Flying

“Hey! Look at that!” Bookworm yelled.
“What now?” Shade asked. “If you’re showing off those kunai again…” Bookworm had been repeatedly throwing her kunai daggers and demanding that everyone stop to look at how well she had thrown them. This was getting very annoying. As she proved during the Quidditch game, Bookworm has terrible aim. Despite her bragging, it was obvious that none of the kunai had gone in the correct place, which made everything even more annoying. The good thing was that the random kunai attacks had forced all the forest creatures to seek shelter. The Squirrel King had been planning to lead his army to take the shiny marble from the annoying human creature, but his plans were now ruined. Unfortunately, Bookworm’s friends did not know this and were just annoyed at her.
“No! I think… Yeah! That’s smoke over there!” Bookworm pointed at a small plume of smoke just visible over the trees.
“You’re right… Keyblade, you’re going to have to wait a little longer for the flying practice. I want to see what’s going on over there,” Shade said. Keyblade nodded in agreement. She was curious too. They all hurried to the edge of the forest, where a terrible sight met their eyes. It had clearly been a small village sometime recently, but had been reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble.
“H-help…” a weak voice called. Bookworm dropped her kunai knives in surprise. She ran in the direction of the voice and found the only surviving villager. A purple drake was lying against a piece of burnt wood from one of the houses. Her clothes were stained with blood.
“What happened?” Bookworm asked, kneeling beside the drake to see if she could help.
“Attacked… green drake… revenge…” the purple drake gasped. Her wounds made it very difficult to breathe, but she knew she had to speak quickly. She did not have much time. “Please… human… tell King Rainheart…” With the last of her strength, the drake handed Bookworm a sphere. A moment later, the drake was dead. Her sphere turned purple.
“Come on, Bookworm,” Keyblade said. “We should find Rainheart. It’s what she wanted. Her essence is in the sphere now, like how Goldd’s essence is in mine.”
“Yeah… okay,” Bookworm said, still in shock. She stood up and started to walk away, then turned back. She couldn’t bury the drake’s body, but she didn’t want to just leave it. “Incendio!” As soon as Bookworm said the incantation, flames engulfed the corpse. She then picked up her kunai and followed Keyblade, Shade, and Mithos out of the destroyed village. As they approached the gorge, they had to stop again.
“Hey! What’s that?” Mithos pointed up ahead.
“It looks like some kind of shrine,” Shade said.
“Cool!” Mithos ran to investigate it. In the shrine, he found a silver marble. “Ooooh! Shiny!” He grabbed the marble.
“Mithos, what are you doing?” Keyblade asked.
“I found a shiny marble!” Mithos shouted, sounding remarkably like the Squirrel King.
“Let me see,” Shade said, snatching the sphere before Mithos could protest. “It’s silver. That means it contains the essence of Sylvrr, Goldd’s mate. Its power is second only to Goldd’s marble.”
“Cool!” Mithos grabbed Sylvrr’s sphere again. “I’m more powerful than Bookworm! And I’m taller than Keyblade!”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Keyblade asked in annoyance.
Mithos shrugged. “Does this mean I can fly too?”
“We’ll see when we get to the gorge,” Shade said. “We’re almost there now.”
A short time later, they reached the gorge.
“Yay! We get to fly!” Bookworm cheered.
“Me first! Yippee!” Keyblade’s wings and tail appeared in a golden haze. She ran to the edge of the gorge and jumped off! Immediately, Goldd began to give her instructions and advice. (An essence-containing marble gives the wielder the ability to communicate with the drake through a mental link.) With Goldd’s help, Keyblade quickly mastered flight. She whooped with glee as she soared above her friends.
“You are just like Cat when she learned to fly,” Goldd told her. Keyblade smiled proudly.
“My turn!” For the first time, Bookworm’s wings and tail appeared. They were a dark bluish-purple, like the drake who had given her the sphere. “Yay!” She excitedly jumped off the cliff, but instead of flying like Keyblade, Bookworm immediately started falling.
“Move your wings! Bookworm! You have to move your wings to fly!” Keyblade shouted as she flew by.
“She’s right! If you don’t move your wings, you’ll just fall! Move them back and forth!” At the drake’s words, Bookworm finally stopped screaming and tried moving her wings back and forth. It worked! She flew past Keyblade, cheering happily.
