MILLIES POV
I could hear the rest of the school moving into the stadium from the changing rooms. I took off my black school robes, removed my wand from my pocket, and stuck it inside the t-shirt I was going to wear under my Quidditch robes like always.
"You know what we've got to do," said Oliver, as we prepared to leave. "If we lose this match, we're out of the running. Just - just fly like you did in practice yesterday and we'll be okay!"
We walked out onto the pitch to tumultuous applause. The Ravenclaw team, dressed in blue, were already standing in the middle of the pitch. Cho Chang was the only girl on their team, and I suddenly felt a surge of admiration towards the her. She smiled at me as the teams faced each other behind our captains, and I warmly returned it.
"Wood, Davies, shake hands," said Madam Hooch briskly, and Oliver shook hands with the Ravenclaw captain. Harry caught my eye and we both nodded like always. "Mount your brooms...on my whistle... three - two - one-"
I kicked off into the air and zoomed after Katie, who had managed to grab the Quaffle first, listening all the while to the commentary, which was being provided by Lee.
"They're off, and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt which Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. According to Which Broomstick, the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship-"
"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice.
"Right you are, Professor - just giving a bit of background information. The Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and-"
"Jordan!"
"Okay, okay - Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor passes to teammate Millie Donovan..."
I caught the Quaffle one-handed and streaked past Fred, who was in pursuit of a Bludger that was aiming for Angelina. I pressed the ball to my chest, leaning forward on my Nimbus to put on a spurt of speed as Carl Howell, a Ravenclaw Chaser, began tailing me closely. He was undoubtedly a very good flier - but not as good as me. He suddenly cut in front of my path, and I instinctively tilted my broom upwards, dodging the boy by millimetres. I hastily swung my arm back to make sure Howell had no time to intercept, and made it look as though I was aiming for the left hoop. At the last second, I changed direction and lobbed the Quaffle at the middle hoop, and it flew directly through it.
"...Donovan scores! Ten points to Gryffindor...!"
I had no time to celebrate as the Quaffle came flying towards me again, obviously having been poorly directed at a Ravenclaw. I zoomed forward and caught it before anyone else could realise what was going on, then streaked forward and threw the ball right through the left hoop.
"...AND DONOVAN SCORES AGAIN! ANOTHER TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR...!"
But this time, the Ravenclaw Keeper managed to throw the Quaffle in the right direction, and one of their Chasers caught it. I zoomed after the Ravenclaw, just avoiding a Bludger by rolling over in mid-air.
"Be careful, Millicent!" called George, swinging his bat powerfully and sending the Bludger towards Cho, who was diving after Harry. I nodded before streaking off towards the Gryffindor hoops again, where the Ravenclaw chaser was still heading.
"Ang!" I shouted, pointing forward. Angelina nodded, cutting across the chaser and forcing him to change direction. He went to fly off again but Katie blocked his path, smirking at the boy, making him drop the Quaffle in surprise. I looped down and caught the ball, swiftly passing it back to Angelina, who zoomed off towards the Ravenclaw hoops, and barely seconds later, had scored.
"Gryffindor lead by eighty points to zero," came Lee's voice less than five minutes later, "and look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now. See it turn - Chang's Comet is just no match for it. The Firebolt's precision-balance is really noticeable in these long-"
"JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!"
Ravenclaw were pulling back; they had now scored three goals, which put Gryffindor only fifty points ahead - if Cho got the Snitch before Harry, Ravenclaw would win. I accelerated, intercepting the Quaffle from between two opposing chasers and streaking towards Harry, who instantly moved out of the way-
"HARRY, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE A GENTLEMEN!" Oliver roared, as Harry raised his hands up in surrender. "MILLIE CAN HANDLE HERSELF!"
I laughed, keeping my eyes on Katie as I threw her the Quaffle. She pulled her arm back to aim, then-
"Oh!" she screamed, pointing.
Distracted, I looked down.
Three Dementors, three tall, black, hooded Dementors, were looking up at me.
Before I could even process what was happening, a red and gold figure appeared in front of me and roared, "Expecto patronum!"
Something silver white, something enormous, erupted from the end of Harry's wand. I knew it had shot directly at the Dementors but I didn't pause to watch; I looked ahead - Harry had streaked off again. I watched in a slight daze as the boy stretched out the hand still grasping his wand and closed his fingers over a tiny speck of gold.
Madam Hooch's whistle sounded, and I immediately zoomed towards Harry. Next moment, the whole team were hugging him so hard he was nearly pulled off his broom.
"That's my boy!" Oliver kept yelling. Angelina and Katie had both kissed Harry, and Fred still had him in his grip. In complete disarray, the team managed to make its way back to the ground. I got off my broom and had barely looked up before my face was buried in someone's Quidditch robes, and I knew instantly who it was just from his scent.
"We won!" Harry cried, grabbing my face and kissing me rapidly, his sweaty hair dropping onto my own forehead. He pulled away, still cupping my cheeks and staring at me with a massive smile on his handsome face.
"And you cast a patronus!" I yelled, flinging my arms around his neck. "It was wicked."
"I thought of you," he whispered, squeezing my hips. "The happy memory. I thought of that time last year when we first saw that photo Colin Creevey took of us together, when you wouldn't give me your quill. The memory just popped into my head, I don't know why..."
I kissed his cheek repeatedly, my arms still wrapped tightly around the boys neck. Over his shoulder, I could see hundreds of students sprinting onto the pitch, Ron in the lead, and before I knew it, I had been separated from Harry by the cheering crowd.
"Yes!" Ron yelled, yanking my arm into the air. "Yes! Yes!"
