Chapter 11 - The Final match
16th May 1992
It was a sunny Saturday morning and the great hall was buzzing. Slytherin and Gryffindor were drawing points therefore they had to play each other again to decide who would win the house cup.
It seemed that everywhere she looked Oliver and Alicia were there. They had been an official couple for nearly two months now and Rayna didn't like it. She had always thought there was some kind of tension between her and Oliver, they were always catching each other glances and looking at the other. But maybe she was just making it up.
Rayna had other things on hr mind as well as the situation with Oliver. Adrian was looking worse and worse the past weeks. He looked constantly tired and his energy at training was lacking most days. Rayna was really worried about him.
"I want you to all play as well as you can today." Flint was giving them a team talk at breakfast. "Rayna please eat something" he spoke glancing at her before going back to talking. "this is a very important game and we need to focus. No one do anything stupid or show off to the Gryffindors. Other days that's fine, but today I will not be happy. We have to win this."
He received nods from the team, everyone quiet as the nerves kicked in. The house cup meant a lot to the Slytherin's, even if they didn't always show it much.
"Ray" Flint spoke "eat"
"i'm too nervous I think it would just come back up" she said
"there's no need to be nervous, you will be amazing as always, but you need your strength so please eat something, even if it's just some toast." Flint wasn't satisfied until he saw her reach for a slice of toast and began nibbling on it.
"Higgs, I need you to focus fully today, you should have an advantage already. Potter gets distracted too easily and the beaters are focusing on sending bludgers his way." Flint said.
Higgs nodded silently.
"I want us to work together okay? communication is key today and we need to constantly mix things up, be as unpredictable as you can, we know how much that messes with Wood- Pucey are you even listening to me?"
This gained the dark brown haired boys attention.
"yep" he said monotonously.
That was a good enough answer for Flint.
He finished his own breakfast before making sure everyone finished there's then ushered them all to the pitch to get extra warm up time.
"no cheating" FLint spoke once they were all in their Quidditch robes and about to go out onto the pitch. "and if you do I wont be happy, but please don't make it obvious if you foolishly decide to"
They made their way to the pitch, the sun blindingly bright for the morning.
"Adrian, Ray practice long passes" Flint ordered. "Bole, Bletchley work on your aim for 10 and Higgs practice some dives" The team split to warm up after flying a couple laps around the pitch.
The stands had started to fill up, Slytherin flags clashing with Gryffindor. There were chants already, the Gryffindors louder drowning out the Slytherins.
The Gryffindors joined them in the air to warm up themselves while flint called the Slytherins into formation.
"everyone remember what I said? you all need to focus if not i'll borrow a bat and hit a bludger at you to get you into focus" Flint shouted so they could hear.
The whistle blew for the captains to fly to Madame Hooch. The rest of the players took their starting positions.
"I say this every time but I mean it. I want a nice clean game." The captains shook hands Oliver smirking at Flint. Flint glared at him before flying off.
"and Carrow catches the quaffle starting the match in Slytherin's possession" Lee Jordans voice rang through the pitch. "she passes it to Pucey who passes it to Flint. Flint nears the Gryffindor hoops and is about to shoot- and he drops the quaffle straight to Carrow who shoots. Ten points to Slytherin."
The Slytherin stands cheered loudly and Rayna smiled to herself.
"focus" Flint called out to his team.
Oliver Wood was sweating he was that nervous. He knew Slytherin were going to have something up their sleeves. He could see the determined looked on each of their faces.
He knew his team were already thrown off from the goal Slytherin had just scored, it hadn't even been 5 minutes.
"Slytherin are in possession again, Carrow throwing the Quaffle to Pucey, Johnson punching it out from behind his arm."
Rayna tailed Angelina Johnson before doing the exact same move she had done with Adrian and knocking the quaffle out of her arms it fell to where Flint was, waiting to catch it, he caught it and flew off to the Gryffindor hoops.
"Wood blocks the goal" Lee Jordan sounded excited at a Gryffindor come back. Flint glared at the keeper before chasing down Alicia Spinnet. She didn't get far until Adrian knocked the quaffle from her hands and sending it Rayna's way. She dodged a bludger that came her way, sending a small raise of the eyebrows at one of the Weasley twins who smiled sheepishly back and mouthed sorry. She went back to flying at full speed, approaching Oliver.
She was determined to score. She threw the quaffle with as much force as she could but it was blocked by Oliver who smirked at her. She flew around him as he watched her, he threw the quaffle to Katie Bell before watching Rayna again.
