This might be really bad. I'm sorry if you don't think the personalities are correct, but I did my best. Will, Aaron, Josh, and Evans are not characters of mine, though everyone else (aside from Madam Pomfrey, Madam Hooch, Professor Slughorn, etc... basically all the Hogwarts staff) is mine. Thank you for reading if you do. Oh, and by the way, Evanz here is just Evans... because his name is Will, too, and that'd be really confusing.
Gwyneth wasn't usually very friendly toward Slytherins. She avoided them, and they avoided her. When they didn't avoid each other, they picked on each other. She didn't really understand the feud, really; all she knew was that it had been going on for a long while, and there was no way in hell she could change it. She went along with it, anyway, and came to hate the Slytherins as much as the rest of her House, Gryffindor, but that was only because they were mean first...
Gwyneth was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with her face buried in a book. It was a book about Quidditch; the team captain had advised the entire team to read it. Gwyn played the position of Seeker. Will was on the team, too, and he played as a Chaser. She looked up as she felt a finger tap her shoulder, a bit surprised and wide-eyed, but she calmed once she saw the smirking face of her best friend looming down on her.
Will gave her a quirky little smile. His light blonde hair tousled and his blue eyes sparkling, he grabbed her book right from her hands. Gwyn reached for it, eyes now narrowed, but Will held it out of reach.
He laughed at her.
"Come on, Gwynnie, reach higher!" taunted Will as she jumped in her chair for it. Finally, though, she stood up and took it from Will, giving him a sharp look and sitting down once it was done. He snickered at her. "Feisty."
Gwyneth rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Will, I'm trying to read. You're supposed to be reading, too, you know; Kale told us that if we didn't read it we're going to be replaced."
Again, Will laughed in her face. "Are you kidding me?" Again, the book left her hands and Will opened it, leaning against the wall next to the fireplace and flipping through the pages. "Kale is a bluffing twat. He couldn't find a Seeker or Chaser better than us; everyone else that tried out was shit." Rolling his eyes at the pages, he handed the book back to her. "Boring. I already know all that stuff."
"Oh, shut up, Will. He'll know if we read it, he's apparently quizzing us on it," retorted Gwyn. More laughter.
"Gwynnie, Gwynnie, Gwynnie," he began, walking over to the front of her chair, "Slytherin has shit players this year. They won't beat us, not even on our first game playing as a team together. Come on, tell me you know that."
Gwyneth stood up, dropping the book onto the chair. He'd kept her from reading, which had ultimately been his goal; he wanted her to entertain him rather than read. "That's not true! Their Seeker is supposed to be brilliant, I-"
"Yes, you have to work, work, work hard, but their Chasers are shit! Their Keeper is shit! Their Beaters-"
"-broke the last Seeker's arm four times," interjected Gwyn. Of course, they were only able to break the past Seeker's arm—her name had been Emily, but she had been a seventh year the year before—because Madam Pomfrey healed her so many times. Yes, magic healed broken bones, but Gwyn still obviously didn't want to get hit by a Bludger and have any bones broken. What if the injury was fatal? People died sometimes in Quidditch...
"Yes, but that's besides the point. You're an amazing Seeker, best one we've had yet! You weren't on the team last year only because you didn't try out. Too 'busy with schoolwork'..." He mocked her by putting his hands by his shoulders, swinging his wrists back and worth rapidly, making a voice, and doing a face. Gwyn rolled her eyes.
"You're dumb."
"Don't worry, you'll be great!" Millicent clapped her hand on Gwyneth's shoulder as she walked by. Millicent was one of the few female Beaters in Quidditch history; she always fatasised about being on the Holyhead Harpies when she was older. Gwyn, on the other hand, did no such thing. She didn't really have a dream of making Quidditch into a career... she didn't know what she wanted to do yet.
"Thanks, Millicent," said Gwyn, giving the other Gryffindor student a small, slightly nervous smile.
"Gryffindor, here!" shouted Kale. The team huddled over.
"Remember, people, we're a team," said Kale just as he did every practice, "and a team works together. Don't hog the Quaffle and don't rely only on yourself. Your team mates are here for you. Trust them."
Everyone gave half-hearted nods. They were quite nervous. The only one that wasn't entirely nervous was Emmett, the quiet Keeper; their Chasers weren't fantastic, nor was their Keeper. Their Beaters and Seeker, though...
The captains shook hands, Madam Hooch blew her whistle, and the game started.
Immediately Gwyneth rose into the sky, her eyes scanning around rapidly for any sign of a golden wing. The other Seeker was doing the same thing. His name was Aaron, she knew; she and Will had a long-lasting grudge against Aaron and his friend Josh that began in their first year. They were now in their sixth year. Gwyn couldn't really remember what had happened between them, though. He was larger than the average Seeker, but still rather thin.
They both hovered above the other players, looking around rapidly. Different ends of the crowd cheered, booed, sighed, clapped, and laughed at different times. Gwyn tried and tried not to pay attention and to use her eyes to look for the Snitch rather than looking at the crowd.
"Gwyn! Duck!" shouted Markus, the other Beater, and she did just as a Bludger flew over her head. He, waiting for the Bludger on the other side, gave the enchanted ball a hard hit toward Aaron. He spun around on his broomstick, hanging on tightly.
"Ten points to Gryffindor!" chanted the commentator, and the red-and-gold-flagged stands roared with delight. Gwyn smiled a little bit. Will had scored, she saw, as he fist-pumped in the air and got a high-five from Kale as they passed each other.
