Chapter 14: The Puddlemere Derby

March, Fifth Year

"Santana, are you ready yet?" I asked again, staring up at the green canopy of her bed. "Mike and Puck are waiting for us…"

"Well they'll just have to wait a bit longer. I gotta look hot," she called back from the bathroom.

"You always look hot, though," I pointed out. She didn't reply, so I turned towards the half-open bathroom door, resting my elbow on the duvet and my head in my hand. I could only see a little bit of her, but it was enough. "Even your arm looks hot, Santana."

She laughed, beckoning at me with the hand I could see. I got up from the bed and walked over to lean in the doorway. She was dressed in a tight, green-and-black striped dress with black boots with her hair pulled back.

"You look awesome. But you're gonna freeze," I advised.

"I'll be fine," she replied, pausing her make-up to look me up and down with a smirk. But then it faded and she turned back to the mirror. "Dressing up for Mike, huh?"

"Don't you like it?" I asked in dismay, staring down at myself.

"You're wearing blue."

"Yeah? I've got my yellow coat too," I replied.

"You never wear blue. You said it makes your skin look weird."

"Santana, you know I was joking when I said that," I said, confused at why she was acting weirdly. Normally she liked my jokes. "And Mike's being really nice, so I thought I'd wear his house colours for once. He even got Puck to take you on a proper date last week and not just get you pizza before sex." I didn't like it when he did that. If I was dating Santana I'd always want to take her nice places and it wouldn't just be for the sex - not that I could say so to her because she'd freak out again.

"Ugh, don't remind me," she muttered under her breath. I wasn't sure if she meant the pizza or the date. I frowned at her, crossing my arms over my chest as I tried to work her out. She was blocking me out again. It was like she had a spell that could just stop me knowing what she was feeling whenever she wanted. Why wouldn't she hurry? She had to hurry, we were going to be late! At least I knew there was one way I could get her to do what I wanted. It had worked every time I'd tried it so far.

I stepped further into the bathroom, knocking the door with the heel of my foot so that it swung shut behind me as I walked towards her. She didn't even notice until I was right next to her and I slid my hand over her back. My fingers tightened around her waist and I pulled her closer into me - waiting until she wasn't doing make-up, of course, or she'd take even longer fixing it. She'd stopped completely now though and was just staring blankly into the mirror, her lips slightly parted. I smiled at the side of her face, resting my chin on her shoulder and leaning in to whisper in her ear.

"I'm still wearing a green bra," I murmured, leaning in even further so my lips touched her ear as I spoke. "You remember that one I bought in January that you liked so much?" She wasn't moving at all now except for breathing. I flicked my eyes towards the mirror to see she was staring at me in it, but not at my face. I grinned, and kissed the lobe of her ear as softly as I could. "You still need to do your make-up," I reminded her, continuing to watch her in the mirror. Finally her eyes moved up the mirror to look at me properly - not that I minded her looking at other parts of me than my face. I loved it. She still wasn't moving though. Maybe I'd distracted her a bit too much. "Want me to finish it?"

She nodded, then after a few more seconds of silence she turned to face me. I plucked the eyeliner from her hand and gently pushed her against the counter, holding her there with my hips. She was quiet still, but breathing louder. I cupped her cheek with one hand to hold her face steady and her eyes closed. It didn't look like it would take long to finish her make-up - she'd done most of it already - but after barely a minute she started drawing patterns on my shoulder with two fingers and it was getting really distracting. Her hips shifted against mine and that made it worse.

"Santana," I muttered quietly, trying to concentrate on her mascara now. Her eyes opened and the brush knocked against her skin, leaving a black smudge just below her eyebrow. "You messed it up," I told her, but she was staring at me and wouldn't look away. People seem to like my eyes because apparently blue eyes are pretty, but Santana's are way more gorgeous. They're dark and deep and sometimes I feel like I could fall into them. Then she leaned in to kiss me, and just like I was tumbling into her soul through her lips and tongue and skin. Her fingers glided through my hair and it was as perfect as always. Then I felt her hands slide quickly down my back to dig into my thighs instead, drawing us together so I was straddling her, pressing so close. I felt way warmer than I had a few seconds before and my heart thundered in my chest, and for a moment I wished we could stay here, just the two of us, and forget all about the date.

