Easy - The Girl who Lived Forever (Harry Potter's Sister)

GRYFFINDOR vs HUFFLEPUFF

Unfortunately, this time I was forced to go to the quidditch match, so I just wrote the essays in the freezing cold. I had cast a barrier around me, so rain just vanished when it hit the barrier.

I'd managed to finish four essays over the sound of the cheers and rain before a feeling filled my body and I finally looked up.

At least a hundred dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at Harry, who was a tiny speck in the rain, were floating beneath him on the field.

The feeling inside me -- it was as though freezing water were rising in my chest, cutting at my insides. And then I heard something, a mute sound, like you couldn't hear properly, something slightly muffling the sound

Someone was screaming, screaming inside my head... a woman...

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now...."

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead --"

Numbing, swirling white mist was filling my brain, it was a horrible feeling. I tried to struggle to my feet, then the feeling of falling.

"Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy...."

A shrill voice was laughing, the woman was screaming, and I screamed, our voices struggling against the sound waves crashing through my head.

"Lucky the ground was so soft."

"I thought he was dead for sure."

"But he didn't even break his glasses."

I could hear the voices whispering, but they made no sense whatsoever. I didn't have a clue where I was, or how I'd got there, or what I'd been doing before I got there. All I knew was that every inch of me was aching as though it had been beaten.

"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."

Scariest... the scariest thing... hooded black figures... cold ... screaming...

My eyes snapped open. I was lying in the hospital wing. The Gryffindor Quidditch team, spattered with mud from head to foot, was crowded round a bed next to me, while my friends stared down at me. I squinted and saw Harry lying in the other bed. Ron and Hermione were also there, looking as though they'd just climbed out of a swimming pool.

"Harry! Toni!" said Fred, who looked extremely white underneath, the mud. He was standing in between the beds, looking from one of us to the other. "How're you feeling?"

It was as though my memory was on fast forward. The lightning -- the dementors...

"What happened?" Harry said, sitting up so suddenly they all gasped.

"You fell off," Fred told him. "Must've been -- what -- fifty feet?"

"We thought you'd died," one of the Chasers trembled. Hermione made a small, squeaky noise.

"But the match," Harry questioned. "What happened? Are we doing a replay?"

No one said anything. I looked at Ginny, who shook her head quietly.

"We didn't -- lose?" Harry frowned.

"Diggory got the Snitch," George told them. "Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch. But they won fair and square... even Wood admits it."

"Where is Wood?" Harry asked.

"Still in the showers," Fred said. "We think he's trying to drown himself." Harry put his face to his knees, his hands gripping his hair. Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly. "C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the Snitch before."

"There had to be one time you didn't get it," George tried.

"It's not over yet," said Fred. "We lost by a hundred points" 

"Right? So if Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw andSlytherin --." 

"Hufflepuff'll have to lose by at least two hundred points," saidGeorge."But if they beat Ravenclaw..." 

"No Way, Ravenclaw is too good. But if Slytherin loses againstHufflepuff..." 

"It all depends on the points -- a margin of a hundred either way." 

"Oh there are more things important then that," I interrupted.

Harry lay there, not saying a word. 

"It was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. I mean, you were just there doing all the homework that you didn't really have to do and then you had this look, and you wouldn't respond to any of us, then you just fell of the side of the stand. Candace started screaming, and everyone was staring at Harry, and you just so helplessly fell. There was nothing we could and it was the worst feeling," Nini squeaked.

"Nobody is considering it a victory. Cedric was a wreck when I saw, he blames himself for all of this, he's so worried," Ashley told them. 

"It's not his fault. The dementors ... they were powerful," I shook my head. 

"What did you feel?" Rebekah asked softly.

"Like something was cutting my insides, and a conversation, it was muffled, and someone was screaming in my head. I think it was Lily," I whispered. 

"What makes you think that?" Caridy asked. 

"Someone telling the woman to step aside, to let him kill Harry. She refused, and she died. That's how people have she told me she's died," I swallowed. Rebekah looked at Caridy with tears in her eyes, and Caridy rubbed her shoulder. 

"Alright, all of you out. They need peace and quiet," Madam Pomfrey said. 

"We'll come and see you later," Fred told them. "Don't beat yourself up, Harry, you're still the best Seeker we've ever had." 

The team trooped out, trailing mud behind them. Madam Pomfrey shut the door behind them, looking disapproving. Ron, Hermione, Kella, Ginny, Matilda and Aubrey were the only ones left. Ron and Hermione moved nearer to Harry's bed. 

"Dumbledore was really angry," Hermione said in a quaking voice. "I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wand, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away... He was furious they'd come onto the grounds. We heard him --" 

"Then he magicked the two of you onto stretchers," Ron continued. "And walked up to school with you floating on them. Everyone thought you were --"His voice faded. Ron and Hermione lookin, at Harry anxiously. 

"Did someone get my Nimbus?" Ron and Hermione looked quickly at each other. "Er --""What?"

"Well... when you fell off, it got blown away," Hermione said hesitantly. "And?" "And it hit -- it hit -- oh, Harry -- it hit the Whomping Willow." 

I raised an eyebrow and glanced at them. The Whomping Willow was a very violent tree that stood alone in the middle of the grounds. 

"And?" Harry said. 

"Well, you know the Whomping Willow," Ron bit his lip. "It -- it doesn't like being hit." 

"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," Hermione said in a very small voice. 

Slowly, she reached down for a bag at her feet, turned it upside down, and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed, the only remains of Harry's broomstick. My mouth dropped open and I smothered my giggles. Harry's expression broke me, however, and I died of silent laughter.