But Hermione had surprised her. It had taken Hermione almost being killed by a mountain troll to do it, but the girl had had her confidence in the teachers severely affected, and was not so prompt anymore in quoting the rules and criticising those who do not conformed to them. Hermione was intelligent, read a lot of things including the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien , and Alexandra had not to be scared about the girl being near her to copy her essays or profit from her. In less than a week, the two were together every time they could, and Nigel had been included in the group three days after Halloween. The auburn-haired boy was timid, but he was good company once one got passed his clumsiness.
They had to be strange sight in the corridors, Alexandra was sure: her, the black hair, green eyed half-blood, Ravenclaw and Heiress Potter. Good student but unpopular due to her family's past. Hermione, a Gryffindor with her bushy hair, prominent teeth and brown eyes. No magical parents, an out-of-norms intelligence but a bossy temperament which had isolated the girl in the ranks of the Lions. Nigel, dark brown hair and black eyes, shy and not courageous at all, a pure-blood Gryffindor who wondered three times a day if he had been sent to the wrong House at the Sorting. Mocked and laughed by the boys that shared his dorms and the rest of the first-years. Not that Alexandra was interested a lot about the opinion of others.
Flitwick had congratulated her to break out of her isolation and make friends, although he had also demanded a complete and accurate recall of her adventure with the troll, and her Head of House approving her was more than she needed. Fortunately, these times the rumours of her future ascension as a Dark Lady and two Gryffindors joining her circle of friends had not lasted long. The next week-end was the date of the first Quidditch match of the year, Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
As Hermione had managed to obtain Quidditch through the Ages at the library on Wednesday, she was going to assist to her first match as a spectator knowing a bit about the rules. Alexandra had been really worried reading the book detailing the main rules, as the pictures had described an event which had nothing to be shamed against the events with the troll. An official Quidditch team had seven players: a Keeper, three Chasers, two Beaters and a Seeker. The Chasers had to throw a big red ball called the Quaffle through one hoop of to score a goal. Each goal was worth ten points. The role of the Keeper was to make sure the Chasers didn't score.
The insane role of the Beaters turned what could have been a funny magical basketball mounted on brooms into a bloody sport. The Beaters had to protect their side from the Bludgers, two black balls that were incredibly aggressive and had the speed to catch with the players. To make matters worse, the Beaters also had the right to kick out of the game their opponents with the Bludgers, and professional games were not rare where a team finished with all its members at the hospital. Lethal casualties had decreased since the invention of the sport, but more than one match had been finished with funerals at the local cemetery. Hogwarts: A History proudly proclaimed it had never happened in the Scottish school. Then again, neither supposedly had a troll attack. Last but not least, the player known as the Seeker was charged to catch the Golden Snitch, a tiny and little golden ball with wings. Catching the Golden Snitch awarded one hundred and fifty points and ended the match. Apparently, the magical swiftness, speed and small size of the Snitch was incredibly difficult. Oh, and the match did not end before the Snitch was caught, so the match could last in theory eternally.
To speak of the anecdotes, Alexandra had learnt that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them; referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert or in the Himalayan mountains. The flying brooms used by the players had to be from one of the homologated Broom Companies, of which they were six hundred and twenty-two worldwide.
To make things even spicier, a victory in a Quidditch match at Hogwarts got the victorious House one hundred points for the House Cup, which explained the popularity of the students participating. The teachers rarely gave more than twenty points maximum during a lesson for a single student, but the same thing was not true when it came to remove them. Quidditch was the key moment of the year to earn a maximum of points in a minimum amount of time.
Alexandra, Hermione and Nigel mounted to one of the Gryffindor stand, slightly on the edge of the rest of the Lions House, not that the members of Gryffindor deigned to throw them a look. Seeing the two teams were walking on to the pitch, the match was about to begin.
Even from the distance, you could tell the Slytherin team was not playing in subtlety: all its members were large and tall boys, chosen more for their muscles than their brains. Their chasers were Marcus Flint, Adrian Pucey and Cassius Warrington, the Beaters were Lucian Bole and Peregrine Derrick, the Keeper was Miles Bletchley and the Seeker was Terrence Higgs. In contrast, the Gryffindor team looked more equilibrated, with their Chasers being three girls: Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell. The Keeper was Wood, their captain. The Beaters were the Weasley twins Fred and George (or George and Fred, nobody had figured who was who ), infamously known as the Twins Terrors on the pitch. The Seeker was of course, rolls of drums, the great, the famous, the Boy-Who-Lived! Neville Longbottom in the flesh, riding a brand-new broom. For this match, Professor Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the pitch, waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.
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