Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
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On the field, with the first player eliminated, the pressure on the remaining two increased significantly.
They had to be on their toes, trying their best to avoid the two wandering balls while looking for opportunities to cause trouble for each other.
The two went back and forth, remaining deadlocked for more than ten minutes before a winner was finally decided.
But to everyone's surprise, the last one left was actually the underdog third-year student. With his agile movement, he successfully turned the tables and defeated the tall and strong fifth-year opponent at a crucial moment.
In the stands, everyone began to applaud and cheer.
Harris stepped forward, smiling and extending his hand, "Willard, welcome to the team."
"It's my honor, Captain." The third-year student also extended his hand and shook hands with Harris.
Another round of applause came from the surroundings.
Next was the selection of the chaser. Kyle stood up, picked up a broom, and came to the field.
"Go, Kyle!"
Cedric shouted loudly, while lighting a firework.
Fireworks exploded in the sky above the stands, forming a giant banner with a running badger and the shimmering words "Keep it up, Kyle!"
It was unclear where Cedric got the fireworks; they were clearly visible even in daylight.
This was a bit too extravagant…
Amidst this unique cheering, Kyle reached the center of the field.
He was competing with two other fifth-graders for the Chase spot.
"As a Chaser, accuracy is crucial…"
Harris said, holding a Quaffle. "I'll be the goalie, and you guys will be throwing. Whoever scores the most within the time limit will join the team."
"So...who wants to go first?"
"I'll go..." Kyle stepped forward.
Although going first without knowing Harris's goalkeeping style would be a disadvantage, he had the advantage of the broomstick, so it was even.
"It's settled then. Remember, don't be nervous, just play normally."
Harris gave Kyle a few instructions and went to the goalpost.
Kyle also mounted the broomstick and gently pushed off the ground.
"Can we start?" Harris asked.
"No problem."
As soon as Kyle finished speaking, someone threw a Quaffle up from below.
Kyle caught the Quaffle with a dive and started flying quickly towards the goal.
Before Harris could react, Kyle was already there.
Facing the empty goal, he casually threw the Quaffle in.
"Ten points!" someone shouted sarcastically from below, "Captain, what were you standing there for? Were you throwing the game?"
"Get out of the way!" Harris's face flushed slightly.
He certainly wasn't going to hold back; he simply hadn't reacted quickly enough.
He'd expected the Nimbus 2000 to be fast, but he hadn't anticipated it being so much faster than the Nimbus 1700. These two brooms, though only two years apart, were completely different levels of technology!
It was strange… was this really the Nimbus company he knew, the one that only knew how to squeeze out small increments?
"Again!"
Harris composed himself, becoming much more serious. He didn't want to be accused of holding back again.
Soon, another Quaffle was thrown up.
Kyle, just like before, caught the ball and flew to the goalpost.
Having learned from his previous experience, Harris reacted quickly this time, directly blocking Kyle's path.
Kyle gently tossed the Quaffle with his right hand…
"It's the right goal!" Harris thought instantly, flying to the right.
But to his surprise, the Quaffle didn't fly to the right at all; it just spun a few times in the air before returning to Kyle's hands.
By then, he was already far enough away that it was too late to turn back.
Kyle scored again.
"Twenty points!"
"Look, Harry, that's a backflip!"
Ron, tugging at Harry's arm in the stands, exclaimed excitedly, "Merlin, I never thought I'd see one of the Chaser's classic feints here!"
"Is this move difficult?" Harry asked doubtfully.
Having just started learning Quidditch, he didn't know much about these moves.
But speaking of feints, Harry suddenly remembered something.
Professor McGonagall had mentioned on the way to find Wood that his actions when retrieving the Memory Ball resembled a classic Quidditch feint.
Was it called the Strong feint… or the Lansky feint…? He couldn't quite remember.
"It's all pretty much the same," Ron said after a moment's thought.
"Making a backflip isn't hard, but the hard part is fooling the goalkeeper."
He continued, "That goalkeeper on the pitch is Hufflepuff's captain, arguably the most experienced player at Hogwarts. It's not easy to fool him."
Harry still didn't quite understand, but judging from the deafening cheers around him, Kyle's move must have been quite impressive.
So he joined in the cheers.
Not understanding didn't matter… he could pretend to know; his main point was to fit in.
Meanwhile, Harris, listening to the faint jeers from below, blushed even more.
He knew what a backflip was, of course, and had done it more than once. He'd scored his final goal in the Quidditch Cup two years ago using this move.
And that year, Hufflepuff had won the Quidditch Cup by a mere ten points.
But he never expected that one day he'd be fooled by a backflip.
No wonder that goalkeeper had looked at him so unkindly back then; being toyed with certainly didn't feel good.
"I shouldn't have joined in this fun," Harris thought to himself, groaning.
He had worried that using a real goalkeeper would damage the players' confidence, so he had temporarily filled in.
Now it seemed that decision was somewhat unnecessary, but substituting was out of the question, so Harris had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue.
Kyle had only taken about a minute to throw two balls, far from the allotted ten minutes.
In the following time, he demonstrated the speed of a Nimbus 2000 in every aspect.
No matter which direction the Quaffle came from, he could catch it instantly, then send it to the goalpost and score.
Moreover, he scored in different ways each time, sometimes with a feint, sometimes simply using the speed of his broom to send the ball in directly.
Gradually, Harris started to admire him.
He sat on his broom, watching Kyle with burning eyes.
This was a genius chaser!
Last year's Cedric... this year's Kyle...
Harris couldn't help but smile. He finally understood why Wood had laughed so exaggeratedly earlier.
Anyone would find that hard to resist.
[End of the chapter]