When the rest
of the school heard about the Diagon Alley incident there was panic of which
Harry had never seen before. People feared for their lives. The Minister of
Magic had just been killed. The person who should be the safest person in the
country had just been killed. A whole street had been destroyed. What if the
same end came to Hogwarts? You-Know-Who might just decide to come along one day
and use the Blastio spell on the school. Even if he does fear Dumbledore he’s
already killed Cornelius Fudge what’s to stop him now? People were even
threatening to leave the school they were so terrified.
‘Honestly,’
said Hermione the morning of the Quidditch Final between Gryffindor and
Hufflepuff. A third year had just told her that Prof. Trelawny had been doing
crystal gazing and had seen ‘the end of an important part of our lives’.
‘When are you going to learn that she is a fraud? I figured that out in the
first five minutes of me meeting her. Nothing is going to happen to this school.
You can take my word for it.’
The third
year stared at her with his mouth open. Hermione sighed and said ‘I saw it
while I was crystal gazing.’ The boy ran down the Gryffindor table to his
friends and Harry, Ron and Hermione heard him tell his friends what Hermione had
apparently ‘seen’.
‘Why did
you tell him a lie like that, Hermione?’ asked Ron pretending to be shocked.
‘I just
told him what he and the rest of the school wanted to hear,’ said Hermione
grabbing a bread roll from the centre of the table and continuing to read ‘A
Magical Preparation for Your OWLs.’
‘I think we
cracked her,’ said Ron cheerfully to Harry.
‘I think we
did that a long time ago,’ said Harry.
It was an
usually wet day outside. Unusually seeing as it was the middle of summer. This
wasn’t good from the Quidditch point of view. The Gryffindors had been
training in the hope that it would be a nice sunny day as it had been the
previous week. If they were lucky the Hufflepuff team would be thinking along
the same lines.
At a quarter
to eleven they set down for the stadium. Harry holding Ginny’s hand, Ron
holding Hermione’s and Aoife walking in the middle. Outside the stadium Colin
came running up to Harry.
‘Harry,
Harry,’ he called. ‘Look what I got! It’s a new camera. The pictures it
takes has sounds as well as pictures so it will be like you’re actually
talking to me when I take your photo. It will be great for the newssheet. People
can ask you their own questions and the picture-you can answer them if you want.
Dad got it for me in Diagon Alley for my birthday. He was a bit confused with
the wizarding money. He nearly gave the old man a hundred galleons! Can you
imagine that? Do you want to see if it works? It develops the photos immediately
so we can find out now.’
‘Sorry,
Colin,’ said Harry. ‘I’ve got Quidditch to play.’
But it was
too late. Colin hadn’t waited for and answer. With a loud snap and a flash a
photograph fell from the camera into Colin’s out-stretched hand. The
photograph was just of Harry.
‘What’s
your favourite colour, Harry,’ Colin asked the photograph.
‘Go away, I
don’t want to talk to you, Colin,’ the photograph-Harry said back.
‘Wow!’
said Ron sounding amazed. ‘It speaks the truth and all!’
The group
left Coin looking confused while staring at the picture and headed for the
changing rooms.
Ginny kissed
Harry good luck and he entered the changing rooms with Aoife where they changed
into their Quidditch robes. Angelina started her pre-match prep talk.
‘Ok,
we’ve been training really hard this year. We deserve to win. Don’t let the
weather be a drawback. The Hufflepuffs have the exact same problem. Just
remember all the new formations we’ve been practising girls. Twins beat away
those Bludgers, Aoife stop that Quaffle and most importantly of all, Harry,
catch that snitch at the right time. We are easily the best team in this
school.’
Angelina
walked out of the changing rooms very defiantly until she realised she had
forgotten her broom. She came back smiling. ‘And most importantly of all –
don’t forget the key things!’
The team
followed her out onto the pitch and waited in the satisfyingly warm rain until
the Hufflepuffs came out. But with them came a downpour that didn’t stop for
the rest of the match. Harry was glad to see that the water-repelling spell
Hermione had put on his glasses in third year hadn’t yet worn off.
On Madam
Hooch’s whistle all fourteen players pushed off from the ground. Harry knew he
would have to make sure he listened for Hermione’s voice so he would know when
to catch the snitch and when not to. It was the finals after all and he
couldn’t afford to make a mistake.
Too Harry’s
dismay he saw that Cetus Malfoy had a new broom. He was smiling broadly and
shaking the broom to make sure Harry saw what he was so happy about. It was a
Firebolt, just like Harry’s. Harry would need to be extra alert for the snitch
because he wouldn’t be able to out run Cetus if he saw the snitch first.
