"Nixie," I felt someone shake my shoulder, but my eyes were glued shut. "Nixie, wake up."
I heard people giggle, but I don't know why.
"Nixie..." His voice was familiar now. He was Cedric, Cedric Diggory.
"Try throwing water on her," I heard Hannah Abbott whisper worriedly. "She is breathing, right? I mean, she didn't die, did she?"
"No, she has a pulse," Cedric said, and I felt his hand on my throat. "She's just tired."
"Well, you better wake her up," An unfamiliar voice said. "Her team is glaring at us."
"Nixie, your going to be late for Quidditch," Cedirc whispered.
I jumped up, my eyes flying open and I glanced at the people surounding me. They were the group of Hufflepuffs Cedric usually talks to, his friends. I blinked.
"What am I doing here -OH!" The events of what happened popped in my head. "Oh, I have to talk to Oliver. Bye Cedric."
"Bye, Nixie," Cedric called.
I smiled at him and skipped to my team, my spirits unusually high. I plopped down next to Harry and nibbled on some toast.
"Hello," I chirped.
"What were you doing snuggling with the enemy?" Fred asked, squinting his eyes at me.
"I just fell asleep on his shoulder," I defended myself.
"And came skipping over," George said.
I huffed but didn't disagree.
"It's going to be a tough one," said Wood, who wasn't eating anything.
"Stop worrying, Oliver," said Alicia soothingly, "we don't mind a bit of rain."
But it was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the Quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went. just before I entered the locker room, I saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, laughing and pointing at Harry from under an enormous umbrella on their way to the stadium.
The team changed into our scarlet robes and waited for Wood's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly and beckoned us to follow him.
The wind was so strong that I staggered sideways as I walked out onto the field. Fred and George had to grab both my arms and pull me towards the center. If the crowd was cheering, I couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder. Rain was splattering over Harry's glasses. How on earth was he going to see the Quaffle in this?
The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary-yellow robes. The Captains walked up to each other and shook hands; Diggory smiled at Wood but Wood now looked as though he had lockjaw and merely nodded. I saw Madam Hooch's mouth form the words, "Mount Your brooms." I pulled my right foot out of the mud with a squelch and swung it over my Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant — we were off.
I rose fast, but my Nimbus was swerving slightly with the wind. I held it as steady as I could and turned, squinting into the rain.
Within five minutes I was soaked to my skin and frozen, hardly able to see my teammates, let alone the tiny Snitch. I flew backward and forward across the field past blurred red and yellow shapes, with no idea of what was happening in the rest of the game. I couldn't hear the commentary over the wind. The crowd was hidden beneath a sea of cloaks and battered umbrellas. Twice I came very close to being unseated by a Bludger.
I lost track of time. It was getting harder and harder to hold my broom straight. The sky was getting darker, as though night had decided to come early. Twice I nearly hit another player, without knowing whether it was a teammate or opponent; everyone was now so wet, and the rain so thick, I could hardly tell them apart…
With the first flash of lightning came the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle; I could just see the outline of Wood through the thick rain, gesturing me to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the mud.
"I called for time-out!" Wood roared at his team. "Come on, under here —"
They huddled at the edge of the field under a large umbrella; Harry took off his glasses and wiped them hurriedly on his robes.
"What's the score?" I asked worriedly
"We're fifty points up," said Wood, "but unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."
"I'm sorry, Oliver," I apoligiazed, feeling a stab of guilt. "I can't see a thing, my bangs keep slapping water in my face."
To prove my point I chook my head and my dark red bangs slapped my face with heavy water.
"I've got no chance with these on," Harry added exasperatedly, waving his glasses.
At that very moment, Hermione appeared at his shoulder; she was holding her cloak over her head and was, inexplicably, beaming.
"I've had an idea, Harry! Give me your glasses, quick!"
He handed them to her, and as the team watched in amazement, Hermione tapped them with her wand and said, "Impervius!"
"There!" she said, handing them back to Harry. "They'll repel water!"
Wood looked as though he could have kissed her.
"Oh!" I beamed at Hermione. "I forgot that spell, do it to my hair!"
She tapped my bangs and said the same spell and my hair was dry and poofy. "You should put it in a pony tail."
I borrowed a hair tie from Alicia and tied it up.
"Brilliant!" he called hoarsely after Hermione as she disappeared into the crowd. "Okay, team, let's go for it!"
Hermione's spell had done the trick. I was still numb with cold, still wetter than I'd ever been in my life, but I could see. Full of fresh determination, I urged my broom through the turbulent air, staring in every direction for the Snitch, avoiding a Bludger, ducking beneath Diggory, who was streaking in the opposite direction…
There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. This was getting more and more dangerous. I needed to get the Snitch quickly —
I turned, intending to head back toward the middle of the field, but at that moment, another flash of lightning illuminated the stands, and I saw something that distracted me completely, the silhouette of an enormous shaggy black dog, clearly imprinted against the sky, motionless in the topmost, empty row of seats. Snuffles had come to watch me.
"Nixie!" came Wood's anguished yell from the Gryffindor goal posts. "Nixie, behind you!"
I looked wildly around. Cedric Diggory was pelting up the field, and a tiny speck of gold was shimmering in the rain-filled air between us…
With a jolt of panic, I threw myself flat to the broom handle and zoomed toward the Snitch.
"Come on!" I growled at my Nimbus as the rain whipped my face. "Faster!"
But something odd was happening. An eerie silence was falling across the stadium. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was as though someone had turned off the sound, as though I had gone suddenly deaf — what was going on?
And then a horribly familiar wave of cold swept over me, inside me, just as I became aware of something moving on the field below…
Before I'd had time to think, I had taken my eyes off the Snitch and looked down.
