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chapter thirty nine | quidditch quarrels
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KAYA LOVED QUIDDITCH. She loved everything to do with it. The robes, the brooms, all the different positions that made up the perfect team and gave them the win. And when she said she loved everything about Quidditch, she meant everything - the roaring adrenaline from the crowd, the unity between houses, the excitement of winning. Even the positions that didn't concern her, she adored - not to mention, how beautiful the golden snitch was. Kaya loved everything about Quidditch.
Except the Bludgers. The Bludgers can fuck off.
One of these two balls from hell crashed into Harry's back, causing him to fly forwards off his broom. Thankfully, he wasn't too far from the ground, although he still hit it with a loud thud, a series of gasps sounding around the stands amongst Madame Hooch's shrill whistle.
"Shit!" Kaya cried loudly.
"Shit, indeed," Milo said, his worried eyes fixated on the Quidditch Pitch.
But, Harry grimly took Angelina Johnson's hand, and allowed her to pull him to his feet. Madame Hooch was zooming towards Crabbe (that asshole), just as Maisie suggested,
"Shall we go down there and check on them all?"
"Yeah," Kaya said quickly, her mind jam-packed with all kinds of things. She wanted to check Harry was okay, although by the looks of it, he was. She wanted to speak to Jaeden, who was going to be gutted at his loss, she wanted to make sure Ron was okay, considering the insults being chanted at him all through the game. She wanted to congratulate the twins, and give Fred a big, tight, proud hug because she still couldn't quite believe how she'd managed to score herself such an amazing boyfriend.
But, as they edged nearer towards the pitch, they could feel the excitement of Gryffindor's win slowly drifting behind them in the crowds, now replaced by a tense atmosphere they could feel clutching onto them before they could even hear what was being said to cause it.
"What's happening?" Maisie muttered.
"I dunno... Malfoy's riling the Gryffindor team up, by the looks of it..." said Milo, as they paced over to the crowd of two teams.
"Oh, he's being an ass again, isn't he?" Kaya said with dread, wondering what on earth could be coming out of his mouth, this time.
"Wind your neck in, Malfoy, you've got a receding hairline at fifteen, I'd be more worried about that, if I were you," Maddie Jordan's snappy voice was the first to be heard as the trio grew nearer to the dispute.
"We wanted to write another couple of verses!" Malfoy called out, apparently ignoring Maddie, as Kaya rushed over to give Fred a hug and congratulate both him and George. "But we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly - we wanted to sing about his mother, see-"
"Talk about sour grapes," said Angelina, casting a dirty look towards Malfoy. Jaeden smirked.
"-we couldn't fit in useless loser either - for his father, you know-"
Kaya, who'd been holding onto Fred excitedly before Malfoy's voice interrupted them, felt his arm stiffen, and she felt overcome with worry - finally understanding who's parents the boy was talking about.
"Oi, Malfoy, shut up, you're embarrassing us all-" Jaeden told him, in an attempt to put an end to the taunting.
"Leave it!" Angelina said, turning to the twins with a knowing look. "Leave it, let him yell, he's just sore he lost, the jumped-up-little-"
"But you like the Weasleys, don't you Potter?" said Malfoy, sneering. "Spend the holidays with them and everything, don't you? Can't believe how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by muggles, even the Weasley's hovel smells okay-"
"Dickhead," Kaya said, clutching onto Fred as tightly as she could to prevent him from lunging forward. Alicia and Angelina stepped forward to help, whilst Maisie, Harry and Milo grabbed ahold of George.
Kaya felt an odd sense of déjà-vu. This had happened before. She'd had to hold back Fred from attacking someone before...
"Or perhaps," said Malfoy, directly to Harry, leering as he backed away. "You can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and the Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it-"
And then Harry released George, the two pushing past Maisie and Milo and sprinting towards the platinum-haired boy. Fred was forcefully pushing even further. Harry punched his fist straight into Malfoy's stomach, and Jaeden sped forward in an attempt to break it up.
"George!" Maisie yelled, desperately. "George - Harry - NO!"
Jaeden and Milo were attempting to wrestle the two boys off of Malfoy, Maisie was frozen in pure shock, girls were screaming, and all whilst the teachers were still watching. What a mess.
