For the Love of the Game: Viktor Krum

Chapter One: Camp

Thoughts swirled around her as her head throbbed. It has been thirteen hours, thirteen hours! And nobody had bothered to catch the Snitch. She had gotten hit twice in the head by Bludgers while Lynch couldn't seem to do his damn job. The girl swallowed back her spit, keeping her urge to vomit in her throat. She couldn't give up now. Not when they were so close. She swiftly dodged a Bludger sent by Alvarez and looked around for Troy. 

C'mon Troy, she thought, where are you? That's when she heard her friend's familiar yell and saw him flying to the right of her, the Quaffle tucked safely underneath his arm. Alvarez saw this and sent a Bludger his way. He dodged it before passing the Quaffle to Griffin Mullet but that wasn't enough.

With Troy flying around, trying to get away from the Bludger, Díaz, one of the Chasers on him, was able to fly away and double team Mullet. He was already guarded by Manami. Griffin was big for a Chaser, just under 7 foot and weighing at least 250 pounds, but the girl couldn't tell how much more of the running into he could take with both Díaz and Manami shoving into him. Usually it would be a penalty for someone to do that, but their coach had made the mistake of letting the Peruvians hire the referees, two Peruvians, who didn't seem in a hurry to call any fouls today, or at least fouls on Peru. 

Suddenly she heard a commotion from the stands. Looking up at the fingers that were pointed toward the sky, she saw her team captain, Aiden Lynch, neck-and-neck with Peruvian Seeker Gina Anahuarque. Her eyes caught the faint glitter of the Snitch reflecting off of the stadium lights, both Seekers just feet away from it. 

She peered at the scoreboard. It was 250 - 100 in her team's favor, but if Anahuarque caught the Snitch all those extra points were just about useless. She looked ahead. They were about 90 feet from the goal post. They had to get one more point. She looked at Mullet. He was still being harassed by the two Chasers. There was no way he was going to be able to score. 

She knew what she had to do. She turned around, surprising Hernandez, the Chaser assigned to guard her, and causing him to turn. It was her chance. She quickly flew right over his head and back in front of him, putting some space between him and her. Flying ahead of fast as she could make her broom go she called out, "Mullet! Over here!"

Griffin caught her eyes and threw the ball with all his might. The girl caught this and started to speed straight toward the goal post. There was no going back now. All three Chasers for Peru had their eyes firmly fixed on the girl. If she stopped they would surely catch her. 

She looked at the Keeper. Gomez, she thought as she recalled the film session. "Nothing special," her coach had told her, "just predict her moves and shoot it." So that's what she did; winding her shoulder back and throwing the ball as fast as she could at the goal. Please God, she prayed, let it go in.

The rest was a blur. There was the "clink" of the Quaffle hitting the rim of the goal, the look of horror on Gomez's face as the ball ricocheted off the back of her broom, knocking it in, the roar of the fans, and the screeching of announcer: "O'CLEARY GOAL! 10 POINTS! AND LYNCH HAS THE SNITCH! IRELAND'S GOING TO THE FINALS!"

She remembered getting back to the ground; green, orange, and white confetti spreading all around her. She could remember the look of joy on her brother's face, the scratches on Griffin's, and the tears on Freya's. She was even happy for once to see the smiling face of the egotistical Lynch. The fans roared all around her as the Irish flag waved in the air. But that wasn't the best part. Not even by a long shot. The best part was when a little girl, no more than six years of age, came running out, the Irish colors painted on her face, her dark hair braided back. 

"Desi!" she cried, "You did it! You and Sean are going to England!" 

"We are!" the older kid cried back as she picked up the little girl. She saw their older brother out of the corner of her eye as he came over and engulfed his younger sisters in a huge hug. They were going to England, and they were going to take the Irish team all the way.