(1) Lux Brumalis (R. Weasley)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Pixie speeds after Angelina Johnson who has possession of the Quaffle, Flint and Adrian right behind her, but she does have speed on her side. Shabes is there to bat a Bludger away from Flint who barely even flinches with how close it got to his face. Flint and Adrian suddenly pick up speed as Pixie slows. But it's part of their play. They knock the Quaffle from the opposing chaser and she cuts through at speed and swoops it up, racing to the goalposts. And it works.

"Slytherin in possession," Lee commentates. "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys and Chaser Bell and speeds towards the....wait a moment....was that the Snitch?" A murmur rushes through the crowd as Adrian drops the Quaffle, too busy looking over his shoulder at the flash of gold that passes by his left ear. Pixie speeds down towards the Quaffle, ignoring the distraction of the snitch, that's not her role. But it is Terrance's. He and Harry move at the same time. Neck and neck, hurtling towards the snitch. All the Chasers seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing as they hung in mid-air to watch. Pixie and Wood seemed to be the only ones interested in playing anymore. Wood focuses on Pixie as she throws the Quaffle, or faux throws it, getting just what she wants, he dives to block and non-ball and she uses this to score. "Another 10 points for Slytherin as Pixie Stark..." Lee draws off noticing the other chasers are no longer paying attention. He looks at McGonagall for help but she just shrugs back.

"Really?!" Wood shouts at his team as Pixie gives the boys on hers a look when they turn to the goal, except for Flint who was focused on Harry and Terrance. Mostly because Terrance proves to be the slower of the two Seekers. Harry leans forward as he races after the snitch. Suddenly, Flint is there, blocking Harry on purpose causing Harry's broom to spin off course as he tries to avoid hitting the Slytherin head-on.

"Foul!" The Gryffindors scream out. Madame Hooch moves to Flint on her broom as the teams shift in closer to listen to the scolding. She angrily scolds Flint and then gives Gryffindor a free shot at the goalposts. Down in the stands, Dean Thomas is yelling close to Ron and Hermione who glance at him.

"Send him off, ref! Red card!"

"This isn't football, Dean," Ron reminds him. "You can't send people off in Quidditch....and what's a red card?"

"They oughta change the rules, Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air." Hagrid agrees with Dean. Whilst Lee Jordan struggles to remain neutral as he continues to commentate.

"So....after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating...."

"Jordan!" McGonagall scolds.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul..."

"Jordan, I'm warning you...."

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession......Slytherin in possession.....Stark with the Quaffle....passes Spinnet.....passes Bell....hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke her nose, only joking, Professor...Slytherin score...oh no..." The Slytherins are all cheering.

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid tells Hermione and Ron as he watches Harry flying higher and higher on a wiggling, jerking broomstick. "If I didn' know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom....but he can't have..." Suddenly, people are pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom has started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasps. Pixie pulls her broom to a stop noticing that something is off, her eyes follow those of everyone else as gasps sound out. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry now swings off it, dangling from it with only one hand.
"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Seamus whispers to Hermione and Ron.

"Can't have, can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark Magic – no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand," Hagrid argues. Hermione suddenly snatches at Hagrid's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she starts looking through the crowd.

"What are you doing?" Ron asks her.

"I knew it" Hermione gasps. "Snape...look" She hands the binoculars to Ron who takes them from her to look through. Finding Snape in the middle of the stands opposite them with Tatiana. Snape has his eyes fixed on Harry and is muttering non-stop under his breath. "He's doing something...jinxing the broom"

"What should we do?" Ron asks her.

"Leave it to me." Before Ron could say another word, Hermione disappears through the crowd. Ron uses the binoculars to look back up at Harry. The Weasley twins attempt to get close enough to pull Harry to safety, but it is no good, every time they get close to him, his broom jumps higher and higher. So instead, they circle below him, ready to catch him if they need to. At the same time, Flint is using the distraction to score five more times without anyone noticing or stopping him. Pixie and Adrian hover close to one another, Terrance below them, watching it all unfold. There isn't much they can do to help, considering.

......

Hermione, out of breath, rushes to the stand where the teachers and guests are standing, and in such a rush she doesn't apologise to Quirrel as she knocks him headfirst into the row in front. Reaching Severus, she crouches down and pulls out her wand, whispering a few very well-chosen words. Bright blue flames shoot out of her wand and straight onto Severus' robes. It doesn't take him long to realise, 30 seconds and no more, that his robes are on fire. He yelps. Hermione takes this as her cue to flee. She scoops up the fire from him into a little jar in her pocket before she scrambles away, fleeing the scene.

.........

Harry, now back in control of his broom, scrambles up into a seated position. Pixie lets out a long breath as she watches. Relieved. Suddenly, Harry speeds towards the ground when he claps his hand to his mouth as though he is about to be sick, he hit the pitch on all fours....coughed...and something gold fell into his hand.

"I've got the Snitch!" Harry shouts, waving it above his head, and the game ends in complete confusion. Pixie laughs a little on her broom as the rest of the Slytherin team stare in utter confusion.