Christmas was already starting to come near and it was planned that the Weasley family were to come to Grimmauld place to celebrate. This made V very happy as this would mean two weeks of spending time with George without having to hide away from everyone.
But in the meantime, V had a whole lot of studying to do and a quidditch game tomorrow, and it wasn't just any quidditch game. It was her first one as a captain and it was against Gryffindor too.
V had been jittery all during their morning practice that day and Lucy had to help settle her down multiple times. V had full faith in her Chasers and Keepers, but she was unsure if Draco was truly matched for Harry. She was also very unsure in Goyle's cooperation as a beater.
On top of this, V was running out of time to hand in her scrolls for defence against the dark arts. Professor Umbridge had been setting to much of pointless homework that V had lacked motivation in doing. Professor Umbridge was by far her least favourite defence against the dark arts teacher she has had, she longed for the days her godfather had the post.
Professor Umbridge had also spent a lot of time randomly glaring at V, this was a bit after her father had sent the letter. This made it almost certain that Professor Umbridge was intercepting the owls and had intercepted her fathers.
As well as getting up early for a quidditch practice, V had also stayed late at the library to get a start on her homework. V walked back to the Slytherin common room absolutely exhausted and wasn't even bothered to get to her bedroom. Instead she crashed on one of the leather common room couches hugging herself for warmth.
"V- Wake up!" Someone said as they poked her side.
"Ahhh- Piss off." V grunted in a small voice as she hugged herself tighter.
"V!" The person said louder.
V opened her eyes and found Flora standing over her and Adrian behind her wearing his quidditch uniform. Adrian looked as though he were about to throw up and Flora looked quite anxious.
"What time is it?" V asked suddenly sounding a lot more alert and sat up.
"Don't worry, its only 8, games in three hours." Flora said.
V let out a sigh of relief but then frowned up at her, "Did you guys really leave me to sleep on the common room couch the whole night?"
"Everyone was too anxious to wake you up, you were sleeping so peacefully and we figured that if we wake you up you might get pre-game jitters and not be able to get back to sleep." Flora replied.
"Huh, good call." V said with a crack of her back.
She then got up and got ready for the match. She headed to the great hall for breakfast wearing her quidditch robes and started to feel like she was going to throw up. She walked down with Lucian who was idiotically happy as usual and Adrian who was in a similar mood to V. When they sat with the rest of the team, V found that everyone else was rather cocky about the coming game, especially Draco which was no surprise.
"Look at the Gryffindor team, they look terrified don't they Goyle?" Draco asked and Goyle snickered in reply.
"Gryffindor should be nervous, but so should you lot. They beat us last time, remember?" V stated and Lawrence rolled his eyes.
"Look V we're a talented team and we've been training way harder then the lot of them. Being nervous is just going to throw us off track." Lawrence told her and she was starting to realise that he had a point.
"Yeah, V. Eat some food would you? You can't go on pitch starving." Draco said putting some toast on her plate.
V gave Draco a look, she didn't like the way he had been acting a bit like her brother or something recently. Many would appreciate it but V really couldn't.
After breakfast, the team headed down to the pitch together with V slowly gaining more confidence, with the amount of work she had put in they were bound to win, right?
After heading to the changing room and getting Lucy to do a French braid for her, there was only about fifteen minutes till the start of the game. V realised that about now was the time for her to do a pep talk so she gathered everyone round and took a deep breath.
"Look, I know it must be strange to have a small blonde girl for a quidditch captain. I also know that we are the most hated house in the school. But let's be real, image doesn't count for anything. All that matters is that we whip Gryffindor's arse's out there today and we do so graciously and with good sportsmanship, cause you know what? We're turning the other cheek today." V said. Everyone looked a tad bit confused at the angle she was taking but she wasn't fazed.
"Uh- V- we may have forgotten to mention something-"
"I don't want to hear it unless its going to effect our quality out on the pitch today." V interrupted. Draco, Goyle and Lawrence all looked at each other uncertainly after that but V continued with her talk.
"Does it really matter if we lose? Well- actually it kind of does, lets really go for a win today so I won't be walking around school like the biggest laughing stock ever." V said and everyone sniggered along with her because this was kind of true.
