Accident and Balloon Harry

"The Quaffle is immediately seized by Gryffindor's Angelina Johnson—what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and she's quite charming too—"

"Jordan!"

"Sorry, Professor."

Lee Jordan was a friend of the Weasley twins. Under Professor McGonagall's close supervision, he was serving as the match commentator.

The match was intense from the very start—of course, only in the eyes of everyone except Ye Ting. Gryffindor scored almost immediately, with Angelina Johnson putting it in, while Harry Potter circled high above, searching for the Golden Snitch.

Before long, he spotted something. A flash of gold flew past Adrian Pucey's left ear, causing him to miss the Quaffle.

Harry eagerly gave chase, but Slytherin's Seeker, Higgins, soon spotted the target as well. The two raced after it side by side.

The Chasers seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing. One after another, they hovered in midair and watched.

Harry was faster than Higgins, but his opponent had other help—Marcus Flint deliberately rammed Harry. Harry's broom veered sharply off course, but he clung tightly to it.

"Foul!" the Gryffindors shouted.

Madam Hooch angrily reprimanded Flint, then ordered a penalty shot for Gryffindor at the goalposts. But amid the confusion, the Golden Snitch vanished from sight again.

The match resumed. Harry began searching for the Golden Snitch again, but as he dodged another Bludger that whizzed past, grazing his scalp, something unexpected happened.

His broom suddenly gave a frightening jerk.

For a moment, he thought he was going to fall. He gripped the broom handle tightly with both hands and clamped it hard between his knees.

Harry tried to turn toward Gryffindor's goalposts. He intended to ask Oliver Wood to call a timeout—then he realized his broom was completely out of control.

He could not make it turn around or command it at all.

The broom darted left and right through the air, occasionally shaking violently with a whizz, nearly throwing him off.

This time, Slytherin scored, and the Slytherins cheered and celebrated.

No one seemed to notice that something was wrong with Harry's broom.

The broom continued to twitch and writhe madly, slowly carrying Harry higher and higher, farther away from the field.

But soon, everyone in the stands noticed Harry overhead. His broom began rolling and tumbling without pause, and Harry could barely keep himself from falling.

Suddenly, the broom twisted wildly again and flung Harry off. He was now dangling in midair, holding onto the broom handle with only one hand.

He was almost about to fall.

"Something's wrong with Harry's broom!" someone shouted.

Ron looked through his binoculars toward the stands opposite them, then said to Hagrid beside him in horror, "I knew it. Snape did it."

Snape stood in the middle of the stands across from them. His eyes were fixed on Harry, his lips moving soundlessly.

"He's up to something—he's putting a curse on the broom," Ron cried, then ran toward Snape.

Over in the Ravenclaw stands, Hermione also noticed that something was wrong.

"Ye, think of a way to save him," she said, tugging at Ye Ting's sleeve.

Ye Ting nodded and drew his wand, pointing it at Harry's broom. The next moment, the Nimbus 2000 stopped flying wildly about, though it continued to tremble incessantly, as if two people were playing tug-of-war with it from opposite ends.

Harry was finally able to steady himself and laboriously climbed back onto the broom.

"Someone is casting a spell on the broom," Ye Ting said to Hermione as he did his best to control it with his wand.

"I can feel it. Besides me, at least two other people are doing something to it. I'm certain one wants to kill Harry, while the other is protecting him."

"I'll find out who it is." Hermione took Cho Chang's binoculars and scanned the stands opposite them.

Suddenly, she let out a cry. An accident had occurred in the stands diagonally across from them. Ron, who had suddenly arrived, shoved the muttering Snape, sending him sprawling onto the nearby Slytherins. The Slytherin stands fell into chaos.

The moment Snape's spell was interrupted, the balance maintained on Harry's broom was broken.

The broom immediately spun out of control, and Harry could only watch helplessly as it carried him diving toward the ground.

"There's no other way. I'll have to use my last resort." Ye Ting shook his head helplessly, though a gleeful smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

He cast another spell. Just as Harry was about to be smashed into the ground by his broom, a streak of blue magic struck him.

That saved him—but not in the way he would have wanted.

The magic instantly inflated his body, turning him into a huge balloon. He became several times his original size, and his robes and trousers split open at the seams. Though balloon Harry still hit the ground, he merely bounced back up without suffering the slightest injury.

But after a gust of wind blew past, he began drifting away into the distance, as though the wind was about to carry him off.

As for his Nimbus 2000, it had long since flown into the forest from sheer momentum.