Heart of Yours | Harry Potter

XXVIII.

The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May. Harry and Lalia had made a small bet against each other about who would win, though it was all in good fun and Lalia rather wanted the Gryffindor's to win for Ron's sake, as he had been added to the team after they had emergency tryouts and unfortunately was the reason for their last loss.

Harry had originally made the bet on who would take notes for the remainder of the semester in their rather boring classes, such as Divination or History of Magic. Lalia had quickly added her own requirement to the bet, that whoever won who have unlimited kisses upon request.

Harry had laughed at the girl's proposal, but quickly agreed.

So now on the last weekend of May, she was leaving the Ravenclaw stands after saying goodbye to her friends to find Harry and Hermione to watch the match with. She made her way through the sea of red before she spotted the two thanks to Hermione waving her over.

" ... Bradley ... Davies ... Chang," Lee Jordan said rather dispirited.

"And they're off!" said Lee. "And Davies takes the Quaffle -"

"Hi, guys," Lalia said, dropping into the seat next to Harry and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Hey," he whispered to her with a rather sweet smile.

The smile quickly left his face as the Slytherins on the other side of the stands began to sing:

Weasley cannot save a thing,

He cannot block a single ring ...

"Harry," said a hoarse voice in Harry's ear. "Hermione ... Lalia ..."

Lalia jumped at the sound and they turned around and saw Hagrid's enormous bearded face sticking between the seats; apparently he had squeezed his way all along the row behind, for the first and second years he had just passed had a ruffled, flattened look about them. For some reason, Hagrid was bent double as though anxious not to be seen, though he was still at least four feet taller than everybody else.

"Listen," he whispered, "can yeh come with me? Now? While ev'ry-one's watchin' the match?"

"Er ... can't it wait, Hagrid?" asked Harry. "Till the match is over?"

"No," said Hagrid. "No, Harry, it's gotta be now ... while ev'ry-one's lookin' the other way. ... Please?"

Hagrid's nose was gently dripping blood. His eyes were both blackened. He looked utterly woebegone.

"'Course," said Harry at once, "'course we'll come. ..."

He nodded to Lalia to start edging back along their row of seat, causing much grumbling among the students who had to stand for them. The people in Hagrid's row were not complaining, merely attempting to make themselves as small as possible.

"I 'ppreciate this, you three, I really do," said Hagrid, as they reached the stairs. He kept looking around nervously as they descended toward the lawn below. "I jus' hope she doesn' notice us goin'. ..."

"You mean Umbridge?" said Harry. "She won't, she's got her whole Inquisitorial Squad sitting with her, didn't you see? She must be expecting trouble at the match."

"Yeah, well, a bit o' trouble wouldn' hurt," said Hagrid. "Give us more time ..."

"What is it, Hagrid?" said Hermione, looking up at him with a concerned expression on her face as they hurried across the lawn toward the edge of the forest.

"Are we going in the forest?" Lalia asked.

"Yeh - yeh'll see in a mo'," said Hagrid, looking over his shoulder as a great roar rose from the stands behind them. "Hey - did someone jus' score?"