"Look out!" A loud crack echoed across the stadium as April knocked a bludger of its
course.
"Thanks April!" It was April's first Quidditch practice. Tomorrow was the first match of the
year; it was between Gryffindor and Slytherin. The Hufflepuff captain, Jessica Fletcher, had
booked the Quidditch pitch for practice so that they'd be ready the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw
match in November, right before the Christmas break. As April knocked another bludger
away she heard faint cheering from one of the stands
"Go April! Hit that metal thing!" April recognised Linda's voice and glanced over her
shoulder. Linda, Vayvar, Izzy and Andy were jumping around and Ellura was writing
something in a small tattered journal. April waved with her bat before turning her attention
back to practice.
When Jessica blew the whistle for a break April flew up to her friends.
"How long have you guys been here?" she grinned. Linda was still jumping up and down
from excitement.
"Since you started!" she squealed, "Quidditch is so exiting, I'll have to tell my parents all
about it!" April laughed.
"I'll lend you my copy of 'Quidditch through the ages' if you want. By the way, the metal
things are called 'Bludgers'." Ellura closed her book and looked up at April.
"You're very good at defending you team, and an exceptional flyer." Even though she didn't
smile, her voice sounded happy.
"Thanks Ellura, that means a lot coming from you." The edge of Ellura's mouth twitched
faintly. Izzy tugged at the edge of Aprils Cannery Yellow robes.
"Hay April, can I hold your bat?" As soon as the red head witch got her hands on the steel
enforced wooden bat an evil smile spread across her face. "Hey Andy, come here a second."
As Andy was chased out of the stadium by a crazy red head witch Jessica flew up to them.
"You did really well today April, I'm glad Cedric found you." April turned to thank the
Quidditch captain, but out of the corner of her eye she saw a bludger shooting toward her.
The young Hufflepuff shoved Jessica out of the way and narrowly missed the bludger
herself. The other Beater, Anthony Rickett, flew after it. Jessica and April had fallen into
the seats beside the other Hufflepuffs. Jessica laughed as she picked herself up and helped
April. "Well, you're like you're mum, I give you that much." April look up at the Hufflepuff
captain.
"You know my mum?" Jessica shrugged slightly.
"Only from her reputation. I almost broke her record last year, but I missed by five bones.
We were playing against Slytherin, and I was scoring a lot. Some stupid Beater, no offence,
hit a Bludger in my direction. I woke up in the Hospital wing about a week later. The rest of
the team threw me a party." Vayvar rolled her eyes.
"Please don't give her ideas; I want to get through my first year at Hogwarts with all my
friends in one piece please." Jessica laughed.
"I can't promise you that, Quidditch is a rough game, every player is hurt at least once in the
year." April playfully nudged the Quidditch captain.
"Don't tell her that, she'll never let me on the pitch again." Jessica shrugged and razed
hands.
"You'll see at tomorrow's match, it's Gryffindor against Slytherin so there's going to be a
lot of injuries, accidental and not. The Slytherin team is a pretty rough opponent, and they
don't like losing." Vayvar pulled out her wand and pointed it at April.
"Whenever Hufflepuff versus Slytherin I'm tying you up in the Common room." April
jumped back with her hands in the air.
"Don't point that thing at me; you don't know what it's going to do." Vayvar just glared.
April knew she was just playing, so she didn't draw her own wand. Instead she tried to talk
her way out. "But I need to play, imagine what the Slytherin team would do if we only had
one Beater? My job is to keep people from getting hurt, do you want me to sit out and let
people got hit by Bludgers?"
"No!" she quickly answered before crossing her arms. "I hate it when you guilt-trip me."
She grumbled. April smiled and hugged her.
"If I didn't, you'd of probably killed me by now."
It was the day of the match and April was putting up her Quidditch posters around her bed
when Vayvar walked in.
"April, what are you doing? We've gotta get to the pitch soon or we won't get good seats."
April stood on her toes so she could make sure one of her posters wouldn't fall down, it was
hard because of how much warm clothes she was wearing, it didn't get this cold back home,
so she wasn't used to it
"I'll be there is a sec, I've just gotta put my Heidelberg Harriers posters up, they're my
favourite team, they were supposed to come yesterday, but my owl got lost." April turned
around to see Vayvar looking at the posters and thinking about something, a faint sound of
classical music came from her pocket. April sighed as she grabbed her friend by the arm.