At least a hundred Dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at me, were standing beneath me. It was as though freezing water were rising in my chest, cutting at my insides. And then I heard it again… Someone was screaming, screaming inside my head… a woman…
"Not my babies, not Harry and Nixie, please not them!"
"Stand aside, you silly girl… stand aside, now…"
"Not Harry and Nixie, please no, take me, kill me instead —"
I shook my head, I couldn't cause Oliver his last chance to win the cup, it was unexceptable. I looked around me, everyone in the stands had their mouth open in a silent scream, and Cedric was too far up to even notice the Dementors.
I felt clammy hands close around my throat and I couldn't fight consciousness anymore. I looked up to see the hooded figure in front of me, taking long, rattling breathes.
Numbing, swirling white mist was filling my brain… What was I doing? Why was I flying? I needed to help the women… She was going to die… She was going to be murdered…
I felt my broom slip from under my grasp and fly away to who-knows-where, and I seen a silver something fly towards me and the Dementor, and the Dementor let go of me...
I was falling, falling through the icy mist.
"Not my babies! Please… have mercy… have mercy…"
A shrill voice was laughing, the woman was screaming, and I knew no more.
"Lucky the ground was so soft."
"I thought they were dead for sure."
"But Harry didn't even break his glasses."
I could hear the voices whispering, but they made no sense whatsoever. I didn't have a clue where I was, or how I'd got there, or what I'd been doing before I got there. All I knew was that every inch of me was aching as though it had been beaten.
"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."
Scariest… the scariest thing… hooded black figures… cold… screaming…
My eyes snapped open. I was lying in the hospital wing. The Gryffindor Quidditch team, spattered with mud from head to foot, was gathered around two beds, Harry was beside me on the other bed. Ron, Hermione, and Dani were also there, looking as though they'd just climbed out of a swimming pool.
"Nixie!" said Fred, who looked extremely white underneath, the mud. "How're you feeling?"
It was as though my memory was on fast forward. The lightning… Snuffles… the Snitch… and the Dementors…
"What happened?" I said, sitting up so suddenly they all gasped.
"You fell off," said Fred. "Must've been — what — fifty feet?"
"We thought you'd died," said Alicia, who was shaking.
Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were extremely bloodshot.
"But the match," said Harry, who had just woken up, he fell off his broom too. "What happened? Are we doing a replay?"
No one said anything. The horrible truth sank into me like a stone.
"We didn't — lose?" I asked.
"Diggory got the Snitch," said George. "Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch. But they won fair and square… even Wood admits it."
"Where is Wood?" said Harry, suddenly realizing he wasn't there.
"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."
I put my face to my knees, my hands gripping my hair.
"Oh my golly!" I gasped, fighting back tears. "I lost..."
Fred grabbed my shoulder and shook it roughly.
"C'mon, Nixie, you've never missed the Snitch before."
"There had to be one time you didn't get it," said George.
"It's not over yet," said Fred. "We lost by a hundred points."
"Right? So if Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin…"
"Hufflepuff'll have to lose by at least two hundred points," said George.
"But if they beat Ravenclaw…"
"No way, Ravenclaw is too good. But if Slytherin loses against Hufflepuff…"
"It all depends on the points — a margin of a hundred either way —"
I lay there, not saying a word. We had lost… for the first time ever, I had lost a Quidditch match.
"Nixie, for once care about your own wellbeing then a quidditch match," I heard a familiar voice sign in exasperation. "I swear, your the strangest girl I ever met. You need to set your priorities straight."
My head snapped up to see the person I have been aching to see for the whole school year. Her curly golden locks were longer - at least halfway down her back - and her dark blue eyes were the happiest I have ever seen them, her pale face was flushed and she was grinning at me with forgiveness. Bonnie Heart.
"Bonnie!" I gasped and hopped off the bed to tackle her in hug. "You came!"
"Well, I had to," Bonnie said, laughing. "I thought my friend died again."
I laughed at the 'again' part and let her go. She was still taller then me, so nothings really changed. "I suppose you forgive me?"
Bonnie smiled at me, and assured me that she did.
After ten minutes or so, Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave me and Harry in peace.
"We'll come and see you later," Fred told me and Harry. "Don't beat yourself up Nixie, you're still the best Seeker we've ever had."
The team trooped out, trailing mud behind them. Madam Pomfrey shut the door behind them, looking disapproving. Ron Hermione, Dani, and Bonnie moved nearer to Harry's bed.
"Dumbledore was really angry," Hermione said in a quaking voice. "I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as you two fell, waved his wand, and you both sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the Dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away… He was furious they'd come onto the grounds. We heard him —"
"Then he magicked you both onto a stretcher," said Bonnie. "And walked up to school with you two floating on it. Everyone thought you both were…"
His voice faded, but I hardly noticed. I was thinking about what the Dementors had done to me… about the screaming voice. I looked up and saw Ron, Hermione, Dani and Bonnie looking at me and Harry so anxiously that I quickly cast around for something matter-of-fact to say.
"Did someone get my Nimbus?"
They looked quickly at each other.
"Er —"
"What?" said Harry, looking from one to the other.
"Well… when you fell off, it got blown away," said Dani hesitantly.
"And?" I prompted.
"And it hit — it hit — oh — it hit the Whomping Willow."
My insides lurched. The Whomping Willow was a very violent tree that stood alone in the middle of the grounds.
"And?" Harry said, dreading the answer.
"Well, you know the Whomping Willow," said Ron. "It — it doesn't like being hit."
"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," said Hermione in a very small voice.
Slowly, she reached down for a bag at her feet, turned it upside down, and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed, the only remains of me and Harry's faithful, finally beaten broomstick.