Song for this chapter ~ It's Not Living (If It's Not With You) by The 1975
As I sat down on the locker room benches while the rest of my team chattered away about how we were going to beat Gryffindor within the first five minutes of the game, the sounds of thunder roared outside, along with the loud pitter-patter of the rain as it hit the ground. As much as I loved the rain, I couldn't help but try to understand why Madam Hooch was allowing us to play today's match.
As I continued to focus on the sounds, trying to forget about how shattered I was over George, Adrian now sat down at the bench and began to place his arm around my bum.
"What are you doing?" I asked, as I quickly grabbed his arm out of the way.
"Just a little good luck before the game, that's all," he now said smirking as he placed his hand in the same spot again. "Anyways, you owe me after what Weasley did." I now quickly stood up from the bench giving him a look of disgust.
"Just because I'm mad at George, doesn't mean you're suddenly going to get whatever you want from me," I now said, standing my ground. "He shouldn't have done what he did, but you're no better than him." The rest of my team now began to watch our argument go down, as they were now sniggering at my words.
Adrian now stood back up with a mean look in his eyes, grabbing onto my wrist tightly.
"So I was right," he now spoke with a knowing look in his eyes. "You are fucking that ginger, aren't you?" As these words began to come out of his mouth, a figure in red and yellow Quidditch robes entered our locker room, looking down at a piece of parchment, not paying notice right away to what was going on.
"Flint, Madam Hooch says I need your signature on this. Instant penalties for bad mouthing—" Wood now stopped in his tracks as he looked up to Adrian's firm grip on my wrist; although Adrian paid no attention to him entering the room as he continued to slander me.
"It doesn't surprise me one bit, to be honest," Adrian continued. "The Weasley's are known to scrape for the bottom of the barrel...doesn't surprise me that he's gone for your Mudblood cunt." As the rest of the team let out stifled laughs—including Flint, Wood now spoke up as he approached Adrian and I.
"I'd suggest letting go, Pucey. Otherwise, I see nothing getting in my way from reporting you to your Head of House and having you kicked off your team." As Wood spoke, Adrian suddenly let go of the grip he had on my wrist, all while maintaining a glare with him.
"Let's get out now, we should be starting any minute." Flint now spoke, also glaring at Wood as he snatched the piece of parchment from his hand.
As the entire team now left the locker room to get onto the pitch, Wood and I now both stood in awkward silence, as I tried keeping in my tears.
"Thanks." I managed to mutter while avoiding his eye contact.
"No problem," he said, standing there with sympathy on his face. "Best of luck out there today." He said to me, while I quickly nodded my head at him and left onto the pitch.
The instant I set my foot onto the Quidditch pitch, I became drenched in rain, as it was now down pouring. Although I could hear loud cheers coming from the stands, as I looked up to them, I couldn't see a thing as the rain was coming down much too hard at this point. What I could see though, were the seven figures dressed in red who now began to approach the Slytherin team, the boy with crimson hair who now stood before me, drenched just as everyone else, as he held onto his bat. He looked at me as though he wished to say something, but after what I had come to learn that he'd done—despite Adrian being no less in the wrong as him, I couldn't look into his eyes.
As everyone began to get onto their brooms, I quickly followed, as I began to ascend into the air, the rain hitting my face hard so that I could barely see. As all fourteen players got into their positions, hovering above Madam Hooch and the trunk that held all four balls.
"I expect a clean game from all of you—especially under these dangerous circumstances!" Madam Hooch now yelled as she looked up at all of us. She then proceeded to release the latches of the trunk, which caused the two Bludgers to come speeding out of it, followed by the Snitch which Harry and I now both attempted to spot. Madam Hooch now grabbed the Quaffle with both hands and threw it into the air as Lee's commentary now began.
"The Quaffle is released...and the game begins!"
As Adrian was the first to get a hold of the Quaffle, he sped past most of the players, making his way towards the goal posts. Before he could make his shot, a flying Bludger just missed hitting his head, as I now turned around to see George with a look of rage on his face. As George was the least of my worries now, I quickly looked up to see Harry, who now began to follow the Snitch way past the stands.
As I sped through the pouring rain, up into the dark, clouds where I now saw large strikes of lightning, I quickly spotted Harry following the golden ball. As both rain and clouds now began to prevent me from seeing anything more than five feet in front of me, I quickly lost Harry and the Snitch within a matter of seconds.