Kaya suddenly remembered why she felt this sense of familiarity - it was in the Great Hall, last year, when Andrew Edwards had insulted her body and told her she should eat more, did Fred go to attack him. She'd managed to stop Fred from lunging forward, all by herself. She could do it again.
"Oi, Fred!" she called out, standing right in front of the struggling boy. "Fred - OI! What are you doing?"
Fred's eyes shifted towards his girlfriend upon hearing her voice, and the sight of her staring back distinguished the anger in his eyes in seconds.
"I know he's a prick, and I know he deserves to be beaten to a pulp. I'd throw a few punches myself if I were in your position. But I'm thinking about you and Umbridge'll make your life ten times harder if she catches you doing this,"
"I don't care," said Fred, softly to Kaya but still with meaning. "He deserves it, like you said,"
"Fred," Kaya repeated, crossing her arms, her expression becoming more stern. Fred had never seen this expression from her, before.
He hesitated for a moment, unable to look Malfoy in the eye due to the fact that he was sure he'd probably lunge for him if he caught sight of the boy anymore. He stayed frozen in his spot though, taking into consideration what Kaya was saying.
She was quick to move. She sped forward and gripped ahold of Fred's hand and dragged him away from the commotion, thankful he hadn't ignored her.
"I'm only stopping because you want me to," He told her.
"I know," Kaya replied, giving him a warm smile, before planting a kiss on his cheek. "And I'm only stopping you because I'm looking out for you. Not because I don't think Malfoy deserves a beating,"
Fred wrapped his arm around Kaya's shoulder.
"We'll get him one day," she added. She could still sense the anger boiling through the boy's bloodstream. Kaya could tell it was extremely difficult for him to walk away — in fact, she wasn't entirely sure she'd convinced him fully to not fight Malfoy, just yet.
But Kaya knew Umbridge would've loved an excuse to torment her boyfriend, and she wasn't having that.
The pair's attention turned back to where the fight had (luckily) just broken up, Madame Hooch now standing between the group, whistle in hand and her broom abandoned several feet away.
"What do you think you're doing?" she screamed. Malfoy was currently curled up on the ground whimpering with a bloody nose. George had a swollen lip, Harry had leapt to his feet after being shot at with a Impediment Jinx, Jaeden was clutching his stomach as though it had been hit, and Milo was restraining himself from going after a cackling Crabbe in the background.
"I've never seen behaviour like it - go back up to the castle, both of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now!"
Harry and George marched off the pitch panting, and Madame Hooch ordered everyone else away. Kaya didn't leave Fred's side until she had to, which was when he was heading for the changing rooms.
She had a feeling the week from hell she'd been expecting thanks to Quidditch might be even worse than she'd imagined.
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"Let me see your lyrics!"
"No!"
"Please?"
"No!"
Kaya and Maisie were currently curled up snugly in their cushioned chairs positioned by the fireplace in the Hufflepuff Common Room. They had returned to their house accommodation earlier than usual, this evening, which was no doubt because of the chaotic game and the aftermath. Jaeden had vanished, assumedly to the changing rooms to sulk, Fred had disappeared off to the showers and Milo and Lee thought it'd be best to head back to Gryffindor tower, so that when George and Harry returned, they could figure out what was going on.
And so, the two Hufflepuff girls resided to their common room, Kaya getting out her guitar and book of (as she'd call it, awful) song lyrics, and Maisie getting started on a Potions essay that Snape had definitely set just to piss his class off.
"Mais..." Kaya said, after a few moments of comfortable silence as the two worked.
"Hm?"
"What type of blue would you call the colour of my dress at the Yule Ball?"
"Er..." Maisie said, eyeing Kaya suspiciously as she thought. "I mean... baby blue?"
Kaya blinked, unamused.
"Something other than 'blue',"
"Merlin, I dunno, K, you're the poet, not me!" Maisie said.
"...I'm gonna say sky,"
Maisie laughed, pausing for a moment, before saying,
"What are you even writing about, anyway, in that secret notebook of yours?"
"Ah, well," replied Kaya, with a mischievous grin. "I could tell you, but then it wouldn't be a secret, would it?"
