Ch 72: Jitters
*Anos's POV*
"So ready for the big day?" I asked Harriet as she checked her Broom for the hundredth time.
"I think so," Harriet answered unsure.
"Stop checking your broom again and again. Eat you'll need the energy today." Simon said stuffing himself with Omelettes and sausages.
"There's not much you can do about the match, the best you can do right now is just calm down and eat," Alucard said looking up from his book.
Harriet didn't say anything but reluctantly put some food on her plate and began to eat.
" Oh come on you've got a Nimbus 2000 what's there to be afraid of. You're a seeker so you just have to keep away from the bloodbath in the middle of the field and keep looking for the snitch, it's a sunny day so keep looking for the shiny golden ball in the sky. Oh and remember to look for things in the air, Seekers are known to crash into the crowd because they see the light reflect off of some poor chaps watch and think it's the snitch." Draco said, providing his expertise between bites of breakfast.
" That's not helpful at all," Hermione said looking up from her plate as the Great Hall devolved into pandemonium around us.
"Don't fail us, Potter!" A random Gryffindor said as he passed by our table.
This was probably the 10th one this morning.
"Next summer you can come over to my house, we have a big field to practice Quidditch by the time the school opens next year you'll be an expert." Draco continued.
"Well then now the only problem is how to postpone the match to next year," I said smiling.
"Why're you so nervous? Aren't games supposed to be... Enjoyable?" Lan said slowly chewing.
"We're counting on you Potter!" another random Gryffindor shouted from the other end of the room. Harriet gulped audibly and pushed her plate away even though she had eaten less than a mouse would've.
"I think that answers your question," Hermione said rolling her eyes.
" It can't be that bad Potter, just try to stay in the air. I know the Slytherin Seeker he's a bumbling idiot, I'll bet 5 galleons that he'll fall from his broom in the first ten minutes of the game. You've to just survive till then." Draco said calmly. But Harriet's reaction to the word fall didn't seem like the one he was probably hoping for.
I couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny now?" Simon asked still stuffing himself.
"Nothing just funny seeing Draco working against Slytherin, what'll the ancestors say?" I said chuckling.
"And why exactly is that supposed to be funny?" Lan asked.
"Nothing, nothing at all," Draco said trying his best to brush off the topic, he even tried to put a hand on my mouth but he was sitting across the table from me so tough luck there.
" Draco here wanted to join Slytherin, already ordered stickers of the house, also bought a book what was the name again? Ah 'The Serpents and their fangs' by Orgett Diggory. The book had all the known methods of how to get elected as a Prefect for Slytherin and it's revised every term. My uncle; Draco's father has 3 pages dedicated to him." I said still giggling as Draco buried himself into his robes.
That got the conversation rolling and after a while, Harriet finally started to eat in portions that belonged to a human.
I couldn't do a lot about the nerves before her match except calm her down.
It would be an interesting match, for the participants, the audience and even more so for one purple wearing, dark lord serving DADA teacher.
We all started to filter out of the Great Hall and finally reached the Quidditch field.
"You'll do just fine in the match, I'll make you DragonSpice sandwiches even if you lose so it's a win-win situation for you," I said to Harriet and she smiled as we parted ways.
Now the match would start and an even better show too.
"Let's get their fast or the older students would hog the best seats," Draco said excitedly.
"Nope, we're gonna sit right there," I said pointing to the seats in the middle row.
"Why? We'll be further from the field." Draco protested.
"And what'll you do with the seats in the front row? Stare at the player's legs from down there? The seats high up would make it too hard to focus on the match, the middle row is the sweet spot." I said and got a few nods of agreement.
" He's not wrong there. It's the old cinema seat problem once again." Simon said nodding.
" And look in the front of where I pointed at what do you see right there?" I asked as Draco looked around.
" More Seats?" Draco said unsure.
" Yes. Exactly but you know who sits there?" I asked and Draco shook his head.
" That's the teacher's seat, who're effectively the judges and when anything is disputed they'll need a good view of the field. So if their seats are in the middle then that's the best view of the field as a whole." I said and realization dawned on Draco.
" Well, then what're we doing here? Let's get there fast." Draco said and we navigated our way through the crowd of overly enthusiastic students cheering for their houses. More than half the field was shouting Gryffindor.
Gryffindor was really popular or more likely Slytherin was really hated.
As we all sat down I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked behind to find Cedric there.
"So you know of the middle row magic huh?" He asked smiling.
"Well, I figured it out I guess. Didn't know there was a name for it." I said shrugging.
" The match should start anytime now. Who do you think will win?" He asked placing his head on his hands as he took a seat one row above us.
"By the way, the field is chanting? Gryffindor should win the match in 30 seconds." I answered and Cedric laughed.
"Yeah can't say anything about that," Cedric replied.
"You play Quidditch too or something?" Simon asked.
" Yeah but not the most popular player if people don't even know I play." He replied.
We talked back and forth as Draco discussed Quidditch with Cedric and Simon asked questions every once in a while.
The seats really were perfect seeing, that our DADA teacher was right in front of me, on the opposite side of the field.
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Author's Note: Another chapter for getting onto Trending. Yeah the thumb cut really fucked me up lol, it opened up again while I was typing and then I had to clean the blood off the screen of my phone.
Life's a bitch.
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Hope everyone has a nice day/Night.