"That was wicked, Millie!" said Elwood, tackling me into a hug. "Ten Galleons to me! I'm going to find Austin-"
"Well done, Millie!" roared Seamus, kissing my head.
"You did good, Donovan," said Cedric, smiling admiringly.
"That was quite some flying," came a voice in my ear.
I turned around to see Lupin, who looked both shaken and pleased.
"You watched!" I exclaimed, accepting the high-five he offered me.
"Of course," said Lupin, ruffling my hair. "You could give Jake a run for his money, Millie-"
"Professor!"
Harry appeared from the crowd, wrapping both his arms around my neck and standing behind me, still allowing people to clap him on the back and try to hug him.
"The Dementors didn't affect me at all!" he said excitedly, resting his chin on my head. "I didn't feel a thing!"
"That would be because they - er - weren't Dementors," said Lupin, his eyes darting from Harry to Harry's wandering hands. "Come and see-"
He began pushing his way back through the crowd, and Harry followed him. Dean grabbed my hand and pulled me into a close hug, and Harry was back again, clutching my robes and guiding me away with the other Gryffindor boy.
"You gave Mr Malfoy quite a fright, Harry," said Lupin, once we could see the edge of the pitch.
I stared. Lying in a crumpled heap on the ground were Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Marcus Flint, all struggling to remove themselves from long, black, hooded robes. It looked as though Malfoy had been standing on Goyle's shoulders. Standing over them, with an expression of the utmost fury on her face, was none other than the amazing Professor McGonagall.
"...an unworthy trick!" she was shouting. "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake - oh, hello, Miss Donovan."
"You're so cool, you know that?" I said, beaming at the Professor, who, despite her furious state, managed a smile back.
If anything could have set the seal on Gryffindor's victory, it was this. Harry was now doubled over with laughter as he watched Malfoy fighting to extricate himself from the robe, Goyle's head still stuck inside it.
"Come on, you two!" George shouted, fighting his way over. "Party! Gryffindor common room, now!"
"Jump," said Harry, turning around and holding his arms up. I jumped onto his back, kissing his cheek again while he snaked his hands under my thighs. I waved goodbye to Lupin, who looked very displeased with my choice of transportation, and Harry walked off, gripping my legs and kicking them at any boy who tried to congratulate me by kissing my cheek.
I felt breathless with happiness as the team and I led the way, still in our scarlet robes, out of the stadium and back up to the castle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It felt as though we had already won the Quidditch cup; the party went on all day and well into the night. Fred and George disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of Butterbeer, pumpkin fizz and several bags of Honeydukes sweets.
"How did you do that?" Angelina squealed, as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.
"With a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Eaglet, Padfoot and Prongs," Fred whispered in my ear, to which I grinned.
Only one person wasn't joining in the festivities. Mione, incredibly, was sitting in a corner, attempting to read the enormous book we had been given in class, entitled Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. I stared at her from my place on the edge of the table, where Harry was stood between my legs. He was currently having a throwing competition using Butterbeer corks with the other Gryffindor third-year boys.
"I'll be back in a second," I said, jumping off the table and rubbing Harry's arms. "Hopefully with Mione."
"I don't see how that's going to happen," said Harry, taking my hand and bringing it to his lips to repeatedly kiss, but soon dropping it to catch yet another cork. My heart fluttered happily as I watched him. I began making my way over to Mione, when Harry suddenly shouted, "Mills! Watch out!"
I hastily ducked, but soon straightened back up when he let out a loud laugh.
"I'm only joking," he said, chuckling contently.
I stuck my middle finger up at him, before turning around. "Hello, stranger."
Mione looked up at the sound of my voice, beamed, then grabbed my hand happily.
"There you are!" she said, pulling me down onto a chair beside her. "You were amazing today, Millie."
"Did you even come to the match?" I asked, chuckling softly.
"Of course I did," said Mione, in a strangely high-pitched voice, looking back down at her book. "And I'm very glad we won, and I think you did really well, but I need to read this by Monday - so do you!"
"Oh, come on, Mione!" I groaned, looking over at Ron and wondering whether he was in a good enough mood to bury the hatchet. "Come and have some food-"
"I can't, Millie, I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" said Mione, now sounding slightly hysterical. "Anyway-" She glanced over at Ron, too, "-he doesn't want me to join in."
There was no arguing with this, as Ron chose that moment to say loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could've had some of these Fudge Flies, he used to really like them-"
Mione burst into tears. Before I could say or do anything, she had tucked the enormous book under her arm, and, still sobbing, ran towards the staircase to our dormitory and out of sight.
"Can't you give her a break?" I shouted across the room to Ron.
"No," he yelled flatly, jogging over to me and dropping into Mione's empty chair. "If she just acted like she was sorry - but she'll never admit she's wrong, Hermione. She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on holiday or something."
"Right, Ron," I said impatiently, swivelling around so that my full body was facing him. "Can you answer me one question?"
"Of course," said Ron, smiling as though I genuinely needed help on something.
"Did Mione eat Scabbers, or did Crookshanks?"
His smile completely dropped as I stood up and marched away.
"That's completely off the point-!" I heard Ron shout after me, but his voice was drowned out by the loud music Fred and George had just started playing.
"Hey, girl!"
A familiar voice made me swivel around on me heel.
"Lyra? What the bloody hell are you doing here?" I squealed, running up to my friend and hugging her. "How did you get in here?"
"Fred Weasley let me in," said Lyra, already beginning to dance. "The Ravenclaw common room is all depressed, so I decided to come here. Wicked party, I have to say," she added, looking around with a satisfied grin.
"Come on, Ly." I laughed, dragging the Ravenclaw off to introduce her to everyone.