Part 3

Down on the pitch there was a short break before the restart. The nets over the center of the field were pulled back once more as the two sides huddled together in preparation for the restart. The various Snitches were called back to be re-released once the game was back underway.

"So, Mr. Malfoy, Ambassador Potter, what do you make of our American Quidditch?" Mrs. Blackstone asked.

"It's a very interesting game," Harry was quick to say. "There's a lot more passing and intercepting of the Quaffle—rather exciting in my opinion."

Draco Malfoy folded his arms and plastered something of a condescending smile on his face. "It certainly is an amusing game, but I think I prefer the British version. It's more traditional, with none of those silly changes."

"Silly?" Bruce asked.

"Well, like wearing armor and putting down nets. It's ridiculous. Wizards have been playing Quidditch for almost a thousand years and we've never needed armor or nets," Draco responded.

"Draco, players can be seriously hurt in Quidditch. Just look at what happened to you and me, and that was at Hogwarts. I mean, sure, you usually don't get dementors on a pitch or house elves tampering with Bludgers, but even without that, falls and collisions aren't that uncommon," Harry argued back. "I think a net and a bit of padding is pretty sensible."

Draco looked at Harry as if he had grown a second head. "Bloody hell, Potter! I know you were Muggle-raised, but I thought you at least got it when it came to Quidditch!" Malfoy said in a tone of disgust he hadn't used towards Harry since back when they had been at school together. "You don't just change Quidditch like that. Those nets and those suits take away the heart of the game. The danger and the risk are part of what makes it all great. I never thought the great Harry Potter was scared of getting hurt in a game."

An annoyed looked crossed Harry's expression. "I understand the game perfectly well, Malfoy, and I think I took twice more hits than you did back in the day. But when I think about James, Albus, and little Lily getting hit and falling the same way I did," Harry's gaze passed over his two boys before locking with Draco's, "having a net and cushioning charms on the ground sounds like a brilliant idea. I would have thought that you would care for your son's safety as much as I do my children's."

"You mean, they don't use nets in International Quidditch?" Russell asked with a touch of incredulity, an obvious attempt to sidetrack the conversation.

"You really should go see a match, Bruce," Mr. Blackstone said in reply, picking up on the man's intent. "You missed out on a lot living in Washington all your life."

Their efforts failed. Draco stiffened in reaction to Harry's barb, and an expression very close to that of a gravely offended Lucius Malfoy crossed his face. "I care enough for my son that I will let him take those falls and get those bruises so that he can come to understand the real nature of this world, Potter." The icy tone in Draco's voice set Harry back.

Harry took a breath, cleared his mind, and settled his emotions. He was better than this. Draco Malfoy was someone who could bring out the worst in him, someone who brought back all those childhood pains and fears from a time when he was still a young, vulnerable boy. But Harry couldn't let that control him.

"Look, Draco, I was out of line with that comment." Harry paused, trying to gauge Malfoy's reaction and just how hurtful his comment had been. "Everyone can see how much you care for Scorpius. I was trying to make a point and said something stupid."

The coldness left Draco's eyes as he heard the apology. With a small huff, he turned his body away from the confrontation and a smirk curled his lips. "That's alright, Potter. It isn't as if your job requires someone with culture and maturity. Oh wait…"

There were some relieved chuckles from the Blackstones and Russell.

Harry laughed the jibe off as well. "Anyway, Draco, it's not that I don't appreciate the purity of Quidditch as we play it, but more that I think the safety benefits are worth it."

The older Malfoy shrugged. "I could see putting cushioning charms around the pitch, but there is no way I could ever support the use of a net. Some of the most exciting flying in Quidditch happens close to the ground. With a net there, you'd likely get all twisted up. Which is why I don't like that boundary wall, either."

Harry nodded at that. He had to admit, some of his best memories of playing for Gryffindor came as he was skimming low to the ground after the Snitch, or diving down so close to the surface that the other Seeker couldn't handle it.

"Yeah, I'm not so keen on the out-of-bounds rule either. Takes away some of the purity of the chase," Harry agreed. "But I do like the different color Snitches."

"I figured you would like that, being a former Seeker," Bruce said with a chuckle.

"Really, though," Harry said thoughtfully, "there are some big differences in the games."

