BACK TO QUIDDITCH
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"I'm fucking exhausted," the girl claimed as she leaned her head over her bent knees. Pauline looked more tired than ever before. Dark circles were formed under her eyes, her hair was a bit messy and her voice sounded pretty much without energy.
"Exams?"
"Yeah, and all the madness going around the school. Everyone is trying to keep up with our homework while we support Fleur, who by the way, is incredibly nervous."
We were chatting in the garden, enjoying one of the few free hours we had, I was leaned against a tree while Olivia was comfortably laid down with her head over my lap. The winter cold atmosphere from February and Scotland's cloudy weather didn't stop us from having a little break in the outside air. After Liv's little breakdown a week ago, we told Pauline about everything and she quickly offered herself to defend both Liv and Luna in case those pricks from Ravenclaw dared to come back again at them. Actually, she seemed even as mad as I was, which surprised me since she only met us four months ago.
"Lilith, can I talk to you for a moment?" I heard a soft stuttering male voice behind the tree. Neville Longbottom was looking at his feet with a big herbology book in his hand.
"Yeah, sure!" I said, standing up a bit confused since he never approached me in public. I saw his intentions of wanting to speak alone so I got my bag and waved at the girls who gave me a simultaneously confused look. Once we were a little bit away from all the crowd, I asked him, "well, how can I help you?"
"I suppose you already know what the new task is about, and Harry has been trying to find a way to breathe underwater but nothing seems to work." his voice started to falter and I saw how he swallowed hard. " I-I was reading yesterday the book Professor Moody let me and I found something that might help, but the nearest place where I can find it is in y-your uncle's o-office," he said with such a shy and scared voice.
"And you want me to let you in?" I asked raising my left eyebrow.
He nodded.
"You know I could be helping Cedric rather than Potter, don't you?"
He looked a bit disappointed, "Yeah, sure, I should have supposed it. I'm really sorry for bothering you." he said and started to walk away.
"Neville, I never said I'm not going to help you." I stopped him. "I'm not Potter's number one fan but if you ask me to help you, I'll do it. Especially because I know Snape wouldn't give it to you."
His eyes shined with pure relief and he couldn't hold his smile back.
"Come on, I know for a fact that now he has classes at the Dungeons with the Third Year kids. If we go now, you can keep them until tomorrow and give them to Harry." I started walking in Severus' office direction. I couldn't believe I was going to sneak into his office, but honestly, it wasn't exactly the first time I did it. Neville seemed pretty nervous and was looking around him all the time as if he was afraid of someone noticing us.
"You do know that you don't have to be scared, right?" I talked with normality. " All the Professors know I have the entrance allowed into Snape's place anytime I want. They won't say anything to us."
The Longbottom boy looked at me with his eyes open widely.
"Are you saying that you have free access to everything in his office?"
"No, I'm saying that I can enter his office whenever I want, that doesn't mean he wouldn't tell me off if he knew I took something from him."
We got to the door where a huge lock blocked the entrance. Neville looked at me worried.
"How are we going to open it? I bet it's not as easy as an Alohomora."
"Oh, don't worry, it's even easier than that," I smirked. Neville was right, the door wouldn't open with a charm, but I knew better. I lifted my leg and gave a hard kick to the lock which quickly opened itself and broke into the floor. I pushed the door under Neville's surprised look. "Now, go get what you need. But do it faster."
He nodded and it took him less than five minutes to look into the bottles Severus had on his shelves and find what he needed.
" Gillyweed?" I asked once I saw the little herb in his hands. "You are a fucking genius, mate."
He simply chuckled and stood back as I picked the lock from the floor and put it back in the door. With a simple Reparo, the lock seemed impeccable, as if we never been there.
"Wow," Neville sighed as we came back to the students' corridor. "That was quite an adventure!"
I burst into laughter.
✵ ✵ ✵
"Somebody, please, give me an apple juice." Draco dramatically announced, sitting in the place by my side. Crabbe and Goyle stood up fast from the Slytherin table and in less than a minute, handled Draco his juice. They were a bit like his servants.
"What's going on, buddy?" I asked him, observing his tired face.
"Today's the second task of this bloody Tournament." he spat getting the little straw from its plastic.
"And you are frustrated because Harry will have more protagonism than you?" I guessed gaining a little groan as his complaint. I snickered and hugged him grabbing his arm and resting my head on his shoulder. Draco really provoked a huge feeling of tenderness and affection, he was almost like a little brother to me.
I was listening to Draco chatting with Blaise when Madam Hooch opened the Hall door approaching the space between Slytherin and Gryffindor's tables.
"Quidditch players, even though this year we won't have the competition between the four houses, next year we will definitely continue with it. That's why I asked Professor Dumbledore to let me borrow one of your free hours to let you practise and train so you keep in shape."
I sighed in relief. Since the Triwizard Tournament started, I hadn't had time to play Quidditch and I deeply needed to free myself from all the stress. All the players stood up quickly when Hotch stopped talking.
"However, the competitors of the Tournament, can't practice today. They have to prepare themselves for the task so I will thank you if you stay in the Hall gaining proteins and strength. The rest of you can follow me to the field!" she continued.
