Chapter 65: New Broomstick, the Nimbus 2000?
The following evening, to celebrate Cedric's discharge from the hospital, the Hufflepuff Quidditch team threw him a small party in the common room after their training session. Cedric was doing well, which was excellent news for the team, and their captain, Harris, had even managed to bring back some Butterbeer from Hogsmeade Village to share with everyone. Mainly, though, he wanted a drink for himself.
As captain, Harris was under tremendous pressure. Ever since the first round of matches, he had been losing hair by the handful. The competition was fierce. Gryffindor had a top-tier team, with hardly any weaknesses. Slytherin, well-equipped and notorious for bending the rules, made them a nightmare to play against. And Ravenclaw, though often underestimated, was a strong, well-balanced team.
For Hufflepuff, Cedric, their talented Seeker, was almost their only hope of winning the championship.
Harris lifted his Butterbeer and clinked glasses with Cedric. "Don't worry, it won't happen again. I'm going to assign one of the Beaters to protect you. Next time Slytherin tries anything dirty, that Beater's bat will land on their face first."
Cedric frowned, clearly not thrilled with the idea. There were only two Beaters on the team, and if one of them was assigned to protect him, it would leave the Chasers at a disadvantage. If the other team built up too big of a lead, even catching the Golden Snitch might not be enough to win. After mulling it over, Cedric decided the plan wasn't worth the risk.
He explained his concerns to Harris.
"Don't worry about that," Harris replied, after thinking it over. "This is just a preliminary plan. We can tweak it during our training sessions."
Cedric tried several more times to convince Harris to drop the idea, but no matter how well he argued, Harris always responded with the same line: "We'll talk about it after the training match."
Realizing that Harris wasn't going to budge, Cedric gave up for now. Fine, he thought, we'll see what happens after the training match.