“Your turn now!” Shade said, pushing Mithos off the cliff. He screamed and fell, moving his wings up and down. “No! Move them back and forth, not up and down! Back and forth!”
“BACK AND FORTH!” When Sylvrr’s screaming voice joined Shade’s, Mithos finally flew correctly. He immediately crashed into the gorge wall.
“Ouch…” He was barely conscious but was still trying to fly. Unfortunately, his collision had caused him to forget that he was supposed to move his wings back and forth, not up and down. Flying incorrectly, he began to fall again. Before he hit the bottom of the gorge, Keyblade and Bookworm caught him by the arms and together managed to drag him along as they flew to the top of the cliff.
“Is he unconscious again?” Shade asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Keyblade nodded.
“No… I’m not unconscious… yet…” Mithos said weakly. “I’m gonna try flying again… I have to do better than Keyblade… I’m taller than her…”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Keyblade demanded. “And why do you always bring that up?” Mithos didn’t answer.
Shade rolled her eyes. “Mithos, are you capable of walking? If so, we should head to the capital to meet Rainheart.”
“Can’t we fly there?” Bookworm asked eagerly.
“And crash into a tree like Keyblade did? No way!” Shade shook her head.
“Yeah, I think I can walk. And I can fly too!” Mithos shouted.
“Hey Shade! Don’t you want to fly too? Couldn’t you put a drake essence in that empty sphere or something?” Bookworm asked randomly.
“Don’t worry! I’ll fly soon! But now we need to find Rainheart,” Shade said. She grinned evilly and went back into the forest, leaving Bookworm very confused.

Arian's Gifts

“Are we there yet?” Bookworm whined. “I’m tired of walking.”
“If you keep complaining…” Shade began threateningly.
“I know. You’ll turn me into a pile of goo,” Bookworm glared at Shade. “You created the drake world. Why did you have to make the forest so big?”
“If it was smaller, how would Cat have remained hidden from Queen Flare’s soldiers?” Shade asked.
“I don’t know…” Bookworm thought about this for a moment. “Hey Cat! Could you have hidden from the drake soldiers in a smaller forest?”
“Please stop calling me that. Cat is a fanfic character based on me, but I’m not Cat,” Keyblade said. “And you should probably stop criticizing Shade’s creation. She looks like she’s about to do the goo spell.” Bookworm glanced uneasily at Shade and decided to shut up finally.
“Why are we going to meet what’s-her-name anyway?” Mithos asked.
“Arian! I want to know what’s going on in the drake world. Arian is a powerful majyker and Cat’s friend. We could visit her friend Rainheart, but the drake palace is far from here and I doubt anyone wants to walk that far,” Shade explained.
“I could fly there!” Keyblade suggested. She was dying to try out her wings.
“Yes, but since the rest of us can’t fly, we’re visiting Arian first. Maybe then you can try flying,” Shade said. Keyblade smiled happily.
“Hey! Look at that cool tree-house!” Mithos pointed to a tree up ahead. As he said, there was a large tree-house in it.
“It’s Arian’s house!” Keyblade said excitedly. Her wings and tail appeared again. This gave her a great idea. Why not fly up to the tree-house? Before anyone could stop her, Keyblade had taken flight. She had never actually flown with wings before. A forest filled with trees is not a good place for a first flight. Keyblade crashed into a tree almost immediately. There was a loud and painful-sounding crash. Keyblade lay on the ground, moaning in pain.
Hearing the noise, Arian left her tree-house. “Who dares disturb me?” she demanded, looking around.
“Hi!” Bookworm waved at her. “Can we come in your tree-house? I’m tired of walking and Shade wants to talk to you.” Arian stared in disbelief at this foolish human.
Recovering from her disastrous flight, Keyblade also gave a weak wave. “Hi Arian!”
Arian turned her attention to the person lying at the base of her tree. Her eyes widened as she saw the golden wings and tail. “Yes, you may come in.” Bookworm hurried in and collapsed in a chair. Shade followed, making a mental note to explain to Bookworm why caution was necessary when dealing with powerful magic-users. Maybe turning her into goo would get the point across. Shade grinned evilly at this thought.
“Come on Keyblade! Or are you too short to make it to the tree-house?” Mithos laughed and ran out of Keyblade’s attack range.
“Shut up Mithos!” Keyblade got up and ran after him, her wings and tail vanishing.
Once they had all made it to the tree-house, Arian said, “You are not Cat, but you have Goldd’s sphere. What explanation for this can you offer?”
