Apothecary's~Bane
Master Ferret
Accio- a Practical Application The game had been going on for over an hour, and in the teacher’s box, things were getting rather heated. As usual, Professors Snape and McGonnagal had a bet of a dozen galleons on the match, Dumbledore had a twenty galleon bet on Gryffindor with Trelawney, Sinistra had bet a signed collection of Lockheart’s books for Gryffindor against Vector, who had a mere four galleons on the line.
Things were getting rather heated on the pitch, as the Slytherin Beaters insisted on batting the Bludgers directly into the stomachs of the opposing Chasers. Professor Snape winced at a third penalty to Gryffindor for a third blatantly obvious foul. He was beginning to regret telling his team to “win or fear to eat your food.”
The trouble wasn’t the cheating in itself, really. The trouble was that the cheating was badly done, so badly as to be ludicrously easy to spot and punish. At least they could have preformed a Confundus charm on the Bludger to make it believe only Gryffindors were to be attacked. Perhaps even a discreet Accio on the Snitch would have come in handy.
But as it was, even with the cheating, Slytherin was up forty points. Without the fouls, they would have had quite a few more than that.
“Don’t know WHAT has got into that team,” grumbled Professor Flitwick. “Dirtiest game I’ve seen in years. It’s a crying shame. Back in my day…”
The rest of the staff didn’t bother to listen to him, since his speech was exactly the same EVERY Quiditch match. “Back in my day, we had a thing call ‘sportsmanship,’ and we knew how to play fair, and loose like gentleman,’ et cetera, et cetera.
Mr. Malfoy was doing his usual idiotic ‘fly in circles around Harry Potter and taunt him about his parents,’ routine. The idea did have a particular merit, as it did distract the other Seeker to a certain extent, but it had the extreme drawback of being far too distracting to allow Malfoy himself to look for the Snitch.
A cry rose up from the stands, as Malfoy deliberately rammed his broomstick into Mr. Potter’s face, or nearly did so as Potter rolled upside down, clinging to his broom for dear life, to avoid being permanently blinded, or even brained.
“FOUL!” shrieked whichever inane child was doing the commentary this time around.
Gryffindor shot another penalty, and fortunately for those betting on the Slytherin side, missed spectacularly. Professor Snape's banishing charm might have had more than a little to do with that, but that is beside the point. Actually, his banishing charms had more than a little to do with half the Gryffindor scores going wrong, at least after it became clear that the Slytherin Beater wasn’t worth a bucket of spit.
“SNITCH!” shrieked the commentator. “The SNITCH has been SIGHTED!”
“Or they think it has,” muttered McGonagall. “Can’t see a thing.”
“That would have something to do with the brim of your hat hanging so low,” supplied Filch. “The thistles may look very nice, but they do no good for visibility.”
Praises be, sometimes even a Squib can find a pearl of wisdom to hand out to a Wizard. Professor McGonagall merely sniffed, and refused to admit that her headgear was inappropriate for a sporting event, or indeed, any event whatsoever.
Harry Potter was hurtling towards the ground t breakneck speed, following closely by Draco Malfoy. Potter was getting closer and closer, and Malfoy was loosing more and more ground.
Professor Snape groaned, and took a look at the scores. Even with their ill gotten points, Slytherin would lose if Potter caught the Snitch. There was only one thing to be done.
“Accio,” whispered Professor Snape, and the small golden snitch whizzed up his sleeve and joined his hidden wand.
Keeping a perfectly straight face, the Professor watched blandly as both Potter and Malfoy pulled up and wildly looked around for it.
“Dash it all,” muttered Minerva, “I thought he’d had it, there.”
The game went on for several hours more, until Slytherin finally had gotten enough points to win despite Potter catching the Snitch, at which point Snape released the fluttering ball once again. Predictably, the boy caught it at once, desperate to end the game and spare his teammates the continuus Bludgers.
As usual, the cup went to Slytherin and the Gryffindors and their supporters were forced to pay up.
Even a broken watch manages to be right twice a day. Why can't you do the same and spare us all the trouble?
Round Four - The Quidditch Match, Short Story Challenge
evlpez Round Four - The Quidditch Match Oct 23 2004, 01:45 AM
Oct 23 2004, 01:45 AM
Unlike Round 3 (The Magic Box Challenge), the submissions for this challenge do not make a continuing story. Each submission must stand alone as a short story.
Note to ferrets: Remember that you are writing fan fiction as though you are the Floo-Between user you've chosen. This means that if you've chosen Snape, you are writing as though Snape is writing fan fiction, not as though he is a part of the story. Each character may write as many submissions as they wish for this challenge, as long as each submission is significantly different from their others. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday December 1st.
