HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

Chapter 98 The Big Dog and the Dementors on the Field

When Lyra yawned and walked into the Great Hall with Angelina, Arya, and the twins, Harry was already sitting at the Gryffindor long table eating breakfast.

"Good morning, Harry," Lyra said, placing some toast and sausage on the twins' plates. Seeing Harry slowly sipping his porridge, she added another slice of toast to his plate. "You look like you have dark circles under your eyes. Didn't you sleep well last night?"

Harry glanced at Lyra with mixed feelings, wanting to ask her if she knew what her little dog did every night.

Harry spent most of the night either stopping the cat-dog fight or preventing a cat and a dog from taking turns sneaking into the boys' dormitory to catch mice. All the tension and anxiety before the fight were worn away by the cat and dog.

Lyra sensed an inexplicable sadness in Harry's gaze, so she added some sausages and fried eggs to his plate, encouraging him to eat more.

Meanwhile, Aria was still comforting Wood, who couldn't eat anything: "Don't worry, Oliver, this little bit of rain won't affect our performance."

But this is not just a little rain.

The entire school's teachers and students went to the outdoor court to watch today's Quidditch game. As they walked across the lawn, their umbrellas were easily blown away from their hands by the strong wind.

The wind was too strong. Lyra was walking close to Hermione and Ron toward the stadium stands, but the wind and rain were so strong that it was hard to open one's eyes. Lyra unknowingly fell behind and got separated from them.

When Leila finally made it to the stadium stands, she was soaked to the bone. In this kind of weather, it made no difference whether she used an umbrella or not—she simply didn't squeeze into the crowded front row and went straight to sit in an empty seat on the top tier of the stands.

Leila could see both teams starting to enter the field. The wind was blowing fiercely, and the players were all staggering as they walked onto the pitch. Leila clapped and cheered loudly with the spectators, but she wasn't sure if the players on the field could hear her in such strong winds and rain.

Soon, everyone heard Mrs. Hooch's shrill whistle—meaning the competition had officially begun.

Seven scarlet figures and seven canary-yellow figures whizzed into the sky. Already indistinguishable at high speed, and now a storm added to the mix, Lyra was truly impressed by Lee Jordan's dynamic vision—it was simply phenomenal.

"Gryffindor is now leading by fifty points—" The announcement of the score and a clap of thunder sounded at the same time, but the audience could barely hear it.

The match was paused briefly as the two teams landed on the ground and briefly bumped into each other. Lyra saw someone run from the Gryffindor stands to the middle of the pitch. She quickly grabbed her binoculars and saw it was Hermione. The rain was too heavy to see what she was doing, but Hermione quickly ran back to the stands, and the match resumed.

Lyra struggled to find Fred and George through her binoculars when she suddenly felt something approaching. Turning her head, she saw a black dog the size of a bear crouching beside her.

"Knight!" Lyra exclaimed in surprise, hugging the big dog tightly. "Did you come to see me?"

The large black dog wagged its tail dismissively at Leila and began to struggle free from her embrace.

Perhaps because its fur had been soaked by the rain, the big dog shook itself vigorously, scattering the water droplets everywhere.

"Knight, stop—" Lyra giggled and dodged, "You splashed rainwater on my face—"

The person and the dog interacted happily for a while, then their two light gray eyes turned back to the sky, searching with difficulty for the figure they wanted to see.

“Oh, I think I see George, no, maybe Fred,” Lyra exclaimed, straining to see through her binoculars. “There’s gold! It’s Harry chasing the Golden Snitch! Hurry! Come on, Harry!”

The spectators in the stands had already noticed—Gryffindor's Seeker Harry Potter and Hufflepuff's Seeker Cedric Diggory had simultaneously spotted the Golden Snitch, and both of them were spurring their brooms forward at full speed—

"Quick! Quick! Quick!" The crowd stood up excitedly, everyone eager to see who would ultimately win, but suddenly a familiar, terrifying chill swept over them—

It's a Dementor!

Hundreds upon hundreds of Dementors poured into the stadium from the castle entrance, and at least a hundred Dementors drifted toward the stands!

The stands, which had just been filled with cheers and excitement, were now eerily silent—everyone trembled with fear and timidity, as if they had been collectively silenced.

That awful feeling of blood freezing in her body returned, and Leila felt herself fall back into the seat, curling up in a ball with the big dog.

At first, she could feel the dog's wet fur, cold and clinging to her cheeks and neck, but gradually, she began to feel nothing at all, as if her body were just a string of data in a game, utterly empty...

"Get out—" A roar that echoed throughout the stadium exploded in everyone's ears, gradually bringing them back to their senses and reason.

It's Headmaster Dumbledore!

He angrily waved his wand at the Dementors, and a huge silver phoenix shot out from the tip of his wand. The terrifying Dementors, like bugs suddenly exposed to light, scattered and fled.

When Lyra finally came to her senses, she was all alone beside her; the big black dog had quietly left sometime earlier.

Lyra was a little worried, but she soon discovered that something had happened on the field—a player wearing a scarlet jersey was being carried back to the castle on a stretcher by Headmaster Dumbledore!

Not knowing who it was, and hoping it wasn't Fred or George, Lyra jumped down the steps of the stands and ran eagerly toward the castle, deciding to visit the big dog in the Forbidden Forest later that evening.

As Lyra ran across the field, she saw Wood standing motionless in the rain, seemingly trying to drown himself—she had lost consciousness when the Dementors arrived. Had the game not been stopped and Gryffindor lost?

"Ouch—" Leila bumped into a hard chest while distracted.

"Lyra?" She felt a pair of strong, large hands gently supporting her. "Are you alright? The Dementors were just here, are you okay?"

“Thank you, Cedric.” Lyra had already recognized who she had bumped into. “I’m fine, I just felt like I was frozen by a freezing spell, and for a few minutes I didn’t know what happened. What about you? I remember when the Dementors came, you and Harry were chasing the Golden Snitch—”

“I’m fine, I… but Harry fell off his broom and Dumbledore just took him to the school hospital.”

Cedric saw a mixture of relief and sadness on the dark-haired girl's face—she had clearly realized that Gryffindor had lost the match.

“I’m sorry…” Cedric’s face showed no joy of victory. On the contrary, he seemed to feel guilty for catching the Golden Snitch unharmed.