"Go on, you lot." Oliver urged the Quidditch team that morning as they all sat together in the Great Hall for breakfast. "Eat up, you'll need it."
"Oliver, there's nothing on your plate." Clary pointed out. "You need to eat, too."
Oliver ignored the girl, instead looking over at the Slytherin table with a nervous expression, his leg anxiously bouncing up and down hundreds of times a minute. A few moments later he stood up and left the Great Hall, mumbling something about wanting to get to the Pitch early to scope out the weather.
"Today's the day!" Newt called out as Clary and Vasantha began to leave the Great Hall with the rest of the Quidditch team. "We believe in you!"
The team made their way out of the castle and down to the Quidditch Pitch surrounded by the applause of the other Hogwarts students, hailing from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. The Slytherin students instead continued to jeer and yell insults at the ones dressed in red. When they arrived, they found Oliver pacing the Pitch already dressed in his Quidditch uniform and jotting down tiny notes onto a small piece of parchment. He looked up when they arrived, still bouncing up and down from nerves.
"Changing rooms," he told them, the sound of other students arriving for the game starting to reach their ears.
The team hurried into the locker room, none of them saying a word as they slipped on the scarlet robes. As soon as they were finished, Oliver eyed each of them to make sure nothing was out of place before saying "Okay, it's time. Let's go."
"Let's do this," Vas whispered to Clary, bumping their fists together as they left the locker room and reached the Pitch.
As the team came into view, deafening applause thundered from the stands, with nearly three quarters of the spectators adorning red to cheer on Gryffindor in the Quidditch final. Everywhere students were waving red flags and holding up signs saying "LIONS FOR THE CUP!" and "GO GRYFFINDOR!"
Clary couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as she mounted her broom, kicking off the ground and hovering in the air near the center. As the Slytherin team came to join them, her eyes widened as she took in the size of their new lineup, each of the players seeming to hulk over the redheaded girl. Marcus Flint hovered across from Clary, giving her a devilish grin as he sized her up, though she gritted her teeth, refusing to back down.
"It seems as if the Slytherin team's going for size rather than skill on this one." she could vaguely hear Lee Jordan saying into the microphone as Flint continued to stare down Clary.
"I want a nice, clean game." Madame Hooch reminded the teams as she raised the whistle to her lips, blowing into it with a shrill shriek as she tossed the Quaffle into the air.
"The Quaffle is released..." Lee spoke softly, intently watching as Clary dove down, securing the ball into her arms. "...and the game begins! Clarissa Weasley of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, and she's quick to go off for the goal! Go Clary!"
Clary sped towards the goal on the opposite side of the Pitch where Miles Bletchley was waiting, and she willed her Cleansweep to go faster, though she was outrun by the Nimbus 2001s of her opponents. She was instantly surrounded by Flint, Graham Montague and Cassius Warrington, giving her ugly grins and jarring laughter as they attempted to box her in.
"She's mine!" Flint called to the others, darting to grab the Quaffle from her arms, but she glanced around suddenly, throwing it over Warrington's head to where Vasantha was waiting.
Vas caught the Quaffle with a determined smile, closing the distance to the goalpost and tossing it through the right hoop, where Bletchley narrowly missed the ball, causing a thunderous applause to arise from the stands. Shortly after she threw the ball, Flint went barreling into Vasantha, nearly knocking the girl off her broom.
"Hey!" Fred yelled as Madame Hooch blew her whistle.
"Penalty!" Hooch exclaimed, and Fred threw his Beater's club at Flint, hitting him in the shoulder and causing Hooch to blow her whistle again. "Weasley!"
"Looks like that's one penalty on Marcus Flint for Slytherin and Fred Weasley for Gryffindor. Can't say Flint didn't deserve it, rotten snake." Lee commented into the mic as Clary darted down below the boys, swiftly catching Fred's club and flying back to her brother.
"Jordan!" McGonagall yelled from the stands, causing the boy to chuckle.
"Just calling it like I see it, Professor." Lee said with a shrug, and Clary scanned around for Harry, though she didn't have much luck with finding him. "Gryffindor now leads Slytherin 10-0."
As the game progressed, Slytherin proved further to the Gryffindor team and the rest of the stands that they had come to play dirty. Clary narrowly avoided a Bludger aimed at her face by Peregrine Derrick, though Oliver hadn't been so lucky, taking one Bludger to the stomach from each of Slytherin's Beaters and managing to remain upright, though even Clary could see from across the Pitch the pain the boy was in, hardly being able to stay in the air. As she threw the Quaffle into the center hoop with a relieved sigh, she heard Lee's voice ring throughout the Pitch in the microphone, signaling that they were finally ahead of Slytherin by fifty points.
"Another goal for Clarissa Weasley!" Lee exclaimed. "Great girl, that Clary. And Harry Potter seems to have found the Snitch!"
Clary's eyes darted up to see Harry flying upwards on his broom, with Draco Malfoy close behind. The Slytherin boy attempted to catch up, but his Nimbus 2001 seemed to be no match for the other boy's new Firebolt. The crowd gasped as Draco reached up, grabbing hold of Harry's broom and attempting to drag him back, with Madame Hooch blowing her whistle over and over and shouting for penalties, but to no avail. Draco refused to lessen his grip, remaining directly behind Harry.
"He's holding onto Harry's broom!" Lee shouted angrily into the mic. "That no good, dirty, rotten f-"
"JORDAN!" Professor McGonagall raged from the stands.
"But Professor, look at him!" Lee protested as Harry finally managed to free himself from Draco, launching forward and catching the Snitch in his hand before holding it up victoriously.
"Harry Potter has caught the Snitch!" Lee exclaimed as Clary began to cheer, racing towards where the young boy still hovered in the air and pulling him into a group hug with the rest of the team, the seven dressed in scarlet clinging to each other for dear life.
"Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup!" Madame Hooch announced with a blow of her whistle, the cheering from the stands nearly deafening, especially from one Professor Minerva McGonagall.
As the team lowered to the ground, still holding onto each other, the rest of Gryffindor House came running from the stands, crowding onto the Pitch and lifting the teammates onto their shoulders. Everywhere Clary looked, there was a sea of scarlet, chanting "Gryffindor" over and over. Even Newt and Cedric were among those in red, cheering on their friends.
"We did it!" Vasantha exclaimed, pulling Clary into a hug before the team was finally set back on the ground.
As soon as they were on the ground, they found Fred and George, pulling them into another hug. Clary jumped up and down with excitement, beaming from ear to ear as she watched the Slytherin team slowly make their way off the Pitch. The crowd began to clear, many of the students making their way to the castle for the afterparty that was to be held in the common room that evening. The two girls walked towards the locker room arm-in-arm, about to open the door before being interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.
Clary turned to see Oliver waiting behind them nervously, chuckling to herself as she took in his appearance. The boy's eyes were rimmed red with tearstained cheeks, smudged with dirt from the match beforehand. He kept a hand on his stomach, still seeming weak from the Bludgers he'd taken during the game. In the other arm was the trophy for winning the Quidditch cup, safely secured in his grasp. Though, the entire time, his gaze was unwaveringly fixed on Vasantha.
"Hi," he spoke quietly, giving the Scamander girl a shy smile.
"I'll leave you two alone." Clary said with a sly grin as she turned to give them space, patting Oliver on the shoulder as she passed. "Congrats, Captain."
Clary made her way back to where Fred and George were standing, watching Oliver and Vasantha with raised eyebrows.
"So what does that mean?" Fred asked, nodding in their direction.
Clary shook her head with a laugh, wrapping an arm around each of her brothers' shoulders. "I'll tell you when you're older."