Hogwarts: The Adventure Begins - BOOK 1 (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

7: The Quidditch Match

The next day was the first Quidditch match of the year. It was Gryffindor v Slytherin. I had completely forgotten about the previous day's events, instead focusing on the match. I couldn't lose, not my first ever match!

That morning I was so nervous I couldn't eat anything. We had been training for months now and we had gotten quite good, but that didn't stop my nerves. Remus had sent me a bar of chocolate to help my nerves as he was very much under the impression chocolate helped everything. I couldn't even stomach that, however, and instead went to get changed into my robes before anyone had even got to breakfast.

Before I got to go to the pitch McGonagall called me over.

'Black!' she said and I walked over.

'Yes, professor!' I said, smiling to hide my nerves.

'I realise that you have got to use one of the school's brooms and I don't think that will help us much,' she said and then she took out a Nimbus 2000. The fastest broom in the world! 'I have decided that you and Potter both need good brooms if we're going to win this. Good luck out there.'

I stared at the broom in shock. McGonagall must really like us to give us such expensive brooms! I was overjoyed, I would never have been able to afford a broom near this standard. I wouldn't have thought about it in my wildest dreams!

After that, I headed down to the Quidditch Pitch. Most of the school was already there and all you could hear was 'GO GO GRYFFINDOR' coming from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were sick of seeing Slytherin winning so most of them were rooting for us, which I found funny. The cheers gradually increased in volume as we stepped onto the pitch, it was a surreal moment. I'd never expected to be cheered on like that.

We mounted our brooms and at the whistle, we set off. I got the Quaffle almost straight away and scored, a huge grin plastered on my face. I'd done my part, I wasn't a waste of space on the team! I'd managed to prove myself within the first ten minutes, and that was the most important thing for me. Nobody could complain about a first year on the team now.

Lee Jordan, who was commentating, yelled, 'NEWBIE MOLLY BLACK SCORES! TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!' and there was a massive cheer from the crowd.

'BLACK! BLACK! BLACK!' they chanted and I went bright red. When I had first come to Hogwarts, I feared I would be an outcast. I worried that, because of my heritage, I would be hated and feared. But now they were chanting my name, cheering me on! It was a brilliant feeling, I felt like I was on another planet. It didn't quite seem real, surely it wasn't happening to me.

Out of nowhere a Bludger appeared and headed straight for my head. I ducked down quickly and Fred Weasley hit it towards a Slytherin.

'Be careful there, Molly!' he said and soared off. I shook myself out of my stupor, I needed to get back to the game. I had been too distracted, I let the glory get to my head. I had to focus now.

Becoming much more aware of my surroundings, I returned to trying to retrieve the Quaffle. Angelina Johnson, who was another Gryffindor Chaser, passed it to me as she dodged the Slytherins and I scored again, making it twenty-nil to us. I didn't allow myself to get distracted this time, we had a game to win.

Suddenly, above me, Potter started getting thrown about by his broom. There were gasps from the crowd as he almost fell off and I prayed he could keep holding on until someone could help him. What was going on?

I looked around the crowd to see if anyone was jinxing him and saw Snape. He was looking directly at Potter and muttering something. I didn't realise he hated Potter so much he was going to seriously injure him. What if I was next? He hated us equally as much.

Suddenly Snape stood up and yelped, stamping on his cloak as smoke came off it. His erratic movements knocked a shocked Quirrell off of the stand, much to my amusement. I grinned as I saw Hermione leaving the teacher's stand. She wasn't such a goody two shoes after all!

Potter managed to get back on his broom but things went downhill from there. Wood was hit by a bludger, in an act that was surely a foul as it was not a Slytherin beater that hit it! Wood was knocked out and hit the ground, our goals were undefended!

Slytherin's points began stacking up and I knew I had to act. I retrieved the quaffle and headed straight for the Slytherin goals, but two chasers came up on either side of me. I realised their plan too late, the squashed against me and guided me towards the spectators stands. Both of them peeled away at the last second, leaving me to drop the quaffle and smash into the stand, falling the whole way down.

How I wasn't unconscious, I didn't know. I heard gasps and yells of disgust from above me as I tried to pick myself up, but my legs gave way beneath me.

I was not hopeful for this match, but Harry pulled through! He caught the Snitch. Well, I say caught, he actually almost swallowed it. Everyone had thought he was about to be sick when he coughed the Snitch up! It took a moment for everyone to realise what had happened.

The match was over and we had won!

After we had all changed out of our Quidditch stuff we held a party in the common room. Well, after Madam Pomfrey checked me over and healed my injuries. Fred and George had snuck some food out of the kitchen and me and Nico were helping, though I wasn't eating any of it.

As I was on my way to get more food, I met Josh again.

'Well done on winning!' he said smiling, 'That was a spectacular game!'

With that, he left, still smiling. I wished he had been put in Gryffindor, then he wouldn't have had to sneak around in order to congratulate me. If Draco or any of the others had seen him talking to me, they would have given him hell. But I was thankful for him, though we didn't see each other much, he didn't let house rivalry take over our friendship.

After that, every time he saw me in the corridor he said hello. We hadn't had a chance to speak much after the sorting, but he was making an effort to try now. He didn't seem to care about the filthy looks other Slytherins gave him, he was too happy to let such things affect him. He wanted to be my friend and didn't care what his housemates thought.

I started to actually notice him as well. He was about my height, with brown hair that stuck out in all directions, green eyes and teeth like pearls. He hardly ever wore his robes and always had his sleeves rolled up and tie hanging loose. I was really starting to like this boy.

Nico noticed that my reaction towards him had changed and said to me, 'Molly, you're not meant to like him anymore! He's our rival!'

I ignored him and one Herbology lesson Josh came and stood beside me and Nico. I smiled at him as he came and refused to acknowledge Nico's glare. He needed to grow up and get past the fact that not all Slytherins had to be bad. He'd met Josh, he knew what he was like!

We talked about Quidditch and what our favourite teams were. At the end of the lesson, we realised we hadn't listened to anything Professor Sprout had said but Nico reluctantly gave me some notes. I thanked him, grinning, but he just glared at me. Is that jealousy, I detect?