“Umm…” Keyblade tried to think of how she could explain that Cat was a character based on her. Mithos interrupted her.
“Who’s Cat again?” he asked, forgetting the long explanation Keyblade and Shade had already given on this topic.
“Cat is a human who used Goldd’s sphere to shift into a drake and defeat Flare, the evil drake queen,” Shade explained. “Keyblade found Goldd’s sphere. She and Cat have a lot in common, so Goldd accepted her too.”
Arian’s gaze fell on Shade. “You are a magic-user,” she said. Shade nodded. “Then take this. I think you may have use for it.” She handed Shade an empty sphere. Then she turned to Bookworm, who was still sitting in the chair, glaring at everyone as though daring them to try making her walk again. “And I believe you will soon need these.” She picked up some gems that had been skillfully shaped into kunai daggers and handed them to Bookworm.
“Cool!” Bookworm grabbed the kunai excitedly.
“Hey! What do I get?” Mithos asked.
“You get a warning. Be careful. Do not do foolish things that will put you in unnecessary danger,” Arian said. Mithos stared at her. How could she possibly think a warning was as good as shiny kunai knives? Even Shade’s empty sphere was better than a dumb warning. He was about to say something, but Shade glared at him to make him shut up.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” she said to Arian. “I think we will leave now. Keyblade needs more practice flying.”
Arian nodded. “After you practice flying, you may want to travel to the capital. King Rainheart and Prince Tyrsis will want to meet you.”

Shiny Marble!!!

“Wait for me!” Shade yelled as she ran after Keyblade.
“It’s DDR! There’s DDR in this world!” Keyblade shouted, pointing excitedly at the DDR machine. (Months spent at Hogwarts without DDR had made her go slightly crazy.)
“Yes, Keyblade, I know there’s DDR. Do you want to do a round against me?” Shade asked.
“YES!!” Keyblade selected a song and waited to begin. This DDR machine did not have the normal songs, but they were still good. When the round was over, both Keyblade and Shade had earned the rating “Goddess”, which is equivalent to AA on a normal DDR machine.
“My turn! My turn! I wanna do DDR too!” Bookworm yelled excitedly. (She had not gone crazy from lack of DDR. She had been crazy long before the trip to Hogwarts.) “Mithos! Get over here! I’m gonna beat you at DDR!”
“This should be fun to watch,” Shade said as she got off the DDR machine. Keyblade reluctantly followed her.
“Hey! What’s wrong with this thing? It doesn’t have ‘Nori Nori Nori’!” Bookworm complained.
“Try this one,” Keyblade selected a song for Bookworm and Mithos. When they completed the round, Bookworm had the rating “Underling” (C) and Mithos had “Lackey” (D).
“YES! I beat you! I’m an underling!” Bookworm cheered and jumped up and down in excitement.
“So? You’ve just had more practice than me,” Mithos said.
“You could have had more practice if you had been on time for DDR, instead of being three hours late,” Bookworm pointed out.
Mithos glared at her. “I told you just because I was late didn’t mean you had to go exploring anime worlds without me!”
“Shut up, both of you! If you keep fighting, I’ll turn you both into goo!” Shade snapped. Bookworm and Mithos were getting really annoying.
“I still beat you…” Bookworm muttered.
“That’s it!” Shade recited a spell to turn Bookworm into goo. Bookworm dodged the spell and hid behind the DDR machine. When it missed her, the spell hit the innocent DDR machine, reducing it to a pile of cherry-scented goo. Keyblade stared at it in horror for a moment. When she recovered from her shock, she clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade to avenge the DDR machine. By this time, Bookworm had managed to run into the nearby forest, still hoping to escape Shade’s anger. Shade chased after her while dodging Keyblade’s keyblade. Mithos followed them. He didn’t want to miss the upcoming fight.
The King of Squirrels sat in a tree, admiring a strange acorn he had found. It was round, gold, and looked very unique. And best of all, it was really shiny! The Squirrel King enjoyed showing it off to the Chipmunk King, who had lost their recent war and was very jealous of this acorn. Suddenly, the Squirrel King noticed a group of strange creatures (were they humans?) running through his forest and making a lot of noise. One particularly annoying creature kept yelling something about “DDR” and “goo” and “die Shade”. To get her to shut up, he did something that made perfect sense at the time, but was later decided to be a very bad decision. He threw the great, shiny acorn at the annoying human creature.
