It was Tuesday when I found out that I was going to get to play Quidditch this year. It wasn't an official game because they had cancelled the regular games in lieu of the Triwizard but Professors Flitwick and Sprout thought it would be a fun idea to have an exhibition Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff as a way of sort of hyping up the tournament. It sounded like a lame excuse to me. I was pretty sure it had to do with a bet that the two of them made. I was also pretty sure that this wasn't in the book. Maybe Flitwick was just more competitive. McGonagall just didn't seem like the competitive type. I was looking forward to it a little, even though I still didn't entirely understand the rules of the game. I was lucky that I had the easiest job and that was to catch the snitch.
Nevertheless, I was headed to practice for the big game. I was still worried about making a fool of myself. It was then that I remembered another accomplishment that Hufflepuff got. They once beat Gryffindor in Quidditch, even though that was only because Harry got attacked by dementors. You know I was pretty sure that Cedric was supposed to be in the third movie but he just wasn't in it. I hoped this so-called natural talent that I seemed to have would show through because I had no idea what to do in an actual quidditch game. In practice, my teammates weren't trying to hurt me or knock me off my broom.
The nice thing about Quidditch practice was that it did help me take my mind off of things that had been bothering me because I didn't have time to worry about them. I couldn't focus on other things when I had balls and people flying toward me. I wasn't sure if my broom was of high quality or not, but considering the Corners were on a half-muggle salary, I expected not. I was pretty sure that the muggle and magical world used different currencies. It probably didn't matter considering that I didn't even remember what the latest model of broom was. I stopped paying attention to that stuff after a while. That was probably a dumb thing for Harry to fixate on.
"Okay, everyone. I think that we're going to win." Penelope declared. "That's the end of today's practice.
I decided to follow her after practice was over. I had something that I needed to say to her. Even though what everyone thought happened hadn't actually happened, it felt like I needed to get it off of my chest.
"Penelope." I called to her. She stopped and looked at me. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Well you have my attention now." She stated. I was a little nervous with her looking at me like that.
"Did I ever apologize for what happened?" I asked her.
"You have nothing to apologize for." She replied. That really wasn't an answer to the question.
"Everyone tells me that but that doesn't make it true." I declared. I was feeling a little bit frustrated. "I take it that means I didn't, so I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted." She told me. Well I was relieved that she wasn't mad about it.
"There's one more thing." I added. "I know this sounds kind of weird, but do you remember anything that happened while you were…I mean were you…conscious?"
"No. The last thing that I thought was that I hoped that Upton and Maria got away. I was the first one to awaken and it was only then that the relief washed over me." She explained. "I also found out that I was excused from my exams."
That made me feel a little better. At least I knew that none of my victims, yes I was going to call them that because it was true, suffered while they were petrified. I was also just kind of curious in general what the exact feeling was because I wondered how people who were turned to stone and then turned back felt.
"Didn't you get petrified in the chamber?" She asked. I was pretty sure that was something different.
"It was a different spell." I replied. "I didn't remember anything either, but Michael told me that I was being drained of my life force."
"Sounds like a terrible way to die." She commented. "How about we talk about something less morbid? Who are you taking to the Yule Ball?"
"The Yule Ball?" I repeated. Even though I knew what it was, I wanted to make it sound like I didn't know what it was. I didn't think a 13-year-old would have done extensive research on the tournament, especially something that wasn't part of the actual tournament. I also thought that the first task was supposed to be before the Yule Ball, but for some reason, things had been modified for it to be after.
"Yes, the Yule Ball is an important part of the Triwizard tournament." She explained. That sounded like a bit of an overstatement. "The opening ceremony is precluded with a formal gathering held around Christmas time. It's where the competitors get to have fun before the competition begins."
"Do I have to bring a date?" I questioned. I had no idea who I was going to ask to it. I was also afraid of some people asking me because I didn't want guys to ask me.
"It's tradition for all of the competitors to bring dates." She explained. Again, the wizarding world was kind of outdated. I couldn't help but wonder if those were Rowling's personal ideas.
