Our first Quidditch match was coming nearer, and we were working harder than ever. At our final training session before Saturday's match, Ollie came to us with grim news.
"We're not playing Slytherin." he said grimly. "We're playing with Hufflepuff instead."
"What? Why?" asked Harry. I could tell he was looking forward to beating Malfoy.
"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm is still injured," he replied. "But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances...."
"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" said Harry furiously.
"Yeah, that gel haired lickarse is faking it!" I said angrily.
The Weasley twins laughed at my choice of wording. They always loved when I used Irish words. Especially insults.
"We can't prove it." Ollie said sadly. "And we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've go that new Captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory --"
Alicia and Angelina started giggling and I rolled my eyes.
"What?" asked Ollie, annoyed.
"They're giggling because he's a handsome chap." I said.
"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" said Angelina.
"Strong and silent," said Alicia, and they started to giggle again
"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," said Fred impatiently and I snickered. "I don't know why you're worried, Oliver, Hufflepuff is a pushover. Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?"
"We were playing in completely different conditions!" Ollie shouted, his eyes bulging slightly. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"
"Oliver, calm down!" said Fred, looking slightly alarmed. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously."
The day before the quidditch match was a hard windy and rainy day.
"Is the weather going to be like this tomorrow?" I asked Ollie, we we looked over game plans together.
"I believe so." Ollie said, looking at his watch. "Oh! Harry finishes his class soon, I have to go and find him."
He rushed off. The whole day, Ollie was finding Harry between his classes and giving him tips. The poor boy is so stressed. And I mean poor boy about Harry. Not Ollie. Ollie needs to stop stalking Harry.
After lunch, we had DADA. Ollie, Percy and I headed down to Lupin's classroom, only to find Snape standing there.
I raised my hand, as we all sat down.
"Yes?" he asked me.
"Sir, where's Professor Lupin?" I asked.
"He's too ill to teach today. Now, Lupin being unorganized, I have no clue as to what you've covered so far-"
Percy raised his hands this time. "We were working on-"
"Silence." Snape said. "Today we will discuss werewolf's."
"Werewolf's?" I whispered to myself. It wasn't even in my textbook.
"Er, professor?" I raised my hand again.
Snape sighed, looking irritated. "What?"
"We covered werewolf's in third year. Werewolf's isn't even in our current textbook."
"I'm aware. But for your N. E. W. T you need to review werewolf's."
Percy looked at me with confusion. "No we don't, I looked what what we need." he whispered.
Throughout the whole lesson, we made notes about werewolf's. At the end, Snape called out "You will each write an essay, to be handed in to me, on the ways you recognize and kill werewolves. I want four rolls of parchment on the subject, and I want them by Monday morning. It is time somebody took this class in hand."
I left the classroom with Ollie and Percy. Once we were out of earshot, I burst out angrily, "Who does that gobshite think he is!" I cried. "He's just here to cover the class, not steer it in a whole other direction! And insulting Lupin like that? How dare he! Lupin's the best DADA professor we have ever had! That tool Snape doesn't even come close!"
"You're taking this so personally." Ollie said, raising his eyebrows at me.
I flushed a bright red. Oh Merlin, he was right. I didn't know why I was so angry.
"Come on, let's go smack a few bludgers." Ollie grinned at me.
Ollie and I spent the rest of the afternoon hitting bludgers, while Percy sat and watched us, until McGonagall came running out and screaming at us to go back inside because it was five minutes to curfew.
After dinner, Ollie and I went straight to bed since we would have to wake up early the next day.
The next morning, I woke up at 4:40 in the morning, to Peeves blowing in my ear. "Get out!" I whisper yelled at him. Peeves zoomed out cackling. "Little fecker." I mumbled.
I decided to just get up and after getting dressed in my Quidditch gear, I grabbed my broom and went to the Common Room, only to find Harry also there.
"You're up early." I said, sitting down next to him.
"Peeves woke me up." he said irritably.
"Me too." I chuckled. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm a bit nervous." he admitted. "I want to do really well for you and Oliver."
"No you don't." I said sharply. "Don't think about us Harry. Think about yourself. You want to do well for yourself."
Harry smiled at me.
We passed the time by just staring into the fireplace, each of us daydreaming in our own worlds. I looked at the clock that was against the wall.
"Let's go get some breakfast, shall we?" I said, standing up. "The others will meet us there."
We walked together down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Stand and fight, you mangy cur!" yelled Sir Cadogan, when we walked out the portrait hole.
Without looking back, I flipped Cadogan off and Harry grinned.
I was too nervous to eat, but I nibbled on some toast. Soon, the rest of the team showed up and sat with us.
"How are you feeling?" Ollie asked me softly, sitting next to me.
"Fucking nervous as hell." I said.
"Me too." he whispered. He didn't eat anything, and I pushed my quarter eaten toast away from me, feeling queasy.
"Stop worrying, Oliver," said Alicia soothingly, "we don't mind a bit of rain."
We all changed into our scarlet robes and waited for Ollie's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly and beckoned us to follow him.
I walked right behind him, squeezing his hand once and letting go once we emerged on the pitch.
The wind was pushing us back and the thunder was incredibly loud. Diggory and Ollie shook hands. Diggory smiled at Ollie, but Ollie just nodded.
"Mount your brooms!" Madam Hootch called out.
I climbed over mine and breathed out. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant we were off into the sky.
