บท 48: Slytherin VS Gryffindor, everybody wants to see this happen!
The next Saturday was the day of Slytherin's Quidditch match against Gryffindor. After winning her team the Cup last year, Oleandra had somewhat gained an interest in the sport, though not enough to motivate her to rejoin the team. She had better things to do, in her opinion.
In any case, she had to be present for this match, because Draco would expect all of his friends to be there to witness his big moment. Since watching a game of Quidditch wasn't the most boring thing in the world, and there was nothing to gain by upsetting Draco, she made her way to the stands with Tracey and her sister at eleven o'clock in the morning.
"Feels strange being here rather than up there," she commented to no one in particular.
"D'you think it's going to rain?" Tracey asked, holding out her hand and squinting at the sky.
Meanwhile, Daphne was lost in thought, busy thinking up ways to gather up the missing ingredients. It would be too obvious to steal them from Snape's personal reserve right after going up to him to ask about an obscure potion. But they had no choice; Phoenixes were impossible to keep in captivity, and they were exceedingly rare. One would have to use up all of their lifetime's luck to catch one as it went through its death state.
Phoenixes were immortal beings. Once they died, they would burn to cinders, then be reborn from the ashes. Therefore, as Snape was a teacher at Hogwarts, he would have first-hand access to Dumbledore's pet phoenix.
Oleandra tugged at her sister's sleeve. "Look, it's starting," she said as a storm of cheers rose from the Slytherin's stands.
And they were off! The Quaffle shot into the air, while the Golden Snitch and the two Bludgers zoomed off into different directions. One Bludger seemed particularly drawn to Potter; normally, their job was to try and smash in every single skull in sight indiscriminately, but this one seemed to only have eyes for him.
Oleandra watched in rapt attention, witnessing Potter perform every single manoeuvre imaginable in order to dodge the persistent Bludger, while Tracey cheered as Slytherin scored goal after goal with the Quaffle. Their Nimbus 2001s were putting in the work; the green-clad players were blurs compared to the ones in red.
"Our team's running circles around them," chortled Tracey, very much amused, but Oleandra was beginning to get bored. This was too easy, where was the fun in watching her team stomp their adversaries?
A raindrop fell on Oleandra's nose, and then more came down. "Tracey had been right about the weather," she thought to herself.
Meanwhile, the players were coming down to the ground. Apparently, the Gryffindors had asked for a time-out. Oleandra took the time to manifest an invisible barrier around her using Elhaz, to ward off the rain. Magic sure was convenient!
The game resumed, and it became more and more apparent that something was wrong with the Bludger, which focused Potter and grew more and more aggressive. Oleandra heard laughter around her; Potter had been forced to make a strange dodge to avoid the Bludger, looking quite ridiculous in the process.
"This is ridiculous. Why aren't they replacing the Bludger?" wondered Oleandra. And then, she saw something golden glinting near Draco.
"DRACO, LOOK! THE SNITCH'S RIGHT NEXT TO YOU!" she screamed, waving her arms and pointing at her left ear, in a bid to make him look the right way.
Having heard his name called out, Draco, who had just finished taunting Potter, turned to the stands. He was about to wave hello when his eyes crossed; something was quite close to his nose! He panicked and rolled away, just as Potter rushed past him and grabbed the Snitch! At that moment, the Bludger finally succeeded in its task, smashing into his arm and shattering Potter's radius into a thousand bone shards.
"GRYFFINDOR WINS" shouted Lee Jordan, the commentator.
Oleandra facepalmed. That was a free win, how could Draco possibly have messed up this badly? She ran down to the pitch, looking forward to watching Marcus Flint chew out Draco. However, it seemed like she hadn't been the only one to have the idea of getting a first-hand look. Colin Creevey was busy taking pictures of Potter, who was lying down and moaning. Professor Lockhart was also there, but she ignored them and ran up to where the Slytherins had landed their brooms.
"I TOLD YOU A THOUSAND TIMES, NO SHOWBOATING!" yelled Flint, red in the face. Draco must have found a sudden interest in his shoelaces, because he didn't dare to look up from the ground.
"THE SNITCH WAS RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU, AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE. TOO BUSY TAUNTING, HUH?" Draco looked as if he could kill someone right about now, but he didn't say a word. There was no defending how he had played. If he had properly been on the lookout, Slytherin would easily have won.
Having said his piece, Flint whirled around, stalking away angrily, staring down anyone who dared to look him in the eye as he left the field. The rest of his teammates left without a word, leaving Oleandra and Draco alone.
"There, there, it's not so bad, you can always win next time," said Oleandra soothingly. "You can't win 'em all. I lost to Potter in my first match too, so there's no shame in that."
"I don't want to talk right now," said Draco gruffly, brushing past her to get to the changing room.
"My goodness," said Oleandra in a huff. "How rude!"
As she shook her head in mock indignation, she felt someone tap on her shoulder; it was her sister.
"Are you almost done?" Daphne asked impatiently. "We have some potion ingredients to collect."
She pulled out a roll of parchment.
"Here's your shopping list. I think they should have all you need in Hogsmeade Village," she said. "Take care not to get recognized. I'll get started on the potion in the meantime. Tomorrow, we can think of a way to get into Professor Snape's ingredients cupboard."
"Can do," said Oleandra. All she had to do was impersonate a third year using the reversed Perthro rune and leave through the front gate, since third years and up were allowed to visit the nearby village.
Now that she thought about it, couldn't she disguise as a student from another House and visit the other common rooms? That felt like it could be fun!
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