To be honest, I had a lot of qualms about Holly supposedly trying to fix the relationship between Sawyer, Scorpius, and I. Despite them, though, I didn't interfere with what she was doing and answered any random questions she had honestly, without complaint or question. Sawyer would actually talk to Holly, while all my attempts to talk to him myself were met with blank stares, so I eventually figured I would only be stressing both Sawyer and I by even attempting to talk. So I left Holly to it.
I was also too preoccupied with Quidditch to worry too much.
"Okay team, we're trying the same tactic again."
There were some nods, but also some grumbles of disapproval. "Everybody knows the Viktor Krum thing, Esther," Geronimo complained. "They're not going to fall for it. It was Malfoy's ego that won the match for us. He wanted to be the one to catch the snitch."
I shrugged. "I hate to resort to stereotypes, of course, but these are Gryffindors we're playing today."
Geronimo rolled his eyes. "It's plausible. I guess."
"Anyway, Hugo, Mona, and Oliver make a strong team of chasers. If you and Heather keep the bludgers trained on the Gryffindor chasers and keeper like you did against Slytherin, we should be fine. Just keep scoring points, and I'll do my bit to make sure they don't." I looked down my lineup of players, studying them proudly. "We've got this."
I led them out on to the pitch, our brooms in our hands. I shook hands with Albus Potter, who grinned. "Got another trick up your sleeve, Dursley?" he asked.
No, just the same trick as before. "I guess you'll have to find out," I said.
~~~
Our tactic seemed to work, for a while at least. Albus caught my eye as Mona scored her fifth goal, to make one hundred points. He raised his eyebrows, successfully conveying that he knew that we were trying to get away with using the same tactic twice.
My fears weren't warranted, however, because my chasers did a lot better than the Gryffindors. They were practically flying circles around them, and Heather and Geronimo were only helping. I had a few good saves, I suppose, but our main tactic was to pass the quaffle to Mona, who was having a great game. She scored one after the other and right when the opposition was catching on to her, she would pass to one of the boys and one of them would put it through the hoops.
"Would you look at that!" Rehmat exclaimed. "Mona Dice scores once again, making the score two hundred to fifty."
Cassie, who had been dutifully circling above and even feinting to confuse the other seeker, swooped down with surprising elegance, for her. "We just need to score one more, and then find the snitch," she said excitedly.
"We haven't won yet," I said.
The quaffle was heading towards us, along with a mass of players, so Cassie flew back up. I stayed low on my broom, so I was more streamlined and could change directions quicker to block the quaffle. I kept my eyes on the approaching chasers, Hugo and Mona in yellow, darting in and out between them, trying to intercept the Gryffindor's passes. Oliver flew perpendicular to the oncoming chasers, trying to force them to slow or turn away from the goal.
And then, a bludger zoomed straight out of the yellow and red uniforms flapping around the brooms. I tore my eyes from the oncoming players, squeezed them shut, and let myself drop over the side of the broom so I was dangling upside down. The bludger flew right overhead without hitting me, but the quaffle was closely behind it.
I cursed.
"That's another point for Gryffindor, making it sixty to two hundred! Can Hufflepuff maintain their lead, or has this turned the tides for the lions?"
I positioned myself on top of the broom once more, mentally kicking myself. I should've stayed where I was. I would've gotten hit by the bludger, but I'd also have been in the right place to stop the quaffle, and we'd only need one more goal before it would be safe for the snitch to be caught.
The Gryffindors seemed to know this, too. I watched as they pressed harder than ever on the Hufflepuff chasers. Hugo panicked and his pass to Oliver got intercepted and brought halfway down the pitch again before Mona realized that the quaffle was heading in the opposite direction.
I heard Geronimo yelling from the other end of the pitch. "No!"
At the same time, Rehmat's distinctive voice boomed over the roar of the crowd. "The snitch has been caught! Gryffindor wins by ten points!"
~~~
"We're a one trick pony," Mona complained, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Stop it and get changed," I told her. I looked around to see if Cassie or any of the other more impressionable members of the team were around. "Please."
Mona wasn't worried about being overheard, though. "We can't expect to win the same way every time. So our Viktor Krum inspired trick worked once, but Krum's famous and practically everybody knows about him. So it's not going to work again. We do have to play at least two more matches, Esther, and we have to win both if we're going to make it to the finals."
"This isn't about making it to the finals," I said, making sure everybody could hear me now. They were already eavesdropping, so I decided they may as well hear my positivity as well as Mona's complaints. "This isn't about making it to the finals, it's about proving to people that Hufflepuff is a force to be reckoned with."
Geronimo came aroun the corner, his yellow Quidditch robes folded over one arm. "Then we should at least win one more match and come third, rather than dead last."
