Madam Hooch tossed the Quaffle high into the air. Instantly, Chasers Razim and Marcus dove into the fray.
At the exact same moment, two heavy iron Bludgers rocketed into the sky, violently hunting for targets.
Whoosh—!
The players snapped into high gear.
"The match has officially begun!" Lee Jordan's magically amplified voice boomed across the stadium. "Razim secures the Quaffle! Ravenclaw immediately goes on the offensive!"
"This is highly unusual! Razim normally plays a calculated, defensive game. Is this aggressive push a response to recent events?"
"Oh! Slytherin Beater Lucian Bole sends a Bludger flying, but Ravenclaw intercepts! Beautiful play!"
A blur of blue and green streaked across the pitch. In the blink of an eye, Razim closed in on the goal hoops.
Come on! Terence Higgs, Slytherin's Keeper, hovered intensely on his broom, his eyes locked dead onto Razim's right hand. According to the stolen intel, the Ravenclaw Captain was strictly right-hand dominant. Higgs just needed to track the right arm to predict the trajectory of the shot!
Razim tucked the Quaffle under his right arm. Noticing two Slytherin Beaters moving to pincer him, he violently pulled his broom up, completely breaking his flight path.
The sudden vacuum of air pressure forced the two Beaters to frantically swerve to avoid a mid-air collision.
In that split-second window of chaos, Razim pitched the Quaffle down to his fellow Chaser, Amanda Brocklehurst.
Whoosh!
The Ravenclaw Beaters instantly moved in to cover her.
"Scores!" Lee Jordan screamed. "Ten points to Ravenclaw!"
"An absolutely flawless execution of the Plympton Pass! Razim was nothing but bait! The real striker was Brocklehurst flying in his blind spot!"
"Fall back!" Razim roared.
The Ravenclaw team swiftly banked and returned to their defensive formation.
Terence Higgs punched his broom handle in sheer frustration. He had been completely juked.
A new round began. Slytherin took possession of the Quaffle.
Smash! "Cover him!"
"Oh! Slytherin Beaters execute a coordinated Double-Beat, striking the same Bludger simultaneously to drastically increase its velocity toward the target!"
In the stands, the crowd shrieked with excitement while the Ravenclaw bench frantically scribbled down the new tactical data.
"What's this?" Lee Jordan announced. "The Ravenclaw Chasers are spiraling the hoops, leaving their Keeper dead center? They're practically giving Slytherin the shot!"
"Slytherin's Marcus Flint executes the Volkov Maneuver!"
Flying at top speed, Marcus tucked the Quaffle, didn't hesitate, and launched it in a sharp hooking arc—exactly like a golf putt.
According to the data... Marcus thought, his eyes glued to the hoops.
But a second later, his face froze.
"Ravenclaw Keeper Grant Page intercepts! What a save!"
"Oh, my apologies. The match continues!"
A sickening feeling of dread settled in Marcus's gut. He didn't have time to process it. "Fall back!" he screamed at his team.
---
As the minutes ticked by, a light drizzle began to fall over the pitch.
Following a malicious, illegal strike by a Slytherin Beater, Ravenclaw Chaser Amanda Brocklehurst was knocked unconscious and forced to retire. The Slytherin Beater was instantly ejected from the game.
Down a Beater, Slytherin's defensive pressure collapsed. Taking full advantage, Ravenclaw launched wave after wave of fearless, aggressive attacks.
The score rapidly climbed to 40-10. Ravenclaw in the lead.
Wiping the freezing rain from his face, Marcus's eyes burned with pure, venomous hatred.
That little Malfoy bastard completely played me!
The data was entirely fake! Razim didn't have a dominant hand! The Bludgers didn't follow any mathematical pattern! The "Tebley Apex" didn't even exist! They had based their entire game plan on a fabricated lie.
No... it wasn't just a lie. It was a perfectly laid trap designed specifically to ruin him!
SMASH!
Blindsided by his own rage, Marcus never saw the Bludger coming. It slammed brutally into the side of his head. His vision instantly went black, and he plummeted off his broom.
"Merlin's beard! Slytherin loses another player! Captain Marcus Flint has been knocked unconscious!"
Up in the VIP box, Scout Paul and Reporter Kernburg shook their heads, their focus entirely shifting to the imposing Ravenclaw captain leading the charge.
"Attack! For the glory of Ravenclaw!" Razim roared through the downpour.
The rain turned into a torrential storm. Blue lightning crackled across the sky.
"...The Golden Snitch has been spotted!"
"Ravenclaw Seeker Brock Fisher is in hot pursuit, fully covered by his team!"
"Slytherin has lost their captain and their momentum! They're completely defenseless!"
"...Brock has the Snitch! Ravenclaw wins, 210 to 10!"
The stands erupted into deafening cheers. The Ravenclaws threw their scratch paper into the air like confetti, screaming at the top of their lungs:
"RAVENCLAW! RAVENCLAW!"
---
Because of the freezing rain, the students didn't linger in the stands to celebrate. They poured back into the Great Hall to warm up with hot soup provided by the house-elves.
If they caught a cold, they'd be forced to go to the hospital wing and drink Madam Pomfrey's Pepperup Potion. The potion was highly effective, but it caused the drinker's ears to violently blast steam for several hours. For teenagers hyper-aware of their social image, looking like a boiling kettle was a fate worse than death.
But as Richie was leaving the stadium, a group blocked his path.
"You played me, Harland!"
Draco Malfoy stood in the pouring rain, his face twisted in fury. Crabbe, Goyle, and the battered remnants of the Slytherin Quidditch team flanked him.
"Played you? I have no idea what you're talking about," Richie blinked, playing perfectly dumb.
"The data! It was all fake!"
Draco reached into his robes and pulled out the forged parchment. The sheer anger radiating off him caused his fists to clench tightly around the rolls.
But as the parchment crumpled in his grip, a sudden, intense heat flared from the paper.
A split second later, the parchment began to violently smoke. Then, it burst into flames right in Draco's hand.
"Damn it!"