As I now looked around me, I couldn't even tell where, or how high up from the ground I was. Looking in all directions, I suddenly noticed a large, black cloud that now stood in front of me. In front of me, now stood a cloud shaped like a wild dog, almost exactly like the one I had seen weeks ago back at The Leaky Cauldron.
Before I could continue to stare at it, a piercingly cold feeling rushed through my body, as I looked ahead of me to now see Harry being surrounded by a swarm of hooded figures—Dementors, as I recalled seeing them for the first time only weeks ago on the train. As I attempted to reach Harry, my efforts were abruptly interrupted as the same icy feeling my body felt seconds ago, now rendered me incapable of moving.
As I now began to see even more Dementors surround Harry, one in particular now floated right in front of him, and began to draw, what looked like his soul, out of his body. As the cold feeling still circulated throughout my entire body, it wasn't until I noticed him plummeting towards the ground, that the Dementors now began to vanish, and I was finally able to move again.
Although I knew there wouldn't be anything I could do, I rushed towards Harry's descending body anyways, hoping that someone would notice before it was too late—and to his luck, Dumbledore's voice boomed through the entire pitch.
"Aresto Momentum!" As the Headmaster directed his spell towards Harry, his body was instantly slowed down, as he now fell onto the ground without much impact.
Although most of the Gryffindor team now began to stop and head towards Harry, who now lay on the ground, I took my chance as I spotted the Snitch not far from where I now flew.
Making my way through the rainstorm, I now had a very clear vision of the Snitch, as it now stood a mere foot in front of me. Not very high up from the ground, I reached out one of my hands towards the flying Snitch, as it now flew just inches from my fingertips. As I took one last reach for it, my fingers had now managed to grasp it.
Before I could even take in any of the cheers and sounds of booing, a Bludger coming towards me at full speed crashed into my side with so much impact, that I quickly began to tumble towards the ground below me all while falling off my broom. As I hit the ground with a hard impact, my mind became fuzzy—slowly entering a state of unconsciousness from the pain.
* * *
As I began to stir in my sleep, slowly becoming conscious again, an enormous wave of pain coming from my rib cage hit me all at once, making me shriek in pain. Although the pain clouded my vision, I attempted to look up from where I now lay, which from what I could tell, was the Hospital Wing.
As the pain slowly began to subside, I saw a red-headed figure run towards me, just from another bed across from me. Not who I suspected and hoped for, the person turned out to be Fred, who now stood at the side of my bed with a slight look of guilt on his face.
He quickly turned back to Ron, who as I now saw, stood at the foot of another's bed—Harry.
"Ron, go tell Madam Pomfrey she's up." Fred now spoke with authority in his voice.
"Why can't you just go and do it." Ron now spoke to his older brother with annoyance in his voice. As Fred stood there staring at him, his younger brother finally got up from where he sat, all while rolling his eyes and getting up to go and get her.
"How're you feeling then?" Fred now asked, although he seemed to instantly regret asking this question, as I now gripped the side of my waist in pain.
"Bloody great, what does it look like?" I now asked in rhetorical.
"Okay, okay...sorry," he now spoke. "But about that...I may or may not have been the one to hit that Bludger at you." He said with uneasiness, not knowing what to expect from me.
"Are you serious?" I now began to raise my voice; however, I quickly retracted, as doing that only caused me more pain. "What were you trying to do? Bloody prick." I said out of frustration.
"What do you think? I was trying to win. You were getting close to the Snitch so I swung." Seeing as this was a reasonable answer, I let it go.
"So, did I at least catch it?" I now asked, hoping my injuries were worth something.
"Yeah, you did. Slytherin won the game." He now stated with bitterness.
As I looked around the room, there was not a single Slytherin in sight—only a few Gryffindors including Ron and Hermione who sat with Harry at his bed, now remained in the Hospital Wing. Not a single Slytherin had shown up for me, even though I had just won my team the entire match, although I wasn't surprised at this.
"So where is everyone then? I now asked, hoping it wouldn't seem obvious as to who I was asking about.
"Wood's still in the showers," he now spoke. "We think he's trying to drown himself." He said jokingly, although the more I thought of it, the more it made sense.
"And well..." he continued. "George got himself kicked out by Madam Pomfrey earlier—he's not very good at controlling his anger, as I'm sure you've noticed." He now sniggered.
"What do you mean, kicked out?"
"Well, he wasn't very happy with me, seeing as I fractured your ribs," he said guiltily. "He sort of lunged at me, so Madam Pomfrey told him he couldn't come back for the rest of the day."
"Why does he think I need some sort of protection? I can take care of myself." I now said, frustrated.
