Chapter 165: The Game and The People (2/2)
”Oh, Ogden, I didn't know you were coming. How long has it been since you come out of your distillery,” smiled Dumbledore towards the owner of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey.
”.. . You just saw me in Wizengamot last week,” said Ogden.
”Ah, yes! It fell off my mind; how forgetful of me,” laughed Dumbledore before once again looking around the VIP box, ”speaking of.. . where is George West, I was told he would be attending.”
”George West is attending!” exclaimed the minister in his bowler hat, looking around to see if he had missed the man.
”That's what I've been told,” said Dumbledore, ”but from the looks of it —” the VIP box was already full, ”— even if he was here, George West wouldn't have sat here.”
”Who told you that he'll be here?”
Dumbledore held back a sigh at the minister's question. Why wouldn't he, the headmaster, be privy about the people coming to his school for a highly organized event.
”You see the student right in front of us — sitting with the professors — Quinn West, he's the organizer, he submitted the guest list.”
The organizer, however, cleverly didn't share the seating plan with the headmaster, just the names.
”Then where is he?”
”Hmm, I'm assuming that if he's attending, then he's among the students,” guessed Dumbledore — nay, Dumbledore was sure that George West was sitting in the stands.
'Not that I can blame him,' thought Dumbledore as he watched everyone in the VIP box whip out their omniocculars, but they weren't looking at the game but at the stands.
”Oh! It seems the seekers have spotted the snitch.”
.. .
Cedric Diggory and Victor Krum zoomed across the pitch, both seekers chasing after the ever-elusive golden snitch.
Seekers were generally the smallest and lightest players on a team and needed both a sharp eye and the ability to fly one- or no-handed — but today, both seekers didn't comply with the archetype.
Cedric Diggory was a tall fellow with a not-so-wiry frame. His body caught too much drag from the wind, causing him to fly slower, just by a fraction, but those fractions were what mattered when one was competing with a fast seeker chasing a faster snitch. With his bulky and stocky build, Victor Krum was the complete opposite of the seeker archetype — too heavy for a seeker. He was already heavier for adult seekers — there wasn't even a need to mention school level.
But for some reason, both of them were still the fastest players on the field.
”Diggory and Krum are hot on the tail of the snitch — Diggory to the front! — Krum is back in the lead! What an intense chase. What do we see here — Krum anticipated the dip from the seeker and has clutched a substantial lead! What's this?! Diggory is gaining speed — will he catch up? — It's late! It's late! Krum has it! The snitch has been caught! T. Baron's have caught the first snitch of the season!!!”
Fireworks shot on cue as T. Barons surrounded Krum as the team circled the stadium, with snitch the held clutched high in Krum's grasp.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
In the professors/commentators box, the head of houses sat in the front row, just behind Quinn, who sat just behind the railings, to get a clear view of the game.
”Minerva.. . did he really organize all of this?” asked Sprout looking at the new stadium, the animated and colorful banners with the game going in the center of all of the numerous little things that impressed the herbology mistress.
”He did,” answered McGonagall distractedly as he craned her neck with her favorite omniocculars set on her eyes. ”Yes, dive, dive, dive, yeah!”
Sprout sighed at her colleague's antics — the quidditch nut was in no condition to hold a conversation.
She decided to talk to the ”Filius, are you proud —” she saw the half-goblin snicker in amusement as he wrote something off a parchment, ”— what're you doing?”
Flitwick looked at Sprout with a toothy grin and showed her the parchment, ”I just won 20 galleons on who would reach a hundred points first — I bet on Bogeys which had high odds because Mr. Krum is on Barons, but heh, my hunch was good, now I'm in profit.”
Suddenly Quinn turned towards them and gave Flitwick a thumbs up, ”Good decision, professor. Bogeys' chasers are on fire today; Do you have something on them today?”
Flitwick slapped his thigh, frustration flashing in his eyes. ”I didn't think that Mr. Carmichael would be so good as a chaser — this is his first game, and he had already scored third of Bogeys points. I was actually counting on Mr. Diggory to pull the point total — a miss on my part.”
”Haha, don't worry, professor, there are still many, many games remaining you can —” laughed Quinn but suddenly looked back at the field, ”— CHASER CRASH Two chasers crashed down into the grass; Carmichael from Bogeys and Bam from Barons — ah, Carmichael is already up and flying! What endurance, I wonder who's his trainer!”
Sprout looked between Quinn and Flitwick in shock. ”Y-You're betting! Filius —”
”Loosen up, Pomona. Enjoy the game,” grinned Flitwick, ”Next time, I'll take you with me; the Weasley twins have a great betting setup; they give great odds — shell some of your galleons on things other than seeds and plants.”
Sprout sighed, her eyes going to the fourth head, who was intently watching the game.
'No way.. . ' she thought. ”Severus did you —”
”No.”
”A-Ah, I see, of course, of course.”
”Oh! Diggory has beaten the pro to the snitch! Bogeys have their first snitch of the game! That puts them above the Barons with a great margin! A great offensive team effort by the Trolling Bogeys! What a game we're getting to see brought to you by Blishen's Fireworks.”
Smoke works filled the sky as green and black colors of Trolling Bogeys menacingly made their presence known.
Quinn once again turned back to the professors.
”Professor Snape, here you go,” he threw a roll of parchment along with a tiny vial towards Snape, who effortlessly caught it, ”my personal recipe for smoke sky-shots, what do you think about it?”
Snape stared at the vial with silver liquid for a moment before reading the parchment.
”.. . Good enough,” was the short response before Snape opened the vial and a small plume of green smoke rose to turn into a shape of a troll, ”Better.”
Quinn grinned before once again turning back towards the game.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
Marcus reached the T. Bogeys' locker to meet Eddie and jumped when he heard a loud, frustrated shout.
”How the hell did he catch two snitches in the last twenty minutes! $#@%!!!”
Marcus saw Eddie angrily stuff his gear into his bag while throwing out profanities which from his mouth sounded weirdly melodious.
”Krum was lucky; it popped up right in front of him — all he had to do was reach out to it,” said a beater. None of the house beater duos were separated in the team recruitments, with the Hufflepuff duo coming to Trolling Bogeys.
”I know! We f**cking played so well! Ah, that buzzcut of his pisses me off!”
'That pisses him off?' thought Marcus, sometimes he couldn't understand what went through his friend's head.
”We'll win the next game and every coming game,” said Diggory, and his tone lacked his usual happy style.
Marcus was about to enter the locker room when Luna, with a troll hat on her head, walked past him and entered the locker room.
”You lost.”
”I know! I was there!”
The opening day game ended with plenty of fanfare.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
.
Quinn West - MC - Plugging sponsors whenever I can.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Suggest credits. Too many people in this chapter.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
.
If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.
The link is in the synopsis!