— "TURN TO PAGE 394."
Nicole snapped out of her trance, looking behind her to see Snape. She was somewhat surprised, Why Snape? What was he doing here?
Harry seemed to be having the same thought. "Excuse me, sir. Where's Professor Lupin?"
"That's not really your concern, is it, Potter? Suffice it to say your professor finds himself incapable of teaching... at the present time. Turn to page 394."
"What's wrong with Professor Lupin?" Nicole asked, really wishing Lupin would be the one teaching them instead of Snape.
"Nothing life threatening." he deadpanned. "Five points from Gryffindor for interrupting."
He tapped the projector at the back of the classroom, and lit up the screen. Ron turned his pages lazily which Snape must have noticed, which prompted him to do it himself. Ron almost had a heart attack.
"Werewolves?" Ron read loudly.
"But sir, we just learned about red caps and hinkypunks." Hermoine stated. "We're not meant to start that for weeks."
"Quiet."
"When did she come in?" Ron asked Nicole, looking at Hermoine who was now beside Harry. "Did you see her come in?"
Nicole shook her head in confusion.
"Now, which one of you can tell me the difference... between an Animagus and a werewolf?"
Hermoine raised her hand, while everyone else (surprisingly, including Aurora too) didn't.
"No one? How disappointing."
"Please, sir. An Animagus is a wizard who elects to turn into an animal. A werewolf has no choice. With each full moon, when he transforms, he no longer remembers who he is. He'd kill his best friend if he crossed his path. Furthermore, the werewolf only responds to the call of its own kind."
Draco howled so everyone could hear the call. Both Nicole and Aurora rolled their eyes.
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy." Snape acknowledged him. "That's the second time... you've spoken out of turn, Miss Granger. Are you incapable of restraining yourself... or do you take pride in being an insufferable know-it-all?"
"But if it was a Slytherin answering you'd have no problem with that, right?" Nicole spoke out loud, voicing her thoughts.
Snape sent her a cold glare. "Detention today, Miss Hwang. Another five points from Gryffindor for Miss Grander. As an antidote to your ignorance, and on my desk, by Monday morning... two rolls of parchment on the werewolf, with emphasis... on recognizing it."
"Sir, it's Quidditch tomorrow." Harry exclaimed.
"And you can't give me detention today. I need to practice!" Nicole exclaimed as well, which made Snape annoyed.
"Then I suggest you take extra care, Ms. Hwang and Mr. Potter." he said coldly. "Loss of limb will not excuse you. Page 394." Snape straightened his back and began walking behind the class. "The term "werewolf"... is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon word "were"... which means "man," and "wolf." Werewolf, man-wolf. There are several ways to become a werewolf. They include being given the power of shape-shifting... being bitten by a werewolf..."
Nicole sighed, not bothering to pay attention.
—
"Oh, there you guys are."
The trio looked up to see Nicole with a giant smile on her face, walking towards the Gryffindor table. The three of them looked at her in confusion— she was always usually stressed before Quidditch matches (being all snappy towards everyone she sees) and seeing her with a huge smile before a match was unusual.
"Who's the Hufflepuff team captain?" Nicole asked dreamily, taking a seat beside Harry. She could see Ron visibly choke on his pumpkin juice, while Hermoine shot her a big smile.
"Cedric Diggory. He's the prefect of the Hufflepuff house too!" she beamed. "He's handsome, right?"
Nicole watched as Cedric told something to the small group of Ravenclaws beside him. The boy had somehow noticed it, giving her a wave which she instantly returned.
"Very." Nicole giggled, swinging her feet over so she could seat. The girl had already eaten breakfast before her friends and just came to wait for them to finish their food.
Harry rolled his eyes while Ron was letting out a sarcastic laugh.
"He doesn't seem that good looking to me." Ron mumbled out as he chomped on his cereal. Hearing this, Nicole laughed loudly then propped her elbow on the table and held it with her chin. "Ron, stop lying to yourself. He's gorgeous."
"He is good looking." Harry admitted, moving his empty plate over to the side so he could converse more easily. "But he isn't gorgeous. He's just.. good looking."
"Okay, Harry."
Hermoine laughed, but her eyes had suddenly trailed behind Nicole. The girl thought that there had must have been something in her hair or maybe that she had noticed the stolen hairtie, but the bushy haired girl pointed to the space behind her.
Nicole turned around in her chair and spotted her sister with a smile. She had suddenly choked into thin air, not knowing how to react. One side of her body was telling her— urging her to run away but she couldn't do anything but freeze on the spot.
"What do you want?"
Nicole mentally smacked herself.
