Chapter 24 - The Pitch

                                        

                                              
            
                              
The Pitch
                              
      It did not take Harry more than a half a second to yell, "RUN!" 
                              
      They turned and ran toward the castle. Harry glanced behind him and saw the Death Eaters mounting their brooms and shooting toward them. Harry knew the Death Eaters were after him. He had to get them away from the others. He quickly looked around his surroundings. They were completely in the open. The castle was in front of them and the entrance to the pitch was behind him. 
                              
      He had nothing for it. He turned back around and ran to the pitch. He heard his friends calling for him, but his heart was pounding so loud in his ears, it drowned out everything else. He managed to glance out the corner of his eye to see five of the Death Eaters beeline toward him. He hoped the others could handle the other two, and as he reached the pitch, he went to the door of the stairwell up to stands. It was his only chance to get out of the open and reduce their advantage over him.
                              
      He was at the doorway when he heard a Death Eater send a curse at him, which exploded on the side of the doorway, leaving a large hole. He ran through it as the Death Eaters landed and sent another volley at him. 
                              
      He dodged the curses and started up the wooden stairs, but then turned around quickly. 
                              
      "Petrificus Totalus!" he yelled.
                              
      The first Death Eater through the door froze up and knelled over. He did not stay to see anything else, but heard the others climb over him and perform the counter-curse as he started up the second flight of stairs. The Death Eaters thundering footsteps and yells were closing in on him. He looked down through the cracks and saw only four of the Death Eaters below him. He did not have time to think where the fifth one was, because the ones below him stopped him dead in his tracks.
                              
      "REDUCTO!!!" they yelled and the stairs dematerialized right beneath him. 
                              
      He jumped and grabbed the edge of the stairs ahead of him. He tried to pull himself up to the next landing, but the boards broke and he fell straight down. The Death Eaters were right under him and he fell right on them. He knocked them over, but he fell hard on his injured knee and felt his arm getting sliced open as it scraped the side of the stairs. He almost fell down the next flight stairs, too, after two of the Death Eaters, who had already fallen down them, but stopped himself. The other two Death Eaters were above him. He did not have a second to lose and he raised his wand.
                              
      "IMPEDIMENTA!!!" he yelled.
                              
      "Protego!" yelled a female Death Eater and the spell was reflected back at Harry. 
                              
      He rolled out of the way his own spell and it hit one of the recovering Death Eaters behind him, who fell down the rest of the stairs frozen. He would not survive if he did not get out of the middle of them. He scrambled to his feet and aimed beneath the female and other Death Eater, as they were both about to curse him.
                              
      "Avada Ked-"
                              
      "REDUCTO!!!" Harry yelled and they both fell through the vanishing stairs. 
                              
      He was turning to face the Death Eater behind him, who had not been struck with the Impediment Curse, when he was hit.
                              
      "Crucio!" the Death Eater roared.
                              
      Harry could not tell if he was screaming or if the pain was so much that he could not yell. Invisible white-hot knives pierced his skin and it felt as though every one of his bones was being broken. When the Death Eater finally lifted it, Harry still shook violently. He was dimly aware that he was now on his back and he had to defend himself. He lifted up his wand, which he had held on to out of pure instinct.