Chapter 45 A Difficult Victory

,!

"Gryffindor is on!"

Lee Jordan, the Quidditch commentator this time, shouted loudly.

"Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, the Weasley brothers and Wood, it's generally agreed that this is the best team Hogwarts has seen in several years—"

Lee Jordan's comments were drowned out by a chorus of boos from Slytherin's side.

"The Slytherin team is also on the field. They are led by captain Flint. He seems to have made some adjustments to the lineup. It seems to focus more on size rather than technology-"

The boos from Slytherin's side became louder, but Clark looked at the situation on the court and thought that what Lee Jordan said did make sense.

At least Malfoy was obviously the smallest in their team. The other team members were all tall, more like rugby players than Quidditch players.

"Captains, shake hands with each other!" Mrs. Huo Qi said.

Flint and Wood stepped forward and held each other's hands tightly, as if they wanted to break each other's fingers.

"Get on the broomstick!" Mrs. Hooch said, "Three—two—one—"

Her whistle was drowned out by the cheers of the audience, and the fourteen broomsticks instantly rose into the air, turning into streaks of lightning in the air, crisscrossing the air.

At the beginning, the game was still developing normally.

"Now the Quaffle is on the Gryffindor side, and Arya Spinnet has the ball, heading straight for the Slytherin goal. Looks good, Arya!"

"Ah, no - the Quaffle was intercepted by Warrington."

"Slytherin's Warrington was running rampant across the field - wow! - and George Weiss hit the bludger beautifully, and Warrington lost the Quaffle and it was - it was snatched away by Johnson Here we go, Gryffindor has the ball again.”

"Come on, Angelina—beautiful, passed Montague—careful, Angelina, wander away!"

"-She scored! Ten to zero, Gryffindor is ahead!"

Lee Jordan's commentary was ridiculously fast, and Angelina, who had just made a shot, circled one end of the court and glided past Clark and others, waving her fists proudly, causing the bright red sea below to cheer - —

"Ouch!"

Angelina nearly fell off her broom when Marcus Flint, captain of the Slytherin team, hit her hard.

"sorry!"

Flint said to boos from the audience,

"Sorry, I didn't see her!"

Of course, there was no trace of apology or embarrassment in his tone.

Faced with the provocation from the other side, the members of the Gryffindor team are not vegetarians.

The feud lasted all night. Later, Fred Weiss came and hit Flint on the back of the head with his bat. Flint's nose hit the broom handle and bled.

"enough!"

Ms. Huo Qi shouted sharply and swooped between them.

"Slytherin attacked the opponent's Chaser for no reason, and Gryffindor took a penalty!

Gryffindor intentionally hurts the Chaser, and Slytherin takes a penalty kick! "

Mrs. Huo Qi was very angry at their unscrupulous tactics, but even punishment could not stop the smell of gunpowder between the two colleges. The previous ones were just appetizers.

Soon, as the game continued, there was a trend towards a Quidditch brawl.

It is basically impossible to verify who did it first, but when the Quaffle flew to Gryffindor, Slytherin's chaser Montague did not catch the Quaffle, but stretched out his hand. Catched Katie's head.

Katie somersaulted through the air and, while still firmly on her broom, the ball fell.

Mrs. Hooch's whistle blew again, and she went up to Montague and started yelling at him.

A minute later, Katie scored another penalty goal past the Slytherin goalkeeper. .

This penalty caused Slytherin to suffer a big loss and was surpassed by Gryffindor by three goals 30-0.

Of course they quit. In addition to running rampant when grabbing the ball, the two batters also set their sights on Harry.

In addition to hitting Harry with two Bludgers in a row, they all raised their bats and surrounded Harry.

Fortunately, Harry turned the Firebolt and rose rapidly at the last second, thus avoiding the blows of the two men.

But just because he can dodge, doesn't mean his teammates can dodge.

Slytherin's Bol hit Alia with the bat again, claiming she thought she was a Bludger.

Then George Weiss retaliated, elbowing Bol in the face.

