The day before the match dawned cold, rainy, and windy. It was so cold, I had to put on an extra layer, but I was so excited to hang out with the girls tonight, the weather wasn't able to get me down. At last we had finished classes and dinner and were just getting to the staircase in the common room when Fred and George ran up to us, Fred asking, "Hey Val, we have a new prank, you in?"
"Can't, sorry boys," I replied. "I have plans with the girls. See you tomorrow." I smiled widely as we began to set up, changing into pajamas and lighting candles.
"Why did we stop this again?" Angelina asked, looking around at us all.
"I think it was when Alicia left the team," I replied, thinking.
"Oh yeah," Katie agreed. "Remember, because we weren't smart enough to realize that Alicia didn't have to be on the team to do this with us?"
"Wait, is that seriously why?" Alicia asked, looking around at us all. "You were just protecting my feelings?"
"I guess," Angelina said. "Well, anyways, now that we finally got Val away from the boys, we need to have girl talk."
"Yes," Katie agreed happily. "What's going on in the love life of...let's start with Angelina."
"Okay, don't laugh," she begged, barely fighting off a blush. "I kind of like George."
"George?" I gasped. "Oh my gosh. I always thought you liked Lee."
"Lee?" she countered, bursting into laughter. "No." I gave her a look until she finally admitted, "Okay, I liked Lee for a bit, but now I like George."
"Okay good, because I kind of like Lee," Alicia admitted, her cheeks turning rosie.
"Shut up," Katie gasped. "No. I so ship it."
"You'd be so cute together," I gushed. As our laughter died down, I asked, "Okay Katie what about you?"
Blushing she admitted, "Okay, I know we were joking about it earlier, but...I kind of like Cedric."
"Really?" Alicia gasped. "No, really?" Katie laughed.
"Okay, your turn, Valerie," Katie chuckled.
"I don't know," I admitted. "I don't really like anyone right now."
"Are you sure?" Angelina teased, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I mean, you and Fred are really close," Alicia teased. "I mean come on, I see you guys flirt all the time."
"We do not flirt," I protested. At their disbelieving looks, my voice rose an octave as I countered, "We do not!"
"Hum, should we quote some of the stuff they've said to each other?" Angelina asked teasingly.
"I think I heard Val call Fred baby once," Alicia remarked, smirking widely.
"Oh, I heard Fred call her that too," Katie said.
"Come on, how do you not see it?" Angelina laughed. "Literally every time you're together you have these teasing conversations."
"That's just how our relationship is," I defended weakly.
"Yeah okay," Katie chuckled.
"Okay, enough talk about boys," Alicia said. "Let's just relax."
"Agreed," I called, jumping up to grab face masks from my trunk. "Okay I have a charcoal one, a clay one, a gold one, and a mud one. Who wants what?" Once they were all handed out, we played some music and talked about other topics like Quidditch, classes, and what we wanted to do after school.
"I might want to pursue Quidditch," Angelina admitted.
"I don't know what I want to do," I admitted. "I've thought about Quidditch, but...I feel like I'm not good enough for that. I also thought about being an auror, but that would never happen, considering everything. So I have no idea."
"Me neither," Katie agreed.
Grabbing a bottle of butterbeer, Alicia admitted, "I've actually been thinking about being a healer, but I don't know."
"I think you'd be good at it," I replied.
"Thanks," she replied, smiling. It was the best night I'd had in months, but the pre-game traditions weren't done yet. The following morning, a Saturday, Angelina and I woke up earlier and went down to breakfast together. We sat down away from everyone else and had our meal together, talking quietly. Once breakfast was done, I went over to the boys who had also just finished.
"You ready?" I asked. Fred and George nodded and we went out into the hallway. "Okay, so who's our victim for this one?"
Smirking, Fred replied, "I was thinking your dear cousin."
"I'm down," I replied with a smirk. Once the prank was over, Malfoy was walking around with green hair and he had no idea.
"Enough fooling around," Wood ordered, approaching us with Angelina, Harry, and Katie behind him. "Let's get down to the pitch." We ran through the pelting rain to the locker rooms, taking in the conditions at the same time. Once we got inside, I rung out my hair, dumping water on the floor. Soon we were all changed and waiting to hear what Oliver had to say. He tried to talk several times, but I saw he wasn't going to be able to.
"All right everyone, listen up!" I called, jumping up on one of the benches so everyone could see me. "I'm going to just pretend I'm Oliver for a moment. Guys, you are going to kill it. We can do this. So what they changed our opponent at the last minute? We can still do this. Play hard. Play this game like you'll never get to play another one. So let's go out there and kill it."
Everyone gathered together and we all embraced. "Let's go then," Oliver said quietly, sounding nervous, but sending me a grateful smile. The wind was so strong, it was hard to maintain balance, but soon we were on the Quidditch pitch facing Hufflepuff. This was going to be one hell of a game.