"This is not a good idea."
"Of course it is. Don't be silly."
"I'm not being silly. I'm stating for a fact that this is not a good idea."
"You told me I could live my life the way I wanted. This is the way I want to live it."
Fred glared at Lunette, who was trying to ignore him while pulling on her quidditch pads. However, he would not let her deafness drown him out, and kept tapping her on her shoulder until she faced him again so that they could start another argument. He yanked her left boot away from her just as she went to reach for it, and she scowled at him. "Fred," she warned, her tone deadly serious.
"This isn't a good idea," Fred said again.
Lunette groaned. "Fred, I've been playing with you guys for a month. Nothing's happened, and nothing is going to happen. I'll be fine."
"I don't-"
"Would you two stop it!" Angelina called angrily, amplifying the wish of everyone in the room. "You act like an old married couple already!" She angrily tugged on her captain's uniform and scowled. "If you're going to argue, take it outside or something. You're making us lose focus."
Fred nodded stiffly and grabbed Lunette's arm, dragging her outside while she hopped on one foot. "Can I at least have my boot?" she asked sarcastically, holding onto him tightly to keep from falling over.
"No," Fred said stiffly. "If I give it to you, you can run away and play."
Lunette scowled and planted her hands on her hips, wobbling slightly. "I'm going to play, whether it be with one boot or two, so make up your mind which it'll be, Fred Weasley."
Fred groaned and ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "Why must you make this so difficult?" he asked quietly.
"Me?" Lunette responded. "I'm not the one who's yanking a fellow teammate out of the game."
Fred wheeled on her, startling her and pressing Lunette back into the wall behind her. She flinched momentarily, and then calmed herself, remembering that this was Fred, and that he would never hurt her. "Is that what you think you are?" he asked, and by the way his lips moved, Lunette could tell that he was speaking in a rather composed, low tone.
She raised an eyebrow. "Well I should hope that I'm your teammate. I've been rather handy a couple of times."
Fred's fists clenched, but Lunette knew that he did not intend to strike her. He was angry, but not with her. "Of course you're my teammate," he spat. "But is that really all you think you are to me?"
Those words ignited a hope within Lunette. Both she and Fred knew that it was inevitable that they would get together, but they had agreed not to push their relationship and had decided to wait until it unfolded by itself. "I don't know," she said. "What am I to you?"
Fred bit his lip, and Lunette swallowed hard. Would he say something meant to be a joke, or would he actually tell her the truth, whatever it may be. "You're…you're very much…" he cleared his throat, "loved." He smiled down at her and she noticed the teasing light that was back in his eye. "And, you're the best chaser we have."
Lunette wasn't sure what to say, but Fred saved her from that when he bent down slowly, his lips coming closer to hers….
"There you are."
Fred jerked back, causing Lunette to as well, and she turned to find George standing there, watching them with a grin on his face. "George," she breathed, feeling slightly embarrassed that Fred's brother had caught them about to kiss.
Fred, however, didn't seem embarrassed, just annoyed. "You have the worst timing, George," he muttered.
George shook his head. "It's not my timing," he informed his brother. "It's Angelina's. She wants to know if you two are in or out. It's almost time to start the game."
Fred started to shake his head, and Lunette threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly before whispering in his ear, "Please, Fred. Thanks to Umbridge, this is the last game we get to play, and well, it's against Slytherin!"
Fred couldn't help but chuckle, and Lunette felt the vibrations of his mirth flow through her body. When she pulled away and could see his face, he nodded slightly. "Alright. One last game."
She hugged him tightly. "Thank you," she said, and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. Both of the felt an uncomfortable stab of pain, and Lunette pulled away to close her eyes tightly for a moment. It was the first contact they had had besides holding hands or hugs, and she had not known what to expect. Unlike the rest of the time, when Fred's pain transferred to her, this uncomfortable experience was felt by both of them.
"Are you alright?" he asked anxiously.
She nodded, feeling the pain starting to ease. "Great," she assured him and then nodded at George. "Let's go."
"And Harry's spotted the snitch!" Lee Jordan crowed. "He and Draco are racing for it…ooh! And Draco loses control for a moment, enough for Harry to make a snatch for it! Harry misses, and the game continues."
Lunette had never felt so free in her life as she did when she played quidditch. Once the Gryffindors had seen her talent on a broom, acquired from the days before her incarceration, they had immediately made room for her on the team. Now, she had caught the quaffle that Alicia Spinnet had thrown her way and was racing towards the Slytherin team's goal posts.
A Slytherin beater slammed his bat into a bludger, sending it straight for Lunette. The crowd gasped as she flipped her broom end over end, falling backward several feet in an effort to avoid the bludger. "And Lunette avoids the bludger with a quick maneuver!" Lee announced.
The Slytherin scowled, but Lunette shot forward on her broom, eager to get within throwing range. She began to flying side to side, hoping to cut down on attacks from the Slytherin chasers. A Slytherin crashed into her from her left side so hard that part of her breath left her and she let out an "Oomph!" However, she kept a tight hold on the quaffle and did not let go.
She came zooming up to Miles Bletchley, the Slytherin keeper, and he sneered at her as she tried to avoid the rough jostling of the two Slytherin chasers on either side of her, daring her to try and throw the quaffle. Instead of taking the shot like he expected, Lunete tipped her broom sharply upward, rising high above the goal post and then flying quickly towards the ground, making it hard for the chasers to keep up with her. When Miles looked completely bored, she snapped her wrist and shot the quaffle through the goal, cheering as it made it through.
"And Lunette's scored! Ten points to Gryffindor!" Lee cheered, sounded entirely too pleased as he pumped a fist to Lunette when she flew by.
With another scowl, Miles threw the quaffle back into play, and that's when everything went wrong.
Angelina, Alicia, and Lunette passed the quaffle in between them, trying to keep the other chasers on their toes. One of the chasers slammed his broom into Lunette's knee, and she gasped in pain, twisting her own broom handle sharply to fall away, clutching her knee. Ow," she muttered. "Ow, ow, ow." She touched her kneecap, feeling the swelling and seeing the blood that was seeping through her pants. "Great," she hissed, and she glared up at the Slytherin chaser, feeling a strange new kind of anger flowing through her. This was like when she had been Voldemort's captive, and she wasn't about to let this brat get the best of her.
She flew straight upward, feeling gravity pulling the blood droplets down her pants and soaking them with crimson warmth. The wind rushed past her ears as she headed straight for the chaser, countering his evasive moves and slamming into him so hard that he hit one of the viewing stands and dropped the quaffle he had stolen from her.
She snatched it before it fell too far and watched with only a small twinge of guilt as he landed heavily in the sand below. "Take that," she muttered, not caring how pathetically childish that sounded.
She heaved the quaffle at Angelina and then soared towards the Slytherin team's goal posts once more, never realizing what was going to happen next. She never saw Fred heading towards her in order to stave off the bludger coming her way, and she never saw the other team's beater throw his beater's bat. However, a moment later, pain exploded through her brain, freezing every movement that she was capable of making.
Her body dropped from her broom, and she didn't ever try to save herself. Someone screamed her name, but she couldn't identify the screamer. Her vision clouded over, and just before she hit the sand, everything went black.
A/N: Another cliffhanger, I know, but perhaps it will motivate you to review!! Hint hint.... Please drop me a line, even if it's something short and sweet. Hope you enjoyed it, and Kat, the story isn't over! ;)