Bol and Derek of the Slytherin team were not to be outdone. While George and Fred were protecting Harry, they took the opportunity to hit Wood with two Bludgers, hitting him in the stomach one after the other.

Wood rolled in the air, clutching the broom tightly and looking like he was having trouble breathing.

…

Clark couldn't help but shake his head as he watched the scenes happening on the court.

This can be said to be the dirtiest football match Clark has ever seen. The UK is known as the country of football hooligans. Even the wizarding world has learned the characteristics of football players in the Muggle world.

Of course, compared to a certain guy who eats sea cucumbers every day and still has weak legs, daring to go head-to-head is at least a sign of fighting spirit.

At this time, Harry had already discovered the traces of the Golden Snitch on the field, and the little thing was shining twenty feet above his head.

The audience saw Harry's sudden acceleration, and hundreds of pairs of eyes were instantly fixed on him. Hermione, who was sitting next to Clark, held his hand tightly.

"come on! Come on!"

The Gryffindor fans were shouting hoarsely, and Harry leaned forward to speed up. The wind whistled in his ears. He stretched out his right hand, and his heart almost jumped into his throat, just barely.

But suddenly, he found that his Firebolt slowed down——

Harry was startled. When he looked back, he saw Malfoy rushing forward and grabbing the tail of the Firebolt, pulling it back.

"You-" Harry was so angry that he wanted to hit Malfoy, but he couldn't reach him.

Seeing this situation, the spectators who were shouting to come on yelled at Malfoy and booed.

But Malfoy didn't care what others thought. He was panting from pulling the Firebolt, but there was a malicious glint in his eyes.

He achieved his goal - the Golden Snitch disappeared.

"Free throw! Gryffindor free throw! I've never seen anything like that!" Ms. Hooch screamed, swooping forward as Malfoy slid back into his Nimbus 2001.

"Shameless gangster!" Lee Jordan, the game commentator, shouted into the microphone and jumped out of Professor McGonagall's reach. "Despicable, shameless bastard—"

Professor McGonagall didn't bother to stop him, and even she herself shook her fist in Malfoy's direction and shouted angrily.

On the Slytherin side, instead of being ashamed of Malfoy's foul, they were overjoyed and praised and encouraged him. This also caused Gryffindor to lose two goals in a row due to an unbalanced mentality. .

Fortunately, everything is still under control, and the match point still lies with the seeker.

Harry and Malfoy both stared at each other closely, their knees often touched, Malfoy used despicable tricks on Harry, and Harry did not let Malfoy approach the Golden Snitch from any direction...

"Get out of here, Potter!" Malfoy yelled helplessly, because he wanted to turn the corner, but found that Harry was blocking his way.

"Come on, hurt each other!" Harry shouted.

The two struggled with each other for a while, and then because Angelina of the Gryffindor team was surrounded by a group of Slytherin players, Harry controlled the Firebolt and rushed in to speed up, opening a way out for her.

"Harry shouldn't have been distracted. This was a tactical mistake!" Clark from the stands suddenly expressed his opinion.

Sure enough, things developed just as Clark said. When Harry was distracted to help, Malfoy discovered the figure of the Golden Snitch, swooping down with a victorious expression on his face.

Below him, a few feet above the lawn, there was a small golden point of light—

Seeing this scene, Harry's heart almost stopped beating. He quickly urged the Firebolt to accelerate downwards and dive, but Malfoy was much closer than him. He could only count on his "money power" now.

"Hurry up!"

Harry activated his Firebolt. You get what you pay for. This Firebolt was indeed the best (expensive) broomstick. Even though it was the last shot, he gradually caught up with Malfoy.

In the process, Slytherin's batsman Bore hit a Bludger at him, but he dodged it by leaning on the broomstick.

Then - he caught up to Malfoy's ankles - he and Malfoy were side by side -

Victory was right in front of him. When he told the flying situation, Harry rushed forward and let go of the broomstick with both hands. He blocked Malfoy's arm——

"Caught!"

Regardless of the danger, Harry risked his own life and caught the Golden Snitch first!

