Chương 36: ITW,H - Chapter 36 - Quidditch

(Word Count: 1, 753) Within the next week, in the beginning of November, Quidditch season started. While Harry loved flying itself, he didn't really care for the sport of Quidditch. It just didn't really make much sense to him. The games lasted until one of the seekers caught the snitch, and that could be anywhere from a few minutes to—as seen in the world cup in book four—several days. Not only that, but the snitch gave 150 points, making the rest of the team nearly irrelevant.

The only way the chasers could get enough points to offset that amount of points was if one team completely dominated the other. At that point, just give them the win. The game itself, several different enchanted balls with various hoops, was a wonderful twist on non-magical sports to show wizardkind's eccentricity. It's just that the rules weren't really thought through. The solutions were well thought out in many fanfiction stories Harry had read before. Give a set time for the matches.

Reduce the amount of points a snitch gives. When the snitch is caught, they could reset the field and start anew, continuing until the time runs out. Like normal sports. Then again, maybe the crazy rules were another way of showing wizardkind's eccentricity. Wizard's aren't known for their common sense, or rather, wizardkind didn't share the same common sense as muggles. So why was he thinking about all of this? Because Ron, Dean, and Saemus dragged him and Neville to come and watch the game with them.

They said he was spending too much time stuck in a book studying, so it would be good for him to get outside a bit. Well, they weren't wrong. Unlike in canon, Harry wasn't playing in the game. It seemed like without her friends playing, Hermione wasn't all that interested in coming to watch. Instead, she is taking this chance to study up in the RoR.

The other Gryffindor girls were on the other side of the stadium, with Lavender and Eloise wanting to stay as far away from Harry as they could after several pranks had left them embarrassed on several occasions. What else could he do? They still haven't apologized to Hermione yet. That left them with just the boys.

"You're going to love this, mate," Ron gushed excitedly.

"Just you wait!" Ron was kitted out in full sports fan regalia. Face paint in Gryffindor colors and holding a small flag with the Gryffindor lion on it. They were on a section of the wall right by the Slytherin's goal post so they could have a good view when Gryffindor scored. The two teams were in the center, in a semicircle, with Madam Hooch in the center. She was usually the referee for the games. As she spoke, her voice carried out to everyone in the stands.

"Now, I want a nice, fair game. All of you," she said, eyeing Marcus Flint, the Slytherin team's captain.

"Mount your brooms!" The two teams, and Madam Hooch, rose into the air. Hooch tossed the quaffle high into the air, and the game began!

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor—what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too—""JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor." He didn't sound sorry at all. After Harry's first Divination class, Lee Jordan had taken his tea cup reading to heart and had talked to Professor McGonagall about being the new quidditch game announcer. McGonagall happily accepted, but she may now be regretting her decision. After that, Jordan gave credit to him getting the job to Harry. Though Harry did try to say that he would have gotten the role anyway.

Jordan was a very outgoing guy, perfectly willing to embarrass himself if he thought it would cheer someone up, or if it would be funny. He was a great guy.

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve —back to Johnson and—no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes—Flint flying like an eagle up there —he's going to sc-no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle—that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and—OUCH—that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger—Quaffle taken by the Slytherins—that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger—sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which—nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes—she's really flying—dodges a speeding Bludger—the goal posts are ahead—come on, now, Angelina—Keeper Bletchley dives—misses—GRYFFINDOR SCORES!"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins. Ron shook Harry by the shoulders excitedly cheering. Harry had to admit, watching quidditch was far more interesting than watching regular sports. There were far more things going on than just watching people pass a ball back and forth in football. Watching people dive around bludgers was far more interesting. He said as much to Ron, who grinned.

"I knew you'd get it!"

"Budge up there, move along!" Hagrid came up the stairs behind them, squeezing his way past students. Harry felt a bit sorry for them, because now Hagrid was blocking their entire view.