The ginger shook her head with a grin, glancing at Kaya a few times as she watched her frantically write, wishing in that moment she was a Legilimens, so she could understand what on Earth was going on in that girl's head.
Although, she eventually grasped a fair clue on what this particular poem was about - especially when she caught Kaya rhyming 'sky' with 'tie'.
Perhaps the brunette wasn't as secretive as she thought she was being.
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"Banned?!"
It was the next day in the Great Hall, when Kaya received the news of the punishment for Harry, George - and Fred.
"But you only defended yourselves!" Maisie uttered in disbelief.
"And you didn't even do anything!" Kaya said, turning to a very miserable Fred with an appalled look.
"I wish I had," he muttered. "I would've, if I didn't have you..."
"Umbridge said if you lot didn't hold him back it looked like he would've attacked, too," George explained glumly, pushing his food around his plate with a fork.
"But that's not fair!" said Kaya. "What about Crabbe? He purposefully gave Harry a wallop with a Bludger, did he get banned?"
"'Course not," said Jaeden, angry for both the twins and Harry. "She's a biased cow,"
"I dunno what, but someone needs to do something, to her," Kaya said, the group now eyeing the pink woman as she smugly made her way to the teachers table. "Look, there she is. The old bitch,"
"I can't believe the last time we ever played Quidditch was that shit-show. It wasn't even a good final match," George complained. "It was all shit. Well... apart from when Mais caused all the Slytherins to fall on their asses," he added, a warm grin creeping up on his face as he glanced at the girl, softly.
"What?" Jaeden spoke up, also looking towards Maisie but with a questioning frown. The red-head exchanged glances with Kaya.
"I was getting pissed off at their stupid chant," she explained. "So I shot a Knockback Jinx at them all,"
"...You shot a jinx at the crowd cheering on my team?"
Oh shit, Kaya thought, looking towards Milo, who was mirroring her knowing expression. Here we go.
"Well, no, they weren't exactly cheering you on, were they? They were insulting Ron,"
"So, first you stand with the opposing team's supporters, and then you send a jinx at my house?"
"Oh my god," Maisie rolled her eyes. "We sat with Milo, who was obviously going to sit with his own house, wasn't he? He wasn't going to sit with the opposing team,"
"And don't think I didn't notice you all cheering for Gryffindor. You barely made any noise when Slytherin - my team - scored,"
Fred, George and Lee were sitting quietly, exchanging awkward glances with each other.
"But, Jae," Milo said in an attempt of explaining without Maisie's anger on top. "We were cheering for you, it's just Ron was getting insulted, so your house wasn't exactly in our good books in that moment, were they?"
"So you're saying my house is the reason you didn't want to support me? You're choosing the Slytherin stereotype over your best friend?"
"Oh, grow up, Jae!" Maisie said, irritably. "We're not going to cheer for bullies, are we? We cheered for you, if you didn't notice, but none of us are going to be happy for assholes like Montague, are we?"
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Mais," Jaeden snapped. "And then you try and sabotage my teams supporters? Some bullshit, right there,"
Maisie sighed in annoyance. "You're being pathetic, Jae. Not everything is about you-"
"Yeah, well, even if I didn't like the Hufflepuffs, I'd have still cheered for you and your team, because, in case you forgot, we're supposed to be friends,"
"Come on, guys..." Fred said, slowly, glancing down at Kaya uneasily, as though looking for help.
"No you wouldn't!" Maisie responded, loudly, slamming her fork down onto the table. "And you'd have done exactly the same as me if, say, Jeremy was getting bullied by the whole opposing team and it's supporters during his first ever game. They had it coming,"
"Right, but I'd have still supported my friend, instead of the opposing fucking team,"
"Okay, Jaeden, but in case you forgot, we have friends in Gryffindor, too," Maisie snapped, gesturing to Fred and George, who lowered their heads towards their plates, as though afraid they'd be dragged into the dispute.
"Oh my god, stop!" Kaya cried, as many other students from Gryffindor table leaned forward towards the group with frowns, wondering what the commotion was all about. "This is about Quidditch! Are you people insane?!"
