The Beast Within

The Quidditch Cup

It was a cold Saturday evening. We sat in the common room, waiting for everyone to leave.
"What if it doesn't work?" Remus asked.
"Then I'll just be on watch or something." I replied, tapping my feet impatiently. Ava was shaking. She was clearly nervous. Brendon held her hands, trying to calm her down.
"Do you think they're gonna get together?" I whispered to Remus.
"I don't know, Ava's pretty shy so I guess it'll be up to Brendon." He said. Eventually, the last people left to go to sleep. We got our wands and climbed out through the door. We were walking through a corridor and as we passed a suit of armour, Ava tripped, grabbing it to keep herself up. It fell with her with a loud crash. There was a loud cackle.
"Peeves! Hide!" I hissed, ducking behind another suit of armour, grabbing Remus' hand and dragging him with me.
"Students out of bed... at this time... tut tut. Peevsy may have to tell the caretaker!" He sung. "Peevsy knows you're here..." He said.
"RUN!" I yelled, grabbing Remus' arm again and sprinting down the corridor. Brendon and Ava followed suit. I could hear Peeves' cackles as we ran down through the corridors. Eventually we reached a door which led to the grounds. Hearing the voice of the caretaker behind us, we pushed it open and ran outside.

"That was close." I wheezed, catching my breath.
"Too close." Ava added. "So, who's going to transform first?"
"I will." Remus said, "It'll be like changing my hair, but changing into an animal." He squinted his eyes and transformed into a wolf.
"Yours is different to your patronus!" I exclaimed. Remus barked in reply. Ava copied what Remus had done and transformed. She was a raven, like her patronus. I changed, at first, I thought I was a wolf too, however, I was too small. Ava, seeing my confusion started to laugh but instead let out a loud squawk. I batted her with my paw. Brendon was yet to change.
"You're a german shepherd, by the way." He said. We turned to watch him. He squinted his eyes and transformed. He turned into a hippogriff. We stared. I didn't know it was possible to have a magical animagus form. We turned back into humans.
"You were staring at me, was I a horse?" He asked, confused.
"You were a hippogriff." We chorused.
"What, how?"
"I don't know but that's amazing! So Ava is a raven, Remus is a wolf, I'm a german shepherd and you're a hippogriff. Not fair. At least mine worked." I said. We transformed back into our animagus forms and ran round outside until we got tired. We became humans again and snuck back through the school to our dorms. We spoke for a while, describing each other's animals. I had noticed that the scar that had been left from when I attacked Remus was on his wolf form's face. I also noticed that a scar Brendon had got from falling off a broomstick on his eyebrow when he was younger could also be seen on his animal form. Mine still had a bite on its front leg. Ava, however, didn't have any distinguishing features. We went to bed. School was normal from then, we learnt about grindylows in DADA, palmistry in Divination, flobberworms and bowtruckles in COMC. Each weekend we would sneak out and play as our animagus forms. The Quidditch Cup was drawing closer. We had beaten Ravenclaw and Slytherin and were now about to play against Gryffindor to win the cup.

"Okay," Brendon said, "We may have lost to Ravenclaw last year, but this year, we destroyed them. Now it's time to destroy gryffindor. Just follow the plan and we should be good. 'Kay." We all nodded.
"Hey, who's the team captain here?" Our captain laughed. "As Brendon said, we just have to follow the plan. Don't joke around when we're out there. This is a serious match. The whole school is watching. No pressure." He said, standing up. I grabbed my broom. My heart was racing. Beating like a drum. We walked out amongst cheers and claps from the spectators. I looked for Remus and Ava. Jumping when Brendon put his hand on my shoulder.
"Let's go sis. We'll destroy them. I know it." He smiled. We mounted our brooms and hovered above the ground. Professor Weasely was standing below us, next to the box containing the different balls. The captains shook hands. I took a deep breath. I looked up into the sky. It was a clear day, good conditions for flying. Professor Weasely blew the whistle, throwing the quaffle into the air. The game started.

Everybody scattered around the quidditch pitch. I flew up, looking for the snitch. I was told not to move unless I saw the snitch or a bludger was careering towards me. It seemed the Gryffindor seeker had the opposite strategy. He approached me, grinning.
"You think you've got a chance at winning Scamander?" He said, smirking.
"Against you, I'm pretty sure I can. Remember last year? We may not have come first but at least we weren't last." I spat. His face fell. I smiled innocently at him. Suddenly, I saw a glint of gold behind his head. I sped towards him. He had to spin himself around to dodge me.
"Nice dancing you got there! Maybe you should dance instead of playing quidditch!" I cried. I leaned forward, pushing the broom to its maximum speed. The wind was howling like a wolf, my hair trailing behind me. We were careering towards a stand. Dodging at the last second, I turned to see the Gryffindor seeker slow down to avoid it. I continued my pursuit of the snitch. I chased it for a long time, over five minutes. I could hear the commentator telling the audience the scores. We were behind by ten points.
"And another score for Gryffindor!" Twenty points.
"Hufflepuff's Brendon Scamander scores for his team, that's another 10 for Hufflepuff!" Ten.

Losing the snitch, I slowed down, eventually stopping. I heard a loud gasp from the crowd as the Gryffindor keeper was knocked down by a bludger. He fell to the floor and was carried off on a stretcher. This was our chance to get back in the lead. I turned to look for the snitch and realised a Gryffindor beater had just knocked a bludger in my direction. I flew away just in time. Weaving in and out of the stands, I looked for the snitch. Suddenly, I spotted a flicker of gold. The Gryffindor must have caught on to what had happened and was on my tail. Racing against each other, we chased the snitch. It flew straight up into the air. I turned, gripping onto the broom tight with my legs. We were in the lead by 50 points now. I reached out for the snitch but was kncked out of the way by the Gryffindor seeker. The snitch turned once again, this time flying straight down. I grinned. I was best at dives. Pointing my broom down I shot after it, my heart was pounding. The crowd was getting louder and louder as we got closer to the ground. I leaned over the end of the broom, trying to catch the snitch. The Gryffindor seeker appeared by my side. I slammed into his side. We drew closer to the floor. I could see the fear in his eyes. Just as we were about to hit the ground, I grabbed the snitch, pulling up and straightening my broom, flying horizantally once again. The Gryffindor hit the ground. I held the snitch up in the air. We had just won the house cup for the first time in almost 40 years.