"nice save" she called out to him.
Before he knew it Pucey had approached the hoops, Quaffle in hand and threw it to the left side, Oliver flew as fast as he could, reaching out and skimming his fingertips against the quaffle, but it was too late.
"10 points to Slytherin." The Slytherin stands were cheering louder.
Oliver was confused, he had been too distracted by her to realise that Pucey had the quaffle. He made a stupid mistake and stopped watching the game for 10 seconds and he let a goal through. He was disappointed in himself.
The game seemed to last for hours, both teams were putting up a tough fight but it was obvious they were all tiring. The snitch had yet to make an appearance.
The score was close, 160 - 180 to Slytherin.
"Higgs has seemed to spot the snitch" Lee voiced sounding more enthusiastic at the thought of the game being over soon.
Rayna watched as Harry Potter was the other side of the pitch flying as fast as he could towards where Higgs was now diving down to the ground.
"Ray" Adrian called getting her attention before throwing her the quaffle" she made for the Gryffindor keeper but half way was stopped when Lee announced that Slytherin had won.
They had won the house cup.
Rayna landed on the ground running towards her team mates in excitement.
"we won! WE bloody won!" Flint was cheering noticing Rayna approaching them. He lifted her up spinning her in excitement before putting her back down. She ran to HIggs who looked proud of himself.
"you did amazing" she spoke to him putting her arms around his waist from the side, he pulled her into him and smiled in return before hugging her.
"you played amazing as always Ray" he spoke.
"I'm proud of you all" Flint announced "welldone!"
"don't turn soft on us now" Adrian said as Flint playfully shoved him.
It was only then that Rayna saw the Gryffindors up ahead. None of them were talking, their heads hung low in disappointment.
Oliver looked up meeting her eyes, she smiled sympathetically at him, Oliver tried his best to return it but it was small and didn't reach his eyes.
Oliver was angry at himself and angry at his team. They lost concentration, in fact they were lacking it from the start, himself included.
The gryffindors all got changed, no one sticking around for a shower.
"i'm sorry Oliver" Katie Bell said after everyone else had left to go back to the castle. She took a seat next to her captain who was sitting on the middle bench. She could see something was troubling her. "you were distracted by her" she spoke "it's alright you know, just becuase she's a Slytherin. You can still be her friend" Katie spoke. Oliver nodded.
Friend. That label didn't quite fit what Rayna was to him.
"hey...maybe next year" Katie shurgged. He gave her a small smile as she gathered her bags and followed after the others.
Eventually Oliver dragged himself out of the locker room. He had been avoiding having to go back to the Gryffindor common room for as long as he could.
"Finally! was starting to think you'd drowned yourself or something" Rayna spoke once Oliver came out of the door. She was sat on the bench outside the Slytherin locker room.
"what do you want?" he asked not meaning to be rude.
"just wanted to say you played brilliantly" she smiled up at him before standing up and walking towards him. "good game" she said stretching her arm out to shake his hand.
He chuckled before accepting "well Played Carrow" he said.
Rayna turned to walk away but he stopped her.
"its your fault you know" he sighed
"not this again" she spoke rolling her eyes and laughing lightly.
"you're too distracting" he whispered loud enough for her to hear.
He wallked closer to her as she looked at the ground in confusion.
"you're driving me crazy and you don't even realise" he said a finger coming up to tilt her chin making her look at him.
"what abou-
"shhh" he spoke softly. His eyes flickered to hers before glancing at her lips, he leaned in as she closed her eyes. Rayna couldn't help but lean forward towards him, pressing herself closer to him as he kissed her softly. Her breath hitched, shocked at what was happening, Oliver pressed his lips to hers more forcefully and only then did she kiss back.
Pulling away he rested his forehead on hers, she still had her eyes closed.
"w-what does this mean?" she asked backing away from him.
"it means- it means we're friends" Oliver said. He was freaking out inside completely forgetting about Alicia when he was around the girl in front of him.
"friends? friends don't do that Oliver" she said still slightly in shock.
He smirked slightly trying to play off the fact that he was nervous and had no idea what he was doing.
"see you around Carrow" he said before taking off towards the castle, taking a deep breath so he could return his breathing back to normal.
Rayna stared at his retreating figure in shock at the situation. Who knew Oliver Wood had that in him.
He obviously wasn't thinking straight, maybe he had hit his head against the lockers in frustration at losing, yeah, that must be why Rayna thought.