First puncture and Quidditch

The days went on as usual. The brothers went to classes, did their homework, and studied artefacting. They should have paid attention to their exercises with elemental spells. If the spells of the first and second degree of complexity brought them to the wandless level quite easily, then everything was more complex with the higher ones. Of the higher fire spells, they could only perform Hellfire, and even then, only with a wand. The others were forbidden to train unsupervised. Sasuke could also perform Lightus, which he could perform perfectly thanks to his Sharingan and past life experience. Now he was trying to recreate Kirin by experimenting with the spell, using a clearing the twins had found on one of their trips to the forbidden forest for practice. Sasuke could not always escape because he needed to look awake and rest in the morning so that teachers or his father would not suspect anything. Another unpleasant circumstance was the fact that although the Princes had quite a lot of magic reserve, still, due to their age, they could not perform complex spells for a long time without stopping so as not to become visible traces of magical exhaustion. With this in mind, the twins decided that Sasuke would do his training on Friday and Saturday nights, or at the very least, Saturday and Sunday. Despite the brothers' precautions, one day, they almost got caught.

It was an ordinary Saturday night. Sasuke was getting ready for training and had already left the living room and bumped into Professor Flitwick and Zachariah Smith.

- I told you, Professor, he's always going out on Friday nights! - Smith grinned.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Ever since the brothers had been able to answer all the questions in Potions and Zachariah had sat in a puddle, the boy had been constantly trying to pick on his brothers. The twins didn't react to his outbursts because such behaviour seemed too childish for them.

"Apparently, he decided to go from words to action," thought Sasuke switching on the jujutsu.

The Professor, who had never encountered Sharingan and didn't expect any serious resistance from the sophomore, was easily caught in the illusion by the Prince and Smith. Implying to the teacher that there had been no encounter and that the Professor was just peacefully patrolling and had decided to check the corridor near his faculty tower, Sasuke sent him off to continue his duty and then went after Zachariah. Disconnecting him, the younger twin summoned his brother, rightly believing he would have a better chance of discovering what he needed to know. Digging into Puffendui's memory, Itachi learnt that Smith had spotted Sasuke walking the school's corridors at night. Sasuke had always cast distraction spells, but the Puffendui had an artefact that allowed him to see through the spell. Zachariah started watching the Ravenclaw tower and discovered that Sasuke usually left on Friday. After that, Smith called the Professor on duty at the school. Itachi erased Smith's memories of the incident and the surveillance, suggesting he was just walking around Hogwarts.

- You do realise that something like this could happen again, don't you? - Even if we take the artefact away from him, Smith could get a new one. Plus, we are still determining who else might have one.

- Hn. I see..." Sasuke sighed, "I'll have to poke around the library and artefact books to find a better way to hide from view. But my experiments will have to be temporarily suspended.

The Younger Prince lowered his head. It only seemed to him that there was a shift in his project. Noticing his brother's dejected state, Itachi snapped his fingers on his forehead.

- Don't worry, Ototo, we'll find a way out. I can help you with finding information. By the way, you could write to your grandfather. I'm sure our family library has some books on the subjects we need.

Sasuke pouted and was about to say that he was not small, but his brother's good-natured smile made him swallow his words.

The next day, despite the night's events, Sasuke woke up awake and ready for action.

- Can't wait to see how Draco will play in today's match? - Theo asked, noticing how quickly the Prince was dressing.

Sasuke almost slapped his hand on his forehead. He had almost forgotten about the Gryffindor-Slytherin game! Draco wouldn't forgive him if he didn't show up!

"I'll have to put off finding a way to become invisible until later. Good thing Grandpa can write in his notebook right away, and maybe tomorrow he'll send a letter with an answer..." - the younger twin mentally sighed.

Itachi, Theo and Dakota were already up and ready to go, so the friends went straight to breakfast. The Great Hall was even more noisy than the holidays.

- What's the matter? Did something happen? - Dakota asked, surprised by everyone's excitement.

- You...

-... aren't...

- ...haven't...

- ...heard? - The Weasley twins, who had come out of nowhere, asked.

- I wouldn't ask if I'd known," Dakota pouted.

The boy didn't like it when people pointed out that he didn't know the obvious.

- This time...

- ... for the Gryffindor team...

- ...Gryffindor...

- is playing

- ...Potter!

