Chapter 36 - Jubilation
Hermione hardly saw Ginny outside of classes over the next week, and even in classes her mind was usually elsewhere, constantly running through Quidditch plays for the first match of the season. Gryffindor would be playing Ravenclaw, and Ginny was determined to put in a good showing for her first legitimate time as captain. She had even instructed Harry to stay away lest he prove too distracting.
"Come on, Hermione! Get up!" The shout was accompanied by the weight of her robes suddenly covering her face.
She spluttered awake, scrabbling at the material, only to see the back of Ginny's quidditch robes heading out the door. Groaning, she swung her legs out of bed and ran a tired hand down her face before reaching for her wand.
"Tempus."
Quarter past six. She was almost tempted to lie back down again since Ginny had already kept her awake half the night running through strategies with her, or rather, talking herself through the benefits and risks while Hermione listened. But no, if Ginny needed her to be awake almost an hour before breakfast, she would be awake almost an hour before breakfast.
Dressed for a cold day sitting in the quidditch stands, Hermione entered the great hall - empty apart from Ginny - to see her friend pouring over her strategy notes once more.
"You know you'll be great, right?" she said, stepping over the bench opposite Ginny.
"Oh I know my team are, it's the Ravenclaws I'm worried about." She didn't even look up from her notes.
"If last night proved anything to me," Hermione reached across the table for Ginny's hand, "it's that you have anything they could throw at you covered."
"I don't know," Ginny worried her bottom lip. "There are rumours about a new pass the Magpies have been practicing and-"
"The Magpies, Ginny. Not the Ravenclaws, who you said last night have a brand-new chaser trio whose formations 'have enough holes in them to be a stinking block of swiss cheese.'"
"Their flying really was shoddy," Ginny grinned, finally looking up at Hermione. "We're a new trio as well though, and what if they were flying bad on purpose..." she trailed off.
"You and Demelza have got Dean whipped into shape by now, and it's not as though he's never played a match with you before. Honestly, Ginny, from what you've told me, they don't stand a chance."
Hermione smiled and squeezed Ginny's hand, but had to pull her arm back as breakfast finally appeared between them.
"Come on. You'd best eat a decent breakfast."
X - X - X
"Hermione!"
Hermione turned around and scanned the crowd for whoever had shouted her name. She was walking down to the pitch with Luna who would unfortunately be leaving her to sit with the Ravenclaws for the match - Hermione wasn't ecstatic to be left by herself in the Gryffindor stands, but nothing would stop her from cheering Ginny on.
"There!" Luna grabbed Hermione's elbow and pointed to a couple weaving their way through the students.
"George!" Hermione grinned at the approaching Weasley and quickly found herself enveloped in a bear hug; her face smushed against his chest. She chuckled to herself and maneuvered her face from beneath her hair to look at the witch stood next to them. "Hi, Angelina."
"Hermione," Angelina winked at her then smacked George's arm with the back of her gloved hand. "Would you stop suffocating the poor girl."
"She doesn't mind, do you, 'Mione?"
"Not in the slightest." She grinned at Angelina, squeezed George tight around the middle, then stepped back. "It's great to see you both. Why didn't you say you were coming?"
"Knew Ginny would say no if I gave her any advance warning, and we weren't about to miss her first game as Captain. How could I tease her if I wasn't here to see it?"
"I can't wait to see what bunch of misfits she's replaced us all with," Angelina said while giving George a pointed look. "I think she'll be great."
"They will be if the amount of strategizing she's been doing is anything to go by."
"Oh no," George's eyes widened. "She's done an Oliver hasn't she? How bad is it? Have they mutinied yet?"
"Not yet," Hermione laughed.
"It'll be good for Ravenclaw if they do though," Luna smiled serenely. "I'd better make my way there. Goodbye." She waved as she made her way after the rest of the students, and Hermione heard a roar as the eagle on her hat changed to a lion and back again.
"I never know what to make of her," Angelina mused.
"Who are you sitting with, 'Mione?" George linked his arm through hers and started walking.
"Oh, well no one really. It would just be Seamus and me from our year in the stands."
"Really? That's it."
"Mm-hmm. It was just Seamus, Dean and I that returned, and Dean's playing chaser."
"Wow," George whistled, and then the three of them were silent until they reached an empty bench in the stands.
Hermione cast a cushioning charm before they could sit, and George laughed.
"Why did I never think about doing that?"
"Because you were always more concerned with what was happening out there," Hermione smirked at him. "They get quite uncomfortable when you're not jumping up and down all the time."
"So," George slapped his thighs after settling on the cushioned bench. "Do you know if her beaters are any good?"