The date.

I pulled away with a gasp, breathing in as fast as I could and trying to cool myself down, because if my body carried on feeling this hot I wouldn't be able to stop. Mike had gone to so much trouble to organise this, he'd even postponed it another week so it could be as good as it possibly could. Of course we couldn't stay here, I was being silly.

"We're late," I whispered. I could see my lipstick on her lips. I reached across to wipe it away, then stopped. I wasn't sure I could get so close to her lips right now. I really wanted to kiss her again already. I dropped my hands instead to push myself away so I could move to the side and away from her. My plan had gone so wrong and now we were even later than before. I turned to the mirror to briefly finger-comb my hair, and cleaned up my lipstick. I knew she was watching me.

"Hurry up," I whispered, reopening the bathroom door then closing it again behind me so I couldn't be tempted to run back and pin her up against that counter and kiss her everywhere I could reach until she was crying out my name. That was my favourite part about sex with Santana, when she got so lost in the moment that she wasn't scared to call out my name. It was hot, but so beautiful at the same time. Mike sometimes said my name during sex, and so had other guys, but it never got as good as when Santana said it. My thoughts drifted back to a few nights ago in the Room of Requirement when she'd said my name so many times I lost count…

But thinking of that was not helping me cool down…

I dropped back onto Santana's bed where I'd been before and tried to take deep breaths, closing my eyes. My stomach was going up and down, up and down, like when I went on the muggle plane to France and we flew through a storm. I squeezed my legs together and tried to think of something else than the other night or Santana in the bathroom and what we could be doing right now if I hadn't stopped.

Charity. Charity was a good distraction. She was still bringing in animals. Last week I'd found a stash of feathers, and I was worried she'd sneaked into the owlery and eaten someone's owl. But Santana had used magic to trace the feathers back to a dove from the forest. I'd still been upset for the dove though, so we'd buried it then she took me to the prefects' bathroom and made me feel better with tiny kisses and touches, then after a while the kisses and touches weren't tiny any more, and it had felt so good…

I heard a quiet moan escape my throat. One hand was on my stomach, and I imagined it was Santana's hand. I moved it slowly, desperate to feel every part of her touch. The hand skated across to my leg, tracing carefully over the curve of my hipbone with one finger and then gradually carrying on down my thigh, speeding up as it reached the hem of my dress. Fingers curled around the edge of the material and I wished I hadn't put on such thick tights, or any tights at all so I could feel the touch better. I felt the scrape of nails digging into my skin as the hand began making its way back up the inside of my leg.

"Santana," I breathed, picturing her kneeling above me and whispering things in my ear about what she was going to do that made my body tingle even more than it already was from the touch of her fingers that were so close now to their destination-

"Brittany, Santana?"

My eyes snapped open and I sat up as fast as I could, tearing my hand away even though I was throbbing, just as the dorm door opened to reveal Rachel. She saw me straight away.

"Oh good - Noah sent me up to find out where you were, he says you're late. Is Santana here as well?"

"Sh-she's just finishing getting ready," I replied with a gulp. Had she seen anything, or heard me say Santana's name? But it was only Rachel. Nothing to worry about. "Tell Puck we'll be down in five minutes."

Rachel turned to leave again, saying something about how she wasn't an owl, but I wasn't really listening. I crawled off the edge of the bed quickly so I couldn't start anything again and hurried over to the bathroom, knocking on the door.

"Santana, are you nearly ready?"

The door swung open the moment I finished speaking to reveal Santana looking stunning in her green dress and curled hair and perfect make-up. She was smiling, but it was tight - I think she was feeling as wound up as me and I suddenly felt guilty for earlier. Seeing her look so hot wasn't helping either.

"Alright, let's see what these boyfriends of ours have come up with," she said, interrupting the tense silence. I nodded, hurrying back to her bed to pull on my thick coat and boots.

"Are you sure you don't want to wear anything else? It's cold outside," I said, looking at her bare arms and legs.

