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***
Madame Trick's whistle heralded the start of the game and the fourteen players soared into the sky. The match had just begun, but ten seconds later, the game was already stopped.
- Penalty! Hufflepuff hunter Eddie Jones had infringed on Gryffindor hunter Alicia Spinnet!
The score was not opened in the first few seconds. Herbert Fleet was outplayed by Angelina Johnson during the penalty - he darted to his left where the quaffle had been sent seconds earlier.
To his embarrassment, Harry had to admit that he was the weakest in the paddock confrontation. Gryffindor's goalkeepers Fred and George Weasley had initially played against him, so Potter had only managed to reach the bludger a few times during the game, but thanks to the successful play of Justin, the goalkeeper Herbert Flit, and the three hunters, Hufflepuff was winning by a hundred points. Realising that his team could cope with the goals without him, Harry focused his attention on the snitch and the opponent's Seeker.
He threw bludgers and, along with Cedric, tried to find the snitch and prevented Ron Weasley from looking around properly. His tactics were quickly realised by the Weasley twins, Harry was beginning to suspect that they were the 'head of the team'. One of them, Harry didn't even try to guess which one? - started doing the same thing as Potter, only to Diggory, making it very difficult for both Seekers to get a proper look at the pitch. When the gap was a hundred and thirty points, Potter finally spotted the snitch, he tried to gesture discreetly to Cedric, but his signs were noticed not only by the person they were intended for, but also by Ron Weasley, who was nearby. Ron Weasley was the first to fly towards the snitch, Diggory reacting later. They rushed towards the snitch, but the Gryffindor Seeker was much closer to the golden ball, and for some reason he turned around and flew towards Ron.
Harry's heart sank. Ron would catch the snitch, Ravenclaw would win the cup, the school championship would be won, and all of Hufflepuff's efforts and hopes would be for naught. The prospects were not good. As Ron flew towards the snitch, Potter was there in an instant, and without realising what he was doing, struck the Gryffindor Seeker's right hand, which he had already reached for the snitch, with his bat. Ron staggered, shouted something, but kept his footing on the broom and reached for the golden ball with his left hand.
"Where the hell is Cedric?!"- Potter thought.
He pulled out his wand and exclaimed:
- Confundo!
Ron Weasley clapped his eyes incomprehensibly and flew in the opposite direction of the snitch. Potter grabbed the snitch and threw it with all his might at Cedric who flew up.
"Now he's going to take it and Hufflepuff will win. Maybe no one will notice his offence?"- Harry thought hopefully.
The whistle sounded.
- PENALTY!!! I've never seen such a dirty tackle in my life! - Madam Trick shouted. - Hufflepuff chaser Harry Potter has infringed on Gryffindor Seeker Ron Weasley!
She flew up to Potter, and he felt like a hurricane was about to descend on him, but the referee made her complaints without raising her voice.
- If Quidditch had a way of removing you from the field, I'd be sure to do it. Minus thirty points to Hufflepuff for the meanest stunt in the history of the sport at Hogwarts.
In an instant, a huge wave of hatred descended on Harry Potter.
- Amazing! The Hufflepuff catcher stays on the pitch, we just saw Harry Potter hit the Gryffindor Seeker with a bat himself, but he managed to get away with it! - Was blaring from some bloke Harry didn't know in the commentary box.
- Are you an idiot? What if he'd crashed?! - Alicia Spinnet flew up to Potter.
Even some members of the Hufflepuff team didn't approve of Potter's act.
- What are you doing? - Priss shouted.
- We have to win by fair methods, not like this! - It was Cedric Diggory. He was angry with Harry too.
An incredible amount of criticism had been heaped on Potter in an incredibly short period of time. The entire Gryffindor podium, which at this time also included the Claw students, whistled, and even the Slytherins from the opposite podium shouted insults at him. The reaction of the snake faculty was rather unusual though, those seemed to be in favour of cunning and sneakiness, so they should have approved of such foul play... Did Malfoy try?
There was a slight pause in the game, McGonagall, who like most of the witnesses had come to be horrified by Potter's act, was arguing with Madam Trick about removing the Hufflepuff enclosure and banning him from Quidditch.
However, as is usually the case, there were people who sided with Potter.
