Hermione left the boys at the door to Hestia's office— giving a rueful Harry a thumbs-up, Ron a quick peck, and both of them a promise to attend the match later— before backtracking to where she'd last seen Lupin.
She found him several minutes later as she turned the corner around the small cabin the boys shared. He was crouched down on the grass with two identical ginger heads bent towards him.
"Professor!" She called, waving at him.
He turned. "Hermione," he greeted, his expression one of relief.
And then— "I found him!" They exclaimed in unison.
The twins looked up, smirking, and Hermione saw a shaggy black dog wagging its tail excitedly from where it lay between the three men.
Then she frowned, "Harry? No, you couldn't've, I've just left him."
"Oh good, thank Merlin for that," Lupin said, his face clearing, "I've found Sirius." He playfully wrestled the dog over. It nipped at his fingers before rolling over, exposing its hairy belly. "Greedy mutt," Lupin muttered accusingly, but rubbed it anyway.
Hermione looked at the dog and then back up at her old professor again, thoroughly confused. "Sirius Black?" She asked. "You've found Sirius Black? The real one?"
It was one of the twins who answered— Hermione had only met them a few times and could never quite tell them apart, probably because they kept giving her the wrong names— "We've just come from the Wasps HQ," the unidentified twin informed her, "We met with the manager. He was barking mad."
"Quite mad," the other twin agreed, grinning from ear to ear, "I'd say quidditch management has really gone to the dogs."
Hermione stared at them, absolutely thrown by the seeming non-sequitur. "What?" She demanded, and looked at Lupin, was biting back a smile as he scratched the dog's belly attentively.
He gave her an apologetic look when she caught his eye, but the smile unraveled across his face. "The dog, Hermione," he said, "Padfoot— Sirius is an Animagus."
The twins looked at each other, faking looks of exaggerated shock.
"Sirius-ly?" The first twin asked, his mouth a perfect O of comic surprise.
"Doggone it!" The other twin exclaimed with feeling.
The dog in question rolled to its feet and barked, wagging its tail excitedly, almost as if in confirmation.
Hermione felt like her eyebrows had probably melted into her hairline by this point.
Harry pulled his polo hurriedly over his head. They'd said good-bye to Hermione after a late lunch and an awkward apology to Hestia who'd simply sighed exasperatedly and told him to take the next few days off. He and Ron had run some Quidditch drills for a couple hours and then grabbed a quick dinner with Neville, and now they had to hurry or they'd be late to lineup—
The polo came off and something small fell to the floor. Harry glanced down and saw a skinny black circle: Ginny's rubber band— it must've gotten caught in his collar or one of the buttons. He'd been out flying all day, though— it was truly a wonder it hadn't gotten lost.
He picked it up and put it on his wrist. He could give it to Ginny later.
He exchanged his undershirt in favor of a jersey, grabbed his gloves, and called to Ron.
...
They were right on time to lineup— or late, by Angelina's standards. He disembarked quickly, Ron in tow, and hurried towards the assembled player groups.
Angelina was pacing furiously, twisting her fingers into each other. She caught Harry's eye when he entered and all but glared at him. Harry gave her an apologetic grimace and then waved at Diggory who was leaning against the wall up front and eating an apple, looking rather effortlessly like a male model.
They passed the keeper's group, and Miles Bletchley bared a set of truly frightening teeth at them, so Harry put a hand on Ron's shoulder and herded him over towards the more friendly-looking seekers, catching Ginny's eye as they passed. He looked around, but he couldn't see either of the twins, yet, so at least they weren't the last ones.
Chang smiled at them as they sat down and Ron looked like he might be sick.
"How're you feeling, mate?" Harry asked him lowly, squeezing his shoulder and nodding at Chang in greeting.
Ron grunted in answer. His face looked almost green, and Harry realized that there may have been some truth to the Twins' characterization of Ron's nerves.
...
"ROLL, RON, ROLL!" Harry screamed from the hoops where he'd been reluctantly stationed, once again, as keeper.
"Huh?" Ron turned confusedly, just in time for a bludger to collide with his chest, causing him to drop the quaffle— "Oof!"
"Youch!" Lee Jordan exclaimed into the microphone, "Looks like Back-pocket Weasley's off to a rough start— bludgered by his own brother, the betrayal! Diggory in possession!"
Fred, the offending brother, grinned at Ron and then shrugged awkwardly at a pissed-looking Angelina, before tucking off in search of another bludger. Fred was playing on the opposing team, "Because," as Angelina had explained through gritted teeth when Diggory had called Fred up and Harry'd given her a confused look, "We're on 'friendly' terms with the friggin' Puffs. I swear to God, next time we're stealing Chang." Diggory had also poached an apologetic Katie Bell, leaving them with Alicia Spinnet, the chaser who'd been absent yesterday, and Demelza Robbins, the small, double-plaited girl who'd been on Flint's team.
