Power Balls and Butterbeer
"It's a lovely Saturday morning out, and the stands are alive with the sounds of cat calls!" Lee Jordan exclaimed into the microphone as the students of Hogwarts filed out towards the field, chattering with excitement. The announcements Lee made over the magically arranged p.a. system, however, just barely made it over the voices and shouting from the crowds. This was the first Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match of the year and, yes, these were always the best!
"Now don't worry about going out in front of all those people, Ginny." Angelina clapped the thinner, shorter redhead on the back and Ginny stumbled forward a bit.
"Right…." Ginny shot a strange glance at Angelina and then looked back out at the crowds.
This was very risky, now she knew why Cho had been so 'ify' earlier. Cho was warning her, in a very backwards way mind-you, but warning her nonetheless. Cho's act was compatible with this sort of activity—the social butterfly could soak up any amount of limelight from any source and not seem strange in the least. Ginny's act was nearly the opposite of this sport! She was the shy, conservative girl…this sort of thing just didn't factor well. She was going to have to come up with an explanation, and quickly!
"But then again…I do have that Weasley temper going for me." Ginny whispered softly to herself and smiled as she leaned on her broom. This was really going to take some quick thinking and a few well-placed actions but then again, if there was one person in all the world who could pull something like this off it was Virginia Weasley.
"Let's go." Alicia tapped Ginny on the shoulder. "Time to take the field."
Ginny nodded and followed all the rest of the team out into the Pitch. She'd never seen a game from this point of view before, it was astonishing! So many students in the bleachers, the tower boxes filled with teachers and house leaders. Everyone was cheering as they walked out to the center of the field (somehow it seemed a good deal larger) towards Madam Hooch who already had the Quaffle in hand and was ready to begin.
"Passed over for the Captain's position, aye Potter?" Malfoy jabbed at Harry and the two shared an icy glare.
"Still working with a broom that slow Malfoy?" Harry shot back and the two glared.
"So you're the new girl." Ginny stared at the Slytherin beater who was standing in front of her. She didn't know his name, nor did she care. "I'll have to aim for that pretty little head. Bright red, almost like a target."
"I wouldn't say that loud enough for my Brothers to hear you." Ginny smirked and the beater, despite himself, paled slightly as he remembered what they'd done to Malfoy for (what he'd heard was) far less.
"Everyone on their brooms!" Madam Hooch shouted and everyone mounted their brooms. The Quidditch coach blew her whistle, the bludgers and snitch were released, everyone kicked off, and she threw the Quaffle into the air.
Ginny angled her broom forward and swung it around in a maneuver she'd learned while trying to stop (she had dubbed it the 'hook-on-to-a-post-and-pray-your-arm-doesn't-break'). She snatched up the Quaffle in her right hand and sped off towards the Slytherin goals with Angelina and Alicia right behind her.
"And Weasley has the Quaffle!"
Ginny pulled to the right and swerved, sloppily, past the two Slytherin beaters. She dropped the Quaffle and it fell right into the waiting hands of Alicia Spinet who shot up from below and lobbed the ball into the goal to score a point.
"Weasley passes to Spinet. Gryffindor Scores!"
All three of the chasers pulled up and swerved back around as the Slytherin Keeper lobbed the ball to one of his teammates. The Slytherin chaser who'd caught it tried to pass the ball to one of his teammates—he lobbed it downwards to the waiting hands of the third chaser, but Angelina swooped down on them and grabbed the ball. She hurled it upward and Alicia snatched it out of the air.
"Bletchley to Pucey! Pucey to Warrington, intercepted by Johnson! Johnson to Spinet!"
Alicia flew upward and hooked the ball through the hoop to the farthest right before the keeper even knew she was there.
"Gryffindor Scores!"
The scoring continued like this for about forty more points for the Gryffindor team and then another twenty for the Slytherin. After Angelina lobbed in the Quaffle that set the score sixty to twenty in favor of Gryffindor, Alicia called a 'time-out' and gathered the members of the team to her—all save Harry who was left up due to his lack of play in the lower levels of the game.
"Something isn't right here." Alicia whispered to the other team members as she looked down and across the field at the hovering group of Slytherins.
"The Slytherin are never this lax." Angelina commented and everyone nodded in agreement.
"See that." Alicia motioned to the 'new' Slytherin team. "They've only got one new member on the entire team and we've not seen 'em do anything yet."
"They've just been sitting there the whole match." Angelina interjected and both Fred and George spoke up.
