Cursed With Curious Minds | Hp Next Generation

47 - Sacrifice

As May rolled around, the group weren't any closer to narrowing down their list of suspects, but the Slytherin vs Ravenclaw quidditch match was on its way so they decided to put their thoughts aside for the morning.

Delilah was down on the pitch, preparing with the team, while Astrid, Ophelia, Toby and James were up sitting in the Ravenclaw stands. Toby may have been a Slytherin, but he didn't have any particular loyalty to his house, and decided he wanted to support his friend instead.

When the players came out onto the pitch, Toby immediately noticed something was wrong. He looked to the others to see if they had also noticed, but Astrid was practically falling asleep into the bowl of cereal she had made herself that morning, Ophelia was watching her adoringly, and James was too busy staring at Delilah to notice the Slytherins.

"Guys," Toby whispered.

"Wha-" Astrid asked, half asleep.

"Look at the Slytherin team!" Toby hissed, trying to keep quiet.

The three of them looked down and tried to analyse the team.

"What, there's nothing- oh!" James exclaimed. Ophelia noticed at the same time. Astrid was lagging behind slightly.

"What?" she asked, too tired to figure it out for herself.

Toby pointed over at the rings. "Slytherin are playing their reserve keeper."

The gears in Astrid's head were turning, but still no coherent thoughts were coming about. "You're gonna have to spell it out for me."

Toby sighed. "The Slytherin keeper is Zach – one of our suspects."

"Oh!" Astrid exclaimed, a little too loudly. She quickly lowered the volume of her voice. "You think Zach's using the quidditch match as a distraction to check on the room?"

Toby nodded.

"We can't go now, though." James said. "We can't leave without Delilah."

"Is there a way we can let her know? Get her to finish the match quickly?" Ophelia asked.

James looked over at Ted. "It's all down to him. He's got to catch the snitch."

The four of them watched the game in anxious anticipation. It didn't seem as though Delilah had noticed the change in line-up at first. Luckily, she was the first to grab the quaffle, and headed straight for the shot. That was when she saw it; Slytherin were playing their reserve keeper. The dots joined in Delilah's head immediately, and she started her calculations.

Before the game she had told her team they needed at least 320 points to have a chance at winning the quidditch cup, but if she was to catch Zach in the room, this game needed to be over quickly. They definitely weren't going to score that much in that short amount of time. Delilah had suddenly realised that the decision was up to her. Would she sacrifice her chance at winning the quidditch cup, or would she do the right thing and end the game early to stop a dark wizard?

After she scored her first goal, she shot over to Ted and whispered to him.

"What's Delilah doing?" Ophelia asked, noticing her whispering to Ted.

"Sacrificing Ravenclaw's chance at the quidditch cup." James said.

"What?" Astrid asked, appalled at the very thought of Delilah giving up the quidditch cup.

"If we want to confront Zach, she needs this game to be over quickly." James explained. "Ravenclaw are so far behind in the cup at the moment they need well over 300 points for a chance at winning. I think she's just told Ted to find the snitch as quickly as possible."