Don't Be Lonely

Chapter Seven: Golden Snitches and Silver Stars

***Zeno***

Several months passed during Zeno's stay at Hogwarts, with each morning, the castle's grounds were doused in drizzle by the grey cloudy sky above. Despite the miserable weather, the Great Hall was alive with the loud chatter of excited students, when he asked them why they all gave him strange looks, while some overreacted.

"How could you not know what Quidditch is?!" One young Gryffindor exclaimed, the kid was decked out in red and gold, complete with lion face-paint.

"He didn't say he that! He asked what all of us were so excited about," the Gryffindor's friend admonished.

"Do you know what Quidditch is?" A Hufflepuff, who just joined the conversation, asked. All heads swivelled to look at the Yellow Dragon Warrior.

"Nope, Zeno doesn't know! Should he know?" Zeno tilted his head.

"YES!" was the unanimous shout.

"It's the greatest sport ever to be invented! So each member of the team gets a broomstick and-"

"Oh! Zeno remembers now! It's the game where you fly around on a broomstick and try to catch the little bird, right? Zeno watched a game at the Quidditch World Cup!" He said, interrupting the enthusiastic first-year.

"What teams?" Asked the Hufflepuff, the small crowd of students all quietened down in order to hear Zeno's answer.

"Teams? Hmm...oh! It was Flanders against Transylvania, they didn't play fair at all," Zeno recounted as he remembered how during the match 700 known fouls were committed with several new ones subsequently being created as a result. The attempted decapitation of one of the players with a broadsword was particularly memorable, due to how it brought back memories of his own experiences.

"No way, that's not possible! That was the first ever Quidditch World Cup, it was in 1473! Quit joking and tell us who they were," an avid fan had yelled from the crowd surrounding him. As he opened his mouth to reply to that comment, he was saved the trouble as someone had interrupted him.

"Zeno! There you are! The match is going to start soon! Hurry!" Ginny's voice called out from the doorway of the Hall. This gave Zeno the opportunity to excuse himself and rush off to the Quidditch Pitch. It was his first time on Hogwart's Quidditch Pitch, he never been to visit it before, so now was a good time to check it out. Around him, the stands were packed full of students, half of them were dressed in red and gold and the other half in yellow and black creating patterns of colour. The crowd roared as the school teams made their way onto the pitch, Zeno took a seat somewhere next to a young Gryffindor who was constantly taking photos with his camera.

It wasn't long before they were all up in the air on their broomsticks, Zeno shielded his eyes with his right hand as he watched them hover and soar. One of the Gryffindors, who was sitting on a broom high above the rest of them, looked like that Harry-kid he remembered that was friends with Hermione. Seconds later, a magical golden ball with wings flitted into his vision, about an arm's length away, before zipping off to the other side of the stadium; Zeno was relieved they didn't use those poor birds anymore.

A familiar dreamy voice echoed across the grounds, and sure enough Zeno spotted Luna with her Butterbeer cork necklace standing beside a woman who appeared slightly uncomfortable. Zeno remembered seeing the woman talking to Dumbledore during mealtimes. "...but now that big Hufflepuff player's got the Quaffle from her, I can't remember his name, it's something like Bibble-no, Buggins-"

"It's Cadwallader!" Professor McGonagall loudly corrected from beside Luna. The crowd laughed, Zeno chuckled. Through the rest of the match, Luna kept attempting to draw the crowd's attention to the shapes the clouds were forming or how Zacharias Smith was possibly suffering from "Loser's Lurgy," Zeno smiled contently. The peace didn't last as Gryffindor's Keeper, McLaggen, had snatched one of the Beater's bats and mis-hit the oncoming Bludger. Everyone in the crowd screamed as Harry Potter was knocked off his broomstick after being hit in the head. Zeno's legs tensed in preparation to break Harry's fall with his body, however, one of the professors had beaten him to it with a spell, slowing Harry's rapid descent before Zeno could leap off the stands. They watched, anxious, as an unconscious Harry was rushed to the Hospital Wing on a stretcher. Despite Gryffindor's Seeker being knocked out of the competition, the game continued until Hufflepuff won, scoring 320 points against Gryffindor's measly 60.