Halley had been feeling a little lost without the twins the past week. The first quidditch match of the season would soon be upon them and Oliver Wood had become frantic and twitchy. Not only was he now hovering over his team every chance he got but they were now practising almost every day in preparation for the match against Slytherin.
Halley and Lee, on the other hand, were keeping themselves busy with homework. They'd even said they'd help with the twins' workload since Wood was keeping them from finishing any of it. (Not that not doing their homework was a great loss in their lives)
The Gryffindor team had been forced into another early morning practice by Wood, so Hal sat with Violet at the Hufflepuff table, she was scribbling down things on her Astronomy chart while shoving a piece of peanut buttered toast into her mouth.
"Do you ever stop to breathe?" Vi asked as she mixed some honey into her porridge.
"I can breathe when I'm dead." The girl replied and wiped off a butter smudge from the corner of her chart then began scribbling down the names of the moons that she could remember off the top of her head.
"You're going to burn out if you don't take proper breaks, it's not even December yet and you're going a bit crazy." Hal sighed and put her quill down, stretching out her hand that was starting to cramp.
"You know I'm even dreaming about homework that's how bad it is. I just want to do well, I want to make Gran proud and I also have no idea what I want to do when I leave Hogwarts so I want as broad a range of subjects as possible so my choices aren't limited." Vi smiled sympathetically and gave the girl a quick side hug.
"Next to Alex, you're the smartest witch I know. You'll ace all your exams and kick our butts with your scores, you'll make your Gran proud and you'll go on to get an amazing job! Do you know how I know all of this? Because I'm amazing at Divination, so if I say it'll happen, it'll happen." Vi said brightly but with an undertone of 'don't argue with me' and booped Halley on the nose. "Hi, Ced." She smiled and waved the tall handsome fella over to sit. "Hal this is Cedric, Ced this is Halley, the one I always talk about."
"Nice to finally meet the famous Hal- oh is it okay if I call you that?" The Hufflepuff seeker smiled and held his hand out across the breakfast spread.
"Yeah that's fine, everyone else does, just don't call me late for tea." She said lamely as she shook his hand. Vi just looked at her with a bewildered expression and Ced cracked a smile that frankly made her insides melt. "Sorry, I think I've been hanging around Lee too long, his bad jokes are rubbing off on me. Her cheeks went a shade darker and looked down at her Astronomy chart, fixing a spelling error she'd seen.
"So did you hear? Slytherin pulled out of the Quidditch match on account of their seeker's broken arm, so Hufflepuff is playing Gryffindor this weekend." Cedric informed them which made Halley look up forgetting all about the planets and moons.
"Oh Woods going to be pulling his hair out, all I've had to listen to the past week is, 'Woods designed our whole play against Slytherin, we know all their moves and dirty little tricks.'" Vi just rolled her eyes and leant her chin in her hand.
"I don't get why he's so scrunchy about Quidditch, it's just a game." But that was the wrong thing to say. Both Cedric and Halley looked at her like they wanted to throw the porridge in her face. They proceeded to go on a rant about how Quidditch wasn't just a game, it was an institution, a place for athletes to shine outside conventional muggle sports. The fact that they were almost saying the same thing made Violet smile as if she'd just discovered a new type of plant in Herbology.
"Do you play?" Cedric asked, ignoring the looks that Violet was giving them.
"Oh no, I'm scared of heights, but I'm an enthusiastic supporter. Gran has taken me to a few professional games and we really get into it."
"I used to be scared of heights back in the first year when we had flying lessons, but I fell in love with Quidditch so much that I got past the fear. Who knows you might even be a naturally talented flyer." He smiled encouragingly and Violet was practically wetting her self with how excited she was. Her two friends hitting it off. Of course, she'd always hoped for Fred and Hal to get together but Fred didn't seem all that interested in girls, he just liked to plan his pranks with his mates and give everyone a good laugh.
Halley blushed a little more and fiddled with her quill so much that she bent the end accidentally. "I doubt that you were ever anything but amazing on a broom, everyone says how good of a seeker you are... but I guess I'll see for myself at the match."