"Which would be typical," Oliver added.
"We're not going to come dead last, and if we do, so what? We won against Slytherin."
"We have to play them again, Essie," said Hugo. The whole team was gathered around now, all looking depressed after our loss.
"Malfoy's not going to be brash in catching the snitch again," Mona said. "He's vain, maybe, but not that dumb."
"We'll think of something," I said, though the team's mood was seeping in, affirming what I already felt at heart. We had won a single game with the tactics I had been so proud of. It was hardly enough, and no matter what I said, I did want to get to the finals. More than anything.
To my surprise, it was Cassie who spoke up. "Stop being so pessimistic. If Esther's unbreakable morale is smashed by you guys, then we'll know we have no chance at all."
She faced the shocked looks of her teammates with a brave expression, her arms crossed over her chest. "I know that I'm the main one letting the team down. There's no need to pretend like I'm some brilliant seeker, because I know I'm not. But I'm doing my best, and I've been improving, right? Don't give up because I'm not performing well."
The team exchanged glances with one another, ones that I couldn't interpret exactly.
"The fact that we lost this game was my fault," I said, "and I'm sorry for that."
"We can't blame you for not wanting to be hit by a bludger," said Cassie. She nudged Hugo in the stomach and he murmured his agreement.
"It was a reaction you couldn't quell," said Geronimo, "but it still cost us the game."
Oliver rounded on him. "Maybe if you, as a beater, had been where you were supposed to be, doing your job, Esther wouldn't have had to dodge that bludger."
"Hey!" I yelled, stepping between them. "Enough fighting. Show this much anger and resolve on the pitch and we'll win for sure."
When the room was silent, the whole team feeling a mixture of anger and sheepishness, I stepped aside and adjusted my shirt. "Look, personally, I'm not leaving the library until we find some other strategy, if winning is that important to you. You're welcome to join me."
There were some muttered responses and the team gradually dispersed, not walking up to the castle in a pack as we normally did, a body of conversation and laughter, but trailing up silently and individually, yellow robes stuffed into our school bags.
~~~
Though my Quidditch robes were off, I wasn't leaving the sport on it's field. What happens on the field doesn't stay on the field in a school with one organized sport, and I kept good on my promise to the team, spending all my free moments in the library.
"Having a tough time in Defense without Scorpius's weekly lessons?" Holly asked.
"Not exactly," I said. I lifted up my book so she could read the cover, The Complete History of the Ballycastle Bats.
"Quidditch research, huh? What's up now?"
"The team's angry after our loss to Gryffindor, and I don't know if we could take it if we lost again."
"But you're playing Slytherin next, right? Shouldn't be a problem."
"As Mona said, Scorpius is vain but he isn't dumb. We're not going to win against them the same way again. They're going to be angry because of how we won last time, and we're going to need new tactics. Hence the books."
Every evening when I retreated to a corner of the library to work, I had a whole stack of them besides me, varying from team histories to dense rule books dating back from the earlier days of Quidditch. And, of course, my Christmas gift from Scorpius was open to one side through all my research. It had handy lists of books to consult for further information at the end of every section on strategy. I had looked through almost all of them.
"Hey, Esther."
I looked up from my work on afternoon to find Cassie and Hugo sitting down in the chairs around my desk. I had been absorbed in a study on broomsticks, stressing out because our match against Slytherin was that weekend. I had even been contemplating asking Scorpius to let Cassie catch the snitch.
"Hey guys," I said, trying to push these thoughts from my mind and sound more confident than I felt. "What's going on?"
"We came to help," said Cassie. "Sorry we didn't come any other night, but we had a killer potions essay to work on all week."
"Understandable," I said. "Thanks for coming at all."
Hugo frowned at that, pulling a book towards him and flipping through the pages absently. "Hasn't anybody else joined in?"
"No. You're the first."
"After all their complaining, I would've at least thought Mona and Geronimo and that would've done the honorable thing and helped with something."
I shrugged. "I don't blame them for not wanting to."
"Why? Haven't you found anything?" Cassie grinned. "I can barely see you behind all those books."
"Not a single one of them has given me any ideas. Okay, that's not true. I had brief inspiration, thinking that one of the others could catch the snitch and give it to Cassie to win the game, but apparently that's -"
"Snitchnip," said Hugo. "Typical mistake for a muggle born to make."
"Hey!"
Hugo threw his hands in the air. "I didn't mean it as an insult. Just that anybody who grew up playing Quidditch might've gotten away with a snitchnip in Little Leagues or a family game but only with a lot of complaining from spectators."
"Fair enough," I said. "There are a lot of Quidditch fouls that I wasn't entirely aware of."