"Oh, forget it," Jaeden sneered, standing up. "I don't wanna sit with you lot, right now, anyway, I'm off,"
And he stormed away.
"Um, no!" Maisie protested, aggressively swinging herself off the bench and also standing up. "You might be done, but I'm fucking not..!"
And the two stormed off - leaving a trail of heads staring after them and a tense atmosphere lingering between their group of friends.
"Thanks for the help, Miles," Kaya said light-heartedly, turning to the blonde boy who had been quietly watching the argument with wide eyes.
"...You were doing so well, I thought I'd better not... intervene..." he said slowly, struggling to come up with an answer. Kaya chuckled.
What was left of the group returned to their food, although Fred, George and Lee were very clearly concerned - even confused, at Kaya and Milo's relaxed nature about it all.
"Er..." said George, awkwardly. "Are they gonna be okay, or..?"
"Yeah," said Kaya, with a shrug. "Shit like this happens all the time, they'll be friends again in a few days,"
"...Jae doesn't hate us, does he?" said Fred, slightly worried.
"'Course not," said Milo, through a mouthful of scrambled egg. "He's just bitter he lost, so he's taking it out on us. He'll feel guilty soon, and start acting extra nice to everyone. Like K said - it happens all the time,"
The three Gryffindor boys nodded slowly, still slightly worried but more reassured, considering the two people who knew both Maisie and Jaeden best weren't at all stressed about the intense argument.
Kaya had been spot on, when she said Jaeden and Maisie's dispute wouldn't last long - it had been a solid two days of scowls and bitter comments fired at one another before the two decided to drop it. Jaeden's miserable sulking had almost come to a finish - the news of Hagrid, his Care of Magical Creatures (and favourite) teacher, returning from his mysterious break away maybe having a contribution to speeding up Jaeden's recovery from his gloomy state.
The cold winter months were approaching, meaning multiple trips to Hogsmeade, ploughing through the thick, snowy grounds, enjoying warm hot chocolates in the snug common rooms, skating on the frozen lake, and, most importantly, becoming even more excited at the fact Christmas was around the corner.
"Can you believe this time last year, we weren't even together? It feels like I've been with you for years," Kaya said to Fred, as the two strolled across the grounds.
He had just been bewitching snowballs with George to zoom up to Gryffindor tower and rap hard on the windows - only for Ron to open and use his Prefect role to threaten them, immediately regretting it, once realising it was his older brothers. Kaya had just finished an hours worth of revision with Maisie, and so decided to spend some time with her boyfriend, considering he was obviously bored if he wanted to spend his time hitting windows with snowballs.
"I know," he agreed, holding her hand and stuffing it inside the pocket of his coat to keep it warm. "I'm pretty sure this time last year we were all stressing about the Yule Ball,"
"What, you?" Kaya teased, giving him a slight nudge. "Stressing about the Yule Ball? Never. I bet you had millions of invites from people all over the place,"
"Who, me?" Fred said, mimicking her taunting expression. "More like you - surely you had invites coming at you left, right and centre. I still can't work out how I managed to get you to come with me - even when I fucked up and friend zoned the whole thing,"
Kaya laughed. "Awe, did you not want to go as friends, really?"
"Obviously not," he said. "It's you. Nobody in their right mind would want to be just friends with you, I'm still a bit confused how I managed to pull you in the first place,"
The brunette playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up, don't make me blush. You wanna be careful, you're feeding my ego a bit too much,"
"Well, I'm not lying!" Fred continued, with a grin. "Even Bill said, 'How'd you manage to do that?' when Mum told him about us. I was like 'I have no idea',"
Kaya broke into a chorus of laughs, yet again, leaning onto him as they walked.
"Yeah? Well, I feel the same, so don't think you're special,"
"I am special, I've got you,"
"Oh, stop,"
"You know you don't want me to, really,"
"Well..."
Kaya's spirits soared when she and her friends entered the Room of Requirement for the final DA meeting before the holidays, to see it had been festively decorated ready for Christmas. Even if summer was her favourite time of year, it did not dull down her mood during Christmas and winter, either. She was definitely the type of girl who was just in the mood for any season, whenever it was that time of the year.
"Cute decorations, Harry!" she said, chirpily, as she entered. "Did you put these up?"