"I haven't heard her complain about them. It probably helps that they have one less player to look out for with Demelza able to look after herself. Ginny swears she must have eyes in the back of her head."
"Sounds like we'll be in for a good match," Angelina smiled, leaning against George's shoulder.
"How come none of the others have come?" Hermione wondered and George chuckled again.
"I'm the only one brave enough to face her wrath. And they all call themselves Gryffindors."
Angelina leaned forward to look past George, rolling her eyes at him. "When she told Harry to stay away, he made Ron as well. Although I think Harry's just feeling a bit bitter about missing it himself. Bill and Fleur are currently working some crazy overtime at the bank - don't ask me, I don't know - and Percy's on holiday, believe it or not."
"On holiday?" Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "First dating, now he's on holiday. Please tell me you're not testing some new personality-switching gag on him, George Weasley."
"Hey," he held his hands up. "You can't pin everything on me. This is purely Percy. At least they're related changes, it's not like he's gone completely mad."
"He's gone on holiday, taken time off work, with the witch he's been seeing?"
George shook his head and tutted at her. "Come now, Hermione. She's a muggle."
Just then, the players from both teams flew onto the pitch and George and Angelina stood to cheer, leaving Hermione processing that information. As Madam Hooch blew her whistle, she stood to join them and tried to concentrate on the first bit of the game. When Ginny had scored her first goal and received a rousing applause from half the crowd - Luna's hat making itself heard - she turned towards George.
"Percy's dating a muggle. Why didn't Ginny tell me that?"
"Because she doesn't know."
"We only know because Percy was nervous and wanted to go on a double date," Angelina added. "And then swore us to secrecy."
"Then why are you telling me?" Hermione screeched.
"Well you're you aren't you. Plus he's been feeling guilty about not informing you. Probably would have done it at Christmas if he hadn't guilted himself into writing you a letter before then."
"Oh for crying out loud," Hermione dropped her head onto her arms where they were folded on top of the bannister. However, she was quickly roused when George and Angelina started shouting next to her. "What! What did I miss?"
"We've been awarded a penalty."
"Who's hurt?" Hermione glanced quickly around the pitch, searching for Ginny, and found her talking animatedly to Demelza and Dean.
"No one," Angelina supplied. "One of the Ravenclaw beaters got frustrated at Demelza and threw their bat at her instead of hitting a bludger with it."
Hermione watched Dean and Demelza pass the quaffle between them on approach to the hoops, Ginny shadowing them slightly below. The Ravenclaw keeper seemed to be focused on Ginny as, despite keeping his eye on the quaffle, his broom was already tilted slightly in her direction. Dean moved to pass down to Ginny and that was it. The keeper swooped down to intercept her, just as Dean brought his arm back up and tossed the quaffle through the highest hoop. Hermione cheered along with the rest of the stand.
With Gryffindor twenty points up and Ravenclaw back in possession of the quaffle, the game continued.
"How did he meet a muggle? What's her name?"
"Audrey. And she studies at their university but was on an internship last summer with the- what did she call it?" George turned to Angelina.
"A solicitors. They met in a cafe at King's Cross when she had missed her train and ended up bonding over the damn things."
"Did she say which university?"
"You mean there's more than one?" George looked astounded.
"Umm yes. There's at least one in every city and sometimes polytechnics as well."
"I don't think she said," Angelina muttered, her eyes trained on the quaffle as it passed between chasers. "Damn, come on Dean! Don't leave a space open like that."
One of the Ravenclaw chasers had managed to snatch the quaffle out of the air between Dean and Demelza, and now Ginny, turning on a dime, was hurtling after them while pointing directions at her nearest beater.
"Oh, she's putting one of them on attack. This could be interesting."
"What do you mean?" Hermione glanced at George.
"Well when we were on the team, Oliver never liked us to go on the attack much, so we stuck to defending our three lovely ladies."
Angelina elbowed him in the ribs.
"What? You three were so good that you didn't need us to get rid of the other chasers for you, you just needed to be left to do your thing." He wrapped an arm around Angelina's shoulders and pulled her into his side, placing a kiss atop her head.
"So Ginny's taking one of her beaters off of defence and sending them to purposely fire the bludgers at the Ravenclaws to disrupt their game?" Hermione clarified.
"That's what it looks like to me," George nodded towards some action on the pitch where a well-aimed bludger had just sent a Ravenclaw's broom into a spin.
"Anyway," George turned back to her, "don't worry about Percy too much. He's happy and will probably fill you in more at Christmas. I think he probably needs this time away as well, not to mention how much more spontaneous he's being. He literally had three days' notice about this holiday Audrey arranged because she had a reading week."