"Well, I have no idea who I want to bring then." I replied. I didn't think anyone would ask me and most people would probably say no if I asked them. I didn't even know if I was supposed to ask a guy out. They probably also didn't want me to bring my brother as a date. On top of that, he may have already had a date.
An all honesty, I had never even been a huge fan of any of the guys. My favorite characters were the girls because the series had a lot of strong female characters. Also, the girls seemed to be smarter than the guys. I knew it was about Harry Potter, but he was kind of an idiot.
Later in the week, I headed to Moody's class. I was pretty sure that it was going to be the important one. Well I wasn't sure if any of them were of truly important since we were being taught by an impostor, but I was pretty sure it was the class where things were going to happen. We had the class with Gryffindor, but I took my seat next to Upton.
"Hello class." Moody declared. "Now an important thing about defending yourself against the dark arts is knowing what your adversaries would try to use against you. So, today, we will be studying the three curses that are most commonly used by the Death Eaters."
"But Professor, aren't those commonly referred to as the unforgivable curses?" Maria asked. To be fair, it was probably a good thing to teach about. Even though he was an imposter, knowing what the curses were was important.
"I'm not going to be practicing them on any of you if that's what you're worried about." He replied. I was pretty sure that it was supposed to be a joke. It wasn't a very good joke, but it was supposed to be a joke. "Now I have a specimen that I can practice on."
At that time, he pulled out a jar containing the biggest spider that I had ever seen. Granted, I hadn't seen any of the spiders in the Forbidden Forest except for on screen and I had no plans of doing so.
"Now before I start, who can tell me the first curse?" He asked. "Mr. Creevey?"
You know, I almost forgot that he existed. He appeared in the second and last books. I didn't recognize him because he was older now. I had no idea what the actor's name was. I then reminded myself that I needed to apologize to him too. I definitely couldn't identify Justin, so I probably wouldn't apologize to him.
"I don't know, Sir." Colin answered.
"Does anyone know?" Moody questioned. Upton decided to raise her hand. "Miss Granger?"
"The Imperious Curse?" Upton answered. She seemed to want to make it sound more like a guess.
"That is correct, 10 points to Ravenclaw." He replied. "Now I'll make it 20 if you can tell me what it does."
"It places the subject under the will of the wizard using it." Upton answered. "The subject will often have little to no recollection of what they did while under the curse. In other words, it's mind control."
"That is correct, Miss Granger." He stated before pointing his wand at the spider. "Imperio!"
The spider then started to dance with its legs moving in ways that I was pretty sure that a spider was not supposed to move. It was horrible and that was only the beginning. That spider was going to suffer and I felt bad for it. I couldn't believe that he managed to make me feel bad for a spider.
"Now who can tell me the second of the curses?" Moody asked. He moved his hand to Mandy. "Miss Brocklehurst?"
I had a feeling that Mandy would know. She seemed kind of like Hermione with a little bit of a bigger head. She probably hadn't experienced as much as Hermione did, but there were both positives and negatives to that.
"The Cruciatus Curse." Mandy answered. Moody motioned for her to continue. "It inflicts the illusion of severe pain on the subject. Prolonged exposure can drive the subject mad. There are documented cases of wizards losing their minds after being exposed."
"Very good." Moody declared before his wand pointing at the spider again. "Crucio!"
The spider screamed out in pain. I had never heard a spider scream before and I could tell that I probably never wanted to hear it again. I didn't even see why it was necessary to have a demonstration. I was pretty sure it was just because he was a sadist and liked to inflict pain on people or something.
"Now there is one more curse. It is the most powerful of them all." He declared. "I feel this question should be answered by Miss Corner."
That was definitely not the question that I wanted to answer because I was pretty sure at least a few people in the class still thought I was evil. I stammered before I spoke up.
"Avada Kedavra: The Killing Curse." I answered.
"Correct." Moody replied. "Now the curse itself is not an easy one to perform. There has to be a pure desire to kill, or it will not work. For example, each of you could point your wands at me and I would probably only feel a light tickle."
His then took his wand and pointed it at the spider before saying the curse with one bolt of light, the arachnid perished.
"That's all for today." He told us. It would be the most intense class of the year and probably the only memorable one.
