The Gryffindor Royal - Year Three

Chapter Eight

The next day, during the Quidditch game, it was raining extremely heavily. Gryffindor was playing Hufflepuff, and (Y/N) zoomed around the field, catching the Quaffle and passing it along to the other Chasers in her team. She was sure that Lavender was shouting pick-up lines from the stands every time she passed the Quaffle to Angelina, and she was suddenly grateful for the strong winds and rain.

Luckily, on top of the rains, the Gryffindors in the stands had started a loud cheer of "Go, go, Gryffindor!", and Hermione yelled out encouragements to (Y/N) and Harry every time they were near enough to hear her. No one was quite sure how Harry or the Hufflepuff Seeker, Parvati's crush Cedric Diggory, would be able to spot the Snitch in the stormy conditions, but about 15 minutes into the game both Seekers started shooting upwards, and everyone began cheering for the houses they were rooting for.

(Y/N) spotted a large black figure floating around somewhere above her. She looked up impulsively, fearing that it might be a Dementor, and she nearly got whacked in the face by a Bludger sent by the Hufflepuff Beater. After Fred whacked the ball off, she looked up again, only this time there was a figure falling toward her. Slowly but surely, more and more Dementors swarmed the playing field, and most of (Y/N)'s teammates had stopped in midair and forgotten about the game.

And that's when the screaming started. Looking up, (Y/N) could finally make out the figure falling through the sky — Harry. None of the players on the field could process what was happening, and it wasn't until Dumbledore yelled "Arresto momentum!" That anyone did anything. Harry was gently brought down to the ground, and Dumbledore instructed the Gryffindor team to aid Madam Pomfrey in getting Harry to the hospital wing. Everyone on the Gryffindor team, with the exception of Oliver Wood, who announced he was going to take a shower, crowded into the freshly cleaned hospital wing, tracking mud and dirt everywhere, much to Madam Pomfrey's annoyance.

She did her best to tend to Harry, then flicked her wand at the ground to try and clean it up, as the Gryffindor team, Hermione, Ron and Shelena and a few others crowded around Harry's bed. "He looks a bit peaky, doesn't he?" Ron finally said. "Peaky?" George repeated incredulously. "What do you expect?" "He fell over a 100 feet!" Fred chimed in. "Yeah, come on, Ron, let's walk you off the Astronomy tower, and see what you look like!" (Y/N) snorted at that, and Ron smacked her head.

Harry, who had woken just in time to hear Fred and George's words, commented, "He'd probably look a right sight better than he normally does," that earned laughs from those around, but Hermione looked incredibly anxious. "How're you feeling?" she asked, placing an arm on Harry's, as (Y/N) watched enviously. She often wished she still had the courage to engage in constant physical contact with Harry as she had in first- and second-year, but she brushed those thoughts away quickly. "You gave us a right good scare there, mate," George told Harry, as he sat down at the end of Harry's bed.

"What happened?" Harry asked the crowd around him, having no recollection after seeing the Dementors in front of him. "Well, you fell off your broom," Ron began, but Harry shook his head. "Really? But I meant the match. Who won?" Everyone looked away for a few seconds, and Hermione got off the bed, exchanging a glance with (Y/N). "You have to know that nobody blames you, Harry, in fact we're very proud of you! The Dementors aren't even supposed to enter school grounds," (Y/N) said at a fast pace, as she played with her fingers, which caused Harry to feel a sense of dread in his stomach. "Yeah, Dumbledore was furious," Hermione added. "As soon as he saved you, he sent them straight off."

Harry, who already had a good idea of what happened, glanced from (Y/N), to Hermione, to Ron. He flashed his best mate a pitiful smile. "There's, uh, something else you should know too, Harry." He held up a bag, which everyone around the bed knew contained Harry's smashed broomstick. "Um, when you fell off, your broom, it- it sort of blew into the Whomping Willow and... well, it's uh," he took a large piece of Harry's destroyed broomstick out of the bag to explain what he meant, and Harry's face set in grim realisation. Everybody on the Gryffindor team, as well as his other friends, knew how much Harry loved his broom. It had helped him win every match prior to this. And just like that, it was gone.