Keyblade had been about to hit Shade with her keyblade, thus avenging the DDR machine, when a strange object randomly hit her in the head. “Ouch! What was that?” She looked around to find what had hit her. Lying innocently on the ground was a shiny gold sphere. Curious, she picked it up. “Hey! This looks just like…” She suddenly realized where they were. “SHADE! Stop trying to kill Bookworm and look what I found!”
Hearing her urgent tone of voice, Shade paused. “I’m not trying to kill her! I just want to turn her into a pile of goo! And what did you find that’s so important?”
“It’s Goldd’s marble! Just like Cat had in our fanfic! We’re in the drake world!” Keyblade held up the sphere for everyone to see. In her excitement, she had forgotten about the fate of the DDR machine and her plan for revenge. As she held the sphere, she looked like she had wings and a tail…
“What’s going on?” Mithos asked, completely confused. He was sure he must be imagining the wings and tail, but why was Keyblade so excited about finding a marble?
“Come on!” Shade commanded, continuing into the forest. “I’ll explain on the way. We’re in the drake world, so we should meet Arian." Shade's expression changed for a moment, and Bookworm shivered when she saw the gleam of interest in Shade's eye. This did not bode well.

Bye!

“Wow! Keyblade’s even shorter than usual!” Mithos laughed as the Quidditch players landed their brooms. “I told you, Presea. They’re all smaller…” Before he could continue to laugh at the height difference, he was punched by an auto-mail arm and knocked unconscious.
“I am not small! And I’m not a pipsqueak! And I’m not a runty little dwarf!” Ed yelled, even though Mithos hadn’t said all those things. He turned to Bookworm, who had just landed. “Give me the Aging Potion! NOW!”
“Okay, okay!” Bookworm raised her wand and yelled, “Accio Potion!” A cauldron flew towards her from the direction of the castle. Bookworm would have liked to brag about this spell for a while, but Ed looked so impatient that she didn’t dare. Everyone who had been affected by Shade’s spell drank some of the Aging Potion and immediately returned to their normal age.
“I’m taller now, right, Al? Right?” Ed asked.
“Umm… yeah… I think you’ve gotten a lot taller, Big Brother,” Al lied. He did not sound very convincing, but Ed was too happy to care.
“What is going on?” Kratos asked, confused.
“Shade cast a spell that made us all eleven years old…” Lloyd started to explain.
“She was trying to curse an adorable doggy we found! He was so cute! I named him Fluffy!” Colette interrupted.
“Yeah, and then Ed got really mad because he wants to be tall and he attacked Shade with a spear, but he didn’t get to kill her. And then we all enrolled at Hogwarts (that’s the school’s name) and tried to learn magic, but I fell asleep in class, so I don’t remember any spells,” Lloyd continued.
Kratos looked very confused, but before he could ask what Lloyd was talking about, Raine interrupted. “Oh no! Not again! RESURRECTION!” She raised her staff and colorful light surrounded the unconscious Mithos. He stood up, fully healed.
“What do you mean ‘not again’?” Keyblade asked, confused.
“She means this is the second time Mithos was knocked unconscious. The last time was when the DDR machine exploded. Mithos was too busy crying to get out of the way,” Presea explained.
“Why was he crying?” Bookworm said. She was trying not to laugh at the look on Mithos’s face, but she wasn’t doing a very good job.
“He lost a DDR game to Sesshomaru,” Presea explained.
“Why did you have to tell them that?” Mithos asked irritably.
Presea looked at him in surprise. “I was answering their questions. Was that bad?”
“Yes! You could’ve just ignored them!” Mithos said.
“Wait a minute… Did you just say Mithos played DDR with Sesshomaru?” Shade asked, glaring at Mithos.
Presea glanced at Mithos uncertainly. “Yes…”
“You met Sesshomaru without me!” Shade screamed at Mithos. (Sesshomaru is Shade’s favorite anime character.)
“Yeah, but you went to a bunch of anime worlds without me!” Mithos retorted.
“If you hadn’t been three hours late for DDR at the mall, you could have come too!” Shade yelled.
“Hang on… Did you say the DDR machine exploded?” Keyblade asked in horror. She had apparently been ignoring Shade and Mithos’s argument.
“Yes, Raine tried to examine the DDR machine and it exploded before I even finished,” Kratos said, glaring at Raine.