I couldn't see anything through the thick rain. I managed to catch the quaffle a few times, and I scored, but I was doing it all by luck.
I saw Ollie gesturing us to the ground.
"I called for a time-out." he said.
"I can't see anything with my glasses." Harry said. "What's the score?"
"We're fifty points up," Ollie replied, "but unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."
Hermione suddenly came running to us. "Harry! I have an idea!"
He grabbed Harry's glasses and tapped her wand on them. "Impervius!"
I smacked my hand on my forehead. "I'm so fucking stupid! Of course! That spell repels water! That's amazing Hermione."
She beamed at me.
Ollie looked thrilled. "Okay team, let's go back up."
We started the game again. I was feeling a bit more confident, the more I scored quaffles. But I was still having a hard time seeing.
I suddenly felt cold all over. I looked up to see Dementors below Harry, who was looking for the snitch.
Not looking at where I was going, I smacked right into Fred and I slipped off my broom. I tried to catch myself, but my broom was wet all over and my fingers couldn't hold on. People gasped as i fell through the air.
"Shit! Sara!" Fred zoomed down to catch me but I was already on the ground, groaning. I had only fallen ten feet, which isn't far for quidditch, but I could feel an incredibly sharp pain in my leg. I had broken my leg. Fred landed beside me. "I'm so sorry!"
"OH MY GOD HARRY!" I screamed. Everyone in the pitch was screaming out as Harry fell from 50 feet off the ground.
Dumbledore was striding on the pitch looking livid. With his wand, he slowed Harry down and magicked two stretchers. One for Harry, and one for me.
Dumbledore made Harry's stretcher float as he walked to the Hospital wing. Fred and George hoisted me on mine and carried me to the hospital wing too.
When we got there, Harry was still out cold, and Madam Pomfrey mended my leg in a giff. "You just stay here overnight." she told me.
After the whole quidditch team, and Ron and Hermione, made sure i was okay, they all crowded around Harry's bed. Seamus came running in with Dean. "OH Sara! Are you alright?"
"Just a broken leg Shay." I said.
Harry finally woke up.
"Good to see you mate." I said.
He looked at me. "What happened? What happened to you Sara?"
"Broken leg." I said shrugging.
"Harry!" said Fred. "How're you feeling?"
"What happened?" Harry repeated.
"You fell off," said Fred. "Must've been -- what -- fifty feet?"
"We thought you'd died," said Alicia, who was shaking.
Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were extremely bloodshot.
"But the match," said Harry. "What happened? Are we doing a replay?"
"Diggory got the Snitch," said George. "Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch. But they won fair and square... even Wood admits it."
"Where is Wood?" said Harry, suddenly realizing he wasn't there.
"Still in the shower's.' Fred said.
"I think he's trying to drown himself." I said.
Harry put his face to his knees, his hands gripping his hair. Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly. "C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the Snitch before."
"There had to be one time you didn't get it," said George
"It's not over yet," said Fred. "We lost by a hundred points"
"Right? So if Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin --."
"Hufflepuff'll have to lose by at least two hundred points," said George.
Harry lay there, not saying a word.
"Shut up you two!" I snapped.
After a few minutes, Madam Pomfrey told everyone to leave Harry alone.
"We'll come and see you later," Fred told him. "Don't beat yourself up, Harry, you're still the best Seeker we've ever had."
Fred quickly came to me. "I'm so sorry I wasn't looking-"
I patted his hand. "Oh Fred, you're alright. I wasn't looking either. The weather was horrible."
"All of you out!" Pomfrey yelled.
Everyone quickly left. Only Ron and Hermione were left, and they moved closer to Harry, telling him what had happened. Poor Harry's broom had been smashed to pieces, and was apparently unfixable. Harry looked heartbroken and when Ron and Hermione left, Harry turned away from me and wouldn't say a word.
Later that night, Madam Pomfrey poked her head through my curtain. "You have a visitor."
I was expecting Percy or Ollie, but I was surprised to see lupin come in. He looked weak and tired and even more frail than usual.
"Professor!" I said.
"How are you feeling?" he asked me.
"I'm alright. Harry's in the other bed by the way."
"I came to see you." he said, handing me chocolate.
I was surprised, but pleased he wanted to visit me.
"I wasn't able to come to the match, but I heard what had happened so I came to see how you were doing."
"Oh, it's just a broken leg. I've broken plenty of bones in quidditch, it's really nothing new for me." I replied.
Pomfrey quickly came rushing to us. "Alright Remus, it's been five minutes. It's time for her to sleep!"
Lupin smiled at me. "Have a good night Miss. Finnigan."
"You as well Professor." I said, eating my chocolate.
Lupin left and Pomfrey bustled about me, fixing my bed and checking my leg. "Professor's visiting students, how inappropriate."
"But you still let him visit." I pointed out, handing her a piece of chocolate.
She popped the chocolate in her mouth. "I like seeing romance blossom."
I choked on my piece of chocolate. "Roman- no! He was just being friendly! Madam Pomfrey, don't say that!"
She raised her eyebrows at me. "I see the looks on both of your faces Miss. Finnigan. I know what I see."
Due to me constantly going in and out of the hospital wing, due to either quidditch injury's, fights with Slytherins, or me just blowing things up, Pomfrey and I had become pretty close.
"There isn't any looks." I said, blushing fiercely.
"You are both just lying to yourselves, because you know it's wrong. But it's there."
She left me with her words sinking in and I leaned against my pillow, rubbing my eyes.
I just need to sleep this off.