Matthew Woodward
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Quidditch Cup: Slytherin vs Ravenclaw
🕑 Added 2020-09-07 21:57:01 +0000 UTCIn the new year — once the holidays were over — the students got on the train back to Hogwarts. It was back to the usual studying they were doing before Christmas break. The nights were getting dark much sooner and the weather remained freezing-cold. By the time February came around, the school were anticipating the next Quidditch match: Slytherin vs Ravenclaw.
In the week coming up to the event, it became much colder as the day approached; students still had their house scarfs wrapped around their necks and kept their robes on at all times. January had the Ravenclaw team practicing three times a week to get themselves ready for the big game. The chasers had performed their manoeuvres perfectly, the beaters were knocking bludgers left-and-right, and Nefaris was saving several goals. Matthew was doing great as the seeker — he managed to catch the snitch within a few minutes after the snitch being released, a whole new record for himself.
The night before the match, Matthew laid underneath the blanket of his bed in the boys’ dormitory, slowly drifting off to sleep. Before completely blacking out, he heard the wind picking up outside his window, but he just thought it was a regular windy night and nothing more. And soon after, he passed out peacefully.
Once his eyes opened the next morning, he was greeted to the heavy sound of wind coming from his window once again. There was no way it continued through the night — he thought the wind would’ve stopped by now — but it never did.
He got out of bed quietly to move himself over to the window and was surprised by what he saw — the entirety of the Hogwarts grounds was coated with snow.
‘Oh no...’ the wolf thought.
There was a wild blizzard happening outside — and it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon. He could barely see what was going on outside due to the amount of snow covering his window, but he could just about see the trees of the Forbidden Forest sway with the extremely-heavy gusts of wind, and countless drops of snow coming down hard from the pure-white sky.
In the Great Hall, the students gathered up together as usual, chattering about the game with excitement; the Ravenclaw team was huddled up on their table and went over some last-minute reminders. In about an hour’s time, Matthew would be getting on the pitch in the middle of the storm.
“So, they’re not gonna cancel the match?” Asked Ty.
“Nope,” Jan answered. “Weather doesn’t matter to the teachers. They think it’s a way to challenge the players, which I can agree on.”
“Blimey...” Seven muttered.
“C’mon, guys! We can’t just give up ‘cuz of some snow outside.”
Matthew was sitting in front of Jan, looking down at his plate as he bit down on a piece of toast; he was more concerned than he was last night. The snow outside was brutal — nothing in their practices could’ve prepared them for that. ‘How the bloody hell am I gonna find that snitch?!’ He thought to himself.
Before he knew it, it was time to go — the seven players got up out of their seats and began to make their way onto the castle grounds. From every step they took, the frozen grass crunched under their feet. At one point Seven almost fell over when a heavy gust of wind blew into them.
After struggling through the storm, they finally made it to the Quidditch stadium. Once the group stepped inside the locker room, they began to change into their navy robes — along with their pads, socks, and gloves — and gathered around the board.
“Okay, guys...” Jan started. “I know there’s a blizzard outside, but think of who we’re up against. With this team we have here, Slytherin doesn’t stand a chance; they’re fourth place in the Quidditch Cup right now, and considering how bad they lost against Gryffindor, I think this should be an easy win.”
The six boys of the team let out chuckles all around at the cheeky comment.
“But keep an eye on them — they could try to pull a fast one on us and cheat their way through the game.”
Soon after, they could hear the sound of bass drums playing, along with cheers from the students — it was time.
“Alright, it’s game time. Good luck, guys...be careful.”
The team grabbed their broomsticks from the lockers and formed a line in front of the tent’s exit. Once Matthew got at the back of the line, Jan came walking towards him with something in her hand.
“Here,” said the lioness as she gave the item to him. “You’re gonna need these out there in the storm.”
It was a pair of goggles. Since Seekers were on the hunt for such a tiny ball in the middle of a blizzard, they were advised to wear them so they weren’t flying blind.
Once they were ready, they mounted their brooms and took off into the blizzard — one-by-one — and were overwhelmed with the familiar screams from the crowd.
