Quidditch day! Rosalyn woke up excited, got dressed quickly and practically ran down to breakfast with Hermione.
When they got there, Ron was tucking in to his food and Harry was playing around with his. When Rosalyn and Hermione got there and started to eat, Ron said, "come on!" to Harry.
Hermione stepped in. "Ron's right, Harry, you're going to need your strength today."
Rosalyn nodded along with the other two. "Yeah, Harry, come on, eat!"
Just then, Professor Snape came up behind Rosalyn and scared her with, "good luck today you two, but then again, now that you've proven yourselves against a troll a little game of quidditch should be no problem. Even if you are playing Slytherin."
As he went away, Rosalyn saw he was limping, and decided to tell her friends what she saw. "That explains the blood."
"Blood?" asked a puzzled Hermione. "What blood?"
"Listen," said Rosalyn to her three friends. "Last night, I'm guessing Snape let the troll in as a diversion so he could get past the three headed dog, but he got bitten, that's why he's limping."
"Why would anyone go near that dog?" Hermione asked.
Harry answered this time. "I've just thought of something! The day I was at Gringotts Hagrid took something out of one of the vaults, said it was Hogwarts business, very secret," he finished.
"So you're saying-" Rosalyn deduced.
"That's what the dog's guarding, that's what Snape wants."
Just then, Rosalyn heard the cry of an owl and saw Ruby and a snowy white owl Harry told her was his, Hedwig, carrying broomstick shaped packages. Rosalyn's broom she used at the burrow had broken recently, and so she didn't have one, so it was good that she got a new one. Hermione was confused.
"Bit early for mail isn't it?"
"I- I never get mail." Harry's eyes were wide.
"Let's open them!" Ron and Rosalyn said.
Once they had pulled the paper off of them, Harry gasped.
"It's a broomstick!"
Ron knew which one it was though. "No, Harry! They're not just broomsticks, they're-"
Rosalyn butted in excitedly. "Nimbus Two Thousands!"
Rosalyn looked up, and saw McGonagall with an owl on either side. Ruby and Hedwig. She was smiling at the twins, she had a feeling that they were going to win.
☆☆☆
The team walked through the stands, Rosalyn was talking to her fellow chasers, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, about tactics. She was excited, Harry was talking to Wood at the front as they reached the wooden gate, and she felt like she should have the pep talk too.
"Nervous?" He asked the twins.
"A little," They answered in unison.
"Ah, well, I felt the same way before my first match."
"What happened?" Rosalyn asked curiously.
"I don't really remember," the quidditch captain said. "Took a bludger to the head ten minutes in, woke up in hospital a week later."
Just then the gate opened and everyone including Harry and Rosalyn mounted their brooms.
Lee Jordan, the commentator said. "Welcome to Hogwarts and the first game of the season, today, it's Slytherin vs GRYFFINDOR!" You could tell which side he supported, but he was a Gryffindor after all.
Rosalyn saw Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Seamus, Dean and Neville, who had a very red face, supporting them.
They flew around the pitch for a bit, before the chasers and beaters, assembled with the opposing ones in a circle, the seekers above them and the keepers went to the hoops. Madam Hooch stood on the ground, in the centre of them.
"Now I want a nice clean game! From all of you!" She opened the chest and the bludgers, this time unshackled, flew up into the sky. The snitch did the same, pausing in front of each of the seekers' faces for a second before flying off to only Godric knows where.
Hooch then got the quaffle out of the box, and Rosalyn knew that her, Angelina and Katie needed to catch it and try to score.
Lee Jordan spoke. "The quaffle is released... and the game begins!"
Rosalyn had done well at grabbing the quaffle in practices and flew on her new broom now to get it as Madam Hooch chucked it in the air. She snatched it right from under the Slytherins' noses and flew off with it. She had to manoeuvre many other chasers and beaters and, at one point, had to swing under her broom and back up again to avoid a bludger, but, as she got the the goalposts, the keeper wasn't ready, and she scored easily. The cheers were phenomenal.
"Rosalyn Potter scores! Ten points to Gryffindor!"
Harry shouted, "yes!" and gave Rosalyn a thumbs up, she heard Hagrid clapping with his huge hands, and Angelina and Katie smiled at her before the game began again.
"Slytherin takes possession, captain Marcus Flint has the quaffle..."
Angelina tried to sneak up behind him and steal the ball but Flint kicked her away. He got right up to the goalposts and chucked the quaffle at the middle hoop, but, last minute, Wood stopped him and got in front of the quaffle, blocking the shot with the back of his broom. Flint looked murderous, and Wood managed to sneak him a little smirk which Rosalyn laughed at.
When Gryffindor got possession, Rosalyn nodded at Angelina, who did the same to Katie, and they tried a trick they had been working on, the weaved in and out of each other, passing the quaffle in a formation and confusing the Slytherin chasers, who were on their tail.