"Er - no," he replied, as the room began to fill in with regular members. Kaya frowned slightly in response, but shrugged. Perhaps the room had just done it itself.
"Okay," said Harry, calling the group to Order. "I thought this evening we should just go over things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the Christmas holidays, and there's no point starting anything new right before a three week break..."
"We're not doing anything new?" Zacharias Smith said through a disgruntled tone. "If I had known that, I wouldn't have come,"
"Oh my god!" Maddie Jordan groaned loudly. "Just shut up! For once!"
"Yeah, we're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you," said Fred, causing several people to snigger. Zacharias gave him a dirty look.
"We can practice in pairs," Harry continued. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and start Stunning, again,"
Fred quickly seized Kaya's hand.
"Sorry, Mais," he teased, giving the red-headed girl on Kaya's right a taunting grin. "She's my girlfriend, this session,"
Maisie folded her arms and jokingly scowled at him, before shrugging and smiling.
"Whatever," she said. "You two go and be cute,"
"What the fuck?" George spoke up. "You've ditched me - your twin - again? I've had enough of this shit,"
"Yep," Fred nodded, causing Kaya to laugh. "So go and find someone else to pair up with,"
"Don't worry - Mais, you go with George and show him up!" Kaya encouraged. Maisie turned her head towards George with a raised eyebrow.
"Show me up?" George pulled a face. "As if. Come on, then, Stenberg,"
And the two walked off - leaving Kaya and Fred staring rather smugly after them.
It was definitely obvious how much everyone had improved under the influence of Harry. Kaya now managed to excel in spells she'd only managed to scrape a 'succeed' in, and even was able to perform new ones she'd failed at, in precious classes. She found it quite amusing, how much the school struggled to find a new Defence teacher every year, when a fifteen year old boy was probably making each of the previous ones (except Lupin, perhaps) look like idiots. Harry was for sure destined to be a Professor.
At the end of an hour, he called a halt.
"You're getting really good!" he said, beaming across at everyone. "When we get back from the holidays, we can start doing some of the big stuff - maybe even Patronuses,"
Kaya's heart swelled at this little bit of information. She had always been fascinated with the idea of a Patronus, and the fact that every witch and wizard held inside them a spirit animal that would break free and protect them when they were able to perform the charm perfectly. She wondered what hers would be.
"Probably a slug," Jaeden answered, once she'd expressed this to her friends after they'd all wished Harry a 'Merry Christmas' and left the Room of Requirement.
"Ha!" the girl retorted. "Don't make me laugh - if any of us was to end up with a shite animal, it would be you, Mr. When-I-Lose-Quidditch-I-Bully-My-Friends,"
"Oh, will you drop it!" Jaeden shoved her. "It was ages ago, now, and... erm... I was having a bad day, okay?"
"Yeah, alright Drama Queen," Maisie said, causing Milo to laugh. "Anyway, how's your ass, George?"
"How's his what?" Lee scrunched up his face.
"Don't," George dismissed it with a hint of dread in his voice.
"Maisie sent him flying past the cushions, when we were Stunning," Milo explained with a smirk. "He landed flat on his ass, funniest thing I've seen, all week,"
Fred cackled obnoxiously, pointing at his twin who gave him an ugly look in response.
"Behave," George said, glancing around at the rest of the group. "I just wanna go to the kitchens, get shit-loads of food, stuff my face and have a long night's sleep, not get harassed,"
And so, that he did - or, at least, that was the plan, anyway. Fred and George walked the two girls back to their common room, Kaya giving Fred a kiss goodnight, before disappearing behind the barrels. The twins practically robbed the kitchen of food on the way back, and then headed to Gryffindor Common Room.
Although, little did they know, a good night's sleep unfortunately wouldn't be as successful as George had hoped.
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A/N: Idk why I found Jaeden & Maisie's fight so funny 😭 But, trust me to end up having to write Christmassy scenes in the summer - good one, Mia.
Also the twins are gonna wake up to the fact that their dad has been attacked, poor babies 🥺
I'm acc so excited to write everyone's patronuses, though! I did so much research and they're all hiding in my notes like 😼
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!
<3