-- not right before the match
He peered out at the grounds again and, after a minute's frantic
searching, spotted it. It was skirting the edge of the forest now... It
wasn't the Grim at all ... it was a cat.... Harry clutched the window
ledge in relief as he recognized the bottlebrush tail. It was only
Crookshanks....
Or was it only Crookshanks? Harry squinted, pressing his nose flat
against the glass. Crookshanks seemed to have come to a halt. Harry was
sure he could see something else moving in the shadow of the trees too.
And just then, it emerged -- a gigantic, shaggy black dog, moving
stealthily across the lawn, Crookshanks trotting at its side. Harry
stared. What did this mean? If Crookshanks could see the dog as well,
how could it be an omen of Harry's death?
"Ron!" Harry hissed. "Ron! Wake up!"
"Huh?"
I need you to tell me if you can see something!"
"S'all dark, Harry," Ron muttered thickly. "What're you or, about?"
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"Down here --"
Harry looked quickly back out of the window.
Crookshanks and the dog had vanished. Harry climbed onto the windowsill
to look right down into the shadows of the castle, but they weren't
there. Where had they gone?
A loud snore told him Ron had fallen asleep again.
Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor team entered the Great Hall the
next day to enormous applause. Harry couldn't help grinning broadly as
he saw that both the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were applauding
them too. The Slytherin table hissed loudly as they passed. Harry
noticed that Malfoy looked even paler than usual.
Wood spent the whole of breakfast urging his team to eat, while touching
nothing himself Then he hurried them off to the field before anyone else
had finished, so they could get an idea of the conditions. As they left
the Great Hall, everyone applauded again.
"Good luck, Harry!" called Cho. Harry felt himself blushing.
"Okay -- no wind to speak of -- sun's a bit bright, that could impair
your vision, watch out for it -- ground's fairly hard, good, that'll
give us a fast kickoff --"
Wood paced the field, staring around with the team behind him. Finally,
they saw the front doors of the castle open in the distance and the rest
of the school spilling onto the lawn.
"Locker rooms," said Wood tersely.
None of them spoke as they changed into their scarlet robes. Harry
wondered if they were feeling like he was: as though he'd eaten
something extremely wriggly for breakfast. In what seemed like no time
at all, Wood was saying, "Okay, it's time, let's go --"
They walked out onto the field to a tidal wave of noise. Threequarters
of the crowd was wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the
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Gryffindor lion upon them, or brandishing banners with slogans like "GO
GRYFFINDOR!" and "LIONS FOR THE CUK' Behind the Slytherin goal posts,
however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of
Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Professor Snape sat in the very