When a Broomstick Hits the Whomping Willow
After the attack, the school talked about nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days. Even Hermione and Ron were distracted from their ongoing feud in favor of figuring out how Black entered the castle. The theories on how he did so became wilder and wilder with each passing day. The wildest theory so far was from Hannah Abbott who spent the entirety of their next shared Herbology class telling anyone and everyone who’d listen that Black could turn into a flowering shrub and that’s why the dementors couldn’t find him.
Meanwhile, the Fat Lady’s canvas was removed from the doorway and replaced with the portrait of Sir Cadogan. Nobody was happy about this as Sir Cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords that he changed at least twice a day.
“He’s a complete lunatic!” Seamus angrily ranted at Percy, “Can’t we get anyone else?”
“None of the other pictures wanted the job,” Percy explained with a snobbish sort of patience, as if Seamus should be glad he was willing to spare his precious time to say anything at all, “They’re too frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer.”
Seth eyed him skeptically. “So you’re saying that out of the hundreds and thousands of pictures in this entire school, only one was willing to do the job?”
Percy began to turn beet red with indignation. “Are you insinuating that I’m lying?”
“Nope. Not at all,” Seth nonchalantly rebuked. Then quietly to the other boys, “Just that you suck at your job.”
They snickered and snorted, making Percy storm off with a huff.
Sir Cadogan was not the only jarring change though. The professors had taken to watching and hovering over Harry as often as they could. They found excuses to walk through the corridors with him, would hang around the courtyard whenever he was there, and so much more to the point where if the student populace didn’t know Sirius Black was after Harry before, the teaching staff’s suspicious behavior let them know now.
Even Percy (though it was most likely due to Mrs. Weasley’s orders) began tailing Harry everywhere like an extremely pompous guard dog.
To cap it all, Professor McGonagall summoned Harry to her office one night to tell him that Sirius Black was after him, which he already knew, and she tried to encourage him to stop going to Quidditch practice in the evenings.
Only the combination of Harry’s outrage and the reminder of the chance to win the elusive Quidditch cup did she come to the compromise of allowing him to continue practice whenever but only if Madam Hooch was present at each and every session, no exceptions. At that point, Harry was willing to take whatever victories he could get because they would soon be far and few in between.
The weather continued to worsen as the day of the first Quidditch match drew closer. The Gryffindor team remained undaunted though and trained harder than ever under the watchful eye of Madam Hooch.
However, during their final training session before the upcoming match on Sunday, Oliver gave the team some unexpected and unwelcome news.
“What do you mean you’re playing Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin?” Ron shouted in outrage.
Harry shrugged helplessly. “Oliver said that Flint gave the excuse that because their seeker was still injured, they couldn’t play.”
“But Malfoy’s arm is just fine now! It’s out of that stupid cast!” Ron protested.
“Just cause something’s out of the cast doesn’t mean it’s completely healed,” Seth chimed in to play devil’s advocate, “It just means it’s healed enough that it doesn’t need constant support anymore. Flint probably spun it so that playing Quidditch in the current weather, would be asking for that arm to get broken again. Otherwise, there’s no way Madam Hooch would’ve let them switch the schedule around.”
“But…”
“You know he’s right, Ron,” Hermione interjected with a pointed look, “Madam Hooch is very sharp and she would be able to tell if the Slytherin team and Malfoy were lying about his injury.”
Ron backed down with a scowl. “Whatever.” He sighed. “At least it should be an easy match against the Puffs. They haven’t had a good season in years.”
“I don’t know about that,” Harry said, “Oliver’s really worried since they’ve got a new captain and seeker, Cedric Diggory.”
At that, Hermione suddenly giggled, making the boys look at her strangely. She blushed under their scrutiny. “What? He’s rather handsome.”
This made Ron scowl again but much more harshly. “How can you say that? He’s the enemy!”
“She’s not wrong though. Cedric Diggory is pretty hot,” Seth agreed with a sage nod.
Harry and Ron looked at him aghast to which he just nonchalantly shrugged. “What? I’ve got a working pair of eyes and I’m gonna use them.”
To which even Harry begrudgingly agreed, “I guess he is rather good looking.”
Ron slumped down in his seat. “Traitors, the lot of you,” he said, making Hermione giggle and Seth cackle in amusement.
The day before the match, the winds reached a howling point and the rain fell harder than ever. It was so dark inside the corridors and classrooms that extra torches and lanterns were lit.
