Quidditch Match

Over the past few nights, Cyrus had occasionally used Ginny's body to sneak into the Restricted Section. Besides alchemy, he had browsed plenty of other books, including The Book of the Red Dragon, The Book of Solomon, The Book of Raziel, and the Complete Book of Dark Curses.

Some of these books were ones Riddle had already read, while others were ones even he had never found the time to read.

After all, Riddle's time at Hogwarts had been too short, limiting the number of books he could read. He had therefore devoted most of his energy to dark magic. But books on dark magic were not the only ones that held terrifying power.

Some spells were not dark magic, but they were still kept in the Restricted Section because they were extremely dangerous. One example was the book Cyrus had been reading over the past few days, Theory and Experiments in Fantastimagus Transfiguration: The Birth of the Quintaped.

"Although fantastic beasts have always been enslaved, the magical power within them is incredibly strong. If I can achieve a transformation into a fantastic beast, it will greatly increase my strength." Cyrus closed the book and withdrew his consciousness into the depths of the memories.

"Ahh-" Ginny gave a sleepy yawn. Her head felt ten times heavier than a Quaffle.

"Good morning, Ginny. Are you all right?" Colin spotted her at once, camera in hand, and hurried over to greet her. "You look awful, like you haven't slept for days."

Click! As he spoke, he raised his camera and snapped a photo of Ginny. A picture of a cute little girl with heavy dark circles under her eyes promptly emerged. Colin, who was hopeless at reading the room, was delighted. "Honestly, I never thought wizards could suffer from a lack of sleep too. You look like you could collapse at any moment. And those dark circles and bags under your eyes-"

The boy's incessant chatter irritated Ginny. And he had actually dared to take an ugly photo of her?

"Shut up, Colin, and give me that photo!"

"What? No! I'm going to send it home for my little brother to see. He's desperate to come to Hogwarts." Colin flashed a toothy grin, then added worriedly, "Shouldn't you get some rest? You look so awful I'm worried you'll drop dead in front of my camera."

Ginny: ???

You're dead, kid!

Though she was furious, Ginny was too exhausted to bother arguing with him. She merely asked listlessly, "What lessons do we have today?"

"We don't have lessons today. I really think you need some rest. Have you forgotten there's a Quidditch match today? Gryffindor against Slytherin!" he said at once. "I'm going to sneak over to the pitch in a bit and photograph the moment Harry wins the match! By the way, how well do you know Harry? Your brother's good friends with him, isn't he...?"

Colin's mouth rattled on like a machine gun that would never stop firing, but Ginny heard only the opening words: We don't have lessons today...

No lessons!

"I'm going back to get some sleep."

"You're not going to watch the match?" Colin asked in surprise.

He had thought every wizard in the wizarding world loved Quidditch! Besides, Gryffindor was playing today.

"Quidditch..." Ginny paused. Did I like Quidditch?

Of course she did. In fact, every time she watched her brothers playing Quidditch at home, she was terribly envious. Most of the time, though, they would not let her join in. On the other hand, she was desperately sleepy right now.

Right, I could ask Mr. Riddle to record the Quidditch match for me!

"All right, sleeping at the pitch will do just as well."

"What?"

"Nothing. You go on ahead. I'll come over to watch in a bit." Ginny rushed back to her dormitory and took out the Diary.

"Mr. Riddle, there's a Quidditch match today, and I don't want to miss it, but I'm really exhausted. Could you use the Diary to record the match? Like when we talk face-to-face?"

A Quidditch match?

Ginny's words immediately caught Cyrus's attention. If he remembered correctly, the second victim of the basilisk had appeared just after this match in the original story.

-Colin Creevey.

The first-year who was always pestering Harry.

Cyrus knew it was time for him to act again.

"Of course. I promise you'll get to experience the Quidditch match exactly as it happened!"

"Wonderful. Then I'll just go to slee..."

Ginny fell asleep before she even finished writing.

Cyrus felt somewhat tired in Ginny's body too. However, he had stocked up on some Invigoration Draught during the recent flu outbreak. Drinking it was far more effective than coffee. The price was that he had to watch this Quidditch match with smoke billowing from his head.

"Hello, Ginny. Have you-caught another cold?" Hermione greeted her warmly at the pitch.

She and Ginny got along very well, but Ginny Weasley always struck her as rather sickly. She had only just recovered from the flu, and now...

"I just didn't sleep well. I stayed up reading," Cyrus replied.

"Oh, enjoying books is certainly a good thing, but you should make sure you get enough rest," Hermione said quickly, shooting a glare at the carefree Ron. "You should learn from your sister! This is why she can cast spells on older students and break your spells, instead of making herself suffer!"

"Are you mad? It was because my wand was broken!" Ron had never expected to come under fire when he was simply sitting there minding his own business. He immediately protested, feeling wronged.

Hermione said no more. It was really just her usual attempt to encourage him to study, though it had never done much good.

Their attention returned to the pitch, where Gryffindor had fallen behind right from the start.

"Things aren't looking good for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. You know Malfoy donated several Nimbus 2001s to the Slytherin Quidditch Team, but Gryffindor's still using brooms from the Cleansweep Series. They aren't even Cleansweep Sevens," Ron said worriedly.

Even Harry's Nimbus 2000 was a class below Malfoy's broom.

Those sleek black broom handles drew Ron's gaze like a stunning sports car.

The weather was muggy, and before long, rain began to fall.

The score now stood at zero to sixty. Slytherin had scored sixty points!

Cyrus did not know much about the sport, but he could understand the basic rules. Sending the Quaffle through a hoop earned ten points, and the Golden Snitch was worth a hundred and fifty. Bludgers scored no points; they generally charged at anyone they saw, aiming to hinder the players' movements.

But now, something was clearly wrong with one of the Bludgers-

"I feel like I saw this happen last year..." Ron said blankly.

"Someone's tampered with that ball!" Hermione leaped to her feet.

The Bludger had almost entirely stopped attacking anyone else. It chased after Harry as though it had eyes, forcing the twins, who were the Beaters, to stay close to him and keep knocking it away.

Hermione instinctively looked toward Snape, but after remembering what had happened the previous term, she found herself looking at Lockhart instead.

Handsome Lockhart?

How could that be possible?

Hermione could not see anyone casting a spell.