A/N: Please R&R!!!
Chapter 5: Snake and Lion
Leah awoke the next morning with Krysta coiled on her stomach under her bedspread, asleep. Krysta had 'moved in' under the bedpread during the night, and found that it was quite a lot warmer there than her basket, and so, decided that she would perhaps hibernate there for the winter. Leah, however didn't agree, but thought kinder than to throw her out of the bed and put a permanent warming spell on the basket.
Leah came back from having breakfast in the Dining Hall to find Krysta happily lying in her basket, once again fast asleep. Leah smiled to herself and began packing books and instruments for the day. She looked at her timetable and groaned. First class for the day was double divination. She cringed at the thought of what that boggle-eyed woman would say to her today. She wished so much that she could be a fifth year; they had a centaur called Firenze as their teacher who didn't make predictions on the student's death everytime it saw him or her. She wondered how long this would keep going; it was a miracle already that Leah had survived for the last week at least, with all her predictions on her 'horrible and grave' death. But Leah shrugged it off.
It was after that she climbed down the silver ladder with Elise closely behind, feeling a little light headed which was not uncommon after every Divination lesson. Leah was chatting casually with Elise on their homework, brainstorming ideas to put into it, that they came upon a duel in the middle of corridor. People from all directions were milling around the pair - a Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Elise realized at once who the two were and pushed closer to make sure she was right. Leah didn't have a good feeling about this, but was pulled through the crowd, right to the edge where the two boys stood, wands out, and glaring at each other. Leah could have guessed who it might have been, but either way she wasn't surprised – it was Malfoy and Potter. Both of them stood and spat out insults, trying to do the other out in the battle of words.
"What's the matter, Malfoy? Aren't you brave enough to fight me with out your father?" spat Harry.
Malfoy began to tinge a pale pink in the cheeks and said in a dangerously soft voice, "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. It's not going to be long until they'll be out and plotting to kill you."
Harry gave a dry laugh, "But you know, it's a shame that stupidity runs in your family. Obviously, if your father wasn't as stupid, he wouldn't be in Azkaban now and if you weren't so thick, you would be able to catch the snitch."
"Well, it's all about to change, Potty. I'd watch out if I were you," Malfoy spat, the tinge in his cheeks deepening.
"I suggest you look out for yourself, Malfoy. You're … friends, Crabbe and Goyle are probably stupid enough to think your head is the bludger or something, or if you're lucky Dumb and Dumber (a.k.a. Crabbe and Goyle) could miss because they can't even hit straight," Harry said, looking as though savoring the thought of Malfoy being whacked in the head by Tweedledee and Tweedledum (a.k.a. Crabbe and Goyle).
Leah snorted. Elise stamped her hard on the foot and hissed, "shut up!"
But the last comment by Harry was enough to snap Malfoy and he pointed his wand, hand shaking with anger and shouted a curse that shot a blast of red light.
Harry was thrown backwards and landed with a thud onto his back. Everyone around them gasped automatically as though systemized to do so.
A tall boy with flaming red hair who was standing near Harry stepped out, his wand also pointing out in front.
Malfoy, panting slightly shifted his glare from Harry to the boy and said, "Ah, has Weasel come to save his friend?"
"I might be a weasel, but at least I'm not the world's greatest dancing ferret," he said, and gave the wand a violent swish, which in turn exploded with a loud BANG! and hit Malfoy with a purple light. People screamed and to Leah's surprise saw a white ferret with gray eyes, squeaking helplessly on the ground. People, not only Gryffindors but others too were laughing as the gangly boy shouted, "tarantallegra!" and made the ferret first tap-dance and then unmistakably started doing the foxtrot.
It was all good fun, until Pansy who had been standing near Leah and Elise stepped out, her face ugly and pinched with rage, pointed her wand at the boy and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" The boy's wand flew out of his hand and clattered hollowly twenty feet away, and the ferret landed on the cold stone floor with a final, loud squeak. Pansy looked at the boy menacingly who was looking at his now empty hand and said triumphantly, "Adeopunio!" and the boy flew cleanly in the air, somersaulting mid air and landed beside his wand with a bone-chilling CRACK! Leah winced and others recoiled or shouted "Ooh!" Elise grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out from the crowd and started walking the other way. Leah could just see Pansy marching to the middle of the circle and scooping up the ferret and walking off to Madam Pomfrey. She also saw another girl, with bushy brown hair, run to the boy with red hair to help him up. People started to scatter, talking both nervously and excitedly over what happened. Some looked shaken (probably from the crack when the red-headed boy fell), some angry, some disappointed and some upset and worried.
Towards the end of the corridor, Elise loosened her grip on Leah and she stopped to look at Elise and ask, "what was all that about?"
"It was just a normal pre-match row between Gryffindor and Slytherin." Elise looked a little weary on the subject. Leah wasn't entirely satisfied, but let it slip.
It was when they had both got to the dorm that they even spoke to each other. Leah, who was playing the memory of the row in her mind, started discussing it with Elise.
"Who was that red-headed boy that got blasted by Pansy?"
"Ron Weasley. He's Harry Potter's best friend and the Gryffindor Keeper."
"It doesn't seem like he'll be able to play for the match. That crack seriously gave me the collywobbles," Leah said wincing as she thought about it.
Drawing up to the match, there were increasing numbers of rows. One row was in a History of magic lesson while Professor Binns droned on. Miraculously, he didn't notice that there was a row in his class room or any of the students get a worse injury than boils and parsley sprouting from their ears, if not, none at all. Bets on the match were flying around the school and Gryffindors were frantically trying to find a new keeper. It turned out that Weasley had broken several bones in his body and wasn't quite fit enough to play in the match. Rumors also flew that Weasley had chucked a tantrum and broke all the supplies of bone-mending potion, but perhaps some knew better.