Ten minutes
into the game it looked like it was going well for Gryffindor. They were already
twenty-nil up and a Bludger had already hit two of the Hufflepuff chasers, sent
their way by Fred. All though they didn’t leave the pitch their skill would
have certainly been damaged.
Even after
thirty minutes Gryffindor were winning fifty-thirty, but it all went down hill
from there. The Hufflepuffs seemed to have suddenly become professionals and
Quaffle after Quaffle went through the hoops adding more and more points to the
Hufflepuff score.
‘Gryffindor
will be wanting to do something soon,’ said Hermione, her voice booming over
the stadium. ‘It’s already 100-50 in favour to Hufflepuff. Gryffindor’s
star player, Harry Potter, will be wanting to catch that snitch anytime now.’
And, as if by
magic (and if wouldn’t have surprised Harry if it was by magic), Harry
suddenly caught a glimpse of gold hovering between him and where Hermione was
commentating.
As Harry
raced towards the Snitch he heard cheers from the Huffelpuffs as more goals were
scored by their chasers and cheers from the Gryffindors as their seeker raced to
catch the snitch. Harry felt it getting colder, the closer he got to the Snitch
as though winter had decided to come early this year.
Harry
suddenly realised what was causing the sudden coldness. Harry could see, on the
grass below, at least fifty Dementors walking through the rain and looking
straight at him. There were gasps from around the stands. Without thinking Harry
pulled his wand out from underneath his robes and roared ‘EXPECTO PATRONUM!’
A large stag
erupted from the end of his wand and galloped towards the group of Dementors.
But at the same moment so did four other Patronouses coming from different areas
of the stands. Harry could see whom they belonged to. A large phoenix had issued
from the end of Dumbledore’s wand, a large tiger-like cat had issued from the
end of Figg’s wand, there were two others but Harry was too far away to see
clearly what they were but he knew one had come from Lupin who was sitting
behind Hagrid and the other had come from behind the stands were a large shaggy
dog had just appeared.
All five of
the Patronuses seemed to join into one to from a large Hippogriff type animal
and instead of driving the Dementors away they trampled over them and finally
disappeared. The bodies of the Dementors lay on the grass below. Harry turned
back to catch the snitch but, of course, it had gone. Now it was time to go
searching for it again. The game seemed to go from bad to worse in the following
ten minutes. The rain had started to fall so heavily that the noise of it
falling on the ground and the stadium prevented Harry from hearing Hermione’s
commentary. Hufflepuff had continued to score goals and Harry soon lost count of
the score.
And then,
once again, he saw it. The snitch was shimmering near George Weasley’s head.
Harry was just able to see it through the rain but he couldn’t decide if he
should catch it or not. What if Hufflepuff were more than one hundred and fifty
points up? But then again, what if they weren’t and Cetus Malfoy caught the
snitch. There was only one way to find out.
Harry raced
towards the snitch. So did Cetus. Harry was going to reach it before Cetus. He
stuck out his hand and felt it close around the small golden ball. Harry started
cheering and laughing. He couldn’t believe it. He’d caught the Snitch.
But crowd had
fallen silent and Harry’s happiness soon left him. The crowd seemed confused
and Harry hadn’t a clue what was going wrong until the rain eased off and he
heard Hermione’s voice again announcing the scores.
‘Gryffindor
200, Hufflepuff 200,’ she said sounding slightly confused. ‘Its a draw.’
Harry then
heard Hermione say, ‘There has never been a Quidditch final draw in Hogwarts
since the founding of this school. Extra Time will now take place.’
Both teams
had now landed on the ground beside one another and Madam Hooch had walked over
to them. ‘The captain of each team will head out onto the pitch armed with
just their brooms and wands. No one else except me is allowed on the pitch. The
Quaffle and Bludgers are the only balls used. The Snitch is not released. Using
just their wands and brooms, the captain must get the Quaffle past the other
captain and through the middle hoop. The Quaffle is not allowed to touch any
skin or clothing worn by the players. If it does the opposite team will win. Any
spell except the Blastio and Avada Kedavra curses may be used. The pitch is
bewitched to stop these spells and there is no way to over ride the enchantment.
Each player may repel the Bludgers with their wands. Extra Time ends when the
Quaffle goes through either of the middle hoops. The team whose hoop the ball
has gone through loses the Quidditch Cup. Does everyone understand?’
‘Yes,’
said Alicia and the Hufflepuff captain, John Simmons, defiantly. Harry wasn’t
too sure, however. It was a lot to take in and Madam Hooch didn’t seem to want
to explain it again. Angelina and John mounted their brooms again and took their
positions on the pitch just as the rain ceased completely. The Bludgers were
still flying around freely and flew straight at Angelina and John. But Angelina
and John had already taken their wands out and sent the Bludgers in opposite
directions before they were within twenty feet of them. Madam Hooch threw the
Quaffle into the air.
