ffindor. According to Which Broomstick, 
the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at 
this year's World Championship --" 

"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" 
interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice. 

"Right you are, Professor -- just giving a bit of background information 
-- the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and --" 

"Jordan!" 

"Okay, okay, Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor, heading 
for goal..." 

Harry streaked past Katie in the opposite direction, gazing around for a 
glint of gold and noticing that Cho Chang was tailing him closely. She 
was undoubtedly a very good flier -- she kept cutting across him, 
forcing him to change direction. 

"Show her your acceleration, Harry!" Fred yelled as he whooshed past in 
pursuit of a Bludger that was aiming for Alicia. 

Harry urged the Firebolt forward as they rounded the Ravenclaw goal 
posts and Cho fell behind. Just as Katie succeeded in scoring the first 
goal of the match, and the Gryffindor end of the field went wild, he saw 
it -- the Snitch was close to the ground, flitting near one of the 
barriers. 

Harry dived; Cho saw what he was doing and tore after him -- Harry was 

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speeding up, excitement flooding him; dives were his speciality, he was 
ten feet away -


Then a Bludger, hit by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, came pelting out of 
nowhere; Harry veered off course, avoiding it by an inch, and in those 
few, crucial seconds, the Snitch had vanished. 

There was a great "Ooooooh" of disappointment from the Gryffindor 
supporters, but much applause for their Beater from the Ravenclaw end. 
George Weasley vented his feelings by hitting the second Bludger 
directly at the offending Beater, who was forced to roll right over in 
midair to avoid it. 

"Gryffindor leads by eighty points to zero, and look at that Firebolt 
go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn -Chang's 
Comet is just no match for it, the Firebolt's precision- balance 
is really noticeable in these long --" 

"JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON 
WITH THE 
COMMENTARY!" 

Ravenclaw was pulling back; they had now scored three goals, which put 
Gryffindor only fifty points ahead -- if Cho got the Snitch before him, 
Ravenclaw would win. Harry dropped lower, narrowly avoiding a Ravenclaw 
Chaser, scanning the field frantically -- a glint of gold, a flutter of 
tiny wings -- the Snitch was circling the Gryffindor goal post -


Harry accelerated, eyes fixed on the speck of gold ahead -- but just 
then, Cho appeared out of thin air, blocking him -


"HARRY, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE A GENTLEMAN!" Wood roared as Harry 
swerved 
to avoid a collision. "KNOCK HER OFF HER BROOM IF YOU HAVE TO!" 

Harry turned and caught sight of Cho; she was grinning. The Snitch had 
vanished again. Harry turned his Firebolt upward and was soon twenty 
feet above the game. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cho following 
him.... She'd decided to mark him rather than search for the Snitch 
herself... All right, then... if she wanted to tail him, she'd have to 

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take the consequences.... 

He dived again, and Cho, thinking he'd seen the Snitch, tried to follow; 
Harry pulled out of the dive very sharply; she hurtled downward; he rose 
fast as a bullet once more, and then saw it, for the third time -- the 
Snitch was glittering way above the field at the Ravenclaw end. 

He accelerated; so, many feet below, did Cho. He was winning, gaining on 
the Snitch with every second -- then -


"Oh!" screamed Cho, pointing. 

Distracted, Harry looked down. 

Three dementors, three tall, black, hooded dementors, were looking up at 
him. 

He didn't stop to think. Plunging a hand down the neck of his robes, he 
whipped out his wand and roared, "Expecto patronum!" 

Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of his 
wand. He knew it had shot directly at the dementors but didn't pause to 
watch; his mind still miraculously clear, he looked ahead -- he was 
nearly there. He stretched out the hand still grasping his wand and just 
managed to close his fingers over the small, struggling Snitch. 

Madam Hooch's whistle sounded. Harry turned around in midair and saw six 
scarlet blurs bearing down on him; next moment, the whole team was 
hugging him so hard he was nearly pulled off his broom. Down below he 
could hear the roars of the Gryffindors in the crowd. 

"That's my boy!" Wood kept yelling. Alicia, Angelina, and Katie had all 
kissed Harry; Fred had him in a grip so tight Harry felt as though his 
head would come off In complete disarray, the team managed to make its 
way back to the ground. Harry got off his broom and looked up to see a 
gaggle of Gryffindor supporters sprinting onto the field, Ron in the 
lead. Before he knew it, he had been engulfed by the cheering crowd. 