Harry had no room in his head to worry about anything except the match tomorrow though. Oliver kept hurrying up to him between classes and giving him tips. The third time this happened, he talked for so long that Harry suddenly realized he was ten minutes late for DADA and set off at a run.
He skidded to a halt outside the DADA classroom, pulled the door open, and rushed inside.
“Sorry I’m late, Professor Lupin. I-”
But it wasn’t Professor Lupin who looked up at him from the desk, it was Snape who fixed him with a stern, disapproving gaze. “This lesson began ten minutes ago, Mister Potter, so I think we’ll make it ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down.”
Harry nodded hesitantly, feeling wholly caught off guard. “Where’s Professor Lupin?” He asked as he went to join Ron and Seth at a nearby desk.
“He says he is feeling too ill to teach today,” Snape responded.
“What’s wrong with him?” Harry asked as he sat down.
Snape sighed irritably. “Nothing life threatening. Now if we could continue?” He looked around the class to see if there would be any further disruptions but everyone stayed perfectly still and silent in their seats. He nodded sharply. “Good. Now as I was saying before Mister Potter interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far.”
“We’ve done boggarts, red caps, kappas, and grindylows, sir,” Hermione quickly said, “And we’re just about to start-”
“Be quiet,” Snape coldly interrupted, “I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin’s lack of organization.”
“He’s the best DADA teacher we’ve ever had!” Dean boldly declared and there was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the class.
Snape was not impressed. “You are easily satisfied then. Though I’m not surprised considering the last two to hold this position were utterly incompetent that it’s a complete surprise you were all able to pass into the next grade for this class. Your standards are so low that Lupin’s bare minimum efforts seem challenging despite the fact that they are hardly overtaxing. I would expect first years to be able to deal with red caps and grindylows.”
The class fell into a stunned silence at his words. Only Seth and Hermione seemed to agree with him given their respective experiences at the preserves.
Snape stood up from the desk and tossed the textbook aside. It landed haphazardly on the floor with a smack that startled everyone and made Hermione flinch at the blatant disrespect for the book. “For today’s lesson, we shall discuss,” he flicked his wand at the board and words began to appear, “The nature of the Dark Arts.”
He faced the students with a severe expression. “In order to learn how to truly protect yourself from the Dark Arts, you must first learn why they are considered dark and the nature of the magic surrounding it. And if you’re not completely hopeless, there should be enough time to cover some basic dark potions and their counteragents.”
The students all nodded as if they should’ve expected this because of course the potions professor was going to sneak in a lesson about potions. They then braced themselves for an unpleasant lesson only to be surprised by how informative and engaging it was despite the rigid and harsh structure of teaching Snape was famous for.
When the bell rang, Snape flicked his wand to clean the board and said, “I want you all to write an essay focusing on one dark potion and how to protect against or counteract it by Tuesday, to be handed to me directly. Should Professor Lupin return before then, you will hand them over during Potions. Dismissed!”
The students quickly left the classroom.
“I hope Professor Lupin’s alright,” Lavender fretted, “Maybe Professor Trelawney has some insights into his illness and can provide some remedies.”
“I just hope he’ll be back soon. Snape may be knowledgeable but I don’t want to have to deal with him twice a week,” Seamus bemoaned.
Dean nodded reluctantly. “Yeah, he’s actually a pretty good teacher for the DADA position. It’s no wonder he’s so sore about never getting the job.”
“It’s probably because Dumbledore didn’t want him to get affected by the DADA curse,” Parvati stated knowingly.
Neville shuddered. “Can we talk about something else instead? Like, um, the password for this afternoon?”
Seamus threw an arm around him. “Neville, mate, you really need to just write these passwords down like the rest of us. It’s the only way you’ll be able to deal with Sir Cadogan as little as possible.”
Meanwhile, off to the side, the quartet were doing their own speculating.
“You don’t think Professor Lupin’s illness is serious, do you?” Hermione anxiously asked.
“I’m not sure,” Harry said, “But I do remember that Snape gave him a potion while you were all out at Hogsmeade. Even said he had a whole cauldronful for when Lupin needed to drink more.”
“Could Snape be poisoning Lupin then? You don’t know what’s in that potion right?” Ron asked.
Hermione shook her head. “There’s no way it’s poison. Harry just said he saw Snape give the potion to Lupin and they even discussed future intakes as well.”