The stands’ banners were flapping because of the nasty wind, but despite the weather, it didn’t change the morale of the school. The stadium was divided into two — one half was a frosty blue and white, the other, a forest of green and silver. Students had the usual stuff with them — face paint, banners and flags of whichever house they supported. The grass on the pitch was coated so much with white, the centre was barely visible. It was no secret that Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors commonly supported Ravenclaw since their teams weren’t playing, while Slytherins wore their colours with pride; barely any of them cheered for the eagles.
“And welcome to Hogwarts’ third Quidditch match of the season! Today we have a doozy for you all: Slytherin vs Ravenclaw!” Announced commentator Chazra Dorvak.
As the Ravenclaws flew around the pitch, Matthew just barely noticed the Slytherin team emerging from their end, each of them sporting emerald robes.
Once Madam Hooch stepped out onto the field, both teams gathered around the centre in a circle.
Matthew couldn’t even make out what she was saying down below due to the wind, but he assumed it was the usual, “I want a nice, clean game,” reminder. He could just about see the hawk kick open the wooden chest beside her and he watched as the bludgers took off in other directions. Afterwards, she grabbed hold of the quaffle from inside the crate and looked up at the fourteen players — the chasers’ anticipations growing stronger.
Once she threw it directly upwards, the crowd started to cheer louder — the game had officially begun.
“And they’re off! The quaffle’s swiftly taken by Captain Titus of Ravenclaw and she’s zooming towards Slytherin’s goalposts.”
The lioness, with the leather ball tucked under her arm, began flying down to the Serpents’ end, where their keeper was waiting for her at the hoops.
“She’s getting overwhelmed by the chaser and passes to Seven — he passes to Navalia — back to Jan, and — OH! RAVENCLAW SCORES!!! That was INSANELY quick!”
The three chasers managed to pass the Quaffle to each other fluently at such a high speed, the commentator didn’t even realise Jan had already scored a goal until a loud roar erupted in the crowd. Twenty seconds — that was how long it had been since the match started. Dorvak — being a Ravenclaw himself — couldn’t help but cheer along with the school.
Matthew, as usual, hovered over the match on his Windsurfer, clapping his gloved hands. He was still sort of anxious about the thought of trying to find the snitch in that weather, hopefully the golden glint is enough for him.
“Slytherin now in possession of the Quaffle and is held by Richard Miller — manages to dodge Navalia — passes to — oh, and Titus takes the Quaff — oh, nevermind — Kodiak regains the Quaffle and escorts it to Ravenclaw’s hoops — he shoots, and — Kodiak scores for Slytherin! Both teams are now back neck-and-neck!”
The sea of green below let out cheers of joy, waving their flags and clapping for Kodiak — the deer who had scored the point for them. This was met with boos and awes from the blue side of the stadium.
With the Quaffle back in the hands of Ravenclaw, Nefaris passes to Pyro and the trio began swooping down the middle of the field in the Hawkshead Attacking Formation — a move where chasers form an arrowhead pattern — with both beaters beside them for protection. Slytherin Chaser Raine Pierce came storming in by himself, charging into Pyro and causing him to drop the ball — but that didn’t stop Jan from collecting it and splitting from the group.
“Titus flies down to the ground and is pursued by both Slytherin beaters Roland Witherspoon and Caim Nilathwyn.”
As Jan flew close to the ground with two beaters on her tail, she began to move in a zig-zag motion, dodging each of their attempts to knock her off her broom with the bludgers.
“Some lovely dodging there, she’s slicing through them like butter — OOF, she lead Witherspoon’s bludger into Caim! Let’s hope he doesn’t need to go to the Hospital Wing after that — Titus comes soaring in — she shoots — and scores! Ravenclaw takes the lead!”
Fortunately for Caim — Slytherin’s Captain — he was able to recover unscathed and the match continued.