“Then stop fighting everyone! We need to go fix the DDR machine NOW!” Keyblade did not even wait for a reply before activating the Sorcerer’s Ring, which she had somehow kept safe from Tas the whole time they were at Hogwarts. Instantly, they left the Quidditch pitch and arrived in Derris-Kharlan.
“Now where are we going?” Lloyd asked excitedly. Because of his short attention span, he was not aware of the DDR machine crisis.
“You’re going back to Iselia,” Kratos said sternly. “And everyone else is going home too.”
“Send Tas home first! Otherwise, he’ll probably steal everything in Derris-Kharlan,” Shade said. She was getting very annoyed at the kender and was still mad about his part in her recent Quidditch loss.
“Mithos, take us to Tas’s world,” Kratos ordered, giving Tas a death glare.
“Wow! That was a really scary look! For a second, you looked even scarier than Raistlin! Can you teach me how to glare at people like that?” Tas asked, making ridiculous faces that looked nothing like Kratos’s death glare. Before Kratos could respond, Shade pointed out the correct device and Mithos sent them all to Krynn.
“Wow! We’re in Palanthas again! And there’s Caramon!” Tas waved enthusiastically at a big warrior. “Hi Caramon! Did you miss me?”
“Miss you?” Caramon looked very confused. “But I just saw you yesterday… Don’t tell me you were in jail again?”
“No! I was somewhere even better!” Tas started to explain, but Caramon interrupted.
“This sounds like a long story. Why don’t you tell me on the way back to Solace?” he suggested.
“Okay! And when we get there I’ll tell Tika and Tanis and Laurana and…” Tas continued to list everyone he knew. Mithos activated the Mage’s Ring and returned to Derris-Kharlan.
“Can we go home now?” Ed asked. He was looking forward to doing some transmutations with his new Philosopher’s Stone.
“Sure,” Mithos said, changing the ring’s function again. They arrived in Central HQ. Luckily, a few days had gone by since the last time they were here and the homunculi were gone. Unfortunately for Ed and Al, Lust and Gluttony had been replaced by two other people.
“Edward Elric! Where have you been? We’ve all been so worried!” Major Armstrong said. He gave Ed a hug that crushed most of his bones.
“Al! Have you seen these pictures of Elicia? Isn’t she the cutest, most adorable angel you’ve ever seen?” Lieutenant-colonel Hughes showed Al a pile of pictures of his daughter.
Everyone else decided to leave fast before Armstrong and Hughes could notice them. When they arrived in Derris-Kharlan, they were greeted by Noishe. He was whining and growling urgently.
“WHAT!?! That’s impossible! Yuan couldn’t have broken through Cruxis’s defenses so quickly!” Kratos protested. His denials were quickly proven wrong when one of Yuan’s Renegade soldiers poked his head though the door.
“Lord Yuan! They’re in here!” the Renegade yelled. Kratos stabbed him, but was too late. Yuan and many other Renegades rushed into the hallway outside the small room.
“We just want Mithos. Don’t be unreasonable, Kratos…” Yuan said, but was interrupted when Kratos waved his sword at him.
“No! I told you this is not Mithos Yggdrasill! And if you don’t get out of Derris-Kharlan now, you will die!” Kratos yelled furiously. Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Presea, Regal, Sheena, and Zelos immediately joined him in the fight against the Renegades. Bookworm, Keyblade, Mithos, and Shade watched.
“Do you think we should help?” Bookworm asked eventually.
“No! We should go home and save the DDR machine! I need to play DDR now!” Keyblade said, trying to remember which device would lead them home. Meanwhile, the Renegades had managed to get some archers out of Kratos’s sword range. Many arrows suddenly flew towards Mithos, narrowly missing him.
“We have to get out of here!” Mithos shouted, running towards one of the devices.
“Mithos, I don’t think that one leads to the DDR machine…” Keyblade said.
“Who cares where it leads?! They’re trying to kill me!” he screamed. Another arrow hit the wall an inch away from his head. Using the randomly selected device, he changed the Mage’s Ring’s function and activated it.
A moment later, Mithos, Keyblade, Shade, and Bookworm were standing in a strange world.
“Where are we?” Bookworm looked around. Nothing looked particularly familiar. They were near some kind of village… There was definitely something familiar in that village.
“I don’t care where we are!” Keyblade screamed in excitement and ran towards a machine in the village. “This world has DDR!”