"I know you'll be supporting Gryffindor... but maybe throw a cheer or two our way." Cedric grinned cheekily and Halley nodded with her own lopsided smile.
"I should be going, I've got more work for Arithmancy to do. I'll see you later Vi. It was really nice to meet you, Cedric." Hal collected her things and gave a little wave to the pair who watched her exit the Great Hall.
"YOU LIKE HER," Violet said in a squeal and whacked Cedric on the arm before staring dreamily off into space. Ced simply laughed and rubbed the spot where she hit him, she was a small girl but hit very hard.
"She's fun... and yes okay fine she's cute. But isn't she with one of the Weasleys?" He questioned, he didn't want to get invested in the possibility of anything if she was already taken.
"Oh no, everyone thought something was going to happen between her and Fred but nothing did, they're just really good friends. You should totally ask her out, and you're staying for Christmas this year and Hal stays every year and it's her birthday on December 24th oh that would be so cute you could spend it together." Violet gushed in her usual rambling speed. It was a good thing Cedric knew how to speak Violet.
"Slow your roll Violet, we aren't getting married. She just seems nice, not like the other girls, but maybe I will maybe I won't... Okay, I probably will but I'll wait till after the match." Violet squealed again causing the people around her to glare in her direction.
****
The day of the match arrived and the weather was worse than ever before. Students in the stands were soaked through and shivering before the players had even arrived and no one could see further than a few feet in front of their noses. "I'm surprised they didn't cancel the match." She said loudly to Alex and Violet who were huddling so close together to share some sort of body heat.
"WHAT?" They both yelled over the wind and leant closer trying to hear what shes said over the storm and the general noise of the crowd.
"I SAID I'M SURPRISED THEY DIDN'T CANCEL THE MATCH."
"WHAAAT?"
" I SAID! OH NEVER MIND." She shook her head and the three gave up trying to converse in the horrible conditions.
A few minutes later they spotted blobs of red and yellow moving onto the pitch below. No one could really make out what was being said or done but they'd all seen plenty of quidditch matches to figure it out. The captains would shake hands then Madam Hooch would blow the whistle and the match would begin. Halley pulled out a pair of binoculars when she saw the coloured blobs rising and tried to just pick one or two people to watch. Which was hard because she didn't want to miss a second.
"Harry looks half-blind up there!" She yelled at no one in particular, unaware that a bushy-haired third year had heard her and was formulating a plan already. They could barely hear Lee's commentating, only catching a few words every now and then that we're carried around the stadium by the wind.
"GRYFFINDOR-HUFFLEPUFF-POSSESSION-SCORE!" Everyone in the stadium cheered not know who had actually scored until Halley used her binoculars to look over at the scoreboard in the teachers stand. "We're up by fifty points!!" She jumped up and down happily and watching as a flurry of yellow and gold dived for the ground. "It's just time out, look!" She yelled and pointed down to the corners where the two teams were huddled. Alex was almost pulling her hair out as the match unfolded, being a chaser for the Ravenclaw team meant she could sympathise with how difficult it was for them out there, but she also didn't know who she wanted to win more. Her best friends were in the two houses and she didn't want to possibly upset one by supporting the other more. Violet however just looked cold, wet and miserable, she wasn't a big fan of quidditch but she'd always come and support her house when they played.
The stadium roared to life again when the teams took to the skies once more. Every now and then a bolt of lightning would highlight the players' silhouettes but that didn't help much when trying to figure out who everyone was and who'd scored. It was the tensest match Halley had ever seen. Using her binoculars she finally found Harry then Cedric, they were both doing their best to search for the tiny ball of gold amidst the chaos of the storm. Cedric took to a dive but Halley's focus was diverted when she heard screams echoing hauntingly through the storm. She searched the sky for the cause and eventually found a plummeting Harry nearing the ground. Halley watched holding her breath as the body slowed before landing with a soft thud to the floor and a dozen people flocked around him. She saw Dumbledore raise his wand and this forcefield seemed to encompass the whole pitch. Halley only just noticed the black hooded figures that were quickly retreating.
