Work Text:
“Well, we shall see how you feel after your detentions,” said Snape. “Ten o’clock Sunday morning Potter. My office”.
Even through the turmoil of what had happened in the last half hour, Harry still had a moment to be grateful and surprised that Snape had not thought to place him in detention during the final Quidditch game.
After one hour, Harry was starting to wonder if he wouldn’t have been better off in detention after all. Not that the game was going terribly; in fact, Gryffindor were comfortably winning 200-70 and the tactics they had been working on were working to a tee. Ginny in particular had scored goal after goal and Ron had pulled off some saves that rivalled those he had made when seemingly under the influence of Felix Felicis. No, the problem with the team was Harry himself. Twice, he had been too distracted watching his teammates and had missed the snitch. Only some great bludger work by Coote and Peakes had stopped Cho from winning the game and the cup.
It wasn’t just his increasing tendency to watch Ginny that was distracting him, he had noticed that Quidditch didn’t quite dominate his thoughts as it once did and he found his mind drifting to other matters, wondering what Malfoy was up to. Maybe he could ask Dobby to do a bit more trailing…
“HARRY POTTER, YOU’D BETTER NOT BE LETTING ME WIN!”
Shaking himself out of his latest reverie, Harry saw, to his bewilderment, an irate looking Cho flying towards him. What was going on?
“WEEKS, WE’VE BEEN PREPARING TO BEAT YOU”
Looking around, Harry saw most players on both teams heading for the ground.
“Have we stopped? Why?”
He didn’t know whether it was the sheer bewilderment on his face or what, but Cho at least continued a little more calmly.
“I called timeout, my team’s being pulverised in case you hadn’t noticed on whatever planet you’re on”
“Oh right”
Harry suddenly realised this was the first time he had spoken to Cho all year. It made a change for her to be shouting at him and not crying.
“How am I letting you win?”
At this Cho huffed and started flying away to the Ravenclaw team. Harry stared after her for a moment, and then something clicked in his mind.
“Cho!”
She turned.
“I’m sorry” he said simply.
“Sorry?”
“I don’t seem quite as focused on Quidditch any more, its nothing to do with you, it just seems less important, you know?”
Cho looked at him in disbelief.
“You think I don’t understand that!”
“I spent a whole year not able to fly properly because of Cedric, it’s taken me all of this year to get back to my best, we’ve been drilling for ages on how to beat you and your bloody Firebolt in my last game and now you tell me you can’t be BOTHERED!”
“Oh Merlin,” said Harry. He wanted to shout back that she didn’t understand, but, finally, he had realised that Cho did understand a lot more than he had ever given her credit for.
“I’m sorry about last year too” he said in a small voice.
“NOW you tell me that” yelled Cho with frustration as she did at last move towards the blue and silver clad players at one end, leaving Harry no choice but to join those in red and gold at the other end.
“What was that about?” asked Ron as Harry joined his team.
“Nothing important”
“You better not be going easy on her”
“Funnily enough, that’s what she was telling me too” Harry replied, feeling Ginny’s eyes on him as he responded.
“I put her straight that we’re here to win this game”
“Ritchie, Jimmy, keep up the good work. I think they’re going to focus more bludgers on Ginny, so watch out for that. Demelza, if you and Katie can switch sides like we practiced, that should keep them guessing. Ron, some great saves there, mate!”
“Thanks”
“And I’m going to remind this school why I was the youngest seeker in a century!”
At this, his team let out a cheer and moved back to their positions ready to start again. Harry looked to the other end where Cho had finished her team talk too, and was now looking at him in a way he wasn’t able to fathom. He wasn’t looking forward to the next part of the game.
With their current lead, Harry would win the game but not the cup by capturing the snitch. So, his tactic had to be to shadow Cho, and make sure she wasn’t able to take the snitch herself, until he was able to compete truly.
“At least you’ve remembered how to count” Cho commented, with a hint of amusement in her voice. Harry ignored this, focusing instead on where she was looking. The snitch, at the moment, seemed to have gone into hiding but you could never be certain in Quidditch.
Katie scored another goal, escaping her marker who was clearly expecting her on the left. As she flew off with Ginny to restart, Harry felt Cho accelerate quickly past him. The snitch was there, by the goalpost!
