Chapter 10

Quidditch

I had decided to put everything that happened last night into the back of my mind and forget about it, Harry and Ron however, decided it was fun and are excited for their next adventure. To say Malfoy was shocked to see us the next day was an understatement, when we walked into the Great Hall the next day he couldn't keep his eyes off us, almost like he was imagining things. Hermione had decided after that night that she was outright ignoring Ron and Harry thinking that they would be upset and promise to never do anything dangerous again. In doing so she tended to act more snobbish than before which made Ron and Harry completely fine with her decision. That changed the day me and Harry got two long and suspicious packages dropped in front of us one morning a week later. We looked at each other then turned to find a small note attached to each of our packages.

Do Not Open The Parcel At The Table

It contains your new Cleansweep Seven, but I don't want

everybody knowing you and your brother have broomsticks

or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight

On the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first

training session.

Professor M. McGonagall

I looked at Harry and he had the same look of glee on his face that I knew I had on mine. We grabbed our wrapped brooms and headed out of the Great Hall with Ron hot on our heels. Unfortunately someone else was following us as well, someone much more annoying and far less likable. Before we could get up the stairs that led to the common room we were blocked by Crabb and Goyle looking as large and mean as ever when a pale hand reached over and snatched the package right out of Harry's grasp. That hand was attached to a smug looking Malfoy. He felt up and down figuring out what was in the package and threw it back to my brother before opening his smug mouth with a spiteful look on his face.

"That's a Broomstick, which means that other one is too. You'll both be in for it this time Potter's, first years aren't allowed them."

Of course Ron couldn't resist a fight with Malfoy.

"They aren't any old broomsticks, His is a Nimbus Two Thousand and she has the new Cleansweep Seven. What did you say you had at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?"

He looked to us to explain knowing that we knew nothing about brooms or their popularity.

"Comets are flashy, but nearly in the same league as Nimbuses or Cleansweeps."

Draco turned furious.

"What would you know about it Weasley? You couldn't afford half the handle."

Ron was ready to retort but Professor Flitwick appeared by Malfoy, not any taller than his elbow, and fixed him and Ron with a stern look.

"Not arguing, I hope, boys?"

Malfoy was ready with his accusation.

"The Potters have broomsticks, Professor."

Flitwick nodded his head.

"Ah yes, yes, that's right, Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances. And what models are they?"

Harry held up his still wrapped broomstick

"A Nimbus Two Thousand sir, and my sister was given a Cleansweep Seven. Its really thanks to Malfoy that we got them"

The three of us were fighting the urge to not laugh at the look on Malfoy's face of disbelief. Professor Flitwick nodded his head with a smile and let us go. We quickly stepped by Crabb and Goyle who were still standing at the bottom of the stairs like shocked statues. Once we were out of earshot we couldn't hold our laughter anymore and were cackling all the way to the Gryffindor common room. Once we finally settled and caught our breath I had to ask.

"What was that about it being because of Malfoy that we got our brooms?"

Harry just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, it's true, if he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall then we wouldn't be on the team."

Before I could retort we were interrupted by a snide comment.

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking the rules?"

It was Hermione once again with her snobbish attitude looking at the packages in our hands. Harry and Ron rolled their eyes at her once again butting in while I just sighed hoping Hermione would drop the issue and move on. I thought she would too until Ron and Harry had something to say. Harry was the first to retort.

""I thought you weren't speaking to us?"

Ron with a sarcastic tone butted in.

"Yes, don't stop now, it's doing us so much good."

Hermione huffed and stomped off to get to her first class while the three of us continued on to put mine and Harry's broomsticks away in our dorms. Throughout the day Harry was having trouble focusing because all he could think about was his new broom. I tried several times to get him to pay attention, but I could tell his mind wasn't in his lessons at all today. Together me and Harry went through our lessons then quickly ate our dinner so we could go up and unwrap our brooms finally. While Harry and Ron went to look at his Nimbus I went up and unrolled my new Cleansweep Seven. It was amazing with a long thick handle made of a bright yellow wood and the bristles were long but messy. It looked perfect to handle while trying to focus on playing the game. When I got down to the common room I saw Harry standing there with what I assumed was his Nimbus Two Thousand. While sleeker and darker than mine it was smaller in size and obviously made focusing on speed instead of balancing while roughhousing. We noticed it was getting close to seven so we left the common room and walked in the dusk light to the Quidditch pitch. The pitch was a circular field with raised seats around it so that everyone would be able to see at the same height of the flying players. At either end were three hoops on sticks at different heights made most likely for a ball being thrown through. While I decided to wait on the ground for Wood to arrive, Harry decided to run a couple laps beforehand, too excited to be on a broom again. Hearing a shuffle behind me I turned to see Wood coming onto the field dragging a large trunk behind him. He came up to stand beside me.

"Hope, good to see you again, where's your brother?'

I pointed up at the sky where Harry was doing different loops and laps in the air enjoying his new broom. Wood gave a chuckle before calling out to him to come down. Harry looked down to see the two of us standing there waiting for him. He slowly lowered on the broom till his feet touched the ground and he walked over to us. Wood nodded his head at my brothers flying.