"I'll be fine, Britt. Now come on, you were the one hurrying," she reminded me, half out of the door already. I followed her, but for once I didn't link our little fingers together. I needed to cool down a bit more before I could touch her again.

The boys were waiting for us just outside the common room door. They looked a bit impatient.

"There you are!" Mike said the moment he saw us. "We need to hurry or we'll be late," he told us, taking my hand and pulling me down the corridor. I grinned at him, excited to find out what it was he'd been planning for so long. He wouldn't even give me any clues in advance so I had no idea what to expect. I glanced back to see Santana following us with Puck close behind. Every time he got close enough to reach out she suddenly gained a burst of speed and got nearer to me and further away from him. Mike squeezed my hand as we made our way out of the castle and through the grounds of Hogwarts and I turned back to face him with a smile. I had to remember that he was my proper date; I didn't want him feeling left out again especially when he'd been making an effort to be so nice to Santana recently.

Because Mike was hurrying so much it didn't take us long to reach Hogsmeade, and he led me into the quidditch shop next door to the Three Broomsticks. It seemed a strange place for a date. I turned to look at him, and he gave me a wide grin before releasing my hand and stepping forward to whisper to the shopkeeper. I felt something against my shoulder and turned my head to see Santana right behind me. My heart jumped a little at seeing her so close.

"What kind of a date is this?" she whispered harshly. "Who takes their girlfriend on a date to a quidditch shop?"

"I don't think this is it," I replied, watching Mike so I didn't have to look her in the eye. She wouldn't like it if I kissed her here - and I didn't think Mike or Puck would be very happy either when we were supposed to be paying attention to them. Mike turned back towards us with a triumphant expression and something hidden behind his back. I smiled at him, waiting for him to reveal the item. Slowly, he did. He brought his hand around gradually to reveal… an empty glass bottle.

"Ladies, if you will?" he said, stepping closer and holding the bottle out. Suddenly I understood - it was a portkey. I grabbed it quickly and glanced at Santana. She was smiling now, although she was trying to pretend not to. I wasn't sure what had got her so happy all of a sudden. "Three…" Puck stepped forward quickly to touch one corner. "Two… One…"

I was spinning, the world was twisting out of control and all I could do was clutch desperately at Santana's hand that had caught mine at the last second. My nails dug into her palm but I couldn't let go.

"Now!" Mike's voice echoed in my ears and I tore my hand from the bottle, still holding Santana's tight as we landed and I kept her upright with a swift tug. I shook my head to get the world straight again, staring in confusion at the field in front of me. Where were we?

"Britt!" Santana hissed, her hand clenching tighter. I turned, and a familiar quidditch stadium appeared in front of me; a quidditch stadium I'd been going to since I was seven years old. Mike and Puck were standing to one side, watching us, and then Mike stepped forward with a broad smile, holding up four tickets in his hand.

"Welcome to the derby game of Puddlemere United versus the Wigtown Wanderers."

I squealed and leaped forward to hug him, careful not to knock the hand with the tickets. I'd only ever been to one local derby game before for Santana's twelfth birthday because tickets were so hard to get.

"How did you get the tickets?" I asked, pulling back to stare at him in shock. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. This was the best date ever! I looked across at Santana and she was properly smiling now too.

"My cousin's dating one of the Puddlemere reserve players, he got them for me." A roar sounded from within the stadium and he grabbed my hand. "Come on, we don't want to miss anything."

Luckily we only missed the team introductions as we found our seats, and Santana and I knew most of the players anyway. I noticed Santana hurry past Puck on the steps so that she could sit next to me, but I didn't say anything about it. Her arm bumped against mine as we sat and I saw that she had goosebumps already - I'd told her she'd be too cold, but I knew she wouldn't admit it now. I couldn't just let her shiver for the whole match though.

"It's way too hot in here," I complained, unbuttoning my coat. Puck and Mike had taken their coats off as well and I saw they were wearing blue Puddlemere shirts underneath. Now I was very glad I'd worn my blue dress; I was in the right colours. "Santana, can you wear my coat? I'll forget it if I put it under my seat."

