Harry Potter 02 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

down to breakfast early, where he found the rest of the Gryffindor team huddled at the long, empty table, all looking uptight and not speaking much.
    As eleven o’clock approached, the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium. It was a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the air. Ron and Hermione came hurrying over to wish Harry good luck as he entered the changing rooms. The team pulled on their scarlet Gryffindor robes, then sat down to listen to Wood’s usual pre-match pep talk.
    ‘Slytherin have better brooms than us,’ he began, ‘no point denying it. But we’ve got better people on our brooms. We’ve trained harder than they have, we’ve been flying in all weathers –’ (‘Too true,’ muttered George Weasley. ‘I haven’t been properly dry since August’) ‘– and we’re going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime, Malfoy, buy his way onto their team.’
    Chest heaving with emotion, Wood turned to Harry.
    ‘It’ll be down to you, Harry, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we’ve got to win today, we’ve got to.’
    ‘So no pressure, Harry,’ said Fred, winking at him.
    As they walked out onto the pitch, a roar of noise greeted them; mainly cheers, because Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were anxious to see Slytherin beaten, but the Slytherins in the crowd made their boos and hisses heard too. Madam Hooch, the Quidditch teacher, asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather harder than was necessary.
    ‘On my whistle,’ said Madam Hooch, ‘three … two … one …’
    With a roar from the crowd to speed them upwards, the fourteen players rose towards the leaden sky. Harry flew higher than any of them, squinting around for the Snitch.
    ‘All right there, Scarhead?’ yelled Malfoy, shooting underneath him as though to show off the speed of his broom.
    Harry had no time to reply. At that very moment, a heavy black Bludger came pelting towards him; he avoided it so narrowly that he felt it ruffle his hair as it passed.
    ‘Close one, Harry!’ said George, streaking past him with his club in his hand, ready to knock the Bludger back towards a Slytherin. Harry saw George give the Bludger a powerful whack in the direction of Adrian Pucey, but the Bludger changed direction in mid-air and shot straight for Harry again.
    Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and George managed to hit it hard towards Malfoy. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry’s head.
    Harry put on a burst of speed and zoomed towards the other end of the pitch. He could hear the Bludger whistling along behind him. What was going on? Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this, it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible …
    Fred Weasley was waiting for the Bludger at the other end. Harry ducked as Fred swung at the Bludger with all his might; the Bludger was knocked off course.
    ‘That’s done it!’ Fred yelled happily, but he was wrong; as though it was magnetically attracted towards Harry, the Bludger pelted after him once more and Harry was forced to fly off at full speed.
    It had started to rain; Harry felt heavy drops fall onto his face, splattering onto his glasses. He didn’t have a clue what was going on in the rest of the game until he heard Lee Jordan, who was commentating, say, ‘Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero.’
    The Slytherins’ superior brooms were clearly doing their jobs, and meanwhile the mad Bludger was doing all it could to knock Harry out of the air. Fred and George were now flying so close to him on either side that Harry could see nothing at all except their flailing arms and had no chance to look for the Snitch, let alone catch it.
    ‘Someone’s – tampered – with – this – Bludger –’ Fred grunted, swinging his bat with all his might at it as it launched a new attack on Harry.
    ‘We need time out,’ said George, trying to signal to Wood and stop the Bludger breaking Harry’s nose at the same time.
    Wood had obviously got the message. Madam Hooch’s whistle rang out and Harry, Fred and George dived for the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger.
    ‘What’s going on?’ said Wood, as the Gryffindor team huddled together, while Slytherins in the crowd jeered. ‘We’re being flattened. Fred, George,