Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw (PA)
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Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw is the thirteenth chapter of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Contents |
Enmity
Ron and Hermione are still not talking to each other. The boy thinks it unforgivable that she never took the threat that Crookshanks posed to Scabbers seriously. Hermione, on the other hand, insists that her cat is innocent, and that Ron is prejudiced against it.
Harry believes in Crookshanks' guilt; but when he tried to point it out to Hermione, she lost her temper with him as well, referring to the Firebolt incident to prove that, to the boys, everything is her fault.
Fred bracingly points out to Ron that Scabbers was boring. "And he's been off-color for ages," he says. "He was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly -- one swallow -- he probably didn't feel a thing." Ron miserably remembers the one time Scabbers bit Goyle's finger (PS6).
Harry attempts to cheer his best friend up by inviting him to the Gryffindor Quidditch team practice so that Ron can ride on the Firebolt for a bit.
The Gryffindor team practice
Madam Hooch, still overseeing the Gryffindor team to keep an eye on Harry, was as impressed as anyone with Harry's broomstick. Examining it, she says, "Look at the balance on it! If the Nimbus series has a fault, it's a slight list to the tail-end — you often find they develop a drag after a few years. They've updated the handle too, a bit slimmer than the Cleansweeps, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows — a pity they've stopped making them. I learned to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too...."
She rambled on for a while longer, until Oliver Wood interrupted her, claiming that the team needed to start.
When all the players are assembled, Wood tells them who the Ravenclaw Seeker will be: Cho Chang, a fourth-year student who has had problems with injuries in the recent past. She has recovered in time for the match, unfortunately, and she's pretty good. Nevertheless, she rides a Comet Two Sixty, which is almost a joke in comparison to a Firebolt (here Wood throws the broomstick a look of fervent admiration).
When Harry at last mounts his broomstick, he is elated. It turned out to be better than he'd dreamed: the Firebolt turns with the slightest touch, and raced so fast that the stadium became a blur. When Wood releases the Snitch, Harry catches it in ten seconds. He releases it, gives the Snitch a one-minute head start, and catches it again, near Katie Bell's knee.
The team, inspired by the Firebolt, plays very well. For the first time ever, Wood has no complaints whatsoever; he has only one more observation: he confirms with Harry that the boy has solved his Dementor problem (PA9). Harry replies that he has, thinks of his feeble Patronus (PA12), and wishes it were stronger.
Fred points out that Dumbledore would be extremely angry if the Dementors showed up at the match once more. The team disperses, and Harry stays behind so that Ron can ride his Firebolt. Madam Hooch is there as well, asleep in her seat.
Ron happily rides the broomstick. After night falls, Madam Hooch wakes up with a start, berates the boys for not waking her, and insists that they go back to the castle. They obey, discussing the Firebolt's amazing performance. Halfway there, Harry catches a glimpse of a pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness.
He uses Lumos to illuminate the nearby animal, only to find out, much to his relief, that it is actually Crookshanks. Ron attempts to send him away, but it disappears before he can do anything.
Before the match
Harry descends to the Great Hall taking his broomstick, which earns him plenty of admiring looks. The Slytherins look shocked. Oliver puts the Firebolt in the middle of the Gryffindor table, with the nametag facing up, and people from other Houses come over to look at it; Cedric Diggory is one of them.
Penelope Clearwater, Percy's girlfriend, asks if she can hold the Firebolt. Percy jokingly tells her not to sabotage his House team; he goes on to say the two have a bet going on regarding the outcome of the match ("Harry, make sure you win. I haven't got ten Galleons," he whispers).
Draco, Crabbe and Goyle come to tease Harry about the Dementor fiasco, deploring the fact that the broomstick doesn't have a parachute. The Gryffindor retorts by mentioning the lack of an arm in Malfoy's broomstick, so that it could catch the Snitch for him. Draco returns to his table without another word.
Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw
The Gryffindor team goes to the locker rooms at a quarter to eleven. The weather is much better than that of the game against Hufflepuff. Harry changes into his Quidditch robes, putting his wend inside the T-shirt he wore underneath the robes; he hopes he won't need it, and wonders whether Remus will be watching.
Wood's pep talk is simple: he asks them to fly like they did the previous night. They enter the stadium, joining the blue-clad Ravenclaws. Cho Chang is the only girl in the team; she is shorter than Harry, and extremely pretty. She throws him a smile, and he feels "a slight lurch in the region of his stomach that he didn't think had anything to do with nerves."
Oliver Wood and Roger Davies shake hands. Hooch blows her whistle, and they're off.
Lee Jordan is commenting this match. McGonagall reprimands him for his endless praise of the Firebolt.
Harry catches a glimpse of gold and presses towards it, with Cho close in tow. She is, he notes, a very good flier; she keeps forcing him to change directions. Her broomstick is no match for a Firebolt's acceleration power, however, and he soon leaves her behind.
