The Three Brothers: The Cure

Going Rogue

7th November 1992

Harry sat in the infirmary, his arm flapping around like a noodle. He never thought he could have hated someone as much as he hated Lockhart right now.

The match against Slytherin today was something that they had been looking forward to for weeks. Wood had been even more aggressive during the practices this year since they had missed the Quidditch Cup last year. Harry had his own reasons to win; Draco Malfoy was the seeker opposite him, and Harry sorely wanted an opportunity to wipe the smug smile off the Slytherin's face.

The moment the match began, Harry quickly flew higher than everyone else. It was a new strategy Wood had him practice—get a broader view of the entire field from higher up in the air to find the Snitch faster and avoid being tailed. It would have worked well on a good day, but today hadn't been one of them.

It began to rain just minute into the match, affecting the general visibility on the field. Although it affected all players equally, it was slightly worse for Harry since he was a Seeker. On top of it, the Slytherin team quickly gained a lead of sixty points; equipped with Nimbus 2001s, their Chasers were easily dominating the match. This only raised the stakes further on Harry—at this rate, he would have to catch the Snitch as fast as possible to have any chance of a Gryffindor win.

But fate was not on Harry's side, and it pushed him to his limit. It happened when Malfoy approached him in the air—zooming around to show off the speed of his broom. When Harry gave no visible reaction, Malfoy resorted to one of his unimaginative taunts. Harry didn't even get a chance to reply, for at that very moment Harry spotted a Bludger heading straight at him. He managed to dodge it in time to see George chasing it, his Beater's bat in hand. Harry saw him smack the Bludger at one of the Slytherin players, but for some reason, it didn't work. Moments after being hit by George, the Bludger turned mid-flight and headed straight back at Harry. Harry dodged it again, and George whacked it once more, this time towards Malfoy. Yet, the Bludger still returned, swerving like a boomerang.

This wasn't normal—as far as Harry knew, Bludgers were supposed to pursue and unseat as many people as possible, not concentrate on a single player like this.

Deciding to put some distance between himself and the heavy ball chasing him, Harry leaned forward and zoomed off towards the other end of the field. He dodged and weaved through the other players—mainly Slytherin—in an inspired effort to lose the Bludger in between. It didn't work, and the Bludger still focused on just him, whistling along behind like a bullet with his name written on it.

In a last-ditch hope, Harry headed towards Fred, who was lying in wait for the Bludger to appear. With a huge swing, the Gryffindor beater hit the Bludger with a loud crack. The blow should have thrown the Bludger back to the other end of the field. But it didn't. The Bludger still returned, as if magnetically attracted to Harry.

It was obvious that the Bludger was tampered with, so they called for a time-out. Madam Hooch, sceptical of their claim, checked the Bludgers for any signs of tampering. She found none. A more thorough investigation could have been carried out, but that would have required Gryffindor to forfeit the current match. Given that Slytherin had a lead of eighty points by now, Harry had insisted that Fred and George concentrate on keeping the other Bludger off the chasers. He would deal with the rogue one on his own. They had objected at first, but after Harry managed to convince Wood, they had to grudgingly accept.

A small part of Harry had wanted to believe that the Bludger would leave him alone; of course, that wasn't the case. The moment he was back in the air, Harry had been forced to do loopbacks and twirls and all sorts of ridiculous manoeuvring just to avoid the ball hell-bent on pursuing him. Weaving through the field like an errant fly, Harry narrowly kept ahead of the Bludger at all times.