Chapter 27 - 27 Quidditch match officially kicks off
Chapter 27: Quidditch match officially kicks off
In November, the weather in the Scottish Highlands became very cold.
The mountains surrounding Hogwarts were shrouded in heavy gray clouds, their peaks covered with thick white snow. The lake was as cold and hard as a steel plate. Every morning, the ground was covered with frost.
In this season, the Quidditch season began.
On the Quidditch pitch, Keeper Hagrid was wrapped in a long mole-skin coat, wearing rabbit-fur gloves and huge beaver-fur boots, tirelessly de-icing the brooms. Outside the pitch, the Quidditch team captain gathered the players together, quietly explaining their tactics.
However, two Gryffindor Beaters were not attending to their captain's speech or properly warming up before the match. Instead, they sneaked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office.
At that moment, a pair of red-haired twins stood in front of Dracula's desk, staring intently at the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, who was leaning back in his chair.
"Professor, today is our first Quidditch match of the year; you must come and watch!" the twins said loudly.
Dracula glanced out the window at the clear weather, smirked, and casually replied:
"I'm not interested in Quidditch. You go and play. Good luck."
"Professor!" Fred exclaimed, slapping the desk. "Today's match is about your forty Galleons, and your most admiring student, Harry, will also be playing. Aren't you tempted?"
Dracula watched Fred's desk-slapping and the wine nearly falling off the edge of the desk, and then slightly raised his hand.
Immediately, Fred began to float uncontrollably, rising to the top of the office and hanging from a chandelier.
"Intending to damage the professor's office property is a fitting punishment for you," Dracula said casually, sipping the red wine that had moved to the edge of the desk.
George glanced at his brother hanging from the chandelier, discreetly pulled back his hand from the desk, and took a step back.
"Professor, are you really so heartless?" George changed his tactic, starting to act dramatically.
He knelt in front of Dracula, sobbing, with tears and snot streaming, and spoke pitifully.
"Poor Harry, who has lived with his harsh aunt since childhood and never met his parents, finally finds solace in a professor he admires in the magical world! A Quidditch match without you watching is incomplete for Harry!"
Dracula's mouth twitched as he looked at George's exaggerated performance. Feeling that the words had reached such a level that not going seemed too cold-hearted...
"Alright, stop crying. I see you're working hard at your act," he interrupted George's fake crying and said, "I will go and watch the match."
Upon hearing Dracula's confirmation, George immediately dropped his sad expression and showed a surprised face. Fred, hanging from the chandelier, also gave him a thumbs-up.
However, conceding was not Dracula's style, so he added:
"But George Weasley's mess in the professor's office also needs to be punished."
With that, Dracula levitated George and hung him up next to Fred on the chandelier. The two red-haired boys, wearing the Gryffindor Quidditch team uniforms, hung side by side from the ceiling like two identical puppets.
Dracula then ignored the two pranksters, opened a pure black sunshade, and walked out of his office, standing under the long-lost sunshine.
The Weasley twins, relieved that the professor had left, sighed in relief and then exchanged knowing glances.
"Wow, that was too close!" George exclaimed. "If not for my cleverness, we'd be done for! Why did we have to provoke Professor Dracula?"
"Don't be ridiculous, George!" Fred retorted loudly. "Have you forgotten? We bet all our Galleons with Slytherin's big spenders! If Harry doesn't catch the Golden Snitch, we'll be completely bankrupt."
As they were about to resume their usual bickering, they suddenly realized something was wrong.
"Wait, we seem to be in trouble!" George abruptly interrupted Fred's actions.
"What's wrong?" Fred asked, belatedly realizing.
"Wake up, Fred! We're still hanging from the chandelier!!"
...
In today's Quidditch match, the Gryffindor team members were confident.
They had a secret weapon—Harry Potter!
After weeks of training, Harry was about to participate in his first-ever match. This match was between Gryffindor and Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, their position in the House Cup standings would rise to second place.
As Gryffindor's secret weapon, Wood decided to keep Harry's participation a secret. Therefore, almost no one had seen Harry play Quidditch.
However, the news that Harry would be the Seeker leaked out.
Because of this, some of the Savior's admirers came to tell him that he would play great, and some old Slytherin rivals said they would hold a mattress below him to catch him if he fell...
Harry didn't know which was worse and was unaware that the leak also involved the Weasley twins—
The twins, in order to get Slytherin's big spenders to bet against them, had secretly revealed Harry Potter's name and declared that Harry would catch the Golden Snitch in his first match, ending the game!
Slytherin students were thrilled upon hearing this and didn't think a first-year student who had only been training for two months could be a real secret weapon. They all bet that Harry would fall off his broom.
As for the culprits, the Weasley twins arrived at the pitch in a rush just before the match.
The two hung from Dracula's office chandelier for quite some time, until they remembered the Quidditch match and finally thought of using the Summoning Charm to call their brooms from the office door and then fly down from the chandelier on them.
Fred and George undoubtedly received a stern reprimanding from Wood.
Finally, amidst the laughter of the Weasley brothers, Wood's serious warnings and inspiring cheers, and the cheers of the spectators, Harry, along with Fred and George, walked out of the locker room and onto the roaring pitch.
The Quidditch match was about to begin!