Hurt | Remus Lupin

~10~ Gryffindor's Win

At the next Quidditch match, Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. Ollie said this was good for us, and started increasing the number of team practices to five a week.

"Please come with me to McGonagall! To try and convince her to let harry use his Firebolt." Ollie pleaded.

"No way! You're acting selfish Ollie!" I said angrily. "What if the firebolt tries to throw Harry off or something. To finish him off?"

"Oh Please."

"Fine. But only so that I can see McGonagall yell at you."

And I was right. She yelled at him. I was grinning behind Ollie the whole time. Ollie quickly fled McGonagall's office. She looked at me. "Did you convince him to not ask me?" she asked.

"I did but he insisted. Then I decided I wanted to see you rip him to shreds."

McGonagall sighed. "Honestly, sometimes I wonder if you should've been in Slytherin instead."

I gasped. "No Professor! Take that back! The Hat told me I could be in Ravenclaw!"

She shrugged and I left. Ollie and I went to find Harry to deliver the bad news. 

But with our match against Ravenclaw coming nearer, and Harry still not having a broom, I was starting to see where Ollie was coming from because I was getting stressed. We were training harder than ever, but Harry's school broom is incredibly slow. 

"Use my broom!" I told him. "I'll use the school's broom. I don't need to be as fast as you, as long as Angelina and Alicia are good." 

"No!" Harry insisted. "Please, I'll be fine. I'll figure it out."

Just a few days before the match, McGonagall came into the Common Room. She walked over to Ron and Hermione and spoke to them. They shook their heads and she came to us. "Have any of you seen Mr. Potter?"

"No Ma'am." I said. "I haven't seen him since lunch."

She left the Common Room. Only a few minutes later, Harry came back into the common room with Ron and was holding his firebolt. People started crowding around him.

I ran over, leaving Percy and Ollie behind. "Wow! You got it back?"

He nodded. "Do you want a go on it sometime?"

"Oh I'd love to." I gushed.

After a long while, everyone went back to their things. I sat back down to sit with Ollie and Percy. Ollie was wiping tears that were seeping down his face. "I think we'll win this match, I really think so." he sobbed. 

I bit my lip and willed myself to not laugh. 

But suddenly, a strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase. The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder -- and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet.

"LOOK!" he yelled, shaking the sheets in her face.

"Ron, what --?"

"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!"

Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. Harry looked down at the sheet Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like --

"BLOOD!" Ron yelled into the stunned silence. "HE'S GONE! AND YOUKNOWWHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?"

I had no clue what Ron had shown Harry, but I could only assume what had killed Scabbers was Crookshanks.