"That's their new Chaser. Flint finally graduated—."
"No idea how that could have happened, aye Gred?"
"Right-o Feorge. Anyway, Flint was gone and Malfoy became captain." Fred continued.
"That new one there is their replacement chaser." George motioned to the new member of the Slytherin team.
"Name's Nyx, don't know their first." Fred finished with a nod.
"Not that it matters, but male or female?" Katie chimed in and leaned forward to try and get a better look at the new member.
"No idea." Both Fred and George said in unison.
"Either really effeminate guy, or a reasonably masculine girl." Angelina established with a nod.
"Well, I still don't like this." Alicia narrowed her eyes at the Slytherins and turned back to the team. "Listen, they've been watching our moves—they're going to try something." She pointed to Ginny. "We may not know what their new member can do but they don't know what ours is capable of either. If I give you a signal—(Alicia pointed both her index and middle finger at Ginny to illustrate the signal)—you take the Quaffle and use your power-ball on 'em."
"Right." Ginny nodded and the group broke apart to continue play.
Madam Hooch blew the whistle and tossed up the Quaffle, the game resumed where it had paused from a few minutes earlier. Ginny snatched the Quaffle out of the air as it fell and raced towards the Slytherin goals. She lobbed it into the air as she approached the goals but it was intercepted. Nyx, the new Slytherin player, shot up from underneath her, knocked her broom to the side (nearly throwing Ginny off it in the process), and grabbed the Quaffle before it had flown more than a meter.
Ginny held onto her broom as it flipped over and, with a bit of effort, swung it back around so that she was seated atop it once more. Apparently the new player's skill was playing dirty—a real Slytherin virtue. Ginny leaned forward against her broom and chased after the Nyx. Nyx threw the ball and Alicia, in a very dangerous maneuver, flew down, snatched it out of the air, and lobbed it to Ginny with all her strength.
"Weasley—intercepted by Nyx! Was that a foul? No? Nyx throws it—intercepted by Spinet! Spinet passes it to Weasley!"
Ginny caught the ball and wheeled her broom around as quickly as she could manage but she locked handles with one of the Slytherin players. She moved forward and tried to shake them but her broom was nearly flipped over. The Slytherin player knocked Ginny off balance and she dropped the Quaffle down to one of their chasers below. The Slytherin chaser moved, tossed it to Nyx, and the Slytherin scored just before Hooch blew her whistle to halt the game.
"Weasley gets tangled with Derrick! Derrick pulls her off course! Foul! Blurting!" Lee paused. "Weasley drops the Quaffle to Warrington! Warrington to Nyx! Nyx scores! Foul! Come on!"
The game came to an abrupt halt and the students in the stands were livid—the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and most of the Ravenclaws because of the foul, and the Slytherins because they claimed all was fair in Quidditch. Madam Hooch flew up to the center of the field and all of the players save the seekers gathered around.
"Ten points from Slytherin team for Blurting." She said flatly and the Slytherins glared. "Free shot for the Gryffindors." She finished and tossed the Quaffle to Ginny. She blew her whistle, moved out of the way, and both teams readied themselves for Ginny's shot.
Ginny flew up to the designated spot and stared at the goal rings ahead of her. She glanced back and Alicia gave her the signal. She picked one and flew forward as fast as she could manage. She reeled her broom to a halt when she reached her usual stopping distance and threw the Quaffle with the same strength and accuracy that she'd been elected to the team for. The red ball soared through the air and the Slytherin keeper lifted up his hands to catch it. It his both his hands squarely and slipped through his fingers as he'd not expected anywhere near the amount of force she used.
Ginny sat up on her broom, having thankfully recovered quickly from using that much energy to fling a ball, and looked around. The Slytherin Keeper was staring down, misty eyed, at his hands. The Quaffle was in the stands just behind the Slytherin hoops, and the entirety of the Slytherin team looked almost as shocked as the Gryffindors did smug.
The game continued on after this but it was total madness. The Gryffindors would always pass to Ginny, the Keeper on the Slytherin team never tried too hard to catch it, and the beaters continually aimed for Ginny. Whenever the Slytherin had the Quaffle they would use every underhanded method they could dream up to snatch it and shoot it through the hoops. After Gryffindor had scored another fifty and Slytherin forty, they called a time out and gave the Gryffindors time to convene.
"Nice work Ginny." Angelina patted Ginny on the back and the team grinned.
"What do you 'reckon they're planning?" Alicia asked. (Nobody knew just why she'd said 'reckon.')