“Slytherin keeper Miles Lawrence passes to Richard Miller and he goes flying down the field — passes to Pierce — oh, and Navalia tackles him to regain the Quaffle — he zooms down to their goals — reverse passes to Seven, and — SEVEN SCORES! ANOTHER ten points to Ravenclaw!”
Pyro flew towards Seven with his arm out, giving him a high-five for the outstanding goal.
After roughly 20–25 minutes into the game, it was clear that Ravenclaw were mopping the floor with Slytherin; Jan, Seven, and Pyro scored goal-after-goal — they were beating the Serpents 210–40.
Every time the Slytherin Chasers approached the Eagles’ hoops, their attempts to score were almost always blocked by Nefaris. It was humiliating — Pierce kept going in without his fellow teammates and was swarmed every time, which would lose them the Quaffle, and gain another ten points point for Ravenclaw. Caim was very disappointed with his team — they weren’t the players he thought they were in the tryouts.
As Pierce came closing into the hoops once again — this time with his fellow Chasers catching up behind — he threw the Quaffle without even thinking out of pure anger, and his shot was once again saved by Nefaris.
Despite the crowd below the players roaring in their seats, their shouts and cheers were muted over by Pierce’s rage; he let out an incredibly loud growl as he started to bash his own broom, making a fool of himself in front of the entire school.
As the navy-cloaked Chasers acquired the Quaffle once again, Kodiak and Miller flew after them. But as for Pierce, he had his eyes glued to the Eagles’ hoops.
“What are you doing?!” Witherspoon called from the side.
Raine immediately looked straight at his bat.
“Gimme that!” He demanded.
Pierce went flying down the pitch to Ravenclaw’s end while the other players were focused on the Quaffle, Roland’s wooden bat now in his possession. As Kodiak managed to regain the leather ball, he came down to the opposing players’ side and brought several others along with him.
Nefaris anticipated the Chaser’s attempt to score, but while his eyes were focused on the Quaffle, he noticed something small coming towards him at full speed from his side.
“OUCH! Nefaris just got hit directly in the head by...Pierce?! He’s not a Beater! Why does he have a bat?! That’s a foul!!!”
Suffering from a concussion to his head, Nef fell to the snow-covered sandpit below as Kodiak scored ten points for Slytherin. Ravenclaw’s side of the stadium began an uproar of boos — the team no longer had a Keeper.
“YOU!” Shouted Madam Hooch furiously. “Give me that, right now!”
The black hawk snatched the bat from Raine and gave it back to Roland.
“Penalty to Ravenclaw!”
Back at the Serpents’ end, Jan decided to shoot. But unfortunately, due to the anger fuelled up in her by Nefaris’ ‘accident,’ she threw the Quaffle and missed entirely — the game continued on.
Meanwhile, Matthew went swooping around the pitch keeping a close eye out for the snitch, hoping he’d be able to see it in that brutal blizzard; even with those goggles on, he could still barely see any sign of it.
“Oh, and Slytherin Seeker Nicholas Dwight has seen the snitch!”
It was hard for him to make out at first, but the wolf managed to find the Seeker flying in between the stands above on his Nimbus two-thousand-and-one, and immediately flew up to chase the snitch along with him. The two were both neck-and-neck for the tiny golden ball — Matthew could barely see it in front of him, but proceeded to get closer. He extended his arm out to try and catch it, but was elbowed by Dwight in his side. He kept nudging and kicking the grey wolf, trying as hard as he could to knock him off his broom, only to have more hits regurgitated back at him.
As Matthew grew closer once again and reached out his arm, his cheek was met with Nick’s fist, stunning him off-track. That kind of action was worth a foul, but Hooch never saw since she was more occupied on the Chasers.
“Kodiak scores once again, bringing Slytherin to sixty points!”
It was clear that Dwight wasn’t going to let Matthew catch that snitch easily. The score was now 210 – 60, meaning if Dwight caught the ball after their Chasers scored another goal, Slytherin would win the game. He couldn’t let that happen — he needed to catch it, FAST.
Even though he had only just got hit, he’d already lost sight of Nick — he was nowhere to be seen.