- That was great, Harry," Justin whispered to him as he flew past.
- Know that I'm on your side. The Allocating Hat wanted to send me to Slytherin, so if I had the guts I would have done the same, so you can be proud, you may have just single-handedly given us a championship win," Herbert Fleet said loudly without hiding, flying off the Hufflepuff rings.
Alicia instantly flew over to the goalkeeper of the national team, intending to explain to him how wrong he was. However, Herbert didn't even pay attention to her.
There were some people among the Puffenduys who, while in the stands, took out a poster with a picture of a baby with a bat in his hands, the caption above it said that this baby was Harry Potter. He was wearing a T-shirt with a tiny badger running after an angry, toothy man labelled as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Harry did his best to memorise the faces of the people holding that banner.- The game continues, the Gryffindor team will take two penalties, Potter stays in the game," Madam Trick finally gave her verdict.
The people in the Gryffindor stands began to let out a loud 'Ooooooooooooooooo', thus expressing their displeasure at the decision.
"I probably won't be allowed into the lions' lounge anymore," Harry realised. He tried to make a sad face, but it was nothing more than pretence. He didn't regret his action one bit, he may have acted too harshly, but it was necessary - if it hadn't been for those actions, Ron would have grabbed the snatch.
The game continued. Herbert Fleet confidently kicked both penalties, and thus the Gryffindor team could not close the gap. By the way, the Hufflepuff goalkeeper was excellent in this game: he missed only five quaffles in the whole game, and even then, it could be said, unanswerable. Immediately after the second penalty, Hufflepuff's three hunters - Jones, Preece and Appleby - picked up the quaffle and went on the attack. A minute later Appleby increased the gap to one hundred and forty points. Harry in the meantime hit a bludger at Katie Bell and prevented her from launching an attack.
Everything was looking up for the Hufflepuff team to win. Suddenly the whistle blew.
- The match was over. Ron Weasley had caught the Snitch. The score is two hundred and ninety in favour of the Gryffindor team!
Wait, what?
Harry looked round in horror. Ron Weasley, snitch in hand, was flying over the cheering people above the Gryffindor stands, with Cedric holding close by with a determined look on his face.
* * *
No matter how hard the Puffenduys tried, they couldn't catch up with the Ravenclaws: the gap was about fifty points the day before the results were tallied. The only way to win back that many points was for one of the Ravenclaw students to commit some terrible misdemeanour, but they had been good all day. Thus, Ravenclaw won the inter-faculty competition for the second year in a row.
Harry had done consistently well in his exams. The knowledge he had gained from Riddle had helped him to get excellent marks in subjects where Potter's knowledge was lame. In all subjects except spells, Harry had received a B. Flitwick, on the other hand, gave Potter an "Excellent" for a perfectly completed assignment. The three subjects that caused Harry the most trouble were Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. Snape and McGonagall tried their best to fail Potter, and the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam was administered by Dumbledore, who asked some rather difficult supplementary questions.
Despite his success in his studies, Harry had been upset most of the time because of his defeat in the last Quidditch match, and also because of a little harassment from the Gryffindors after the match. However, not all the students of the Lion Faculty had stopped talking to Potter, for example, all the Weasleys and even Ron himself had forgiven Harry for his deed. He found out about it when, a few days after the match, the Weasley twins came up to Harry and informed him that they had included him in the Hogwarts team this year. Potter didn't understand such a decision at first:
- But why me and not, for example, Justin? You, after all, in the last match I was completely kept away from the bludgers, which means that at least you are definitely stronger than me.
- Because you're a great flier," replied one of the Weasley twins, who had an 'F' on his jumper.
"Fred," Potter concluded, using guesswork, logic, intuition, deduction and induction methods all at the same time.
- And the fact that we kept you away from the bludgers means nothing. - he continued. - Wood and I analysed your games and decided that you were the most dangerous player, so we had to play actively against you. And it worked out fine, except that Wood didn't realise that while we were covering you, Finch-Fletchley would have control of the field and the second bludger.
- Who else is in your team, is Justin there? - Potter decided to quench his curiosity.
- Nope. The second baseman is Duncan Ingleby. The Seeker is obviously Chang, she's never missed a snitch yet. How do you even win that? We're not sure about the goalkeeper, your Fleet is probably better, although George insists on Wood.
