Nicki's POV: I sat at dinner with my friends. The Great Hall was filled to the brim with students happily munching and laughing.
"Come on, come on", Wood said, pushing his plate away. "It's time for Quidditch."
I looked at my still half-full plate and back up at Oliver.
"Can you at least wait until we're all finished eating?", I asked.
"No! I don't want the Slytherins or anyone else on my pitch, so we have to leave now", he said and made to get up.
Angelina pulled him back down.
"People need to eat, Wood", Fred said and George threw a piece of his bread at Oliver's head.
"Then eat and don't play with your food", Wood said and after a few moments took another piece of the cake that was for dessert today.
He ate in two big bites and got up.
"So, I had food. Please hurry, I'll wait for you all on the field."
We stared after him, all of us still with food on our plates.
"I haven't even got my quidditch stuff with me", Alicia whispered and we all turned to her.
We shared a glance before we burst into giggles which then developed into full laughs. We quickly finished the rest of our food and waited for Alicia to get her quidditch gear, then we half walked half jogged down to the quidditch pitch where Oliver was waiting for us, already changed into his clothes.
"You couldn't have eaten any slower, could you?", he greeted us when we came back from the changing room, brooms in our hands. He sighed, and then he began his monologue on morale and punctuality and how important discipline was bla bla bla. The usual. We all pretended to listen and finally he came to the essential point: "Today I'd like to practice mostly evasion. What I saw during the last match, or should I say matches, with Slytherin, you don't have your eyes and ears on the beaters and bludgers enough. Some of you have fallen off their brooms, some have had broken bones. This will just not do, am I clear?"
We nodded. He had a point there. He motioned for us to get on our brooms and we did while he let loose the bludgers. Fred and George knocked them towards us, continuously and without pause and for what felt like forever. We dodged and manoeuvred around them. It got darker and darker and finally, Oliver called it a day. Exhausted and definitely with a few more bruises, I landed on the ground with a thud.
"Was that really necessary?", I groaned as Oliver landed next to me.
"Yes. It wasn't perfect but it was a start. All of you still have too many bruises for my taste", he replied.
"Does that mean we have to do this again?" He just looked at me and blinked.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay. Okay, I already dread it."
He grinned and said: "We'll do this until there are no more bruises. Then, I'll be satisfied."
I groaned again, then grabbed my stuff from the changing room. The others changed but I was too tired and I just wanted a nice shower and to fall into my bed. I trudged up to the castle and just saw Hatchet disappearing behind a corner. I stopped. Curious, I walked after her. What was she doing all alone, just before we had to be in our houses?
Lexies's POV: I stood inside the room in the Whomping Willow, completely out of breath. I had decided to get my books after Snape's extra lesson and apparently I was still a little weak on my legs. I took a seat on the bed, trying to normalise my breathing. My gaze fell onto the floor and I stared at it in silent horror.
Nearly one-quarter of the floor was completely covered in blood. I could make out the place I had been hovering, where Lupin as a werewolf walked up and down and where Lupin had kneeled beside me.
I swallowed heavily. I could feel my heart beating fast again.
Finally, I managed to look away and with a flick of my wand cleaned the floor. I took another deep breath before starting my journey to the castle again. My leg started to hurt more and more with every step and I could feel it getting stiff again. I walked around a corner on my way to the Slytherin dungeon and sank to the floor, my back against the wall. I was nearly there, but my leg was protesting so bad I just had to take a break.
I was so focused on my breathing, I did not notice the footsteps coming closer until Shelley lurked around the corner. She twitched her eyebrows and asked me with a very confused look on her face.
"What are you doing?" I looked at the floor and back at her.
"Sitting on the floor?" I eyed her. "What are you doing?"
Shelley rolled her eyes. "I meant why are you doing this?"
I gave her a bittersweet smile. "Then you should have asked that."
I eyed her again. "You didn't answer my question. Were you spying on me again?"
"I'm not spying." Shelley protested.
"Oh, so you were just on your way to the Slytherin dungeon, shortly before our curfew starts. Either you're spying on me or..." I grinned. "...you wanted to see someone from Slytherin? Oh god, Shelley, if I'm keeping you from your date, just say so." I said in the sweetest voice.
"Argh, forget it." She mumbled and turned around.
I made sure she really walked away until very gracefully pulling myself up on the wall. I limbed the remaining way to the Slytherin dungeon and fell into bed.
Carefully, I expected my wound again. I sighed. The wound was ripped open again. I applied the rest of my ointment hoping for the best while drifting into a deep sleep.
Nicki's POV: Wow, that had gone over well. I was apparently really bad at spying. Or everyone else was simply really good at catching me. And I was also bad at lying. What did I think? That I could just follow Hatchet and nothing would happen? Damn, I had marched right into the dungeons after her. But why had she been sitting on the ground? She had looked terrible. Pale and with a sheen of sweat on her forehead. Maybe I should have asked if she was okay. I definitely should have. Not that I liked her but she really hadn't looked well. Oh well, now it was too late. Maybe she would be better tomorrow and I could go back to hating her properly.
I slowly made my way upstairs and to the Gryffindor tower. I took a scorching hot shower and snuggled up on the sofa in front of the fireplace with "The Outer Planets". The rest of the team finally arrived, everyone already showered and changed into clean clothes. Angelina let herself fall on the sofa next to me and groaned.
"I'm exhausted." I looked up from the text on Saturn's rings.
"How are you able to concentrate on..." she glimpsed at the title of the book "...planets?"
Even though I could barely suppress a yawn, I shrugged and said: "I love planets. Aren't they beautiful? Isn't space in general?"
An unwelcome memory of Flint leaning against the balustrade rose in my mind. I could feel myself blush and angrily brushed the thought away, focusing instead on Angelina who in turn watched me through narrowed eyes.
"Yes, the stars are pretty, I guess?", she said, still eyeing me with suspicion written all over her face.
"Nicks", she said and called me by the nickname only she was allowed to use, "I know I said I wouldn't ask again but what aren't you telling me?" I froze. Shit. My dumb body that always flushed in any inopportune moment. I sighed.
"Angelina, I know. I, I really don't like keeping things from you but I can't tell you, okay? I don't know what I should tell you or how to tell you. I just don't know. It's just a weird feeling and nothing more, really. I can't even describe it to myself", I stuttered and realized that it was true.
Angelina regarded me for a moment, then nodded and a slow smile spread on her grin.
"You're developing a crush."
I shook my head. "I am most definitely not", I protested.
"Yeah right", Angelina said in a tone that suggested she wasn't believing me at all, then she got up. "I'm going to bed but rest assured that I'll watch you and a certain Slytherin very closely." She pointed to fingers at her eyes and then pointed at me.
"There is nothing to watch", I called after her, but she just laughed. There was nothing to watch. Right?