“MATTHEW! UP THERE!” Ty called out from a distance, pointing up to the sky with his bat.
Without even thinking, he zoomed up high above the pitch to the point where he was even higher than the stands. He could see Dwight gaining up on the snitch with his hand straightened out in front of him. In little time, Matthew rose back by his side, causing the Seeker to once again kick him away. However this time, the wolf drove into Nick hard and slowed him down, now taking the lead for the snitch.
Despite it being in front of him, the snow hitting hard against his goggles clouded his vision. Though he couldn’t see very well, he reached out for the snitch, hoping it would land in his palm soon enough, but it was no luck.
As he kept his hand outwards, he felt a heavy tug from the back of his Windsurfer.
It was Dwight — he grabbed hold of Matthew’s broom and slowed him down so he wouldn’t catch the snitch.
“Another ten points to Slytherin!” Announced Darvak way down below through the speakers, the Serpents now with seventy points.
The two followed the golden ball back down to the stadium and were greeted with applause, the pair clawing and kicking at each other as they swerved through the stands. There was so much happening — even though the Seekers were racing for the snitch, fortunately for Matthew, the match was still going on.
“Kodiak passes to Miller — passes to Pierce — oof, Pierce gets hit by Lee Foxglove’s bludger, though I think he deserved that — Seven grabs the Quaffle and passes to Titus — Titus passes to Navalia, and — he scores!”
Ravenclaw now had more of a chance at winning if Dwight had caught the snitch.
“Get that Quaffle and score one more time!” Jan informed the other two Chasers. “We can still win this if they catch it!”
Once Kodiak was given the ball by Miles, he and the Beaters — along with Miller and Pierce — went flying down the centre where they were met with Ravenclaw.
“Kodiak passes to Miller who is quickly tackled by Navalia and gains the Quaffle — Caim lands a heavy shot on Pyro and Kodiak takes possession — dodges Seven and is coming up close to their hoops — he’s about to shoot — OH, he’s struck by a bludger from Tyger Denoir! Seven takes the Quaffle and dodges past Pierce — woah, and dodges a bludger — passes to Titus — she’s gaining speed down to those hoops —“
While this was going on, Matthew and Nicholas were still after the snitch close to the grass, wrestling to slow each other down. The silver canine managed to elbow him away for a brief moment and arrived close behind the snitch, but his broom was once again held on by Dwight, now in full view so everybody could see what was happening.
With one last attempt, Matthew reached out as far as he could and tried grabbing the snitch, hoping it would finally embrace with his hand — but that hope was short-lived.
*CRASH*
Matthew had fell off his Windsurfer and hit the ground, his navy robe getting covered in snow as he tumbled across the grass before coming to a stop.
“She dodges another bludger, and — January scores!”
Soon after he fell, Dwight had flew passed and caught the snitch in his hand, ending the game immediately. He raised his arm up so he could proudly show what he had been able to do, even though he clearly didn’t do it fairly. Slytherin’s side of the stadium screamed enthusiastically, thinking they had won. Ravenclaw’s side were booing at the Seeker — they saw exactly what happened and knew he was what caused Matthew to crash.
“And the snitch is caught by Nicholas Dwight, earning Slytherin one-hundred-and-fifty points! Which means...wait a minute...” Dorvak paused as he added up the final score of the match.
“This brings the total score to 220 — 230...I don’t believe it...beating them just by ten points at the last moment...RAVENCLAW WINS!!!”
The entire stadium erupted with cheers as they were delightfully surprised by the results. Students were dancing in the stands and clapping their hands as hard as they could for the team to hear — flags and banners were waving and chants could be heard.
“RA-VEN-CLAW! RA-VEN-CLAW! RA-VEN-CLAW!”
The five other Ravenclaw players — covered from head-to-toe with snow — floated down to the surface and got off their brooms to check on Matthew.
“Math, are you okay?” Jan asked worriedly.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he stated, sitting up from where he landed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t catch it...kinda crashed.”
“That wasn’t even your fault! If he wasn’t clinging onto your broom you would’ve caught it.”