"I'll make sure you remember it, Brittany," Mike said, but I was already passing it over to Santana. She was trying not to smile again and I knew she understood what I'd done. Her little finger found mine and squeezed gently, but then the quaffle was released and the match began, distracting me from any thoughts of what had happened earlier in the Slytherin dorm.

"Go Barrow, go! Faster! You're- nooo! Beaters what're you doing? You're meant to- Yes, yes, go go!"

I could hear Mike laughing at my commentary but I didn't care. I followed every throw of the quaffle, as well as both bludgers to make sure they didn't go too near any Puddlemere players, and always looking out for the snitch. I heard a song start up around me and I joined in, elbowing Santana with a grin so she would too - we'd learnt the words together years ago. The names had changed since, but it was still the same tune.

"-those bludgers, boys, and chuck that quaffle here! There ain't no better team than good ol' Puddlemere! Sikorski lead the blues to three hundred points or more, bludger Wigtown to their knees and let Barrow fly to score!"

The cheers surrounding us made me feel so light. I loved this, I loved being part of a crowd all crying out for Puddlemere, all watching for the snitch and booing whenever Wigtown scored. Across the other side of the stadium the reds started singing their own songs so we sang another, shouting it as loud as we could to try and drown them out. I lost track of time as the players soared through the air, scoring again and again. Wigtown were leading first, but then Barrow went on a scoring spree and got a hat trick and we were leading again, and then I saw a glint of gold out of the corner of my eye.

"There! It's there, Trinder, open your eyes, go! Now, you're going to lose it!" I screamed at the Puddlemere seeker, until finally she spotted it too and began the chase with the Wigtown seeker close behind her. "Yes! Yes, go! You're gonna get it, Trinder!"

Mike was laughing again, but on my other side Santana was shouting with me, urging on Trinder as the snitch flew out of her grasp and began a nosedive.

"Come on, fucking move faster, are you a seeker or a bloody sloth? Go!" Santana yelled fiercely. I let my eyes leave the chase for a second to glance over at her. Her cheeks were tinged slightly red and her fists were clenched at her sides as she continued to shout herself hoarse. "No – watch out!" My eyes quickly turned back to the pitch to see Trinder almost crash headfirst, but at the same time I reached out for Santana's hand, knocking at it lightly until she unclenched her fist and I could link little fingers with her. Trinder was close now, and the snitch had turned our way.

"Yes, come on! You're so so close!" I squealed happily as seeker and snitch zoomed towards us. I bounced on the soles of my feet, unable to keep still. The Wigtown seeker was lagging behind now, but Trinder was so near… "YES!" I screamed with Santana as Trinder's fingers closed around the snitch. She pulled up, away from us, but it didn't matter because Puddlemere had won!

"Puddlemere wins, 480-300!" a voice announced throughout the stadium, and I turned to throw my arms around Santana. I buried my face in her hair and breathed in her smell, and suddenly all I wanted to do was kiss her again. My lips were so close to her skin; I knew I could do it without the boys noticing. I leaned in closer and pressed my lips on her neck through her hair. I knew she'd felt it, because she went a bit stiff and her arms tightened even more. I pulled back, hoping she wasn't mad, but as I did I felt her lips brush against my throat as well. As I turned to Mike to celebrate with him as well - I really should, since he'd arranged all this - I couldn't keep the grin off my face.

"That was brilliant, Mike! Amazing! Best date ever!" I shouted in his ear, leaning up to kiss him properly. It was just a shame I couldn't kiss Santana like that in public as well. It lasted several minutes, but even though I tried I couldn't keep my focus on him. I kept thinking of Santana behind me. I wondered if she felt how I did when I saw her kissing Puck. I knew it didn't mean anything between us, we'd settled that years ago, but I still didn't like it when Puck kissed her. I couldn't explain it, and I definitely couldn't tell her, but I knew I didn't like it.

Realising Mike wasn't going to stop I pulled back a little. He grinned down at me goofily and I had to smile wider at that. Maybe I do prefer kissing Santana, but Mike was still really nice. Turning, I saw that Santana had a strange look on her face. Puck had his arms wrapped around her and was basically making out with her neck, but she was watching me. It made me think that maybe she did feel weird when I kissed Mike.

