AUTHOR-----Sorry. 😮 Frick...I'm skipping the filler and going straight for the good parts. No time left. Suspence? Come on, it's a blasted Quidditch game, there's no suspence in that.
Harry had not felt this alive in a month, and momentarily closed his eyes, immensely enjoying the cooling rain that splashed his face.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Ron streaking toward the goalposts, determined yet cheerful at the same time.
Ginny beat the Chaser to the Quaffle and immediately tossed it far back behind her shoulder. Hermione managed to catch it right before it hit the ground.
Ginny slowed down and managed to level out about a dozen yards above Hermione. Parvati seemed to read the play, and spiralled out above Ginny.
Despite himself, Harry stopped to watch. This could only be the secret play that Hermione was talking about.
"And Granger's got the Quaffle, dodges a Bludger from Wesly of Ravenclaw, nice try, Wesly...." Colin Creevey was saying.
Hermione was about to collide with Cho, but right before, she hurled the Quaffle straight up as hard as she could, right into Ginny's hands. Before the defence could recover, Ginny in turn had hurled it as far up as it would go.
Right into Parvati's arms. She immdiately flew up over the Ravenclaw Chaser's heads, who turned to block her -
And she threw it straight down, to Ginny, then to Hermione, who shot like a bullet underneath the shocked Ravenclaws.
She was in all alone. She deked once, and threw the Quaffle straight though the center goal hoop.
"GRYFFINDOR SCORES!" Colin bellowed. "So it's ten-nil to Gryffindor, and what a beautiful play that was, by the three Chasers. Give a hand to the three ladies, folks."
There was a round of applause.
**
Gryffindor was leading forty-twenty by the time the rain started getting heavier. Harry was starting to get cold, and he could see the color of umbrellas far below.
He kept squinting around for the snitch, but narrowly avoided collision with a few players, on his team or not.
Then, he heard a scream behind him.
"Harry!"
He whipped around. It was Cho, and even from this distance he could see the panic on her face.
"What?!" he yelled back, over the howling wind.
"Look up!"
Harry looked up.
"Oh, no." he said hollowly.
The cold that he was feeling was nothing to the shock of what he was seeing. Sour fear rose in his gut, and he started to feel as if the wild animal of Panic was consuming him...
A gigantic meteor was falling to earth. No, not earth, to Hogwarts.
To the Quidditch stadium precisely, it seemed.
There was no time to think, Harry immediately dived toward the raised set of stands reserved for the Hogwarts staff. Ignoring the protests and Snape's shock, he landed beside Dumbledore, yelled something intelligible, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Over the excitement of the game, no one else had noticed the about-to-be disaster.
To his slight comfort, Dumbledore understood in an instant. He whipped out his wand, snatched Harry's Firebolt from his hands, and kicked off. McGonagall, recovering from her initial shock, picked up a purple megaphone.
"STUDENTS," she said imperiously. "RETURN IMMEDIATELY TO YOUR COMMON ROOMS! THE MATCH HAS BEEN POSTPONED."
Harry could see the crowd standing up, and staring at the teachers, confused.
Ignoring protocol, he grabbed the magical megaphone from McGonagall and said two words that changed their minds for them in a flash.
"LOOK UP!!!"
The students looked up. At once, they started screaming, and all shoving in an attempt to get to the exits first.
Harry chanced a glance at the meteor.
It was growing closer by the second.
"You're coming with me, Potter! Hurry!" it was Snape, whose pallid face was tinged with fear, something Harry had never seen on the Potions master's face before. In the urgency of the situation, Harry did not stop to argue or make petty comments, he dashed headlong down the steps with Snape.
They were sprinting down the path toward Hogwarts, when Harry saw a bright light...so bright as to be colorless.
Dumbledore was going to take on a meteor single-handed?
Harry faltered. Snape skidded to a halt. "Why are you lingering, Potter?"
"We can't just leave him!" Harry said.
Snape shook his head. "Have faith in our headmaster, Potter! He will make it to safety. What we need to do, however, is to make sure everyone gets to safety through the Floo network!"
Harry felt white-hot anger burst through him. "And when did you ever have faith in anyone?" he roared. "You had to let Sirius die! You had to sneer at me when I told you last summer!"
"ME?" Snape said, bewildered and furious. "You were the one who had to have the vision in the first place, Potter! The Dark Lord read you perfectly, like a book! I tried to help you, Potter! I decieved Umbridge for you! I even warned your godfather and told him to stay put, but he wouldn't listen!"
Harry did not answer, instead watching Dumbledore. The rain drove down, soaking the pair to the bone. Neither cared much.
Snape stared. "What are you doing, Potter?!"
"You told me to have faith in Dumbledore," Harry said. "So here I stand, watching."
Snape gnashed his teeth, frustrated.
The bright light flared again.
To Harry's amazement, the fiery meteor altered its course.
It was falling fast as ever now, but not towards the castle or inner grounds anymore. Harry quickly scanned the trajectory.
"It's going to land in the lake!" Harry told him, astonished.
Snape moved into action, grabbing Harry's upper arm and sprinting towards the castle.
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