"Come on Vayvar, you're thinking to hard again, you're wand's playing music." Jessica was
waiting in the common room with the rest of Aprils friends around her. She looked up at
April and smiled.
"I made the mistake of telling your friends that I got them tower seats with the rest of the
team." Vayvar gasped.
"Tower seats? With Cedric?" Jessica reluctantly nodded and Vayvar squealed. Andy looked
over at them with a bright grin
"Yeh, we'll be able to see the whole game from there!" Vayvar stuttered
"Oh yeh, that to."
The Gryffindor's cheered as a Slytherin crashed onto the ground, and some of the Hufflepuffs
did to. Vayvar just squeaked and hid her eyes only to open her fingers and keep watching.
Izzy Andy and Linda went ballistic whenever anyone scored, but the Hufflepuffs usually
cheered for both sides of any match, even their own, some of them were even waving
Gryffindor and Slytherin flags while in their warm Hufflepuff robes. Linda was watching
the entire game with a face that should have belonged on a Ravenclaw, however April was
just watching the Beaters on either side, trying to learn a few things from the elder Beaters.
The twin Gryffindor Beaters worked really well as a team, while the Slytherin Beaters just
cheated most of the time, but did have some good tactics. April looks at the rest of the game
just in time to see the Gryffindor Keeper wack the Quaffle away from the goal hoops with
his broom, two Gryffindor's pass the Quaffle between each other until they finally score.
Amongst the cheering Jessica leant down to April's ear.
"Watch out; things are about to get really messy, I know Marcus is scheming even from
here." The look on her face showed she was speaking from experience.
When the Gryffindor Keeper once again blocks the Quaffle one of the Slytherin's grabbed
a Beaters bat right out of his hands and knocked a Bludger straight into the Keeper's gut.
"Oliver!" before he even hit the ground Jessica was off, pushing through the crowd to the
stairs, she looked more panicked than when anyone else was hit. April looked back just in
time to see the Slytherin team score, with no Keeper they easily caught up on points. April
watched Oliver being taken out of the pitch with Jessica holding his hand.
"Someone's messing with Potter's broom!" The normally quiet Ellura shouted, her pointed
finger following the red and black blur backwards and forwards, his broom was making it
hard for him to stay on, suddenly he's hanging from one arm, the crowd gasps but Harry still
holds on. The broom pulls him within meters of where April and her friends were sitting. The
Hufflepuffs freeze as the broom stops bucking around and Harry jumps back on.
The cheering was almost deafening as he resumed chasing the snitch around the pitch, April
griped the wooden barrier tighter as she watched the two seekers barge into each other.
The two boys began to dive sharply, as they speed towards the ground the Slytherin seeker
pulls up early, Harry looks like he's about to run straight into the ground when he pulls up at
the last second. April held her breath as the Gryffindor seeker stood on his broom, reaching
out at something she couldn't quite see. Suddenly Harry stepped too far and he fell forward,
tumbling end over end, but as he stood up April knew he wasn't hurt too badly. April let out
her breath as a sigh of relief.
Unexpectedly he began holding his slummock and lurching forward, it looked like he was
about to be sick. Everyone was leaning forward just as a little golden ball pops out of his
mouth. There was a moment of unbelief before a voice was heard over the stadium:
"He's got the Snitch! Harry Potter receives 150 points for catching the Snitch!" Cheers
erupted from three of the four houses as Harry Potter, the youngest Seeker of the century,
holds his prize high over his head.
April looks around at her friends surrounding her; Linda and grabbed the closes person,
Ellura, and was holding them tightly as she bounced around, Ellura herself seemed less
enthusiastic about having a blur of pink holding her, but her eyes held a certain softness
that showed she wasn't against the celebration, Andy and Izzy were tangled up in their own
streamers, and Vayvar looked like she was wondering whether to celebrate or go help the
people who were hurt.
She vaguely hears one of the Hufflepuffs behind her mention a party tonight, but she didn't
pay attention; every other Quidditch game she'd attended she had no one her age to share her
excitement with, and now she did.