"I don't think I can count the number of times you've landed yourself in trouble since the start of term, if I'm being honest...sounds like you need saving to me." He sniggered.
"Yeah, well even so, I draw the line at having him beat people up for me." I said, now referring to his incident with Adrian last week.
"You're still on about that? Now I know my brother's got quite the short temper, but he's never acted on something like that without reason."
"What do you mean? George is the one who provoked Adrian." As I said this, I could tell he was refraining from calling out my stupidity.
"I thought you out of all people would have figured out by now how much of a manipulator Pucey is," he started. "Georgie told me the things he said afterwards. He gave him a chance to back off, but Pucey just continued to rile him up."
"What was it that he said about me?" Fred now looked uneasy at my question.
"It's not for me to say...you'll be better off speaking to George yourself."
As my head began to whirl with everything Fred had just told me, I couldn't help but feel extremely guilty. I should have followed my gut instinct when Adrian told me all those lies yesterday. Although I still didn't agree with how George acted upon it, I should have let himself explain, just as I allowed Adrian.
"Look, I don't know when the two of you plan on figuring your feelings out for each other, but do it soon. He's been getting on my nerves recently." I shot a glare at Fred as he said this, and instantly turned back away as my face began to go pink.
"Feelings..." I now quietly muttered to myself, seemingly frustrated.
"I don't think you give yourself enough credit when it comes to George. I've never seen him act like this before. I would know, seeing as I'm his twin." He said, as he appeared very genuine. Before I could respond to this, Madam Pomfrey had now approached my bed.
"I hope you haven't been bothering this young lady," she now said glaring at Fred. "You and your brother have both caused enough trouble as it is in one day, I don't need these poor girls injuries to become more serious than they already are." Fred now held his hands up in surrender as a joke as Madam Pomfrey said these words, garnering another glare from her.
"Well I guess that's my cue to leave. I should check up on George anyways. Reckon he's still furious at me." As he began to walk away, he stopped in his tracks as Madam Pomfrey began to have a look at my injury.
"By the way," he spoke again. "I think he's left a gift by the bedside for you." He said, nodding to the bedside counter, and beginning to walk away.
As Madam Pomfrey now began to pour a concoction into a glass, I now peered over to what Fred was referring to.
Sitting there, folded, was the maroon hoodie he had lent to me not long ago. My stomach fluttered yet again, as his kind gesture meant a lot more to me than he probably knew.
"Now dear," Madam Pomfrey now spoke up, as she held up the cup she had just filled. "If you want to be out of here by tomorrow, I suggest you start drinking this right away. You've badly fractured your ribs, and those can be tricky to heal."
As I grabbed the cup from her hands and up to my lips, slowly starting to drink the unknown contents, my face said it all, as I nearly spit out the drink.
"Yes, well, it's not supposed to taste great," she now said. "Finish that up while I go check on the others, alright?" She asked, now walking away, as I gave her a quick nod.
As I continued to finish the rest of the contents, I now saw Harry and his two friends begin to approach me, as it now seemed Harry was done with his stay at the Hospital Wing.
"Calista," Hermione now spoke as the three of them stood at the foot of my bed. "How're you feeling? Sorry we didn't come sooner...," she now nodded to Harry. "This ones always getting himself hurt." I let out a small chuckle as she let out her last words.
"I'll be fine, thanks," I said kindly. "And what about you, Harry?" I asked, remembering the frightening look on the boys face during the match.
"I'm fine thanks. Good job with the Snitch." Harry now remarked, as I gave him a nod with a small smile.
"Right, well we should get going. I'm still making these two go to our last class of the day." Ron and Harry both groaned at this, as the three of them now began to walk away with Hermione saying her last goodbyes to me.
As I had now finished with the rather disgusting beverage Madam Pomfrey had given me, I attempted to reach over to place the cup down onto the bedside table, when I noticed a piece of plain parchment sitting at the corner of it. Grabbing it to have a look, the very short note was written in sloppy handwriting. All it read was:
We've found a new Seeker- Flint
My stomach sank as I read the phrase to myself. Even after I had just won my House today's match, they could still not get past my blood status. Seeing as Quidditch remained the only thing left for me in order to keep my mind off of everything that had been going on recently, I began to let out a small cry. I had been Seeker of the team ever since my second year at Hogwarts; for three years I had played for the Slytherins, and now it had all been taken away from me. Seeing as I was desperate for comfort at this moment, I grabbed George's hoodie from the nightstand, and attempted to throw it over myself, even though it caused me much pain doing it. As I curled up under the blankets, still letting out small cries to myself, the comfort of his clothes along with his scent, all were enough to make me fall asleep within a matter of minutes.
