CHAPTER 17

THE QUIDDITCH MATCH

The next day, Rose's morning didn't work out like she had hoped. The light snow that had been falling the night before had turned into a disgusting rainy snow mix, and she woke up to get ready for the match much earlier than she would have liked. After a quiet breakfast of dreading the match to come, Rose walked with Al and Scorpius down to the Quidditch pitch. When they entered the locker room, they were surprised to find Tom Wood sitting with Alice, Roxanne, and Hugo.

"What are you doing here, guys?" Al asked, just as confused as Rose was.

"They're our substitutes," Tom explained. "I checked the rules, and it's allowed in bad weather conditions—I think this qualifies. But I'm only subbing someone in if one of you absolutely can't play. So try not to need one, all right?"

"Hugo, don't tell me you're a Beater substitute," Rose said anxiously. He grinned in response.

"That's what I tried out for, so yeah, I am!" he exclaimed. He looked much too excited for Rose's liking, and she hoped above all else that Harry and Fred lasted the whole game.

Soon the rest of the team arrived and Tom began to speak about strategy. Rose listened as closely as she could, but the cold air inside the locker room was reminding her all too clearly of what conditions she was about to play in. Before long, they heard Alana's voice booming throughout the stadium and stood waiting at the exit to the pitch.

"Hello everyone and welcome to the sixth game in the 746th Hogwarts Quidditch season! I'm Alana Jordan, your commentator this morning, and today's match is the current Cup leader, Gryffindor, against Ravenclaw!" There was loud cheering from the stadium and Alana continued. "And here comes the Ravenclaw team, led by seventh year Captain and Keeper Ryan Belby. Following him is fourth year Seeker Gideon Grey, and Chaser fifth year Maria Goldstein. The other Chasers have just emerged, fourth years Zoe Chang-Li and Lucy Weasley, and finally Beaters, fifth year David Corner and sixth year Joshua Clearwater." The Ravenclaw seats cheered enthusiastically and Tom turned to face the rest of the team.

"All right, let's go," he said, and they emerged onto the pitch. Scorpius grimaced at Rose as they were immediately hit with even colder air and more of the sleet that was quickly starting to feel more like hail. Gryffindor cheered nonetheless when they emerged and Alana sounded considerably more excited announcing their names. "And here comes Gryffindor, led by sixth year Captain and Chaser Tom Wood! Fifth year Keeper James Potter follows him, along with the Beaters fifth years Harry Longbottom and Fred Weasley! After Longbottom and Weasley comes third year Chasers Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley, and the last of the team to emerge is third year Seeker Albus Potter, arguably even more handsome than his brother—sorry, Professor—anyway, the Captains are approaching the center of the field, where Madam Hooch waits with the Quaffle. Captains shake hands…" Rose watched as Belby and Wood shook hands and stared each other down with much more seriousness than you would expect from a school match, and Hooch blew her whistle. Rose mounted her broom and flew up until she was hovering above the ground, and watched Hooch carefully. After a few seconds, she threw the Quaffle up, and Scorpius descended on it before anyone else reached it. He bolted towards the Ravenclaw goals, but stopped short when Zoe Chang-Li started to block his path. He looked around frantically as David Corner seemed to be aiming a Bludger towards him, and Rose thought quickly.

Pass me the Quaffle! I'm on your right!

His head snapped to the right and saw her. Without hesitation, he threw the Quaffle at her with a good deal of force, and when she caught it she nearly was knocked off her broom. Before the Ravenclaw Chasers that had been pursuing Scorpius could turn around, she had gone wide around Corner and threw the ball at the right goal. Belby dived towards it but only clipped it with the tip of his fingers before it passed through the goal. "Gryffindor scores!" Alana exclaimed and Rose swooped back to the Gryffindor side as the students in the stands cheered.

Weasley? Did you just use this for Quidditch?! Rose groaned when she heard Scorpius's thoughts in her head again.

I guess.

I thought you said we shouldn't use it for unimportant stuff.

…I'm very competitive, Malfoy.

Yeah, I know.

Belby threw the Quaffle to Lucy and she started to fly towards the Gryffindor score. Rose tried to get into a position to block her but then heard Alana announcing, "Fred Weasley winds up with a Bludger aimed at Lucy Weasley—" and flew down to leave room, but Lucy dodged the Bludger and threw the Quaffle at the center goal. James caught it and immediately threw it back out to Tom. At that moment, Rose noticed a very fast movement out of the corner of her eye and heard Alana shouting, "And Al Potter sees the Snitch, Grey tries to catch up!"