Everybody started walking away from the Hall but before leaving I noticed Cedric's sad face on the Hufflepuff table as he looked to all the group leaving, I bet he also wanted to free some stress. I quickly got beside him.
"Cheer up, mate! You're gonna be the next champion." I told him, making him smile. I gave him an affectionate punch in his arm and left him talking to Liv and Pauline who since a few days ago, started to join frequently the Hufflepuff table.
Once we all arrived at the field, we all formed a big circle around Hooch.
"Okay, children. I'm going to divide the field into two sections and I will sort you all into four groups, this will teach you how to work with other players you aren't familiar with and how to make more versatile play techniques. Give me five minutes to get the balls and we will start."
When she started walking away, I got closer to Draco. We were calmly talking when I heard the most familiar voice from Gryffindor.
"What's up, Arambella? Are you going back to Malfoy now that Diggory is too busy for you?" Fred Weasley teased, walking from the other side of the circle to get to the rest of the Gryffindor's group.
Draco seethed and shook his head.
"Weasleys..." he said in a little whisper.
I smiled cynic at Fred. Surprisingly, the rest of his group and the other teams were too focused on themselves to care about us three.
"Don't you have anything else to do other than bothering me?"
"Actually no, I'm bored and you entertain me." he smiled. Fuck, I forgot how well did the Quidditch uniform suit him... "I'm just genuinely amused with this whole soap opera you have and I'm counting the minutes down to see how long does Diggory lasts to dump you."
I felt the rage accumulating in my guts as fire. I swear to Merlin only Fred Weasley could make me feel like that.
"Oh shut up, Weasley! I already fucked Cedric! Actually, I did it in the Fourth Year, ages ago, so you come a bit late, you prick. Now, keep silent and think of a better thing to piss me off about."
At first, Fred was with a big surprised face and his eyes open widely but then he made himself recover his arrogant gesture, "I don't believe you."
"Oh, so you've been this time bothering me about Cedric only being near because he wanted to shag me but once I told you he already did, you don't believe me?! Fuck off."
"It's true though." Draco intervened catching his broom from the floor and looking completely unbothered. "I can guarantee you my Second Year self is a bit traumatized after hearing the two of them moaning while I was in the living room at 3 A.M."
I felt the blood accumulating in my cheeks.
"What the fuck were you doing in the living room at 3 A.M?" I muttered.
He simply shrugged.
I looked back to Fred and he was giving Draco a deadly stare. He looked very pissed off for no fucking reason. His eyes went back on me and gave me that arrogant up-to-down look.
I bet he was thinking about something witty to respond but Hooch arrived first. She started to sort of us in the different groups. I ended up being with George Weasley, Alicia Spinet, Draco, two girls from Ravenclaw and one boy from Hufflepuff. And, of course, we had to play against Fred's team.
When they were separated from each other, both twins made a dramatic farewell while they faked crying. They were genuinely funny, what a pity that Fred and most of his mates were complete assholes.
While he reincorporated in his position as Beater, our eyes encountered and, as his smile declined, his eyes became tougher.
Hooch whistled and we all started to fly. I quickly caught the bludger and hit it straight to one of the Chasers, while Draco quickly started seeking the Snitch. The boy from the other team, who was substituting Cedric, was pretty good but Draco was far way more competitive. Spinet hit the Quaffle and scored. Then Adrian Pucey, in the other team, also scored, avoiding the bludger George threw at him. He was one of the best ones in our Slytherin team.
We kept playing for a while and the scores were quite tied, we were winning just with five points of difference. I got the two Bludgers in the air and quickly passed one of them to George and he caught it in the air. I was discovering that we worked really well as a pair. About to hit my bludger against Pucey, some pushed me and nearly threw me off my broom and made me fail the hit. I looked by my side and Fred gave me a cocky look.
"Out of the way, Arambella," he mumbled.
I caught the Bludger again and focusing my anger on my player skills, I threw it to Pucey the exact moment he was about to score. I blocked his strike.
"Good shot, Lilith." George congratulated me, as he passed by my side, quite surprised.
I smiled at him and then waited to see Fred catch his Bludger, and started to fly in his direction. When he was about to hit Alicia Spinnet, I blocked him, almost throwing myself against him. He dropped the ball and Alicia scored. Two seconds later, Draco got the Snitch, giving us the victory.
Fred complained groaning, as he flew to the floor, absolutely mad. I high-fived Draco and said 'well played' to George, Spinnet and the rest of the players.
When I got to the floor, I could felt Fred's anger over me so I decided to play his game and look at him with the most arrogant face I could. He went back to the Gryffindor masculine changing room, being followed by a smiley George.
As the other match also finished, I kept practising in the field on my own, only accompanied by Draco who, half an hour later, had to leave. When I finished the last training I was the last one in the field and Hooch was already picking the balls to put them in their box.
I was a bit sweaty so I took off my shirt, staying with the uniform trousers and the sportive top, and went straight to the Slytherin changing room.
Feeling the mixture of both cold and hot air coming from me, I was about to tie my hair up when big hands surrounded my waist to pin me against the wall.
What the fuck is he doing?!