* * *
George's POV
As I reached the dark entrance of the Hospital Wing tonight, I quickly looked around to see if there were any teachers around, or better yet Madam Pomfrey herself who had forbidden me from coming back here for a little while. As the room seemed both empty and quiet, besides the few students who now remained asleep in the beds, I made my way down the rows of beds until I reached her.
I don't know why I had come here hoping and expecting for her to be awake, seeing as it was now near midnight. Of course, she was fast asleep, a small wheeze escaping her nose each time she breathed out. As I peered down at her more closely, I now noticed she was curled up in my sweater, with her hands clutching to each cuff, as they were much too long for her.
As I attempted to pull up a chair next to the bed, she began to stir in her sleep, seemingly uncomfortable with the positioning of her head, as it no longer lay on top of the pillow. I grabbed the pillow from where it now lay at the head of the bed, and lowered it to her level while shifting her head slightly so that it now lay comfortably on it. Although for a second she seemed as if she would fall right back to her deep trance, her eyes slowly began to open as I sat down on the chair next to her.
As her eyes began to flutter open, she attempted to adjust to the darkness, although she seemed well aware of someone's presence.
"Hey, I'm sorry," I now spoke in a soft voice. "I didn't mean to wake you."
"George?" She questioned, although she surprisingly didn't seem upset at my presence.
"Yeah...it's me," I said, not knowing where to begin. "How're you feeling? Sorry I didn't come to see you earlier, Madam Pom—"
"George, it's ok...Fred told me," she said, interrupting me. "I'm the one who should be sorry," she said, now not looking me in the eye. "I should have let you explain yourself...it's just Adria—" Her voice now became shaky as she spoke his name.
"You don't have to explain yourself to me, and definitely not him." I began, but she quickly interjected.
"No...but I do," she spoke, as she now attempted to sit up so she could be at eye level to me, although she did all while wincing in pain.
"Hey, be careful," As I now remembered how she got her injuries, I attempted to excuse my brother. "Fred's a git for doing this...I'm sorry."
"George, please...stop apologizing," she spoke, now facing me. "I'm sorry for not trusting you, or even letting you explain yourself...your brother told me Adrian said some things to set you off. What did he say, George?" She now asked, looking deeply into my eyes. I quickly looked down at my feet, not wanting to face her right know.
"Please don't make me tell you." I now said, with a sad expression on my face.
"Okay, I won't," she said, responding instantly to my demand. I slowly reached for one of her small hands, and held it in mine. She began to shift more comfortably in the bed, as she adjusted her hand in mine.
"I was worried when I didn't see you come down for dinner in The Great Hall the other night," I now began to speak again. "Speaking of...I didn't see you stay for breakfast this morning after..." I trailed off, not wanting to bring up the events of this morning again. "Did you eat?" I asked, worriedly.
"I'm fine, George..I promise," she said, although I wasn't convinced.
"Okay, but you're coming for breakfast with me tomorrow morning," I began. "You owe me," I said in a teasing way, with a grin on my face; although I immediately regretted saying the last bit, as it now seemed to trigger some sort of response in her, as she began to shed tears.
"Hey, hey...I'm really sorry. I wasn't being serious, I was only joking." I said, gliding one of my fingers down her face, still holding onto her hand. Her tears began to slow down, as she now nodded her head at me.
"I know you were." Was the only thing she was able to mutter at this moment. As I quickly put the pieces together, I spoke again.
"He really hurt you, didn't he?" I said, looking at her with a deep sadness on my face, as she quickly nodded her head in response. "I won't," I shyly said, as I now looked down at my feet. As her grip on my hand now tightened, her breathing became more relaxed, as her tears had now ceased.
"They kicked me off the team," she now spoke, letting out a small sniffle.
"I heard...I'm sorry." Although her sadness pained me, I couldn't help but feel a huge sense of relief after hearing this news, as it meant she would have to spend less time with Pucey, and the rest of the team. "Flint's a damn idiot for letting his best player go." I said, now giving her a small smile, which she reciprocated.
"Hey, um...the others and I are heading to Hogsmeade tomorrow, if you'd like to join." I now said, looking at her nervously.
"I'd really like that," she spoke softly, all while looking into my eyes with deep affection.
As her eyes slowly began to shut only after a few minutes, I shifted my own head down to rest on the side of the bed, her slow breathing movements now beginning to calm me, as I slowly began drifting off myself.