★ʙʀᴏᴋᴇɴ★

Quidditch

Harry had a lot of trouble keeping his mind on his lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitory where his new broomstick was lying under his bed, or straying off to the Quidditch field where he'd be learning to play that night while Alex was trying to stay awake. He both bolted his dinner that evening without noticing what he was eating while Alex skipped here, and then they both rushed upstairs with Ron to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last. 

"Wow," Ron sighed, as the broomstick rolled onto Harry's bedspread.Even Alex, who knew nothing about the different brooms, thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top.As seven o'clock drew nearer, Harry left the castle with Alex and set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. They'd never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. 

Too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Alex mounted her broomstick and kicked off from the ground. "Catch me if you can!" she called down to Harry as a rush of adrenaline went through her. 

Harry quickly mounted his broom flew over towards her. They swooped in and out of the goal posts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousands turned wherever they wanted at their lightest touch. Somehow Alex was able to make her broom move faster that Harry's and could take sharper turns than him.

"Hey, Potter; Faxon, come down!'Oliver Wood had arrived. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Harry landed next to him."Very nice," said Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant... you both really are naturals, especially you Alex. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."

He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls."Right," said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side.Three of them are called Chasers, that's you Ally"

"Ally?" Alex asked tilting her head slightly

"Your like the little sister I never had" he said ruffling her short hair

Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball."This ball's called the Quaffle," said Wood. "The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?" 

"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score,"Harry recited. "So -- that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?" 

"Not really" Alex told him

"What's basketball?" said Wood curiously. "

Never mind," said Harry quickly. 

"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper -I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring" continued Oliver

"Three Chasers, one Keeper," said Harry, who was determined to remember it all. "And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?" He pointed at the three balls left inside the box. 

"I'll show you now," said Wood. "Take this."He handed Alex a small club, a bit like a short baseball bat. "I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Wood said. "These two are the Bludgers."He showed them two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. Harry noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.

"Stand back," Wood warned Harry. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers. At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Alex's face. Alex swung at it with the bat letting out some of her anger and sent it zigzagging away into the air -- it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground. 

"See?" Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely. "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team -- the Weasley twins are ours -- it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So-- think you've got all that?"

"This is good for letting steam out" She said giving the bat back to Oliver

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry reeled off. 

"Very good," said Wood. 

"Er -- have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded offhand. 

"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers unless they crack my head open but don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers -- I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball.Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the sizeof a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings. 

"This," said Wood, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages-- I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep.  Well, that's it -- any questions?"

Harry and Alex shook their heads. They understood what he had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem."We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Wood, carefully shutting it back inside the crate, "it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these." He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket " and the Quaffle for you" he said looking at Alex.

 A few minutes later, he, Alex and Harry were up in the air, Wood had enchanted the golf balls to chuck themselves hard as he could in every direction for Harry to catch.Harry didn't miss a single one, and Wood was delighted. Alex was practicing scoring against Oliver and managed to get a quite a few in. After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on.

"That Quidditch cup'll have our name on it this year," said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you both turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons." Olivers said