The Chaser's Heart

Year 5: Just a Butterbeer

I couldn't stop thinking about McNully.

I felt like I was going mad. I was dying to know what would have happened if McGonagall hadn't come across us sprawled out on the ground under his wheelchair. I had long since accepted the fact that I fancied him, but thought it would pass. We were good friends, at least I considered him a good friend, but beyond being in the same house and our interest in Quidditch, we didn't really have much in common.

And then there was his story of how he'd come to require the wheelchair. I'd always assumed he'd been in a bad accident, possibly Quidditch-related, and Healers hadn't been able to mend his spine. I knew practically every other students at Hogwarts had horrific stories from the war and had lost family members. But something about his story struck me as especially sad. I didn't have my father or brother anymore, but at least I'd known them, however briefly. And I still held on to that shred of hope that they weren't dead and I would see them again. McNully didn't have that, it had always just been him and his mum, he had never known his father and never would. He'd never known what it was like to walk or fly. But maybe that made it easier, he didn't really know what he was missing.

I spent a great deal of time mulling over that Saturday morning I'd spent with McNully. Well, however much I was allowed between lessons, homework and Quidditch practise. Between Rowan and Penny, I found myself a part of three different study groups, each meeting on different days of the week to prepare for the OWLs. One was mostly made up of seventh-years preparing for the NEWTs, which I found pointless. No use in worrying about the NEWTs when we hadn't even written the OWLs. Rowan said that if we prepared for the NEWTs then the OWLs ought to be a breeze. I quickly dropped out of that study group.

I felt that I got on relatively well with my studies in the past, but fifth-year was much more intense than I'd been expecting. Turns out, I actually needed to retain most of the knowledge I'd learned in previous years to apply to this year. I'd gotten by with barely passing in some cases and cramming before finals in most. I wasn't going to be able to do that this year and had to dig out my notes from fourth-year so some of the new material made sense.

And then there was Quidditch. Fortunately, the traditional first match of the season was Gryffindor versus Slytherin, so there wasn't a whole lot of pressure to be in top form until the end of November. But I had a feeling that would creep up quickly. Turner and McBride turned out to be pretty decent Beaters. Like Seth and Chris the previous two years, they appeared to be good friends off the pitch and worked well together on the pitch. Orion was chuffed, but still held weekly team practise as well as intensive Chaser training with just him, Skye, McNully and myself. Plus my own solo training sessions. McNully hadn't asked to join me for another one and I tried not to take it personally. I knew he was busy, too. Besides, I'd always enjoyed training alone. The time to myself was good for me. Perhaps now more than ever.

***

'Hey, Knight!'

I turned at the familiar voice calling after me near the library and couldn't help my grin or the sudden jolt of my heart.

It had been over a month since I'd trained with McNully and crashed into him at the bottom of the Grand Staircase. Come to think of it, it hadn't felt like that long. I'd been too busy with studying and training to think too much about it. Gryffindor had won the first match of the season against Slytherin by a very narrow margin, but it was still a win. And it meant that Ravenclaw's match against Hufflepuff was less than two weeks away.

'McNully,' I stopped and waited for him to catch up. 'Transfiguration, I take it?'

'Yeah, learning all sorts of special sixth-year things that you're going to have to wait an entire year to learn!' He grinned.