CHAPTER TWELVE
❛Shut up, Fred.❜
The entire Quidditch team stood in the locker room, waiting for Oliver Wood to deliver his speech. But the heavy rain and wind stopped him from doing so. It was no doubt that the rain made everyone question their odds of winning.
George Weasley stood by Hope Lupin-Black as she laced up her boots. She was more nervous than ever, and George noticed by the way she relaced her boots five different ways.
"It's raining heavily today." he commented, messing with his gloves.
She looked up, with no expression on her face. "I know."
"You're going to be careful, right?"
Hope smiled, for the first time that day, and gave George a small hug. "I always am."
"You say that--" he started to say.
"But I really want to win?" she laughed. It wasn't a lie, the teenage girl took Quidditch almost as seriously as Oliver.
His eyes drifted towards the bench. "Yeah, that."
"I'll be careful, I promise." she gave him a soft smile.
As the team walked onto the field, the wind blew off their walk. They could barely hear the crowds cheering over the thunder. It wasn't but five seconds before they were already soaked in rain.
Cedric eyed Hope, who was struggling to walk through the wind. The Hufflepuff team looked less happy than usual, but still wore smiles on their faces.
"Mount your brooms." called out Madam Hooch.
The Diggory boy held out his hand to Oliver. "Good luck, Wood."
Oliver eyed Cedric's hand as if it were the hand of Voldemort, and just nodded. But it didn't matter because in the next three seconds, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and both teams were off.
Hope rose quickly and was quick to become in possession of the Quaffle. Though she was quick to hand it off to Angelina, because the strong winds began to blow her back and forth. As players flew by the small teenager, she almost got knocked off of her broom.
Alfie tried to keep his eyes on his sister from the audience. "She just fell off of her broom!"
"Relax, she'll get back on." said Cormac, who was watching from beside him.
"Get back on!"
Neville turned around to look at his friend's brother. "Lupin, you should know this by now."
Alfie just crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the field. "I don't like Quidditch."
"Hope Lupin, best at getting knocked off her broom." exclaimed Cormac, finding humor in his best friend's worry.
"But even better at getting back on." continued Neville, laughing as well.
The McLaggen boy pointed at the blonde girl in the sky. "See? She's already back on."
"Why is she going so fast?"
"It's Quidditch, Alphard!" Cormac shouted.
Alfie just stayed with his arms crossed. "They shouldn't let people play this rubbish sport."
Once a flash of lightning struck the field, Madam Hooch's whistle blew. Hope could see Oliver waving them down to the grass through the thick rain.
"I called for a time-out." the captain yelled. "Under here!"
The entire Gryffindor team piled underneath the large umbrella, all of them soaking wet from the rain. Harry wiped off his glasses on his robes quickly.
"What's the score, Oliver?"
"We're fifty points up." said Oliver, his eyes filled with uncertainty. "But unless we get the snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."
Harry only held up his glasses. "I've got no chance with these on."
Hope turned around and yelled up into the stands. "Hermione!"
Hermione was quick to come forward, face to face with the Quidditch team. "What do you need?"
"He can't see through the rain." she said, pointing at Harry. "Harry, glasses."
"Impervius." Hermione spoke loudly, her wand pointed. "They'll repel water."
Hope looked up at the girl, thankful as one could be. "Thank you, 'Mione. You're a lifesaver."
"You owe me!"
Oliver smiled widely, looking more confident, and called out. "Okay, team, let's go for it!"
Hope was first to try and run out, but Oliver grabbed her back. He only eyed her with concern, due the incident that happened days prior.
"You good, Lupin?"
The teenage girl smiled towards her teammate. "Let's play the game, Wood. We can chit chat later."
Hope took off and took the Quaffle from a Hufflepuff chaser. As she flew across the field, she could see Harry flying all around, in search of the snitch.
After one minute of just flying with the Quaffle, a Bludger just barely missed her head as she ducked down. Hope whipped around to see Anthony Rickett, a Hufflepuff beater.
"What the hell, Rickett?"
Anthony smirked and just waved around his beater's bat. "Sorry, Lupin, didn't see you there."
"Focus on the game, Rickett, or you won't play the rest of the season!." shouted Cedric, who saw Hope fly away. "Especially if you're targeting Lupin."
Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory raced up the field, after the snitch that both teams wanted badly. The two boys raced up into the sky, after the same golden speck.
An eerie silence filled Harry's ears, and he took his eyes off of the snitch for a second, once he looked down he saw almost a hundred Dementors. And the same womanly voice filled his ears once again.
It was that split second that Cedric had caught the snitch and Harry went tumbling to the grassy field. It was also in that second that Anthony Rickett had knocked Hope Lupin off of her broom. But she didn't go tumbling down to the ground like Harry did.
Cedric Diggory had just barely caught Hope while her broom went straight into the mud. While Hope just yelled to him. "Harry! Get Harry!"
"You're more important right now, are you okay?" he yelled through the rain.
"Harry's dead!"
Cedric shook his head. "He's fine, Dumbledore's got him."
"Can we go to the ground, please?" she managed to say.