At the end of the week was the Quidditch match. I was dressed in my blue Quidditch robe and held my broom. Since it was a friendly game and there was no bad blood between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, Penelope and the Hufflepuff captain, whose name I neither knew nor cared to know, shook hands.
The game started and one thing that I noted was that Ravenclaw didn't seem to be very good at scoring. Michael was a decent keeper, but it wasn't easy when the team was constantly on defense. However, I didn't have a lot of time to focus on that. I was focused on trying to find the snitch. I not only had to find it but also catch it.
I headed into the tunnel and that was when I spotted it. The little golden thing. I then noticed that Cedric was right behind me. I tried to figure out how to make my broom go faster, but it wasn't. He was gaining on me, but I also seemed to be getting closer. He was right on my tail. I decided to do the only thing that I could think of since I wasn't too high off the ground. I jumped off the broom and dove for it, catching it in my hand. I didn't feel like anything was broken, but it did hurt quite a bit.
"With a bit of an unorthodox move, Corner has captured the snitch and the match goes to Ravenclaw." The announcer declared.
The rest of the semester seemed to fly by. I was pretty sure it was because there was a transition in the book because not many exciting things happened and the actual tournament wouldn't happen until the second semester. Anyway, the ball was just a week away and I realized that I might need to start looking for a date. I had already seen people getting asked out. Maria had been asked out by Neville, and she said yes. I thought I remembered Ginny going with Neville.
I also realized that I would need to find a dress robe, which for girls basically just a dress. I didn't know why they had to give it such a weird name. I didn't really have a clue as to what was in style. It might have been a safe bet to go with something Ravenclaw blue. I kind of hated that I would have to wear a dress, even though I was wearing a skirt every day at school.
"You know I never thought that we would get to go to another formal after prom." Upton declared. We were currently on our way to Hogsmeade. "I actually think that I shouldn't go because I don't want to wear a dress."
"You're coming if I have to be there. You're lucky you don't have to have a date." I replied. Technically, she couldn't believe there if she didn't have a date, but she would have to find one then because I didn't want to go by myself. "I'm thinking of asking my brother."
"You can't. He's going with Ginny." She stated. Were the two of them getting together early or something?
"Well, I'm officially out of ideas." I responded. "Who are you going with?"
"I was probably just going to go with Luna." She answered. I was pretty sure that she couldn't do that. "So, what do you think of this dress?"
She pulled out a red and green Victorian gown with long sleeves.
"You know the nice thing about being a wizard is that always have my size." She told me. "Even if I don't want to wear it."
"It looks nice if you don't mind that fact that it might not be the easiest thing to move in." I commented. I was pretty neither of us really knew about shopping for dresses. "So can you give me an idea about who I should go with?"
"Why don't you go with Harry?" She asked. You know that did seem like it could actually work, but there was a problem with that.
"What am I supposed to just go find him in the school?" I questioned. Truth be told, I wasn't good at finding people, especially people who weren't in Ravenclaw.
"No, because he's right there." She said as she pointed to him and Ron. "Just go over and ask him."
"He's probably already asked Padma or Parvati by now." I explained. I always got the two of them confused, which I knew I shouldn't because one was in Ravenclaw, but I did. Then again, he was no longer required to have a date, so maybe he didn't.
"You won't know if you don't ask." She declared.
"Would you go with Ron?" I inquired.
"I suppose I could, but I'm not dancing with him." She replied. I probably wouldn't dance with Harry any more than I had to.
"You won't have to because he'll be pining over Hermione." I explained before I walked over to Harry and Ron."
"Hello, Harry, Ron, what brings you here?" I questioned. The fact that Daniel Radcliffe was so short made him more approachable. I was pretty sure that was not something the casting directors were anticipating when they cast him.
"Oh, hi, Addie. I'm just trying to find a dress robe for the ball." He explained. For guys, it was basically just a fancy tuxedo. I still didn't understand why they had to call it a dress robe. "Even though neither of us have dates."
"I could go with you." I offered. "And Upton could go with Ron."
"That sounds okay." Harry agreed. Well at least I had solved that problem. I just hoped that I wouldn't have to date him.
So Addie got to play her first Quidditch game and she's also going to the ball with Harry. Please don't forget to review.