Puecy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Harry and Ron were still at Hogwarts the next day, looking
tired but perfectly cheerful. Indeed, by the next morning, Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite keen to have another one.
In the meantime, Harry filled Ron and Draco in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of time wondering what could need such heavy protection.
"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron. "Or both," said Harry remembering Annabeth's words. But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was
that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much chance of
guessing what it was without further clues.
Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about never going near the dog again. Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but she
was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as a bonus.
All they wanted now was a way of getting back at Puecy, and
to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a
week later when Harry was hanging out the the Hufflepuff common room talking to his dorm mates everyone's attention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screech owls. Harry was just as interested as everyone else to
see what was in this large parcel and was amazed when the owls
soared down and dropped it right in front of him. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when an-
other owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel. Harry ripped open the red letter first, which was wrong because it turned into a mouth tossing black and yellow confetti:
" HARRY POTTER! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!" Harry covered his ears when he heard his uncle Reggie shouting which grabbed everyone's attention " FIRST YEAR SEEKER IN A CENTURY!! THAT IS AMAZING! I AM HAPPY FOR YOU!What ... no... honey... Annie...wait put the book down"
They heard a scream and then Harry heard uncle nico voice." Hey congrats Harry, your uncle is in trouble with your aunt Also don't open the parcel Uncle Leo sent you unless you are 5 feet away. We are all coming to your first ga...." he gets cur of by regulus yelling.
" YOU MIGHT NOT BE A SLYTHERIN BUT YOU MADE ME SO DAMN PROUD QUIDDITCH PLAYER! ENJOY THE BROOM!! OW ANNIE" The letter tore itself up
Harry opened the parcel and gasped seeing the broom Nimbus Two Thousand. He immediately got excited and ran off to find Ron and Draco who were glaring at each other. "GUYS GUYS LOOK AT WHAT I HAVE!!" Harry said showing them the broom
"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously seeing the broom in his hand. "I've never even touched one." Before Harry could let Ron touch it, Puecy seized the package from Harry and looked at it angrily.
"This is a broomstick," he said, throwing it back to Harry with a
mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. "You'll be in for it this time, Potter, first years aren't allowed them." Draco couldn't resist it. "It's not any old broomstick," he said, "it's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Pucey, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron said as he grinned at Harry. "Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."
"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford
half the handle," Puecy snapped back. "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig." Before Ron could answer, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow.
"Not arguing, I hope, boys?" he squeaked. "Potter has been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Puecy quickly. "Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall and Sprout told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"
"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Puecy's face. "And it's thanks to Puecy here that I've got it," he added. Harry, Draco and Ron headed upstairs, smothering their laughter at Puecy's obvious rage and confusion
"Well, it's true," Harry chortled as they reached the top of the marble staircase, "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall I wouldn't be on the team. . . ."
"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" came
an angry voice from just behind them. Hermione was stomping up the stairs, looking disapprovingly at the package in Harry's hand.
"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" said Harry. "Yes, don't stop now," said Ron, "it's doing us so much good." "Agree," Malfoy said. Hermione marched away with her nose in the air. Harry had a lot of trouble keeping his mind on his lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitory where his new broomstick was now lying under his bed, or straying off to the Quidditch field where he'd be learning to play that night.
He bolted his dinner that evening without noticing what he was eating and then rushed upstairs to grab the Nmbus Two Thousand,boy it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top.
As seven o'clock drew nearer, Harry left the castle and set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. He'd never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on.
At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Harry of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high.
Too eager to fly again to wait for Cedric, Harry mounted his broomstick and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling - he
swooped in and out of the goalposts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever he wanted at his lightest touch.
"Hey, Potter, come down!" Cedric had arrived. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Harry landed next to him. "Very nice," said Cedric, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant . . . you really are a natural. I'm just going to teach you
the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."
He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls. "Right," said Cedric. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers."
"Three Chasers," Harry repeated, as Diggory took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball. "This ball's called the Quaffle," said Diggory. "The Chasers like me throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?"
"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Harry recited. "So - that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?"
"What's basketball?" said Diggory curiously."Never mind,"
"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper - They have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."
"Three Chasers, one Keeper," Harry said , who was determined to remember it all. "And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?" He pointed at the three balls left inside the box.
"I'll show you now," Cedric said taking out a bat and hands it to harry. "Take this. I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do,These two are the Bludgers."
He showed Harry two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. Harry noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.
"Stand back," Cedric warned Harry. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers. At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Harry's face. Harry swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking his nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air - it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Cedric, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.
"See?" He panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely. " The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team, it's their job is to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So - think you've got all that?"
"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry reeled off.
"Very good," Cedric said . "Er - have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded offhand.
"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers -"
"- unless they crack my head open making my mom panic"
"Don't worry, we have good beaters except for the Weasley twins. Thier like human Bludgers." Cedric reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings.
"This,"He said to harry, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages - I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep."Well, that's it - any questions?"
Harry shook his head. He understood what he had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem. "We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Cedric, carefully shutting it back inside the crate, "it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these."
He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later, he and Harry were up in the air, Cedric throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in every direction for Harry to catch. Harry didn't miss a single one, and Cedric was delighted. After half an hour, night had fallen and they couldn't carry on.
"That Quidditch Cup'll have our name on it this year," said Cedric happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons."
Perhaps it was because he was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all his homework, but Harry could hardly believe it when he realized that he'd already been at Hogwarts for two months. The castle felt like home but not more than Camp . His lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics. He excitedly runs up to his mom's office to tell her about the fun day he had over blue cookies and milk.