Quidditch
As November rolled in, the castle became colder. But Roselyn was warmed by her friends. Neville, Ron, Hermione, and her were together almost all hours of the day. They helped each other with schoolwork, shared stories, and laughed together.
They became so incredibly close, that they gained a nickname from one of Ron and Neville's, roommates the Pride. It perfectly fit them, they all hung with each other always seen together. They were also fiercely protective of each other, especially Ron.
Ron was stronger than most boys his age smaller than Crab and Gyoal but stronger. He helped his mum with daily chores while most of his brothers were at Hogwarts, lifting heavy items and getting stronger. His strength also helped him protect his friends; when Malfoy sent his lackeys after them, Ron easily sent the bullies fleeing from years of experience from roughhousing with his brothers.
Neville was their resident teddy bear. He was soft-spoken and awfully shy about anything that didn't involve herbology. But that made him a great listener. He would sit there and comfort any of his friends about their problems. He offered his shoulder to cry on and shared his bad days, and by the end of it, they would be laughing at their problems, replacing sadness with laughter.
Hermoine was their bossy but loveable bookworm, she rivaled Rosie in academics but came up a bit short in casting and theory. But she was open to help, Hermoine would remind everyone about their assignments and help with material for essays. With her new friends, Hermoine also got less uptight with following the rules.
And finally, Roselyn was the leader, she was sharp. In both wit and tongue, she was brilliant in more ways than one. She could be helping her friends with spell casting and the next moment burning Malfoy who came up to bother her and her friends. It also helped her luck when it came to teachers or perfects stumbling about Malfoy bullying her, which rubbed off on her friends.
But Rosie needed more help keeping up with her schoolwork as Quidditch season was rolling in and Wood was driving her through the ground with the extra practices. She was dead in the morning after her practices thankfully Hermonie got her out of bed, and led her to the great hall.
Where Ron practically fed her himself with the amount of food he was pilling on her plate. Neville gave her a pot of a flower she didn't know but it woke her up. Her first Quidditch match was on Sunday, and she was bursting with nerves and anxiety.
No one had seen her play, Wood made sure of that. He booked only the latter hours for practice where no one would see her flying, and he was practically a dragon when it came to protecting her. When her position on the team got out he ordered the team to escort her and her friends to their classes in case the Slytherins tried to sabotage them.
Wood was proven right as the Slytherins tried everything they could to take her out. Once a leg-locking curse hit her on the stairs, thankfully George caught her and the chaser was caught by Professor McGonagall.
She couldn't tell what was worse, people telling her she’d be brilliant, people telling her they’d be running around underneath her holding a mattress, or her team's insane protectiveness.
Rose was so grateful for Hermoine, as she helped her stay on top of her work with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do. Rosie was reading Quidditch through the ages anytime she was free and it was still an interesting read.
She learned there were 700 ways to make a Quidditch foul and that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them; that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.
The Pride was in their clubhouse affectionally called Gryffin's Nest by Ron after their group name. The come-and-go room shifted to their tastes, in the main room where couches and cushions were set for everyone. To the side were large windows lining the room, and lighting the room with natural sunlight.
Which was great for Neville's garden, as the plants get much light from the morning sun. Ron turned a closet into a Quidditch closet, storing their brooms and cleaning supplies along with the balls of their new game.
Rose had realized soon when the castle began to get cold that the teams couldn't practice as much as they should have in the winter months as it got too cold for broom riding. So she and Ron invented indoor quidditch, it's a spin on basketball with quidditch elements.
Two goals were set on either side of a standard basketball court, the chasers were to dribble the ball and toss it into the goal. Bludgers and Keepers were combined to be a blocker, but they were limited to guarding their goal and much to Rosie's disgression they couldn't quite add a seeker, but if the seeker player gets a basket they score double the points.
The game was an instant hit, they recruited Ron's twin brother to join, and they helped spread the word about this new game. Soon Wood brought up the game to Professor McGonagall asking if they could play it within Hogwarts.
She agreed with Wood about the problem of quidditch players not being able to train in winter and thought this was a brilliant way to help keep the players in shape. With permission from Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall along with Flitwick transfigured two empty classrooms into a court for Indoor Quidditch. Teams could book the crout for practice but only the Gryffindor team was using it.
The Hufflepuffs used the crout too, but only really for fun not for training. The Ravenclaws also use it but they too don't train, the Slytherins flat-out refused to use the court and saw it as a waste of time as the game wasn't even on brooms.
But they sorely underestimated the game, since the Gryffindors used the crout to most. Their chasers could easily shoot baskets even with the blockers, and the blocker's reflexes were honed to the point they could block with their eyes closed.
On the day of Rosie's first Quidditch match, she was partly made of nerves. She didn't get a good sleep as she was just too nervous, and she couldn't stomach anything.
“You’ve got to eat some breakfast.” Ron tried to get her to eat something, placing some eggs on her plate she didn't touch it.
“I don’t want anything," Rosie answered,
“Just a bit of toast,” wheedled Hermione.
