PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Thirty-Four

As they approached the pitch, Cedric decided to have a little fun with Oliver to rattle the boy's nerves further and smiled in the other captain's direction. It shouldn't have bothered Milo, he knew exactly what Cedric was doing, but it still made his cheeks grow red and his brow furrowed in irritation. Now he understood Paden's little streak of jealousy but he didn't understand why he was feeling that way, Cedric reassured him countless times that no one could match what they had. 

So if Milo knew that, why did he want to push Oliver down a hill for even looking over in their direction in the first place? And it wasn't even Oliver who smiled at Cedric.  

When they approached Madam Hooch, she instructed the teams to mount their brooms, although it was difficult to hear anything over the storm. The wind was howling and blowing so hard that it was difficult for Milo just to steer his broom in the right direction, let alone focus on the match. He was soaked and freezing in just a matter of minutes, he was sure his hand was practically frozen to the handle of his broom. Luckily, the bright canary yellow of the Hufflepuff robes stood out in the rain, allowing him to see where his teammates were. 

There were blurs of red, but he was definitely able to see where Heidi and Max were. He had to focus on them because they would be the ones with the quaffle aside from him attempting to make goals. Thankfully, he wasn't the only one struggling, the match was off to a rough start of no one being able to see and just trying to avoid colliding into their own teammates as the wind smacked them around. 

At one point, Milo couldn't make out if it was the quaffle or another player making its way towards him. It was neither as a bludger hit him directly in the stomach. Fortunately, he didn't have a big breakfast or he would have vomited all over the pitch from the hit. He nearly fell off his broom as he had to hunch forward. It managed to knock all the wind out of him as he was left gasp for air but at the same time, his mouth was collecting so much rainwater that it gave him the sensation that he was drowning. 

"You alright, Milo?" He heard Cedric call out to him, but he was unable to give a response. Max made her way over, afraid that the boy was going to topple over the side of his broom and go down to the ground.

"Break anything?" She asked him as she allowed the boy lean against her shoulder. He shook his head as shielded his face to continue breathing.

"I'm fine," he managed to tell her. "Just hurts..."

Suddenly, the whistle was blown as the Gryffindor team called a time-out. It allowed the Hufflepuffs to gather to and as soon as Milo's feet touched the ground, he was on his knees, doubled-over in pain. His teammates crowded him as his arms wrapped around his stomach with a pained look. 

"Milo!" Cedric was at his side in a matter of seconds and immediately was trying to get the boy up to his feet and off the pitch but Milo refused. Gryffindor was up by fifty points and Milo really wanted to pull off the win. It was Cedric's first match as captain and he didn't want to disappoint him. 

"I'm fine," Milo pushed his hand away and managed to push himself back up to his feet. "I can do this. We're down fifty points-"

Cedric looked bewildered along with the rest of the team, they weren't really concerned about the scoring, they were concerned about Milo because the boy was practically blue and barely standing as it was. Their captain was preparing to forfeit the match for the sake of keeping Milo safe and no one would have protested it. 

"Just get the snitch, Cedric, I'll be fine."

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Milo made it clear that the discussion was really not up for debate, he wanted Cedric to get the snitch as soon as he could to put an end to the match. But with his brother playing as Seeker too, it was going to be a struggle. They were both fine Seekers and it was probably going to come down to Harry using his lightness to his advantage to gain speed but Cedric using his weight to hold him in place against the wind, not to mention the advantage of having longer limbs to reach out. 

As he continued to shiver, Milo was beginning to care less about who caught the damn snitch, hell he was looking to find it himself. He just wanted to get out of the rain. 

Finally, a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning revealed to both seekers where the snitch was and they were both on the tail of it. Harry was catching up to where Cedric was but suddenly, he seemed to slow his pace as Milo watched from his broom. Milo looked around only to let out a gasp that didn't have anything to do with the pain in his abdomen but at the sight of the dementors circling the bottom of the pitch. 

He looked over to Harry that began to sway, looking close to fainting and then he did faint. His older brother immediately put all effort into getting his broom to go as fast as it physically could as Harry fell off his broom. He managed to make it just in time to grab Harry by the arm but it probably wasn't the best idea as the weight of his brother falling jerked his arm and Milo could feel a distinct pop in his shoulder.

It caused him to cry out from the pain and that immediately brought Cedric to turn around from where he had just caught the snitch. The triumphant grin left the seeker's face as he saw Milo struggling to hold his brother in the air as they were more than fifty feet up. Harry's body was limp and the rain had caused everything to become slippery that the boy was slipping from Milo's grasp. 

"Harry, come on, wake up!" Milo called to his brother as he felt Harry slipping through his fingers. "You have to wake up, I can't hold on much longer without your help! Harry!"

He was doing everything to hold on, at least until the other quidditch players could make their way over, but many of them were hesitant due to the dementors on the scene. 

"Harry! Come on!" The pain was overwhelming to Milo as his shoulder was screaming for him to let go of the extra weight, he felt as though he was having it torn off by a dangerous beastie from the fiery pain that was swelling in his arm.

Eventually, everyone was too late and Milo couldn't hold on any longer as Harry fell from his hand. Milo went to lean over and grab for him again with his bad arm but finally, Cedric had reached him and stopped Milo before he went falling too. 

"No!" Milo cried out, trying to move Cedric out of his way but Cedric didn't allow him to, but it wasn't as bad as Milo anticipated it to be. Dumbledore took to the scene, wand out sending a silvery light to drive the dementors away. Elspeth arrived on the scene as Harry was lowered to the ground at a slower rate so that he didn't collide with the land roughly. Milo didn't even know what to think as he had to lean against Cedric as he was barely able to hold himself up on his broom.

Suddenly, he heard loud cracks and it wasn't due to any thunder.

Harry's Nimbus ended up hitting the one tree on the castle grounds that was capable of hitting back and the Whomping Willow never claimed to be a fan of quidditch. 

Hufflepuff had their first victory with Cedric as captain but none of them were celebrating as they made their way to the ground. Heidi and Max were at Milo's side in an instant as Cedric excused himself to approach Wood for a fair rematch. McGonagall was practically shoving people away to get to her son as Dumbledore magicked Harry onto a stretcher to get him to the Hospital Wing. 

Milo's shoulder had popped out of the socket and even though he mentioned he was fine earlier, he was pretty sure he had several broken ribs as it hurt to breathe. His mother brought him into a gentle hug to allow him to hold himself up by gripping her robes. His chin came to rest on her shoulder as he shivered violently and in the distance, just as his eyes were beginning to close he could see the silhouette of Sirius' animagus form before it abruptly turned and took off. 

"I swear to Merlin, Sirius," Milo thought to himself. The next time he saw the man, he was getting a serious flick on the nose.