Guts and Glory - Trouble with Twins, Book 2

The Second Match

Our next Quidditch match came a few weeks before our Easter Holidays. Unfortunately, the weather was much worse than when we faced Slytherin last term. The entire week leading up to our battle with Hufflepuff was filled with clouds and rain. On top of that, Charlie held practice every day to try and avoid what happened last time. According to his reports, Slytherin had also crushed Ravenclaw last month, putting them at a huge advantage for the Cup. We had to win today or else we could kiss our chances of victory away. Hufflepuff wasn't having the best season, either. They had been defeated by Ravenclaw around the same time as our loss. 

"Try not to get your nose broken again, okay?" Charlie kindly requested as we made our way down to the pitch.

"Don't worry, Flint isn't here this time. If the Hufflepuffs have started cheating too I'll throw myself off the Astronomy tower." I responded playfully.

I was curious to see who would show up to watch. The other houses usually teamed up to cheer against Slytherin but now their loyalty was divided. Only a small number of Ravenclaws had turned up ("Probably too busy stuck in the library", said George). The sea of red and yellow didn't surprise me, but the swarm of green did. Their team wasn't playing today. Their enthusiasm to watch the game likely meant one thing; they wanted to make sure we lost. 

Inside the changing room, we reviewed all the maneuvers and tactics we had been working on and perfecting throughout the week. Charlie had checked out Quidditch Through The Ages from the library to do some research, and it showed. During all our practices, he stayed in the air levitating, his attention split between his team and the book in his hand. Everyone was learning new moves, though some were much more dangerous than others. Us Chasers were tasked with working on the Parkin's Pincer, where Angelina and I would crowd the other team's chaser, allowing Thomas to fly straight into them, knocking the quaffle out of their hand. Charlie had generously volunteered as our opponent and was ran into him no less than fifty times in one session. Fred and George were excited to practice the Bludger Backbeat, which was intended to confuse the other team by sending the Bludger backward. It turned out to be much more difficult than they originally thought, with many of their earliest attempts heading straight into either the goalposts or their teammates. Oliver was tasked with learning the Double Eight Loop, which had him swerving around all three posts at lightning speed to block any incoming quaffles. He later said he preferred his methods but still trusted his captain's ideas. Charlie had chosen the most ambitious move to attempt; it sounded so ridiculous that I thought he was joking.  It was called the Wronski Feint. The idea was to fly straight towards the ground to trick the other seeker into thinking you had spotted the Snitch, only to pull up at the last minute and make them crash. It was quite dangerous; apparently even professional players struggled to do it.  Not wanting to see our teammate break every bone in his body, we advised him to go easy on the attempts. Surely the Charlie Weasley could trick the Hufflepuff seeker without needing to risk life and limb. While he said he agreed with us, I wasn't entirely convinced. He may be smart, but he was still a Gryffindor at heart. By the end of the week, our Parkin's Pincer was so good we could do it with our eyes closed, Fred and George finally stopped leaving their teammates with bruises (I caught a few Bludgers myself), Oliver was covering the goalposts faster than I'd ever seen him do before and Charlie hadn't broken his neck. That in itself was an accomplishment. 

Madam Hooch stepped in and called us out onto the pitch. The rain had not stopped in the time we spent talking in the tent. If anything, the rain seemed to know we were meant to be starting soon. That didn't stop the students from filling up the stands. The Gryffindors made up the biggest section. Most were waving red and golden flags and some had made signs, but I was much too far up to see what they said. Much to my disgust, the Slytherins had rallied a huge portion of their numbers to show up. The second we walked onto the pitch the cheering from our housemates was met with an annoyingly loud amount of booing from our rivals. A small number of them had even made signs but I doubted they had very nice things on them.