A/N: double chapter for you all this weekend. Small note: some of my chapter titles are longer than this website allows me to put, so I've had to truncate them. Real titles in the chapters themselves! If that's confusing at all for anyone. Anyway, stay safe out there :) Is anyone else amazed that it's July 25th? I don't know where July went. Or June ... or May ...

Chapter 20. Trouble also comes in smaller amounts

The dawn of their next game came way too early. But they were ready – they had slogged for hours upon hours at the pitch, they had trained almost daily for the last two weeks. Hugo Weasley had even made a comment about how often they were training because they didn't stop. It was serious now. And Scorpius knew they were completely physically and mentally ready for this. The game felt different. They were different. It wasn't a loud and raucous group in the training room before the game. It was a serious, ready team. Even the two Beaters were playing less jokes than usual and doing shoulder stretches.

Honestly, Scorpius knew. They were going to win this game again – everything was right and perfect. The weather was the only shit thing about the day – blinding sun and a strong wind to blow them around the pitch, but they had practiced in bad weather. They'd be fine. They were all getting along tremendously. Jazz had a homework help session last week and everyone showed up.

Nadir didn't say much – he probably felt it too. He patted them all on the shoulder as they walked past him to enter the pitch. Ravenclaw proud today. It was a good day.

He saw the small group of loyal Ravenclaws in the stands, cheering. Scorpius grinned as he looked up and felt his heart swell. He fucking loved this. He loved this game, this feeling, this life.

"AND BOTH TEAMS ARE LINED UP FOR THE START OF THE MATCH TODAY, Slytherin getting in line with Captain Airdrie Higgs taking the jump ball against Captain Abdul Nadir from Ravenclaw – seriously though has anyone checked his birth certificate recently he looks like he's twenty-five. Only kidding!" Tiff said. What a Hufflepuff. "Welcome to the match today everyone for what will no doubt be an exciting game – oh shit – AND THEY'RE OFF ALREADY. RAVENCLAW IN POSSESSION – "

Nadir won the jump ball and passed immediately to Scorpius who ducked under the wide swing of Forest and headed for the net, noting Gebhart right under him and Nadir pulling around to his left to take the right wing. One Beater – Saan Vaaayu – was ahead, her eyes flicking up over Scorpius's shoulder and either there was either a Bludger coming at him or a Beater hot on his tail – and Scorpius dropped the Quaffle to Gebhart then barrel rolled like his instincts told him to. A Bludger shot past him where he had been seconds before. Nadir shot ahead to the goals as Gebhart weaved under the identical twin Sabu Vaayu, the second Beater of Slytherin, before passing it back to Scorpius who had the Keeper Diaz looming in view – but Nadir had the better shot so he sent it flying in his infamous side bullet pass and then they had –

" – HE SCORES! RAVENCLAW WITH THE FIRST GOAL OF THE GAME! WHAT QUICK COMMUNICATION AND PASSES BETWEEN THE RAVENCLAW CHASERS. BUT SLYTHERIN QUICKLY TAKES POSSESSION AND MOVES BACK UP THE PITCH – "

A well placed Bludger by Junior meant that Ravenclaw had possession again. They knew their places. This was their game. This time it was Gebhart who brought up the Quaffle for the large part before darting to the side after a pass off to Scorpius. Then it was Bitz blocking a Bludger that would have hit Scorpius and directed it towards Diaz. Gebhart easily passed it to Scorpius who then had a shot at an open goal. 20 – 0.

The score was 40 – 0 when Slytherin called a time out. The Ravenclaws all congregated around Jazz.

"You guys are making it too easy for me today," she said cheerfully. "No shots so far. Well done all. You all look so seamless."

Nadir echoed her praises. "Strong start you all. Keep it up. Great job being on top of those Bludgers you two. Rose – excellent command of the skies – Sinthayla is following you and worried about you. Great passes team. Jazz, you'll have some shots soon and I know you're ready for them."

They were all cheerful. It felt good. It was good.

They scored twice more after the timeout before Slytherin finally got on the board.

And then the game was magical. It seemed they couldn't make any mistakes. Even Tiff was giving compliments left and right to Ravenclaw over the loudspeaker which was so rare it should go in the yearbook.

And then Tiff made a comment about the Seekers diving. And he broke the cardinal rule – do not watch the Seekers. The game was not over as the Seekers made the dive and he knew he should never be distracted from the play. But Nadir and Gebhart had a two-person play going and he wasn't needed at the moment.

