How to Prevent a War

Slytherin vs Gryffindor

Harry only listened with one ear while Walburga was giving her usual pre-game speech on the importance of fair play and winning, only this time, she was a lot more heated when giving it. That was to be expected of course, they played against their big rival, Gryffindor.

Harry was excited about this particular game as well of course. All four Weasleys were in the team. Fred and George as beaters, Ron as Keeper and Ginny as one of the Chasers. The rest of the Gryffindor team were McKinnon, as captain and chaser, along with Leonard Longbottom, and as Seeker Dennis McLaggen. They were a strong team, as Harry well knew, having played with the Weasleys before, but so was the Slytherin team.

Their Chasers were Walburga and Alphard Black and Ravina Lestrange. The Beaters were Dolohov and Nicolas Lestrange and Rosier as their Keeper. They had easily taken out the Huffelpuff team two weeks ago in their first game of the year with this formation and Harry felt confident that it would work again... as long as he didn't forget for what team he was playing at least.

"Let's go out there and wipe those lion arses off the field!" Walburga ended passionately.

Their team cheered loudly and they all lined up to go out into the pitch. The bleachers were crowded with students all cheering for their favourite team. Harry looked up and smiled as he saw Hermione standing between several Ravenclaws. The two on her right, Olive Hornby and Johnathan Selwyn, if Harry remembered their names correctly were holding a large Slytherin banner, while Coral Rudderfort was holding a Gryffindor flag. Octavian stood next to Hermione and the two seemed to be talking about something before the teams had come out, now they were both cheering loudly as well, though neither made it clear for what House their cheers were.

A bit further showed the Hufflepuffs, all eagerly waving and calling out encouragements to both teams. July Andrews was wearing a Slytherin themed sweater and waved his way while Rosetta Diggory and her younger brother both wore Gryffindor scarves.

Smith, Septimus Weasley and Lyall Lupin were of course cheering on their own House, as were Yaxley, Mulciber, Avery, Nott, Orion and Cygnus Black, Dimitri Lestrange and, surprisingly, Tom. Harry frowned a bit seeing the young Dark Lord standing between his baby Death Eaters, as it was rare for the older teen to show his face around the pitch. He certainly hadn't been present during their game against Huffelpuff.

"A rare sight, isn't it?" Nicolas Lestrange commented.
"Tom hates Quidditch almost as much as you seem to love it."

"Then why is he here?" Harry asked confused.

"Don't know," Lestrange shrugged.
"Sometimes he just shows up if he thinks something interesting might happen."

Harry raised a brow. Something interesting... that even sounded ominous and since it involved Tom, there was no way that could be a good thing. He looked away again, guessing that whatever it was, it could wait until after the game. First, they needed to win this. Or lose, as his friends were playing for the other team. Harry chuckled at his own thoughts. Even if he wanted to, there was no way he could rig the game by slacking off. Quidditch sat too deep in his system for him not to take every game serious. He'd die before he ever gave less than a 100%, something he had proven in the past.

The two teams met in the middle of the pitch along with mister Vole. Harry smiled towards his friends at the other team and Ginny smiled back brightly. Ron gave him a sideways grin and stuck out his hand.

"First time standing across from each other in the pit, right mate?" he muttered jokingly.

"It sure is going to be an interesting game!" Harry replied, grasping his best friend's hand and shaking it.