Ravenclaw passed to Gryffindor, and a Bludger skimmed past the tail of his broom.
Gryffindor scored, drawing cheers from the Hogwarts students.
"As expected. Their offense is sharp, but their Keeper can't keep up with the rest of the team." Stephens secretly clenched his fist.
As long as they held their nerve, they could trade goals in a head-on battle.
It all came down to whose Keeper was better.
On that front, Hogwarts had faith in Wood.
Sure enough, as time passed, Wood made fewer mistakes, while Durmstrang's Keeper let shots through again and again.
The score, initially neck and neck, gradually began to pull apart.
"Goyle, Crabbe, swing harder!" Alice directed the two hulking boys, shouting without a trace of ladylike restraint.
When Wood once again turned his ten fingers into an impregnable wall against the fierce attack, she couldn't help joining the other students in chanting his name.
That was the magic of the Inter-School League.
It could unite a school. Even the little snakes who never got along with the lions would cheer for Wood.
When John was at school, the conflicts between the four houses might not have been mortal feuds, but they had certainly formed a hierarchy of contempt.
Slytherin looked down on the lions and badgers.
Gryffindor looked down on the snakes.
Ravenclaw looked down on all three other houses.
Hufflepuff found the snakes difficult to get along with.
Pure-blood supremacists, ignorant brutes, bookworms, useless wastes of space.
Each house had been plainly branded with its own label.
With their existing rivalry added to the mix, the unity and pride they should have shared as students of one school had vanished.
The Inter-School League could bring all of that back together.
It strengthened their sense of pride without them even realizing it.
They were