The two Seekers were right above the Hufflepuff stands, heading closer and closer. A few students started pushing each other out of the way. He could see Bitz with a Bludger behind them and he shot it towards them. It was a risky move on his part – he wasn't Sarassin and the Bludger was now headed to the stands full of students. As it was, the shot was too low, travelling faster than the Seekers, and hit the Snitch of all things.

Students were screaming and piling to the sides to get away from the incoming Bludger. The Snitch reached the wooden stands first and hit against the boards with a quiet thunk, then the Bludger came roaring in a few seconds after and smashed through the boards.

The Snitch was nowhere to be seen.

Weasley and Sinthayla were pushing at each other as they flew closer to the chaos, and then Weasley swung off her broom and jumped to the stands in the commotion of people and the wood chips. He could see Sinthayla peering down from her broom. He didn't see the Snitch leave the vicinity. He was riveted to the scene – unable to tear his eyes away. Weasley was brushing wood debris aside, her broom tucked under her arm.

There was a glitter or a shine and he swore he saw her eyes light up but then she didn't move. At all. As if she were frozen with her arm partially outstretched. He blinked. In that instance of time freezing Sinthayla was there and swooped up the snitch from her broom. Weasley fell forwards, her eyes wide open. She twisted at the last second away from the hole in the stands and fell to the side of it, looking back up at the pitch.

The smile on Scorpius's face took a while to fade. There was no way that just happened. His eyes shot to Weasley and she was staring at her hands like they didn't belong to her, her fingers extended.

Scorpius felt earth under his feet but didn't remember descending. His legs half collapsed and he fell to his knees, still staring at Weasley.

What had happened? That was – unnatural? But how? What? Why would her body not move to grab the Snitch? She can't have hated them all that much and sabotage herself? What the fuck went wrong?

That honestly – but he didn't or couldn't admit it – that honestly looked like someone had deliberately frozen her with a spell at that last second to prevent her from catching the Snitch. But why! He deemed that improbable right away. Ravenclaw was bottom of the pack and had only won one game so far. It didn't make any sense.

The team didn't talk much; Cap gave a small, "The circumstances were out of our control – it was a freak accident." Said they were all coming together more as a team with each game. Big improvements. Weasley said nothing and gave nothing away with her blank face. She headed straight to the showers without looking at a soul with her face devoid of anger or sadness – the emotions that literally the whole rest of the team had.

Why couldn't she be human for once? Maybe she would seem less … guilty? Being a Seeker was the worst position in the world. So many points for one catch. Scorpius loved Quidditch with all his being, but something needed to change. It was ridiculous that the whole game basically rested on one catch.

There had to have been a spell. She wouldn't sabotage the team. Her body was unnaturally still for that second.

Anger overtook Scorpius at the same time as his nose started to tingle and he knew he was about to cry. He couldn't even look at his teammates anymore. Scorpius dashed to the showers, as far from Weasley as possible, turning on the water as hot as it could go and he let his tears go. His chest felt so tight and he wanted to punch something but instead put his hands on the wall in front of him and let the water run over him. His fists were clenched, knuckles dead white. He couldn't unclench them.

He was determined to outlast Weasley, but by the time he had mobility in his hands again he felt like a giant prune. Less anger. Just more defeated. And he wanted answers.

He threw on some clean clothes in the empty locker room. Everyone had cleared out. He sat down on the bench, waiting. She still wasn't coming out. He got to the point where he didn't want to be there anymore and packed up his things. He wanted to talk to her still. And she was in the showers. As annoying as it was that he was mad and didn't want to talk to her he still did.

He walked back to the shower room, leaning against the wall outside the room. The water was still running where Weasley was supposedly showering. Maybe she abandoned ship and left through the shower room window, leaving the water running. He wouldn't know.

"… you haven't killed yourself, have you?" he asked to the room, not really expecting a response.

"No." Her voice cracked and she didn't say anything else. The water still ran. The room was filled with steam.

"What happened? Why did you freeze? It doesn't make sense."

The water turned off finally. He stayed outside the door. Eventually a very pruney Weasley emerged. Her eyes were red. She was wrapped in a towel, a few bruises peppered her arms. She had six dark, long puckered scars starting on her collarbones and going straight down; the ends of them were out of sight, covered up by her towel. Scorpius felt a tingle run up his spine.

