another love; harry potter

forty-four

"Yeah, okay. Enjoy cheering for the loser team," I rolled my eyes and elbowed him.

"What's that Weasley's riding?" Draco called in his sneering drawl. "Why would anyone put a flying charm on a moldy old log like that?" I bit my lip as Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson guffawed and shrieked with laughter and Ron mounted his broom and kicked off from the ground.

"Hey, Johnson, what's with that hairstyle, anyway?" shrieked Pansy Parkinson. "Why would anyone want to look like they've got worms coming out of their head?" they were too high up for anyone to be able to hear the Quidditch team's reactions, but Angelina looked surprisingly calm. I didn't know whether to fight Pansy or cheer for the Gryffindors, so I just sat there awkwardly as Blaise intently read the book I had brought for myself.

Ron fell back towards the opposite goal. Angelina raised the Quaffle with one hand and threw it hard to Fred, who passed to George, who passed to Harry, who passed to Ron, who dropped it.

The Slytherins roared and screamed with laughter. Ron, who had pelted towards the ground to catch the Quaffle before it landed, pulled out of the dive untidily, so that he slipped sideways on his broom, and returned to playing height, blushing. I saw Fred and George exchange looks, but uncharacteristically neither of them said anything, for which I was grateful.

Ron threw the Quaffle to Alicia, who passed back to Harry, who passed to George ...

"Hey, Potter, how's your scar feeling?" called my cousin. "Sure you don't need a lie down? It must be, what, a whole week since you were in the hospital wing, that's a record for you, isn't it?"

George passed to Angelina; she reverse-passed to Harry, who had not been expecting it, but caught it in the very tips of his fingers and passed it quickly to Ron, who lunged for it and missed by inches.

"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.

"Shut up!" I snapped, turning to the Slytherins, "not like Gryffindor's come and be little asshats to you at your practices, do we?"

"Yeah, 'cause we don't suck!" I rolled my eyes and looked back at the team high up in the air.

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. I heard Draco laugh loudly behind me as I winced, watching Katie's nose bleed and Fred hand her some small purple thing from his pocket. Harry, George, and Fred flew down to the crate containing the balls and extracted a Bludger and Snitch before flying back up to playing height. Fred and George let fly the Bludger as Harry released the Snitch, and it was clear he was barely aware of anything else that was happening, rolling and swerving in and out of the Chasers, clearly in his zone-

before the whistle blew loudly and he came to a halt all of a sudden, looking confused. I followed the Slytherin's eyes to Ron, who was hovering in front of the left-hand hoop, leaving the other two completely unprotected. Angelina seemed to be yelling something to him, and Ron's face was red, shining like a beacon against the bright blue sky. They spoke for another moment before trying again just as the Slytherins set up a chant of 'Gryffindor are losers, Gryffindor are losers,' which Angelina looked like she was struggling slightly to ignore.