Eventually, Katie ended up with the quaffle, but they thought it was Angelina, so they tailed her, leaving Katie free to score, which she did, and the Slytherin keeper was too slow again.
"Another ten points to Gryffindor!"
Slytherin had possession, and Rosalyn thought she could trick the chaser but got punched out the way, it wasn't hard enough to wind her, but she had to catch her breath. When she looked up again she saw Wood had the quaffle, he must have saved it. He threw it to Angelina who quickly zoomed away, but Rosalyn noticed something, Flint had stolen a beater's bat and was hitting a bludger towards Wood. She knew her warning wouldn't reach him on time. He fell back through the hoop and to the ground. Rosalyn just grit her teeth and carried on as Flint handed the beater his bat back.
The chasers of Slytherin had the quaffle and Rosalyn tried to get it but the Slytherin fifth year (she estimated), dodged, jumped off his broom and jumped back on again aside another chaser as he was past her. With Wood gone, they easily scored.
Gryffindor now had possession and Angelina had the quaffle. Rosalyn noticed Flint and another chaser come up behind her and squish her between them, she tried to hand on but they stole the quaffle and she fell down a stand covered in Gryffindor fabric. Rosalyn sighed.
A chaser of Slytherin scored and tied them, Rosalyn flew in front of the hoop but it flew past her. Gryffindor groaned.
But, just then, something weird happened, and Rosalyn wasn't the only person to notice it. Harry had been speeding on his broom, probably towards the snitch, which filled her with hope, but then, his broom went weird, and started to move around and shake in a way that looked like it was trying to throw Harry off.
And it nearly succeeded. At one point, Harry was hanging on from one hand, Rosalyn would have helped him, but she had to continue the game.
Harry eventually managed to get his hand back on the broom, but it was still moving unnaturally.
Then it stopped. Just like that, and Harry was able to pull himself up, Rosalyn shouted and clapped before getting down to business yet again. The other seeker had his eye on the snitch, but Harry soon bashed into him, and Rosalyn was proud. The two followed the snitch, along, down, along, down, up, down, down, down-
They were nearly going to hit the ground when the Slytherin chaser stopped and pulled up but Harry continued to follow the snitch, she was a proud sister for that, and Harry had to stand up on his broom, his hand still pointed towards the snitch. Rosalyn flew down to her twin.
"Harry! Harry!"
And at that moment, that very moment, her hands brushed the snitch on her way to help her brother.
Harry however, was still trying to get the snitch, and in his haste, he stepped too close the the end of his broom and fell off. Rosalyn immediately jumped down to join him.
"Are you alright? Is anything broken? Is- what are you doing?"
He seemed to be vomiting, but when something came out of his mouth into his hands, it was- the golden snitch!
Clapping started as soon as they saw what he was holding, and the commentating reported it, too.
"He's got the snitch! Harry Potter receives one hundred and fifty points for catching the snitch!"
Madam Hooch blew her whistle. "Gryffindor wins!"
The Gryffindor team soon arrived on their brooms. They were all cheering and some of their fists were up in the air, Rosalyn smiled and clapped as well as Harry looked as though he was having an amazing time.
And half an hour later, after she was changed out of her quidditch outfit and back into her robes, she found out what really happened. The quartet and Hagrid were walking in the grounds and once Ron and Hermione had explained it, Hagrid was having none of it.
"Nonsense, why would Snape put a curse on Harry's broom?"
"Well, why would he try to get past that three headed dog?" Rosalyn countered.
"Who told you about Fluffy?"
"What?" All four of them practically yelled, it had a name?
"Fluffy?"
"That- that thing has a name?"
"Of course he does he's mine, I bought him off an Irish fellow I met down the pub last year. Then I leant him to Dumbledore to guard the-"
"Yes?" Harry pounced immediately.
"Shouldn'a said that, no more questions, don' ask anythin' anymore," Hagrid begged.
"But Hagrid, whatever, Fluffy, that thing is guarding, I know Snape wants to steal it!" Rosalyn said desperately.
"Codswallop, Snape's a Hogwarts teacher!"
"Hogwarts teacher or not, I know a spell when I see one, I've read about them, you have to keep eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking!" Hermione said decidedly.
Rosalyn nodded. "Exactly."
"Now you listen to me all four o' you, you're meddling in things that ought not to be meddled in. It's dangerous, what that dog is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel-"
Rosalyn looked at Ron, Harry and Hermione in surprise, and said. "Nicholas Flamel?"
"Shouldn'a said that, should not have said that..." Hagrid went on.
With that he walked away, and Harry and Rosalyn muttered under their breath. "Nicholas Flamel."
"Who's Nicholas Flamel?"
They all shrugged, not knowing a thing.