"And here comes the Slytherin team!" Lee Jordan's voice boomed around the Hogwarts quidditch pitch."
Harry enthusiastically cheered the Slytherin team onto the pitch, just one more robe in a sea of green. In the second timeline, quidditch matches had been one of his few water drops of social belonging in a desert of hatred and scorn.
On his right, Hermione joined him in cheering their fellow Slytherins.
On his left, Pansy Parkinson cheered too, although her efforts were more subdued, as though trying not to breathe too much of the same air as him and Hermione.
"The now the Gryffindors! Wood, Spinnet, Bell, Johnson, Weasley, Weasley, aaaannnnndddd… Potter!"
While most of the stadium cheered, all the Slytherins booed and jeered. This time, Pansy didn't feel the need to dampen down her enthusiasm.
"Flint and Wood shake hands, Madam Hooch releases the snitch… the bludgers… and the quaffle… and off they go!"
The keepers retreated to their respective hoops, the beaters shot off to round up the bludgers, and the six chasers and two seekers converged on the quaffle in a mess of bodies and brooms.
"Flint with the quaffle! Passes to Bole! Ooo! Intercepted by Katie Bell! New on the Gryffindor team this year, along with Potter, how will she stand up to the Slytherin muscle?"
Harry punched the air with his fist. "C'mon! That was an easy pass!"
Pansy glanced at him. "Didn't think you'd be a fan of this, Potter!" She had to shout to be heard over the press of snakes around them.
Harry grinned at the cropped-haired heiress. "Why not!"
"You grew up with muggles!"
Hermione leaned around. "So did I!"
Pansy made a face.
"Alicia Spinnet scores! With me, I wish."
"Jordan!"
"Sorry, Professor. And Potter breaks off from the quaffle formation to hunt the snitch! Will the youngest seeker in a century find it before the score equalises?"
Bletchley tossed the quaffle to Flint as though it burned.
Flint pelted up the pitch, but held onto it for a split second too long.
"Ouch! That's gotta hurt. Flint goes over the regulation three second carry time and gets shocked. Drops the quaffle, but picked up by Pucey! Now Tamaron, Flint, Pucey again!"
Harry watched his twin circle the pitch in long easy curves. Now that the Gryffindors were playing three on four for the quaffle it would only be a matter of time before…"
"Slytherin scores! And John Potter abandons the search for the snitch!"
Harry grinned and shouted for the next ten minutes. It was so good just to let go and shout all the abuse and support he wanted.
The teams seemed evenly matched. Whenever Gryffindor would score, John would break off to hunt the snitch, tipping the balance in the Slytherin's favour - And whenever Slytherin scored, Higgs would do the same.
"Coming up to the one hundred point mark now! Remember, the snitch is worth ten percent of the team's total points, rounded down, so up till now it's been worth nothing! But with the next hoop, it'll be worth ten points! Will that be enough to tip the balance?"
Gryffindor scored next. Harry cursed. Up till now, John hadn't had much time to search for the snitch. Now that the score sat at 100-90 he'd have a larger window.
The game continued and soon Slytherin equalised again. Now Higgs also broke off to search for the snitch, leaving it three on three for the first time in the match.
Then Harry's eyes widened. The snitch! It was by the Slytherin middle hoop! He could see it!
"And there goes John Potter! He's seen the snitch! He's almost on it! NO! Slytherin scores!"
A groan of disappointment erupted from the Gryffindor stands and John backed off, clearly unwilling to end the game in a tie. He intercepted the nearing Higgs and let the snitch vanish into the open space of the quidditch stadium.
That was the closest either team came to a victory for the next hundred points. By the time the score hit two hundred all, it was becoming clear that the Gryffindor team had the advantage over the Slytherin.
Now playing three on three, the Gryffindor chasers could push the lead against the heavier and bulkier Slytherins. Each time the Gryffindors pushed twenty points ahead, the Slytherin seeker was forced to brake off his search for the snitch to assist.
By the time the game reached 300-300, John Potter had to spend almost no time at all helping his team's chasers, and could devote himself full-time to the search for the snitch, much to Harry's annoyance. He knew he was better than John, but Higgs certainly wasn't. He made a mental note to start including broomstick work in Ginny's training. Being able to duel on broomstick was a thing, wasn't it?
Then, it happened.
