(Y/n) was quite literally trembling as she got her Quidditch gear. She was using green ribbon to tie her hair into two low buns that sat just behind her ears. It was currently March meaning (Y/n) only had one week until she would be going to the Tonks. Nearing Spring Break also meant exam season was three months away which also meant homework would start piling up. She eventually joined the team outside and was nothing short of frightened.
"Main goal: keep Frodo Baggins here safe," Stephen instructed as he nodded his head down at (Y/n), who gaped at him in offence.
"First of all, I'm surprised you know what a Hobbit is, second of all, how dare you compare me to a Hobbit!"
"Keep Cupcake safe and score at least one hundred and fifty points, I mean," Stephen corrected. (Y/n) scowled as the boys laughed and started walking to the Quidditch field.
Meanwhile, in the stands, the golden three sat with a group of various Gryffindors, looking down at the field where the Slytherins were already gathered.
"Who are we looking for again, Hermione?" asked Parvati Patil, looking up from her binoculars.
"Only girl down there," Hermione answered, still looking through the binoculars. "(Y/l/n) will be on her robes."
"Small little thing," Fred chimed. The Gryffindors snickered.
"Don't let her hear that," Katie Bell mused.
"(Y/l/n), there!" Lavender Brown pointed out. They all followed her finger, spotting (Y/n) standing still and watching as three pairs of her teammates waltzed around with one another.
"Wonder what's going on," Parvati commented.
(Y/n) rolled her eyes and wiped away her tears. The team beamed at her as she crossed her arms, refusing to look at them as she tried not to smile.
"You guys are awful at comforting people, you know that?" she said.
"You're laughing, aren't you?" Roger teased.
"Not for you," she stated stubbornly before pointing where a majority of the Ravenclaws sat with posters of encouragement for their team. "Cho, Mari, and Padma are somewhere in that."
"I don't know about you, but it looks like she was crying," Angelina said, pulling the binoculars away from her face.
"Is that Adrian's little friend?" a voice sighed sardonically from the last row. "Really don't know what he sees in her..." Looking back, Pansy Parkinson was spotted.
"She's nice, really," Cassius insisted. "If you look past all the oddity in that one, that is."
"I'm not sure oddities and being Muggle-born are things I can look past," Pansy stated. The Slytherins snickered and the Gryffindors scowled.
"Well, Parkinson, being mean and cold-hearted aren't things easily tolerated either," Parvati sneered.
"Don't tell me you're soft-hearted for the filthy little—" Pansy began. And things, maybe, would have gone south if Lorenzo Berkshire didn't interject.
"Look! The game's starting!" he stammered nervously. The girls glared at each other before facing forward.
"And they're off!" Lee announced. "Kleinbaum of Ravenclaw is the first in possession of the Quaffle. He instantly tosses it to Davies and the two make their way towards the Slytherin goalpost— Ooh— (Y/l/n) ducks under two Bludgers. Nasty things. Davies passes— Ooh, no, intercepted by Pucey of the Slytherins! He makes his way in the opposite direction, passes to Flint— intercepted by (Y/l/n)! She speeds her way back down the fie— OUCH!" Lee shouted as, when (Y/n) went to toss the Quaffle, a Bludger collided with her wrist. The Ravenclaws froze in anticipation (giving the Slytherins the chance to steal the Quaffle) as (Y/n) grimaced, closing her eyes. She flailed her wrist, showing she was fine with a thumbs up, but the second the boys returned to playing, she peered down at her wrist, keeping it as still as possible. Definitely an injury.
"Pucey shoots and— misses, he misses!" Lee continued. The time passed. The game continued in a similar manner as, as the Ravenclaws predicted, (Y/n) was a huge target for both bludgers and two of the three Chasers to advance at. Luckily, they had prepared for this. She hoped, at least. Death via a Bludger was not how she wanted to go out.
"She's hurt," Hermione said.
"Huh?" multiple voices asked in alarm.
"Look, she can't even grip her broom without grimacing," Hermione explained. Following her gaze, they watch as (Y/n) tried to hold onto her handle before letting her hand hang loosely by her stomach.
