GOLDEN BLOOD

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐕. Quidditch, Feathers and a Troll.

Early in the morning, before breakfast. Thea and Harry went to the courtyard alongside Oliver Wood to train Quidditch. The three are carrying a heavy trunk. Then they stopped and put it down, and Oliver started explaining right away.

"Quidditch is easy enough to understand. Each team has seven players. Three Chasers. That's you. Two Beaters, one Keeper and a Seeker. That's you. There are three kinds of balls." He explained as he picked up a red one. "This one's called the Quaffle. Now, the chasers, that's you. Handle the Quaffle and try to put it through one of those three hoops, not that you don't know that, I'm sure your brother has talked about it to you." He says as he points to the hoops in the Quidditch pitch in the distance, while Thea nods. "The keeper, that's me, defends the hoops." He says as he throws the ball to Harry. "With me so far?"
"I think so," Harry says as he throws the ball back.
"What are those?" Harry says as he points to two squirming chained-down balls.
"You better take this." He says as he hands Harry and Thea small bats. He bends down and releases one ball. With an angry growl, it flies off into the air. The group watched it. "Careful now, it's coming back." The ball comes whizzing down, and Harry cracks at it with the bat to Thea's direction and she throws it far, then the ball soars off through a statue, surprisingly without damaging it. "Not bad, Wolbellthorn. You'd make a fair Beater. Uh-oh." The ball zooms down, and Oliver grabs it, wriggling to get it back in the box. He succeeds and is out of breath.
"What was that?!" Harry asked.
"Bludger," Thea said while looking at him.
"Yeah, nasty little buggers. But you are a Seeker. And the only thing I want you to worry about is this... The Golden Snitch." He hands Harry a walnut-sized golden ball. "I like this ball." He says.
"Ah, you like it now. Just wait. It's wicked fast and damn near impossible to see." Oliver says.
"What do I do with it?" Harry asks, confused.
"You catch it before the other team's Seeker," Thea said.
"Exactly. You catch this, the game is over. You catch this, Potter, and we win." The ball flutters out two delicate wings and jumps into the air. Harry keeps an eye on it.

"Woah!!!" He says in awe.

......................

After about an hour of primary practice and explanation from Oliver Wood, Harry and Thea are now headed to the Great Hall.

"Do you think we will be able to do it?" Harry asked Thea who wasn't paying attention.
"What did you say?" She asked.
"Do you think we will be able to do it?" He asked again.
"Well, we will if we practice and learn. But most importantly, by trusting in ourselves. Take me as an example, most of my inventions don't work at first, but I keep researching and learning so it can work. And then they work... sometimes. But my point is, I won't give up." Thea said reassuring Harry.

"Thank you, Thea, you are a great friend." Harry beamed.

"You are mostly welcome, my friend. But we need to go or we will be late for breakfast." Thea said as she walked quickly.

...........................................................

"Just in time, look. Ron saved some places for us." Thea muttered.

After a few minutes of conversation Harry, Thea and Ron were in agreement that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite keen to have another one.
In the meantime, Harry filled Ron and Thea in about the package that
seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they
spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy
protection.

"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron.
"Or both," said Thea and Harry at the same time.
But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was
that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much chance of
guessing what it was without further clues.
Hermione in the other hand, showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor.
Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but they thought she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus. Thea didn't agree with them, Hermione was very smart indeed and very bossy too. But they shouldn't call her that. It's wrong.