Thinking quickly Harry strained his Firebolt with all his might, forcing the broom between himself and Cho. Or at least to where he expected Cho to be, for as he looked around, he realised that Cho had dodged left. She must have anticipated his move, and knowing the Firebolt was faster, tried to put herself in the next best position to catch the snitch. Fortunately, the snitch had gone to his right however and was now lost somewhere amongst the sky above them.
“Does this mean you’ve remembered Wood’s advice to knock me off my broom?”
“If I have to” Harry grunted.
“That was one of my favourite games” Cho said wistfully. “Fourth year seems like a different world now. Its why I was looking forward to today – you are a great seeker Harry”.
“So are you” Harry forced out. “I…”
And she was off again, diving towards the ground with an intent look upon her face. Harry looked ahead of her, squinting with all his might for a golden flash. As they plummeted towards the pitch, he got increasingly desperate, unable to see the snitch. What had Cho seen? With a flash of insight, he pulled up, moments before seeing Cho do the same several feet below him. She had performed a textbook Wronski Feint.
Play continued like this for what seemed like most of the day. Gryffindor’s chasers had continued their fine play, moving ever further ahead, and the match was poised so that whoever caught the snitch would take the championship. Harry and Cho had each seen the snitch several times, but this one did not want to be caught and through their own manoeuvres and the skills of their respective beaters, each seeker had prevented the other from winning.
Harry was much more focused on the snitch, and was enjoying the duel he was having, but he was not completely unaware of what was happening on the rest of the pitch. Ginny had just scored her thirty first goal of the match, a spectacular shot from half the pitch away, and this gave Gryffindor a 610-190 lead. If they scored three more goals, they would win even if Cho caught the snitch.
“I’m sorry too”
He had not heard Cho approaching, again he had let even a momentary pause to watch Ginny distract him from what the other seeker was doing. This could cost Gryffindor the game. Then what Cho said permeated his brain.
“Um, well you’d been through a lot”
“So had you” Cho gave him a sad smile. “We all will be before this is done”
Below them, Ron saved by his fingertips from Bradley, then passed the quaffle to Katie. She zoomed off back up the pitch to launch another attack. Harry came to a decision.
“Cho, what are you doing next year?”
Katie scored.
“Magical law or quidditch” replied Cho, “but I’m making some other contacts to decide what order to do things in.”
Harry looked at her in surprise.
“I told you; they’re not stopping me from fighting him, not after Cedric.”
“Well anyway, do you want to try and be keep in touch” Harry asked. “As friends” he hurriedly added.
“Yes, Harry, I’d like to try and be your friend” said Cho, grinning at him. “After I’ve caught this damn snitch.”
She flew off, circling high above the pitch. Harry glanced around. Ginny had just caught the quaffle and with a quick one-two to Demelza had got past all of the Ravenclaw chasers. Then, at the centre of the pitch he saw his prize at last. Flying towards the snitch, Harry was dimly aware from the noise that Ginny had added goal number thirty-two.
He sped up, eyes focussed fully on the golden glint in front of him. He swerved to avoid an incoming bludger from one Ravenclaw beater, then ducked to avoid the other bludger. The crowd was now roaring in his ears. He reached out to capture this most elusive of snitches…
And saw another hand reach in and grab it from in front of him. Cho had dived almost vertically to reach the snitch before him. He couldn’t believe it. He’d lost the cup for Gryffindor.
Or had he? Those were Gryffindor fans cheering, weren’t they? He looked at Cho, who was still the closest player to him.
“630-340” she said. “We tie for the cup.”
Harry snorted. “That’s not what I expected. Great catch by the way. You’d be great as a pro”
“Thanks. That’s one hell of a team you put together.”
They both flew to the ground, ready to make their way to their respective teams.
“And Harry” called Cho.
“Yes”
“As your friend, learn from your mistakes. If you want to ask someone out, just do it before someone else gets there first.”
“Er” said Harry.
“I’ve been watching your eyelines Harry, I know where your attention has been. See you around.”
At that she made her way over to her very happy Ravenclaw team; they had not won the Quidditch Cup for five years and were enjoying even the shared victory.
As Harry made his way over to the team, he started to worry that they would be blaming him for costing them the outright win. Tentatively he approached the huddle of his teammates. Several hands pulled him into the group.
“We won!” yelled Ron. “We won”.
Harry looked around; there was Ginny running towards him; she had a hard, blazing look in her face as she threw her arms around him.