Ginny's Story

Chapter 14 Quidditch

Chapter 14 Quidditch

Neville crossed his arms on the table and leant over to me.

“That was close last night,” he said meekly. “We nearly got caught! Imagine if we did get caught, Gin. Imagine it!”

I shut my eyes and concentrated on my breathing. “I know,” I sighed. “We can’t take stupid risks anymore. Like I said last night, next time we need a lot more preparation. I hope nobody else in DA got caught.”

My eyes scanned the hall briefly and my breathing eased when I saw everyone in DA sitting at their respective house tables, big smiles on their faces. A lot of the other students not in DA also looked just as happy. It was like somebody had switched on a light of hope inside them.

Neville chuckled weakly. “Look at Snape,” he said while pointing up to the head table.

My eyes landed on the most furious looking man I had ever seen and I couldn’t help but allow a small laugh escape from my lips. Snape’s greasy hair was sticking up in odd angles from his fingers running through it from stress. His coal eyes darted around the hall, taking in all the differences from the previous day – the happiness and hope.

“He looks ready to kill,” I agreed. Luna wandered up to our table and heavily dropped her books onto the table.

“I was listening to talk at the Ravenclaw table,” she began. “About Quidditch.” Neville and I waited for her to say something else, but it didn’t come.

“Elaborate,” I frowned confusedly.

“Well don’t you think it’s strange that there hasn’t been any word of Quidditch? Usually teams would have been finished tryouts by now. But our team certainly hasn’t been given any news about when games are or if they should be sorting out a team. I don’t even know who the captain is!”

“Good point,” Neville allowed. “I haven’t heard anything either, have you, Gin?” I shook my head.

Snape stood up and the hall fell silent. His eyebrows were set in an angry frown. “Attention!” he shouted. “I know you all must be wondering what is happening with Quidditch this year.” Luna, Neville and I exchanged a knowing look. “My master and I have discussed this matter over and over and we have come to the agreement that only worthy teams will be permitted to participate this year.” Snape’s lip curled into a cruel smile.

“No way!” I shouted at the top of my voice, as did many others. The hall was filled with shouts of protest. We knew that Snape would never allow the Gryffindors to play, and he probably wouldn’t let Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff either. How would that work?

“He said his ‘master’, do you think that would be You-Know-Who?” Luna asked. As always, she picked out what nobody else noticed.

“I can’t believe he would mention that he’s working for You-Know-Who!” Neville gasped. “I mean, everyone knows it, but he actually admitted it in front of the whole school!”

Fury tugged its way through my body and I stood up, noticing lots of other students were doing the same.

“I hate that man,” I whispered to Neville and Luna, feeling the hatred for Snape as strong as a surging river.

“Silence,” Snape’s voice rung out through the hall loud, clear and terrifyingly. “If you continue this ridiculousness, I will have no choice but to call my master.” There it was again. He mentioned his master again. I could see McGonagall scowling at Snape and Flitwick shaking with incense.

The students fell silent, but nobody returned to their seats.

“I’m going to sneak out,” I whispered. “You cover for me in class, I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“What are you doing?” Neville asked eagerly.

“I’m sending a letter to Fred and George,” I smiled mischievously. “We’re going to need things to cause mayhem at Hogwarts.”