He straightened up and raised his hands in the air, and the stands immediately erupted.

"ah--"

Hermione's high-pitched screams came to Clark's ears. Even as rational as she was, she couldn't help but get excited in this situation.

This is the charm of sports competition.

On the court, the Gryffindor players huddled together, yelled hoarsely, and fell back to the ground.

A torrent of crimson rushed over the fence into the field, and countless hands rained down on their backs.

Harry and other players were resisted by the crowd. They were lifted high and carried to the stands to receive their victory and glory.

There, Headmaster Dumbledore was standing, holding a huge Quidditch trophy.

As for Slytherin - no one pays attention to the losers, they can only flee back to the locker room in disgrace.

"Well done, Harry!"

Clark applauded Harry as he held the trophy high, an honor that belonged to all Gryffindors.

A group of excited children surrounded the Quidditch players and welcomed them back to the common room along with the trophy.

There, there was a grand celebration party waiting for them.

This joyful feast lasted until midnight, and some students from other colleges came to visit during the process.

Regarding this violation of discipline, Professor McGonagall, who has always been strict, chose to turn a blind eye and returned to the office early so that the students could play more relaxedly.

However, by around one o'clock in the morning, even the most energetic people were exhausted from playing.

Under Percy's urging, the get-together was completely dispersed, and some students from other colleges also immediately returned to silence in the lounge.

Harry and Ron went upstairs to the dormitory to sleep, and found that Clark had already fallen asleep.

Already exhausted, Harry climbed into bed, tangled the curtains of the four-poster bed together to block the bright moonlight, and soon fell asleep.

Everything seemed so normal until - in the darkness, a pair of bright eyes, as if they were shining with lightning, suddenly opened.

Clark naturally fell asleep, but soon after Harry and the others lay down, he woke up leisurely.

Listening to the slight snoring in his ears, Clark woke up and lifted the quilt and sat up. If Harry and the others had not fallen asleep at this time, they would have seen that he was sleeping with his clothes on.

Clark opened the dormitory door with a wave of his hand, walked down the stairs without making a sound, and returned to the common room.

At this time, the lounge was empty, and some of the garbage left behind by the party had been cleaned up by magic, but some residual traces of the carnival could still be seen in the corners.

Clark waved his hand to straighten the crooked sofa, rekindled the dim flame in the fireplace that was about to go out, then placed the kettle on the fire and boiled water.

The copper kettle was hung on the red charcoal fire, and soon white smoke came out "whooshing".

Clark used the boiling water to make two cups of strong tea, then sat quietly on the sofa and sipped the tea leisurely.

Time passed by minute by second, and the night outside the window became darker and darker, but Clark had no intention of resting at all, and just sat there like this until——

The portrait of the Fat Lady in the lounge was opened from the outside with a creak.

Clark didn't look back, and the person who opened the door didn't seem to have thought that there were still people staying in the lounge at such a late hour, not going to bed.

"Who? Who is where?"

The visitor asked first. He only saw a warm fire burning in the fireplace in the common room. There was a coffee table in front of the fireplace. There were two cups of strong tea on the coffee table, which was still emitting steam.

On the sofa in front of the fireplace, there was a little wizard sitting with his back to himself, his head lowered, not knowing what he was doing.

"it's me."

The visitor seemed to recognize Clark's voice and said quickly: "It's Clark, why aren't you asleep yet?"

Clark didn't respond, so the person behind him said again: "Clark, if there's nothing else, I'll go up first. I'm really sleepy tonight, and the photos of the Quidditch match have been developed until now."

As he said that, a burst of light footsteps sounded behind Clark, walking towards the stairs of the dormitory.

However, just when the footsteps were about to disappear on the stairs, Clark, who had been sitting on the sofa drinking tea, suddenly spoke.

"Mr. Black, I've prepared the tea. Why don't you sit down and have a drink first?"

The footsteps stopped, and the entire common room fell into oppressive silence. Only the firewood in the fireplace made a slight crackling sound.