No one knew really what had happened, most just made their way hurriedly back to the castle. Halley, however, wanted to go find her friends and check on Harry. Her hair was as pale as her face and a few people looked at her oddly as she ran over to the Gryffindor team before realising who she was. Harry was being moved on a stretcher and the two teams stood around debating the match results.
"We can have a rematch!" Cedric insisted but some of his team didn't look too favourably on that idea.
Wood looked positively miserable not to mention frozen to his core. "No, you caught the snitch before the whistle was blown, those are the rules. Hufflepuff won fair and square." Now he looked like he wanted to burst into tears and he sulked off to the changing rooms. There was a chorus of grumbles and half-hearted congratulations then the teams parted. Halley gave Cedric a quick congrats and a pat on the arm, which didn't go unnoticed by a certain redhead, then followed the Gryffindor team up to the hospital wing. Everyone was too worried about Harry to bother changing first. No one knew for sure if he was even alive.
"Lucky the ground was so soft."
"I thought he was dead for sure."
Halley frowned at all the comments being thrown around, she was glad that Harry wasn't dead but he just looked so sickly laying there. She'd grown to care a fair bit for the boy and didn't want to see him in that state.
Almost as if he'd heard her thoughts begging him to wake up, Harry's eyes opened and looked around inspecting his surroundings.
"Harry!" Fred said who looked just as pale as Halley's hair. "How are you feeling mate?"
Harry's eyes glossed over for a second and everyone thought he'd pass out again but he shook his head slightly and ran a hand over his face. "What happened?" He sat up so suddenly that everyone gasped and held their hands out to stop him from moving any more.
"You fell off," Fred said grimly, "Must have been... what? Fifty feet?"
"We thought you'd died," Alicia said shaking and Halley wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
Hermione looked like she was about to cry again and Ron subconsciously shuffled a little closer to her. "But the match? What happened? Are we having a replay?" He seemed completely unfazed by the fact that he'd nearly plummeted to his death. No one said a word and realisation struck the young seeker. "W-we lost?"
"Cedric got the snitch just as you fell off, he didn't realise what had happened. After the whistle was blown he tried to call it off and offered a rematch but Wood admitted that they won fair and square." Halley said trying to stick up for the other seeker, he had shown great sportsmanship out there which was more than most people would have done. George looked shocked that their friend was all of a sudden jumping to defend the rival team and Fred looked like he wanted to push Diggory off his broom.
"Where is Wood?" Harry asked looking around at the mud-covered team.
"Still in the showers, we think he's trying to drown himself," George said and sighed deeply running a ran through his hair which only dropped more muck onto the hospital floor.
Harry look extremely guilty, everyone knew what was going through his head and they were all quick to try and cheer him up the best way they knew how. Everyone was trying to calculate the teams' chances of winning depending on how all the other matches went. Needless to say, it still didn't sound like a positive.
Madam Pomfrey came over in a flurry of irritation and insisted that Potter needed his rest. You could also tell that she wasn't happy about all the mud and water that was brought into her clean environment. Only Ron, Hermione and Halley stayed on Harry's request and the healer huffed but didn't say anything else as she went back to her office.
"Dumbledore was furious, we've never seen him so angry. He stopped you from hitting the ground at full speed then sent the dementors packing with this really powerful spell." Ron explained quickly but dropped his voice, not want Madam Pomfrey back over.
"Oh Harry it was awful, he was fuming that they'd come into the school grounds. He got you in a stretcher then brought you up here himself... Everyone thought you..." Hermione started crying again and Halley handed her the tissue box that was sitting on the bedside table.
"Did anyone get my broom?" Harry mumbled as he proceeded all the information. The three looked at each other with solemn expressions then Hermione picked up the bag at her feet and put it at the end of the bed.
"It um, sort of blew away... into the Whomping Willow," Ron said, his ears turning pink as a Harry reached for the bag and looked gutted at the splintered ruins of his Nimbus 2000.
Harry sighed and pushed the bag away then looked up at the three companions by his bedside. "Can I speak to Halley for a bit?" Ron and Hermione looked a bit confused at the request but nodded and left with promises to visit him later if he hadn't been released by then.