"Aha, so it really is Fred in front of me! "Excellent logical progression!"
- We've already decided on Wood as captain," George put in.
- So, goalkeeper - Fleet, captain - Wood, the three hunters - Davis, Barrow and Angelina.
- Don't listen to him, he's biased," George interrupted him. - The third is Samuels. All three of the Ravenclaw hunters are here. They're champions... But it's only temporary, the two hunters and the corral boy are graduating from Hogwarts next year, that's when we'll drop them.
- Why aren't there any Slytherins on the team? Personal grudge? I hear your faculty is at war with them.
- It's not a personal grudge! They're just arseholes, that's all. There are no normal players in the national team, they even got the third place only because of the speedy broomsticks, who should we take instead of Malfoy Chang?
- Listen," Potter decided to ask a question. - How did you feel about my offence in the last match?
- Oh, when you threw Confundus at Ronnie? It's okay, it's good for him. It wasn't the prettiest thing to do, but it was a championship game, and you would have won the inter-faculty competition if you had won. So we understand you.
- But we don't approve," Fred ended the dialogue.
At the final feast, the hall was decorated in blue and azure colours. The walls of the Great Hall featured the Ravenclaw crest 'White Eagle', which blended perfectly with the colour blue. It was worth noting that the colours of the eagle faculty harmonised perfectly with the decoration of the room. Potter imagined what the hall would look like in black and yellow colours with badgers - it didn't look so cool in his mind.
- Another school year behind us! - Dumbledore emerged from behind his desk. - A terrible tragedy has befallen our school this year - the death of Slytherin sophomore Daphne Greengrass. I would like to once again offer my condolences to her family. The culprit of the student's death was a giant basilisk, the monster of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. Although the Ministry's position is that the threat has passed, we will not relax. The Hogwarts Owlery will be permanently allocated a roosting habitat. Because of this change, the number of school owls will be halved, so they will now only be used on special occasions and with the permission of your Dean of Faculty. And when our ranger Hagrid returns to school, he and Caretaker Filch will periodically patrol the corridors of the castle together with the roosters.
- But let's not be sad. Let me summarise the results of the inter-faculty competition. First place this year went to Ravenclaw with seven hundred and thirteen points, second place to Hufflepuff with six hundred and seventy-four points, third place to Slytherin with three hundred and one points, and fourth place to Gryffindor with one hundred and twenty-seven points.
The table where the clawed students were sitting exploded with loud shouts and applause.
- Yes, yes, you have done well," Dumbledore said, turning to the winning students. - However, we did not take into account recent events.
The hall fell silent, and the smiles at the Ravenclaw table were not so happy.
- Due to the fact that a certain number of students have earned a certain number of points, the total may change... Let's start with Mr Harry Potter!
Harry froze. What had he done to have points added that could affect the total? Skipped Lockhart's lessons? Did he do well on his exams?
- For timely assistance in finding the basilisk, as well as excellent analysis and assessment of the situation, I award forty points to the Hufflepuff faculty.
The Hufflepuff table erupted in shouts, someone clapping Harry on the shoulder while he kept trying to do simple arithmetic calculations. Six hundred and seventy four plus forty is seven hundred and fourteen, and Ravenclaw has seven hundred and thirteen, no wait, six hundred and seventy four... Forty... That's right... Seven hundred... Yes, seven hundred and fourteen! Seven hundred and fourteen more than seven hundred and thirteen. They've overtaken Ravenclaw! No way! Could it be... Victory?
- It's not over yet. Next up, Mr Roger Davies. I award twenty points to the Ravenclaw faculty for assisting teacher Kettleburn and teaching lessons on the care of magical creatures.
The joy of the Clawteurans was great, but no shouts or applause could be heard. Everyone was waiting for more awards. If Hufflepuff got another twenty points.....
- That will be all," Dumbledore said. - Let the feast begin!
At the Ravenclaw table, those who did had little time to be frightened, and those who did exhaled, relieved. The Puffenduys, on the other hand, were sullenly silent. There was a deep silence at their table, only a few of them touching the food on their plates. They realised how close they were to victory.
Suddenly the silence was broken by a disgruntled Justin:
- What the hell was that just now? Is it just me, or did Dumbledore give us such a...