Before Ron and Hermione could even think of potentially starting another argument, Seth jumped in with his own speculation. “Look, maybe Lupin has some sort of chronic disease that needs potions to handle it and he doesn’t want to talk about it cause those kinds of topics are usually private and sensitive so how about instead of speculating on this any further, we focus on the fact that we now have homework from six different classes that all need to be done before Tuesday.”
And thankfully, with that reminder, the subject ended there.
The next day, the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team was keyed up with nerves.
“It’s going to be a rough one,” Oliver solemnly stated, refusing to eat anything until Katie shoved some toast into his mouth.
“Stop worrying, Oliver. We don’t mind a bit of rain,” Alicia said in reassurance.
Which of course jinxed them as the weather outside became considerably more than ‘a bit of rain’. It was outright storming to the point where nobody would be surprised if a flash flood appeared on school grounds.
Still, the whole school turned up to watch the match as usual but had to race through the ferocious rain with heads bowed against the raging winds.
Thankfully, the team was prepared for such extreme weather. Angelina handed out waterproof charmed goggles to everyone while Katie gave Harry a specially charmed pair that matched the prescription of his glasses before they all went down to the pitch.
Seth, Hermione, and Ron wished Harry good luck before also making their way to the pitch.
Hermione and Ron were trying to fight the weather with a shared umbrella while Seth reveled in the rain. He was completely unbothered by the harsh weather as it was no worse than that one time he was on board a dingy fishing vessel as it did its best to traverse the Bermuda Triangle during tropical storm season because that was the only period of time in which the gateway to Atlantis was open. He wouldn’t have even been there in the first place if it hadn’t been one of the tasks the Singing Sisters sent him on to retrieve a precious artifact from the sunken city.
“Seth! Get under the umbrella already. You’re going to make yourself sick!” Hermione scolded loudly in order to be heard over the wind.
“No thanks! I’m fine!” Seth shouted back with a dismissive wave.
“How the bloody hell are you not bothered by this?!” Ron asked incredulously.
Seth grinned widely. “Experience!”
Hermione shook her head with an exasperated sigh while Ron looked confused and turned to her to ask, “Is the weather always like this in America?”
“No. Seth is just trying to be cheeky,” she dryly responded to which Seth grinned cheekily at her and she rolled her eyes at him.
By the time they settled down in the stands, the winds were so strong that the teams were staggering sideways as they walked out onto the field. The cheering crowd was impossible to hear over the rolling thunder and howling winds.
The captains quickly walked up to each other and shook hands before retreating. Everyone mounted their brooms immediately after and Madam Hooch gave her whistle a blast shrill and loud enough to overcome the thunder that cracked at the same time.
The teams took off but swerved slightly from the strong wind.
“Oh! Do you think he’ll be okay playing in this weather?” Hermione anxiously fretted.
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a game in this kind of weather ever going well,” Ron replied nervously.
“Come on guys, he’ll be fine,” Seth interjected before they could worry further, “Have some faith in him.”
Ron and Hermione could only wordlessly nod as they tried to keep track of where Harry was but the weather was so terrible that no one in the stands could really see what was happening. The only reason why people even knew the score was because of the students by the announcer’s box communicating what they were able to hear.
A few hours in, Madam Hooch’s whistle blew again and the teams landed for a time out.
From the grapevine, it seemed that Gryffindor was currently up by fifty points but the snitch was still nowhere in sight even with the aid of charmed goggles.
Soon the time out ended and the teams were back in the air.
Another hour passed and Gryffindor widened the gap to one hundred points until someone managed to point out that Harry seemed to have seen the snitch. Everyone was shouting and screaming in anticipation as Harry sped around the pitch with purpose. Cedric followed after, close on his heels.
Just as Harry began to climb in altitude, Seth inhaled sharply as he felt a familiar dark and slimy presence enter the area. Hermione and Ron caught his sudden change in demeanor and looked to him in concern.
“What’s wrong?” Hermione asked and immediately regretted asking when she quickly got her response.
“DEMENTORS!”
Seth’s warning cry spread around like wildfire, leaving everyone in an uproar as they looked around the stadium for any sign of the cloaked fiends.
“Up there!” Someone shouted.
Everyone in the stadium collectively gasped as lightning flashed across the sky, revealing a horde of dementors swarming their way towards Harry.
“Harry!” Hermione screamed in fright.
“Look out mate!” Ron shouted as loudly as he could.
But their cries were in vain as Harry was surrounded by the swarm and soon fell from his broom. A moment later Cedric caught the snitch but no one was paying attention as everyone screamed and shouted in horror at Harry’s free fall from hundreds of feet up in the air.
