Chapter 14 - Quidditch Finals (1/2)
December arrives with everyone's excitement as it's the season of Christmas. Especially the first years were looking forward to the vacation and Quidditch lovers looking forward to the finals between Slytherin and Gryffindor.
Just like Neal and Daphne suggested, Malfoy bought all the team members, a Nimbus 2000 broomstick which made Gryffindor jealous of his fortune. But he didn't stop there. Draco then went on and replaced the current seeker to fight Harry face to face in the finals with Snape's help.
Meanwhile, Hermoine worked hard in the classes and slowly gained back the points she lost earlier. Harry, on the other hand, was also training hard for Quidditch finals. As for their useless teammate, Ron developed a hobby of playing wizards chess after joining the chess club.
December 15 arrives, the day of Quidditch finals. As it was treated as important because the one which wins the Winter Quidditch cup gets an enormous 150 House points. Coupled with Summer Quidditch Cup, Quidditch alone can give 300 House points. It was exactly because of this reason, Slytherin won the House cup for the past six years continuously.
Earlier they hoped Gryffindor wins the House cup because of successive wins but the recent 150 points penalty by Gryffindor Trio made them lose hope.
Everyone in the Gryffindor rooting for Harry to catch the snitch as soon as possible and win the game to get back on track and everyone in Slytherin is planning to take out Harry by any means necessary.
As the stadium was filled with all students and teachers including Dumbledore, in the dressing room, Captain Flint patted Malfoy, ”we will try our best to knock out Harry off the field. You try your best to catch the snitch, alright?”.
A while later, players from the two teams entered the grounds as the crowd erupted in cheers. Neal spoke, ”it seems everyone teamed up to defeat our House”. Daphne who sat beside him replied, ”of course, we won nine Winter cups in a row”.
Neal asked, ”is Summer Cup different?”. Daphne replied, ”well, there will be O.W.Ls and N.E.W.T. examinations in the Spring and also final exams. So, most of the fifth years and seventh years won't actually participate in the Summer season. Other than that, there's no difference except the weather”.
The Quaffle was caught by Adrian Pucey, a chaser and began to fly towards the goal. As he was intercepted by a Gryffindor chaser, he passes the ball to Flint which he caught and went towards the goal.
By sitting on Nimbus 2000 and with very good flying skills, he easily evaded all of them and scored the goal.
The audience who were supporting Slytherin erupted in applause. As the game is going on, Harry began to look for the snitch. Malfoy, on the other hand, is trying to distract him by provoking him with insults.
As the score widened to 50-20 with Slytherin leading, Harry began to worry. But just then, Flint remembered Malfoy's strategy which Neal casually commented back then.
Instead of focusing on Chasers, he decided to take out the captain and the keeper first. As he saw a bludger just flying around aimlessly, he took the bat from the team's beater and aimed at Wood while his teammate was trying to goal.
Just as Wood saved the goal, he was hit by a bludger and fell on the ground unconscious. While Gryffindors got enraged as it's an intentional foul, Flint looked at the twins and grinned. He exchanged his position with a beater and decided to go with a knock out approach.
Since it is usual for a beater to target a chaser or seeker, everyone expected Flint to go after one but instead, he hit the bludger towards Fred Weasley which he countered back. But Flint didn't back down and hit at him again which he countered back.
Just like him, another Slytherin beater hit it towards George Weasley. Everyone in the stadium stumped for a second to see two players from either side just hitting the bludger back and forth for a while.
As they were busy, Slytherin scored one more time making Fred anxious as Gryffindor is down by two people. Earlier a chaser was knocked out using two people pressed him from either side and make him collide to one of the Pillars.