"It wasn't me. I don't know what happened, I thought I had the Snitch and then next thing I knew I couldn't move and Sinthayla picked it up." Her face implored him to believe her. She had an innocence he'd never seen before, a want for him to believe her.

And somehow, he did. He wasn't angry at her anymore. Still angry, but not at her. "Do you know who it was?"

She shrugged and looked behind his head. "No. Yes. I don't know. I don't know." Her voice cracked again and she shook her head as if to shake away those vulnerabilities of her emotions. "I'm going to go change," she said. Voice once more in control, face blank.

Yet it wasn't totally blank. Her eyes gave everything away – they were a darker blue than normal, pupils constricted. Clouds billowing and growing at the ocean front, preparing for the storm. She could try all she wanted but her eyes didn't lie.

Some wet pieces of his hair fell in his face and he brushed them to the side. He believed her, against all odds. And felt relieved that it wasn't her. That she didn't just mess up on the pitch. He took a deep breath. They still lost. But at least it wasn't her.

He didn't wait for her before he left. He wanted to be alone, and sensed the same from her. He left the building expecting no one to be around as it was maybe hours since the game ended but lo and behold, there stood one Rennings, leaning casually against the wall, her wand spinning around her fingers.

"Rennings," Scorpius said, surprised. "Why are you here?"

"Waiting to console my dear friend Rose. Why else would I be here?"

Scorpius felt his lip curl. "She's not here. She left a while back."

Rennings looked surprised, actually. "Why, wherever would she go?"

"She took her broom and flew off somewhere," he found himself saying. "Didn't stay long after Nadir's talk."

Rennings picked herself up off the wall and came towards him, arms outstretched. Scorpius felt stiff and didn't move as her arms encircled him. "Yes, such a terrible loss. You all played so well and then it was ruined by Rose. She was right there, I don't know why she didn't catch it."

Get off get off get off. And her arms left him. And he took a few steps away. "Did it not seem … odd … that she didn't catch it. As you said, she was right there?"

Rennings frowned, her eyebrows scrunching together. "No. I don't think so? Just more like she didn't see the Snitch in the chaos of it all. Anyway, if you need some consoling tonight, we're having a little Ravenclaw get together in the Room of Requirement. It'll be calm. Maybe what you need."

"We'll see," Scorpius said. "Umm. Bye." He left, but not before looking back to see Rennings peering around the front of the building at the other exit and then heading down to the Forbidden Forest.

He wondered if Weasley would be mad that he lied to her. Somehow he doubted it, but he wasn't about to tell her.

It turned out both Nott and Westlock were going out to the party and he decided to throw in his lots and fuck it all and go as well. He needed to take a night off. What an emotional day. Emotional year.

As she said, the party was quieter than normal. It was Ravenclaws and a few Gryffindors and it wasn't as flashy as the Halloween party they all went to. It calmed him to sit with his friends, listen to music, and play cards with them. It was somewhat enjoyable to see normalcy from everyone else. People were dancing to the music and having fun. Melody had the weirdest dance skills of all, he assessed, when he was people watching from his corner, not feeling very social. She danced circles around everyone on the floor, arms and legs moving in all directions in a rhythmic way, a cat following her closely behind.

It was such extraordinary circumstances around the Bludger and Snitch that naturally many rumours abounded. The talk of the school was that while Weasley was digging through the wood she pushed the Snitch to Sinthayla since she had the better vantage point on the broom. No one would dare say Weasley threw the game on purpose out loud. He did hear one whisper of that behind a library book shelf when he was browsing for books. From Scorpius's vantage point it had seemed like someone else had interfered, but everyone had a different angle of it. Eventually the whispers got louder and more prevalent rumours started going around that Weasley was trying to deliberately lose.

As soon as Nadir heard that, they had a team meeting, and he asked for her version of the events. She was calm. She told them she saw the Snitch, but couldn't explain what happened – she felt immobile at the last second when she was about to lunge forwards. Nadir nodded with a deep frown. Nobody else on the team really saw besides Scorpius.

At the end of the brief meeting, Scorpius was left with more questions. Who would sabotage a school Quidditch game? To Scorpius, there was no joy in cheating. It wasn't a true victory. If you didn't put in the hard work, then you didn't deserve to win, and maybe weren't supposed to. He couldn't help but be suspicious of the full stands of Hufflepuff that were around her. It would be nothing for a student to cast a freezing spell. Weasley was stationary digging through wood chips.