However, a cloudy mist suddenly appeared, managing to catch him and slow his fall.
Everyone followed the path of the mist to see the origin was Headmaster Dumbledore who everyone could see, even though the horrid weather, had a thunderous expression on his face.
Once Harry landed gently on the ground, the Gryffindor team raced to check on him with the professors following shortly after.
Seth nudged Ron and Hermione out of their shock. “Come on.”
Hermione and Ron shot up from their seats and made haste to Harry. Once they were down from the stands, the two realized that Seth was no longer following and appeared to be heading away from the pitch.
“Oi! Where are you going?” Ron called out.
Seth spared them a glance over his shoulder as he said, “I’ll join you guys later. There’s something I need to do.”
And with that, he stormed away from the pitch. Hermione and Ron shared confused and concerned looks as the expression on Seth’s face was equally as thunderous as Dumbledore’s was.
Seth stomped down the hall with a single-minded purpose. His anger at the dementors for almost killing his friend was strong enough to give him tunnel vision and as a result, he wasn’t able to react fast enough when someone turned the corner and he collided with them. He and the poor unfortunate soul went tumbling down onto the ground with a dull thud.
Seth blinked as he reoriented himself and immediately saw that the person he ran into was Cedric Diggory. He scrambled up to his feet. “Oh geez. I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to run into you like that.”
Cedric shook his head. “There’s no need to apologize. If anything, I should say sorry as I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”
“Or we could both say we were at fault and call it even?” Seth suggested as he held a hand out to Cedric.
Cedric smiled. “That works too.” He gratefully took the offered hand and Seth hauled him up.
Seth stared as he took in the full force of Cedric’s natural charm and was that a faint glow around his face? “Oh wow. You really are hotter up close.”
Cedric was taken aback by the remark. “Pardon?”
Seth then realized what he just said and violently shook his head to clear it. “Nothing. It’s nothing. Just, my brain’s all messed up right now after what happened.”
Cedric nodded empathetically. “I understand. It was a very troubling ordeal and I feel guilty for not even realizing it was happening only a few meters away from me.”
“Don’t blame yourself for that,” Seth gently rebuked with a frown, “You couldn’t have known a swarm of dementors was going to show up in the middle of a Quidditch match of all things.”
“Still. I’d like to apologize to Harry anyways.”
Seth looked at him, confused. “For what?”
“You know, for not realizing the dementors were there and winning because of a technicality,” Cedric said with genuine sorrow and guilt as if he’d just committed the worst crime in history.
For a second, Seth’s brain stalled. He stared at the older Hufflepuff like he couldn’t believe this guy was for real. “Dude. Are you an actual living, breathing human being? You are way too nice and empathetic for your own good.”
Cedric shrugged. “So I’ve been told many times but that’s just how I am.”
Seth peered at him curiously. “Say, do you have a unicorn in your family tree somewhere?”
“I’m sorry?” Cedric tilted his head in confusion. “How can a magical creature be a part of my very human family tree?”
Seth shook his head. “Sorry, ignore me. I was just saying shit out loud. You just, remind me of my best friend who is basically the epitome of good, like a unicorn, to the point that it’s actually annoying. And also weird. Like you. No offense.”
Cedric simply smiled, not offended at all. “None taken. You’re rather weird as well.”
Seth stared at him for a moment. Then he smiled. “Say…wanna be friends?”
Cedric nodded. “Sure. I’m always happy to make new friends no matter the circumstances.”
Seth nodded to himself. “Yup. You’re just like Bracken.”
“Who?”
“Not important. Anyways, as your newly minted friend, I’m gonna be upfront and tell you that you’re now stuck with that ‘up to no good’ friend who’s going to do his absolute best to make you shed that perfect human persona and make everyone realize you’re just as much of a plebian as the rest of us down here on earth.”
“Oh?” Cedric said, amused by the declaration, “Well I’d be interested to see you try.”
Seth gave a shit eating grin that made Cedric feel a sense of dread. “So, a little birdie told me something interesting recently.”
“And what would that be?” Cedric asked, trying to remain calm and collected as he shrieked with panic on the inside.
Instead of answering, Seth asked, “How’re things going with Cho Chang?”
Cedric immediately turned red from embarrassment. “I, um, how did you-” He cleared his throat in an attempt to regain his composure but the red had spread to even the tips of his ears. “Never mind. I’ll be taking my leave to go see Harry now. Good bye.”