"I'm going to kill Rickett, he's off of my team." Cedric muttered through the rain.
Hope just laughed lightly, as she always did in times where she felt anything but happy. "I'm okay, Ced. Let's get down to the ground."
The entire Quidditch team, plus Ron and Hermione stood over Harry as he laid in the Hospital Wing. The teenage boy looked more pale than usual.
"Is he dead? He looks dead to me." said Hope, as she paced some more.
Fred grabbed her shoulder lightly and stopped her. "Hope, we've already been told that he isn't dead."
"His glasses aren't even broken!" exclaimed Hermione. "How is that so?"
Katie Bell laughed. "Did he land face first?"
"Well, no."
Ron made a disgusted face at Harry's smell of rain and mud. "He doesn't look too good."
"He fell fifty feel." said George, pushing his younger brother lightly. "Obviously, he doesn't look good."
Hope smacked his shoulder. "George."
Just then, Harry's green eyes fluttered open and he sat upwards slowly. He took quick notice of the Quidditch team who was covered in mud, head to toe. While Hermione and Ron were just soaked.
"Harry, how're you feeling?" questioned Fred, looking the boy over.
Harry furrowed his eyebrows as he looked around. "What happened?"
"You fell off your broom, Harry." said Katie Bell, her blue eyes filled with tears.
Fred nodded along with her. "Must've been like fifty feet."
Angelina Johnson frowned as she looked at the Quidditch player. "We thought you had died."
"But the match." Harry had started to say, sitting up straight. "What happened? Are we doing a replay?"
"Well--"
The Potter boy cut off the Lupin girl quickly, his emerald eyes wide as they could be. "We didn't lose, did we?"
George was the first to nod. "Diggory got the snitch, Harry. He also saved Hope from falling. That stupid git, Rickett--"
"Cedric wanted a rematch, but even Oliver knows they won fair and square." Hope said, cutting off George.
Harry looked around the room. "Where is Oliver."
"In the showers." answered Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."
Hope raised her boney hand and smacked Fred in the back of the head. "Shut up, Fred."
"Don't worry, Harry, you've missed the snitch before." reassured George, even though the entire team held faces of disappointment.
Hope wandered the second-floor corridor, no one at her sides. She needed this alone time, and couldn't go outside in the rain. As she turned a corner, the small Lupin girl came face to face with her two worst enemies.
Pansy eyed the girl up and down. "Well, well, if it isn't little miss Hope Black."
"How did you know that?" she managed to ask, the shock shown on her surprise.
Freya took a step forward, almost towering over the Lupin girl. "After learning you were Draco's cousin, we put together the details."
"But we don't care about that."
The Reed girl shoved Hope onto the stone floor. "Silencio."
"Stay away from Draco." sneered Pansy, as she kicked Hope in the side. "We don't care that you're cousins."
"Draco hates Pansy, because of you." added Freya, as she stepped on Hope's left arm. "Do us a favor and kill yourself."
Pansy noticed the fear in Hope's grey eyes, and almost felt bad for a second, but still continued on. "You don't belong here, you don't belong anywhere."
"Stand up and fight, Black."
Hope barely managed to stand back up, but once she did Freya whipped back out her wand and said quickly. "Flipendo."
Freya stepped forward to hit the girl, but then footsteps echoed through the corridor. And with that, both Slytherin girls were off, leaving Hope against the wall in pain.
As Cormac turned the corner, there she sat, and the sight wasn't pretty. The girl who could run her mouth and was normally kind and confident looked terrified. Cormac saw the girl's pale skin start to turn all sorts of red and purple.
"Oh Merlin, Hope." he managed to say as he ran up to her. As he kneeled in front of her she started to silently cry. Cormac was quick to mutter a counter-charm. "Is that better?"
"Thank you, Cor." she muttered, as more tears streamed down her face.
Cormac eyed the girl he saw as a sister's poor condition. "What happened?"
"They--"
"They? Who did this to you?" he questioned, which just made Hope cry harder. Which he had never seen before, he had never seen her cry.
She sobbed quietly into his shoulder. "They told me I don't belong here."
"Who--"
"And that I should kill myself." she finished, which caused Cormac's jaw to drop. He couldn't think of anyone who could hate Hope that much.
"Hope, it's okay. It's okay." he said to her. "Do you want to go see Alfie or Mister Lupin?"
Her grey eyes widened and she shook her head fast. "No, no, no. I can't."
"Hope--"
She started to cry more. "You don't understand. Papa hates me and Alfie does too."
"They don't hate you. They love you." said Cormac. "But, besides the point, how about we go get you some help?"
"How?"
Cormac shrugged. "I don't know. We could get some food from the kitchens?"
Hope smiled, for the first time in a long time, food sounded great. "That sounds like a great idea."
"Come on--"
"Wait, Cormac, you have to promise you won't tell Alfie about this." she said, standing up next to her brotherly figure. "He wouldn't care, but I don't want him to know."
The McLaggen boy widened his eyes. "Hope, he's my best friend."
"You can't tell my father, either. Promise me, Cormac."
Cormac McLaggen hesitated, but nodded. "I promise."