Just as soon as that, though, a Chaser on the Slytherin team scored as well. They were tied at ten-to-ten. The score was Gryffindor leading with 90-10 in about twenty minutes. Will hadn't lied when he said that their Chasers were shit. The Keeper wasn't great, either, obviously. It was then that Gwyn saw Aaron do a nose-dive at the ground. She automatically zoomed after him.
They plummeted toward the ground with Aaron just ahead of Gwyn. She could see it now; the Golden Snitch was flickering around speedily almost right above the ground. Thunder sounded above their heads, but Gwyn ignored it.
Aaron, just about to hit the ground, pulled up. Gwyn followed suit, still speeding after the Snitch.
"Aaron!" someone from Slytherin yelled, and he zoomed away. Gwyn knew a Bludger was there, but she had no time to check. She reached forward at the Snitch, her fingers almost just closing around it before her arm was hit ruthlessly by a Bludger.
A chorus of cheering from the Slytherin stands and a chorus of booing from the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff stands sounded all at the same time. Her arm ached. She tried to grip her broom instead with her bad hand and reach with her good one. That made her rather unsteady, but it worked, she guesssed. Soon, though, Aaron had come up right next to her.
"Ten points to Slytherin!" Damn it! Emmett must've been distracted by all the yelling after Gwyn got hit by the Bludger.
There it was. The Golden Snitch flew right in front of them. They both reached out at the same time, each trying to speed faster than the other but neither succeeding. Gwyn's fingertips brushed the Snitch, and she almost closed her fist around it when she toppled forward. She cursed loudly, gripping onto her broomstick tightly as she hung upside down on it. As she got right-side-up, she noticed a familiar sound. Cheers sounded from the Slytherin stands, earpiercing cheers that could only mean one thing: Aaron had caught the Snitch and Slytherin had won 180-90.
Aaron held the Snitch high in the air, grinning widely. Gwyn rolled her eyes, angry. Her arm ached and she was frustrated. Everyone would blame her... it was her fault, after all. Everyone had done well but her. The Slytherins would bump their teasing up a notch, too, and Gwyn might 'accidentally' get into a fight or something with one of them... like that stupid Emma Knox girl. Gwyn couldn't stand her.
"It's not your fault," said Will as they walked back. "Aaron is just a really good Seeker. I bet you could beat him in a duel, though. If he picks on you, I'm sure McGonagall would give you her permission to hex him or something..."
He tried to comfort her, but it didn't help. What he said about Professor McGonagall wasn't true, either; she was a rather fair House leader, though she obviously cheered for Gryffindor in Quidditch matches and points. Who wouldn't, though? Everyone cheered for his or her own House unless their House wasn't involved... like Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw cheered for separate Houses in Quidditch matches involving only Gryffindor and Slytherin.
Gwyn got mainly supportive responses, but some dirty looks from obviously disappointed students. Kale wasn't up front about it, but she could tell he blamed her.
"We were ahead and she ruined it!" Gwyn overheard Kale angrily saying to Markus. Markus just gave a little combination of a shrug and a nod. Gwyn looked away and walked faster.
No one had forgotten about it by dinner. Josh, Aaron, and a couple of their friends at the Slytherin table were laughing loudly. Upon looking over, Gwyn noticed they were imitating her falling forward and hanging onto her broomstick. Most of their little imitations, though, resulted in them pretending to fly forward by banging their faces—softly, so they didn't get hurt—onto the table in front of them. The laughter at the Slytherin table was by far the loudest that night.
Gwyneth and Will had been taken to Madam Pomfrey. She had fixed her arm rather quickly; it was broken, apparently, but Gwyn forgot the exact term of it. A couple of her friends were supportive, but some just gave her false smiles and rolled their eyes when they mistakenly thought she was looking away. This may sound like an overreaction from everyone, but Quidditch was a big deal in Hogwarts, especially when it's against famously opposed Houses.
Gwyn didn't have much of an appetite after all this, so she didn't eat very much of dinner. She was quiet as well; no one thought it was odd just because she never talked when she had nothing to say. She was quiet even when she felt like speaking, though. She was so disappointed they'd lost... especially since they lost because of stupid Aaron.
On her way back to the Gryffindor common room, she and Will overheard some fourth years talking about students being taken out of Hogwarts after hearing whispering in their ears, disappearing for hours, then remembering none of it. Immediately they went over to them.
"What are you talking about?" asked Gwyn immediately, suddenly feeling very interested and willing to speak.
The fourth years glanced at each other. They were a mix of Houses. One was from Hufflepuff and two from Ravenclaw.
"Well... I don't know, mum told me not to talk about it," said the girl from Hufflepuff. She and her friends glanced at each other. They weren't giggling; they looked genuinely concerned and a bit frightened.
"You're talking about it right now," she pointed out, rather annoyed.
"Yes, well... fine." She added a dramatic pause—Gwyn rolled her eyes—before continuing. "Mum says there's been... weird things happening around here lately. You know the bathroom with Moaning Myrtle-"
"Yes, girls' bathroom on the first floor, go on," said Will. He was getting antsy as well.
"Well... girls who go in there... sometimes they blank out when looking into the mirror on the very far left of the bathroom. They end up in different places around the castle, a-and they don't remember what happened, and-"
"Hm... how peculiar..." said Gwyn, rubbing her chin. She mainly was speaking to herself.
"Yes, but-" Again, she was cut off by the pair.
"Yes, thank you." Will and Gwyn were off after that, their heads close together as they discussed the situation.
"We already know there's no Apparating or Disapparating in or out of the castle. Obviously it's someone—if anyone—that's here and here to stay," said Gwyn, and Will nodded.
"We can investigate tonight," Will replied, keeping his voice low as Nearly-Headless Nick floated on by.
"Deal. We'll meet in the common room at midnight."