"Hagrid!" Harry and Ron greeted.

"Bin watchin' from me hut," said Hagrid, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck, "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"No, that new seeker is just sitting there!" Ron muttered. Because Harry hadn't gone with the canonical events and become a seeker, Wood had to find someone willing to stand in. It looked like they had gotten one of the reserve chasers to fill in. Kenneth Towler was his name, in the same year as Fred and George. Both him and Slytherin's own seeker, Terrence Higgs, were coasting on their brooms high above the action of the rest of the game, circling like vultures.

As if they were just waiting for Ron to say something, they both saw the snitch at that moment, and they both sprung into action to dive after it. Towler was the closest, and it looked like he was going to catch the snitch! The rest of the game basically froze as they watched the seeker's dive. However, Marcus Flint intercepted Towler, diving directly in front of him. They collided off each other, both brooms spinning away.

"Foul!" screamed the Gryffindors. Madam Hooch spoke angrily to Flint and then ordered a free shot at the goal posts for Gryffindor. But of course, in all of the confusion, the snitch had disappeared from sight again. Dean Thomas was yelling, "Send him off, ref! Red card!"

"What are you talking about, Dean?" asked Ron.

"Red card!" said Dean furiously.

"In football you get shown the red card and you're out of the game!"

"But this isn't football, Dean," Ron reminded him. Hagrid, however, was on Dean's side.

"They oughta change the rules. Flint coulda knocked that seeker outta the air."

"That's not all they should change," Harry muttered. With how important catching the snitch was, it only made sense for Flint to give Gryffindor a penalty shot rather than allowing them to win. The rules incentivized this kind of dirty play. He explained this, and suggested the different rule changes for quidditch to the group, and Dean agreed wholeheartedly.

"Yeah! That would make so much more sense than… this!" Ron groaned.

"No! That's a part of the fun, isn't it? You never know how long the game will last!"

"Hey, Harry, Why don't we see about getting a pick up game of footy? We can show Ron here how to play a muggle sport!" Dean suggested.

"Sure. Though it may have to wait until we can find a proper ball," Harry agreed. A game here and there wouldn't hurt, and it would help get his cardio in. He had been slacking in that regard. Meanwhile, Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides in his commentary.

"So—after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating—""Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul—""Jordan, I'm warning you—""All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinner, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

"Slytherin in possession—Flint with the Quaffle—passes Spinnet—passes Bell— hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose—only joking, Professor—Slytherins score—A no!" The game continued on, long enough that Harry was starting to think about calling it quits and heading back to the castle by himself, until the seekers finally found the snitch again. This time, the Slytherin seeker, Higgs, caught it. Ron groaned, "No!" The Slytherins all cheered. This time the Gryffindor team lost horribly at 20 to 210.

Slytherin had a 190 point lead on them. With the game over, everyone made their way back to the castle. Some time later, Hermione entered the common room to find many of the Gryffindors sitting glumly. She went over to Harry, who was sitting in the loveseat by the fireplace, reading. He scooted over, and Hermione sat next to him.

"What happened? Why's everyone so put out?" She whispered.

"Gryffindor lost pretty badly. 20 to 210," Harry whispered back.

"We could have won!" Someone said defending their house. It was so quiet that many heard their whispering.

"Yeah! If Towler caught the snitch, we would have won!" Harry rolled his eyes.

"Towler wasn't even a seeker. He's a chaser, standing in because Wood asked him. You can't blame the guy." That got a bunch of grumbles, but there were now a bunch of quiet side conversations going." Muffliato," Harry casted. It was one of his favorite spells by now.

"How was your time in the Room?"

"It was great, I was doing some light reading. Did you know that Hogwarts actually offers Alchemy classes? Only if there's enough students that are interested though." Harry nodded.

"Yeah, I hope that with our study group, we can pressure Dumbledore into offering it when we get into our NEWT classes." The two of them sat by the fire talking until dinner.