"J. K. Rowling - 6 - Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince(1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowling J. K)

“Oh…” said Mike, calming down. “It’s just that… well, never mind.”
“Okay…” said Harry, turning back. “Natalie, who do you want?”
“Emma, the only one left!” S
She skipped up and high fived Natalie.
Harry stood back and looked at the two teams. Now, that he saw them both, neither was really all too desirable. He wished he could just have Fred, George and everyone else back instead.
“Okay!” yelled Ron, rubbing his hands together. “Teams, figure out your positions and Joe, your team goal will be the one on the left and you’re team name will be the uh…”
“THE ELITES!” he barked.
“Okay, your team name will be the Elites…” said Ron, wincing. “And your team, Dean, your goal will be down to the right. Your team name will be…”
“The Wizard Duelers!”
“Excellent name,” said Ron, grinning. He and Harry waited for the two teams to arrive at their positions and decided who would be playing as what.
“You guys ready!?” called Harry to them.
“Yeah!” the both teams yelled back.
“Alright then!” yelled Ron, opening the box of balls, and releasing the two Bludgers. Since there would be no Seekers in this match, the Snitch was unnecessary. “Three… two… one… go!” He opened the straps for the Quaffle and it flew straight into the middle of the match.
“And they’re off!” yelled Harry, magically magnifying his voice so the players could hear. “And it’s… Joe in possession?” It was true. Through he didn’t look like much, Joe shot for the Quaffle faster than any other player and grabbed it before the match was even a quarter second old.
“Don’t worry,” said Ron. “Seamus will stop him.” Harry looked over and saw Seamus shooting right at Joe, looking ready to knock him off. Harry smiled… but then, right at the last second, Joe threw the Quaffle right into the air, flew under Seamus, and since Seamus was distracted by this, Mike easily flew in and grabbed the Quaffle and shot it into the goal, scoring the Elites the first ten points of the game. Harry’s jaw fell to the ground.
“Wow, they’re good,” said Ron.
Harry jabbed him in the side.
“Okay, the score is ten to zero, with the Elites ahead. Come on Wizard Duelers!”
The wizards Duelers were trying their best, but were being badly beaten by the Elites. It was almost scary, how the four of them seemed to be linked telepathically or something; the way the coordinated their movements… it was almost scary. Harry, for a few minutes, suspected that Ak was helping them with his magic, but he kept a close eye on him in his Keeper position, and his wand was in his pocket at all times. Now, just five minutes into the game, the score was ninety to zero.
“Harry… I don’t think your plan is working,” smiled Ron.
Harry glared at him.
“I think the Wizard Duelers are do for a comeback,” he said, returning his attention to the field. Chris suddenly whacked a Bludger in the direction of the Wizard Dueler’s goals, and Emma, mistaking it for a Quaffle went after it. This left Mike wide open to pass to Akshay, who was already by that goal, and easily dropped the Quaffle into the goal, scoring Gryffindor their last and final ten points that they needed to win even before Emma realized the mistake she had made.
“Hey!” called Joe, flying down in front of Harry. “We won!”
Harry sighed.
“Yes… yes you did.”
“Hey,” whispered Ron, “they may be a bit crazy, but hey, they’re good!”
“I suppose you’re right….” moaned Harry. “Hey, Wizard Duelers… good try.” Harry waved to the losing tam as they miserably walked back inside the castle. The rest of the Elites flew down next to Joe.
“I told you we’ve been practicing,” said Akshay, giving Mike a high five.
“Yeah, well, you won,” said Harry, folding his arms. “So now, you have to do it again… in our first match against Ravenclaw. Think you’re up to it?”
“Yeah!” said the five of them.
“Alright. Ak, you played Keeper, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, well, we’ve already got a Keeper, and you look like you’re more built for action. So, you’ll be one of our Beaters. Chris, you too. You’re as good as Fred or George. As for you three others, Mike, Akshay, and Joe, you’ll be the Chasers. I haven’t seen such awesome cooperation between Chasers since the last World Cup.”
“Thanks,” they said.
“Alright,” said Harry, trying to look at his team for their playing ability, not how he personally felt. “Meet back here every night after classes. You’ll practice your new positions and who knows… we may win.”
“Yay!” yelled the four first years, throwing their brooms into the air.
“Okay… bye,” said Harry quickly, walking back up to the castle with Ron while listening to the excited chatter among the four of them.
“Hey!” Harry heard Ak call.
“Yeah?”
“Our first Wizard Duel meeting is tonight… in just a few minutes in fact. You coming?”
“Of course!” said Ron, looking thoroughly excited.
“Alright!” said Ak, running ahead of them back to the castle.
“Harry!” came a voice again.
“What is it?” asked Harry in an annoyed voice. He expected to see one of the second years, but it was actually Professor McGonagall. “Oh, I’m so sorry professor! You see-”
“It’s quite alright Harry,” she said, waving her hand. Harry noticed, this was one of the first few times she had called him by his first name. The previous time was when he asked her if he could become an Animagus…. What did she have to say.
“A letter just came for you,” she said, breathing hard and taking a rather large envelope out of her pocket.
“Why didn’t Hedwig just bring it to me?” he asked.
“This one was not delivered by a magical owl,” she said, giving him the letter. “It was sent by a Muggle owl. Though they are still competent letter senders, they are not very good at delivering them to specific people. Luckily, I saw it hooting outside a window. The poor thing didn’t know what to do.”
“Who’s it from?”
“Look for yourself,” she said. Harry turned the envelop over, and to his surprise, the return address was to Dudley!