Harry locked eyes with the approaching Diggory, adjusting himself on his broom in preparation of a potential shot. Diggory passed, and Harry followed the quaffle with his eyes.
"Get your head in the game, Back-pocket!" Harry heard Angelina growl.
'Back-pocket Weasley,' he'd learned from Ginny, was a nickname Ron had from school. There were so many Weasleys, and all but one of them were avid quidditch players, so there was likely several on the field at any given time. Apparently, Ron had tried out for keeper after Oliver had graduated— Ginny was already on the team— and a teacher had wryly remarked that it was "always handy in a pinch to have a Weasley in your back pocket," and the name had stuck. Apparently.
Unfortunately, in this particular pinch, the erstwhile Back-pocket aka Roonil Wazlib aka Ron Weasley wasn't exactly playing as well as Harry had hoped he would— as well as Harry knew he could. It was barely a minute in and Ron had already lost possession of the quaffle twice and was fielding furious glares from Angelina.
"Brilliant steal by Arms Johnson!" Lee Jordan proclaimed.
Sure enough, Angelina was looping away from a put-out-looking Zacharias Smith with the quaffle tucked securely under her arm. Harry grimaced: Ron was flying far too close to her, all but hanging on her arm. As Harry watched, she smoothly transferred the quaffle to her left hand and shoved Ron away, none-too-gently, with her right. Harry winced.
"FRIEND-ZONED!" Lee Jordan hollered, snickering, into the microphone.
Harry's stint as keeper, comparatively, was going rather well. He'd only had to deal with one shot, courtesy of a reedy-looking kid called Ethan or Evan Humberstone, and he'd stopped it with relatively little difficulty.
"That's two minutes, folks, and still snake-eyes on the board! Let's get ready for some chaos!" Lee Jordan called.
Angelina passed to Ginny, who hurled the quaffle with ruthless efficiency through the right hoop, much to Lee's delight, "Excellent shot by Gee Dub, that's 10-love for Angie's Angels!"
"If you don't come up with a team name, Lee'll just make one for you," George explained to Harry, floating lazily at his right. He was ostensibly playing seeker.
"Ah," Harry said. Suddenly, 'the Flintstones' made a lot more sense. Angelina turned, looking murderous, and George ducked away immediately.
"Someone get him off!" Angelina barked, gesturing angrily at Ron. Harry swore he could see spittle flying.
"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!" Lee Jordan crowed.
Angelina flipped him the bird. A timid-looking Demelza hurriedly tapped Ron out, handing him a beater's bat.
"Chang passes to Diggory!" And just like that, Ginny, Demelza, and Angelina were off, weaving seamlessly through the air in pursuit, past a red-faced Ron.
Harry readied himself as Katie, Diggory, and Chang tag-teamed towards him, evading the defense.
"Gee Dub takes a hit! That's gotta hurt!"
Harry had been tracking the quaffle intently, but at the announcement his eyes flitted in search of Ginny— there. She was rubbing her knee irritatedly, but looked, otherwise, none the worse for wear. She met his eyes, and then opened her mouth in warning—
Shit. He'd lost track of the quaffle. He found it just in time to see it soar through the left hoop.
"10-10!" Lee Jordan announced, "And what a complicated dynamic this match has! It's basically a civil war!"
"Sorry," Harry offered, as Ginny flew forward to switch with him.
"I can look after myself, Dursley," She said, her tone just a touch annoyed. And then her eyes fastened to the rubber band around his wrist and her face softened. "Go get 'em," she said, tossing him the retrieved quaffle with a small smile.
Harry rolled out of the way of an incoming bludger immediately, and then ducked as it zoomed back at him again, passing hurriedly to Demelza.
"Traitor!" Harry yelled dramatically at Fred, (who stuck his tongue out at him), before flying to get into position, just in time for a newly-anointed Alicia Spinnet to drive him a hard right pass. He caught it, faked left on Humberstone, and then sunk it cleanly in the center hoop.
"20-10 Angels!"
Alicia nodded appreciatively at him.
"Humberspoon passes to Bell!"
"It's Humberstone!" The reedy kid yelled in complaint from the hoops.
Harry was dogging Katie. She rolled to lose him, but he rolled with her. She huffed, and then executed a quick under-broom pass.