"I just wanted to say.. goodluck. The weather outside is really bad so I just thought that—"
"I'm going to do fine, Aurora." Nicole smiled. "Remember when grandma taught me to fly in bad weather? I'm good. Thanks." she said curtly.
Aurora gave her a nervous glance, her eyes flickering over to her friends who looked at the two with interest. "I—, uh.." she stumbled out, not really wanting to tell her what she was going to say infront of some strangers. "Can we meet tomorrow? I need to tell you something and you've been avoiding me."
Nicole contemplated for a moment. "Yeah, sure."
"See you." Aurora mumbled, walking away.
"Your grandma taught you how to fly in bad weather?"
Nicole turned around and faced Ron who had a confused look on her face.
"My grandma used to play for the japanese team, Toyohasi Tengu." Nicole explained. "They practiced in terrible stormy conditions. They also were thought to dodge both bludgers and planes from the muggle airbase in the neighboring island. Grandma said that I should've learned that too."
"And your sister?"
"I could ride a broom since I was six."Nicole giggled, looking behind her to see Aurora on the Slytherin table with Theodore Nott. She was reading a book while the boy was trying to distract her. "Aurora can't even mount a broom properly till now."
"Anyways, let's to back to the topic. Cedric Diggory. I wish that I get appointed next year so I get to shake his hand before matches and—"
"Well, bud." Ron deadpanned. "Looks like Diggory is interested in the other Hwang."
Nicole scrunched her eyes. It took her a second to realize what he was taking about, before she quickly turned around once again to see Cedric now making his way over the Slytherin table. The younger twin watched in confusion as he cracked a joke (maybe, Nott started to laugh) but Aurora didn't do anything, not even cracking a smile.
Cedric said something again, which made the corner of her lips slightly turn up but it quickly disappeared.
"Uh oh." she heard Hermoine mutter. Nicole was about to say something, until Oliver Wood came running down to their area.
"Nicole Hwang. Harry Potter." he called out, patting her back. "It's time. We need to do some warm ups first, but this weather, I'm not entirely sure."
"But it doesn't start in an hour!"
"We need to warm up." he said sternly, looking over to the other Gryffindors who watched him. "And discuss strategy."
Reluctantly, the pair got out of their chairs and walked with Oliver Wood. He was taking them somewhere, probably to the Gryffindor common room, and Nicole was trailing behind him.
The girl felt really petty and angry. She knew that it wasn't Aurora's fault, but she felt a little bit bitter that the first person she found attractive went running immediately to her. The fact that the whole boggart situation had just happened and if someone had heard of her talking to her friends about how much she thought Cedric was cute for him to come running to Aurora would really embarrass her.
The girl was still grumbling to herself, staring at the floor to avoid the gaze of people. All of a sudden, a strong shoulder had suddenly hit hers, which made her let out a hiss of pain.
"Merlin!" Nicole exclaimed, stopping to look at whoever hit her. "Go look properly before you go around hitting people's shoulders!"
The girl's eyes were met with Blaise Zabini. She recognized him as one of Aurora's friends, which made her mad again. Nicole stormed away, running over to Olliver and Harry as they walked towards the tower.
Blaise Zabini, however, did not move. Only staring as her short figure walked away.
—
"The Quaffle is released and the game begins!"
Once the woman threw it into the air, Nicole immediately zoomed towards the quaffle and leaned forward so the Hufflepuffs wouldn't catch up on her. After successfully dodging all of the Huflepuffs, she zoomed over to the hoops so she could throw the quaffle in before a random kid appeared beside her and shoved her.
Nicole, feeling annoyed, shoved him back. The girl passed by one of the stands so he would get off her tail, and ducked down before a bludger could hit her face. With two Hufflepuffs trailing behind her, Nicole threw the quaffle to one of the unguarded hoops with a giant smile.
"Nicole Hwang scores! Ten points for Gryffindor!"
This went on for a bit, and Nicole was starting to get a bit worried. People were getting hurt left and right. Eventually, Nicole scored three more times while Angelina scored once and Katie scored twice. Oliver Wood had suddenly called for a time out, which made all the teams retreat into grass.
Oliver started to coach them, and Nicole felt a bit drowsy, staring into space. The girl then got a bit confused when she saw the figure of Hermoine running towards them with her cloak over her head.
"I've got an idea, Harry!" Hermoine exclaimed. The rest of the team looked at them in confusion; wondering why they were suddenly here. "Give me your glasses, quick!"
Looking puzzled, Harry handed his glasses over to the girl. Nicole peeked from the side while she tied her hair tighter, wondering what Hermoine was up to.