Seth cackled as Cedric rushed off in a flustered panic. After taking a moment to collect himself, he resumed his warpath for the dementors.
He walked past the courtyard only to see a black shape out of the corner of his eye. He stopped and turned to see that the shape was the shaggy dog he ran into at Hogsmeade. He blinked in confusion only for his eyes to widen in surprise as the dog disappeared during that blink like it was just a figment of his rage induced imagination.
He stared at the spot where he could’ve sworn he saw that dog only to shake his head. “No Seth. Focus. Dementor shakedown first, then weird dog hallucination later.”
He walked off then, not realizing that the dog was watching him leave with eyes far too intelligent for an animal to have before it shortly followed after him.
“Thank Merlin Dumbledore caught him.”
“I thought he was dead for sure.”
“Oh, you don’t think he broke anything do you?”
“That was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”
Harry’s eyes snapped open and it took him longer than he would’ve liked to realize that he was lying in a bed in the hospital wing. The Gryffindor team, still wet and splattered with mud from head to toe, was gathered around his bed. Ron and Hermione were also there and completely soaked as well.
“Harry! How’re you feeling?” Fred asked in concern.
“What happened?” Harry asked as he sat up suddenly.
Katie and Angelina gasped, rushing over to steady him.
“You fell off, must’ve been over a hundred feet,” Fred responded.
“We thought you were going to die,” Alicia shakily said.
“What about the match? What happened? Are we going to have to replay it?”
No one said anything and Harry’s heart sank into his stomach.
“Diggory got the snitch just after you fell,” George explained, “He didn’t realize what happened, though we can’t really blame him given the weather.”
“When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch and everything,” Angelina added.
“But even Oliver admits that they won fair and square,” Katie glumly finished.
“Where is Oliver?” Harry asked, suddenly realizing that their captain wasn’t there.
“Still in the showers. We think he’s trying to drown himself,” Fred answered without a trace of humor.
Harry put his face against his knees. His hands gripped his hair in frustration. Fred grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly, making him raise his head back up. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, Harry.”
George nodded. “Yeah. There had to be at least one time you weren’t going to get the snitch.”
“Besides, it’s not over yet. We only lost by fifty points. If Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin,” Fred continued.
“We still have a chance at that cup,” George finished.
Harry nodded glumly, appreciating the sentiment but still feeling like a failure. It was the first time he’d failed so spectacularly during a Quidditch match after all.
A few minutes passed and Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave immediately before they dirtied up the rest of the infirmary.
“We’ll come and see you later,” Fred said.
“So don’t beat yourself up, Harry. You’re still the best seeker we’ve ever had,” George added.
The team shuffled out, leaving a trail of mud behind much to Madam Pomfrey’s displeasure. Ron and Hermione moved closer to Harry’s bed.
“Dumbledore was really angry about the whole thing. I’ve never seen him look like that before,” Hermione said, “He waved his wand at you as you fell and this mist appeared that slowed you down and cushioned you on the ground. The dementors left the stadium right away. He said he was furious they’d come to the grounds.”
“Then he magicked you onto a stretcher and brought you back into the school. Everyone thought you were-” Ron cut himself off with a strained choke but Harry didn’t notice as he was too busy thinking about what the dementors had done to him. How they made him hear that screaming voice.
He looked up and saw Hermione and Ron looking at him so anxiously that he tried to search for a way to change the subject. Then he realized, “Where’s Seth?”
Hermione and Ron exchanged concerned looks.
“He had something he needed to do,” Hermione responded.
“Like what?” Harry asked, confused.
Ron shrugged. “Dunno. But he looked as angry as Dumbledore did so we didn’t ask.”
“Oh. Okay…” Then, “Did anyone get my nimbus?”
Ron and Hermione shared another look with each other, this time more nervous than concerned.
“Er…”
“What?” Harry asked with a growing sense of dread, “What happened to it?”
“Well…when you fell off. It got blown away,” Hermione hesitantly began.
“And?”
“And it hit…it hit…” she struggled to say the words until she finally forced them out, “Oh Harry! It hit the Whomping Willow!”
Harry’s stomach threatened to jump up and out of his throat.
“And?” He asked, his voice shaking.
Ron winced. “And you know the Whomping Willow. It…doesn’t like being hit.”
“Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around,” Hermione said.
She slowly reached down for a bag at her feet and offered it to Harry. He opened it with shaking hands and was met with the sight of a dozen bits of splintered wood and twigs, the only remains left of his faithful, finally beaten broomstick.