We made our way towards the exit slowly. We couldn't go fast even if we wanted to with all the crowds. Puck was still all over Santana and I tried not to watch, but it was kind of hard when they were right in front of me. We found our way into the interior corridor of the stadium and suddenly Santana stepped to one side away from Puck and reached out for my wrist.

"Be five minutes," she said, dragging me to the side. I wasn't sure what she was doing until I saw the 'Ladies' sign above the doorway we entered. Somehow, there wasn't a queue, and she pulled me into one of the cubicles.

"I think there are others free-" I started, but then she had pressed me up against the door and was fumbling with the lock, her fingers shaking. Carefully, I lifted one of my hands to cover hers and help her slide it shut. I locked eyes with her for a second, and she pulled my face towards her and kissed me. She kissed me over and over, like we had been earlier but more intense; more tongues, more wandering hands, more bumping noses. My arms wrapped around her to hold her close but she wanted more already, her hand chasing down my leg to find the edge of my dress then sliding eagerly up my thigh. I felt her hand press between my legs and gasped against her lips, my nails digging into her back.

"San… Santana…" I mumbled into her mouth. This was not good. The boys were waiting for us outside. We couldn't do this here. But I still wanted to, so bad. Her lips had relocated to my neck and she was planting hot, open-mouthed kisses against my skin. Both of her hands were underneath my dress now, fumbling with my tights. Several tremors ran through me and I dropped my hands from around her, pulling my head back to knock against the cubicle door. "Stop, please…" I whispered, trying not to breathe too loudly in case anyone else heard.

Her lips moved up to my ears. "Why?" she murmured, her voice silky. She'd managed to pull my tights partly down now but her hands were just massaging my thighs at the moment, her fingers tickling at the sides of my underwear. "You left me high and dry this morning, Britt-Britt."

"'Cause… it…" I held my breath to stop myself moaning when I felt her kiss just behind my ear, then tug lightly at my earlobe before her lips moved down my jaw and finally to my mouth, biting my bottom lip before kissing me properly. I kissed back hungrily, trembling as I felt one of her hands inch to one side to slip under my underwear.

"Wait, no," I gasped, pulling back and reaching down to grab her hand. She froze, looking up to stare at me in surprise. "It's breaking the rules," I objected, keeping my voice as quiet as possible. "Your rules, remember? There's people about. And they're waiting for us. Mike, and Puck. It's a date. This. Our boyfriends are waiting. We shouldn't be late because of this when we're supposed to be with our boyfriends," I said, struggling to find the words to explain. I hadn't said it right though, judging by Santana's expression. She stepped back, pulling her hands away from me.

"Rights. Our boyfriends," she replied. Her voice was cold. I'd upset her.

"Santana, you know I like-"

"No no, you don't need to explain. Come on then, back to the boyfriends."

She wouldn't look at me. I felt a lump in my throat and swallowed hard, fumbling with my tights to pull them up again and trying not to look sad. It wasn't fair. If I'd started this she'd have got mad and yelled at me later about being caught, like anyone cares. If I ever start anything where people might see us she stops me. But now I stopped her – and I hardly ever do – because Mike's put so much effort into this and I should be spending time with him, and she got mad.

I turned away from her to unlock the cubicle door and stepped out, not waiting for her as I headed for the exit. I hurried over to Mike, forcing myself to smile as I wrapped my arm around him and tugged at his waist to start walking again, not looking back at Santana. Mike smiled back cheerily, his arm moving over my shoulders and starting up a conversation about Trinder catching the snitch. I leaned across to kiss him on the cheek and his smile widened. Santana might be the better kisser, but at least Mike didn't change his mind every five minutes about whether he wanted me or not.

There's some debate as to where exactly Puddlemere United is meant to be based. One theory is near the Lake District, and for the purposes of this story I'm going with that, making them the local team for Britt & Santana.

Drawing to go with this chapter can be found here:
laurasfantasia. tumblr. com
/post/21118084065/puddlemere