Speak Up - Female Deaf Harry Potter AU

The Rouge Bludger

When Hari woke on Saturday morning she was very nervous for the match. She was nervous at the idea of facing a team mounted on the fastest racing brooms gold could buy. She went down to breakfast early, where she found the rest of the Gryffindor team huddled at the long, empty table, all looking uptight and not speaking much.

As eleven o'clock approached, the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium. It was a muggy sort of day. Ron and Hermione came hurrying over to wish Hari good luck as she entered the locker rooms. The team pulled on their scarlet Gryffindor robes, then sat down to listen to Wood's usual pre-match pep talk, or in Hari's case watch.
"Slytherin has better brooms than us," he began. "No point denying it. But we've got better people on our brooms. We've trained harder than they have, we've been flying in all weathers -" 

"Too true," muttered George Weasley. "I haven't been properly dry since August"

"- and we're going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime, Malfoy, buy his way onto their team." Chest heaving with emotion, Wood turned to Harry. "It'll be down to you, Hari, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Hari, because we've got to win today, we've got to."

"So no pressure, Hari" said Fred, winking at her.

They walked out onto the pitch. 

"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three ... two ... one. . .
The fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Harry flew higher than any of them, squinting around for the Snitch.

Barely a minute into the match, a heavy black Bludger came pelting toward her; she avoided it so narrowly that she felt it go through her hair as it passed.
George streaked past her with his club in his hand, ready to knock the Bludger back toward a Slytherin. Hari saw George give the Bludger a powerful whack in the direction of Adrian Pucey, but the Bludger changed direction in midair and shot straight for Hari again.
Hari dropped quickly to avoid it, and George managed to hit it hard toward Draco. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Hari.

Hari put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the pitch. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Bludger following along behind her. What was going on? Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible ....

Fred was waiting for the Bludger at the other end. Hari ducked as Fred swung at the Bludger with all his might; the Bludger was knocked off course, but as though it was magnetically attracted to Hari, the Bludger pelted after her once more and Hari was forced to fly off at full speed.

It had started to rain; Hari felt heavy drops fall onto his face, splattering onto her glasses. She didn't have a clue what was going on in the rest of the game.

The mad Bludger was doing all it could to knock Hari out of the air. Fred and George were now flying so close to her on either side that Hari could see nothing at all except their flailing arms and had no chance to look for the Snitch, let alone catch it.

"Someone's - tampered - with - this - Bludger -" Fred grunted, swinging his bat with all his might at it as it launched a new attack on Harry.

"We need time out," said George, trying to signal to Wood and stop the Bludger breaking Hari's nose at the same time.

Wood had obviously got the message. Hari, Fred, and George dived for the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger.

"What's going on?" said Wood as the Gryffindor team huddled together, while Slytherins in the crowd jeered. "We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina scoring?"