Serendipity (Fred Weasley HP)

Chapter Twelve - Broomsticks and Boyfriends

"JORDAN ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE THE BROOM? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!" The stadium laughed as McGonagall scolded him loudly again and the attention was back on the players. When Harry spotted the Snitch again he tore off. The other Seeker clearly knew what she was doing because rather than going after the ball herself, she was blocking Harry at every turn giving her team a chance to bring their points up. Then suddenly Harry dived again and looked like he was about to collide with the floor, the crowd were on their feet trying to spot the Snitch... but it had been a diversion, Harry had made the other Seeker believe he'd seen it and caught her in a tricky move then zoomed off to the other end of the pitch.

The teams yelled at Harry as he inched closer to the shiny ball. Three large Dementors were closing in on him. Everyone's eyes were locked on the young Seeker as he pulled out his wand and a burst of beautiful silvery light charged at the dark creatures. It was all over, Harry had caught the struggling Snitch in his hand, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the realisation hit the crowd only a second later. It felt like a small earthquake had gone off, the whole house flocked to the grassy pitch, everyone wanting a chance to congratulate the team.

What amused Halley the most was seeing her cousin and his Slytherin buddies sprawled out on the grassy floor looking rather disgruntled. Minerva was furious and gave them all detentions plus fifty points taken away. If it had been her, Halley would have removed their Quidditch and Hogsmeade privileges for the rest of the year, because of how dangerous it was to try and sabotage Harry with a fake Dementor attack. The Gryffindor girl was just glad he'd been ready for it.

"Come on! Party in Gryffindor Common room now!" George yelled, fighting his way over and clapped Harry on the back so hard that he stumbled forward a bit.

Party was an understatement, the Gryffindor house celebrated the win all day and night. Fred, George and Halley disappeared for a few hours to collect three healthy-sized arm fulls of Butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and enough Honeydukes sweets to put everyone into a sugar coma. Halley had talked the whole way there and the whole way back, animatedly describing the game as if Fred and George hadn't been there. But they didn't mind, it was nice to see Halley back to her usual colour so they weren't about to rain of her parade.

"How did you do that?" Angelina asked as her eyes bulged out at the sight of all the goodies.

"If we told you that, I'm afraid we'd have to kill you," Halley said with a serious face then began handing out everything to the hungry, excitable mass of students.

Halley had only just caught the tail end of the conversation between Ron, Hermione and Harry, but she could already tell that Ron was just being an arse. She walked past him and whacked him upside the head then reassured Harry that she'd go sit with Hermione, who looked up at the girls' dormitory stairs like he'd rather be the one comforting her.

Hal knocked on the door politely then stuck her head round to look for the mass of curly brown hair. "'Mione?" She asked and approached the body that was sitting on a pillow on the floor, crying into the pages of her book.

The younger Gryffindor wiped her eyes quickly and tried to focus on her book but Halley knew she wasn't going to take anything in while in this state of mind. "Ron is an arse, a tackless, insensitive arse." Hal sat beside the girl and wrapped an arm around her shoulder and carefully slid the book from her lap, making sure to mark the page before closing it.

"Oh he's just... and that stupid rat he..." Hermione tried to vent but just buried her face in her hands and Halley rubbed her shoulder.

"I know Scabbers is alive, Crookshanks did nothing." She felt angry at the thought of anyone being upset over the possible death of the rat, good riddance and if she didn't need him to prove her fathers' innocence then she'd gladly toss him into the black lake herself.