Hugo muttered his agreement, and then stopped moving halfway through turning a page of a Japanese chaser's memoirs. "There are no substitutions allowed in a game, no matter how tired or injured a player is."
"Surely in a school league they'll let us off," said Cassie. "That's why we have reserves."
"Not really," said Hugo. "The reserves are only if one of us can't play at the beginning of a match for whatever reason."
Cassie frowned and reached for another book.
Hugo slowly closed the volume he was flipping through. I looked back up as he leaned forward across the table.
"I just had an idea."
"Go on then," I said.
"Well," he said slowly, "Esther, are we opposed to playing dirty?"
~~~
"Holy -"
Someone must've slapped a hand over Rehmat's mouth before he could curse, but the awe of the crowd could not be contained in a similar manner. A hush fell over the crowd in immediate aftermath.
"As a result of Gulliver's use of blocking, that was a very near collision for Malfoy, but luckily for Slytherin, their seeker is more resilient than to fall for that textbook foul. However, the penalty gives Slytherin possession of the quaffle, and they're -"
As Heather swooped by, I discreetly gave her the thumbs up.
Despite my givings, I had been outvoted, and Hugo's new tactic had won. We were playing dirty, sacrificing our quaffle possession and giving away free throws on my three hoops in order to try and keep Scorpius from the snitch. The team was depending on me to not slip up as I had done in our game against Gryffindor, and keep the quaffle out of our goal posts. And, I hated to think it, I was certain that Geronimo was aiming his bludgers to injury rather than obstruct.
"That move from Dice has been called as a double offense - both cobbing and blurting simultaneously. Those are Dice's third and fourth offenses so far in the game. The quaffle switches possession as a result once again, and the score remains the same as it has been, stuck at fifty to Slytherin, forty to Hufflepuff."
The next player down my end of the pitch was Scorpius, a disgruntled look on his face and Cassie hovering twenty or so feet above him, smiling down on me.
"What are you doing, Esther?" he asked. "Was your beater trying to kill me?"
"What we're doing is winning, hopefully."
Scorpius grinned. "We'll see. You've got quite a lot of points to score to get far enough ahead, and your players seem set on giving up the quaffle."
Rehmat's voice boomed across the pitch before I could respond. "That's going to be another free throw. Only Hufflepuff captain Dursley stands between a twenty point difference between the two teams now."
"I better pay attention to this," I said to Scorpius. "Give me a moment."
When crisis had been averted - I pushed the quaffle away from my post just in time - I looked back up at Scorpius.
"I shouldn't be fraternizing with the enemy," I told him. "Haven't you got a snitch to catch?"
He gave me a mock salute and soared off in the opposite direction, emerald green robes flapping behind him as he flew, body low to his broom.
After several more fouls for blagging, blatching, blurting, and blocking, Slytherin was managing to pull ahead significantly, but the snitch hadn't yet been caught. One of the Slytherin chasers had a sore arm, but that was as far as Geronimo had managed to get in his attempts to severally injured and/or maim, which I was grateful for. But it wasn't bringing the match to a close.
When Scorpius take a steep incline suddenly, I watched as Cassie managed to keep pace for once, using the techniques Hugo and I had been helping her hone to stay streamlined and maneuverable in the air. She was a hair behind Scorpius, but closer than she had been before. The snitch was a blur of gold in front of them, and as Scorpius extended his hand and Rehmat's commentary fired off in my ears, I felt my heart sink.
But, gaining on them quickly, was a flurry of yellow robes. My team, in one last group effort, swooped up and over the two seekers, way above the pitch. I craned my neck along with everyone else in the stadium, struggling for a good view. I watched as Scorpius, green in a sea of yellow, was knocked off his broom by a bludger. He clung to his broom with both hands, struggling to regain his seat. Meanwhile, the rest of the yellow peeled off and dove back towards the pitch and their proper positions, leaving one last Hufflepuff - Cassie.
I watched her small silhouette in the distance continue to climb above Scorpius, still struggling with his broom. She extended her hand and, in a flash, closed her fist.
I held my breath, but my ears were blocking out all noise. I abandoned my goal posts, flying as fast as I could.
"Hey, Esther," said Scorpius when I got close enough to hear him. "Nice view from up here, huh?"
I swooped over and gave him a hand back on to his broom. He ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed. "I swear," he said, "you Hufflepuffs are nuts."
"It's all perfectly legal," I said. "We've paid all the penalties for our actions."
"Nuts," he said. "Completely bonkers."
Cassie dropped down to our altitude, her face red and flushed, her hands shaking as she extended her closed fist towards me.
"Look, Esther," she said, a nervous smile breaking out on her face. "I did it. I caught the snitch."