Chapter 207 - 207 A shocking turn of events on the Quidditch pitch

Chapter 207: Chapter 207 A shocking turn of events on the Quidditch pitch

For the first few days since classes resumed at Hogwarts, the young wizards were a little wary of Sirius Black making a comeback and threatening their safety.

Since that day, however, there had been no sign of Sirius in the castle.

If Sir Cadogan's portrait hadn't still been hanging on the door of the Gryffindor common room in place of the Fat Lady, the young and forgetful young wizards would probably have forgotten about the infamous and wanted criminal altogether.

Visiting Professor Lemmus Lupin was dedicated, and upon his arrival at Hogwarts, he had been patrolling all parts of the castle every day, looking for signs of Sirius.

Not only that, but he pointed out many secret passages that connected the castle to the outside world.

These passages were discovered while he was attending school with the quartet of James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. Some of them were even unheard of by Filch.

The professors agreed that Sirius had butchered his way into the castle through those secret passages that Filch didn't know about.

Because of this credit, Lupin quickly made good connections with the other professors, except for one - the

The Dean of Slytherin, Severus Snape.

"Regarding your recruitment of a new visiting professor, I do not feel it was a wise decision, Mr. Headmaster." Snape stopped Dumbledore one night not long after Lupin arrived and told him.

"But I don't think so, Severus, and I'm guessing you still have some prejudice against Lemmings." Dumbledore said tantalizingly.

Snape furrowed his brow, his waxy face seeming to bear a distinct air of exasperation.

"You do remember the two of them from before, don't you, Headmaster?" Snape said. His lips were barely parted as he spoke, clenching the roots of his teeth as if he had some kind of bone-deep hatred for Lupin, "You do remember who he really is as well, I suppose ..."

"Remember, Severus." Dumbledore said, his voice containing something akin to a warning, "Who Lemmings is doesn't necessarily have anything to do with having him come to the castle to help, we talked about that, didn't we?"

"But I can see that there is a good chance that he will tip off Breck." Snape whispered, "He shows up in a few of the most prominent places in the castle during his daily inspections, and that's not just visible to us, it's equally visible to Blake outside the castle."

"It is entirely possible that he is using this behavior to send a message to Blake, telling him that he can't come ... now that we're heavily inspected."

"Like I said, I don't believe that Lemus would help Blake get into the castle." Dumbledore said, "He wants to capture Sirius Black more than we do, more than he wants to know the truth about what happened back then."

"All you need to do is do your job and prepare the potion I gave you, I have the rest in mind."

The tone of his voice made it clear that this matter was talked about as far as it went, so Snape did not reply.

"I must go and deal with those dementors outside the castle," Dumbledore said, "I fear that if we do not deal with deal with them, the things will think we are hiding the culprits."

"Do they intend to help, Headmaster?" Snape said softly, frowning in disgust.

"Oh yes, and I don't know whether they want to search for criminals or suck the joy out of the children ...," Dumbledore said coldly, "but I'm afraid that as long as I am Headmaster, they will never be allowed to cross the the threshold of the school."

...

The young wizards were obviously much more relaxed than the professors who were constantly on guard and on edge all the time.

They had pretty much forgotten that another escaped criminal like Sirius Black had come to Hogwarts Castle, or that they were still in danger.

All they knew was that the first Quidditch match was gradually approaching.

I don't know if it was the dementors outside the castle, but the weather was getting worse these days.

But in this weather, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was practicing harder and harder.

Originally, for Harry's safety, Professor McGonagall did not want to expose him to the empty Quidditch pitch to prevent being drilled by Sirius Black.

But because of Harry's firm request, and because Professor McGonagall herself wanted the Gryffindor Quidditch team to get a good match result, she agreed to the team's request to continue training.

Of course, just to be on the safe side, she asked Ms. Hokey, who taught flying lessons, to accompany the Gryffindor team to practice.

"Listen, our opponent this time is not easy." Wood, the team captain, exclaimed as he stood on the pitch at the last practice before the match, "Our opponent this time is Hufflepuff, the defending champions from the previous school year."

It had been a blustery day all day, and just as Wood was speaking, the team heard rumbling thunder in the distance.

Upon hearing the name of the college, Harry subconsciously tightened his grip on the broom he was holding.

It occurred to him that the reason his match form had gotten so bad last year was because of Autumn Chang and Hufflepuff's ball finder, Cedric Diggory.