Regardless of the discussion, the rumours kept going. It didn't help that she was on her third day of missed school, apparently no longer showing up for classes. It also didn't help that the Hufflepuff Quidditch team then beat Slytherin in the next Quidditch game. Of course they won. They were unstoppable.

On her fourth day of missed school Cass sat down beside Scorpius in Charms. And he then realised he hadn't talked to her in a week and rather forgot about her.

"Oh shit," he said.

"Yes indeed. That is a somewhat appropriate response." Her eyes seemed tense. Her hand rested under her chin as she looked at him, her hair in a high floppy ponytail, loose hairs around her face. "Don't run away after class. We need to talk."

Scorpius was scared to move all class. He felt Cass's presence next to him so acutely he felt guilty for not talking to her for a week. Had it been a week? Maybe it was longer. Basically he'd been ignoring her for a while and that was not right. But fuck.

Professor Flitwick blathered on the whole class about charming personalities and if asked, Scorpius could not have said the first thing about them. He tried thinking about Quidditch to get his mind off his girlfriend sitting next to him, but he kept going over possible scenarios about how the conversation was going to go after class. She was going to be mad. Or angry. Or break up with him. Or give him a second chance. Or request changes. There were too many options.

She gently grabbed his hand after class and led him on a journey through the corridors, down some stairs and outside.

"You've been distracted lately." They were seated on a bench under the tree. She cast a warming charm so the cold wouldn't bother them.

"I know, Quidditch –"

"Scorpius we need to go through one conversation without you mentioning Quidditch and using it as an excuse. I don't need lots of your time. Heck, homework once in a while would be lovely. Or even sitting together for a meal here and there. I know you're busy with lots of other responsibilities. I don't think you're as into this as I am."

"But I was …" he trailed off. How could he explain how one falls in interest and then out of interest with someone? She was such a sweet soul. So nice. Smart. He didn't really care the same way anymore.

"I know. And now you don't. You don't need to explain. This isn't working out anymore and its best we end it instead of me being frustrated with your lack of attention."

His felt his cheeks warm up. "Oh. Sorry."

She shrugged. "Don't avoid hard subjects Scorpius. Don't hide behind the pretense of Quidditch and busy schedules, because you well know if you did care you would have found time." She patted him on the hand. "For what it's worth, this was very fun. Well, up until it wasn't. Take care."

And she left him, a fairy gone with the cool breeze, the heating charm slowly fading away with every passing minute.

He sighed so loud he startled a sparrow out of the bush behind him. What a day. What a week. What a year. He felt devoid of energy and struggled to get back inside the castle to the common room. His shoulders wanted to cave into his chest and his legs felt heavy, as if he were slogging through molasses. He made it to the couch in their tower, giving the student on it a three second notice to get out of the way before he collapsed on it, his face sinking into a pillow. He didn't move.

A few minutes or hours passed. He couldn't tell. His mind was a jumbled up mess of images, sounds, and patterns. Wood smashing to bits because of Bludgers. A bird taking flight. Black and yellow and green. Nothing seemed real.

"Scorpius mate, why are you sleeping on the couch?" Nott spoke from above him somewhere. Scorpius didn't move.

"Long week mate. Long week," he mumbled into the cushion. He couldn't summon the effort to leave the couch for bed. He felt a blanket being pulled over him and hoped Nott could read the thanks he was saying in his mind.

His mind went back to Weasley about to lunge forward and unable to move seconds before she would have grabbed the Snitch. Who would have cursed her? And why? What enemies did she have? Was it Rennings who decided to avenge herself from the memory charm gone wrong?

That seemed ridiculous and unbelievable, he didn't even know if that story was true.

They were sixteen years old, there was no way she had enemies. So then the broader question – who had something against the Ravenclaw Quidditch team? That list was a little bigger. And that made it so much harder. Anyone from Slytherin was a potential suspect since that's who they were playing. Hufflepuff, because of their reputation and the fact it happened in their stands. Even Gryffindor had a motive. They could want to really cause chaos in the standings and ensure Ravenclaw didn't come close to their overall second place position. It really didn't narrow down the choices. The whole school was a suspect at this point.

It was unnatural how her body didn't move for that second. That wasn't normal. Someone spelled her. Had to have.