A Magical Summer

Quidditch

TL;DR: Ron is insightful. Percy is out of the kitchen and into the fire (he continues to be weird about magic).

Ron's POV

Flooding was one bloody good reason to get out of 'Headquarters'. Really, in my opinion, any reason would've been a good enough reason to leave that place (no offense to Sirius) but the look on Mum's face as everyone tried to clean it up was almost worth getting soaked. Almost. Honestly, I would have thought that the flooding problem would have been solved much more quickly— but I wasn't complaining. Much. And while I would've really preferred not to to get soaked by toilet water (and why was it so cold?) our current quidditch game was nearly worth the experience.

It wasn't a true quidditch game; we didn't have the snitch or bludgers for a proper game. Rather it was, as Harry described, a game of Keep Away without teams. Lupin was 'supervising' us, sitting in the garden by the door, with a book. Personally, I thought that he was using this as a chance to avoid some other members of the order who were wandering about, but whatever works.

"Harry, catch!" Fred shouted, tossing the apple in his general direction in an effort to keep it away from Ginny.

She was using our dear wise older brother, Percy, 's old broom and I almost felt guilty about giving her the lousiest one of the bunch.

Harry dived slightly as Fred's throw fell short. This maneuver was one that would've been nerve wracking to see from the Hogwarts bleachers, though the move wasn't nearly as steep as it could've been. He shot back into the air, looking exhilarated as he shot a smile over his shoulder.

"Nice throw-"

"-For a beater," I added, flying up to make myself open for a pass as George moved to intercept, "A Keeper wouldn't have let it fall that short,"

"It wasn't bad," Harry defended weakly, as I easily caught his pass and tossed the apple absently. He didn't

"Oh," Ginny said, flying up towards me to get a better view, and pointing towards the garden, "Look who's here!"

We all paused, game momentarily forgotten, and faced the garden. Sure enough, someone, Percy Jackson, was there sitting cross legged next to Lupin in the garden. Lupin had put down his book and was talking animatedly with Percy. Percy's eyes repeatedly strayed from Lupin, and towards our cluster of brooms. Over the course of the their conversation, Lupin seemed to be smiling at Percy's fascination.

The distance made it impossible to tell what they were talking about, due to the winds rather than the distance. Despite this, I still had a clear view of the conversation, which was mildly concerning as it seemed to grow more serious by the second.

Left...right. Left, right. I continued passing the apple between my hands in an anxious rhythm. A serious conversation, especially about Harry and especially one between Harry's family, (the Dursleys came to mind), was never a good sign. I wondered what they were talking about, I had just glimpsed the Blofis' talking to my parents and Sirius before— which was odd considering Mum's obvious dislike for him. Sometimes I felt like I would rather be in theLeft...right. Left, right. Thankfully, Harry was oblivious, there was no need for him to worry about someone he'd only met for a day or two after all, but I wondered how long it would last—

"Nice throw for a Keeper," Ginny said, turning my own words against me as she swiftly swiped the apple, "A Chaser wouldn't have let me steal it so easily."

Harry blinked owlishly at her comment while Fred and George snickered. What did Ginny know about Quidditch anyways?I opened my mouth, about to tell them to bugger off, and possibly to reaffirm that the Keeper was objectively the best Quidditch position,when Harry decided to come to his senses, gesturing vaguely towards the ground.