Phoenix

Elaine's First Quidditch Match

If you're reading this, you have officially passed into the second half of the novel!

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     Another Saturday at Hogwarts: Elaine woke as early as usual, unable to realign her eleven-year-ingrained system by November.  Some days she worried that sleeping late may never be something she'd do.  She lay in bed, deciding between being idle and worried, or being productive.  She made the same decision she had every morning.

     Elaine dressed silently — a habit acquired over the years — and gathered her things.  She took her history textbook, a supplementary history book from the library, a quill, a roll of parchment and a well of ink with her to the common room.  Like upstairs, it was as yet silent.

     She unrolled her essay and cracked open her books at a table beside one of the tall windows.  The sun was rising beyond it while she worked.  Today was going to be the heavy, damp kind, where a storm brewed but never quite decided to break.  It was an hour before any others joined her in the common room.  The first were a couple of upper years, perhaps in their fifth or sixth; Elaine distracted herself by imagining what fifth or sixth year might be like.  

     She managed to finish a few more inches by the time two of her dormmates came down, nearly an hour after the first.

     "Petra, Mary," she called, "is Ginny coming down?"

     "I don't know," Mary replied, "but she is awake."

     "Yeah, she's still up with Holly," said Petra. 

     She watched them walk away, and decided that she liked them.  Elaine collected her things again and went back up the winding stairs.  She exchanged a smile as she passed Holly on her way in.  

     She found Ginny sitting cross-legged on her bed.  For a moment, she watched her scribbling in what looked like a journal.  Elaine opened her trunk.

     "Good morning," Elaine said.  She was ignored.

     She continued as she put her things away, "I see you're dressed."

     This earned her a distracted sigh.  Elaine looked over her shoulder at her friend, who refused to look up.  She closed her trunk with a slam.  At that, Ginny's head flew up in a flurry of bright red hair.  The journal snapped shut in her lap.

     "Good morning," Elaine began again.

     "Hi..."

     "Breakfast?"

     "Um, I dunno —"

     "Gin," Elaine walked over, "I've been worried about you.  You've been acting off for weeks — and don't think I haven't noticed.  We've all noticed.  You can't stay shut up in here."

     She snatched the journal from her hands, much to Ginny's chagrin.  Elaine placed it on the nightstand with her right hand while grabbing Ginny with her left.

     "How about we just start with breakfast?"

     Hand in hand she led Ginny through the castle, down the long staircases, until they reached the Great Hall.  Typically it was quiet at eight a.m. on a Saturday, but today there was more life than usual.  They sat.  Elaine placed a few pieces of toast on Ginny's plate with a reassuring smile.

     At the entrance she saw Harry Potter striding in, Ron and Hermione in tow.  This morning he was wearing some sort of uniform.

     "That's right — today is the first quidditch match, isn't it?"