I dove down and landed as quickly as I could. Dumbledore was striding out onto the pitch. I didn't think it was possible for him to be this angry. He shot a Cushioning Charm at Harry, who slowed down before hitting the ground, and then drove the Dementors away using the same silver light spell that Lupin had. He then conjured a stretcher, placed Harry on to it, and moved towards the castle, with the rest of the school leaving the stands to follow him. I saw Cedric Diggory land, the Snitch in his hand. He walked over to Oliver.

"I want a rematch, that's not a fair win, I only caught the Snitch after he fell off"

"No, Cedric, it's ok, these things happen in Quidditch, you won fair and square" Oliver replied

"Really, I've never seen Dementors at a Quidditch match before"

"You won, we lost, leave it, seriously"

Oliver turned away from Cedric and walked into the changing rooms without another word. He ignored us and went straight into the showers. We decided it was best not to bother him and headed straight to the hospital wing, without even changing.

Once we arrived, we gathered around the unconscious Harry's bed, along with Ron and the reserve team. Professor Flitwick came in, with a bag, which he gave to Hermione. He whispered something in her ear, and Hermione bit her lip and nodded, placing the bag at her feet as Flitwick left.

'Lucky the ground was so soft" said Angelina

'I thought he was dead for sure"- commented Katie

'But he didn't even break his glasses." said Fred

'That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life" said George, and at that moment, Harry's eyes snapped open.

'Harry!' said Fred, who looked extremely white underneath the mud. 'How're you feeling?"

'What happened?' he said, sitting up so suddenly we all gasped.

'You fell off,' said Fred. 'Must've been – what – fifty feet?'

'We thought you'd died,' said Alicia, who was shaking.

Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were extremely bloodshot.

'But the match,' said Harry. 'What happened? Are we having a replay? We didn't – lose?'

'Diggory got the Snitch,' said George. 'Just after you fell. He didn't realise what had happened. When he got back to the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a re-match. But they won fair and square … even Wood admits it.'

'Where is Wood?' said Harry

'Still in the showers,' said Fred. 'We think he's trying to drown himself.'

Harry put his face to his knees, his hands gripping his hair. Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly.

'C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the Snitch before.'

'There had to be one time you didn't get it,' said George.

'It's not over yet,' said Fred. 'We lost by a hundred points, right? So if Hufflepuff lose to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin …'

'Hufflepuff'll have to lose by at least two hundred points,' said George.

'But if they beat Ravenclaw …'

'No way, Ravenclaw are too good. But if Slytherin lose against Hufflepuff …'

'It all depends on the points – a margin of a hundred either way –

After ten minutes or so, Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave him in peace.

'We'll come and see you later,' Fred told him. 'Don't beat yourself up, Harry, you're still the best Seeker we've ever had.'

Most of both teams left at that point, with only Ron, Hermione and I remaining.

I then spoke for the first time since arriving

"Harry, I'm so glad you're ok, thank god for Dumbledore"

I took hold of his hand, and he gripped tightly on to it, and interestingly, neither Ron nor Hermione reacted to this.

Dumbledore was really angry,' Hermione said in a quaking voice. 'I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the pitch as you fell, waved his wand, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the Dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium straight away … he was furious they'd come into the grounds, we heard him –'

'Then he magicked you onto a stretcher,' said Ron. 'And walked up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were …'

"What's the situation with the reserve team" Harry interrupted, obviously not wanting or needing to hear Ron finish that sentence. "You lot obviously lost too but I can't remember the exact score"

Hermione sighed

"Well, thankfully we didn't lose by as big of a margin as you lot did, we only lost by 20 points, so our task is somewhat easier. I just hope Demelza and Mary work better next time and don't cost us a result"

"Mary will only play if you, Demelza or Alicia can't, remember? So as long as nothing happens to one of you 3 at any point you should be fine. As a reserve team, player for player, you are far stronger than anyone else in the school" I said.

'Did someone get my Nimbus?' said Harry.

Ron and Hermione looked quickly at each other.

'Er –'

'What?' said Harry, looking from one to the other.

'Well … when you fell off, it got blown away,' said Hermione hesitantly.

'And?'

'And it hit – it hit – oh, Harry – it hit the Whomping Willow.'

I bit my lip and looked at Harry sympathetically. I didn't know this either, but I knew how much his broom meant to him, so he would obviously be devastated by this.

'And?' he said.

'Well, you know the Whomping Willow,' said Ron. 'It – it doesn't like being hit.'

'Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came round,' said Hermione in a very small voice.

Slowly, she picked up the bag, turned it upside-down and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed, the only remains of Harry's faithful, finally beaten broomstick.

Ron, Hermione and I only left Harry at night after that. Madame Pomfrey had insisted on keeping him in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend. Harry didn't argue or complain about this, but he wouldn't let her throw away the remains of his broomstick. He had a stream of visitors, all intent on cheering him up, including Hagrid, who gave him a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages. The Gryffindor teams visited again on Sunday morning, this time accompanied by Oliver, who told Harry, in a hollow, dead sort of voice, that he didn't blame him in the slightest.

It did seem like my presence was helping Harry though, as before I left on Sunday night, he told me to stay back and let Ron and Hermione leave first.

"Thanks for sticking around. Ron and Hermione I knew would, but it means a lot that you stayed too"

"Harry, you know how I feel about you. I was always going to stay" I said

"Perhaps I should let you know how I feel about you too"

My heart skipped a beat

"Recently I've grown to care for you, in ways more than, you know, friendship. But I'm not too sure I'm ready to take it to that next level quite yet. You should be aware that the moment probably will come soon though"

"I'll be ready whenever you are" I replied

"Goodnight" he said

I took his hand in mine

"Goodnight" I replied, giving it a squeeze.

I then left, with a feeling of warmth and satisfaction that I had never felt before.