Chapter 27. First Quidditch Match

The next morning was the first Quidditch game of the year. Draco was the most excited while Pansy and I were both uninterested. “This will be another opportunity to prove that we are the best house. I can’t wait to see our team beat the snot from Gryffindor’s.” He was met with cheering from fellow first year Slytherin’s while Pansy just silently flipped a page of her Defense Against the Dark Arts book.

I shrugged while giving Val a piece of bacon. “Sports have never been of much interest to me.” “That’s just because you never do anything but study, if I didn’t know better I would have thought you to be a Ravenclaw.” Draco finished with a snicker, and I laughed as well, hiding my fear from almost getting placed there. “Just come to the stadium, it’s a whole different experience in person.” “I wanna see! I wanna see the flying people!” Val hissed in my ear, Pansy stifling a chuckle knowing what he was saying from his personality.

I sighed, leaning against the table. “Fine… I’ll go.” Draco smirked and nodded while Valdemar hissed happily, flailing his tail under my robes in excitement.

Once I had gotten to my seat on the bleachers beside Draco, Pansy took the other spot beside me, wearing a green and gray scarf to showcase her team colors. I wore similar colors on my gloves, while Draco wore ear muffs with the same color pallet. The teams both warmed up, flying all across the field, running plays in preparation for the match.

They eventually circled around the center of the field in wait for Madam Hooch to the start of the game. She held the Quaffle in one hand, before tossing it up high above her head and blowing her whistle. One of the Slytherin’s charged at the ball, and tossed it back to the rest of the team just as she crashed into one of the Gryffindor players. Draco cheered at us getting the ball, and the game began.

Val’s head swung all around keeping track of each player flying through the sky. “I wanna fly like that too!” He loudly hissed to be heard over the crowd. I scoffed at him while looking at the players dodging and weaving between each other. I had to agree with Val, this seemed like a game that only felt fun to be participating in. Just watching was almost confusing with how much was constantly going on. “Why isn’t he defending-” I was about to ask, before one of our players just took a hit from a bludger, making me wince in pain. “That guy…”

Draco looked over at me in shock. “You knew that was going to happen?” I shrugged while returning my attention to the field. “The bludger was aimed at… #15 for almost a minute, our beater should have seen that.” I kept silent about my better vision during my days of extra energy trapped inside. I had taken my medicine today, so I was feeling fine without migraines, but the amount of cheering wasn’t appreciative. Draco frowned in thought for a bit, before taking my wrist and pulling me along. “Come with me, I need you to meet someone!” I frowned, but after I got up, and he released his grip, I followed him through the bleachers. “Wait for me!” Pansy not wanting to be left alone tagging along.

We made our way back down the stairs, finally ending up in a large hallway that our team exited before the game started. There we saw an older student staring at the game, yelling to herself. “Jackson! Over Under! Howard! protect Jackson!” “What is she doing?” Pansy asked before I had the chance to. Draco smirked while pointing at the upperclassman. “She is our team’s captain! While the other teams like to have their captains relaying instructions while in the field. Victoria Haymond here, came up with the idea of staying out of the game to watch everything from outside the chaos.”

I nodded at the idea, understanding that it could prove to be useful. It was then that Victoria glared back at us, especially Draco. “I told you, there’s nothing I can do, Malfoy. Potter gets the pass because he has the teachers on his side, but we can’t break the rules and let you play early.” Draco shook his head and pointed at me. “No, I think you need to let my friend help coach.” Victoria rolled her eyes, and began yelling at the team, instructions of what to do.

“Zack, if you don’t do your one job, I swear I’m going to kick you from the team! Now defend Wendy!” I glanced at the game, and assumed who she was talking about, based on where she was looking. “Tell Zack to hit the Bludger straight down!” I yelled to the girl. Her black hair, tied into a ponytail, danced as she leered at me, her bright green eyes filled with anger of my sheer presence. She then glanced at Draco, nodding furiously, and looked back at the field. “Zack! Hit the Bludger straight down!”

A second later, we watched as Zack flipped his broom as the bludger came barreling towards him to attack the team-mate behind him. He batted the bludger straight down. It flew towards the ground, but a Gryffindor player got in the way. I noticed that #9 stayed close to the ground most likely to catch any misplaced throws that slipped through the oppositions, or even their own fingers. He was a safety net. However, he wasn’t prepared for a bludger to head that low, veering towards him as he was now the closest player to it.

He was smacked off his broom, and rolled along the ground before finally stopping. A massive cheer came from the stands above us seeing a player out of the game, and Victoria glanced at me with a grin. “Not bad kid… They have a player down! Don’t waste it before they send in a replacement! All offense! Last one on our side of the field is not playing next match!” She yelled angrily at the team through some sort of magic to link her voice to the rest of the team.

She then looked back at me. “What’s your name?” “Lucas Peterson.” I answered back, and Victoria nodded. “Slytherin’s favorite first year, I’ve heard. Alright, what else do you see?” She asked, pointing towards the field again. I looked at all the players, whizzing about, and the bludger's chasing after them. However I quickly noticed that Potter had some sort of issue with his broom, hanging onto it with just his hands as it attempted to buck him off. “You could have Howard hit the bludger chasing #7 towards Potter to knock him off his broom.” Victoria smirked evilly before relaying instructions to both players.

We watched both of them break off from the pack of the game, and lead the bludger towards Harry. Howard, then hit the bludger towards Harry, who narrowly dodged by letting go of one hand and twisting his body to the side. Cheers were almost deafening above us as Harry only hung on by his fingertips. One of the Weasley twins had to fly over to hopefully hit the bludger away from Harry, but Victoria had planned for that. “Howard, stick with it! Keep the bludger occupied between the two!”

With this we had a numbers advantage again. They had gotten a replacement for the previous player, but now they were down a seeker and a beater, compared to just our one beater. The whole crowd watched and cheered, the main game almost a background to the two beaters fighting around one bludger, with Harry stuck in the middle. Finally, Weasley hit the bludger away where Howard couldn’t easily bat it back around Harry. With that small window, Harry was able to pull himself back up, a cheer erupting from the Gryffindor's at his success.

I gave comments here and there, and our team was pulling ahead in points by a large margin, until the game was suddenly concluded. “Harry has done it! Harry Potter receives 150 points for catching the golden snitch!” The announcer yelled in excitement. The rest of us all groaned from Gryffindor pulling the win from absolutely nowhere. “How long did we give you to find the snitch!? Potter wasn’t even looking for half the match!!” Victoria started yelling at our seeker while Draco, Pansy, and I all silently left.