"Probably trying to figure out how to get through Ginny's throws." Katie said with a sort of grim laugh.
"Keep it up little sister." Fred said and both he and George grinned.
"I'll try." Ginny responded just as the Slytherin team ended their time out and the game began again.
At first the Slytherin had the Quaffle. They passed it back and forth furiously to avoid the Gryffindor Chasers but when they moved to throw it Ginny flew up between them, stole the ball, and flew back towards the Slytherin goals. The Keeper cringed as Ginny pulled her broom to a halt and threw the ball at the center goal. It flew right past the Keeper and was about to enter the golden ring when Nyx flew through the center, grabbed the ball and took off up the field.
"Warrington to Pucey! Pucey to Warrington! Warrington—Pucey—Warrington—Pucey—Warrington—Pucey aims! Intercepted by Weasley! Weasley takes it to the goal—it's in the air! Nyx flies through the center goal—is that legal?"
Apparently there was nothing (yet) in the rules that forbade that, however it was sure to be amended soon after this match—before the professionals got wind of the loophole. Nyx took the ball out and scored another set for the Slytherin team. The Gryffindor team worked their hardest, but every time Ginny could get near enough to the goal to score Nyx would intercept. The Slytherin team scored another forty and Hooch nearly got them twice on blagging and four times on cobbing but they always seemed to correct their illegal maneuvers just before she caught notice enough to call a foul. The game progressed and the Slytherin team scored forty more points.
The Quaffle was stolen by Alicia as Nyx tried to make a shot and she lobbed it to Angelina. Angelina took it out while Fred and George kept Nyx at bay across the field. Angelina threw it to Ginny who flew forward as fast as she could towards the Slytherin goals. Ginny, however, was suffering an extreme disadvantage over the crowd. The crowd had been listening to Lee Jordan call both the main plays and the seeker plays. Ginny had ignored everything Lee had said altogether and had absolutely no idea what was going on in the Seeker portion of the game.
Needless to say this was unfortunate…however not for the Gryffindor team on whole.
"Malfoy dives for the snitch first! Potter right behind him, will he catch up in time! Straight into the melee! Malfoy's hand is out—!"
It happened all within a few seconds that seemed to last eternity.
Ginny lobbed the ball with all the strength she possessed. She reeled her broom forwards and closed her eyes as the ball left her fingers. She'd never recalled throwing it that hard before and, strange, she didn't hear the sounds of Lee Jordan cheering for another Gryffindor score. She heard the crowd gasp and she opened her eyes. Harry zoomed past her—he was only about a foot away—and snatched the snitch. Ginny looked down and saw a dark Nimbus 2001…but there was no one on it. It took a split second for her eyes to focus to see him but a long while for her to realize what she'd done.
There was Malfoy, quite unconscious, falling towards the ground with the Quaffle a bit too near his head to be coincidence. Ginny paled and dove forward on her broom without a second thought—as did half the other players on the teams. She didn't make it in time but, thankfully, Madam Hooch had.
The game was called—Gryffindor won. Two hundred and seventy, Gryffindor, to one hundred and ten, Slytherin. Harry had caught the snitch—mainly due to Ginny knocking out Malfoy before he could catch it, and since the match had ended there was really no way to call a foul on it. Ginny just sat on her broom for a moment, shocked, and stared down at Malfoy who was being rushed off to the hospital wing.
"Great throw Ginny!" Fred and George pulled up beside her as she landed and dismounted her broom.
"Good work!"
"Nice one!"
"Wiped that smirk off his face the hard way, did you?"
Ginny wasn't really sure who all was talking, she'd been pulled into the cheering crowd of Gryffindors and was being pulled back towards the castle with them. They arrived back in the common room and, somehow, the twins had acquired nearly a hundred bottles of butterbeer. They started passing it out and made a special effort to hand Ginny one with a flourish. She accepted it and sat down on one of the couches in the room. She took a drink out of it and suddenly felt very depressed.
She wasn't sure why…but the butterbeer she was drinking tasted awful, the admiring looks she was getting from well…everyone were starting to make her very uncomfortable, and there was this terribly guilty knot forming in her stomach. She thought on it for a moment and despondently realized what she'd done. For all she could recall, Slytherin had never beaten the Gryffindor team in all hers or Harry's years at Hogwarts. She took the first victory against Gryffindor, in five years, away from Malfoy and his house. Though the thought of being in the first game when Gryffindor lost to them wasn't desirable, she still felt lousy about it.