"Slytherin scores! And… wait, what's up with Potter's broom?"
Harry snapped out of his musings to see John's broom lurching and bucking from side to side, up and down.
...
He scanned the crowd and found Quirrell, gazing up at John, not breaking eye contact.
"That's a dark hex!" Pansy screamed, waving her arms about in excitement.
Hah! Oh, he'd forgotten all about this ! It hadn't exactly been a huge event for him, after all.
"What do we do?" Hermione asked, uncertainty vibrating in her voice.
He met her worried gaze with his own relaxed one. "Why do we need to do anything?"
The Weasley twins circled below John trying and failing to get him onto one of their brooms. Flint grabbed the quaffle and scored four times while everyone else's eyes were on his brother.
"I mean…" he continued, ignoring Pansy screaming shrilly in his ear, "I'm sure that Snape will-"
He snapped his mouth shut.
...
"Harry, Snape is the hospital wing."
He was, wasn't he? Harry glanced up at his twin to see the bucking and shaking getting worse. Whatever the teacher's should be doing to stop this clearly wasn't working. He looked around the quidditch pitch and noticed that many of the students had taken their wands out. Some held them uncertainly, some with purpose, and many with furtive glances at those around them, starting to point them towards his hated twin. There was a certain… inevitability in the air and an evil thought flashed through Harry's mind.
Harry grinned and turned to Hermione, a wild gleam in his eye. "Okay, we have to save him!" He turned to Pansy. "Pass the word along, Arresto Momentum when he falls!"
Pansy stared. "Why would we want to save-"
He laughed. "-I know it's a weak spell at this range, but if we ALL cast it, we can do it!"
Pansy looked at him like he was insane. Then realisation seemed to dawn across her face. Her eyes lit up. "Got it!" She turned away.
Harry turned back to Hermione and fingered his holly and phoenix feather wand. "Get ready!"
Hermione firmed her jaw and aimed her wand at John, her face a picture of determined concentration.
John's broom bucked and shook. Moments later, it gave a sad little *putt* sound, and John Potter fell out of the sky.
Two hundred voices shrieked as he hurtled to the ground, while the other two hundred, dressed in every Hogwarts house colour, all across the stadium, all pointed their wands at him, and yelled a deafening cacophony of wingardium leviosa, accio Potter, arresto momentum, and mobilicorpus.
The spells raced towards the falling seeker, and John Potter's plummet instantly halted a whole thirty feet above the ground, with all the suddenness and consequences of an owl flying into a wall.
...
Hermione stood to attention in front of the hospital bed, along side her fellow healer trainees.
On the bed, John Potter lay under a petrificus totalus to stop him moving and damaging the few remaining unbroken bones in his body. That didn't seem to stop him moaning though.
Healer Pomfrey made another jab with her wand and yet another bone made a horrible little cracking and crinkling sound. Yet another moan issued from John Potter's throat.
The older healer tutted. " That one was a major fracture with six hairline fractures along its length."
John Potter moaned, again .
Hermione shook her head. Well, if the boy didn't want this sort of thing to happen to him, then he shouldn't be John Potter should he? He had only himself to blame.
Healer Pomfrey asked Penelope Clearwater to get her a jar of huntsman's sorrow and prepare it for application. She then pointed her wand at John's hand and made a complicated waving motion. A mess of coloured shapes and numbers appeared over it. " This one"-she motioned towards the hand-"is completely beyond the capabilities of our standard bone mending spells - so we need to use something more potent. Miss Clearwater? Any ideas?"
The Ravenclaw straightened with the half opened jar of healing herbs in her hands. "Skele-gro?"
Healer Pomfrey nodded. "Exactly." She turned to another student "Any preparations needed for skele-gro?"
The older Hufflepuff boy thought for a moment. "Vanish the bones?"
"Correct. The spell is 'ossa peribunt', It will not work on certain bones like the skull or the ribcage - such effects would be fatal - but for anything else it is the only way to repair otherwise irreparable damage. It's a simple point and cast spell, needing no more than twelve inches distance."
Healer Pomfrey turned to her. "Luckily, there's not much that can go wrong with a bone vanishing. It either works or it doesn't, so would you like to get some practise, Miss Granger?"
John Potter moaned again.
Hermione smiled the smile of kneazle faced with a downed and helpless werewolf. "Happy to, Healer Pomfrey."
...
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