Desperate Gryffindor

It was the second week of November, and Hufflepuff was playing Ravenclaw.

Cedric was making his final checks at the edge of the pitch.

He had carefully wiped down his broom handle, checked that none of its tail twigs were loose, and adjusted his goggles until the strap fit just right.

He felt good today. He had eaten two extra slices of toast at breakfast, spread the butter thicker than usual, and even hummed a tuneless little song in the changing room.

He was confident about this match.

He had a Nimbus 2000. Cho Chang only had a Comet 260.

More importantly, he had more or less figured out how the Golden Snitch flew.

Gavin had not given him the complete model—

That thing was too complicated.

It involved something called a Probability Model.

Cedric's eyes had glazed over as soon as he heard the word "probability."

Fortunately, Gavin had been training him for a long time.

He might never have eaten Unicorn meat, but he knew how a Unicorn ran.

He might not be as fast as before—

After all, without Gavin there to guide him through the model step by step, he could only fly by rough instinct.

Cedric set himself a conservative target:

Fifteen minutes.

He would catch the Golden Snitch within that time.

Then he saw Cho Chang emerge from behind the Ravenclaw team.

She stopped in front of him.

Something was different.

She was holding a brand-new broomstick—

A Nimbus 2000.

Cedric stared at it in shock for two seconds.

"You got a new broomstick?"

Cho smiled. "Yeah. I bought it a few days ago."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted to surprise you."

Cedric felt more ambushed than surprised.

"Why did you suddenly decide to buy a Nimbus 2000?"

"After the Nimbus 2001