(2) Dracarys (D. Malfoy)

Chapter Eleven

Dani stares at her broom as she ignores the playful nature of the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team behind her. She had joined the Quidditch team the year before as a chaser. Flying, it turns out comes naturally to her. She's fast, agile. Her brothers teased her, believing it to be down to the whole dragon thing with her, of course, she would be a natural flier. Their captain, Oliver Wood, his last year, so he wants to go out on a high. But Dani has a bad feeling about this match. Something about it. She clutches her crystal ball between her hands, she looks down, an image forming. Dark clouds. Lightning. And something dark swirls. She knows it is something about this game. She's been having the same dream for the last few nights. She knows it is this day. She can feel it.

"Stormborn" Oliver snaps her out of her focus, she looks at him. "Put that away....we've got a game to win" She sighs and then sets the orb on the bench behind her. Harry gives her an encouraging smile but she can't give him one back. He goes to move past her, heading out with the rest of the team. Dani grabs Harry's arm and he looks at her, frowning slightly seeing her glazed expression.

"Dani?" He asks her, she stares at him.

"Don't play" She begs of him. "Don't go out there" she grips to his sleeve, her fingers turning white. "Something bad is going to happen"

"Dani" He whispers and touches her hand on his sleeve. "I'm sure it's going to be fine...It's just that first game of the year nerves..." He pulls her hand from his arm and gives her a smile. She watches as he follows the rest of the team out. Dani frowns and turns to look at her broom. She can't in good faith let him do this alone. She lets out a breath and picks up her own broom, willing to go out there when she knows something bad is going to happen. Someone has to watch his back.

.............

Lightning cracks through the sky above the two quidditch teams below, Dani's eyes on the circling black clouds above as she flies around. She leans back on her broom and looks around. A pounding in her head. Rain falls around her, pepper her skin like pellets of ice. Her cheeks ache. Her hair is sticking to every inch of her face. Lightning strikes the tail of Angelina Johnson's broom, Dani's fellow chaser for Gryffindor. Dani watches as she plummets to the pitch. Okay, now bad things are happening. She should have been more insistent about Harry not playing. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, suddenly feeling unwell. Like she had on the train. She snaps her eyes open and scans the sky above her.

"Harry" She whispers. Suddenly, in the stands, an umbrella flies from the hand of a Ravenclaw girl. For a moment, it sails wondrously through the heavy air, a Magritte dream, then abruptly picks up speed, rotating like a hatchet, Dani ducks, turns, and watches it disappear into a bank of clouds. She has to pull her broom around to avoid a high-speed bludger as it heads straight for her. She spins slightly, trying to remain upright in the wind. Then pulls her hands back from her broom and watches as the rainwater begins to freeze, the tips if her fingers turned white, even paler than usual, with the cold.

"Something's wrong" Neville states watching Dani. Ron and Hermione follow his line of sight to the girl, she looks up through the clouds. They look up too, trying to see whatever it is she can. The clouds begin to part slightly to reveal Harry on his broom and a legion of dementors around him. He falls.

"No!!!" Hermione yells. Harry and broom tumble in opposite directions. The Nimbus soars end over end, tossed by the currents, then drops... right into the Whomping Willow. Harry, in freefall, drops through one cloud, then another. Plummeting through the circling Dementors. Then...Dumbledore raises his wand up, casting to slow Harry down as he falls. The dementors hover above, watching. One veers off and heads straight for Dani, her eyes widen.

"Dani!" Remus yells, already moving through the stands. She sets determination onto her face and leans forward on her broom, pushing herself away from the dementor who then gives chase. Her fellow quidditch players scream as she passes them, as it passes them. Dani lowers closer to the ground until she can jump off her broom safely. She reaches into her sleeve and spins on the dementor holding out her wand. She takes a deep breath and smirks.

"Expecto Patronum!" She casts. A bluey-white glowing light, in a sort of shield shape, erupts from her wand and towards the dementor who screeches and flees from it. She lowers her wand then wavers on her feet before she runs towards where Harry lays. A few others have rushed from the stands to rush to him. "Harry" She yells, Remus rushes for her instead of Harry, unlike the others. Remus grabs her arms and stops her, stares down at her.

"How did you know that spell?" He asks her, she tries to peer around him to check on her friend. "Dani" He scolds.

"I saw it" She admits, quickly, and looks up at him. "In a dream..." She adds. "Was I not supposed to use it?" She asks him, suddenly unsure about it. "Am I going to get into trouble?" He shakes his head and touches her face.

"No" He reassures her. "That was brilliant" He adds, she smiles up at him. "Are you okay?" She nods but she's not. She wants to pass out. But this isn't about her. This is about Harry. She can hold off passing out. She hopes.