"Bell passes to Abbott! Abbott shoots! That's Gee Dub with the save, good girl. Gee Dub passes to Spinnet, Spinnet passes to…Bell!? Alicia, Katie's not on your—! Ouch, Bell shoots and scores!"
"Sorry!" Alicia called, looking mortified. Harry tried to give her an encouraging smile. Ginny retrieved the quaffle.
Humberstone slunk out of the opposite hoops, reaching out to receive the beater's bat from Fred.
"20-20 is the score, folks! With a neat bit of emotional treachery, Diggory's Gold-diggers have tied it up. Today, it's friend against friend, brother against brother, lover against lover— Gee Dub passes to Dursley."
Harry caught the quaffle and tucked it under his arm. He was immediately accosted by Cho Chang, and he was sure Katie was waiting underneath to complete a Porskoff, but he managed to get off a slightly-sloppy pass to Demelza.
He yelped as a bludger skimmed right past his nose.
Ron flew up and dispatched it abruptly with a wide backhand swing. The bludger arced across the field and collided with Humberstone.
"Ooh, Back-pocket gets poor Humbertoes right in the gut! Hope he doesn't…Humberspew!"
Humberstone groaned, either in pain or annoyance, Harry wasn't quite sure. Harry met Ron's eyes
and gave him a thumbs-up.
Ron grimaced at him in return. "Wanna be beater for a bit?" He asked quietly.
"Sure," Harry said. "Then you maybe switch with George? He's been seeking for a while."
They made the trade-off, and then Ron went and made George a chaser, before glumly going to join his sister at the hoops.
Angelina was manning the other bat, and Harry helpfully corralled the bludgers her way so she could send them at Fred, and occasionally Diggory.
The match was tight, and they were at 50-50 before Angelina went to relieve Ginny.
Playing beater was loads more fun with Ginny. Together they took down Zacharias Smith, who Ginny had pronounced "a righteous prick," which was honestly good enough for Harry, before Angelina signaled Harry to switch out with someone.
He picked Demelza, saluting Ginny with his beater's bat before he left. She rolled her eyes at him.
He handed off the bat and then he, Alicia, and George pushed past the defensive line consisting of Humberstone, a groaning Zacharias Smith, and a round-faced girl named Hannah Abbott. Harry passed, and Alicia made a clean shot through center hoop on Fred.
Alicia and George switched out for Ron and Angelina, respectively, and Diggory, subbing in for Abbott, made a breakaway, scoring cleanly on George before flying back across the pitch to play keeper, once again tying up the score.
Harry caught George's pass and was turning around to fly towards the hoop when a glint of gold caught his eye across the pitch.
Not heeding Angelina's low growl, he immediately passed to Ron, who fumbled with it but didn't drop it. Ron and Angelina made for the hoops. Harry trailed them, keeping the snitch in his eyeline.
Who was seeker?
He turned slowly on his broom. Ginny was still holding a bat, and George was at the hoops, which meant…
His eyes fell on Alicia, who was surveying the field and picking at her nails several feet away, looking bored. She was near their hoops.
Ron and Angelina had made an attempt at the far hoops but had been thwarted by Fred, and the play was now coming back towards their side of the field.
But the snitch was now darting further away, towards the other side of the field. And worse, Chang, an actual seeker, was currently playing the position for the other team, and she was currently conducting a diligent search pattern.
Angelina made a steal off of Humberstone and passed to Harry. He rolled out of the way of a bludger from Katie and sent the quaffle back to Angelina, but Diggory intercepted.
Harry fell back only slightly to guard him, and let Diggory fly straight into his block. He crowded him, trying to herd him towards Alicia.
He felt Alicia behind him move to help him box Diggory in, and then Harry dropped, executing a perfect sloth-grip roll on his broom and tapping Alicia's ankle as he rolled underneath both of them.
Alicia immediately stiffened, locking Diggory's broomstick handle in with hers and casting blindly underneath her for Harry. She caught the side of his head, just barely, but that was enough for him and then he was hurtling across the pitch to where he'd seen the snitch, scattering a startled Humberstone and Zacharias.
"Ooh, points for coolest switch!" Lee Jordan yelled enthusiastically.
With his eyes scanning greedily, it didn't take Harry long to find the snitch again, dancing teasingly across from him, just feet behind Chang's ear. She hadn't seen it yet.
Without thinking twice, he dove, steeply, where he was, and then surfaced slightly, eyes tracing the empty air in front of him as if he'd seen the snitch, before tearing jaggedly towards the hoops. Chang was on his tail instantly, and Harry let her follow, pressing himself to his broomstick for speed. She did the same. Distantly, he heard Lee Jordan hollering into the microphone, but for the moment it was just him and Chang, racing for the hoops, her hair whipping at his ankles.