Katie Bell scores the first goal of the evening, and Harry sees the Snitch clearly: it is close to the ground, flying near one of the barriers. He dives towards it, followed by Cho; but then a Bludger hit by a Ravenclaw comes out of nowhere. Harry barely manages to avoid it, but the Snitch vanishes.
All Ravenclaws are proud of their Beater. Gryffindors feel precisely the opposite, and George Weasley hits the second Bludger directly towards the Beater in question, forcing him to roll over in midair to avoid it.
The score is eighty points to zero. Lee continues to praise the Firebolt, earning him another yelling by McGonagall. Ravenclaw scores three goals, diminishing the Gryffindor advantage.
Harry catches yet another glimpse of the Snitch, now circling the Gryffindor goal post, and heads towards it. Right then, Cho appears out of nowhere, blocking his passage. "HARRY, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE A GENTLEMAN!" Wood bellows. "KNOCK HER OFF HER BROOM IF YOU HAVE TO!"
The boy turns and sees only a smiling Cho; the Snitch has disappeared once more. He goes twenty feet higher to have a better look at the field, and notices that the girl is marking him instead of looking for the Snitch herself. He decides to put this to his advantage and dives again; Cho tries to follow, and he changes course abruptly and ascends very fast.
He sees it once more: the Snitch is near the Ravenclaw end of the field. Harry speeds in its direction and, far below, so does Cho.
"Dementors"
Suddenly, Cho gasps and screams, pointing at a corner of the field. Harry looks down and sees three Dementors in the Pitch. Without a second thought, he reaches for his wand and casts the Patronus Charm in their direction. This time, it works: an enormous silver-white shape sets off towards the hooded figures.
Harry's mind is miraculously clear as he reaches out and grabs the Snitch. Madam Hooch sounds the whistle, and Harry's six team mates rush over to hug him; the three girls kiss him. Down below, the Gryffindors are cheering loudly, and they swarm in the field to celebrate.
Even Percy is cheerful for having won his bet. Seamus Finnigan is delighted, as well, and congratulates Harry. Hagrid, standing high over the crowd, calls the play "ruddy brilliant".
"That was quite some Patronus," says Remus, looking both shaken and pleased. He goes on to tell Harry that there were no Dementors, in fact; Draco, along with Crabbe, Goyle and Marcus Flint, had dressed up in long, black, hooded robes. Harry's Patronus gave them quite a scare. McGonagall is furious, taking fifty points from Slytherin and promising to talk to Dumbledore about this "low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker".
Harry feels triumphant. Ron is laughing at Malfoy as well. George fights his way through the crowd to call Harry to party in the Gryffindor common room.
Party
The party goes on all day and well into the night. After a few hours' disappearance, the twins return with bags of Honeydukes sweets (including Peppermint Toads), pumpkin fizz and Butterbeer).
The only person not taking part in the festivities is Hermione, who is at a corner trying to read a huge book called Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. Harry approaches her and asks whether she even went to the match. Hermione says that she did, and she's happy with the victory, but that she needs to read the book by Monday (she still has 422 pages to go).
She adds that Ron wouldn't like her to participate, either. Ron chooses that moment to say, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them—"
Hermione bursts into tears and runs towards the staircase to the girls' dormitories. When Harry asks Ron whether he can't give Hermione a break, the Weasley refuses; he claims Hermione doesn't even act as though she is wrong.
The party ends at one o'clock, when McGonagall shows up wearing a tartan dressing gown and hair net; she sends everyone to bed.
Harry goes to his dorm, exhausted, and falls asleep the moment he lies down. He has a strange dream, where he was chasing a silvery-white object through a forest with the Firebolt in his shoulder. He is about to turn into a clearing when something wakes him up.
"AAARRGGHH! NOOO!"
Sirius Black
Ron's scream forces Harry to wake at once. He fumbles with the hangings in his bedpost, still disoriented. From the other side of the room, Seamus Finnigan asks what's happening. Harry manages to leap out of his bed. Dean Thomas lights his lamp.
Ron is sitting up on his bed, looking terrified. "Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!" he pants. "Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! Woke me up!"
The curtains of Ron's bed are proof that the boy hadn't been dreaming. All the boys run out of the dormitory and rush to the common room, waking several Gryffindors on the way there.
Some students make their way downstairs. Fred Weasley happily suggests that they continue the party of the previous night. Percy comes down and, pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas, orders everyone to go back to their dormitories. Ron faintly tells him what happened, but his older brother says it's nonsense.
McGonagall returns, all of a sudden, looking furious. She reprimands all the Gryffindors ("Percy, I expected better of you!") and she, too, is stunned by Ron's tale. She accepts the boy's suggestion of asking Sir Cadogan.
"Sir Cadogan," she asks, "did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"
"Certainly, good lady!" comes the prompt response. "He had [the passwords]! Had the whole week's, my lady!"
McGonagall returns to the common room, her face extremely pallid.
"Which person," she says shakily, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy slippered toes, raises his hand slowly into the air.
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| The Patronus | Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw | Snape's Grudge |
