The next few days were filled with confusion and deep speculation about the Chamber of Secrets and what could have caused the petrification of Filch and Mrs Norris. Harry, like the rest, had believed that someone must have cursed them and had written the message on the wall to cause trouble, but had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he was wrong. Something about the Chamber was intimately familiar but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Draco Malfoy had been the most vocal about the incident, saying that the attack and the supposed opening of the Chamber of Secrets was a good thing. The boy also seemed to have gotten into the Slytherin Quidditch Team as a Seeker and his father had bought the entire team new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. Harry wondered how the rest of the Board of Governors let this happen, but there was nothing against donating brooms to the school. In fact, when he spoke to Sirius, Harry was informed that there was actually a tax deduction on any donation to the magical schools of Britain, so it was sure to be a win-win scenario for Lucius Malfoy.
Harry woke up early that Saturday morning and quietly walked outside to the grounds to finish his morning exercises. Since Ravenclaw and Slytherin had been the finalists the previous year in the Quidditch matches, they would be playing the first game of the season today. Harry had trained rigorously with the Ravenclaw team and he had to admit they were pretty good. The mood had been dampened with the news of the new brooms of the Slytherin team, but the captain said that it didn't matter.
"We have faced tough odds before," assured Abigail Turner to the team as they assembled in the locker room. "This is no different. They don't know the advantage we have. We haven't let anyone know of our moves, so that should surprise them. Harry, start your game immediately. If we surprise them early on, maybe they'll lose confidence in their new brooms, and we can use every advantage we can get today."
"Understood," said Harry calmly, as he gripped his broomstick.
The seven members of the team stood at the entrance of the pitch and mounted their brooms, flying into the cloudy sky. Hundreds of people cheered from below and Harry breathed deeply to take care of any existing nervousness. Once reinforcing his mental shields, his blank mask was back in place as he flew high in the sky. Any minute now…
"Welcome everyone to the first game of the season," shouted Lee Jordan, his voice magically enhanced. "Today we have our resident Eagles playing against the Snakes!"
"On my whistle," shouted Madam Hooch. "Three… two… one…"
She blew the whistle and a mighty roar could be heard as the game began. Harry soared upward but his green eyes were focussed on the game below, not looking for the snitch. Draco Malfoy was behind him, obviously wanting to retaliate if Harry saw the snitch himself.
"And Marcus Flint has control of the Quaffle. Turner tries to take it, but - oh, that was nasty. He dodges a bludger and goes near the goal posts, he - wait - what's that?"
When Harry had a clear line of sight to Flint, he dived sharply, pushing his Nimbus Two Thousand and One to the maximum. Behind him, Draco Malfoy dived too, but Harry wasn't going for the snitch or attempting a Wronski Feint. He was heading directly towards Marcus Flint and with one powerful kick, the Quaffle was released from the older boy's hold. Harry dived and turned, grabbing the Quaffle and quickly passed it to Roger Davies who scored.
"Outstanding!" yelled Lee Jordan. "It looks like Harry Potter is playing as an interfering Seeker! That was one hell of a move! I thought it was a feint but it wasn't. Roger Davies scores and it is ten-zero to Ravenclaw!"
Harry saw a bludger coming right at him so he performed a sloth grip roll to dodge it, but the bludger immediately changed course! He flew higher, just as Jacob Samuels, one of the two beaters of Ravenclaw gave a powerful whack to the bludger towards Adrian Pucey.
"You alright there, Harry?" asked Jacob.
Just as Harry nodded at the other boy, the bludger once again flew towards him. Harry frowned as he dived to the ground to dodge it, trying to focus on the elusive Golden Snitch. Slytherin had already scored twice, bringing the score up to twenty to ten. None of them knew why the bludger was going after Harry alone, but he didn't want to forfeit the game due to an enchantment on the bludger gone bad.
"Get back to the game!" yelled Harry as the beaters came to help him. "We'll never win if you keep shadowing me. I'll be fine!"
The beaters looked concerned, but they decided to follow his instructions. Forty minutes later, the score was one hundred and thirty to fifty in favour of Ravenclaw. The rain was falling heavily now, impairing vision. Harry knew that he had to catch the snitch soon, so he made finding it his top priority. Higher and higher he went and he could hear the bludger behind him. He looped and swooped, zigzagged, spiralled and rolled.
"Training for the ballet, Potter?" called out Draco, smirking, as he tried to distract Harry while he searched for the snitch himself.
Suddenly, Harry saw it.
The snitch was glinting from right behind Malfoy's ear. Without waiting for a moment, he pushed and nearly unseated Malfoy from his broom in the process. Just as his fingers closed upon the struggling golden snitch, the bludger came back.
WHAM!
....
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