"Very nice, I see what McGonagall meant, you really are a natural. I'm just going to teach the both of you the rules tonight then you'll be joining the team three times a week."

He turned around to the crate and opened it up to show four different balls. The largest one was red with dents around it, the two medium sized ones were dark brown and shaking in their confinements, and the last one was tiny and shiny gold. Wood got back up from the crate and turned back towards us.

"Right, now Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side, three of them are Chasers, that's you Hope."

He picked up the red ball and tossed it to me which I caught in my hands to feel that it was lightweight and the dents made it easier to grab and hang on to.

"That ball is called a Quaffle. Your job Hope and the job of the other two chasers is to throw it to each other and get it through one of the three hoops to score a goal. Every time the Quaffle goes through a hoop we win ten points. Follow me?"

We nodded our heads in understanding and he continued on.

"Now, there is another player on each side guarding the hoops called a Keeper, that's me. I fly around and try to prevent the other team from getting the Quaffle through the hoops."

We nodded our heads again and I pointed to the two other types of balls.

"So if the Chaser and Keeper focus on the Quaffle, what are those?"

He looks down at the other balls I was talking about then looks back at us with a smirk.

"I'll go ahead and show you right now. But you might want to take this.'

He bends down to a pocket of the trunk and pulls out a small bat and hands it to me. I look at the batt in confusion and at the balls shaking even more like they know they are going to be let out.

"Now the ball I'm going to release is called a Bludger. There are two of them and what they do is rocket around the field trying to knock off the players, like this."

He then releases one of the balls and it shoots up into the air like a small black rocket. We lose sight of it for a moment before we see it rushing back down right at me. With all of my strength I whacked the ball with the bat and sent it flying off into another direction zigzagging as it flew away. As fast as it flew away, it was coming back just as quick, this time coming towards Wood. The aggressive ball smacked him straight in the chest sending him crashing down to the ground struggling to get control of the aggressive ball. He was finally able to get the ball back into the crate and strapped down to keep it in place. He got back u[p and turned to face us again.

"The Weasley twins are the Beaters on the team, which Hope already knows, I'm sure. Their job is to use those bats to hit the Bludgers towards the other theme while protecting our own. So, you think you've got all that?"

Harry nodded and repeated back the basics of what Wood had told him. He looked back at the Bludgers warily.

"Er - have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?"

Wood shook his head.

"Never at Hogwarts, a few broken jaws, but nothing worse."

I'm not sure that answer made Harry feel any better but Wood continued on with his explanation of the game not noticing Harry's discomfort.

"Now the last member of the team is the Seeker, that's you, and you job is to not worry about the other balls or anything -"

"- Unless someone cracks a Bludger at my head or something."

Wood chuckled.

"Don't worry about that, the twins are more than a match for the Bludgers, they are more like a pair of Bludgers themselves."

I snorted at the comparison.

"That's quite the understatement, they can be worse than a couple of Bludgers at times. Have you seen how they run from trouble?"

Wood nodded and agreed with my statement before reaching into the crate once again and pulling out a small gold sphere no larger than a golf ball and held it out to Harry between his thumb and middle finger.

"This is what I want you to focus on, the Golden snitch."

Harry reached out and took the golden ball from Woods fingers and we both looked closer at it. It was a shiny, metallic gold with carvings and engravings around it with wings on the size that wrap around it that come off and spread out to the sides, each wing about as long as the ball itself. Harry's face grew into a smile that was about as bright as the ball in his hand, obviously happy with the job he would have on the team. As he looked at the ball more Wood went into more detail about the Snitch and what he had to do.

"That is the most important ball of the lot. It's wicked hard to catch and damn near impossible to see with how fast it flies. Your only job is to catch it before the other team's Seeker. Whoever catches this ends the game and wins an extra 150 points for their team. It's not a guaranteed win but it almost always results in a victory. The game can't end until the Snitch is caught so it can go on for days, weeks, or even months. I think the record for longest quidditch game is three months. They had toi keep bringing in reserve players so the other players could have a break. Well, that's it, any questions?"

We both shook our heads, not able to think of anything else to ask. Wood turned back to the trunk and pulled a small bag from it and turned back to us.

"Its too dark to practice with the Snitch, it will get lost and it will take forever to get it back into the trunk so we are going to practice with these."

He pulled a golf ball out of the bag.

"What we are going to do is, I'm going to throw the ball in the air for Hope to catch, then she will fly in a random direction and throw the ball for Harry to catch. This will allow the both of you to work on catching and flying during the game and Hope can work on her throws. You will both be able to practice better with your respective game balls during practice with the rest of the team."

We both nodded and mounted our brooms flying up on the pitch. The next half hour was spent with multiple golf balls being thrown in the air at every direction and the two people on the brooms soring in those different directions to catch those balls. Hope and Harry were proud to say that they were able to catch every ball thrown at them and Hope felt pride when dismounting how Wood commented on her powerful arm and her throwing. By the time they made their way back up to the castle the sky was well and truly dark. The three students made their way to the front of the castle, Wood dragging the trunk behind him boasting about how Gryffindor was guaranteed the Quidditch Cup that year. They made their way back up to the tower and went their separate ways to their dorms. After carefully putting away her broom and changing into her pajamas, she got into bed smiling at the future to come.