"Impervius." said Hermoine, tapping Harry's glasses with her wand. "There!" she smiled, handing it over to Harry with a smile. "It repels water!"
Nicole could have kissed Hermoine right then and there.
Madam Hooch blew her whistle once again, which prompted Nicole to mount her broom instantly and instantly waited for her to throw the quaffle into the air once again.
A Hufflepuff chaser had managed to steal the quaffle before any one of them did. Nicole was on his tail, watching how he shoved Angelina and sent her broom spiraling in circles.
A bludger sent by Fred Weasley almost hit him, but he narrowly avoided it. Nicole was about to steal the quaffle from him, which he noticed and took as an opportunity to throw the quaffle into one of the hoops.
Olliver blocked it easily, which made Katie high five him before going back into the middle of the field.
Nicole catches the quaffle, then rushing away as the Hufflepuffs trailed on behind her. The girl then passed it to Katie, since it seemed it would be too risky if she was the one who threw it into the hoops. Katie then passed it to Angelina, who passed it back to Katie, who flew behind the hoops with no Huflepuffs behind her due to the fact that Nicole shoved one of them into the stands.
Katie then threw it to Angelina, who dunked it into the hoops before the Huflepuff keeper could catch it.
"Another 10 points to Gryffindor!"
Nicole thought that their team wasn't doing that bad, leading by a lot. One of the Huflepuff chasers raced to get the quaffle, but Nicole had managed to steal it fast.
As the lightning crashed down from the sky, Nicole zoomed towards the hoops. She couldn't see Katie or Angelina, and she decided that she would just score the goal herself.
She also noticed that the Gryffindors would only cheer whenever Lee announced that someone scored. Maybe it was because the weather was really bad and that they could only see blobs of color flying around.
As Nicole scored, Angelina Johnson let out a scream. The girl snapped her head towards the girl and looked at her in horror while she fell towards the ground with the end of her broom in flames.
"GO NICOLE!"
The girl turned around and managed to make out the face of Hermoine who had a giant smile on her face. She jokingly pretended to blow out a kiss at her, but quickly ducked when a bludger almost hit her head.
Deciding to focus, Nicole flew towards the Huflepuff chasers. The two of them were passing the quaffle around, and with the blast of her broom, Nicole stole the ball and threw it to Katie (the only chaser left standing) who zoomed past some bludgers and shot it into the tallest hoop, which erupted a cheer from the stands.
"Nicole Hwang scores! Another ten points for Gryffindor!"
Nicole high fived George Weasley before a bludger came rushing towards her direction. She narrowly avoided it, frowning when she heard that Huflepuff scored already.
The girl almost fell off her broom once again when Harry and Cedric Diggory zoomed past her— which turned her attention on the two.
The girl let herself smile. He found the snitch
Deciding to focus on the task on hand, Nicole zoomed to Angelina who ducked as a bludger almost hit her. The taller girl threw the quaffle to her, (which was almosy stolen by a Huflepuff), which prompted Nicole to zoom towards the hoops and throw the goal in once again.
"Gryffindor leads on 130-40." Lee announced. The Gryffindor stadium cheered loudly.
"HWANG! FOCUS!"
Nicole was about to listen to Oliver, but she couldn't help but stare at a small object on the sky that was objectively coming closer and closer. The girl squinted her eyes, until she realized what was falling.
Who was falling, rather.
"Aresto Momentum!"
Harry slowed down, and Nicole immediately dashed towards the boy and held him with all her might. Everything was slippery and she could barely hold on onto his cloak, but she had managed to stay still and keep him safe.
"HARRY, ARE YOU DEAD?" she screamed loudly, doing this to make sure he could hear her if he was alive. The brunette started to panic when he said nothing back.
The rest of the team were huddled in too. Cedric Diggory came flying down from the sky holding the golden snitch, but the smile dropped from his face when he realized what had just happened.
Dumbledore went and brought Harry to the hospital wing with a few teachers. He looked really furious, which was new to everyone since he was usually a calm and collected man.
Nicole was about to follow them but Oliver had called her over, pointing to Diggory who seemed to looked... guilty?
"I think we need to have a rematch." Diggory stated once Nicole came into the circle of the conscious players. "I didn't realize what had happened to Harry after I caught the snitch."
"You won fair and square." Wood said flatly, the pain evident in his eyes. Cedric was about to say something but Wood walked away, placing his broom on the ground.
He looked at Nicole as if he was expecting her to say something.
The girl let out a soft sigh. Even though she really wanted to win this match, it was true. They won fair and square.
"No need for a rematch." she said. "Goodluck on the next game."