“I’m not hungry.”
"Come on Rose you got to eat something," Neville said next to her, "How about I run to the nest and get some mint, you could chew on the leaves to calm you down?"
"It's fine Neville, you don't have to do that." Rosie declined the offer, "I know how much you love that garden."
"Okay Rose, but you have to eat something." the boy accepted, but he handed Rose some porage, "Seekers are the most important players of the game, but also the most targeted you have to eat something to keep your strength."
"Thank you, Neville," Rosie said, as began eating her porage. Even after months at Hogwarts, her stomach couldn't handle any foods that sat heavy.
By eleven o’clock the whole school seemed to be out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students had binoculars. The seats might be raised high in the air, but it was still difficult to see what was going on sometimes.
Ron, Hermione, and Neville joined Seamus, and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row. As a surprise for Rose, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined. It said Evans the Princess of Quidditch, and Dean, who was good at drawing, had done a large Gryffindor lioness sitting on a throne underneath. Then Hermione performed a tricky little charm so that the paint flashed different colors.
Meanwhile, in the locker room, Roselyn and the rest of the team were changing into their scarlet Quidditch robes (Slytherin would be playing in green).
Wood cleared his throat for silence.
“Okay, men,” he said.
“And women,” said Chaser Angelina Johnson.
“And women,” Wood agreed. “This is it.”
“The big one,” said Fred.
“The one we’ve all been waiting for,” said George.
“We know Oliver’s speech by heart,” Fred told Roselyn, “we were on the team last year.”
“Shut up, you two,” said Wood. “This is the best team Gryffindor’s had in years. We’re going to win. I know it.”
He glared at them all as if to say, “Or else.”
“Right. It’s time. Good luck, all of you.”
Roselyn followed Fred and George out of the locker room and, hoping his knees weren’t going to give way, walked onto the field to loud cheers. Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.
“Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you,” she said, once they were all gathered around her. Rose noticed that she seemed to be speaking particularly to the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint, a fifth year. Roselyn thought Flint looked as if he had some troll blood in him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the fluttering banner high above, flashing Evans the Princess of Quidditch over the crowd. Her heart skipped. She felt braver.
“Mount your brooms, please.” Rose clambered onto her Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle.
Fifteen brooms rose, high, high into the air. They were off.
“And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor — what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too —”
“JORDAN!”
“Sorry, Professor.”
The Weasley twins’ friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall.
As the game commenced the Gryffindor chasers were too good, with the hours of practice under their belt in indoor Quidditch. They developed a quiet teamwork, The chasers flew close together and when Slytherin tried to steal the quaffle, the chaser holding it would immediately pass to a teammate. This continued until a chaser would score, and even when a Slytherin managed to get the position of the qualify it would be imminently stolen.
When Slytherin attempted to score the blockers were on them, Fred and Gorge whacked builders straight at the opposite team, and Wood would catch the ball before it got even close to the goals.
Gryffindor's cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins. As it became clear the Gyrffindors were too good.
“Budge up there, move along.”
“Hagrid!”
Ron, Hermione, and Neville squeezed together to give Hagrid enough space to join them.
“Bin watchin’ from my hut,” said Hagrid, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck, “But it isn’t the same as bein’ in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?”
“Nope,” said Ron. “Rosie hasn’t had much to do yet.”
“Kept outta trouble, though, that’s somethin’,” said Hagrid, raising his binoculars and peering skyward at the speck that was Rose.
Way up above them, Rose was gliding over the game, squinting about for some sign of the Snitch. This was part of her and Wood’s game plan.
“Keep out of the way until you catch sight of the Snitch,” Wood had said. “We don’t want you attacked before you have to be.”
As the team kept the attention on them, Rose had done a couple of loop-the-loops to let off her feelings. Now she was back to staring around for the Snitch. Once she caught sight of a flash of gold, but it was just a reflection from one of the Weasleys’ wristwatches, and a Bludger decided to come pelting her way, more like a cannonball than anything, But Fred smacked it away before it could get anywhere close to her.
Rose wasn't listening to anything around her, her green eyes were scanning the field for anything gold and she found it. Before anyone could react she was already casting after the snitch. "Looks like Gryffindor seeker, Roselyn Evans has spotted the snitch. Slytherin seeker right on her tail."
Rose twisted and turned with the snitch, weaving through the chasers. Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs was bigger than her, and she was faster so he couldn't keep up with her. The crowd didn't know who to watch, the seeker's race for the snitch or the intense chaser battle.
Rosie saw it coming, and her reflexes kicked. She waited for the last possible second before twisting out of the way of Flint, who instead of her, Higgs crashed into him.
“OH! — After that disgusting bit of cheating, It's gonna take more than THAT TO DE-THRONE GRYFFINDOR'S PRINCESS OF QUIDDITCH!" Jordan roared, as the Gryffindors cheered as the Slytherin's attempt of cheating was dodged by their young seeker.
