AN: Millones de gracias, PottedLilies for a wonderful beta work! :)
Autumn 1988 - 5th year
"Weasley takes the Quaffle, passes to Abbott, who passes back to Weasley. No! The Quaffle is now in Hufflepuff possession. Tonks passes to Selwyn who ducks a Bludger and passes back to Tonks. Tonks approaches the goalposts, she's aiming to score… Ouch! That was a nasty Bludger thrown at her by the Gryffindor beater Keddle… and she keeps going, she scores! 120 to 70, Hufflepuff!"
"Did you like it, Billy boy?" Tonks snorted, flashing too near Bill Weasley and catching the Quaffle from her fellow team mate, barely conscious of the flood of blood coming out of her nose and dripping into the Hufflepuff robes.
"You wish, Nymphadora!" he dived in her direction, trying to grab the ball. "Hey, you're bleeding!"
She ducked and, snorting again, threw the Quaffle to her fellow Chaser, Hammer, who caught it and streaked towards the goal posts.
"Yeah, right! Keep going Billy boy!" she sneered.
"-ducks another Bludger and scores! 130 to 70 to Hufflepuff!"
"Wait! Tonks!" Bill called after her.
Tonks, convinced that this was a trick to make her lose her focus, decided to ignore him and positioned her broom for yet another attack on Gryffindor's goal posts.
"Gryffindor captain Bill Weasley calls time out."
Tonks turned around to see Bill right behind her making signs to the referee.
"What are you doing?" she screamed annoyed.
"Get down, you stubborn girl, your nose is bleeding badly."
Directing her broom to the entrance of the field, she looked down. Bill was right, her yellow and black Quidditch robes were deep crimson and damped with her own blood.
"Bollocks!"
"Language, Nymphadora," said Bill with a grin, landing beside her, "Or I'll have to take points from your house."
"You do that, Billy boy," she answered sweetly, "and you might find yourself unable to un-glue your fingers from that broomstick… again."
Bill snorted.
"What is it, Weasley?" Hufflepuff captain Vance interrupted.
"You check on your Chaser," said Bill, mounting his broom again and flying low to reach his team on the other side of the pitch.
Tonks could tell Vance was not too surprised to see her bleeding. She was, after all, famous on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team for being prone to accidents, although this time the bleeding was not her fault. She touched her face carefully and winced at the pain, a lump was forming in her right cheek and her nose seemed broken.
"Should I call Pomfrey?" Vance asked, looking at Tonks' nose.
"No need," she said and pointing her wand to her own face she said, "Episkey".
She felt a now very familiar heat in the broken area, followed by a sudden cold. The bleeding stopped and her nose mended in just seconds.
"Nice one," said Vance appreciatively.
"It's useful when you're as clumsy as I am," Tonks shrugged, and pointing her wand at her robes she said "Scourgify" Nothing happened. She suppressed a frustrated groan, maybe she had to pay more attention to her mother when she was trying to teach her household spells.
"Brilliant!" she said angrily. "Now I'm wearing their colours!"
"Forget about it, Tonks!" said Vance, "Come on, let's go kick those Gryffindor arses!"
She did not need him to tell her twice.
"Twenty points!" howled Tonks in the changing rooms, punching the door of her locker with clenched fists. "Darn Weasley! Twenty bloody points!"
"I'm so-so-sorry I miss-miss-missed it," this season's new Seeker, second year Rolf Scamander, had been stuttering apologies for a while now and it was making everybody edgy, in addition to the bitterness for losing the match.
"It wasn't your fault, Scamander," said Vance with a weary voice. "Charlie Weasley is too good a Seeker, this was bond to happen."
"Just twenty bloody, fu-!"
"Give it a rest, Tonks!" Vance roared at her. "We did a great job, we played very well, but... not everything went as planed."
"Yeah!" Hummer said, "We lost!"
"I know that!" Vance replied. "But we're going to do better against Ravenclaw. We're going to smash them!"
"Hear hear!" said Selwyn.
"Yeah, we have to win that one! Their Seeker sucks!" said Atticus, putting his Beater club in his locker and closing the door.
"But we were so close this time!" Tonks started again.
"I'm not listening to this any longer," Vance got out of the dressing room, followed by the rest of the team, except for Tonks and Atticus.
"Hey, he's right, give it a rest!" he said. "So they beat us, it sucks, but we'll get even."
"I don't want to pay those Weasleys," Tonks murmured.
Atticus stared at her in disbelieve.
"You didn't."
Tonks looked sheepishly at him and nodded.
"You bet against the Weasleys that we were going to win this Quidditch match?"
"I might have…" she shrugged trying to look casual.
Atticus gave her a punch in the shoulder.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"You arse, Tonks! Now we won't hear the end of it! It is bad enough to have them gloating about winning, now we have to see them take away your money and gloating about that as well!" Atticus was looking to the ceiling in exasperation.
"I know…" Tonks said, looking abashed.
Atticus glared at her.
"I'll hex your mouth out the next time you make a bet with Charlie Weasley."
Tonks chuckled.
"Alright, I won't do it again."
"You played great by the way."
She blushed.
"Thanks, At, you too."
Atticus grinned at her.
"Come on, let's go to the common room." Then he added as an afterthought. "And we're avoiding those Gryffindors today. I don't feel like looking at Mitch and Charlie's sneer right now."
"Agreed!"