Soon after, the emerald-robed players also landed on the ground, making their way towards the Ravenclaws, only for Dwight to be greeted with a hard push by Jan that knocked him off his feet.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” The lioness yelled at the Seeker.
She tried to walk towards him, but was stopped by her fellow teammates.
“Leave it alone, Jan,” Pyro advised her. “It’s not worth it.”
Soon after, Madam Hooch arrived onto the scene, her sharp hawk eyes piercing through Dwight’s soul. She was not impressed.
“Fifty points from Slytherin,” huffed the referee.
Caim looked at his team with disgust as he heard the disappointing news.
Once the Ravenclaws were back in the locker room and began changing back into their regular robes, they could all clearly hear Slytherin’s captain going on a rant to his team on the other side of the tent — he was furious.
“You should be ASHAMED of yourselves! What did you think was gonna happen when you committed those fouls, that they were gonna turn a blind eye and accept that we won through cheating? NO! I’d rather lose, than win by doing that. You defeated the purpose of what we were playing...and YOU! You knocked me off my broom, and almost did it a second time!”
“Not to mention he hit me across the bloody head with the bat,” added Seven.
Not a single word was spoken from their team — they couldn’t even look him in the eye. Ty and Lee had their ears perked up against their side of the tent so they can listen to every word, trying incredibly hard not to laugh.
“Except for Kodiak, you’re all off the team — get out of my sight!”
“What?! Why except him?!”
“‘CUZ HE’S THE ONLY ONE THAT MANAGED TO SCORE!!!”
They both rushed away from the side, Lee bursting into a quiet fit of laughter.
Soon after, the Slytherin captain entered Ravenclaw’s side of the tent alone and walked straight to Jan.
“I wanna apologise about how those guys acted out there. It wasn’t my intention to—“
“We know,” said the lioness. “We could hear you from this side. Apology accepted, though.” She extended her arm out to him, the two civilly embracing their hands together.
“Well, off to find a new team.”
“Good luck with that,” she responded as he made his way back out the tent.
Soon after it was then the lioness realised her and the wolf were the only remaining pair left in the tent. She took a seat on the same bench as Matthew, nudging his side a bit to get his attention.
“You did great out there, Y’know,” she told the wolf.
“Thanks,” he responded. “I’m just annoyed he caught it after pulling that stunt.”
“Like I said outside: if you didn’t have a rat hanging onto the back of your broom, you’d have got it,” reassured Jan.
“I guess so.”
“But hey, you kept going, even with him slowing you down. There’s no stopping the great Matthew Woodward,” the lioness playfully gave his arm a couple light punches.
“Okay, okay, enough,” Matthew smiled as he tried to push her away, Jan giggling at his reaction.
A moment of silence was shared between them as they looked at each other, Matthew keeping his smile on as he stared into her icy-blue eyes. It was soon after that Jan broke the silence.
“So uh, I was thinking of grabbing some grub from the Great Hall...wanna join me?”
“Uh...s-sure.”
The pair got up soon after with their traditional robes on and went into the snowstorm once again, making their way back to the castle.
Now that the game was over, Ravenclaw had taken first place in the Quidditch Cup. Their miraculous victory was another stepping stone towards an ambitious goal. One more step to winning the tournament — all they had to do was beat Gryffindor. They were going to have to work hard if they wanted to win.
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Here we are, ANOTHER Quidditch story! Recently finished this and I’m very proud of how it turned out^^
This glorious piece was done by the amazing Jailbird!!!
Thank you to all my friends that allowed me to feature them in this story!
Commentator: Chazra Darvak
Ravenclaw team:
Jan –Chaser/Captain
Seven – Chaser
Pyro – Chaser
Nefaris – Keeper
Lee – Beater
Ty – Beater
Slytherin team:
Caim – Slytherin Beater/Captain
Kodiak – Chaser
(All other Slytherin players were original characters made solely for this story.)
Comments
Matthew Woodward
Thank you so much dude! I tried my best to have this be engaging <3
PhDFatty
Such a thought out detailed story buddy !.