Harry had not known how many times he had been indignant about Cedric dating Autumn Chang, thinking that Cedric was just a white boy who had nothing going for him other than his good looks, and he had not known how many times he had been distracted in class and gone wrong in matches because of it.

But now when he thought back to Autumn Chang's face, it was like a lifetime ago, and even in his memory it seemed a little indistinguishable.

Harry realized that he liked nothing more than the false Autumn-Chang in his own mind.

In fact, he hadn't even known much about her specifically before that point, other than the encounter where Professor Dracula had given out awards to the first of three years, and the run-in where he had brazenly accosted her in the Ravenclaw tower.

Whether it was her personality, her family, her character, or her likes and dislikes were all his own guesses, and when that bull's-eye fondness became tantalizing, all that was left in his mind was the real Autumn Chang, the one he didn't know, and of course, that memory molded into a lake.

And his opinion of Cedric as a white boy was just a prejudice caused by jealousy.

Cedric was actually courteous and friendly, and consistently promoted the principles of fair and friendly play on the Quidditch pitch, and his flying ability and ball skills were quite good, so it was no surprise at all that a girl had taken a liking to him.

In the last game before the Quidditch final last school year, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, Harry then made a reconciliation within himself with Cedric, sort of handing a Hufflepuff a chance to win over Slytherin, allowing them to achieve the final championship.

Now, for the first Quidditch match of this school year, Gryffindor just happened to meet Hufflepuff, which brought Harry a feeling like it was meant to be.

"Are you listening carefully, Harry?"

Wood's voice interrupted Harry's thoughts. He looked up in a hurry and smiled at Wood.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Wood looked at Harry suspiciously and hesitantly, "It's not going to be as off as last school year, is it?"

"Don't worry Oliver, it won't be like that again!" Harry smiled confidently, "I'm already another Harry!"

"That's for the best," Wood nodded and continued, "We're playing against a Hufflepuff team this tournament, but we don't know anything about their style of play this school year. Because they have a new captain, Cedric Diggory-"

The three ball chasers, Angelina, Aria and Katie, suddenly giggled.

"What's wrong?" Wood frowned at them, not too pleased with the carefree behavior.

"Cedric Diggory is the tall, good-looking boy, right?" Angelina said.

"The physically strong, soft-spoken one." Katie added.

With that, they started giggling again.

Harry sighed, feeling like it really wasn't a surprise at all that Autumn Chang was looking at Cedric.

"He's soft spoken because he's not fierce enough! Quidditch matches need true Mongers like us!" Fred, who grew up in the same village as Cedric, instantly joked.

"There's no need to worry too much Oliver, Cedric is only a first time captain and definitely not as capable as a 'tyrant' like you!" George chimed in.

"How many times have I told you not to be gullible! Not to mention facing the defending champions from last school year!" Wood shouted at the grinning twins so loudly that his eyes both looked slightly protruding. "Diggory has organized the squad with a strong lineup, nothing less than what the last captain organized!"

...

High in the air, Harry was still trying to fly and had no idea how long the match had been going on.

He was soaking wet and frozen stiff, and it was hard to see his teammates, let alone the tiny golden flyer.

Zipping across the stadium, he swept past the red and yellow figures of a molded lake, completely unable to see exactly how the game was going. He couldn't even hear the comments of the spectators either in the howling wind.

Both times Harry came close to being touched off his flying broom by the wandering ball. The rain was so heavy that he couldn't see them coming from the opposite direction.

Slowly his arms became sore and it seemed harder and harder to keep the broom flying in a straight line.

The sky was getting darker and darker, as if the night had decided to come early.

Harry came close to crashing into another player a couple of times and wasn't sure if it was one of his teammates or an opposing player. Everyone was soaked now, and the rain was so dense that it was impossible for him to see the Golden Flyers ...

"Dudu-"

Mrs. Hodge's whistle blew with the first flash of lightning.

Harry could just make out the silhouette of Wood in the dense curtain of rain, and Wood was beckoning Harry to come down to the ground.

The whole team then descended into the mud of the ground with rain splattered all over them.

"I called time out!" Wood yelled to the team over the sound of rain and thunder, "Come on, get down there-"

They huddled under a large umbrella on the side of the field. Harry took off his glasses and wiped them hastily on his soaked robes, which looked as if they were getting even dirtier.

"What's the score?" He asked hurriedly.

