quidditch match was nothing but a dream come true. If Griffindor won, they would destroy all arguments that they were losing their touch. Of course, they had won the cup last year, but they only narrowly won against Ravenclaw. This was the match that could determine a season.

And everyone knew it. The stands were absolutely packed. Hufflepuff and Slytherin were waiting for the outcome of the match before they chose sides, except those who had family in either house. Or, in the case of Tino Nott, in both houses. Poor guy.

The commenter was the only sod who would voluntarily comment a big match. Kellen Kellen. He really should have seen what he was going to be commenting before he accepted the job. The Griffindor-Ravenclaw matches were notoriously long running and action packed. And after what happened to the commenter last year, no one wanted the job.

Actually, James could see the Ravenclaw beaters making bets. It was unclear what they were betting on, at least until snatches of their conversation made their way to James.

"I say he'll last twenty minutes."

"No way, Kellen's pathetic. Fifteen, max."

James shook his head at their immaturity. Kellen had good dodging skills. Personally, James was holding out for twenty-five minutes.

"Hey, James!" Fred called, shaking James out of his thoughts. "The whole family has come to cheer Griffindor on. Except Rose, Victoire, and Lucy, who will be either supporting Ravenclaw, or undetermined. Don't know how you can support undetermined, I certainly don't see another team out here. Maybe they're invisible. We'll have to watch out for them while we're flying in any case."

"James!" Rose called. "Come here. There's someone I'd like you to meet."

James wandered over, wondering if he'd be meeting yet another gossiping girly girl, that would infest the halls like plague, although more welcome. By anyone without a secret to hide, that is. Instead, he found his arm being half-shaken off by the same first-year whom he'd knocked over on the train.

"Pleased to meet you, James. I'm Isabella Nott. This is my brother Tino," she pulled up a trembling boy who hung around with Albus, "And this is my cousin, Scorpius Malfoy."

Isabella soon had to go, drag going her brother and cousin after her. Behind her, James and Rose wore exactly the same expression.

"She's beautiful," James said.

"He's cute," Rose said simultaneously.

They looked at each other.

"You have a crush on Isabella Nott?" Rose howled at the same time as James's, "You have a crush on Tino Nott?"

"Of course not," Rose denied, "I don't have a crush on anyone."

Fred, who had come over when the yelling started, looked at both of them in bemusement, "What about your crush on Malfoy then?"

"She has a crush on MALFOY?!" James screamed, "Rose, your dad is going to freak!"

"Chill James," said Fred, looking concerned, "It's not like they're dating or anything."

"Yeah," Rose said carelessly, "And what dad doesn't know won't hurt him, after all."

James just shook his head. Yet another complication in his life. Why him?

Soon enough both teams were on the field, ready to play.

Madam Hooch signaled, and both teams tore through the air.

Brooms had come a long way from James's father's day. There actually had been an instance last month where some guy on an illegally modified Nimbus 6000 broke the sound barrier. He's still in the hospital, and unlikely to ever hear again, but his name will probably go down in the history books, or a least the Darwin Awards.

Kellen started the commentary, right on the beat. He was looking through a special pair of ommnioculars that only showed the goal-posts, balls, and players, each clearly identified.

"And the match starts off with Connwith of Griffindor with the Quaffle. That's Connwith, weaving through to the goal. OH! Nice Bludger from Mathews, the Quaffle is intercepted by Potter. Potter's heading to the goal, he passes to Hertz, but Hertz is blocked by Ravenclaw chasers, performing an excellent Hawkshead Attacking Formation. The Quaffle is intercepted by Drake and he's heading to the goal. He throws the Quaffle and. . . it's in, despite an attempted save from Wood. The score is Ravenclaw 10 - Griffindor 0."

Cursing, James and the other chasers spun down in time to stop Ravenclaw from scoring again. This was going to be a long game.

The game was not going well for Griffindor. Ravenclaw maintained the lead, and it was only with great effort that Griffindor stayed in the running.

Kellen was still tirelessly commenting, and doing a good job of it too.

"And the score is Ravenclaw 90 - Griffindor 70. We're seeing a lull in the action while the chasers battle it out for the Quaffle. The beaters are doing an excellent job today. Mathews from Ravenclaw and Weasley from Griffindor in particular. And the Quaffle has been taken by Drake, he's heading to score, it looks like Cross is about to hit, and he-"

The rest of Kellen's monologue was cut off as Cross's mishit Bludger caught him right in the face. Whoops.

Play was briefly halted as Madam Patel removed the unconscious commenter and replaced this time, both teams congregated together to take advantage of the unofficial time-out.

Elsie Wood was pissed. "What the hell were you thinking Cross?!" she screamed at Griffindor's incompetent beater.

"What do you mean?" Lois Cross asked, looking genuinely confused.

"You've been all over the place. What the hell do you think you're doing? We can't afford to let Ravenclaw get any farther ahead of us!"

Cross looked at her oddly. "But why are you blaming me?"

Elsie shook her head in disgust and flew away. Some people.

Things were going even worse for Griffindor, now. Ravenclaw had gotten a penalty shot at the goal, and had made it in, despite the best efforts of the keeper, Daimon Cheer. After that, Griffindor had rarely gotten possession of the Quaffle, and even more rarely had they scored. The score was now 200 Ravenclaw to 100 Griffindor.

It was probably desperation that made James do what he did next.

He dove down and snatched the Quaffle out of midair, then tore to Ravenclaw's goal. Unfortunately, the only person who spotted what he was doing was Louis Cross.

Cross, spotting the chasers trying to intercept James, sent a Bludger into their midst to deter them. Unfortunately, his bad luck held. James dropped like a stone. At least he'd managed to score.

Then suddenly, all attention in the stadium was turned to the two seekers, Elsie Wood and Lisa Sawyer. They were engaged in a diving, darting battle for the snitch. Ravenclaw, realizing that their seeker would not win this contest, scored twice in desperation before Elsie caught the snitch.

Elsie skidded to the ground to meet her cheering team, minus one chaser. Meanwhile, the dejected losers, i.e. Ravenclaw, were gathering around, already adjusting their strategy. After all, they would be playing Griffindor again, next year, and it never failed to be prepared.

I am aware of how late this chapter is. Please don't kill me. I've been on the vacation from hell for a week, and my collaborator was on vacation the week before. Bad timing. Bad, bad, timing.

Thank you, Danielle Show and Harry-Potter-Magic for reviewing. You guys are the best.

Please, read and review.

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