| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter Twenty-Six

"I'm contemplating jumping off the Astronomy Tower right about now." George mumbled, "Flint knows how to effectively scare the other team."

"Hey." Olive started, "You love Quidditch. Don't let Flint's choice in muscle make you forget that."

"He's sure doing a good job."

"And I bet not one of them has played Quidditch before." Olive noted, "And your whole team has been playing together for years."

Looking back down at his plate, George put down his fork with a defeated sigh.

"How is it you're suddenly the best motivational speaker on the planet, Ollie?" He asked. Ollie chuckled, glancing at her watch as the time neared for everyone to head towards the pitch.

"I've been on the receiving end of it recently." She smirked, fidgeting her hands in her lap as she gave George a final look.

"Don't be nervous, George. You'll do fantastic, I know it. Now, where's your other half?"

"With Lee-"

"Find him, finish your breakfast, and get your head in the game!" She smiled, getting to her feet. George watched her for a moment, that mischievous twinkle replacing the nervous look in his eyes. He wondered where that sudden spark of confidence and pep came from in Ollie. She's never been so nice to him... or even care so much about anything that had to remotely do with him.

But he couldn't be stuck thinking on where her advice came from, but rather focus on the confidence it gave him.

Olive allowed herself to smile once she turned away, pink flushing her cheeks as she sat back down at the Ravenclaw table. She was able to hide it from her friends, but was still faced with questions.

"What were you doing at the Gryffindor table?"

"Wishing George good luck." Ollie shrugged, "He is a friend, after all."

"WHO IS READY FOR SOME QUIDDITCH?!" Lee Jordan yelled, his voice booming with excitement over the loudspeaker. The crowd cheered loudly as the players took the field. There were some boos for Gryffindor, and a lot more boos for Slytherin, but that was hushed by the tentative silence before the start of the match.

"I want a clean game!" Madame Hooch instructed, "Fair Quidditch is good Quidditch."

With that, she blew her whistle, and the game began.

Olive wasn't one to understand sports. Quidditch was hard to follow mostly because there were three things going on at once- but with Cho and Cedric near her basically explaining everything- she was able to follow along.

The game was extremely violent. Slytherin's only asset was the fact that they were big and good at pushing Gryffindor around. Fouls were called left and right- Gryffindor scrambling to use those fouls to their advantage.

"They need to be up by at least fifty points before Harry can catch the snitch." Cedric explained, "Or else Slytherin will win."

"Why?"

"Slytherin has more Quidditch points than Gryffindor."

"Oh." Olive nodded, her gaze trained on the game as she secretly rooted for the Gryffindor team. In addition to hoping that red and gold will come on top, Ollie wondered if Sirius was watching the game. There wasn't much for Harry to do yet- since they weren't up by much- she wondered if he was happy simply watching the game. Sirius was beginning to feel like family to her, like a hidden brotherly connection that was uncovered after twelve years.

Gryffindor scored a few more points, using their swift and agile brooms and bodies to maneuver past Slytherin bulk. There were some bludgers and elbows to the face- especially where the beaters were concerned- but the game was getting close. Gryffindor was up by forty, and were doing their best to avoid serious injury.

The Slytherins were putting in such brute force Olive wondered how that was even allowed. A lot of the Gryffindor team looked pretty fed up with the blatant elbows and physicality when they were nowhere near the action of the game.

Angelina Johnson was sandwiched by two Slytherins, using their size and force to knock her balance off kilter. She dropped the quaffle, her broom spinning towards the ground as she tried to gain her balance and awareness back.

"Hey! How is that not a foul!" Cho yelled, grabbing tufts of hair with her fingers as she watched the game with raised brows, "They didn't even get the quaffle in the end!"

Fred and George were passing the bludger back and forth, gaining momentum to knock the quaffle from its course down by the Gryffindor Hoops. As soon as Fred was about to hit it, a Slytherin beater tackled him forcefully, hitting the bludger with his own bat directly at George.

Fred spun sideways, stopping to catch his breath once all the wind was knocked out of him. George- too off guard to react in time- took a bludger to the stomach, the motion causing him to whack himself in the face with his bat.

Olive watched with wide eyes as he nearly fell off the broom, clutching a hurt side as he managed to gain his composure. Madame Hooch blew her whistle, calling another foul against Slytherin.

Then, an opportunity arose.

Gryffindor scored ten more points, putting them ahead of Slytherin by exactly fifty points. Harry nose dived for the snitch, weaving through Quidditch players, bludgers, quaffles, and even the stands of spectators. Olive, and the rest of the Hogwarts population, were on the edge of their seats, the whole place silent as they watched the seekers compete for the golden snitch.

"I can't watch." Cho buried her face into Nat's shoulder, covering her eyes with her hands. Olive covered her mouth with tense hands, holding her breath as she watched Sirius's godson reach out for the game-winning Quidditch equipment.

Then, he caught it.

The stands erupted into cheers as Harry tumbled onto the pitch's grass with the golden snitch in hand. Olive clapped, jumping up and down with excitement as she watched the Gryffindor team tackle the third year to the ground with excitement. They hoisted him up into the air, carrying him around the pitch as they screamed and cheered.

"GRYFFINDOR WINS THE QUIDDITCH CUP!" Lee Jordan yells, not even hiding his bias as he went on and on about how great the Gryffindor team's skills were.

Olive searched around the base of the stands, searching for a particular person she knew who would never miss this game.

Sure enough, a shaggy black dog a little ways away from the stands was howling and wagging its tail in excitement.