Zoe and Maria Goldstein were blocking Tom's path into the Ravenclaw side of the pitch, and Rose tried to move closer to give him someone to throw it to when suddenly she felt something slam into her side. She felt herself knocked off of her broom and grabbed the tip with one hand just as she was about to fall completely off. She couldn't hear exactly what Alana was shouting, as all she could her was her heart pounding in her ears. She felt her weight tipping the broom and it started to dive towards the ground. She struggled to get back onto the broom before she collided with the ground, and about six feet from the ground she finally regained control and pulled up just in time. However, it was still unstable, and she fell off after a few seconds again, this time tumbling to the ground. She could hear people running onto the pitch as she tried to get up and brush the sticky snow off of her robes. When she sat up she saw that the professors hadn't run onto the pitch to reach her, but to reach Gideon, who was clearly the one who'd hit her. Tom landed and Hooch blew the whistle, signaling a pause in the game.

"Rose, I'm taking you out," he said.

"What? No, I can play," she insisted. He shook his head.

"McGonagall won't like it if I make you keep playing. Go get Alice to take your place. Sorry, Rose," he said, and he flew back up to the rest of the team. Rose, sulking, walked off the pitch, holding her broom above the snowy mush on the ground. She passed the Hufflepuff stands on her way and heard a few first years talking as she walked by them.

"Did you see that? She just jumped in front of Gideon, it's like she wanted to knock him off his broom."

Rose felt her ears turning red with a combination of embarrassment and anger and she started to walk more quickly towards the locker room, and she practically threw open the curtain inside. "You're in, Alice," she muttered, and sat down on the bench. Alice looked startled.

"Why? What happened?" she asked.

"I… fell. I'm fine, though. Tom wants you to go out, so…" Rose told her, and she shrugged and walked out with her broom.

"You fell and didn't get hurt?" Roxanne asked.

"Well, I had my broom but yeah, I fell," Rose said.

"You seem pretty angry, are you okay?" Hugo asked.

"I'm fine. It's not about that," Rose muttered. Roxanne and Hugo exchanged a look and Hugo shrugged.

"Okay." Just then, Alana started to speak again.

"All right, everyone, we're getting started again. Rose Weasley's fine, but Alice Longbottom's entering the match as her substitute. Also, Gideon Grey is going up to the hospital wing, and Lily Potter will be substituting for him for the rest of the match." Rose looked up in alarm and looked at Roxanne and Hugo.

"Did you guys know Lily's—?" she asked them, and they shook their heads.

"I mean—I know she's good. We'd play when all of you were at school," Hugo said. "I didn't know she's a Seeker though."

"She's a Potter," Roxanne snorted. "They're not going to have a Potter in their House without trying to get her in at least one match, they'd have to be mad not to." Hooch's whistle sounded and the match continued on. After a few minutes the back door into the locker room opened and Professor McGonagall entered.

"Miss Weasley, are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, is Gideon okay?" Rose asked.

McGonagall nodded. "He has some minor injuries but Mrs. Longbottom is more than capable of handling it." She hesitated a bit then and said, "May I speak to you privately after the match, Miss Weasley? My office, perhaps?"

Rose glanced at Hugo, who was looking at her, confused, and said, "Er, yes, of course, Professor."

"Good. I will see you then," McGonagall said, and she left through the same door. Roxanne jumped up as soon as the headmistress had left.

"McGonagall wants to see you?" she asked. "That sounds terrifying."

"Except that it's Rose," Hugo pointed out. "She's probably getting some award or going to be the youngest prefect ever or something."

Rose couldn't help but be a little offended. "I've caused more than my share of trouble! Just because I get good grades—"

"Yeah, but Scorpius or James always drag you into it," Roxanne said.

Rose shrugged and said, "Well, I don't think I've done anything this time, so let's hope I'm not in trouble."

Roxanne looked confused. "James said you had something to tell us, though. Something 'really cool', apparently."

Rose couldn't believe her cousin. "No, I don't. He's just being stupid. There's nothing to tell."

Roxanne looked unconvinced, but nodded. Rose started to listen to the commentary again until the game finished. Lily apparently was quite the Seeker, since it only took another twenty minutes or so before she caught the Snitch and Ravenclaw won the game, 170-30. When the game was over, the rest of the team came sulking into the room and Scorpius and Al sat down next to Rose and Hugo, Al looking especially defeated.

"I was beat… to the Snitch… by my little sister," he whispered in horror.

"That was horrible," Scorpius muttered. "This might be the worst day ever."

"I fell from the sky into the snow!" Rose exclaimed. "This is your worst day ever?"

"Whatever, Weasley," he muttered.

"Let's just go eat lunch, I'm starving," Al said.

"Can't," Rose said. "I've got to go see McGonagall."

"Why?" Al asked, startled.

"I don't know. She asked me to come to her office after the match. I should probably change first, though, I've soaked through my robes."

"Let us know how it goes," Al called after her as she left through the back door and walked up towards the castle.