"Draco, Draco! Oh, there you are-ha, stop looking so glum. Cheer up, I've brought you some good news. My informant in Gryffindor told me Harry Potter has been in absolutely terrible shape lately because the girl he likes got together with another boy. And that Wood fellow actually arranged a date for Harry Potter over it, tomorrow night-ha ha, what a rotten idea! Isn't that hilarious?"
In the Slytherin Dungeon, Marcus Flint, who had spent another wonderful day with his newly acquired Nimbus 2001, found the team's new Seeker. Draco had skipped practice again that day without even asking for leave beforehand. It was already his second absence that week, and they had only held three practices all term.
Had anyone else on the team dared to do that, Marcus would certainly have used his social skills to teach the youngster a proper lesson. But this was Draco Malfoy, who had selflessly contributed a great sack of Galleons to Slytherin. If he wasn't practicing, so be it. The rest of the team could make up for the training Draco missed.
Everyone on the Slytherin Quidditch Team, including Marcus himself, thought that way and acted accordingly. Lately, they had been riding the Nimbus 2001s sponsored by the Malfoy family at every opportunity. Even if they suddenly got hung up on it and felt a little disgruntled, that tiny bit of discontent was immediately swept away by the outrageous starting speed of the broomsticks beneath them-and their even more outrageous acceleration over a hundred meters.
In fact, the team had never expected Malfoy to beat Harry Potter in their head-to-head matchup. They had even specifically assigned a Chaser to help Malfoy interfere with Harry Potter, just to keep Harry Potter from finding the Golden Snitch too quickly.
Even with one fewer Chaser