What Harry
thought would be a simple match of sending spells at the Quaffle turned out to
be the bloodiest duel he had ever seen. Neither captain seemed to care about the
Quaffle and only wanted to dismount the other captain. It wasn’t long before
Angelina had broken John’s arm and John had used a severing charm on
Angelina’s nose and ear. Angelina looked even worse than the last time she had
encountered this spell. Tears were streaming down her face but she still seemed
as defiant as ever to get John off his broom and get the Quaffle through the
hoop. On numerous occasions Angelina had tried to send the Quaffle past John but
John was always quicker and had the Quaffle deflected in plenty of time.
‘How can
they allow this,’ Harry heard Hermione’s worried voice over the crowd.
‘This is barbaric!’
‘Its only a
game,’ explained Prof. Grubbly-Plank who was standing beside her in the stands
and watching the game with great excitement. Hermione didn’t like this
however.
‘Only a
game!’ she shouted making people in the stadium jump – everyone could hear
the conversation. ‘What sort of game involves people being beaten to a
pulp?’
‘Now, now
dear,’ said Prof. Grubbly-Plank. ‘No one is going to get hurt.’
‘Look at
them!’ cried Hermione. ‘I’m surprised either of them are still able to
hold on!’ But she was quickly silenced as a speeding Bludger hit Angelina.
There were gasps from the crowd as Angelina plummeted towards the ground. Harry
couldn’t watch this anymore. He took out his wand but before he could cast any
spell Madam Hooch had called ‘Accio’ and Harry’s wand flew through the air
into her hands.
‘You
aren’t allowed to interfere, Potter,’ she said as Harry saw Angelina’s
falling body come to a halt in mid air. She had used some sort of spell to stop
herself falling. She got back onto her broom and was just in time to repel the
Quaffle that was inches from the hoops.
She then
yelled ‘Expelleramus’, pointing her wand at John while almost immediately
casting, what Harry recognised as a speeding spell on the Quaffle sending it
straight towards the hoops on the opposite side of the field. John tried to
block the disarming spell but it was in vain. He was sent flying through the air
and landed with a thump on top of Prof. Flitwick who was sitting in the stands.
He tried frantically to get back to the hoops to stop the Quaffle but he was far
to slow. The Quaffle had gone through the middle hoop.
Harry heard
Hermione’s screams over the cheers of the Gryffindor supporters and was just
able to make out what she was saying. ‘Gryffindor win, Gryffindor win!’
Harry was cheering along with everyone else including Angelina who looked
terrible. Blood had covered her robes and face and her missing ear and nose made
her look very ugly.
Once the
cheering had died down (which took a long time) Madam Hooch led the Gryffindor
team to where Dumbledore was waiting with the Quidditch cup. He gave the cup to
Angelina who held it above her head cheering and shook each of the player’s
hands. When he came to Harry, who was last in line, he bent down to his ear.
‘Sorry
about those Dementors,’ he said. ‘They were my fault. After being sworn in
as temporary Minster of Magic I decided that it be best if I took Azkaban from
the Dementors. I did it early this morning and of course they weren’t too
happy. They followed me back to the school. They wanted a new feeding ground.
But all those Patronuses formed a large wild beast and killed over half of them.
Had I known they were all going to be so powerful I would have refrained from
adding my own Patronus to the group.’
Every one
else was too busy screaming and cheering to hear the conversation so Harry asked
‘So what’s going to happen to all the people in Azkaban now?’
‘Everyone
who was in Azkaban because they were believed to have been in league with Lord
Voldemort were Administered the Kiss. I didn’t want it done this way because
of the innocent people this might include, but the Ministry overruled me.
Azkaban is now guarded by the goblins and protected by some of the most powerful
spells in the wizarding world. Oh, and Harry – well done!’
Celebrations
continued through out the day, the night and even the next day. Nothing could
squash Harry’s happiness. Well, nothing except Hermione. On the second day of
celebrations she came up to Ron and Harry.
‘You do
realise our OWLs are starting in a week, don’t you,’ she said sternly.
‘Of course
we do,’ said Ron not very convincingly. The celebrations seemed to have pushed
them to the back of their minds and they had forgotten all about them.
The three of
them (or rather Hermione) decided to go down to the library and study for the
rest of the day where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
Many times
Harry and Ron were tempted to go back to the common room for just a second to
see how the celebrations were going but Hermione kept their feet inside the
library.