"We're up by fifty points," Wood said, "but the score can't be too far apart, it's still up to the finder."

"I can hardly see my way around with my glasses on, let alone catch the Golden Flyers." Harry said chagrined as he waved his glasses around.

Just then, Hermione came running from nowhere she was top of her cloak and squeezed under the large umbrella at the side of the pitch, and with a smile on her face.

"I have an idea Harry!" She said excitedly, "Give me your glasses, quick!"

Harry was puzzled but handed her his glasses out of trust.

Hermione tapped Harry's glasses with her wand as the entire team watched in amazement and read:

"Waterproof and Wetproof (Imperuious)!"

"There!" She said, handing the glasses back to Harry, "It's a water and fire spell, now the rain won't get in the way of your glasses!"

After the pause was over, the players on both sides flew back into the dense rain.

Hermione's spell had worked. Although the two things of being cold, numb and soaked still hadn't been resolved, Harry could definitely see.

With renewed vigor and determination, he urged his Lightwheel 2000 through the turbulent air currents, looking in every direction for the golden flyer.

There was one burst of thunder after another, followed by different shapes of lightning. The situation high in the sky was becoming more and more dangerous, and Harry knew he had to catch the golden thief as soon as possible.

So he turned menacingly, trying to get back to the center of the pitch.

But just then, another thick bolt of lightning lit up the stands-

Harry saw something that distracted him completely: the silhouette of a huge black dog covered in coarse fur, a silhouette that was reflected clearly in the sky as it stayed in a row of empty seats in the highest tier of the stands.

He thought of something the professor of the divination class he had taken this semester, Sybil Trelawney, had said-

"'Ominous,' my dear boy, 'ominous'!" Prof. Trelawney saw his divination in class and exclaimed in shock, "The big, spooky dog that roams the graveyard! My dear boy, this is the evil omen ... of the worst omen ... of death!"

He thought again of the huge black dog he had seen before he met Tonks when he ran away from home.

How had this black dog appeared again today in a ghostly manner?

Harry's numb hands slipped on his flying broom and his Lightwheel 2000 plummeted a few feet down.

He brushed the soaking sea of streams away from his eyes and couldn't help but get distracted again, squinting over to the stand, only to realize that the black dog had disappeared at some point.

"Harry!" Wood's distressed yell came from the Gryffindor goal, "Harry, seriously, look behind you!"

Harry looked back in alarm to see Cedric hurtling continuously over the pitch, a small golden patch flickering in the rain-drenched air, between them ...

It was the golden flyer!

In a panic, Harry crouched full-body on his flying broomstick and spun around to sprint towards the golden flash.

"Go for it!" He yelled into his Lightwheel 2000, letting the rain slap his cheeks, "Faster! Faster!"

However, something strange suddenly happened.

In the midst of a scene that should have been filled with the sound of wind, crackling rain, and thunder, there was a precipitous silence.

The wind, though still as strong as before, forgot to howl, as if it were an old television set and someone had turned the sound off abruptly; or as if Harry had suddenly gone deaf ...

He had a premonition that something bad was about to happen!

The next moment, a strange and familiar, terrifying chill came at him, fiercely racing inside his body, and only then did he just realize that something was moving over the pitch ...

Harry couldn't think fast enough to take his eyes off the golden flyer and look to the side.

There were at least a hundred Dementors hovering in the air, their faces hidden beneath their hoods pointed at him. It was as if frozen water had risen from his chest, cutting into his insides.

Then he heard the same sound he had heard once before on the train - someone moaning, moaning inside his head ... It was a woman ... The woman's voice was eerily familiar ...

"Don't move Harry. Don't move Harry ... Please don't ever move Harry!"

"Step aside you stupid woman ... step aside now ..."

"Don't move Harry, please don't, not unless you kill me first ... kill me now ..."

Harry's brain seemed to go numb and fall into a white fog ...

He subconsciously wanted to help the woman, she was about to die ... she was about to be murdered ...

Meanwhile, Harry was still falling downward, falling through that icy mist.

"Don't move Harry! Please don't move ... Have mercy ... Have mercy ..."

A shrill voice was laughing, the woman was screaming, and Harry knew nothing more.

Before he slipped into a complete coma, he saw a blinding silver light take over the entire Quidditch pitch and a voice of suppressed rage resonated through the sky as if the rain and thunder had stopped for the voice to move.

"You disgusting things, who the hell gave you permission to enter Hogwarts?!"