Aside from Slytherin itself, the other three Houses did not mind making them the butt of their after-dinner jokes.
"Handing them the answers on a silver platter!"
Over the next few days, this became the favorite phrase of every young wizard who saw a Slytherin badge pinned to someone's chest.
The little snakes were humiliated and furious.
Harry, on the other hand, was delighted.
Unfortunately, that delight was short-lived. Though Harry tried his best to keep Wood from finding out that Vaughn had left the Slytherin Quidditch team this term, the truth could not stay hidden forever.
Especially since Slytherin's captain, Marcus Flint, had less brains than a troll.
On Friday morning, when Wood went to the deputy headmistress's office to ask Professor McGonagall for the Quidditch pitch on Saturday, he ran into Marcus Flint.
He deliberately provoked him a few times, and that brainless human-shaped troll blurted out that Vaughn had left the team.
"Even without Vaughn—Vaughn Weasley—we can still beat you, Oliver Wood!"
That was what Flint shouted at Wood.
But nobody cared.
Wood practically skipped all the way back to the Gryffindor Tower. He happily hugged every member of the team, then got thoroughly beaten up by the offended Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell.
Wood did not mind, however.
"This is the best news! I'd gladly take a Killing Curse for it!"
Wood said this with such hopeful fervor that one could not help wondering whether he had truly lost his mind.
That was right—Vaughn's presence had indeed been unsettling and discouraging. Losing such a formidable opponent this year was certainly worth celebrating, provided that the training schedule did not increase again.
So, would Wood reduce their training because Vaughn was gone?
Dream on!
That very night, Harry saw Wood carrying a huge stack of