Mia Potter was the other Potter. Looking almost identical to her mother, she was a force to be reckoned with. But there was only one person who could reckon with her, and his name was Draco Malfoy.
In which the youngest Potter twin finds herself fa...
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Mia woke extremely early the next morning, so early that it was still dark. She groaned as the roaring of the wind had woken her. She fumbled for her alarm clock and looked at it. It was half past four. She rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, but it was very difficult, now that she was awake, to ignore the sounds of the thunder rumbling overhead, the pounding of the wind against the castle walls, and the distant creaking of the trees in the Forbidden Forest.
In a few hours, she would be out on the Quidditch field, battling through that gale. Finally, she gave up any thought of more sleep, got up, dressed, picked up her Nimbus Two Thousand, and walked quietly out of the dormitory.
As Mia opened the door, something brushed against her leg. She bent down and picked up Crookshanks.
"Hello pretty boy," she said smiling. He let out a meow as Mia put him down and he hurried off towards the boy's dormitory.
The noise of the storm was even louder in the common room. Mia knew better than to think the match would be canceled. Quidditch matches weren't called off for trifles like thunderstorms. Nevertheless, she was starting to feel very apprehensive. Cedric Diggory was a fifth year and a lot bigger than Mia. Seekers were usually light and speedy, but Diggory's weight would be an advantage in this weather because he was less likely to be blown off course.
Mia whiled away the hours until dawn in front of the fire, getting up every now and then to stop Crookshanks from sneaking up the boys' staircase again. At long last Mia thought it must be time for breakfast, so she headed through the portrait hole alone.
She revived a bit over a large bowl of porridge, and by the time she'd started on toast, the rest of the team had turned up.
"It's going to be a tough one," said Wood, who wasn't eating anything.
"Stop worrying, Oliver," said Alicia soothingly, "we don't mind a bit of rain."
But it was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the Quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went. Just before she entered the locker room, Mia saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, laughing and pointing at her from under an enormous umbrella on their way to the stadium. When the ginger girl turned to enter the locker room, she didn't notice the concerned look Draco gave her.
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The wind was so strong that they staggered sideways as they walked out onto the field. If the crowd was cheering, they couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder.
The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary-yellow robes. The Captains walked up to each other and shook hands, Diggory smiled at Wood but Wood now looked as though he had lockjaw and merely nodded. Mia saw Madam Hooch's mouth form the words, "Mount your brooms."
She pulled her right foot out of the mud with a squelch and swung it over her Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant, they were off. Mia rose fast, but her Nimbus was swerving slightly with the wind. She held it as steady as she could and turned, squinting into the rain.
Within five minutes Mia was soaked to her skin and frozen, hardly able to see her teammates, let alone the tiny Snitch. She flew backward and forward across the field past blurred red and yellow shapes, with no idea of what was happening in the rest of the game. She couldn't hear the commentary over the wind. The crowd was hidden beneath a sea of cloaks and battered umbrellas. Twice Mia came very close to being unseated by a Bludger. The rain was getting into her eyes and blinding her at times.
She lost track of time. It was getting harder and harder to hold her broom straight. The sky was getting darker, as though night had decided to come early. Twice Mia nearly hit another player, without knowing whether it was a teammate or opponent. Everyone was now so wet, and the rain so thick, she could hardly tell them apart.
She urged her broom through the turbulent air, staring in every direction for the Snitch, avoiding a Bludger, ducking beneath Diggory, who was streaking in the opposite direction. There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. This was getting more and more dangerous. Mia needed to get the Snitch quickly.
She turned, intending to head back toward the middle of the field, but at that moment, another flash of lightning illuminated the stands, and Mia saw something that distracted her completely, the silhouette of an enormous shaggy black dog, clearly imprinted against the sky, motionless in the topmost, empty row of seats.
Mia's numb hands slipped on the broom handle and her Nimbus dropped a few feet. Shaking her sodden bangs out of her eyes, she squinted back into the stands. The dog had vanished.
"Mia!" came Wood's anguished yell from the Gryffindor goal posts. "Mia, behind you!"
Mia looked wildly around. Cedric Diggory was pelting up the field, and a tiny speck of gold was shimmering in the rain-filled air between them. With a jolt of panic, Mia threw herself flat to the broom handle and zoomed toward the Snitch.
"Come on!" she growled at her Nimbus as the rain whipped her face. "Faster!"
But something odd was happening. An eerie silence was falling across the stadium. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was as though someone had turned off the sound, as though Mia had gone suddenly deaf, what was going on?
And then a horribly familiar wave of cold swept over her, inside her, just as he became aware of something moving on the field below. Before she'd had time to think, Mia had taken her eyes off the Snitch and looked down.
At least a hundred Dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at her, were standing beneath him. It was as though freezing water were rising in her chest, cutting at her insides. And then she heard it again. Someone was screaming, screaming inside her head, a woman. . . .
"Not Mia and Harry, not my twins, please not Mia and Harry!"
"Stand aside, you silly girl. . . . stand aside, now. . . ."
"Not Mia and Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead. . . ."
Numbing, swirling white mist was filling Mia's brain. What was she doing? Why was she flying?
She needed to help her. . . .
She was going to die. . . .
She was going to be murdered. . . .
She was falling, falling through the icy mist.
"Not Mia and Harry! Please. . . . have mercy. . . . have mercy. . . ."
"Mum," Mia muttered.
A shrill voice was laughing, the woman was screaming, and Mia knew no more.
