Courage

-65-

"Come on now, Ron," said Angelina crossly, as he dived for the ground again, chasing the Quaffle. "Pay attention."

It would have been hard to say whether Ron's face or the Quaffle was a deeper scarlet when he again returned to playing height. Draco and the rest of the Slytherin team were howling with laughter.

On his third attempt, Ron caught the Quaffle; perhaps out of relief he passed it on so enthusiastically that it soared straight though Katie's outstretched hands and hit her hard in the face.

"Sorry!" Ron groaned, zooming forwards to see whether he had done any damage.

"Get back in position, she's fine!" barked Angelina. "But as you're passing to a teammate, do try not to knock her off her broom, won't you? We've got Bludgers for that!"

Katie's nose was bleeding. Down below, the Slytherins were stamping their feet and jeering. Fred and George converged on Katie.

"Here, take this," Fred told her, handing her something small and purple from out of his pocket, "it'll clear it up in no time."

"All right," called Angelina, "Fred, George, go and get your bats and a Bludger. Ron, get up to the goalposts. Harry, release the Snitch when I say so. We're going to aim for Ron's goal, obviously."

When Angelina blew her whistle, Harry released the Snitch and Fred and George let fly the Bludger.

Angelina threw the Quaffle to Layla, who sped towards the goalposts just as a Bludger threw past her, causing her to quickly throw the Quaffle to Katie, whose nose was still bleeding, and Fred came over to smack the Bludger away from Layla.

Layla quickly zoomed closer to the goalposts to get in position as Katie threw the Quaffle to Angelina, who then threw it back to Layla. The Lupin girl turned towards the goalposts and effortlessly threw it into the middle one since it stood unguarded.

"Stop — stop — STOP!" screamed Angelina. "Ron — you're not covering your middle post!"

Ron was hovering in front of the left-hand hoop, leaving the other two completely unprotected.

"Oh... sorry..."

"You keep shifting around while you're watching the Chasers!" said Angelina. "Either stay in centre position until you have to move to defend a hoop, or else circle the hoops, but don't drift vaguely off to one side, that's how you let in the other goals!"

"Sorry..." Ron repeated, his red face shining like a beacon against the bright blue sky.

"And Katie, can't you do something about that nosebleed?"

"It's just getting worse!" said Katie thickly, attempting to stem the flow with her sleeve.

Layla glanced round at Fred, who was looking anxious and checking his pockets. He saw Fred pull out something purple, examine it for a second and then look round at Katie, evidently horror-struck.

"Well, let's try again," said Angelina. She was ignoring the Slytherins, who had now set up a chant of 'Gryffindor are losers, Gryffindor are losers,' but there was a certain rigidity about her seat on the broom nevertheless.

This time they had been flying for barely three minutes when Angelina's whistle sounded. Layla turned and saw Angelina, Fred, and George all flying as fast as they could towards Katie. Layla and Harry sped towards her, too. It was plain that Angelina had stopped training just in time; Katie was now chalk white and covered in blood.

"She needs the hospital wing," said Angelina.

"We'll take her," said Fred. "She — er — might have swallowed a Blood Blisterpod by mistake—"