"But if we do lose, Gryffindor are going to see us smiling because we just did a good thing; we played a game of quidditch- a fair game of quidditch. And let's not forget the importance of all our roles; whether we're scoring goals, blocking them or protecting our teammates from the Bludger. We're all important." V then turned to Draco because the truth was, he was still their most important player. "When you go out there today Draco, don't think about what Potter's doing. Think about what you're doing. Because you can't control potty pants over there, you can only control yourself." V finished and everyone was finally nodding along with her.
"Let's not forget who we are, we are the most notorious house out of all four, and the most talented. But let's be gracious about it. Slytherin on three." V said putting her hand out.
Everyone put their hands on V's and V started. "one- two- Slytherin!" Everyone yelled and they headed out onto the pitch. In all truth, V could tell that not exactly everyone was on board with this new style of leading V was taking, but all that mattered to her was that everyone heard her out.
The stands were completely full today, and the buzzing of the crowd completely blocked out all nervous thoughts V was having. V spotted the Gryffindor team looking confident, . V looked over at George but he was too busy talking to Ron who was playing keeper. Ron looked very nervous and kept on glancing up to the Slytherin stand. When V looked up she then saw a massive banner which read, 'Weasley is our King'.
V had no idea what it was for or why Slytherin appeared to be supporting the Weasley's, but she had a bad feeling about it.
Madam hooch then called V and Angelina over to shake hands. V smiled amiably over at Angelina, however Angelina did not return the smile. When they shook hands, Angelina glared at her saying, "You're going down, Black."
V made her way back to her team with a confused look on her face. "Guys, what the hell is going on?"
But before anyone could reply, Madam Hooch called for them to mount their brooms.
When Madam Hooch blew her whistle, it was all mayhem from there. V snatched the quaffle slyly and zigzagged her way around the Gryffindor players and made a shot at the goal, so quick that Ron couldn't save it. The crowd roared and hissed at the same time but either way she was running on a rush of adrenaline that could not be extinguished.
Gryffindor started with the ball however Lucy intercepted and flew the quaffle down to the goal where she passed it to Adrian who scored. The crowd roared again and so did V.
The next game as V flew it down to the goal, she heard a chant forming in the Slytherin stands, one that she hadn't heard before.
"Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring,
That's why all the Slytherins sing,
Weasley is our King."
V stopped flying, and so did the entire Gryffindor team. V then looked up at Draco who then flew over to her.
"Are you kidding Draco!? Is this what you were going to tell me before?" V snapped at him.
"What? Do you still have feelings for that blood traitor family?" Draco asked.
V then looked over at George who looked furious and she felt absolutely terrible, even though this had all happened without her knowledge. She flew away from Draco who had really gotten on her nerves now. She flew over to the goal seeing as the game was still going on and scored a meek goal. Ron was too busy gawping at the banner and the Slytherins who were now cheering loudly. He had gone so pale that V thought he might throw up through one of the hoops.
She felt so bad for him the she flew over to the Slytherin stands and was signalling for everyone to cut it out but they only chanted louder. She then noticed Draco signalling for everyone to chant louder and she nearly tackled him off his broom.
"Hey Draco, aren't you meant to be looking for the snitch!?" V yelled and he cowered away.
Gryffindor started with possession of the quaffle but Lucy intercepted again and passed to V. Lucy was chanting along too making V feel a bit betrayed but V decided to put her anger into the game as Gryffindor certainly was. Angelina's broom knocked into V in attempt at grabbing the quaffle and V almost fell off. Her side was in great pain from this, and just knew she was going to get a massive bruise there later.
V regained her balance and flew harder towards the goal where Angelina made it hell for her to score. In the end she passed the quaffle to Adrian who was situated right next to a goal and popped it in without a problem.
Gryffindor then managed to score a goal with Katie making a break away and managing to dart towards the goal and scoring, but that seemed to be the only goal Gryffindor managed to score. An hour passed and the snitch was still nowhere to be seen. Slytherin had scored 8 more points putting them a hundred and ten points in the lead but this would all end up being for nothing if Draco couldn't catch the snitch.
V was getting more tired too, she had missed a couple shots at the goal but still, she had had an amazing match. She looked up at Draco, who was looking over at Harry, who was looking round for the snitch.
