Cedric watched Avery attempt to take a sip of her pumpkin juice at breakfast. "Attempt" being the key word. Her hand was trembling so much that she couldn't get the goblet to properly touch her lips to actually drink the liquid. He wasn't sure what was going on with her, but whatever it was had screwed her up for real. He hoped it wasn't enough to affect her performance in Quidditch; their first scrimmage against Slytherin was today right after breakfast and she hadn't flown since the accident in the beginning of summer.
"Hey," he started cautiously, "you doing okay?"
"Hm?" She followed his gaze to her splashing juice. She immediately put it down and pretended as if everything was okay "Oh, yeah, absolutely. Totally fine."
To tell the truth, no, she wasn't okay at all. She had been plagued by nightmares the night before, all about her little incident with Danny. Even now she was plagued by phantom pains in her arm, and she was freaking out with finally being faced with flying once more. To be honest she wasn't sure she could do it, not so soon after her near-death experience. But how could she tell him that? How could she tell her teammates that? They needed all of their players to win the House Cup this year, so how could she just abandon them when they would be counting on her as their most agile Chaser?
"Ced, I promise, okay? Let's go; don't want to be late on the first day."
He wasn't completely convinced, but he followed her out the Great Hall nevertheless. If he had learned one thing after all the years he spent with Avery, it was that you wouldn't get anything out of her if you pried; you had to be patient with her and wait for her to come to you, or else you'd just succeed in closing her off even more than before. So he resolved himself to waiting for however long it took, and unfortunately it didn't take too long for the problem to present itself.
It started out with putting on the gear in the locker room. Her heart started beating almost painfully-it felt like she was having a heart attack-and her palms started sweating so much she dropped her wrist guards multiple times, wincing when they clattered on the ground loudly. Tamsin looked at her worriedly. She had never seen the younger girl like this; she was usually so calm, even excited, when it came to games, especially against Slytherin, but now she looked like a terrified child facing the dark cellar.
"You okay?" She asked Avery, reaching out to pat her arm comfortingly.
Avery jerked back at the light touch, pressing herself against the locker, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. "Just go out and wait for me, okay? I'll be out in second; I'll be okay in a second."
"I don't think-"
"Let's go," Maxine said, starting to tug Tamsin out of the room. It was better to give the girl her space instead of crowding her.
Once the room was empty, Avery collapsed on the ground, wrapping her arms around her legs and pressing her forehead against her knees, eyes squeezed shut and chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath. She felt tears manage to leak out from behind her eyelids, and the pain in her heart increased as she thought it skipped a few beats. What is this feeling? she asked herself, feeling herself start to panic. No, no, no this can't be happening! Get it together, idiot! You cannot be doing this right now before something as important as this. Her fingers wound their way through the strands of her hair and tugged, the pain managing to ground herself back into reality for the time being. She slowly rose to her feet, hastily wiping away the few tears that had managed to fall, and finished putting on her gear, hurrying out to meet the rest of her team.
"You good?" Tamsin asked when she ducked her head to hide her face.
"Yeah, let's just get this over with."
At her words all of her teammates frowned. The usually cheerful girl never said things like that when it came to Quidditch. She usually said things to pump them up or cheer them on, nothing as… detached as that. It should've been enough for Herbet to take her aside, properly assess her, maybe even postpone the scrimmage, but he didn't. He just ignored his misgivings and motioned for the team to follow him onto the pitch, leaving Avery to catch up to them. She stumbled after them, feeling uneasy on her feet but feeling even more uneasy with the broomstick in her hand, and felt her chest constrict painfully again, making her fear another incident like what happened in the locker room. She scrunched her eyes closed once more as she swung her leg over the broom, getting into position to take off at the whistle. It sounded and she pushed off, feeling the breath leave her body as she realized just how high they were flying: much higher than she and Danny did over the summer when she fell. She would most certainly die from this height, and that absolutely terrified her.
Her vision swam, everything coming in and going out of focus randomly, causing her to sway slightly on her perch. Her breathing picked up again, her hyperventilating becoming faster and louder as she became more and more desperate for air. No one had noticed she hadn't moved yet, no one besides Nathaniel Malfoy that is. He had noticed the signs almost immediately after they started flying. He recognized all the signs of a fear of heights because he had experienced them many times; he was just a lot better at dealing with them after so many Quidditch games and practices.