As the game continued Rosie chased the Snitch never losing sight of it, it felt like she was born in the air as she dodged bludgers. But then she felt it,
Her broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. For a split second, she thought she was going to fall. She gripped the broom tightly with both his hands and knees. She’d never felt anything like that.
It happened again. It was as though the broom was trying to buck him off. But Nimbus Two Thousands did not suddenly decide to buck their riders off. Rosie tried to turn back toward the Gryffindor goalposts — he had half a mind to ask Wood to call time-out — and then she realized that her broom was completely out of her control. She couldn’t turn it. She couldn’t direct it at all.
It was zigzagging through the air, and now and then making violent swishing movements that almost unseated her.
Lee was still commentating, but no one was noticing her struggle. So she screamed, "HEY! SOMEONE HELP ME! I CAN'T CONTROL MY BROOM!" And thankfully people heard her.
People were pointing up at Rosie all over the stands. Her broom had started to roll over and over, with her only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasped. Rose’s broom had given a wild jerk and Roselyn swung off it. She was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand.
“Did something happen to it when Flint tried to blocked her?” Neville suggested.
“Can’t have,” Hagrid said, his voice shaking. “Can’t nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic — no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand.”
At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid’s binoculars, but instead of looking up at Rosie, she started looking frantically at the crowd.
“What are you doing?” moaned Ron, gray-faced.
“I knew it,” Hermione gasped, “Snape — look.”
Ron grabbed the binoculars. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Rose and was muttering nonstop under his breath.
“He’s doing something — jinxing the broom,” said Hermione. “What should we do?”
“Leave it to me.”
Before Ron could say another word, Hermione had disappeared. Ron turned the binoculars back on Rose.
Her broom was vibrating so hard, it was almost impossible for him to hang on much longer. The whole crowd was on its feet, watching, terrified, as the Weasleys flew up to try and pull Rosie safely onto one of their brooms, but it was no good — every time they got near him, the broom would jump higher still. They dropped lower and circled beneath her, obviously hoping to catch her if she fell. Marcus Flint seized the Quaffle and tried to score but Wood blocked his attempts cursing at him for trying to cheat.
“Come on, Hermione,” Ron muttered desperately.
Hermione had fought her way across to the stand where Snape stood, and was now racing along the row behind him; she didn’t even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front. Reaching Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, well-chosen words. Bright blue flames shot from her wand onto the hem of Snape’s robes.
It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire. A sudden yelp told her she had done her job. Scooping the fire off him into a little jar in her pocket, she scrambled back along the row — Snape would never know what had happened.
It was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back onto his broom.
“Neville, you can look!” Ron said. Neville had been hiding behind his hands when he saw one of his first friends hanging for her life.
Rosie was speeding toward the ground when the crowd gasped when Rose leaped off her broom and landed safely but roughly on the ground clutching something to her chest.
As she stood the crowd began to roar as the snitch was tight in her grasp. "I HAVE THE SNITCH!"
"LADY'S AND GENTLEMEN! WE HAVE WITNESSED THE GRYFFINDOR PRINCESS OF QUINDDICH PULL OFF A PRO-PLAYER MOVE! ROSELYN EVANS HAS EARNED HER TITLE! GRYFFINDOR WINS 250! TO 30!" Lee screamed into the mic, as Rosie's team surrounded her singing her praises and chanting from the Gryffindors
"ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS! ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS! SHE RULES THE PITCH!" Roselyn had never smiled this much before but she didn't want it to end.
The following days were of celebration, after such a crushing defeat of Slytherin. Rose became even more popular overnight, she was treated like a princess.
When she walked into the great hall the morning after the game, the entire Gryffindor escorted her like a crusade of knights. "MAKE WAY! MAKE WAY!" George called out as he and his twin opened the doors of the great hall for Rosie and her friends. "THE GRYFFINDOR PRINCESS OF QUINDDICH IS MAKING HER APPEARINCE! ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS!" The twins did even do a dramatic bow as she and the pride walked past.
From all the attention she was burning red for the rest of the week, after a humiliating defeat from an eleven-year-old Wood predicted the Slytherins would try even harder to get back at her. But any Slytherins that tried would be either, pranked into an Oblivan by Fred and George, have cruses thrown their way, or have their noses broken by Angelina.
By the end of the week, it became abundantly clear, that no one would mess Roselyn Evans the princess of Gryffindor.
At the beginning of the next week, the attention died down. But that's when she noticed something off with Professor Snape. When he walked he would limp, and he would teach from his desk never standing. She could tell it was some sort of bite, she had been attacked by Anut Marges's dog enough times to know.
But it wasn't until that day did she found out what happened at the pitch as her friends had questioned Hagrid about Snape, but he defended the potion master. Saying he would never do that to Rosie.
The girl was inclined to agree with him, even though questionable. Snape never said anything cruel to her, he even gives her some advice on potions. He chooses her over his Slytherin's when he caught them trying to injure her.
But there was one thing they knew, the something in the package was a stone and it was made by a Nicolas Flamel. And that was what was being guarded by the Cerberus, (named Fluffly of all things)