Harry Potter and the Sword of Gryffindor

Chapter 27

On the first Saturday in February, Gryffindor faced Ravenclaw on the Quidditch pitch. As was his habit in the morning Harry stood looking out the window, waiting for Ron to come and tell him what the weather was doing. This time he could see even less than usual and he rubbed his eyes, wondering how long it would be until he was totally blind.

"Blimey!" said Ron, joining him at the window. "It's as thick as pea soup out there!"

Harry's shout of relieved laughter startled Ron who asked him why in the world he thought fog was funny.

"It's just that..." Harry said through his hiccups of laughter. "...I thought I was losing my eyesight."

"Err, I thought you already had that covered, mate," said Ron, shaking his head as he turned away to get dressed.

Later, Harry walked down to the pitch with the team, his new Firebolt under his arm. Of course his teammates had been wild about his new broom and everyone wanted to know who had given it to him, but he'd declined to tell anyone, just saying it was "an old friend of my parents."

As they walked across the grounds, Harry's teammates commented over and over about the fog and how they could see only a few feet in front of them. Harry grinned to himself, for, although the world looked pretty much the same to him as it always did, he was glad the sun did not shine and he thought it would make for an interesting game to have all the players nearly as visually impaired as he was. The difference, he noticed, was in the muffled quality of the sound in the air. He hoped he would still be able to hear the Snitch.

They got to the Gryffindor Team Room where Oliver Wood, the captain, spent a few minutes getting the team focused on the upcoming match.

"If we're clever, we can make the fog work to our advantage," he told his team. "We already use many of the techniques of a blind quidditch team for Harry. We'll use them for each other as well today."

They agreed on short, clipped words of verbal communication among the chasers while Fred and George worked out a system with Wood where they would warn him in advance of the Ravenclaw chasers coming his way.

"How about you, Harry?" asked Wood. "Business as usual, eh?"

Harry grinned. "Almost. It is going to be harder to hear the beep."

"I'm afraid we can't help you, mate," said George. "Rules about alerting the Seeker and all that."

"Yeah," agreed Harry. "It's okay. I'll do it, just keep those Bludgers away from me."

"Right," said George.

They walked onto the pitch but since only the first few rows of spectators could see the team through the thick fog, the applause grew slowly, rising in waves up the stands. Harry wondered why the match hadn't been called off, but he supposed there was some ancient Hogwarts tradition about going forward no matter what the weather. Still, the spectators weren't likely to get much from a game they couldn't see.

Luckily, Madame Hooch, along with the ever-intrepid Lee Jordan, had come up with a solution. She appointed four game announcers on brooms, one at each set of goal hoops and two to fly the perimeter of the pitch during the game, taking turns with one another to announce the action. From their comments, the crowd could get a fair idea of what was happening.

Madame Hooch released the Bludgers and tossed the beeping Snitch into the fog where it promptly disappeared. Then she had the team captains shake and the game began. Harry kicked off with his team but left them to soar higher than usual, listening intently to the four announcers as the match got underway.

"And the Quaffle is taken first by Gryffindor," said Lee Jordan from his own broom as he flew through the center of the pitch, his voice magically amplified. "Alicia Spinnet heads toward the Ravenclaw... Hey! Stop that! Keep those bloody Bludgers away from me!"