House Cup
After Christmas, everyone was still caught up in the joy of the holiday, and the cold air made the students much slower to get out of bed. Professor McGonagall had to stress the importance of discipline in the common room and ask the Prefects to make sure the younger students got up.
"We can't even get up ourselves!" Rose heard the fifth-year Prefect, Hestia Jones, whisper to a girl beside her. Professor McGonagall gave her a disapproving look.
But none of this could dampen McGu's enthusiasm for Quidditch. He declared that he had devised a rigorous training plan over the Christmas holidays, guaranteed to defeat Slytherin in the next term's Quidditch Match and win the Quidditch House Cup.
As soon as the first pale light appeared in the sky, Rose had to trudge across the gray, crunchy frozen grass to the pitch for practice. Even in thick gloves, her hands grew icy and stiff around her broom. Within a week, she had to return to the Hospital Wing and ask Madam Pomfrey for a dose of Pepperup Potion.
After the matter of the Diadem was resolved, Rose spent almost all her free time, when she wasn't training or doing homework, asleep. Once, she nearly fell headfirst into her bowl of porridge while eating dinner at the Gryffindor table.
The tension reached its peak in February. Caradoc claimed he had once seen McGu secretly crying in the boys' common room; the pressure of the match had made him far too nervous.
On the second Saturday of February, Rose came to the Great Hall early in the morning as usual, hoping the hearty breakfast and noisy surroundings would ease her nerves.
James and Sirius sat side by side at the long table, with the windproof glasses Rose had given him for Christmas lying beside them.
Rose was about to sit down across from them when McGu hurried over to her, his face pale.
"Belinda broke her leg in a fall last night. She's in the Hospital Wing now-Claude, you're playing in her place today. Remember our tactics!" McGu did not look well. The sudden setback had evidently robbed him of most of his confidence in winning the cup.
Rose's heart clenched hard, as though caught in an invisible thread. Looking at the food before her, she felt her stomach spasm.
"Don't look so miserable," Sirius said casually. "James says you're a brilliant flyer, don't you, mate?" He clapped James hard on the back as he was eating his porridge.
"Cough, cough-yes-cough-" James coughed until his face turned red. "Sparrow would've been thrilled. That slap of yours nearly gave him the right to play today!"
Sirius burst out laughing. "Just imagine his face, Rose," he said with cruel humor. "Now he'll have to sit on the bench all by himself!"
Rose shook her head. She even felt that letting Sparrow play would be better than sending her out, and she couldn't laugh at all. What if she messed everything up? What if she missed a few balls and Gryffindor lost to Slytherin because of her?
Sirius seemed to notice how distracted she was. He poured a glass of iced orange juice and put it in front of her.
"Relax-even if we really don't win, it won't be your fault." He looked Rose calmly in the eye, and, seemingly affected by Sirius's composure, she felt her anxious heart gradually settle.
Just then, Marlene, Lily, Mary, and Natasha came into the Great Hall together. They had just left the girls' dormitory, and when they heard the news, they hurried straight to the Great Hall.
"You finally get to play!" Marlene said excitedly. She was happy for Rose from the bottom of her heart. A few days earlier, she had told Lily in private that Rose must feel awful, training so hard from dawn to dusk every day only to be unable to actually play in the end.
"I don't have as much experience as Belinda, but I'll do my best!" Rose had fully recovered her spirits. Now she was brimming with confidence and determination.
The Quidditch Pitch buzzed with voices. Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Slughorn sat close together in the stands. The heads of the two houses greeted each other with smiles, but both were determined to win.
After the two captains exchanged their customary "friendly" greetings, Madam Hooch blew her whistle—and all fourteen players shot into the air.
In their regular training, besides practicing coordination among the official Chasers, Rose often did various drills with several of the players to prepare for just such a situation.
As a Chaser, James was highly skilled at both flying and throwing, while Caradoc was tall and broad and always managed to intercept the Quaffle from their opponents.
Rose played a supporting role among the three. Caradoc would pretend to pass the ball to Rose, then, once both Slytherin Chasers had flown over to intercept her, he would use a feint to pass it to the less conspicuous James.
Their coordination won them thirty points at the start of the match. For a while, the students in the stadium were all shouting for Gryffindor, and Rose even heard her own name occasionally mixed in with the boisterous cheers.
But it did not last. Slytherin's main scorer saw through their trick and began guarding James closely, attacking him from above and below and denying him the slightest chance to touch the ball.
After Slytherin scored fifty points in a row, Rose realized they couldn't let things continue like this. The other two were evidently thinking the same thing.
The three exchanged glances in the air. Caradoc passed the ball to Rose, who was closest to the scoring area. As soon as she caught it, she steered her broom toward the goal, forcing the Slytherin Chasers to abandon James.
Two older boys blocked Rose's path, leaving her no way through.
Rose spun around and hurled the Quaffle back to James, catching their opponents off guard. James sent the ball straight through the goal.
"A beautiful Porskoff Ploy!" the commentator, Dedalus Diggle, shouted excitedly. "Forty to fifty-McGu seems to have spotted the Golden Snitch, oh—he's speeding into a dive! He's caught it-one hundred and ninety to fifty! Let's congratulate Gryffindor on winning this year's Quidditch House Cup!"
Rose jumped off her broom when it was still a foot above the ground. James and Caradoc threw their arms around her, and McGu, arriving after them, rushed over and swept all three into his arms. Students throughout the stadium cheered for Gryffindor.
"I can't believe it-" McGu said incoherently. "You flew brilliantly, Claude!"
Rose smiled sheepishly.
"I told you," James said, his face full of pride, as though McGu were praising him. "I taught her everything she knows!"
McGu gave him a playful punch, and the other team members hurried over too. They were overjoyed, feeling that all the torment of the past few months had been worth it!
Professor McGonagall and McGu stood on the podium together. McGu cried as he accepted the trophy he had won in his final year at school. Below the podium, his fiancée, Bernice Smethwyck, watched him with an elegant smile. When he came down, McGu plunged into her arms.
Back in the common room, the girls from Rose's dormitory gathered around her, talking over one another as they congratulated her and shared in her happiness.
The common room was hung with gold and scarlet streamers and banners. Caradoc had even smuggled in a bottle of Scotch malt whisky, and the older students were all tipsy.
Rose sat in a daze on a large sofa. Though she hadn't touched a drop of alcohol, her cheeks were rosy and her eyes unfocused.
Suddenly, the sofa dipped beside her as Sirius sat down.
"Opportunities always come to those who are prepared, don't they?" he said in a soft, silky voice beside her ear. "James said you always trained very hard-don't be afraid to show what you can do, Rose. You're the best of all the girls I know-"
Sirius was never stingy with praise. He always expressed his thoughts as a matter of course. As a teenager, he was cheerful and open-minded, always paid back a grudge, and was endlessly tolerant of the people and things he liked.
Rose said nothing. She turned and stared at his earnest expression.
The noisy, bustling common room, the flames leaping in the fireplace, the heart pounding in her chest.