- What's the big deal? - Dakota asked, still trying to understand.

- His father was a hunter, and they say a good one, so everyone's anxious to see if his son has the same ability," Fred replied, "By the way," the redhead said, smiling slyly, "Would you like to place a bet?

The brothers looked at each other and said at the same time:

- Twenty galleons on Slytherin!

Weasley squinted his eyes:

- Do you...

- ... that ...

- ... don't ...

- ... believe...

- ...in us?

The redheads made upset faces.

- Hn. We believe in you and Draco, so Slytherin," Sasuke persisted.

Grinning, the Weasleys accepted the bet.

After a quick snack, the friends hurried to take good seats. There were already quite a few people on the field, which confirmed the brothers' fears that today would be a full house. When the Gryffindor team entered the pitch, the stands erupted in cheers. Many people wanted to cheer the young hunter on and wish him luck. The game began, and the teams rushed into action. Slytherin managed to score four goals in the first twenty minutes.

- The Slytherin team is on fire today! - They changed their game completely and managed to take the lead in the first twenty minutes!

The stands of the Green Faculty were in an uproar. The representatives of the other faculties watched in amazement.

- How did they manage to change the strategy so much? - Sasuke heard the words of the Gryffindor sitting in front of him.

- Maybe Malfoy, in exchange for buying new broomsticks, got a place in the team and became acting captain unofficially? - replied the Gryffindor sitting next to him.

Sasuke snorted.

"Tz. The imagination and envy of some people are amazing! Money can't buy talent, and Draco has it! He scored two goals out of four. Although they are not far from the truth. Draco has greatly impacted the team..." - The Prince plunged back into the memories.

Two weeks after sectionals, Draco came to his brothers with a request:

- Could you help me? - Asking Malfoy in a clearly nervous manner.

- Of course, Draco. What's the matter? - Itachi asked.

- It's just, do you remember our conversation last year? About my faculty's way of playing?

The brothers nodded.

- So. I talked to the captain; I tried to tell him that by changing how we play, we could win the cup," Draco wrapped his arms around himself nervously, "Marcus didn't want to agree with me, so I suggested we have a match. Me and you against the rest of the team. If we win, the team will change the way they play.

Malfoy faltered on the spot.

- 'Look, I shouldn't have agreed without asking you, but I couldn't think of a better way to prove my point! They said that my suggested strategy was only suitable for those who lost! - Malfoy was beginning to shake angrily by the end of his sentence.

Itachi put a hand on his shoulder and said soothingly:

- Now, take a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. Feeling a little better?

Draco nodded.

- 'I'm sorry. I seem to have lost control," the boy sighed.

- 'Pfft. We figured out,' Sasuke snorted, 'where and when is the match?

- Tomorrow at seven. We'll play for half an hour before returning to the living rooms before the lights out.

- Okay," Itachi replied, "tell him that in that case, we'll play without a catcher. Firstly, we need more time to catch the snitch, and secondly, the ratio of players is three to five. Of course, we're confident of being outnumbered, but we'd like to play more or less fairly.

- Of course," Draco replied.

The next day there was an exhibition match. At the beginning of the game, the Slytherins were laughing at such a small team, but after the first goal, they were not laughing. Malfoy and the Princes defeated the team with a score of six nil.

- How did you do that! We're outnumbered! - Marcus Flint was outraged.

- You just concentrate on attacking the opposing team's players and forget about scoring goals. When you're up against an agile and well-coordinated team, your tactics fall apart," Itachi explained.

- Why don't you play on the national team? - Miles Blatchley asked.

- Hn. It's just a way for us to relax after studying,' Sasuke replied.

Draco wished he had brought his camera with him. The look in his teammates' eyes was priceless. Was his strategy approved?

Sasuke was snapped out of his memories by the commentator's voice:

- Bludger has lost his mind! He's chasing Potter and keeping up!

The Prince found the Gryffindor with his eyes. Harry tried to escape the ball coming at him, but it was all in vain. The bludger crashed into his arm and broke it. Potter was clearly in pain, but despite this, he raced towards the snitch and still caught it. Madam Trick announced the end of the game and ran to the Gryffindor.

- Harry Potter caught the snitch but beat Slytherin with a score of 180-150! That was one of the most exciting matches I've ever seen! - announced Lee Jordan.