"Trust us, Hermione," Angelina added. "She's great."
The game went on for another hour before the snitch was caught. Gryffindor had only been up by sixty points when the snitch was spotted for the third time in the game, and it took some dubious distractionary techniques from Ginny for her seeker to finally be able to grab it.
"Well it wasn't an illegal move," George laughed as the stands emptied. "Hooch probably won't be happy with her but she can't take the win away from them."
"I'm glad they caught it when they did," Hermione said, glancing at the heavy sky and readjusting her scarf.
"Come on," Angelina pulled George towards the staircase. "Let's get down to the changing rooms to catch her."
Hermione followed them down the narrow staircase and around the stadium until they were outside the changing room being used by Gryffindor. They could hear the team's jubilation inside and leant against the wooden supporting pillars - Hermione half sat on a low crossbeam - and waited for Ginny to emerge.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ginny stood stock still in the entrance, kit bag in hand, and glared fiercely at George.
"There she is!" He pulled her into a hug that Ginny immediately tried ducking out of. "My brilliant quidditch captain sister. You're better than that hopeless boyfriend of yours," he whispered conspiringly.
"Oh shut it." Ginny finally succeeded in pushing away from George. "That's hardly fair when he had to deal with the whole Ron and Katie fiasco."
"Ginevra! I hear from Luna congratulations are in order. Sounds like it was a brilliant- Oh." Draco – who had stayed up at the castle to avoid the crowds and possible hostility - stopped a few meters away and slowly raised his hands as he found two wands pointed at him.
"Stop it." Ginny hissed, grabbing hold of George's forearm. "Angelina, I promise you he's not the prat you remember."
"He almost killed Katie, Ginny." Angelina sounded pained. "And your brother."
"And I've already had that out with him. He's different now."
"Mum said she'd met you in Hogsmeade," George challenged Draco, wand still pointed at the blonde.
"I did," Draco swallowed. "She was very kind to me, which I know I don't deserve, but I'm trying to move forwards. Be better."
George continued to appraise Draco in silence and Hermione could tell it was setting him on edge.
"Granger," he spoke out the corner of his mouth. "Could you maybe, possibly, do your alpha thing now."
"No, Draco. I will not force George to be civil to you." She rolled her eyes at him.
"Then you'll be in for a long wait," George grit through his teeth.
Hermione sighed and stood from her perch, moving between the two wizards.
"George, you know how hard I worked to defend Draco. Sure, he was a prat, but he was stuck in a war just like the rest of us and had his hand forced too many times."
"I truly am sorry, for all of it," Draco piped up and Hermione twisted her head to glare at him. "It's stupid of me to say, but I wish none of it had happened. I wish I could have known my Aunt and cousins all this time. I wish I hadn't had to live with a genocidal maniac terrorising my home. I wish I hadn't been branded and forced to hurt people. But it is what it is and now I can only try and make up for the mistakes I made and the things I was forced to do."
George had lowered his wand while Draco was speaking, and Hermione let out a sigh of relief. She stepped to Draco's side and smiled at George as he pocketed his wand and approached them. Draco held out his hand hopefully, but George had other ideas.
His fist swung too quickly for Hermione to intercept and it landed on Draco's cheek with a sickening crunch.
"That should do it," he said, removing his glove to stretch his fingers.
"Sweet, fucking, Salazar," Draco groaned as he bent at the waist and covered his face with his hands.
"George!" Hermione began in a growl, pulling her shoulders back and lurching towards him, only for her movement to be halted by a hand tugging at hers.
"No, Hermione," Draco's voice sounded garbled. "He had the right to do that."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at George then turned to survey Draco, squeezing his hand in hers. His eyes were filled with unshed tears and his cheek was red, and behind his hand she could see a trail of blood running down his chin - although whether it was from his nose or his mouth she couldn't tell.
"I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey," she said, and Draco groaned again. Turning back to George, she found him staring at her hand wrapped around Draco's. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand.
When she looked back up, she addressed Ginny over George's shoulder. "Gin, why don't you tell George and Angelina about the game, and maybe a few other things too. We'll come and find you later."
With Ginny's acceding smile, Hermione turned and began pulling a stumbling Draco back towards the castle.
A/N:
I made Audrey muggle. The canon doesn't specifically say she's a witch and I thought it would add a nice dimension 😊 Otherwise, George meeting Draco… Thoughts? And I hope this dialogue and quidditch heavy filler chapter was alright for everyone! I enjoy writing George and felt we hadn't seen him for a while.
Also, I know I promised 5 chapters this month – to you and myself – so with my week off work, I can hopefully churn out a double header for next Monday.
Much love xx