"Draco! A good seeker can catch the snitch themselves, so stop watching Potter!" V yelled at him.
V wiped some sweat off her forehead and watched as Lucy snatched the quaffle off of Alicia and sent it in V's direction, V caught it and flew it down field, dodging Katie. She was so focused on Katie that she hadn't noticed George with the bludger ahead of her. V braced herself for the hit, covering her face with her hands but for some reason the hit never came.
She looked up and found George looking defeated with his bat limp in arm. "I can't do it." He said and you could hear Angelina yell at him from the other side of the pitch. All the Slytherins started chanting 'Weasley is our King' even louder and all George could do was hover there and look defeated.
"Are you kidding George?" V asked. "Your team is losing by a hundred points; your brother has been humiliated to the point he can't properly play anymore, and you had the prime opportunity to knock an opposing team member off their broom and you can't? You could redeem the game for your team." V said and all George could do was shrug.
"I couldn't hurt you if it meant winning the quidditch cup." He replied, though he looked very angry at himself about it.
V was so speechless she forgot she was in the middle of a quidditch game, that was till Adrian came at her yelling that she needed to score a goal, so she quickly flew over to the goal and scored.
But as she flew back to the centre of the pitch, everyone in the crowd suddenly gasped and pointed at Harry who was chasing after the snitch. V's heart suddenly dropped. Slytherin had been playing so well but if Draco couldn't catch the snitch then Slytherin would have to consider themselves losers. Everyone stopped playing to watch them despite Adrian popping another goal in when no one was concentrating. Draco flew after Harry, bumping into Harry's broom they raced for the snitch, but in the end, Harry was faster and managed to snatch the snitch first.
V nearly burst into tears, wishing she had scored more goals when she had the chance, but she composed herself and kept a steady face. She flew down to the ground feeling emotionally and physically drained.
Adrian patted her back saying the loss was only 20 points but that wasn't much solace for her. She was so angry at Draco it was almost unfathomable. First, he pulls the Weasley stunt, then he gets so distracted by it he let Harry catch the snitch and cost Slytherin the game. She wasn't going to yell at him though, but she was for sure going to make training much more intense for him.
The Gryffindor were also in a rather solemn mood despite the win, they all knew that if it weren't for Harry they would have been smashed. V was about to head off to the changing room and cry in the showers but that was until Draco suddenly decided to have a go at Harry, George and Fred.
Harry, George and Fred looked as though they were about to leap on Draco but was getting held back by Angelina, Katie and Alicia. V quickly ran over and heard some of Draco's cutting insults. "We wanted to write another couple verses! But we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly- we wanted to sing about his mother see- we couldn't fit in useless loser either- for his father, you know-"
"Draco, this isn't losing with grace, let's go to the changing rooms and cool down-" V said grabbing his wrist but he wasn't moving.
"But you like the Weasleys don't you Potter? Spend holidays and everything there, don't you? Can't see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by muggles, even the Weasley's hovel smells ok."
"Draco!" V yelled but he continued.
"Or perhaps, you can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and the Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it-"
But at that last insult Harry managed to break through and tackled Draco down. So did Fred and George and they started throwing as many hits at Draco as they could. Adrian, Lucian and Lawrence all tried to push them off of Draco but struggled.
V then stepped inside their jumble of a fight, covering her face and hoping that no one would accidentally hit her. Everyone suddenly stopped when she did this but at the same time, she acted too late. Professor Umbridge had already come over and she looked horrified.
Draco was quick to speak up, claiming that they had all attacked them.
"This behaviour is absolutely unacceptable and should be punished immediately." Professor Umbridge squeaked in that high-pitched voice of hers. "Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley, you're hence forth banned from quidditch."
V's jaw dropped at the extremity and protests immediately rose from Harry, Fred and George. Draco smirked the biggest smirk V had ever seen.
"But Professor, my player evoked them, all they did was stick up for themselves." V said, running over to Professor Umbridge who was already walking away. "I'll take responsibility for not keeping my player in line."
"I know violent behaviour when I see it Miss Black, they're lucky I didn't expel them." She replied and continued walking away.
V looked over to her boyfriend who looked absolutely guttered but angrier then anything. Harry looked worse.
Draco then walked over to V. "Whose side are you on, V?"