POV of Parvati Patil
Saturday morning at breakfast, I sat between James and Bella, who had once again simply seated herself at our Gryffindor table. I tried to eat something, but it proved nearly impossible as I had been feeling incredibly nauseous since waking up. James and Hermione, who was sitting across from me, tried to encourage me to at least finish the piece of toast that I had only taken one bite from so far. When the others from the team stood up, James and I followed them. At Hermione's stern look, I took the piece of toast with me, whereupon she and the other Gryffindors wished us good luck, while Bella hesitated at first but then did the same. I didn't hold her hesitation against her; after all, it was customary to cheer for your own house team during the game.
After we had changed, Wood gave a long motivational speech, which unfortunately only made James, Katie, and me even more nervous, as it was the first game for the three of us. When we finally got our brooms back and followed Wood onto the field, all nervousness suddenly fell away from me. Although I had never seen the stands filled with students and teachers before, I didn't fully realize at that moment that the entire school had gathered here to watch us. This was probably a good thing, because otherwise, I probably wouldn't have even managed to fly due to sheer nervousness. Arriving in the middle of the field, Wood and the Slytherin captain shook hands. Then, at Madam Hooch's signal, we mounted our brooms. She released the golden Snitch, and at her whistle, the game was opened. She threw the Quaffle into the air and then released the two Bludgers. I immediately shot towards the Quaffle and actually snatched it before the opposing Chasers were even near it. When I saw Angelina flying past them on the outside, I felt like I was back in training and accelerated in her direction, only to pass the Quaffle to Katie, who had positioned herself on the other side of the field, very close to the Slytherin goal hoops. This little maneuver, which we had practiced so often in training, worked incredibly well, as even the Slytherin Keeper noticed the trick too late, allowing Katie to immediately attempt the first goal. 'And there's Katie Bell already scoring the first goal, that's 10 points for GRYFFINDOR,' I heard Lee Jordan's magically amplified voice, who had secured the position of commentator. Lee was also a Gryffindor and in the same year as Fred and George.
The game continued, this time with Slytherin in possession of the Quaffle. Although we didn't manage to take it from them, Wood performed a brilliant save, simultaneously securing the Quaffle for Angelina, who immediately flew off with it in the opposite direction. I saw the opposing Beaters simultaneously changing the flight direction of the Bludgers. One was now heading straight for Angelina, the other for James. Since James was flying somewhat away from the action, he had enough time to dodge calmly, but Angelina would have been hit by the Bludger if Fred hadn't been there to deflect it for her. Now the Bludger flew off towards the opposing Keeper. However, Angelina had dropped the Quaffle out of fright, which I now shot towards. Thanks to my fast broom, I actually reached it first and dodged the Slytherin Chasers, who nearly collided with me. They seemed intent on causing accidents of this kind, which Lee also noticed, as he didn't leave the Slytherins' aggressive approach uncommented. The opposing Chasers continued trying to corner me, but at that moment I decided to go into a dive to get away from them. Even if they had figured out the maneuver faster, they would have been too slow to follow me. Only when I was a few meters below them did I pull the broom back into a horizontal position, then leaned close over the handle to gain as much distance as possible. I flew towards the opposing goal hoops at such high speed that I dared to go on the offensive and hit the right hoop with my throw. I only vaguely registered the cheers from the stands and Lee's voice as I flew a wide loop around the outside of the goal hoops to reduce my speed again.
The game dragged on, we scored several more goals, but the Slytherins also scored a few times. We must have been playing for more than two hours when Lee announced the intermediate score of 120 to 50 in our favor. Noticing how exhausted we were, Wood requested a time-out for us, during which we gathered on the ground and discussed. He encouraged us not to let up, to maintain the lead. As we mounted our brooms again, I saw James eyeing the opposing goal hoops. I followed his gaze and spotted the golden Snitch, barely visible from this distance. At Madam Hooch's whistle, the game continued. While Slytherin secured the Quaffle, I saw out of the corner of my eye that James, instead of shooting towards the Snitch, was flying deliberately slowly, as if he hadn't noticed it. I quickly realized why: Although the opposing Seeker was flying away from the Snitch with his back to it, he was still close enough to reach it before James if James drew attention to it. To keep the Slytherin Beaters from paying attention to James, I flew with the Quaffle, which Wood had just deflected and passed to me, in an extra wide arc along the outside of the field. Immediately, the three opposing Chasers followed me, while a Bludger was hit in my direction from the side. Unfortunately, I had let myself be distracted by James, who was now chasing the Snitch on the other side of the field, for a second too long, so the Bludger hit me hard on the left arm with which I had clutched the Quaffle. I now dropped it, not without letting out a stifled cry of pain. Before I could gather a clear thought about what to do now, I heard the cheers. James, with the Snitch in hand, was now flying towards me together with Angelina and Katie to escort me to the ground.
As we landed, the pain in my arm grew stronger, but I didn't want to show it too much so as not to spoil the others' joy over this indeed resounding victory. There would be enough time later to go to the hospital wing. For now, all that mattered was the victory against Slytherin, which we had truly earned by playing so well! As the stadium slowly emptied, Hermione came running onto the field to us. Wondering where Ariana was, I asked Hermione about her. 'She mentioned something about being invited to tea with someone, before she left…' she replied, before her expression turned concerned. 'Par, you should really have your arm examined by Madam Pomfrey immediately, I can see how strangely you're holding it, it's probably sprained or something.'
I said goodbye to the Quidditch team, who wished me a speedy recovery, before James and Hermione accompanied me to the hospital wing. If our first game was already this exciting, I didn't want to know what would happen in future games.