"In what way?" Mrs. Blackstone asked curiously.

"If I had to describe it with one word, I'd have to say physicality. Our Quidditch is more physical, and more about flying. You have to grab the Quaffle away from a chaser. Your American version is more about magic skill than flying skill," Harry explained. "In your local game, everything revolves around using those Quidditch bats, while in International Quidditch it's flying skill that is tested most."

"I believe Mr. Potter has the right of it," Blackstone said to his spouse. "You should have seen the match Mr. Malfoy was kind enough to bring me to. It was quite physical."

When the match restarted, it became clear that the Shamrocks had adjusted their offensive strategy. Instead of focusing on creating strong formations as they had at the start of the game, they elected to dedicate a pair of Wingers to controlling the Bludgers, in effect making them play the way Beaters would in International Quidditch. Boston's Sasha Barry and Vincent Strange worked in tandem to not only keep the Bludgers out of the way of their three Attacker formations, but to actively disrupt the defenders attempt to get the Quaffle back.

This style of play gave the visiting British wizards a good view of American Quidditch Bludgers in action. Barry and Strange sent the fast moving balls back and forth between them before lighting them aflame with an incendio or electrifying it with a fulmeni and sending them for a Vizier's Winger. Most of the time the target would deflect the Bludger away, but the distraction would allow the Shamrock Attackers to pass by.

Harry noted a pattern in the Bludger attacks. When the pair went after a target they almost never sent the Bludger directly at the opposing Winger. Instead, one of them would send it at an angle away from the intended target where the other of the pair would fly down and suddenly redirect it towards their victim, who would have just seconds to dive out of the way or attempt to deflect the Bludger.

More than once a Vizer's Winger was either completely blindsided by the attack or was simply unable to deflect the quickly incoming ball. Twice, one of the purple robed players was completely knocked from their broom down through the boundary sphere and into the net. When that happened the Vizier's player was forced to sit out of the game for thirty seconds before the officials would let them return to the air above the pitch.

The battle between the two Seeker's was also quite interesting. Early on after the restart the Vizier's Seeker found the Shamrock Snitch nearby. Dresden made quite an attempt to get there in time, but Walters snagged it before he could and it was out of play early on. In response, the Shamrock Seeker systematically hunted down the New Orleans Snitch and it was out of play as well just a couple more minutes into the restart.

Play continued to be rough, with a number of fouls called against the Shamrocks for illegal Bludger use, but even with the penalties, Boston's more aggressive style was paying off and they were able to take a 15 point lead. If not for some exceptional deflections from Vizier's rookie Becky Cheung, New Orleans might have been down even further. Of all the players on New Orleans, she seemed to have the best control over the Bludgers and managed to disrupt the teamwork of Barry and Strange.

Which was why what happened next was so brutal.

"The Viziers are making their way through the Shamrock defense in a cleverly spiraling wedge! Blaine and Rosenburg deftly avoid Boston Captain Anthony Russo's attempt to disrupt their charge. Rosenburg passes the Quaffle up to Halliwell…and once again here come Vincent Strange and Sasha Barry from behind, this time firing both Bludgers in an attempt to break up the formation!"

Harry's breath caught in his throat. Nobody else seemed to see what was happening. These Bludger attacks were a feint. Strange had sent his Bludger ahead of Barry's. The whole purpose was to force Cheung to intervene again. She would be able to send the first away easily, but there was only one place she could send the second one. Straight up.

"And Cheung rotates over to deflect the Bludgers away from Halliwell! She sends the first straight towards Shamrock Shamrock Defender Anisha Singh and still manages to knock the second up and away from her teammates!"

Right to where Strange and Barry were speeding straight down from.

"Depulso!" "Depulso!" "Fulmeni!"

The Bludger slammed into Cheung before she could do anything. There was a brief flare of blue light as a shield around the Vizier player attempted to repel the force of the attack before Becky Cheung was knocked down hard into the netting.

"Cheung is down! It was a nasty combination from Barry and Strange. Hopefully she will be alright and will be back in the game shortly. Fortunately for the Viziers, Halliwell managed to beat Shamrock Keeper Amy Prince for an Inside Goal and 15 points to even the game up at 290 points apiece."

