Leaving aside how Harry and the others had grown suspicious of Snape and how they had pried the name "Nicolas Flamel" out of Hagrid, the school Quidditch Matches continued. This one was Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw. Although the two teams fouled far less often than the other two, they were also less aggressive than Gryffindor and Slytherin, which made the match somewhat less exciting to watch.
But this year, something extraordinary had happened: the two teams' Seekers were openly feeding the entire school a faceful of romance while competing...
At the time, when the Golden Snitch slowed down and appeared on the pitch, Cedric and Cho flew side by side on their brooms. They neither collided nor tried to block each other, instead tracing beautiful arcs through the air as the Golden Snitch led them on. They looked like butterflies, fluttering along together as a pair. The other players from both teams simply stopped trying to intercept them and stood there watching the show...
In the end, Cedric managed to snatch the Golden Snitch thanks to his longer reach and an extra year of training. He was carrying Hufflepuff's honor on his shoulders; he couldn't lose.
No one knew what the others thought of the match, but Avada nearly gouged out his own eyes. Then he realized that even if he blinded himself, he could still watch with his Magic Sense and spiritual perception—and take in even more of the lovey-dovey spectacle—so he finally gave up in frustration.
To give his eyes a proper rest, he decided to devote himself to research over the next while. If all went well, he was about to make a breakthrough with space-related magic...
And so, in an empty classroom somewhere in the castle...
"Bang."
With a faint series of pops, Avada vanished from one