"I'm sorry about your broom Harry, I know how excited you were in your first year when you got it." Halley took a seat by his head and Harry sat back leaning against the hospital bed pillows.
"I wanted to talk to you... about your dad again." He mumbled and didn't look her in the eyes. He had so many conflicting stories about Sirius Black that he honestly didn't know what to believe anymore. "Everyone is telling me that he's after me, that because he was Voldemort's most loyal follower he won't rest till I'm dead... but you are so sure that he's innocent, and I know you're a good person who wouldn't lie about something like this so I just don't know what to believe." He rushes out in a single breath and Halley just looked at him with sympathy. She couldn't imagine what it must feel like being told one second you're a hunted man then the next no that's all wrong he's innocent.
"Harry... I don't expect you to just believe me, especially with what the rest of the wizarding world is saying, but if you want to know what I believe then it's that none of us really know what happened the night of my fathers' arrest. No one knows what happened aside from the people that were there. It doesn't matter to me what kind of evidence was pilled against him because I know that people make mistakes and back then people were ready to point a finger at just about anyone so they could sleep better at night." Halley looked down at her robes which were still soaked but at least she was warming up a little in the castle and her hair had finally gone back to black.
She debated whether to tell him about Sirius' visit but thought better not just in case the young boy didn't believe her. "I know all the sightings and his actions make him sound guilty but I think we're all just looking at this from one side. As my Gran always says, No matter how thinly you slice something there will always be two sides." Harry looked over at the older girl with a swell of respect. He might not have been ready to just believe in the man's innocence like her but he respected the fact that she was loyal and actually quite rational with her arguments.
"Thanks... it didn't really fix the problem but it made me feel a bit better." He smiled and pushed his glasses back up his nose.
"Any time kiddo, us orphans got to stick together." She reached over and ruffled his messy hair then got up. "I'll let you rest, and try to not feel too bad about the match, you're not out of the running for the Quidditch Cup just yet."
****
A few days later and the school was still buzzing about the events of the match. It was starting to get on all the Gryffindors nerves and they began snapping irritably at anyone they caught talking about it. The Hufflepuffs had a spring in their step and all were congratulating Cedric nonstop, it was starting to irritate him a bit since he saw their victory as a tainted one.
Halley was walking back to the common room after potions one afternoon and Cedric managed to pull himself away from the crowd of girls long enough to grab the Gryffindor's attention. "Hey, Cedric." She smiled warmly then looked past him to see a group of very disappointed girls glaring at her. "Did I stomp on their moment with you?" She laughed and Cedric turned a light pink.
"No, you are saving me from them. Let's go before they realise I haven't actually got a question for you about Transfiguration." He laughed and pulled her by the arm as they dashed down several corridors before stopping at the bottom on a set of stairs. "Uhh." He glanced around then pushed her under the staircase so they were mostly hidden from view. "I think we should be safe here." He grinned cheekily and leant against the stone wall.
"So now that you have kidnapped and hidden me away from everyone else, what can I do for you, Mr Diggory." Hal laughed and leant against the wall next to him and looked sideways at him.
"Well, I was hoping that I could maybe ask you out on a date sometime if that's alright with you." He nudged her shoulder with his softly and had the most innocent look plastered on his face.
Halley blushed and her eyes turned a golden colour and she looked over at him turning to leant sideways on the wall so she could face him better. "Well then, I'd have to say that I was probably thinking of saying yes." She couldn't help the silly smile that appeared on her lips.
Cedric looked relieved then extremely pleased and hesitantly entwined his fingers with hers, letting their hands dangle between them. "Great, how about next Monday, a little birdie told me we both have a spare after Transfiguration."
"Oh really? Would this birdie happened to be called Violet?" Halley laughed and looked down at their hands then back up at him.
"That's a distinct possibility." He laughed along with her before a comfortable silence settled over them. "I should go I have potions next period and I haven't finished the essay Snape set." He said with a little groan, "But I'll see you later and we can arrange our date." Diggory held Hal's hand up to his lips and pressed a light kiss to her knuckles before exiting their little hidey-hole, leaving Halley red-faced and hair as bright as the Weasleys and a silly grin spread across her lips.