"Oh come on, that has to be a foul!" Albus Severus screamed. "Those dirty Shamrocks!"

"And there goes James Dresden, once again after the New Orleans Snitch! The Purple Snitch is putting up a bit of a fight this time, but once again the Boston Seeker manages to capture it and the Vizier Seeker will be denied the chance to catch it for another twenty minutes."

The Boston Seeker turned to sneer at his New Orleans counterpart. The sneer turned into a look of shock as a shrill whistle pierced the air.

"And this time it is Tersius Walters who catches the Golden Snitch, giving the Viziers a 50 point lead and time for Becky Cheung to recover and rejoin the team!"

James and Albus Severus Potter both cheered unabashedly at this sudden turnaround, while Harry discussed the play with the other adults. The consensus was that the Shamrock Seeker had gotten too obsessed with the rivalry with the other Seeker, making the hunting of the opposing team Snitch a personal matter rather than paying attention to the overall game. Dresden was definitely the better flier, but Walters had remained focused and so the second restart would favor the Viziers.

The last third of the game saw the play become a bit more sloppy, as both sides were obviously tiring. More than once the players lost track of the Quaffle and both teams were forced to dive down towards the net in order to get it back into play. It was at one of these points when Bruce Russell pointed out how this differed from school games.

"Obviously, players on the school team are not as adept at charms as professional level players, so there's quite a bit of this at the varsity level. During school games there's an additional official called the Ascender who uses the ascendio charm on the Quaffle any time it drops out of play," Bruce explained. "Obviously, there's no need for that at the professional level as all the players are perfectly capable of summoning the Quaffle from such short distances, even after a couple hours of play."

"I can imagine," Harry replied. "I must say, I'm impressed with the skill your American players show with summoning charms and banishers. Not even many aurors reach that level of control. It's one thing to be able to simply summon an object to you, and another to actually control its path and velocity. It's too bad American Quidditch requires so many advanced spells to play, though."

"Why do you say that?" Mrs. Blackstone asked, "I've always thought the spellwork aspect gave the game more depth."

Harry smiled. "Oh, I agree, it's a fascinating game. I'm just thinking about the young wizards and witches who have to wait until they can master the spells to be able to play. We don't learn the summoning charm until Fourth year at Hogwarts."

Mr. Blackstone chuckled, "Oh, it's the same here. Quite a few witches and wizards who think it will be easy when they study fourth grade charms, only to be surprised at how complex the charm really is."

Bruce Russell pointed a thumb to their host. "In addition to his many other endeavors, Mr. Blackstone owns the business of manufacturing Quidditch bats. I have no idea how the things target the Quaffle or shape our magic into the spell, but Mr. Blackstone does."

"Ten spells," the top-hat wearing wizard said with a broad smile. "All of which target either the Quaffle or the Bludgers and nothing else. Even young children can use them, even without any formal training in charms."

Draco frowned. "You mean, it's not the players casting these spells themselves, it's the actually the bats that are doing it? That's disappointing."

"It's arithmantic polymorphism, isn't it?" Harry asked.

Blackstone's eyes widened in surprise, "Quite right, Ambassador Potter, exactly so! I didn't know you were so well versed in enchantment crafting."

"Arithmantic polywhatsit? What's that, Dad?" James asked.

"It means that the bats are designed to scale to the ability of the user," Harry explained, "like the charms on brooms. If a young player doesn't know how to cast one of the spells, the bat can do it for them, but only in a set way. However, it allows a more experienced player to cast the spell through the bat as they would normally with a wand. More advanced magic overrides the set spell built into the bat." Harry turned to Blackstone, "Am I right in assuming there are intermediate degrees of control as well?"

Blackstone smiled proudly, "Different models of bats have different degrees of control, yes."

"Very impressive," Harry acknowledged. "I really hope Draco's deal with you goes well. I'd like to see some of your products make their way to Britain.

"Walters catches the violet snitch, another 20 points to the Viziers—but Dresden is hot on the trail of the silver snitch! Halliwell tries to intervene with a deliberate bludger strike sure to earn him a penalty, but Dresden evades it and…he's got it! 70 points to the Shamrocks and a 30 point lead with only twenty minutes left in play!"