On March 6th, Gryffindor was dead last in the competition by a large margin. Ravenclaw was first with five hundred and forty two points, Hufflepuff was second with four hundred and thirty nine points, Slytherin was third with two hundred and eighty seven points, Gryffindor was fourth with one hundred and ninety two points. Barring an extraordinary performance from Hufflepuff or a miraculous recovery of the two other Houses, Ravenclaw had a very good chance to win the House Cup after six years of Slytherin domination. But in the Quidditch Cup, nothing was decided.
As a consequence, the announcement that Professor Snape was going to be the referee of the next Quidditch match was greeted with stupefaction by anyone who cared about the sport at Hogwarts.
"This man is so biased it can be seen from London!" The Weasley twins roared in the week leading to the match.
"Snivellus is searching for any excuse to knock off points from Gryffindor!" Shouted Leo Black in a corridor while Alexandra was near. The class of Potions the day before the match turned to a series of explosions and cauldron sabotage and Snape was forced to dismiss all the students a quarter of an hour early to clean the mess done by the combined actions of the first-years. By chance, Nigel and Hermione were far from the explosions. In fact, they were probably the only Gryffindors not in the Hospital Wing by lunch. Malfoy and Longbottom undoubtedly had better targets in mind.
"Someone explain to me what the headmaster was thinking." Grimaced Nigel on lunch that day at noon. "Snape refereeing the match has pushed the Slytherins and the Gryffindors to fight again. It's like they want us to hate each other!"
"That's not really true, Nigel." Said Hermione with a frown on her face. Seeing the boy in front of her raise the eyebrows in disbelief, she added: "I'm sure Professor Dumbledore is a very busy man..."
"Isn't that the problem, though, Hermione?" asked Alexandra. "The headmaster is so busy he's never at Hogwarts for most of the week! I'm not sure he has noticed how bad the situation is, I mean, we haven't seen him since last Sunday."
Nigel nodded, snatching a potato with his fork at the same time."My father told me the same thing once. With Dumbledore being the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, he shouldn't have taken any other job."
"And he has two more. But surely he has the time to cope with the three, no?" declared Hermione, her respect for figures of authority coming back at the speed of a horse galloping.
"I doubt it Hermione." Said the raven-haired Ravenclaw. "Even magic doesn't allow you to be three places at the same time that I know of."
The noise of another prank, courtesy of the Weasley twins, interrupted the conversation. Afterwards the subject drifted to Transfiguration homework.
Still, as she left the two Gryffindors to go to Herbology, Alexandra thought Nigel had made a very convincing point. Dumbledore was too old, holding too many positions to enforce the rules every time he was at Hogwarts. Probably. The alternative was the old man's goal was to ensure the Lions and the Snakes remained permanently in a state of small-scale conflict, using Snape and McGonagall's flaws to do so.
Alexandra didn't see the point. By his blatant support of Gryffindor House, Dumbledore has made sure a quarter of the school belonging in Slytherin was opposed to him no matter what. Oh, the Slytherins recognised the Headmaster as a very powerful wizard, but the line was drawn there. For the rest, the Snakes were happy to call him "meddlesome old fool" or "old Muggle-lover" when there was no adult in proximity. Alexandra didn't see the point of alienating one-fourth of your student population in all the ways which counted. And that worried her. Dumbledore would not control the most powerful political block of the British Isles if he had not brains behind his exuberant and weird persona.
The Quidditch match which followed the next day didn't calm these fears even slightly.
"Here comes the team of Gryffindor! " Shouted Lee Jordan, as unbiased as ever when his House Quidditch team was concerned."Wood, Johnson, Spinnet, Bell, Weasley and Weasley and our magnificent Seeker Longbottom! Their victory would be all but assured today, if not for the presence of a certain referee we could all do without..."
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry, Professor." The tone employed by Lee to speak didn't sound sorry or bothered at all.
In circumstances like that, where the partiality of the referee was so blatantly questioned, it would have been crucial for the referee to act as a model of neutrality, forgetting personal grudges and Houses rivalry. Alas, Snape hadn't followed the same thought process Alexandra, Nigel and Hermione had in the stands, or he simply didn't care. After thirty seconds of play, the Slytherin Head of House accorded a free shot to Hufflepuff because one of the Weasley twins had sent a Bludger vaguely in the direction of an Hufflepuff Chaser. An act absolutely authorised in any Quidditch rulebook.
"That Bludger was ten feet away from this Hufflepuff! Where did the ref learn the rules?" Erupted Lee Jordan. "In a cauldron?"
"JORDAN!"
The boos and the shouts coming from the Gryffindor stands after that were so loud they almost drowned the sound of the comments made by the commentator. Not that it mattered, as Snape twenty-five seconds later awarded Hufflepuff a second free shot for 'excessive usage of force' when no Gryffindor player had even touched an Hufflepuff one.
The six next minutes were one of the most blatant spectacles of partiality Alexandra had seen at Hogwarts, which was saying something. Every thirty seconds or so, Snape gave a penalty for Hufflepuff for no reason at all. The Gryffindors in the stands were fuming with rage. The Ravenclaws, where Hermione, Nigel and Alexandra stood, were beginning to leave the stands, disgusted by the turn of events.
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