Chapter 29: Gryffindor vs Slytherin (II)
'That was unexpected… It seems like Gav is intending to give me a run for my money'
Cass thought as he gazed at his younger brother who was currently hot on Alicia Spinnet's tail.
Following Gavin and Brandon's legendary play, Gryffindor's chasers had gained possession and were currently speeding towards Slytherin's hoops in an attempt to even the scoreline.
Frankly, Cass had already expected to be at a disadvantage against Gavin due to the latter being able to actively use his griffin abilities to supplement his plays, but he didn't think that it would be as big of a problem as it was currently.
Gavin's flames substantially increased the speed and power behind every shot he took so catching it was next to impossible even with his enhanced reflexes. He, on the other hand, could not use his griffin abilities in quidditch because they were geared towards darkness and destruction.
There was simply no way of using them to his advantage. Cass couldn't envelop the hoops in darkness without hindering his ability to keep nor could he disintegrate the quaffle; if he did, what was he going to protect the hoops against?
As he was thinking about all this, Cass also realized that Gavin would not be able to use his flames to power every shot he took since doing so would severely deplete his stamina, which was foolish in such a high intensity game.
Cass also figured that Gavin would not be able to make those plays regularly after the Gryffindor players had already seen it once; they would be able to counter it effectively by checking Brandon and shutting him down since he was the only one capable of passing the quaffle with such precision and skill, something that was required for Gavin's high-speed power shots.
Gavin needed to gain momentum before he could unleash a shot of sufficient power and speed to get past Cass so he always needed a relay player who could accurately deliver the quaffle into his trajectory.
'Although you surprised me, you're going to have to do a lot more if you want to win the game.' Cass thought as he smirked and focused on his attention on the quidditch field once more…
***
"Hawkshead attacking formation, on me!" Gavin yelled as he zoomed towards Gryffindor's hoops with the quaffle in his arms.
Gryffindor had just equalized through a skillful shot by Katie Bell and he was currently trying to score back with a fast break and catch them off guard. Brandon and Marcus quickly flew to his sides and adopted a triangle shaped formation alongside him.
The Hawkshead attacking formation was a formation that forced the opposing team's chasers away from the middle player, who usually held the quaffle, and protected them. It was an ideal formation for a fast break because it prevented the opposing team from checking the quaffle holder.
The trio quickly zoomed across the field with the Gryffindor chasers hot on their tail, repeatedly trying to win back the quaffle. Gavin hoped he could maintain the formation before Gryffindor's beaters, Fred and George Weasley, could use their bludgers to break the formation but things didn't go that way.
Fred and George sent a nasty bludger towards him as soon as he passed the halfway point of the field and effectively forced the Slytherin chasers to split apart.
As soon as they split, Gavin made a signal to Brandon causing the duo to fly closer together and increase their speed before the gryffindor chasers could draw nearer.
As they moved, they kept passing the quaffle between themselves at fast speeds to confuse Cass and the rest of the Gryffindor players and thus, they soon reached Gryffindor's hoops without losing possession, even after Gryffindors relentless attempts to get the quaffle.
Gavin looked at Brandon when they were right in front of the hoops and signaled him to execute their second scoring strategy, a strategy that made it next to impossible for a keeper to guard the quaffle.
Brandon nodded seeing this and immediately flew closer towards the hoops while stretching his arms out to receive the quaffle. Gavin proceeded to pass the quaffle to Brandon, putting as much power behind the pass as possible; after he made the pass, he then zoomed towards the right hoop at breakneck speed, dividing Cass' attention.
Cass was feeling conflicted seeing this.
'Should I focus on Gavin? No, If I do, I'll leave the pendragon boy for a free goal' he thought as he tried to keep both of them in his sights.
Brandon smirked seeing this. It seemed like Gavin was right on the money in his predictions. Thus, he threw the quaffle towards the left hoop.
'Easy pickings' Cass chuckled as he focused on the ball, intending to smack it into the hands of his chasers.
It was at that moment Gavin suddenly appeared from under the ball, whizzing into the ball's trajectory and smacking it towards the right hoop, and startling Cass.
Cass instantly reacted by urging his broom to fly over to the right hoop as fast as possible while stretching his hands to catch the quaffle.
Alas, he was a tad too late, as the ball brushed past his fingers and zoomed past the hoops.
"GAVIN EVERHART SCORES ANOTHER 10 POINTS FOR SLYTHERIN!!" Lee Jordan bellowed, as soon as the quaffle went past the hoop.
'Fuck…where on earth did he even come from?...Is his speed with flames really that fast?' Cass grumbled inwardly at the same time. Gavin's speed was giving him a run for his money.
