SKREIGH- C.DIGGORY

9

It was the day of the first Quidditch match of the season and Delilah had gotten up early so she could braid her hair into a crown around her head.

"Stand and fight, you mangy cur!" Sir Cadogan, the Fat Lady's replacement, shouts as Delilah drags herself from the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Oh, shut up," Delilah yawns, rubbing her eyes.

She revived a bit over a small stack of pancakes with fruit, and by the time she'd started on toast, the rest of the team had turned up.

"It's going to be a tough one," Wood says, not eating anything on his plate.

"Stop worrying, Oliver," Delilah says soothingly "We don't mind a bit of rain."

But it was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the Quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went.

Just before she entered the locker room, Delilah saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, laughing and pointing at Harry from under an enormous umbrella on their way to the stadium.

The team changed into their scarlet robes and waited for Wood's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly and beckoned them to follow him. The wind was so strong that they staggered sideways as they walked out onto the field. If the crowd was cheering, they couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder. Rain was splattering into Delilah's eyes.

"How on earth am I going to see the Snitch in this?" Delilah asks Fred who looks at her.

"You'll be great D,"

"Remember the formation?" Oliver asks. "Potter in the middle, Spinnett and Johnson to his left and right"

The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary-yellow robes. The Captains walked up to each other and shook hands; Cedric smiled at Wood but Wood now looked as though he had lockjaw and merely nodded. Cedric turns his smile to Delilah who smiles back.

Delilah saw Madam Hooch's mouth form the words.

"Mount your brooms"

She pulled her right foot out of the mud with a squelch and swung it over her Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant - they were off.

Delilah rose fast, but her Nimbus was swerving slightly with the wind. She holds it as steady as she could and turned, squinting into the rain. Within five minutes Delilah was soaked to her skin and frozen, hardly able to see her teammates, let alone the tiny Snitch.

She flies backwards and forward across the field past blurred red and yellow shapes, with no idea of what was happening in the rest of the game. She couldn't hear the commentary over the wind. The crowd was hidden beneath a sea of cloaks and battered umbrellas. Twice Delilah came very close to being unseated by a Bludger; her vision was so clouded by the rain lashing in front of her she hadn't seen them coming.

She lost track of time. It was getting harder and harder to hold her broom straight. The sky was getting darker, as though night had decided to come early. Twice Delilah nearly hit another player, without knowing whether it was a teammate or opponent; everyone was now so wet, and the rain so thick, she could hardly tell them apart. With the first flash of lightning came the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle; Delilah could just see the outline of Wood through the thick rain, gesturing her to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the mud.