"Yes!" Ron yelled, yanking Harry's arm into the air. "Yes! Yes!" 

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"Well done, Harry!" said Percy, looking delighted. "Ten Galleons to me! 
Must find Penelope, excuse me --" 

"Good for you, Harry!" roared Seamus Finnigan. 

"Ruddy brilliant!" boomed Hagrid over the heads of the milling 
Gryffindors. 

"That was quite some Patronus," said a voice in Harry's ear. 

Harry turned around to see Professor Lupin, who looked both shaken and 
pleased. 

"The dementors didn't affect me at all!" Harry said excitedly. "I didn't 
feel a thing!" 

"That would be because they -- er -- weren't dementors," said Professor 
Lupin. "Come and see -- " 

He led Harry out of the crowd until they were able to see the edge of 
the field. 

"You gave Mr. Malfoy quite a fright," said Lupin. 

Harry stared. Lying in a crumpled heap on the ground were Malfoy, 
Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint, the Slytherin team Captain, all 
struggling to remove themselves from long, black, hooded robes. It 
looked as though Malfoy had been standing on Goyle's shoulders. Standing 
over them, with an expression of the utmost fury on her face, was 
Professor McGonagall. 

"An unworthy trick!" she was shouting. "A low and cowardly attempt to 
sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty 
points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about 
this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!" 

If anything could have set the seal on Gryffindor's victory, it was 
this. Ron, who had fought his way through to Harry's side, doubled up 
with laughter as they watched Malfoy fighting to extricate himself from 
the robe, Goyle's head still stuck inside it. 

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"Come on, Harry!" said George, fighting his way over. "Party! Gryffindor 
common room, now!" 

"Right," said Harry, and feeling happier than he had in ages, he and the 
rest of the team led the way, still in their scarlet robes, out of the 
stadium and back up to the castle. 

It felt as though they had already won the Quidditch Cup; the party went 
on all day and well into the night. Fred and George Weasley disappeared 
for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of 
butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets. 

"How did you do that?" squealed Angelina Johnson as George started 
throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd. 

"With a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred 
muttered in Harry's ear. 

Only one person wasn't joining in the festivities. Hermione, incredibly, 
was sitting in a corner, attempting to read an enormous book entitled 
Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. Harry broke away from 
the table where Fred and George had started juggling butterbeer bottles 
and went over to her. 

"Did you even come to the match?" he asked her. 

"Of course I did," said Hermione in a strangely high-pitched voice, not 
looking up. "And I'm very glad we won, and I think you did really well, 
but I need to read this by Monday." 

"Come on, Hermione, come and have some food," Harry said, looking over 
at Ron and wondering whether he was in a good enough mood to bury the 
hatchet. 

"I can't, Harry. I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to 
read!" said Hermione, now sounding slightly hysterical. "Anyway..." She 
glanced over at Ron too. "He doesn't want me to join in." 

There was no arguing with this, as Ron chose that moment to say loudly, 

220 



"If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those 
Fudge Flies. He used to really like them --" 

Hermione burst into tears. Before Harry could say or do anything, she 
tucked the enormous book under her arm, and, still sobbing, ran toward 
the staircase to the girls' dormitories and out of sight. 

"Can't you give her a break?" Harry asked Ron quietly. 

"No," said Ron flatly. "If she just acted like she was sorry -- but 
she'll never admit she's wrong, Hermione. She's still acting like 
Scabbers has gone on vacation or something." 

The Gryffindor party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up in 
her tartan dressing gown and hair net at one in the morning, to insist 
that they all go to bed. Harry and Ron climbed the stairs to their 
dormitory, still discussing the match. At last, exhausted, Harry climbed 
into bed, twitched the hangings of his four-poster shut to block out a 
ray of moonlight, lay back, and felt himself almost instantly drifting 
off to sleep.... 

He had a very strange dream. He was walking through a forest, his 
Firebolt over his shoulder, following something silvery-white. It was 
winding its way through the trees ahead, and he could only catch 
glimpses of it between the leaves. Anxious to catch up with it, he sped 
up, but as he moved faster, so did his quarry. Harry broke into a run, 
and ahead he heard hooves gatheri