When they played quidditch back at Griffin's cove, he was nowhere near as fast as he was now, even with his flames; this was largely due to the fact that Gavin was yet to train his griffin abilities at the time so now that he had, Cass stood no chance against his flame powered shots.
Cass just sighed heavily and went back into position, brushing off his failure. He knew that it wasn't the end. Not when Harry could still catch the snitch and win them the game…
***
The game continued, with Slytherin completely dominating Gryffindor solely due to the combined plays of Gavin and Brandon. Their passing play and combinations were simply a nightmare.
Cass had saved a few shots but it wasn't enough to keep Gryffindor in the game. Especially when the Slytherins started playing roughly and had the Gryffindor chasers on lockdown.
Marcus had even tried to hit Cass with a nasty bludger, like he did to Oliver wood in the movies. Alas, it was simply futile to do that against a wizard like Cass who had abnormal senses and reflexes so Cass easily dodged it.
So, by the time Harry had caught a glimpse of the snitch, the scores were already 80-230 in favor of Slytherin. The only way Gryffindor could stand a chance at winning was for them to score a point right before Harry caught the snitch… an incredibly daunting task, to say the least.
'I've got to catch the snitch…it's the only way we can win.' Harry thought determinedly as he urged his broom and zoomed towards the flying golden ball.
As he was riding a Nimbus 2000, his speed was ridiculously fast so he closed one quarter of the distance to the snitch in the blink of an eye, dodging two bludgers in the process.
As he drew nearer to the snitch, his broom suddenly started acting weirdly, making him lose control of it completely. Harry held on for dear life, not daring to imagine the pain of falling to the ground from his current height.
'What's going on with my broom?!' he thought, panicking, and grunting as he held on fearfully.
***
Hermione had been in a bad mood all game and nothing was going how she wanted. Gryffindor was losing badly, and Gavin had not once looked in her direction to say hello.
She felt that he should at least wave in her direction, like he did to the Slytherins. Because she was thinking about all this, she didn't notice when Harry's broom had gone haywire. It was only until Ron spoke up that she noticed the abnormality.
"What's wrong with Harry's broom?!" Ron exclaimed, nervously.
Hermione snapped out of her thoughts and immediately put on her binoculars to get a closer look at Harry's and his broom. She frowned once she noticed that it was out of control and noticed Snape staring at Harry and muttering god knows what.
"It's Snape, he's jinxing the broom!" she turned to Ron and said worriedly, perplexed at why Snape would do such a thing. Her mind started to rapidly revolve and think of a way to save Harry.
"Jinxing the broom?...what do we do?" Ron replied, bewildered at what was going on.
"Leave it to me." she replied curtly, as she left the stands, intending to head over to Snape's stand and distract him by setting his robes on fire.
Hermione made her way to the stands and executed her plan, causing all the teachers attention to drift towards Snape, who was now standing and stomping his foot on his robes frantically, trying to put out the fire.
Quirrell, who was the one actually jinxing Harry's broom immediately stopped because of this, enabling Harry to regain control of his broom.
Once Harry saw his broom was no longer acting crazy, he immediately got back on it and zoomed towards the snitch, trying to win Gryffindor the game. Soon, he got past Slytherin's seeker and neared the snitch.
'Almost there….' he urged himself mentally, as he stood on his broom and tried to grasp Gryffindors ticket to victory.
However, maintaining balance on a broom while standing was no joke, and thus he fell over his broom, flying towards the snitch.
As he flew through the air, he heard something that made his heart drop.
"BRANDON PENDRAGON SCORES 10 POINTS FOR SLYTHERIN!!"
Immediately after the announcement, Harry felt the snitch enter his mouth and himself hitting the floor.
'We still lost…' he thought gloomily as he stood up slowly and spat the snitch onto his outstretched hands and into the view of the spectators.
"HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH AT THE LAST MINUTE AS WELL, SLYTHERIN WINS!!!"
The Slytherin stands immediately erupted into deafening roars and cheers, standing up and clapping loudly. They were absolutely ecstatic. They had just won such a historic game.
Gavin and Brandon, who were still in the air, saw this and roared as well, pumping their fists into the air. Brandon was over the moon, he just scored the winner and secured his team's victory. He was boiling with excitement so he chanted as loud as his voice allowed him:
"SLY-THE-RIN… SLY-THE-RIN…SLY-THE-RIN!!!"
Gavin and the other Slytherins heard this and immediately joined in, making sure their voices were heard by the entire Hogwarts.
"SLY-THE-RIN…SLY-THE-RIN…SLY-THE-RIN!!!"
As Gavin cheered, he pumped his fists into the air repeatedly and yelled with great fervor,
"WHOOOOO!!!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Stormeyy
Stormeyy I've had quite a busy week so I haven't written much. I plan to write extra chapters this weekend so stay tuned. Hope everyones week is going stellar :)
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