"Hey," he called gently, not wanting to startle her straight off her broom. "Hey, Avery!" His eyes widened as he saw the Bludgeon hurtling straight for the vulnerable girl. "Avery, move!"
He quickly went into action, shoving her out of the way and grabbing her robes to keep her from falling to her death. He glanced around at the meager audience to see them all watching the other Slytherin and Hufflepuff Chasers go at it. No one was paying them any attention.
"Hey, listen to me," he told her softly, soothingly. "Just take slow and deep breaths, okay? We need to get your breathing under control."
He mimicked the breathing, moving his hand up and down with each breath he took, and Avery tried to follow his actions, breathing deeply through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. Sure, her breaths were still slightly stuttered, but he was impressed by how well she was doing after having an almost full-blown panic attack in the air. He nodded approvingly.
"Good, good, you're doing great, Avery," he praised her, seeing her relax just a little bit. "Do you need to get out of the air or do you think you can play?" he asked her patiently.
"I-I-I," she stuttered, not able to speak as her breathing picked up again.
"Hey, hey, hey," he hurried to comfort her again, "deep breaths, remember? Just keep breathing deeply. Speak when you can manage it."
"I… I don't think I can make it through the game," she admitted slowly, tears filling her eyes as she looked down at the ground far below their feet, her body starting to tremble again.
"Okay, then we can just land, no problem." He looked her straight in the eyes and asked, "Do you trust me?"
She blinked and stared at him for a few moments, thinking hard. He may be a Malfoy, but he had gone out of his way to save her from a speeding Bludgeon and had even helped calm her down, so yeah, she'd say she trusted him in this moment.
"Yes."
"Then just let me do all the work."
He then rammed his shoulder into hers, forcing them to nosedive, plummeting straight for the ground. Avery screamed as images from the summer came flooding back into her mind, her arm burning with phantom pains and head pounding with traumatizing memories. The ground came hurtling towards them at an alarming speed, and she braced herself for impact, thinking that she hadn't even told Alle she loved her this morning. And then Nathan was pulling up hard, making it so their fall was pretty soft. He hit the ground first, sprawling on the grass like an eagle before Avery landed on top of him, fists curling into the front of his robes as everything washed over her and she burst into tears. Madame Hooch noticed the fall immediately and blew her whistle to stop the game, hurrying to check on the fallen students. The first thing she saw was a sobbing Hufflepuff third-year holding onto a Slytherin prefect. Her teammates, who had followed Hooch down, hurried to detach their Chaser from the Malfoy, worried he would murder her if she stayed in that position for too long. Cedric carefully took Avery in his arms and looked to Herbert for instructions.
"Um, well, I guess just take her to the medical wing? I mean, she fell… right? That's what happened?"
They all looked down at the culprit of the incident, who was already looking up at them from his position on the grass. He just nodded in reply.
"Okay, cool, yeah, Cedric, just take her to the medical wing. We don't know how hard the fall was. She could've broken her arm again knowing her." He then turned to Madame Hooch. "So… could we just… postpone this thing until we know that our Chaser is in prime condition?"
"She won't be coming back," Nathan told them as he climbed to his feet.
"What did you just say?" Herbert asked, shooting the Slytherin a frown. "I don't think I heard you correctly."
"No, you did. I said she won't be coming back. And she won't. Just look at her; she isn't in any shape to be playing us right now. She never was. Kid just fell straight out of the sky."
"Now you listen here, Malfoy," Cedric jumped in. "She wouldn't have fallen if you hadn't pushed her! I'm calling foul play!"
"Since when is it foul play if I just nudge another player? You Hufflepuffs are known for that particular move, are you not? Especially O'Flaherty over there," he nodded in the direction of the female Beater. "You call foul play on me, we'll have to launch a full investigation on your moves as well."
"Cedric, I've got this," Herbert attempted to calm the Seeker down. "Just take her to the medical wing before she has a total breakdown, kay?"
With one last glare at Nathan, Cedric started to carry his best friend to Madame Pomfrey, Fred quickly following as he witnessed them leaving from the stands. George, noticing his twin leaving, ran after him, not really knowing why they were going, just not wanting to be left out of the fun.