On the other side of William, Hermione also looked over. She stared at the black dog's emaciated belly and limbs, surprised to see its size — yesterday it was too dark, and she hadn't noticed, only knew that the big dog that attacked Ron was a large black dog, but didn't expect it to be so thin.
"Malnourished, hasn't had a full meal in a long time—"
William raised his hand to squeeze the black dog's skinny belly, seemingly guessing the reason it didn't react to him at all — if a human were this hungry, they probably wouldn't have the energy to go out.
"..."
Being flipped over into Hagrid's arms without any privacy, Sirius almost shed tears of humiliation, but he did hear that sentence just now — that strange niffler seemed to be related to the boy sitting beside Hagrid?
Sirius cautiously raised his eyes to look at William, unable to help frowning — who is this guy?
However, the group's study of Sirius didn't last long; meanwhile, Ginny and several others had already pulled out a giant banner, with "Gryffindor Victory" written on it. In the upper left corner of the banner was a golden lion repeatedly roaring and tilting its head—
Except that due to the heavy rain, this lion, which should have been majestic, now looked like a wilted eggplant, somewhat drooping.
And just as they were busy successfully propping up the banner, a crisp whistle sounded, and amidst the hazy rain, red and green figures slowly rose from both sides of the field. Then, with another short whistle, those figures moved instantly, appearing and disappearing in the gray sky.
"…Do you think Harry will win?"
Unable to distinguish which figure was Harry, Ginny blinked in a daze, instinctively turning to look at Cedric and Cho sitting affectionately together—
William just rode a broomstick well, Hermione didn't even have her own broomstick, the broomstick capable of lifting Hagrid should be as thick as an Acacia tree trunk, and only Ginny among them had a childhood interest in Quidditch...
Clearly, Cedric and Cho were probably the two who knew the most about Quidditch in their group.
Because they were both Seekers for their respective houses, and Cedric was even the team captain.
"…I don't know either."
But evidently, even as knowledgeable as Cedric was about Quidditch, he couldn't guess who would win today… The boy squinted his eyes, staring at the figures flying in the rain, and remained silent for a moment, suddenly feeling fortunate that he wasn't playing today — anyone could see that finding the Golden Snitch in these conditions?
How does that differ from finding a needle in the Pacific Ocean? Oh, well, there's a difference, as the needle in the Pacific won't fly around.
Just how bad were the conditions... Let's put it this way, even Lee Jordan didn't know how to commentate?
…
…
Cold.
So cold.
So damned cold.
Rain hit Harry's glasses, and he couldn't see anything clearly now, let alone the Golden Snitch — he couldn't even tell if the person who almost knocked him off was Gryffindor or Slytherin — of course, he guessed it was the same for them.
Within five minutes of the start, Harry was soaked, and his whole body was frozen.
The wind howled, and Harry couldn't hear the commentary, the crowd hidden beneath a clutter of cloaks and broken umbrellas. Twice, Harry was nearly knocked off his broom by a Bludger, luckily grabbing the shaking Nimbus 2000 to avoid falling off.
At the same time, Harry's heart started to feel a little fearful, he even wondered whether Ms. Hooch could rescue him in this weather.
Time slowly trickled by, Harry soon didn't know how long the game had lasted, holding onto the broom became increasingly difficult, the sky darkened, as if night decided to come early. He clamped his legs around the malfunctioning broomstick and flew aimlessly — in this weather, finding the Golden Snitch seemed merely a fantasy…
…
"…How long are they going to keep flying?"
Yawning, looking at the dark sky, William awoke again after having dozed off once more, he looked at the unchanged scene from two hours ago, sighed with some helplessness — this match was torture not just for the players, but for the spectators as well.
If only he'd brought Kabuda to play cards with Lupin.
Two humans and a niffler, perfect for a game of cards.
No one answered him, taking a look at the still-excited crowd around, and at the commentary platform not far away, where the commentator was extending the commentary despite not being able to see clearly, William remained silent for a moment, kind of wanting to sneak away—
Unlike the tired-to-awake William, Sirius lying beneath Hagrid's seat was now completely awake. During their school days, only James out of the four of them was interested in Quidditch, only James joined the team, but he was more inclined to cheer for James in the stands—
But now, on the field was James's son, his godson, Harry Potter!
…Though he actually couldn't tell which one was Harry, he managed to lock onto a few targets, after all, the red figures flying around the field belonged only to Gryffindor's Seeker and Beater.
Go, go…
Suppressing his excited feelings, Sirius refrained from howling, he stared at the center of the field, silently cheering for Harry in his heart… while also staying wary of any surprise attacks from Fang.