Game Over

“STOP!” Colette’s voice echoed all over the stadium when she yelled into the megaphone. “Mr. Kratos! Please don’t kill anyone! At least wait until the end of the match!”
“Yeah, dad! You can sit in the stands and watch me win!” Lloyd shouted as he flew by. He was trying to hit Shade with a bludger, but missed because he was distracted by Kratos’s sudden appearance. Instead, the bludger headed straight for Mithos, who surprisingly managed to dodge it. Maybe all his recent near-death experiences had made him a little better at surviving.
“Come on! Let’s go watch!” Sheena said eagerly. Zelos, Presea, and Regal all nodded in agreement. Raine was already running towards the stands. She absolutely had to examine Colette’s megaphone.
“Fine,” Kratos reluctantly agreed. He returned his sword to its sheath and put away his angel wings, then followed Raine. He kept his hand on his sword hilt, as though he couldn’t wait to challenge his enemies and retrieve the Sorcerer’s Ring.
After dodging the bludger, Mithos just stared at his friends flying above him. “Do they look smaller to you?” he asked Presea.
“Yes, their size has decreased significantly,” she agreed. “After this game, we must ask them what happened.”
Mithos nodded and hurried after Kratos. They all sat in the stands with Colette to watch the rest of the chaotic game. After about fifteen minutes, there were many more goals. Keyblade and Angelina had each scored a goal. Ed had scored two. The Hufflepuff and Slytherin chasers had also earned many points for their teams. The score was now:
Gryffindor - 40
Ravenclaw - 20
Hufflepuff - 20
Slytherin - 50
Slytherin was ahead because almost no one had gotten past their keeper. So far, the only one was Bookworm. She had flown past Shade, but was so surprised by this unexpected success that she dropped the Quaffle. She didn’t manage to get a goal, but at least she wasn’t turned into goo.
“How much longer is this going to take?” Kratos asked grumpily. He was getting very impatient. He didn’t usually wait for his enemies to play sports before attacking.
“Umm… I think it ends when someone catches the snitch. That’s a little golden ball. It’s so pretty!” Colette explained.
“Someone had better catch it soon…” Kratos said threateningly.
Hearing this, Bookworm suddenly realized that there had been no sign of the snitch in the entire game. The crowd cheered as Keyblade scored another goal and then screamed as one of the Hufflepuff chasers suddenly turned into a pile of goo when he got too close to the Slytherin goals. Bookworm ignored this as she wondered why the snitch had not yet appeared. The weather was perfect and all the seekers were very talented… Suddenly she realized where the snitch was.
“HARRY!” she called as she flew toward her teammate. She accidentally crashed her broom into him, causing them both to nearly fall. Once they regained their balance, Harry asked, “What’s the matter now, Bookworm?” He had been trying to avoid her during Quidditch games, after she had accidentally knocked him off his broom during one practice. (He had spent a whole day in the hospital wing and later found out that she had just wanted to ask if she could borrow his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages.)
“I think I know where the snitch is!” she excitedly told him her idea. He immediately flew to the stands. As Bookworm suspected, the snitch had been in Tas’s pouch for most of the game.
“GRYFFINDOR WINS!!!” Lee screamed into the megaphone. All the Hogwarts students swarmed onto the field to congratulate their teams.
“Come on! Let’s say hi to Lloyd!” Colette said as she flew to the field. Kratos, Mithos, and the other Symphonians hurried after her.

Chaotic Quidditch

“Okay men! And women! This is it. The big one,” Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor captain, encouraged his team. Harry and Angelina, a chaser, nodded in agreement.
Fred and George had memorized Wood’s pep talk last year, so they recited the rest, “The one we’ve all been waiting for. We’re going to win. I know it. Or else.” Except for the added “or else”, their recitation was perfect.
The other two Gryffindor players hadn’t even been paying attention. Shockingly enough, Bookworm was reading. She was reading Quidditch Through The Ages, to review the history and rules of the game. “Hmm… There are 700 kinds of Quidditch foul, but it won’t list them all because it doesn’t want to give us ideas… It says you can’t attack an opponent with an axe. Do you think that means keyblades too?” Bookworm asked.
“But it doesn’t specifically say anything against keyblades?” Keyblade asked hopefully.
“No… It also doesn’t specifically say anything against four-way Quidditch games, so I think it should be okay to use your keyblade… Let me just finish reading to make sure,” Bookworm said, turning back to her book.
