"We got the book!" Rigel announced, walking through the Fat Lady portrait.
"This is pretty complicated." Hermione frowned as she flickered through the textbook.
"Do you realize that we are going to have to steal half of these items, Hermione?" Ron whispered, looking a bit nervous.
"Says the one who flew a bloody magical car to Hogwarts," Eliza muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, that was an emergency!"
"Nobody's chickening out, and if we want to do this, we should get started soon, because it says here that the potion takes around a month to finish."
"Do you think you can make it Hermione?" Rigel asked.
"Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure. I thought maybe if I got the recipe and stole the ingredients then maybe somebody else could make it..." With this Hermione glanced at Eliza whose eyes widened in surprise.
"You want me to make it?" Eliza said in disbelief, "I thought you were the best at everything!"
Hermione blushed slightly before answering.
"Well, actually, you beat me at Potions." A pregnant pause followed this declaration which was thankfully brought to a halt by Ron who suggest it would be better to kick Malfoy off his broom in quidditch.
As eleven o'clock approached, the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium. It was a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the air. Ron and Hermione came hurrying over to wish Harry, Eliza, and Rigel good luck as they entered the locker rooms. The team pulled on their scarlet Gryffindor robes, then sat down to listen to Wood's usual pre-match pep talk.
"Slytherin has better brooms than us," he began. "No point denying it. But we've got better people on our brooms. We've trained harder than they have, we've been flying in all weathers -" ("Too true," muttered George Weasley. "I haven't been properly dry since August") "- and we're going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime, Malfoy, buy his way onto their team."
Wood turned to Harry.
"It'll be down to you, Harry, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we've got to win today, we've got to."
"So no pressure, Harry," said Eliza, winking at him.
As we walked out onto the pitch, a roar of noise greeted us; mainly cheers, because Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were anxious to see Slytherin beaten, but the Slytherins in the crowd made their boos and hisses heard, too. Madam Hooch, the Quidditch teacher, asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather harder than was necessary.
"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three ... two ... one. . .
With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Harry flew higher than any of us, squinting around for the Snitch.
Rigel quickly got the quaffle and passed it to Eliza who was just about to score when a bludger whizzed past her making her drop the quaffle. Rigel turned around to see the same bludger was chasing after Harry.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?" Rigel screamed as a bludger flew right across his face,
Now, something was definitely wrong. When Eliza caught the Quaffle again Pucey, the bludger was back and passed it to Rigel. He was almost at the goalposts, just a little bit farther - he threw the Quaffle and scored, eliciting cheers from the Gryffindors and groans from the Slytherins. He zipped away, ready to shadow a Slytherin Chaser, but was forced into a dive by a bludger who started chasing Eliza.
Where were Fred and George? Something was obviously wrong, the bludger was only going after the Potter twins!
After five minutes Wood called for a time out. Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero. No matter how hard Angelina, Katie, and Rigel tried to get the quaffle we couldn't get it, they were too fast.
"What's going on?" said Wood as the Gryffindor team huddled together, while Slytherins in the crowd jeered. "We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina scoring?"
"We were twenty feet above her, stopping the other Bludger from murdering Harry, Oliver," said Fred angrily.
"In case you haven't noticed, Fred, but Eliza is also being harassed!" Rigel said. The twins sheepishly look over at the Chaser, who shrugged. "Something must be wrong with them, they have to have been jinxed!"
"But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with them then . . . ." said Wood, anxiously.
Madam Hooch was walking toward them.
"Listen," said Harry as she came nearer and nearer, "with you two flying around me all the time the only way I'm going to catch the Snitch is if it flies up to my sleeve. Go back to the rest of the team and let me deal with the rogue one."
"Don't be thick Harry," Rigel dismissed. "It'll take your head off."
"Oliver, this is insane," Angelina said angrily. "You can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own. Let's ask for an inquiry –"
"No, no, we can't do that!" Harry protested. "That would mean forfeiting the match, and giving Slytherin the lead in winning the Quidditch Cup!" He turned to Fred and George. "Listen, with you two constantly hovering around me, I would only be able to catch the Snitch if it flew up my sleeve. Go back to the rest of the team and get the other bludger away from Eliza while I deal with this one."
"That's a good idea," Eliza noted.
"In no way is that a good idea, Harry," Rigel shook his head, "if neither Fred nor George are there, you'll have to constantly be dodging it-"
"No, this way while they're keeping your bludger away from Eliza, she can focus on scoring."
"This is all your fault," George said angrily to Wood. " 'Get the Snitch or die trying,' what a stupid thing to tell him -"
Madam Hooch had joined us.
"Ready to resume play?" she asked Wood.
Wood looked at the determined look on Harry's face.
"All right," he said. "Fred, George, you heard Harry -leave him alone and let him deal with the Bludger on his own. Focus on Rigel."
Once again, Rigel was flying toward the goalposts, the Quaffle under her arm. She passed it to Angelina but had to dodge the bludger.
"Sorry mate!" Fred or George shouted.
"Won't happen again!" the other twin shouted.
Fred and George did their best after that, bats flying to and fro, but it wasn't enough. When Rigel had the Quaffle again and was getting ready to throw it, the bludger came shooting towards her, making her pass the Quaffle to Rigel and evade it. Fred and George were close behind it, but they still weren't fast enough. As he turned his broom to fly back to Eliza and Angelina, the bludger slammed into Eliza's side and knocked her off. Luckily, she wasn't that far off the ground, otherwise, she would have been knocked out. As it was, she landed on his side and felt a sickening crack.
Rigel was faintly aware of the crowd roaring and Lee announcing that Gryffindor had won, but apparently, he was the only one who noticed Eliza falling down.
"Eliza!" Rigel was the first to fly down. The bludge was zooming down, but Rigel drew out his wand and yelled "Bombarda!" and it exploded into a million sparks.
"She should have woken up by now, this is all my fault."
Just when Rigel said those words, Eliza's eyes snapped open
"Hi guys," she said groggily, feeling a sharp pain in her stomach. "Ow!" she hissed.
"We were so worried about you," Hermione said hugging Eliza.
Madam Pomfrey came out from her office and shooed the trio away. "You can visit as soon as I'm done giving them their potions, now run along, you three." Rigel, Ron, and Hermione reluctantly left to go wait by the entrance to the Hospital Wing. "Now, Miss Potter." Madam Pomfrey set down several potion vials on the table at the foot of his bed. "The bludger luckily only inflicted damage to your torso. If it had done anything else, you would need to stay in for a few more nights."
"Oh yippie," Eliza muttered.
Madam Pomfrey ignored her. "Drink, now. and afterward, you can have your blood replenishing potion."
Eliza swallowed the potion, grimacing at the foul taste. "So, how long do I have to stay in here?"
Madam Pomfrey went back to measuring out potions. "Oh, only one night, two if your injuries prove to be more severe than I had originally thought." She gave him the other potions and turned to Harry's bed, mumbling under her breath. "Why they don't make Quidditch safer, I'll never know...Mister Potter, here. Drink this. Both of you will remain here overnight and hopefully be released in the morning." Then she bustled back to her office to go retrieve a few more things.
Eliza managed to turn a little more towards Harry's bed. "Hey, Harry." He looked over, delaying drinking the nasty-looking potion in his hand. "Did we win?"
"Yeah" Harry grinned. "I managed to catch the Snitch. I did break my arm though... And then Lockhart 'tried' to fix it, but he only took out all of my arm bones." He raised said arm, making it flop about.
Eliza grimaced.