"Bloody idiot needs to call a timeout!" Fred hissed, passing George the binoculars they were sharing. The girl's face scrunched up in pain as she caught the Quaffle at a bad angle. She yelped, ducking under a Bludger before spiralling out of the way of another.
"Why aren't these shots being called?" Dean fumed. "They're obviously targetting her!"
"Snape's the referee again," Seamus stated, equally as upset. "Of course he isn't going to call things for his own team—" The Gryffindors cheered loudly as (Y/n) successfully made her fourth goal of the game. Her face lit up into a giddy little grin that quickly faded when a Bludger narrowly slid past her face.
"Look out!" Adrian bellowed when (Y/n) froze to stare in the direction the Bludger came from. Not having the reaction time to dodge, (Y/n) accepted the Bludger that hit her square in the face.
Lee Jordan broke into a string of curses that Professor McGonagall didn't even bother to scold. She leaned forward, worried for the hunched over Ravenclaw. The crowd collectively let out a gasp or took in a deep inhale that was held in anticipation, wondering the fate of the girl. (Y/n) was hunched over, holding the lower half of her face with her hands and her legs held onto the broomstick. Adrian was at (Y/n)'s side as the girl held her face with both of her hands. He and Stephen were calling for a timeout that Snape begrudgingly gave. Adrian and Stephen guided (Y/n) to the ground, entirely surprised she wasn't crying despite the visible blood seeping from her hands.
The Ravenclaw team followed them down, blocking the watchful eyes of the crowd as Stephen gently took her hands away from her nose. He instantly returned them before covering his own mouth in an attempt not to lose his breakfast. There was a lot of blood. When Stephen collected himself, he spoke to their referee before waving in a reserve Chaser and sending (Y/n) off to the Hospital Wing. Then, the game continued.
"Don't they at least get a penalty shot?!" Dean bellowed, still absolutely fuming as he gripped the railing of the stands and leaned over it to look down at the field.
"You would think so!" Hermione mumbled. She had been biting her fingers out of anxiety.
"There goes Ravenclaw's chance at winning," Pansy commented. Even with her taunting, her eyes were following the retreating (Y/n).
"Bet you're glad, aren't you?" Parvati scowled.
"Maybe I am," Pansy answered, turning back to glare at the girl. "Ravenclaw loses its best player and now Slytherin will take the lead back."
"Backhanded compliments?" Blaise Zabini teased Pansy.
"I just hope the injuries weren't too bad," Lorenzo said, leaning back and watching as the girl walked alone.
"Broken nose at the very least," Daphne Greengrass concluded, looking away from (Y/n) and back onto the game. "Maybe even some teeth." The group— Gryffindors and Slytherins alike— shuddered.
After the game, the Ravenclaw Quidditch team quite literally booked it off the field, not caring for changing, as they headed towards the hospital wing.
(Y/n) was not present for lunch and the Houses sat in tense silence. At the start of another silent dinner, the doors opened. In walked a (Y/n) clad in a white button-up, light-washed mom jeans, and her letterman jacket. She had a notebook (with plenty of doodles on it) held up and covering her face as she hurriedly made her way to the Ravenclaw table. She sat down, holding the notebook up to shield her from a majority of the peering eyes and with her other hand, she covered the lower half of her face.
Cho, Marietta, and Padma— who were poking at their food— collectively watched (Y/n)'s hurried motions and when she joined them, they stared expectantly. When she sat down, she removed her hand from her face and still held up the notebook.
"Well?" Cho asked. Right off the bat, the three could make out a brace on both her nose and her wrist. There were bruises at the corner of her eyes as a result of her broken nose.
"I broke my nose." (Y/n) grinned, her shoulder shaking as she held back a laugh, finding the whole thing extremely funny.
"Yeah, we see that!" Marietta stated. "Nothing else broken? No teeth missing? And why're you wearing braces when you visited Madam Pomfrey?"
"She didn't trust that my nose would heal straight," (Y/n) explained, lowering her hand to reveal a large bruise at the corner of her lips. She continued holding the notebook up— this time with magic— as she served herself. "And wearing a brace comes naturally, even with witchcraft," she added.