Wood took a deep breath and tried to control his frustration. “The match is about to start! This is no time for reading!”
“But I’m at a good part!” Bookworm whined.
“Don’t you want to beat Shade and Ed at Quidditch? Come on!” Keyblade said. Bookworm, being an overly competitive person, immediately put down the book and grabbed her broom. They all walked out onto the field.
“And now it’s the Gryffindor team! Wood! Potter! Weasley! Weasley! Johnson! Keyblade! Bookworm!” Lee Jordan yelled into his magical megaphone.
“Hi Keyblade! Hi Bookworm!” Colette took the megaphone, waving to her friends.
“Can I play too? Please? It looks like a lot of fun and I’ve never ridden a flying broomstick before, although I did ride some flying horses before…” Tas informed Hagrid.
“Oh no ye don’t!” Hagrid held tightly to Tas’s leash. (After the incident with the dungbombs at the tryouts, Tas was not allowed anywhere near the Quidditch pitch, unless he was with Hagrid and had a leash.)
“Having fun, Potter?” Draco’s sneering voice carried across the Quidditch pitch. “You and your Mudblood friends don’t stand a chance!”
“Draco…” Shade said threateningly.
“I mean you and your Gryffindor friends don’t stand a chance!” Draco corrected. He was having a hard time getting used to being polite to Muggle-borns, but he was now friends with Shade. Many of his enemies were now piles of goo in the hospital wing. He decided this was worth a little politeness… Besides, even he didn’t really want to anger Shade.
The team captains shook hands and the game began. It was complete chaos. Whoever decided they should have a four-way game regretted it very much. Within the first minute, Keyblade had fallen off her broom. Lloyd immediately opened his angel wings (which worked much better than brooms for him) and saved her, accidentally hitting her with his Beater’s bat in the process. While Keyblade was given a potion to revive her, Bookworm scored a goal! Unfortunately, she scored in her own goal. Lee swore into the megaphone.
“He doesn’t really mean that! That was a really good try, Bookworm! I’m sure you’ll get it in the right goal soon!” Colette said optimistically.
A few exciting minutes later, the game had to be paused while the referee tried to decide if turning an opponent into a pile of goo was a foul. It was not in the list of 700 fouls, so Shade was not punished. This made Lee swear again.
“Lee! That was a mean thing to say! Shade’s not that bad. She’s actually really nice once you get to know her,” Colette scolded Lee. McGonagall smiled. She had picked the perfect co-commentator.
Shade considered turning Lee into goo, but decided to wait until after the match. She had to concentrate on defending the goals right now. Once Keyblade had managed to stay on her broom, she played very well. After scoring in Ravenclaw’s goal, she got into a fight over the Quaffle with Ed. As their squabble began to turn into a full-scale alchemy duel, Genis cast his Wind Blade spell at them. This painful experience successfully reminded them to stop fighting, but also caused the game to be paused again. The rulebook only said players were not allowed to use wands, so the referee decided Genis’s spell did not count as a foul.
“No way! You’re not letting that little kid get away with that!” Lee and the Gryffindors groaned.
“I AM NOT LITTLE! AND I’M NOT SHORT! AND I’M NOT A RUNT EITHER!” Ed screamed, flying his broom right into the stands in an attempt to run over Lee.
Fortunately, Al was in the stands, watching the game. “Big brother! Stop! He was talking about Genis, not you! And he didn’t say all those things anyway!” Ed’s uncontrollable anger at being called “little” caused him to lose control of the broom. He crashed into Al, knocking his head off. A cat poked its head out of Al’s armor and scratched Ed across his face.
The referee decided that crashing into innocent bystanders did count as a foul, so Gryffindor was awarded a penalty shot. To everyone’s dismay, Bookworm took the penalty.
“Aim for the Gryffindor goal!” Keyblade suggested. Bookworm decided to take her advice and carefully aimed for the Gryffindor goal. She threw the Quaffle. It went through the Ravenclaw goal perfectly. The Gryffindor stands erupted into cheers. As Bookworm was doing a victory lap around the pitch, things suddenly got even more chaotic. A strange group of people appeared in the middle of the pitch.
“There they are! They’re the ones who stole the Sorcerer’s Ring!” Kratos pointed at Bookworm, Keyblade, and Shade. He opened his angel wings and unsheathed his sword.