As Neville looked around, trying to see if there was anything he could to do help his friend in the air, his eyes fell onto the teacher's box, where all the professors sat. They had all risen to their feet and were shouting and gesturing at Harry. Some, like Flitwick and McGonagall, had their wands out, but that didn't seem to have any effect on the situation whatsoever.
However, when he looked closer at the box, he saw something… odd. Out of all the teachers, only two didn't look worried. One was Dumbledore, but the other was Snape. Furthermore, Snape's lips were moving, but he didn't appear to be talking to anyone.
Eyes narrowing, Neville tapped his friends on the shoulders. "Look, over there, where the professors are," he ordered, and one by one, his friends looked over and saw what he'd seen.
"It's Snape!" Ron hissed angrily. "That greasy git! He's hexing Harry's broom!"
"He's cheating! The Slytherins are gonna win because of him!" Hannah gasped indignantly, before blushing a bit at the looks the rest of the group shot her. "Sorry, sorry, but it's true!"
"I don't think Snape would cheat during a match… would he?" Hermione asked, looking around for support.
"I mean, maybe? If they were losing, perhaps. But Slytherin is winning," Susan pointed out. "And it doesn't look like Higgs has stopped trying to find the Snitch."
"Um, well, he does hate Harry," Ron countered. "Maybe he thought Harry saw the Snitch, and just… decided to even the odds?"
"Or maybe he's trying to get him hurt," Neville guessed sourly. The fact that nobody argued against that, not even Hermione, was fairly damning in the Longbottom scion's opinion. Nobody should have to be afraid of a teacher, but the man was very good at doing just that.
When it was just Harry teaching Neville how to brew potions, the nerves and shakes he experiences when in the dungeons never manifested. But somehow, Snape brought out the worst in him, which usually led to failed potions and melted cauldrons.
Swallowing his nervousness, he looked around at the group. "We need to do something to help Harry."
"How?" Hannah asked. "He's way up there, and we can't fly up to help him! And I don't think the Levitation Charm will help much if he falls."
"We just have to break his eye contact," Hermione declared. "I read that it's possible for some Hexes to be cast with just direct line of sight, no wand needed. It's rather advanced, but easy to disrupt."
"So, we need to make him look away, is what you're saying," Neville muttered. "Any ideas?"
"I think I do," Hermione declared after a moment. "Watch my back!"
With that said, she crouched down and made her way towards the professors, keeping low to avoid being spotted.
She made it to the box, and slipped in. None of them could see what she was doing, but after a few seconds smoke began to pour out of the box, and the teachers were going wild as they began to stomp on Snape's robe.
"Did you just light a teacher on fire?!" Hannah gasped in disbelief as Hermione returned to their side shortly after the act.
"It was just a small fire," she replied, looking away with flushed cheeks.
"Wicked," Ron breathed out, a savage grin slipping onto his face. Neville nodded in agreement, awed by Hermione's deeds.
"I could never have done something like that," Neville murmured in awe. Even with his new wand replacing his father's broken one, the pudgy First Year lacked the courage to even try something like that to any teacher, let alone Snape!
"Look! Harry's okay!" Susan exclaimed. "No, wait, he's slipping!"
The broom's twitching ceased with Snape's gaze disrupted, but it seemed that Harry had finally lost his grip. He began to fall, but he held out both hands, and shouted, "DOWN!" causing the Cleansweep he'd been riding to shoot towards him, letting him remount it mere seconds before hitting the ground.
And then he raised a fist into the air, causing a sudden stillness before the crowds went wild. There, in the other hand, was the Snitch! He'd caught it while falling!
"One hell of a Quidditch match," Neville muttered under his breath as he left with the rest of his friends (and wasn't that amazing? He, Neville Longbottom, had friends!) to go congratulate Harry and the rest.
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