They hit the hoop-line, and Harry tucked into his flip, snapping the broom backwards as he'd done with Oliver. This was no keeper's broom, though, and there was no sturdiness to leverage. He changed direction so quickly he gave himself whiplash, but he drove on— he'd lost Chang, she'd clearly been disoriented by the sharp turn. His eyes roved the sky where he'd last seen the snitch— there. He saw it, buzzing happily, now nearly halfway back across the pitch.
It zipped away almost as soon as he'd spotted it, as if sensing his eyes. He gave chase, pouring himself into the air after it.
It was an erratic little snitch, with a very jerky, unpredictable flight pattern. He would be centimeters away, so close he could taste the little gold ball, and then it would tumble or turn or drop or change directions so abruptly he was left absolutely disoriented, but he kept on its little gold tail determinedly. His neck was already aching from his earlier flip-snap-mishap, and the sharp changes in direction of the snitch were certainly not helpful.
Chang had obviously recovered from his little trick and she was gaining on him, flying up on him from below.
And that was the inopportune moment the snitch, which had been zipping forward, away from him, and trailing ever so slightly upwards, suddenly dropped. He should've known.
Chang flew up to meet it, and Harry slung himself after it without a thought, locking his ankles around the handle as he swung upside down on the broom, reaching—
And he closed his fist around the snitch scant inches from Chang's outstretched fingers.
Lee went ballistic in the microphone.
Harry, still hanging upside-down from his ankles was face to face with an incredibly-shocked Cho Chang, her gloved hand still grasping at the air.
Harry gave her an awkward smile, and then hoisted himself back onto his broom, groaning— it took a lot more upper body strength than he had realized— only to come face to face with Ginny, who was holding his broom steady as he re-adjusted himself on it and smiling broadly at him.
He found his seating and nodded at her, grinning stupidly, the adrenaline coursing through his veins. She released her grip on the handle, raising an amused eyebrow.
He gave her a thumbs-up, showing her the snitch, and she rolled her eyes at him. And then she hooked her ankle around his broomstick handle and yanked him towards her.
They collided, and she shifted so she was sitting sideways on her broomstick, facing him, and grabbed a fistful of his jersey, dragging him even closer.
She looked at him. Her eyes were blazing.
Harry's mouth suddenly felt dry. He licked his lips, transfixed by that fiery light in her eyes.
And then she was kissing him. Really kissing him— nothing like that friendly peck from yesterday.
He vaguely thought he heard Lee Jordan wolf-whistling raucously into the microphone, but he couldn't care less. His heart was thundering in his ears, and all he could possibly comprehend in that moment was Ginny— the feel of her lips, so soft and wild and hungry against his, the gentle puff of her breath against his mouth— hot, wet, and salty— before she dove in for more, the taste of her— tangy and spicy and absolutely intoxicating—
She broke away from him, panting, and pressed her forehead to his, hand flat against his chest. She was grinning widely.
"Beater," she whispered, then, and unhooked her ankle from his broom handle and gently pushed his broomstick away with her foot, shoving his chest away with her hand a little more roughly.
All Harry could think was that he was pretty sure he'd just been on the receiving end of some serious hanky panky.
He let the broom skid back, ignoring Lee Jordan's chuckled remark of "Well, I'm not sure that was a regulation tap…" He stared at Ginny dazedly, then clumsily caught the beater's bat she threw at him. She winked saucily at him and then tucked and rolled away.
"Oi, we've got a match going on here!" George chided, flying past Harry in pursuit of the quaffle, but he turned his head ever so slightly as he zoomed by and tossed Harry a wink of his own.
Ron, on the other hand, was stationed at the hoops, not so much winking as twitching, looking like he was having some sort of fit. Harry cringed. But then the quaffle hurtled toward their hoops and Ron didn't so much as blink, trapping it expertly with both hands before it could enter the right hoop, and then punting it back into play.
Huh.
AN: A KISS! :O
Hope you liked, my luvs. Just a few things:
1. You guys, it is literally so hard to write scenes with broomsticks in them and avoid unintentional innuendos. LOL it is quite ridiculous.
2. Thank you so much to those of you who take the time to review. It really means so much. I especially want to thank my absolutely amazing guest reviewers: Hinny FTW, lilemly, lwik, and Chris (among other unnamed heroes). You guys have let me long, thoughtful, and extremely kind reviews and I am always so grateful to hear from you. I want to respond at length to each and every one of you, but I can't since you're all on Guest accounts :( That's okay, though. Just know that you are all loved and appreciated!
Muah, love you all!
XOXO OS