Miranda Black and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Sirius Black's Daughter SEQUEL!)

Chapter 19 - The Quidditch Final

"Beaky's really tired today, gonna let him have a nice sleepy morning. I'll meet you at the castle doors in your lunch break. See you then. -Hagrid." Hermione read out as we sat down for breakfast, "That's good, we've hardly seen him." 

Lunch came around fast, and our group of six went to the main doors. Hagrid was standing there, his eyes red. When we reached him,  he lead us out into the sun, where students were milling around under the watchful eyes of Professor Flitwick, Professor Lupin, and Professor Avium. We stopped by a rock, and everyone climbed up to sit on it. The rock made us almost eye level with Hagrid. 

"'S'all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kept droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them things yeh looked up fer me, Hermione. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told them to do." Hagrid told us, tears starting to run down his face.

"Don't give up yet, there's still the appeal! We're working on it," Ron said passionately. As he finished speaking, Malfoy and his cronies walked into the square, looking mischievous. I could swear that all Draco does is sit around waiting for a perfect opportunity to ruin a moment. 

"'S'no good Ron," said Hagrid, "That Committee's in Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's life is a happy one. I owe him that." Hagrid pulled out a large handkerchief and dabbed his eyes. "I better go." And with that, he hurried away to his cabin, face buried in the handkerchief. 

"Look at him blubber!" Draco laughed, "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" Crabbe and Goyle laughed like the idiots that they were. Harry, Ron and Daniel made furious moves towards them, but Hermione beat them all. She slammed Malfoy against a rock, and pointed her wand directly at his heart. 

"You awful little cockroach!" she said angrily. "You foul beast!" 

"Hermione, he's not worth it!" Ron yelled. Hermione sighed, and let Draco go. He looked relieved, which was bad for him. Hermione whipped around from us, and punched him right in the face. His head flew backwards, thudding against the rock. His nose spurted scarlet blood, and Hermione stood there looking pleased and quite shocked at what she has just done.

"Ow!" Draco exclaimed, holding his nose. He scurried away with his friends, and we all rushed up to Hermione, congratulating her on what she told us was the best moment of the week, perhaps even the year so far. She looked pleased with herself. 

"That was brilliant." Ron said with a grin. Hermione smiled widely, but then it went away.

"Harry, you better damn beat them in the Quidditch Final!" she ordered. Harry chuckled and nodded. "I'm serious! I won't be able to stand it if they win!"

"I'm serious too! We'll win." Harry replied, laughing. No one replied after that, leaving us in silence. Finally someone spoke.

"Well, we better get back to class." Ginny spoke miserably. We all agreed with her and went back inside.

Us Gryffindor second years had Potions straight after lunch. Unfortunately. But today Snape seemed to be in a good mood, and I actually almost saw him smile at a Slytherin boy. Definite improvement from the other day, where he made us sit there and listen to him rant about our behavior issues. 

After an hour or so of making an Anti Paralysis potion, we were free to head to Charms. Flitwick was too in a good mood. We found out why, as he explained today's lesson - cheering charms! He had been doing them all day, and was very cheerful. Maybe it had somehow rubbed off on Snape too. Flitwick wasn't even the tiniest bit angry when at least half the class failed to do any type of spell. My guess was that they were just purposely not doing it, taking advantage of Flitwick's mood.