Taking To The Skies
When the whistle blew, Demelza flew high straight away, trying to get a view of what everyone was doing. England took possession of the quaffle first, so she came back down to try to disrupt their attack. She succeeded in preventing their chaser getting a pass away, forcing him to take a tame shot that was easily stopped by Tom.
Tom then threw the ball back to her. Instantly, a bludger and the chaser she'd just corralled away came flying towards her, so she dodged downwards and threw the ball up the field. The throw was a bit wild but, much to her relief, Jan reached it first, and he and Anne headed up the field in attack.
Demelza had no time to watch though. Her job when they were on the attack was to join the seekers and do her best to put the England seeker off. Goals came thick and fast in professional quidditch, providing the majority of the entertainment for the crowd, but it was the seekers who decided the game most of the time and, much as she hated to admit it, England's seeker outclassed Pieter. Therefore, their plan was to try to get a 160-point lead and prevent England catching the snitch in the meantime. It would be difficult but they had chasers capable of scoring the goals. She just had to do her job well.
It was not an easy job. The pace of play was so much faster than club quidditch and, even though she had been training with the rest of the squad for a couple of weeks, it was a bit of a shock. Not to mention the fact that she had been tasked with marking one of the world's best seekers while also having to help defend the goal hoops. Despite the difficulty of her task, she was loving it. There was nothing she liked more than being in the air. The crowd was electric. Even though it was almost entirely supporting England, it was impossible not to be fired up by it.
Fifteen minutes into the game, Belgium were up by 40 points. A handy lead, but still nowhere near enough. It was time to put their new trick play into action. Jan made the signal to Demelza and Pieter, telling them to be ready. When she next got the quaffle, she prepared to pass it to Anne and trail the England seeker once more, but underneath Anne, she spotted a glint of gold, low to the ground. Pieter had no chance of catching it, but the England seeker was closer. Because of this, she threw the ball to Jan instead, who barely held on, not expecting it, and went into a dive, screaming for the ball back and making sure she was putting herself right between England's seeker and the snitch. Jan looked a bit surprised, but obliged, firing a rocket to Demelza, who caught it and slowed slightly. The England seeker tried to brake, seeing Demelza in her way, but couldn't slow quickly enough and ploughed into Demelza. The whistle blew for a penalty and the seeker flew away, furious. She made the point to the referee that she had been flying towards the snitch, but the referee was having none of it. Demelza had been allowed to take that space because she had the quaffle and the snitch had disappeared again while the seeker was complaining.
Boos rang around the stadium as Demelza took the ball and flew towards the opposing keeper. She didn't bother with the faking that some of the more offensive-oriented chasers did, she just flew forwards and fired the ball as hard as she could at the left hoop. The keeper went the right way, but the ball had too much pace and went soaring through the hoop. Demelza fist pumped and let out a roar before turning back and rushing into her usual defensive position. Her first international goal! It felt good, but there was still a lot of work to do.
The English players clearly weren't happy with what she had done and the game became even more physical, although they stopped short of committing fouls. There was too much at stake for payback such as that. With the snitch having appeared once already, both seekers became even more agitated, each testing the other out with feints and complicated manoeuvres. Pieter was clearly outmatched, which forced Demelza to stick even closer to England's seeker, allowing England's chasers to pull back a couple of goals.
She and Pieter got the signal for their trick play once more from Jan and this time, with no sign of the snitch, she threw the quaffle to Anne, then shot up, as she had done all game, to shadow the England seeker, only this time, she stuck even closer than usual, not letting her get a moment's peace. Pieter drifted closer to the England goalposts under the guise of looking for the snitch, then, just as Anne was approaching the keeper to shoot, dropped down suddenly. Instead of shooting, Anne threw him a pass, leaving him with a wide open goal, which he duly took advantage of.
England's keeper and their captain both flew over to the referee, protesting that the goal shouldn't stand. Demelza smiled. They hadn't broken any rules—it was forbidden to have two attacking chasers in the scoring area, but Pieter wasn't a chaser and was well within his rights to be there. While England were protesting, Roos sent a vicious bludger at Ginny while Matthieu sent one at one of England's other chasers. Ginny just about dodged the one aimed at her, but her teammate wasn't so lucky, the bludger hitting his shoulder and sending him off his broom.
There was a loud groan from the crowd, who were evidently just as confused by the new tactic as their team was. Indeed, England's protests went on long enough that the quaffle fell to the ground, allowing Belgium to claim it again. It was only when Anne threw it through the centre hoop that they got on with the game again. Still, Belgium were now up by 60 and had an extra chaser. That play couldn't have gone any better for them.
With the extra chaser advantage that they now had, Demelza spent more time bothering the opposing seeker. She still helped out in defence as much as she could, but there wasn't much that the England chasers could do against a team with superior numbers. Pieter also continued to help his chasers, popping into the England goal area to score. It was clear that England didn't know how to respond. The score kept rising. Belgium's lead had risen to 120. Soon it would be enough that the snitch would be irrelevant. Once the lead reached 160, Demelza would be able to leave the seekers alone and join Anne and Jan in attack, hopefully allowing them to extend their lead even further without giving the England chasers a chance to get back into the game.
However, despite the deficit on the scoreboard, the England seeker was not making it easy for them. She went into a sharp dive. Pieter followed. A bludger whizzed passed him and he just about avoided being unseated. She was a slippery flier and far superior to Pieter, requiring Demelza to abandon the quaffle almost entirely just to restrict her movement. The chaser match-up became a lot more even, being two against two. Belgium kept grinding away though, and after 10 more minutes of fast-paced action, they were 150 ahead. Demelza was certain that they'd had a lucky break in that stretch. She had seen the snitch but both seekers had inexplicably missed it.
All of a sudden, Pieter went into a dive. Demelza managed to manoeuvre herself in such a way that she blocked the England seeker for a moment. It wasn't enough. She got away from Demelza and soon caught up with Pieter, who had to weave between the other players. The stadium roared. Demelza's stomach was churning. If England caught the snitch now, the game would end in a draw and England would go to the World Cup at Belgium's expense. They needed a goal quickly.
She flew down to rejoin the main game, her job shadowing England's seeker now redundant. Fortunately, Jan had the quaffle. Matthieu also flew forward to offer himself as an option to pass to. Roos flew right next to Jan, ready to hit any bludgers away from him but leaving the rest of the team easy targets. That didn't matter—she had to protect the quaffle. It had to go in the goal. Everyone knew the importance of this moment.
Jan feinted a pass to Anne, then laid down a burst of speed to get past Ginny as soon as she moved to block the pass. The entire stadium erupted into a ball of noise. It was Jan against the England keeper and Pieter against the England seeker. The next few seconds seemed to happen in slow motion. Jan flew in a zigzag, wasting precious seconds to try to get an easier shot. The England keeper didn't bite, so Jan threw across his body at the left hoop. The England keeper lunged and got a fingertip to it, pushing the ball against the rim of the hoop, but Matthieu rushed forward for the rebound, claimed the ball, and put it through the unguarded hoop.
The crowd fell silent, apart from the small section of Belgium fans, who were cheering as loudly as they could. England launched one last desperate attack with the quaffle, the keeper throwing the quaffle as far up the field as he could, but Tom left his own scoring area to collect it easily. He threw it to Demelza. She sped into the scoring area but before she could shoot, the whistle blew twice sharply, signalling the end of the match.
England had caught the snitch, but it didn't matter. Belgium had won the match 430-420 and had qualified for the World Cup!