"And the bruise? Why isn't that taken care of?" Cho chimed.
"Apparently I'm allergic to something in the cream she uses," (Y/n) sighed. "We figured that out last month when I got a huge breakout after I was hit by a door. Don't worry, I've been experimenting with my own things though. I'll probably be able to take care of the bruising when I get back to our dorm."
"You're a bloody idiot!" Cho cried as she lunged across the table and hugged (Y/n). (Y/n) blinked. "Laughing over being injured! Do you know how worried a majority of the school's been?!"
"Over what?" (Y/n) scoffed. "I'm the injured one."
"The injured one that people care about! Things could have been so much worse! What if you were knocked into a coma or lost all of your teeth—"
"But I'm fine," (Y/n) insisted. "You guys worry too much."
"And you worry too little! I thought Blair told you to take care of yourself and yet here you are laughing over your pain? Did you even cry?" (Y/n) fell quiet at Cho's words.
"Yeah," (Y/n) confirmed, her grin faltering and she looked down at her food as Cho returned to her seat. "Madam Pomfrey had to snap my nose and wrist back into place for heaven's sake," she said, poking at her carrots before eventually eating one. "And magically getting a bone back into place is extremely painful more so than a regular doctor, believe me, I know," she continued. "I guess I'm used to it, though."
"Used to it?" Cho hissed furiously.
"Breaking bones, I mean. That's why I'm... nonchalant, you can say," (Y/n) better explained. "I've told you I was in a lot of sports as a kid, didn't I?" she asked. They nodded. Padma was more hesitant to do so. "Well, baseball broke my nose once, I rolled my ankle in hockey— still love it, though— I sprained my knee in soccer, and I broke my wrist in gymnastics," she listed off. "There are also minor things, but those were the things I went to the hospital for."
"Merlin, so this isn't your first rodeo," Cho mumbled. "Well, I guess I'll let you off the hook this time. But you know it's okay to cry, right. You won't seem weak, you'll seem human." The girls fell silent as they ate.
"We tried to visit after the game," Padma whispered to (Y/n). "Vati, Lav, and I, I mean," she corrected. "But Madam Pomfrey sent us to lunch." (Y/n) smiled.
"You'll have to introduce us some time," she said.
"Will do."
After dinner, (Y/n) lingered behind, still hiding her face from the peering students.
"Gosh, people are so nosy," (Y/n) stated. "Get it, nose-y?" Marietta groaned, Cho shook her head disapprovingly despite her smile, and Padma laughed.
"Real comedic genius here, gents," Stephen jeered.
"Bug off," (Y/n) groaned. "I've had a really bad day as you can tell." She lowered her notebook and the boys jumped out of their skin. (Y/n) groaned, burying her face in her arms.
"You're being overdramatic," Marietta told the boys.
"It's not that bad," Cho agreed.
"The bloody girl looks like she got into a street fight," Stanley hissed as though (Y/n) wouldn't hear.
"Did I win?" (Y/n) asked.
"I'd say so."
"Hm. At least she won the fight," Stephen mused.
"You guys are mean," (Y/n) whined.
"Almost everyone's gone... party will be starting soon... let's go, people," Roger waved his hands in a hurrying motion.
"On it," Stephen mock saluted him and the boys went on ahead.
"Mari and I are on snack duty this time," Cho informed apologetically.
"You two run ahead, though."
"Oh no," (Y/n) groaned as they went off. She was left only with Padma, whom the Gryffindors didn't seem intimated to approach. Linking her arm with Padma's, the two skipped out of the dining hall, hurrying away towards the Ravenclaw Tower.
"Pads!" Parvati exclaimed, ecstatically waving her hand at her sister. "Hi, I'm Parvati and this is Lavender," she introduced.
"(Y/n)," she answered, shaking Parvati's hand. Parvati and the dark girl beside her stared at (Y/n), their eyes roaming her wounded face.
"Are you all right?" Lavender blurted out. "That Bludger really must've hurt, huh?"
"Oh, definitely," (Y/n) confirmed. "But I'm strong, like a girl." Parvati and Lavender simply beamed at her.