This was probably due to the fact that they'd only won because of her horrid timing and a blatant foul that couldn't have been called due to circumstance.
Ginny looked around at the jovial members of Gryffindor house, sighed, and stood up. No one noticed that she'd left except for the few boys that had been staring at her for nearly ten minutes. She capped her bottle of butterbeer, stuck it in her robes, and left the common room via the portrait hole. Even as the fat lady's portrait swung closed she could still hear the celebration going on inside. She took a deep breath and started walking down the rather deserted hall, towards the Hospital wing.
"Dammit Ginny," She chastised herself, "Why did you pick him and now to fall back into the shelf of regular human emotion."
Ginny walked through the halls and only passed a few students. Most of everyone else was probably at lunch already. Perhaps that was a good thing though, no one would have to see her apologize to Malfoy. Ginny rounded the corner and saw Madam Pomfrey walking away from the Hospital Wing to go eat her lunch.
"Wonderful." Ginny sighed and walked up to the door. She paused for a moment, took another deep breath, and opened it.
The Hospital Wing was utterly deserted. Only one bed had an occupant, Draco Malfoy, and the rest of them were perfectly made in that sort of eerie way that makes it uncomfortable to be in a hospital. Ginny walked into the room towards Draco and tried not to shuffle her feet—a habit common to Weasleys who are procrastinating.
"I told you." Draco spoke up in his smooth drawl, though there was a hint of irritation in his voice. "I'm not going to lunch."
"Then I suppose I'll have you all to myself…for a time." Ginny commented back dryly and Draco tried to sit up. His head was wrapped in bandages and tinted red, blue, and purple from the bruise the ball had given him. His hair was disheveled; a rare occurrence, and he looked a tad taken off guard.
"Uh." Draco fell back after making it halfway upright, and groaned. "What do you want, Weasley?" Draco growled.
"Good to see you in such a good mood." Ginny sighed and walked up to the side of his bed. "I'm here to apologize."
"What?" Draco asked suspiciously and eyed her.
"I suppose since I did peg you with the Quaffle—" Draco scoffed. "Then I can repeat myself. But don't expect me to continue repeating everything I say." Ginny pulls up a chair from the wall and sat down. "I'm here to apologize for knocking you out before you won the game."
Draco just stared at her, blankly, for a few moments as he contemplated what was actually happening and whether or not it was a hallucination. A Weasley apologizing to a Malfoy. Ginny Weasley apologizing to Draco Malfoy. Ginny Weasley apologizing to Draco Malfoy for Gryffindor's win.
Ginny Weasley was apologizing to Draco Malfoy for knocking him out before he won the game against Gryffindor.
To say the least Draco wasn't really certain how to react to this. He could be snide and mean, as per usual, but then he'd be ignoring the advice the Weasley Twins had given him. True they were despicable, but the two had known Ginny for far longer. Rather than actually respond, Draco just continued to watch her. He couldn't bring himself to say 'thank you' or 'you're forgiven.'
"Well, here." Ginny reached into her robes and handed him her nearly untouched bottle of butterbeer. "I figure you probably deserve this more than I do." Ginny set the bottle down and stood up. "Later Mal—Draco." Ginny caught herself last moment and called him by his first name, though it did sound a tad forced. She walked over to the door but Draco said something and she stopped.
"Hey," he started off loudly and his voice slowly lost some of the irritation. "Even though I'm horribly distraught and all—," Ginny scoffed, "—and I'll probably be emotionally scarred for years to come…"
"Get on with it." Ginny pouted with a tad of fake anger and Draco cut his sob story short.
"I could get over my anguish and angst-filled hurdles a tad faster if you'd do me a favor."
"Oh no…" Ginny said and shook her head. "What?"
"Ah, I ask for only a feeble favor and the girl who put me in the hospital refuses! So cruel! So heartless! So unconcerned for my well being!" Draco professed dramatically and Ginny cocked an eyebrow.
"Fine, whatever. As long as it's not illegal, I'll do you a favor." Ginny added with a roll of her eyes and turned the doorknob. "Get some rest, Malfoy. I'm off to lunch."
"Back to Malfoy is it?" Draco shouted as she walked out and she shook her head.
Author's Notes: Ah I am quite sorry it has taken this long to get in a new chapter! Well now that school is over and most of my schedule cleared, look forward to more and faster.
And for those of us who've not yet read Order of the Phoenix, no worries, there shall be no spoilers in this.
And a special thanks to all those who continue to review despite the author's near inability to post.