Malfoy was enjoying the rumors that went around, only because a lot of them were his own inventions, but Pansy also took delight in listening and relistening to Malfoy bragging about his rumors. By the time the day before the match arrived, people were too bored in listening to him and Malfoy sulkily returned to badgering some of the younger years.
That day, Leah met up with two people who she hadn't talked to for some time. She saw them once again in the Library, sitting together as always, only this time studying. It was Callisto and Annie. She spotted them almost right away and ran to their table, situated comfortably near the fire. It was Annie who had noticed who was coming and poked Callisto who was in mid-sentence, preoccupied in writing notes. She gave Annie an annoyed look, as she pointed in the direction of Leah. By the time Leah reached the table Callisto had realized what was happening.
"So, how have you been?" she shot out, topping it with a smile.
"Not bad, I guess. How about you two? Have you found a new Keeper?"
This time Annie, "We're both fine. Yeah, we did find a new Keeper. It's a girl called Ginny Weasley. She's a pretty good player, but I have to say that it's still hopeless," she sighed with a little smile of defeat on her face.
"Ginny… Hey, is that Ron Weasley's sister?" Leah quizzed.
"Well, yeah," Callisto said.
"Why do you want to know?" asked Annie.
"Oh, just curious," Leah said breezily, "It's a shame that Ron Weasley can't play."
"Yeah…" Callisto said looking a little punctured.
Leah changed the subject seeing that both of them weren't keen on talking about it, "So, how are you and Harry going? And you and Dean?"
Callisto's face lit up at this and said, "He's great… I mean, we're great," a smile creeping up on her face, "but just between you and me – and you, Annie – he's a bit immature. You know, he doesn't have much experience," she stiffened the last word and Annie gave a little half-suppressed giggle. She went on, "He always seems to hang out with his friends, especially Hermione Granger, and doesn't pay much attention in what I'm trying to get across to him. Do you know what I mean?"
Leah didn't quite understand but trying to be helpful, she nodded her head solemnly. Callisto looked pleased and Leah kept the conversation going, this time at Annie, "I saw you and Dean get quite cozy the other day at Hogsmeade. What's happening with you two?"
Annie turned a brilliant scarlet and mumbled something and giggled. Callisto, also absorbed in the subject, said, "what's that?"
"Nothing," Annie said quickly but didn't convince Callisto.
"Oh, don't be a spoil-sport! Just tell us, we're not going to tell or laugh at you!" Callisto said pushing her to tell her secret.
"Oh, alright." She hesitated and went on, "We ended up kissing that night."
Both of them gaped at her and she hastily added, "It was only an innocent one on the cheek when I thanked him for the day and then things just moved on from there…" Annie trailed off looking misty-eyed.
Callisto tried her hardest to suppress her fit of giggles which resulted in a cough that snapped Annie back from La-la Land. Leah smiled as she brought back her memory of them together at the Three Broomsticks. How cute, she thought before she realised that she had thought the same thing that day. Her smile widened.
Leah arrived at the Slytherin table in the Dining Hall for breakfast full of jeering and catcalls erupting from the people sitting at it. She looked around to see that most of it was thrown across the room towards the Gryffindor table. Leah raised an eyebrow at this, but soon forgot and found Elise sitting quietly by herself reading the Daily Prophet and eating a bowl of cereal. She sat down next to her, greeting her and grabbing for the hot bowl of porridge. Leah looked around at the others sitting at the table and saw that everybody else was joining in in the jeering except for Elise and herself. Elise was preoccupied with her newspaper and didn't seem to notice what was happening around her. Or perhaps she was ignoring it, she thought, she does a good job of it too.
By the time Leah had finished her porridge, Elise had read the final page of the Daily Prophet and looked at Leah in anticipation of going. They looked at each other for a moment, both non-verbally agreeing to go. They stood up together and walked past a group of Slytherin fifth years who were catcalling towards two Gryffindor boys, one with a camera tightly clutched in his hands.
By the time Leah and Elise had reached the Quidditch Pitch, at least half of the stadium seats allocated to Slytherins were occupied. They struggled their way through the crowd dressed in silver and green, all of whom looked the least pleasant. An air of determination drifted about the place, both Gryffindor and Slytherin roaring with pride and hatred for the other.
Leah sat down at two vacant seats, Leah next to a blond girl and Elise to boy with very uneven teeth, as a blur of green went zooming above them. A girl behind Leah who had knotty black hair shouted, "Hey Montague!" waving furiously. Leah looked at her in amazement. To her, the now distant blurs of green only seemed like flying clumps of bush, but perhaps you could vaguely make out a head attached to the blur and maybe even a face.
Leah looked up to the cold, gray winter-driven sky, the colour familiar in her mind. She shivered and tried to concentrate on making a head appear out of the green and red blurs. She got as close as finding a red blur close to the three golden hoops, but didn't succeed as to finding what colour hair he or she had. She had a tingling in her mind that the hair colour was perhaps red, making it impossible to find it. But before she could pursue anymore, she became frustrated and gave up only to realise that the game was about to start. Then, Leah had a quick moment to try and identify some of the players before they became mists of green and red. It was in the last moment that she saw a green figure mounted on the paused broomstick with dazzlingly white-blond hair facing a red figure with hair of ebony. She got a gut feeling for who they might be, but before she could revisit the duel from the other day in her mind she was captured, looking up at the game in the sky.
A/N: Remember to R&R folks!